Quiet nothingness, it was tiring but this was probably one of the better points of the day, then he felt a slight tap. He must´ve just hit the bed frame or left a magazine on his bed.
Warm blankets, zero thoughts. He felt a bit shaky but that was usual with sleep. He´s going to stay like this as long-
That tap turned into an almost instant feeling of pain as a loud slap hit him on the cheek, didn´t hurt him much, but damn did the adrenaline in the morning remind him of home.
¨Wake.¨
Ichika sat upward, his groggy eyes getting adjusted to the still dark room constantly wanting to close again and pretend nothing happened.
Turning around his eyes met the singular one of Laura who jumped onto the bed and sat next to him, she was in grey and black combat fatigues, just like she was about to pop right into boot camp.
This morning is far more nostalgic than he wanted to be in all the wrong ways.
¨Am I late to class or-¨
¨Ẅill be early.¨ god she loved sounding like she was in control.
God- wait early? What time is it? Should he look at the clock?
His eyes turned to see the stinging green light of his issued alarm clock ( they issued bath-
0400? SERIOUSLY!? God Laura was doing her best to make it feel like home.
A slight and slow turn back to her unnecessarily awake face just to avoid a headache
¨Ẅhy?¨
¨Training.¨
¨Now?¨
¨Later?¨
¨No.¨
¨why?¨
She gestured at a small cup filled with oolong beckoning him to grab it, she was holding one of her own. It sadly smelled magnificent right now, everyone on the team loved coffee, except him he was an individual who preferred tea-
He was used to this. It was routine.
One foot over the other soldier.
A quick grab and he decided just to chug it down like he´d never again drink tea, because who knew? he didn´t.
It was steaming hot enough for him to both enjoy it and feel pain, more adrenaline was nice in the morning.
While turning to Laura he decided to ask one of the first few questions that came to him in his newly awakened state of consciousness.
¨where?¨
¨gym.¨
¨later.¨
¨…no.¨
It seems like one-word conversations were the best they were able to do at the current moment.
Now he just wanted to sigh and go back under the covers, quite frankly there was little stopping him from not doing that.
¨No one is there right now.¨
Of course, no one would be there it´s 5 o´clock Seriously why would she want him to go now?
Operators like him had notoriously terrible sleep schedules except-
¨No one is there.¨
Why was she repeating this? Did she think- She was doing this on purpose? It made his heart beat faster, his fist clenched slightly, and the adrenaline was about to start coursing through his veins.
A loud very infuriating forceful sigh came from her.
¨No one is there to bother YOU.¨
What? She´s treating him like he´s stup-
Oh.
OH.
Maybe he could get some food in before-
¨Ït´s closed.¨ how did she? Ugh… whatever. He wants to sleep. He was about to lean back on the covers and uttered another caveman response, he didn´t want to dignify her with any semblance of comprehension.
¨hungry.¨
¨Fruit bar, is not fully closed.¨
Fruit?
Well… it was better than nothing and a new change-up from his new ¨normal¨ would probably be leagues better than the one right now.
¨…fine."
He stepped onto the carpeted rug and got prepared, finally an excuse not to wear the stuffy uniform given to them. He still felt ill-fitted and out of his gear, even more so with just the combat shorts and shirt he found in his closet.
There was a hoodie supplied to him as well, but it had the IS logo blazoned boldly upon it, and he knew he´d never live it down if he did wear it.
Laura greeted him as he walked back into the main living room, and they both stepped outside to go on their merry way.
They both got lost this time, stranded in a foreign area without any supply lines. So much so that they entered into some of the most obscure hallways possible.
On their way to bumfuck middle of nowhere they encountered a surprisingly familiar face. It was that janitor again, one of the few guys he´d seen in a good while.
Not too much small talk though, he was blasting music in his headphones, moping the floor like nobody was watching, and was caught like a deer in headlights when Ichika tried to say hello.
Ichika could tell from the almost immediate friendliness that he was more shocked than embarrassed at seeing him than his actions.
At least until he caught a glimpse of Laura next to him, that friendly attitude toward him almost immediately became distant when he saw Laura, but Ichika tried to at least get his name.
It seemed like he was just trying to find an excuse not to, but after slight pushing he finally gave it up.
Thomas. Who names their kid Thomas?
Well, at least it was nothing. They asked for directions and Thomas told them the maps were completely useless. Then he just reached into a small satchel he was carrying and gave Ichika a small and incredibly intricate floor plan to the entire school. It was much more comprehensive than whatever the building was displaying.
Laura tried to grab it but thomas´ś almost new jerk reaction was to pull away. He tried to make an excuse as to why he was being so secretive and nervous but Ichika couldn´t exactly figure it out.
The map made their route a cakewalk somehow making sense of the shambling corridors strewn throughout the complex.
Stepping through the wooden double door they were greeted by more janitors and a few servers preparing for breakfast.
He expected the stares, and there certainly were a decent few aimed at him, but the main focus was on Laura.
It was unsettling how many tried to steal a look at her and go back to work, over and over again they did these actions. If Laura even looked at one for too long they seemed to double their effort before relaxing when she looked away.
Why would they? Is it because, oh yes it´s probably because she follows his sister like a little puppy, guess they think she has actual rank to pull on them.
It was kind of funny looking at it from the outside, laura probably leads a team not… whatever this is.
She just seemed to try to fall inward on herself to avoid the legion of quick stares, it was surprisingly uncharacteristic to the violence-prone person who woke up innocent soldiers Laura he saw a few minutes ago.
And then they finally went to it, the glorious fruit bar with a… surprisingly bountiful range of selection, from strawberries to star fruit.
They both just rushed and grabbed whatever they liked and hustled back through the entrance looking down and sharing the burden of being the center of attention.
It´d be easier if he had this type of attention in a fight, then people actually did something instead of just looking, and if they got a lucky shot in at least it´d be over, better than a camera shot, then he´d live forever.
It was a merry traveling after that, nothing more nothing less. Seriously, no people, low dark lights instead of consistent fluorescence lighting that always was apparent everywhere, and whatever light that did come out was from windows.
Ichika did a quick double check of his stash he kept in a small plastic sling backpack (god the logo on it still haunted him.). And a slight wondering came over whether or not he could ¨borrow¨ from Laura.
Mango cubes, grapes, and a firm apple. Nice, a respite he didn´t have to pretend he enjoyed.
Stealing treasures like these would be punishable with death if only a soldier got caught.
¨What´d you get? ¨
Laura did a quick look into the small gym bag she brought for herself, making sure not to let him peek inside.
¨Erdbeeren, Rosinen und Äpfel.¨
…god she was such a prick.
¨Very proud of your beautiful language aren´t ya.¨
¨Sure am, cowboy.¨ the monotone response was only hinting to sarcasm by the fact she tried to imitate a Texan accent. (the finger guns were unnecessary)
¨I just got some grapes, mangoes, and apples¨ he proved this by grabbing the singular apple out and munching on it making sure to make a big bite and leaving his mouth open for her to watch him chew.
¨please, even you could understand a minimum of what I have.¨¨
¨anger issues and a need to impress authority figures?¨ he had the latter, it didn´t seem like that much of a jab to him.
Well the jab to him that did come from her was not aimed for him. Just the apple he was just about to take another bite out of, pushing it deeper into his mouth.
¨That a good enough response?¨
He wouldn´t dignify her with a response, so instead he decided to just keep it in his mouth eating it but making sure he didn´t use his hands.
Laura did another sigh, this time it felt like giving up on Ichika.
¨Just some raisins, strawberries, and apples.¨
The thought of more red deliciousness seemed like a nice trade offer.
Moving his hand out he let the apple fall onto his palm.
¨Oh sweet, can I have them?¨
¨No.¨
¨Please?¨
¨Mmmm….No.¨
¨I´ll tell believable embarrassing things to Chifuyu about you.¨
¨…I think I miss when you looked like a suckled pig."
He must honor that request then. And as such he put the apple back into his mouth and silently walked with her to the gym making sure to eat the entire apple, including the stem.
The small look of disgust was a victory to him. She in turn got out her strawberries and started popping them in her mouth on the way to wherever they were going.
It wasn´t too large of an area until he realized they just were in the lobby. Still, there was rarely a person here, and even then the faint humming of machinery softened their entrance.
¨So what are you doing?¨
She laughed at that.
¨We are doing.¨
Interesting…
¨And that we are doing?¨
¨Boxing. Figured you´ve been itching for an excuse to hit me, and i the same.¨ she tried to look intimidating, but that factor was largely reduced by not being in a large untouchable warmachine that could fly.
Oh. well fine then. Might as well get some licks in.
¨Älright, I´ve taken on people twice your size.¨ a slight elevation of his heart came from the idea of telling too much, but then he realized that he kept loaded weapons and body armor in the same room as her. They both could just smell the military background they came from.
¨Let´s kill each other again then.¨ Oh right, he always forgot his missions almost immediately after he did them. They fought to the death.
¨As little as possible, we still have the class to go to.¨
¨that´s a shame, you could use the infirmary as a study hall.¨ she was joking but it still cut a notch on him.
She guided him to the small arena in a secluded corner of the gym, and by small it was the type that could be found in the Olympics. It was a huge blue box with white ropes. The IS logo was proudly emblazoned fucking everywhere, including this place.
Y´know whenever the others wanted to rough n´ tumble usually a small dirt patch in some Middle Eastern country was enough.
They split off to the opposing side entrances, and he noticed a small rack with boxing gloves, chalk, and helmets. More logos.
He gingerly picked up a pair and put them on along with a helmet, surprisingly it felt similar to his armor. Even if it wouldn´t be able to help him survive a basic snake shot.
Rising the stairs that led into the arena… he noticed Laura wearing none of what he had. tape wrapped around her fists. Just some chalk she was in the middle of putting on her hands. She clapped the air and let a cloud of white dust boom into the air.
¨Too afraid?¨ the smug look made his veins pulse, an insult? To him now?
With a quick forceful grab of his gloves and helmet, then a throw of both to the edge of the arena, he was as harmless as a baby now.
Laura threw the tape at him along with the chalk. He caught them both with a violent grasp. the basics of this were familiar at least. Cutman was obsessed with this, which was weird since she was one of the few medics he consistently met.
¨Familar to the ring aren´t you?¨
¨you´ll be familiar with its floor soon enough.¨
A bloodthirsty smile that he didn´t want to see, on the battlefield or here.
¨Start of 3¨
The arena went quiet, the air stood still.
How should he go about this? He was of a higher weight, and he did know how to throw a punch.
¨2¨
Smaller opponent, lower center of gravity, and taller, he had the range.
thinking wasn´t something he wanted to do.
¨1¨
Abandon all strategy and just let adrenaline and instinct guide the path. Rush her.
Owl was screaming at him to think of a better idea, to do anything that could even be seen as tactical.
Ichika wasn´t that stupid and knew that Laura was less so, he knew he could easily get thrown or countered or whatever ideas were baked into Laura´s mind.
Laura took up a defensive pose, she sure as hell wasn´t going to back down. And maybe she thought she could throw him.
Fine then, so be it. Dropkick.
Owl knew she was going to grab him out of the air and use his momentum to throw him back, that´s why he forced Ichika to do a twist just enough so that Laura would be caught off guard.
She… actually got hit by him. Knocked back like a domino that got flicked, fine.
He pinned her to the ground and was about to start pummeling in a second, but he looked at her and felt pity.
In response to that she double-kicked him in the chest and knocked him to the ground, she jumped up and charged back to kick Ichika while he was down.
Owl rolled to the side and brought the heel of his foot onto her knee, she did manage to get a good hit on him but he did manage to make her falter and hit the ground.
A need to catch his breath was apparent but he fought through it to get to a safer altitude.
They both were able to stand up and catch their breath.
Laura tried huffing out a sentence.
¨Better than I-¨
No. Owl would take the opportunity.
A swift sidekick to the chest, but she was still so small it almost hit her head. So small.
With an unprecedented amount of strength contained inside her short stature she caught it, so he did a heel spin and kicked her in the chin. It was not nearly as strong as it should´ve been. And she was still standing.
Still, it was notable that she looked stunned.
More rushing, a wild punch was thrown at her, but she caught it, pulled him closer, and punched him straight in the eye, that hit made him see stars.
Both of them weren´t planning on leaving alive. It was just the way soldiers were placed on different sides of battlefield.
Another fist was going to be thrown, a flurry was going to come and he´d be unable to do anything.
Owl powered through it and tried his hardest to headbutt her.
it felt like hitting a living brick wall that you liked.
They both stepped back a small bit after that. Another calm before the storm.
Laura took the initiative this time and went for a sidekick to his face.
All it managed to do was swipe the air, owl went for the kill.
Slipping in like a knife he got in close and punched her in the throat. Usually, this brought down someone hard.
Laura defied that expectation, she managed to tank through it and did a roundhouse on him, spinning around and kicking hard like a donkey.
He was thrown to the cold hard floor and was unable to move for the slightest of seconds.
Laura got ready for the kill. Swiftly moving her leg up into the air for a drop kick.
Ichika forced whatever was left of him to move. Owl made him move intelligently.
He pushed himself off the floor and went for a groin punch, trying to move with his body to add as much impact.
Laura was moved back, continuing to mercilessly beat her with 2 more beatings rising to both his legs and proceeding to grab the falling leg, spun with the heel of his foot, and threw as hard as he could with whatever he had left.
It was not a dignified fall, she hit the floor face first and slid for a slight few seconds longer than Ichika wanted.
She wasn´t moving now, she wasn´t getting up.
Should he go on to check up on her? Did he break something? Oh god, she still wasn´t moving.
Moving forward owl yelled at him to act with caution. But she could be hurt badly or knocked out.
¨Hey, you doing alright?¨ ¨Laura?¨ ¨You alright?" God she still wasn´t responding.
He tapped her on the back and she spun her legs to knock him on his butt, to the floor.
Laura didn´t triumphantly stand back up to insult and berate him over his weakness, she just flopped over off her now bleeding face and looked up to the big light that shined over the arena.
Ichika decided to join her, and the blinding light reminded him of something then he started to do a delusional giggle.
Laura looked at him and managed to groan out a ¨mmpgh-?¨
¨ looks like we´re both going to heaven, color me surprised.¨
Laura probably looked irritated enough that she might have done something.
¨mggh-... fupp you.¨ he couldn´t see her face but he could guess blood was leaking into her mouth.
They´d both go on to just lay there for what was a good 30 minutes. Occasionally murmuring to themselves or the other in how much of an ass they were.
Ichika was the first to roll off the arena and back onto the floor. Laura was still there waiting.
He grabbed his bag and got ready to take out the crumpled IS uniform he brought along with him on his way to the locker room.
Wait- he forgot to put back the equipment. But Laura would probably put it back, right?
He turned around for a slight second as if he was considering if should do-
BAM! The pair of gloves were thrown at him, a one-two hitter to the face.
It didn´t knock him down but his legs wanted to let it.
He saw Laura standing above him helmet in hand looking like a bloody mess.
¨See you later.¨
Defiant to the end. Owl and Ichika both decided that they´d be fine following the orders of this commander.
¨Yes Ma´am.¨
He hobbled back and got ready to get washed up. It was the normal he was used to, now he´ll get some food, learn some intel, and go to sleep.
There was still blood on him though, so he needed to wash up. Some of Laura´s blood seemed to have gotten on him.
Looking through the mirror above the faucet he realized he was shaking, just like after every operation. Nothing more nothing less.
But the adrenaline rush was gone.
Guess he was just cold.