'I need to go', I whispered in her ear where she was hugging me very tightly.
'Nooo', she whined softly and she hugged me even tighter if that was possible.
I laughed, I didn't want to go, but I had to. I had already stayed longer than I should have and I really needed to go back to my own room.
'I'm sorry. I will be back next week. For sure.' I kissed her forehead and she reluctantly let go of me. She tried to hide how tired she was, but her eyes kept closing on their own. She needed sleep as much as I did.
I carefully lifted the covers of me, trying to keep the warmth under for her, and sat on the egde of the bed.
I was very cold in her room. It was cold everywhere in HQ. It was such a big building that heating everything would be pointless and extremely expensive. Besides, the winters here on Hala were short, so most days of the year we didn't need heaters.
I shivered, but the reason for that may also be the hand that ran over my bare back. I heard a muffled laugh behind me and I knew she was teasing me again. She knew the effect she had on me and she loved proving it to herself. 'You are a real pain in the ass, you know that right?', I nudged her.
'I know,' she said into her pillow, 'But you love me anyway.' She sounded very sure of herself.
'Are you sure?' I couldn't help but tease her. She acted like she hated it when I teased her, but I think she silently liked it.
My question earned me a soft whack on my arm. 'Get out', she said, trying to fake anger. I laughed again, picking my clothes off the floor and putting them back on.
I still remember the first time I ever saw her naked. I think it was after about a year of dating. I was stunned that this beautiful woman was all mine and she wanted me to be hers. She had blushed when she saw me staring, but that just made it even better. My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding in my ears, but I had nothing to be nervous about. She had made me feel safe and made all my nerves go away quickly.
We both felt that the physical stuff wasn't the most important part of our relationship, so most of the nights, we just talked or enjoyed each other's company.
When I was fully clothed, I bowed down and kissed her forehead again, the only part of her head that was visible above the covers, and I muttered a 'goodnight'. When I didn't get a reaction, I knew she had already fallen asleep. So I quietly made my way out of her room, checking the hallway to see if nobody was there, and made sure the door closed behind me.
HQ was quiet when I made my way to my own apartment. I only ran into three people and they were too focused on their Com's to see me.
So I reached my door safely and quickly got into bed. I had an early shift tomorrow, so I needed the sleep.
~~~~~~
After my workout, I arrived in the Commander's offices precisely on time to start my day. There were no new missions for me, so I helped other Commanders with strategies and problems they had. While I was looking through the mission schedule for today, I saw that Yon and his team were going on a mission to save a Kree spy named Soh-Larr. I froze when I saw his name. He was one of the people who trained me when I first came here, and he had been very kind to me. Besides Jaa-Nus, he was probably my closest friend here. If they were going to save him, I needed to be there.
I discussed this with the other Commanders and they agreed with me. Soh-Larr had gained a lot of information during his three years undercover. We needed that information, so he was a high priority.
So I strapped my weapons to my suit and made my way over to the ship they would leave in. It was a stealth ship, perfect for getting in and out fast without being noticed. That was exactly what we wanted.
I knew Vers would be on his team, so our acting skills would be tested today. I hoped she could ignore me enough to keep the others blind of our feelings towards each other.
I walked through the hanger and opened the ramp of the ship. Getting to the controls, I started setting up everything so we could leave quickly.
Hearing footsteps getting closer, I turned around and saw five people make their way into the ship. Vers walked in front and I must say, she looked good in that uniform.
'Commander?', she asked surprised when she saw me immediately. It was like she had a sensor that told her I was close-by.
The others then saw me too, and knew immediately that it must be bad if another Commander came on this mission too. 'This can't be good', a tall blue man with short hair concluded when he saw me. I could feel Vers' piercing eyes on my face, trying to get my attention so she could figure out why I was here.
'It must be another Skrull attack', another man guessed. He was also blue, but he had no hair on his head, only a little goatee that I thought looked ridiculous. His eyes scared me a little. They looked like they saw right through you.
'Whatever it is, it's big', the third man with a large beard ended the conversation. He looked nice. Like a big teddy bear.
To be honest, this team came across as a bunch of different people thrown together. It didn't look anything like a team, but I could be wrong. 'Yon-Rogg will explain when he gets here', I told them when they all looked at me for an explanation as to why they were here.
Deciding I wouldn't give them any information, a fierce blue woman with long black hair continued the conversation. 'Has a Skrull ever simmed you?', she asked the man with the goatee. I believed his name was Korath. It looked like he was the laughing stock of the team, probably because he took everything too seriously. I knew Vers would like to tease him.
'Once, it was deeply disturbing', Korath answered the woman. And like I predicted, Vers jumped at the first opportunity to taunt him. 'Why?', she asked, amused. I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. She was so predictable.
'Because I stared into the face of my mortal enemy and the face staring back was my own', he said seriously. I covered up my laugh with a cough, but Vers heard it anyway and was only encouraged by it.
'Well maybe if you were more attractive then it would be less disturbing.' I shook my head at that. She was unbelievable.
'You think you're funny, but I'm not laughing', Korath said to her, still in that same serious tone. Man, he had to lighten up.
'You never laugh', the man with the short hair countered.
'I laugh on the inside. I am not doing that now.'
'It's funny 'cause objectively speaking, you are quite handsome', beard declared. I raised my eyebrow at that. He clearly had other ideas about handsome than me.
Korath's eyes finally lit up a little at that comment. 'Well thank you.'
Finally, Yon-Rogg decided to show up. We had been standing here for at least five minutes and a Commander should always be first, but okay, his team, his rules. He did not look happy to be on this mission. I knew he thought it was boring, a simple in and out, so he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
I was still standing at the controls in the front of the ship, so he didn't immediately notice me when he walked in. I guess his senses were slacking. 'Listen up team!', he said loudly. Trying to get everyone's attention. 'Knock it off', he pointed at Vers, referring to the smile that was still on her face. I was not happy about the tone he used when he said that to her, my fists clenching.
Finally, he noticed me and looked even more annoyed than before. I gave him a little sarcastic smile, but he wanted to know what I was doing here. So he stalked over to me where I was standing a little away from the rest, and got very close to my face.
'What are you doing here?', he asked in a low voice, a scowl on his face. He was not happy I crashed his mission, but he wanted to hide it from his team, so he tried keeping this conversation between us.
I, however, did not care that they would hear, so I answered in a loud voice. 'You are rescuing Soh-Larr. He is my friend and I owe him, so I need to be here.' Looking into his eyes, I challenged him to make a scene. To drag me out of the ship by my arm. But I knew his pride would win and so he took a step back after another minute of tense silence and just walked away, back to his team.
I could feel Vers' eyes on me, and this time, I answered her gaze. She wanted to know why I would challenge him like that, but I just shrugged.
Yon had walked to the middle of the ship and pulled up an image of Torfa, the planet we were going today, and started explaining the mission to his team that had gathered around the Holo.
'Alright, prepare for a search and rescue of our spy, Soh-Larr', he looked at me as he said his name. Knowing I already spilled that information for him. 'The Skrulls have invaded yet another border planet, this time Torfa', he gestured at the planet hovering in front of him. 'Soh-Larr sent a warning signal, which we've intercepted, that his cover's blown. The Skrull Gereneral Talos has sent kill units to find him. Should they reach him before we do, the intelligence he has acquired over three years is as good as theirs.'
I could see Vers through the Holo. She had a concentrated face and was hanging on to Yon's every word. I had only seen her this determined once, and that was when she tried proving to me she could take me down a couple years ago.
'The Accusers will bomb a Skrull stronghold here in the south', Yon pointed to a place on the map. 'We slip in, we locate Soh-Larr and we get out, leaving them none the wiser.' He then changed the image to one of the Torfa populace, showing his team what their people looked like. 'The Torfa populace; we are not to interfere with them nor them with us. Nothing compromises the security of our mission. Proceed with caution. Follow protocol before extracting him.' Meaning we had to ask Soh-Larr for his code.
He lets the hologram disappear from before our eyes and looked at every person in his team, except for me. 'This is a dangerous mission. We must all be ready to join the collective if that is our fate today.' I couldn't keep myself from rolling my eyes at those words. He was so dramatic. 'For the good of all Kree!'
'For the good of all Kree!', everyone yelled back. It was something we said before every mission, like a little yell. It was buried so deep in my system that I yelled the words back without even thinking.
Yon-Rogg made his way over to the controls, bumping into my shoulder as he passed me. I saw Vers wanted to go talk to me. Probably to ask what the hell I was doing here, but I shook my head at her as a sign to stay where she was. She looked a little disappointed, but understood where I was getting at. So she took a seat along the right side of the ship's wall and buckled herself in. I did the same in the co-pilot seat, next to Yon. He didn't even so much as glance at me when I did, but he did say something.
'Don't get in my way'
'No problem', I said back venomous.
He skillfully flew the ship out of the hanger, the three enormous bombing ships from the Accusers behind us. I had to admit, his flying was good and he steered the ship through the jump point without any problems.
After a little while and a lot of awkward silence, Torfa emerged from the stars and I prepared myself for what we would find there. I had a feeling this mission was not going to go the way I wanted it to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
So we finally got to the movie. I will go through it nice and slow, I hate when books go through them very fast.
Btw: I have decided to take out the little flashbacks from Aayala's life at the start of each chapter, because I had trouble finding good storylines for them. Hope you don't mind.
Thank you for reading again!
(2249 words)