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There were several things Stormy got out of the misfortune that was Nevada's promo mission, aside from the obvious, and they were these: that she needed to up her game if she really wanted to be an expert at spying by the time she became a full hunter, and that she needed to start putting out feelers in the other divisions; while Death was her particular focus, those battles had clearly shown her ineptitude in both offense and defense. She'd barely deflected projectiles with a large weapon for Christ's sake!

< < This form was not primarily made for defense. It is an unnecessary tactic if you have the power to crush your enemies. > >

Well, we'll have to work with it somehow. Most of her friends were usually on the front line at any rate . . .

Thus was Stormy's plan concocted: around noon and after a light lunch, she began creeping around the shadows outside, keeping to herself as she scanned for a Moon hunter: that way, she could sneak, bother, and hopefully even squeeze some training into it all in one go.

After a while: bingo. She spotted the Moon design and silently began to creep up. When snow and hurricane weather had ruined the terrain, it had been hard to keep quiet while on the move--now she was able to slink at a steady pace. After trying Aria? A trainee could've been a piece of cake.

The closer Stormy got, however, the more she realized . . . Wait a second. Wait. one. second. She could recognize that weapon anywhere! And the dude's height! And the dude--!

A little less than three feet behind him, Stormy was hit with the greatest of impulses and suddenly lunged, wrapping her arms around him in a vice grip.

"How long have you been back?" she demanded in a low voice.

She whined as she was swallowed up in his arms, determined to stay mad for just a little longer even though she missed these kinds of hugs terribly. "You didn't write," Stormy accused with a scowl, half-muffled against his chest, "or report in, or anything! Just poof! You think a hug's enough to make up for that?"

(Maybe two or three might be. Her anger was mostly bluster and hiding her relief.)

"I wasn't missing you at all. I was too busy getting into trouble!" But she stated it like she was expecting an award, not like it had caused mental, physical, and emotional stress. A feeble attempt was made to push Tuck away to show just how annoyed she was. "Where were you anyway?"

Heidi, huh. This was to be expected, of course, and on a regular day she wouldn't have gotten as irrationally jealous as she did then. But after Nevada had run to Otto first when she came back from her weeks long shift, when Stormy was family? And that family should've come first? She felt more sensitive than usual. Couple it with the repressed despair at her best friend's situation, and what should have been a happy reunion was quickly turning into an excuse to vent anger.

Exaggerated gasping noises escaped her as Tuck tightened the hug. "Maybe I don't believe you," she huffed, tilting her head so she could stare up at him. "But. My birthday's normally on the 29th, and since that doesn't exist this year, I'll be taking presents on the 28th and March 1st." She squinted at him to drive the message home: get something good and maybe he'd be forgiven.

"Anything fun happen while you were there?" Stormy asked, avoiding his question.

Upon touching down, she smoothed her coat out briskly and continued to keep up the airs of affronted for just a little bit longer. It was hard to keep it up when Tuck kept grinning like that, because regardless of how angry she might be with things overall, a smile always got through to her. More than that, nothing had happened. He could call that boring, but Stormy called it a blessing.

Slowly the stiffness in her posture went away, her pout morphing into a guilty frown. "Not in a while," she replied. "He might've been assigned to an outpost too, I dunno. When I find him, though, he'll get the same treatment, don't you worry." Maybe worse since Evan had been gone longer. Knowing him, he might even ask for it . . .

"Guess I should bring you up to speed." Stormy tried to make it sound like a heavy burden, but a little smile couldn't help but form as she reached for his hand. "Let's take a walk around the fields. What's the last thing you remember happening here?"

"Wait what." Promotion? How'd she miss that? Immediately any pretense of being scorned went away and was replaced with a bright smile. "Congrats! About time, big guy~ And yes," Stormy informed him, swinging their hands a little as they walked, "I'm still dating Gale. It'll be . . ." Her fingers pressed against his hand as she counted down, a mildly surprised look coming over heer. "About seven months now."

She'd forgotten whether or not she'd ever given her brothers his name. It had all just been a game back then, but now just seemed pointless and childish in hindsight.

(Still worth bothering Evan over, though.)

"How're you and Heidi?" she asked in turn, both eager to move the subject away from her boyfriend and yet also eager to spill, but at the same time eager to hear more about what Tuck had been off too--normalcy, that's what she craved. A moment to catch up and breathe.

She was indeed proud, and knowing that Tuck and Heidi were fine (in spite of her earlier irrationality) only added to that feeling; there were some things the island just couldn't taint. "Good...I think I feel the same," Stormy found herself saying in a dreamy tone. "Maybe. There's a lot of stuff inside, you know? Like a real big basement just invaded the house while the house was off investigating the attic, and also everything is dark and full've dusty mirrors, and the paths you knew are all twisted up..."

Before she could really elaborate, however, Tuck reeled them back to the original point of their walk. "Right. Um." Stormy's smile dropped. "A lot of stuff's happened, but...I'll keep it simple." She hesitated, trying to figure out how to phrase this; the people so far close to her best friend had known already, so she had never had to face this issue. Direct was probably best, made her less emotional over it. "Nevada had her hunter promo a few weeks ago," she informed him, turning her gaze forward. "I went with her as backup. We were supposed to check out this village--had some sort of Fear infection going on--and find the source of what was going on. Along the way we got attacked by some mutant animals affected by the Fear."

It should have scared her how easy it was to omit the truth, but Thane's approval made it seem irrelevant.

"Her--Her weapon broke, Tuck. The bad kind of broken. The it turned into a tablet and there's no more fear shield bad kind." Her face tightened. "I couldn't help her when it was happening, I was--I-I was--" stuck in place, frightened of Lance's wrath, afraid Nevada didn't even trust her anymore, "--it almost got me too."