Counting Stars
CBS-74 Ptolemaios
A day has passed since the Celestial Being warship left for the origin of the mysterious mobile suits that attacked their faction. Setsuna had asked Feldt out of a date, and this time he was trying something neither Lyle nor Allelujah have tried on their other half. One that involved his dear friend Gundam Exia.
He checked every system in the cockpit for one last time just to be very sure, while Ian reluctantly helped him out with the externals. "I still don't have a clue on how you got this idea." The chief mechanic grumbled.
Setsuna refused to utter a word, as usual. "GN condenser linkup checked, green. All systems green." He muttered and floated out of the cockpit, ignoring Ian's objection of him going out for a date in space.
He had checked Feldt's schedule with Lasse. She was supposed to have her break after six. And on top of that, Milenia was supposed to take her place, so she couldn't bug him and screw up his plans. For the first time in many years, Setsuna felt a drop of sweat of anxiety running down his skin, the sign of the Innovator being nervous.
Feldt closed the door of her room, with a washed space suit folded in her hand. She noticed a figure in a black pilot suit walking towards her. His helmet had white stripes with a thick blue one in the middle, instead of having the whole suit in blue. Apparently they've invented newer G-suits that she'll get to wear.
"Setsuna." She called out.
"You ready?" He halted in front of her and asked. Feldt nodded eagerly, and the two of them floated to the hangar silently, avoiding the sights of the rest of the crew.
Setsuna booted the Exia's GN condenser and activated every other system necessary, while Feldt settled herself on his lap once he was done with the startups. "I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable." She muttered on the way out.
"No...not really." Without using the launch catapult to stay close with the Ptolemy, Setsuna marched the Exia out of the runway that was even shorter than a soccer field. He carefully maneuvered the mobile suit above and behind the Ptolemy's bridge, where an ideal observation point for them to spend their time was waiting for them. Once they both attached themselves to a safety rope and checked their space suits Setsuna opened the cockpit hatch, and led Feldt to Exia's shoulder plate.
"I thought you preferred staying in the ship to see stars." Feldt suggested.
"There's only so much you can see in there. Out here, you can basically look at any direction and still see a lot of them." Replied Setsuna. Moments later he found his hand trying to rest on her shoulder, but out of a lack of guts he decided to simply clutch on her suit's SAFER pack, where she normally wouldn't feel a thing. Normally.
His slowly growing emotional side somehow convinced him to pull her body a bit closer, a little bit at a time, until she noticed Setsuna's grasp. She didn't mind at all. In fact, it felt nice. The warmth from him despite the cold vacuum of space was more than enough to warm her heart.
"Come to think of it, I never got to see a nebula myself." She finally decided to break the silence.
"And to think there are actually aliens out there." Setsuna answered.
By pure coincidence he remembered one thing he wanted to ask her, but in the end he either deemed it was too unprofessional or forgot about it thanks to the numerous tasks that came down on him. "May I tell you something?"
Feldt turned to the Meister upon hearing his request. It wasn't like him to ask for something out of nowhere. He usually fixes problems himself, or copes with it until it becomes a part of his life. "Of course you can." She replied.
"You look better when you keep your hair."
Frankly she was caught off guard by his opinion about someone else's looks. This definitely didn't seem like him, at least not what he usually was. But she didn't bother to complain. If this was what he asked, then that's the least she could do for him.
"I honestly thought it was some big time requests." She promised. "I wonder, if you know which star out there is which. Just curious." She continued.
"I think... that star over there, is called Lupus."
In the corridors of the Ptolemy roamed a puzzled Lyle. He had been summoned by Tieria in a quite urgent manner. He heard it right, it was Tieria himself. To make matters worse, he had Lyle go to the Veda interface room where only Tieria would go, the most mysterious corner of the whole ship.
And out of all the days he could've gotten himself into trouble it had to be his birthday. He had expected to have to mentally celebrate it himself, and nothing more. "Happy birthday to myself, Lyle." He had said to himself for countless times today.
The door behind him shut with a hiss, and the blue lights within the walls saved Lyle from the horrifying darkness. The gravity under his boots were soon shut off as a sign that Tieria was aware of his presence, followed by the appearance of his holographic image, as realistic as his very own flesh. "I suppose I screwed things up?" Lyle questioned.
"Trouble is not the only thing I can bring." Tieria stated calmly. "Sometimes all that trouble comes with happiness too." Lyle noticed a second holo image forming next to a grinning Tieria, and soon enough he found out why he looked so smug about the surprise he got from him.
Or to be precise, a reunion Lyle never saw coming.
"I'm not going to lie. I was just trying to look for someone to help with the manpower issue." Lyle got a good look at the image next to him, and was all too shocked to see its familiar lavender hair, its heartwarming smile, and to hear it whisper his name.
"Lyle."
His expressionless face soon turned into a face with strands of tears and happiness which words could never describe began to flow inside his soul. His arms made a move first, and he found himself wrapping them around the projected body of his love. Never will it feel real for him, and never will it be able to mend him, but hearing her voice might just be good enough for him.
