".....Does she swing that way?"

A/n: .....I find the genuine reason to ask myself: "What the f*ck am I writing?" Seriously, I should stop this before this devolves any further. Goodbye, it's 1405 words, enjoy!

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"....Even apart, we look at the same stars!" Lena recalled the words she spoke a couple hours prior. "So, you told the new recruits that?" Annette asked. "Yes." Lena responded.

"This time around you'll get punished, you know?" Anette turned to face her monitor as Lena got out of the changing room, dressed in a white robe for the mental examination. "Don't worry. Unlce Jerome will tell them how firmly I believe in this."

"You're suprisingly being cunning about this. You're being protected huh~?" Annette spoke with a teasing tone. "It's not to late to change the Republic's mistakes!" Lena rebutted. "Hai, hai." Annette gave up the arguement as Lena pouted in disatisfaction.

"So, how was your meeting with the infamous Undertaker?" "We're communicating regularly, we synchronize para-RAID every night." Lena answered as she sat down on the chair.

"Nightly? What do you guys even talk about?" Annette inquired. "Lots of stuff actually. Some of it is not related to work or the missions." Lena replied. "Then, how about the the other infamous soldier of equal, if not surpassing notoriety?"

Lena's attention visibly perked up. "Ah, Her." Lena spoke. "Oh? The famous executioner was a girl after all?" Annette asked, curiously. "Yes, her personal name; Vindicator. There's only one thing I could possibly describe her as."

"And what would that be?" "She's strong. She has quite the physical ability, she wiped out nearly a dozen Lowes on her own. And she's mentally strong too; I... felt it." Lena responded. "You felt what?" Annete asked while raising her eyebrows.

"You know, the reason why the two processors; Undertaker and Vindicator are so famous. While I haven't heard the 'voices of the dead' from Undertaker, I had experienced the 'phantom pain' from Vindicator. It was literally, phantom pain." Lena explained.

"Really?" Annette asked. "How did it feel?" "Well..." Lena closed her eyes, reliving the moment. "I felt my body being torn apart by scrap metal in an instant, I had only felt it once, but it was really painful." Lena shivered. "But, Vindicator... she's been feeling all this pain every battle."

"She's so strong. She's very strong. I... I admire her for enduring this much. I don't even think I'd be able to withstand pain for so long. She's someone I realy look forward to work with. With, her I think I can better understand them." Lena opened her eyes, she clenched her fists.

Lena put on a soft, endeavouring smile. "I told you not to get attached." Annette was stunned for a moment, only speaking seconds later from the delay. "He's a solid leader, with solid combat skills, While she's reckless, and bold. Having the skills to back it up." Lena added.

"You know, they're very good soldiers. Vindicator and Undertaker aren't the scary pair most people make them out to be." Lena closed her eyes again, still maintaining her smile. "That's just what you think, right?" Annette shot her a worried look.

Annette turned her head back towards the monitor and put on a blank, emotionless face. "Hey, Lena." Annette spoke. "Yes?" Annette hesitated to tell her friend. "Your heart rate elevated when you started taking about Vindicator."

"Ugh?!" Lena gasped, openning her eyes wide as she snapped her back towards the right to glare at Annette, a soft pink blush adorning her face. Annette held back a chuckle as her main emotions of confusion broke out on her face. '.....Does she swing that way?'

*Flicker*

Lena was back in her room, reading the 'after action reports of the 1st UTV Squadron, Spearhead'. She found something odd, every single paper sent her way was identical. "Heh???" She grumbled in confusion, shifting the papers against the light.

"Jeez..." She let out a sigh, her back hunched. Only for it to jolt up straight the next second later as the clock struck 12, alarming her with the sound of a ringing bell. She reached to the back of her neck. "Para-RAID, activate." She muttered.

"Synchronization target: Spearhead processor." She felt the connection successfully link as she greeted the Spearhead unit, only for no one to respond. Suddenly though, a voice responded. "Oh? Handler one, good evening." It was her.

Lena put on a happy smile. "Good evening, Vindicator. Are the other's awake?" She asked. "Handler one, employ some common sense. Oh, if you don't have common sense, go buy it on the market so you could understand." Her voice, filled with sarcasm, responded.

"Pfft... Haha!" Lena let out a small chuckle at her joke. "Alright, alright. Sorry, I should have thought before asking." Lena spoke, while Vindicator was utterly confused. "...?" What she spoke was actually meant to irritate the Handler, making her call off.

Yet she even let out a soft chuckle of... glee? Her most powerful sense is her eyes, but she doesn't always rely on them to asses the situation, she also uses her ears. For example, earlier, she really wasn't blacked out, she was half-conscious, and she managed to hear Shin's loving words.

She wasn't stupid enough to not identify genuine emotion after she met all kinds of people as she moved along units in the eastern front. Her new handler was genuinely happy and in an upheaved mood after her string of words, perhaps she considered it as a joke...?

There are two things to consider in this situation; either her new handler was being a pretty good liar, or, she was being expressive and genuinely friendly and cared for the 86. In any normal situation, she wouldn't gamble about this. But this time....

"Vin...or...di...vindicator...Vindicator?" Vindcator smiled as she snapped out of her thoughts. "Ah, yes, Handler one?" She asked her handler. "If the others are asleep at this time, then why are you wide and awake?" Her handler asked.

"Hmm.... I couldn't sleep I guess." She remembered the events that transpired earlier in the afternoon. She was too afraid and conscious to dare sleep with Shin again, so she opted to stargaze in the night sky, hoping to fall asleep while doing so.

"Want to have a chat just between the two of us? Not between soldier and commander, but as fellow women?" her handler suggested. Vindicator raised her eyes towards the clear sky, finding the repetitiveness of the sight look boring.

So, she told her handler, minus the part where Shin actually sexually assaulted her. "That dumbass! He always gets away with what he does with me. Friends have limits!" She lamented to her superior. "....What did he do to you anyways?" her handler asked.

"Well..." Vindicator pondered what to tell to her handler. Though they got close by conversing, she couldn't just outright tell someone she got bit in the neck like someone attacked her like a vampire. It was too intimate of bodily exchange from the two for her to tell.

"He... he... sat on my thighs without permission, I guess." Vindicator reasoned. "Mataku! Men really abuse their strength over us, women!" Her handler lamented with her. "The old fogeys here in Grand Mur always find their way to get my attention!"

Vindicator chuckled. "Hey! It's not funny!" Her handler scolded her. "They were drunk and were harrassing me! The only thing I could do was to walk away silently and not resort to self-defense!" Vindicator didn't respond, still looking for an answer.

Vindicator-.... Akari, intertwined her fingers and brought her hands up, then pushed out to her limit. The sound of joints softly popping from the stretch rang as a more devastating noise followed. "Vindicato-?" "Ahng~" Akari moaned as the night turned silent.

Next, she stood up on the rooftop and stretched her legs, "Hmm~" What followed next was her head. To which she tilted to the side, also making popping sounds. "Ah~!" She exclaimed as she twisted it the wrong way. "God, that hurt...." She muttered in the comms.

"....." Lena on the other hand, was speehless. One moment, they were engaging in a relatable conversation of harrassment- common to women of their age, the next her partner in said conversation was moaning in the comms with no shame!

She did nothing but open her mouth in shock as each sound of popping bones followed closely by a moan inspired a shiver down her spine. Her voice was so alluring.... Wasn't this woman afraid someone else might be awake and listening to their late night conversation?

Lena was dumbfounded and didn't know what to do about this, on one hand, each moan her 'partner' released was sending shivers down her back as long as she remains silent, and on the other, she could remind her companion about this 'disturbance'.

"....."

She decided to stay silent and listen away.