Chapter 5 - Allele
Disclaimer: Rights to Last Exile = Geneon, and Chiaki
Koichi, Tamioka Katsuhiro, and Yamashita Tomohiro. Twiknham =/= Geneon and Chiaki Koichi, Tamioka Katsuhiro, and
Yamashita Tomohiro. Therefore, Twiknham
doesn’t own any rights to Last Exile.
I’m just using these awesome characters to tell a story. Enjoy.
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Walker was surprised when Alex brought his XO with him. “Welcome back, chief! What can I do you for?” Alex didn’t respond. Oho, so it’s going to be like that is
it? No warm camaraderie while the lady
is around.
“We need to talk to you about a new weapon system I want
installed.” He pulled out a small set
of prints. “I have the full ones in my
cabin. Are you interested?”
Walker took a moment to study them before whistling lightly
through his teeth. “What kind of mess
did you get yourself into, that you’d get paid enough to do this?”
Sophia stood, silent as a stone. When Walker looked over at her and winked, she slowly averted her
eyes and stood staring off into the distance.
“Can you do it in the next seven days?”
“A week you say?” He
rubbed his chin. “What kind of
munitions are we talking here?”
“Armor piercing rounds, the diameter of the smaller
turrets. The large turrets are for
torpedoes.”
“You got the rounds, or am I providing?”
“If you’ll accept shipment, they’ll be here tomorrow.”
Sophia turned back to look at her commanding officer at
those words. “How long had you been
planning this sir?”
He speared her with a hot glare. “Forever.” He turned and
stalked off.
After a moment of awkward silence, Walker looked at Alex’s
abandoned XO. “Well, come on. Someone has to drink the beer I poured for
him.”
For the next three hours, the two of them sat and drank ale,
regaling each other with stories of Alex.
When they finally noticed the time, they giggled and decided to head
back to the ship together. They had
made it as far as the ramp when Alex stopped them. Turning to look at her sloshed partner, Sophia put her finger up
to her lips. “Ssssh! We haf to be fery quiet, we donf want Alek
to shink we’re drunk.” Since she said
it at the top of her lungs, it really defeated the purpose.
Walker hugged her tightly.
“Okay, and we haf to walk uprite.”
Not letting go, he gave her a glare.
“No holdin’ on to me for support, we’re goin’ to haf to do thish by
ourselfs.” Suddenly letting go, he
straightened up before teetering and falling over on his back like a dead
bug. He looked up at his wobbling
friend. “I fink I’ll jush sfay
here.” Rolling over, he started snoring.
Alex took one look at Sophia and couldn’t decide whether to
be furious, or humored. It was obvious
that she was in unfit condition for anything more than crashing in her
quarters. Making a command decision, he
scooped her up and carried her into the Silverna. “Sophia, if you say one
damned thing, or do anything other than pretend you are asleep, I will never
forgive you for this indiscretion.” He
walked briskly, his forced limp deserted in his attempt to carry his burden
without dropping her.
“It’s nok like I wenf out and cheafed on you or
somefing.” She tried to glare at him,
but ended up just staring at his collarbone.
“We’ll discuss this tomorrow. Now, go to sleep.”
Not thinking twice, she curled up against his shoulder and
did exactly that.
Coming around the corner, Godwin was met with the most
unusual sight of his commander carrying his XO. “Sir, is Miss Forrester alright?”
“She has just been under too much stress. She’ll be fine.” He turned to continue down the hall.
“Okay, sorry to have bothered you.” Godwin also headed on his way.
“Godwin?”
“Yes.”
“There is a very drunk and passed-out Walker sleeping at the
bottom of the docking plank. See that
he get back to his quarters, and that nothing is ever said of this incident.”
“Yes Sir!” They both
headed on their separate ways.
Getting Sophia to her cabin wasn’t the problem. Sliding the covers back and putting her in
bed wasn’t a problem. The problem came
when he realized she couldn’t sleep with her hair up in that clamp. Three times he reached for it, his hand
shaking so badly by the third attempt that he could barely control it. “Fuck this, it serves her right to wake up
with a headache in the morning.”
Turning to leave, he almost made it to the door before turning back. No, you would never mistreat someone who
takes care of you like she does.
Turning back, he suddenly reached around her and unsnapped the
clamp.
Since she was lying down, her hair didn’t do much, it just
unrolled and lay there. Not too bad,
now for the little pieces in the front.
The one she was almost laying on wasn’t such a problem. However, as he unraveled the hair from the
second one, he was taken back to a time in which he remembered how to smile.
ssssss
The sunshine was tickling his eyelids and as he rolled to
get away from it, he heard light giggling.
Pretending to still be asleep, he waited for what Yuris would do
next. Something very light wafted over
his bare shoulder and down his exposed arm.
He groaned lightly and moved his hand so it was closer to his other
one. Eyes still closed, he could hear
her tiptoeing around to the other side of the bed. Suddenly the light tickling sensation started at that same shoulder
and worked its way down his neck and across one of his nipples. At the end of his rope, he peeked to get her
position.
Quicker than she could react, he reached out and snagged the
wrist holding the torture weapon and yanked her into bed with him. She laughed, and they started a wrestling
match to see who would end up with the feather. Somewhere in the midst of their struggles, the sheet ended up on
the floor and the long feather ended up in Alex’s hand. Waving it in the air triumphantly, he looked
down to find a very disheveled Yuris lying under him, panting lightly from
their exertions.
“So, what do you suppose should be your punishment for
waking me up?” He was leaning over so
their chests were touching. She was
wearing some sort of silky gown. She
must have put it on when she got out of bed, because she didn’t have it on when
they fell asleep.
“Oh kind sir, please don’t harm me. I meant no malice in my gentle
ministrations. I thought you would
enjoy the gentle caress of a feather over the mechanical buzz of an alarm.” She blinked up at him, playing into the
helpless maiden role.
He laughed naughtily.
“Oh, but my dear, I am a vanship pilot by trade. Mechanical noises are always music to my
ears.” He took a second to use the
quill side of the feather to scratch his temple. “Although I will admit, the feather was a nice change of
pace. I suppose I can let you by this
time.”
“A vanship pilot?”
She ran her free hand down his chest.
“You’re one of those daring men who flies amongst the clouds just to
deliver important missives for the military?”
He threw the feather off the side of the bed and puffed out
his chest. “Oh yes, that would be me.”
“So, what is the most dangerous mission you’ve ever
undertaken?” She ran little swirls
around his chest, wondering why he had no hair to mar his chest, when the hair
on his head was so thick.
“Ah, I’m not sure a delicate lady as yourself can hear such
tales, but…I will share.” He leaned
over and whispered in her ear. “It
involved a woman.”
“A woman! Did you
have to deliver a baby?”
He scoffed. “No such
indignities would ever befall a vanship pilot of MY repute. No, I was asked to deliver a maiden from a
noble house in time for her wedding.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, it was a cloudy day.
The vanship bucked and jerked, it was very turbulent.” He looked at her and winked. “It was a five star mission, so I knew it
was important. I couldn’t let the
nobles down.”
“Oh, really?” She
raised her eyebrow at him, he’d never shown any particular favoritism towards
the noble class before.
“Well, it sounds good in the retelling.” They both chuckled. “Anyways, just as we were about to reach our
destination, lighting struck the ship, causing us to lose all Claudia
pressure.”
“Did you crash?” She
squirmed under him in excitement, causing his excitement to veer off in an
entirely non-relevant direction.
“We made a controlled landing.” He hissed as her squirming rubbed very delicate parts against
very delicate parts.
“Controlled my ass, you almost killed us!” She pushed against his chest in mock fury.
“Yes, but I did get you there in time for our wedding.” He leaned forward to kiss her.
She kissed him back, showing him all the passion that they
had garnered over the months. Breaking
away, she smiled at him, her eyes coming alive with the joy she felt. “If I’d known you were my groom, it would
have reduced my stress. Arranged
marriages are never any fun.”
“Ours has been.” He
bent down and started sucking on her neck.
She pulled him down, making a spot for him. “Yes, but we’re the exception to every
rule. I love you with everything in my
being. That’s quite uncommon for a
noble marriage.”
He stopped to look at her.
“And I you.” Twinkling eyes
broke into their serious moment. “Are
you done talking so we can get this ship off the ground?”
“As usual, you think that because you have the stick, you’re
better than me. Just remember, without
the navie, the pilot is screwed.”
He chuckled.
“Actually, without the navie, this pilot ISN’T screwed.” He watched as a blush ran up her cheeks.
“Fine, I’ll navigate.
As long as you keep good control of the stick we should get where we’re
going.”
They both sighed as he lifted them into flight. “I think I can handle it.”
That day, they received word that they would be assisting
Hamilcal Valca and George Head on a 10 star mission to deliver a massive from
the Emperor of Anatoray to the Chief of the Dissith.
Within 24 hours, everything he cherished was gone.
ssssss
Alex shook his head, and looked back down at the sleeping
woman in front of him. He laid the
unwound section of hair lightly behind her ear. If he didn’t take the time to look at her eyes, he would swear
she was his Yuris come back from the dead.
He was afraid one day he’d forget to look in those eyes and reach for
what he could never get back. It was
the main reason he stayed so mad at her.
She would always be the shadow image, the reflection that came off the
mirror. He knew she had feelings for
him, anyone with eyes could see that.
However, he had given his completely to Yuris and when she was ripped
from their ship, his heart was taken too.
Standing up, he turned and left her cabin, destination unknown.
