Sequel to "Airplane of Lust".
(Eila/Sanya, mention of Minna/Barkhorn)
Read AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt1
Disclaimer: I’m no longer sure who owns the rights to Strike Witches, either way I’m just borrowing the girls for a little bit. As with the previous story this is written before I’ve seen anything from season 2.
Sequel to “Airplane of Lust”.
AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt1
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson
It had started of a less than stellar day for Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen.
First of all she had woken up to find herself lying on the floor next to her bed rather than in it, head down and butt into the air. It hadn’t been the warmest or gentlest of ways to start the day. Then at breakfast it turned out that Miyafuji had once again commandeered the kitchen in order to force-feed them all some horrible concoction from her homeland.
Eila was convinced by now that the people of Fuso either thrived on tormenting themselves, or were all completely bereft of tastebuds. She wished she could say that it was just Miyafuji that was simply incompetent in the kitchen, but Major Sakamoto had forced equally awful things on them recently too. Whatever had she done to either of them?
After a breakfast she couldn’t really eat, they were all set to go water-training. Which was all well and good in itself, Eila had passed her proficiency test before and were only required to put in a token effort before she could pass the rest of the time as she chose. Except of course that the one thing Eila wanted to do was to go back and find herself something edible to fill her protesting stomach, and that, of course, was not allowed.
Things looked up for a while when they had just reached the beach, as Eila pulled Sanya, the only person on the base with a complexion fairer than her own, into the shade to share her sunscreen. She knew the younger girl was far too sleepy to have remembered to bring her own.
Squirting a fair amount into Sanya’s hands she instructed the drowsy girl to remember to cover all of her skin with it, before she started vigorously working on her legs while sending a few evil glares at the rest of their companions.
“Its fine for those exhibitionists,” She muttered darkly while glaring at Shirley, Lucchini and Hartmann romping around in the water. “We at least know the difference between a pair of pants and a pair of underwear.”
A tiny hand on her shoulder distracted her from further grousing at her carefree friends, and when she turned around Eila was met with the sight of Sanya looking shy with her bikini top in one hand and the other holding a towel firmly to her chest. Eila immediately felt the onset of heatstroke.
“Eila.” Sanya said in her usual gentle, soft-spoken way. “I can’t reach my back. Could you help me?”
That nearly did her in then and there. Somehow Eila managed to gather herself enough to apply sunscreen to Sanya’s back with extremely shaking hands, forgetting to breathe through it all so that when the other girl was finally all done, Eila more or less collapsed.
Apparently taking this as an invitation, the beautiful young Orussian then proceeded to quite thoroughly apply the sunscreen to Eila’s back and legs with slow and careful strokes. It was almost too blissful and too stimulating for Eila as she was forced to concentrate quite hard on not letting her young friend know just how much she enjoyed her touch.
Afterwards she was quite exhausted, and with Sanya by her side she took to sitting near the surf, just quietly enjoying the breeze on the suddenly much too hot day while her stomach loudly protested its unfair treatment. Eventually Sanya leaned in to rest her head on Eila’s shoulder while taking a nap, and Eila, while blushing a little at her friends’ knowing grins at the sight, carefully put an arm around the girl to keep her from falling over in her sleep.
By the time they finally made it back to the base Eila was starving, but as she sat with Sanya and some of the others waiting for dinner to be served, Eila pulled a warning out of her tarot cards. Calamity was approaching, and there was some sort of bad omen for her personally. Eila did not care to look into it further, simply put her tarot cards away and stared with increasing apprehension towards the kitchen.
As it turned out Perrine had volunteered herself to make a delicacy of her home region, and the scent alone as she carried the food to the table was enticing enough that nearly everyone had eagerly leaned forward in their seats. Once it became clear what the tiny shells actually were the reactions became quite different though, ranging from a high-pitched squeal from Lynette, Shirley nearly falling from her seat, and Barkhorn silently turning quite ashen. Eila caught on in time to stop Sanya from eating, and once the younger girl realized what the food before her was she all but climbed into Eila’s lap, trembling.
Although Miyafuji was in Eila’s opinion scarily eager to try Perrine’s food herself, she was still quick to offer to serve leftovers from breakfast to those that absolutely would not eat anything containing snails. The response to that was only slightly and very cautiously enthusiastic, and not because anyone feared Perrine’s affronted anger. Eila, quickly realizing she would be left without anything substantial to eat all day, suffered a bit of a temper snap and hurled herself across the table to snatch a baguette practically from out of Hartmann’s hands.
Pulling Sanya with her she darted into the kitchen, tore the bread in half and gave the larger half to her friend, and rummaged through the cupboards until she found butter, tomatoes, some wilting lettuce and just a tiny sliver of Spem leftover from when Shirley had last brought a can to the table. Quickly Eila buttered the bread and stuffed it with what she had found, poured them a glass of milk each, and, with a glare at their gaping audience and a protective pat to Sanya’s head, growled in her superior officers’ general direction.
“We actually need to be able to eat if you expect us to be able to fight.”
She received not only a grateful hug from her younger companion for the quickly thrown together sandwich, but also a look that seemed to say that Eila had become Sanya's own personal hero. Severely flustered but happy Eila took Sanya by the hand and led her out of the room, while behind them chaos broke out. Evidently at least Shirley, Hartmann and Barkhorn fought each other fervently over the remaining baguette, while Perrine loudly complained their collective ingratitude and Miyafuji repeated her offer of breakfast leftovers.
While Eila cared not one whit about the pandemonium she had helped create in the dining room, she soon regretted letting her temper flare towards her superior officers. She actually respected them both a great deal, and it had been unfitting behaviour for a soldier. She felt even more embarrassed when her commanding officer summoned her to her office and Eila found herself facing not only the Commander, but also Major Sakamoto and Barkhorn, and thus assumed at once that she was going to get reprimanded for her behaviour earlier that day.
The red-head merely smiled benignly from behind her desk as Eila immediately and quite seriously came to attention, her posture crisp and ramrod straight. The Major and Barkhorn both nodded approvingly and smiled as well, further confusing Eila until she was told to be at ease.
She felt compelled to apologize, and apparently it showed as a small wave stopped her before she had even begun speaking.
“I thank you for bringing that situation to my attention earlier today, Major Sakamoto and I have agreed that we need to look things over and implement some changes in our kitchen routines. We have staff for a reason, and we are simply too few to always have several squadron members working in the kitchen instead of working on their skills or resting up for combat.”
“If anyone feels they have too much time on their hands I’m confident Barkhorn or I can make sure they have something productive to do.” Sakamoto nodded with determined satisfaction, echoed by Barkhorn although with somewhat less of the insane gleam the Major’s one eye took on whenever the subject of increased training came up.
Eila at once felt worse. Yes the food from Fuso was inedible to her, at least what she’d gotten exposed to through the Major and Miyafuji, but Miyafuji genuinely loved cooking. It felt mean to be the reason she wouldn’t be allowed to do that anymore, but at the same time it was true that they all really needed to be able to eat and sleep regularly, otherwise they wouldn’t last long in the air.
“That wasn’t the reason you were summoned though.” The Commander’s voice was warm as always, but there was also something slightly weary in it. She had an open box on her desk, and as she reached into it Eila realized with a sigh what this was all about. “We have gotten mail, and there are quite a few letters from Suomus this time.”
Reluctantly Eila accepted the impressive bundle with her name on it and, because once she got into that mindset she always found it a bit tricky to stop, saluted the Commander and stood waiting to be dismissed. At least the Commander was tactful enough to hide her smile when she nodded back and, far more casually, told them all that they could leave.
She had been the first one out, but when Eila heard the Commander speak up in a tone of voice unlike anything she could recall ever having heard from her superior officer before the immediate reaction was to stop and turn around. Major Sakamoto was immediately behind her, looking back at Eila somewhat surprised, while Barkhorn had yet to exit.
“Trude, if I could have a moment in private?” The words might have been innocent enough, but what had both of Eila’s eyebrows rising in surprise was the sultry and, dare she even think it, seductive quality in it.
Major Sakamoto’s entire face seemed to twitch as Eila strained her neck to be able to look past her into the room. Barkhorn turned around immediately, and as Eila leaned past an uncooperative Major she could have sworn that the Commander was pulling Barkhorn closer by the ribbon around her neck, all the while making what was clearly come-hither eyes.
A strong grip on her shoulder pushed Eila back while the door closed with a bang. One look at Major Sakamoto told Eila perfectly well that she was in trouble, and that even before the Major had stopped twitching enough to open her eye.
‘I could have sworn the Commander was dating you!’ was on the tip on Eila’s tongue when Sakamoto’s eye finally did open and she thought better of it. That eye promised all sorts of painful and unpleasant things, and Eila didn’t really want to step right into the potentially lethal minefield that the various relationships between her superior officers might be. She swallowed hard, effectively getting her naturally strong sense of curiosity under firmer control.
“I’m sure... she had... personal mail?” Eila offered weakly, grimacing slightly at the utterly unamused expression on Sakamoto’s face.
“I’m sure she did.” Sakamoto’s words were slow and very precisely enunciated. “Should any mention of this... personal mail... get around,” The grip on Eila’s shoulder got a bit stronger. “I will know who it came from.”
Frantically first nodding then shaking her head Eila held up her unwanted pile of letters like it was a white flag, and began backing off as quickly as she could with any dignity left. If Major Sakamoto looked as if she was wishing she had her sword nearby, Eila just thought it was a wiser thing to be as far away as at all possible.
She took refuge in her room, tossing her letters on the table while dropping bonelessly onto her bed. She hoped fervently that the Commander and Barkhorn either learned not to be so obvious about whatever they had going on or that they’d simply come clean on their own, because Eila feared what Major Sakamoto would do to her if the secret came out and Eila was in any way suspected of being the cause.
Realizing suddenly that she had no idea where her Sanya was, and worse, with whom, Eila promptly forgot all about her superior officers and their potentially tangled love-lives. As she hurried out to find the younger girl she hoped Sanya had remembered her warning about not going into the sauna with Miyafuji unless Eila was there to protect her.
The evening of Eila’s less than stellar day had not been so bad by comparison, at any rate it had seemed normal enough that she had forgotten about her premonition that morning and relaxed. When she returned to her room to go to bed she was too tired, and to be honest still rather hungry, to spare a thought to the no longer so neatly tied bundle of letters waiting on the table.
Sanya on the other hand, naturally trailing along to Eila’s room rather than her own without either of them having mentioned the sleeping arrangements of the night, caught interest for the letters instantly. Had she remembered them at all, Eila would have put the letters away before Sanya caught sight of them, but instead she only recalled the pile as she saw the other girl rifle through them.
“Ah! T-that’s nothing i-interesting!” Eila stuttered slightly in a sudden bout of nerves. “Just some letters from my old base. I haven’t even looked them through yet.” Internally Eila crossed her fingers that there would be nothing too incriminating on any of the envelopes.
Watching Sanya’s expression darken as she gathered up the letters Eila knew fate had once again kicked her in the shins. Feeling rather defeated it was all she could do to simply watch as the frown grew and those brilliant green eyes narrowed. Sanya said nothing, simply held up Eila’s mail in front of herself, holding out one letter at a time for Eila to read the name of the sender.
“Oh, that’s a friend of mine from my old squadron.” Eila peered at the first envelope before it was tossed aside and a new one was thrust out in front of her, wisely not attempting to take the letters from Sanya. “That one is from my family, that’s nice.”
“Another old buddy of mine... I actually don’t know who that one is from...” The next one had little hearts drawn on it, and Sanya looked utterly unamused. “Er, yeah, I’ve told that one that I’m not interested, but she still writes...” Sanya’s expression darkened even more when the next envelope also had hearts on it. “Don’t know that one, and the last one is...” Eila swallowed nervously. “...I, uh, dated her, once.”
Those beautiful green eyes were not only very angry suddenly but also very hurt, and the last letter was dropped onto the pile as if it burned.
With a tight voice Sanya whispered an angry sounding goodnight before quickly stalking out of the room, while Eila found herself utterly unable to move, speak or even breathe, because of a gleam of something that looked like tears in Sanya’s eyes.
Grasping weakly at her chest Eila tried to understand why it could hurt so much that she couldn’t breathe, and, far too ashamed and miserable to try to chase after the other girl, she sat down at the edge of her bed and waited for Sanya to return, fighting the stinging in her own eyes.
Hours later Eila knew Sanya didn’t intend to return, and, trying to pretend that she didn’t have to wipe away a tear or two before leaving her room, she set out to find her.
Finding Sanya’s room empty even though midnight had passed and as far as Eila knew there were no patrol scheduled that night made Eila panic a bit. She ran over to the hangar to check that Sanya’s strikers were not missing, and once she found nothing out of place there besides Lucchini sleeping in an odd spot again, she went on to try all the common areas that she thought Sanya might have gone to and accidently fallen asleep.
Exhausted and upset that she couldn’t find the girl, Eila finally turned back towards the bedrooms, wondering who she could wake up and have help her search. Miyafuji’s quietly whispered “Eila-san?” nearly had her jumping out of her skin. “I was looking for you.”
“Miyafuji?” The younger girl was dressed in her sleeping robe and was coming from the direction of Eila’s own room. “You’re awake, that’s great... Look, Sanya’s missing, and I...”
“That’s why I came to find you!” Miyafuji interrupted, looking quite worried. “Sanya-chan is in my room, she asked if she could sleep over tonight.”
Oh. Sanya was in Miyafuji’s room? Of course. Eila tried to ignore how that made her feel even worse and instead focus on the fact that at least Miyafuji was a friend Sanya could go to when she needed one, even if Eila would rather she didn’t spend any time alone with the girl while undressed.
“Well, um, Sanya-chan started having nightmares, and she’s crying in her sleep.” Miyafuji hurried through her explanation as they moved towards her room. “When I heard her call out for you, Eila-san, I thought...”
“Thank you.” By the time Miyafuji had gotten through her short explanation Eila had already reached the door. “Really.” She told the younger girl seriously.” Thanks for being a friend.”
Miyafuji merely smiled warmly and nodded in return. When Eila hesitated for a moment with her hand on the doorknob, the brown-haired girl took a step back, as if to show that she would be waiting outside, giving Eila and Sanya some privacy.
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