Having said goodbye to Nina you wonder what awaits you next.

"Alright so for the next bit we should head in that direction."

"But before that, Lucy, since your situation is somewhat special I want to know what is it that you want? Are there still some questions you'd like to ask? Do you want to just observe? Do you want to actually take on the responsibility of helping with taking care of him?" (I guess Becky wants some clarity about that. I think it'd have been fine to just let her be and leave it ambiguous. Also what's special about Lucy's situation?)

"A-Ah... Uhmm... I-I'm not sure."

"... Help I think."

"Are you sure? He's been entrusted in our care by someone who cares a lot about him and it is our duty to take care of and make him happy while helping him learn new things, failing to do that would betray the trust the person who brought him here gave us so you shouldn't take on the responsibility that comes with it lightly." (I see, so that's how she sees it, I suppose she isn't wrong but it kind of sounds more serious than it needs to be.)

"Uhm. I want to help!" she says with a determined voice.

"Great, for now just follow along but you should think carefully about how to best do so to avoid accidentally making him uncomfortable." (I suppose she's saying that at least partly due to what happened earlier in the day.)

"A-Alright."

 

Becky takes your hand and starts leading you down a hallway.

(Actually, Becky talked a lot about responsibility and such to Lucy but what exactly is her responsibility? I heard her get told to help me with making the report for today but did she get told to do anything else? Not that I know but it probably happened since otherwise Nina leaving could have in theory left me all alone. Either way accompanying me could fall under her duty to take care of and make sure students here are happily learning new things so perhaps she's just doing everything on her own initiative.)

After being led through another hallway you go through a doorway into a spacious feeling room where Becky makes you sit on a bench of some sort.

"Oh, that's right, do you need to go to bathroom 53? There's one nearby."

"Ah, umm, no."

"Are you sure? It's not good to hold it in just because you're shy if you need to go."

"Yeah... I'm sure." (It's not shyness or at least not mainly it's just that it's too soon since I last went but she doesn't know that.)

"Really? You know, I might also go for a pee if we were to go to a bathroom."

(Why is she saying that? Does she want to go to a bathroom? Should I ask... Wait... Wait just a minute... Lucy misunderstood it when I asked if she needed to go... And she mentioned that that happened when asking to hold my hand... Becky did seem to pay attention when that happened... None of us actually explained why Lucy thought I wanted her to pee... So basically... does that mean Becky now thinks I like it when girls pee or something?)

"Yes! Really!"

(If that's the case how the heck am I going to convince her that she's wrong? I'm not going to just say, "You know, if for whatever reason you think that I care or like it when girls pee, I want to tell you that that isn't true."... am I?)

"Mmm, fine. I need to check some things, you and Lucy can wait here while I do that, alright?"

"Un!"

Becky walks farther into the room.

Door opens behind you and someone walks in.

"You two are here as is Becky, good." says Ruth.

"Oh, uhh, hi."

"Ah... mm..."

"Hi!" She responds slightly mirthfully before continuing in a more neutral voice "It's good to see that things seem to be going fine."

"Anyway we're pretty much the only ones in the building now so feel free to take it easy, you're almost done with everything for the day." (That's nice to know I suppose. At least the part about almost done, no one else being around is... interesting I suppose, depending on how you look at it it's either scary or reassuring. It does also give a more intimate feeling to everything.)

"Speaking of taking it easy, I should do some of that." She walks away from you a bit and sits down.

"She's pretty nice."

"Ah, yeah."

You just sit for a bit and then notice Lucy quietly walk towards Ruth and say something to her.

You can't quite make out her words or what Ruth says in response.

After a while you hear Ruth and Lucy starting to walk towards you.

"Ah, yes."

"Good, you're free to assist however you like but of course you don't need to if you don't want to." (I wonder what they talked about.)

They stop by you. "Looks like Becky is about done so we should head over."

You stand up getting ready for someone to take your hand.

No one does and Ruth starts walking away.

(Oh, right, umm... Should I ask Lucy or try following Ruth on my own?)

"Uhh." You hold out your hand.

"A-Ah..." She takes it and starts leading you towards where Ruth is going. (Thankfully she took it, would have been kind of awkward if they both just walked away leaving me to attempt walking over belatedly on my own.)

"You're here..." You apparently reach wherever Becky is and stop when Ruth and Lucy do so.

"Good, I think I've got everything set up."

"You're going to need to run on this treadmill for as long as you can, it's pretty slow and I've tried to make sure that even if you trip you shouldn't hurt yourself too badly."

"It's a still bit dangerous so please be careful, don't play around and make sure to say something as soon as you get too tired or think anything is wrong." (Oh, doesn't sound too bad though it's been a while since I last ran.)

"And, oh. I also got you better shoes for running. Please sit down."

Lucy helps you sit on something before moving slightly away as Becky approaches.

She kneels down, takes off your sandals for you and says

"This should be your size but I got others in case it's off."

She carefully guides your feet into a pair of well-fitting sneakers and then tightens and ties them off.

"There, try walking around in them a bit to see if they're ok."

You do as told and find no issues.

"These seem ok."

"Are you sure?"

You move your feet around a bit more.

"Yeah."

"That's great. Now..."

"Right, you probably should do some stretches, do you know how to do some?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

You proceed to do a few stretches to warm up your legs.

"You're done?"

You nod.

"Alright, I think that's all so now..."

She carefully leads you on top of a what you assume to be the mentioned treadmill.

"Alright, can you find the handbar?"

You move your hands around and indeed find a sturdy bar you could hold with your hands.

"Yeah."

"Good."

 

"Alright then, are you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

"Ok, I'm turning it on now!"

It starts up, it's moving barely faster than walking speed. You start slowly jogging on it.

"Everything alright? No problems?"

"Yeah yeah." (I get that she's worried I'd hurt myself or something but it's starting to be a bit annoying.)

You touch the hand rails occasionally to keep track of your position.

After a while you hear Ruth say "Relax, he'll be fine."

"Mm." She doesn't sound convinced.

"In fact, I want you to go find yourself something else to do, I'm here and there's no point in both of us watching him, I'll be able to handle it if anything happens."

"Mm... Alright."

"Don't come back until he's done." (I guess she was looking at me overly worriedly and stressing herself out and Ruth figured it'd be better for her to not do that.)

You hear someone walk away followed by door opening and closing.

"I meant what I said being able to handle things if something happens, if you're about to fall or anything I'll pick you up right away. So give it your all and enjoy yourself without worry."

"Oh, ok." (Pick me up? She makes that sound easy. Anyway, I suppose I should try to do as she says and enjoy this.)

(I'm actually kind of surprised she said that, is this something you'd normally consider enjoyable?)

You focus on jogging and do find yourself enjoying it.

 

After however long you hear Ruth say "He'll want a towel and some water to drink when he's done, do you think you could take care of that?"

"Ah, m-maybe."

"There are clean towels over there and water you can get from there." She says while presumably pointing out locations.

"Okay." (Water does sound nice though I still feel like I can keep going for a while.)

You assume she moves away, you can't really tell over the noise from the treadmill.

After a while you hear Ruth say "Great, leave them there for now and then go find Becky and..."

"let her know that we'll probably be done within 20 minutes."

"Oh, okay."

She goes away again for a rather long time and at some point you notice her coming back.

Eventually you start to reach your limit, your legs ache, you're drenched in sweat and can hear the bumping of your heart.

"I *pant* can't *pant*" Before you're even done saying you've had enough, you feel hands grab you by shoulders, lift you up and place you down away from the treadmill.

"Well done, seems like you really did do your best." She says respectfully as you hear the treadmill turn off. (Whew, she really did just pick me up, she must be pretty strong to be able to do that.)

"*pant* Thanks. *pant*"

"Here." Lucy steps closer and uses a towel to dry your face and neck before handing you the towel.

"A drink." She then says and places the mouth of a water bottle at your mouth. You greedily drink the water up while wiping your arms with the towel.

"Alright, you can take him over there to sit and rest his legs, I'm going to work out for a bit myself. I'll message Becky to let her know she can come back." Lucy takes your hand and leads you to the indicated location.

You sit down and relax, your heartbeat slowly calms down.

You hear a door open and after a bit steps entering and coming towards you. (Must be Becky, Ruth did say no one else would be around.)

"I'm back, how have things been here?" She sits next to you.

"Good."

"Not bad, though I'm kind of exhausted."

"Great..." (She did get sent away kind of unwillingly, I hope she didn't mind it.)

"Uhh, how about you? Did you find yourself things to do?"

"Yeah, I got pretty much everything that I needed or wanted to do done. It was nice and I had some time to think about various things, about how shy you are and how to best do various things." (My shyness? Overall sounds like she did alright.)

"Enough about me, is there anything you need or want?"

"Oh, mm, not really." (Just resting and catching my breath for longer wouldn't hurt but it's not that important.)

"I see, anyway," she stands up and takes your hand. "let's go." (Oh, we're going somewhere already?)

You pull yourself up and, along with Lucy, carefully follow her to wherever she's leading you.