2AN: Because it needed to be done, and nobody else has done it yet.
The first thought Sasha, codename 'Cain', had when he felt the drift compatibility with the blond kid across from him was oh fuck.
The second thought was mmm, that ass.
The boy wasn't very tall, his hair was messy as hell, and he was panting hard from the sparring, but there was a glint in his eyes, the same light he knew must be showing in his eyes at the moment. Even with the split lip bleeding down his chin, he looked ready to put up a fight.
Cain had a reputation to maintain, so he sneered, staff at the ready. "Why so mad? Have I upset your delicate sensitivities, princess?"
The kid frowned. "My name's Ethan."
"Well, princess," he continued. "Looks like you're it. The feeling doesn't lie; we're compatible. You're gonna have to get used to it."
He could feel the grin stretching his face as he leapt forward, bearing down on Ethan. He was going to savour that deer-in-the-headlights look for months to come.
Ethan, newly codenamed 'Abel' (he wondered who in the command had such a sick sense of humor, since Cain was going to kill and/or drive him insane him one of these days) sighed for the millionth time as he stabbed at what the military called 'food', and what the rest of them called radioactive waste.
"I'm serious, Ethos. Would you kindly stop finding humor at my misery?"
The other pilot tried to surpress his chuckles, but his shoulders continued shaking. "Wh...what? I-I'm not ...pfft...l-laughing..."
"I still fail to see how this is a cause for laughter! I'm going to go insane. My co-pilot is the hardest person to deal with, ever! He's all brusque and rude and doesn't have a sense of personal space! He just leans into me at the most inopportune times and distracts me from important things and... Would you stop laughing!"
Beside Ethos, Deimos just quietly shook his head. "...he really doesn't know."
The other co-pilot's eyes widened. "Wait, seriously? ...oh, I'm sorry, Abel. I thought you already knew." Ethos gathered up his tray with all the speed of a desperate man. Deimos did the same, vacating the table in record time. "Um, really sorry about this, but I just remembered that I have...an appointment with...with medical! Hope you work things out with Cain soon!"
"Know what?!" Abel almost screeched at their retreating backs.
Traitors.
He turned to Praxis, about to ask him what the hell was going on, only to find that he, too, had vanished.
Et tu, Brute?
The drift was a strange thing.
It felt like floating in a sea of stars, only the void between the lights was pure white and filled with memories. In the the drift, they were simply parts of the whole, moving together in destroying the kaijuu.
Their memories mixed at the edges. Abel discovered what proper borscht tasted like, while Cain got his look at some of the more embarrassing stuff that he definitely did not want Cain to see.
They caught their breathes as the Genesis awaited recovery. The latest kaijuu to get through the rift was a Category Three, codenamed 'Colteran', and they had fought against it for a harrowing forty-five minutes, finally managing to kill it
With a gasp, Cain removed his helmet, breathing in the relatively clear air outside of it. Beside him, Abel did the same, his hair tousled from being crushed under the plastic and metal.
"Did you really get picked to do a kissing booth in high school? Wow, and with so many girls, too." Were the first words out of his mouth. He enjoyed the raging blush that spreaded across Abel's face.
"S-Shut up! It was for a school fundraiser! It wasn't my fault that all the girls wanted to do it!" He snapped at Cain, almost hissing like a bristling cat. "Don't tell anyone, or I swear to god I will kick you somewhere painful!"
Cain thumbed the mechanism, and with the sound of metal clanking he dropped down to the floor. He made his way over to Abel's part of the cockpit.
"Care to add one more to that number?"
"W-what are you-!"
Cain pulled down, and their lips met.
They kissed each other under the electric lights, and when they broke apart, Abel only looked at him with sudden realization.
"Oh. So that's what they're talking about."
"Yeah. Sure took you awhile, even with the drift. Do you want to go murder the rest of them after we...talk...about it? Somewhere with more privacy?"
"You bring the feathers, I'll bring the tar."
I would just like to say that Abel is really tsundere in this.
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