This fic was supposed to be just for fun, and it IS, but this introduction is going to be very serious.
See, "Repairs" and its companion piece "Girltalk" have been in progress for quite a while, because I don't think the females of the series get nearly enough attention, but I almost stopped working on them. I almost scrapped them entirely. Because of two charming reviews I got for "Black and White and Shades of Gray", complimenting my work but sneering at the subject, even ORDERING me to order "stuff with NO GAY".
If you want to read my fics, I warn you to come to them with an open mind. I warn about lesbian and gay topics all over my fics, and you'd think that eventually some people would realize that it's because there are GAY AND LESBIAN TOPICS in the fics. If you don't want to read that sort of thing, STOP READING RIGHT HERE. There is discussion of GAY PEOPLE IN THIS FIC. There is discussion of LESBIAN PEOPLE IN THIS FIC. If you do not like either or both of these things, hit your back button. I mean it. I don't want to get a lot of whiny complaints from you people about how homosexuality is evil or how you want more heterosexual fics to get written.
This fic also contains heterosexuality. That's right. For those of you who've been waiting for this moment, here it is. Rio/Phil is discussed in this fic. Garu/Leena is discussed in this fic. Ernest/Tune is discussed in this fic. None of these relationships ACTUALLY HAPPEN in the course of the fic, because the boys never appear: only the four Repairers, talking and thinking. This fic is ABOUT the relationships between Pilot and Repairer, as well as about the Repairers themselves -- if you want, you can even see some vaguely creepy Yu/Kazuhi vibes in there.
And there will be gayness in this fic. If you are not willing to at least tolerate it, then go away. I don't want you to read it either. I require open minds.
REPAIRS
A Fic For The Too-Often-Neglected Repairers
by Kay Willow
Most of the Goddesses had been long overdue for a setting rehaul. People changed, after all, and it was a very bad thing if a Pilot grew out of a habit or mental pattern that had previously been established in their union with a Goddess. And the Pilots were so young, too; teenagers, children really, who were changing every day. Some of the former Chief Repairers had done setting rehauls every week, sometimes more than once a week.
It had been a month since the last official setting adjustment. Leena had felt it was definitely time, as the current Chief Repairer, that she got off her lazy butt and authorized a new one. It wasn't that big a deal, she'd reminded herself; a simple procedure that only involved clocking reactions and activating scanners. As long as the Pilots followed orders in a timely fashion, this wouldn't be painful at all.
She'd forgotten that Gareas was one of "the Pilots", or she wouldn't have been much cheered by that.
"He's so pigheaded," she mumbled into the cushions of whatever couch had been easiest to throw herself on when she entered the Repairers' lounge. "And loud, and obnoxious, and childish."
"And that's before you start giving him instructions," Phil seconded from where she sagged on a recliner in the corner. "Then he gets all snappish and demands to be fed before he does anything else--"
"'Where's my morning coffee? You know I can't operate worth piss without my morning coffee--'" Leena mimicked, disgruntled, as she turned rightside-up.
"And acting like it's a crime that I woke him up at ten in the morning and then wouldn't let him take the next two hours for showering, grooming, breakfast, exercise, brunch..."
"--taking out his aggression on everybody ELSE, like harassing Yu for just doing what we told him instead of complaining like he was or lecturing Erts for not knowing the proper procedure for a reset is going to make them forget about all HIS mistakes--"
Phil rolled her eyes. "Really, it's like working with a host of BABIES!"
"The fate of the world!" Leena cried, throwing her arms in the air dramatically. "The destiny of Zion, the future of the human race, depends upon a handful of infants!"
The two young women burst out laughing, unable to keep straight faces any longer.
Leena recovered first, but in spite of the surge of cheered energy she'd gotten from laughing, she still felt far too exhausted to move. "What time is it?" she demanded.
"You know perfectly well that it's two-thirty, Leena; you checked before we left the bay."
"It took us four hours to do this reset," the blonde mused. "Four hours during which we accomplished an hour and a half of work."
Phil lifted her head, barely, as if it were causing her a great deal of effort, and glanced around the lounge curiously. It was a well-furnished, highly decorated room that the Repairers spent a good deal of their free time in -- it was generally considered "Pilot-free territory", so they were rarely bothered there if they wanted to be alone. There were three extremely comfortable couches, a handful of cushiony recliners and luxurious ottomans, and four mismatched but much-loved chairs positioned around an expensive table that was made of actual wood instead of synthetic stuff. Other items -- vids, magazines, board games, books, a refrigerator -- littered the room at random, and the entire organization of the room changed every few days, when the Repairers collectively decided that it was time to move furniture.
They worked hard, after all. They deserved a room to do whatever they wanted with, even if it meant splurging a little on cost for some of the more indulgent things.
After a moment, Phil confirmed that they were the only Repairers in the room. "Where's Kazuhi?" she asked fuzzily. "I thought she was right behind us."
On cue, the door slid open with a harmonized musical chord playing to mark the entrance of the girl in question. Kazuhi didn't look directly at either of the others, murmuring only, "I'm sorry, Oniisama wanted to ask about the results..."
It's nice to know somebody takes an interest in what his Repairer does for him,> Leena thought with amusement. Figures they'd be blood-related.> Aloud, she asked, "And Tune?"
"Still going through system alignment," Kazuhi answered, stepping towards her chair, hesitantly, as though even now uncertain if she could sit near older girls. "She and Erts-san are trying to make some adjustments. The new group levels on Reneighd Klein registered too far left-field from the other Ingrids..."
Simple enough to understand, for a Repairer. The group levels were settings established by a Pilot's sense of belonging and identity within the team; if the Pilot overestimated his own worth, then the stats wound up far to the right, whereas if the Pilot was insecure in his position, his stats wound up too far left. Either was very bad, because the former situation would temper the Goddess to be more independent and not cooperate with the others, and the latter situation bred doubt and uncertainty in the Goddess, throwing her off and making her less inclined to trust the others.
Poor Erts. He's still so new, and he doesn't really know us yet...> Leena closed her eyes. We're just not his partners. He's the first of the new generation. It won't be long before the Pilots are all people he knows and trained with, and then he'll relax and learn to carry on as a member of the group and not an outsider, but by then we'll all be gone, far away from here, and that's only if we're not dead... Please let us not be dead when that day comes...>
All at once, Kazuhi spun on her heel. "Can I get you something to drink?" she asked the room in an even, quiet voice that somehow didn't break the silence at all.
"You don't have to wait on us--" Leena began.
Phil interrupted, "Can you make some of that amazing tea you had me try last week? I'm not a big tea person, but that was almost enough to convert me..."
Kazuhi smiled, only slightly, but somewhat triumphant nonetheless. "Of course," she said modestly. "It's my special blend." She looked over at Leena and cocked her head curiously.
Leena suppressed the urge to ask for something like 'Vodka' or 'Sex on the Beach' just to see the girl's reaction. "Could you just get me some of the fruit juice in the refrigerator?" she inquired. "I'm thinking of cutting back on my 'addictive, acrid beverage' intake."
In less than two seconds, a can of juice was in her hand and Kazuhi was gone again.
"That girl is like a shadow," Phil murmured to no one in particular. "She'll melt away if you don't keep an eye on her."
"Melt away and go join her brother, who'll melt into a shadow even if you DO try to keep an eye on him," Leena seconded, laughing.
Phil started to say something, then paused and held out one fist. She opened it, and a handful of nuts and bolts thudded to the rug below her.
Leena blinked and stared at the pieces of metal glinting against the fabric, then turned to her friend. "Where did those come from?" she asked, bewildered.
"The maintenance bay. ...I guess."
"...why did you bring them?"
"I have no idea." Phil grinned. "I probably thought that if I DIDN'T take them, Rioroute might try and EAT them in his relentless appetite, and I don't think even he could digest these very well."
Leena snickered, seized by the vivid mental image of him trying anyway, because she just KNEW that if he were hungry enough he'd try. "It's a bad idea to leave potentially-dangerous objects around him in general," she added.
"The only way to keep him out of trouble is to tie him down to something--"
Leena winked. "Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"
Phil turned bright red, but laughed good-naturedly. Then, in a rather obvious attempt to change the subject, she said, "How bad do you think the misalignment was? I mean, Erts is no problem child, not like Rio. I don't understand why she's having so many problems working with the boy."
"Because she doesn't want to work with 'the boy', she wants to work with Ernest," Leena pointed out. "Remember him? The partner she's worked with for years, the partner she loved?"
Phil winced. "Poor Tune," she murmured. "She really needs a vacation." Phil nestled deeper into the recliner.
"I'd be HAPPY to give her one, but it's just not possible..."
"It's a shame that Erts' Repairer couldn't come with him... Hey, that reminds me; I've been meaning to ask. Why DIDN'T Erts' Repairer come with him?" the redhead began reasonably. "Shouldn't she have replaced Tune as Reneighd Klein's Repairer? Not that I'm complaining or anything, but..."
Leena groaned and pulled a pillow over her face. "The poor girl wasn't good enough. Her skill as a Repairer was only barely above average, and while she got along very well with Erts she didn't make him a very good partner because she was too careless. I'm told she even got him held back once or twice... but that makes no difference to me." She forced herself upright unhappily. "Adding my signature of approval to that order was one of the most painful things I've ever done."
"You're such a sap."
"It's horrible!"
"It IS, but that doesn't make you any less of a sap." Phil leaned her head against her hands and smiled affectionately. "I bet you just want to run off to GOA right now so you can find that girl and just ADOPT her."
"You," Leena said primly, "are mocking me for my generous nature."
"Yeah."
Leena sighed. "Whatever else, Erts will probably be better off with Tune. After all, he's so young; a Repairer his own age would be inexperienced and make mistakes, whereas an older and more practiced Repairer could guide him through it. That's the theory, anyway..."
The door to the kitchenette slid open, and Kazuhi stepped out with a tray in her hands. She crossed the lounge and poured the tea for Phil, who made a vague effort to sit up.
"Lazy," Leena accused her.
"Rebel without a case," Phil corrected. "Kazuhi, I don't suppose you could bring it over here, could you? I don't want to move."
The slim girl gave her a skeptical look. "If you just sit there in that condition, your muscles will cramp," she scolded.
"And when they do, I'll just beat my frustrations out on Rioroute, so there's no problem, is there?"
Kazuhi scowled half-heartedly, a not very intimidating expression on such a demure and restrained young lady. "What if you spill it--"
"Oh, fine." Phil heaved a mock-weary sigh and dragged herself to her feet. She flinched as she stood upright and paused to stretch for a moment, working out the little kinks and aches. Kazuhi watched her seriously, tea in hand.
Leena realized belatedly that she hadn't so much as opened her juice, and as she did so, the door to the break room slid open again. She braced herself to yell Gareas back into the hallway and out of the females' last bastion of sanity -- really, this happened every week and he just refused to stop trying -- but instead the figure heralded by the tinkling chimes was Tune. The other girl bent like a reed as she headed over to the table, and sat herself across from Kazuhi with a sigh of relief.
"It's been a tough day, and it's only halfway over," Leena said neutrally, offering her shy friend the chance to share with a promise of sympathy. She adored Tune, she really did, but asking for information from her was akin to trying to convince one of the boys that Repairer Knows Best; she just clammed up and refused to 'burden' anyone else with her problems. Leena liked to pride herself on knowing Tune's reactions, and often the simplest way to get her to participate was to simply voice the topic and let it rest.
Apparently, Tune was feeling excessively talkative. "It's over for me. Erts-san said that he wasn't feeling well, and probably won't be able to attend the evening practice."
Leena frowned, caught herself, and made a joke out of it instead. "That Erts, he's such a troublemaker," she mock-scolded. "He and Yu both are just an endless source of grief. Ne, Kazuhi-chan?" she added, winking at the girl in question.
Their youngest gave her a withering look and refused to dignify that statement with a response. Tune giggled, somewhat guiltily, and accepted the cup of tea that Kazuhi handed her instead of speaking.
"How did the resynch go?" Phil asked forthrightly. Leena winced.
The smile faded from Tune's face. She lifted the teacup and took a sip, murmuring her gratitude to Kazuhi, who responded in a tone that was equally subvocal, and appeared to be considering her answer. After a moment, she said, "The group alignments are still farther left than I'd like, but they're better than they were. I don't think... he feels comfortable around us."
Oh, Tune. Is that the best you can do?> Leena took a pull of juice, then waited patiently. Come on, you know you can trust us.>
Sure enough, a moment later Tune continued with only a slight trace of hesitation, "I'm no good at helping him out... Every time I'm near him, I can't help but..." She ducked her head, staring at the placid surface of her tea helplessly. "...compare them. And he knows that. So I can't get too close to him, because it only drives him further away..."
Leena realized sadly that it was true. Tune certainly couldn't be blamed for thinking of the man she'd loved, so newly-lost, when she had been partnered with his so-similar brother. And even though she tried to fix the situation, Erts also couldn't be blamed for maintaining his distance from her; surely every time she got near him he could feel her mentally weighing him against his brother's example, and surely (because she had loved Ernest so much, and he'd been her first love to boot) finding him short of the mark.
She didn't know how the situation could be improved. Or even if it was possible.
Watching Tune's face collapse into unhappiness, all Leena wanted to do was reach out and hug the younger girl. The one thing in the world she couldn't stand was seeing Tune, who had already suffered through so much since the destruction of her colony and the deaths of her family, grow even more miserable than she had previously been. But Leena knew her well enough to know that even a friendly hug wouldn't be taken well; Tune hated the thought of being pitied, and support from Leena almost always seemed like pity to her.
Which is a terrible shame, since she's just as cute as a button and I always want to hug her.> Leena sighed quietly and took another sip of her juice. Ah, well. There's always Garu until she comes around.>
Speaking of which, there was a decent segue to get away from the nonfunctional partnership. "Garu is worried about him," she announced. "You know how overprotective he gets sometimes, and he's taken on Erts as a pet project."
"Oh, that's generous," Phil commented scathingly, looking visibly relieved as the topic began to shift. "His Majesty deigns to pick one of the rest of us peons up from the crowd and gift us with his protection? Erts should be honored."
Tune hid a smile. "He's closer to scared," she said lightly. "Gareas-san is very loud and violent in his overprotectiveness."
Leena grinned. "'WHAT?!'" the blonde woman cried, mimicking Garu's voice with passable accuracy. "'Why aren't you standing UP for yourself?! DON'T LET ANYBODY BULLY YOU!'" While the others dissolved into laughter, she turned the other way and put her hands up and tried for Erts' voice as she added, "O... okay, of course, whatever you say, please don't hurt me...'"
"That's how everybody is when confronted with the bull," Kazuhi murmured, sparking more giggling.
"Erts needs a hug," Leena announced when it had died down.
"Here she goes again, with her Adoption Scale," Phil predicted. "Where does Erts rate? Just a simple hug, or a full 'take him home and feed him and tell him bedtime stories after tucking him in at night'?"
Leena pretended to think it over. "More along the lines of a 'reassuring cuddle and a mother-hen lecture about taking care of himself,' I think..."
"Although it doesn't really do much good when no one can touch him." Tune's simple comment brought the room back down from its state of levity. Kazuhi frowned at her faintly and poured the pale girl more tea. Tune said slowly, "He really is a lot like Ernest-san used to be, although they're not the same... I'm worried that maybe he's already starting down the same path..."
"Erts-san is more independent than Ernest-san was at that age," Kazuhi interrupted in a more forceful tone than she usually used. Leena gave her a discreet thumbs-up. The last thing they needed was Tune digging herself deeper. "From what I'm told, he was even more sure of himself than Oniisama when he first came to GOA."
"That's right, we never talked about THAT troublemaker." Leena grinned. "Can't you ask him to calm down a little, Kazuhi? Yu's so energetic and vocal that it's sometimes hard to concentrate around him."
Kazuhi gave her a stern glance and appeared to be debating a subtle jab back or not dignifying the comment with a response at all. She settled for a neutral, "Perhaps from some people's perspectives."
Phil took up the cause laughingly. "Come on, you can tell us all his dirty little secrets. We promise not to let anyone know about how he writes bad gothic poetry and forces you to listen to it."
The dark girl smiled at her, perfectly serene. Leena cringed in anticipation. And sure enough, came the blow:
"While I am sure your willful self-delusions have their positive up-sides, Phil-san, I would think you might be better served tempering it every now and then -- at least for Rioroute-san's sake."
Kazuhi lifted one hand to her lips in a vague attempt to hide a smirk behind the sleeve of a kimono she wasn't wearing as Phil turned extremely bright red and started sputtering indignant protests. "I do not-- What are you talking about-- DELUSION-- That, that idiot isn't even worth my time--"
"Aha, Phil, you've been caught!" Leena crowed. "That'll show you to get on Kazuhi's bad side."
Phil glared, cheeks still glowing. "I," she stated with pride, "am not deluding myself."
The Chief Repairer hummed thoughtfully, almost laughing as the blush darkened. "Oh, you're not? Let's see, I remember that time when Rio was trying to hit on Greta-chan in Medical and you stopped speaking to them both for a week..."
Tune grinned, unable to help herself. "And the time when he pretended to fall off the mounting deck and you flung yourself at the trigger for the emergency nets and started screaming for rescue crews to go out and help him..."
"And when you were telling us how much you wanted long hair, and Rioroute-san said he thought your hair was beautiful the way it was, and we haven't heard you complain about it since," Kazuhi added, not bothering to hide her triumphant smile.
The redhead made several fussy, abortive movements, as if to deny their words physically, then groaned and buried her face under a pillow. "He's such an idiot! I don't understand it at all!"
Leena threw the cap from her juice at her. It bounced off Phil's head, and the younger girl moved the pillow to glare, embarrassed flush fading as she was distracted. Leena told her light-heartedly, "Love works in mysterious ways~"
Phil scowled. "Oh, go away."
"You could at least stop rejecting him," Kazuhi not-quite-scolded. "He cares about you."
"He makes the same passes he makes at me at EVERY girl." Phil hurled the pillow at her. "He even flirts with you, despite the fact that Yu tries to kill him every time."
Kazuhi caught the pillow before it could hit her and set it on the floor neatly. "That is true," she acknowledged. "But Oniisama is a bit... overprotective of me."
Leena almost choked on her juice. Kazuhi -- has something BAD to say about Yu? Her Oniisama, He Who Can Do No Wrong? Did I miss something? Did Zion fall out of the sky?>
The dark girl swept on before the astonished stares died down. "Rioroute-san is not serious when he flirts with me," she said quietly. "Or anyone else. Only when he looks at you, Phil-san, is he serious." Kazuhi stood gracefully, collected the tableware, and vanished into the kitchenette.
Phil stared after her, another blush slowly creeping up her neck.
Leena jumped to her feet and held her juice high. "Well," she pronounced cheerfully. "Then you've got something on Garu, ne?"
Recovering quickly, Phil laughed. "Gareas is putty in the palm of your hand, Leena."
"Cement putty, maybe." The blonde winked. "Maybe steel. The boy is insufferable, he really is."
There were a lot of things she could've said to that: He doesn't love me, and I don't love him; we're just good friends, and we sometimes have sex, but there's no real deep emotional attachment; I personally think he would've been much better off with Ernest if only he hadn't been thicker than a colonial wall, and I personally would really like for him to find someone he'd be happy with so I could move on with my life and maybe find someone I could be happy with; it's pretty much hopeless now, because he and Ernest would've been perfect together and Ernest is dead, and posthumous realization isn't worth a dime, and Tune will probably live forever with a big "in memoriam" sign posted over the ashes of her first love and she'll never look twice at me while I'm "happy with Gareas"...>
But instead, she said nothing at all. She didn't need to say it. Not because she was too private to share it, or too concerned to put her troubles on the others, or because she didn't want to admit it even to herself. Just because she refused to let it get her down.
And it seemed to her that there were a couple of things that needed fixing around here.
Leena laughed and finished off the rest of her juice in one swallow, then waved magnanimously at Tune and Phil and the returning Kazuhi. "Come on, girls," she cried. "Let's go see what we can do about our boys!"
That was terribly fun to write~. Anyway, this fic was supposed to be accompanied by a similar companion piece entitled "Girltalk", but it's not finished. And may not get finished, because I've lost inspiration on it and want to do other things. (A fic about Zero and Kizna's relationship, a parallel fic which morphed into an ANTI-parallel fic somewhere along the line, the GW crossover the prologue to which I WOULD post if I had a name for it, which I don't...) And I don't believe I've plugged my MK website on ffnet yet, so here it is: http://flash.to/dualpotential, a Megami Kouhosei informational website. There's going to be a pretty big update this week, so look for it! And contribute, why don't you? ^_~
--Kay Willow, plotting her update out some more
Site: http://flash.to/dualpotential
AIM: Savinsilk
Email: kay_willow@hotmail.com
Quote: none for now. because...
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