PERCY & ELI
BARRACKS, NEW ANCHORAGE
It had taken a while, but Percy managed to make the room feel less like a bunk that was just copied and pasted and more like his (and Ana's) own space. He switched out the drab gray bed stuff with Ana's old mismatched set and he "borrowed" a couch bed from a vacant room for himself. The closet had some of Percy's clothes, and the small dresser inside had Ana's. The top of the dresser was home to a couple of books and a trio of stuffed animals - a turtle and two rabbits to be more precise. Ana liked those ones to be out. There was this damn table that just didn't fit in anywhere though, so he kept moving it around.
"Dad.""Huh?" Percy looked up at his daughter as he moved the stupid table. again.
"Leave the table alone! You're driving us both crazy with it!" Percy looked back down at it. He
was kind of driving himself absolutely insane.. He laughed a little because that
has to be be dumbest thing to let drive you insane.
"Why don't you just put it in the room you took the couch thing from?""Good idea."Percy lifted the table from the floor and started to walk out of the room, Ana tailing behind ready to ask something else.
"—and since then it's been all just... y'know, you ever get that?""No, not really."The voices were nearing, footsteps split between a steady pair and a lighter pair that couldn't seem to settle on a speed it liked. Before long the seemingly senseless conversation passed by the Moore's room, and all at once stopped.
"Woah-woah-woah wait! Lizzy wait!" Vera yanked the older girl's arm to a stop, peering in the open door, a grin splitting her face.
"VERA!" the question in Ana's mind had been "Hey, do you think I'm gonna run into Vera at all today?" but it was already answered. Ana ran up and hugged the older girl, allowing herself to succumb to the excitement inside of her by squealing happily and jumping up and down.
"Vera Vera Vera guess what?"Percy had tried to stop Ana from pouncing the poor girl, but it was too late. His face was red with embarrassment as he looked to Eli with a very much "I'm so sorry" look on his face.
Vera was not one to be the anchor, and so when Ana began hopping, she joined in, happy to have a little dance in the hallway. Eli stepped back to give them room, catching Percy's expression, even if it wasn't necessary. She tried to convey "it isn't a problem" as best she could with a nod, but it wasn't her forte.
"What what what?" "I wanna see if you can guess first! C'mooonn, guess!" Ana's grin was about as big as Vera's, but she stopped jumping up and down and settled on just bouncing lightly on her feet, not able to completely leash her joy in seeing her friend.
Vera kept the embrace going even if the bouncing had stopped, a quizzical look overcoming her face. She bit her lip, bobbed her head side to side.
"Hmmm...yooooou....grew a foot taller? You got heat vision? Oh!" she snapped her fingers.
"You're one of the new pilots? You gonna be in one of those big robots?"Ana stopped bouncing in that moment to look at Vera with a weird look on her face.
"No," she said simply. Then she grinned again and said,
"I mean, yeah, that'd be cool-""You will do no such thing," Percy said quickly, his voice actually pitched up slightly. He didn't even want to think about his child getting into one of those things.
Ana, ignoring her father, continued,
"Buuuttt I AM gonna be around here like the pilots are! I'm staying with Dad! Here!If Vera had caught Percy's sharp protest, she didn't show it, instead matching Ana's earlier squeal of delight with her own.
"Ohmygod yes!"Eli did, though with the hood and the scarf there was nothing to signify it. She could sympathize though, recalling only briefly when she'd found Vera asleep in Blur's cockpit.
Percy felt that as Ana was talking about her staying here, it was a perfect time to bring up his idea - or maybe "thoughts" was the better word for it.. After setting the troublesome end table down just beside his door, hee took a step towards Eli then said in a quieter voice - as if the kids could hear them over their joyous squeals -
"Can I talk to you for a second, or.. were you busy?"For a moment Eli didn't reply, instead looking Percy over, a habit with people that approached her first. The man looked more or less unchanged since the last time she'd seen him, with one more notable exception: the sleek, metalic hand. In the heat of Sophia's desertion, she must not have been aware of the wound, and less the repairation of it. Stuffing her hands in her coat, she remembered there was in fact a conversation at hand.
"What?" She said, more than asked.
"It's about the kids." Percy looked over to the two who were happily talking about how great it'll be to get to hang out with each other.
"Ah.. Vera's not a trouble maker, right? Not much of one?"The short answer was no, the long answer was more of a "nnno" with a wobbly hand gesture. Had Vera caused trouble? Probably. Did she search it out? ...Probably. But Eli was convinced she meant well.
She shook her head.
"No.""Are you sure she won't?" Percy asked without really thinking - he realized a little too late how rude that probably sounded, and his little preemptive wince showed he knew very well that he was being rude. Or maybe it looked more like a judgmental squint.
"No." Blunt, but true. As much as she trusted Vera, Eli couldn't --and wouldn't-- make promises for someone else.
"And, uh.. another thing.. Do you remember that meeting with Graham from a while back?" It took a bit of self control not to scowl at the name, just out of reflex.
"Which?""I think it was one of the earliest ones.. I, uh.. Wasn't paying attention." He couldn't hide the sheepish looking smile on his face. He rubbed his hands together nervously for a moment, looking over his shoulder as if Graham was going to be right there, giving him a disappointed look, before continuing,
"I think there were some mentions of how sh-" Percy glanced over to the kids again to see if they were listening - it kind of looked like they were, but he couldn't really be too sure.
"It was a meeting about how things were going to be run now that Sophia's up and left. I, ah.. I don't quite remember what the rules were.""Deserted." Eli quickly corrected.
"Graham knows the details, I'd imagine Lofgren does as well.""So you weren't paying attention to Graham's lecturing either?" Percy grinned slightly.
She didn't look amused.
"It isn't my job to report for you." Stark as the words were, it didn't sound like a reprimand.
The smile on Percy's face faltered slightly,
"I was just joking. I mean, the guy's so boring. Ha.." Grin completely gone, Percy broke the eye contact he had been making before to timidly look away to compose himself before he
really couldn't recover.
"Boring or not, New Anchorage is confident he's what we need."The redhead shrugged slightly, looking back at Eli,
"I guess." Before either adult could speak again, Percy was pulled from the conversation when he felt a small tug on his sweater.
"Dad, me and Vera are both starving.""Yeah c'mon, talking and eating at the same time is like, part of your guys's training right?" Percy couldn't help but smile at the two kids - Vera especially in that moment.
"Sure, yeah. Didn't mean to keep you girls like that," Percy looked over to Eli, then Ana, then finally settled his gase on Eli.
"Would you mind if Ana and I just walked with you and yours?""Course we don't mind!" Vera said, exchanging a brief glance with Eli before turning back to the others.
"The more the merrier!"Percy looked to Eli, trying to get another response from the person he actually had asked.
"Right... We'll all need to be there anyway." was about all she offered. The meeting was mandatory, she wasn't about to get reprimanded in front of new recruits on their first day.
And with that, Ana ran towards the mess hall.
"Last one there's a rotten egg!""ANA!" Percy's shout went unheeded as his child continued to run in the hall, and Vera, not wanting to be the rotten egg, hurried after her.
mickilennial
AlteredTundra
BlazingBark
TokyoPewPew
Lemons
Carlyle
Majoraa
DruSM157
Anime_Freak
Phase
