It was an exceptionally bad morning. The ship had another encounter with the opposing army, and the entire crew had been up the entire night. The ship had suffered serious damage, and one of the later replacement pilots had been killed in action. There was still tension everywhere on the ship, and the crew were exhausted.
Yzak sat alone in the cafeteria with a cold cup of coffee in front of him.
He did not know the replacement pilot well enough to grieve over the loss. The other pilot arrived only a few days ago, and there had been no time for fraternizing. Not that Yzak himself made any effort to get to know the pilot. In fact, he couldn't even remember his name. The war had made him weary of involving himself with others. It only made the inevitable parting more painful –whether it was through a transfer or through death. He often wondered why the older crew members were always so detached; he now knew why.
The administration must be really clueless about the front lines, Yzak scoffed inside. That pilot was average at best. Sending him to the Creuset team, expecting him to replace possibly the most talented pilots of the decade, was beyond a tall order. It must have been a joke on their part. A truly sick, twisted joke.
Anger started seething in him again. The replacement pilot only seemed to be another proof that his friends were gone, forever, from the world, and nothing would ever come close to filling the gaping hole in his soul.
The door to the cafeteria slid open, and he heard the clicking of the military boots behind him. He instantly knew who it was; he'd come to recognize those footsteps from a mile away.
"Get the fuck out of here, Hahnenfuss."
He saw long, flowing brown locks from the corner of his eyes, but he could not be bothered to actually look up and see her face.
"I've every fucking right to be here, you useless piece of shit."
"You're ruining my mood."
"As if you're ever anything but pissed."
Her voice invoked a much more violent kind of anger in him. He stood up, facing those beautifully cruel eyes he'd learned to hate. He wanted nothing more than to gouge them out, throw her to the floor, maybe even rip her heart out.
Anything to make her shut up.
"I said, get the fuck out of here."
Shiho narrowed her eyes. They glistened with hostility. She felt the same exact way about him, and that thought was oddly comforting.
"So you think you can order me around, Joule?"
"My day's already been ruined. I don't need your face making it even worse."
"Because seeing your face is the highlight of my day. You know, the door is that way if you need to go scurrying away in fear."
"In fear? Don't make me laugh, Hahnenfuss. Why should I be afraid of you?"
Shiho paused. Her expression suddenly became empty, and Yzak found himself staring at his reflection in her eyes.
"Because I remind you of yourself."
The world seemed to stop around him. He tried to retort –his defense mechanism was screaming at him to do something- but no sound came out of his throat.
"Don't worry, Joule. I'm scared of you too."
Her words were cold and unfeeling as a knife, and they left him paralyzed long after she'd disappeared from the cafeteria.