"Tell me a story."
"You ever hear of the Vladivostok?" Harry asked him after taking a sip. "You must have done. Real ***** of a vessel, flagship of the Frostfall fleet. Eight hundred meters from stem to stern, and even then, had almost more guns on her than she could carry. She fell into the hands of pirates a couple of years back, and I guess they thought Sherwood not having much of a fleet made us easy targets-"
"Christ Harry! You ever gonna get to the point?!" Bigsy interrupted, taking a swig of his own and jerking his thumb over at his superior. "He never tells it right!"
"Yeah, he misses out the part where you had a bad case of the shits when we were scrambled." Croft shot at him "Thank God your jump-suit was khaki already."
"If you're finished, gentlemen..." Harry called over them, smiling, before Bigsy could retort. "The first wave out of the aerodrome were us and 36th. Our mission was just to sting them harder than they were expecting. Command wanted us to scare them off, but none of them were expecting us to take that monster out of the sky..."
A detailed and highly dramatic account of the battle followed, which seemed at least to last a couple of hours, as all the people trying to tell it at once got steadily more drunk.
"I swear, watching her core light up as she plunged nose first into the side of Deadfall Mountain... that was the most beautiful I have ever found a woman and that, my friend, is saying something." Harry said wistfully "The biggest single piece of wreckage the salvage team could drag back was this huge bulkhead from the cargo hold. We claimed it as a battle trophy and propped it up in our mess hall, only that's when 36th decided they were the ones who'd given her the killing blow after all, and stole it off us. For six months after that, it kept getting nicked back and forth, until 36 decided to cement it into one of their walls, so in the middle of the night, me and a few lads took a forklift and a couple of jackhammers, and took their whole wall!"
The uproar of laughter from the table drew some disapproving looks from around the bar.
"The Station Commander gave both our Squadron Leaders a real bollocking after that one. From them on, they've made us share it, a year each. Good times." Harry slurred a little, finishing his drink. "Right! Your turn Harel! Shall we hear the dashing tale of how you rescued the princess, or something more exciting?"
========================================================================================================
'461... 462... 463...'
Katya ignored the sweat trickling down her brow as she grit her teeth and kept going with the pull-ups. She'd been up for 4 hours, and had been working out for the last 2. Several cups of coffee and a couple of aspirin were keeping her hangover just about at bay, or maybe it was just willpower. She was on duty this morning, there would be no excuses for being tardy, especially not all the vodka she and Edea had powered through last night.
'475... 476... 477...'
If anything could summon a small smile of satisfaction from her right now, it was knowing that no matter how bad she was feeling, Edea was feeling worse. The woman had been an utter mess by the end of the night.
"[Good morning, Captain Ivanovich.]"
"[Same to you, Corporal Bielski.]" Katya grunted in response. "[Where is Lord Bejic? I must report to him.]"
'497... 498... 499...'
"[In the resident's gymnasium.]" Bielski told her "[Combat training with Secretary Ablev, I believe.]"
Katya ground as she crested the last pull-up. Her Lord really should inform her about such things.
"[Thank you, Bielski.]" she said, as she let herself drop to the floor. Striding over, she grabbed a bottle of water and downed half of it in one go, pouring the rest over her face, before drying herself off with a towel. "[You're dismissed.]"
When she was finished cooling down and making herself presentable, she went off to find Florian and Erik.
========================================================================================================
A few hours later...
The fluttering static from the TV was the only source of illumination in the room, bathing the space beyond in a soft, grey glow. A few empty cocktail glasses were strewn across the bedside table, and discarded clothes lay across and beside the bed.
Amy and Axel were sat in the middle of it all, their naked silhouettes gleaming with sweat. Her legs wrapped around his waist, Amy gasped as she gripped his hair between her fingers, running the tip of her tongue up the side of his neck, before gently nibbling on his earlobe.
"Axel..." she moaned, as she drew back to face him, their breath mingling and the tips of their noses touching. "I love you."
Sprout was so out of it by this point he barely registered her advances. "Love you too," he gasped, grinning slightly. "I don' even remember what we watched." He remarked, chuckling.
Some time passed between the two of them before Sprout spoke again. "This is kind of a weird time to ask this but... you reckon you ever think about yer real parents?" he asked, looking up at her messy head of hair. "Like, who they were and where they are now? I didn' used ta' think about it, but now that Ma' is dead I can' help wonderin' what happened to... you know. I mean, I know she's dead but what kinda woman was she? Ma' told me she'd tell me one day... there were a lot of things left up in the air between us I guess."
The boy sighed. "Shit, sorry... I don' wanna ruin the mood."
"Yeah... maybe not so much right now with the talking..." Amy giggled, as she changed up a gear. Leaning back, her hands wound around the back of his neck, she pulled Axel in to her chest.
"Oh God. Oh..." Amy trembled as her legs constricted, feeling lighter than air. She held her lover close, her fingers digging into his back as she kissed him deeply, savouring the feeling of being one with him, wanting it to last forever.
Eventually, the two of them keeled over onto the bed. Amy kissed Axel along the collar bone, before resting her head on his chest, while stroked Amy up and down her back.
"I try not to." she said quietly, after a few moments of silence. "I don't remember anything about my life before, you know... all it would do is make me realise what I lost, and for them, assuming they're still out there... I don't want to inflict what I've become on them. It would be cruel."
She looked up at him, her hand reaching up to caress his cheek. The way he talked about his mother, it was so... he never stopped hoping for something better around the corner, despite everything that should have broken him by now.
"There's something I want to say to you, but..." Amy bit her lip and looked away "I don't know how it will sound."
Sprout cocked an eyebrow. "What is it?" he asked quickly. He was a lot harder to offend these days than he used to be. Whatever it was, he could take it.
"I'm not sure if this makes any sense..." Amy began "But there's a part of me, a part of my brain, right now, that doesn't believe you're real. I can see you, I can feel you, and I know I'm not dreaming. My dreams are... never this good, but all the same, I've got this little itch at the back of my head, not a voice but... almost, that's telling me you're not real. I mean, how could you possibly be real?! What would someone like you, if they even make them like you at all, possibly have to look for in someone like me?
I'm good at reaching inside of people, and finding the one unrequited desire that they'd do anything for. The One That Got Away, the one that no amount of money or power could buy, and make them believe for just one night that it could. Even after all that though, by the time morning comes around I'm just another uncomfortable reminder of the lies they tell themselves. Not for you though. You've never wanted anything from me other than, well... me, but I'm not sure I know what that's supposed to be? Do you even know? That's what makes me afraid, because none of it makes any sense, and I can't help but feel like the moment I relax, the moment I convince myself that there's nothing to worry about, the lights will go up, the curtain will be pulled back, and I'll see that it was all just a big joke at my expense."
Amy's eyes stung, and she drew a ragged breath, burying her face deeper into Axel's chest.
"I'm sorry!" she sobbed "I know that sounds horrible. I'm trying to do better, I want to do better, for you, but I need to know that if I can't... Can you love even the ugly parts of me? Can you love the parts that will never be happy no matter how much I want them to be, and the parts that hate you just a little for showing me something I thought I could live without?"
Sprout pet the back of Amy's head, hoping to calm her. "Of course I can, dumb dumb," he whispered. "You think too much, ya' know? Take a look outside, ya' think this world follows any kinda rules at all? Life ain't fair, but that don' need ta' be a bad thin'. Not for everyone. Shit 'appens. We live our lives an' that's that. Whether or not you deserve happiness is totally irrelevant. What's important is that ya' you cherish what 'appiness you get."
The boy had no idea where this was coming from, but he just kept talking.
"Ma' an' Bennie shared the purest love I ever saw," he explained. "The only reason shit didn' work out is 'cause they let thinkin' get in the way. You know how Ma' was... how Bennie still is. You really wanna make that same mistake?"
"Thinking bad. Got it!" Amy chuckled though her tears. She tried to focus on the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, hoping it would help calm her down. She knew he'd hold her like this sometimes when she had nightmares. Even as she thrashed and kicked and clawed, trying to beat back the monsters who only survived in her memories, he'd keep her from hurting herself until she calmed down, even though she'd drawn blood on him more than once. She'd see the scratches when she woke up, and would try her best to make it up to him all day, because she was too ashamed to say sorry.
She wished she could stop hurting him.
"I can ask..." she said eventually. "About your real parents. I still have plenty of connections, even if we don't know where to start. Someone out there knows something, and I'll find them... if you want me to?"
She shifted on top of him, her hair shrouding their faces just an inch apart.
"It's the least I can do for you. I just want to make you happy."
Sprout brushed the girl's hair behind her ear and gave her a swift peck on the lips. "You don' 'ave ta' do that to make me happy, babe," he told her. "I appreciate the offer, but you don' 'ave ta' pull strings like that for my sake. It's more of a... curiosity than anythin' else, ya' know? It ain't that important."
"If you're sure..." Amy said softly as she stroked his hair. "I just don't want you to feel like there's something missing from your life."
She began kissing him again, which grew quickly more intense as Axel's hands began exploring her body. She sighed as they tumbled over, Axel kissing her neck, on top of her.
"You know, I'm thinking of getting a tattoo..." she giggled "Something just for us." She cupped his face and gently lifted him so he could get a good look at her body, while her thighs brushed against his waist. "Would you like to pick a spot?"
"That's a lot of responsability, Amy," he said, chuckling nerviously. "What if I pick a bad spot an' ya' resent me fer the rest of time?"
"Oh, I think you know your way around me by now." Amy said.
"Pickin' a place to kiss an' a place ta' ink ar' two very different things, babe! You don' wanna end up like Lily, do ya'? On 'er neck? Really? Looks weird as fuck... don' tell 'er I said that."
Amy rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Six months Axel. Please tell me that one of these days you'll learn how to flirt?"
She took his hand and outstretched his index finger, running it down the line of her stomach, below her navel.
"You're lucky there are other things you're good at."
Sprout chuckled. "S'pose my tongue's good fer somethin', right?" He could flirt a little.
"Just your tongue, hmm?" Amy said, as she slid his hand down further.
One more energetic session later, and they were both exhausted. As they lay in a heap together, Axel fell asleep quickly, snoring gently into Amy's ear. She smiled at the sound, before soon drifting off as well.
"You ever hear of the Vladivostok?" Harry asked him after taking a sip. "You must have done. Real ***** of a vessel, flagship of the Frostfall fleet. Eight hundred meters from stem to stern, and even then, had almost more guns on her than she could carry. She fell into the hands of pirates a couple of years back, and I guess they thought Sherwood not having much of a fleet made us easy targets-"
"Christ Harry! You ever gonna get to the point?!" Bigsy interrupted, taking a swig of his own and jerking his thumb over at his superior. "He never tells it right!"
"Yeah, he misses out the part where you had a bad case of the shits when we were scrambled." Croft shot at him "Thank God your jump-suit was khaki already."
"If you're finished, gentlemen..." Harry called over them, smiling, before Bigsy could retort. "The first wave out of the aerodrome were us and 36th. Our mission was just to sting them harder than they were expecting. Command wanted us to scare them off, but none of them were expecting us to take that monster out of the sky..."
A detailed and highly dramatic account of the battle followed, which seemed at least to last a couple of hours, as all the people trying to tell it at once got steadily more drunk.
"I swear, watching her core light up as she plunged nose first into the side of Deadfall Mountain... that was the most beautiful I have ever found a woman and that, my friend, is saying something." Harry said wistfully "The biggest single piece of wreckage the salvage team could drag back was this huge bulkhead from the cargo hold. We claimed it as a battle trophy and propped it up in our mess hall, only that's when 36th decided they were the ones who'd given her the killing blow after all, and stole it off us. For six months after that, it kept getting nicked back and forth, until 36 decided to cement it into one of their walls, so in the middle of the night, me and a few lads took a forklift and a couple of jackhammers, and took their whole wall!"
The uproar of laughter from the table drew some disapproving looks from around the bar.
"The Station Commander gave both our Squadron Leaders a real bollocking after that one. From them on, they've made us share it, a year each. Good times." Harry slurred a little, finishing his drink. "Right! Your turn Harel! Shall we hear the dashing tale of how you rescued the princess, or something more exciting?"
========================================================================================================
'461... 462... 463...'
Katya ignored the sweat trickling down her brow as she grit her teeth and kept going with the pull-ups. She'd been up for 4 hours, and had been working out for the last 2. Several cups of coffee and a couple of aspirin were keeping her hangover just about at bay, or maybe it was just willpower. She was on duty this morning, there would be no excuses for being tardy, especially not all the vodka she and Edea had powered through last night.
'475... 476... 477...'
If anything could summon a small smile of satisfaction from her right now, it was knowing that no matter how bad she was feeling, Edea was feeling worse. The woman had been an utter mess by the end of the night.
"[Good morning, Captain Ivanovich.]"
"[Same to you, Corporal Bielski.]" Katya grunted in response. "[Where is Lord Bejic? I must report to him.]"
'497... 498... 499...'
"[In the resident's gymnasium.]" Bielski told her "[Combat training with Secretary Ablev, I believe.]"
Katya ground as she crested the last pull-up. Her Lord really should inform her about such things.
"[Thank you, Bielski.]" she said, as she let herself drop to the floor. Striding over, she grabbed a bottle of water and downed half of it in one go, pouring the rest over her face, before drying herself off with a towel. "[You're dismissed.]"
When she was finished cooling down and making herself presentable, she went off to find Florian and Erik.
========================================================================================================
A few hours later...
The fluttering static from the TV was the only source of illumination in the room, bathing the space beyond in a soft, grey glow. A few empty cocktail glasses were strewn across the bedside table, and discarded clothes lay across and beside the bed.
Amy and Axel were sat in the middle of it all, their naked silhouettes gleaming with sweat. Her legs wrapped around his waist, Amy gasped as she gripped his hair between her fingers, running the tip of her tongue up the side of his neck, before gently nibbling on his earlobe.
"Axel..." she moaned, as she drew back to face him, their breath mingling and the tips of their noses touching. "I love you."
Sprout was so out of it by this point he barely registered her advances. "Love you too," he gasped, grinning slightly. "I don' even remember what we watched." He remarked, chuckling.
Some time passed between the two of them before Sprout spoke again. "This is kind of a weird time to ask this but... you reckon you ever think about yer real parents?" he asked, looking up at her messy head of hair. "Like, who they were and where they are now? I didn' used ta' think about it, but now that Ma' is dead I can' help wonderin' what happened to... you know. I mean, I know she's dead but what kinda woman was she? Ma' told me she'd tell me one day... there were a lot of things left up in the air between us I guess."
The boy sighed. "Shit, sorry... I don' wanna ruin the mood."
"Yeah... maybe not so much right now with the talking..." Amy giggled, as she changed up a gear. Leaning back, her hands wound around the back of his neck, she pulled Axel in to her chest.
"Oh God. Oh..." Amy trembled as her legs constricted, feeling lighter than air. She held her lover close, her fingers digging into his back as she kissed him deeply, savouring the feeling of being one with him, wanting it to last forever.
Eventually, the two of them keeled over onto the bed. Amy kissed Axel along the collar bone, before resting her head on his chest, while stroked Amy up and down her back.
"I try not to." she said quietly, after a few moments of silence. "I don't remember anything about my life before, you know... all it would do is make me realise what I lost, and for them, assuming they're still out there... I don't want to inflict what I've become on them. It would be cruel."
She looked up at him, her hand reaching up to caress his cheek. The way he talked about his mother, it was so... he never stopped hoping for something better around the corner, despite everything that should have broken him by now.
"There's something I want to say to you, but..." Amy bit her lip and looked away "I don't know how it will sound."
Sprout cocked an eyebrow. "What is it?" he asked quickly. He was a lot harder to offend these days than he used to be. Whatever it was, he could take it.
"I'm not sure if this makes any sense..." Amy began "But there's a part of me, a part of my brain, right now, that doesn't believe you're real. I can see you, I can feel you, and I know I'm not dreaming. My dreams are... never this good, but all the same, I've got this little itch at the back of my head, not a voice but... almost, that's telling me you're not real. I mean, how could you possibly be real?! What would someone like you, if they even make them like you at all, possibly have to look for in someone like me?
I'm good at reaching inside of people, and finding the one unrequited desire that they'd do anything for. The One That Got Away, the one that no amount of money or power could buy, and make them believe for just one night that it could. Even after all that though, by the time morning comes around I'm just another uncomfortable reminder of the lies they tell themselves. Not for you though. You've never wanted anything from me other than, well... me, but I'm not sure I know what that's supposed to be? Do you even know? That's what makes me afraid, because none of it makes any sense, and I can't help but feel like the moment I relax, the moment I convince myself that there's nothing to worry about, the lights will go up, the curtain will be pulled back, and I'll see that it was all just a big joke at my expense."
Amy's eyes stung, and she drew a ragged breath, burying her face deeper into Axel's chest.
"I'm sorry!" she sobbed "I know that sounds horrible. I'm trying to do better, I want to do better, for you, but I need to know that if I can't... Can you love even the ugly parts of me? Can you love the parts that will never be happy no matter how much I want them to be, and the parts that hate you just a little for showing me something I thought I could live without?"
Sprout pet the back of Amy's head, hoping to calm her. "Of course I can, dumb dumb," he whispered. "You think too much, ya' know? Take a look outside, ya' think this world follows any kinda rules at all? Life ain't fair, but that don' need ta' be a bad thin'. Not for everyone. Shit 'appens. We live our lives an' that's that. Whether or not you deserve happiness is totally irrelevant. What's important is that ya' you cherish what 'appiness you get."
The boy had no idea where this was coming from, but he just kept talking.
"Ma' an' Bennie shared the purest love I ever saw," he explained. "The only reason shit didn' work out is 'cause they let thinkin' get in the way. You know how Ma' was... how Bennie still is. You really wanna make that same mistake?"
"Thinking bad. Got it!" Amy chuckled though her tears. She tried to focus on the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, hoping it would help calm her down. She knew he'd hold her like this sometimes when she had nightmares. Even as she thrashed and kicked and clawed, trying to beat back the monsters who only survived in her memories, he'd keep her from hurting herself until she calmed down, even though she'd drawn blood on him more than once. She'd see the scratches when she woke up, and would try her best to make it up to him all day, because she was too ashamed to say sorry.
She wished she could stop hurting him.
"I can ask..." she said eventually. "About your real parents. I still have plenty of connections, even if we don't know where to start. Someone out there knows something, and I'll find them... if you want me to?"
She shifted on top of him, her hair shrouding their faces just an inch apart.
"It's the least I can do for you. I just want to make you happy."
Sprout brushed the girl's hair behind her ear and gave her a swift peck on the lips. "You don' 'ave ta' do that to make me happy, babe," he told her. "I appreciate the offer, but you don' 'ave ta' pull strings like that for my sake. It's more of a... curiosity than anythin' else, ya' know? It ain't that important."
"If you're sure..." Amy said softly as she stroked his hair. "I just don't want you to feel like there's something missing from your life."
She began kissing him again, which grew quickly more intense as Axel's hands began exploring her body. She sighed as they tumbled over, Axel kissing her neck, on top of her.
"You know, I'm thinking of getting a tattoo..." she giggled "Something just for us." She cupped his face and gently lifted him so he could get a good look at her body, while her thighs brushed against his waist. "Would you like to pick a spot?"
"That's a lot of responsability, Amy," he said, chuckling nerviously. "What if I pick a bad spot an' ya' resent me fer the rest of time?"
"Oh, I think you know your way around me by now." Amy said.
"Pickin' a place to kiss an' a place ta' ink ar' two very different things, babe! You don' wanna end up like Lily, do ya'? On 'er neck? Really? Looks weird as fuck... don' tell 'er I said that."
Amy rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Six months Axel. Please tell me that one of these days you'll learn how to flirt?"
She took his hand and outstretched his index finger, running it down the line of her stomach, below her navel.
"You're lucky there are other things you're good at."
Sprout chuckled. "S'pose my tongue's good fer somethin', right?" He could flirt a little.
"Just your tongue, hmm?" Amy said, as she slid his hand down further.
One more energetic session later, and they were both exhausted. As they lay in a heap together, Axel fell asleep quickly, snoring gently into Amy's ear. She smiled at the sound, before soon drifting off as well.
