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Lovino didn’t believe in fate and he most certainly didn’t believe in coincidences. So, if he was being completely honest, he didn’t really know what he was supposed to believe about Abel. The other man was locked in the decontamination chamber--again--but somehow, someway, he had finished his mission without dying. Lovino watched him look up at the metal ceiling in an almost bored manner but he could see the quiet frustration in his green eyes. He obviously didn’t like being contained in small spaces.
He for one was grateful for the peace Abel’s containment brought him.
If Abel was trapped then he couldn’t go out and do dangerous things while insisting everything would be fine. He couldn’t be an absolute dumbass and get himself hurt. Lovino, by default, wouldn’t have to scold him or keep track of him or--dammit-- worry about him.
It was honestly quite ridiculous.
Because sometimes, when he was being especially foolish, Abel would look over at him and give an infuriating smirk, tilting his head to the side in a way that could only be described as cute, and say, “Don’t worry so much. Just watch me; I’ll be fine.”
And if anyone told Lovino that somehow he’d be falling for this idiot of a scout when they had first met he would’ve thought they were hallucinating. After all, the first time he’d seen Abel he and his team had crashed into another ship--a target ship. They had been tracking them for weeks due to allegations that the people on board had been taking and selling people to slavers on other planets.
Lovino had used the crash to board their loading dock and had snuck down three corridors before he had found the cells. Just as he had been told, there were roughly twenty human beings detained along the hallway looking dejected and terrified. Or at least most of them were. Inside the cell closest to Lovino, Abel was standing with his arms crossed looking no more than mildly unamused at the situation.
Lovi had made the mistake of breaking the lock on his cell first. He had thought that because he had appeared calm he would be the least trouble. He thought he would be helpful in guiding the others to safety. He wasn’t completely wrong.
Together they had evacuated the poorly guarded ship while his team worked on detaining and arresting the other crew. They had finished getting the victims to safety before the battle had been won in the higher levels. Lovino still remembered--quite vividly, mind you--when he turned around to join the fight...and Abel had picked up a weapon from his team’s armory and followed him.
The idiot had said nothing to him. Given no explanation for why he was putting himself in danger again. He had simply pushed his way past Lovi and continued on his way as if he wasn’t wearing some of the least protective clothing known to existence.
Lovino chased him down the hallway and had ended up pinning him to a wall to get him to stop. He remembered shouting then but couldn’t remember what exactly he said. The profanity that spewed out of his mouth sometimes was too varied to keep track of. Regardless, he knew he had questioned why Abel was putting himself in danger. He remembered clearly when Abel had squirmed out of his grasp and kept walking, muttering under his breath, “Not everyone is safe yet.”
Nearly an hour of fighting later, they had finally subdued the ship’s crew and his Captain--an overzealous but friendly man named Alfred--had arrested Abel along with the criminals that had captured him. Lovino thought, in the moment, that he was making the right decision. It wasn’t until after he and another of his teammates-- a stoic and infuriatingly stiff man named Ludwig--had infiltrated the enemy captain’s office that he truly understood why he had been followed into battle. They had to break the door away from its frame to get inside. A young girl had been sitting on top of a destroyed routing desk holding a knife in her shaking hands.
She had looked so relieved when she saw them enter, “Are you the ones that got my distress call? I wasn’t sure I had sent it out correctly. Is my brother okay? They didn’t hurt him, right?”
Ludwig had been bewildered and attempted to calm her down. Lovino, on the other hand, had looked into her green eyes and seen the resemblance to Abel, “He’s fine. He’s probably with our Captain right now.”
She smiled and relaxed her stance, “Thank you. I guess destroying the router really did help.”
They had then discovered that her ankle was broken and Ludwig had carried her out of the ship.
A month later she and her brother had joined their team. She was shadowing Kiku their technology specialist to learn how to disable and infiltrate enemy ships without boarding. Abel was shadowing Lovino, a scout. Their main job was to find and maintain the safety of innocents involved in their missions. Which was how Abel kept ending up in the decontamination chamber.
He would run through poisoned areas or take his oxygen mask off to allow someone else to breathe. And Lovino knew that he was attempting to do the right thing but it was so frustrating to see him continuing to put himself in unnecessary danger.
“They’ve got family to worry about them, “ he always said, “Emma knows I’ll be fine. No one else cares if I’m stuck in quarantine for a little while.”
‘I care,’ Lovino thought but what came out of his mouth was always, “You’re so stupid.”
He sighed and began walking towards the electric barrier holding Abel inside, “How many times have you been in here idiot?”
The other shrugged, still staring at the ceiling, “How many missions have I been on?”
“You’re a dumbass.”
Abel smiled at that, “Maybe but I’m starting to think you don’t dislike me as much as you act like you do.”
Lovino felt his face heating up; so, he made a conscious effort to look even more pissed off than usual, “Yeah? Well, you’re wrong?”
Abel clicked his tongue and rubbed the scar on his forehead, obviously amused, “Shame.”
Lovi rolled his eyes but his heart was still pounding; perhaps Abel was getting too close for comfort. He caught sight of that scar again and couldn’t help the question, “How did you get that scar?”
The other man looked shocked for a moment before his eyes lit up just like the people they rescued on the daily. Joy. That emotion was joy. Lovino’s chest hurt and he didn’t believe in fate or coincidences; but maybe, just maybe, he believed that Abel was sent by some other providence to change his mind. Because if he was in this deep, it was probably already too late to escape on his own.
‘Maybe I just need a scout to rescue me then,’ he thought.
Foolish. Utterly foolish.