a/n: Lila meets Jack to drop off information about her refueling station. They do not discuss fuel at all.
Not fluff.
All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft, except for Lila.
Sliding into the seat at the Barista Café, she knew something was wrong. The Commander's coffee cup was still full, but it clearly wasn't fresh. No wisps of steam visible on a drizzly day. He wasn't glowering at his comm device. He wasn't shouting at another BLADE. He was staring at the middle distance, a spot on the pavement about 2 meters behind and directly through her.
The waitress brought her tea without prompting. She added milk, and took the unusual step of stirring it, hoping the clink of spoon on ceramic would change something. Finally, Lila leaned forward and touched his knuckles with a fingertip. "Sir?"
He didn't startle. He looked up and summoned a rough smile. Completely artificial but huge. "Sorry, Lila. It's been a crap day."
"Already?" It was only 0600.
The smile didn't fade, but his voice was strained. "I made 5 emotional contact visits."
"Oh." Almost no one had next of kin. Instead, BLADEs listed the names of people they thought should be contacted in the event of … loss.
"Usually it's Nagi does them, but he's got … he's busy today."
"Chausson coming up with brilliant ideas?"
"Yeah, we'll call it that," Jack rumbled.
Lila stored that bit of misinformation away for another time and concentrated on the Commander. "Thank you for doing it."
"Nagi's better at it. It means more to him, anyway. But it's important and I did it."
"Thank you."
He leaned back suddenly, looking up into the drizzle. "One of them, I checked her file. Third time she's been visited." The moisture in the air was making his face gleam. His eyes. "She tried to comfort me. Me. Said it was all right, that she'd have a new boyfriend by the end of the month. Then she tried to make a joke. Said that maybe I'd visit her boyfriend for a change."
There was a pause. Lila took a deep breath. "In other news, my station's hiring."
"Since when?"
"Since now."
"You need staff?"
"Desperately. For a few weeks, anyway."
"Let Eleonora know. I gotta shove off. Ping me the station numbers later."
"I will, sir."
Voidfish (Plural) by Rachel Rose Mitchell on loop. Set after in-game Ch. 8 but before The Lily and the Blade/11/One Punch KO.