SX-06
Aqueous
START
Lynn stood and bowed to her superior, and then left the Sleeper CRDM the way Atsui had entered.
Once outside, and in the thick of the mist, she regretted not taking along some sort of flashlight. But she could -- and would -- make do. She had been an infantryneko long before she had been a pilot... Or as the case may be, an EWO. Lynn had been run into the ground, smacked around, and abused on enough worlds, space stations, and asteroids to give her the capability of dealing with a little water vapor.
Or so she thought.
Her little journey would take her across the compound, and to save time she would need to cross through the runway. Outside of the Squadron's billet, she passed in between newly fabricated buildings, slipped through a storage yard and hopped a fence before her feet met tarmac. The farther she got, the more unconfident she became: nothing looked familiar. There was a building that shouldn't have been there, and directly in front of her was a Kawarime that definitely should not have been there.
She approached the Kawarime, trying to squint through the gray mist to see if anyone was around.
As Lynn walked under the aircraft towards the building she felt the underside of the wing with her fingers. As she crossed to the other side of the wing the heel of a boot suddenly sprung from above and copped her on the side of the head lightly. There was a small groan from above, and the boot wobbled slightly as the owner above shifted slightly. There was a deep growling sound that quickly subsided into heavy breathing.
Lynn had winced when the boot hit her, but made no noise. Whoever was up there was obviously asleep, and something told her it would be better not to disturb whoever it was.
But she's on the wing of a very important piece of machinery! another little voice told her. She suspected it was a younger nekovalkyrja, at least. Who else would so carelessly fall asleep on the wing of a Kawarime? Someone who was either a fool or comforted by the thing. That was who.
"Hey. Wake up!" She called, giving the trouser above the boot a few small tugs. But only another snore assailed her.
Lynn sighed and frowned, wondering whether she should continue trying to wake whoever-it-was up or just leaving them be.
"Don't make me get up there!" She huffed.
The only reply was another snore.
Whoever-it-was was starting to annoy Lynn. Her mind was made up -- they needed to get off that Kawarime.
"HEY!" She gave a tug on the boot. "WAKE UH--" forgetting her own enhanced strength, the dozing figure on the wing was jerked out of their perch and only had time to let out a startled snort before the return flight to earth departed. Lynn had time to pull a very surprised face as the dark shape fell on top of her, the two of them landing in a pile on the tarmac.
She ended up on her back with the recent snoozer laying across her waist, face down.
"Ow..." said the figure, red panels giving him away as the rather useless Vas-hei. "That's the second damn time..." he muttered to himself angrily. His faced turned towards Lynn as he gathered his surroundings. "Oh, hey Bright-Eyes."
The only thing Lynn could think of, right at that moment, was how calm Silic seemed to be while he layed across her like a GOOD acquaintance. Her eyes grew larger and more frightened as humiliation first set in, then fear, and finally panic. The combination of all three made the seed planted within all Nekovalkyrja flourish: Violence. Silic raised an eyebrow as her expression turned.
She kicked her legs up, trying to get Silic off of her, sending the man airborne for half asecond with a surpised gurgle of pain but all she succeeded in doing was rolling him further up over her chest and onto her face, smothering her. Her fist went up into Silic's gut as he passed, and she continued to squirm and move. She desperately kneed and punched the unlucky Vas-hei until she had finally gotten out from under him.
Silic had rolled a good meter down from Lynn by the time he came to rest. After a few seconds he slowly climbed shakily to his feet, clutching his gut. Lynn heard him say "...one hell of a left hook..." as he came upright. Despite his reputation he was unusually resilient for a Nepleslian, at least as far as being beaten up by ladies went.
Lynn had scurried and propped herself up against the landing gear of the Kawarime. She glared at the man, wondering whether she should apologize or hurt him somemore.
She watched as he staggered slightly back towards the fighter, he stooped down to retrieve his sunglasses as he looked around. When he came back up his other hand went from his stomach to the small of his back as he jerked to a halt "M-my back..." he grunted, before slowly straightening himself up, his other hand putting the glasses over his scarred eyes.
Finally he looked back up at the wing and turned to Lynn, scratching the back of his head in an embarassed gesture and bowing slightly.
"Sorry about that, I swear I slept near the centre so I wouldn't fall down." he turned back to the wing again "Must have rolled in my sleep or something." he mused.
"I'm sorry I hit you so hard." Lynn mumbled, looking away. "I was just trying to wake you up when you fell on me. I panicked. Sorry. I have no idea what came over me. Sorry!" The last 'Sorry!' spoken louder than the rest.
The man looked slightly taken aback, and the hand on the back of his head scratched a little harder. "Um, I guess we're both sorry then." he said, clumsily trying to repair the situation. He stepped a little closer and leaned down to offer her a hand up, just far enough away that he might have a chance of surviving if she went feral.
Lynn looked at the hand, not sure of its purpose. An ear flicked. Her own hand went out cautiously to his, wondering if it was some special thing the nepleslian did. She tensed as the bigger Nepleslian grasped her wrist and pulled gently. Suddenly, she was up on her feet. The two stood close together, and Lynn hadn't let go of her hold on Silic's wrist. She could hear him breathing. This close she could see the indents on his face from the tarmac gained during impact.
"This is sort of the part where you let go." he said, smiling good-naturedly, eyebrows jumping above his sunglasses for a second.
Lynn blushed, and blurted out an apology before letting go. She took one step back, made a small, frightened noise with her throat and bolted away from Silic to disappear into the mist. She heard him call out in surprise, and then he disappeared too.
END