Chapter Text
It was a well-known fact that, when a group of girls gathered together in the absence of masculine company, they tended to share things that they would be too embarrassed to say out loud in the presence of a boy, let alone a group of them.
It was a less-known fact that, left in the same circumstances, they tended to do the same thing. To the extent that could get them a well-deserved smack if any female heard them.
And this knowledge brings us to this scene...
"Tall girls." Daiya declared proudly, with his right hand closed in a fist. Then, he added with a softer tone, like he was trying to excuse himself. "Not taller than you, but... You know. Someone who could kick your ass if she wants to."
None of his listeners were surprised.
"Of course."
"Shut up, Daiya.”
“We all know you're only thinking about Anju."
For some context, it was a nice sunny day, and the girls were taking their sweet time with the laundry, so the Spearhead boys had been left alone in the base, in that awkward free time by the end of their morning chores and before lunch. And since they had the rare opportunity to indulge in idle chatter and there wasn't any female in their proximity, the talk had developed into... this.
"Ok, so. What's next?" Kujo asked, clapping his hands both to clean them from the dust he had been sweeping and to bring the attention back to the topic.
"Hair?" Chise suggested, leaning on the broom he was holding.
"Short hair, definitely,” Theo answered at once from the squat position in which he was cleaning one of the shelves. “Like, long hair would just get in the way, don't you think?"
"No, no, no, you're getting it all wrong.” Tohzan shook his head and frowned. “Girls can do a lot of cute hairdos with long hair."
"And then when you undo it..." Kino added with a suspiciously dreamy expression. No one really wanted to ask what he was thinking about, although some of them had an idea…
By the corner of his eye, Theo noticed the suspicious long time their captain, who was sitting nearby reading as always, took to turn the page of his book. His lips curved into a mischievous smile.
"Interested, Shin?" he called him with a teasing tone. "I saw you looking up when Kino talked."
“I didn’t.” he answered without even giving them a glance. The others exchanged looks and knowing smiles, forming an alliance without words. The Reaper was always so serious…
He was in desperate need of a good teasing.
(From the other corner of the room, if someone had paid attention, they would have heard Raiden sighing and grumbling about unruly kids while shaking his head.)
"Are you a long hair dude too?" Kino asked amused, getting closer to their captain.
“That’s ok, no need to be ashamed.” Touma added, surrounding Shin from the other side. The Captain refused to even acknowledge any of them, and his eyes remained fixed on his book. At his back, the tallest of the boys came near him and took him by his shoulders.
"Come on Shin, you're not fun." Kujo complained, shaking him softly. Their captain’s brows twitched dangerously.
"It's just hypothetical talking, hypothetical." Haruto exclaimed, focusing on the last word. Theo turned to give the Rubeola a weird look.
"Oi, do you even know what that word means?"
"We can also discuss dudes if you are into that." Tohzan suggested with a friendly smile from near the wall. Shin actually glared at him.
"... I’d rather not." He deadpanned before returning his eyes to his book.
“Then confess, what is your type?” Kujo shook him once more, leaning forward to bring his face closer to Shin’s level.
“Tall? Small?”
“Blonde? Brunette? Ginger?”
“Are you a butt or boob guy?”
Their captain gave out a weary sigh and closed the book with more force than it was necessary. Its contents were more complicated than he assumed, and even if the Legion was quiet today, the current topic of the talk was causing everyone to be a little too lively for his patience.
(And more importantly, he was hungry.)
"You should start cooking lunch.” he reminded them curtly. There was even more ice in his voice than usual. “I'm gonna call Anju."
He got up and walked towards the yard, probably in order for the girls to not pick up the contents of the conversation in the base. Yeah, the Reaper was always too serious and they probably pushed all his buttons there, but at least he was kind enough to not condemn them to suffer the fury of the ladies of the Squadron. Or maybe he just thought it would compromise the outcome of any battle they could face in the next few days.
In any case, they all looked at his retreating back and sighed.
“Shin could relax a little, don’t you think? At least in a day like this.” Daiya told Raiden, who only shrugged in response, like saying you’re telling me.
"Yeah, but honestly, Shin's a hot guy,” Touma commented while looking at the ceiling. “Girls love the stoic, silent type, don't they? He could take a pick between a lot of chicks"
"Yeah. Any girl he chooses would have to be gorgeous, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense." Kino added, crossing his arms and nodding with his eyes closed and a cocky smile in his face. Raiden coughed softly.
"Guys, I don't think Shin is the kind of guy to go after looks..."
"Shut up, Raiden, let us have fun.” Haruto hushed him with a gesture of his hand before looking at the rest of them with a mischievous smile. “What would that guy be into?"
"Long hair." Tohzan pointed out. Their Captain had been transparent on that one.
"Yeah, we already know that. Other things?"
"I bet he's a hypocrite. He says he doesn't care about size but I bet he likes them big.” Kino said full of himself. “So... huge tits!"
The room burst into hysterical laughs with that comment. Not even Raiden could keep his cool: the werewolf was doing his best to hide his chuckle behind his right hand. The thought of Shin with a girl like that was just…
"Could you imagine? The guy wouldn't know what to do with that." Theo was barely able to talk while trying to catch his breath. He had to take a moment to clean the tears from the corner of his eyes.
"Any girl with an actual spine would terrify him.” Kujo agreed, still crouching and hugging his stomach. “He's actually shyer than he wants to pretend."
"For all the strong front he always puts, he has a soft spot somewhere. Bet he'd like a girl who is innocent and proper." Haruto said the last words in his best rendition of a delicate girl, which provoked some more laughs in the group.
"I don't know about that, Kurena has been trying that for years..." Daiya commented, scratching his head and frowning in sympathy for their younger comrade.
“Innocent, yes, but definitely not proper.” Theo grimaced. “Girl doesn’t know when to shut up.”
"Well, she's going for the wrong approach. At this point, she's like his little sister..." Haruto sighed while shaking his head.
"Poor girl." They all nodded at once.
"Innocent and proper, did you say?” Raiden repeated while scratching his chin absent-mindedly, finally chiming into the talk. “To find someone like that here is unlikely, to say the least..."
"Better luck next life, our Reaper!" Kujo exclaimed to the window.
Time passed. Their service period came to an end. Almost all of their squadron died, except for the five of them. They escaped the Eighty-Six Sector and left behind its horrors, only to come back to the battlefield once more. They couldn’t look at their fallen comrades in the face otherwise.
And now they had gone through hell and made it back again. The Morpho was destroyed, the surviving countries were saved, and the Republic… was still barely hanging on. Somehow.
(Most likely because of her .)
They had retreated into one of the Federacy’s forward operating bases. For some reason, the army seemed to have an obsession with keeping things divided by sex: courses, dorms, bathrooms... Or maybe it was the normal procedure for a military, and they just hadn't gotten the memo in the Eighty Six sector. Well. They didn’t have how to know it anyway, having grown up without parents or older siblings, or any kind of adult supervision.
But in any case, it was useful sometimes. Like now.
"So, Shin..." Theo said while washing his hair. If he wanted to obtain his answers, there was no better time than this. The three of them were in the bathroom, finally taking a shower after the mission. They had to be mindful of their injuries, so they were taking their time on it. Shin couldn’t escape easily from this one. "You saw the Major back then, didn't you? How was she?"
Shin's monotonous reply came from the cubicle next to his. He had to pay extra attention to catch it under the noise of the running water, since their leader tended to talk just barely above the minimum volume necessary to be heard.
"She looked tired. Like how you'd expect someone to look after two months fighting a siege.”
"I wasn't talking about that, idiot!” The Jade retorted, raising his voice. “Confess. Was she hot?"
"Not really. It was dawn, so it was cool outside."
To think he had actually seemed to ponder over his words before giving him the most disappointing reply ever. Theo sighed frustrated.
"Shin, come on. You're not that dense."
"I don't know what you mean..." And he actually sounded confused. The absolute jerk. He could hear Raiden chuckling from the other shower.
"How did she look?!” Theo exclaimed, losing his patience. “Was she tall? Small? How was her hair? How were her boo-?"
"She had long hair." Shin sighed. Not the kind of dreamy sigh he had been expecting, but more like one of the would-you-shut-up-already variety.
"But we already knew that! Come on, details."
"I really don't know what you're talking about..."
Raiden seemed to get tired of their fruitless conversation and scolded him, like the boring mother hen he always was. Or maybe he was just worried about his physical integrity if he continued to bother Shin.
"Theo, stop it. It's pointless."
Fifteen minutes after that, Shin closed the door of the room he had been assigned for the night and sighed, grateful that his new rank gave him the privilege of a single room. Finally, he was free from Theo’s nagging and Raiden’s infuriating smug glances. They should be thankful that they were injured and he was still happy that they had survived; otherwise he would have beaten both of them up by now.
He sat on his bed and looked up to the ceiling, his mind going back to the early conversation. The truth was that he had willingly misunderstood Theo's questions. He had spent enough time in the company of teenage boys to know what he was actually referring to, but he refused to talk about the Major in those terms.
(The Major. She’s alive. She's safe.
That certainty still brought him a light, warm feeling to his chest and a soft smile to his lips.)
And there was another thing on the matter...
In truth, Shinei Nouzen had never understood those kinds of talks about girls. Sure, they had... Hair. He guessed. They tended to care about it more than the boys at least. And they could be tall, or short, or skinny, or muscular, but why did they care about that? Those were just characteristics of the body they had, and in reality, he wasn’t someone who took note of them. As long as they could look for themselves on the battlefield, anything was fine for him. All the soldiers were the same after all, weren’t they?
And in that sense... Yeah, maybe the Major wasn't the kind of girl he would trust to pilot a Juggernaut, but that was not her role in the war to begin with. She had other ways to defend herself. After all, she was a commander, and a very competent one: diligent, resourceful, and committed to her ideals to an almost dangerous point for herself. She had a brilliant tactical mind, and a certain kind of endearing charisma that made her gain the respect of her subordinates quickly, no matter how adverse the circumstances. He should know it: he had fallen for it faster than he would like to admit it.
So, she didn't have to use a weapon.
He could do that for her.
She deserved that from him at least, in retribution for all that she did for him. After all, she survived. She kept fighting against all odds, believing she could meet them again at the end. And she fulfilled even his selfish request of remembering them.
And… that made him happy. The very fact that she was alive made him happy.
Because she deserved it. Because they could finally meet in person. Because he would be able to bask in the warmth of her kindness once again, the same kindness she had shown even to an unknown soldier left alone on the battlefield that day in the lycoris field.
That day… There had been something in her face. In the smile she had given him. A certain brightness. It had sent a pang directly to his chest.
Her smile…was beautiful. He… he liked it.
He could at least understand that.