Loyal Heart
~Chapter 1~
His heart was pounding loudly as he made his way to the BSAA's headquarters. The brunet had been called in for an emergency mission. He couldn't lose any more time he already had trying to get to the base. Piers rushed as fast as he could without taking a single breath.
Finally, he stood in front of his Captain's door and hesitated on knocking or just opening it to see his Captain. His forehead held the sweat from the workout he just had.
'It doesn't even matter!' Thought Piers, as he turned the door's knob and saw Chris before him storming through the room with a bunch of papers scattered all over his desktop.
"Piers- we don't have much time, there's a jet waiting for us now," Chris didn't even directly look at him; he just knew it was Piers probably by looking at his silhouette through the corner of his eye. "Make sure the whole team is ready. Now," Piers didn't waste time and nodded at his Captain with an expressionless stare, his body still heated up.
He might've been expressionless but his own mind was almost screaming at him. His eyes never left Chris' body. His heart pounded even harder when he looked at his Captain. Ever since he heard about Chris he fell for him. All the stories, the exploits, everything fascinated him. Back when he met Claire he would ask her to tell him more about her brother. Claire and Piers were really good friends, yet Piers never met Chris personally, although he did ask Claire for pictures of when he was younger.
Chris wasn't only Piers' admiration anyway. The younger man earned his own way to where he was standing now. His favorite thing was that he could be with Chris the whole time in every journey and mission.
Piers had always been good at hiding his own feelings hence Chris never finding out Piers' intentions –which weren't even bad– However, Piers knew this could put his job at risk and most likely his relationship with his Captain.
He turned on his heel and left immediately. He went through the hallways for a couple minutes until he found the now prepared jet his Captain spoke about. Apparently everybody was already getting inside quickly. There were only a couple more soldiers left waiting for what he thought was his Captain.
"Hey, Piers! What's taking Chris so long, huh?" One of the soldiers nudged Piers' shoulder and winked at him. He could only roll his eyes and shake his head while giving a sarcastic yet shy chuckle. This was probably the millionth time one of the soldiers teased him about Chris.
Every single time the soldiers were training in the facility –Piers included–, Piers would talk about how their Captain was this and that, always praising the man, he would tell the stories he knew about Chris and how he managed them and what he did to do so. Obviously, he didn't do this in front of Chris, but his teammates wouldn't shut up about how he and Chris should marry already. Piers actually never denied that he wanted to; he would just shove them off and tell them to shut up. That's why it was quite obvious to the whole team that Piers was either obsessed with their Captain or had Captain issues… you know. Good thing they rarely talked about that unless Piers was there simply just to tease the brunet.
"It's only been a couple minutes, c'mon." Piers said, it was really just matter of time until someone started teasing him, but honestly, he was used to it by now.
It didn't take Chris long until he appeared so everyone got ready to aboard the jet, "soldiers get ready," Chris announced suddenly. Piers made sure there was no one left behind so they took off.
The entire troop took its respective seat, each soldier in its own position. Piers stayed beside Chris. The older man shifted on his own seat as if he was uncomfortable or something like that, "are you okay, Captain?" Piers couldn't resist asking.
Chris gave him half a stare until he stopped doing whatever he was doing. "Yeah, I'm fine." He adjusted his machine gun over his lap, it was quite big so no wonder he couldn't sit comfortably, or at least that's what Piers had in mind.
"Sorry to have to ask you this, Captain, but I couldn't read where our destination is this time," Piers' voice came out low, trying not to say it out loud. He really had been in such a hurry before he got there therefore he didn't have time to read the message he got about the upcoming mission.
A few soldiers situated a couple meters from Piers and Chris were mumbling and chuckling, however they weren't looking at both Piers and his Captain so he didn't have to worry about them. They made him nervous whatsoever. He was getting tired of being teased by most of his teammates. He even considered about stopping his rants about Chris.
"Edonia. There's been a call for reinforcement; not too far away from here. A new type of B.O.W. has been released apparently." Chris stated. Piers nodded in understanding.
'So Edonia, huh.' Piers thought to himself. He was ready to annihilate anything that was a threat.
Piers spent the whole time next to Chris. He thought… maybe… if he could spend more time with his Captain he'd notice that Piers was… interested in him?
"Have you talked to Claire recently?" Piers had to ask to get more of Chris's attention. He did want to know more about the other man and his family; also he cared about Claire, so why not ask that, right? It had been a little while since he himself had a conversation with her, probably a few months.
"Not exactly, I've been far too busy. Have you talked to her?" he asked Piers back.
"No… well… it's been a couple months, so… I was asking for the same reason," Chris grinned and chuckled at Piers' response, he found it a little bit cute how Piers made all those small pauses. He usually made Chris laugh with stuff like that. That also made Piers smile, he loved making Chris laugh, it was really so cheesy but he couldn't love anything more than seeing the other man smile.
"What's so funny, huh?"
"Nothing, nothing, never mind." Chris ended his little fun and stretched instead. Piers noticed that Chris had put an arm over his shoulders after stretching, but Chris was just laying back on his own seat. It intrigued him though. Chris always got along with his whole team; it was like another family, at least that's what Chris made it feel like. He treated all of his men kindly and protected them at all costs. Piers knew he had little to no chance of Chris even being attracted to him. It plain sounded like the most outrageous idea he had ever had. The older man was not attracted to Piers, let alone attracted to men, yet that didn't stop Piers from staying close to Chris. That made him happy enough. He was so loyal to his Captain.
The aircraft arrived to its destination. It was quite cold; Piers could feel his skin toughening with the cool atmosphere. All the men got out of the huge metallic airship.
"Listen up!" Chris raised his voice, "in the BSAA, our job is to rid the world of bioterrorism, and the only way to do that is by sticking together." He then looked at Piers.
"Nobody's expendable." The sniper stated.
"Exactly," Chris nodded at his soldiers' way, "Now each and every one of you may be ready to die for our cause, but it's my job to make sure we all get through this alive."A sob came from one of the men nearby.
"Suck it up, Finn," Piers glanced at the man.
"Sorry, sir," the man apologized.
"No one gets left behind, not on my watch. Understood?" Chris gave the speech's final words until everyone agreed with a 'yes, sir' in unison.
One of the soldiers came up with some holographic device that displayed images and data about what was happening as he explained to the troop that there was a new type of B.O.W. named J'avo that was attacking the place.
Right when they finished, Chris gave off instructions of sticking together and going in teams; at the end Chris told Piers to get prepared because both of them were going to stay together, of course, they're partners. Before Chris left the hidden place he asked Finn if he was okay and the rookie simply affirmed.
"Is he always this awesome?" Finn asked Piers but the brunet only shook his head and left, leaving Finn behind.
'Of course he's always this awesome. He is the best.' Piers grinned and thought to himself as he went to join Chris.
