Silic took another swig from the bottle, the sickly sweet taste of his jury-rigged brew going down fast, and leaned against the side of the kawarime he'd spent just that morning desperately trying to refit for action before their latest scramble. He supposed it hadn't gone too badly, at least compared to the last few missions, not as many rookies dying, he'd even come back okay.
But something churned at his gut, it gnawed and bit at his stomach and caused him to lay awake staring at the ceiling of his bunk. Finally he'd grabbed a few bottles of his secret brew and snuck up to the hangar deck where his parked fighter was. Yaeko always considered it hers, so did Sekai, Silic himself had never claimed ownership but his right to it was the only one challenged by either of the two others. But that was life as a Nepleslian in Yamatai, always someone that thought they knew better.
Silic sighed and took another swig, he was nice and heady now, it wasn't especially tasty but it was mildy strong stuff. The good part about everyone expecting you to break the rules was that they usually didn't care what you actually did, although it did seem to make you fodder for the local rumour mill, which seemed to spread faster than the speed of thought in ships like these.
Anne was in strange mood. She could not fall asleep and spent hours just staring in front of herself as she lay in bed. She was also unfocused as she was still thinking about the last day. When they got back from battle she helped out in med bay and there were quite a few injured, and some dead too. There was already talking about revival process to be carried out in future. Even Anne's squadron finally lost one. Hoshi died within fractions of a second and nothing could be done about it. Worst thing was that Anne was strangely fine with it.
The Helashio woman felt strangely collected as she was doing her work in medbay. Cries of the injured people did not bother her much as she focused on healing their wounds. Was it good thing? Was it bad thing? She did not know, but she did not dwell on it for now. Right now she was in her bed and could not sleep. She considered reading, but her mind was too busy for thoughts. She decided to go for a walk in the end, which usualy calmed her.
She put on a bodysuit and walked out. She decided to go to hangarbay, she could as well look at her Teisatsu and took her computer unit out for later study. Soon after she was there walking between fighters. Many were quite damaged and some were missing from their usual spots. It was quite a depressing sight, but Anne remained calm. Her mistress taught her to not be over-emotional. Anne was still sorry about what happened, she disliked that people died, but there was nothing more she could do now. She will do what she can to save the living, but she won't spend too much time worrying about the dead.
At the farthest corner of the hangar she could hear some sounds. Being a curious being she decided to check it out. Was it a technician who could not sleep and decided to work? She did not know. She was a little surprised to see Silic sitting on the wing of his and Yaeko's kawarime.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked as she walked towards him. She noticed bottle in his hand and several other laying about.
The Nepleslian turned to her with tired eyes, his thick scars hidden in the partial gloom, he grunted in response putting down the bottle to put on his habitual glasses. Finally he turned to her again, eyes hidden behind opaque lenses.
"You're one of the rooks, aren't you?" he quizzed, peering at her. He was speaking his native Nepleslian, although living in Yamatai made his accent quite clear. "Glad to see you made it, for a while there we had a real bad spell with FNG's." he paused in thought for a few seconds. "What'd you say your name was?"
"Rook?" She asked at first a little surprised. She was not sure what he meant by it. But in the end she just bowed slightly, not as salute, more as a greeting. Just a slight head-nod.
"I am also glad to survive, it was pretty rough. I think I am getting used to it now though and I am Anne." She said then. She also had no idea what FNG was, but he probably mean NMX enemy or something.
"Well then, Anne," replied Silic, turning about himself "you're clearly not here because you can get a full nights sleep either." he brought out a spare bottle of his secret brew, this bottle with a swirling mix of blue and white liquid. He offered it down to her and shook it slightly in welcome. "Care for a drink? Vas special number seven."
Anne looked at the bottle that was being offered. There was not doubt in her face. She saw that Silic clearly drunk that stuff and he seemed fine. He was only a nepleslian to boot too. Anne was helashio, even if that was not good alcohol, if Silic was fine it could not hurt her. She smiled and took the bottle from his hand. She opened it and took a swig from it. She never drunk anything like that. Alcohol was not so strong and it tasted pretty sweet. It was actually pretty good.
"Well this does not taste half bad," she said and sipped little more. "I wonder where you hid it till now."
"Now that would be telling." replied Silic between a swig of his own, "But yeah, the blueberry desserts tend to mix well with most other flavours. He now offered his arm to give her a hand up. "Care to join an old sinner for a naughty few drinks?" he asked.
"Like you are the only one with the alcohol on board," she said with grin on the face. She put the bottle on the wing next to him, and pulled herself up. She sat as comfortably as she could, letting her legs hang down. She swung them a little as took another sip.
"So what are you doing here, except for not being able to sleep. Something on your mind?" She asked then. She was not one to involve herself with privacy of other people, but as ex-slave she well remembered that many people just wanted to chat.
Silic raised an eyebrow and leaned back with a sigh. "You know, you're the first person to inquire about my welfare here for a long time." he said quietly, his mouth twisted sideways in sarcasm. "Bit sad really. As for what's wrong, I can't really tell myself. Live life by instinct, and all that."
The nepleslian took another swig from his own bottle, red and purple with streaks of green. "Oh yeah, I'm Silic Vas, but some folks here call me Tin Man," he raised his prosthetic hand in demonstration, "guess they thought they were being ironic."
"Well I kinda know you," she said quietly. "Since I am flight surgeon for the squadron. I had to read your medical file and stuff like that. It was a long read." She explained to him.
His head turned towards her as his arm rested on one of his knees, the other leg stretched out along the wing. "What about yourself? What's got you wandering?"
"Well, lack of ability to fall asleep for one thing." She answered at first, but then she started to take it more seriously. "My mind is what made be wander. I usually calm down and think better on a walk, it always helped in past. Not so much today. Coming here was a bad choice, until I met you here at least."
Silic chuckled in response "In the humble opinion of this nepleslian, the only bad choice after signing the contract is reenlisting once your term expires, anything else can only go up." he said with a small smile.
"Well all I can say is that I acquired many new experiences since joining the army." Anne replied. "But my opinion does not matter anyway. I am just low grade grunt."
"Hmph, a very Yamataian way of thought." was Silic's only comment, taking another deep swig from his bottle. "So what's your story? Ears like that, it's gotta something interesting?"
"My story?" she asked back. "Well it is pretty simple. I was born in servitude back on Lorath. You people call it slavery, but it is not that bad. As for my ear, they are genetic change. I am Helashio and we ussualy have cat or dog-like ears, but my mistress wanting something else so she had mine changed to these. I do not mind, to be frank, and they make me look rather original. As to how I got here it is pretty simple. My Mistress died, Yamatai made Lorath ban the servitude or slavery how they called it. I never asked for it to be frank. One day I am happy to serve and be of use and another my Mistress the light of my life is dead and everyone tells me that it is bad to be slave and I should be free. So that is why I am trying to be now. To be free person. So far it sucks balls." She finished exhausting monologue with a swig from her bottle.
Again Silic chuckled "Welcome to Yamatai freedom, where everyone can be stepped on or interfered with equally, the people are made up and the rights don't matter." he joked. He took another swig before continuing "Sounds like your old master really liked you?"
Anne took a deep breath as she took a small sip from the bottle. Alcohol made talking much easier and it was good since she wanted to share these thought for long time. "Well my mistress was amazing person. I have to admit, that I had it better then other servants. You could say that I was the favourite, but she treated everyone fair. It is illegal on Lorath to mis-treat servants."
"What we Helashio are doing, or were doing, is paying a debt. Dunno how well you know our history but we decimated and almost annihilated Lorath people in past. They survived and got back at us, but isntead of slaughtering us, they left us alive. I think it is only right for use to pay for that. What we did was bad thing and they even did not punish us more then necessary. I know that is ancient history by now, but it is importnat. Or rather it was important to our ancestors." She spoke again and then she looked at Silic. "I guess I dwelved too much into it didn't I? Happens to me all the time."
Silic waved it off casually "Don't worry about it, it's not like we don't have the whole place to ourselves." Silic looked away into the semi-dark reaches of the hangar, various half-visible fightercraft strewn around in rows and slots. "Sorry about the paranoia vibes, but did you ever wonder if that's how they wanted you to think? I mean with the whole debt thing? Civilizations wipe each other out all the time. Hell, we're fighting in a genocidal war right now. Just when will your peoples debt be paid off? I'm sure if your former masters had the final say about it the answer would be never." Silic said all his very seriously, then broke it with a swig from his bottle, the liquid inside beginning to look a little low now.
"Yes," was first word of her response. "I thought about that. I do a lot of thinking about my being. Now imagine this. It is completely in Lorath to keep enslaved without use of the debt. Just with slave collars or simple brainwashing. Would that be nice? I doubt that. But when we thinkg we pay our debts by this, we have something to live for. Our lives has a meaning, other then being a servant. We make lives easier and better for our masters. We are descendants of nation that almost drove them undergroudn and made them devolve there. I think if there is debt it will take long, long time to pay and I am okay with it. Sadly that is not my war anymore. I am no longer on Lorath. Now I joined Yamataian army and I plan to serve them."
"Sounds like you almost built your own cages." said Silic, finishing that conversation he turned back to her now. "So, I guess you joined the military for a sense of stability? Taste of danger? What?"
"Actually no." She said and poured more alcohol down her throat. "I joined military, because at the time I had no idea what to do on my own. My whole life, someone told me what to do most of the time and now I should decide for myself? That does not work. In military I am what you call free, but I still have to listen to orders and I really do not have to decide for myself for some time. Although I dare to say I am more capable of being 'free' by now. Though I know I won't be ready till I won't stop calling Hunter and Numa-san 'mistress' by accident."
Maybe it was the alcohol, but for some reason SIlic found the idea of calling Yaeko or Numa "mistress" funny enough that he laughed out loud, spluttering a bit of brew over his sleeve as he tried to hold it in. Finally he settled down with a final merry sigh. "I like you." he said finally, in Nepleslian it was a slightly clumsy use of the word.
"Well, don't worry about calling me 'master; or 'sir', or 'sama' or anything like that. Just Silic will be fine." he said, his voice now a little slurred form the sheer amout of alcohol he was going through, already he was uncapping another bottle to replace his now empty one.
Anne looked at the man next to her. It seemed like he was unwinding for a first time in ages. He usualy seemed like grumpy bastard, but right now he was quite fine. Poor fellow probably put on a mask before others. All the alcohol definitely helped too.
"What about you? Why did you join the army?" She asked then. She wanted to know, since it could help her understands him better.
"Huh? Me?" he pointed to himself redundantly "I guess I just needed to escape from the world for a bit. Things were plunging from bad to worse, so by the time I got these back..." he pointed two fingers at where his eyes were behind his dark lenses "...I guess I just wanted to leave it all behind for a bit. In hindsight maaaybe a bad descision." He said with a rueful smile.
"I like to think that bad decision is better then no decision." Anne said as she looked at him. He seemed to live trough some tough times. His medical file stated all the extensive wounds he sustained, not to mention loss of both eyes and hand. That would leave scar on everybody.
"Well with war going on right now, don't you think it is better to be here, capabale of helping rather then to stay home on your butt and hope to not get hit by a bomb." She asked afterwards.
Silic laughed a much colder laugh this time, slowly it feel almost to a sound of despair and by the end the man was wiping his fingers under his shades "Gah, can't cry anymore." he explained quietly. "See, I signed up when it looked to be an era of relative peace and prosperity, figured a guy like me would get posted to some remote border post or some such, out of the way."
"The war started on my second day at basic training, suddenly I was shunted off to active duty without even a gun and haven't so much been trying to help as stay alive and sane for past two years." he said, shaking his head down at his predicament. "As for home, I haven't heard from them since the attack, but I'm sure that's just a communication drop out. Nepleslians are tough."
Anne took the bottle from her right hand to her left. That freed up her right one to put it on Silics shoulder. It was gesture of care and companionship, almost if those two were making a bond, sharing their lives with each other, even when they were strangers just half an hour ago.
"I plan to go down there tomorrow to help. I am just a medic in Star Army, but on Lorath I was trained physician and I can help I think. Maybe you should go too. I think it will be first time since I joined that I will be doing something really good. Not only important but important and good. Who knows, you might get to know more about your family if you go down there." She said and smiled at him.
Silic sighed quietly "That's almost what I'm afraid of. I've seen enough destruction up here. Besides, with my luck I'll probably winde up making it worse in some way." he said, smiling at her weakly.
He slipped an arm across her back, she felt his fingers trail slowly across her spine through her tight suit to her waist, he gave her a companionable few pats in support. "You can go be a hero for a bit, like you said, do some good in this world. I'm a little out of my league in regards to that."
Ginger-haired-bunny-girl looked into his eyes only to be blocked by the dark shield he wore over them. She smiled at him and said, "Well it is not about being hero. It is about believing in what you can do."
She then let bottle on the wing and reached to his face slowly. She took his goggles and slowly pulled them up to see his eyes. His free hand gently cupped hers to stop it.
"D-Don't, it ain't pretty." he said, quietly. A range of emotions coming through his usaully clear voice. She just smiled again and pulled them away anyway, this time Silic's fingers didnt't stop her.
"Seems to me, that you are just hiding. From yourself, from everyone. If anyone is bothered by you they are not worth anything and you can just ignore them." She said. She was a doctor and his prosthetics weren't even that much problem. They might look strange to some but it was nothing ugly. Sure there was a scar, but scars come to life.
"You or your injuries does not bother me one bit, but I think they do not bother you either, that it is something else." She then said.
For the first time she saw Silic's real eyes, the deep ripping band of torn, scarred over flesh across his eyes. The level of damage was obvious, both eyes almost completely destroyed, even now she saw the yellow ring around each pupil of an artifical lens in both eyes. A little further or a little harder and such a hit would have either hit his brain, or snapped his neck.
He blinked, not even his eyelids were complete they had holes and tears in them, the two half yellow half blue orbs searched at her face for any sign of disgust or revulsion.
"There we go," she said as his goggles ended on his forehead. She looked at his eyes and she saw extensive damage. She was not revolted by it though, she instead started examining the damage and started thinking how to repair it. Not much could have been done by now. Scarred flesh was all around the eyes and eyes itself were damaged too. He would needed new paid of eyes cloned or some very good cybernetics and then some extensive plastic surgery. Even with that it might not work out, but there things that could be done.
"You do know, that you could have a doctor look at it? Get a better cybernetics or get eyes cloned from your DNA. I think you do not want to. Why?" She asked him then. It was probably topic he did not want to talk about, but by this time she though it would be better for him to speak his mind.
"I-" he hesitated, then his eyes cast downwards almost in shame, "These scars are part of who I am. I'm not the same man that walked onto the job one morning and didn't leave it." He moved as if about to turn away. "I can't really explain it, but hiding these will do nothing to get rid of them, at least, not where it counts."
Anne just shrugged and then replied. "So what do you do to get rid of them? Will just sitting on the ship and drinking help?" She asked and her eyebrows went up in an expectation of his answer. A little hit bellow the belt was what this man needed. Laying down in a pool of self-pity won't help him. At least that was waht Anne though and she hoped she was right.
Silics head shot up to look up at her, then his eyes turned and he answered quietly, almost a whisper, only for her to hear. "I don't know, I spend so much time distracted just staying alive I don't really think about it. It's like if I just keep going on I'll eventually stumble on the answer, but in the meantime I can never stop." suddenly he smiled slightly and shook his head in a quiet chuckle. "I suppose that's what's kept an occasional indulgence from becoming full blown alcoholism. Not to mention most of the rest of the squadron would probably murder me if I died."
"How do you deal with trying to grow your own legs in the free world?" he asked, probably to divert the conversation away from him while he recovered from his emotionally volatile state from the last few minutes.
"By not giving up," was the short answer he got back. Helashio then looked away as her prehensile tail wrapped around the bottle sent on wing and fetched it to her. She took the bottle and took yet another swig. It was slowly getting empty and she noticed his was almost without alcohol too. She felt like drinking some more and she had some wine hidden in her room. Well they can just go there once they finish these bottles.
That was for later, now she still had a deeply troubled man next to her. She turned back to Silic and looked in his eyes again.
"Tell me," she said. "You do realise you are part of this squadron and from what I have seen we cover each others back. You do not have to be lone survivor, we are here with you you know. We need to survive too and you know what they say. The more the merrier."
One side of Silics mouth made the attempt to curl itself into a small, but fell a little short of the mark. "Those are the pilots. I sit in a back seat, watching radar screens and pressing buttons." he demostrated unnesseccarily, waggling the fingers of his free prosthetic hand in front of him. "I take just the same risks as them, but I'll never track killmarks or talk about how I outflew an enemy. Every mission I just fly out without even control of my destiny. It doesn't exactly inspire an equal relationship, now I'm the only one that doesn't fly a plan out of the whole flight crew." Silic sniffed in a failed chuckle. "I guess I made the mistake of doing a good job at it." he smiled a forced smile.
"Bullshit," Anne replied. She blinked a little after that. She was not drunk, but she was surprised how frank she was since she started drinking. She was ussualy more soft-spoken. "We are all together in this. Every pilot has to value his EWO and look at you. You are master of your work. Now me, I just sit in cockpit trying to pretend that I know how to fly properly, while I check our pulse. I mean, I am a doctor in a fighter-ship.... what am I supposed to do, when one of you get hurt? Jump out and give you CPR? I could do that as an EWO. Only thing I can do is play with the wavefron module, but I could do that as easily as EWO and they could have capable pilot on my place. Well nobody has what he wants I guess."
Silic started chuckling in genuine mirth at the mention of jumping out to give CPR. "If I recall correctly, you managed the first half of your emergency plan the mission before." he said, looking at her and smiling. "I can still remember the look on Munkata's face when we got back to the carrier. I could almost kiss you for that." he chuckled again, but didn't make good on his almost.
He hummed in thought for a second in thought "This is probably a really bad plan, but perhaps we should swap seats in the next mission?" he said, only half serious. His hand on her back squeezed her gently towards him for a split second.
"Wouldn't that be something." She said as he pulled her little closer. She did not really mind for now. "Sadly I doubt they would let us, unless you are trained medic who could fill in as flight surgeon. Not to mention taht Teisatsu's are only made as one seaters and Kawarime does not have sensor suite I require to do my job." She explaind and sighed. She got all serious again. She turned the bottle down to take another swig only to finish it.
"Darn all out," she said and looked at his bottle. Seemed empty too. "Let's go to my cabin, I have some more alcohol there." She then said.
Silic smiled and chucked the empty bottle over his shoulder into his cockpit. His arm removed itself from her waist as he stood up, natural hand tracing up her body to the hand that had once occupied his shoulder as he swung around to the edge of the wing. "I would be honoured to accompany you." he said in high spirits before dropping of the wing to the ground and holding out his arms to help her down.
Anne smiled down upon him as she pushed herself down only to be eased down by Silic's mismatched pair of arms. He held her around the waist and set her down in front of him. She put her arm around his.
"Well let's go then," she said with smile as they went out of the hangar-bay arm-in-arm. Silic's arm clasped in hers and hers in his in an old manor of ettiquete.
"My dear," he said as they disappeared out the door of the hangar, speaking in a falsely posh accent "I'll have you know I've been working on that machine for over a year, I'm sure it will be adequate to your needs. As for the wave-front generate..." Silic splayed a hand on his chest to indicate his proficiency "...I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out somehow."
The two had a jaunty trip to Anne's sleeping quarters, with plenty of accidental bumping and rubbing that walking in such proximity and volumious amounts of alcohol being absorbed would create. Far from quiet, they were surely noticed by some wandering soul throught he corridors. Finally they appeared before her door.
"Welcome to my palace," Anne exclaimed waving her hand before the door. They recongnized their perky master and slid open to the side. Anne walked in, pulling Silic with her. It was regular bunk quarter that other Diamonds owned. Luckily for Anne, she was alone in this one.
She quickly walked towards the storage compartment near the door. She opened it and pulled out something that looked like a doctors bag. She reached it and Silic could hear some glass-clinking sounds of bottles hitting each others. Anne picked a bottle and took it out, she then took out knife off the belt that was lying on the table and swiftly used it to remove the cork. It seemed that it was not first time. Soon after two glasses appeared on the table and Anne filled them to the top.
"Cheers!" She said, handing one of the glasses to Silic. "Bottoms up!" She added with laughter.
"To good health and eventual happiness." he toasted, offering his glass up for a tradtional clink. His bare face smiling and open, now that the goggles were gone it was clear he actually had small dimples in his cheeks, a remarkable but minute feminine detail in the otherwise largely rough and gruff nepleslian.
Anne meet his glass with her as she raised a hand. Glass clinked and they both drained their glasses. Right to the bottom. Wine was indeed quite good, sweet with very particular strong taste.
Silic lowered his glass and licked his lips with the tip of his tongue "Wow, this is good stuff." he admired, picking up the bottle to examine it, but he couldn't make heads or tails of the foreign script that greet him on its label. Instead he did something better.
"Another glass?" He offered, holding the bottle by the body and tipping it towards Anne in offering.
Anne held out her hand with glass. "Oh yes please, we must finish that bottle tonight. It must be drunk right after being opened to not go bad." She explained as she was looking to another glass.
Both glasses were promptly full again and the bottle placed back on the desk. Silic motioned towards the bottom bunk in the room. "May I?" he inquired, looking for a seat. All the alcohol must have been getting to his head.
"Oh please do sit," she responded. Once he he sat himself, she moved to sit next to him crossing her legs, the tight fabric of her bodysuit pressing against her thigh. She sipped some wine and reminded herself to slow down a little. She wanted him to drink it anyway as a little gift. He made her mood much better after all.
As Anne sat next to him Silic felt his heartbeat pick up, he hadn't really been paying attention to his circumstances in regards to adult affairs, but here he now was, in the same quarters with a beautiful woman who didn't mind his body's damage and large amounts of alcohol between the two. He suddenly felt a little hotter, and quickly sipped his glass to cover any reaction.
"Don't be afraid to drink up, there is plenty more." Anne said and held the bottle up to show him. Her tail started doing what it wanted behind her back. With alcohol she stopped controlling it as well as she could normally and it was tossing itself about.
Silic's long sip was cut short "Ye-" his throat was tight, he tried again "Yes, it's very, very good. I'd love to help you finish it." he said, his voice picking up a little bit of excitement.
"So, have you decided what you're going to do the first day of next shore leave?" he asked, in general conversation, undoing a bit of the collar of his working uniform to try to cool off.
"Sleeping probably," she said and chuckled. "After this night I am going to be tired I think. Especially since we are not done yet." She added and smiled as she pulled the bottle up and refilled his glass.
Silic instantly felt his tempurature rise a bit, and he gulped involuntarily. He seemed to have meet a worthy opponent in this match. It took him a few seconds to formulate a response "Sleeping by itself sounds so boring," he commented, taking a polite sip of the wine and then some, "We're all adults in the squadron, surely we could find better ways to entertain ourselves."
Silic was visibly flushed now, his uniform was now undone to his upper chest but it wasn't enough. He forced himself to remain calm and took another sip of his glass, his free hand resting on the bed between and behind them.
"And do you have suggestion what kind of...mm... activity that could be?" She asked him nearing her face to his. She smiled and glass mer her lips once more as she looked into his eyes.
Silic smiled his most charming smile as a delaying action, "Hmm, I'm sure I can come up with something." he almost whispered, leaning forward slightly to accept the challenge. His back hand unconciously inching towards Anne and that restless tail. She was slightly taller than him, but just barely, that was an honest surprise after a nation full of shorties. But at the moment Silic would have to admit he had a thing for tall women right now.
As Silics hand was put on the bed, he felt something with thin fur wrapping around it. Upon checking he found Anne's tail heroicly holding on to his hand with rather suggestive movements. Slightly startled he offered no resistance as his hand was pulled to places unknown, his hand bumped against her thigh, without any input from him the hand conformed to the shape of her body and was guided further up to her leg.
Silic's heart almost stopped right there, worried that he'd blown it. His near-dismay was clear on his face. "I-,uh, I..."
Anne looked down as she felt his touch. Her chin raised again as their eyes met. "You talk too much," she whispered as she moved forward. She slightly opened her mouth and kissed him right on the lips.
There was no more talking. Silics other hand quickly but gently curled around her head protectively as he pushed his advantage. In seconds they were gasping for each other, arms wrapping around the others bodies trying to absorb as much other their partner as they could. In their fevered movement there was a small drop as they dropped off the side of the bunk onto the floor, dragging the blanket with them with a giggle and the sound of rustling clothing.
Meanwhile the bottle on the desk stood stoically over the scene, it's label, written in Lorath, declared it an aphrodisiac vintage. The wine had done its duty magnificently, now it was up to Silic to do his.
- - - - -
The next morning.
Silic's eyes slowly opened. He only had a faint recollection of last night, he remembered talking with one of the rookies, how she used to be a slave, and how she had no real idea how to take care of herself in the free world. Everything after that was a blur at best. He didn't recognize where he was, then he looked at what was directly in front of him.
"Mmmm" could be heard. It was female gentle voice and it became clear to Silic, that that something on his chest in front of him was arm. Sleek, gentle looking arm with pale skin. He followed the arm up to its owner, ending in the peaceful, serene face of Anne, the rook he'd been talking to last night. She looked out of this world even when asleep.
Suddenly he realised, Anne. The former slave. Still insecure about her place in the world. The one that had developed the mindset that slavery was a form of penance. What had he done last night?
Anne stirred slightly and Silic felt two soft objects bump into his chest, he looked down, they were laying next to eachother on the floor, tangled in a thin blanket. He peeked under the blanket with his top arm, the prosthetic one, and the horrible truth was revealed.
They were both naked as the day they were born, and they were both going to need a shower. Despite his situation Silic couldn't help but get a thrill at the bounty in front of him, he stared down the sheet for a few seconds longer than was strictly necessary.
Sudden movement of Silic's cause blanket and arm on his chest to move. It shook Anne a little and she woke up. She opened her eyes and blinked few times only to see Silic next to her. She smiled as she remember nice night they shared.
"Hello," she said and her voice sounded tired as she just woke up.
Startled, Silic quickly tucked the blanket down and tried to pull away, it was only then that he realised his other arm was under her neck. "Uh," he began weakly. "What happened last night, did we..."
"Have sex?" Anne asked him fully. She did not think there way need to dance around the topic. "Yes we did." She said then. She was quite dissapointed that he could not recollect what hapened day before. Her face saddened up by this outcome.
"It wasn't a dream..." was all SIlic said outloud, that's when alarm bells began ringing. What if she'd used him as a surrogate master, what if he'd taken advantage of her weakness in his stupor. Was he some sort of voluntary sex offender? He was pretty sure he wasn't wearing a diving suit on the relevant member, what if she got preganent little dog-tailed, bunny-eared kids demanding child support and love, and most of all, the dreaded RESPONSIBILITY!
He was a young man! He still had a life to lead!
He panicked, rolling on top of Anne. He'd just made the situation worse, his arm was still stuck, he was now crouching over her, and he was hemmed in by the blanket. He looked down at his body over hers in shock and then looked into her eyes,
Anne's eyes went wide in confusion. She wondered what he was doing. Did he want her to remind him what happened in the night. She would not be exactly against him, but something told her this was not exactly the situation. All she had done in the end is half sitting up to allow him get his arm from under her.
"Did something happened?" She asked with slightly confused voice as if she was worried.
"I-" He choked, unable to finish anything. "I-, I-, I-..." after that his chin waggled but nothing came out.
Anne looked away. She really did not know what happened. Was he so shocked by sleepin with her? Was it not pleasing to him? What happened? She had nice time and he seemed to have nice too at the time. He was so romantic after all. Why does he act like this? Did he really forget everything?
Without warning he hugged tightly for a brief instant before zipping up right and moving around the room in a blur as he fetched his clothes. Getting his traditional Nepleslian undergarment of heart-patterened boxers on in record time he repeated himself over and over. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!! I'm Sorry!!"
Without bothering to put on the rest of the uniform he zipped out the door, sticking his head in one last time to look at her in all her porcelian skinned beauty. He bit his lower lip and made an apprciative fist then disapeared into the corridor, wrestling on his uniform as he stumbled and tripped.
Anne just looked his way. She shook her head in disbelief as she stood up and closed the doors behind him. Still wondering what happened she decided that she needed shower first and that she will have to talk to him again in future.
As she was going to get her bathrobe and towel, she stumbled upon bottle on the ground. She leaned down and picked it up finally reading its label.
"Oh my," Anne said as she read it all. "Oh my!" She realized.
Out in the corridor Silic had finally reached the end of his uniform trial, but he was left with one final item. A fine pair of Yuuko's brand panties in black, the fabric stretched in his fingers, he must have accidentally picked them up in his rush. "Oh my..."
THE END.
But something churned at his gut, it gnawed and bit at his stomach and caused him to lay awake staring at the ceiling of his bunk. Finally he'd grabbed a few bottles of his secret brew and snuck up to the hangar deck where his parked fighter was. Yaeko always considered it hers, so did Sekai, Silic himself had never claimed ownership but his right to it was the only one challenged by either of the two others. But that was life as a Nepleslian in Yamatai, always someone that thought they knew better.
Silic sighed and took another swig, he was nice and heady now, it wasn't especially tasty but it was mildy strong stuff. The good part about everyone expecting you to break the rules was that they usually didn't care what you actually did, although it did seem to make you fodder for the local rumour mill, which seemed to spread faster than the speed of thought in ships like these.
Anne was in strange mood. She could not fall asleep and spent hours just staring in front of herself as she lay in bed. She was also unfocused as she was still thinking about the last day. When they got back from battle she helped out in med bay and there were quite a few injured, and some dead too. There was already talking about revival process to be carried out in future. Even Anne's squadron finally lost one. Hoshi died within fractions of a second and nothing could be done about it. Worst thing was that Anne was strangely fine with it.
The Helashio woman felt strangely collected as she was doing her work in medbay. Cries of the injured people did not bother her much as she focused on healing their wounds. Was it good thing? Was it bad thing? She did not know, but she did not dwell on it for now. Right now she was in her bed and could not sleep. She considered reading, but her mind was too busy for thoughts. She decided to go for a walk in the end, which usualy calmed her.
She put on a bodysuit and walked out. She decided to go to hangarbay, she could as well look at her Teisatsu and took her computer unit out for later study. Soon after she was there walking between fighters. Many were quite damaged and some were missing from their usual spots. It was quite a depressing sight, but Anne remained calm. Her mistress taught her to not be over-emotional. Anne was still sorry about what happened, she disliked that people died, but there was nothing more she could do now. She will do what she can to save the living, but she won't spend too much time worrying about the dead.
At the farthest corner of the hangar she could hear some sounds. Being a curious being she decided to check it out. Was it a technician who could not sleep and decided to work? She did not know. She was a little surprised to see Silic sitting on the wing of his and Yaeko's kawarime.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked as she walked towards him. She noticed bottle in his hand and several other laying about.
The Nepleslian turned to her with tired eyes, his thick scars hidden in the partial gloom, he grunted in response putting down the bottle to put on his habitual glasses. Finally he turned to her again, eyes hidden behind opaque lenses.
"You're one of the rooks, aren't you?" he quizzed, peering at her. He was speaking his native Nepleslian, although living in Yamatai made his accent quite clear. "Glad to see you made it, for a while there we had a real bad spell with FNG's." he paused in thought for a few seconds. "What'd you say your name was?"
"Rook?" She asked at first a little surprised. She was not sure what he meant by it. But in the end she just bowed slightly, not as salute, more as a greeting. Just a slight head-nod.
"I am also glad to survive, it was pretty rough. I think I am getting used to it now though and I am Anne." She said then. She also had no idea what FNG was, but he probably mean NMX enemy or something.
"Well then, Anne," replied Silic, turning about himself "you're clearly not here because you can get a full nights sleep either." he brought out a spare bottle of his secret brew, this bottle with a swirling mix of blue and white liquid. He offered it down to her and shook it slightly in welcome. "Care for a drink? Vas special number seven."
Anne looked at the bottle that was being offered. There was not doubt in her face. She saw that Silic clearly drunk that stuff and he seemed fine. He was only a nepleslian to boot too. Anne was helashio, even if that was not good alcohol, if Silic was fine it could not hurt her. She smiled and took the bottle from his hand. She opened it and took a swig from it. She never drunk anything like that. Alcohol was not so strong and it tasted pretty sweet. It was actually pretty good.
"Well this does not taste half bad," she said and sipped little more. "I wonder where you hid it till now."
"Now that would be telling." replied Silic between a swig of his own, "But yeah, the blueberry desserts tend to mix well with most other flavours. He now offered his arm to give her a hand up. "Care to join an old sinner for a naughty few drinks?" he asked.
"Like you are the only one with the alcohol on board," she said with grin on the face. She put the bottle on the wing next to him, and pulled herself up. She sat as comfortably as she could, letting her legs hang down. She swung them a little as took another sip.
"So what are you doing here, except for not being able to sleep. Something on your mind?" She asked then. She was not one to involve herself with privacy of other people, but as ex-slave she well remembered that many people just wanted to chat.
Silic raised an eyebrow and leaned back with a sigh. "You know, you're the first person to inquire about my welfare here for a long time." he said quietly, his mouth twisted sideways in sarcasm. "Bit sad really. As for what's wrong, I can't really tell myself. Live life by instinct, and all that."
The nepleslian took another swig from his own bottle, red and purple with streaks of green. "Oh yeah, I'm Silic Vas, but some folks here call me Tin Man," he raised his prosthetic hand in demonstration, "guess they thought they were being ironic."
"Well I kinda know you," she said quietly. "Since I am flight surgeon for the squadron. I had to read your medical file and stuff like that. It was a long read." She explained to him.
His head turned towards her as his arm rested on one of his knees, the other leg stretched out along the wing. "What about yourself? What's got you wandering?"
"Well, lack of ability to fall asleep for one thing." She answered at first, but then she started to take it more seriously. "My mind is what made be wander. I usually calm down and think better on a walk, it always helped in past. Not so much today. Coming here was a bad choice, until I met you here at least."
Silic chuckled in response "In the humble opinion of this nepleslian, the only bad choice after signing the contract is reenlisting once your term expires, anything else can only go up." he said with a small smile.
"Well all I can say is that I acquired many new experiences since joining the army." Anne replied. "But my opinion does not matter anyway. I am just low grade grunt."
"Hmph, a very Yamataian way of thought." was Silic's only comment, taking another deep swig from his bottle. "So what's your story? Ears like that, it's gotta something interesting?"
"My story?" she asked back. "Well it is pretty simple. I was born in servitude back on Lorath. You people call it slavery, but it is not that bad. As for my ear, they are genetic change. I am Helashio and we ussualy have cat or dog-like ears, but my mistress wanting something else so she had mine changed to these. I do not mind, to be frank, and they make me look rather original. As to how I got here it is pretty simple. My Mistress died, Yamatai made Lorath ban the servitude or slavery how they called it. I never asked for it to be frank. One day I am happy to serve and be of use and another my Mistress the light of my life is dead and everyone tells me that it is bad to be slave and I should be free. So that is why I am trying to be now. To be free person. So far it sucks balls." She finished exhausting monologue with a swig from her bottle.
Again Silic chuckled "Welcome to Yamatai freedom, where everyone can be stepped on or interfered with equally, the people are made up and the rights don't matter." he joked. He took another swig before continuing "Sounds like your old master really liked you?"
Anne took a deep breath as she took a small sip from the bottle. Alcohol made talking much easier and it was good since she wanted to share these thought for long time. "Well my mistress was amazing person. I have to admit, that I had it better then other servants. You could say that I was the favourite, but she treated everyone fair. It is illegal on Lorath to mis-treat servants."
"What we Helashio are doing, or were doing, is paying a debt. Dunno how well you know our history but we decimated and almost annihilated Lorath people in past. They survived and got back at us, but isntead of slaughtering us, they left us alive. I think it is only right for use to pay for that. What we did was bad thing and they even did not punish us more then necessary. I know that is ancient history by now, but it is importnat. Or rather it was important to our ancestors." She spoke again and then she looked at Silic. "I guess I dwelved too much into it didn't I? Happens to me all the time."
Silic waved it off casually "Don't worry about it, it's not like we don't have the whole place to ourselves." Silic looked away into the semi-dark reaches of the hangar, various half-visible fightercraft strewn around in rows and slots. "Sorry about the paranoia vibes, but did you ever wonder if that's how they wanted you to think? I mean with the whole debt thing? Civilizations wipe each other out all the time. Hell, we're fighting in a genocidal war right now. Just when will your peoples debt be paid off? I'm sure if your former masters had the final say about it the answer would be never." Silic said all his very seriously, then broke it with a swig from his bottle, the liquid inside beginning to look a little low now.
"Yes," was first word of her response. "I thought about that. I do a lot of thinking about my being. Now imagine this. It is completely in Lorath to keep enslaved without use of the debt. Just with slave collars or simple brainwashing. Would that be nice? I doubt that. But when we thinkg we pay our debts by this, we have something to live for. Our lives has a meaning, other then being a servant. We make lives easier and better for our masters. We are descendants of nation that almost drove them undergroudn and made them devolve there. I think if there is debt it will take long, long time to pay and I am okay with it. Sadly that is not my war anymore. I am no longer on Lorath. Now I joined Yamataian army and I plan to serve them."
"Sounds like you almost built your own cages." said Silic, finishing that conversation he turned back to her now. "So, I guess you joined the military for a sense of stability? Taste of danger? What?"
"Actually no." She said and poured more alcohol down her throat. "I joined military, because at the time I had no idea what to do on my own. My whole life, someone told me what to do most of the time and now I should decide for myself? That does not work. In military I am what you call free, but I still have to listen to orders and I really do not have to decide for myself for some time. Although I dare to say I am more capable of being 'free' by now. Though I know I won't be ready till I won't stop calling Hunter and Numa-san 'mistress' by accident."
Maybe it was the alcohol, but for some reason SIlic found the idea of calling Yaeko or Numa "mistress" funny enough that he laughed out loud, spluttering a bit of brew over his sleeve as he tried to hold it in. Finally he settled down with a final merry sigh. "I like you." he said finally, in Nepleslian it was a slightly clumsy use of the word.
"Well, don't worry about calling me 'master; or 'sir', or 'sama' or anything like that. Just Silic will be fine." he said, his voice now a little slurred form the sheer amout of alcohol he was going through, already he was uncapping another bottle to replace his now empty one.
Anne looked at the man next to her. It seemed like he was unwinding for a first time in ages. He usualy seemed like grumpy bastard, but right now he was quite fine. Poor fellow probably put on a mask before others. All the alcohol definitely helped too.
"What about you? Why did you join the army?" She asked then. She wanted to know, since it could help her understands him better.
"Huh? Me?" he pointed to himself redundantly "I guess I just needed to escape from the world for a bit. Things were plunging from bad to worse, so by the time I got these back..." he pointed two fingers at where his eyes were behind his dark lenses "...I guess I just wanted to leave it all behind for a bit. In hindsight maaaybe a bad descision." He said with a rueful smile.
"I like to think that bad decision is better then no decision." Anne said as she looked at him. He seemed to live trough some tough times. His medical file stated all the extensive wounds he sustained, not to mention loss of both eyes and hand. That would leave scar on everybody.
"Well with war going on right now, don't you think it is better to be here, capabale of helping rather then to stay home on your butt and hope to not get hit by a bomb." She asked afterwards.
Silic laughed a much colder laugh this time, slowly it feel almost to a sound of despair and by the end the man was wiping his fingers under his shades "Gah, can't cry anymore." he explained quietly. "See, I signed up when it looked to be an era of relative peace and prosperity, figured a guy like me would get posted to some remote border post or some such, out of the way."
"The war started on my second day at basic training, suddenly I was shunted off to active duty without even a gun and haven't so much been trying to help as stay alive and sane for past two years." he said, shaking his head down at his predicament. "As for home, I haven't heard from them since the attack, but I'm sure that's just a communication drop out. Nepleslians are tough."
Anne took the bottle from her right hand to her left. That freed up her right one to put it on Silics shoulder. It was gesture of care and companionship, almost if those two were making a bond, sharing their lives with each other, even when they were strangers just half an hour ago.
"I plan to go down there tomorrow to help. I am just a medic in Star Army, but on Lorath I was trained physician and I can help I think. Maybe you should go too. I think it will be first time since I joined that I will be doing something really good. Not only important but important and good. Who knows, you might get to know more about your family if you go down there." She said and smiled at him.
Silic sighed quietly "That's almost what I'm afraid of. I've seen enough destruction up here. Besides, with my luck I'll probably winde up making it worse in some way." he said, smiling at her weakly.
He slipped an arm across her back, she felt his fingers trail slowly across her spine through her tight suit to her waist, he gave her a companionable few pats in support. "You can go be a hero for a bit, like you said, do some good in this world. I'm a little out of my league in regards to that."
Ginger-haired-bunny-girl looked into his eyes only to be blocked by the dark shield he wore over them. She smiled at him and said, "Well it is not about being hero. It is about believing in what you can do."
She then let bottle on the wing and reached to his face slowly. She took his goggles and slowly pulled them up to see his eyes. His free hand gently cupped hers to stop it.
"D-Don't, it ain't pretty." he said, quietly. A range of emotions coming through his usaully clear voice. She just smiled again and pulled them away anyway, this time Silic's fingers didnt't stop her.
"Seems to me, that you are just hiding. From yourself, from everyone. If anyone is bothered by you they are not worth anything and you can just ignore them." She said. She was a doctor and his prosthetics weren't even that much problem. They might look strange to some but it was nothing ugly. Sure there was a scar, but scars come to life.
"You or your injuries does not bother me one bit, but I think they do not bother you either, that it is something else." She then said.
For the first time she saw Silic's real eyes, the deep ripping band of torn, scarred over flesh across his eyes. The level of damage was obvious, both eyes almost completely destroyed, even now she saw the yellow ring around each pupil of an artifical lens in both eyes. A little further or a little harder and such a hit would have either hit his brain, or snapped his neck.
He blinked, not even his eyelids were complete they had holes and tears in them, the two half yellow half blue orbs searched at her face for any sign of disgust or revulsion.
"There we go," she said as his goggles ended on his forehead. She looked at his eyes and she saw extensive damage. She was not revolted by it though, she instead started examining the damage and started thinking how to repair it. Not much could have been done by now. Scarred flesh was all around the eyes and eyes itself were damaged too. He would needed new paid of eyes cloned or some very good cybernetics and then some extensive plastic surgery. Even with that it might not work out, but there things that could be done.
"You do know, that you could have a doctor look at it? Get a better cybernetics or get eyes cloned from your DNA. I think you do not want to. Why?" She asked him then. It was probably topic he did not want to talk about, but by this time she though it would be better for him to speak his mind.
"I-" he hesitated, then his eyes cast downwards almost in shame, "These scars are part of who I am. I'm not the same man that walked onto the job one morning and didn't leave it." He moved as if about to turn away. "I can't really explain it, but hiding these will do nothing to get rid of them, at least, not where it counts."
Anne just shrugged and then replied. "So what do you do to get rid of them? Will just sitting on the ship and drinking help?" She asked and her eyebrows went up in an expectation of his answer. A little hit bellow the belt was what this man needed. Laying down in a pool of self-pity won't help him. At least that was waht Anne though and she hoped she was right.
Silics head shot up to look up at her, then his eyes turned and he answered quietly, almost a whisper, only for her to hear. "I don't know, I spend so much time distracted just staying alive I don't really think about it. It's like if I just keep going on I'll eventually stumble on the answer, but in the meantime I can never stop." suddenly he smiled slightly and shook his head in a quiet chuckle. "I suppose that's what's kept an occasional indulgence from becoming full blown alcoholism. Not to mention most of the rest of the squadron would probably murder me if I died."
"How do you deal with trying to grow your own legs in the free world?" he asked, probably to divert the conversation away from him while he recovered from his emotionally volatile state from the last few minutes.
"By not giving up," was the short answer he got back. Helashio then looked away as her prehensile tail wrapped around the bottle sent on wing and fetched it to her. She took the bottle and took yet another swig. It was slowly getting empty and she noticed his was almost without alcohol too. She felt like drinking some more and she had some wine hidden in her room. Well they can just go there once they finish these bottles.
That was for later, now she still had a deeply troubled man next to her. She turned back to Silic and looked in his eyes again.
"Tell me," she said. "You do realise you are part of this squadron and from what I have seen we cover each others back. You do not have to be lone survivor, we are here with you you know. We need to survive too and you know what they say. The more the merrier."
One side of Silics mouth made the attempt to curl itself into a small, but fell a little short of the mark. "Those are the pilots. I sit in a back seat, watching radar screens and pressing buttons." he demostrated unnesseccarily, waggling the fingers of his free prosthetic hand in front of him. "I take just the same risks as them, but I'll never track killmarks or talk about how I outflew an enemy. Every mission I just fly out without even control of my destiny. It doesn't exactly inspire an equal relationship, now I'm the only one that doesn't fly a plan out of the whole flight crew." Silic sniffed in a failed chuckle. "I guess I made the mistake of doing a good job at it." he smiled a forced smile.
"Bullshit," Anne replied. She blinked a little after that. She was not drunk, but she was surprised how frank she was since she started drinking. She was ussualy more soft-spoken. "We are all together in this. Every pilot has to value his EWO and look at you. You are master of your work. Now me, I just sit in cockpit trying to pretend that I know how to fly properly, while I check our pulse. I mean, I am a doctor in a fighter-ship.... what am I supposed to do, when one of you get hurt? Jump out and give you CPR? I could do that as an EWO. Only thing I can do is play with the wavefron module, but I could do that as easily as EWO and they could have capable pilot on my place. Well nobody has what he wants I guess."
Silic started chuckling in genuine mirth at the mention of jumping out to give CPR. "If I recall correctly, you managed the first half of your emergency plan the mission before." he said, looking at her and smiling. "I can still remember the look on Munkata's face when we got back to the carrier. I could almost kiss you for that." he chuckled again, but didn't make good on his almost.
He hummed in thought for a second in thought "This is probably a really bad plan, but perhaps we should swap seats in the next mission?" he said, only half serious. His hand on her back squeezed her gently towards him for a split second.
"Wouldn't that be something." She said as he pulled her little closer. She did not really mind for now. "Sadly I doubt they would let us, unless you are trained medic who could fill in as flight surgeon. Not to mention taht Teisatsu's are only made as one seaters and Kawarime does not have sensor suite I require to do my job." She explaind and sighed. She got all serious again. She turned the bottle down to take another swig only to finish it.
"Darn all out," she said and looked at his bottle. Seemed empty too. "Let's go to my cabin, I have some more alcohol there." She then said.
Silic smiled and chucked the empty bottle over his shoulder into his cockpit. His arm removed itself from her waist as he stood up, natural hand tracing up her body to the hand that had once occupied his shoulder as he swung around to the edge of the wing. "I would be honoured to accompany you." he said in high spirits before dropping of the wing to the ground and holding out his arms to help her down.
Anne smiled down upon him as she pushed herself down only to be eased down by Silic's mismatched pair of arms. He held her around the waist and set her down in front of him. She put her arm around his.
"Well let's go then," she said with smile as they went out of the hangar-bay arm-in-arm. Silic's arm clasped in hers and hers in his in an old manor of ettiquete.
"My dear," he said as they disappeared out the door of the hangar, speaking in a falsely posh accent "I'll have you know I've been working on that machine for over a year, I'm sure it will be adequate to your needs. As for the wave-front generate..." Silic splayed a hand on his chest to indicate his proficiency "...I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out somehow."
The two had a jaunty trip to Anne's sleeping quarters, with plenty of accidental bumping and rubbing that walking in such proximity and volumious amounts of alcohol being absorbed would create. Far from quiet, they were surely noticed by some wandering soul throught he corridors. Finally they appeared before her door.
"Welcome to my palace," Anne exclaimed waving her hand before the door. They recongnized their perky master and slid open to the side. Anne walked in, pulling Silic with her. It was regular bunk quarter that other Diamonds owned. Luckily for Anne, she was alone in this one.
She quickly walked towards the storage compartment near the door. She opened it and pulled out something that looked like a doctors bag. She reached it and Silic could hear some glass-clinking sounds of bottles hitting each others. Anne picked a bottle and took it out, she then took out knife off the belt that was lying on the table and swiftly used it to remove the cork. It seemed that it was not first time. Soon after two glasses appeared on the table and Anne filled them to the top.
"Cheers!" She said, handing one of the glasses to Silic. "Bottoms up!" She added with laughter.
"To good health and eventual happiness." he toasted, offering his glass up for a tradtional clink. His bare face smiling and open, now that the goggles were gone it was clear he actually had small dimples in his cheeks, a remarkable but minute feminine detail in the otherwise largely rough and gruff nepleslian.
Anne meet his glass with her as she raised a hand. Glass clinked and they both drained their glasses. Right to the bottom. Wine was indeed quite good, sweet with very particular strong taste.
Silic lowered his glass and licked his lips with the tip of his tongue "Wow, this is good stuff." he admired, picking up the bottle to examine it, but he couldn't make heads or tails of the foreign script that greet him on its label. Instead he did something better.
"Another glass?" He offered, holding the bottle by the body and tipping it towards Anne in offering.
Anne held out her hand with glass. "Oh yes please, we must finish that bottle tonight. It must be drunk right after being opened to not go bad." She explained as she was looking to another glass.
Both glasses were promptly full again and the bottle placed back on the desk. Silic motioned towards the bottom bunk in the room. "May I?" he inquired, looking for a seat. All the alcohol must have been getting to his head.
"Oh please do sit," she responded. Once he he sat himself, she moved to sit next to him crossing her legs, the tight fabric of her bodysuit pressing against her thigh. She sipped some wine and reminded herself to slow down a little. She wanted him to drink it anyway as a little gift. He made her mood much better after all.
As Anne sat next to him Silic felt his heartbeat pick up, he hadn't really been paying attention to his circumstances in regards to adult affairs, but here he now was, in the same quarters with a beautiful woman who didn't mind his body's damage and large amounts of alcohol between the two. He suddenly felt a little hotter, and quickly sipped his glass to cover any reaction.
"Don't be afraid to drink up, there is plenty more." Anne said and held the bottle up to show him. Her tail started doing what it wanted behind her back. With alcohol she stopped controlling it as well as she could normally and it was tossing itself about.
Silic's long sip was cut short "Ye-" his throat was tight, he tried again "Yes, it's very, very good. I'd love to help you finish it." he said, his voice picking up a little bit of excitement.
"So, have you decided what you're going to do the first day of next shore leave?" he asked, in general conversation, undoing a bit of the collar of his working uniform to try to cool off.
"Sleeping probably," she said and chuckled. "After this night I am going to be tired I think. Especially since we are not done yet." She added and smiled as she pulled the bottle up and refilled his glass.
Silic instantly felt his tempurature rise a bit, and he gulped involuntarily. He seemed to have meet a worthy opponent in this match. It took him a few seconds to formulate a response "Sleeping by itself sounds so boring," he commented, taking a polite sip of the wine and then some, "We're all adults in the squadron, surely we could find better ways to entertain ourselves."
Silic was visibly flushed now, his uniform was now undone to his upper chest but it wasn't enough. He forced himself to remain calm and took another sip of his glass, his free hand resting on the bed between and behind them.
"And do you have suggestion what kind of...mm... activity that could be?" She asked him nearing her face to his. She smiled and glass mer her lips once more as she looked into his eyes.
Silic smiled his most charming smile as a delaying action, "Hmm, I'm sure I can come up with something." he almost whispered, leaning forward slightly to accept the challenge. His back hand unconciously inching towards Anne and that restless tail. She was slightly taller than him, but just barely, that was an honest surprise after a nation full of shorties. But at the moment Silic would have to admit he had a thing for tall women right now.
As Silics hand was put on the bed, he felt something with thin fur wrapping around it. Upon checking he found Anne's tail heroicly holding on to his hand with rather suggestive movements. Slightly startled he offered no resistance as his hand was pulled to places unknown, his hand bumped against her thigh, without any input from him the hand conformed to the shape of her body and was guided further up to her leg.
Silic's heart almost stopped right there, worried that he'd blown it. His near-dismay was clear on his face. "I-,uh, I..."
Anne looked down as she felt his touch. Her chin raised again as their eyes met. "You talk too much," she whispered as she moved forward. She slightly opened her mouth and kissed him right on the lips.
There was no more talking. Silics other hand quickly but gently curled around her head protectively as he pushed his advantage. In seconds they were gasping for each other, arms wrapping around the others bodies trying to absorb as much other their partner as they could. In their fevered movement there was a small drop as they dropped off the side of the bunk onto the floor, dragging the blanket with them with a giggle and the sound of rustling clothing.
Meanwhile the bottle on the desk stood stoically over the scene, it's label, written in Lorath, declared it an aphrodisiac vintage. The wine had done its duty magnificently, now it was up to Silic to do his.
- - - - -
The next morning.
Silic's eyes slowly opened. He only had a faint recollection of last night, he remembered talking with one of the rookies, how she used to be a slave, and how she had no real idea how to take care of herself in the free world. Everything after that was a blur at best. He didn't recognize where he was, then he looked at what was directly in front of him.
"Mmmm" could be heard. It was female gentle voice and it became clear to Silic, that that something on his chest in front of him was arm. Sleek, gentle looking arm with pale skin. He followed the arm up to its owner, ending in the peaceful, serene face of Anne, the rook he'd been talking to last night. She looked out of this world even when asleep.
Suddenly he realised, Anne. The former slave. Still insecure about her place in the world. The one that had developed the mindset that slavery was a form of penance. What had he done last night?
Anne stirred slightly and Silic felt two soft objects bump into his chest, he looked down, they were laying next to eachother on the floor, tangled in a thin blanket. He peeked under the blanket with his top arm, the prosthetic one, and the horrible truth was revealed.
They were both naked as the day they were born, and they were both going to need a shower. Despite his situation Silic couldn't help but get a thrill at the bounty in front of him, he stared down the sheet for a few seconds longer than was strictly necessary.
Sudden movement of Silic's cause blanket and arm on his chest to move. It shook Anne a little and she woke up. She opened her eyes and blinked few times only to see Silic next to her. She smiled as she remember nice night they shared.
"Hello," she said and her voice sounded tired as she just woke up.
Startled, Silic quickly tucked the blanket down and tried to pull away, it was only then that he realised his other arm was under her neck. "Uh," he began weakly. "What happened last night, did we..."
"Have sex?" Anne asked him fully. She did not think there way need to dance around the topic. "Yes we did." She said then. She was quite dissapointed that he could not recollect what hapened day before. Her face saddened up by this outcome.
"It wasn't a dream..." was all SIlic said outloud, that's when alarm bells began ringing. What if she'd used him as a surrogate master, what if he'd taken advantage of her weakness in his stupor. Was he some sort of voluntary sex offender? He was pretty sure he wasn't wearing a diving suit on the relevant member, what if she got preganent little dog-tailed, bunny-eared kids demanding child support and love, and most of all, the dreaded RESPONSIBILITY!
He was a young man! He still had a life to lead!
He panicked, rolling on top of Anne. He'd just made the situation worse, his arm was still stuck, he was now crouching over her, and he was hemmed in by the blanket. He looked down at his body over hers in shock and then looked into her eyes,
Anne's eyes went wide in confusion. She wondered what he was doing. Did he want her to remind him what happened in the night. She would not be exactly against him, but something told her this was not exactly the situation. All she had done in the end is half sitting up to allow him get his arm from under her.
"Did something happened?" She asked with slightly confused voice as if she was worried.
"I-" He choked, unable to finish anything. "I-, I-, I-..." after that his chin waggled but nothing came out.
Anne looked away. She really did not know what happened. Was he so shocked by sleepin with her? Was it not pleasing to him? What happened? She had nice time and he seemed to have nice too at the time. He was so romantic after all. Why does he act like this? Did he really forget everything?
Without warning he hugged tightly for a brief instant before zipping up right and moving around the room in a blur as he fetched his clothes. Getting his traditional Nepleslian undergarment of heart-patterened boxers on in record time he repeated himself over and over. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!! I'm Sorry!!"
Without bothering to put on the rest of the uniform he zipped out the door, sticking his head in one last time to look at her in all her porcelian skinned beauty. He bit his lower lip and made an apprciative fist then disapeared into the corridor, wrestling on his uniform as he stumbled and tripped.
Anne just looked his way. She shook her head in disbelief as she stood up and closed the doors behind him. Still wondering what happened she decided that she needed shower first and that she will have to talk to him again in future.
As she was going to get her bathrobe and towel, she stumbled upon bottle on the ground. She leaned down and picked it up finally reading its label.
"Oh my," Anne said as she read it all. "Oh my!" She realized.
Out in the corridor Silic had finally reached the end of his uniform trial, but he was left with one final item. A fine pair of Yuuko's brand panties in black, the fabric stretched in his fingers, he must have accidentally picked them up in his rush. "Oh my..."
THE END.