Story 22 / Collection 4: Be by my side


If you're mine, why can't I have you?

"Valiants, fire!" Natarle's orders resonated loudly throughout the bridge.

She observed the results of her firing orders on the screen, then turned to the CIC. "Lieutenant Serrano, what is the status of our mobile armours?"

"They're still engaging the enemy's mobile suits," replied her CIC officer Lieutenant Angelica Serrano.

"Keep it up! Don't let the mobile suits go and back up the Archangel."

They were nearing the end of the battle now. Their ship, the Seraphim, had suffered a few hard blows, but the Archangel was in a much worse shape—both their Gottfrieds had been taken out, and substantial damage had been done to the ship throughout.

Angelica did a quick review of the current status; by the looks of it, they just needed to land one more critical hit on their opponent, and the dust would be settled.

"Aim the Lohengrin directly ahead," she heard her captain order, "fire!"

o-o-o

"You're still as good as ever, Natarle," Murrue smiled with a look that Angelica would define as a composition of admiration and self-pity, and she could not help but feel proud of her own beloved captain.

Her captain responded with grace, "You did well too, Captain Ramius."

"I know it's just a simulation, but we would have been decimated if it were the real thing."

"The Archangel still put up a very strong fight. You were much more persistent than I expected."

The brunette gave another smile, this time a bright, wide one that made evident she knew Natarle was indulging her, but was genuinely pleased nonetheless. Behind her, the Archangel crew sported varying degrees of smiles at their ex-crewmate's acknowledgement of their efforts.

Angelica was not so sure. She admitted she was perhaps just a tad bit biased, but by her assessment, her dear captain had wiped the floor clean with the Archangel.

It had been three months since Natarle was given captaincy of Orb's newly commissioned Seraphim, on which Angelica herself had been assigned the post as her executive officer. Their ship was the third of the Archangel-class—this one was developed solely by Orb and equipped with substantial modifications and upgrades while also housing more of Orb's new mobile armour prototypes than mobile suits, giving it considerably different capabilities to its predecessors.

With intel and first-hand experience of both ships and their crews, Natarle did have a significant advantage over Murrue in this training exercise, but it was far from a deciding factor.

The white ship's captain's background as a technical officer was the most apparent at times like this; her pool of moves was of two extremes—either entirely predictable, or unconventional and reckless. She had a preference for high-risk-high-reward moves that occasionally caught them by surprise, but she also lacked versatility and had a tendency to not plan for contingencies, and once Natarle retaliated with measures that neutralised the threat, she was left with little to follow up on. All in all, her offence game was strong, but her strategies were just not well-rounded enough. She was not by any means a weak captain, but when it came to battlefield tactics, she simply was no match for Natarle who knew her opponent's shortcomings, was always thinking a few steps ahead, and had impeccable timing for everything. Their saving grace was the manoeuvring of the ship.

Angelica knew about the relationship between her captain and the Archangel's helmsman; it was one of the reasons why Natarle was never able to return to the Archangel after the second war, though with her talents, she would be wasted as just a second-in-command. But it was clear that the man and her captain knew each other too well—including their habits in the battlefield—and watching her tactics play out against his evasions was like watching a game of chess. And for someone piloting a goddamn gigantic space warship, he had crazy reflexes that got the Archangel moving as though the laws of physics were a mere concept. He was really the reason for every attack that did not land.

Warship helmsmen usually did not get a lot of spotlight, but after seeing his skills firsthand, she understood why he was considered a legendary figure despite his efforts to keep a low profile.

Angelica thought it was only fair to give credit where credit was due. "I think Lieutenant Neumann's skills are very impressive. I feel privileged to have finally seen it in action in person."

She caught her captain stealing a quick glance at the blue-haired helmsman, trying to suppress the smile making its way to her lips. The man was comparatively less discreet, and blatantly regarded Natarle before turning his attention to herself. "Thank you, Lieutenant Serrano. You've done well too. I hear nothing but good things about you from your captain all the time."

Ah, there it was; they had crossed paths a few times before but this was the first Angelica had witnessed it—the subtle show off and mark of territory. So the rumours were true, he was the possessive type of boyfriend, and it seemed one's gender did not matter in his evaluation of whether you were perceived a potential threat.

She smiled unreservedly, a show that she was very grateful to be received positively by him, hoping this will disarm him and not be put on his watchlist. She secretly pondered if he knew about her obsession with her immensely capable, fascinatingly lovable, one-of-a-kind and absolute treasure of a captain.

o-o-o

Their mobile armour pilot Ensign Lukas Fairfax was waiting for Natarle and Angelica at the end of the corridor for their return, waving at them with a boyish smile on his face.

"Looks like that went splendidly," he declared cheerily as soon as they approached.

"There's still plenty of room for improvement," Natarle started with a flat tone, clearly not wanting them to get hung up on the victory, but wrapped it up with a well-deserved praise. "That being said, you all indeed did very well."

"Those moves their helmsman pulled though," Lukas mused as he followed half a step behind them while they continued their way, "that was insane."

Angelica nodded in complete agreement. "True, I've never seen anything like that. I heard he was not even the first helmsman of the Archangel in the beginning?"

She looked at Natarle, and glimpsed the hint of a smile she wore as she reminiscenced the past. "Yes, but he was the only surviving helmsman after the attack on Heliopolis. He's exceptionally talented, and he practically picked it up in no time."

"That's amazing," she could not help but be thoroughly impressed. "And to think of him becoming this good at it in just four years."

On Natarle's other side, Lukas crossed his arms in front of him, looking far into the distance as though having an epiphany. "Thank goodness he pilots warships and not MAs; I wouldn't want to face off against him in next month's training exercises. Seriously, how does a space warship move like that?"

Natarle's lips tightened this time, less enthusiastic about the question he asked. "He's got incredibly good instincts, and Captain Ramius lets him make his own decisions most of the time, so that's a lot of valuable time saved from having to communicate every command. You can only achieve that if there's enough trust and understanding between the captain and the helmsman."

"That means they have a really strong bond, right? Must feel awful then, that he's not your helmsman. I'd be so jealous if I were you."

Angelica deadpanned. Stupid Lukas saying stupid things that hit hard where it hurt most. It was plain as day already, so there really was no need to put it into actual words.

Her poor captain—the man was hers, but she could never have him.

Unfortunately, when it came to social finesse, Lukas' stupidity knew no bounds. He asked outright, "If you get to choose between outright breaking the rules but being able to bring him onto the Seraphim, versus the status quo, what would you choose?"

Natarle sighed, and there was a tinge of bitter resentment in it that she tried to hide. "There's no way this could happen, but of course I would want him on my ship."

Angelica was already surprised at Lukas' question, yet even more so that her captain had decided to entertain him with an answer at all. She was just recovering from the shock, when Lukas spoke again.

"And in your bed too, I presume."

"Ensign Lukas Fairfax!" Natarle hollered at him, her face a deep scarlet colour.

Lukas stared back at her with enlarged eyes, obviously only having just realised what slipped out of his mouth and its potential ramifications. He really needed a brain-mouth filter installed.

He immediately straightened himself into a salute, offering a solution before the choice was taken out of his hands. "Ensign Lukas Fairfax, now heading off for twenty laps as punishment for insubordination!"


Side story: The revenge

Arnold was just a few steps away from Natarle's office when he heard the relaxed conversation coming through the gap of the open door.

As he reached it, he thought to knock until he saw inside. Natarle, Angelica, and Lukas were sitting on the sofas in front of her desk, seemingly in friendly discussion that required demonstration with their arms. Lukas was gesturing at Angelica's left upper arm, and Natarle was looking at it intently while processing the information he was speaking.

Arnold was curious—and even somewhat suspicious—at this specific combination of people.

Angelica and Lukas have been Natarle's closest subordinates since she had been given command of the Seraphim, and her day-to-day interactions with them would always pop up in conversations at home. It was both a blessing and a curse; this was as good as it would get for Arnold to hear about Natarle's work, given they would never again serve on the same ship, yet it was at the same a depressing reminder to him that his place was no longer by her side.

'Let it go,' he would always remind himself. 'That's how the world works.'

But it was just so difficult, having to pretend that he was not jealous at all, while the truth was sometimes when he saw Angelica and Lukas with Natarle—clearly enjoying each other's company—all he wanted to do was punch them two in their clueless, happy faces.

That being said, he was sure his wariness of these two crew members stemmed from more than just his own jealousy.

Professionally, they were very capable if not a little green, though nonetheless provided great support to Natarle. It was also evident that they, along with the rest of her crew, had deep trust and respect for her. But their personalities were another story.

Angelica was Natarle's competent, devoted, and sometimes impish right-hand who had warmed to her in an unexpectedly short time after the first introduction. That was good, but the more Arnold observed, the more he felt like this young woman was developing an unhealthy fascination towards Natarle—at times less like an aide and more like a dedicated fan club member.

On the other hand, Lukas was a rising talent that was promising and just in need of more field experience. And yet, his biggest problem was that he simply could not stay out of trouble even if he tried, and that was when he was not actively seeking it. He was much worse in the beginning, but got whipped into shape by Natarle one month in.

And when you put the two together, they spelt the occasional headache for Natarle.

If Lukas enjoyed getting into trouble, Angelica enjoyed watching him get into trouble, especially when she would be the ultimate beneficiary of anything relating to Natarle. She surely had no qualms about actively steering Lukas into tight spots just for her own amusement.

That was why Arnold decided he would rather risk Natarle's displeasure than to knock and warn them of his presence, which would render him unable to get closer and hear what they were up to. It was not like he was sneaking in anyway; the door was open, and sooner or later they would notice him approaching.

Still, he kept his footsteps on the carpet as light as possible.

Natarle was sitting with her back facing him, whereas Lukas and Angelica were sitting opposite her. Lukas had now shifted his attention to Natarle, reaching far forward for her hand, and his view towards the door was blocked. Angelica, however, seemed more alert than the other two, and from the way her head moved ever so slightly towards Arnold's direction, he suspected that she was aware of his presence and pretended to not know.

That sly little thing.

It seemed like Lukas was trying to explain to Natarle something about human anatomy. Without any forewarning except a "Here, let me show you," he reached for her upper arm, pressing into the inner side of it just inches away from her underarm.

The sudden attack on such a sensitive body part drew a yelp out of her, and everyone in the room froze while Natarle herself covered her mouth with her hands.

It was a noise Arnold alone was familiar with, because it was only ever heard in their bedroom.

Angelica was wide eyed, and fighting hard to suppress her giggles, but clearly savouring the moment. And by the looks of it, she was also gleefully expectant towards how this would play out, being the one to address Arnold and alert the rest of his presence.

"Lieutenant Neumann, you must be here for the captain."

Both Natarle and Lukas turned around towards him, horrified looks appearing on their faces—hers bright red while his was white as a sheet—as soon as they saw his expression.

"L- Lieutenant-" Lukas stumbled to get his words out, "lo- looks like your day didn't go so well."

It had actually been a perfect day until a minute ago, but right now he was downright furious and definitely not in the mood to make the effort in keeping his poker face on.

"Thank you for your concern; I'm fine. The day is coming to an end anyway, I suppose it can't get any worse from this point onwards," he replied with sarcasm filling every single syllable, "Captain, shall we go?"

For a moment it looked like Natarle was hesitating with the tiniest tinge of terror in her eyes. Arnold was not sure if he should laugh or cry—had she ever been scared of him?

He stared at her once again with more insistence, and she started like a panic-struck kitten before hurrying off to get her things. As Arnold watched her, he heard Angelica say to Lukas in a low voice, "Good luck getting out of this one alive."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Lukas had been on guard for a good number of days now, anticipating that something was going to happen to him as retribution for his misstep in his captain's office, yet still waiting for it to materialise.

As he and his team of mobile armour pilots followed their captain and XO as they headed for their mock battle training sessions, he wondered if it was possible that maybe he lucked out and the lieutenant had decided to let it go, because maybe his captain put in a good word for him.

When they arrived at their destination, he saw the officer in charge, Captain Mwu La Fllaga, was there with his team of pilots, along with a certain blue-haired officer dressed in a pilot suit.

"Lieutenant Neumann!" Natarle was just as surprised as the rest of them. "Why are you here?"

Lukas sighed—he knew karma when he saw it—and comforted himself with a mutter, "Well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions."

He watched Arnold take a quick glance at Natarle but uncharacteristically ignored the question she directed at him, and headed straight for himself. "I'll be your opponent today."

Lukas kept his mouth shut as he forced himself to nod in response.

"Also, two hundred push ups as penalty for whoever loses."

A pathetic laugh escaped Lukas. "Hahaha… No?"

"It wasn't a question, ensign."

From what Lukas heard, Arnold was not one to pull rank unless he had to. He turned towards his captain with a plea for help.

Lukas wondered if his eyes were playing a trick on him, but he swore she squirmed a little at his expectant gaze, before finally opening her mouth to ask, "Isn't it a little excessive?"

The authoritativeness in her usual voice was completely absent. Lukas felt betrayed.

"I'm just motivating him to do his best, Captain Badgiruel. Consequences have to have enough weight for one to understand the severity of his own actions."

Lukas let out a sad whimper, knowing there was no escaping this.

o-o-o

As they watched the dogfight unfold between the two mobile armours, they could not help but marvel at how a warship helmsman could go toe-to-toe with a trained mobile armour pilot, however inexperienced the younger soldier may be.

Mwu was thoroughly enjoying this. When Arnold had come to him asking for a favour—something he never imagined—he knew he had to see this through. It was superbly satisfying to watch, considering it was Mwu who made Arnold try piloting a mobile armour in the very beginning.

The first time Mwu shoved Arnold into one of those machines was when they just started to settle down in Orb after the first war. It was a bet between the Archangel crew members on whether Arnold, with his almost unnatural natural talents at the wheel, was able to handle a mobile armour. To say they were all impressed was an understatement. After that, Mwu just took any and every opportunity that presented itself to get Arnold back into one.

When Natarle came to Orb, Mwu tried to make Arnold swear that he would never let her know about this, but Arnold only agreed he would not mention it unprompted; if Natarle ever found out by herself, Mwu would have to shoulder all the blame on his own.

Mwu stole a glance at Natarle next to him; thankfully she seemed intrigued, and her attention was completely fixated on the fight between the two pilots that she did not have time to start contemplating on the details.

That was until Angelica started speaking.

"Are you sure the lieutenant isn't a trained MA pilot? It is not possible this is his first time in an MA. Or is he a coordinator? Is he a coordinator?"

Natarle was speechless at the string of questions Angelica fired her way, and instead turned to Mwu, demanding answers with a piercing glare that felt like it was going to drill holes into the back of his head.

He was reminded of their days on the Archangel and desperately wanted to find cover and hide.

"This wasn't my idea! He's the one who asked to borrow our MAs for training!"

"As talented as he is, it's not possible to get to this level of skill if he hasn't done it before!"

"It- it's… indeed not his first time getting into an MA," he averted his gaze, looking to the furthest he could see to the side—anywhere, really, to avoid direct contact with Natarle's wrathful stare.

"How many times, since when, and how did that happen?"

By the tone of her voice and how intently she was glowering at him, Mwu knew there was no possibility this would play out into a scenario where Natarle would let him wriggle his way out of answering.

"It was just a bet in the beginning, but he was good so we started asking him to occasionally help with training… and test pilot the MA prototypes. I mean, it was just, maybe, like, five or six times…"

Her purple eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Or seven… or eight… I- I can't remember!" Mwu cursed to himself; it was definitely more than ten times, possibly nearing twenty, and that was not counting all the practice Arnold had in the last two weeks or so. Mwu knew he could not let her keep digging deeper, otherwise whatever she dug would end up becoming his grave, so he decided to switch tactics and go on the offensive. "I mean, why are you surprised anyway? He moves battleships like they're MAs, and you never thought about what he could do with an actual MA?"

Natarle bit her lip and looked away, and her wavering expression told him she genuinely had not considered this. Mwu felt he won this round.

"He's a natural at this, even I couldn't believe it the first time he flew one," he offered as consolation. "If he ever wanted to become a MA pilot, he's more than welcome."

"That's not happening," Natarle's grouchy response was instant as though a reflexive reaction. Mwu did not dare to say more.

As their conversation started to die down, Natarle noticed that there were more people present than before, and everyone's attention was focused on the match between the two mobile armours.

"Why are they all here?"

"To watch the two of them, of course." Mwu replied bluntly, with a touch of surprise that Natarle was not aware of the reasons. "Well, Arnold getting into a MA is enough to draw in a crowd like this, but there's also Lukas. Seriously, the guys love him."

Natarle queried sceptically, "He's popular?"

Mwu grinned. "He's free entertainment."

Angelica let out a chuckle next to Natarle, who now wore the look of someone who was coming down with a headache.

They watched as the two mobile armours both made a move to take the other down, and the showdown ended with one of them clearly having cornered the other into a position where it would have been a clean victory had they been in a real battlefield.

The sudden loud cheer affirmed to them that the match indeed was over, and Arnold had emerged victorious.

The look on Natarle's face was a complex combination of pride and discomfort. Mwu wondered if it made her headache better.

"Gosh he's really good," he repeated his sentiments. "Maybe I should put in a request to-"

"Nobody will be putting in any requests for anything!"


[Prompt title 17: 嫉妬 / Jealousy]

Author's note

This is where I say: I'm no good with technical stuff so if there are any glaring mistakes, please just pretend it makes sense.

I know this chapter is a little crazy but it's the one I had the most fun with (out of all 25 chapters, yes they're all done) so… *shrugs*. And in case it wasn't obvious enough, Angelica and Lukas are OCs. I accidentally had them and Natarle mirror the original AA adult trio but it wasn't intentional. They were actually quite enjoyable to write. Anyway, they're not important, just here to drive my plot. I don't think you'll ever see them again.

Arnold getting into an MA was inspired by stuff from Japanese Twitterati after GS Freedom.

The rest of my notes are on Twitter/X.