Leaning 03: Intervention (Lila Brown, Vandham)

Vandham just wants to catch a quick smoke break. Lila Brown has another suggestion.

Please don't smoke. Fluff. OC girlfriend for a canon character. Editing? (evil laughter)

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft.

Lila spots him immediately at the end of the alley, even with her tendency not to look very hard for very far. Best not to risk triggering her "agoraphobia" (mim related sensory freakout in open spaces). But he's the size of a small skell, parked in front of the Mim Maintenance Center and radiating a certain intensity. Besides, something inside her can always find him, or so she imagines.

But it makes it easy that he's out in the open, pacing in front of the Mim Center.

She puts her head down and trots toward him. She reaches him just in time for a small bright green object to skitter to her feet, tossed angrily by the Commander. She picks it up. A disposable lighter. He's twiddling his fingers. A tiny speck of white flutters securely in his grasp.

"Need a light?" she asks. Vandham twitches his head back for a second and Lila sighs. She usually can't surprise him. It must be bad.

He had darted his hands behind his back for a moment, then relaxes and brings them forward, cigarette peeking out from between his fingers. "You got one?"

"No. Matches and fuel depots don't generally mix." The skell refueling station she manages doesn't even sell cigarettes, although there is a wide selection of beer and lotto tickets.

The twiddling resumes. "I was trying to quit. I had. But damn it all." He doesn't elaborate.

"It's 0100. You should be in bed." She doesn't elaborate either. She's wearing his bomber jacket over her sleep shirt and a pair of sweats. At least she put her boots on. And grabbed her wrench. She wasn't sure what was keeping him away from home so late, but maybe he could use some help.

Twiddling intensifies. The cigarette is darting about like a hummingbird. "I can't. There's a thing. Rescue operation. One still missing."

"And you're gonna help by standing here and ..."

"For crying out loud, woman, I'm grabbing a breath of air, before I ..."

"... find someone else to shout at?" She steps a little closer. She knows that mood, him trying to maintain enough anger to keep away any other feeling.

She reaches for the cigarette and removes it from his hand. She slips her fingers along his fist, tracing the seams of his fingers, playing at the knuckles, pressing along the line of his index finger. She plants a small but moist kiss on the center joint, then neatly returns the cigarette to his hand.

He's staring down at her, mouth slightly open. If she were taller, she'd plant a kiss up there too.

Good news, he's thinking the same thing. It's a swooping kiss, inaccurate and messy and harder than usual, but he looks a little better when he pulls back.

She feels miles better.

He tucks the cigarette away. "You'd know the guy who's missing. The older Christoph."

"Frye? Oh no! He was one of the good ones."

"Hey! Hey! None of that. We'll find him."

She nods. "Come home at...," she checks her device, "...at 0400 for a shower and a change and a nap."

"I might still..."

"Unless they need you to pull on a rope, you'll do more good if you have a half hour nap. I'll guard your comm like a hawk and wake you at the first buzz."

He wrinkles his mouth in the closest that he can manage for a smile. "Remind me, have you always been this managing?"

There are many examples of exactly this, but she decides to recite those to him later. "Says the guy that picked me up, right off the floor, after a double shift?"

"You'd been working three days straight, Lila."

"0400."

"If I can."

"0400 with good news."

a/n: Short version: Lila Brown worked for Vandham on the Whale, they started dating in NLA, and in spite of some spectacular breakups they are still quite the thing. Go see "The Lily and the BLADE" if you don't believe me, also "Comfort and Water" for Lila being managing. This was an attempt to return to my list of soft moment prompts (playing with hands), but I could not escape the main story. There will be more fluff, very different, in about 4 chapters.

Next up: A bunch of OCs go out to dinner.