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Title: Inappropriate Conduct

Author: NinthFeather
Rating: T

Characters: Lyle Dylandy, Tieria Erde, Sumeragi Lee Noriega,

Pairings: past, one-sided Neil!LockonFeldt, hints of TieriaFeldt
Summary: In which Sumeragi and Tieria find out why Feldt has been avoiding Lyle and are Not Happy.

WARNINGS: Spoilers through early season 2, trigger warning for mentions of a canonical occurance that could be viewed as sexual assault.
A/N – I'm kind of surprised that the fandom hasn't fixated more on Lyle and Feldt's kiss in season two. It really was inappropriate—Feldt clearly didn't want to be kissed, Lyle kissed her anyway, and the show glossed over it like it wasn't traumatic for Feldt at all. Having a guy much larger and older than you force you to do something like that would be pretty scary for most girls, and I kind of don't like that the show didn't take it seriously. I wanted to write about that a little. I also really can't imagine that anyone already on Ptolemaios II would've been particularly pleased with Lyle's actions, had they known about them. So, I had them find out.

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"Ms. Sumeragi would like to see you."

Lyle spun around, reaching toward his hip for a gun that wasn't there, as Tieria Erde looked on impassively. Lyle scowled—he didn't much care for Erde, truth be told, and not just because Erde clearly wasn't too fond of him. Erde's brusque, businesslike manner rubbed him the wrong way, he supposed. Though, the close quarters the Ptolemaios II forced them into probably weren't helping things.

"Lead the way, then," Lyle said.

Tieria nodded stiffly, and lead Lyle down a number of seemingly endless corridors until they came to a room marked "Security".

"After you," Tieria said. Was it Lyle's imagination or was the look on his face even colder than usual?

Apprehensive, Lyle entered the room. It was dimly lit, and lined with glowing monitors, all of them showing the same image…

Lyle swore with feeling as Sumeragi moved out of the shadows to enlarge the image of him kissing Feldt on one of the bigger screens.

"I'd ask you to explain, but there's really nothing you can say to make this better," Sumeragi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lyle found that particular action somewhat distracting, but felt certain pointing it out would be a mistake at this point in time.

"I was just trying to make her understand—" Lyle started.

"That you are not your twin brother," Tieria said, his tone frigid. "I am aware. I listened to the audio thrice to ascertain that the idiotic things coming out of your mouth were not of my own imagining."

"Then he had me verify it," Sumeragi put in. "I wasn't especially pleased either."

"Look, this is a personal matter—" Lyle started.

Tieria glared at him, and said, very quietly, "That was assault."

"What?" Lyle said, stepping back reflexively. "You can't just go accusing—I didn't hurt her—"

"You forced that kiss on her," Sumeragi said. "She clearly didn't want it—you must have noticed her trying to pull away."

"In most developed countries that's considered sexual assault," Tieria said.

"You're doing all the cleaning for the next three weeks, and you're not allowed to speak with Feldt unless she speaks to you first, or until further notice," Sumeragi said.

Lyle couldn't quite keep the frown off his face.

"You're getting off easy," Tieria said. "We could have kicked you off the ship. Or told Setsuna about this. That's what I wanted to do."

"I said that would be going too far," Sumeragi said.

"Setsuna's not much more than a kid," Lyle said. "Am I supposed to be intimidated?"

"You've seen him in the Double-Oh," Sumeragi said.

"And while his past is none of your business, be content in knowing that he knows how to kill people with his bare hands," Tieria said. "And if he knew you'd done anything to hurt Feldt, he would not hesitate."

"Look, I was just trying to make things less awkward!" Lyle said.

Tieria scowled. "Maybe you were," he said. "But if you ever employ that particular method of decreasing awkwardness again, I will hurt you. Badly."

"And I'll let you off of Ptolemaios II so you can find a doctor," Sumeragi added. "You won't need to worry about coming back, either. You won't be welcome."

"But—Setsuna said you needed someone to pilot Cheridium…" Lyle started.

"Feldt has been with Celestial Being for much longer than you," Tieria said. "Longer than most of the people on Ptolemaios, actually. If you're asking which of you is the more essential crew member…well, I think you should be able to discern the answer yourself."

"She and one other girl were able to rebuild our computer network from scratch within a day," Sumeragi said. "Would you be able to do that?"

"No," Lyle sighed.

"We don't want you to feel unwelcome here," Sumeragi said, a bit more gently. "But we do want you to treat your fellow crew members with respect. You aren't the first person in Celestial Being to have issues with that. All we ask is that you try to deal with other members of Celestial Being in a professional manner."

"I will," Lyle said immediately.

"I'm inclined to believe that," Tieria said, smiling thinly. "I'm also inclined to believe that your intentions toward Feldt were not inappropriate. But I need you to understand that your actions were inappropriate. This ship is her home; if she can't feel safe here—"

"I never meant to hurt her," Lyle said. "I'm sorry."

"Good," Sumeragi said. "Now, the kitchen is a bit of a mess, so…"

"Right," Lyle said, sighing. At least he had something new to report to Katharon: terrorists or not, Celestial Being had standards, and they protected their own.

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