| Getting Lucky | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary: Latooni Subota and Leo Stenbuck exchange good luck charms. | |||
|
Ralla Traln Triald has been gone for just over three weeks now... and, if one was familiar with the extent to which she served as Leo Stenbuck's - for lack of a better word - maid, it shows.
Leo's room is in shambles. The sheets on his bed are now only techically 'on' the bed; they're not fitted, just in a crumpled pile at the foot. Piles of worn and since unwashed clothing are heaped around the room. Several things have fallen off of shelves, and not been replaced... including a box of handgun ammunition, although Leo has at least seen fit to sweep the bullets that litter the floor into a sort of rough pile at the base of his dresser.
Despite the fact that his room looks like a bomb went off in it, Leo seems to be in - probably unexpectedly - a pretty good mood. He's reclined in his desk chair, humming to himself and typing (awkwardly, thanks to how far he has to reach) at his keyboard. His Haro is resting on his chest, watching Leo work on something or other. The desk, as it so happens, is filthy, too; empty Red Comet energy drink cans and protein bar wrappers litter its surface.
Latooni Subota has never actually been in Leo's room when it wasn't a time that he just moved in to that location. She is going to be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Officially, Latooni is off duty, because she is about to be 'on duty' for two weeks running. She is, thus, not in her uniform; jeans and a borrowed, slightly too-big T-shirt (plain blue) is the outfit of the day, and she's gotten a couple looks for it. Some of the people on the Shirogane have never seen her in anything that wasn't a flight suit or her EFA uniform.
There is a quiet knock on Leo's door. She doesn't want to wake him up if he's still having so much trouble sleeping.
Leo pauses at the knock, turning to look at the door to his room. He briefly considers getting up and going to open the door, especially with how unkempt his room is, but that would involve getting Haro off of his chest, something the little robot is... not always appreciative of. As designed, it is like a dog in a great many ways.
Correction: getting Haro off of his /bare/ chest. Leo is, technically, on duty, but since his transfer to the Shirogane and off of the Giga-'Desk Job'-Float, his actual duties that aren't shooting people in the face in a mobile suit are much reduced. This means it is, technically, okay that he is currently shoeless and shirtless, clad only in a pair of dark socks and his A-LAWS uniform pants.
Leo spends about a second and a half finishing off entering God knows what into his computer, and then pushes away from his desk and swivels to face his door. "It's open!" he calls.
It is open, because by that point, Latooni has opened it. She heard someone inside.
She takes one step in and immediately tries to repress the urge to stare in shock. To someone almost pathologically organized, this room is a close approximation to Hell. She represses the urge to start straightening things that are off-line, let alone pick up all the crap lying around. She doesn't even want to /touch/... is that underwear?
Latooni very deliberately turns her body about thirty degrees so she cannot see it. "Hello, Leo," she says, attempting - and largely suceeding - at a smile. "I didn't mean to, um, get in the way. But I did want to talk to you, since I won't be able to for a while."
It is definitely underwear. Luckily for Leo's dignity, he has grown out of the 'branded underoos' phase of his life, and they are, like every other piece of clothing he wears, A-LAWS teal. ... and branded. So, okay, maybe he's not /entirely/ out of the branded underoos phase.
Leo's face spreads into a broad smile when his visitor is revealed as Latooni, and he immediately moves to stand up. The motion stops, however, when Latooni turns away... and when the Haro starts flapping unhappily at its resting place being disturbed.
So Leo settles for simply reclining slightly less. The 'won't be able to for awhile' prompts a look of concern, but it vanishes after only an instant. "Let me guess... Kridanik's thing, right?" He pauses, and then leans to the side to try to get his head into Latooni's field of view, and adds, "You know, I don't care if you look."
Latooni Subota is not looking at the underwear. She /is/ looking (more or less; she's at an angle now) at Leo.
"I would have thought that you would have been embarassed by the mess," Latooni says, sounding more embarassed about it than /Leo/ does. She steps carefully to avoid putting her foot on anything that is not floor. "And, ah, yes. I am going with Commander Kridanik. Did he tell you very much about it?" she asks, curiously, unsure how much she can tell him - nothing new, but if he already /knows/...
She puts one hand half-in her pocket. "I had some news. But I also just wanted to see you before I left."
Leo just shrugs at the comment about the mess, glancing around the room. He acknowledges, on an intellectual level, that he should probably clean his room, but... that doesn't mean he's going to. He's... ... busy. Yeah. That's it. Definitely too busy.
When Latooni mentions wanting to see him, Leo's smile broadens yet further; he plucks the Haro off of his chest and lobs it gently onto the bed, the spherical robot flapping in irritation all the while. His robotic burden (AKA, roburden) lifted, Leo rises to his feet and steps across the room to Latooni, moving to give her a hug. Despite the whole 'shirtless' thing.
"He didn't tell me anything special," he explains, as he does. "Just a guess, based on the call for volunteers, and stuff. But... okay, news. What's up?"
Leo being shirtless is evidently not what disturbed Latooni about the room, given how well she responds to that embrace; she stays there for a few moments, just letting herself relax.
But this is not a situation she can stay relaxed forever in. She breaks it eventually, taking one step back because if she's any closer she cannot really look Leo in the eye; she's still a lot shorter than he is, even though she has recently topped five foot.
"Well, yes. We'll be unavailable for contact for some time," Latooni explains, "so... I won't be able to see you. Or talk about this." Her hand goes back to her pocket as if she's checking for something, though she does not actually pull anything out when she removes her hand from it. "I've been... looking for Ralla. Some more. And because I'm going away, I... have to stop. So I am going to give you everything I have, and there's someone you should talk to. Excellen. She helped me, too."
Even when Latooni breaks the embrace and steps back, Leo leaves his hands on her shoulders. Despite the ongoing touch, however, the topic of Ralla does a lot to sober his good mood. He meets the young woman's eyes while she speaks, his expression grave, occasionally nodding his understanding.
When Excellen's name is mentioned, confusion hops on top of the pile of emotions written (to one degree or another) on his face. "She has?" he asks, obviously puzzled. That's... unexpected. Excellen didn't really seem the type; she wasn't even squadmates with Ralla. As far as he knows, they weren't even friends.
It certainly casts the woman in a new light, in Leo's eyes. "I... didn't know," Leo admits. Of course, Excellen's involvement is merely tangential, so Leo gives Latooni's shoulders a squeeze and braces himself for what he expects to be bad news. "But, so... okay. Give it to me, I guess."
Latooni Subota didn't expect Leo to know. She'd got the feeling that Excellen, while she hadn't exactly tried to cover it up, simply hadn't bothered to tell many people that she was helping. But she told Excellen that she was going to tell Leo, for the contact while she was gone.
"She has," Latooni agrees. "She helped run some searches of the area, and she informed me about what A-LAWS knew in the first place. I did the technical work, because I am better at it, but..."
She swallows, looking up at Leo, still with his hands on her shoulders. "I got the cockpit footage working. I ... you probably do not want to see it. She was shot down. It is fairly bloody for a while. But right near the end, just before it cut out... she was talking to someone, or herself, while breathing. There were other noises, but I was not able to isolate them. The quality was too bad."
Latooni pauses, then says, "She said, 'I was not much of a weapon.' And there was no sign of a struggle. Investigation of the area around the cockpit also does not show any characteristic signs of any scuffle. I have to come to the conclusion that..."
That she may not want to come back, Latooni mentally finishes. She cannot blame her, entirely. It is /exactly/ how she left the School, four years ago: in a crash, after being left for dead. She shudders, involuntarily, though she tries to keep her emotions under control otherwise. And for all that Latooni is working to make the life and legal position of Cyber-Newtypes better, they're still not up to what she, as a Coordinator, could expect.
Leo's mouth tightens into a grim line as Latooni's explanation goes on. He is quite obviously terribly worried about Ralla... although the worry doesn't end there, judging by how when Latooni shudders at her recollection of her escape from the School, Leo renews their embrace, pulling her against his chest and wrapping his arms around her again.
"If it was hopeless, she wouldn't have struggled," he murmurs, as much to assure himself as Latooni. "She wouldn't get herself killed for no reason." He hopes he's right, but... he's not really sure. It certainly seemed like Soma was willing to, when Cagalli... did whatever she did to get into her cockpit, that time.
"But... this means she's probably alive, right?" he asks, allowing a trace of hope to enter his voice. "And we just haven't found her yet. But she's okay, wherever she is. Right?"
Latooni Subota feels weak for that one shudder, the sole flash of emotion she allowed herself. It isn't something she should have done.
"She did not sound resigned, either," Latooni says, before adding, "As best as I can tell. The recording was failing. I honestly... I may have misread it."
She does not move for some time, letting her breathing against Leo calm down again from the brief burst of... not panic, but discomfort, from thinking hard about the School. It's a topic she's forced herself to revisit a few times lately, after this whole thing with Ralla. What would /she/ have done? Latooni is ashamed her thoughts even went that way, making her think about 'what if Ralla was trying to escape'? But her own experience forces her to. It's too similar.
Latooni eventually agrees, "I do not think she was killed. It would have been much easier to do it there and leave the body, letting us think she died in the crash. Assuming her wounds were not mortal, she has probably survived. I just... I don't know where. And I don't know what she wants."
Leo's shoulders sag with sudden relief when Latooni confirms that Ralla is probably alive. He could guess, but if Latooni agrees, then it /must/ be true, because Latooni, as far as he is concerned, basically knows everything. Sure, they might not know where she is yet, and sure, they might not know what she wants, but-
Wait, what?
"What do you mean?" Leo asks, obviously confused again. He almost pulls away from the embrace so he can look Latooni in the eye when he says it, but that would... require pulling away from the embrace. So he compromises, and just sort of leans back a little bit and looks almost straight downwards, to at least /kind/ of look her in the face.
"She wants to be rescued, obviously," Leo continues, sounding as if the very idea that he should have to point that out at all is ridiculous. "Or... found, I guess. I mean, maybe some locals found her, and she'll show up soon, but... what if the DC took her? She's probably terrified..."
Latooni Subota does not know everything. She will be the first to tell Leo that, if he asks.
If he doesn't, there's not a lot she can do.
"...yes, of course," Latooni says, ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach. Her recording was working. She could have left a message. Left a note. Or, of course, she could have turned it off, if she was really trying to escape. It's impossible to say. "I don't... I don't think the DC took her. They wouldn't be able to not brag. Especially after Lamia. But I don't know where she's gone. That's what you need to work with Excellen. To find out."
Leo lets out an irritated breath through his nose, and leans back into Latooni. "Well, we'll find her, wherever she is," he vows, not so much to Latooni as to the world at large.
His point clearly mad to the universe, Leo pauses, and then leans down and presses his cheek against the top of Latooni's head. "Thank you for looking," he says, more quietly. "I really appreciate it. She will, too, when we find her, I'm sure."
Latooni Subota does not respond for a few moments. She just stays there. Her hair is actually sort of combed today. It is clean. Her shampoo is vaguely flowery.
"When we get back," Latooni says, eventually, "I will have pictures. You might laugh at some of them. I'll see what I can do to make sure they are taken, but only if you do not laugh at only me. But I expect that some of them will be vaguely amusing."
Though she is going to be upset if they get made public. People laugh at her enough.
Even just the offer - or, at least, the way it's phrased - makes Leo laugh, though only softly given that he's reluctant to lift his cheek away from the top of Latooni's head. "I promise I won't laugh /only/ at you," he vows. He has no idea what's going to be so funny, and figures she can't tell him, even if he asks.
But... maybe she can answer at least /one/ question about it. "When are you leaving? Do you know?"
Latooni Subota cannot. Sorry, Leo. But she will be able to later.
"Tomorrow," Latooni says, her hand drifting back to her pocket again. "Officially I am packing right now, and if I had a family, I could visit them. But I have already seen Giado and Garnet and Shine, so..." That leaves Leo.
She finally does retrieve something from her pocket, though she keeps it hidden in her hand. "...I don't know if you, ah, believe in luck. I don't, really. But I had this with me when I won the Gundam Fight. I am going to be away for a while. Please keep it."
Latooni presses the small object into Leo's hand. It's small and irregularly shaped. Inspection shows that it is a very strange object to give; it looks like a fragment of metal armour plating, the sharp edges filed down, with a hole drilled through it for a very short chain. Someone has scraped an X on it with a knife.
The talk about luck takes Leo by surprise, and when he realizes Latooni has retrieved something from her pocket, he briefly worries that she might have made him one of those... 'hair lockets'... that were all the rage in the One Year War. He's relieved to find that it's not, and is, instead, a piece of metal.
Well... /mostly/ relieved.
"Lat..." he murmurs, closing his hand around the trinket. The doodad, perhaps. "I... okay. Yeah. I'll keep it close to my heart." It sounds stupid the instant he says it, and he sort of regrets doing so... but he is adamant not to show fear or weakness, and as such solves the problem by charging ever onwards.
"I don't have anything to give to you, though," he points out, a little sadly. "So... this'll have to do." And with that, perfectly casually, he reaches a hand up to lift Latooni's chin upwards, and leans down to kiss her gently on the cheek.
Latooni Subota has limits.
"Thank you," Latooni says, smiling as she hasn't yet today. "It's... not lucky, but it is important. And mine. I'd feel better if you did. And I didn't expect you to have anything for me - "
The kiss catches her by surprise - but not in a bad way. Latooni seems shocked afterwards, raising two fingers to the place on her cheek that Leo kissed. Several things flit through her mind, things that Excellen and even Arado have said to her.
She stands on tiptoes afterwards and attempts a kiss of her own. She is not aiming for the cheek, but the lips; it is still short-lived, and she drops back down afterwards, her face slightly reddened. It's all right, they said, if /she/ starts it.
It may have been her first.
Latooni's initial reaction to the kiss is... about what Leo expected. He worries, briefly, that he may have overstepped his boundaries. Sure, she hasn't slapped him yet, but that doesn't really mean things are--
Leo's eyes widen when Latooni lifts onto her tiptoes and, so to speak, raises the ante. Well... that's definitely /not/ what he expected. Not that he's complaining, of course, but...
Although Leo doesn't recall consciously deciding to do so, he's pretty okay with letting it happen when he shifts to wrap his arms around Latooni's waist - her good luck charm still balled in his fist - and lifts her off the ground. This, of course, is merely to make things easier for when he leans in to plant another kiss on Latooni's lips.
Leo might learn, in this instant, that Latooni is very light. Not that that is a colossal surprise, but it certainly does make her easier to pick up.
Latooni responds well to /this/ one, too, though she can't shake the feeling that she is about to slide down or otherwise find a way to embarass herself. In fact, she /starts/ to at one point, but manages to catch herself before she accidentally gets herself back on the floor again; she does this by wrapping her arms around Leo and pressing herself against him.
Afterwards: "You should probably put me down," Latooni says, quietly. "Before I slip, or... or something. But, ah... It was nice." Her cheeks are still pretty flushed. She is unused to any sort of physical closeness.
She thinks she likes it.
"... yeah," Leo agrees, with some reluctance. Despite this, it takes him another few seconds to actually set Latooni down. Even when he does, it's only begrudgingly, and he keeps his arms wrapped around her.
"Be careful, on the mission," Leo urges, after a moment of suddenly awkward silence. "And I hope that was a good enough luck charm."
He hesitates, and then adds, a little teasingly, "Come back in one piece, and I'll give you another one."
The red in Latooni's face gets much brighter after Leo ... teases her? Is that what that is? She has been teased before, but not quite in the same way. It's different when they're not doing it to be cruel.
The smile comes back. "Okay," Latooni says. "I will. But not in here, unless you clean it up a little bit. I don't know where to put my feet." Because there is no way she is going to step on Leo's dirty pants. That's kind of gross. Who knows where they've been?
Well, other than presumably Leo.
She turns and heads back to the door, and very carefully does not notice if he watches her pants go, because it's better than many of the other options (and Garnet told her not to be embarassed if he did).
Leo's expression splits into a grin when Latooni's blushing becomes more pronounced, and - again, begrudgingly - disentangles himself from her to let her head for the door. Sure enough, as soon as she's facing the other direction, his eyes drop to her butt.
"So... your place, next time?" he asks, as Latooni reaches the door. One doesn't have to see his face to tell that he's still grinning.
Latooni Subota waits at the door a moment. It zips open, as the doors on the Shirogane do.
"Okay," she says. "I live at Riksent nowadays. You should come by when we're back. I'll try to make sure Garnet doesn't bother us then."
She heads off after that, down the corridor. Latooni's hand lifts up to her cheek again; she doesn't seem to realize it until she drops it back to her side, where it belongs.
Leo stares at the door for a good ten seconds after it closes behind Latooni before he finally saunters over and drops heavily back into his desk chair. He turns it to face his computer again, scoots it back up to the desk, and sets his hands on the keybard to get back to work.
Except no work happens. His ability to concentrate is totally shot, and he ends up just sort of staring blankly at the screen, occasionally licking his lips or shifting uncomfortably in his chair. After three minutes, he starts checking the clock every ten or fifteen seconds, bouncing his leg on the ground with rapidly increasing fervor.
After /six/ minutes, he suddenly pushes his chair back out and rises sharply to his feet. He turns and digs around in a pile of clothes for a tanktop, and gives it a sniff. Whatever he smells, he scrunches up his nose... but then shrugs. It isn't like he'll be wearing it for long, anyways.
He's heading out the door even before he finishes pulling the thing on. "I'm going to Louise's. See you tomorrow, Haro," he calls over his shoulder, as the door zips open.
"GOODBYE, AMURO!" the Haro calls from its newfound resting spot on the bed, as the door zips closed again. "GOODBYE, AMURO!"