Halo - Love at Long Range


Location: Rooftops, CRIMSON Base
Planet: Dolor
Cyngus system
February 7
th, 2549
12:57am

"Finally caught you."

No sooner had those words reached her ears, she hurried away from the railing of the rooftops to take the other stairwell exit.

"You haven't said a single word to me ever since we met up at the extraction point 3 days ago!" Jun exclaimed, and despite the fact it did indeed startle Celestina, she continued to walk away. "Now call me selfish but I think I've waited long enough! Will you please just talk to me?!"

He exhaled a sigh of defeated as she disappeared into the stairwell, having failed to initiate a conversation with his team leader. He slumped his upper body over the railing, sighing.

"What do you want me to say, Jun?" Her soothing voice came from his right. "I don't think I've even fully processed what went down."

"Let's deal with it together, then. Like we always have," Jun took a few more steps towards her. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I just… didn't know what was going through your mind."

"You were worried about me," She said, glancing down at her feet, Dominick's dogtags in her hands. "I didn't mean to ignore you. I was just…"

"Tell me," Jun urged. "That's the whole point right now."

"I was wondering if you were blaming me for what happened to Nicky. Whether you were disappointed in me."

"Why would I be disappointed in you?" He questioned.

She gave him a look that said the answer was greatly obvious. "Because I was right there. And I didn't save him."

"I was there too. You ever thought that maybe I'd be blaming myself?"

She tilted her head at him without a word - a sign for him to explain.

"I should have taken the shot quicker. It would have saved his life."

"Oh no. No, no," She pressed her hands against his chest to stop him from potentially continuing any further. "That was so not the case and you know it. You're amazing behind the scope but one wrong move and you could have missed. Or worse, hit Nicky."

"Celest," He peeled her hands off his chest. "You don't have to come up with excuses for me."

"And you don't have to come up with excuses for me! You were miles away, I was right next to him."

"I still don't understand how you can say it's your fault. You were up against SpecOps Elites. 4 of them. Anything could have happened."

She hesitated with her response, mainly because it was what she felt that her surviving teammate was driving towards. "So you're saying that it was a mistake?"

"I meant…" That was not how Jun would have put it, especially when it sounded so negligent. He certainly did not want Celestina to feel worse about herself. "I'm saying that Dominick would not want us to feel responsible for what happened for the rest of our lives. Not when there's still a war going on."

Celestina knew Dominick. He was practically her brother, filling the shoes that were left empty when she lost her family, including her older brother, Caden. Dominick was ruthless on the field, a hazard to any enemy that stood in his way. Non-Spartan personnel feared the man even if he was out of this armor, what with his striking green eyes and menacing walk.

Yet, he had the softest of spots of his team leader, his Lieutenant, his baby girl. He constantly teased her about Jun, picked stupid fights that usually ended up with her sitting on top of him in a crushing victory.

She knew him. She knew him well. So she should have known that Dominick would want them to carry on.

She shook her head disappointingly and turned her gaze upwards to the black sky. "How stupid was I to think that one day, the 3 of us could retire, when we're old and gray?"

"It's not stupid," Jun told her gently, squeezing her shoulder. "In fact, it's something only you would think of, one Nick and I would agree with."

She remained silent, her eyes observing at each star that she could see.

"Come on, princess," He ran his hand up and down her back. "If you're sad, then Dominick is just going to come back from the dead and slap me upside my head and blame me for it. Goodness knows he's always blamed me for your periods of sadness."

Upon hearing that, she produced a sincere giggle. "It was mostly out of humor. And to get on your nerves."

"Indeed." He gave his own chuckle.

Her smile disappeared gradually like smoke, as she attempted to get her words out. "It's been 3 days. I know he's gone. But… but I still think that he's gonna walk around the corner with his big stupid smile. Or… or that I'm gonna hear him call me 'baby girl'." She buried her face into her hands,

Jun immediately pulled her into his arms, with her head on his shoulder. "He was our brother…" He heard her whimper.

He stroked her red hair comfortingly; it was also an attempt to keep himself from bawling as well. "He's always gonna be. I'll miss him too."