Living Together

Replying back to Oliver by patting his head, we were suddenly interrupted by a nurse that opened the ward door.

He saw that the two of us were extremely close, and gave a smile at me.

"Hello! You should be Oliver's sister, right? He can be discharged anytime, but we first need to inform you of the details of his hospitalization. Could you please come over here."

He gestured outside the room. Getting up, I felt the grip on my wrist tighten.

"It's alright Oliver, I'm only going to be talking to your sister for a while. She'll be back soon."

The nurse comforted Oliver as he stepped out of the room.

At his words, Oliver's grip slightly loosened. And within a couple minutes, he let go of my hand.

Telling him I was only going for a while, I followed the nurse to a little ways away from the ward.

"Oliver's sister, I must inform you that Oliver has been diagnosed with a certain type of rare amnesia. There are no previous signals of memory in his brain, and based on previous cases there is a strong chance that he would never recover his memory. However, other than that, there will be no impact to his physical or mental health. The hospital suggests taking things slow with him and help him reintegrate with society."

The nurse gave a brief rundown on Oliver's 'illness', which was most probably just a cover up for the fact that he was not from this world.

There were optional treatments for him that I could sign him up for, which probably would not 'help' him 'recover his memories', as well as a booklet given to me to guide me on how to live with someone with amnesia. How to approach the conversation of memories, how to react in the event of pain caused by returning or triggered memories, etc.

Once he was done with that, he then pulled out a list of medical bills that I needed to pay for.

"If there are any financial difficulties in paying the hospital back, there are many financial schemes and loans to aid you over here."

He handed me a pamphlet with dozens of different plans with a large variety of pay back periods.

"It's alright. I can pay the hospital bill right now."

Taking out the device, I linked it up with my personal terminal and paid the whole bill right then and there. Thanks to Sazzy and streaming for 3 months.

After we went through some documents that I needed to sign as the legal guardian of my brother, the nurse declared Oliver free to discharge and left.

Stashing the documents and booklets under my arm, I re-entered the ward just as Oliver finished changing into a t-shirt and pants. He also had a small backpack that he swung over his shoulder.

Walking away from his bed and up to me, we held hands as we boarded the transporter, and left the hospital area after I handed back the visitor's pass. Oliver also handed back his patient's pass.

We then walked towards the mall to find Sazzy and Ava.

Luckily for us, it didn't take too long as they had just finished one round around the first floor of the mall and met us at the entrance. The four of us then left the planet and headed back to Mors.

I took the clothes bags I still had in my hands and threw them into the back of the car. Beside me in the passenger seat was Oliver, who was curiously looking around. Sazzy bullied Ava into sitting behind with her.

I set the car into autopilot back to our house, and then we started catching up with each other.

"The stay at the hospital was alright. I had several scans a day at first, but after a while the scans stopped and I didn't have to go to any treatment. I did switch doctors once to a guy who asked a lot of questions and wrote everything I said into his device. But other than that, the stay was uneventful. Ava was there to keep me company so it wasn't too boring."

Listening to Oliver's recount of the hospital, I could feel a large sense of relief that nothing too major had happened to him.

I then recounted about my side, of how I had struck a deal with Sazzy to live in this world, my travels to the different planets, our current neighbors, as well as my job in this world as a streamer.

Nodding his head at my words, there were certain points where Oliver seemed to narrow his eyes in displeasure or thought, but other that his reactions were majorly positive.

"Also, due to my job, we have a lot of cameras outside our house that can film the insides. This is to ensure our safety. So if you want to hide from the cameras, you need to pay attention to what color of the floor you are stepping on. Sazzy helped color the floor tiles of the blind spots in the house so you can feel at ease in certain areas."

The car drove into our backyard and stopped. Alighting, Oliver and I carried the bags into the house. Well it was mostly me who did the carrying. Since it would be alarming if the cameras recorded luggage floating on their own.

Setting down the bags, I left them aside for now in favor of showing Oliver our new house.

First was the living room, the main feature of this house. The rest of the house was divided into three rooms, two toilets, and a storeroom behind the living room. There were two exits, one which was at the end of the corridor, and one attached to the living room that faced the beach.

I showed Oliver into his room, which was made as a replica of his original room to the best of my abilities.

Seeing the ornaments, unlike the excited expression I was expecting, he seemed to be more worried and uneasy.

"Do you not like the room? If you don't, we can always change it."

Oliver's eyes darted towards mine at those words.

"No! It's not like I don't like it! Rather, it brings back memories of our original world. It's just a little nostalgic that's all."

Giving a weak smile, Oliver then grasped my hand again and led me out of the room.

"Anyway, besides the room, is there anything else I need to see or know?"

The both of us walked over to the living room, where Sazzy and Ava were chilling on the sofas in the blind spots. Sitting down onto another pair of sofas, I asked Oliver about how he felt being livestreamed on Jolt.

"Since it's my major job, and some of the streams are livestreamed from the house, it might be good if you didn't feel too uncomfortable on camera. It's fine if you don't like to be filmed either! I'll just tell you where the livestream boundaries are, or I can even temporarily turn off the camera footage if you want to pass through."

Oliver, after hearing my words, seemed to fall into deep thought.

"I don't particularly mind being filmed. I also don't mind appearing on the livestreams. Rather, you told me that you traveled to Vastum, if I got the name correct, under the cover of visiting me in the hospital. If that's the case, it might be good for me to appear in the next stream and be introduced to your audience. It'll make your cover story more convincing."

[As expected of Oliver! You're so smart!]

Bouncing up from her seat at the sofa, Sazzy ran over to Oliver and smiled at him with starry eyes.

I watched him feel a little on edge and sneak a glance my way.

"Sazzy, you're scaring him."

Chuckling as I warned Sazzy, she backed off immediately after I said that but was no less energetic as she tried to befriend Oliver.

At her seat, Ava leaned back lazily on the sofa, eyes half lidded looking at the two talk.

As soon as Sazzy was confident that she had befriended Oliver, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up from the sofa.

[Come! I'll show you some cool things in my room!]

Oliver shot another glance at me. This time I smiled at him as Sazzy dragged him away. It was always nice to see him with more energy. As well as more friends. He used to be a social butterfly, making more friends and acquaintances than the fingers on my hands.

However, after I was diagnosed with Moral Deficiency with a tendency for Violent Actions. Or MDVA in shortened form. He stopped bringing around friends. He also stopped hanging out with people and focused more on our tiny family.

Watching the two disappear, I took this time to talk with Ava.

"How has my brother been?"

Ava turned her head my way and then sat up.

[He's perfectly fine. Except for being a bit too mature for his age, he's a sensible child. He's very protective of the people around him though. When he saw my form, he was so shocked that he wouldn't stop looking towards me. It took quite a while for him to become more relaxed.]

On Ava's face, I saw a small smile form. It was a familiar smile that only showed up when you had genuine care for something. Maybe Ava wasn't as unreliable as I had first thought.

But what did she mean by her form?

Seeing my confusion, Ava showed a surprised face.

[Maybe Sazzy forgot to explain this. Our forms are made to resemble the person our host is most comfortable and trusting of. For me, I resemble you since Oliver values you the most. And it goes the same for you. Sha Zi - I mean Sazzy''s form resembles Oliver's since you value him the most.]

After Ava finished speaking, she visibly rocked her head to dig out some words to fill the awkward silence between us.

[Another thing. I will also be staying here with Oliver. Since he is my host. There are certain things I need to do with him as a system, that both of us can't tell you. But I don't need a room! I'll hang out on these sofas when I'm here. If you have any opinions, feel free to tell me. You are the current owner of the house after all.]

She quickly announced before standing up from the sofa and running away after saying there was something she needed to attend to.