Warmth of the Rain

It was storming, and she stood outside in the rain. She had woken up in a cold sweat, after another nightmare. She was still in her night dress, which was soaked through, and stuck to her skin. Her long hair, usually in ponytails was left down and her gear was gripped tightly in her hand as she walked, barefoot, down the street from her apartment. She passed several people, who didn't pay her any mind as they rushed to get out of the rain themselves, as she walked towards the docks. The rain had kept on, and the storm that had welled up made the waters unsettled. She walked forward, and climbed up on top of a white and blue submarine, her home away from home. She reached to her back pocket, fumbling for her ID as her arms trembling from the slight chill the whipping winds had brought onto her skin. She brought the device back as her feet struggled to stay gripped to the Section 2 sub. Eventually she got the door open, and jumped into the blue and white sub.

Once inside, the warmth of the heating and cooling system cause her to take a breath of relief as she reached up and closed the hatch from above her. She was in an enclosed tube, no door or anything. "S-SONG member 'Y-Yukine Chris' requesting a-access to the control room" Chris stammered out her name, as a shiver overcame her. There was a pause, as a tired voice answered over the comms system, rather than the usual AI that responded.

"Chris-kun, why are you here so late?" came the rather deep voice of commander Genjuro. Chris looked down at her feet, as her hair dripped on the floor. She took a deep breath, composing herself of the night terrors she had, and scoffed after a moment.
"Ha, I simply wanted to do some late night training, If I let myself get out of shape while the noise is gone then how am I going to compare myself to that idiot and the idol?" she sounded incredulous with her insults, as she struck a bit of a pose.

The commander wasn't biting tonight, however. "Did you have a nightmare again?" His voice softened a bit, in the way it always did while talking to her. Her shoulders bunched, as a flush came to her cheeks as she was caught in her lie.
"w-what?! what do i look like a five year old running to papa? of course I didn't have a nightmare! you've lost your mind, old man. " Her voice pitched and the embarrassment was clear in her distaste for his previous statement. The elevator started to move, without so much as a word from the red haired kazanari man now. She waited for some kind of response, and her stomach dropped a bit, as she wondered if she had somehow offended him with her words. "h-hey old man, I didn't piss you off did I?" The gear user asked, a bit of a worried tone creeping into her voice as the elevator went on in silence. She got no response from him, as the command center came into view.
There he was, in his usual shirt and tie, arms crossed in a very commanding pose as he did. Chris swallowed, her eyes looking away as she stepped out of the elevator. "Listen, I-" he cut her off, as he seemed to appear at her side, a red towel wrapping around her shoulders, as he pulled her close without a word.

"I'm not mad."There was a silence, as she stood there in his arms. His shirt began to get soaked through, like her pajamas, as her hair stuck to it. They stood there, with her dripping wet against him for a moment before she said anything more.
"You're too much." Chris grumbled out loudly, but knew she couldn't break free from the embrace. 'Its warm... ' Chris thought, as her eyes hung a bit, and a sleepy sensation came over her. Her arms wrapped around him in turn, in the haze of her comfort, she didn't quite realize what she was doing. Chris snapped out of it though, as she felt him begin to release her, she jumped back. "Didn't I tell you not to get so touchy feely with me old man?" she shouted a bit, as she took the towel and held it in her hand, her clothes still dripping wet. He shrugged and pointed to her chest.
"You may want to cover yourself."
Her nipples were clearly showing through the light pink and blue fabric, and Chris's face turned a hot pink as she turned away from him, wrapping the towel around herself. "Why exactly are you looking at my chest, huh?!" She shouted, again, embarrassment coating her words.

Genjuro simply turned around, and walked away from her, sitting at the desk again. He plopped down into the chair, and rubbed his face with his hand. He had been up for the last 20 hours or so, and fatigue was beginning to get to him. "If you think one can avoid your chest, in those clothes, with them sticking to your skin in such a way... Perhaps you should re-consider how you dress yourself, Chris-kun." Genjuro countered as he brought up a document on his computer. She scoffed, and turned back to him with the towel wrapped tightly around her full figure.
"Ha! Like you're one to talk old man. You walk around with a t-shirt with your muscles bulging out of it all the time. Who are you trying to impress? Huh?" she walked up to him, her hands on her hips as she looked around at his face, her mind suddenly screaming at her in protest at her impulsiveness as her cleavage showed in his face. Genjuro turned his chair suddenly, and crossed his arms.
"What was your nightmare about?" He said, as he leaned back, away from her chest. Chris was surprised by the sudden motion, and stammered a moment, moving back, before finally yielding.
""It was about Val Verde. After I got sold into slavery- they…" He interrupted her with a hand, and she looked confused.
"You don't have to say anymore, unless you need to." Chris looked at him then with a bit of a surprised face. She was silent for a bit afterwards, they both were. It was normal for the two of them to have long lapses in between talking but the particular air here was much more… Strange. It felt like something was hanging in between them, like a wall.
"I… I havn't talked to anybody about what they did to me." her soft purple eyes looked down, and she seemed uncomfortable for a moment, rubbing her arm in a nervous way. "But it doesn't matter now, i'm happy with who I am and I know what they did to me didn't have anything to do with me as a person." The white haired gear user turned to her commander, confidence in her voice as the fringes of shyness faded away, as she held her head high. There was a moment of silence once more, as Genjuro raised an eyebrow when her towel fell down again. Chris sighed, and looked at it, then back at him. He simply kept his eyes up, and nodded.
"Not all adults are that way, we often do things to others that were done to us, when we were younger. you should feel sorry for those people, rather than anger or guilt."

Chris looked at him as a bit of comfort coming over her warming skin as she shifted her weight on her feet, and moved forward a bit, to wrap her arms around him this time, an odd display of affection for her. "Nobody's here...right?" The teen mumbled, and she bit her lip a bit. Genjuro seemed surprised, but embraced her anyway. Such displays of emotion and tenderness were rare for her.
"No, it's just us for now."
More silence.
"Good." She whispered, and relaxed completely. Chris shuffled up, and shifted her body weight, bringing herself completely into the chair, into his lap. Genjuro glanced to the side, not entirely uncomfortable but the edge of oddity at the way they were sitting together made him uneasy. The commander didn't want to push her away at such an important time, however and allowed it.

"Chris-kun?" The roughness of his voice seemed to reverberate oddly in her ear, as they were so much closer than they ever had been before. The girl shifted in his lap, resting her head entirely on him as she draped her still cold legs over his thighs. The position itself wasn't so odd, but given their age separation and work dynamic, he couldn't have things misunderstood.

"Uhn…?" Yukine mumbled out a short response, she was clearly exhausted, having walked so far from her apartment in the rain, barefoot and without much rest herself. Her eyes were thoroughly closed, and sleep was creeping into her mind.

"You need rest, clearly." Genjuro stood up, he himself being exhausted, as the familiar burn his eyes often came to experience returned to him, he felt the muscles in his now nearing middle age body protest a bit as he got up, easily picking up the teen with him. Chris laid limply in his arms, though one hand had reached out, and was curled in his wet shirt. The commander moved towards the elevator, and shifted her weight, wrapping her legs around his waist as he held her backside with one arm, using the other to reach into his pocket and take out the ID he used to get around the massive sub. The spiky haired man waved the sma device over the sensor, and the elevator returned.

"Kazanari Genjuro, requesting living quarters section 2." He spoke a bit loudly, and this caused Chris to shift. She let out a mumble, and the grip she had on his shirt rested finally as he entered the elevator, and the container sped off. They traveled slowly across the length of the sub, the whole while with him holding her in such a way. It took about two minutes to make the trip, but in that time Genjuros exhausted mind had lured his eyes across the girl in his arms.

Red eyes traced the line of her forehead, down to her cheeks, flushed from being out in the rain. The next path his eyes touched was the lines of her full lips, there was no doubt in his mind that she was a full woman in her own right. The Kazanari man let his eyes slip a bit further, down her neck, following the line of her collarbone and then her elegant throat. As exhaustion tempted his mind further into this exhebitionistic lust, he found he did not want to stop, as he realized what exactly he was looking at, the gear user, the woman, Yukine Chris.

Finally, Yukine's supple breasts came into view, and without shame he soaked up the sight of her cleavage. The commander would have a hard time explaining the path his eyes just took to her, if she so happened to wake up. Knowing this, he soaked up the vision of the girl in his arms for just a moment more, as they neared the stop he had intended for them- her quarters inside the sub.

As the elevator came to a slow halt, Chris's soft purple eyes fluttered open, and she looked up, meeting her commander's hard eyes with her own soft ones. They had a moment of mutual understanding, as Genjuro began to move, she leaned her head against his chest. "If you tell anybody about this i'll-"

The red haired man chuckled, which cut her off, and yukine's face scrunched up in distaste.

"You'll 'absolutely blow my head off' is that right?" He guessed her words, somehow he could always guess what she was going to say, or do. Like the storming night he came to visit her in that condemned building. She bit her lip, and nodded. "Absolutely blow your head off." Chris said, with a bit of solidarity in her voice. He nodded, as they reached her room in the sub, and he used his free hand to wave his id in front of the door console. The door slid open, revealing a mostly barren room.

Yukine turned her head and frowned a bit. She hadn't had time to make the room a home, and it felt alien to her now that she had gotten used to having personal effects littered about her space.

Genjuro moved, which threw her out of her thoughts, and set her next to the bed, which thankfully bad a spare blanket she had bought with the allowance she was given every month. Genjuro pet her lightly on the head, and lingered for a moment.

"Do you want me to stay?" He asked, genuinely concerned. Yukine scoffed, crossing her arms as she put her weight on her hip, sticking it out a bit as she leaned forward, her voice pitching to show her feelings about such an incredulous statement.

"Ha, what do I look like, a baby? I'll be fine old man, don't you worry about me. Besides, old men like you shouldn't be staying up so late. You need your beauty sleep after all" She taunted him, her purple eyes lighting up a bit as she got a bit excited.

There was a bit of a pause, and Genjuro simply responded by moving to the closet, and grabbing one of the pairs of sweats and a shirt they had in every living quarters, and tossed it at her.

"Goodnight then, Chris-kun."

He hadn't taken the bait at all, as he moved towards the door, and he could hear her panic a bit behind him as he got closer to it.

"W-wait!" Chris called suddenly as he reached the door frame, and she shifting uncomfortably.

"Hmm?" The Kazanari turned around, eyebrow raised as he genuinely seemed curious as to what she could want.

"I'm sorry. Would you stay with me ...K-Kazanari-san."

Genjuros eyebrows both raised now. He was genuinely surprised, not only had she spoken to him in a polite manner, she apologized for antagonizing some sort of response from him. The commander moved back over to her, sitting on the bed, and pet her still dripping hair.
"Dry off and i'll stay with you. But you've gotten my clothes plenty wet now, and i need to go change and come back alright?" He said, and continued gently stroking her soft white hair. He felt her shiver under his touch, and she turned to him, nodding.
"Yessir."
He smiled, and got up again. "That's my girl." His grin was infectious, and Yukine couldn't help but allow a smile to creep to her lips, despite it looking awkward. He laughed, a bit harder than he meant to, and squeezed her shoulder lightly, before turning and exiting out of the door.