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Cho lit up like a firework at the opportunity to eat something and spend time away from the grimy, stained, damaged armors. "Sounds wonderful, Juni-san!"
Tori, on the other hand, kept tinkering. She didn't say anything though.
Tom took his hand, which still rested on Cho's shoulder, and pulled the sprite to his side as he turned to head out of the armor bay. Something felt right about touching the sprite. Maybe it was nice to just feel another person's warmth after being surrounded by the cold metal of the sanitized Hoshi and Melisson's judgemental gaze.
"Tori," he said, "Let's go."
Tori had just shut off the hammer, so there was no chance she didn't hear him.
Her head turned and she glanced at him with grey, dull eyes. Her thin lips curled up on one side of her face, a kind of "really?" expression that lasted a good few seconds before she sighed. "Is this an order, Juni?"
Cho, on the other hand, was feeling very, very hot and was smiling like a giddy schoolgirl just asked to go out with the class president. Her dark eyes were glued to the floor, an arm crossed over her waist, and her legs acting positively squirmy.
Tori mentally rolled her eyes.
"Do you want it to be?" Tom's answer was a calculated one, perhaps a challenge to gauge the situation. Was the sprite willing to take a risk?
The engineer, for his part, waited at the doorway.
Tori was sharp enough to know that if it wasn't an order yet, it would be one. She glanced again at Cho from her kneeling position on the floor. She felt slightly ill at the notion the behavior would continue, but the nutrition bars
were getting a little tasteless.
" ... " The sprite got up after pushing some of her dark hair from her face, the one blond-white streak moving in the same direction. She unsnapped her heavy tool belt from around her waist, but the tools in her jumpsuit pockets stayed where they were. "Lead the way, Juni."
Tom felt a tiny rush of idiotic glee flow through him. Sure, he had been Juni for a while, but he rarely exerted the power of his rank over others. The technicians tended to just ask him for orders. Besides, it wasn't as if he always needed to be a saint.
"Great! Tell me what you want to eat and I'll have it whipped up for you in no time flat."
The small group made its way towards the hoshi's mini-kitchen, where the engineer/caretaker would get to work.
Cho stuck to Tom's side, while Tori glumly followed behind. The way Cho kept rubbing her hip against the Juni's was going to cause a very bad reaction for Tori, who wanted to grab food and get out. Her food suggestion was something with meat in it because she wanted protein and salt, not starch and flavoring. Cho wanted the salmon chips, of course.
Tom let the smaller sprite have her fantasies. The Raltean played it cool, pretending not to notice the flirtatious gestures while contemplating out loud what he would cook.
"Hm... for you Tori, I think I'll make a salt-and vinegar chicken, tangy and with an edge to it. Cho, I don't think just chips will do justice to the word meal, so how about I make you something sweet, like filet of salmon in a soy-sauce and brown-sugar marinade? I'll make a bit of saffron rice to go with both entrees as well."
The conversation caused a big smile to break out on his face.
"Juni-san ... that seems like a lot of work! Are you sure? I'm happy with anything you make, you know." Cho looked up at Tom as they rounded the corner into the mini-kitchen and batted her rather long eyelashes.
Tori knew she was going to be ill now; it was only a matter of when. It was the Juni's damn job to feed them. Let him do his job, she thought.
Better than him glowering at me when I'm trying to fix his
armor.
She kept her mouth shut about the food choice. So she was tangy now? All vinegar and piss? Tori owned it, or so she thought. At least it would satisfy what she wanted.
"We don't have a lot of room, so can you two sit out here while I work? It'll save us some time if you make the table."
Usually, the engineer enjoyed showing others how he cooked up food, but the mini-kitchen did not have the facilities Miharu had. They'd end up on top of each other if they all crammed into this small cooking space.
"Give me about 30 minutes and I'll have something ready. Thank the stars for ship-grade cooking equipment! On Ralt, this would take like 3 hours!"
The engineer began his preparation, taking out bowls of various sizes and laying them on the counter before heading into the fridge to grab the necessary meats for the dishes he was about to make.
Cho wasn't at the table, but she wasn't doing a single thing to set it. Tori took it upon herself while Cho made googly eyes as Tom cooked.
The sprite soon had the plates, flatware and cups all in place with an engineer's eye for precision. It took her all of four minutes, which left her sitting in her chair, watching Cho's butt wiggle every time (she assumed) Tom did something that made her Neko "heart" go pitter-patter. Tori took a gulp of water and asked
Hoshi to produce a schematic of Tom's armor in front of her so she could plan out the rest of her repairs.
As Tom made his way about the kitchen, mixing sauces, chopping meats and heating the oven and stove, he decided to strike a conversation with the sprites.
"So, have you given some thought as to what you two want to do after we return to Yamatai?"
He dipped his finger in the brown sugar/soysauce mixture he had just finished whisking and brought it to his lips.
"Hmm..."
Tori did not see what Tom did, but whatever it was, it made Cho squiggle in place and lick her lips.
"Anouuuu, no, Juni-san, I have not!" Cho said. "I think I would like to visit the beach, though! See what it is like in Malifar, where it's supposed to be really warm! Or Jskita! Or even Yumiuki! I want to see the beach like in
Miharu's baths and wear a swimsuit!"
Tori just narrowed her eyes at the schematic. She looked at the eighth "rib" in the chest of Tom's armor and determined it was stress fractured enough to replace. She was relieved she had not started to fix the upper half before going to the legs.
"Ah, the beach," Tom said with a nod. "I've been to Port Xenn and seen the beaches there, but that's it. But I've heard that all those places are beautiful, though, so you won't be dissapointed."
Tom dipped the salmon filets into the sauce and moved onto the vinegar mixture where the chicken would soon marinade.
"And you, Tori? Any ideas?"
Tori looked up and Cho looked at her. Sourly, she thought, as if to say, "Don't be mean to him." Tori was older, so she didn't have to listen.
"No," she said loud enough for him to hear, then returned to the schematic. There was more she could do on the chest, but it was all time-consuming and not worth the effort.
"Ah, well you have plenty of time to decide, so no rush," Tom answered.
The oven was preheated; all that remained was to let the meats marinade for a while. He threw some rice into a cooker and closed the lid. He had a couple beads of sweat on his head as he stepped out into the dining area, but he quickly wiped it off with a brush of his sleeve.
"Man, you remind me of Yuzuki, Tori. You're a very hard worker!"
"Thank you," came Tori's honest, if not quite heartfelt, reply.
Cho widened her eyes at Tori and threw her head in Tom's direction several times. Tori frowned; why did she have to say anymore?
She didn't because Cho did it for her. "She works hard because she respects Yuzuki. Respects Mara-san, too. We all do. We all want to work as hard as we can for her memory."
Tori wouldn't have gone that far, she thought, but sure, why not.
Tom nodded respectfully, although the mention of Mara left his eyes glassy for just a moment. The ache was still there, but it was dissolved as soon as he noticed the schematic Tori was pouring over.
"Tori," he said calmly. "Do me a favor and load up the original damage diagnosis of that armor. Tell me what you see."
The Neko blinked, but she did as instructed. The original diagnosis replaced the half-repaired one, with blue being swallowed up by much more yellow, orange and red. "What I see?" Tori asked as Cho gave her a major stink eye.
"Mmmhm," Tom said. "Take your time."
Tom sat down at the far end of the table and clasped his hand together with a small smile. He watched the sprite intently as he waited. Occasionally, he brushed an errant strand of blonde yellow hair from his eyes.
Tori's already narrow eyes became slits as she looked at Tom. What was this, a test? She didn't appreciate it if it was, but this sounded like an "I'm not ordering you but I so am" kind of deal, so she acquiesed. "The titanium skeleton took exceptional damage, as did the armor plating, and is a good case study for the Daisy's durability/maneuverability trade-off. The plating is damaged but held, for the most part, and abalated when needed while deflected as required. The skeleton gave way in mostly noncritical areas as designed. Combat effectiveness was minimally reduced despite pilot injury and armor damage. The importance of an operational barrier cannot be understated, but as the Shosa showed, shields also can make up a big difference. Westwood confirmed as well how powerful the armor could be when paired with the right pilot and weapon.
"Your armor specifically looks like hell, but I only needed twenty minutes to return it to 85 percent combat efficiency. I'm taking my time because I can. Juni."
Tori took a gulp of water. That was a lot of talking.
Tom smiled knowingly as the sprite explained the nitty gritty of the Daisy, as well as delving into more obscure facts about the survivability of the armor. He hadn't asked for it, but the fact she was divulging so much technical knowledge gave him valuable information of another kind.
"Thank you," he said as he got up from his chair. "I'll be right back."
Nonchalantly, the engineer went back into the mini kitchen and put the chicken and fish into trays in the oven.
Cho looked at Tori as if she had admitted she smoked or had tattoos. Tori scowled in reply. What was she supposed to say? Fuck off? She did as asked and didn't need Cho making her feel like she suddenly spoke Lorath.
The standing sprite looked back over to Tom. "Isn't she a whiz at that stuff? It's a shame she doesn't talk about other things, huh."
Moments later, a discreet volumetric window opened next to Tori, near the armor schematics she was looking at. It was an official Star Army form letter with a recommendation to attend armor specialization courses at Kyoto university. At the bottom of it was the Juni's signature.
"I think you've found something you could spend some free time on," Tom said as he returned to the table. "Would you like to take advantage of it?"
Tori looked at the form letter. Kyoto University was something she knew about from reading ... what had she read that even mentioned it? Where was irrelevant, she figured. The Juni was helping her. The Juni was giving her a chance to learn more about what she knew.
"Yes," she said. "I can do that."
"Very good," he said, running the edges of his finger on the top of the table. His gray eyes looked down at the simple metal surface, the Juni staring at the blurry image of his face on the reflective surface. "And for you, Cho, I can arrange some form of vacation package with some of the excess funds I have saved over the years. Would you like that?"
"Juni-san!" Cho exclaimed. "I can't take that money. Not money that you worked for; it's not for me. Mara-san ... Mara-san wanted us to earn our way. She wanted us to work hard and justify ourselves with that work. I can't take money I didn't earn, right Tori?"
Tori looked at Cho for a long moment. Then, she shrugged. Cho fumed at her, but Tori returned to her mostly flat expression.
"I can't," Cho repeated.
Tom shook his head and looked up at the sprite. He smiled thinly, but there was a sadness in his shimmering eyes.
"You've earned the right to dream," he said. "Both of you. I made a promise to you all and I do not intend to break it."
He pulled his chair out slowly. The metal scraped loudly against the floor, but the engineer didn't seem to notice. He spun the seat around so that its back faced the table and he sat in an unorthodox position, resting his crossed arms over the edge of the seat as he looked at the sprites.
"Money is not an issue, nor is my rank and title," he continued. "I simply want you two to be happy."
Cho looked at the Juni, eyes wide, face stricken with surprise. She turned to Tori, who didn't look any different than normal, so she looked back at the Juni. "I ... I don't know what to say."
"Just take it, Cho," Tori said. "You can sleep around while you're at it."
The Neko spun on Tori and bared her teeth at her, tempted to draw down.
Whatever small smile Tom had disappeared. Tom recognized the murderous intent Tori's insult brought out in the normally cheerful sprite.
"Slide your sidearms across the table," he simply said.
Tori did so, with Cho quickly following, but she still scowled at Tori. "Sex won't help with Mara dying," she said.
"I didn't say it would. I said you need it."
"I don't need it! I just want to be comfortable!"
"Sex is comfortable."
"You're still a bitch."
"I don't dispute that."
"Rrrrrrgh!"
As the two bickered, Tom simply collected the weapons and slid them into his pockets where they bulged unnaturally.
The engineer stood up.
"You have five minutes to spend your time as you see fit," he said. "What you do in that time is up to you, but I will see you sitting at this table at the end of that time."
With that, he stepped out of the room.
Cho and Tori looked at each other. Tori shrugged. Cho resumed scowling.
For the next five minutes, telepathic noise bombarded Tom and anyone else within
Hoshi's hull. At the end of five minutes, when Tom returned, Cho and Tori looked civil enough. Cho was blushing; Tori had a little smirk on her face. Cho avoided Tom's eyes.
"Sorry, Juni-san," she said. "I accept your gift."
Tom returned to his seat. "Thank you," he said. "If it's any help, I think both of you could use some time to unwind, sex or no sex."
Tori sniffed. Cho looked down at her lap, cheeks hot.
"Miharu is no more," he said calmly. "It is something that we have to accept. Although I do not know when those wounds will heal, we must be prepared to move forward."
He cleared his throat of a sudden lump that had overtaken him.
"You two are sisters. Siblings. How you spend your time together... chatting, fighting, sleeping together... it doesn't matter. What matters is that you two are still
here and that... that is enough to take those first steps."
Tori slowly nodded. The Juni was right. Cho, on the other hand, looked mortified.
"So, while you are together, reflect on just how lucky you are. Think of Hinoto and Nimura, but don't pity them. Just understand, ok?"
Tori nodded again, and this time Cho did the same. "Sorry, Juni-san," she said.
"Well then," Tom said, trying to dissolve the awkwardness he had created. "I think the food's ready. Let's get to plating it." He stood up and stepped into the kitchen.
Tori and Cho got up at the same time, and followed Tom in, with Cho right behind him. Cho held herself as she did so, while Tori walked with almost a bounce in her step.
Moments later, the three would return with plates full of food. Tom had made some steamed vegetables to go with the main course and also added water and wine as beverage options. Both pitchers were soon on the table.
"Healthy appetite fo-" he started, then suddenly stopped.
He smiled.
"Excuse me," he said. "Enjoy the food."
Tori reached for the wine, then stopped and went for the water. Cho said a little prayer first, then began to eat slowly. Tori ate faster and more with each bite.
"How is it?"
Cho smiled wide and nodded. "It's very good, Juni-san. Sweet and tasty!" Tori just kept eating. One could only hope she enjoyed it.
END
