Yang was silent after she told Loran about the accident, simply staring numbly into the campfire, knees pulled close to her chest and her crossed arms covering the bottom of her face. It was good that she stopped because he probably would not have heard anything she would say at the moment. He did not speak for a long time, just trying, and failing, to process everything she had just told him.

"When.... when did she wake up?" Giving up on trying to understand what he had been told, Loran chose to let Yang continue, hoping that more information would help him later.

"She didn't."

"Wait what?!" shouted Loran, his previous confusion swiftly being replaced with a new kind. "But then how the hell is she here?"

"Comatose doesn't mean braindead, dumbass. Once the doctors cleared her for any possible health concerns they hooked her up to an AetherGear to allow us to speak with her. It was one of those ways that the damn tech revolutionized medicine. In the past, people would agonize over the choice of... unplugging someone who showed no signs of ever waking up. Nowadays they can still talk to them, the choice is in the patients' hands now." Yang recited the information almost robotically. She had read up on the process dozens of times over the past few months, desperate to understand her sister's situation.

Loran didn't know what to say to that. Fortunately, Yang decided to continue.

"Once she was cleared to use the AetherGear, our parents and the doctor went in to explain what happened." Yang rested her chin on her arms, revealing a sad smile forming on her face. "Apparently, the first thing she wanted to do was speak to me."

"Our parents were against it, but they caved to her pretty easily. When I logged in, I figured that she was going to start screaming, that's what I would've done in her position, but she didn't. She didn't say anything, so I started apologizing. I apologized about the accident, I apologized about school, about the drinking, pretty soon I didn't know what I was apologizing about anymore and just started telling her I was sorry."

"Then, she pulled me into a hug and told me it was okay. I- fuck," Yang buried her face in her arms, hiding what Loran assumed were tears, "I didn't cry while I was apologizing, but she fucking acted like all of this, me being a complete bitch for years and landing her in a coma was nothing....no," she uncovered her face, eyes red and damp, with another sad smile pulling at her lips, "she wasn't acting. Even months later she's still telling me it's fine, that she doesn't blame me."

As the smile faded from her face, Yang locked eyes with Loran, causing him to flinch. He had always found Yang's bold stubbornness to be annoying but seeing her this vulnerable was unnerving, to say the least.

"You wanted to know why I'm so protective of my sister? I've managed to fuck up in every way possible. Even now she's stuck in here, which never would have happened if I hadn't invited her to play games with me." She turned to stare back into the fire. Although her eyes were still red they were narrowed with a determination that wasn't there a minute ago. "my sister will survive this mess, and I don't care what I have to do to make it happen."

Yang and Loran sat in silence for a moment. The sun had set at some point during Yang's retelling of the accident, and it was now completely dark. In the distance, the howl of a Moss Wolf could be heard. Loran decided this was as good an opportunity to get as far away from this conversation as possible.

"Alright, well, I'm going to sleep now," he said, lying back.

"Really, I pour my heart out that's all you tell me?" Her voice wasn't angry or upset, it was somewhere between pleading and demanding. Loran knew she wanted some kind of response or reaction from him. She hadn't opened herself up like this to anyone, even now it wasn't because she particularly trusted him, but because she was just desperate to get this off of her chest.

"Look, I'm not good at dealing with things like this and you've dumped a lot on me," he said calmly, trying to not sound accusing, "Let me sleep on it, I give you something in the morning. Alright?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"....Alright."

Loran closed his eyes, not yet tired but definitely needing rest, however, he realized there was one last question that was eating at him.

"Yang? Before the... the accident, Yin was trying to tell you that she wanted something. Do you know what it was?"

There was a moment of silence before Loran could hear Yang take a deep, trembling breath.

"....Yeah, I asked her about it. She said....she said she wanted us to be sisters again."

~~~~~

Loran awoke to see the sky dimly lit by the sun barely cresting over the horizon. Not moving, Loran simply stared at the clouds being colored pink by the diffused sunlight, moving slowly across the grey sky. After a moment he sat up. Everything around him was still dark, the light would not reach them on the ground until the sun moves over the eastern mountain range. Fortunately, the minimal light bouncing off the clouds above was more than enough for his heightened senses to see in.

The campfire in front of him had burned down to charcoal and ash in the night with no one to tend it and the wooden spikes around the camp were undisturbed. He looked at Yang, lying very still due to the weight of her armor, but seeming very peaceful in her sleep. Looking down at her exposed injury, even in the dim light, he could see that the harsh red had turned dark, with some slight discoloration around the edges. A bruise like that would normally take weeks to disappear in reality, but it seemed like it would probably heal in a little over a week.

Standing up, Loran let out a groan as he leaned back and cracked his spine.

"Alright," he mumbled, "time for breakfast."

~~~~~

By the time the sun had fully lit up their campsite, Loran had dragged over the rest of the Moss Wolf carcass they ate from last night and got a fire going. The meat on the sled hadn't been disturbed during the night, so it seemed like there weren't any predators or scavengers in the area. They couldn't be certain, but it did give Loran and Yang a little more peace of mind. Currently, Loran was gathering more wood for the campfire while Yang handled the cooking.

"I'm done thinking about it," Loran said, returning to the campsite with a bundle of large sticks in his arms, "want to hear what I have to say?"

"No," Yang sighed, "but tell me anyway."

"First of all, you messed up," he told her bluntly as he sat by the river. "Your sister is probably trying to be gentle with you or something, but regardless, you fucked up."

Yang nodded slowly, his words reinforcing her own thoughts.

"But," he said with emphasis, "it's not all on you. Your parents sound like complete assholes, and no one, NO ONE, could have predicted that NEO was a death trap." Cupping his hands, he took a drink of water from the river. "There's a difference between being a fuck up and being in a fucked up situation."

Yang continued to look at him expectantly. "So, is that it?"

"You asked the anti-social gaming nerd for mental health advice, literally anyone else at the village would be better at this than me."

"...I think Zed would still be worse," she said after a moment. "Alexx too probably."

Loran paused mid-sip before sputtering in laughter. "Honestly, I can't imagine either of those two having an idea that doesn't involve punching or stabbing their problems away."

"I can see Alexx just telling me to talk it out with Sis, not like I haven't tried, but what would Zed say?" she asked jokingly, "to fight Sis? Kill my parents?"

"No no no, that's not 'fun' enough," Loran said, chuckling, "he'd tell you to fight the truck!"

Yang immediately doubled over with laughter, the image of Zed boldly charging down a massive semi-truck with nothing but a wooden spear all too vivid in her mind. "I don't know about Zed, but couldn't Alexx pull that off at this point? How high is his STR now?"

"It was about 75 last I checked," Loran said, calming down. "He spent his last few levels saving for Danger Sense, but he'll probably break through 100 in another month or two."

Yang shook her head. "That's so OP."

"Oh please," Loran said incredulously, "I don't want to hear that from the girl with the indestructible armor."

Yang said nothing, instead raising her leg and gesturing to the ugly black and yellow bruise.

"....Point taken." Loran looked around the campsite for a moment before standing up. "Anyway, I'm going to gather more firewood, I want to make sure we can prepare enough meat to last us the next few days and the trip home."

As Yang watched Loran walk off, her thoughts returned to his thoughts about her situation with Yin. It wasn't advice at all, but it was still something she felt better for having heard. Loran's view of the situation had felt fairer, not absolving Yang but not demonizing her either.

After the accident, Yin had been adamant in trying to comfort Yang and denying her being guilty at all, but Yang couldn't accept that. She was at fault, and so she retreated to the opposite extreme of insisting that she was entirely to blame for everything that led to Yin's hospitalization.

'Loran's been an asshole for as long as I've known him, but he doesn't sugarcoat things to make people feel better,' Yang considered. 'Sis keeps telling me to not worry about it, I wonder if I can actually do it this time.'