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Tachibana Takae knows what it means to work hard. She had trained in martial arts since she was young, spending countless hours honing her body and skills until she could perform her forms even while half asleep. She had become one of the youngest Platoon Leaders in the Defence Force’s Third Division, working day and night to fend off kaiju attacks, train her crew, and keep her platoon in line (with one notable exception, this last point usually didn’t take that much work). And yet now she realizes that, while she knows what it means to work hard, she has never worked quite like this before.
“That’s the third time you’ve sighed in the last thirty seconds,” Jun remarks, amused. “Everything okay over there?”
Takae lays her head down on the table atop her mountain of books and notes. “I don’t think I’m cut out to sit still and study for eight hours straight.”
“It’s a bit late to be realizing that now,” he tells her, adjusting his circular glasses. “If that was the case, maybe you should’ve quit three years ago.”
Takae straightens, brushing her hair over her shoulder. It’s the longest it has been since she was a child; she never liked it getting in her way when she was in the Force. “Someone once told me that I’m incapable of giving up. Unfortunately, I think he may have been right.”
Jun’s dark brown eyes twinkle mischievously. “Is this the same person who kept challenging you over and over? The one you’ve consistently described as a ‘menace’ with that fond smile on your face?”
Takae frowns. “What smile? He is a menace.”
“So it is the same person!” Jun claps, delighted. “I’d like to meet him one day.”
She rolls her eyes. The day Hoshina and Jun meet might actually spell the end of the world. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Always so uptight,” Jun teases. “You can take the girl out of the Force but never the Force out of the girl, or so the saying goes.”
“Is there a saying like that?” Takae pointedly looks down at her notes, not quite reading the words written there. “I’ve never heard it.”
“You must have been living under a rock or something. That saying is everywhere,” he says, nodding sagely.
“Get back to your studying, Nakamura.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Jun salutes smartly before returning to his book.
Left to her own devices, Takae sighs once more. Her eyes wander away from her notes (she wasn’t really reading them, anyways) to look around the quaint coffee shop she and Jun frequent during their study sessions. It’s a small and cozy place, tucked out of the way so it’s never too busy. And the coffee here is divine, though Takae tries not to drink too much of it; caffeine makes her antsy, and with how much studying she has to do, she can’t afford to be getting up to go for a walk every fifteen minutes.
As her focus drifts, her mind wanders back to Hoshina Soshiro. She hasn’t spoken to him in several months, not since he told her over text that he was officially appointed Vice Captain of the Third Division. She’s so incredibly proud of him; her frivolous subordinate has become a fine swordsman and leader, indeed.
She misses him more than she knows how to put into words.
“Earth to Takae.”
Takae startles out of her thoughts when Jun waves a hand in front of her face.
“You were spacing out pretty hard there,” he tells her. “Maybe you should go for a walk. You’ve been fidgety since you had that second cup of coffee.”
Jun has been her study partner long enough to have a firm grasp of her habits. Two years her senior, he is one of the few in their class who, like her, had a whole life and career prior to matriculating into medical school. He used to be a biomedical researcher until he switched tracks, deciding that he wanted to be on the clinical side of research. He and Takae had made fast friends on account of their being similar in age, much older than most of the rest of their class.
And, of course, the fact that once Jun decides he wants to befriend someone, he won’t stop pestering until they give in.
“You might be right.” Takae stands from her seat, stretching her arms above her head to loosen up her body. “If I’m not back in ten minutes, I’ll buy us lunch every day for the next week.”
“Ooh, I like that idea!” Jun grins. “Go, walk, take your time!”
Takae rolls her eyes with a smile. “Don’t start the timer until I’m out the door, you cheat.”
“Cross my heart!”
Outside, the summer sun beats down on her with an unrelenting heat. She strolls along the small back street, enjoying the feeling of stretching her legs. If kaiju missions were tiring, then sitting still for hours on end trying to focus on a single piece of paper is truly exhausting. She doesn’t understand how Jun seems to do it so effortlessly; truly a born academic, that one.
As she walks, her attention is caught by a news story playing on one of the TVs outside a secondhand electronics shop. The news coverage is a replay of a kaiju attack that occurred last week. On the screen, Takae sees the kaiju towering over the nearby buildings when it is suddenly ripped apart by a blast of green.
Takae would recognize Mina’s signature anywhere.
The footage of the kaiju attack is then replaced by an interview with Vice Captain Hoshina, who reassures the audience that all of the kaiju had been disposed of and the area was being cleaned and would reopen to the public shortly. Takae watches the interview with a soft smile on her face.
He still has that boyish charm and impish smile, but his shoulders are broader, his gaze more confident and steady. From previous news footage, Takae knows that Mina is the same; calm, self-assured, competent. Her friends have grown into immensely capable leaders. It has been too long since she has seen either of them in person.
Transfixed by the screen and Hoshina’s fanged smile, Takae almost forgets about the mountain of studying she has left to do once she returns to the coffee shop. For a while, she basks in the reassuring feeling of knowing that her friends are still out there, fighting to protect their world.
When Takae strolls back into the coffee shop later, Jun immediately sees her and holds up his phone, displaying the timer.
“You’re one minute and thirty-seven seconds late!” he crows. “Lunch is on you for the next week!”
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbles, sliding into her seat across from him. Jun pointedly stares at her, oddly triumphant as if her tardiness had been the result of his interference rather than her own distraction. She ignores her friend, somehow finding it easier to slip back into her notes about the hematologic and immunologic functions of the spleen.
Maybe that walk really did help clear her head.
***
Hoshina Soshiro watches the officer candidates intensely, his brows furrowed in concentration. His sharp eyes dart from candidate to candidate, carefully evaluating and assessing.
Okonogi steps up beside him, arms crossed. “We have a good crop this year,” she comments. “Lots of potential.”
“Yes, but...” Soshiro raises a hand to his chin, deep in thought. “They’re all exceedingly... excruciatingly...”
He trails off, narrowing his eyes.
“Excruciatingly...?” Okonogi prompts.
“Boring.”
Okonogi’s jaw drops. “Vice Captain!”
Soshiro turns, heading towards the exit of the room. “Call me back when you’ve narrowed them down!”
“But--”
“Bye!” Soshiro waves blithely as he sweeps out of the room, not waiting for her answer.
His twin blades fit snugly within his hands, perfectly weighted and balanced in his grip. He closes his eyes as he begins the Hoshina family forms in twin blade style. It was something he’d sometimes see her doing, in the dead of night when she thought she was alone. At the time he’d found her strange, practicing with her eyes closed, but once he tried it he quickly understood why she practiced this way. When his eyes are closed, he becomes so much more aware of what his body is doing, where it is in space.
And the fact that he still occasionally practices this way to this day means that she’s never all that far away from his thoughts. Soshiro finds something comforting in that.
“Aren’t you supposed to be proctoring the officer candidate exam?”
Soshiro lowers his blades and slowly opens his eyes. Ashiro Mina stands in the entrance to the room, hands on her hips, a stern expression on her even sterner face.
Soshiro salutes before speaking. “Okonogi has it handled for now. I’ll go back once the pool has been narrowed down.”
“Why do you do this?” Ashiro-san asks. “It has only been a year since you became Vice Captain. Are you shirking your responsibilities this quickly?”
“Not shirking,” Soshiro corrects quickly. “I’m delegating. There’s a difference!”
Ashiro-san doesn’t look convinced. “Hoshina.” Her tone is a warning.
Soshiro sighs. “It’s just that... they’re all so boring! None of them are entertaining this year! At least last year there was that guy who fell on his face in the obstacle course and then tripped up his entire platoon one after the other behind him, but he was immediately eliminated in the next round!”
Ashiro-san’s eyes are flat as she listens to him complain. Then she takes a step closer to him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Need I remind you that the person you ended up respecting the most, you had once described as ‘the most boring person alive’?”
Soshiro slaps a hand over his face. “I never should have told you that.”
“But you did,” Ashiro-san says with a smirk.
“I was drunk! It’s unfair to hold someone’s drunk words against them!”
“Drunk minds speak sober thoughts,” she tells him with a laugh. Then her expression becomes serious once more. “Do you really have no idea what she’s doing?”
Soshiro sighs, closing his eyes and sheathing his blades. “No. I... never asked. And she never offered.”
“It’s not like she’s on some secret mission,” Ashiro-san teases. “I could tell you right now--”
“No!” Soshiro’s eyes snap open. “I don’t need to know. She’ll tell me. Eventually.”
One side of Ashiro-san’s mouth tips up. “Alright, Hoshina.”
His shoulders droop. “She seems happier now. We don’t speak much, but when we do I get the sense that whatever she’s doing, she really loves it.”
Ashiro-san tilts her head. “Why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing?”
“It’s not!” Soshiro shakes his head immediately. “It’s not. I’m happy for her. Really. I just...”
“Miss her.”
Soshiro scoffs, rolling his eyes. Before he has the chance to come up with some sharp retort, Ashiro-san continues.
“That’s okay. I miss her, too.”
They fall silent, taking a moment to reminisce. Soshiro wonders if Ashiro-san feels the same sense of guilt and remorse that he does when he thinks of his former Platoon Leader, alone in that building.
No, he thinks to himself, watching Ashiro-san’s brown eyes turn dark with regret. She probably has it worse.
As awful as it feels to have been sidelined during Tachibana-san’s accident, he can imagine it would have to be at least ten times worse to have been the one who caused it.
Which isn’t fair, really. Ashiro-san bears as much blame for Tachibana-san’s injuries as an engineer who built a nuclear reactor that then takes lives in an accidental explosion. Her actions were necessary; Tachibana-san herself had ordered the shot.
But looking at Ashiro-san’s face, Soshiro knows that the decision still weighs heavily on his Captain’s mind.
Ashiro-san suddenly shakes her head as if to clear her spiraling thoughts. “Anyways, we have things to do. You have an exam to go back to proctoring.”
Soshiro groans, but she ignores him.
“And we’ll have some manning issues in a few years. I wonder if it might be best to start planning ahead...” Ashiro-san begins mumbling to herself.
He stares at her, brows furrowed incredulously. “You want to start planning for manning shortages in a few years?” he asks in disbelief.
Ashiro-san nods. “Medical staff, especially. Good doctors are hard to come by, you know?” She winks at him before ambling out of the room, still mumbling to herself under her breath.
He watches her go, still in disbelief. Sometimes, he wonders if Ashiro-san and Tachibana-san are far too much alike.
***
Returning to the Third Division feels a little bit like returning to a childhood home. Everything is in its place, right where she remembers it being, yet something still feels slightly off. Though she knows, deep down, that the only one who has changed... is her.
Takae looks around the small clinic. She remembers spending time here as an officer, with a sprained ankle here and a broken wrist there throughout the years. The kind elderly doctor who worked here had retired a while ago, as evidenced by the fine layer of dust along the tables. The other clinic on the other end of the base must have been busy in the interim year since his retirement.
Takae hears the soft whisper of light steps against the tiled floor and turns. Ashiro Mina stands in the doorway to the abandoned clinic, a soft smile on her normally stoic face.
“Your senses are as sharp as ever,” Mina comments. “Kept up with your training, have you, Dr. Tachibana?”
“Of course,” Takae responds warmly. “As if you expected anything less, Captain Ashiro.”
Takae takes a moment to observe her friend. Mina is wearing her long, dark hair up in a ponytail, and her uniform fits her lithe frame perfectly. A quiet confidence surrounds her, a calming and reassuring air that projects her capability as both a warrior and a leader.
Takae can’t help thinking that Mina has grown into one hell of a Captain.
The women move towards each other simultaneously. Takae squeezes her friend tightly with a light laugh. It really has been too long since they last saw each other.
“It’s good to see you again, Takae,” Mina says quietly. “We’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” Takae tells her. “Though it was fun seeing you on TV every once in a while.”
Mina leans back, holding Takae at arm’s length to better look into her face. “We didn’t even get to have that!” she complains. “You couldn’t have chosen a more public career so that we’d have the chance to see you, too?”
Takae rolls her eyes. “You know as well as I do that a career like that would never suit me.”
Mina is about to respond when they both hear a new voice from the hallway.
“Captain! You really have some nerve, summoning me only to vanish from your office! Okonogi told me you were on your way to the east clinic--”
Hoshina Soshiro halts in the doorway to the clinic, purple eyes widening and jaw falling as he takes in the scene before him.
His hair is slightly longer than she remembers it being, and his shoulders are broader. But that playful narrowed gaze and casual air hasn’t changed in the time they spent apart. Takae feels something ache in her heart at the sight of him.
She can’t believe how much she has missed him.
“Tachibana-san.” He says her name quietly, almost as if he’s afraid that she’ll disappear if he speaks any louder.
“Vice Captain Hoshina,” Mina says, slinging an arm over Takae’s shoulders. “Meet the east clinic’s new doctor, Dr. Tachibana Takae.”
Hoshina stares at her for a second longer in wonder and awe before his face breaks into the largest grin she thinks she has ever seen. And that strange sense of disconnection, of being a stranger in her childhood home, completely vanishes at the familiar sight of his cute fangs and wide smile. A smile that conjures memories of late night sparring sessions, exasperation, and the best kind of trouble.
“Welcome back to the Third Division, Dr. Tachibana!”
Takae often hears the saying, “Time heals all wounds.” In some ways, she’s inclined to agree. Time has dulled the agony of her brother’s death, the gaping wounds in her heart from having to leave the Defense Force, the debilitating nerve damage in her arms from the kaiju attack six years ago. Nothing is perfectly the way it was before and it never will be, but the more time that passes, the more Takae realizes that this is okay.
She is okay.
Over the next few months, she gets the abandoned east clinic cleaned up and operational again. She falls into a steady rhythm, seeing patients, helping with injuries, documenting visits. Her sensitive ears pick up on the gossip, the junior officers figuring out her history with the Force, wondering how she went from one of the Third Division’s most promising platoon leaders to its humble doctor instead.
Takae ignores it. Time heals all wounds, and she is done feeling sore over her circumstances. She has work to do, after all.
She quickly comes to find, however, that time doesn’t quite take care of everything.
Her hands still twinge with pain and tremors every once in a while, though these episodes are growing more and more infrequent. She still wakes up in the middle of the night sometimes drenched in sweat from a nightmare featuring the kaiju attack.
But the most immediate and concerning issue to Takae at this point in time... is the way her heart still reacts whenever Hoshina is nearby.
She had thought that time would dull that warm and fluttery sensation in her chest inspired by her former subordinate, but if anything, it seems to have grown stronger in their time apart.
Hoshina Soshiro had never strayed far from her thoughts in these past few years, after all. She supposes it’s only natural.
It’s still problematic. So Takae deals with it the only way she knows how, the way she always has: by shoving it into the back of her mind and focusing solely on the job in front of her, instead.
She wonders how long she can keep this up.
***
Soshiro sometimes finds himself wishing that kaiju would keep normal sleep cycles. Impromptu middle of the night missions like this one always leave him fidgety and restless, unable to go back to sleep for the rest of the night. He normally ends up just staying awake until his duties start up again the next day.
This mission had been particularly hairy. There were many casualties, though thankfully no fatalities. He finds himself mentally retracing the entire mission, thinking about what he could have done differently to lower that number. His fingers twitch restlessly.
This is useless. Soshiro turns on his heel, heading in the opposite direction of his room. There’s only one place he can go when he has so much energy to burn.
Soshiro’s steps slow in surprise when he realizes that the lights of the training room are already on, the sounds of someone practicing coming from within the room. He almost turns away to find a different place to exercise, but something stops him. His feet bring him to the doorway, and his breath is stolen at the sight before him.
Tachibana Takae stands in the center of the room, resplendent in a plain black camisole and black pants, a familiar katana held in wonderfully steady hands. He sees a white coat hung haphazardly off one of the weapons racks at the edge of the room; she must have been brought in for the casualties from their mission tonight.
Soshiro leans against the doorframe, watching her go through her forms, familiar from all the time he used to spend watching her just like this. Something in him that has felt off kilter since her departure from the Force six years ago finally snaps back into place. He suddenly relaxes, feeling more at ease than he can remember being since before he became Vice Captain.
The lines of her body are smooth and graceful, her grip on her katana unfaltering. She doesn’t have the same raw power as she did when she was his Platoon Leader, but Soshiro still finds her to be a breathtaking sight. The last time he’d watched her like this, her hands shook uncontrollably, her weapon slipping disastrously from her grip. She must have worked hard over these past several years to rehabilitate her injuries.
Tachibana-san lowers her katana, her back still to the door. “How long were you planning on standing there staring at me, Hoshina?”
Something in his chest warms at the sound of his name coming from her lips without adding on “Vice Captain” like she does when they’re in public. It takes him back to a simpler time, when he was just an officer and she was his Platoon Leader. “All night if you’d let me, Tachibana-san.”
She turns towards him with an amused smile, her katana held loosely in her grip. She wears such a soft expression on the face that used to be so severe, so carefully controlled. Her shoulders are looser, more relaxed. Something about her is so much more comfortable and settled than the last time he saw her.
Being a doctor suits her unexpectedly well. Soshiro would never have guessed that this is what she has been up to for the last several years, but now that he sees her like this, he has to admit how perfectly fitting it is. She is sternly caring, fiercely nurturing, and stubbornly loyal. She makes a striking image as a Defense Force doctor. Almost as if this was where she was meant to be all along.
She is so incredibly beautiful.
She tilts her head, probably reading too much of his thoughts through his eyes. Then she opens her mouth and makes his world spin.
“Spar with me?”
Soshiro vividly remembers the first time he sparred with Tachibana-san in a room very much like this one. She had thrashed him soundly, teaching him his lesson and wounding his (admittedly fragile, at the time) pride. Then, as if on purpose, she had further stepped on his ego by telling him she had no doubt he would beat her one day, as if he was a child that needed consoling after losing in his favorite video game.
It wasn’t until at least a year later that he realized she was being genuine rather than condescending in that moment.
He used to laugh to himself after that session. ‘Beat her one day’, his ass. Throughout all their years together and their countless midnight sparring matches, he never won once. He can’t even recall ever coming close.
Until tonight.
Tachibana-san’s katana goes flying from her hands, landing on the floor behind her with a loud clatter. A complicated expression crosses her face, a mix of pride and sadness in her eyes, but she quickly covers it up with a small smile. Her hands shake as she lowers them to her sides.
Soshiro immediately drops his shortswords, grabbing her wrists. “Are you okay?” he asks quickly, worried. Does sparring re-aggravate her old injuries?
“I’m fine,” she tells him, allowing him to turn her hands over in his grip. “I told you that you’d beat me one day.”
At one time in his life, Soshiro would have gloated over a moment like this. His unbreakable and unbeatable Platoon Leader, brought down at last.
But he’d never wanted to beat her like this.
Life is cruel, giving him what he’d always wanted in a form that he could never be satisfied with.
And so he stays silent, staring at her hands with furrowed brows. Countless emotions swirl in his heart, so many that he doesn’t even know how to begin to voice them.
“Tonight’s mission was a hard one,” Tachibana-san says after letting silence reign for a few moments, gently extracting her hands from his hold. “Are you injured?”
Soshiro cocks an eyebrow at her, grinning despite himself. “Shouldn’t you have asked that before you sparred with me?”
“Maybe I just wanted a higher chance of winning,” she says with a shrug.
Soshiro laughs, surprised. Tachibana-san has learned how to joke in the years they’ve been apart. “I’m not injured.”
Her silver eyes roam his body, assessing. His heart thumps unevenly at her attention.
He spreads his arms. “You’re welcome to check for yourself, if you’re so concerned.”
He’s startled when a bloom of bright red stains her cheeks. Her gaze cuts from his, turning instead to the floor. “You must be fine if you’re joking like this,” she mumbles. “I should get going. I’ve already stayed longer than I meant to.”
“Tachibana-san.” She freezes at the sound of her name. Soshiro doesn’t know what to say; he’d called her name out of instinct, to keep her here even just a few seconds longer. So he settles on the truth. “I... I’ve missed you.”
And he has, these past several years, but never more than the past few months. To have her again so easily within reach, yet somehow still so far away... it's almost worse than when she left initially.
Her silver eyes are wide when she meets his gaze and darts away again. That lovely rosy color still paints her cheeks, so unexpected yet so damn charming. Never in a million years would he have imagined he’d one day make his unflappable Platoon Leader blush.
“Hoshina.” Her voice is unsteady. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” Soshiro steps closer. She visibly tenses, but he’s delighted when he notices that she doesn’t move away.
“Like you’ve just been waiting for me to come back all this time.” She meets his eyes again. Her brows are furrowed, though he can’t understand why. “I could tell when we sparred. You’ve been busy these past several years. You’re now so much better than I ever was... you’ve grown so much.”
You’ve outgrown me.
She doesn’t say the words, but he can read it in the tense lines of her body as she stares into his eyes like she’s looking for an answer to a question she hasn’t asked.
“Everything I have done for these past several years has been because of you,” he tells her, voice low. “So, in a way, I have just been waiting for you to come back.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she says, averting her gaze once more. Soshiro’s heart hammers in his chest.
Her words may sometimes be harsh, but Soshiro knows his stoic Platoon Leader has never been one to say what she actually means.
“It’s not ridiculous,” he tells her. “It’s the truth.”
She falls silent for a moment, still not looking at him. “I lied to you that night, when we first sparred.”
Soshiro raises an eyebrow. “You mean you didn’t actually believe I’d beat you one day?”
Tachibana-san shakes her head. “No. I believed that from the moment I first saw you.”
“... what?”
“What I meant was,” Tachibana-san continues, blowing right past that admission as if she hadn’t just turned his entire world upside down, “when I told you why I didn’t want to spar with you. I said that sparring was meant for lessons, not for pride.”
“I remember.” His mind whirls. What does she mean, that was a lie?
“The real reason I didn’t want to spar with you was because I didn’t want to be your goal. I didn’t want you to focus on improving your skills solely so you could one day defeat me. I have always wanted you to look beyond me, to set your sights and aspirations even higher.”
Tachibana-san’s brows furrow as she stares at the ground. Her lips press into a thin line.
“It’s... amazing, to watch you now. It looks like you finally found the true purpose behind your sword,” she says quietly. “I always knew you were incredible, but I thought you’d become truly unmatched if you learned to fight for something greater than yourself.”
Soshiro can’t wrap his mind around what she is saying. It’s almost like she’s speaking as if she has admired him from the start.
“You actually thought that about me?” he asks, bewildered. “Why did you never tell me?”
At that, she gives him a look like he’s denser than a rock. “Hoshina. Have you met you? If I had told you that when you were younger, your ego would’ve swollen to the size of the planet.”
Soshiro has to laugh. She’s not wrong. “I guess you have a point there.”
“All that to say... you’re amazing, Hoshina Soshiro. I won’t take credit for all the work you’ve put in to get here, but I’m incredibly proud to have been your Platoon Leader.”
... well. If that isn’t the closest he thinks he’ll ever get to a confession of love from Tachibana Takae, he doesn’t know what is.
Soshiro reaches out to place his hands on her cheeks, leaning forward until his forehead is pressed against hers. “Tachibana-san,” he breathes into the space between them. “It’s all because of you.”
Her eyes flutter closed, her hands raising to clasp his wrists as if she is preparing to move him away. She doesn’t, though. “Don’t say that,” she tells him quietly. “Your accomplishments are your own.”
“You’re the one who inspired me,” he says. “To be better than I was. Every time I thought of you in that building while I was useless outside I pushed myself harder. You should take credit for getting me to where I am. It’s only because of you that I’m so driven at all.”
Her grip on his wrists tighten. “I...”
“Tachibana-san...” He says her name quietly, reverently. “I fight for you. You have to know that much.”
Her stuttered breath brushes against his lips, and he thinks it might be the most divine thing he’s ever felt.
That is, of course, until she leans further forward, eliminating the space between them until her lips are pressed against his.
For a moment Soshiro is frozen, his eyes widening in shock at the feeling of her mouth on his.
Tachibana-san... is kissing him? She kissed him?
It isn’t until that wonderful warmth draws away from him, a mumbled apology spilling from her lips, that he realizes what just happened.
He surges forward once more, capturing her lips with his as he threads a hand into her long, dark hair. His other hand smooths down her back, drawing her further against him. She lets out a deep sigh against his mouth, as if she has been waiting for this as long as he has, and Soshiro thinks that he might just die if he never gets to experience this again.
In fact, he wonders how he has lived this long without it.
Her hands glide up his back, gripping his shoulders as her mouth moves with his. Soshiro presses firmly on her lower back and is rewarded with the desired effect of her arching against him, allowing him to lean further into her and deepen the kiss. Her mouth tastes sweet, like the lollipops she keeps in her clinic that all the officers pretend they don't want but always sneak one or two into their pockets on their way out. Soshiro thinks he can get drunk off the taste of her alone.
Tachibana-san kisses him once more before turning away, burying her face in his chest. He can feel her uneven breathing as he strokes a hand through her long hair.
Soshiro longs to look at her face, to see if that lovely red still colors her cheeks. But when he tries to back away, she clings even more to his shoulders, keeping her head tucked beneath his chin. Soshiro settles, smoothing his hands over her back, holding her tightly to him.
This is fine, too. More than fine, really.
She is so soft in his arms, much softer than the only other time he had gotten the chance to hold her like this, the day before she left. She was all sharp bones and hard muscle at that time, having lost as much weight as she did after the incident that nearly cost her life. Soshiro can’t help thinking that she fits so much better in his arms now.
For a moment the room is silent, broken only by the sound of their breathing slowly returning to normal. Eventually, Soshiro speaks.
“Tachibana-san,” he says softly. “Stay here tonight.”
“What?” That startles her into pulling away, her gray eyes comically wide. He can read the panic in her face as easily as a line of text. He wonders idly when she became so expressive. Or has he just gotten that much better at discerning what she’s thinking?
“There are plenty of visiting officer quarters,” he clarifies. Technically the rooms are only for active duty officers, but what good is being Vice Captain if he doesn’t get to bend the rules a little? “It’s late, and you live off base, don’t you? Just stay here.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” she tells him. “I’m not a visiting officer.”
Soshiro’s lips turn down in a pout. “Please?”
A faint pink blooms along her cheeks once more. Interesting.
She looks away from him. “Fine.”
This definitely warrants further investigation. But for now, he needs to get his lovely Tachibana-san to a room so she can rest. Soshiro thinks that he may now feel relaxed enough to get some sleep himself, surprisingly.
He reluctantly lets her out of his arms, but keeps hold of one of her hands. “Come along, then, Tachibana-san. Let’s go to bed.”
She cuts him an all-too familiar glare. “Don’t purposely say things that could be misconstrued.”
He grins at her, swinging their joined hands. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
***
“Wow, it’s like our study sessions all over again.”
Takae blinks, refocusing her gaze on Jun’s face. He is leaning back in his chair with a mischievous grin on his lips, his dark eyes dancing with amusement.
She gives him a flat look. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Jun laughs lightly, ignoring her prickliness. “What’s on your mind this time? You’ve hardly touched your food.”
Takae glances at her bowl, filled to the brim with rice, chicken, and veggies. It looks delicious, so she picks up her chopsticks and pointedly takes a bite.
Jun rolls his eyes. “The classic Takae silent treatment. How original.”
“I still have no clue what you mean,” she says around her mouthful of food. “You’re just talking to yourself at this point.”
“So testy!” Jun leans forward in his seat, his own food forgotten in front of him. “It must be really serious if you’re this preoccupied.”
“I’m not that preoccupied,” she responds automatically.
“It can’t be work,” Jun muses to himself, putting a hand dramatically to his chin in thought. “If something at work was bothering you, you wouldn’t be so hesitant to share it. Social life, perhaps? Trouble with friends? Hm, but you don’t have that many, and the ones that you do have are remarkably drama free...”
Takae glares at him as he thinks aloud.
“It’s gotta be your love life, then,” he concludes, raising a finger in the air in triumph. “That’s gotta be it!”
Takae chokes on a grain of rice. She coughs violently before taking a long drink of her water.
When she looks at him again, her friend is grinning maddeningly at her. “Bingo,” he declares.
She can’t hide now; he has her pinned with that sharp gaze that misses nothing. Damn infectious disease doctors and their impeccable eye for detail.
“It’s nothing,” she tells him, looking at her food to avoid his eyes. “Not a big deal.”
“Au contraire!” Jun cries. “It is a big deal! For years I watched you brutally shoot down every man who was unfortunate enough to take a liking to you. Who on earth has managed to capture your attention?”
“He’s...” Takae trails off, unsure how to describe Hoshina. Where would she even start? Her former subordinate who has turned into her better in every way. A man capable of such wide, playful grins and also such incredible, precise violence. A goofball and a leader, a prankster and a warrior.
A man that has been unknowingly melting her cold heart since the day she first laid eyes on him and watched him wield a sword with such devastating beauty and raw talent.
“That special, huh?” Jun’s eyes stay trained on her face. “Kinda figured. Someone in the Force, then?”
Takae lets out a great sigh, laying down her chopsticks. “Yes.”
Jun leans forward, pushing his food out of the way to place his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. “How long have you known him?”
Takae frowns, thinking. “About ten years now, I think.”
“Long time,” Jun says, eyes wide. “You met him when you were still an officer?”
“Yes. He was in my platoon,” she says.
A wicked gleam enters Jun’s eyes, and Takae immediately knows that she has said too much. “I see. Is he your ‘menace’, then? The one you’d always ‘complain’ about with a smile on your face?”
She regrets ever telling Jun about Hoshina, even if she did so in the vaguest of vague terms. She’s pretty sure she never even told him Hoshina’s name. “Yes,” she sighs, resigned.
Jun leans back and laughs loudly, drawing glares from nearby fellow restaurant-goers. He pointedly ignores them as he levels Takae with another intense look, lips still curled in a teasing grin. “I really do need to meet this man.”
“I’d really rather you didn’t,” Takae mumbles, picking up her chopsticks once more. She takes another bite of her food, if only to give her mouth something else to do other than talk about Hoshina.
“You can’t not introduce your best friend to your boyfriend!” Jun complains.
Takae chokes again, slightly less violently this time. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Jun tilts his head, genuine confusion in his eyes. “No?”
“No.”
Ever since their kiss a week ago, Takae has hardly seen Hoshina. The Third Division has become very busy with increased kaiju activity in the area. Hoshina was often called to the front lines, while Takae stayed on base to deal with the influx of officers who inevitably ended up injured during their missions. She can’t help thinking, not for the first time, that she should figure out how to become part of the medical team that goes to the front lines.
They hadn’t had the chance to talk through what their relationship has become, and Takae isn’t sure what she would say even if they did. How does one simplify a relationship with so many years and so much history as theirs?
All Takae knows is that she cares for him deeply, though even she isn’t sure exactly how deep her feelings run. Far deeper than they should, she thinks, for a man with whom she’d only reunited a few months ago and had kissed precisely once.
“Well.” Jun takes a bite of his food and chews thoughtfully before proceeding. “I think you should change that, then.”
Takae’s only response is to raise an eyebrow.
“You’re clearly crazy about him,” Jun explains. “Even when we were in school he was always on your mind, wasn’t he? And you’ve managed to reunite with him now that you’re working with the Defense Force again. I wouldn’t let this chance get away if I were you; you never know what will happen in the future.”
A flash of memory flits through Takae’s mind: a cloudless sky darkened by black smoke above her, the swaying of a hard and uncomfortable stretcher below her. When she glances to her right she sees a head of short black-purple hair, blood smeared across his handsome face, tear-filled amethyst eyes wide with pure and abject terror.
At the time she’d wondered why Hoshina had looked so distraught in that moment. But now that she has felt his strong arms wrapped around her, his lips on hers with a desperation that she could nearly taste, she thinks she might have an idea.
Her feelings run deep enough to terrify her... but maybe Hoshina is the same way.
“I think... you’re right,” Takae says slowly.
“I’m always right,” Jun declares cheekily. “Now eat your food. We’ve been wanting to try this place for months, and not even love talk is going to derail us!”
Takae can’t agree more.
The rest of their meal passes by with companionable conversation. Jun fills Takae in on the research projects he has been getting involved in regarding antibiotic stewardship in major hospitals. He also updates her on how his wife and two daughters are doing. The twins are in ballet classes, and Jun says he has to bite his fist to keep from squealing about how cute they are in the middle of their recitals. Takae laughs along, good-naturedly humoring him as he shows her picture after picture of his girls.
When they’re finished with their food, they make their way over to a newly opened bakery for dessert as planned. Before they make it a block away from the restaurant, Takae’s phone goes off. She fishes it out of her pocket to glance at the screen before promptly halting in her tracks.
“Takae?” Jun stops walking, glancing back curiously to see why his friend suddenly stopped. “What’s wrong?”
Takae’s silver gaze snaps up, eyes suddenly sharp with purpose. “Sorry, Jun. Can we take a rain check on the bakery? I have to head back to the base.”
“Yeah, no worries. Everything okay?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.” Takae gives him a strained, apologetic smile. “I’ll call you later, okay? Get home safe. Say hi to Eimi and the girls for me!”
Then she turns and sprints in the other direction, towards the subway station. Her phone is held tightly in a white-knuckled grip, screen still open to the text she had received from Mina.
Another kaiju attack. Can you come in? Hoshina was injured.
Takae rounds the corner of the hallway, out of breath. It’s not that she hasn’t kept up with her physical training since leaving the Force, because she has; it’s just that she has far less time to do it now. She doesn’t need the same level of physical fitness as a doctor that she did as an officer, and she thought she was fine with that... until this moment when she curses herself for not being able to sprint the whole distance between the subway station and her clinic.
Maybe she should ask Mina for one of the Division’s spare combat suits.
When Takae enters her clinic, she sees a small gaggle of officers in the waiting room who all turn to stare at her. Hoshina is nowhere to be seen.
“Dr. Tachibana!” one of them says. He’s an unfamiliar younger officer with bright blonde hair. One of his arms is in a sling across his chest. “Captain Ashiro said you’d be here soon, so she told us to wait for you here.”
“I see,” Takae answers breathlessly. “Where is the Vice Captain?”
“Vice Captain Hoshina?” the boy says, brows furrowing. “He said he didn’t require medical attention. He’s still out in the field, coordinating the cleanup.”
Takae frowns. If Hoshina is well enough to refuse medical attention, then what was with Mina’s text?
She quickly shrugs it off, snagging her white coat from its hook and settling it on her shoulders. She then calls the first patient forward and gets to work.
Two hours later, Takae settles into her office chair with a gusty sigh. She allows herself a minute to catch her breath before diving back into her work. She has documentation to complete as well as referrals to orthopedic surgery to make. A few of the officers tonight had fractures that might require surgery.
Some time later, a knock sounds at the door to her office. Takae frowns at the clock, wondering who would come looking for her this late at night.
“It’s me!” a clear voice calls through the door, answering her question. Mina sounds disgruntled; Takae finds herself wondering what could possibly annoy the Third’s steadfast Captain. “Got time for one more patient?”
Takae gets up to open the door. “Of course. What is--”
Her eyes widen. Hoshina and Mina stand in the hallway, Hoshina’s arm slung over Mina’s shoulders, his body sagging against her. Mina is supporting his weight effortlessly. They’ve both already changed out of their combat suits.
“This idiot injured himself then pushed through by holding himself together with his combat suit,” Mina tells her, exasperated. “He’s very distracted these days. Wonder why, hm?”
Takae barely hears her, her eyes roaming Hoshina’s body for signs of serious trauma. If he is severely injured, he should’ve been taken to the hospital, not her small clinic. She can’t do much more than take x-rays and put on splints here. Hoshina, for his part, seems to be doing his best to avoid her eyes. Strange.
“Take him,” Mina says, unceremoniously removing Hoshina’s arm from around her shoulders and shoving him towards Takae. Takae catches him on instinct, her hands steadying his waist. “He’s all yours. And fix him, would you? A distracted Vice Captain is a liability in the field.”
With that, Mina turns on her heel and strides down the hall, leaving Takae blinking and confused behind her.
Well, at the very least she knows Hoshina isn’t too badly injured. Mina isn’t one to leave severely injured friends behind.
“Hoshina,” Takae says slowly. “What did you do?”
“Why do you both blame me?” Hoshina complains. “I’m the one who’s injured!”
She gives him a flat look, trying not to blush when she realizes how close his face is to hers, the lines of his lithe body pressed against her side. “Come on, then. Let’s get you into the clinic.”
As Takae had surmised, Hoshina’s injuries are minor. He sprained his ankle and aggravated an old shoulder injury; she sends him for x-rays just to be safe. He leans over her shoulder as she reviews the films on the computer in the clinic, his breath on the back of her neck almost distracting her from the images.
“No fractures or dislocations,” she announces, turning back to him. “Go sit on one of the exam tables so I can wrap your ankle.”
He nods, turning to make his way to the treatment area with only a slight limp. Takae forces herself to focus on her work and not on the way Hoshina’s amethyst gaze follows her every movement when she kneels on the ground before him with an ace wrap for his ankle.
Her fingers linger a moment too long on his ankle when she is done. “What happened tonight, Hoshina?”
Hoshina lets out a sigh, uncharacteristically serious. “Like Ashiro-san said. I got distracted.”
Takae looks up at him from where she is still kneeling on the ground. “During a mission?”
“Yes.” Hoshina’s jaw tightens. “I’m in charge of training the new recruits this year. I got distracted momentarily while they were in danger. I had to... fix my mistake.”
She stands with a sigh. “Mina sent me a text earlier tonight that you had gotten injured. You almost gave me a heart attack.”
He lets out a self-deprecating scoff. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be.” Takae catches his eyes, holding his gaze. “I’m just... so relieved that you’re alright.”
He grins, a small smile that doesn’t quite show off his canines. “Thank you for your help, Dr. Tachibana. I should--”
“Wait.” Takae places her hands over his on the table where he’d been preparing to hop down.
Jun’s words from earlier in the evening come back to her. I wouldn’t let this chance get away if I were you; you never know what will happen in the future.
Hoshina’s injuries tonight aren’t severe. But the terror in her heart when she thought about what could’ve happened to him out there was real. It was real and it was frightening, being confronted with how much she cares about the man in front of her.
She needs to tell him. Even if it scares her, even if she doesn’t know how he’ll respond. She knows how closed off she can be, how she tries her best to hide her emotions so that she doesn’t affect the people around her.
She doesn’t need to do that here or now. Not with him.
“I was so scared when I was told you’d gotten injured,” she whispers, looking down. Her hands tighten on his. “Because I care about you, Hoshina. So much that it frightens me sometimes.”
Her declaration hangs in the air. Silence permeates the room, broken only by the soft sound of their breathing. When she can’t stand the quiet anymore, she looks back up to his face to see him staring at her with wide purple eyes.
She opens her mouth to say something, anything to break the strange stalemate, when he slips his hands out from underneath hers to instead wrap his arms around her waist. He draws her into him, burying his face in her neck. She shivers when she feels his breath against her sensitive skin.
Takae raises a hand to stroke his soft, silky hair. He hasn’t answered her yet, and that’s okay; his warmth in her arms is comfort enough to soothe the fears inside her.
She doesn’t know how long she stands there, basking in his embrace. All she knows is that she feels warm, content, and more relaxed than she has in years.
“Tachibana-san,” Hoshina eventually mumbles against her neck. Takae squirms, ticklish, and he tightens his hold around her waist. “Date me, please.”
Takae is startled into laughing. So straightforward, her former subordinate turned Vice Captain. Her arms settle around his strong, broad shoulders, holding him as tightly as he holds her. “Okay, Hoshina. I’d love to.”
When he lifts his head from her neck, he has that familiar blindingly bright smile on his face. He is still smiling when he leans in to capture her lips with his.
***
“Tsk tsk.” Soshiro sheathes his swords as the kaiju writhes and screams before falling silent behind him. He glances down at Hirashi, one of the new recruits, who sits on the ground clutching her injured shoulder. “Can you keep fighting?”
“Yes sir!” The girl tries to get to her feet and stumbles with a cry, favoring her right leg.
“Nope! You’re done,” Soshiro announces. “We’ll work on taking on multiple enemies at the same time at our next practice. But first, get back and go to the clinic. Have Dr. Tachibana take a look at you.”
The girl looks like she wants to protest further, but then her eyes widen. “Vice Cap--!”
Soshiro blurs into motion, moving so quickly her eyes can hardly track him. When he reappears in front of her, streaks of blood that don’t belong to him are splattered across his grinning face and at least five kaiju slump to the ground dead behind him.
Hirashi stares at him, jaw clenched in pain and frustration. She opens her mouth, but Soshiro speaks first.
“There’s no shame in realizing you have limits,” he tells her. “Because knowing where they are is the first step towards pushing them and expanding your abilities. Now go sit the rest of this one out. If you keep fighting, you’ll force one of your platoonmates or me to protect you. Do you want that?”
She vigorously shakes her head no.
Soshiro grins. “That’s what I thought. Now sit back and watch so you can learn.”
Hirashi nods stiffly before turning to limp off. Soshiro turns, about to try to pick his way to the nearest rooftop for a better vantage point of the battle, when he hears a chuckle from beside him.
He isn’t sure how long Ashiro-san has been standing there, Bakko at her side. But he can surmise from the wry smile on her face that she has been standing there long enough.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking, just say it,” Soshiro sighs, waiting for her inevitable comments about him becoming a “proper” Vice Captain.
Ashiro-san coughs into her fist in poorly disguised laughter. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Right.” Soshiro gives her a flat look. “If you’re here, does that mean the honju has been taken care of?”
Ashiro-san nods. “The Ebina platoon will handle the rest. The new recruits are exhausted. Should we call them back?”
Soshiro thinks for a moment before shaking his head. “They have to learn how to fight while tired sooner or later. Have Ebina back them up. I’ll keep an eye on them.”
“Such a dependable Vice Captain,” Ashiro-san teases. “It’s good to have you back, Hoshina.”
Soshiro gives her an unimpressed look. “I haven’t gone anywhere.”
“Not physically, but mentally you were a thousand miles away from every battle for the past week or so. Can I take this to mean you’ve figured out whatever was going on with Takae?”
How Ashiro-san had managed to connect his distractedness with Tachibana-san, Soshiro will never know. But the fact of the matter remains that the issue wouldn’t have been resolved the way it did if she hadn’t sent that text and then all but shoved him into Tachibana-san’s arms.
He has to be grateful for that much, at least. Even if he is a bit disgruntled about it.
“You could say that,” he finally responds.
Ashiro-san grins. “Fine, be vague. I’ll just get the details from Takae when I see her later tonight for our monthly meetup for drinks.”
“You have a monthly meetup for drinks?” Soshiro asks, eyes flying wide in surprise. But Ashiro-san simply laughs and moves off, her white tiger following her.
Tachibana-san’s gray eyes are flat as she stares at Soshiro’s wide grin.
“What’s he doing here?” she asks, glancing at Ashiro-san who stands at his side.
Ashiro-san shrugs. “I accidentally let it slip that we were meeting up later, and he insisted on crashing.”
Tachibana-san rolls her eyes, gesturing towards the seats on the other side of the booth for them to sit. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”
Soshiro ignores her gesture towards the seats on the other side of the booth to slide in right next to her, intertwining her fingers with his. “What’s with that lukewarm greeting?” he complains. “We’ve had a hard day. Can’t you be more happy to see me?”
Her eyes are flat, but her lips twitch and her hand tightens around his.
Ah, she’s so dishonest yet honest at the same time. Soshiro doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of reading between the lines of his previously inscrutable Platoon Leader to discern just how deeply she feels, how much she cares.
Ashiro-san’s eyes are on them, a knowing smile playing around her lips.
“You’re not the only one who found a party-crasher,” Tachibana-san says, looking back at Ashiro-san. Soshiro can’t help but notice that she elected not to respond to him. No matter; he’ll corner her later for a proper greeting. “I also have someone who insisted on tagging along.”
“Oh, really?” Ashiro-san looks intrigued. “Who is it?”
Tachibana-san is about to reply when her eyes snap up towards the entrance of the bar. A tall, thin bespectacled man has just entered, his black hair mussed and dark circles under his eyes.
“Jun!” she calls, raising the hand that isn’t currently occupied with holding Soshiro’s. “Over here.”
The man’s face brightens in a smile as he makes his way over, sliding into the seat next to Ashiro-san.
“Jun, meet Ashiro Mina and Hoshina Soshiro,” Tachibana-san says, making introductions. “They’re friends of mine from when I was in the Defense Force. Mina, Hoshina, meet Nakamura Jun. He’s a classmate of mine from medical school.”
Nakamura stares at Ashiro-san and then Soshiro, recognition and then shock filtering into his dark eyes. “Takae, when you said you still had friends in the Defense Force, you never mentioned that they were the Captain and Vice Captain of the Third Division.”
Tachibana-san simply shrugs, the picture of nonchalance. “It never came up.”
Nakamura’s eyes look like they’re about to bug out of his head, and Soshiro laughs. Then he leans even closer to Tachibana-san to say quietly into her ear, “Am I just a friend, Tachibana-san?”
Tachibana-san turns that lovely shade of red that Soshiro doesn’t think he’ll ever quite get tired of witnessing. So charming. “Actually, Hoshina and I are... dating.”
Nakamura’s eyes somehow grow even wider, which Soshiro didn’t think was possible. Meanwhile, Ashiro-san tips her head back in loud laughter, hitting the table with her palm.
“Finally!” she crows, wiping at her eyes. “About damn time!”
Tachibana-san’s mouth is pressed into a thin line in displeasure, even as her blush still burns brilliantly in her cheeks. “You don’t have to laugh that much.”
“I do, though!” Ashiro-san insists. “Let me have this. You guys kept me waiting for years!”
“Years?” Nakamura repeats, staring at Ashiro-san. Then his eyes dart between Tachibana-san and Soshiro. “Ohhhh. I see. Now it all makes sense.”
Tachibana-san glares at him. “No, Jun. Don’t you dare.”
“What? Why?” Soshiro leans forward, fixing Nakamura with his most intense look. “Did she talk about me in medical school?”
Nakamura glances one more time at Tachibana-san’s dark expression before he grins. “Only all the time.”
Soshiro turns towards Tachibana-san, delighted. “Did you really?”
“No.” Tachibana-san takes a sip of her drink, not meeting his eyes.
“She probably talked about Hoshina as much as Hoshina talked about her,” Ashiro-san chimes in. “He would pine all the time, slipping away into their old training room to go through her exercises.”
At that, Tachibana-san raises an eyebrow at Soshiro. “Did he, now?”
He simply smiles serenely in response to her questioning gaze.
“You were both so obvious,” Ashiro-san says. “I don’t know how you didn’t get together before.”
“So much makes sense now,” Nakamura comments, nodding his head sagely.
Soshiro makes a mental note to speak to the man privately at some point. He needs all the details.
“I hate you all,” Tachibana-san announces, taking another long sip of her drink.
But her silver eyes are soft, her shoulders relaxed. A small smile plays at her lips like she’s actively trying to fight it. And her hand, no longer the rough, calloused hand of a warrior but the soft, healing hand of a doctor, tightens over his.
Soshiro knows that, if necessary, he would relive these past ten years over and over again to get back to this perfect place. This moment that is filled with friendship and laughter and the warmth of the woman he fights for, who fights for him in turn, beside him. This is worth it.
And so Soshiro leans his head back and laughs, loud and carefree. The road to get here may have been long, but he knows their story is only just beginning.