Concurrence Chapter 7-4

2876 words. 

“Let us proceed, then. You will need to heal me if you want me to take down any more Mgelkgolo for you,” she teased.

-xXx-

“Here we are,” the Major said, the two of them rounding the edge of the block, approaching an awning built into the face of the building. There were two medkits mounted on the wall beneath the shelter, similar to the one the Major had treated his wounds earlier in the night. Seela clutched at her bleeding waist as the Major picked one up and opened the lid.

She took a seat on the bench nearby, the thing so small she worried she might fall off the thing. They had walked a good distance from the spot they’d dealt with the Hunters, but the exhilaration was still fresh on her mind, and her appreciation for his earlier words had only grown since. She had slain the Covenant’s fiercest warriors with a weapon she shouldn’t ever be in possession of. Had she really considered death? What was the point of dying for honour’s sake when she could live, and push the limits of her potential?

She watched him unpack the kits and set the empty casings aside. No longer did her reservations about him being an alien, Imp or Human, bother her. His words were as comforting as his presence was, and as long as they were stuck in this mess, it mattered little what species he was.

“You would make a fine Sangheili, Major,” she said, looking up to watch the rain splash against the glass awning. It felt like she’d been constantly soaked through this whole night, it felt nice to be able to take a second to dry off. “Minus the whole… throwing life away part.”

“Thanks?” he said, seemingly unsure how else to respond.

“You are what I first imagined my brothers in arms would be like,” she continued, the Major taking a seat next to her. “Stoic, honourable, fearless. Despite all my blunders at sneaking, all our fights that could have been avoided, you’ve never complained, just accepted it all and adapted.”

“Here,” he said, passing her a packet of gel in the following pause.

“My thanks,” she said, squeezing the gel onto her palm. She slathered it over her wound, dipping her hand underneath the fabric of her bodysuit. “It feels good to travel with you,” she continued, her blood congealing on her hand. “At first, I called you Heretic, alien, but I haven’t appreciated the benefits of that until now. You have no expectations of me, you do not know of Sangheili standards. It is so… refreshing, to be with one who expects nothing from me.”

“I expect you to watch my back,” he noted.

“That is an unspoken need between squadmates. That’s what we are, yes? A squad, and a pretty damned good one if I say so myself.”

He nodded at that, a few minutes of silence following. He eventually broke it, gesturing at her injury. “Seela you’ve got to push the gel in deep, won’t work otherwise.”

“I’m weary of gutting myself with my claws,” she explained, showing him her hand. Each digit was tipped with a triangular nail, the tips shining as they caught the light. “Unless you have a file on hand, I must be careful.”

“You file your nails?” he asked.

“Of course, I do not let them grow long and wide like the males do.”

He seemed to find this revelation amusing, producing the other gel packet as he chuckled. “I’ll do it, if you want. I don’t have claws.”

“True,” she said, noting his nails were blunt and circular. “Very well, you may touch me.”

“Not gonna lose my hand if I do? I remember you said nobody touches you.”

“For you, I will make an exception.”

“Alright…” He dripped a portion of the medigel out, cupping the white glob with his fingers. “Turn around,” he said, and she did, her back facing him as he placed his hand on her waist.

A flare of pain came and went as he slipped a finger into her laceration, then another. It was a strange sensation, she could feel his fingers wriggling around next to her organs, hot pain chasing each sudden shift. She needed to distract herself, his intrusion causing more of her blood to spill.

“When I was in the Covenant, I did everything I could to earn the respect of others,” she said, lifting the handle of the sword from her belt. “My status became my identity, yet when I earned the title of Ultra it mattered little, males still wouldn’t listen to me, only the Unggoy and Kig-Yar were tolerant of a female warrior, and that was only out of fear of discipline. Now, it is different,” she said, turning her head to the Major with excitement blazing in her eyes. “I travel with one who does not care what my rank or gender is. I can wield this sword without fear of judgement from you.”

“What more could I ask for than a sword-swinging Sangheili at my back?” he asked. He was still spreading the gel over and into her wound, he was a good listener.

She felt a flush spread over her face, Seela turning away before he noticed.

“Your shoulder’s bleeding, too,” he continued, Seela glancing back. It must have split when she’d smashed into that monument, but she hardly felt it, which shouldn’t surprise the Major by this point. “How’d you get this one again?”

“Spike grenade,” she answered, her head tilting as the Major stood up on the bench, as he was too short to access her shoulder if they were both seated.

“Nasty cut,” he noted, squeezing out more gel. He didn’t ask for permission this time, the odd scent of the gel filling her nose as he did his work.

“You fuss over me like my mother,” she chuckled. “I can take much more punishment than you can, Major.”

“Still at risk of infection just like the rest of us. Hold still.”

“Never thought I’d let myself be healed by an Imp,” she murmured, the way the Major’s hand caressed her shoulder sending shivers down her spine. How could the touch from another feel so different from her own hand? She bristled as his other arm came to rest on her back. A simple gesture on his part, but to her, he might as well have electrocuted her.

He continued to mend her wound for another few moments, Seela’s eyes lidding as the medicinal properties of the gel did its work, his soft fingers tracing the edges of her cuts. Was he taking an interest in her body, or was he just examining her injuries?

“All done,” he said, Seela jolting out of her lull. He shuffled away from her, placing his hand out in the air and letting the rain wash the grime away. He wiped his hand on his leg, tilting his head at her. “Ready to go?”

“In a moment, I wish to rest for a while.”

“Alright.”

She smirked at him, shuffling closer so that their hips just barely touched. She had to dip her head to look down at him, the Human’s helmet at roughly the same level as her chest. He was looking straight ahead, but she suspected he was watching her movements, and if he had any complaints about her closeness, he didn’t voice them.

“At first, I thought your small stature was a weakness,” she began, reaching out to run her fingers over his forearm, the sleeve missing so that she could trace his soft flesh. “But there is a certain dexterity to you that I can appreciate.”

She moved down to his wrist, noting that his pink flesh was layered in very fine hairs, too spaced apart to provide much insulation from the cold, yet his flesh radiated a welcoming warmth all the same. She turned his hand over, the Major letting her open his fingers with her own. She placed her palm on top of his, her fingers dwarfing his own as she brushed his flesh with her claws. Her blue skin contrasted with his rosy flesh, their difference in biology intriguing purely for the sake of it.

“So warm and smooth,” she murmured, interlocking their fingers. “I know you are warm-blooded creatures, but the air is so cold…” Despite his soft hide there was a pleasant firmness behind the tissue that pushed back when she prodded, and she wondered how developed he looked beneath the rest of that armour. Simply because she was curious, of course…

“I didn’t thank you earlier,” she started, blinking down at him. “You saved my life after that Chieftain gutted me, and all I did was accuse you of doing something wrong. I will fix it now,” she said with a nod. “Thank you for saving my life, Major. I still am not quite sure what I did to earn your compassion, but I respect your decision.”

“I need you, Seela,” he said. “that’s all there is too it.”

“If only everything was so simple,” she replied, trying to sound as casual as he was, but failing when he gave her hand a little squeeze with his own, that strange feeling in her chest growing more and more distracting.

They peered into the street for a while, the rainfall adding a strange touch of serenity to the surrounding destruction. She remembered how he had said he wasn’t good at doing nothing, but she smiled when she noticed he wasn’t tapping his foot, not pulling away from her. She didn’t want to point it out, afraid that bringing any attention to it might spoil the moment.

Soon she drew away, a warm, tingling feeling lingering on her hand, as though she could still feel him touching her long after his fingers had left her own.

“Let us press on,” she said, placing her hand into the trigger of her carbine. “Do you think the Brutes have seen the dead Mgelkgolo yet?”

“Probably,” he replied, taking his usual spot at the lead. “Hopefully it’ll take them a while to find some replacements.”

“An excellent thought! Drop a hundred more in our path, they won’t be able to stop us.”

“Not what I meant,” he grumbled, turning to glare at her, one she responded to with an innocent smile.

The Major

Streets of New Mombasa

12 Hours After Drop

The air temperature plummeted, helped in no small part to the monsoon roiling in the skies. His hands were shivering as he swept his shotgun from side to side, his sleeveless BDU doing his skin no favours as water dribbled down his arm. Seela fared no better, she had told him she was not used to such periods of rainfall, but rather than complain she turned to small talk with him.

“Will you tell me a little more about this objective of ours?” she asked, splashing into a puddle as she strode by his side. “What resistance do you expect? And what exactly is this weapon?”

“ONI will have my head if they find out I shared intel with a Covvie,” he replied, giving her a thoughtful glance. “But screw it, think you’ve earned the right to know a few things. You know that sleeper agent I told you about?” he asked, Seela nodding. “I’m here to exfil him. Before the drop we had reports that the Covenant were looking to do the same. Know anything about that?”

“They did not tell me much,” she replied, scanning the skies for a moment. “I encountered a Zealot which had some implications, but all I was told was to hunt Heretics while the Covenant redeployed somewhere beyond the city.”

“Redeployed, huh? Interesting. What kind of implications?”

“Zealots are only sent on deployments involving Forerunner artifacts,” she explained. “but from what I know of your role in your military, you likely already knew that, don’t you?”

“You Sangheili aren’t very flexible,” he replied. “Makes you easy to predict. Well we’re not after any alien artifact, just to get this informant out before the Brutes get to him. Have to assume they’re ahead of us, since they’ve got dropships and the numbers, but I can’t get more specific than that.”

“It sounds very important,” she noted. “Why send only your team then? Why not say, three teams, or four?”

“We did send a group of ODST’s earlier in the day,” he explained. “Imps you’d call them. But ONI lost contact with them almost immediately after they dropped. Maybe they got killed, maybe they’re still around, but we couldn’t sit on our hands and wait, so they sent my team in to finish the job. This place must curse Helljumpers, cause now I’m the one stranded out here by myself.”

“You have a new team now,” she said with a grin. “I have heard that some of my more influential kin have tried to absorb your race into the Covenant, but the Prophets have been hard to convince. If the Covenant had warriors like you, this war would be long over, you are an admirable fighter, who harmonises compassion with ferocity. What I would have given to have you and I in a squad much sooner.”

“You’re better than most Marines I’ve worked with in the past, too,” he replied. “Can think of a few situations I could have used your… direct solutions.”

They continued on for a while longer, the Major wiping his visor clear as they rounded what seemed like the hundredth intersection he’d seen this night. Soon he felt her hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see she was glancing at the sky again.

“I must stop,” she said. “I am cold and soaked through. If only my shields protected me from water…”

There was an apartment complex just across the street, the Major leading the way as he walked over. They couldn’t wait around forever, but he’d do anything to feel dry after hours of walking in a storm with no breaks.

It only become more apparent how drenched they were when they moved inside. He could feel water sloshing inside his boots, making little squelches each time he took a step, the carpet in the foyer ruined as soon as he stepped into the apartment. He turned around to see Seela was even worse off than him, the amount of water sloughing off her armour could have been enough to fill a bath tub.

“Look at the state of me,” she mumbled, looking down at herself. He knew what she meant. Her blood had failed to wash away near her more grievous wounds, leaving stains on her bodysuit. Her arms were tinted orange from when she’d ripped apart that Hunter, and the back of her legs were caked in dirt and dust, a result from when he’d dragged her out of the garden. “I shouldn’t expect to be clean in our current situation, but being a mess irks me.”

“Think I can help you with that,” he said, Seela cocking her head in a silent question. He waved for her to follow, the Major turning into the main hall and peaking inside each doorframe, grumbling when the first few just led to bedrooms and living areas.

“What are you looking for?” Seela asked, peering curiously over his shoulder, the alien so large she practically plugged the hallway, her helmet and elbows always in contact with something. “Are we on another food hunt again?”

“No, I’m looking for the… here we go.” He nudged open the final doorway with the stock of his shotgun, Seela ducking so she could look inside. Half the room was occupied by a raised section of plastic, flanked by waist-high pedestals where a number of body wash bottles stood in a messy group. It was divided from the rest of the room by a glass wall, the Major spotting a showerhead through the stained window.

“That’s a shower,” he explained, pointing. “We haven’t got forever, but if you want to bathe, you can take five.”

“This device shall grant me ablution?” she asked. “How does it work?”

“Okay I refuse to admit you know what ablution means, I’ve never heard anyone say that word.”

“It means to wash oneself,” she said, following him inside and watching as he slid the divider open. “How does this ‘shower’ work?”

“Well, these taps give you ablution, okay? It’s exactly like the ones we used at the sink, the water comes out of that head up there. I’ll find some towels while you-”

He glanced over to see that Seela had already set aside her shoulder pauldrons on the nearby sink, and she was pulling at a zipper built into the front of her bodysuit, dragging it down the front of her chest, the Major nearly dropping his shotgun in surprise. Her assets had not gone unnoticed during their time together, and he caught a glimpse of her cleavage as she dragged the zipper even lower, exposing the insides of two smooth, blue mounds.

“I’ll… leave you to it.” He spun round and gunned it for the door, Seela watching him curiously as he brushed past her with his head firmly locked in place.