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“Welcome!” Sasha’s uncharacteristically warm tone gets Bastian’s attention. She’s only that friendly with…
“Hi!” The keeper of the ark flounces into the parliament office, carrying the smell of sunshine and adventure with her.
“You’re here!” Bastian greets the adventurer, looking up from his task board. “What’s going on?”
“Bastian!” The spirited young woman looks relieved to see him. “Just the man I wanted to see! Could you do me a favor?”
“Of course.” He replies instantly, the demure look on her face not at all necessary. They owe her much more than they could ever repay. “What do you need?”
She temples her fingers. “I need a turtle suit.”
Bastian raises a single platinum eyebrow. “A… turtle suit?”
“It’s not for me.” She says hastily. “It’s for a friend.”
“No need to deflect, if that’s what you need I’m more than willing to look into it for you.”
“No, seriously! It’s for my friend Finn.” She explains. “He grew up in a turtle colony on an island that is going to periodically submerge soon and he needs it to stay with them.”
“Ah,” Bastian nods as if taking this information in stride. Just like her for the first favor she asks to be for someone other than herself. “I see, then. What do you have in mind?”
“First off, it needs to look like a turtle.”
Bastian nods hesitantly. “Ah… yes. I suppose I meant more specifics regarding the mechanical qualities, such as materials and features.”
“Just trust me, Bastian, it needs to look like a turtle.” She says pointedly. “The turtles are his family and stuff.”
“... If you insist.” Bastian takes out a data pad and starts typing some things in. “What else?”
“He needs to be able to breathe underwater and also not get cold.”
Bastian types and then considers for a moment. Upon her questioning look, he elaborates. “Though I’m confident I could procure the means for the suit to provide him oxygen indefinitely, it would take much longer to create. When is the island scheduled to submerge?”
She grimaces. “...In 4 days?”
Bastian shakes his head. “Hmm, not enough time for that. But perhaps… ah, yes. What if the suit allowed him a small reserve of oxygen that would allow him to be submerged for several minutes at a time, and occasionally come up for air?”
She squints and taps her lip, thinking about how turtles work. “Yeah, I think that’s fine!”
“Very well. Any additional requirements?”
She shakes her head, “Nope!”
“Could you write down his measurements? I assume from your description this is a child.” One would hope, anyways. Bastian holds out a data pad.
“Yeah, I don’t know how to convert turtle years but if I had to guess,” She hums thoughtfully and she writes some things down on the pad. “I would say he looks about eight.”
She hands him back the pad and he looks it over briefly before putting it away.
“I’ll send you a message when I’ve got it ready for you, then.”
The adventurer beams and before Bastian can blink, she’s squeezing him tight in a hug. “Thanks Bastian, you’re the best!”
“I- um!! O-of course, any time, uh-“
Just like that, she’s skipping out the door without a care in the world.
Bastian feels Sasha’s gaze on him but refuses to meet her eyes. Sasha starts snickering quietly. Heat rises up his neck.
“Don’t say a word.”
Sasha just laughs harder.
Bastian glares.
——-
“I need a suit.” Once again, the keeper of the ark graces the parliament office with her presence.
Bastian peers at the adventurer over his documents, a faint smile on his usually stoic face. “Another turtle suit?”
“No, not this time!”
“Oh?”
“This time, it’s for me, and it doesn’t need to look like anything. I just need to be able to breathe underwater indefinitely, withstand the pressure of the water, and communicate with someone above water.” She lists off. “And a weapon that works underwater, if you have any.”
Bastian straightens up. “After our last conversation, I did have some research done about optimizing underwater oxygen generation, in case you ended up needing it after all. The research had good results, I’m happy to be able to put them to good use.”
“Oh. Really?” She looks a bit shocked to hear that. “You didn’t have to.”
Bastian just shrugs. “It was no trouble.”
The adventurer observes the bags under the man’s eyes. She’d bet 10,000 silver that he hasn’t eaten in the past 24 hours either. For someone with such little free time, there’s no way it was no trouble at all.
Before she can figure out how to call him out on it, maybe convince him to come with her to eat, he’s moving on.
“As for the weaponry, I know of several suitable for underwater use. I can pull up a schematic for them now if you’d like to take a look at them and choose.”
“Actually,” She interjects, “I’m kind of hungry.”
Bastian blinks. “Oh. Well I can wait for when you come back then.”
“Or you could come with me.” She suggests without missing a beat. “We can go to my favorite restaurant, and they know who I am, so they usually have a private room available for me upon request. It wouldn’t be a repeat of our last date.”
Bastian is reminded of how someone had poisoned their food to try and harm him, and yet she had been the one sick on the floor instead. It had startled him to see her suffer so much when she usually presented such a joyful, diamond hard facade. His recollective frown falters. Wait a minute, did she say…
“Date?” His voice breaks a little on the word. He clears his throat.
“Isn’t that what you call it when a man and a woman who like each other go out to eat together?” Her expression is just shy of innocent cluelessness.
“Yes, but you’ve never said that you…” Bastian can feel Sasha looking at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see her face. She’s making an insufferable grin. “We’ll discuss that later.”
“So you’ll come, Bastian?” Her eyes shine expectantly. “Please, for me?”
Bastian presses his lips into a thin line, the irony of her using his own words against him not lost on him. “Yes,” He sighs heavily, “I’ll go. I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some food.”
“Good! Hehe.” The adventurer looks very pleased with herself as Bastian dusts off his coat and gets ready to go.
“What are you grinning about?” Bastian asks, feeling a bit like he’s had the wool pulled over his eyes.
“Oh nothing.” She chirrups, and boldly grabs his hand to lead him out. “Let’s go!”
—-
“Do you have a suit?”
This again? “... Should I presume you need a spare? As it just so happens, I did have a backup made of both in case-“
“No no no,” She interrupts him. “I meant like a bathing suit. Do you have one?”
“Oh. Yes, of course.” Bastian is bewildered at how this could possibly be relevant. “Why do you ask?”
Instead of answering right away, she moves over to the side of his desk and pushes some papers out of the way to hop up and take a seat. For a moment she just gives Bastian what is a clear once over.
Bastian can’t help but squirm under the scrutiny. “What is it?”
“I regret to announce that after careful examination I have diagnosed you with vitamin D deficiency.”
Bastian processes that, and shakes his head. “Impossible, the correct dose of every vitamin is in the nutrient liquid I drink every 3 days, there’s no way I’m-“
“That stuff doesn’t count, it’s fake anyway. Real vitamin D comes from the sun and only the sun, and that’s facts, my dear Bastian!” She says, wagging a finger at him.
“I can assure you that is not “facts”, my friend.” Bastian insists with a frown. “We cykins have extensively researched and developed vitamins that mimic the ones found in nature perfectly.”
He crosses his arms and raises a brow in challenge for her to refute this.
The wheels spin in the adventurer’s brain as she tries to come up with an effective counter argument. Bastian is satisfied when she seems to give up after coming up short.
“Fine. But if that’s true, then why are you so pale then, huh?” She leans forward and pokes at his cheek in an exemplary fashion.
“After the accident that prompted the need for my body’s reconstruction, the grafts used in implementation were of course in prime condition and had not been exposed yet to any harmful ultraviolet rays which therefore resulted in a paler tone- ah!”
Bastian tries to keep a composed face as she pokes at his cheek a few more times for good measure. She goes to do it again and he catches her hand and forcefully pins it to the table. It’s an effort a little too late though, as a pink flush has already crept up his pale neck.
“Anyways,” She says, looking down at where their hands are conjoined, trying to worm hers free. His grip tightens to prevent such. “You should come with me to the beach this weekend to get some real vitamin D, since you have a bathing suit.”
Her logic makes no sense. But she needn’t have tried to make an excuse to force his hand. Bastian would have come even with no reason to do so.
“Alright. I have a few things to finish up this week but nothing that would prevent me from being able to make the time.”
“Great!” She beams at him. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down!”
“When have I ever?” He jokes, going for dry. It comes off all too sincere.
She pats his hand where it still has her other trapped, grateful yet with a sense of shamelessness. Like she knows how much he goes out of his way to dote on her, and enjoys it...
“I’ll send you the time and location through your communicator. I can’t wait!”
——
“Unh... mm… hng!” Small sounds of surprise, gasps of pain and pleasure, and grunts of satisfaction leave Bastian’s lips unwittingly, muffled only slightly by his arms folded in front of him as he lays stomach down on the colorful beach towel.
His female companion’s hands work over his body, delicate but pressing down with an almost gleeful greed. There’s a little crack as some tendon moves back into place and Bastian makes the most delicious little gasp.
The adventurer’s hands glisten with SPF 4,000. Putting sunscreen on Bastian’s bare back was just a ploy she used to trick him into giving him a massage. And it had worked, hook, line, and sinker.
“You’re practically melting into the towel, B.” She laughs, and when he stiffens in shame to make as if to get up, she insistently presses her hands on his shoulders to get him back down. “I’m not done putting sunscreen on you yet.”
“There’s no way you’ve possibly missed a spot!” Bastian protests, but allows himself to be pressed back down. His entire neck and ears are pinkish red, and the warm afternoon sun sparkling high above the waves has nothing to do with it at all.
It’s irresistible. She presses her thumbs up both sides of his neck to press and massage in at the base of his ears. The knots there are so tight, she keeps her touch deliberately delicate so as not to cause him undue pain. His entire back has been a landmine of stiff muscles. If she’s being a little forceful to give him this massage, she doesn’t even care, that’s how bad it is. She’s staging a necessary intervention for Bastian’s health.
She rubs a spot at the base of his neck and startles as Bastian straight up moans. It’s so unexpected that the adventurer flinches, sprouting a flush of her own. “Um, there…” He says hesitantly.
The young woman swallows, mouth suddenly dry, and with steeled nerves, does it again. The sound Bastian makes is downright sinful. She can’t help but give the tiniest squirm where she sits on top of his upper thighs.
“My spinal augmentation is… reacting strangely.” Bastian explains, sounding embarrassed.
“Does it hurt?” She asks.
“No.”
She reaches for his neck again.
“Please stop looking at me like that.”
The adventurer freezes, hands an inch above Bastian’s neck.
“Huh?” Her voice is tinged with just a bit of panic.
“I can feel you staring, adventurer.”
“Oh, sorry. It’s just that you look so pretty. I mean uhh that you look pretty nice. Er, nice and relaxed, I mean!” She gives a nervous laugh.
“Mmh.” He grumbles. She wishes she could see the look on his face to make sure he’s not onto her.
Her hand creeps back towards the base of Bastian’s neck…
“Aaaughk!” Out of nowhere a beach ball smacks her right in the back of the head.
“Oh shoot, sorry!!” Someone calls out. It rings in her ears.
Rubbing the back of her head, the adventurer stumbles up off Bastian to catch the ball rolling towards their stuff, not wanting her clothes to get covered in wet sand.
“Owuh…” Picking up the ball, she lobs it with all her strength back in the direction it came. “Stupid rowdy teenagers!”
“M/C! Are you alright?” Bastian is already up on his feet, briskly walking over and pushing her hair aside to examine her.
“Yes. No.” She pouts, letting him lift her ponytail away from the base of her head to inspect the impact point. “Regulus clearly hates me. My day is ruined.”
She hisses as his fingers find the swelling bump. Bastian tuts at the wound.
“Looks painful. Just a minute, I have some painkillers in my bag, and a spare towel with some ice from the drink box should help with the swelling.” He pushes her down to sit on the beach chair, adjusting the umbrella so that she is perfectly in the shade. “Sit.”
The adventurer obediently sits and lets him fuss over her, pouting. Surely there’s no way someone could hit her without it being on purpose, someone was clearly just jealous she was at the beach with such a cute guy, weren’t they? At least she’d found one of Bastian’s sweet spots…
Bastian comes back over just as she gives a sinister giggle.
“Hm. Maybe I should get my scanner, in case you’re concussed.” Bastian frowns. “Brain damage is no laughing matter.”
“Oh no, I was just thinking about something.” She waves him off, and he gives her a concerned look before handing her the towel-wrapped ice.
“About what?”
“... Uh, nothing.” She holds the ice against her head and squelches a grin at him.
“I’m getting the scanner.”
“You really don’t have to, I’m fine!”
“Just to make sure.” Bastian insists. “Dear, please… for me?”
“Well, if it will make you feel better, okay.” She mumbles, flustered at his sudden use of endearment.
After a thorough examination resulting in the reassurance that the adventurer is not concussed, Bastian announces that he is well prepared to go for a swim now that he’s sufficiently protected from the rays of the sun.
As she follows him to the edge of the sparkling crystalline waves she is already plotting her next chance to make him relax.
“You know, I heard the warm water of a hot spring is great for relaxing sore muscles.” She remarks, giving a playful little splash in Bastian’s direction. “I’ve always wanted to go try it but I don’t want to go alone.”
“Is that so…?”