Today was not going super well.
The Commander sighed as he reached the top of a broken-down building, his arms aching. He'd gotten separated from Counters a little while back, and the amount of Alva particles in the air was disrupting his phone's communications, meaning that he was essentially lost.
He'd only been separated from his squad for about a day now, but he knew that he was stretching his luck already and that it was practically a miracle that he hadn't been killed by Raptures by now.
The Commander paused.
Glancing around, he tried to find any trace of Raptures around him. When was the last time he'd seen an actual operational one? All of the ones he'd come across since he'd been separated from Counters had been inoperable, their cores the only thing that had been destroyed, with what must have been expert marksmanship.
"My… aren't you quite the lost soul."
The Commander let out a decidedly un-commander-like shriek at the voice that suddenly spoke up from behind him, tumbling down the rubble he'd just climbed up slightly before the back of his coat was grabbed by whoever had spooked him.
"Now now, don't go injuring yourself because you are shocked at my magnificence!"
After he got his feet back under him, thanks to the hand holding him up stabilising him, he turned quickly, his hand going to his pistol almost instinctively, muscle memory from training he couldn't remember activating, before he mentally slapped himself, letting his hand drop from the holster.
Just from the armour alone, he could tell that this woman was a Pilgrim Nikke.
She was taller than him by almost a head, her wavy black hair, which went down to her thighs, making her look even larger, but The Commander couldn't help but marvel at how well-groomed the Pilgrim was, for someone who lived on the Surface.
She looked down at him with an amused smile on her face at his staring, but a moment later the… robotic raven on her shoulder let out an ear-splitting 'CAW!', shocking The Commander from his daze. "Hello? You're a Pilgrim, right?"
Raising her hand to cover her mouth, the Nikke let out a peal of laughter, and even that sounded refined… with just a hint of condescension. It grated on The Commander's ears a bit, but he was more just grateful to not be lost and alone on the surface.
The Pilgrim nodded, and The Commander only then noticed that she was holding a massive Scythe as she stabbed the handle into the ground. "Indeed I am! And you are very lost, aren't you?"
The Commander couldn't help but nod at that. He wasn't too proud to admit that he was well and truly turned around without his communications working. "Yeah, I am. Got separated from my squad about a day ago due to a Rapture attack."
Something connected in his head as he said that. "Is the lack of active Raptures in this area your doing? I spotted quite a few dead ones, all of them with their core shot out with incredible precision."
The amused smile on the Pilgrim's face turned smug as she practically preened at his words. "Ah, to hear one's accomplishments praised is such a wonderful feeling after so long. But to answer your question, yes, your current safety is my doing. In fact, because of my efforts, it will likely be about two to three days before Raptures are a threat in this area again"
The Commander sighed, allowing himself to relax slightly at her words, falling onto his butt as he sat down on the hill of rubble. "I guess I have to thank you, then. You must be doing excellent work up here to create such an area."
He heard the rubble next to him shift as she walked next to him, moving to stand in front of him and leaning over him slightly. "You should thank me, yes. My name is Harran, a Pilgrim Nikke from Inherit, and this is my Raven, one of the many tools I have to facilitate my ongoing survival."
Harran looked down at him, her hands going to her hips. "You should probably get going now, however."
The Commander froze at that, glancing up at Harran, who just stared at him. "Wait, what? Are you not gonna help me?"
Harran's eyebrow raised. "And why would I? All creatures in this world must survive on their own merit. This is a fundamental part of the world. If you can't adapt, you are either destined to be prey, or you must stuff away your pride and beg for your life."
The Commander just blinked, his mouth opening and closing. He had expected her to help him… but why? Just because she was a Nikke? He shook his head, pressing his palm to his forehead for a second.
No, that was thinking like all the other Commander's, treating them like tools to be used. Looking back up at Harran, his mouth formed a line. "Ok, ok. I need your help, so what do I have to do for you to get it?"
Harran smirked again, her eyes glinting. "I see, so you are willing to throw away your pride and beg, then?"
The Commander shook his head, sighing. "I don't believe that it is a blow to my pride to admit that I can't get back by myself. I'm lost, with no communications available, and the only defence I have against the Raptures right now is a pistol that would do more damage to their paint than their armour."
Harran actually paused at that, looking at him with what seemed like fresh eyes, before she laughed. "Haha! Quite interesting… you seem different from the other lost Commander I've dealt with before."
She brushed her hair out of her face and smiled at him. "Alright, then. I have some… chores that need doing, and you are going to help me do them. If you impress me enough, then maybe I'll take you home personally."
The Commander frowned at that. "So it's not a guaranteed thing, then?"
Harran met his eyes, her face blank. "Of course not. I am doing you a favour just by allowing you to potentially earn this, seeing as you currently still owe your continued life to me right now. Or did you forget who had cleared the area of Raptures?"
The Commander just sighed, his head drooping a little bit. "Alright, deal. I help you do your 'chores'. Not like I have much else of a choice, do I?"
Harran grinned, extending her hand for him to grab, and pulling him to his feet. "Not really no. But you made a good choice, anyway. Let us go, my dear follower, so that you may impress me with your gathering skills!"
She waved at a small pile of suitcases that were sitting nearby, then started walking off, leaving The Commander to scramble down the pile of rubble after her with her luggage in hand.
"So, how long have you been out here by yourself?"
Without any ideas on what to do while travelling other than keep an eye on his communications, The Commander's options were reduced to silence or chatting. And they'd already done silence for the first 3 days.
Harran didn't respond for a moment, her eyes closed, but The Commander spotted her raven fly back down to them, her eyes opening as it landed on her shoulder. "Pardon, follower? You asked something?"
His question momentarily forgotten, The Commander stared at the raven. "Can you actually see through its cameras while it's flying?"
Harran's smile turned smug again, and she reached up to pat her raven, flicking some of her hair out of the way as she did. "Why of course, my raven and I have an unbreakable bond, as each other's only company, which allows me to enter its form and perceive as it does."
The Commander smiled at that, reaching up to touch the raven. "That's incredible, it might be kinda like Liter an-"
"Do not touch my raven, and please refrain from talking about other Nikke's while you are out here with me, follower."
The Commander brought his hand back, not exactly flinching but definitely reacting to the sharp look in Harran's eyes as she spoke before he frowned. She just turned back around and hoisted her scythe/sniper rifle into its holster on her back and stood up again.
"The coast is clear. Take this."
The Commander placed the suitcases on the ground quick enough to catch the net that Harran threw at him, but it made his eyebrow raise. "What am I doing with this?"
Harran waved at a nearby rock, and her raven glided down from her shoulder, grabbing it and lifting it over a few meters, revealing a blood-red lizard that scampered out from underneath it.
"I require more conditioner for my hair, and these lizards are part of the ingredients list. You will catch some for me."
The Commander just stared at her for a second, blinking. But after she spent a minute or two just silently looking off into the distance, he was forced to admit that she was being serious. And really, after two days of just walking through Rapture-infested territory, it was hilarious to him that he was going to be collecting lizards to make conditioner.
He laughed softly to himself as he chased the nearest lizard down, slamming the net on it. As it squirmed, he moved it into the container that Harran had set up for them, and moved back to another rock, getting ready to catch more.
Sweat dripped from his brow as he fell to his knees, the container that Harran had set up filled to the brim with red lizards.
As the lid slid shut with a hiss, Harran's eyes flicked open. He had assumed that she was scouting the area with her raven, even if he hadn't been able to see her eyes closed while he ran around chasing the lizards.
It was dark now, and the cool night air felt lovely on his arms. He'd taken his jacket off about 10 minutes into chasing the lizards, not wanting to overheat, but with his total lack of balance at the moment, he wondered if he might have overheated anyway…
"Sit, follower. And accept this bottle of water. You look just about ready to keel over."
A part of The Commander's mind wanted him to yell that it was her fault that he was running around all afternoon, but he stopped himself, guzzling down the water in bursts, to not give himself cramps.
It was one of those weird flashes of training he got, where his body took over doing something he'd obviously trained to do before, even if he couldn't consciously remember it. As he finished the bottle, Harran let out a grunt.
"You did a lot better than I thought you would. Not even I have managed to fill the container before. Now that we have some excess lizards, we can eat some of them! You must be incredibly lucky. Ah, but I knew that already, as you ran into me! "
The Commander just gave her a flat stare and sighed. He was too exhausted to be snarky right now. "Say, you didn't answer my question before. How long have you been out here by yourself?"
He was rather surprised when Harran flinched at the question, and he frowned as she quickly turned her head away from him, her fluffy hair blocking his line of sight to her face. "Ah, I'm sorry if I touched a nerve."
Harran was silent for a moment, before sighing as she shook her head slightly. When she spoke, her voice held none of the confidence or smugness it usually did, and he didn't think he was imagining the slight shakiness of her voice. "I have been doing my duty on the surface for… I think about 30 years."
The Commander paused at that, letting it properly sink in. Harran had been up on the surface, by herself, barring any chance encounters with Commanders like this one, for 30 years?!
The Commander couldn't help the feeling of pity in his chest, nor could he help the urge to do something about it. Standing up, he moved over to the rock that she was sitting on, hopping up onto it.
Harran made no movement other than to glance in his direction as if waiting for him to do something. But he didn't. He just sat on the rock with her as they watched the red lizards cook over the open fire Harran had set up.
The Commander couldn't help but feel like he understood her attitude a little better now.
Harran woke him up after 5 hours of sleep.
As a Nikke, she could go a few days without needing more than an hour of sleep at night before she suffered the negative consequences, so they had taken to having The Commander stay up a little later to let her sleep just enough, and then she would take over as lookout.
His stomach gurgled a bit as he stirred, eyes blinking as Harran came into view kneeling over him, her eyes scanning past him. "You must get up now, follower. There are Raptures nearby. We need to move."
Just the mention of Raptures got him moving out of his sleeping bag and packed up in moments, grabbing Harran's luggage as he jogged behind her, doing his best to stay quiet as they snuck past what looked like a medium-sized Rapture patrol.
"Why are they here already?"
Harran glared at him as he whispered the question, but answered anyway. "As I told you before, the area would be clear for a couple of days. It has been a couple of days, and just as I predicted, the area is no longer clear."
She then held a finger up to her mouth, cutting off any response that The Commander was going to give. Instead, he just nodded, following her through the rubble as they snuck past the patrol.
When they were a good enough distance away, Harran stopped. Shaking her head, she hummed. "They should not have been able to escape my raven's sight for as long as they did. The only guess I have on how they could have gotten so close is if they already knew where we were and slowly moved through the rubble."
She frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. "When you were separated from your squad… was there a Rapture that looked like this? It wouldn't have really fought, but it might have shot some light your way."
She used a bit of rebar to carve a likeness of a Rapture into the dirty ground. While it wasn't excellent, The Commander had to admit, it was enough for him to go on. "Yea, I saw a few of those, actually. Kept blinking lights at me, I thought they were just trying to analyse our strategy."
Hannan shook her head, stepping closer to him as her raven lifted from her shoulder, one of her eyes closing, while the other swept him up and down. "No, those are Thinkers, essentially just data processors for the Rapture pack they belong to, and they have a few minor differences from the ones I'm talking about."
All of a sudden her raven let out a sharp 'CAW!' and stabbed its beak into his jacket, just underneath his right armpit. The Commander couldn't stop a panicked yelp from escaping his mouth, but Hannan seemed too focused to really care about it at the moment.
As the raven pulled back, it dropped something into Hannan's hands, and she held it up for him to see. It was a small black dot, a circle on the front blinking an incredibly dull white every few seconds.
Hannan crushed it in her hands, the sound of the dots mechanics sparking as it was flattened. As she dropped it to the floor and stomped it into the ground, she spoke again, this time seeming a lot calmer.
"They only recently started popping up, maybe the last year or so, but I call them Trackers. Similar to thinkers because they don't fight, they just lead the other Raptures to tagged Commander's and their Nikke."
She frowned again, glancing up at him. "I would have thought they'd gone over them in your studies at the military academy, but if they didn't, then whatever. I warned the central government, so it's not my problem anymore, my raven does daily sweeps of my own body to check for them, but I hadn't thought to sweep you as well."
Harran shook her head. "If they were able to track us since I met you, then it's lucky I had cleared the area previously or we would have been swarmed rather quickly. As it stands now though, follower, we should be free to finish up my errands without further interruption, as long as we sneak past the Raptures."
The Commander cocked his head to the side for a second. "I understand hiding from this patrol, it was a bit much for you to fight such a large group by yourself while having to worry about me as well, but why are we sneaking past all of them?"
Harran huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "Because if we don't then the supplies for my conditioner will be put at risk before I can actually make it. And if they get lost or damaged we'll have to start again."
The Commander paused at that, before nodding. "Alright, that does make sense. Don't want this to take longer than it's already going to."
He immediately had a feeling that he had made a mistake saying that when Harran's face fell, her lips pursing. She quickly half-turned away from him, and he just barely heard her mumble something.
"So desperate to leave, just like all the others… what about me drives them away?"
He was about to say something when she shook her head, her long hair swinging back and forth as she seemingly cleared her mind. "Whatever, let's keep moving, follower."
Harran then stomped off, leaving him to pick her luggage back up and run after her. As he did, he felt a small pit in his chest. He had already gotten a glimpse of it earlier when they were cooking the lizards, but her mumbling just then made something click in his head.
Harran was lonely, and all he had done since meeting her was talk about leaving her by herself again. And as he trudged along behind her, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty about that.
The days blended together a little after that.
The Commander did his best to not bring up wanting to go home around Harran, and he saw a noticeable uptick in her mood as they travelled together, collecting various ingredients for her conditioner.
He scaled trees to collect small eggs and risked poison to pluck out the thorns of a blue cactus, always doing his best to collect more than enough. He could tell that Harran was impressed with him as well, as each of the specialised containers became full to the brim.
As the days went by, The Commander couldn't help but feel like he was… having a bit of fun, spending his days travelling with Harran, and spending the nights either collecting items or chasing small animals, before settling down and sleeping in whatever shelter they'd located for the night.
It was just about a week and a half since he had gotten separated when Harran mentioned her satisfaction with his work. They were cooped up in a small bunker, avoiding the notice of a larger-than-normal Rapture patrol.
"My word, I hadn't expected you to be such a dutiful and productive follower! I'll have enough supplies for 3 batches of conditioner if you keep up such wonderful work."
The Commander just chuckled, pulling out a bottle of water from one of her luggage and chucking it her way as he noticed that she was sweating a bit, before setting up her portable fan and plugging it into her mobile electric generator after feeding it some fuel.
Harran took a big swig of the bottle, sighing contently as the cool air from the fan wafted over her. They sat in silence for a little while, as The Commander sipped on his own bottle of water.
He didn't really know what to say. His heart was telling him to console her somehow, to help however he could, but the only permanent solution he could think of to her being lonely would either be for her to come back to the Ark, something he knew by now that she would likely never do, or he'd have to stay up on the surface.
But that wasn't an option either.
"Follower."
The Commander's head snapped up as Harran spoke, noticing the almost… nervous feeling in her voice. He swallowed his mouthful of water and nodded. "What's up?"
Harran just sighed, her shoulders drooping slightly. "Why are you working so hard for me? All of the commanders that I have dragged along with me gave up before now and went off alone, and none of them put nearly as much effort into helping me as you have. Are you really that desperate to be rid of me?"
The Commander paused, giving the question some thought as he frowned, knowing that she wouldn't want some half-baked answer. Why was he trying so hard to help her? It wasn't just to get home quicker, he knew that much in his core. "I guess…"
He saw her lean in subtly, obviously trying to not seem too interested in the answer, and failing. "I guess the only answer I have for you is that you need help, and I can give it. Why try anything but my hardest to help an ally?"
Harran's eyebrows raised as she looked at him. "Truly, it's such a simple reason?"
The Commander couldn't help but nod. "Well, yea. We had a bit of a rocky start, but that was mostly just because I assumed you would help me without asking, and now, after travelling with you for a while, I feel like… I can call you a friend."
The Commander's face went serious for a moment as he held eye contact with Harran as he took a step towards her, reaching up and placing a hand on her shoulder. "And I do right by my friends. Human, Nikke, it doesn't matter."
Harran seemed to freeze at the contact, and The Commander noticed her cheeks going a bit red. He didn't want to overwhelm her, so he took his hand off her shoulder and stepped back, letting her compose herself.
"Follower…"
He cocked his head at the tone of her voice, which sounded more tender than he had heard from her before now. She smiled at him, her cheeks still a bit red as she shook her head. "Ha. I must apologise, I honestly thought you'd just tell me how much you were homesick, or something similar."
The Commander smiled. "I won't lie to you. I do want to go back to the outpost eventually, but… Commanders are only marked as MIA or KIA after 3 weeks of being missing. So as long as you get me back before then, then I'm ok staying here with you Harran… for now, of course."
As his words registered in her mind, The Commander was treated to her face lighting up into a grin, before she coughed, quickly schooling it back into her 'smug and above you' look she usually held.
The Commander just smiled, making sure that she knew that he'd seen it, though.
Harran let out a 'Hmmph!' and spun on her heel, turning away from him for a moment, before pausing. "Wait, what is this Outpost you speak off? I was under the impression that you and all the other Commanders lived in the Ark."
The Commander laughed out loud at that, surprising Harran for a moment. "What is so funny? Answer me, Follower!"
The Commander eventually calmed down, shaking his head as he sighed. "Alright, it's a bit of a story, so why don't you get comfy."
Harran frowned, glaring at one of her luggage containers for a moment, before she strode over and pulled out a large metal pot, placing it on top of a frame that was set up over their fire.
"Fine, you may regale me with your tale, but if you're going to, then I insist on making dinner. I'll have you know that my 'Witches Stew' has ruined the tastebuds of lesser men for anything else, however."
The Commander couldn't help but laugh at that, grinning. "I am willing to risk it if it means that I get to try your cooking. Thank you, Harran."
She nodded sharply, her cheeks slightly red, before grabbing a small bag out of another luggage container, pulling out a few ingredients and a jar of water, and getting to work on the 'Witches Stew' as The Commander sat across from her.
"It started when I woke up after my ship went down…
"Alright, Follower. You see those flowers over there? You are going to get them for me."
The Commander glanced over the edge of the building that they were standing on top of, down at the street full of walking Raptures, and then over at the building Harran was pointing to, which had small flowers growing on a few of the vines that hung over the edge.
"Do I really have to jump over?"
Harran smirked, her hands going to her hips. "Does my wonderful follower not believe that his own strength will carry him safely across? Alright then. My raven will assist you."
The Commander perked up as Harran's raven detached from her shoulder and flew behind him, two straps coming out of its feet and wrapping around his shoulders like a harness. As The Commander raised an eyebrow at Harran, she smiled.
"Mind you, it will only give you a bit of a boost. It's not quite capable of lifting an entire person's weight, but the extra thrust should help you."
The Commander nodded, adjusting his arms in the straps. "Yea, I feel like it will. Alright… I guess just, uh, use the boost when I jump? And try to cushion my fall as much as you can, please."
A fond smile appeared on Harran's face, and she stepped in close, her hand coming out to cup his cheek. "Of course, I won't allow much harm to befall my most loyal of subjects."
The Commander coughed, his own cheeks going a little red at that, and Harran cackled, taking a step back. She'd been more… affectionate with him since their talk the other night, where he had told her his whole story.
He couldn't help but enjoy the attention, and even though the Nikke back at the outpost behaved similarly, he still wasn't entirely used to it.
Shaking his head, The Commander slapped his cheeks, taking a bunch of steps back from the side of the roof, before nodding to Harran, who just grinned, giving him a thumbs up. Taking that as a sign that she was ready, The Commander sprinted.
His boots pounded the concrete of the roof as he ran, and he got to the edge quickly, his legs coiling for a second before he leapt across the gap. There was an instant where he felt almost weightless, before the sound of Harran's raven's thrusters ignited for a burst of speed, pushing him even faster over the gap.
The other roof moved closer very quickly, and he was already moving to prepare for a harsh landing when the thrusts activated again, slowing his descent enough that the landing was more like dropping a single meter, not like he'd just jumped across a street.
He turned and sent a thumbs up in Harran's direction, and she returned it. After he shook his arms and legs out a bit, the nervousness from earlier still sending tingles through them, he unclasped the container Harran had given him for the flowers from his belt and moved to the edge of the roof.
They were simple to collect, just requiring him to lean over the edge and grab them before stuffing them in the container. He apparently only need four or five, but he resolved to collect at least fifteen on the flowers that hung there for Harran, so she wouldn't have to worry about conditioner for a while to come.
After he'd done so, all it took was another stressful jump across the street, assisted by Harran's raven. But the roof where Harran was standing was a little bit taller than the one with the flowers, and that caused him to grab onto the railing on the side, instead of making it in one go.
The Commander tried to pull themselves up but found it difficult to while laden down with the container full of stuff, as well as Harran's raven strapped to his back. Luckily, it didn't end up becoming an issue, as Harran swiftly strode to the edge of the building, a smile on her face as she spoke softly, aware of the Raptures below them.
"Would you like some assistance, my dearest follower?"
The Commander laughed as quietly as he could, nodding his head. Harran grabbed his forearms and dragged him up onto the roof with seemingly no effort. He was airborne for a moment before Harran caught him in what he vaguely recalled was known as a 'princess carry.'
"And there we are, my follower. All of the ingredients needed for my conditioner have been procured."
She almost seemed a bit nervous as she spoke, and it wasn't hard for The Commander to figure out why. He let out a small bark of laughter and allowed himself to go limp in her arms, a smile on his face.
"Alright then, let's go away from this Rapture patrol and you can show me how to make it!"
The Commander and Harran sat shoulder to shoulder on a fallen log as they watched a small metal box rumble as it did its job.
While they waited, The Commander had time to think. He wasn't actually lost anymore. A day ago they had come across a landmark that helped him realise exactly where he was, and he could tell that he and Harran were only half a day out from the nearest elevator to the Ark.
With the gathering of the ingredients having taken over about a week and a half, and any extra travel time only taking about 3 days, they were well and truly within the timeframe before he was deemed missing or killed.
Shaking his head to dispel his thoughts, he took his eyes off the machine for a moment, looking around the small hidey-hole that they had discovered. It was full of foliage, meaning that no Raptures had stepped foot in it for a good while, and had an entrance that required even the Commander to crawl into.
It was an almost perfect place to hide from the Rapture patrols and rest up. He was already committing its location to memory in case he ever needed to use it again.
The machine beeped, and Harran cracked the lid, letting a small amount of steam escape from it. It was… almost disappointingly simple to make her conditioner. With how delicious her 'Witches Stew' had been, and how confidently she had used the pot to make it, he would have assumed that it was included somehow.
"What's the matter, dear follower? You look less than impressed."
The Commander looked up from the machine, meeting eyes with Harran. "Nah, don't worry about me. Just thought there would be a bit more of a process to make the conditioner, instead of just letting the machine do all the work."
She raised an eyebrow at that, an amused smile on her face. "You live in an age where alien machines have taken over the surface, where human technology has been pushed almost to its limits… and you believed that I would hand mix something as simple as some conditioner?"
She let out a peal of laughter as she plunged her hand into the machine, pulling out 3 bottles of blue liquid, all with a spray-top lid. Placing two into a nearby luggage container, she shook her hair out, before handing the final bottle to him.
Her hand came up to her chest, closed into a fist over her sternum as she spoke, and even though she was facing an angle that hid her face slightly from him, he could tell that her cheeks were bright red.
"Dear follower, I would like, wait no, I instruct you to apply the conditioner to my hair. Be sure not to miss a single part, or you'll be sorry!"
The high pitch of her voice echoed slightly around their little hidey-hole, and he chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Of course. I'll be sure to get everywhere, Harran. Don't worry about a thing."
With that, he took hold of some of her hair, near the end where it hung at her thighs, and started liberally applying the conditioner. He did his best to ignore the breathy sigh she released as he grabbed her hair.
A minute went by, then five, then ten. The bottle of conditioner got lighter and lighter in his hands. She had a lot of hair, but The Commander was determined to get every single bit of it.
Every now and then he found a tangle and was forced to pull through it, and he had to steel himself, lest he lost focus at the sounds Harran released whenever he did. However, he was a battle-hardened Commander, so he was able to finish her entire head of hair without incident.
'Just barely, that is.'
As he placed the bottle of conditioner into the bag near them, next to its backups, he pulled out a small bottle of water, washing the conditioner off of his hands. It smelt absolutely lovely, but it was also rather sticky when clumped on his skin.
The sun had long since set, which meant that the only light that illuminated their little hidey-hole was the small fire that Harran had built for them. Because of this, as she turned back to him her long hair flowing behind her, it was difficult to read the look on her face.
Her hand came up to his cheek again, cupping it surprisingly softly for someone capable of ripping steel plates in half. "My dear follower. I know that you aren't lost anymore."
Any distraction he had been suffering vanished at that, his focus snapping onto Harran's face. She shifted slightly, and it gave him a better look at her. His breath stopped for a moment as he saw how sad she looked, even as she smiled at him.
"You are remarkably earnest, my dearest follower, and very easy to read. I could tell the moment that you realised where you were. It was the old library building, wasn't it? It is a very useful landmark."
The Commander just nodded, his own hand raising to cover the one on his cheek. "Yea, it was. I just didn't want to remind you…"
Harran shook her head, her sad smile shaking slightly. "It is alright. I have always known that I would have to bring you back to your Outpost soon enough. It is just… for so long…"
She shook her head, laughing softly. "I have gotten attached to you rather quickly, haven't I? It pains me that tonight might be the last time I ever see you."
"What one earth made you think that!?"
Harran froze as the words escaped from his mouth before he even knew it. Grabbing her hands, he clasped them together in front of her, looking into her blue eyes, traces of tears on their corners.
"I refuse to let this be the last time I see you, Harran. I plan to petition Anderson to give you the authorisation to use the Outpost as a home base for your Pilgrim duties. It's not technically a part of the Ark, so I think I can make a convincing case!"
Harran was silent for a moment before she shook her head. "Ha… haha… hahaha! Oh my, dearest follower… my magnificence truly has won you over so deeply in just two weeks…"
The way she spoke was arrogant, but the look on her face made her feelings as clear as day. The Commander took a breath as he realised what was about to happen. Harran leaned in quickly, capturing his lips in a kiss, freeing her hands from his with little effort to cup both of his cheeks.
The Commander couldn't help but lean into the kiss, his own hands falling to Harran's hips. After a while, his head started to go light from lack of oxygen, and he used his fingers to tap on her hips.
She pulled back after a moment, her red cheeks clear even in the low light levels. "Apologies, I sometimes forget how powerful my body is compared to regular humans. This won't… stop you from staying with me tonight, will it?"
The Commander gulped at that, understanding her meaning instantly. He shook his head, and she smiled brightly. "Then, just for once… I'll allow you to lead me, my dear."
She leaned in again, kissing him, and The Commander allowed himself to be pulled off the log, and down into the tent she had set up nearby. That night was very restful in some ways, and very much not so in others…
Harran smiled to herself as The Commander vanished into the elevator.
Ever since she had become a Nikke, she had thrown away any dreams of love, relationships, or even friendships with other people. For 30 long, long years, all she had known was her duty, fighting Raptures day in and day out.
She had never expected to fall so hard for a foolhardy commander that treated her like a person, where all others only saw a tool. And even though she knew that it would never get accepted…
There was a part of that she couldn't squash, a part of her that really hoped that she could get authorisation to stay at the Outpost…
If only to stay near the madman who had dared to steal a witch's heart.