Chapter 7: Diplomacy
Levina held a pistol between her fingers up to her face. "Why would they even think of giving us range weapons?" she asked in disgust.
"Because," Shadrach replied, "Some of us aren't capable of using special attacks, like you are." He had a similar gun of his own, using his bed as a makeshift table while he field stripped it. As he removed the barrel from the slide of the firearm, he widened his eyes as the Ampharos aimed her gun at him. What? Oh fu-
He instinctively rolled off of the bed, taking half of the removed parts with him as the Ampharos giggled. A loud thump caused her to peer over the edge of her own mattress, looking down at the floor.
"Arceus, Levina! You're supposed to treat any weapon as loaded, even if it's not," he protested.
She rolled her eyes. "Please, as if the armory would ever release both the ammo and the gun together. Besides, would I really point a loaded weapon at you?"
"It's still improper to do such a thing." Shadrach got down on the floor, looking for the pistol parts that he scattered. "You're lucky I only began dissembly. If I lost the firing pin, I probably would have to get a whole new weapon, and explaining to that Altaria why wouldn't be fun."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry," she sighed, trying to cut off his rant. "I was just testing out the sights…"
He picked the slide up off of the ground, putting the barrel back in and attaching the entire piece to the pistol in one smooth action. "Just don't do it again," Shadrach said, pulling the upper part of the gun back as if he were reloading it. He smiled as he heard the customary chk, chk sound.
An awkward silence fell in the dorm. Shadrach continued inspecting his weapon while Levina watched him do so. "So…" she began, trying to establish some conversation. "What do you plan to do in the six hours before we start this thing?"
He looked up from his work. "I'm feeling a bit hungry right now, so cafeteria in a few minutes. Then all Special Forces members involved have to meet in the hangars by twenty-one-hundred hours to talk some stuff out, do weapons checks, and make sure that we're ready. Then, at zero-one-hundred hours, we deploy. I plan to think of alternate enemy responses to our primary strategy between now and when we have to go to the hangars."
"That's boring. No one to talk to?" Levina asked, grinning.
"This is a routine mission. Why?" The Umbreon obviously missed the point of her question despite the previous night's activities.
She jumped off the cot and walked to the door, letting faint rays of sunlight in. "Nothing much, just interested," she replied, still smiling. "I want to go to dinner too. Coming?"
The cafeteria line was long, even longer than Shadrach had expected. It snaked outside of the light brown building along one side. "Looks like we got here too late," he groaned, watching the thirty-plus 'mon line move as slowly as molasses.
"Yeah, at this rate, we'll need to be in the meeting by the time we get to the front," his partner also complained. Levina craned her neck, trying to count the number of heads between them and the food.
"Well," a voice behind them said. "Look who it is."
"Hello, Sirius," she answered crankily, not bothering to look back at the dragon. "If you want to, spit out your pickup line and I'll give you your shock of the day."
"No, no, not today. Maybe later?" he hinted, winking. He dodged the small bolt that emerged from Levina's body.
Shadrach, a bit annoyed, glanced over his shoulder at their antics. "Sirius, what is it that you want?"
He opened his mouth for a second, processing the variety of replies that ranged from downright earnest to obscenely ludicrous. Then he put on a mask of innocence as he gave a response that betrayed nor the former nor the latter. "I'm here for some dinner, that's all. Is that criminal?"
All three moved forward as the line shifted. "I didn't realize dinner involved hitting on a squad member, no less than one you live with." The Umbreon sighed, shaking his head. "How they can even trust you outside of a single gender barrack is beyond me…"
"I don't know why either. But hey, it works!" he said, about to give Levina another look. The crackling of her hide made him think twice about the decision, though.
"Well, all bantering aside, there's some rumors flying around about you and a certain someone else. Care to elaborate?" the Latios asked in curiosity.
Shadrach stared at him, offering a deadpan look. "I haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about."
"Don't try to lie, Shadrach. I have my sources, especially one that is pretty close to you…"
"Wait, wha-" He began to form a reply when an obnoxious voice interrupted him.
"Hey! You want food or not? Someone else back there does." The clearly impatient Donphan cook in front of him crossed his arms.
"My apologies. I think I will have the salad," Shadrach responded, wrinkling his snout at a vat of white soup filled with a suspicious grey meat. The Ampharos and Latios behind him picked the same, and the three of them went to sit at one of the few tables that were left. At this hour, the mess hall was full of 'mon, many of which were about to go out on night patrols.
"Anyways, about those rumors." Sirius was eager to continue the discussion, not even caring for his meal. "Care to tell? I promise I won't leak it out or anything."
Shadrach stabbed a berry with a fork and waved it at him. "I told you before, I know nothing," he dismissed, looking at Levina. Even though she appeared to be fully concentrated on her salad, her ears were twitching.
"Pft, yeah right. Look, my sis may be quiet around you, but Arceus she's loud when I'm locked in a room with her." He rolled his eyes, tending to his meal.
Now it was Levina's turn to ask questions. "Locked? What do you mean by that?"
The Latios looked up at her, salad halfway in his mouth. He reluctantly set his silverware down. "Don't let your mind jump to conclusions," he said, making her blush in response. "It was target practice. Siria still doesn't have her Psychic attack down yet, so I had to help her perfect it. She said it was just for training, but she seemed like she wanted to learn it in a hurry. Anyways," he said, coaxed back into talking, "Shadrach, why don't you tell me about the rumors?"
The Umbreon, having some amount of courtesy, shook his head while he was chewing.
"C'mon. I just want to confirm what Siria said. Something about 'feelings' and 'embarrassment' and stuff, I wasn't really paying attention."
Another shake of the head.
Sirius looked up again, salad nearly half-gone during the short interchange. He grinned as he announced, "We'll try this the hard way. Shadrach, you have exactly ten seconds to tell me what happened, or I'll yell right in the middle of this mess hall that you're having an illicit sexual relationship with Siria."
This was more than enough to get a visible reaction out of him. "What?" he blurted, eyes opened wide. Levina, mouth agape, was too stunned for words.
"I said, tell me what happened last night or I'll yell out exactly what I said, except cruder."
"You can't do that!" Shadrach complained, turning red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.
"Watch me." With that, the Latios breathed in deeply, chest puffing out. "HEY!" Naturally, everybody in the room looked towards the source of the voice, ceasing their conversation.
"Oh my- Fine, fine!" the Umbreon hissed, not willing to risk his reputation over a few secrets.
Satisfied, Sirius followed up with a gratuitous, "NEVER MIND!"
"Is it that damn Latios again?" a voice echoed.
"For Arceus' sake just shut up!" another chimed in.
"No one wants to hear your shit anyways!"
With those curses normal conversation resumed. A smug Sirius turned to look towards the other two. Levina rolled her eyes expressively while Shadrach held a paw to his face.
"Anyways, Shadrach…"
The Umbreon sighed, laying his fork down on an empty plate. "Ok, here's what happened. Siria emits a few thoughts, then got embarrassed, and then-"
"Hold on," Sirius interrupted. "Emit?"
"What she thought, I heard," Shadrach elaborated, wanting to finish his explanation as quickly as possible. "Anyways, she got embarrass-"
"Hey, hey. What did she think?"
"That is something I wouldn't like to discuss," he groaned, looking for an excuse to get up and leave.
"It couldn't have been that bad." The blue dragon, belying proper etiquette, used a claw to spear a berry, much to Levina's distaste.
"You really want to know? It was an argument between you and her about how combat ready I was, and it ended with you accusing her of how much she liked me!" He blushed and looked away.
"Hardly surprising. She does that all the time. Continue."
"Wait, what?"
"I said, hardly surprising. Unless you think I'm completely oblivious to what goes on between you two…"
Shadrach scowled. "Fine. Anyways, she goes and becomes embarrassed after that. After our-" He searched for a word that wouldn't give away the fact that he was at a classified meeting. "Our flight, I made a joke about it and she just stopped talking. Not a single word, even."
Levina leaned in, suddenly making herself apparent. "And then what?" she said, entranced by the story.
He erked, wondering if he should still continue. Then he saw Sirius's smirking face and remembered the threat. "Well, I asked her about what was wrong, and then she told me about her thoughts, and I told her that I was fine. Nothing else happened. Nothing!"
Sirius and Levina eyed him silently, weighing the mettle of his testimony. Finally, the Latios spoke.
"Are you suuuuuuuure that's all?" he snarked.
"Honest! Honest! I swear!" the Umbreon exclaimed. He got more and more uncomfortable with every second that passed, shifting in his seat.
"Well," Levina spoke, standing up while picking up her tray. "I believe him, for what that's worth." She shot him a look, trying to get him to follow her lead. I'm trying to save you dammit. "Now c'mon, we've only got half an hour before we have to go to the hangar."
"Hangar? You two have a mission?" the dragon inquired.
"Er…what I meant is-" she stammered, noticing her oversight
"What she meant is," Shadrach explained, also getting up. "We have to check out our sidearms. Right?"
"Right, right!" She emphatically nodded.
Sirius smirked. "Sure, and there's no reason as to why my quarters will be completely empty tonight, except for me…" He too picked up his tray, following the other two as they weaved their way through the many tables of the hall. "Well, good luck with 'checking out your sidearms,' whatever the hell that's supposed to mean."
A/N: Ergh, another slice of life one with a little bit of character exposition (I think). Anyways, a question to what readers I have left (again, thanks!) from the beginning: am I going too slow? I am certainly aware that technically there has only been 5 days in their world since the start of their fic, but I've seen other stories that have spanned months within the amount of words I've used. I don't want to turn this into a 24-hour thing (like 24 heh), but I also don't want to drag the scenes out minute by minute.