For: xZero84x
Prompt: Eila and Aurora's thoughts on each other
For a soldier in the middle of a war, nothing was quite as uplifting as mail call. To be reminded of family and friends back home, waiting, was one of the few saving graces for the teenage girls fighting humanity's greatest enemy.
Aurora considered herself lucky to be part of a regiment where the commander stressed to families how important it was for them to contact their daughters, despite the distance or difficulties in delivering the letters. She didn't get much mail, but she still saw how her fellow soldiers reacted receiving a crumpled envelope or seeing their sisters-in-arms get something.
She was, in fact, usually the last person to hear if she had a letter in the mail sack. Someone would burst into whatever tent she was relaxing in, gripping a piece of paper wet from the snow.
Nearly all of her mail came from family, and most of that was from her parents. But every now and then she'd get a letter postmarked from Britannia or Romagna (or once, much to Aurora's surprise, Suomus), and that always caused a stir with her fellow soldiers.
Today was an otherwise normal day: they fought a few ground Neuroi and waited for any other signs of the enemy. Aurora took off her strikers the moment she got back to base and retired to their make-shift barracks. There she pulled a week-old newspaper from under her pillow and flipped to the article she had been reading when the Neuroi attack interrupted her.
The other girls filed in slowly, shivering from the cold but joking with each other. Some sorted through the daily mail as they walked in, handing it out and teasing the recipients about the senders. Aurora, used to the noise, only looked up when she felt a cold spot on her thighs. A white envelope sat on her legs, slightly wrinkled from its time in the mail sack.
She wasn't expecting a letter today (or any day for that matter; they always managed to be pleasant surprises), but she recognized the military issue envelope, and she could tell the others did as well. Before she could even open it, every girl in the tent surrounded her bunk, eager to hear about the letter's contents.
Aurora took out a pocket knife and sliced the top of the envelope in half. Looking inside, she noticed it held both pictures and paper, and, acknowledging the curiosity of her fellow witches, pulled the letter from the split paper.
"What'd she say?" one asked, voicing the thoughts of the others gathered around Aurora's bed.
"Hmm… she went to space," Aurora read proudly. The room erupted in chatter but silenced the second Aurora spoke again. "She disobeyed orders and was put on house arrest."
In a second, the room was noisy again with laughter and, much to Aurora's amusement, squeals. She scanned the rest of the letter during her audience's distraction and was about to pull the pictures from the envelope, when another curious soldier spoke up.
"What's she like?"
Aurora paused. "Eila's…" she started, thinking about the time she spent with her little sister, "stubborn. And abrasive and sneaky."
The crowd, unsatisfied with her answer, waited patiently for her to go on.
"But she's reliable and tough. Someone you can count on, if you're willing to put up with a few pranks."
"Were you close growing up?" someone asked, taking Aurora's willingness to answer such personal questions as a good sign.
Aurora sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess… we had snowball fights, and when I signed up for the army, she insisted on going with me to the recruitment office. I don't think we were any closer than normal siblings," she finished, shrugging.
She took one of the pictures from the envelope (a shot of Eila with that Orussian girl she always raved about), and passed it around the crowd. She did the same with the rest, until she saw the last one and grinned.
"The captain's smiling!" someone yelled, voice laced with surprise. When the others looked up, the room exploded in noise, all shocked that their cold superior could make such an expression.
Face impassive again, Aurora slipped the picture into one of her uniform's inner pockets, stood from the bed, and said "The cold hasn't frozen my facial muscles just yet." Patting a few soldiers' head as she left the tent, she walked into the frigid, European air, stretching.
Nearly hanging out of a castle window, Eila glared at the paper in her hand, scoffing as the writing described snow and chilling winds. A light breeze blew, and for a second, the hot weather wasn't so bothersome.
"A letter from home?" Yoshika asked, walking into the room and wincing from training.
"Not quite," Eila answered curtly. "It's from my sister."
"You have a sister?" This time it was Lynne, entering from the kitchen.
Eila nodded. "Older. She's a tank witch stationed in Suomus."
"What's she like?"
Pushing herself up from the window ledge, Eila regarded the growing crowd. Yoshika and Lynne were already seated on the couch, eager to hear more. Shirley had just walked in, Lucchini hanging from her shoulders.
"She's serious and a little cold. She likes to read."
"The cool beauty type, eh?" Shirley joked, taking a seat herself. "Go on."
Eila stuck her tongue out at her in good humor, but continued. "She's usually pretty laid-back, but I hear she's hardheaded on the battlefield. People usually say we look alike, but our personalities are completely different." Her captive audience nodded in apparent knowledge, as if they personally understood the differences between Eila and her sister.
"How close are you?" Lynne asked.
Face scrunched in consideration, Eila rubbed the back of her head. "We were closer when we were younger; Aurora would buy me books and read to me. She's a lot older, though, and she signed up to be a witch when the war started, so we don't talk much anymore."
"You still write," Yoshika reminded her, smiling empathically.
Eila smirked but didn't comment on it. Instead she tipped the envelope in her hand over and dumped a photograph from it. Flipping it over and examining the picture, she asked, "Wanna see what she looks like?"
The photo was nothing more than the standard, uniformed picture the military requires that all personnel take, but the woman in it had a certain air about her that radiated from the photo. She didn't smile, but she there was amusement obvious in her eyes, like someone behind the photographer had been trying to get her to laugh.
The other passed around the picture, pointing out similarities and differences in the two sisters appearances. Lucchini laughed about how their hair was identical, while Yoshika and Lynne talked about each of their faces.
"You better not show this to Barkhorn, or she'll get upset that someone's beat here as 'world's best big sister,'" Shirley told her. When Eila looked at her in confusion, she tapped the back of the picture where another note was written.
Taking back the photograph, Eila read the note and chuckled. She tucked the photo into one of her uniform pockets and leaned back on the window ledge. The heat was a little more bearable now.
A/N: Happy Birthday Eila and Ilmari!
I imagine Aurora as, excuse my TvTropes talk, the perfect "Cool Big Sis" with a dash of "Aloof Big Brother" thrown in for good measure. I also like to think that she looks enough like Eila to be easily recognized as family, but not so similar that they're practically twins. But this is anime, and nearly everyone looks the same if you took away the individual hairstyles or eye colors, so...
No historic references because I didn't really do any research, but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that Aurora was a tank witch and that the real life Aarne bought Ilmari a book on the Red Baron that got him into flying. Just don't go quoting me.