Patching Her Up 7: Spin

STRIKE WITCHES-fanfic. When Trude gets injured it leads to some unexpected discoveries on Minna’s part.
(Minna/Trude)


This is the seventh installment in my series of short stories called "Patching Her Up".

Read Patching Her Up 7: Spin

Disclaimer: All things Strike Witches belong to Gonzo and a bunch of others, though I’m sure I’m not hurting anything by borrowing them for a bit.

My “Patching Her Up” series is just a series of short stories unrelated to one another, from different fandoms, that have a certain theme in common. Each part is a stand-alone.






Patching Her Up 7: Spin
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson







When it had happened, Gertrud Barkhorn had not let the slightest wince or grunt escape her to reveal to those around her that something was wrong. The tall and stoic young woman had taken the blow, and the pain, with the same determination she applied to everything in her life. That the damage in question was not caused by the enemy, at least not directly, but by her younger comrades was doubly unfortunate, as it made her all the more reluctant to admit injury.

At least she had saved Lynette from crashing, which, given that they had been high over land rather than ocean at the time, had most likely spared the girl serious injury or even her life.

It wasn’t until they returned to base, another threat averted and another enemy downed by the 501st, that Minna realized something was amiss with her old friend. As the others made quick work of getting out of their Strikers to allow the mechanics care for their gear, Gertrud remained in hers. Dark eyes met Minna’s, and the twitch of expression that crossed them sent a message of alarm to the redhead.

She had shooed everyone but Mio out of the hangar, attempting to not let her anxiety show, when Gertrud had quietly requested that Yoshika remain behind with them.

Gertrud had been unable to get out of her Strikers on her own, and once they got them off her it was clear why. Her left leg was black and hung at an angle that made it quite clear that it was broken.

Minna had for that initial moment been too horrified to do anything but stand there, with Gertrud’s arm slung across her shoulders and the taller girl’s weight resting on her, while Mio shouted for medical personnel. Young Yoshika had been quick to react, with a gasp she had hurried to apply her own massive, if not entirely fine-tuned, healing power to the damage. In no time Gertrud had been taken away to the medical wing to be worked on by doctors and witches with healing abilities.

It was very fortunate that they had such good medical care, or an injury like Gertrud’s could have meant losing the use of the damaged leg. Instead she was healed up fairly expediently, with no long-term consequences, a gift not only to Gertrud and those that loved her, but to the world as well. Gertrud Barkhorn was, after all, one of the top ranking witches in active duty, her ability to take out the enemy bar none.

Short term though Gertrud was grounded, only for two weeks but still something that did not sit well with the Karlsland soldier. Because her leg was weakened and wobbly – not to mention quite tender – for a time afterwards, she would be forced to wear a bracing bandage until her leg was stronger. The doctors calculated that with the work done and the overall natural strength, physical condition and healing rate Gertrud had, it would take at least two weeks until she was in fighting form again.

Minna, knowing her friend’s stubbornness, thought it would take a week at most.

She knew she would have to browbeat the other woman into allowing herself to heal, and that she didn’t dare leave Gertrud out of her sight lest the stubborn brunette would find a way to get to her Strikers and take to the skies. For that reason she remained vigilant, and kept a very close eye on Gertrud after the incident.

Or at least that was what Minna told herself.

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Three days after the injury Minna and Trude were in Trude’s room, Minna there to help remove soaked bandages and reapply the brace as the other girl had been caught outside in the rain and not accepted help to get inside quickly.

Brown eyes had watched Minna apprehensively as she had ushered Trude inside her room, helped her out of the wet clothes and into a fresh uniform. The look turned increasingly perturbed as Minna knelt on the floor beside the bed and took care of reapplying the splint and the bandages.

Finally Trude could take no more silence. “Aren’t you going to yell at me? Just get it over with.”

Privately Minna had been enjoying the cute pout that she didn’t get to see nearly enough of, and had thought Trude’s obvious worry had been punishment enough. “Hmm? Am I supposed to yell at you?”

“Yes, well, I mean, aren’t you?” Trude sounded unsure, and continued in a subdued voice. “I rather expected you to want to hit me after what happened, so...” She trailed off, glancing at Minna as if to gauge her reaction.

The amusement faded and gave way for regret, and perhaps a little hurt at the reaction. Yes, Minna regretted the one time she had slapped Trude if the brunette was going to fear that kind of behaviour from her from now on, but at the time Minna had been hysterical, nearly out of her mind with worry and fear. They could have lost Trude that day. She could have lost her... and Minna never wanted to lose a loved one again.

“No, of course not.” Minna looked up at Gertrud and allowed her emotions to show in her eyes. “I would never hurt you deliberately, you must know that.” She sighed a bit mournfully. “What happened that day was...”

Warm fingers brushing against her lips stopped her mid-sentence. Minna blinked and flushed in surprise.

Yes... surprise. That the brief touch felt curiously electric had nothing to do with it.

“I know.” Trude, leaning back after having succeeded in silencing Minna, looked as serious as ever. “Honestly, I do, and I deserved it then, needed it even. I just thought that maybe you felt what happened the other day was another display of...” She grimaced, displeased with herself. “reckless negligence, unbefitting a soldier of Karlsland.”

“Oh Trude. As if you could ever do anything ‘unbefitting a soldier’.” The sigh this time was warm, affectionate, as was the little kiss Minna bestowed a bandaged knee with on an impulse. She wasn’t sure which one of them was the more stunned by the action, she herself or the suddenly deeply blushing young woman in front of her. She continued speaking, hoping Trude would let it go without asking anything. “You were heroic the other day, saving someone. It wasn’t the same thing at all, although yes you did scare and worry me then too.”

“You should have told me you were injured, but you know that.” A pointed look. “And you should definitely take better care of yourself, not let your stubborn pride get in the way of healing.”

Trude accepted the gentle rebuke with a slight nod. “I’m fine now, though. I don’t really need the brace.”

“It takes more than a little bump to get rid of me.” She tried to joke to put Minna at ease. The smile vanished as she realized that the red eyes before her were gleaming with what looked like unshed tears.

She panicked.

“No, really! I’m fine!” Trude blurted out and scrambled to her feet, reaching down to awkwardly pull her old friend to her feet. “I was only unsteady at first, but now I’m fine.”

It was the small sniff and the unconscious gesture, one that looked as if she meant to wipe at averted eyes with one delicate hand, that snapped Trude’s self-control.

Suddenly she grabbed the other woman and scooped her up into her arms while leaping, hopping and spinning across the room. “See? I’m just fine.”

Minna, having reacted with a startled yelp and then to throw her arms tightly around Trude’s neck, paid no attention to the room as it swirled by. Instead she stared in wonder at the face so close to her own.

Trude was flitting around with Minna in her arms as if the redhead weighed next to nothing, yet it was clear that she was not using her abilities to augment her strength. As a soldier Minna’s training had of course increased her strength and stamina which in turn increased her weight, and to swing her around like this, in bridal style even, was quite the testament to Trude’s natural strength.

Flushing with warmth Minna admired the perfect combination of solid, taut muscle and soft, feminine curves that was her old friend. She knew that Trude considered herself to be plain and bulky, but Minna had always thought her lovely, that the strong, chiselled planes of her face bore a kind of nobility that fit well with innate nobility and stoicism of who Trude was.

Then of course there were those eyes. Those warm brown eyes that had a gentleness to them, that would reveal the at times fragile soul Minna considered herself to be one of the fortunate few to truly know.

Minna realized that her heart was beating fast and that the strong surge of heat that washed over her, emanating it seemed from somewhere in her midsection, was something she was in fact familiar with. Feeling a bit breathless and quite sure she was blushing, she stared mesmerized at Trude.

Was the room spinning or was she?

So absorbed by watching Trude and the feelings the other girl awakened in her was Minna that she didn’t realize what she was doing until she felt Trude’s soft and slightly open lips against her own. All thoughts vanished and some deeply buried instinct took over.

While Trude let out a muffled yelp of surprise and started flailing, Minna wrapped her arms tighter around Trude’s neck and deepened the kiss. She didn’t even notice when they stumbled around... and fell.

The impact of teeth against teeth wasn’t painful, exactly, but it brought Minna back to her senses.

She found herself draped over Trude, arms pinned underneath the other girl’s back as the two of them lay across the foot of Trude’s bed. Wide brown eyes stared up at her, stunned, and Minna realized with chagrin what she had done, and to whom.

They stared at one another in silence for a long moment, blushing. Then finally Minna gasped and tried to move.

“Your leg!” She tried to get up but was held in place not only by her own arms being pinned underneath them, but also by Trude’s embrace. “Oh Trude, does it hurt? Should I get a doctor?”

Trude had to clear her throat a few times before she managed something other than an awkward croaking, but managed to shake her head clearly enough. “N-no, I didn’t hit it on anything, and it doesn’t hurt.” Her eyes darted to meet Minna’s and the away again. “I think I’m almost fully recovered, really.”

Another silent moment, in which Minna tried to catch Trude’s gaze and Trude avoided her.

“Are... you sure I’m not hurting you?” Minna asked quietly, allowing her body to relax against Trude’s. “You don’t want me to move?”

The brunette blushed even darker. “N-no, you’re not hurting...” She trailed off, and suddenly an expression of regret and sadness floated past before being hidden by something a bit apologetic. “But you should probably get up, since you got the wrong soldier and all.”

Trude’s arms disappeared from around Minna who missed them instantly. Carefully she eased one hand free from underneath them, to gently brush some hair out of wide and sorrowful brown eyes.

“No.” She smiled affectionately down at the woman still pinned under her. “I got the right soldier at long last.” A light caress of a jawline that jumped slightly at the touch. “But that doesn’t mean that I have the right to... throw myself at her.”

“Literally.” She added wryly, and waited.

For a long moment Trude simply blinked at her without saying anything, but then finally a pair of hands came back up to hesitantly grasp Minnas waist.

“The right one?” The quiet question was hopeful and perhaps just a slight bit needy.

“Absolutely. The right one.” Minna assured with a smile, surprising even herself with how certain she was of this. Mere hours ago this would not have crossed her mind. Mere hours ago she hadn’t realized the true depth of her emotions where Trude was involved. “If that’s alright with you?”

The nodding was shy but enthusiastic.

“But Minna, aren’t you and...”

“There is no-one else.” Minna cut in firmly and honestly. She didn’t want there to be any doubt. “There are only you... if you want to.”

The reply came not in words, but in a sweet smile and such a loving expression in dark eyes that it was Minna’s turn to feel bashful. She wet her lips and caught the glance that immediately zeroed in on them.

With a wicked little grin she leaned in as if to kiss Trude, slowly, only to veer off at the last moment and lean down to whisper into her ear.

The words were in their native tongue, so rarely used at their base, and they were spoken so closely to Trude’s ear that Minna’s lips lightly brushed against it. They were not poetry, but honest and heartfelt, and spoken in such a sultry voice that they made Trude shiver and gasp in reaction.

Finally Minna returned to Trude’s lips, and she kissed her.

It was slow and poignant, but it was not the sweet and careful kiss of a young lover unsure of herself. It was the needy, hungry and deeply emotional kiss of a woman who had known love before, who had loved and lost and knew to cherish this second chance and waste nothing. While herself inexperienced in these matters, Trude was only too willing to follow Minna’s pace.

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Gertrud Barkhorn would end up straining her almost-but-not-quite healed leg mysteriously, and was forced to endure two full weeks of recuperation while more or less immobile to not put any further strain on her leg. The recuperation came with its very own private nurse in Minna, who had taken the blame for Gertrud’s relapse but would not say how or why, which in the end might not have been the most restful of arrangements.

She was eventually declared healthy, after an incident where Erica commented at length on their commanding officer’s fascinating and painfully obvious new hobby of bending over in various positions while in Gertrud’s line of sight, and of Gertrud’s even more blatantly obvious interest and appreciation of said new hobby. The whole thing ended in a chase over the entirety of the base, during which Gertrud proved herself to be fully fit... and the bandages did not survive the exercise.

The private celebration that took place in Gertrud’s room that night was such that the following morning Minna would be confronted by several bleary-eyed members of the squadron, demanding in no uncertain terms that a shopping trip would be undertaken post-haste... and that earplugs would be bought.

Lots and lots of earplugs.