MegaMan NT Warrior (Rockman) Fan Fiction ❯ my life ❯ Chapter 4

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The fact she had literally thrown her life away for a bunch of machines, knowing fully that she would never be able to return to Neo Arcadia, to other humans... It was something that Dark sometimes had a hard time wrapping his mind around. How many other humans out there would make that sacrifice? How many Reploids out there, with the state this world stood in, would make a similar one?
Yet, Ciel would never be willing to accept any sort of praise for her efforts. She was just doing what was right, what should be done. That was her mindset. She would make all of these sacrifices, and constantly put herself in harm's way, just to protect these Reploids... but, at the same time, she would be so apologetic towards Dark Hound for having him fight for their cause. For every mission that he went on, especially after he disappeared for a year, whenever he returned he would be immediately greeted by her apologizing. That, more than anything else, was something he couldn't understand. What he was doing was no different than what she was doing. For that matter, what she did was far more than he could ever do.
If anything, he should be apologizing to her.
Now that she was coming so close to completing her project, she was pushing herself far too much. He could see this in the way she had been acting the past couple of weeks. She constantly seemed much more tired and weaker on a normal basis...
"This is hardly the first time you've pulled an all nighter like this lately, I'm guessing," Dark said. Ciel blinked, and then gave a small nod.
"Well, yes... that's true... I've just had so much work to do..."
"How much work have you done in the past several hours?" he asked.
The woman's expression went blank. "Well... not much... I've just had to think on some things..."
That gave Dark hound all the answers he needed. He knew how quickly Ciel was to work and think. Her self-induced sleep deprivation was definitely getting to her. His decision finalized, he walked over to her. The blue-eyed scientist blinked several times, staring up at him as he reached her. "Dark...?"
For a moment, she blushed furiously as he reached down, grabbing her waist. She then gave a shout as he effortlessly lifted her up, tossing the human over his shoulder.
"DARK HOUND!" she exclaimed while he walked towards the door. "What are you-"
"You're done for the night," he said simply, and calmly headed to her quarters. Ciel was obviously far too tired to put up a fight, as she didn't say another word. She didn't struggle either, not that she would have been able to escape from him even if she was fully rested.
Once inside her room, he walked over to her bed. Realizing fully that her body was much more delicate than his, he set her down gently on the bed. As he did so, he found that her eyes were wide in surprise, and that her face was a bright crimson. "D-Dark..."
"Sleep," he said firmly. "You're no good to any of us if you could pass out at any minute."
Ciel opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something to him, but nothing came out. It took a couple moments, but it struck Dark that something about their position may have been causing her to be a bit speechless. His hands were still resting on the young woman's waist, and he had yet to move them. When the full realization of this fully hit him, he quickly released her waist and stood up as fast as he could. Ciel seemed to snap out of her stupor at about the same time, and grasped his hand with hers once he was on his feet. "Dark," she murmured, pulling herself up into a sitting position.