Arknights: Rekindling
Description: Kal'tsit knows the past is the past, but the Doctor is the living reminder that the past continues to exist in the present, will she learn to finally let go of the past, or will she embrace it? - Kal'tsit x Doctor short story.
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Commission by: Palik
Part 4: Unexpected Unfairness
Part 4: Unexpected Unfairness
Word about Rhodes Island travelling to Siesta for another vacation quickly spread through the Operators, however any excitement got culled down after an announcement where Warfarin was banned from leaving Rhodes Island for the duration of the vacation for some unnamed misguiding actions.
A simple announcement like that alone wasn't the sole reason the Operators held back from becoming a rowdy bunch. It was who the person who made the announcement and the tone she used which made the Operators remain relatively calm in the prospect of some well-deserved vacations.
Nobody wanted to take their chances of Kal'tsit cancelling their little trip, after all.
That did not stop the Operators from flooding certain departments in order to prepare themselves for the vacations ahead of them, especially since vacations were a once in a blue moon event in their line of work.
Six hours after the announcement was enough for several in-house stores of Rhodes Island to almost run out of beach apparels for the Operators, or so the report Kal'tsit had in her hands said.
Said feline researcher set down the clipboard with the report on her desk before interlacing her fingers and setting her elbows on her desk to stare at the apprehensive black-haired Vampire she had known for years.
"How does this concern me, exactly?"
"Well… I heard you weren't seen in any of the stores…"
"So?"
"So, I've brought you a little something I thought you would be needing." Closure smiled as she pulled from behind her a box with the logo of R.I logistics department.
Kal'tsit's face didn't change; however, for someone who knew her for a long time like Closure did, it was easy for the vampire to spot the tiny speck of curiousness sparkling in the feline irises.
So, instead of waiting for Kal'tsit to voice her curiousness, Closure set down the box on a corner of Kal'tsit's desk and patted the top of it as if it was a sleeping baby. "I made sure to take both of your tastes into consideration before bringing this to you."
Kal'tsit's feline ears twitched, but she kept her silence.
Closure waited for a moment longer but gave up on receiving a response with a light shrug of her shoulders. The dark-haired vampire skipped to the office's door and just when she turned the handle, "Oh, by the way… I heard some of the girls ask the employees about the Doctor's taste."
"What?"
"See ya!" Closure ran before Kal'tsit could press for an explanation.
Kal'tsit's ears twitched again, accompanied by her nose scrunching for a second. "I swear… Was this what it was like for you, Theresa?"
Operators under her command teasing her for having a relationship that was slightly beyond professional with the Doctor.
"Is this why you never bothered denying their claims?" Kal'tsit wondered out loud again before slumping in her chair. Her eyes came to rest on the box brought by her old acquaintance, curiosity sparkled in her eyes again and after a few seconds of contemplation, the box found its way into her lap.
It was light, with only a quiet clink of metal when she jostled it. Her nails, sharp in case she ever needed to become physical, easily cut through the tape holding together the box's top with the bottom.
"…"
Kal'tsit put the box back in the corner of her desk with a thousand yard stare.
'How were you never bothered by all of this, Theresa?"
- 0 - A: RK - 0 -
The message from Siesta arrived by the end of the day, bringing the good news the whole crew of Rhodes Island waited for. A jolly mood danced in the air even when the deliverer of the good news had been Kal'tsit using the intercom again to announce that a small group of Siesta's security force would be in charge of receiving the company and making sure they were aware of the new public safety laws and whatnot before they were free to do as they pleased.
Obviously, Kal'tsit's message went on longer with several warnings from her expecting all operators to keep their communication devices on and functioning at all times in case of an emergency and even more warnings of what she would do to any operator who purposefully went MIA during their short vacation.
Once Kal'tsit was done giving her fair share of warnings, she turned off the intercom and waited for almost an entire hour hidden inside her office for any overexcited operator to cool down before wandering the halls.
There was no specific destination in her mind which led to Kal'tsit seeing several Operators roaming around doing last minute preparations and actively avoided them. However, there were some that still stopped to chat and thank her in both direct and backhanded ways.
As usual, Kal'tsit deflected any gratitude towards the one who truly deserved it.
Yes, she was the one to accept the invitation to Siesta, but it had not been done solely from the goodness of her heart. Even she knew that the crew could only fight for so long without proper rest.
And the one deserving the most rest was definitely him.
Amiya may have interrupted their moment yesterday, but with the few words they exchanged, Kal'tsit understood that the Doctor was most definitely exhausted beyond relief and his mental fortitude decaying after conveying so many orders and creating so many plans upon plans.
Yes, Kal'tsit had most definitely not accepted Siesta's invitation for Rhodes Island crew.
So, she did not accept any gratitude towards her.
Her cold attitude only reinforced the crew's beliefs of Kal'tsit being a workaholic who never smiled except when in the presence of her mentee, and sometimes in the presence of the Doctor – not that anyone was willing to tell her of the later.
And speaking of the man, the myth, the legend himself – Kal'tsit's late-night wandering ended with her meeting him yet again in the kitchen of the cafeteria with a teapot hanging over his head, steaming water falling into where the lower section of his visor would be, and the sound of him gurgling said steaming water.
"…"
Kal'tsit's eyebrow twitched; her hand resting on the wall twitched too creating an echo of metal clinking on metal caused by her rings and made the Doctor pause his actions to half-turn to her.
"Oh." He set the teapot down, with what Kal'tsit knew was a sheepish expression under the dark covers of his hood. "Miss Kal'tsit…"
Kal'tsit crossed her arms, "What have I told you about doing that?"
"The entire night wouldn't be enough time to repeat what you've told me about doing this." He grabbed the open pack of noodles sitting in the counter, breaking the dry product into a smaller piece before shoving it into his mouth much to her annoyance.
Her eyebrows twitched again accompanied by her feline ears, "Do you wish to be restrained to the Landship just as Warfarin is?"
"Amiya wants to play on the beach tomorrow," He added through his munching of the dry noodles.
"…" Kal'tsit sighed and gave up (again) on trying to correct the Doctor. "Have you decided on the bodyguards, then?"
"Yes," He rubbed his gloves free of crumbs before grabbing the teapot again. "Miss Ceylon, Schwarz, Skadi, and Blaze."
'Two who know the landscape, a walking Catastrophe, and Blaze… Support, Sniper and two Guards.' Kal'tsit nodded appraisingly. "Is there anyone else?"
"Amiya requested for one more." He replied before gulping another unhealthy dose of steaming water.
Kal'tsit stomped towards him and snatched the teapot from his hands, ears folding dangerously. "And who might that be?"
"Amiya wishes to play together with us."
"…"
Unfair.
How unfair.
"…"
"…"
"I'll tell Amiya we had a breakthrough on the Oripathy research and you won't be able to atten-"
"I'll go."
"Oh," He studied her face, stoic as it was, "That… Are you sure?"
Kal'tsit raised an eyebrow, "Do you not wish for me to go?"
"No, no. Quite the opposite," He waved peacefully. "You accepted the invitation for my sake, but you also deserve this moment of rest."
Of course, he was already aware of her intentions, it wouldn't be him otherwise.
"I will go, if only for a while." Kal'tsit declared again, ignoring his words and attempts to grab the teapot from her hands. "Do you have your equipment for tomorrow ready then?"
"Not yet, I was busy advancing one of the projects for the days we'll not be working on it." His shoulders slumped when no attempt at snatching the teapot was successful. Dejected, the Doctor neatly preserved the remaining dry noodles in its plastic bag under Kal'tsit's watchful stare.
"That's still no reason to leave your equipment unprepared until last minute." Kal'tsit scolded him. "You should know better than anyone else how fragile that body of yours has become."
And she would know, better than anyone else too.
"Well, if my snack time hadn't been interrupted, I would be preparing it as we speak."
Kal'tsit eye twitched dangerously, "Oho, is that so? Perhaps, I should remind you why exactly it is that you need to prepare yourself so much, then?"
"… You wouldn't."
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't."
"… Amiya wants to play together with us tomorrow?"
"Not good enough."
- 0 - A: RK - 0 -
"Doctor! Hurry!" Amiya pulled on the Doctor's arm before letting go, leaving him to fend on his own with his now lost balance.
One of the Doctor's chosen bodyguards laughed as the man stumbled forward several times, and it was only thanks to that bodyguard's help of being in the way that the Doctor's face didn't meet the cold floor.
Kal'tsit's eyebrow twitched, for the tenth time that day, as Blaze helped the Doctor stand on his own feet after his face had landed on her scantily clad chest. Perhaps, Closure wasn't all that wrong about certain Operators going all out on their outfits for a day at the beach.
"You good Doc'?" Blaze patted the Doctor's shoulders and waited for his response.
Which came a bit delayed, "Yes. Thank you, Blaze."
His tone was as professional as ever, but Kal'tsit's trained eye spotted the awkwardness in his posture once Blaze finally let go of his shoulders with a grin and joggled to catch up to Amiya who was being guided by their other two bodyguards.
While it may be hard for most Terrans to imagine what laid beneath the mask of the Doctor, for Kal'tsit – his visage was almost as clear as day and while he was normally someone who never even bothered glancing once at the people around him…
Kal'tsit smacked the Doctor on the back of his head, making him splutter and turn his eyes away from the joggling dark-haired feline's bouncing attributes.
"Ah, should I cut her arm, Doctor?"
Emerald slits turned to the speaker, finding their other problematic bodyguard all but preparing to try and deal with Kal'tsit's manhandling of the Doctor.
"No Skadi." The Doctor rubbed the back of his head covered by his hood. "Also, please don't threaten Miss Kal'tsit again."
"Understood." The walking catastrophe dully turned away from Kal'tsit's twitching gaze, in her hands was a frozen treat that she returned to taking care of albeit at a slow pace.
To Kal'tsit, it said a lot about Skadi's current growth and rapport with the Doctor if Skadi was willing to try and harm her and while Kal'tsit was an old monster through and through, a fight between the two would level half of Siesta before either felt even so much as winded.
Not that Kal'tsit wouldn't ultimately win up the conflict, but she would not stoop so low as to fight solely for the Doctor. Conflict averted, they started walking again and rejoined the remaining members of their little group.
Their dynamics returned to the same ones as when they arrived, namely the lady Ceylon taking point and giving their group a tour of Siesta with enriched stories of every place they visited while her personal bodyguard, and now also personal bodyguard of the Doctor, Miss Schwarz walked half a step behind the lady and discouraged any opportunistic street-vendor from approaching their group.
Thus, Amiya was allowed to freely ask questions about whatever it was that Ceylon explained. All the while, the Doctor and Kal'tsit themselves merely followed and – in the case of the Doctor – treat Amiya, and the group, to whichever treat they fancied.
Treats which there was no shortage. For a city that would turn nomad soon, there still remained ample variety of street stalls attending to the tourist visiting the seaside city for the last time.
"Doctor! Look, they're selling ice cones over there." Amiya left Ceylon's side for a moment again to pull on the Doctor's arm, though this time she did not let go and dragged him towards the side of the street; the group silently followed after them, some with exasperated smiles while others kept blank faces.
Such stoic features did not last long on the group's face, as Amiya had chosen one of those ice cones vendors that played with their client when placing the cone on their client's hand and then quickly switching the ice cream scoop into another hidden cone before redoing the process again at the expense of the client.
The Doctor laughed lightly at Amiya's exasperation from not managing to grasp the correct cone, all the while Skadi watched from behind the two with her mouth slightly open and her own frozen treat dissolving into her hands.
"Lady, doesn't this bring back some memories?" Schwarz's sudden quip made Kal'tsit silently snort from how red the quip made Ceylon's face turn.
"That! That was a long time ago!" Ceylon huffed and crossed her arms, "I would not fall so low as to play with vendors like these again."
"Oh~ that sounds like a story I'd like to hear." Blaze poked Schwarz with her elbow on the side and egged her to continue, much to the Liberi's chagrin.
"You see, when the Lady was still young, she would often escape the lord's mansion and come play on the streets." Schwarz smiled fondly, regardless of Ceylon crouching to cover herself as much as possible as her embarrassing past was revealed. "Many times, would I find the lady playing with vendors such as these, and the most vivid memory I have is of her grasping the scoop itself and chanting victory while the crowd celebrated."
Blaze cracked up and guffawed and Ceylon squeaked out an angry 'noooo' as Schwarz started telling yet another embarrassing story of her time when she took care of a younger Ceylon.
Kal'tsit merely listened and watched, content with just lending her presence and responding when directly asked something… or when the Doctor's eyes strayed into dangerous territory. Sure, he was a professional man with a twisted personality, but he was still a man first and foremost. So, it was no surprise that even for someone like him for his eyes to stray towards their bodyguards' beach outfits.
Where Amiya and Ceylon had chosen to wear rather reserved, stylish if childish beachwear such as shorts, mantle apparels, thin vests, and beach-shirts – the same couldn't be said for the other three females.
Blaze had chosen to wear baggy pants that rode low to allow her tail to swish freely and a flaming top that sooner than later would have an accidental wardrobe malfunction due to how tight she had tied it, then there was Skadi's who thankfully chose to wear similar clothes to Amiya and Ceylon but the difference was that wherein Amiya, shorts and a see through shirt made her look childish, on Skadi it made the walking catastrophe look alluringly innocent with a hint of danger.
The less Kal'tsit said about miss Schwarz apparel, the better. Even the gray-haired feline's regular equipment as an elite operator covered more than the black two-piece bikini she strutted about.
It was mainly thanks to Schwarz chosen beachwear that Kal'tsit didn't feel as conflicted as she normally should for going along with Closure's chosen outfit for her. Not that anyone – the Doctor included – would see said outfit, since Kal'tsit had put on a dress over it, but the fact that she had worn it remained.
"Yes! I finally got it Doctor." Amiya cheered; snapping Kal'tsit out of her glare at the gray-haired feline and she turned to see Amiya happily waving about her ice cream cone while the vendor and the Doctor laughed about.
- 0 - A: RK - 0 -
Covered by the shade of a parasol and sitting comfortably on plastic beach lounge chairs, Kal'tsit and the Doctor watched their bodyguards and Amiya play volleyball in front of them. Between the two were two wooden tabourets where they had placed the groups' belongings and drinks and next to that was a cooler with more snacks and drinks.
Snacks that the Doctor carefully munched on.
"How is your body holding up?" Kal'tsit suddenly asked, her eyes never leaving Amiya laughing while playing around.
"So far, so good." The Doctor replied and set down the dry snacks to pull back slightly one cuff of his protective gears and reveal the pale skin of his wrist, "When did you have time to make gears such as these? Their quality far exceeds that of my previous ones."
Much like his usual protective gears – everything was of dark and cold colors but unlike his usual stuff, the threads were thinner and allowed for his skin to breathe and not turn into a walking sauna under the sun yet somehow still protect his frail self from the harsh environment natural hazards.
"As they should, I crafted those with you doing missions in the direst of conditions in mind." Kal'tsit replied with a slight bite to her tone.
"I'm not certain whether that's comforting or disconcerting to hear."
"Good." Kal'tsit hummed and sipped from the cocktail the Doctor had bought for her. "You did bring the other set for nightfall, did you not?"
"Yes, it's in the bag… Again, when did you even have time to make these?"
The slurping of the cocktail was his response.
"… Right, thank you."
"You're welcome."
…
"Also, I would suggest you turn your gaze away lest you wish for this straw to test the endurance of the visor you're wearing."
"Duly noted."
"Doctor! Miss Kal'tsit, aren't you going to play?" Amiya called for them from the volleyball court, ball in hand and Skadi laying flat on her back behind her with an imprint of said ball on her face. "We're… down one player!"
…
Unfair.
How unfair.
"I can go and play for five minutes at best, that should be eno-"
"I'll go." Kal'tsit placed down her empty drink on the tabouret before standing up under the Doctor's surprise stare. "What? You don't want me to go?"
"No, no." The Doctor peacefully waved his wands "I just thought you…" his voice fell off when Kal'tsit took off her dress and revealed what Closure chose for her.
"What? Cat got your tongue?"
- 0 - Part 4 End - 0 -
Author's Note: There's one update remaining for this story titled: The Ghost of the Future, planned to deliver it before this week's over. As for why it's taken my so long to update most stories, here's a for the last 2 months:
- Another one of my cats died from an STD (I had 8 at the start of this year, and I'm down to 4 cats– Unlucky year, I know.).
- A family member left me some important legal stuff to take care for her while she's out of the country, so I had an entire month dealing with court stuff for her.
- Got sick from overworking my body (around nov25'ish) and (probably) had covid [one test came negative, another came positive so mixed results].
- Had to put down my oldest dog (had 2, now 1) because she was already presenting too many health problems and I'd rather not have her suffer with more meds, buried her while sick.
- I'm updating today, quite literally, on the 2nd day I've woken up without fever with just minor headache and clogged nose from being bedridden with fever these past few days.
So yeah, there's a ton of delayed stuff I'm finally getting to update. Here's hoping I make a full recovery and I don't have to deal with more tiresome/stressful situations until next year… which isn't saying a lot since there's so few days left, lol.
- Jas / Shiiva