AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt2

Strike Witches-fanfic. Eila knew when she woke up that she would have a pretty bad day, and she wasn't proven wrong. Still, she didn't expect this.
Sequel to "Airplane of Lust".
(Eila/Sanya, mention of Minna/Barkhorn)

Read AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt2

Disclaimer: see part 1.





AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt2
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson





Eila had never really been inside Miyafuji’s room before, but much as she’d heard it was fairly bare apart from the basic necessities. Even Sanya’s room had more decorations than this, and Sanya barely seemed to use hers.

The sight of a pillow and blanket on the floor beside the bed made her smile, apparently Miyafuji could be quite gentleman-like when she wanted to. It wasn’t as if the bed wasn’t big enough for her and Sanya to comfortably sleep in together, in fact it was the same size as the bed all three of them had shared during their stint on night patrol. Still Miyafuji had gallantly given Sanya the bed to herself, unknowingly winning even more approval from Eila.

Sanya was frowning in her sleep, and although she wasn’t crying right then her cheeks were wet from tears. Eila’s heart just ached at the sight.

As she reached down to gently shake Sanya awake the sleeping girl began to whimper pitifully, and almost before she had touched a pale shoulder teary green eyes snapped open with a sob.

“Eila!” Although clearly still not awake, Sanya still threw herself into Eila’s arms, sobbing softly into her shoulder. “Don’t go! Don’t go, I’m sorry!” Sob. “I’m sorry.”

Gently Eila hushed her, hugging the girl to her and rubbing a slender back as soothing and comforting as she could. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s alright Sanya. I’m right here.”

A pair of pale arms reached up to encircle her neck in a surprisingly firm hold for a girl that was still mostly asleep, and Eila found herself all but carrying the smaller girl. Smiling a little to herself Eila kissed the top of Sanya’s head as the girl burrowed deeper into Eila’s neck.

“Don’t let me go.” The shuddering request came out muffled against Eila’s neck, to which the taller of the two immediately vowed “Never.”

Once Sanya appeared to have calmed down Eila felt she had to ask, if for no other reason than that it seemed a bit cruel to have Miyafuji waiting in the hallway all night. “Do you want to stay here tonight Sanya, or should we...”

The way Sanya immediately shook her head had Eila smiling, and she nodded slightly. “Alright. Let’s go home then.”

As Eila hooked one arm underneath Sanya’s knees to carry her better and managed to get a grip on Sanya’s pillow at the same time, the door opened and Miyafuji hesitantly stuck her head just inside the room.

“If you want to you can both stay in here tonight, Lynne-chan says I can sleep in her room.”

With Sanya in her arms Eila just shook her head and eased through the door. “Thanks for the help, Miyafuji. We’re going back to our room now, so try to get some sleep.”

Much as Eila suspected Lynette had joined Miyafuji in the hall, and her starry-eyed and quietly squealing reaction to Eila walking by with Sanya in her arms had Eila blushing rather badly. Some people’s thoughts showed only too clearly on their faces sometimes, and Eila wouldn’t have minded if she hadn’t been able to see the various romantic notions that crossed Lynette’s as she walked past.

Miyafuji at least only grinned as she raced ahead and opened the door to Eila’s room for them, although Eila knew that girl would be squealing too, later. She gave them a brief nod and let Miyafuji close the door while she steered over to the bed with her precious cargo.

It was a little bit awkward, yanking down the covers without letting Sanya down, but somehow Eila managed enough to carefully ease the other girl into bed, pillow and all. Quickly stripping down to her sleepwear Eila then climbed over her and pulled the blankets up, tucking them in.

Once she lay down Sanya abandoned her fluffy black pillow to once more burrow into Eila’s shoulder, and Eila, heart melting a little at the cuteness of it, was more than happy with that development. She wrapped her arms around Sanya and hoped that her naturally warmer body would help drive the night chill away from slender limbs.

Sanya, perhaps because she had not been entirely awake to begin with, fell asleep quickly and deeply, undisturbed by further bad dreams. Eila on her part lay awake for a long time, at first a bit too wired to sleep even though she felt at peace with Sanya in her arms, and later because of her thoughts.

They had never slept like this before. Sanya ended up in Eila’s bed often, nearly every night in fact, one way or the other and quite regardless if Eila invited her to or not, but at best they slept side by side. They never slept cuddled up like this, and Eila couldn’t help but think it significant that they now did.

Also while Eila knew why she hadn’t wanted Sanya to see the letters and find evidence of her youthful indiscretions from before the two of them had ever met, she didn’t quite know why it had upset the other girl so. It seemed too far out of proportion to be simply disappointment in her ‘protector’ and friend, in fact, to Eila it seemed very much like jealousy.

She could be wrong of course, because for all her flirting around when she was younger and in her previous squadron, Eila had never really been in a relationship. She had dated a few times, but nothing came out of it and she’d parted with those girls as friends, at least from her perspective. She had never been in love until the day a military escort brought the much talked about white night-witch from Orussia to the 501st.

Eila had looked right into those beautiful green eyes and felt like all the air around her had been sucked away, and she was falling out of the sky.

It took embarrassingly long for Eila to realize what had happened and how she felt about this pale girl that through mutual though unspoken decision never left her side. Just being apart for a short time now hurt, and to even think of parting, of having to go back to Suomus without Sanya... it hurt so much that Eila thought she might just die if it were to really happen.

Still, Sanya had never shown any signs of thinking that way. If anything Eila felt that Sanya had seen her as a best friend and protective older sister or caretaker for most part. Sanya was so very young, after all, and Eila had tried never to hint at anything else. And now that Miyafuji had come along, Eila had started to be convinced that Sanya might be developing a crush on the friendly but hormone-crazed Fuso girl. That hurt a lot as well, but it wasn’t as if it was Eila’s place to say something about it.

But now, Sanya’s reaction to the letters, was Eila completely turned around if she thought the jealous hurt was the kind of thing one might expect from a girlfriend rather than a best friend? The way they slept tonight, too, wasn’t that more of a thing for lovers than for friends?

On that hesitantly hopeful note Eila finally fell asleep, in the early morning hours, officially ending her long and tumultuous day.

When she woke up again she was groggy with lack of sleep, the morning call had already sounded so there was no time to talk, and of course they discovered that in everything that happened, Sanya’s clothes had been left behind in Miyafuji’s room.

Eila hurried to get herself ready and fetch Sanya’s clothes before they were expected at breakfast, which to her great and probably disproportionate joy this time turned out to be a hearty Britannian breakfast. She came alive from her groggy state to pile both her own and Sanya’s plate high with food, gobbling down her own at an alarming rate and causing several people around the table to stare at her, some with astonishment and a few with a touch of sheepish guilt. Afterwards Eila and Sanya both fell asleep on the couch in the living area while waiting for their superior officers to come in and give them the training schedule for the day.

It wasn’t until somewhat later that day that Eila finally had the opportunity to sit down with Sanya and do her best to get them to talk about the previous night. It was awkward for her and she didn’t really know what to say, something not exactly made easier by their friends flitting by every time she thought them alone, so in the end Eila simply tossed the letters on a small table out of the way and urged Sanya to sit down.

Just seeing the letters made the younger girl’s expression darken, so Eila took her hand and tried to smile a little as she sorted them into two piles. The ones from her family and friends she put to the side as those weren’t really the problem, at least she didn’t see how they could be.

“Sanya,” She began gently, trying to be as soothing as possible while not letting her own lingering embarrassment show. “since we didn’t really talk about it last night I haven’t explained about this yet, and I was hoping you might let me do that now. Will you hear me out?”

Green eyes lifted from their attempt to glare the decorated letters aflame and softened as they met Eila’s own. As usual Sanya did not say much, but the look in her eyes and the tiny nod that accompanied it was answer enough to someone that knew her as well as Eila did.

“Well, um, back when I was in my old squadron... long before you and I met... I guess I was a little more like Hartmann, or Miyafuji.” She had never been this ashamed of how she behaved back then, and never regretted it quite this much. She couldn’t keep looking Sanya in the eye.

“I flirted around, a lot. Dated a couple of times too, though nothing serious. It was just... I just...” She cleared her throat awkwardly. “It was meant to be fun, and despite that I was making a name for myself as a soldier I was just too much of a kid to even think that anyone might take me seriously.”

“Girls... liked me. Or they liked the uniform, rather, and I knew it. I certainly never thought anyone would remember me once I walked out of a room, much less write me letters. My superiors at the time were kind of indulgent about the way I and a lot of the others in the squadron behaved, and by the time I got my act together I was shipped over here.”

“I’ve tried to tell the ones that write to me that I’m not interested, and, as politely as I could, asked them not to write to me anymore. Still the letters come.” Eila could tell she was blushing fairly strongly by now, but there was nothing she could do about it. She kept her eyes fixed on the tabletop directly in front of her. “I, uh, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to find out about it. I was afraid that once you knew, you wouldn’t want to be around me anymore.”

It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to say, but somehow Eila just couldn’t find the words to tell Sanya how deadly afraid she had been that the younger girl would think less of her, or even dislike her if she were to find out how Eila had used to behave. To her horror the delicate hand slipped away from her own, and Eila felt her heart quietly break. Tears stung her eyes but she tried very hard not to let them fall.

Mentally Eila prepared for something, she wasn’t sure of what exactly, just that Sanya would say it and it would hurt more than anything. Instead a pair of hands reached up to cup her face, one of them feeling cool against her cheek. Instinctively Eila closed her eyes and leaned into them.

“So red.” Sanya’s voice was soft and affectionate, and it drew Eila’s eyes back to her. “Eila’s face has gone so red.” Gentle hands stroke Eila’s cheeks and discreetly wiped away a building tear.

They simply looked at each other in silence for a moment, Eila so transfixed by the girl in front of her little else remained in her mind.

“Did... did you... like them, Eila?” Confidence left those green eyes Eila was so mesmerized by, and sadness came over them as they looked away. “Did you... love... them?”

“Who?” Eila dimly asked, too absorbed in staring dreamily at the other girl to really have full use of her faculties. After a moment she shook herself back to the conversation. “Wait, what? L-love? As in – NO! No. I never did.”

“...Really?”

“Yes, really! I meant it when I said that I didn’t know who some of the girls that had written to me were.” Eila fidgeted guiltily. “I keep telling people that I’m not interested but they keep writing anyway.”

A hand slipped back into hers and Eila grasped it gratefully. “I’ve been trying to come up with something to convince them, so I was thinking I’d tell them I have a girlfriend now, and see if that works.”

Something changed in Sanya’s expression, somehow looking even softer and more shy than usual as a light dusting of pink spread across her face. Eila, charmed at the sight and smiling now that it seemed that the things she had worried about weren’t going to turn out that bad at all, sheepishly scratched at the back of her head. “They probably wouldn’t believe me though.”

Sanya, without letting go of Eila’s hand, silently shuffled her chair closer to Eila’s.

“What if you sent them a picture of you and your girlfriend? Wouldn’t that convince them?” A voice spoke up from further inside the room, causing Eila to shoot to her feet while blushing furiously. Erica Hartmann smiled disarmingly from her prone position on the couch not far away, while behind her Miyafuji and Lynette looked sheepish and embarrassed, respectively.

“You! How long have you been here?!”

Hartmann looked a little puzzled at that. “Me? For nearly all of it, I think. Didn’t you see me come in?”

“Lynne-chan and I have been here for a while too.” Miyafuji laughed a bit awkwardly while Lynette twirled her fingers and blushed even more. “We didn’t want to interrupt though.”

Eila was about to explode at all three of them in sheer mortification when a pale hand tugged at her sleeve. As she met Sanya’s eyes Eila’s anger was derailed and she found herself merely blinking with a touch of confusion. Sanya turned towards Hartmann and tilted her head slightly in question.

“How would a photograph work?”

“Well, I don’t know... if she posed all cuddled up and couple-like with someone and was convincing about it, those other people might give up finally. It worked when I posed as Shirley’s girlfriend for some pictures she sent back to Liberion to get rid of some persistent admirers.” Hartmann rolled over on her stomach and grinned at Sanya. “Oh, and it wasn’t in a photo but I’ve had Trude pose as my girlfriend a couple of times in the past, to get rid of some pesky people. It worked.”

The carefree expression shifted for a moment as Hartmann seemed to think of something, then cleared as she continued as happily as before. “Don’t mention that to Trude though, she never knew about it.”

“Where will we get a camera?” Miyafuji sounded far too enthusiastic about it, Eila thought, but at least she was more than willing to help out. “And who will pose with Eila-san?”