"Eh what!?" Atsuko yelled as she woke up suddenly, a response to the thunderous banging from outside against the door, her heart beating fearfully against her chest. 'What if it's Vaas?" She thought anxiously, she laid still for a few minutes her eyes never leaving the door, anticipating any movement from outside, red marks appearing on her hands where she instictively dug her fingernails deep into, her knuckles whitening as her muscles clenched with terror. After enough round of banging she decided she couldn't wait any longer: clearly this person was not going to give in and go soon, and the longer they stood there making a racket, the more chance they'd wake Maako and Marama, who definitely needed the rest. With trepidation looming deep within her heart she stood up and tiptoed her way over to the doorway; she didn't want the mysterious visitor knowing she was there if she decided to back out at the last moment. Taking a deep breath she quickly whipped open the door on the count of three.
Outside, to Atsuko's surprise was Kauri. Leaning against the door frame, a deep aroma of alcohol hanging on him. "Kauri, what are you doing here?" Atsuko whispered confused.
His eyebrows were furrowed deeply and a frown deep on his face suggesting their little argument from earlier hadn't been forgotten; she suspected that was also the reason for the stench of alcohol.
Instead of replying he roughly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her outside the house. Atsuko's face contorted with confusion and worry, 'surely he can't be so angry he's kidnapping me… can he?' Atsuko wondered as she stumbled outside. She made sure to close the door before being pulled away by the angry Kauri, the cold bitter wind hit her hard as she travelled through the freezing cold in a pair of borrowed pyjamas, she was lead over to a make shift shooting range, with some corrugated metal sheets balanced precariously to make a shelter, and some targets stuck onto the end. He picked up some kind of weapon, if Atsuko had to guess she'd say an AK-47, but she couldn't be certain.
"… What's going on?" She murmured horrified, but instead of aiming the gun at her, he simply passed it over, her arms buckled slightly under the unexpected weight as she awkwardly held it, not entirely sure she knew what she was doing.
"I think your argument was pig-headed and arrogant, but I can't deny you have a point. If we're going to win this war we need to be more active and stop letting the pirates fuck with us. But that means you have to shut up and listen to me." Kauri growled annoyed. It was remarkable how quickly Kauri had turned from kind and friendly, to someone who seemed to hate her; could she really have done so much to justify his apparent animosity towards her?
"Thank you Kauri." She replied seriously, as he helped her hold the assault rifle in the correct way, he taught her how to use the sights, and change the magazine, and when she was ready, pulled the trigger, the bullet exploded from the barrel causing her to stumble backwards slightly from the shock of the recoil, making a mercifully quiet noise due to the suppressor which Kauri had attached, the first bullet flew straight through the side of the neck of the sketch of the man on the target.
She grinned triumphantly at Kauri who stared back harshly.
"I didn't bring you here to do one shot, if you want to get enough practise you can't afford to waste time on being smug."
The smile slowly fell from Atsuko's face as he berated her, she turned back to the target and kept shooting, as carefully but quickly as she could, successfully changing the magazine as she did, hours and hours passed, Atsuko repeating the process until the targets became so shot up they were unusable, then Kauri would switch them and watch her as she tried again. Until the sky changed from the impenetrable darkness of midnight, to the gorgeous fiery hues of pink and oranges spreading across the sky like an explosion.
"It's beautiful." Atsuko muttered in amazement as she stared up at the sky, staring at the sunrise poking its head up from the horizon. "I've never seen anything so beautiful." She grinned, wishing she hadn't had her camera stolen from her by the pirates so she could capture it forever.
She glanced over at Kauri and saw he had the same stubborn expression that seemed stuck on his face since she mentioned Amanaki outpost.
"You really hate me now don't you?" she murmured bitterly as she turned away and took aim at the target once more.
"What makes you say that?" He replied, his voice still not softening.
"You went from being one of the nicest people to someone who won't even smile near me."
He sighed deeply, dragging his fingers through his hair to move his fringe out his eyes. His face filling with conflict as he seemed uncertain how to reply.
"It's not because I hate you, it's because I can't predict you, I like you, and I like Marama and I don't want to see either of you get hurt." He muttered shyly, it suddenly made sense to Atsuko; he just wasn't someone who liked to show his insecurities, something she could easily understand. She placed the gun down on the ground and walked over to him, feeling a deep pang of affection and sympathy, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder and squeezing it gently.
"I should never have come here should I?" She looked down at the ground as emotions welled up inside her and she reached realisations; for her to guarantee Marama's safety would mean sacrificing herself, as long as tension between her and Vaas continued, she and Maako were still in danger.
"Do you think if I was to give myself up to Vaas he'd leave you all alone?"
His head quickly whipped up to stare at her seriously.
"I don't care, you're not doing that. Marama would kill me if she found out I let you do that, and you know, she's scary." Atsuko nodded in agreement; for a moment it had seemed as if even Vaas was scared of her during the altercation with him earlier.
"I feel like such an idiot." Atsuko admitted, her head bowed in shame.
"You are an idiot." He replied bluntly. "And you have no idea how much I wish I could just leave you for dead still, but… I guess we're friends now." With that he roughly grabbed Atsuko's shoulder; she could only assume that was supposed to be a sign of affection so she smiled in response.
"Atsuko!" A voice yelled from about 100 metres away.
"Over here." Atsuko yelled back, and quick footsteps approach noisily.
"Jesus Christ girl, you really had me worried when I woke up and you weren't there." Marama panted as she approached them. "What you doing with that?" She asked gesturing at the gun curiously.
"Kauri's going to teach me to fight, and then we're going to kill Vaas." Atsuko announced, clenching her fists and grinning determinedly. Marama chuckled in response.
"As cute as that is, you're never going to get to him." She mocked, wrapping her arm around Atsuko's neck in a friendly embrace.
"And if we do, he's mine; I've had the most history with him."
"Well you've had a lot of practise with stationary targets; how do you fancy going for something a little more exciting?"