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“Gods damn it…479er, what’s the verdict??”
“Uhm…not good. Enemy forces seem to have shot down our engine. We’re uh…we’re going down, Carolina.”
Carolina slammed her fist against the Pelican’s hull, muttering a few curses to herself. “Brace for impact, I suppose?”
“Yeah..”
Red lights and sirens blared throughout the cockpit, sending a horrible pit down into 479er’s stomach, desperately trying to find a way to fix this, despite knowing it would be futile. She just wanted Carolina to be safe…
Her train of thought was abruptly stopped when she noticed the Earth just below the Pelican. She jumped and clutched her hands to her neck and folded in on herself, assuming a brace position.
There was only a slight thud before everything went black.
—
“NINER!! WAKE UP!! oh please, please wake up…” A familiar voice called, fading into view. 479er groaned as she opened her weary eyes to see an equally familiar cyan helmet fade into view.
“Huh…Carolina? Did-did we make it?”
“Yeah, yeah we made it…I think we made it.”
479er breathed a heavy sigh and sat up, noticing Carolina clutching onto her body and holding her tight. She was a bit surprised, but gave Carolina a few loving pats on the back and pulled away, looking out the smashed cockpit window at the cold, dark landscape around them. A bit of glass clinked when she stepped her armored feet on the floor.
“Looks cold…really cold…God, I can barely see out of this with all the frost on it.”
“Should we try to get out there?”
“No, no, don’t. I’ll contact command if the radios still work. Even then, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got trackers in our armor.”
479er shrugged and walked over to the back of the ship, which was only illuminated by the faint glow of a flickering red light. Everything was lopsided because of how the ship fell when it crashed, and the heat wasn’t working either.
From the cockpit, Carolina let out a frustrated grunt and slammed her hand against the hull once more.
“Radio busted?”
“Radio busted.”
She let out a hard sigh. Walking over to 479er, who still had her arms crossed over her chest. One part force of habit, one part to keep as warm as she could.
Carolina rested her back against the hard metal walls of the Pelican, clutching her face in her hands. She was obviously distraught, angry, and maybe a little scared. No. Definitely a little scared. The longer they sat around, the more their body temperature would drop. The more their body temperature would drop, the more likely they’d…
No. Don’t think about that. Stop, stop thinking that.
479er slid down next to Carolina, not exactly looking her in the eye. She inched her hand a bit closer until she just barely nudged against Carolina’s armor. She pulled away once the other noticed.
Carolina looked at her from beyond the helmet, but eventually did take it off to look her in the eye. She let down her bright red hair from its carefully tied ponytail and wrapped it around her neck like a scarf. Those green eyes like the swirling of an angry sea stared back at 479er, and nobody said a word.
Without much warning, Carolina took 479er into her arms. 479er slowly embraced her back, closing her eyes with her head pressed against the other woman’s chest, listening to the sound of her rising heartbeat.
Then, she heard a sniffle, then a slight whimper, and a salty, wet drop fall onto her head. She looked up at Carolina, and saw she was crying. It hurt. 479er hugged her a bit tighter. She couldn’t fully imagine how it felt to have to be so perfect, so amazing, the number one freelancer on that leaderboard, for so so long to so many people.
She realized that Carolina needed someone. Someone in someplace at sometime where she could just let that go. 479er was that one. And hell, sitting in the back of a crashed Pelican in the middle of a snowstorm just might be that time.
They didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to. They didn’t need to say what they were feeling then. Every action spoke much louder than any word in the english language could.
After a while of holding each other, Carolina sniffled and looked down at 479er for a moment, realizing that after god knows how long, she’s ended up falling asleep, head rested right up against her heart. She smiled and leaned over to kiss her on the head.
Both of them ended up sleeping through that cold night, and were thankfully located and taken back to the Mother of Invention not too long after. It turned into a moment that they wouldn’t forget, and they still looked at each other in the most peculiar way when their eyes met.