Chapter 2

Coffee

Another day
Another time
Another sky we've seen before
Believe yourself
Believe your words
Believe your choices made you strong
Remember me?
Remember days
That you're the only one who can live my life with smiles and hopes

Cross exited the bathroom, shrugged on her discarded hoodie, and grabbed her muddy boots from next to the doorway on her way out of the barracks. She wasn't making Fashion Statement of the Year, but her silk nightgown reached below her knees, which was farther than her stabilizers reached, so she felt passable.

Even at two in the morning, the Administrative District was humming with noise- tired BLADEs returning home, late-night shopkeepers selling caffeinated drinks alongside their normal wares, the pounding of engineers and Skells below the plate. The bright lights of Armory Ally were blinding, the shadows they cast elongated and deep. She head towards the elevator to the Residential District, keeping to the darkness. It had been a sleepless night like this...;

("Reeed…" Lin moaned.

She opened one eye. "Again?" A disgruntled grunt was her response. "Sorry." Elma hadn't known Red yelled in her sleep when she'd assigned her to Lin's room in the barracks. Red had offered to sleep on the couch many times, but either Lin was too kind to accept or she loved getting woken up in the middle of the night. Judging by the fact a sleeping Lin kicked her out of the room at least twice a week, then lectured her about leaving the room in the morning ("You weren't bothering me! Honest!"), Red guessed it was the first.

Red pulled a tattered robe over her t-shirt and resigned herself to a night on the couch, but stopped short as she ran her hand through her hair. It was damp with sweat… maybe a shower would help her sleep. She doubled back past the living room and headed towards the bathroom. The knob was cool under her hand- but it wouldn't turn. Red grunted- she wanted a shower, dammit!- and slammed her shoulder into the door. It swung open, revealing a steamy room.

A steamy occupied room.

A man was in the shower, humming a soothing melody. The water poured down his naked body, and her eyes followed it down from his head to his rear. Damn, that was a great ass. He groped behind himself for his bar of soap, but came up short, so he turned-

"GAH! W-what are you doing!?"

Red felt her cheeks match her nickname. She knew she should leave- she had amnesia, she wasn't stupid- but… Apparently, she'd forgotten what men looked like… down there. At least, that was probably a Guy Thing? Maybe some girls looked like that too? Or maybe-

"GET OUT!"

His shout was enough to snap her out of her stupor, so she choked out a "Sorry!" and slammed the door. She ran down the hall to the common room, and sank onto the couch. She was an Idiot. She'd forced open a locked bathroom door- Why? What did she expect?

"Oh."

Her head shot up. He was standing at the edge of the room, flushed red. He had a towel around his waist, thankfully. "I… wasn't expecting to run into you here."

"Um." There was an uncomfortable pause. She had no idea what to say.

"You're… Red, right?"

"Yeah. And you're…" She thought back. "Lao? We went on a mission together last week."

"Yeah." Another pause, this one less awkward. "Unusual name."

"Is it? I wouldn't know."

His brow furrowed for a moment, then; "That's right, you lost your memory. Yeah, it sounds more like a nickname."

"Well, it's not really my name…"

"What? But you were talking like it was."

"I, uh… forgot."

"You… forgot that your nickname wasn't your real name?"

"I have a pretty bad memory, if you recall? And what were you doing in my bathroom, by the way?"

"...That was your bathroom? Not team Belisarda's?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Lao turned an even brighter shade of pink. He let out a small huff of laughter, and she was smiling- the tension was gone from the room. He walked towards the kitchen. "Coffee?"

"Coffee? But it's…"She looked at the clock. "It's 2:48 in the morning."

"It's morning."

Well, she wasn't likely getting back to sleep tonight anyway. "Sure. Sugar, no cream."

"Got it." He came back minutes later with two steaming cups of dark liquid and sat across from her.

"You take it the same?"

"No, mine's black."

"But it's so bitter!"

"The bitterness helps keep me awake." He smiled sadly. "In more ways than one," he sighed.)

Cross sighed at the memory. She was nearly at the elevator, but she paused. There had been tiny moments like that, little out of place comments, scattered throughout all of their conversations. They were meaningless at the time - in retrospect, they felt like icicles in her heart. Maybe that was why he'd opened up around her- he could tell the truth and keep his secrets at the same time. Or maybe he was trying to clue her in and she was too stupid to notice, a traitorous voice added. Cross grit her teeth and walked onto the elevator.

Just, everything about you
Can't stop myself
Something's just begun
Tell me why
I will think about you
Don't go away!
I will stay for you!

Next time: Tar, or "This chapter wasn't planned but just kinda happened and turned into the best written chapter in the fic somehow but also made a later chapter really redundant oh well"

"Are you human? Or… are you a robot without a soul?"