"Hey, this place is pretty nice." Ally commented, as she peeked around a door. "Oops, that's someone's bedroom." She said, blushing.
Lucrezia chuckled at the younger woman. "Technically these are the officer's quarters. However, since have better track records, not to mention skills than most of the officers here, you get the perks." She explained.
"Neat. I feel special now."
Lucrezia smiled at her. "Well here's your room." She announced as she unlocked her door. "Oh, you'll have two other roommates other than yourselves. I think Anne said it's Otamajakushi and Akuma, but don't quote me on that. Either way they should be back by four."
"We'll leave you to get settled in. One of us will be by in about an hour to give you the tour." Sally said, and she and Lucrezia left.
Almost an hour later Cleo looked around the room that she and 6 other women would be sharing. Most still looked rather boring and institutional except for the area at the end of the room where the two unknown women had claimed their posts.
Most of her things were in boxes still on the plane, along with the other's things. Only the things they had been able to shove into their backpacks and overnight bag proved that there were more than two women living in the room.
Pictures of Ally, Meiko and Senshi's families sat atop their night tables. Chi had placed a fuzzy looking pink pillow with flowers and happy faces on it in the middle of her bed, and a picture of her much younger self with Senshi and a boy Cleo didn't recognize. Cleo hadn't bothered to ask, as Chi had place the picture down with a look of much longing. The blonde figured it was a subject she shouldn't as about.
A sharp knock at the door practically hurled Cleo back into reality as Ally who was closest went to go answer.
"Hey you guys." Sally greeted when the door was opened. "You ready to go?"
The others nodded and followed the former major out the door.
"This building here is the Hangar." Sally stated motioning to the large non-descript building. "Obviously, this is where we keep different models of Mobile Suits, as well as repair them. The Vice Foreign Minister wasn't too happy when she found out that we had them, but unfortunately, they're needed."
"I can understand both of your sentiments." Meiko said with a small smile as she followed Sally into the building. "Miss Relena and the other Ministers worked very hard to ban the mobile suits, but they are needed. Like if there was a situation where the rebel group the Preveters were fighting had one, or many."
"Exactly." Sally said with a wink, her hand resting on the handle of the door next to her. "Be warned, it's about to get really loud."
With a great heave on Sally's part, the door creaked open, and a catacophny of noise assulted them. Sally lead them over to where most of the noise was coming from and yelled up to a man wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt, and cargo pants.
"HOWARD!!!" Sally yelled up to the man. He didn't hear her. Rolling her eyes, she picked up a battery from the floor and chucked it at the man.
"Sally! Good to see you!" Howard yelled down, finally noticing the group. "What can I do for you?"
"I need to borrow the guys for a couple of hours."
"Right now!?" Howard demanded.
"Yes right now."
Sighing, Howard disappeared from sight. About five minutes later he reappeared, five young men with him.
"Thanks Howie!" Sally yelled after him.
"Ladies, these fine specimens of male perfection – body wise anyways – are our top pilots. This here..." She said pointing to messy haired brunette next to her. "Is Heero Yuy."
"Hiya, I'm Duo Maxwell." The braided brunette next to Heero greeted.
"Trowa Barton." The tallest of the group, with mahogany bangs covering half his face stated.
"Quatre Winner, pleasure." The blonde greeted.
"Chang Wufei." The Chinese man said.
"Pleasure to meet you all." Ally smiling at the men.
"Guys..." Sally began, as she turned to the men. "These ladies are the new recruits I told you about last week. From left to right they are Cleo Nekoheron, Meiko Kiyomori, Chi Midori, Senshi Heiwa, and Ally Korwasky."
"Charmed I'm sure." Wufei muttered rolling his eyes. Quatre shot him a reproving look and kicked him lightly in the ankle.
"Well we should get moving. I have to return these by three or Howard will have my head." Sally stated, motioning absent-mindedly to the guys. "It'll go faster if we split up so... Cleo, Heero, Trowa and Senshi you can be one group. Ally, Wufei, Meiko and Quatre can be another, Duo, Chi and I will be the last."
Duo waited until the other groups were gone to fling his arms over Chi and Sally's shoulders. "I think we should go to the east hangar." He stated, shooting Sally a dazzling smile.
Sally chuckled and rolled her eyes at the man. "If you say so Duo." She said, leading the pair to the hangar that held the Mercreus, Veigheight, and the Taurus'.
"Have you ever piloted one of these Chi?" Duo asked, looking up at the Taurus' towering form.
"You bet I have!" Chi exclaimed, circling the Taurus' large black leg, running her fingers gently over the metal. "I sorta 'borrowed' one from an OZ soldier back in the day. Beautiful machines, but my favorites are the Red Cancer and the Aries."
"We have a couple of those in the next hangar." Sally told her.
"Really?" Chi asked, her face alight with excitement. "Do you think we could go see them afterwards?"
"Sure. Actually, that's where we were headed anyways. So we should get going."
Duo could help but laugh at Chi when the two of them and Sally entered a room full of Leos, Aries, and Cancers five minutes later. At the rate the girl was going, she was going to drown in her own drool.
"Now this is what I'm talking about." Chi said in an awed tone, making her way over to the closest Cancer.
"I'm glad you like it." Sally laughed.
After their tours Sally had taken them to go get their uniforms, then they were ushered off to see Noin and Une briefly before they went back to their room, where they still lay, jet lagged and hungry, four hours later.
They were carrying on a conversation about past jobs when they heard laughter outside their door. The laughter stopped when the door opened and two young women about their age walked in. One had short, layered pink hair tipped with blue, where as the other had shoulder length straight black hair with orange streaks and dark blue tips.
"Um... Tenshi... did anyone tell you about getting new roommates?" The pink haired woman asked.
"Not that I remember..." Her companion answered, then turned her attention to the others in the room. "Um... who are you?"
"We're your new roommates!" Ally chirped.
"Since when do we have new roommates?" The pink haired woman questioned.
"Since about 10:00 this morning." Cleo answered.
"Oookay..." The women chorused.
"Well, I'm Kirou Otamajakushi..." The pink haired woman stated.
"And I'm Tenshi Akuma." The other woman said.
After the introductions were finished the group made their way down to the mess hall for supper.
"So who all have you met?" Tenshi asked, as she loosened her tie.
"Well, we've met Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, Sally, Howard, Une, Noin, and I think that's it." Meiko told her.
"Have you heard of Hilde Schbeiker, Dorothy Catalonia, or Catherine Bloom?" Kirou asked.
"Never heard of them before." Ally said after a moment of thought. "Who are they?"
"Well, Hilde is Duo's girlfriend. She's a Preventer too, so you'll probably see her around a lot during meals and such. She works down in information retrieval and security. She's really nice. Cathy is actually Trowa's older sister. She's only here visiting while the circus she's part of takes their two-month break. Dorothy, oh what to say about Miss Catalonia. Well Dorothy actually is the Vice Foreign Minister's secretary, so she's always down here picking up stuff or talking with Lieutenant General Une, Sally or Captain Noin. She sticks around sometimes, apparently she knew Quatre during the war so they're always talking... with Trowa watching like a hawk mind you. Don't know why though." Kirou said all very quickly.
Cleo blinked as she tried to make sense of the woman's rapid speech. "So Duo has a girlfriend huh?" She mumbled to herself.
"Oh yeah." Kirou answered, having overheard her. "Duo and Hilde have been together for years, since the war at least." She told her as they entered the already crowded mess hall. "Now where are they? Ah there they are." She said when she spotted Heero's messy hair. "And away we go."
Kirou led them over the group of tables where the guys, Hilde, Catherine, Anne, Sally and Lucrezia were sitting.
"Hey Chi, more room over here." Duo called, spotting her.
Chi grinned and plopped down in the spot across from him. "Hey Duo." She greeted, then turned to Hilde. "You must be Hilde." She said, extending her hand. "Duo told me all about you today. All good I promise."
Hilde laughed. "That's good to know." She said, shaking the offered hand. "Duo was telling me about you lot as well, and I must say, I underestimated you when I heard you were coming. You're very talented for recruits."
"Recruit?" Chi asked. "I've been in the military since I was fourteen. I'm so far past recruit it's not even funny."
"In the military since I was fifteen for me." Hilde said with a wide grin.
"Excellent!" Chi exclaimed. "We can swap war stories."
"Sounds good to me."
"Hey Chi." Senshi said quietly. "I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want to come with me?"
"Yeah, that sounds good. We'll be back in a bit." She said getting up.
"Wait for me. I'm coming too." Ally said, getting up as well.
"So what have you been doing the last couple of years?" Senshi asked when they were in line.
"Well I went to military academy obviously. During the war I didn't do too much really. I worked a lot with refugees and stuff like that. After the war I went to high school, got my diploma and joined the Japanese military. The pay was okay, and I got extra because I was out doing mine searches and stuff, making the country inhabitable again. It wasn't bad. Not great though. Would have been better if I had my best friend." She said with a smile.
Senshi grinned and hugged her. "Oh man, I am so glad you're here. I thought you were dead."
"Phht, I'm not dying until I'm old and decrepit." Chi said grinning back. "Hey, Ally. Can you check and see if the food is edible, since you're the tallest and all."
"Not a problem." Ally agreed, and stood on her tiptoes to get a good look at what was being served. "Hey, it all looks really good. There is no indefinable food group there."
"Excellent."
"What can I get for you luv?" The young female server asked when Chi got to the front of the line.
"Fried rice and teriyaki chicken please." Chi ordered. Once she had her food she grabbed a drink and waited for Ally and Senshi to get their food.
When they made it back to the table, the first thing they noticed was that Tenshi and Kirou seemed to be going through convulsions. On closer inspection they realized the two women were just laughing.
"What's up with them?" Senshi asked when they sat down.
"Who knows." Hilde sighed. "One moment they were fine, then Kirou said something and they are what you see."
"Probably something gutter bound." Duo commented.
"That is without question." Hilde stated. "Those two can twist anything you say into something dirty."
"It's a talent." Kirou managed to gasp out before continuing to laugh.
"That reminds me of Katsuo." Chi mused.
"Oh god Katsuo. He was terrible." Senshi groaned.
"Katsuo, my brother... well former brother, is the dirtiest minded person I have ever met in my entire life." Chi told the others. "You could say broccoli and he would find some way to make it dirty. It was crazy."
"Former brother?" Hilde asked with a raised eyebrow.
"LONG story." Chi mutter.
"We have time." Duo stated.