Chapter Text
The waiting area of the hospital at Smash Manor has a distinct chill in its air. Perhaps it was due to the brittle, sanitized scent of the air around him? Or simply due to the lack of other people there?
Either way, Mega Man had never felt more alone than he ever had been at that moment.
Considering that the hospital was in a mansion that housed over fifty people in it – not even counting the assistant fighters that lived nearby, or the various guests that would stop by and visit –, it was relatively small in size. Even the waiting room itself only had enough chairs for seven other people at most. That was because of the standards surrounding the sport of Smash Brothers itself. Since injuries rarely ever happen within the actual tournaments, injuries and scuffs were generally caused by matters that happen outside of them. Accidents, sudden brawls that broke out in the hallways; situations like those.
Generally, the hospital was only meant to handle the humans and other beings like them that lived in the manor itself. Creatures like the Pokemon went to the veterinary ward instead, and many of the smashers there – Mega Man included – weren’t entirely sure where the aliens and other strange beings went.
While waiting, Mega Man wished he could curl up in his seat. His hands trembled as they gripped the gifts he had brought with him; a folding bed table, a couple of snacks, and a book that he thought that Mac would like to read. They weren't anything too particularly fancy, just gifts that he hoped he would appreciate while he recovered. Even then, the act itself barely comforted him. His conscience still weighed on him heavily with each week that had passed. It was only within the last couple of days that Mac had allowed other people to visit him; and before that, there was no way to truly tell that he was alright.
Mega Man held the folding table closer to his chest; the book and the snacks remained on his lap. Worries sprinted through his mind. What if Little Mac didn't forgive him? What if he didn't want him to visit at all? What happened wasn't something most people would want to forgive...
The silence of the waiting room only made him feel worse. As many times as he tries to replay Yamato Man's words through his mind, they always felt flat. Not only was he not there with Mega Man – not that he could be, as he had tournaments of his own to attend to –, but those words weren't meant to help him in the present. His worst fears had already happened.
The soft, gentle creaking of a door ended the silence. Mega Man’s nerves only relaxed a little when he saw it was just Mac's nurse; a woman with long blonde hair who bared a striking resemble to Peach, another one of the combatants at the manor. He was fully aware that it wasn't her, but the Manor's insistence on having its staff resemble certain, prominent fighters sometimes unnerved him. Given recent events, that ended up being one of those times.
"Is anyone out there waiting to see Little Mac?" The nurse peered her head past the doorway and stepped into the room.
Mega Man remained silent and refused to look up from his lap.
"Is anyone out there?" The nurse opened the door further. "Mac said he has been expecting another guest today."
Mega Man raised his head when he realized he was expected to show up. He kept a firm grip on his gifts as he slowly pushed himself off of the chair. After taking a few seconds to readjust everything he held, he headed towards the door the nurse stood next to.
The nurse certainly had a lot of patience; a trait that both she and Peach had in common. The smile on her face remained warm as she glanced down at the clipboard in her hands. From what Mega Man could see past the door, they were about to walk through the main hallway that connected all of the rooms and their patients to the services of the doctors and nurses themselves.
"...Did it happen to be anyone in particular?" Mega Man brushed the tips of his fingers against the smooth sides of the folding table he held onto.
The nurse giggled and glanced away from her clipboard. "He has been talking about you a lot. Although he didn’t send out a formal invitation, he knew that you were going to come over sooner or later."
Mega Man felt his chest become tighter as his vision sunk towards the waiting room's dull, navy blue carpet again. He had mixed feelings about the news that Mac wanted to see him, and very few of those feelings were good.
He could already imagine the worst. He fully expected to get near Mac's bed and to be slammed with a fist hard enough to break steel. If Mac wanted to get payback on him, that would have been a good time to do it.
"We're almost at his room," the nurse's words snapped Mega Man out of his thoughts. "I call tell that you're worried, but Mac genuinely wanted to see you. I'm sure you two will get along fine after the initial awkwardness goes away."
The sight of medical spreadsheets on the door caught Mega Man off-guard. He had been caught in his thoughts, and didn't realize how short the walk to the room had been. The nurse stepped closer to the door itself and knocked on it's wooden surface. It opened seemingly instantly; Dr. Mario, the main doctor of the hospital, was behind it to greet them.
Like how the nurse resembled Peach, Dr. Mario resembled not only Mario, but the referee that monitered every single match. Mega Man wasn't entirely sure what the deal with that was, other than that they were likely clones of each-other. It was common knowledge that Mario competed in all of the tournaments themselves, but rumor had it that copies of him nearly took over the second-ever tournament at one point. Apparently, it made sense to keep them around as assorted helpers within the manor itself.
A grin lit up Dr. Mario's face, "Oh, this must be the friend that Mac was a-talking about?"
The nurse nodded, "Does Mac wish to have any additional visitors over right now?"
Dr. Mario turned his head past his shoulder and toward the other end of the room behind him. A pair of distant voices were replying to the question that the nurse had asked earlier; both of which seemed to have overheard it before the doctor had a chance to ask about him himself.
To Mega Man, one of those voices felt especially familiar in a way that he couldn't pin down. Wasn't that the one Mac spoke to at the beginning of their match? He was too far away to hear it closely, but he had a sense that it might have been the same one.
Dr. Mario turned back around to face Mega Man and the nurse again. "Mac's coach has given you permission to come in."
Mega Man raised an eyebrow in confusion. Mac's... Coach?
The first surprise was learning that's who the mysterious voice belonged to. The second surprise was when Mega Man entered the room and got a glimpse of the coach himself sitting next to Little Mac and playing cards with him. The man had dark brown skin, an oval frame, and a receding hairline. He wore a red jacket with sweatpants; attire that didn't seem all that appropriate considering that Mac was bedridden and in no condition to train.
Dr. Mario glanced over at the coach first and waved towards him, "Mega Man, this is Doc Louis. Doc, this is Mega Man."
"...Hi?" Mega Man weakly waved over towards Doc Louis.
"Aren't you that robot who beat up Mac here?" A big, competitive grin grew on Doc Louis's face as he looked over at Mega Man.
The heart of "that robot" sunk in the same way that it sunk at the end of the match. Mega Man already felt guilty enough over what had happened; the last thing he wanted was to be praised or mocked for it by Mac's very own coach.
"Let me tell you how that match went," Doc Louis's smile faded for only a moment. "It was amazing! I'm impressed how close you and Mac came to beating each-other in such a close, high-stakes match. These are the kind of fights legends are made of!"
Mega Man lowered his head in shame as he silently dropped off his gifts at the table next to Little Mac's bed. Although his arm wasn't hurting, he couldn't help but rub one of them as his continued to dwell on Doc Louis's... Praise for him. The sudden onslaught of questions about his strategies that were coming out of Louis certainly didn’t help either.
Below the guilt, the only other thing Mega Man was able to feel was secondhand embarrassment on his former opponent's behalf. He turned his head towards Little Mac to see how he was faring. Mac's face was expressionless; much of it was covered in bandages, and a wrap over the side of his head blocked out his right eye entirely. A long, flat frown resided on his face, which made him seem like he wasn't amused by the running commentary either.
Even looking at Mac was rough. Mega Man felt that he becoming too self-conscious for his own well-being; his eyes wandered off towards the opposite side of the room. He needed a distraction for his mind, and the nearby staff were right there. However, it seemed like the nurse and Dr. Mario had a different idea. The nurse stayed where she was and uncertainly watched as Dr. Mario walked over towards the edge of Mac's bed.
"Now, me and-a Nurse Peach would like to stay and see if you're all getting along, but we have work to attend to," Dr. Mario lifted up the clipboard that hung off of the edge of Mac's bed. "We have to look over your paperwork and make sure we're administering the right amount of medicine to him. After all, Mac, you have been making a lot of progress lately. It is about time to lower the dose of painkillers you have-a-been receiving."
Without saying anything else, Dr. Mario became the first of the two staff members to leave the room. The nurse lingered behind a little longer, and paused at the edge of the door. The nurse gave a weak smile back to Mac as she clutched her hand onto the door's handle.
"If you need anything, Mac, feel free to press the help button on his bed to call me over."
The door closed behind her. The room had turned deathly silent. Little Mac remained in bed, and his coach was still sitting across from him. And at that moment, Mega Man almost wished that he were alone instead.
After what felt like an entire hour, Doc Louis became the one who broke the silence, "So, Rock..."
Mega Man's eyes opened wide at the sound of his other name. Usually, guests and staff members referred to him by his alias; only the combatants who had gotten to know him before the incident ever referred to him as "Rock". There was no clearer sign that Louis was very close to Mac than the fact that he had picked up on that same nickname himself. It wasn't common knowledge outside of the manor, and to a lesser extent, trusted family and friends that he knew back in own world.
"How did you pull off that victory against my Mac?"
Mega Man shrunk inwards with shame. "I wasn't thinking..."
Doc Louis, however, clearly didn't feel the same way, "C'mon, that take-down had to involve some thinking."
Mega Man refused to look Doc Louis's way. He wasn't even sure whether to feel better or worse about how enthusiastic Mac's own coach was about how it had turned out.
"Listen, I get it. It's hard to believe you pulled it off," Doc Louis's smile weakened. "I wasn't expecting a kid your age to take down an experienced boxer. Sure, one who's still a bit of a kid himself..."
Mega Man glanced past Doc Louis and over towards Little Mac himself. His arms were crossed, and his brows lowered more the longer the unappreciated praise continued.
"You need to remember that he's not human," Mac spoke up.
"Oh, don't worry; I know about that,” Doc Louis laughed cheerfully. “I've read the stats of everyone here. Why else would he be as fast as he is? He's like half your size and weighs twice as much as you do."
Mega Man closed his eyes and sighed. Not looking at either of them directly was his the only way he could get any peace. Yet, as soon as he opened his eyes again, he was still staring aimlessly at Little Mac the same way he did before. His chest became tighter; almost as though he were going to hyperventilate if he couldn't find a way out of their conversation.
In an attempt to remain silent, Mega Man simply held onto his gifts as he walked over to the bed himself. Once he had reached Mac's other side (the one where Doc Louis and his chair wasn't next to), Mega Man gently unfolded the table he brought and rested his other presents onto it. Even when he was merely feet away from Mac's face, he struggled to even look at the bedridden fighter while he was there.
Likewise, Mac slowly lifted the gifts over towards himself without saying anything back.
"C'mon, are you not even gonna tell Mac that they're for him?" Doc Louis asked.
"Listen, guys, I..." Mega Man weakly glanced over at Doc Louis specifically. "I just wanted to come over and apologize for what I've done. And I-- I haven't really had a chance to do that. Or at least not yet."
A heavy sigh came out of Mega Man. He forced his eyes to focus on Little Mac; a weak film of tears was already making it hard for him to do so.
"I-I'm sorry," Mega Man choked out.
The same scowl that was on Mac's face remained unchanged. "That's not how you truly feel."
Mega Man nearly stumbled backwards. The lack of apology solidified all of the guilt that was inside of him. His face had becoming a wavering mix of emotions as conflicting statements ran through his programming.
What did Mac think he was even hiding from him?
"...I get that I'm not really appreciated right now," Mega Man nodded as he slowly backed away from the bed.
Before Mega Man had a chance to head over towards the door, Doc Louis was quick to call out his name. Hearing "Rock" again was enough to make him turn his head past his shoulder and see what the coach still wanted from him.
"I want you to talk things out with Mac," Doc Louis moved the playing cards he held off of his lap and lowered them back into the box they came from.
Mega Man reached his arm out as far as he could with the hope that the door's handle was nearby. As his grip slumped through the empty air, a sense of dread grew within him. It was clear both Mac and his coach had some unfinished business with him.
"I can see the stress that you're under kid. It ain't pretty," Doc Louis lowered his his head and slowly shook it. "You need to talk out your feelings with someone. Ideally, with some like Mac or, you know, his coach. Me."
Little Mac nodded in agreement with him. The weak smirk on his face only confused Mega Man further about what they wanted to happen. He remained frozen near the door, almost ready to head out while he still had a chance. His own shoulders slumped downwards once he realized that he was trapped with them; not physically, but in spirit.
If he were to stay, he knew Little Mac would be glaring at him the whole time. But if he were to go, it was very likely that Mac would never forgive him. It was clear which one was worse.
Mega Man held in a sigh as he stiffly walked back towards the bed. Doc Louis stood up and moved another chair from nearby towards where he sat before. A feeling of discomfort grew in Mega Man's core as he sat down.
"Firstly, Rock, me and Mac are both boxing champions," Doc Louis stated calmly. “Anything you could've done, we've seen the same break out in the tournaments we were in."
“Like that one time some boxers brought their paparazzi and a disco ball to blind people with,” Little Mac nodded in agreement. "And that other time a different another boxer he went up against used magic to clone himself. That's not even talking about the time a clown was allowed to compete against us..."
"Yeah, and in my day, some guy brought a flamethrower into the WVBA," Doc Louis laughed as he ribbed the air near Mac. "I'm glad that guy got knocked out of the tournament early before I had a chance to fight him. I wouldn't be talking to you two otherwise."
An awkward chuckle came out Little Mac as Mega Man stared on at both of them blankly. "That doesn't sound very fair.”
"Oh, I agree with you," Mac replied. "Reasoning with the WVBA has never been easy. It's easier to get good and just take them down yourself."
"Besides everything you threw at him during that match was nothing in comparison to what I've seen Aran Ryan pull against some of the other boxers," Doc Louis added.
Mac smirked back at his coach. "His fights against me were him taking it easy."
Mega Man tried to smile back at them, but it quickly faded away. Instead, he could only raise his eyebrows as he leaned in closer towards Little Mac's bed. Mac only seemed slightly bothered by it, and didn't give him any kind of response beyond that.
He could tell that Mac wasn't taking it personally. Mega Man was starting to feel a bit better about everything because of it. Yet, the more he kept hearing about whatever the "WVBA" was – presumably, the league Mac was in before –, the more concerned he became. Do humans really...?
Considering everything he heard from Mac's perspective already, it made sense that joining Smash Brothers ended up being the next, logical step in his career.
"You seem awfully relaxed about what happened," Mega Man continued to look at Mac. "Did you get beaten up like this all the time, or--"
A roaring laugh from Doc Louis cut him off, "Of course he didn't. Mac Baby has never lost a fight!"
"I wouldn't go that far..." Little Mac closed his eyes and looked away from his coach. "But yeah, I tend to win a lot. Where do you think all of the belts I display in my room came from?"
Mega Man fidgeted his hands together. "...In fair, clean fights where the opponent isn't trying to kill you?"
Mac shook his head sideways with an amused grin on his face. Doc Louis, on the other-hand, could only frown from the answer they had been given.
"Listen, kid, nothing like what you've done has ever occurred all at once in WBVA or elsewhere," Doc Louis said. "I've never seen a man get both electrocuted and caught on fire at the same time".
Mega Man shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "But-- I wasn't supposed to hurt him to begin with. Or any human, really..."
"Then why did you sign up for Smash to begin with if you didn't want to risk hurting anyone there?" Mac asked.
"I didn't want to join either," Mega Man admitted. "My creator was the one who wanted me to compete in it. I was just as unsure about it then as I am now."
Doc Louis raised his eyebrows, "What made you change your mind?"
"Something clearly motivated you to join it, so clearly it wasn't against your will," Mac nodded. "So, what was it?"
"I..." Mega Man silently gulped. "...Both times I have questioned it, I eventually realized there was a difference between fighting as a sport, and fighting somebody to hurt them."
Little Mac turned towards Doc Louis and gave him a slightly puzzled look.
"He's talking about the difference between hitting above the belt, and hitting someone with anvils in your boxing gloves with the intent of turning their lights off." Doc Louis explained back to Mac.
Little Mac rolled his eyes and muttered the name of a certain rival he had under his breath. Thankfully, "Aran Ryan" wasn't a name that rang any bells of concern or guilt within Mega Man's head.
"Yeah, pretty much the difference between him and everyone else," Doc Louis chuckled. "None of them took it that personally."
Mega Man pulled his back towards the upper cushion of his chair. He had becomr strained from leaning in for so long and with so much worry. Sure, talking to them was helping him feel better, but the fact that even attempted murder seemed normalized to the two boxers unnerved him. It was like his own guilt was merely a blip on their radar. Yeah, it might have been an accident, but it was still a brutal one that many of the other combatants wouldn't have brushed off so easily.
"...I guess the main distinction between this time and the first one were the regulation mistakes that got out of hand.," Mega Man rubbed his arm. "I couldn't tell if they were from me or the match itself for the longest time."
"Can you elaborate on that 'regulation error part?" Doc Louis raised his hand towards his chin. "Especially within yourself, because I'm wonderin' if you were holding anything back."
Mega Man nearly blurted out a stuttered "N-no". He bit his tongue once he realized that he wasn't bring confronted; it was a genuine question. He breathed in deeply and tried to regain his composure. "I was seeing actual error messages halfway into the match. Literal errors. Actual warnings. I couldn't even stop..."
"That's gotta suck," Little Mac replied.
As much as he wanted to ask Mac "why didn't you stop me", Mega Man hesitated silently. All he knew was that he wasn't surprised by Mac's answer, and wondered if he had been thinking the same thing as well.
Mega Man slowly looked up at Mac, his eyes wide with surprise. "...Aren't you-- Wait, you're not worried that you hurt me?"
"Not really," Mac looked down at the bandages around his knuckles. "It suckss that I blinded you, but I'm not troubled by it. I've stopped asking that question after the fifth or so black eye I gave someone."
"Mac had already been in a few street fights before we met," Doc Louis added. "There's worse things a kid in the Bronx could be doing than entering the ring."
Another joyful laugh came out of Doc Louis, which made Mac grin back at him. Mega Man tried to chuckle awkwardly with them, even though he wasn't entirely sure how to react to that anecdote either.
"Right..." Mega Man mumbled in an attempt to ease his remaining discomfort.
He had only heard of "the Bronx" in passing. He also had to guess that "the Bronx" that Mac and Louis were from is nothing like the one in his world; too many street fights and not enough security robots that monitored everyone's moves in order to prevent that.
Regardless, Mega Man wanted to stay on the subject that they were on before. "Usually, my weapons aren't supposed to hurt people in a Smash match. Wasn't the tournament's usual weird magic-y circumstances supposed to keep that at bay?"
Doc Louis nodded, "They were. The more you think about them, the more amazing those things are."
"That only means that Donkey Kong's fighting style here is allowed, and against the WVBA's rules." Mac shook his head.
The two boxers laughed again. By that point, Mega Man had given up trying to make sense of their lives; there was just too much missing context for him to understand it entirely.
"Don't you remember the last time we fought?" Mega Man asked Mac. "Or, at least the last 'stock' tourney we were in together."
"Of course," Mac grinned.
"Yeah, I've always wondered how you guys would come out unscathed from the burns and cuts and stuff you otherwise would have gotten," Doc Louis added. "I've been here with Mac since he was an assistant in the last tournament, and I'm still wondering how that magic works specifically."
"Something tells me we'll never get that answer," Mac joked back. "Especially when it came to what happened during our last match."
"Usually, the fights are either on a timer, count how many times someone lands off-stage, or a combination of both," Mega Man explained with a smile. "No matter how much we're supposed to hurt each-other physically, none of it is supposed to actually leave a mark."
"I take it 'stamina' was supposed to have similar rules in place," Doc Louis guessed playfully.
As Little Mac silently nodded back to his coach, Mega Man had withdrawn into himself again. There was still a lot on his mind that he wanted to speak up about.
"Honestly, I can't help but keep doubting whether it was truly me or not, though. I'm not even sure if I should continue being here at all. Maybe I'll just sit the next few tournaments out while they get the bugs ironed out."
Although his concerns had been mostly alleviated, Mega Man was still unable to get the end of the battle out of his mind. To him, the crowd was still wild, and the referee still didn't care. He didn't have any reason to believe that they were going to change anything. The crowd clearly wanted more of the bloodshed to happen.
Little Mac pushed himself forward and tried to reach an arm out towards Mega Man. He bit his lip the further he extended himself until he was forced to pull himself back towards his bed. Instead, Mac leaned back against the cushion behind his back and looked over at his coach. "Can you give Rock a pat on the back, for me?"
"Sure thing," Doc Louis reached his arm behind Mega Man.
What followed was the roughest "pat" that Mega Man had felt in his life; closer to a slap in both intensity and speed. He wasn't surprised that it turned out that way, especially since Louis said that he was a former boxer, but it still was a shock to his titanium frame.
"Don't worry about Mac too much; he'll be fine," Doc Louis reassured Mega Man. "He's already a champion at this. He knows injuries come with his sports."
"Besides, I get that it was an accident," Mac had become relaxed in his bed. "So do the higher-ups, if their delay was anything to go by."
Oh. So that was what the delay was for. Mega Man's shoulders slumped down in relief. The lack of communication he received made their motivations unclear at the time. They weren't delaying it to let the controversy die down, or make everyone blame whoever and whatever they could. They were looking through the issues and trying to iron them out.
Of course, It would have helped if the higher ups put out a better statement. He had read it during his spare time, and thought that it didn't answer anything.
"If anyone's still giving you shit about what happens, don't forget I'm here to back you up," Mac playfully punched the air. "They're right to be skeptical if they didn’t know anything past the surface, but I don’t doubt some of them got carried away with it."
"Yeah, if the others still don't want you to fight, prove them wrong for us," Doc Louis chimed in with agreement. "Kick their ass without any of those errors messing with your judgment this time."
Mega Man felt his face light up with a wide, wobbly grin. The smile was an unusual feeling that he hadn't felt before. It was close to the small smiles that he grew after he needed to be reassured that ensuring world peace meant that he needed to crack a few eggs in the process. It wasn't easy, but sometimes, things were as inevitable as fighting another one of the Wily's machines. The only difference was that his was over something less consequential that weighed over him just as heavily, if not more so.
A massive weight had been taken off his chest.
With that, Mega Man lifted himself out of his seat and began to head towards the door. He didn't get far before he stopped himself, and turned around to glance at both Doc Louis and Little Mac one last time.
"I... I just want to thank you guys so much for allowing me to stay here," Mega Man tried to wave goodbye; his arm felt too heavy to go through with it. He didn't want to leave either of them behind.
Each step that he took was slow. He lingered across the room as hard as he could. Yet, the sight of Mac's slow, rough waving tug at his heartstrings. Doc Louis's waving, of course, made up for the lost enthusiasm between them.
"Oh, and one more thing," Doc Louis spoke up.
Mega Man froze in place. Although his hand was once again near the handle of the door, he wasn't able to bring himself to go for it.
"Take it easy on your break, kid. Hang out with friends, join a club. Go home and visit family if you need to. Just don't dwell on the fight more than you need to. Mac's gonna be alright. I'll be here to make sure of that."
Mega Man gulped silently and smiled back at Doc Louis one last time. The cold metal of the door's lever reminded him of what he was going to encounter once he stepped outside, and eventually out of the hospital itself. Yet, he had accepted his choice and pulled the door behind him.
As he stood in the hallway, everything that Little Mac and Doc Louis replayed through his mind like an audio file. In fact, his mind could have easily recorded their entire exchange for him; he wasn't entirely sure about that for certain. All he knew was that he was ready to handle what would happen next. Although he trembled on the way out, he couldn't deny the warm, comforting feeling that had been growing in his core. He might have been nervous, but he also realized that it was time to move on, and put what had happened behind him.
And maybe, just maybe, when it was time to rematch Little Mac, he could do it with the confidence that it would be the fair fight both of them would have wanted for each-other.