Chapter 19: Preparation VI - Comfort

Annabelle and Belevere left the steakhouse with full bellies. After Annabelle briefly passed on her knowledge of how a faction operated, Belevere became much more knowledgeable, at least for now. She didn’t know how much Belevere will remember by tomorrow.

Either way, as the de jure leader of their new and tiny Odis Group, Belevere had a lot to think about. While Annabelle would like to give her girlfriend time to process all that information, the truth of the matter was that they simply didn’t have enough time to give Matt time to ramp up.

If they did, not only would his growth explode and hopelessly outstrip them, he would also capture all the new attractive businesses with good prospects, leaving their Odis Group the dregs of the year.

If that happened, Annabelle didn’t think she’d be able to force a merger on terms favorable to the Odis Group.

“I think we should just buy a normal house for now, and then rent an office building as our base,” Annabelle said. “For now, we don’t have to worry about my mother—err, Vesmelda.” 

Belevere looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Because right now, we’re insignificant. Except for the applications I’ve yet to process, we are the entire Odis Group.”

While having less people meant less power overall and the Odis Group didn’t pose a threat to the Florent Group, it also meant that the Florent Group could not bring their full might down on just two people. 

They didn’t have any dirt that the Florent Group’s hackers and surveillance systems could dig up to discredit them, and even Vesmelda couldn’t outright assassinate them.

In effect, the Florent Group was toothless when it came to threats to their person. The trouble will only come when they start getting in bed with other businesses, giving the Florent Group new avenues of attack through economic suppression or investigating shady pasts.

“To be honest, I’m actually a bit reluctant to go through with our plan. Tossing their lot in with us means a lot of innocent people will have their livelihoods ruined now that Vesmelda has her eyes on us,” Annabelle said, sighing helplessly. “I don’t want to see that.”

“Perhaps. But sometimes, some sacrifices are necessary. We don’t have another choice if we want to eventually eliminate our threat. The two of us are still too vulnerable.”

Unfortunately, though Annabelle had doubts about Belevere’s insistence on their lack of choice, she knew Belevere was mostly right. 

Joining a new faction was a high-risk, high reward investment, while joining an established and powerful faction was a conservative choice that guaranteed stability at the cost of upwards growth. As long as she made the risks clear up front, the ultimate choice laid at the hands of their future associates.

“Speaking of vulnerability, we should start carrying guns,” Belevere said suddenly. “Are you licensed to carry a personal weapon yet?”

It seemed strange that a person could be licensed to pilot a massive machine of war while not being allowed to carry a smaller weapon capable of causing much less damage, but that was reality. Perhaps the law had something to do with how visible the weapon was.

“Of course. I am,” Annabelle said. She reached behind her and quickly drew a small pistol from beneath her coat, and just as quickly stowed it. The gun disappeared in a hidden holster. 

Then she bathed in Belevere’s look of surprise.

“Wait, when did you...?”

“As soon as I was legally allowed to. I asked you if you wanted to go with me, but you were busy at the time, remember?”

“Impossible! I’d never pass up a chance to go anywhere with you!” Belevere protested.

“Well, it looks like you’ll have to go by yourself now this time. I have a lot of work to do, after all,” Annabelle said, laughing.  “And you do too. Now that you’re an expert candidate, you can’t slack off either. You might not be able to advance completely into a full expert pilot without a proper mech, but at the very least you should not regress.”

At her words, Belevere hung her head. “I’m sorry, Anne. You should have been the one focusing on your training. Especially now.”

Even if Belevere managed to salvage their plans with her breakthrough, their plans were still in shambles. 

Originally, both of them needed only minimal time training in simulations to keep their skills up in the sensitive initial growth stage of their faction, with Annabelle taking priority. Now, both of them were high maintenance pilots that needed a massive number of hours each day—Belevere to maintain her candidacy and not regress, and Annabelle to raise her aptitude.

This time, Belevere took priority. A hundred Grade A pilots were less valuable than an expert candidate.

Considering that Belevere had been her opponent at the time the accident happened, Belevere must feel at least some responsibility for pushing her so hard, which might have triggered the malfunction.

Annabelle thought it was a silly way to think. Even if it had been Belevere’s fault, which Annabelle doubted, she would forgive her. On the other other hand, if Belevere had consciously held back, her pride would have been the thing damaged instead.

It was Annabelle’s turn to pat her sullen girlfriend’s head now. Despite her embarrassment whenever Belevere did it to her, it always made her feel a bit better. “There, there, Bel. It’s not your fault.”

She had to reach way up to reach Belevere’s head, but it was worth it to see her girlfriend’s reaction of utter shock. Belevere probably never expected Annabelle to suddenly pat her on the head.

The look of surprise quickly disappeared though. And although Belevere’s hair was long and silky, it didn’t feel as nice as Annabelle expected given how more enjoyment Belevere got out of petting her. She tried touching her own head subtly without Belevere noticing, but it wasn’t anything special.

It was nothing like when Belevere touched her.

The walk home wasn’t too long since the restaurant was in the academy’s dormitory district. This late, there weren’t any students still out, so they returned home unharassed.

The day had been pretty exhausting—not physically, but remembering her past had been mentally and emotionally draining. All Annabelle wanted to do was shower and go to sleep. With how busy she was going to get in the upcoming days, she should get into the habit of sleeping and waking up early. She couldn’t nonchalantly pick her schedule as she had been.

Although she had packed up a lot of her belongings already in anticipation of moving, she still left out a few changes of clothes and the things she needed on a day to day basis.

Annabelle quickly gathered her pajamas and towels and marched into the showers. Footsteps came out from behind her and she caught Belevere just a step behind her with her clothes too.

She stopped and turned around. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?” Belevere asked innocently.

“Why are you following me into the bathroom?” Who was she kidding? Of course Annabelle knew what was going on. She was just giving Belevere to come clean and ask first. 

That, and she still had yet to decide whether or not to actually let Belevere in with her or not...

After a moment of hesitation, Belevere replied. “I want to take a shower with you. Let’s take our relationship further.”

Annabelle felt her face turning red. If Belevere had left off the second part, perhaps she’d have considered it, but the second part was too much. Belevere had just confessed only a few hours ago. They haven’t even been lovers for a day!

“No way!”

Before Belevere could reply, Annabelle turned and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind her, her heart pounding. She prepared herself for Belevere to knock on the door to appeal her decision, but Belevere never did.

At least she knows when to stop. Then again, she did wait for me for years, so this kind of development isn’t fast at all. More like playing catch up.

But my heart won’t be able to keep up.

To be honest, Annabelle didn’t know how fast a relationship should progress. Sometimes she made moves on Belevere, but it always felt weird. It was more natural for her to let Belevere take the lead. Sometimes Belevere was just too bold though.

Still mildly confused, Annabelle stepped into the shower and turned on the water. The smell of the shampoo and body wash, the same kinds that Belevere used, rose with the steam until she was surrounded by and immersed in the soothing scent. 

She closed her eyes, letting the hot water soak into her skin and relax her tense muscles. As she stood there, she lost track of the time.

The steam, even with the ventilator systems on, was making her a bit lightheaded, so eventually she got out and changed into her pajamas. 

The pajamas had been a set that Belevere bought for her as a joke, especially since the cutesy bear designs did not fit her age. But after wearing it once, also as a joke, Annabelle found that she actually quite liked how it feels so she ended up wearing it day to day as long as no one came over.

Steam that accumulated in the bathroom billowed out when the door opened, and Belevere was nowhere to be seen. She found her girlfriend in her own room working on her comms.

“The shower’s open now. What are you doing?” she asked.

Belevere didn’t turn around, so Annabelle walked closer, toweling her hair dry. She looked over Belevere’s shoulder, careful to not let the rapidly-cooling water from her hair drip on her girlfriend.

The site that dominated the projected screen was the history of various factions on Tamsel III. How they started up, their successes, factors to their successes—and if they fell, how. 

At first, Annabelle had been just curious, but as she read on, she got absorbed into reading the articles too. Finally, a drop of water that she missed dripped from her hair onto Belevere, making her jump.

“Anne, it’s cold!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t notice,” Annabelle said, backing a good amount of distance away. 

“No, it’s fine,” Belevere said as she turned back to the screen. She looked really focused on it.

Annabelle shifted her weight from side to side, suddenly unsure what to do. She really wasn’t used to Belevere being so distant. Finally, she had just decided to leave and leave Belevere to her work when Belevere looked back at her.

“You should go to sleep first. If I don’t at least learn something by myself today, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep,” she said. “I can’t push all the work onto you.”

“Then... I don’t mind staying up with you,” Annabelle said softly. But Belevere gave no indication that she heard. A bit disappointed with herself, Annabelle left and quickly finished drying her hair in the bathroom, having toweled off most of the water. With her hair dried, she headed off to her own room.

There, she flicked on a dim night light and put on some music, a slow waltz duet of piano and violin. 

She grabbed the nearest plushie, a teddy nearly as big as she was, and hugged it while she began to read the magazine she had left out of her packing.

The comfort she felt in her room, the music, and the strain of reading in dim light quickly wore her out and the last thing she remembered was her putting the magazine beside her bed before she fell asleep.