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After winning her second duel in just her first week of school, Suletta was finally reunited with Aerial. Well, they had been reunited for the duel itself, but she had very much been thrust into the cockpit, pointed in the direction of her opponent (that Guel boy, again, apparently?), and told “fight or die” (more or less). So that didn’t really count in Suletta’s eyes. But soon enough, Miorine had declared her the victor, Aerial was moved back to the hangars, and Suletta was able to curl up inside the cockpit and decompress after the most stressful few days of her life.
Suletta sighed. It was so much easier to breathe inside Aerial. The air at Asticassia felt so strange in a way that she couldn’t really put her finger on. Too warm. Or too cold. Or it tasted too nice. Whatever it was, it was bad. But the air inside Aerial still smelled, tasted, felt the same as it always had done. It was always so, so much easier to breathe here. She sighed again. “I missed you.” She smiled contentedly and hugged the back of the seat.
She stayed there and simply enjoyed her friend’s company for a while. She was only brought out of her tranquility when she noticed movement in the corner of her eye, someone standing at the very far side of the hangar. Someone was poking their head around the personnel entrance, looking inwards. When they realised Suletta had spotted them, they yelped slightly, and disappeared back into safety.
The yelp sounded somewhat familiar. “Miorine?”
The head reappeared, and now she was looking properly she could easily tell it was her saviour.
The saviour spoke up. “Sorry. You disappeared pretty quickly after the duel and I wasn’t sure if you were okay. I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she said, moving to leave. “I’ll-”
“Ah, no, wait!” Suletta called, before Miorine’s head disappeared again. Miorine paused and once again glanced towards Suletta and her mobile suit. Suletta scrambled out of the cockpit and onto the access lift. She jabbed the controls and the scissor lift jerked as it started to descend. Miorine watched and stepped inside the hangar properly as her friend - or rather, my… fiance… - jogged over to her. Suletta reached her with a smile on her face, but didn’t have anything to say. She simply held out her hand expectantly. Miorine stared at it for a moment, then took it, and found herself being suddenly dragged over towards Aerial’s lift, holding on tightly to the small package in her other hand.
Suletta smiled the whole way and gently helped Miorine onto the platform. “You’ve still not been able to properly meet Aerial. I know I… freaked out a little bit when you got aboard her before, but… well…” She blushed. “I-i-i-if we’re to be married, i-i-it’d probably be good to introduce you…” The last few words were barely more than a whisper as she trailed off.
Miorine blushed back, but a stern expression took over her face. “Y-you don’t have to force yourself.”
“It’s okay! I- I want to.”
Miorine whispered something that Suletta couldn’t hear. “Sorry, I didn’t-”
“But I… used you. I don’t deserve-”
“Used me?! But you saved me! I was in jail! And then you came to rescue me, and I was so happy to see you…”
“But I saved you so that I didn’t have to marry that… asshole Jeturk. Because I feel like you’re my best chance out of here.” That’s not… strictly true, but…
“Language! But, also, I… I don’t care!” Suletta almost yelled, and Miorine blinked in shock. “No matter what you say, you brought me and Aerial back together. You saved both of us,” she smiled. “Not to mention that I know you’re lying~.”
“I-I’m not lying about anything!” she was blushing again. Did she know about the ship she hired? How?
“You definitely are.” Suletta’s smile went from warm to smug to warm again. “You’re much stronger than me. I know you don’t need me to get out of here, or to do anything else. But…” Suletta’s smile faded, and she blushed again, poking her index fingers together. “I’d… still like to help you, if that’s okay.”
The elevator had long stopped at this point, and they both stood on the platform outside of Aerial’s cockpit in silence for a moment.
Miorine watched Suletta’s face for a moment, trying to read her. She simply blushed harder.
“Why?”
Suletta’s blush lightened a little bit, but she was still as red as her hair. “Y-you’re… my second ever friend. My only other one is Aerial. I think you’re really nice, and you introduced me to tomatoes, and you saved me and the most important person in my life,” she said, resting her hand on Aerial’s armour and sighing, the tension leaving her body with just a single touch. “I know from anime that friends are supposed to help each other. And I’ve seen how awful people are to you. So…” her nerves seemed to leave her very suddenly, and the tension returned. “I-I-I-I-I’d like to help you, if… if you’ll have me.”
Miorine was silent as she took Suletta’s outburst in. Just a moment later though, she smiled again. “Of course. Like I said, you’re my best chance of leaving this place.”
Suletta smiled back, then moved over to Aerial’s open cockpit hatch. “Come over here.”
“A-are you sure? I don’t want to intrude, so you really don’t have to-”
“I want to! I promise. Aerial wants to meet you properly too.” She reached her hand out to Miorine, and after just a moment’s hesitation, gently helped her inside. Suletta pulled her legs up and sat sideways, giving Miorine enough room to sit at the front of the seat. The hatch closed, and soft light illuminated the interior.
It took her a moment to get comfortable and find a position where she wouldn’t feel the side of Suletta’s boots digging into her back, but once she had she smiled. “Hello... Aerial. It’s nice in here. I feel… safe.”
Behind her, Suletta grinned. “Right? Aerial’s always here for me. She’ll always protect us.”
You make me feel safe too, Miorine thought, and blushed as she realised it. She was glad to be facing away from Suletta. She was as red as a…
“Oh! I forgot,” she started, thankful for a distraction from her own thoughts. “I was looking for you to check up on you, but also-” she shuffled to try and turn and face her friend, and handed her a small parcel wrapped in cloth. “-I wanted to give you this. As thanks, and as a gift.”
Suletta stared eagerly at the gift as she unwrapped it, revealing a small plastic box. She took the lid off to see a handful of fresh tomatoes. Her eyes widened and sparkled as her mouth grew into a wide smile. “Miorine! Thank youuuu-” her thanks continued as she leaned forward to wrap Miorine in a hug.
“H-Hey, don’t drop them!”
“They’ll be fine!”
Miorine eventually stopped resisting, and the two sat in peace as they both enjoyed the fresh food, Suletta still trapping her friend in her arms. As she chewed, Miorine wondered something.
“Does Aerial… eat?” She asked delicately.
Suletta suddenly shot her a glare. “Don’t mock us.”
Miorine suddenly felt very nervous, but Suletta’s facade quickly cracked as she burst into giggles. Miorine pouted, but couldn’t help joining her.
After they finished eating, they sat in silence for a little while. Suletta never let go of Miorine. Neither felt the urge to bring it up.
“...It’s… easier to breathe in here,” Miorine said.
Suletta smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”
“The air outside here is so… processed. I don’t know how it’s so different inside Aerial.”
“Me neither. I always felt this way at home too, though.”
Silence again.
“They say… the air on Earth is clean,” Miorine said, breaking the silence once more.
“Is that why you want to go there?”
“It’s… one of the reasons. The air is clean, and easy to breathe.”
“It sounds nice.”
Suletta was the one to break the silence this time.
“Would you… would you take me there with you?”
Miorine smiled. “I’d love to.”
Suletta smiled back. Before they could both drift once more into comfortable silence, she had an idea. She took her notebook and tapped in a few commands, and the world around them jerked slightly.
“What are you doing?” Miorine asked, calmly, curiously.
“Moving us somewhere more comfortable,” Suletta replied with a smile.
They could hear and feel Aerial being moved and shoved along the internal deployment system. With Aerial’s monitors switched off, it was hard to tell where exactly they were going, but based on the slight dizziness in her head and her gut, Miorine guessed they were moving vaguely “upwards”, towards the centre of the rotating gravity ring they were currently inside. Her suspicions were confirmed as Aerial came to a stop, and she and Suletta began to gently float off of the seat from their inertia. They were in one of the zero gravity hangars.
“Just a second…” Suletta murmured, as she let go of Miorine for the first time in… hours? Had it been that long? Miorine said nothing, but shivered slightly at the cold as Suletta detached and floated down and around to reach underneath the seat. A few moments later, she emerged holding a large, warm looking, wool blanket.
“This is my favourite thing to do with Aerial,” she said, floating back over to Miorine and once again hugging her, this time pulling the blanket around them both. She wrapped it tightly to stop it from floating too far away, then went back to hugging Miorine. Miorine smiled, and wriggled backwards slightly, cuddling into Suletta’s warmth.
The two of them stayed together until morning, wrapped in each other’s warmth, kept in by the blanket and watched over in turn by Aerial.