~o.O.o~
At a certain base in the country of Germany, a maiden was receiving the revelation that would change her life forever.
Laura paced back and forth as she tried to stifle her growing panic at what was happening. "Okay, just calm down Laura, you are a strong soldier and the pride of your unit. You're not falling in l-l-love with this-this..." She couldn't even finish her sentence.
'Perfect example of manhood?' A voice echoed from inside her head, mocking her inability to fully deny her feelings for the first time in her life.
"Shut up!" She yelled out to no one.
'Kiss him already! He won't find out, he's sleeping!' The voice tried to urge her.
"B-But-" Laura didn't know what to do: Kiss him and risk him finding out or hold it in and lose her chance? Truly, a riddle for the century had been formed here.
'Look at those soft lips and that cute sleeping face, you know you want to~' The voice once again spoke out in a sing-song manner, making her will to resist weaker and weaker.
With a blushing face, Laura leaned in and placed her face closer to his. A slight movement would be enough for the two of them to-
"NOOOOOO~!" With a loud yell, Laura suddenly backed away as she realized what she was about to do.
Laura was past the first stage of panicking and was moving onto the second stage: Denial.
Miraculously, while this was happening, the boy in question remained in his sleep and didn't even seem to acknowledge the earth shattering (to her) event that was happening right in front of him.
Laura panicked even more and tried calm herself down. She was going to lose her sanity at this rate if he didn't stop being so cu- making her panic! No, she did not think he was cute!
With a deep breath, Laura once again tried to wake up the adorabl- stupid! She meant stupid young man! "Ichika, wake up, we have to go back already." She shook his shoulder but there was no response from the sleeping teen.
Laura sighed and grabbed his shoulder before draping it over hers in a fireman's hold and started to drag him into the inside of the small living area. He was larger than her slightly but her strength was enough for her to successfully carry him inside.
"Hello, is anyone around?" She looked around the area and found that it was pitch black with no signs of movement anywhere. It looks like everyone had gone to sleep.
With another sigh, Laura carefully maneuvered to her bed, using her trained vision to see any obstacles that may have lay on the ground before finally making it to her personal bed.
'Finally!' Laura thought as the thought of sleep crossed her mind. Now, all she needed to do was set Ichika down and she could finally go to sleep. Simple right?
Wrong...
Laura gently sat on the bed and tried to remove the arm encircling her small neck so both of them could go to sleep.
Ichika stirred slightly as Laura tried to remove his arm and suddenly placed his other arm around her, trapping her in his embrace. "Mmmm~ Teddy bear..." He mumbled softly as he rubbed his face against hers.
"I-I'm not a teddy bear!" Laura mumbled as she tried to resist the urge to yell out in a panic. She was a trained soldier, not a helpless little girl! Laura immediately tried to push him away from her.
"Soft~" This only served to make things worse (better) since he crashed down on the bed and didn't even bother to let go of her. Right now, both of them were on the bed and looked like they were doing some kind of awkward embrace.
'Got to get out of here' Laura struggled and shook left and right but he wouldn't budge, this continued on for 5 more minutes before she decided to just gave up.
Unfortunately, her "captor" had caught her in a vice like grip so she was stuck like this. Resigning herself to her current condition, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
'I-It's not like I'm enjoying it or anything. I just can't find a way to get out of this, that's all!' She thought hotly to herself as her face started to redden from their close contact.
'So the super soldier can't get out? Sounds like someone's making excuses~' Here comes that voice again, why couldn't it just leaver her alone? She was stressed enough with the boy currently crushing her against him in a bear hug.
'Hey hey, look in front of you.' Laura knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't resist the voice's goading and finally looked straight ahead of her.
Big mistake.
There, just a few inches in front of her, was the subject of her temptation: The sleeping face of her new object of desire. The innocent expression could melt any girls heart was just a few inches in front of her and the lips were slightly parted, trying to invite her once again to take them in hers.
'No no no! This is not the way you were raised! Do not give in to these foolish notions of supposed love!' She furiously denied as she refused to give in to the "temptation".
With a huff, she turned her face away from his and closed her eyes in order to get some sleep. Hopefully, she would wake up in the morning and find herself without these confusing emotions and everything back to normal.
~o.O.o~
Clarissa smiled as she observed Laura's actions through the video camera. Honestly, that girl could never be honest with herself even when the things she wanted were right in front of her.
"So, any luck?" She turned to the side and found her friend Chifuyu staring at her with a knowing smirk on her face.
Clarissa sighed before answering, "It's going slowly. The voice in the head thing is helping things a lot though." She smiled and gestured to the small mic she held between her fingers.
All of the Shwarzer Hase were implanted with nano machines directly in their brains that allowed communication to them in the most dire circumstances. Naturally, as trainees, they weren't told of these specific implants, which allowed Clarissa to take advantage and act as Laura's "voice in her head" to urge her along.
"I'm surprised she didn't question the sudden voice in her head telling her to do things" Chifuyu remarked offhandedly.
"That girls always been like that: Focusing on one thing and completely ignoring everything else. She was so focused on your brother she didn't recognize my voice" Clarissa stifled a laugh as she recounted what happened.
Both of them smiled and clicked their glasses again for another toast. If everything went well, those two would be at each other before either of them knew it.
If only it was that simple...
*RING* *RING*
'Phone's ringing? That's odd, no one ever calls nowadays.' Clarissa stopped her drinking and made her way to the table to pick up the phone.
"Hello" She answered.
"Lieutenant Clarissa, this is Captain Enyala." The voice of a middle-aged woman answered her.
"Captain, is there anything you need" Clarissa replied cordially to the senior officer. Having a call from her usually meant something important was about to happen.
"We've made a breakthrough on a project and would like to clarify something." She recited in a matter of fact manner.
"What is it, Captain?" Clarissa replied with a touch of nervousness.
"Is the recruit, 'Laura Bodewig', still maintaining top performance?" She asked.
Clarissa resisted the urge to sigh. It was always like this, Laura was the first successful result of Germany's "Super Soldier program" and was frequently checked on to see if she maintained top performance for everything.
"Yes, her performance has been excellent and she only shows signs of improving" Clarissa replied evenly.
There was a moment of silence before she heard a reply again, "Then we will be needing her in a few days."
"What do you mean, Captain?" She struggled to keep her tone even.
"We have a new project and we think she would be the perfect subject." The captain replied.
"But Laura was transferred her under specific orders to join the Shwarzer Hase! She should no longer be required to follow the lab's orders!" Clarissa forgot her sense of professionalism for a moment and let her temper flare.
"Don't worry, Captain Clarissa. The procedure won't take long and afterwards she will have no more obligations to us." The captain replied as if Clarissa hadn't lost her composure just a moment ago.
Clarissa felt her blood boil but she forced herself to calm down. Now was not the time to lose her composure, "Understood, what will she be doing?" She gritted out.
"It's a new project intended to capitalize on the recent success of the Infinite Stratos." The captain explained.
"I was hoping for a name instead, Captain" Clarissa pointed out.
"A new project by the German Military. It goes by the name: Valkyrie Trace System."