There once existed a legend, passed from generation to generation that claimed, if two people saw two shooting starts falling to earth at the very same time, their fate will be forever intertwined. But though they shall fall in love, the stars will mercilessly tear them apart again and again, resulting in a heart-breaking tragedy.
With that being said, let the story unfold...
First, meet Lal Mirch. She is a no-nonsense type of woman, who can kill a grown man with her bare hands and deliver sarcasm politely. With her navy hair and dark red eyes, she is an imposing figure despite her petite size. Did I also mention that she is the instructor of the Italian underwater forces COMSUBIN? Well, now you know. Doesn't she sound like someone you wouldn't want to cross? She isn't. But unfortunately for the trembling new recruits that she was glaring at with contempt, she wasn't in a good mood. Not at all.
But it was even worse for her blond-haired blue-eyed bandanna-wearing lieutenant Colonello, who was currently jogging at a leisurely pace towards the squad, seemingly not caring that he was half an hour late. He probably didn't know he was going to get fried by a certain angry commander. As his footsteps neared, a very angry Lal spun around to face the sloppily clad man who was currently grinning like an idiot, and slapped him, hard. The rest of the squad winced.
"Lieutenant, you are half an hour late! What explanation do you have?" Lal snapped, glaring down the grinning idiot, (yes, he was still smiling despite being slapped) who was rubbing his cheek.
"Come on Lal, I just over slept a bit!" Colonello tried to put a hand on Lal's shoulder, but it was icily slapped away.
"It's Commander Mirch to you, Lieutenant, and we'll settle this later."With one last angry look, Lal turned to face the squad, while Colonello took his place behind her. Taking a deep breath, she addressed the new recruits with an emotionless face.
"I am Lal Mirch, and I will be your commander from this day forwards, until you are deemed worthy of joining a higher-ranked squad. You shall address me as Commander Mirch, or Ma'am. Understand?" The men in the squad trembled, eyes shining with fear.
"Yes ma'am!" They all shouted in response. Lal snorted.
"COMSUBIN is not a place for the weak. If you can't take extreme training exercises and little rest, then you can leave and go back crying to your mothers right now because I have neither the time nor the patience to babysit you. Is that clear?" She barked, as the squad fidgeted, but not a single man left their positions.
"Good. Today is probably your only free afternoon in a while, so I suggest you enjoy it. Dinner will be served in the mess hall a six o'clock pm sharp. If you're late, then expect to go to bed with an empty stomach." Her eyes scanned the group, locking her gaze onto a man in the first row that raised his hand hesitantly. She nodded at him, giving him permission to speak.
"Um... excuse me, Commander Mirch, with all due respect, are you sure you are able to train us? I mean, you ARE a woman after all and..." He trailed off nervously, into silence.
And, as you would hypothesize, that was the absolute worst thing to say to Lal Mirch, especially when she's in a foul mood.
Rolling her eyes, Lal walked up to the recruit, and as fast as lightning, she kneed him in the gut, making him stumble back in surprise. Not even close to finished, she kicked him in the head, easily slipping past his hasty defences, and had the man pinned to the ground with his arms behind his back in a matter of seconds. Getting up and dusting her pants, she glared at the rest of the men who watched in silence, their jaws stretched into wide Os.
"Anybody else want to try?" None of the other men moved. Returning to her original position, leaving the challenger to pick himself up, she addressed the squad once again.
"You are dismissed." And with that, she turned and walked away, with Colonello jogging to keep up with her.
"You really are as ruthless as ever kora." He smiled drily, as he followed her to the training rooms. Lal crossed her arms.
"I remember you asking the exact same question when you were a recruit." She retorted. Colonello sighed, remembering that unfortunate incident.
"And you thrashed me hard kora." Again, he tried to lay his hand on Lal's shoulder, but this time, she didn't slap it away.
Now, a few things on Colonello. He is the Lieutenant, as well as private trainee of Lal Mirch. He has a habit of adding kora! To the end of his sentences, a catch phrase that nobody has figured out why he liked so much. With his sandy blonde hair and clear azure eyes, he is often the talk of many females working in the office. But he has his eyes set on one woman, namely his cold-blooded demon from hell trainer, Lal Mirch. Of course, nearly everyone could see that his love for her was obvious, due to his shameless pickup tactics, but nobody knew how Lal Mirch in question felt. That was why the teacher and student pair was more often than not the talk of the break room, though one person has to be on guard at the door at all times to warn the gossiping trainees if the demon trainer herself was coming.
As Lal threw open the doors to the training rooms, the few people that were in there scampered out quickly, not wanting to be caught in the middle of a fray. Taking his position in the middle of the room, Colonello faced Lal, sliding into a fighting stance.
"I was serious about dealing with you." Lal warned as she gracefully aimed a kick at his midsection, which he blocked with ease. Years of training with Lal had improved his hand to hand combat abilities by quite a bit.
"When weren't you serious?" Colonello grunted, as he punched her head, but missed.
"In that case-"Lal quickly caught Colonello's hand, and kicked him hard in the gut, sending him to the floor.
"You let your guard down." She commented drily, as Colonello picked himself up from the dusty ground.
"As un-ladylike as always I see." He smiled and tried to attack again, this time successful in landing a blow to Lal's stomach. Stepping back, a rare smirk appeared on her face.
"That's much better." She remarked, blocking all his punches and aimed a few of her own.
Just like that, training continued like any other ordinary day, except the day, they would discover later, was far from ordinary.
As the pair arrived at the mess hall, sweaty and out of breath, the line-up for food was mercilessly short. Quickly taking plates and helping themselves to the salad and fried rice for dinner that night, they looked for a place to sit, but found that the hall was quite full, in result of the new recruits that came in today.
"So, where do you suggest we go?" Lal raised an eyebrow, nodding at the full seats in the hall. All the noise the men were making was giving her a headache.
"Well, where else but outside kora!" Colonello grinned, and grabbing Lal by the wrist, dragged out of the mess hall.
"Let go! I can walk myself." Lal jerked her wrist back, turning her head so that Colonello wouldn't notice the pink tint of her cheeks.
"Fine fine... but I have somewhere that I want to show you kora." Colonello's eyes were wide, begging. Lal's red eyes met his blue ones, stern.
"You know we're not supposed to go off grounds!"Lal snapped at back, but broke down when Colonello gave her another puppy dog look. "But... I guess I'll make an exception."
"Great kora! Come on!" Colonello grabbed her hand despite her protests, and ran over the hills of the obstacle course grounds. Threading gracefully through the trees, He finally stopped when the forest broke, and cliff edge stood out in the light of the full moon, overlooking the entire valley. By then, it was already quite dark, the moon and stars illuminating the sky.
"Pretty impressive huh kora?" Colonello let go of Lal's hand, and plopped onto the soft grassy meadow.
"Very." Lal agreed, sitting beside Colonello. "It's beautiful." She breathed, as Colonello dug into his dinner ravenously. Setting down her own plate, she let her fingers stroke the cook grass, and smiled up at the sky. The stars winked back at her, beautiful and mysterious in their own way.
"Hey, you should smile more kora." Colonello's voice jolted Lal back from her daydream. Scowling, she picked up her plate again.
"What was that supposed to mean?" She retorted as she viciously took a bite of salad. Colonello looked thoughtful.
"Exactly what it sounded like. You look pretty when you smile." Finished with his plate, Colonello set it down, casting his eyes on Lal, whose cheeks flushed with red as she took another bite of rice.
"Ha! Lal, are you blushing?"Colonello grinned mischievously; resting a hand on Lal's reddened cheeks.
"N-no..." she looked down, shivering at the touch of his rough and callused hand.
"You can't fool me kora." Colonello laughed, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Lal looked up, trying to look angry but the red of her cheeks are evident. Suddenly, a streak of light flashed, lighting the night. Both of them looked up, finding two shooting stars streaking through the sky.
"Wow..." Lal breathed, mesmerized. Colonello frowned slightly. Lal looked back at him.
"What's wrong?" She set her set her plate down in the grass. Colonello shook her head.
"Nothing. There was a old legend that was passed down in my family..." He smiled again. "It's nothing." He repeated, though Lal looked unconvinced.
"So, did you make your wish?" He quickly changed the subject, making Lal look away.
"I don't believe in wishes." She huffed, crossing her arms. Colonello raised an eyebrow.
"You're no fun." He pouted, making Lal blush unwillingly again.
"Then what did you wish for?" She retorted, feeling uneasy at the naughty look on Colonello's face.
"Do you really want to know?" He asked as Lal fidgeted uncomfortably.
"I... I guess..." Lal looked up hesitantly.
She was completely taken aback when she felt Colonello's warm and chapped lips pressed against hers, his gentle hand on her waist. Eyes wide in surprise, she felt herself lean forwards unconsciously. Several thoughts flashed in her mind as she registered the flush in her cheeks and the familiar feeling of a fluttering butterfly in her stomach making her dizzy and exhilarated. As Colonello's lips brushed against hers, affectionate and tender, she finally put two and two together and realized that-
He had kissed her.
The pure thought of it made her cheeks flush. Though Lal has never mentioned it, she was never kissed.
Never.
She was always too tomboy, and proud of it to ever even think about anything like that. But... Right now, Colonello was kissing her, and as surprised as she was, she secretly thought it wasn't all that bad.
Just as quick and abruptly as the kiss started, Colonello broke away, a small smile of satisfaction on his face. Lal looked down, blushing awkwardly. Running a hand through her navy hair, Colonello laughed.
"That was probably the only time you have ever been treated like a proper lady." He stood up, taking his plate.
"C-Colonello! W-what was that..." Lal stuttered and blushed beet red, carrying her empty plate in trembling hands.
"My wish." He answered simply, and held out a hand to help Lal up. Gingerly, she took it, still unsteady on her feet.
"A-anyway, we should go back. It's almost lights out." Lal quickly changed the subject, as the two made their way back to the training grounds.
That night, both of them dreamed about each other, and the falling stars streaking the night sky.
Months later
The door to Lal's office creaked open, as she stepped inside, no bothering to turn on the light. The sun was going to be up soon anyway. As she set down her bag, she could feel someone else in the room. She sighed. It should be expected.
"Colonello, I know you're there."She stated, as he slinked out of the shadows, crossing his arms in front of her.
"Where were you last night? Who were those other people in that room? Why did you go meet them?" A torrent of questions came from Colonello, making Lal freeze.
"You followed me didn't you?" Lal's voice quivered slightly. Colonello nodded shamelessly.
"I heard everything. What you had to do, why you were chosen." A glimmer of desperation seeped into his voice. "Lal, you don't have to do this. Just find someone-"
"No Colonello. Don't you see? From the very beginning, I didn't have a choice!" Lal cut him off angrily, walking up to him. She could feel her eyes moisten, but she refuses to cry. Colonello's eyes filled with sadness, a deep sorrow that pained Lal to look at. She turned her head away, but she felt his strong arms around her, holding her tight.
"But Lal, you don't even know what is coming and-"Not able to bear it any longer, Lal roughly pushed Colonello away.
"Colonello, don't. Don't make it harder for yourself. Don't make it harder for me." Lal's voice cracked slightly, as she quick-walked towards the exit. "I'll be leaving COMSUBIN very soon. Don't try to follow me. I- I don't want you to be dragged into this." With that, she almost ran out the room, leaving Colonello standing by himself, a look of utter defeat etched on his face.
The legend of the stars... is it really true?
Well, it's been quite a long time since I've done author's notes, and I really want to thank all those of you who review me. They really keep me going! So this story is a present for all of you. I actually got this idea from an Asian drama that I was watching. The legend isn't mine; I just tweaked it to fit my needs. I'm aiming to make this a trilogy, and I am so very tired writing this... it's the longest thing I have written. So please, do review! If you feel up to it!
