Alive

By: Aviantei

20 mph


"Your brother's birthday is coming up?"

I nod, crossing the kitchen and bearing the usual cups of morning coffee. Alexander looks up from his spot at the island, where the return of the ultra domestic but peaceful morning has happened in full force, a box of fresh baked bagels and all. Except this is my kitchen, and Alexander's the one over for a visit (he'd claimed it was his right after all the time I'd mooched off him), and Alexander's the one that has the plan for the day. That means it's my turn to be the one in the dark, having no idea what wild adventure our get together will bring. My, my, how the tables have turned.

The saving grace is that I'm not nervous at all, instead brimming with a silly bit of anticipation over the mystery, enough that I can see the faintest tints of colors fighting against the gray—and we haven't even gotten started. The thought is enough that my grin and near skip of excitement aren't strained in the slightest, and I hop up onto my own bar stool after passing over the mugs. "Yeah, Nate. The brother I wanted to make jealous by taking those pictures with you guys."

Alexander nods, faintly smiling. "Yeah, that's right." It takes me moment to realize he's happy that I've actually said Nate's name—that I'm comfortable sharing something about my family. I decide to leave out the part where it's because I feel like I owe him for making a mess of things. "He's the one that wants to be an IG mechanic, right? You want me to arrange a tour or something for him as a gift?"

"You don't go halfway with anything, do you?" Sure, what I was about to say was kind of obvious with my lead-in, but leave it to Alexander to crank things up to eleven before I even say a word. Over his coffee mug, Alexander gives me a look that's saying, You're one to talk. "I was honestly just going to ask if you wouldn't mind maybe getting some autographs from Jan and Dew for me. Plus if I go ahead and give him a tour, how the hell am I supposed to top that next year?"

"You sure you're not going to suddenly decide that we should dramatically part ways again by then?"

I reach into the box of bagels and throw a package of cream cheese at him. Chuckling, Alexander lets it bounce off his arm but stops it before it falls to the floor. "You're the one that came after me. Good luck getting rid of me this time." Alexander shrugs, and I pluck a blueberry bagel from the offerings, splitting it in half. "But, yes, I'm requesting your help in giving my baby brother an awesome gift. Should I take for asshole comment as a no, then?"

Still laughing to himself, Alexander enjoys his coffee. "I'm sure the guys would be glad to help out with that. I'll sort something out for the next time we see each other?"

"Much appreciated." Even without toasting, the bagel's pretty tasty. I try to note the name of the bakery for later when a thought occurs to me. "Did you tell Jan about what I did? 'Cause I'm pretty sure he wouldn't appreciate it." Dew might let it slide, but I'm pretty sure Jan doesn't appreciate anyone messing with his friends, even though Alexander has given me a pass.

Alexander frowns a bit, lowering his mug from a fresh drink. "I don't remember you being this paranoid about what other people think about you."

"I'm not paranoid. It's just that I don't wanna alienate someone that would make a good drinking buddy." Alexander gives me a deadpan look, and I let out a sigh. "We're friends, Alexander. It doesn't do me much good if one of your friends is in a bad mood." Especially when there's not an easy way to appease someone who's Alexander's IG team and probably has as much money as him. I swallow my latest bite of bagel and shift on my stool. "I don't know if you noticed, but I don't have many friends."

"Oh, trust me, I noticed." If only tossing condiment packages at him hadn't already failed. Alexander leans onto the counter, his elbows never once touching the surface. "I didn't really get around to telling them what happened, so you can relax. They noticed I was in a bad mood during practice, but I didn't get to tell them much. And then I got that call, so the problem kind of resolved itself, didn't it?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Do you regularly not tell your closest friends about what's going on in your life?" He didn't tell them much about me and our deal, either. I may not have a ton of friends, but from what I remember, you usually share that sort of stuff with them.

"It's not really my first instinct to go talk to other people when something's wrong. If it were, I would've told them about my boredom issue ages ago." A fresh bite of bagel keeps me from grimacing. Well, when he puts it like that, I'm not one to talk. Alexander shrugs, setting down his mug with a tap against the countertop. "So, no, you don't need to worry about either of them getting upset with you. We'll add it to our little pile of secrets."

"Oh, it's a pile now? Does that time you dragged me into a lingerie shop count as one of them?" I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get a spit take out of him, but the look on his face is priceless regardless. Feeling satisfied, I smirk at him. "I'll take that reaction as a yes. Don't worry, as much as I like to embarrass you, I won't throw you under the bus. Or were you thinking about some other secret I need to take care with?"

Alexander's cheeks look the faintest bit flushed, though I can't really make out the color. But I gotta hand it to him, the man recovers quick, and he's on his feet soon after, car key spinning around his index finger. "How about we call where I'm taking you today a surprise, and we'll go from there."


Unlike the last time Alexander gave me a surprise, he doesn't ask that I close my eyes. That makes it pretty easy to recognize the building we've pulled up to, which is tall and has an obnoxious Team Velshtein logo on it. The fact that the security guard letting us into the parking lot strikes up a conversation with Alexander pretty much confirms what I'm thinking—the guest pass Alexander pulls from his pocket and tosses at me is basically overkill.

I stare at the thing, the thick plastic preventing me from crushing the pass into a ball. "I didn't realize you guys have 'Take Your Friends to Work' Day." Or in my case, is it "Take the Person Who Broke into Your Hangar to Work" Day? Either way, I drop the lanyard around my neck. "Actually, how is watching you at work supposed to be fun? Don't you get tired of working your ass off all the time?"

Alexander pulls into his reserved spot right by the door with a smile still on his face. The engine of his car stills with one last hum. "If you want to get technical, this is one of my days off, you know."

I throw my arms up. "That's what I'm saying! You're showing off your workplace when you don't even have to be here." I follow Alexander's lead as he gets out of the car, then starts leading the way towards the entrance. He pulls out an ID card that looks similar to mine, which seems to only serve the purpose of letting him in the door—you know, since you'd have to be pretty dense if you worked for Team Velshtein and you couldn't recognize the captain on sight. "I'll bite, though; I'm curious. Why are we here again? Have you finally come to your senses and are turning me into Sir Hamgra?"

Leading the way down a pristinely clean hallway, Alexander makes sure I can see him rolling his eyes. "You're never going to stop making jokes about that, are you?"

"Nope," I say, popping the p and clasping my hands behind my back. The chill of the AC inside is enough that I can feel the goosebumps forming on my skin. "And you're not very smooth about dodging the question, either. Try again."

"As impatient as ever." Alexander pauses before an elevator, pressing the call button. "You certainly never went ahead and spoiled any of your surprises for me. Don't see why I should do the same."

I toss my ponytail over my shoulder, stepping inside the elevator once the doors open. Alexander swipes his ID card again before selecting a floor. "How about because I can really only think of like five things that we'd be doing in your home base, and most of them involve not so great things for me?" Dammit, if I'd known about this, I would've had Mariya make sure there weren't any messes.

"Kirsten, I think we've already established that I'm not going to turn you in. Can't you think any more creatively than that?" Oh no he did just not. I scowl at him, but Alexander just smirks. "Do remind me, how did we meet again?"

"I decided to take a field trip to check out your mech." It's the most neutral way I can think of to say it, not wanting to risk there being a camera recording this.

"And what made you want to do that?"

It's not just a question to get me to realize his point; I've never told him the answer, never given him the chance to ask the question. Since the elevator doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, I lean back against the wall. "Because becoming an IG pilot would've taken too long, and I thought it would be exciting to see what one was like." The closest I could imagine myself getting without getting locked into the sport.

Alexander nods as the elevator moves up a few more floors, then pings to a stop. And just like that, he's leading the way again, with me matching his pace. "Well I'm about to give you one better than that. A little bit of excitement that those little racing simulator games can't match."

"Are you for fucking real?" Another pristine and clean hallway, another flash of his ID, and then we're in a room. A line of computers and technical readouts presses against one wall, looking like the younger but no less impressive cousin of the Team Velshtein hangar down at the IG track. There's some chairs and papers on desks, suggesting that people normally inhabit this space, but there's no one around to greet us. Alexander crosses the room to one of the systems, starting it up, while I'm left gaping at the three cornerstones of the room.

From the outside, they look like nothing more than big white rooms with doors, most of their impressiveness coming from their sizes. But even I can put all the pieces together, thanks to what Alexander just said and considering where we are. This has to be one of the training rooms, so those have to Velshtein's piloting simulators. I can't decide whether Mariya or Nate would geek out more about these things in person—or which one of them will be more jealous once I mention that I got to check some out.

"You do know that I've never actually learned how to pilot a mech before, right?" I ask, feeling way too out of my element to think of something clever to say. Because, despite myself, I can already feel my body thrumming from the excitement, the anticipation of what's going to happen today.

Alexander finishes up whatever he's working with and crosses the room, patting my shoulder as he passes by. "Practice makes perfect, yeah?" I can see his smile in the full course of colors, the sight so beautiful that I don't rise to the taunt. "Let's get you suited up, then we can start with the basics."


[Author's Notes]

I've been sitting on the idea of putting Kirsten in a mech for ages, so I'm excited to get into this mini arc. We gotta do practice first, though, so convenient use of the mech simulators, go, which just so happens to be what's next time.

Please look forward to it!

-Aviantei

[09.17.2019]