Apriltober 22 Just act normal
a/n: Irina and Frye share the same division. Just this once, Irina would like Frye to share the same standards.
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, and the fun prompt is from KrustyCheetahs, thank you.
"Can you just act normal for this one mission?" Irina speared her bangs with her fingers, just short of pulling it out with frustration. "It's all I'll ask of you. One normal mission, no alcohol, no bragging, no stunts. Drop the Blood Ostrich nonsense. Just one professional mission and I'll never hit you up for anything hard again."
Frye leaned against a ugly beast of a skell, both of them filthy to their hips. He had a vacuum flask in his hand, and the smell of vodka cut through the NLA night. He tilted his head back and lubricated his throat before responded. "Oh doll face, you're asking for a lot then."
Irina sucked a breath through her teeth, then let it out slowly. "I need someone from our division as my partner."
"Take Gwinny boy then."
"I need someone with weight." She walked over to a maintenance box and pulled out two rags. "Clean yourself up before that mud hardens."
He grabbed one rag and leered. "You gonna help buff me?"
"I'm getting the worst off your skell before you need to use a sandblaster against it."
He grabbed her wrist before she could start swiping. "Leave it. The outfitters wanted to test something against grime, and I went and got them a test subject."
Irina looked down at his filthy uniform. "And you look like that because...?"
"It didn't feel fair to let the thing suffer alone. Hanging around with Alexa must have done something to my noodle." He took another pull on his flask before flicking at his knees with the rag. A glob of mud landed on his boot with a glutenous splat.
Irina stood there, holding an unnecessary rag, pressing her lips together but not saying a word. Frye looked up at her and wrinkled his nose. "Look, Irina, you don't like what I got. Pick another Interceptor. It's just a half mission."
"It's a test to see if we can grab some of the lower tyrant missions from the Harriers. If the team can pull it off, we can start getting more respect, more opportunities, more resources. I'm tired of seeing the Harriers get the newest equipment. You've seen how raggedy some of our teams' skells are. I want that to change."
"So why bug me?"
"I need someone good. If you'd try to be normal, you'd make a model soldier."
"Good, ha! I can't hide behind normal. People take one look at my face and know I've seen the bad end of a beer bottle. The good end too." He stopped swiping at his knee, even though it was almost as filthy as the start, and pulled out his flask again.
Irina frowned sharply. "It's a test mission, but BLADE's making it hard. I only get the one partner. You have the offensive skills and the stamina to pull it off. I need this to work. I put my reputation on it." She stopped and looked away.
"You and your ambition," Frye drawled wetly.
She twisted back towards him and shook the rag in his face. "Make fun of my ambition, fine, but I know that if you dropped all this bull, you'd be just what I need to prove Interceptors can do the job."
Frye pulled the clean rag from her hand and passed her the filthy one. He bent over his other knee. "I'll be at the gate at 0600."
"Really? I mean, yes, good, make it 0500, so I can double check ."
"You can buy me a coffee during that hour. I'll be there, fresh uniform, perfect layout, the works. My skell will be a temple of cleanliness. I won't say nothing but 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir,' and 'Three bags full, sir.'"
"You don't have to be that stiff, Frye," Irina muttered.
"Oh, you know I can't resist a dare. I'm gonna make your eyes pop out of your head. I might even swing by Phog and traumatize him a little."
"Thanks. I won't ask anything like this again."
"Ask away, doll face. It's in my own self interest to have the best people be head of the Interceptors. And by best people, I mean you. See ya at 0500."
[eight hours later, chatter on the comms as two skells hovered over the defensive wall of NLA]
/NLA this is AresINT84 requesting guidance to Sylvalum/
/roger AresINT84 is your partner ready/
/Blood Ostrich are you ready to proceed/
/yes sir, Guns Empress, Blood Ostrich is ready/
/NLA this is AresINT84 we are ready to proceed requesting guidance to Sylvalum/
/sending course now AresINT84 and good luck/
a/n: Irina has nagged Frye before, in Drunkard. He doesn't mind, much. Other people he'd probably not be as chill about the suggestion. I really enjoyed doing this prompt, so thanks again to KrustyCheetahs for the chance. And, yes, I rather enjoyed parts of Daemon x Machina, whooo! Radio Quiet by Griffin McElroy on loop.
Next up: No idea. Cave music slaps though.