She didn’t move, didn’t twitch as the other woman advanced on her, eyes ablaze. Her gaze narrowed and she ‘tch’ed. “I did know. Sacrificed your life for some scrawny-assed pilot. Well done.”
Juliette’s next words struck like a blow and pulled the air from her lungs. She could feel her teeth grinding up the line of her jaw, her nostrils flared as she sucked in a breath. Her mind scrambled over itself to find a response, to find something to throw back that would mast how deeply those words had effected her—only they wouldn’t come.
The Commanders final words shattered what little decorum Diana had left and she turned away before her once-friend could see the pain that spelled itself so clearly over her features. “So be it, Commander.” Her voice trembled and she spat a curse. “Allow me to get out of your way. I’m sure you’ve got more important things to be doing.”
The merc’s comment about Joker leaves her reeling, and it’s only when she turns away that everything explodes inside Juliette. Reaching out, the commander grabs Diana’s shoulder and roughly spins her around. Face drawn in a scowl, she cocks her hand back and throws a punch, snarling in victory when she feels it connect with her old friend’s nose.
Body tense with anger, she stares the killer for hire down, her hands tightening again as though she wants nothing more than to punch her again. “Joker,” she rasps, her voice thick with fury. “Is a better person than you will ever be. And he’s been there through everything."
Don’t hit her again. Don’t hit her again. The mantra repeats over and over in her mind, but the phrase isn’t sinking in. Not really. "You don’t get to make comments about my pilot. Not when you’re not there to see what a fucking friend looks like. Not when you’re not there when you should be.”
Kai set her datapad aside, head tipped as she regarded her friend. She hadn’t seen that smile before—bittersweet was the closest word she could use to describe it.
A soft snort escaped her and she settled her hands in her lap as she leaned forward, elbows braced on her knees. “Oh really? Any good ones that stuck with you?”
Her smile turns from painful to amused in the space of a heartbeat. “There were several.” She replies, leaning back and closing her book. Slowly, she sets the book aside, her fingers running over it’s spine lovingly. “It was the only time he could ever bother to be imaginative.”
Eyes dropping down to the floor she tries to pick her favourite of the bunch, though that’s harder than she first thought. “I think the one I loved best was when he started swearing in German. It was easier to pick out what the swear words meant. Ficken was his favourite. Though the one I often used was arschloch.”
“Oh really?” She raises a brow. “And who is that said someone, oh mind reader?”
She lifts her shoulder in a shurg. “I meant people usually have that look when they’re thinking about someone they care for.”
She huffed a sigh. “Who said I was thinking of anyone in particular?”
“Because I’ve seen that look before, and it’s always connected to thoughts about a certain someone.”
“Hmm?” She glanced up at her friend. “What do you mean?”
Juliette rests her hand on her chin and smiles. “You have this goofy grin on your face.”
A frown tugs at her lips. “You bruise easily.”
Snorting, the brunette rolls her eyes and buries her nose in her book again. “I do not.”
“So, who are you thinking about?”
“Hey, Jules, you free? I could use a sparring partner.”
Juliette gives her friend a deadpan stare. “So you can cover me in bruises again?”
Kai’s expression softened and she stepped in close to her friend as she placed a hand on her shoulder. She canted her head in order to catch Juliette’s gaze, her brow creased in concern. “Jules—” She sighed softly. “What can I do to help? I’m hesitant to take you off the ground team, but if you need the rest, just say the word.”
“I need more than a rest,” she replies softly, her hand coming up and rubbing the corner of her eye. Everything seemed to hurt these days even her eyes, and she wasn’t entirely sure what she could do about it. The war was taking it’s toll on her, she’d freely admit that. But so was everything else. “I’m slowly falling apart, Kai. And it’s gotten to the point where even I’m beginning to notice it.”
“No. Damn it, Jules–no.” A ragged sigh escapes through her clenched teeth as Kai tugs sharply on her pony tail. “You’re my goddamn sister, Juliette. The only family I’ve got. No one can replace you.” She pinned her friend under her gaze, brow furrowed and mouth pressed into a tight line. “Where is this coming from?”
She shifts uncomfortably under her friend’s gaze, and refuses to look at her. So many responses cross her mind, each one worst than the last. What the hell was she supposed to say? That she was making rookie mistakes? Or bring up the fact that she just didn’t have the energy to take on the war and… everything else? Lifting a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug she muttered, “I’m just… tired.”
Her gaze narrowed and her brow furrowed under the weight of her scowl. “How the hell did you get that idea into your head?” Kai folded her arms over her chest. “Juliette, your one of the few people in my life I can actually trust, no questions asked. I’d be dead with out you, a dozen times over. I’m safer with you at my six than without, and you know that. Live, remember? We’re better together than not.”
She looks away, her hand rubbing the new scar that runs the length of the top of her shoulder. More and more scars have been appearing lately, and for rather stupid reasons. Forgetting to duck, moving too slowly from one covered position to the other, tripping over a piece of concrete sticking out. She feels more like a liability than a soldier. :I don’t know, Kai… You have the entire crew here to help you, I think you can get by without me.“
Kai looked up from her position on the couch, the datapad in her hands momentarily forgotten. She tipped her head as Juliette read, a soft chuckle escaping her as she finished speaking. “Essentially.”
She didn’t miss the way Juliette’s tone shifted and her gaze remained steady on her friend’s face. “Your father?”
Her fingers brush over the words, and she nod slowly, almost thoughtfully. Looking up, Juliette offers the other a smaller smile laced with pain and memories. It had been years since she had mentioned her father to anyone, though she thought about him every day.
“Yeah. He was a…” Pausing a moment, she searches for the right word, her eyes glazing over. “Peculiar man. He loved swearing, but he didn’t want me to pick up on the habit… So he started using terms he didn’t think I’d be able to pick up on.”
She sits with her back pressed against the wall, one of her small precious books spread across her bent knees. Smiling softly, she reads with the familiar halting slowness that’s plagued her most of her life. One sentence makes her snort in amusement, and she raises her head to look at Kai who sits across the room.
“Kai, listen to this, ‘You lack the requisite spine and testicular fortitude to study under me.’ Quite the fancy way of saying you don’t have the balls to be a student.” She smiles fondly down at the book. “It sounds like something my father would say.”