For the Love of Super Soldiers

Time and Truth

I shrugged. "You say 'crashed,' I say 'broken now and fixed later'."

She gave a laugh and we turned the corner into the kitchen.

I raised an eyebrow as I watched Victorian slam Jarvis' arm down on the table triumphantly.

"Hah! Is that all you've got within you? Your arm carries the strength of a grasshopper!" Victorian yelled.

"What?!" Jarvis' eyes flashed and he glared at Victorian. "A grasshopper?"

"Oh, forgive me, that's an insult to all grasshoppers."

When I saw Jarvis about to leap out of his chair, I interrupted.

"Victorian, stop being a bother," I started. "Arm-wrestling is just his way of making others upset." I finished, looking at Jarvis. "He did it back in the Corps too."

"Ah, Love, came to ruin all of my fun, have you?"

"And at a good time, I see...where's Aaron?" I asked, staring at his now unoccupied seat.

Victorian rose from his seat and leaned towards my ear. "The angry one left up to his suite about ten minutes ago, Love. Don't know why. I can't imagine him going upstairs for anyone." A smirk sat on his face after the teasing whisper.

"Stop it." I said as I flicked his nose in annoyance.

"Well, it's about 2 o'clock in the afternoon now, Love. A lot can happen."

I had forgotten just how irritating my best friend could be. He knew that I was the type that sidestepped conversations like those. The ones that talked about inner thoughts. Or feelings.

I definitely attempted to skirt around those.

"And where is this mystical clock that tells you exact times, Oh-Great-English-One?" I asked teasingly. "How do you know what time it is?"

He pointed behind me, and I saw Jarvis and Stephanie messing with what looked like a clock.

"Seriously? Does that even work?" I said while Victorian shrugged. "The batteries in that thing have probably been dead for months. Years, even."

"Surely. I don't think the sun has burnt out, though, Love."

"It's solar powered?"

"Pretty cool, right? I was being nosy and found this baby in that cupboard over there." Jarvis waved the clock in the air.

"In the cupboard? How is it on, then?"

Everyone shrugged their shoulders but Jarvis wasn't going to let me dim his excitement.

"Now that we have the time and all, I say we look around, you know, explore a little."

A minute grin twisted my mouth as I realized just how alike Jarvis and Aaron were. Both were easygoing-sometimes too easygoing, I thought as I remembered how Aaron looked after fighting the Slicer earlier in the week—and they were both kiddish, which was obvious from the way acted with one other. They cared, though. Even I could see that. They placed another's well-being before their own, as I had pointed out to Victorian not too long ago.

"Why not?" Victorian yelled as he slapped a hand on my shoulder. "Right, Lieutenant?"

"We're going to tour the motel," Stephanie answered, seeing my questioning look as my attention was brought back to the three in the kitchen. "We just agreed."

Why did everyone want to tour, and look around, and see things? Why couldn't everyone just sit and remain immobile? You would think that finding a nice place to rest in an apocalyptic setting would cause reservations in people and their decisions. Maybe they would want to stay in the nice place that they had found.

Nope.

I had somehow ended up with the three people on the planet—four, as I thought of Aaron—that believed you always had to be doing something, and it did not necessarily mean a productive something.

"So why don't you run along, Love? Go tell van Shackle what our plans are? Maybe tell him something else?" Victorian was in my ear again, with his right arm slung over my shoulder. He walked me to the edge of the kitchen and out into the hallway. I opened my mouth to tell him off, but I quickly snapped it closed as Victorian gave me a look.

A look that said, "I don't care if you can kill me with your bare hands, you're going to listen to me first."

"Listen to me, Scarlett. I know you're not the best chit at dealing with feelings and all that, but what I do know is that I've seen you smile and chuckle more in the past twenty-four hours than I have in all my time with you back in the Corps. You may not want to believe it, but it's because of that fellow upstairs," he said while nodding to the stairs from the hallway.

He raised a hand as I began to protest and pushed forward. "I know that you're not going to say it aloud, but I'll tell you this to ease your nerves: let's say he doesn't actually love you. Yet. Let's say he's beginning to. I'm not telling you to marry the bloke, Love. All I'm saying is that, right now, he loves—cares enough for the both of you, and any of us can see the way he acts around you; as if he is a child who can't have a cookie. You should give him a chance; a sliver of hope. Something."

My eyes were wide as I listened to Victorian monologue.

"I've seen you so blunt and wax-like, Love. You've never let just anything bother you. I've also seen you alone. Always. I'm tired of that," he said quietly. He moved his arm from around my shoulder and lifted my chin up. "I'm also tired of the bloke silently glaring at me because he believes I'm trying to steal you away from him and make you Queen Elizabeth." He finished cheekily.

We both laughed and he turned me in the direction of the stairs. "See? That right there. That laugh and that smile? They're a few of the easiest that I've ever seen appear on your face, Scarlett." He pecked the back of my head quickly and pushed me forward softly. I turned back around to speak, but his voice cut me off again. "You don't have to love him now, but don't be cold and act as if you feel nothing, Lieutenant. He'll continue believing it's me, and, as much as I enjoy bothering the lad, I don't want to have to hurt your beloved." He finished with a satisfied smirk and walked toward the kitchen.

"I don't believe that I'm good enough for him, Alexander. You know that."

My use of his first name had him turning around and glaring at me. "Well, frankly, no one else believes that, and, most importantly, he doesn't. So go on," he pointed behind me. "Try to talk to the bloke, and do try not to make too much noise, will you? Those of us non-smitten folks don't take too kindly to squeaking bed frames."

The sentimental mood between us had been vaporized and Victorian dashed back into the kitchen with a smile and a wink to avoid capture.

I shook my head, wondering how someone like him became my best friend, and I put my body on a path toward Aaron's suite.

💛

So was that good? I hope so. -.- As you can see, Victorian is a love doctor, Haha. I hope someone doesn't kill him. O.o I'm joking. I'm too attached to kill off my babies. ↖(^▽^)↗

Comment and tell your friends. KEEP FLOSSING, DEARIES! ♥♥

Love,

Swaggerwithwords :)