Story 05 / Collection 3: Love shenanigans

Kill this habit.

Arnold heard from Kira—technically, he overheard him talking to his friends—that Natarle had her fingers bandaged up.

She was fine when they were together this morning before he left for his shift. Whatever happened in the last few hours had him a little worried; how bad could it have been that she would need to have a few fingers bandaged?

He hurriedly picked up two bottles of water from the mess hall, and went directly back to her room.

She was working on her computer when he got there, eyebrows scrunched together as she busily typed away with her bandaged fingers.

"Natarle," he called for her attention while dropping off the bottles on her desk. When she paused and looked up at him, he reached down for her left hand and gently brought it up to his eye level. The thumb, index, and middle fingers each had a bandage wrapped tightly around them; they did not seem to be severely injured, but the extension of the damage still had Arnold quite concerned. "What happened?"

She pulled her hand away abruptly, shame written all over her face. "It- it's nothing! It's not serious, nothing to worry about!"

Arnold was glad to hear that, but her reaction made him a bit suspicious. From the way she was avoiding his stare, he had a feeling she did not say it to assuage his worry; rather, she seemed to want him to drop this conversation altogether. His gut feeling told him she was hiding something.

"How did you get hurt?"

"...It's just- a few scratches…"

He continued to stare at her with intention, and she still would not look at him. Deceit had never been her strong suit, and he just had his suspicions confirmed.

He crossed his arms and switched to a more serious tone. "Natarle, be honest with me."

His choice of words obviously had an impact on her, and she shrunk a little into her seat with discomfort. He doubted she would want him to think her a liar in the first place.

"I was sewing…"

"Sewing? What were you sewing?"

"Just a button…"

"How did you hurt your fingers like this if it's just one button?"

"The fabric was thick! It was difficult to get the needle through." She let a short silence hang in the air before quietly mumbling, "It's my first time doing needlework… it's harder than I thought."

Somehow by instinct Arnold connected the mention of thick fabric with what Tolle told him earlier about Mwu's uniform jacket going missing. "Does this have anything to do with Lieutenant Fllaga's missing uniform?"

She looked at him first a little wide-eyed, then realising the fuss she might have caused, she stammered, "I- I've already put it back!"

So it was her.

Arnold let out a sigh, trying to ignore the queasy feeling that started seeping in with her admission. "He's a fully capable adult, why did you have to do it for him?"

"It just irks me to see him so sloppy with the uniform! It's not like he was going to do it himself, and I can't get someone else to do it for him."

The more Natarle tried to justify her actions, the more it bothered Arnold, and he felt the beginnings of the flames of jealousy slowly igniting within him. "You said it's your first time mending things. Who taught you?"

"I asked Haw to teach me."

"Why didn't you ask me? I could have taught you too."

Natarle looked at him silently for a moment as she processed her thoughts—and it came up empty. "It… never crossed my mind."

Arnold could feel a vein pop in his forehead. How dare she even admit that she never thought of asking for his help. "Natarle…" he growled in a low voice.

"I didn't know you knew how to do needlework! And even if I did, I shouldn't trouble you with it! I decided to do this, not you. It's not your responsibility."

Oh, so it was fine to trouble Miriallia with it then?

The sudden jerk of her shoulders hinted that she might have realised how wobbly her logic was, and her anxious gaze kept darting between his face and the space behind him, much like a hapless kitten getting backed into a corner, assessing the possibility of escape.

He never expected he would be able to stay angry at her for long anyway, but even so, watching her fret had his ire quickly faltering. He ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He then leaned onto the desk, and looked solemnly into her eyes. "Natarle, this habit of yours; you need to stop it."

"What habit?" She kept her head down when she asked, looking up at him through her long lashes—she seemed apologetic, but he doubted she had grasped the exact reasons yet, and was only this way because she knew she had upset him.

And just like that, all his irritation had dissipated. He reached to hold her bandaged hand in his own once again, and said in a much softer voice, "Trying to do everything yourself."

She raised her head to face him with earnestness in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"One, it's not your responsibility. I know you're a perfectionist, but you can't be picking up after every single person on this ship. You've got enough on your plate, and sometimes you need to let it go."

She did not seem convinced, and was clearly trying her best to keep her mouth shut.

Arnold studied her for a few seconds, making sure—despite her urge to debate him—she was still listening. "Two, if you wanted to do it, you could've asked for my help. Before going to anyone else."

She did not hold back this time. "I didn't want to bother you with something so trivial! You've got a lot to do too, you should be taking a rest whenever you have the chance."

"That's not the point," he said, letting out a sigh of defeat. He really did not want to say it in such plain words, but she was not going to understand if he did not. "You specifically learnt how to sew from someone that was not me, and even hurt your fingers in the process, just to mend clothes for a grown man, which that man is also not me."

She seemed to finally have an idea what he was implying. "When you put it like that-"

"Is there another way to put it? You did all that for the lieutenant, and I knew nothing about it."

"I'll tell you about it next time."

Arnold wanted to hit his head on something hard. It seemed this woman was just incapable of grasping the concept of jealousy unless he said the exact words. Fine, he would leave that as a lesson for another time and settle for something else for now.

"You will promise me that you won't go taking up responsibilities that are not your duty—unless they impact the running of this ship, I will concede that—and you won't hide things from me. Deal?"

She nodded, and finally relaxed when she saw a smile slip though Arnold's demeanour.

He was leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the top of her head when she asked as though she finally noticed something. "Why are you so hung up on the uniform being the lieutenant's?"

Perfect timing to ask the worst question possible. Just perfect.

Arnold had acknowledged to himself a very long time ago that he just seemed particularly sensitive—and maybe borderline obsessive—whenever it came to anything related to Natarle. But what she did not know was that she, along with the lieutenant and the captain of their ship, had recently become the subjects of some rather ridiculous stories pertaining to a love triangle.

Arnold of course knew—from a first-person standpoint—that they were untrue. Natarle respected the lieutenant, but that was it. He at first wrote it off as a bored crew just dreaming up some sort of soap opera to kill time, but the chatter started to get the better of him, especially when he could not just go out there and broadcast the truth. He was working on shutting down the gossip, and he certainly did not need her to fan the flames and give it life again.

"…There are rumours saying you have a crush on the lieutenant."

She looked absolutely abhorred at his suggestion, like it was an insult to her character.

"But you know it's not true!"

"Natarle, knowing is one thing. It doesn't mean I'm not worried-"

"Arnold!"

This time, it was her turn to be annoyed.

Side story: The genius

The good thing about having given Natarle a lecture on the importance of honesty in a relationship and letting her know of his skills outside of work was that it made her very curious about the finer details of him.

She spent the next few days asking the most random questions about his skillset and interests.

"Do you know how to cook?"

"Do you know how to bake, like cakes and cookies and all that?"

"What sports do you like?"

"Do you know how to do gardening work?"

"What other house chores do you know? I know how to do laundry, but I'm not very good at other things."

"You enjoy reading, right? What's your favourite book?"

"Do you play any instruments?"

She had a particular fascination with basic household skills, and it was becoming very obvious that she was rather lacking in that department, having come from a privileged background.

And since his answer to most of her questions was 'yes', he was apparently a genius now.

[Prompt title 5: 癖 / Habit]

Author's note

This one is borrowed from the Gameboy Advance game 'Tomo to Kimi to Koko de' where Natarle fixes up Mwu's uniform. The game makes Neumann x Natarle semi-official as well, that's why I'm paying homage to it (even though I'm not referring to that specific storyline).

Notes (or more like headcanons / rants this time) on Twitter/X.