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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:50 pm
That day had been a good day for the now Agent Panther. No longer would he be scrubbing floors or stuck on boring jobs. Soon he would be busy changing rooms and doing new kinds of training. But now, beer was in order.
He had been joined by one of his former work mates and they spent some time talking and drinking, mostly the latter. About two glasses in, his associate had started teasing him a bit about his recent lack of interest in the opposite sex. Something the new agent tried to blow off, until it became a challenge. The other rocket, still a grunt, picked a random girl in the room and pointed to her. 20 dollars laid on the table.
Any other day, the agent would have recognized the girl before accepting the challenge. Instead he walked over to her and sat down beside her, "Can I buy you a drink?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:05 pm
It had been a good day for Agent Aila as well, if not a bit less eventful than usual. Her promotion had been a pleasant surprise on top of closing the book on a personal matter that had been plaguing her for ages. Though in a good enough mood, limited duty had left her with far more free time than she was accustomed to having at her disposal. Training regimens were restricted as well, and so she returned to one of her favorite activities: studying.
The base's coffee shop wasn't as busy or interesting as the ones she recalled from Camphoreon, but it certainly was host to a number of colorful characters. She recognized one such character out of the corner of her eye as he seated himself behind her, raising an incredulous eyebrow as she turned her attention to him.
"Excuse my suspicion," she said, considering his words at length before responding, "but... why?" This was the same Rocket who had nearly provoked her to physical retaliation after the Poke Ball mission, right...?
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:22 pm
'Oh crap' he thought, realizing who she was. And from behind she was pretty damn cute too. He resisted the urge to turn and glare at his coworker and put on his best smile.
There was little room in his heart for those who did what she did. But his choices at the moment were to pay off the bill, or faking it.
"What? Something wrong with a guy asking to buy a pretty girl a drink?" he asked dropping his voice down an octave, acting as if he didn't recognize her. Were it not for the attitude, he might not have, she look much different from the girl in a bloody dress he chewed out after the ball.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:36 pm
If she were to list the reasons it was wrong, she would likely be able to produce more than she count on both hands. At the top of the list would fall the facts that 1.) he had made it quite clear that evening that he didn't approve of the girl or her choices, and 2.) judging from his demeanor, she would have no interest in the sort of drink he was offering. Add to that that his statement would require that he thought of her as at least vaguely pretty, and that seemed strange as well. Aila continued to regard the older man dubiously as she fought with the task of finding a proper response.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand..." She couldn't make the dots connect. Why would Panther want anything to do with her?
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:45 pm
He sat himself down. "You can pick anything you want." he striped his sunglasses off, tucking them into the collar of his shirt. "Think of it as..." he thought for a moment. "As a peace offering. We are all rockets here you know. Good relations between us makes us a better team during the raids."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:56 pm
She inclined her head slightly to a side. That made sense enough, she supposed... "I see. I'd prefer if you didn't spend money for my sake, but I appreciate the sentiment." She would continue to be absolutely stubborn in never accepting anything from anyone for as long as she could get away with it, after all. "If it will help towards these good relations at all, I suppose I should let you know that I don't approve of my actions that night any more than you do." She fidgeted idly with the corner of a page as she spoke; forgiven as she was, it hardly changed that she regretted the murder of her small niece.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:38 pm
That was unexpected. Today was just full of surprises. He stared off into space a moment before giving her another softer smile, that didn't need to be forced. "Good, you understand." He glanced over her face watching whatever emotions wandered across it. He noted her fidgeting and scooted away to give her a touch more space.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:56 pm
The expression Panther would find was one of intense recollection and introspection as Aila thought back to that winter night. She maintained that the other Rocket couldn't know what had driven her to the act even if she now regretted it. Similarly, she felt as though, even knowing how she would regret in the future, she would make the same choice if given the chance to redo her actions. The girl had been angry - purely, wholly, and gracelessly angry - and she couldn't imagine reacting in any other way.
"I should apologize," she said, somewhat abrupt. "I don't believe I ever did. I know it was a bit long ago now, but I shouldn't have behaved as I did that evening. I was a bit... stressed. I'm sorry." Her gaze remained on the open book in front of her. Were she less oblivious to the conditions of Panther's approach, however, she might have been less open-hearted.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:10 pm
It mattered not for Agent Panther had already forgotten his original reason for coming over. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, but it is to late to apologize to the one to whom you should be." he shrugged a little feeling like there could be something he could do, she looked intent and possibly injured.
"But for my half I didn't behave much better. That night was pretty stressful for us all." a flash of the carnage crossed his mind, bringing back bad memories, ones he was in no mood to recall. "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Panther." he flashed her a goofy grin and held out his hand.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:04 am
She couldn't argue against that. Her brother had forgiven her, but she could never even seek to apologize to the one who most deserved it.
The sudden lightening of his demeanor elicited a smile from the girl, and she moved to accept his handshake. "Aila," she replied. "A pleasure to meet you."
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 11:57 am
"The pleasure is mine. What book do you have there?" he tried to change the subject to something lighter. That and getting to know the rocket he hadn't bothered too wasn't a bad idea. Other then the incident he didn't know a thing about her. Well that and she was cute at least from behind, and a little from the front when not covered in blood.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:27 pm
She refocused on the book momentarily; she had been so distracted that she had nearly forgotten she was studying. "It's a basic guide to Spanish," she said, lifting it slightly to show the cover. "I thought I'd try and learn the language. It's... different." Different from both English and French - sometimes frustratingly so - but it was interesting, and she enjoyed the feeling of learning something completely new.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:44 pm
A second language? He gave the book an odd look. "That certainly would be useful." Spanish was well used language. "But I'm not sure you can learn a language out of a book alone. Or do you have a few tapes to go with it?" He never could work off of sheets to learn a language, he had to hear it. But he never stuck with one long enough to actually learn it. It puzzled him as to why someone would willingly torment themselves to learn second language out of a book.
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:02 pm
"I'm not sure... I hadn't thought that far ahead." She frowned slightly in consideration. Maybe she could find some audio resources on the internet, or... "At the moment I'll feel accomplished just to learn the basic grammar. It at least looks easier to learn than English, so I have some hope." Learning English had been quite the nightmare, she recalled...
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Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 1:12 pm
"English is your second language?" he was impressed. If he had thought about it, he might have detected a light accent. "I look at that and my brain gets all foggy. And I think I'm starting to get a little sleepy, my text book alert is going off." he snagged his sun glasses and shoved them back on his face, where they belonged.
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