Disclaimer: oh come on, do we really need to go over how i don't own Vandread?
1:38 PM Wednesday
Dita stood unmoving. Part of her was still shocked at the suddenness of what had just occurred. Even after a few seconds had passed, she still had difficulty believing what it was she was seeing, which was a young man with black hair with his torso tightly wrapped in bandaging.
That much she didn't have trouble recognizing. It was the fact that he was only dressed in a pair of shorts that seemingly belonged to a "Spongebob Squarepants" which had her perplexed.
Keith on the other hand was also surprised, but for an entirely different reason. He had only seen this girl's face one other time, and as he once again drowned in her gaze, he slowly remembered his painful encounter with Dita.
'It's that girl!' he thought. 'What the hell's she doing here? What does she want?'
Dita was just as enthralled by Keith. 'What's going on? Why is he only dressed in that?' she asked.
A moment later, she started checking him out a bit.
'Wow, so that's what men's bodies look like?" she thought. 'He sure looks different from Mr. Alien; in fact he's a lot like Ms. Gascogne. I wonder if all those strange ripples on his body mean he's hungry or not.'
Keith was telling himself to shut the door and get some pants on.
'Whatever she wants can wait a couple seconds, right?' he thought. 'Then why can't I stop staring at her? And just what the hell is she staring at?'
Mustering his courage, Keith broke the silence and exchanged one awkward moment for another.
"C-Can I...help you, miss?" he asked.
Instantly, Dita came back to her senses. "Oh! um... I uh," she struggled in her mind to find the right words.
Dita looked away and bit her lip.
'Come on! You knew you would have to talk to him again! Oh, why is this so hard to do?' she fussed.
Keith could tell what was going on.
"Has she come here to apologize?" he thought. "Must be that, I'd be just like her if I ever hurt anyone like she did."
Dita was still unsure of what to say. Instinctively, she went back to her habit of pressing together her index fingers whenever she got nervous. She knew Keith deserved an answer, but this mannerism of hers was something she could not escape.
Barnette was never one for drawn-out conflicts. Though she was prone to carrying a grudge, she favored the idea of the benefit of the crew overtaking her own. Ever since Meia had assumed leadership of the ship's communal dread squadron, Barnette was forced to take a position of third-in-command, after Jura and Meia.
For all her pretentiousness, it was clear to the crew that Barnette had felt at least some trace of rebuke at having been pushed back even further. She hadn't hunted the top spot, but she would not have denied it.
Since Meia's climb to the top, though, Barnette had learned at least to relax a tad bit more. It had become clear to her after a few months under Meia's command that the blue-haired girl was far more qualified for the position; Barnette could never willingly discipline her own self to the obsessive extent that Meia had done so.
Barnette had even come to enjoy taking a more casual seat in the chain of command. She was not so far up that she lost sleep worrying about her dread, but she was not so far down that other pilots would refuse consulting her. She had become happy where she was; and her progressive relationship with Jura, whatever stage it was in, reflected her contentment.
The crew had noted with alarm, then, following Keith's arrival, that Barnette's attitude had suddenly grown... sour.
The green-haired girl had become moody, defensive, and uncharacteristically angry. Her command over dread team C had suddenly become rife with tension and her actions towards her three wingmen had increased in severity. As their fear of the leader grew, team C's simulator scores depreciated greatly and Barnette was not happy to find out, which would then reinitiate the cycle of tension in the dread team.
In her life outside of the cockpit, Barnette now found herself traversing the hallways solo, the ship's shooting gallery becoming her home away from home, where she had spent hours of the day firing off thousands of rounds of ammunition at unknown assailants.
Even the way she interacted with Jura had grown strained.
Where once the pair could be found attached at one another's hip, now it was a rarity to ever see the two at all in front of curious eyes. Barnette had become a recluse, only leaving her room to dine at the Trapeza, or while away an afternoon at the shooting gallery. She hardly ever entered her dread except at times of battle, and her visits to the training simulator had become few and far between.
She had become a carbon copy of Meia in almost every aspect except that her piloting skills had suddenly nosedived since Keith's arrival.
It was during one sojourn to the Trapeza that Barnette had overheard Dita and Paiway's conversation concerning Keith's awakening. At the mere mention of the young man, every muscle in Barnette's body tightened fivefold and her purple eyes narrowed to hateful slits so tiny that wisps of smoke could have nested in them.
"So, he's awake now..." was all she had said, before slipping back to her room to quietly plot her confrontation. Keith was going to pay, that much she promised.
Now two days following Keith's second visit to the infirmary, Barnette quietly strode down the hallways of the Nirvana. On her face was plastered a look of sheer calm so thorough that it nearly seemed as though the girl was sleepwalking.
All she had thought about was Keith, her hatred for him growing with every breath of air she took in. As she made her way for Keith's room, no one in the halls who passed her noticed the silver revolver that she tightly clutched in her left hand...
Keith was now becoming more and more uncomfortable. And for good reason.
It was bad enough this girl showed up at the worse possible time, but standing in an open doorway was letting in a draft, so he was also getting colder by the second. When the young man realized his shivering was no longer out of surprise, he decided to try and put this awkwardness to an end.
'After all,' he thought, shivering. 'She can't even talk to me right now... Might as well get some pants on, at least.
He gave the nervous girl a quick once-over, and then spoke again.
"Um, I'm sorry, miss, but it's a little cold, so if you would just excuse me for a moment..." he said, punching in the close-door sequence. Dita quickly regained her resolve when she thought that Keith was trying to escape her plan.
'Stop him,' she thought, 'he's getting away!' Dita leapt at Keith through the closing doorway with all her might, tripping into him as she lunged forward.
"No, please wait!" she called, stopping Keith's right hand on the keypad with her own.
He looked down at the distraught young lady, astonished by how quickly she moved. The warmth of her hand was still on his, her face nearly buried in his chest. Again, Keith could not believe how heavy she was.
'Holy shit!' Keith thought, 'What the hell is she eating? For a small frame, she's pretty damn heavy!'
Keith looked down, to see only a mass of red hair, and a strange gold headband. There was softness where he felt her breathing cheek against his chest.
'Crap, is she unconscious?' he thought. 'Better wake her up, then.'
"That was quite a tumble, miss; you okay?" he asked.
Suddenly, Dita realized where she was. The redhead looked up and cautiously saw Keith's face. In place of fear she now saw understanding, even a little amusement.
She slowly brought herself back up to posture, but found it strangely difficult to leave Keith's warmth.
"Um, miss?" she heard Keith say next.
She looked at his face, and he grinned slightly, gesturing with his head to his right side. Dita then saw his right hand on the wall held by her own and her pale cheeks tinged a pink flush as she released it from her grasp.
The two stood uncomfortably in Keith's doorway another moment before the young man in his underwear really started to get uneasy with the situation.
'Come on, Greers,' he told himself. 'How many times have you ever been in the same room with a girl while in your underwear? None! What kinda guy are you? She's just a girl, right? Just speak your mind and put some pants on, already!'
He took a deep breath, stood up straight, and calmly said what needed to be said.
"Listen, I know these past couple minutes might've been a little weird for the both of us," he began, slowly backing away from her as he talked.
"But this is kinda my room, so if you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed, leave, and then you can go ahead and do whatever it was you wanted to do in here, okay?"
He slowly backed to his closet, where he grabbed his trusty jeans and another plain white t-shirt.
Keith had just managed to slip his red sneakers on when Dita's sense of alarm grew.
'Oh, no!' she thought. 'He's leaving again... I gotta stop him!'
Keith was making his way back to the door when, to his horror Dita stood firm... she was smiling. This change in mood caught Keith off-guard. He knew he could have gotten away if she was still nervous, but now this sudden, terrifying happiness of hers stopped him dead in his tracks, with his heart stampeding in his throat.
"Hey!" she chimed. "I heard ya finally woke up, and that you hadn't eaten in a while, so I hope you don't mind if I made you some food!"
In a flash, Dita dashed across the room, until she was only inches from Keith's face and asked him coyly.
"You have eaten food before, right, Mr. Other Alien?"
Keith was trembling. He was trying his best to keep his composure, but the mixture of confusion and fear he felt towards Dita from the beginning quickly resurfaced.
'What the hell does she mean 'have I ever eaten food before?' he thought, before another question arose. ' ...Mr. Other Alien!'
Keith slowly backed away as Dita stalked towards him, describing everything she had prepared for him to eat. As he listened, smiled, and nodded Keith couldn't believe his ears. Most of the dishes she described took hours to prepare, and some needed at least three other people to perfect. Yet, as disbelieving as the young man was, what he suddenly realized was just how hungry he was.
Despite the bubbly, talkative vacuum that was marching ominously towards him, Keith did have to admit that food didn't really sound too bad. Still, as Dita continued her approach the young man's hunger quickly transformed into nausea.
"So, whaddya think, huh? Huh?" she pressed on. Dita had literally pushed Keith all the way to the other side of his room, and he had never felt so trapped in his life.
"Doesn't it all sound so yummy? Well, whaddya think, Mr. Other Alien?" she asked.
Keith was simply too scared and confused to answer, so Dita decided to take the initiative; the food was getting cold.
"Oh, I know you're just gonna love it all! Come on, Mr. Other Alien, what are ya waitin' for?" she finished.
Then, Dita latched on to Keith's left hand, which was actually in his pocket, and nearly flung him out the door with all her might. Again, Keith couldn't believe the sheer physical strength of this girl.
"Wait, wait! Where are we going? Hold on-- Ouch! Not so hard, that arm was busted, miss!" Keith called.
Dita was not listening. In another instant, Keith was suddenly outside his room and out in the hallway, he saw them: the massive towers of food. He was struck dumb by the sheer height of the covered plates. As he walked closer, his sense of smell was bombarded by literally hundreds of individual aromas that his cook's nose had been taught to identify.
Though he could not see a single dish, the pit of his very empty stomach told him there was good eating ahead, and he was so emotionally moved that literally laid a hand on the cart to confirm that what stood before him was in fact, reality.
So caught up in the maelstrom of hunger, aroma, and anticipation, Keith had failed to notice that around the corner, set of purple eyes stared very promissory bullet holes right in his direction. Barnette felt the slightest ghost of a smile dance across her lips as she advanced, gun-drawn, on the male who had turned her life upside down...
A/N9:
1.) hello all! so good to be back. usually i spend longer on chapters, but in terms of the actual story, this installment was much more complete as it is than any i had written before.
2.) one thing i've yet to ask you all about concerning my writing is the situation of OOC. i'm not a part of studio gonzo, so i couldn't possibly get the characters bang-on, so if there's anything that glares, please do let me know...
3.) also, as a side note, this day marks my first-year anniversary as a member of the site, so consider this an anniversary gift, y'all!
4.) other than that, please R&R!
happy reading to you all...