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
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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?”

AQUALUNG OF LOVE pt1

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 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
-----------------------------------------------------------
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.

Airplane of Lust pt2 END

STRIKE WITCHES-fanfic. Minna finds herself suddenly wrestling an uncharacteristic bout of intense lusting, and it is not towards the person she would have thought.
The final chapter.
(Minna/Gertrude, one-sided Minna/Mio, Mio/Yoshika)

Read AIRPLANE OF LUST pt2 END

Disclaimer in pt 1.




AIRPLANE OF LUST pt 2 END
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson





Minna couldn't decide whether to glare at Mio or just laugh hysterically. She sighed and did neither, unconsciously pouting reproachfully at the other woman that just stood there, all clueless and normal. Mio didn't even look impatient, she just stood there waiting.

'I am having inappropriate and lustful thoughts concerning one of the young women under my command' was what Minna meant to say, albeit somewhat reluctantly. In a move she really should have expected given how the day had gone so far, her brain short-circuited and overtook her mouth, and out spilled just about everything in one lengthy and scrambled mess.

At first Mio looked surprised. Then as Minna rambled on, the older woman blinked. Finally, once Minna had run out of words and merely lay back on her desk, moaning internally, Mio scratched at the back of her neck. She did not, however, laugh. It was always something.

"So. You are telling me you are in love with... ?" Mio began slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Trude." Minna's response was quick and instinctive, and it made her blush as she had not even considered the possibility that what she felt was more than merely lust yet. She was just so grateful that during that uncontrolled drivel she had somehow managed to keep both Mio's and Gertrude's names omitted that she had given the first response that came to mind.

"Ah, Barkhorn." Mio nodded with an air of approval. "She is a good woman, a strong, capable soldier, and loyal. A good choice." Minna wanted to point out that choice did not really factor into it, although she agreed with Mio's assessment of Trude's qualities. "I don't see why you being her commanding officer should be an obstacle."

"What is the problem?"

"What is the problem?!" Minna's mouth worked for a moment without actually managing to produce any sound out of sheer outrage. How could Mio be so flippant about her problem? "Everything is!" With some effort she calmed herself down. "Where would you like me to start? We're both female, I am her commanding officer, and even if the first two weren't a problem she is just too young. I am also her friend, a member of her family, and that makes me the last person that should think of her this way. It just isn't right."

Mio tilted her head slightly, still without the slightest trace of judgement in her voice or expression. "Is that all?"

Minna couldn't help but chuckle briefly. "That wasn't enough? Give me some time and I'll make you a list."

They shared an oddly exasperated smile at that, before Mio frowned a little and turned towards the windows.

"You... wanted my... advice? Is that right?" That the normally so straightforward Mio would speak so hesitantly was greatly disconcerting, but Minna dared not interrupt. Despite the wording Mio wasn't really asking a question, it was rather a lead-in for her to give voice to whatever she was thinking.

"I think you should speak to her. Your situation is not nearly as bleak as you seem to think it is."

Minna wasn't entirely sure whether or not she had just been insulted by her friend, and wanted to say so, but the pensive expression on Mio's face as she gazed out the window stopped her. Usually Mio did not do pensive.

"You are very fortunate." The words were barely more than a whisper. "Barkhorn is a good and serious person, even should she not reciprocate your feelings she would never hold them against you or think less of you for it."

"I don't think your case is that much without hope though. It is rather obvious that she already holds you dear, and she doesn't seem the type to dismiss you out of hand. She also knows who she is and what she wants well enough that whatever answer you receive will be a true one, one that she will stand by. Loyalty is another of her foremost traits, so if the two of you do become involved, it is doubtful she would ever..." Mio sighed. "... stray."

"Don't wait and hesitate so long in telling her that whatever chance you had is..." Something passed over Mio's expression, causing Minna to sit up straighter in surprise. "... just gone."

What was this? Mio the oblivious, speaking about lost chances at love? Minna felt her face heat up and was distantly grateful that the room was not lit. Could she have been wrong about Mio?

"You... It sounds like you are speaking from experience." Minna carefully got up and eased around the edge of the desk, leaning against it while facing Mio. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It is just a situation somewhat more complicated and hopeless than your own." Mio smiled slightly, but it was a tight expression that felt altogether false. "Let's just say I had the chance once to speak up but did not, thinking it was not yet the right time to, and before I knew it someone else had caught her eye."

Minna felt a bit dizzy. It couldn't be her that Mio was referring to, could it? No, she was beginning to realize that she was more or less over her long infatuation for Mio, it would be the ultimate cruel joke of destiny to have Mio express romantic interest for her now. She couldn't be that unlucky... could she?

"'She'... is a fellow witch, right?" When would Mio of all people ever have had the time to meet anyone outside of the service, after all? "It isn't Perrine, is it?"

Minna couldn't quite keep the distaste from her voice as she said it. Over Mio or not, if it turned out that Perrine was the one Mio was unhappily in love with Minna would just have to go out and shoot herself. The end.

"Perrine?" Mio's wide-eyed shock was gratifying to see. "Why on earth would I... Perrine?"

It was probably inappropriate to grin, but Minna couldn't help herself. Apparently her expression made Mio think Minna had been trying to joke to put her at ease, because her expression lightened as well, a small but genuine smile appearing. "No reason."

"Honestly." Mio shook her head, still smiling a little. "It is someone I have loved for a very long time. It doesn't matter, it would have been utterly inappropriate anyway."

"Since you seem to think that Trude and I would not be as inappropriate as I do, that rather rules out both her and myself." Again Mio looked startled at the suggestion, but Minna tried not to take offense. "Honestly, my guess would have been Miyafuji, but when you say... that..."

She trailed off, blinking. "Miyafuji?" A slight but decisive nod accompanied the very guilty look Minna's words had caused. "But... you said 'for a very long time', and..."

"I loved her long before we ever met, ever since I was a small girl and she was a child."

"Wait." Minna pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know you practically grew up with Dr. Miyafuji, but I also know that our Miyafuji was in Fuso for all that time, separated from her father. There's no way the two of you could have had any contact back then."

"We didn't. Dr Miyafuji spoke of her often and with great enthusiasm... as I said it is complicated." Mio sighed again. "It doesn't matter anyway. Even if there had not been so many years between us and I had not been her mentor and teacher, I... I am not what she wants."

Minna grimaced slightly in sympathy, she understood well why Mio felt depressed thinking about it all. Young Miyafuji was a walking teenage hormone bomb, eagerly and excessively chasing the latest bouncing chest that passed in her line of sight. She wasn't a bad person by any means, just young and confused, and far too easily ruled by those raging hormones. It was not too uncommon a thing for witches, probably because they were all thrown out into the frontlines of war at the onset of those difficult hormone-laden years when youngsters were supposed to discover themselves.

Little over a year ago Erica had been the same way, Minna could not remember how many times Trude had been forced to yank Erica out of the bed of some civilian girl, while Minna herself tried to appease the angry father, boyfriend or, on one or two occasions, husband. The base still occasionally received love-letters from Suomus for Eila, and Shirley's arrival had caused a massive upheaval at the time as well. But to be in love with someone afflicted by this 'young witch' malady? No, Minna certainly did not envy that.

Remembering her own recent bout of rampant lusting, Minna felt faintly grateful that if nothing else at least the focus of her currently quite raging hormones was one person.

Wordlessly she hugged Mio, knowing there was little she could say to make things better. She will outgrow it? Mio already knew that, she'd seen it before too, but that didn't make it any easier to bear, not any more likely that Miyafuji would come out on the other side of it reciprocating Mio's feelings, or even single at all for that matter. That she should give up, let it go, and that there would be other women out there that would love her friend back? No, certainly not, she was not that callous nor would she be the one to make Mio's life more awkward by making her notice her stalkers. She had no advice to give, but perhaps just being there, being a friend Mio could talk to, would be enough.

"You win. Your situation is a tiny bit more complicated than mine." Minna said softly after stepping out of the long hug. "I won't complain any more." She winked, trying for a lighter air. "Shall we get back to work?"

Mio nodded but looked slightly amused as she made for the door. "You can complain all you like, that's fine. But at least consider doing something about it as well."

She stopped in the doorway, giving Minna a raised eyebrow over the shoulder. "But you know, in my case there is an age difference of five years." A single brown eye had Minna pinned to the spot. "I don't know if it is something you have come up with as an excuse, or as self-defence, in which case I am sorry for mentioning it, but... you seem to have forgotten that you and Barkhorn are the same age."

With that Mio was gone, leaving a stunned Minna to stare unseeing at the empty doorway.

The same age? Minna started thinking hard about it. Well, it was true that Gertrude was younger than Minna herself, but the age difference measured in months rather than years. Why had she held Trude to be Erica's age all this time?

That made it a tiny bit better, didn't it? She was still lusting mindlessly over a close friend, but at least that friend was an adult as well. Compared to how Miyafuji had just turned fifteen a short while ago... now that must feel practically criminal to even consider, and for someone as strict and proper as Mio? She winced once more with sympathy.

Very well. Talking to Mio had been a little more helpful than she had imagined, while she did not exactly know what to do about things at least she felt a little less like panicking mindlessly which was no small improvement. Unfortunately she had not come to any conclusion yet, and it was true that she needed to get back to work. The war did not stop simply because she needed some time to get her affairs in order, Minna told herself sternly and walked over to her desk, intending to go over her schedule.

She had just gotten properly started, mentally making a note that she needed to go intimidate the boys in maintenance because they were slacking off with their reports again, when there was a brisk knock on her door. Absently she gave permission to enter, quickly leafing through several sheets before looking up to see who had come in.

"Do you have a moment?" Gertrude, all crisp and pressed and spotless as usual, only glanced at her briefly before looking away. Minna's blush made an instant reappearance.

"Ahem. Yes. Yes of course." Clearing her throat discreetly because her voice had gone embarrassingly squeaky suddenly, Minna tried to will her face to stop heating. "What is on your mind, Trude?"

A warm wave of fondness came over her as she watched the tall girl fidget and dark eyes wander just about everywhere in the room except towards Minna herself. Sweet, precious and lovable Trude, stubborn to a fault and loudly so when she thought herself in the right, but surprisingly shy deep down.

"Is there, ah..." Gertrude straightened her posture and tucked both arms behind her back. It was adorable. "Is everything alright, Minna?"

"I'm fine." Minna smiled, a little surprised at how much she really wanted to brush the bangs from out of Trude's eyes. "Were you worried? I know I've been acting strange lately, and I apologize. There is just something on my mind."

From the frowning and worried expression she was faced with, Trude was not nearly placated by such a brief explanation. So Minna tried again, and this time her voice was unconsciously softer when she spoke.

"It is something I need to work out for myself. It might make me act a bit silly sometimes, but I promise it is nothing bad or related to the war."

"Have I... done something to upset you?"

"What? No!" Minna hurried around the desk towards her friend. "What makes you think... No, you haven't done anything."

"But I have." Trude ducked her head as Minna reached her, once more avoiding eye contact. "I have angered you, or made you disappointed in me. You avoid me and can't even stand to look at me. You don't do it with the others, just me, so I must have done something."

"Won't you tell me what I did? Won't you let me make it better?"

"Oh Trude, no!" Minna gasped and impulsively hugged the other girl. "You haven't done anything wrong!"

"I know it is not work-related. You wouldn't fail to decide a punishment for me if that was the case, not that I can think of anything that would call for it now. So that means it has to be personal."

"Listen to me." Minna stepped back just enough to be able to reach up to cup Trude's face with both hands, gently urging the other girl to look her in the eye. "It isn't you, and I'm not angry with you or disappointed in any way. I am the one with a problem, and I've acted badly because of it."

"I, that is, the reason..." Dark brown eyes looked at her expectantly and Minna found herself utterly unable to think looking into them. "I..."

She never consciously decided to reach up and capture Trude in a kiss, but as her mind blanked out her body simply took over. The kiss was sweeter than anything she would have dared to let herself imagine, and Trude's lips were so soft and warm... and unfortunately utterly still and unresponsive.

Coming back to herself Minna hurriedly let go of Trude and stepped back, no longer caring if her face was on fire or if she felt decidedly dizzy. She was worried how Trude would react but she was afraid to see exactly how much damage she had done. When the silence dragged on she had to will herself to speak.

"Well," She said weakly, with a touch of tired irony in her voice. "that is my problem. Didn't quite intend to let you know about it this way though."

"I'm not Major Sakamoto." Trude said very quietly after another moment of silence. Looking up Minna saw the sad expression she wore and felt her own heart clench in miserable reaction.

"Of course not." Minna's words held gentle conviction, hoping Trude would believe her. "I wouldn't have kissed you if you were."

Brown eyes widened in surprise and disbelief, and Minna ruefully regretted how much a fool she must have made out of herself over Mio all this time. "I think you know how very dear Mio is to me, but I swear that I have never nor would I ever try to kiss her. There is only one person I find myself wanting to kiss."

"Really?" The shy question was spoken quietly but with an undeniable touch of longing, and hearing it made Minna feel decidedly more optimistic.

"Yes. It is the same person who causes me to lose control over my actions lately." Her smile turned downright flirtatious. "I'd love to prove it to you better, but you know what they say... not before the first date."

"D-date? You want a date... with me?"

"Very much so." Giving in to her urge Minna reached up to brush gently at Trude's hair. "But only if you think you might like to go on one with me as well. I won't think anything less of you if you say no, just as I sincerely hope you won't think any less of me for feeling this way."

While not verbal, Trude's wide-eyed and enthusiastic nodding was more than answer enough. The sight of the other girl's head bobbing excessively up and down like just once or twice would not have been enough was too cute, and Minna felt her heart lighten at the sight.

"Yes?" She smiled, feeling a bubbling of happy excitement inside. "We won't have any time off for a while, so I'm afraid we can't go anywhere for a date just yet. How does you, me, my room, dinner and music sound for now?"

"Tonight?" Trude sounded so hopeful. "Barring Neuroi attack, of course."

"Of course." Minna agreed a tad more cheerfully than anything that had the name Neuroi attached to it called for, but she didn't care about that for this one moment in time. "That means that we will have to go back to work now, though, otherwise it will be a very late dinner."

Already she was thinking of how much of her schedule she could rope Mio into taking on, just so that they'd free up the evening. Mio would be understanding about it, although she would probably make her amusement over Minna's premature whining quite clear. Ah well, which one of them was having a date with a beautiful woman? Mio could smirk all she wanted.

Long, strong arms wrapped around her and pulled Minna into a sudden hug that was just a tiny bit shy of crushing. After the initial moment of surprise Minna just melted. It was everything she had dreamt of the night before, everything she had longed for. The warmth, the scent, the feeling of security, of rightness. Sighing a little she cuddled closer, content.

The sensation of lips very close to her ear made her shiver, before she even realized that Trude was whispering her name.

"I have loved you for so very long, Minna."

Before she could react Minna found herself lifted slightly onto her toes and rather thoroughly and passionately kissed. The kissing went on until Minna was completely out of breath, weak in the knees and leaning against the doorway.

Trude, blushing prettily as she backed out of the room, cleared her throat a little and nodded with an awkward approximation of her usual briskness. "Tonight, then." Then, with a big smile, she spun around and sprinted down the hallway.

Behind her Minna, still sagging against the doorframe, stared after Trude while getting her bearings back. She chuckled softly to herself before straightening and turning back to her desk to face her duties, sparing a few final thoughts to the preparations for her date.

She needed candles, and to make a few requests to the kitchen. There was also that bottle of wine that she had saved for a special occasion... and perhaps that green dress hidden in her closet, she doubted Trude had ever seen her wear it before. Minna spared a glance out the window.

Truly, the world could change in just the span of a day or two. How rare it was when it did for the better.

Airplane of Lust pt1

STRIKE WITCHES-fanfic. Minna finds herself suddenly wrestling an uncharacteristic bout of intense lusting, and it is not towards the person she would have thought.
Continues in part 2.
(Minna/Gertrude, one-sided Minna/Mio, Mio/Yoshika)

Read AIRPLANE OF LUST 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. Also, this is written before I’ve seen anything from season 2.

Written because my beloved came up with a bunch of funny expressions on the theme of ”train of thought”, ”airplane of lust” being one of them.




AIRPLANE OF LUST pt1
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson





It was not as if she had never been in love before, or never felt desire for anyone. On the contrary, despite her youth Minna Dietlinde Wilcke had once been planning her wedding and her future together with the only man she had ever loved.

War got in the way, of course, or destiny, or death. Either way she was made a widow long before she ever had the chance to become a bride, and although that grief had been crippling for so long, the fact remained that she had once loved and been loved in return.

Then of course there was Mio, stoic, beautiful and utterly clueless Sakamoto Mio. A friend that became so much more while Minna was not looking, her partner, her confidante, her most trusted support. The solid and staid, if sometimes strict, father-figure despite her gender to go along with Minna’s benevolent maternal figure for the younger girls in their care.

It had hit her hard once, the realization that she felt far more than simply friendship towards the Fuso beauty, and it had taken a long time to come to terms with her emotions. In the end though Minna was comfortable with mooning over Mio, despite that it was occasionally disheartening how clueless the older woman was, there was something comforting and safe about it too. Considering she was far from the only woman around to have fallen for the noble and dedicated warrior, Minna chalked it up to one of those unavoidable things in life, and tried to find some amusement in her situation.

And amusement there was to be had, often when she least expected it. Just watching Perrine run herself ragged chasing Mio’s tail while the older was completely oblivious was often quite amusing, not to mention the more perverse side of herself that had enjoyed putting the sharp-tongued and foul-tempered blonde in her place early on. While Perrine might bristle and snarl at anyone that came near Mio, the younger girl would not dare to breathe a contrary word to Minna.

Conversely Minna felt the occasional pang of sympathy for young Miyafuji who received the brunt of Perrine’s nastiness ever since her arrival in the squadron, but as long as it did not interfere with their performance Minna would not get involved. Mio’s young protégé seemed strong enough to stand up for herself against Perrine’s abuse, and to be honest... Mio’s attention to the girl occasionally smarted even for Minna herself, even if it was a dull and distant thing.

Unlike Perrine Minna knew well and without a doubt that Mio loved her dearly. This was not in question, and Minna was often the recipient of surprising moments of tender care from her friend, something she strived to give back in kind as often as she dared.

But it was the love of a best friend, a family member, or even – it rankled Minna to admit it, but she would not lie to herself – the love of a sister. Mio remained as ever ignorant to how she affected the women around her, and humbled by the other girl’s devotion Minna was grateful for this. As long as Mio looked upon her with the eyes of a friend or family member, Minna would rather she not find out that Minna herself would do otherwise.

This was the situation, and so Minna was no stranger to love. Her situation might have been a mess, but it was her mess and it was comfortable this way, safe this way. True, it did not keep her warm at night, and alone in the darkness she certainly yearned for something or someone. For a pair of arms to hold her safe, or just for a warm place to rest her head after long days of combat and struggle.

But you could not lose what you did not have, and that was a good thing. Minna had already lived through a loss so devastating she still felt herself bleed a little inside remembering, and swore she would never go through that again.

So how in light of all this could she have been caught so unawares?

It had started with something small and commonplace. She had simply walked into Gertrude’s room one early morning, as the door had been open and she had done the same many times before. In fact she had visited both of her younger countrymen in their rooms at all kinds of hours, door open or not, in the past, they were all close enough that it was no problem.

She had certainly seen Gertrude go through her morning workout routine before on many occasions, it was hardly the first time she just leaned against the wall and waited for her friend to finish up.

So why this time was it so different? Why did she suddenly notice the strong and rippling musculature of her friend’s arms and back, and why did she find herself admiring how the relief of well-developed muscles in motion created interesting dips and curves on smooth skin. Suddenly fascinated by the slight sheen of sweat clinging to that skin, Minna was only dimly aware that her mouth had gone completely dry and her breathing changed.

Gertrude continued her routine, either unaware of her rapt audience or simply not bothered by it. Minna never had any qualms about interrupting if there was anything of urgency to say or do, so Gertrude and Erica had long ago learned that a quietly waiting Minna meant that they could finish up whatever they were doing.

Lost in the haze of her sudden fascination Minna imagined in vivid, longing detail such things as running her hands over the straining muscles of Trude’s back, or letting her fingers trail over every sculpted detail of that firm abdomen. It wasn’t until she saw one of her own hands reach out for the younger woman that Minna came back to her senses.

With a start Minna realized what she was doing, and towards whom. Blushing furiously she turned and fled the room, never noticing how the startled Gertrude fell flat on her face in surprise behind her.

Shocked and ashamed Minna ran to her room and locked the door. What was wrong with her? Was she so desperate these days that she would ogle anyone? Deeply rattled Minna tried to understand what was going on with herself, and to find a rational explanation. To begin with nothing she could come up with rang true at all, and she was only succeeding in getting more agitated.

Taking a few calming breaths she sat down next to her window and tried to centre herself. Objectively speaking Gertrude certainly was a very attractive young woman, this in itself was hardly news to Minna. All true and quite rational.

It had been a very long time for Minna, a very long time since she had... closeness with someone, perhaps she was more physically and emotionally starved for such things than she had realized? Perhaps what had just happened was merely a result of mounting frustrations from her non-situation with Mio coupled with neglect for the... baser needs of her body? That seemed reasonable too, albeit a bit embarrassing.

Was it time to push things to a definite conclusion with Mio, then?

To be honest Minna knew perfectly well what the outcome of that would be, she knew with absolute clarity that Mio did not have romantic feelings towards her, and that any confession on her part would be met with an initial dumbfounded shock, followed by awkward and careful consideration that would put a distance between them even if Mio wouldn’t mean it to. She wouldn’t gain a lover and she would lose a precious friendship. It wasn’t worth it.

Also, in truth Minna felt no compulsion to attempt a confession or even try to push for something with Mio through other means. She hadn’t felt anything of the sort for a long time, if ever, and wasn’t sure why it would now make her act weirdly towards her friends. The agitation faded, leaving in its place a tired sense of melancholy that was an old and familiar visitor.

She wasn’t the kind to make rash or impulsive decisions anyway, so she would think about this later, go over everything again and again until the answers satisfied her and reason ruled. It was just who she was. She leaned her head against the windowpane and sighed.

To her surprise she had a clear view of Mio training young Miyafuji not far away, how strange that she hadn’t noticed that before. Abandoning previous thoughts she leaned in more comfortably to watch, idly wondering if Perrine was doing the same from some bush somewhere nearby.

It made her smile, watching Mio sternly swing her practice sword while yelling orders to a Miyafuji that looked cutely ridiculous instead of the concentrated and serious air she no doubt was trying to project. Not that Mio took her anything but seriously, of course, which was one of those little kindnesses that tended to draw women towards her. Obliviousness was its own charm, Minna supposed with a wry smile. And as for herself, she would find a way to settle whatever was going on with her, preferably before she opted for Miyafuji’s method of running through life with eyes closed and hands outstretched, hoping for something to grope to fall into them.

Distractedly she noted that Mio had taken off her uniform jacket, baring arms that while not so impressively chiselled as Gertrude’s still had an inspiring muscle tone. Mio tended towards the lean build and partially hidden strength, despite a lifetime of intense training and a combat capability that was awe-inspiring. Trude on the other hand, while still slim in appearance, once her jacket came off there was no denying that this was a woman of strength. While still clothed, Gertrude gave off a lean impression similar to Mio’s, with narrow hips and shoulders that tended somewhat towards the broad, but if one looked closer... the odd thought came to Minna that one could probably bounce coins off the insides of Trude’s thighs.

Noticing that she could no longer see Mio because her breath had fogged up the glass, Minna blushed and shook herself briskly before wiping at it. Honestly, such strange thoughts to have. What was next, would she become like those rude men in maintenance, those that did not think she heard them when they made jokes about her being able to break bricks with her rear end? She needed to get a grip on this nonsense before she embarrassed herself further.

The klaxon warning for impending Neuroi attack went off then, cutting into Minna’s self-chastising. The woman and her worries was once more put aside for the soldier, the leader of others, to step up and take charge of the day. Minna ran for her command post, knowing and trusting that every single person under her command was heading for theirs, ready and waiting to follow her orders.

When she stumbled back into her room it was late at night and everyone else, even Mio and Sanya, had already gone to bed. Minna’s work was finally done for the day, and the good people of Britannia could sleep safely, saved once again by the diligent efforts of her girls.

She’d had reports to fill in, strategies and calculations to go over with Mio, and some unpleasantness to endure with men who thought they could scold, punish and impose their will and their politics on those under her command while they themselves were far away from any actual battle. It had been a full day, but what lingered in her mind as she readied herself for sleep was her encounter with Trude during their late dinner, in which Minna had spouted some awkward excuse for her swift escape that morning.

Large brown and trusting eyes had looked into hers with concern, making Minna feel like an absolute heel. Trude did not push, simply accepted the weak excuse, but clearly worried instead that something was troubling her. Dinner had let Minna dodge the question then and a busy schedule for the rest of the day had kept them apart since, but she just knew that Trude would not forget and find a moment to ask again come morning.

Trude didn’t have an easy time of showing her deeper or gentler emotions, indeed she rarely did to anyone but those closest to her, so Minna felt all the more horrible for shrugging off the other girl’s concern. Although fiercely protective of all her loved ones, if Minna was completely honest with herself Gertrude was the one in their little family she most wanted to protect. There was something so vulnerable underneath that strong surface, something that had suffered and felt loss so deeply that it made Minna wince in sympathetic understanding.

Minna might not have been able to protect Trude against the harsh realities of war, but she would have protected the girl’s gentle heart if she could have.

To instead be the person carelessly ogling her and thinking improper things about her was disconcerting to say the least, but then again... perhaps Minna was just overreacting. It wasn’t as if she had assaulted the girl. Besides, it was probably just... transference from her feelings for Mio, yes, surely that. Never mind that her thoughts from earlier that day had rather denied that supposition, a mistake was simple enough to make.

Dressed in her comfortable sleeping shirt and little else, Minna was finally ready for bed. Her thoughts would not leave her to simply fall asleep though, instead they kept circling the same dilemma. A bit exasperated with herself and finally too tired to care, Minna gave in to a little exercise of thought.

She pictured herself, dressed as she was for sleep, standing somewhere by the windows at night. It would be cold, and quiet, and she would be just a little bit tired. She focused on the details until they were sharp in her mind. Then she pictured herself leaning back slightly, into the arms of someone standing behind her.

Briefly her thoughts turned to him, even though she knew well what results that would have. The pain had dulled with time’s passing, now instead what she felt most of all was sadness, sadness that time had also stolen clarity from her memories, until she could not remember what his arms had felt like. Already her memories of him were like photographs left in the sunlight, fading gradually until little remained but the barest marker. She almost couldn’t remember his voice anymore, how long would it be until she could no longer recall his face?

Like a wisp of smoke the image left her, and she let it. She hadn’t expected much more from it anyway.

The image that she replaced him with was a familiar one, and one no longer tinged with guilt. The warmth was familiar, as was the scent and feel of the arms that embraced her... pale hands reached around to envelop her in a loving, comforting hug.

Comfort was exactly what she felt when thinking of standing in Mio’s embrace, comfort and safety. It was oh so easy to imagine Mio offering a wordless hug of support, their heads lightly touching in the easy intimacy of two people who were, when all was said and done, very close friends.

Because that was what it was, Minna realized, the comfort of a good and trusted friend. There was that small part of her that could not imagine relaxing fully, opening up completely to Mio, likely because she had been long aware of the one-sidedness of her feelings. It was an ironic thing to discover at this point in time, that not even in her imagination could Minna create a Mio that would hold her like a lover.

Perhaps that was for the best as well. The solid comfort of a very close friend was not to be underestimated. It certainly felt like a luxury.

Feeling drowsier as a result of imagining Mio, Minna was perhaps a little more careless in picturing Gertrude in her mind than she otherwise would have. Warm, strong arms wrapping around her from a body that was just that much taller than herself, brown hair that tickled across her shoulder, and a face that nuzzled sensuously into Minna’s neck just below her ear.

Gasping, Minna’s eyes snapped open, all traces of drowsiness instantly gone.

The image of herself in Minna’s mind leaned back into her lover rather wantonly, exposing more of her neck to Gertrude’s lips while strong hands found their way to naked skin...

Minna wanted to scream at herself. She couldn’t remember when she had been this aroused this quickly before, and it was from imagining a young girl – no, a woman, she couldn’t consider her a little girl anymore – a young woman placed in her care. And she wasn’t even trying to think of erotic things, her brain had apparently decided to work independently from now on.

It must all be some cruel joke by destiny.

She tried to place Mio back into the picture, replacing Trude yet repeating the actions her mind had conjured up for the brown-haired ace, but the image of Mio, stubbornly fused into her uniform jacket, laughed heartily at her and flickered away. Big, soulful brown eyes looked at her with concern and vulnerability instead, from a body scantily covered in a plain grey sports top and strategically placed darkness.

So it was true, then. She was physically attracted to Trude – and to no small amount at that. Minna sighed in defeat and squirmed, trying to calm her pounding heart while doing her best to ignore the other areas that were calling for attention. Turning on her side Minna pulled the sheets up and tried to think of other things, calming and boring things that would make her fall asleep, while she was also actively trying to ignore the sultry images of nearly naked Gertrude dancing through her mind.

She woke up calling the other woman’s name in the early light of dawn, hours before she was meant to get up. Vestiges of heated dreams featuring Gertrude clung to her sleep-fogged mind, while her body begged for attention. Vague images of the brown-haired girl’s hands and lips burned behind her eyelids, while she imagined she could almost hear her own voice echo in the early morning.

Embarrassed and at something of a loss for what to do Minna decided to just start her day early. Never had she ever had a dream like that about Mio, although the other woman featured in her dreams quite often. The most those dreams had amounted to was moonlit dancing or a romantic dinner for two, rarely even in her deepest dreams had they even kissed innocently, and that was the extent of it. Nothing at all like this.

What should she do? Minna did not know, and although she got an early start on the day she constantly found herself distracted by her thoughts, sometimes so badly that Mio seamlessly stepped in to prevent anyone from noticing.

It was an awkward thought at best, although given everything she had come to realize over the past day less so than she would have expected, but Minna needed to talk to her best friend. Whatever good it would do to speak to Mio about matters of the heart... or the libido, whichever it was... she could not say, but she surely needed to speak to someone. And in her case, ‘someone’ always amounted to Mio.

Minna had managed to dodge Gertrude several times during the morning, but as she went to tell Mio that she needed to talk to her privately, Trude caught sight of her in the hallway. Seeing the tall girl hurry towards her made Minna remember the fragments of her heated dream from that morning, and she blushed a painful red that she just knew would clash horribly with her hair. She froze and could not make herself meet Gertrude’s eyes.

Trude also froze, mid-movement with one hand halfway outstretched towards Minna, looking torn between shock and concern. Minna’s eyes snapped to that hand. Trude really had lovely hands, strong and solid-looking yet with long, graceful fingers. They were wider than her own yet still appeared slender, the nails blunt and impeccably kept, just like everything else in Gertrude’s possession. Unfortunately for Minna, while she focused on Trude’s hands in all innocence, her mind decided to focus on the kind of things those hands could do, the kind of things Minna would very much like for them to do.

The slap was ringing, and was followed very quickly by Minna holding one hand over her eyes while grabbing onto Mio with the other. Then she simply yanked her away down the hall at such speed that the stunned Gertrude would have had to run to catch up to them.

Mio was not released until the two of them had reached Minna’s office, at which point Minna simply closed the door, sank down into her desk chair, and groaned as she leaned her forehead against the surface of her desk.

A few minutes ticked by and the desk was quite cool against her burning skin while the room was comfortably cast into shadow. Minna wanted to close her eyes against the world and say no, I’m doing this day over, so anything up until this point does not count and never happened. Then Mio cleared her throat.

“You wanted to talk to me?”

Night Before The Festival

Higurashi no naku koro ni-fanfic. A few reflections from Rika as Watanagashi approaches.
(Rika/Satoko)

Read Night Before The Festival

Disclaimer: To be honest I’m not quite sure who owns the rights to all things Higurashi no naku koro ni, but it certainly isn’t me. There are spoilers in this little story in a roundabout way to two of the anime seasons, or at the least I mention one very important thing you shouldn’t know beforehand if you haven’t watched both seasons yet. The rest I’ve made up as I please.




Night Before The Festival
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson





She sat in the window, limbs indulgently splayed despite the glass in one hand and the large saké bottle loosely clutched in the other. It was foolhardy perhaps, or maybe just overly defiant, to perch so in a spot where scheming, ill-intending eyes could easily find her… but Furude Rika no longer cared whether they did or not.

Tomorrow was the Watanagashi festival. Tomorrow the gates of her personal and unendingly cycling hell would open fully… and at some point thereafter, in some way and by some hand, perhaps even her own, Furude Rika would die.

She was long since resigned to this fact. It was inevitable. It was also not tonight.

The alcohol had become a tradition of sorts; a glass or two in the dark silence of this night that tethered on the very cusp of horror. She had once taken to alcohol in the hopes of dulling the inescapable and impending pain of her fate, but whatever benefits there were to be had, had been all too brief. Staying far too inebriated to care or worry had been its own blessing for a time, and like with all else she had given this an intensely dedicated try.

It had gone so far that the consequence became Satoko’s tears, as well as a quite emotionally straining ‘intervention’ by those precious, beloved, ignorant children. The latter she could have withstood for the sake of at least somewhat less clarity before her gruesome and gory fate, but not the former. No, never the former.

So now the glass that dangled carelessly from a small hand had never been more than half-full to begin with, and this particular vice was indulged in only when Rika’s fair-haired companion was sound asleep on her nearby futon. Ahh, if only Satoko could be spared, if Satoko, this one small suffering child in all of Hinamizawa, alone could be saved… Rika would have welcomed her death with joy and gratitude then.

But it was impossible, she knew that. Had this not been the case, Rika would have ended her own life long ago, and that would truly have been the end of it.

Instead, whether her death had come by her own hand or anyone else’s, once Rika’s life had ended the village of Hinamizawa and all connected to it was headed for such a horrifying and ghastly end that death, when it inevitably came for them all, would be a saviour. For Rika was not only the last, the only, remaining member of the powerful Furude clan, priestess and keeper of the shrine of their feared and worshipped demon-god… she was Oyashiro-sama’s chosen, the deity’s avatar in flesh.

‘The Queen Carrier’ the doctors and other outsiders called her, those men and women with minds of science that knew enough of the fate of the denizens of Hinamizawa to grasp her importance, as they created scientific answers to comfort them when those same minds balked in fear at the truth of the night. The name amused her somewhat, and she indulged their folly in return for their continuous efforts on her people’s behalf.

The truth of course was that Rika alone was the life, sanity and prosperity of the village of Hinamizawa and all those that were born there. Removing her would be Hinamizawa’s doom.

And so each time her life reached its blood-riddled end, the cycle began anew. Nothing short of Rika’s survival could ever break the unendingly repeating days of this curse, and yet everything and anything else could and did happen, only to end the same… with Rika’s murder.

How many hundreds of years had she lived now, endlessly repeating the same days of June? Rika lost count long ago, although her soul felt the weight of each and every one of those accumulated years. Although her body remained that of a small child her soul was already beyond old, already ancient and tempered by the passage of so much time.

As loved and respected as Rika was to the villagers for whom she in secret suffered so much, that love was laced with a touch of fear. Although she had learned how to keep a mask of childlike innocence in place there were times when her words, or just the look in her eyes, betrayed her true age. They called her wise beyond her years, yet to be the recipient of a glance from those ancient eyes without the mask of childishness was too unnerving, too frightening, for most.

Perhaps the veiled fear also stemmed from the whispers of those that could perceive a little more, sense a little more or for some other reason were able to catch a glimpse of something in Rika’s presence. Perhaps a shadow where none should have been, or a movement just at the edge of vision even though there was nothing there.

Perhaps they heard the sound, that sound of footsteps echoing just ever so slightly out of synch with Rika’s own.

Among those beloved children that considered Rika their friend there was one with a gift of this kind, one whose soul had been touched with darkness much earlier than this repeating hell and so had earned the attention of the hidden. If a future had existed, if they had not all been so doomed, Rika would have liked to take Ryuugyuu Rena into training at the shrine, to make her a miko of Oyashiro-sama.

But the future did not exist, and so even though Rena was serious in her devotion and had both heard and seen that presence that was invisible to all but Rika herself, there was no reason to mention anything to the girl. The occasional glimmer of understanding she saw sometimes when their eyes met was to be comfort enough, heavily laced with darkness though it was.

The other children, so strong and beautiful and precious to her, she had sometimes lent thought to what their futures could have been. They were not entirely aware of it, but they had all been born to be the leaders of this village, to be her servants, her brave and trusted knights. Although she was ill equipped to show it, trapped in a small child’s body as she were, Rika loved them all with something akin to a mother’s heart on the days she still had strength. They were all of them irreplaceable, but there was one far more precious than any other.

Her Satoko. Her adorable little housewife.

Rika would call the other girl her better half if she did not know as no-one else could what it truly meant to be a joint existence, to be merged soul deep with another… creature.

Satoko never sensed the third presence in their small but happy home, Rika made sure of that. It was as always the two of them against the world, the two orphaned children that managed to live quite successfully by themselves, no adults involved, in their little house on the hill of Oyashiro-sama’s shrine. The blessed child and the cursed.

Age had tempered Rika’s frustrated urge to scream at her villagers when they ignored her Satoko, but the anger at their ignorance remained. To think that Satoko was cursed, when in fact the girl was loved by Oyashiro-sama simply because Rika loved her… no, if anyone should be feared it was Rika herself. Her people remained blissfully unaware of the devastation Rika could bring upon them, and of the danger of hardening her heart against them.

Even in the darkest hours, when the hopelessness was too much for her, Rika still loved Satoko with all her child’s heart. Sometimes it seemed like it was all that kept her going, kept her trying to break the wheel of their dark fate.

As a young girl Furude Rika had fallen in love with her best friend and eventual house-mate, and under untold hundreds of repeating years that love had remained. It had grown in strength and desperation until it was the sun, the one light to brighten Rika’s ever darkening existence, the love for this sweet dandelion child.

Although it was usually frustrating to have a child’s body when the spirit itself was old, this was one aspect that made Rika grateful for that particular consequence of her strange circumstances. As she was a child in body there could not ever be any adult urges for her, no carnal impulses to taint the love she held for the other girl. As much as she needed Satoko, it was a chaste need, and the priestess of Oyashiro-sama remained ironically, technically untouched and unkissed.

There were times when in despair and sadness Rika sought the warmth of her Satoko and she slept sharing the girl’s futon, clinging to her hand. Only once had Rika given in to a need to be closer still, and the memories of those days, as precious as they were, were their own form of punishment.

In one of the many cycling days Rika, hurting and too upset to be as careful as she should, had reached out and found that although shocked, there were warm arms open and welcoming her. Simply holding Satoko’s hand had not been enough that night, instead Rika had embraced the girl desperately, tucking their tiny, bony bodies in tight. Satoko had blushed furiously but hugged her back equally, small hands petting Rika’s hair and rubbing her back until they fell asleep this way.

Rika had then found that her falling in love had not been a one-sided thing, although the passing years made their feelings vastly different in strength and measure. It almost drove her to tears still, merely remembering, her sweet little Satoko and her adorable puppy love.

The days following Rika’s neediness Satoko had acted very different from normal, and their friends noticed. The otherwise so energetic girl was markedly calmer, spending considerable time simply staring at Rika while blushing, something which made their older friends smirk and grin in devious delight. The older children had always claimed that Satoko was Rika’s little wife, but undoubtedly none of them had expected it to be anything but an inside joke.

Rika herself was embarrassed to find herself blushing slightly when Satoko clung to her hand in class while they were being alternately smirked at or cooed at by their friends. Even the otherwise so clueless yet kind teacher noticed, and, after a moment of startled surprise, cooed at them as well. Such sweet puppy love.

The one brief kiss that Satoko planted on her cheek before running out of the room when school was over had made Rika blush so furiously that the older children had been far too stunned to even tease her about it. It was her most cherished memory, although it always came with sadness knowing that Satoko did not share it, that for Satoko that moment had never happened.

Still, Rika was grateful for that small blessing despite the sadness attached to it. She would not have wanted Satoko to have to remember what had followed that particular event. It had been an end so horrifying and brutal, and because of her Satoko had been at the centre of that nightmare. That time Satoko’s death had been so slow and so agonizing… because of her.

She could never let that happen again.

So Rika held Satoko’s hand on rare occasion at night, but mostly she just watched the girl sleep, never revealing to anyone much less Satoko herself how deeply she truly cared for her. The end still came, every time, and it was painful and horrible and sometimes Satoko was singled out for more pain than any other, and even though she could never quite figure out why it was always, always Rika’s fault.

But at least Satoko was not tortured more as a means to hurt Rika. Never that, never again.

And so Rika sat in her window, glass in hand and eyes sweeping over the slumbering form on the floor not far from her. Draining the final dregs from the glass she turned away from her vigilance against the hostile night, absently tucking the evidence of her vice away to be dealt with in the morning, and continued to ignore the voice that kept speaking to her, kept calling for her attention.

Lying down on the futon on her side so that she could continue to look at Satoko’s face in the dark, Rika decided that she might as well get a few hours of sleep. Tomorrow was Watanagashi after all, and it would be an eventful day for her. A very busy day.

Oh yes. It would be a big day.

And Furude Rika would keep her eyes open until the end.

When Elves Sing Pt2

Elfen Lied-fanfic. Set after the end of the series. What became of Lucy and the others at Kaede House after the events in the series? For that matter, what will happen to the diclonius race?
Part two out of three, as this story is now finished finally.
(Lucy/Aiko, Nana/Mayu)

Read When Elves Sing Pt2

Disclaimer: see part 1.





When Elves Sing Pt2
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson







“A-are you really leaving?”

Lucy’s departure from the garden had been followed by a long silence, Nana thinking hard and clutching the pink phone while Mayu watched on anxiously. Finally the black-haired girl could take it no longer, she wanted to know.

Nana nodded slowly. “I think so. I need to learn to control these new abilities before I hurt more people.” She hesitated and stared at her prosthetic hands.

Mayu hugged her, hard.

Smiling just a little Nana embraced her friend as tenderly as she could, leaning her chin on Mayu’s shoulder. That was another problem with her prosthetics, really. To her surprise Nana was starting to grow in ways that when she thought about it suggested that she would be tall, but prosthetic arms and legs could not grow. It already looked awkward and just slightly wrong if she did not wear clothes that covered her limbs, because the artificial limbs were those of a child and the rest of Nana was starting towards adulthood.

But no matter how much she needed this, wanted this in truth, leaving would not be easy. Not even if it was for less than a year. Nana’s heart felt like breaking just thinking about it.

“I-it is not that I want to leave.” She tried to explain herself to the girl sobbing quietly in her arms. “But Mayu? I think I have to. A-and I’ll come back you know, as soon as I can.”

The other girl nodded and mumbled with a voice so choked Nana would not have heard the words had they not been so close. “...I’ll miss you so much.”

“I’ll miss you too Mayu.” Finding herself in a stranglehold Nana tried to soothe her upset friend. “We, we will call one another, all the time! And, um, I’ll do my best to come back really soon! I promise.”

They drew apart enough that dark wet eyes could meet conflicted pink. “C-can I come visit you?”

Nana thought of the things Lucy had told them, and the things that, judging by the dark look in her eyes, she had not. Nana was a diclonius too, and born and raised in that place... she understood the things that had not been spoken, and she certainly knew what life was like for them. It didn’t make what she was going to have to tell Mayu any easier.

“Mayu...” She began haltingly, gently cupping Mayu’s face and trying her best not to get lost in those wide, pretty eyes that looked at her so heartbreakingly. “Lucy did not say it but I know enough about how these things work to tell that the procedure she mentioned, the one that would give me back arms and legs... it will be difficult, and painful. Very, very painful.”

“As much as I hate the thought of not being able to see you for so long, I would rather that you did not try to visit me there.”

“But, why?” Mayu gasped, hurt and confused.

“Because,” Nana leaned her head against Mayu’s for a moment, feeling keenly the strong and bone-deep affection she had for this person tug at her helpless heart. “pain I can take, as much as I have to. Seeing you cry... I can’t.”

As Nana carefully wiped the tears from Mayu’s cheeks she could see clearly how the hurt faded into first surprise and then wonder. Mayu leaned into Nana’s hand, causing another twinge of longing and affection to tug at Nana.

“If you think it will be that painful,” Mayu whispered while leaning into Nana. “do you have to go through with it?”

An involuntary laugh briefly escaped Nana’s lips, but it was not a happy one. Realizing that the other girl didn’t understand she tried her best to explain. “Mayu, how does it feel when I touch you? How does it feel with my hand like this?”

Mayu’s first response was to blush sweetly, causing Nana’s heart to beat a little faster, but as she was about to answer something in Nana’s expression made her stop and think about it from a different angle.

It was true that Nana’s prosthetic limbs in general held room temperature, so as they had been outdoors for a while the hand against her face was considerably more chilled than one would have expected. While most people wouldn’t be able to tell it from a casual touch, Mayu knew well enough that the hand that touched her face felt just a little bit too hard and vaguely unelastic when compared to a real one. Although she hated to think like that and felt as if it was some kind of betrayal to even admit it to herself, the hand on her face felt like a doll’s hand. A very well-made doll’s limb, but still a doll’s.

She didn’t need to answer because Nana could see the dawning understanding in her eyes and just smiled wistfully.

“You know, I can’t really feel this.” Nana said so softly that it was almost a whisper. “My vectors let me move arms and legs as much as I would like to, but I can’t actually feel what I touch or what touches me.”

“If you imagine yourself wearing a glove over your hand, a glove made of thick metal and then covered in a layer of some slightly rubbery material, and then imagine touching something while wearing it, I think that would be about the same. I can tell I am touching something, of course, but that’s really all.”

“Oh don’t cry Mayu... please?” The dark-haired girl nodded and tried her best not to, even if she hurt for Nana.

After a long moment of silence Nana spoke slowly, smiling shyly at Mayu. “I wonder about it sometimes, what it would be like... what it would feel like, touching you.” Lost in her innocent fantasy Nana did not notice that Mayu blushed bright red at her words. “What it would be like if I could hold your hand in mine.”

“I bet it would be warm...” She whispered to herself but was cut off when Mayu suddenly grabbed hold of her head with both hands and pressed their lips together in a sweet and lingering kiss.

When she finally let go of the stunned Nana Mayu hugged her tightly while hiding her face.

“I will wait for you.” She husked almost directly into Nana’s ear. “I will wait for you forever if I have to, so you make sure you come home to me! Okay?”

Nana nodded, hugging back as hard as she dared. “I promise. I swear I will, so just wait for me.”

Awkwardly shifting around Nana tried to get a tiny bit of space between them, desperately wanting to see if she would be allowed another kiss. Just as their eyes met and they instinctively started leaning in towards one another the door to the house opened with a small thud, followed by Yuka calling for them. Blushing they jumped apart just as Yuka came into view to summon them inside. Obediently they followed their young maternal figure, occasionally sharing shy but meaningful glances when Yuka looked away.

Nana squeezed the cellphone in her pocket. As much as it hurt to have to leave just now, with something simply amazing happening between her and Mayu, Nana felt reassured by Mayu’s promise.

She could do this. And when she came back she would know what it felt like to hug Mayu with her very own arms.

-----------------------------

It had taken time, but finally Lucy had tracked her down. That bastard had been quite thorough when he hid her away, although Lucy was somewhat grateful for that. Kurama had changed the girl’s name and hidden her away for the same reason he had told Lucy that she had died; it was the only way to keep her safe from the organization.

Ever since she had come across the information that her friend had in fact not died when they were children, Lucy had been so determined to find her that she had never stopped to ask herself why or what she would do when she found her. That was why as she stood outside the apartment door that was essentially all that remained to keep her from seeing her friend again Lucy found herself at a loss for what to do.

If she rang the bell and the other woman answered, what would she say? What would she do? According to the information she had managed to gather her friend had woken up from all the surgeries performed on her with amnesia, no longer remembering her past or even her own name. Kurama had patched her up, given her a name, and shipped her off to be an orphan in care of the state in a city far away from where they had been. The woman on the other side of that door would not know her, would not remember childhood promises, and likely would not be so accepting a second time when it came to horned, pink-haired strangers.

Torn between cursing her lack of foresight and her sudden lack of courage, Lucy stood in front of the door indecisively. At least she had thought to not wear her now customary all-black, and instead worn denim pants and jacket with a white sweater, hoping to come across less intimidating than she usually did. In a fit of sentimentality Lucy had located a hat similar to the one she wore when the two of them had met, even though in the warm weather it was a rather silly thing to do.

Suddenly the door in front of her swung open, and before Lucy could react she was looking right into a pair of startled brown eyes.

“OH!” The woman in the doorway jumped slightly but composed herself rather quickly, unlike Lucy who gawked at her in a most uncharacteristic way. “I’m sorry, were you looking for me?”

Fighting a faint blush Lucy shook herself back to attention. “If you are the one called Yamamoto Megumi, then yes.”

The other woman looked intrigued and opened the door wider while taking a step back. “Yes, that’s me. Might I ask who you are and what this is about?”

“I’m Lucy Blackhorn” Lucy began automatically, but then trailed off looking at the expectant face in front of her. “Ah, that is an assumed name though, something like my working name. My real name is Kaede.”

How long had it been since she had spoken her real name? How long since anyone had called her that?

Looking at the woman in front of her she knew exactly who had spoken it last. That was why she used it now, this was the one person she wanted to know her not as Lucy or Nyu or whatever other name the world might attach to her. From this person, this person alone, she always wanted to hear her real name.

The brunette smiled and stepped aside, indicating for Lucy to come inside. “Blackhorn? That is a rather unusual name. Foreign?”

Lucy chuckled quietly. “Despite my unusual appearance, I’m not. Though I was a foundling I’m absolutely certain that I at least had Japanese parents.”

“I see.” Curious eyes took in Lucy’s hair. “I hope I am not being too rude, but I must say that your hair is a lovely shade of pink. How did you manage that?”

“I was born with it.”

Clearly a bit embarrassed by her question the other woman chose not to comment on that, although Lucy could tell that she was discreetly being studied. The brunette reached up and released the haphazardly tied ribbon in her own hair, allowing dark brown waves down to be quickly patted into a more attractive cascade down a slender back. Lucy grinned a little at the move and the other woman, realizing she had been caught, blushed slightly and looked away.

“So, um, Miss Blackhorn,” She began only to be cut off by Lucy.

“Kaede, please.”

“Ah, alright... Kaede.” There was a touch of surprise, but the brunette accommodated the request. “What did you want with me?”

A hug, a kiss and an offer to stay until she turned eighty, a treacherous little voice suggested instantly, causing Lucy to feel embarrassed. She really should have expected her hormones to call for her attention in this situation; becoming an adult had given her a painfully strong urge to find a mate, and unlike Nana she had no-one close enough to her in life to even consider in that light. Besides she had to admit that the woman before her was oh so very lovely.

“You lost your memories of your early childhood when you were seriously injured as a little girl, correct?” The brunette gasped and instinctively put one hand on a spot on the upper right side of her chest. With a pang of guilt and horror Lucy thought it must be where the scar of the exit wound would be. “I may not be able to give you your memories back, but I can at least tell you your name, where you can find your parents, and how it was that you came to be shot. That is if you want me to.”

“You, you knew me?” The stunned woman sat down abruptly, as if her legs would no longer carry. “You knew me... before?”

“And you know my real name? I know I used to think there was something wrong with ‘Megumi’ back when I came to the orphanage...” Brown eyes met pink ones with a desperate intensity. “My parents! Did you say that you could tell me how to find them? Everyone thought my parents must have been killed when I was shot, because there was never anyone looking for me.”

“Your parents did search for you, for years, but you were taken so far away from them and given a different name, so they could never track you down. I’ll give you their names, address and phone numbers if you want them. But...” Lucy hesitated. “I’m not sure how much difference it makes now, but they did not treat you well when you were little. You had run away from home when we met, although you had decided to go back to them just before... things happened.”

A long silence followed, while one woman struggled to take in the knowledge that she had family after all, and the other simply grateful for the opportunity to look at the adult face and try to find traces of the child she had known.

“Can you tell me what happened?” The brunette asked eventually, her voice hushed. “What happened and why, um, Kaede?”

Involuntarily smiling a little at the sound of her name, Lucy nodded. “The what I can answer if you like, but the why... is a far longer and more complicated story.” The smile died and was replaced by an openly pained look. “The why is a terrible, horrible story of bloodshed and madness, and once you have heard it can’t be undone no matter how much you wish you didn’t know any of it.”

Sad pink eyes studied the woman in front of her seriously. “It is my story. Are you sure you really want to hear that, Aiko?”

The woman in question gasped and clasped both hands to her face. Lucy nodded slightly in understanding.

“Takada Aiko, that is your real name.”

The newly renamed woman mouthed her name, looking as if she was about to cry, before standing up and moving closer to Lucy. Silently Aiko studied Lucy with a strange kind of intensity, until finally she reached out and pulled the woolly cap from Lucy’s head.

Unsure of what to do Lucy froze in place, painfully aware of the wide and watery eyes that stared at her horns. She had wanted to ease that bit of information into the conversation later, if it turned out to be necessary to at all. Though she supposed it was for the best, conversation was, as she felt should be painfully obvious to Aiko already, not her strong suit.

“Magic.” Aiko whispered, gingerly touching one of the black horns, stunning Lucy in the process. Then with a sob she threw herself into Lucy’s arms, weeping helplessly on the taller woman’s shoulder.

-----------------------------

Lucy had found herself holding the weeping woman for a long time while emotions ran their course, and was quite a bit surprised at herself for not being uncomfortable in such close and prolonged physical contact. When Aiko recovered from her torrent of emotions she pulled Lucy with her into another room to show her something.

While dragged around it occurred to Lucy that Aiko was clearly quite fond of the colour pink, and she wondered if it was somehow connected to herself but dismissed it as coincidence. When Aiko pulled her in front of a bookshelf where three hand-painted plastic figures were carefully displayed, it was far harder to dismiss anything as coincidence. It was also quite difficult to know how she was supposed to react.

Digging up half-forgotten memories from the less painful moments of her long-ago childhood, Lucy vaguely recognized the figures as a character from a children’s show she had liked, only she was quite certain that character had blue hair and yellow horns. The figures on Aiko’s shelf were painstakingly painted with pink hair and eyes, and had tiny white horns. Whether Aiko had consciously remembered her or not, she had still painted these plastic figurines in Lucy’s image.

It was a struggling and, for Aiko, emotional conversation after that, during which Lucy told Aiko how they had met and made friends, but no more. The emotional upheaval took its toll on Aiko, and eventually Lucy left with a promise of returning the next day for further conversation.

A week passed this way, with Lucy spending a number of hours each day with Aiko, telling her the whole story on Aiko’s insistence. Aiko was understandably horrified and wept often, but to Lucy’s gratitude and relief her tears were on Lucy’s behalf, and Lucy often found herself hugged when she had finished recounting a particularly difficult part of her past.

They had just finished the tale about the past and slowly gotten into what Lucy hoped and planned for the future of diclonius children when the call came from Nana and Lucy had to leave. For the next five months Lucy and Aiko had contact mostly through phones and the internet, and only very rarely through Lucy managing a short visit. Lucy did her best to support Nana through the painful process of regaining her limbs, and also began their training once Nana was strong enough to do it. Meanwhile Aiko contacted her parents and set about the slow and tentative process of getting to know them again.

One way or the other the two of them spoke daily, and in time Lucy came to reveal all her plans for the future. Aiko expressed interest in coming for a visit at the base, and less than six months after their reunion Lucy welcomed Aiko to the large island complex where Lucy had spent most of her life since the two had first met.

-----------------------------

“So, what do you think of this so far?” Lucy asked, coming to stand by the large window in what was now her office. There was a storm outside making the view a bleak one of torn, dark skies and the raging sea.

“It is heartbreaking.” Aiko sighed as she walked up and to Lucy’s surprise put her head on the taller woman’s shoulder. “All those children, all those beautiful little girls, so unwanted and discarded by the people that bore them.”

Lucy smiled a little and somewhat awkwardly put her arm around Aiko loosely. Although she had told Aiko about the situation with diclonius children long before the other woman had come to the compound, the sight of all the orphaned infants and toddlers in the temporary sleeping dormitories had affected her deeply. So far during her visit whenever Lucy had to leave Aiko’s side the dark-haired woman would wind up there, helping the staff with feeding or cleaning them, or sometimes just singing the little ones to sleep.

“You are a good person, Aiko. Few humans can be as accepting of a diclonius child as you are.” She told her gently, wishing she could better relay her gratitude for Aiko’s compassion. “In time I hope it will change, through information or the sheer increase of diclonius births, so that more and more children will be allowed to stay with their biological parents. Until then I will do all I can for them to have good lives here.”

A section was already being rebuilt into proper dormitories to replace the temporary ones all the children were kept in, with play and learning areas. Rooms elsewhere in the compound that had once been the sites for various kinds of experiments on diclonius children were also undergoing renovation, to become classrooms when the children became old enough. It was just a first step in Lucy’s far-spanning plans, but a necessary one.

“I wish there was something I could do to help.” Aiko was unaware of the havoc she was wreaking inside Lucy when she wrapped her arm around the taller woman’s waist and gently rubbed her cheek against her shoulder. “Is there anything I can do to help? Kaede? I know I am just a secretary, not a doctor or scientist or even a teacher, but still... I want to do something.”

Unable to quite help herself anymore Lucy wrapped her arms more properly around Aiko, gently holding the smaller woman in her embrace while leaning her cheek against the side of Aiko’s head. She couldn’t see the charmed smile on Aiko’s face as she eagerly slipped into the embrace, but she felt the arms that encircled her lovingly and shivered just slightly.

“Thank you just for thinking that way.” Lucy said quietly, feeling silken hair run through her fingers. “Normally I would say that we can use whatever honest help is offered, but... it would be dangerous to you.”

“How so? Do you mean that the little ones would view me as a threat if I was here? I thought you said that they would not grow their vectors until three or four years old, at which time you will be training them?”

“The babies are not the only diclonius children here, we have several older children and a handful of young teens that are undergoing schooling as well. Not all of them are well adjusted to the presence of humans yet, which is why you can only walk around unescorted in the section where the youngest are.”

“Since it appears to be easier for the young girls to be around humans if those are carriers of the diclonius genes, everyone that is willing to work here undergoes that change.” Lucy did not mention that while the idea had come from Arakawa and not herself, Lucy had made sure she had personally taken care of that detail for all humans at the base that had not yet carried the diclonius gene. “You are not a carrier, Aiko.”

“I’m not?” Aiko was genuinely surprised by this, after having heard the whole story from Lucy she had assumed that she had become a carrier while they were children, whether her friend had meant to do that or not. “Well, if that is the only problem, couldn’t you... make me one?”

The body in her arms stiffened immediately. Aiko tried to rub soothing circles on Lucy’s back, wondering how to explain herself. With a blush she felt grateful that Lucy could not see from this angle, she didn’t think it was entirely a good idea to mention that lately she had thought quite a bit about having children, and about having them with Lucy. She didn’t want to come across as too desperate after all, yet here she was, six months after their reunion, basically mapping out how they would be having children and getting married.

“I don’t mean to sound presumptuous, but I quite like the idea of having diclonius children someday.” She chuckled a little. “Which does not mean that I’d be of any use to you anyway.”

“That’s... not the only” Was she really going to tell Aiko about it? “...threat to you.”

Leaning back in Lucy’s arms a little Aiko gave Lucy a questioning look.

“Remember how I told you that for a diclonius entering adulthood the urge to... find a partner, a mate, becomes overwhelmingly strong? Given time it could become too strong to resist.”

“But Kaede,” Aiko began, genuinely baffled. “if I understand you right none of the children here are anywhere near old enough to worry about adult urges for years yet, there is only you and Nana. And even if there were, I don’t see why I would be any bigger a target for that than any other woman he-“

“It is me!” Lucy blushed after her far too loud and sudden outburst. When Aiko stared at her with wide and stunned eyes she continued in a far more subdued manner. “It is me, I am the one that might become dangerous to you in that sense.”

“I, these feelings, and my instincts,” Lucy looked away, unable to face Aiko’s reaction. “because I care, I, and with such need, and there is-“

The chopped up rambling was cut off by gentle hands cupping her face. Lucy blinked, startled.

“If you don’t want me here, for whatever reason, I won’t push. But I just need to know, do you react like that because your, ah, urge is that strong and I just happen to be the adult female you spend most time with right now, or is it because... you have any romantic feelings for me?”

The room was silent, not even the sound of the storm outside reaching through the heavy soundproofing of the building.

A hand still not entirely accustomed to gentleness took a careful hold of Aiko’s chin. “Is this answer enough?” The kiss was sweet, longing and surprisingly chaste, and to Aiko far to brief.

“That depends...” Aiko smiled dreamily up at Lucy. “What does this tell you?” She hooked both arms around Lucy’s neck, pulled her down, and proceeded to kiss her with everything she had.

The kiss escalated into a series of deep, passionate and increasingly hungry kisses, and by the time they drew apart Aiko was lying down on Lucy’s desk with Lucy herself hovering on trembling arms above her.

“Don’t tease me, Ai.” Lucy’s voice was strained with the effort of holding back the need to claim the woman she so wanted, to join them, by force if Aiko was not willing. Her eyes glowed a deep pink with desire.

“I’m not teasing.” Aiko smiled breathlessly, keenly feeling the pull of those glowing eyes. “You can consider that a confession... and an invitation.”

Like that Lucy’s arms and knees buckled, collapsing her with a loud groan directly onto the woman whom was finding it increasingly hard to be at all rational herself. It was sheer willpower that allowed Lucy to use her vectors to push away from Aiko even the smallest bit.

“I... can’t hold back anymore.” She ground out between tightly clenched teeth. “Aiko, you need to run!”

Unsteadily finding her feet Aiko followed the other woman’s small retreat. “No. I would never run from you.” A strong blush and an expression that was equal parts love and desire settled on her features as she reached up to caress Lucy’s face. “I’d run with you.”

“Especially since the top of your desk isn’t the best place for our first time.” Despite her shyness Aiko managed a mischievous look that made Lucy growl softly. “So... bedroom?”

Tomorrow. Tomorrow they could talk like sensible people, properly confess feelings and decide about the future. For right now Aiko just needed Lucy with a desperation that should have scared her, if those glowing eyes did not burn away all capacity for coherent thought.

They were going to be together. It was inevitable now, like sunrise, and she welcomed it.

With a giggle Aiko grasped Lucy’s hand and pulled, getting them both to stumble into a half-run towards Lucy’s personal quarters and her bedroom. Thankfully it was not far from her office, really just the next door over in the hallway, although by the time they reached the hall itself Aiko was already in Lucy’s arms and the two were kissing passionately.

They stumbled through the door, neither of them noticing a few items of Aiko’s clothing that did not come with them or the bespectacled woman in a labcoat that gawked at them.

-----------------------------

Nana rolled around the bend in the hall to find Arakawa standing with her ear pressed against the door to Lucy’s private rooms, clipboard in hand and busily scribbling away. Looking between the clothes that were spread across the floor and the strange look on the scientist’s face, Nana groaned in understanding.

“Really doctor...” She scolded gently as she pushed her wheelchair closer, absently using her vectors to pick up Aiko’s discarded clothes along the way. “is this something you should be doing? You know Lucy will be angry with you when she finds out.”

“Miss Blackhorn!” Arakawa turned to Nana with a scarily maniacal gleam in her eyes. “This is crucial data!” She waved her clipboard eagerly but did not protest when Nana carefully nudged her away from the door. “Did you know that diclonius’ eyes glow when mating is initiated? Do your eyes glow? Is it just during initiation or for the duration of-“

“I am really only barely old enough, and I haven’t done anything like that.” Nana hurried to interrupt even if it was embarrassing. She winced a little at the noise as she carefully opened the door just enough to hurriedly place the clothes inside, before placing a hand on the still scribbling scientist’s arm. “All I know is that Lucy and Aiko are very much in love, and we should give them some privacy.”

Arakawa looked anything but convinced, and it took a bit more effort to pull her along. Nana internally cursed her newly minted ‘sister’ for leaving this up to her. “Why don’t we go talk somewhere more private, doctor? Like I said I have no experience of my own, but I’ll do my best to be as forthcoming in answering your questions as I can.”

Still torn but apparently tempted enough to agree, the scientist allowed Nana to lead her down the hallway away from Lucy’s door. An invitation to freely grill a queen carrier, especially when this one was less prone to dangerous anger when questioned too much about sensitive subjects, was too good to pass up. The maniacal gleam was back.

Nana groaned again, resigning herself to a few hours of really embarrassing interrogation.

-----------------------------

As Nana stepped out of the black helicopter, stomach full of butterflies and her heart pounding nervously in her throat, she felt rather grateful that Lucy and her recently acquired fiancé had spent several days preparing, coaching and primping her for this moment, the moment she would meet Mayu again after being apart for so long. She wondered though why neither woman had mentioned the embarrassing way her hands kept sweating, and whether or not she would ruin her brand-new pants surreptitiously wiping her hands on them.

They had agreed on Mayu meeting up with Nana alone, the rest of their little family waiting for her at home to give them some time to themselves. Nana had instructed the burly black-clad men Lucy had sent along to go ahead and deliver Nana’s rather awe-inspiring amount of luggage to Kaede House without her, planning to take her time walking across town with Mayu.

Oh gosh, there she was! And how incredibly pretty... Nana just melted.

Nervously she slipped one vector into the large but stylish handbag she was carrying with her, locating by feel the small metal cylinder that contained the loaded syringe that was Nana’s insurance against a sudden loss of self-control around Mayu.

Lucy had been reluctant to give Nana the very strong compound that would knock Nana out once injected, but she did understand Nana’s fears and eventually agreed. She too knew of the horrible abuse in Mayu’s past, and understood the danger of the diclonius mating urge at full strength combined with being in love. Still, according to Lucy that particular urge should not yet be as overwhelming for Nana, so Nana was to use it as a last resort only, overcoming temptation by virtue of her self-control as much as possible instead.

Aiko had laughed and assured them both that the speed by which she and Lucy had gone from first kiss to full consummation had not been a problem, but Aiko wasn’t Mayu. Lucy took Nana aside and cautioned her to keep vigilant if her eyes should start to glow, as Lucy suspected that when that happened their own arousal would somehow be partially projected to their partner, meaning Lucy was not entirely sure Aiko’s eagerness to become intimate quite so soon had been entirely her own. That prospect in particular had been chilling for Nana, and as such she would keep both the syringe kit and a small pocket mirror handy at all times around Mayu.

She had of course talked to Mayu about all of it before they made plans for her to return home, but still... Mayu had seemed a lot less concerned than she should have been, and Nana could not help but wonder if she in her awkward stammering had failed to fully explain things.

All of these things mattered not one bit when suddenly Nana found herself tackle-hugged with such intensity that all thought, as well as Nana’s brightly coloured cane, fell blithely to the wayside. Forgetting to be worried Nana simply returned the embrace, treasuring the feel of Mayu in her arms.

She was so very warm and soft, and oh that scent felt like home... Nana was not quite tall enough to tuck Mayu entirely under her chin, but the height difference was still enough to fit them together nicely. Just as she had always thought, holding Mayu in her very own arms was simply heavenly.

After a hug far too long to be just friendly Mayu drew back a little. “Let me look at you.” They smiled at one another and Nana waited for the inevitable comment.

“Wow, you’re tall!” Mayu seemed surprised, even though Nana had told her that she had gotten taller with the addition of her limbs.

“I hit a growth spurt.” Nana grinned and decided not to mention that Lucy was convinced that she would grow quite a bit more before she was entirely done. “Does it look weird?”

“Oh, no! Not at all, you look great, you look...” Mayu blushed prettily while her eyes roamed the length of Nana. “really great.”

In a none too subtle attempt to distract them both from her blushing Mayu picked up the fallen cane and turned it over in her hands before giving it back to Nana. “How very cute.” She smiled at the abstract pattern of flowers, suns and stars on the brightly coloured cane.

“The cutest ever.” Nana pointedly did not look at the cane, meeting Mayu’s eyes instead with a rather serious expression. “And the prettiest too.” Her reward was a stronger blush and a sweet smile.

“No cute nurses?” Mayu teased playfully, bumping slightly into Nana but not hard enough to risk making her stumble. She weaved their arms together with a surprisingly possessive air and gently nudged Nana into walking.

Resisting the urge to snort when thinking of the ‘nurses’ she had encountered, Nana responded simply and truthfully “None like you. Never like you.”

The quietly mumbled “good!” that accompanied the squeeze of her arm was not meant for Nana’s ears, but she heard it anyway. She had a wide smile on her face as they left the airport and wandered off into town.

In town people stared at them as they made their way slowly in the direction of Kaede House, those that did not stare at the pink-haired and horned young woman stared at two girls so obviously together. Far from everyone that stared did so out of any malicious reasons though, so the girls paid little attention, only stopping when approached by people they knew. In this particular part of town the people that knew them and that wanted to exchange a few words with Nana after her long absence were quite a few, delaying them long enough for the sun to begin to set as Nana and Mayu reached the long and winding steps that would take them home.

Because Nana still needed to rely on her cane from time to time the climb up to Kaede House took longer than it otherwise would, and as they stopped to rest halfway up Nana took a few extra moments to admire the view of the sunset over the city. Mayu snuggled up to her and rested her head against Nana’s shoulder.

In no hurry to move now that she was allowed to hold Mayu, Nana was content just watching the sunset for a long while in silence. Eventually she turned slightly to say something to Mayu, but the words never reached her lips as Mayu chose that moment to lean up and press her own to them.

Like their first kiss this one was sweet and all too brief. Mayu leaned back slightly and put her arms around Nana’s neck. “Welcome home, Nana.” She whispered warmly. “I have been waiting for you.”

Nana felt her eyes sting just a little and drew her arms tighter around Mayu, but once more whatever she had been about to say was stolen away by Mayu’s kiss.

This time they didn’t draw back, and Nana responded eagerly. While starting out sweet and innocent their kisses soon grew deeper, more ardent, until Nana was leaning up against the stone wall with Mayu, warm and sweet and incredible, in her arms. Once more Nana’s cane had rolled away, and the handbag she carried had ended up a few steps up from them.

Only parting when they needed air Nana found herself staring dreamily into the dark eyes of her girlfriend, wanting to continue kissing her with an intensity that managed to rattle her back to her senses. Realizing the danger of the moment, Nana ducked out of the embrace and cast desperate eyes about in search of her handbag.

Stunned, and for a moment feeling just a little rejected, Mayu followed. Nana spilled a fair part of the contents of her bag in search of her mirror, until finally, with hands that shook a little both from excitement and nervousness, she pulled it out.

Mayu felt both a bit relieved and quite a bit flattered when she realized what Nana was up to, carefully checking both eyes in the small mirror. With a wry smile she reached out and snatched it away.

“Trust me, they’re not glowing.” Something halfway pleased and halfway mischievous passed over Mayu’s face. “You think kissing me would be enough for you to...?”

“Oh yes!” Nana nodded fervently, then blushed and looked a bit sheepish. Mayu giggled a bit and hugged her, but decided not to tease and instead bent down to help pick up the things Nana had dropped.

“Nana?” Mayu spotted something strange. “What is this?”

Instantly reaching for the metal cylinder containing the syringe on reflex, Nana gulped and glanced at Mayu. But no, it was not the cylinder that Mayu had spotted, rather a small black box with a piece of paper tied to it.

“I don’t know.” Nana said honestly, receiving the box from Mayu and looking at it curiously. “I haven’t packed anything like that... it must be from Lucy.”

Nana untied the note while Mayu looked on with wide eyes. Nana might not recognize a jewellery box when she saw one, but Mayu certainly did. She wondered briefly if she should be worried that Lucy would send jewellery for Nana, but dismissed the thought a bit embarrassed, after all the two of them were officially sisters now.

“Um, it just says ‘For when you will need it’, and it’s signed ‘Lucy’. Nothing else.” Nana frowned. “I wonder what that is about?”

She opened the box.

“Erm... Mayu?” Nana spoke slowly and very quietly. “Is that...?”

“I-I think so.”

Inside the box where two matching delicate rings in white gold, set with a single sparkling jewel each that shifted from soft pink to deep purple depending on the light. That they were engagement rings seemed painfully obvious to the young couple that, despite the fact that they had just now been eagerly making out, had yet to speak words of deep love or mention anything about their future. They both blushed and looked away from one another awkwardly.

“So. For when you will need it, huh?” Mayu said eventually, trying to sound casual about it and not succeeding very well.

“Mm. If I’m really, really lucky... then one day, maybe...” Nana glanced at her shyly, earning a charmed smile and quite unable to not smile happily in return. “They’re pretty rings, don’t you think?”

“Yes, very pretty.” Still blushing but smiling widely they quickly gathered up the contents of Nana’s bag, securing the black box especially in a separate pocket, and retrieved the cane.

Hands entwined they started up the final length of steps towards home, happy smiles on their faces and their thoughts on the twin rings tucked away in Nana’s bag, what it meant for them both for the present and the future. And Nana forgot to worry.