"Dead," Andrew whispered into his ear.
Yes, he'd probably permanently damaged some of Vel's brain cells by overheating him like that. Vel was still breathless and getting quite thirsty, but he couldn't seem to figure out what he was supposed to do next. His lieutenant cleared his throat loudly behind him.
"Lunch break, Matthews, Walker. I'm not saying it again."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," Andrew said smoothly. He collected their knives, took Vel's hand and led the way towards the cafeteria.
Vel managed to gather his wits a bit during the slow walk. "When did you get so good?" he whined.
Andrew smiled and deposited the knives at the weapons stand, already relaxing back into his usual calm self. All that kinky ferociousness from earlier would come back tonight. The thought made Vel tremble with anticipation, but he knew he'd need to be patient for it. "I didn't, really. It's just you always get too sidetracked to fight properly."
"I can't help it if you're so sexy."
Andrew laughed and slung an arm around his waist. "Thanks, babe. You're not bad yourself. Maybe lacking a bit in the height department." Vel punched him. "Ow! Okay, sorry, I like that too, you know that. Makes it easier to pin you down when I fuck your brains out."
Vel stopped short, the field brightening briefly as heat pulsed through his veins again, this time straight to his groin. It took a full second for him to resume walking. It was hard to keep his voice steady. "Please stop talking like that, unless you want to miss lunch, because God help me, if you get me hornier than I already am—"
"Nope. I'm hungry. For food, I mean. And you as well, but—ouch, all right, I'll stop. Man, I hope they have spaghetti today."
Back on tamer topics, Vel launched safely into a rant as they joined the line. "I don't know why you like that shit. It's all soggy and gross. And they use tinned meat or something."
"No they don't. It's tinned tomatoes, but at least it's healthier. I don't know how you can stand eating fries and stuff all the time."
"It's nice!" Vel said defensively, filling his plate with a miscellaneous pile of oily goodness. Andrew took a large helping of spaghetti and some salad. They grabbed a third plate of food for Elstrin. It had become their little tradition of sorts, born of the days when Snow had first introduced his brutal training regime. Elstrin would often stumble into the cafeteria so late and exhausted that he couldn't even spare the energy or extra minute to get up and get food, so they'd taken pity and did it for him. Now whoever got to the cafeteria first—Vel, Andrew or Kana—would do the honours. Elstrin usually managed to walk in normally now, but his lunch break was still severely cut short, so Vel was sure he appreciated it. Andrew filled three glasses of orange juice and they found an empty table to sit at.
"You should at least eat some fruits," Andrew continued, setting their plates down. "All that grease isn't good for you. One can only apply so much lubrication before it becomes redundant. They have bananas, look. You like those, right?"
They didn't end up missing lunch after all, but only—only—because they'd already gotten the food and Vel hated to waste it.
x
"Can I spar with Andrew again?"
"No."
"Aw, please? I learnt a lot yesterday."
Lieutenant Leopard, who was supervising Vel this week, gave him a meaningful look and a smirk. "I'm sure you did."
Vel rolled his eyes. "Not like that. He uses this weird knife-twist thing that's really hard to avoid 'cause it changes like three times in a second. I haven't really gotten the hang of blocking that yet."
"I can do that."
"You guys can do anything," Vel complained.
"Yeah. So you don't need to spar with Walker."
"You're all so fucking cruel. You won't let me spend quality time with my boyfriend, and he is trying to make one of my best friends keel over from exhaustion, every single day," Vel lamented, nodding towards Snow and Elstrin, well under way in a spar. Leopard laughed.
"That's just Snow. Do you see anyone else doing that? We think it's sort of cruel too. But it works, so I guess that's something."
"When are they going to stop? When we start firearms?"
"Probably not even then. Snow will probably still train melee with him, in case he gets rusty or some shit." Leopard chuckled again, shaking his head. "Crazy guy."
"How come Gabriel Kresil hangs out with him all the time?"
The lieutenant groaned. "Come on, kid. Not that again. Give it a break."
"I want to know," Vel insisted. "I mean, I know they're friends, but they seem a little too serious whenever I see them around lately. Is something going on between them?"
"If you're implying you've been prying into Lieutenant Snow's private life, I'll have your weapons privileges withdrawn for a fortnight."
"I'm not! I'm just wondering."
"Then stop wondering, because it's none of your business," Leopard said flatly.
"It is," Vel argued, knowing he was treading on dangerous ground, but it wasn't the first time his curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he knew how to worm his way out of trouble. "Gabriel knew my brother, they were close. So if anything's bothering him then it would've bothered Damien, so it's supposed to bother me too."
"That's really not how friendship works," Leopard muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Of course it is. If someone punched your brother in the face, wouldn't you want to hunt down the bastard and beat him up?"
"I don't have a brother. If I told you my best friend just lost her job, would you go to her boss and try to sort things out?"
"No, because I'm not your friend," Vel said frankly.
"My god, kid. The point is, whatever's happening between Snow and Gabriel is none of your concern. It's not mine either, so I shouldn't even be talking about it right now."
"So something is happening?"
"Did I say that? Ask me another question and you can sit down and do jack shit for the rest of the week."
"Fine," Vel grumbled. "I'm not going to apologise, though. It is my business."
Leopard exhaled again and said in a gentler tone, "Look, kid, maybe it is. But you can't go around sticking your nose where it doesn't belong. It could get you into a lot of trouble, and I don't just mean missing out on training for a few months. I mean it could seriously fuck you up. You should know your limits and stop there. Okay?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"You have to do better than—" He stopped talking abruptly, frowning at where Snow and Elstrin trained. Vel looked too. Elstrin was wielding a sword, which was his preferred weapon, and there were already a couple of rips in his uniform where the light armour he wore didn't reach. Snow held a short, wicked-looking halberd, looking as absurdly graceful and unbeatable as ever. But then he leaned back to avoid a slash at his chest and stumbled.
Vel squinted through the autumn sun, not sure if he'd missed something. Elstrin didn't seem to have noticed, caught up in the fight as he was. His next attack was a simple but scarily quick thrust. Vel was confident he could've dodged it, so for Snow it should've been easier than breathing, but he didn't—he moved aside far too late, and Elstrin's sword sliced deep into his upper arm, drawing a brief glimmer of bright red he could see even from this distance.
"Fuck. Stay here," Leopard snapped, sprinting over before Vel could so much as blink his
surprise. Snow had staggered back, swaying, his weapon dropping from his hand, and Elstrin took a step back in shock, freezing halfway through his follow-up manoeuvre. Vel's legs carried him forward automatically. His trouble radar was telling him something had gone terribly wrong.
Leopard had reached Snow already. He skid to a stop in front of the lieutenant, stirring up a cloud of dust, grabbed his shoulders to steady him. Snow seemed almost unconscious, though he was standing, skin pale and eyelids fluttering, his arm dripping blood. Leopard said something to him. Vel caught the end of his sentence as he jogged up to a wide-eyed Elstrin.
"—will know what's up if you st
ay out here."
"What happened?" Vel said.
"I—I don't know," Elstrin stammered. "One minute he was kicking my ass as usual and… um, Snow? Are you okay?"
Snow didn't reply, leaning heavily on Leopard, eyes slipping shut. His face gleamed with sweat. Leopard hoisted his good arm firmly around his shoulders and helped him towards the main gate. "He has a fever," Leopard said grimly. "You can train with Lieutenant Fox for the rest of the day, White. I'll be back in a sec, Matthews, don't go anywhere."
They trudged off to the gate guards, who had watched the whole thing and had already opened the gate a crack to admit them. They disappeared into the gloom, Snow leaving a dotted trail of blood on the ground. "What the hell?" Elstrin wondered out loud. "He did not have a fever."
"Hasn't he missed a few days of training before?"
"Yeah, three times this month," Elstrin answered, quickly enough to show he was probably already deeply suspicious. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He says everything's fine, and everything is fine. Then he'd just not turn up for a whole day. And now he's fucking fainting in the middle of a spar."
"Maybe he's ill. You know, one of those sneaky flu bugs that take weeks to kill off, and only if you take like five different antibiotics."
"Does he look like his immune system needs help? He's got to be the fucking healthiest person on the whole planet to be able to fight like that." Elstrin ran a hand down his face. "Sorry. I just wish they'd tell me what's going on."
"You and me both," Vel sighed. He spied Leopard coming back and stepped away. "Anyway, I'd better stop talking to you, I think I've pissed Leopard off. I'll see you at dinner?"
"Yeah."
Vel followed Leopard back to their spot and spent the afternoon training quietly and without complaint. He thought about what Leopard had said to him, about finding out things that he'd regret. Did that include anything about Snow? Or did that include the truth about his brother? Their late Colonel Serpent, dead at the unfairly young age of twenty-three, and to this day Vel still didn't know how it had happened. He refused to accept the explanation they'd given him, that Serpent had been on a mission to Lupalia when his truck had malfunctioned and pitched off a rocky cliff, killing him and the eight other members of his patrol. To Vel, it just didn't sound right. Then three months ago Gabriel had approached him, the first and only time they'd talked in person, and given him Serpent's jade necklace. It was a family heirloom he'd never thought he would see again, and now he wore it next to his dog tag. Gabriel had refused to explain how and why he'd been keeping it.
Then he'd told Vel his brother's last words, words that made him cry, made old grief rise up again after all these years. And that was it. Now, whenever he saw Gabriel in HQ, he got no chance to talk to him, and neither did Andrew. Their instructors kept them from asking questions. But Vel had only one, a burning question that was the root of his disbelief and his certainty that he was standing in the middle of a lie. If Serpent had died on the side of some unnamed road with a bunch of anonymous soldiers so very far from home, then how did Gabriel know his last words?
x
Vel spent most of his weekends glued to the drum kit in the recreational centre. It had been a pleasant surprise to find a music room in HQ, however shabby. He'd thought he would be leaving behind everything from the slums when he entered the army, and while he welcomed the clean break, there were some things from his life in Mernot that he didn't want to stop doing. Like drumming. He could still recall the glow of accomplishment from the scant few times he'd lugged his kit to the better end of the city and busked for a couple hours on the side of the street. One afternoon of collecting passersby's pocket change might earn him enough to feed the family for days. It had felt infinitely worthwhile to contribute to something everyone else was working so hard for, and it turned out he didn't need to worry about losing that after all, up here.
Andrew usually joined him, along with a few other musically talented cadets, including his roommate David, and they'd all just play and practice for the afternoon, sometimes by themselves, sometimes together. They weren't a band or anything. It was just a very nice way to relax and break out of the routine of training. Occasionally Elstrin and Kana would tag along as well; Kana was okay on the guitar and Elstrin could often be coerced into trying out some random instrument, though he was as amusingly bad as ever. But in the past month or so, since they had officially-unofficially gotten together, Vel saw little of them on the weekend. He found it enormously cute and sexy that something like that could actually happen in an army base, and generally couldn't keep from squealing with glee whenever he saw them even hug. Kana didn't mind, but Elstrin seemed keen on avoiding Vel and his teasing during their free time. He was a little like Andrew, really, getting embarrassed when others got excessively happy for him. They could probably never double-date, firstly because it was a completely pointless and ridiculous thing for four young soldiers to do in HQ, and secondly because Elstrin and Andrew would probably just hang around being awkward and uncomfortable while their boyfriends busily gushed about inappropriate things at top volume without an ounce of shame. He had a feeling Kana said and did plenty of improper stuff already and Vel should really give Elstrin a break, but he just couldn't resist.
He took a long detour on the way out of the barracks and passed by Apartment C, glancing up at the third-floor window. It was late morning, but the curtains were still drawn, and he heard nothing. Vel sniggered quietly to himself and continued on, whistling idly. It was starting to get cold, which was a relief on the training field, but horrible once the night set in and chilly air descended down the mountains. Maybe he should write to Diva and—
A huge, terrible noise cut through the sunny silence, the sound of some gigantic structure being rent apart like paper, and Vel jumped about a mile into the air, gawking at the main gate. Something loomed up above it behind the wall, a beige, squarish structure that he realised was an
entire building, flying at the gate as if someone had just tossed it like a baseball. It rose briefly into view before dipping out of sight again, and a second later there was a resounding crash that he felt through his shoes, and the muted thuds of cascading cement settling into place. A plume of dust drifted from beyond the wall. It was quiet again.
Vel realised his mouth was open, and shut it hastily. He'd just witnessed a building crash-land. It was probably a very bad decision, but he found himself running to get a closer look.
The gate was opening. From within, Vel heard the frantic shouts of soldiers and quick footsteps. Someone stumbled through the narrow gap, coughing and swearing, chalky with dirt. It was Gabriel Kresil. The dust that billowed out with him felt strange—metallic and heavy, icy and dry, and it made Vel shiver and cover his nose with his sleeve, tottering to a stop because some base instinct told him he shouldn't touch it at all costs. Gabriel turned to the guards and said something in a loud, indignant voice, gesturing angrily. They seemed unaffected by his yelling. One reached into his pocket and drew out a little white box; inside was a clear red globe. He tossed it at the foot of the thick iron doors and it burst like glass, emitting a short puff of light. Abruptly, the prickling, crawling sensation pouring out of the gate lessened and disappeared. Vel let out a shaky breath and slowly resumed walking.
"Go home, Gabriel," the other guard was saying calmly when he got near. "You're—"
"Yeah, you'd fucking like that, wouldn't you?" Gabriel spat, futilely attempting to pat the dirt from his ratty clothes. "I should just stop fucking visiting because I'm obviously stressing out precious Lieutenant Snow, but y'know what happens if I stay away? You know who fucking else gets so stressed out he throws buildings everywhere—"
"Go home and get sober. Or we'll drag you back in and detox you. Do you want that?"
"Bloody fuck, of course I don't fucking want that." Gabriel caught sight of Vel hovering there and scowled. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Um, I was just… walking," Vel said lamely. Up close
, he noticed that Gabriel smelled, of all things, of alcohol. He was drunk. "What just happened?"
"That fucking drama queen is what happened. Fucking Rem—"
"Gabriel," the guard snapped.
"Ah, um, shit," Gabriel said, suddenly paling. "I mean, re…member that time? Um, y'know, that time it was raining and the wall did this weird non-explosion thing?"
"…No?" Vel said, very confused.
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