Brief Meetings

Dajh let out a heavy sigh as he checked checked the time. It was a little past 7 in the evening. He was presently waiting outside the barracks area for Denzel. Dajh wasn't really surprised that he was late, but it didn't make it any less troublesome. When he finally saw the taller boy exit from the building, he pushed off the wall and walked toward him.

"Yo!"

"Took you long enough." Dajh stated as they both began walking down the small street away from the dorms.

"As if you weren't expecting I'd be late." Denzel teased with a laugh in his voice.

"The fact that you'd assume I'd expect that—and still show up late..." He trailed off, "Now, what does that say about you? Hmm?" His response was just another laugh. It hadn't really meant to incite an answer anyway.

"Damn I'm tired!" Denzel said loudly, slouching heavily as to emphasize the statement, "Officer Farron's pretty hard core, isn't she?" Dajh didn't disagree, but he hadn't been surprised at the spartan-like training she'd introduced to his class of recruits, "She just about twisted my arm off while she was testing my hand-to-hand combat."

"Taking into account the area where your hand was... aiming..." Dajh began and purposely trailed off into a pause again, "Let's just say the Sergeant Major probably isn't the only woman who'd react that way." Denzel just smiled sheepishly.

"What? She's an... impressive-looking lady!" He nudged Dajh's arm, "C'mon even you can agree to that." Dajh actually laughed at the thought.

Appearance aside, Lightning had been like an older sister to him growing up. Not only had the thought never crossed his mind—ever—he had grown up with a habit shared by many of the males that were close to Lightning or her sister. He tended to disapprove of anyone made any type of advance on them that may have been sparked by their 'impressive looks'.

"Speaking of impressive." Denzel motioned across the street. Dajh followed his gaze to see Lance Corporal DeFluo walking in the direction of the main gate, busy with a datapad, "-course by impressive, I mean impressively out of her mind." Dajh caught the latter part of his friend's statement, "I mean... who pulls a weapon on their superior officer? The superior officer's weapon! On the superior officer?"

"Hey! DeFluo!" Dajh called, attempting to get the young officer's attention. The memory of the Lance Corporal's fight against Lightning was still clear in his mind. He'd never seen someone take the pinkette so off-guard. Even before that, he'd still been curious about the young officer since she'd knocked Lozieg onto his ass the day they met.

"Wait-? What-?" Denzel, grabbed his arm as he moved to cross the street, "Dajh, what're you doing-?" Dajh looked down at the hand on his arm, then back up at Denzel, confused.

"I'm saying 'hi'." He stated the obvious, pulled his arm away firmly, "What're you doing?" He began crossing the street again, ignoring any answer Denzel had tried to give, "DeFluo! Lance Corporal!" He finally managed to get her attention and caught up with her, attempting a relax salute, "Hey."

"Hello." The officer replied with a quick salute of her own.

"Where are you heading? You busy?" He asked as he motioned over his shoulder in the direction of Denzel, "Because, Denzel and I grabbing a quick drink." He could already see the answer of decline on her face, "You should come, you look like you could use a little fun."

"Dajh, my dear boy," Denzel's voice hit his ears as he felt his friend sling an arm over his shoulder, having finally caught up, "The Lance Corporal probably has... Lance... Corporal-y things to take care of, she can't be slumming it with lowly recruits like us." Dajh looked over at him, eyebrow raised, "What?" He turned to the young woman, "She's probably tired from training today too—very impressive skills by the way, to be able to keep up with Officer Farron-"

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen someone who could hold their own against Lightning." Dajh spoke up, voicing his own praise.

"Wait... you know Officer Farron?" Denzel asked.

"I mean, when I was a kid I used to watch her spar with a couple of guys that could at least keep up with her," Dajh continued, leaving Denzel's question unanswered, "But none of them ever had the guts to use her own gunblade against her—and if they did, she'd have probably knocked them on their ass before they could figure out how to use it. It's a pretty complicated weapon to-"

"You know the Sergeant Major?" DeFluo interrupted him. He felt a smile creep up on him as he realized he may have found a way to at least keep her from leaving, "How well?"

"Pretty well, I can try and tell you what you wanna know." Dajh answered with a small smirk, "We could talk over a couple of drinks..." He trailed off, giving her time to think about it.

"Give me a minute." DeFluo finally gave her answer after a long period of contemplation. She pulled out a comm. device and turned, apparently using it to send a message.

Dajh's smirk grew into a grin of victory. He turned to Denzel to show it off but found the other recruit making a strange face.

"Are you... pouting?" Dajh asked, holding back a small laugh.

"It's not fair man," His friend said, sighing and shaking his head, "It's so not fair." Before Dajh could find out what he was going on about, DeFluo snapped her comm. device shut.

"Alright, but I have to leave before 9."

"Plenty of time." Dajh said with a nod as the three of them head down the street.

Their destination was a mere 5 minute walk from the barracks which was in the general CRYSIS district, just outside the actual headquarters. It was a relatively small yet impressively popular bar/restaurant that many of the younger members of CRYSIS frequented (both recruits and enlisted officers). Denzel and Dajh weren't exceptions—the latter assumed the opposite about the Lance Corporal, however.

It was still a little early for there to be too large a crowd so the three of them easily found a seat in a booth near the entrance. Denzel immediately excused himself to go get a few drinks from the bar. Dajh noticed the young officer seemed a tad uncomfortable with the setting.

"So, why do you want to know about Lightning?" Dajh asked, attempting to distract her from her obvious unease. It seemed to work. DeFluo turned to look at him, her eyes focused, no longer distracted by her surroundings.

"I wasn't given anything regarding the Sergeant Major when I transferred." DeFluo explained, "It's only natural that I'd want to know about my superior officer." Dajh nodded slowly, still suspecting there was much more to it than that. Nevertheless, she'd answered his question.

"Well what do you know so far?"

"Just the basics." DeFluo answered quickly, placing the datapad on the table, "Her rise in rank, bits and pieces of her history with CRYSIS." She paused, a frown briefly appearing on her lips, "Still, not a lot."

"What exactly is it you want to know?" Dajh watched the Lance Corporal closely. Her expression told him that she didn't really have an answer. He opened his mouth to offer suggestions but was interrupted when Denzel placed three mugs of beer on the table and slipped into the booth next to him. Taking one and beginning to drink, he slid one over toward DeFluo.

"Lance Corporal."

"No, thank you." She politely declined. He shrugged and slid it back toward him.

"More for me." Dajh rolled his eyes, "So, tell us about the great Officer Farron." He continued, nudging the Neo Oerban playfully, "Any dirty little secrets we should know about?" The only response was a scoff.

"I noticed her association with CRYSIS goes much deeper than her official military records." DeFluo spoke up, "And not just CRYSIS, with the Crystal Council too." She paused, fiddling with the datapad in front of her, "Though it makes sense since the CRYSIS Corps. are a branch of the Council."

"You have a point, though." Dajh answered, "She may be a Sergeant Major but she has the influence of a general within CRYSIS—possibly the Council too. She has a history with Councilman Amodar." He explained further, "I believe he was her superior officer while the CRYSIS Corps. were still the Guardian Corps." All citizens of Crystallinus were taught the history of how the Crystal City, Crystal Council and CRYSIS Corps. came to be.

"Oh! Hey!" Denzel pointed at Dajh before he could say anything in response, "Isn't she like a hero or something? I remember someone from our old squad going on about it—she's got all these connections because she was one of those l'cie or something." The word struck a chord in Dajh that send a shiver up his spine. It wasn't necessarily a bad feeling, but it was far from good.

Most of the history of Cocoon before the crystallization; regarding the fal'ie and l'cie had either been lost, forgotten or had evolved into bedtime stories parents told their children when they asked about the floating planet above the city. It was rare to find anyone these days that could accurately tell the story of what happened to Cocoon a decade ago. Those who could—Dajh included—found it difficult to talk about.

"So the Sergeant Major is a l'cie." DeFluo voiced her conclusion of the information.

"Was." Dajh corrected out of reflex. He remembered his friends and family back in Oerba Neo reminding him about how since there were no longer fal'cie to control them, they were no longer l'cie. Even their marks had disappeared, he remembered, glancing down at his right hand, "The l'cie are no more, well... except for-"

"Dajh!" A voice called, catching his attention, effectively cutting him off. He saw a familiar face near the door. It was Hope, carrying a small duffel bag. The older man made his way over to the booth, "I'm glad I caught you." Dajh stood up, remembering military protocol. The light-haired officer was in uniform so the other two caught on, recognizing the insignia he bore. They were soon on their feet as well, saluting.

"Please, there's no need for formalities..." He trailed off as he caught sight of DeFluo, who was the last to sit back down. Dajh noted Hope held the younger officers gaze for an unusually long time, "Lance Corporal DeFluo, right?"

"Yes sir." DeFluo nodded quickly.

"First Lieutenant Estheim," Hope said, offering a hand, not breaking eye contact, "Nice to meet you." The Lance Corporal took the hand slowly. Dajh raised an eyebrow, fully aware that something was going on that he didn't know about and—judging from her expression—neither did DeFluo.

"What's up Hope?" He asked, attempting to direct the First Lieutenant's attention away from the bewildered young woman. He succeeded. The officer motioned toward the door over his shoulder.

"Can we talk outside? Just for a sec."

Shooting a brief glance at the other two seated at the booth he stood up and nodded, following Hope out of the establishment.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing seriously, I'm heading back to Oerba Neo for the night," Dajh immediately tensed up, regretting the decision to gain the other man's attention and agreeing to leave the company of the other two.

"Really?" Dajh made a poor attempt at showing excitement, "Say hi to the family for me."

"Was there... anything in particular you wanted me to give to your father?" Came the question Dajh was dreading.

"Thanks but no." Dajh answered a little too quickly, avoiding Hope's eyes. He wasn't quite ready to think of anything to do with his father quite yet. Dajh knew he couldn't keep putting it off forever but if he was going to deal with it, it wouldn't be through someone else.

"Alright." The older man said simply. Dajh met his eyes again. They shared a brief moment of understanding before the First Lieutenant chose to excuse himself, "Well then, I'd best be off." He smiled warmly before heading off down the street. Not before—Dajh barely noticed—he threw one more look towards the restaurant.

As Dajh re-entered the restaurant he found Denzel sitting at the booth but himself. DeFluo was nowhere in sight. Still scanning the rest of the establishment, he slid back into the booth. While turning to question Denzel about the Lance Corporal's whereabouts, he found himself on the receiving end of a rather painful punch to the arm.

"Ow-! What the hell, dude!" He turned to Denzel who was pouting at him again, "What?"

"A First Lieutenant as well? Are you kidding me?" Dajh just shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was. Denzel just shook his head, picking up the second mug of beer, "Seriously... so not fair."

A/N:

Dajh has daddy issues...
DeFluo has Farron issues...
Denzel has... issues... of what, I'm not quite sure.

I have writing issues.