sigelphoenix

Title: Seven Days
Characters: Sae and Gunnar
Warmakers Adventure: 18
Word Count: ~3100
Summary: A week into their stay on Heimgard, Gunnar and Sae decide to become boyfriend and girlfriend. Now they have to figure out what the hell that means.
Notes: Many thanks to ratzeo for providing input, advice, and general support. Writing from the perspective of a high Int, low Wis teenage boy with his first girlfriend is hard.

Day 1

After Ichiro leaves the dwarven training room, Sae and Gunnar are left in silence. The electrothaumaturgical equipment has powered down, the Sorcerer's footsteps are fading, and the only sounds left are the two teenagers' breathing - Gunnar's deep and steady as his unconscious body heals itself, Sae's shallow and quick as she rests on her knees beside him.

She stares down at Gunnar's face. She looks up and stares at the door for a long, lingering minute. Then she looks back at Gunnar.

Gunnar moans softly, and his eyelids flutter. Then his eyes snap open and he sits straight up. He looks around quickly, taking in the empty room and Sae kneeling and unarmed, before relaxing.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "Where's Ichiro?"

"He's gone. He's fine. I'm fine. I think what happened ... it was sort of my fault. I'm sorry." Sae looks down at her hands in her lap, where her fingers grip each other with knuckle-whitening tightness. "I'm also sorry for ... before." She takes a deep breath. "I lied to you - I mean," she adds quickly, her words beginning to come more quickly as she picks up momentum, "not really - I do like the others - but I panicked and I know that's not what you were asking and I lied because I really do. Like you."

Gunnar blinks, processing all the information she just delivered. "... Okay." He rubs the back of his neck, where parts of his sweater and his hair have been singed away, leaving his scars visible. "So ... what should we do about that?"

Sae's head whips up and she stares at him. "Do? What do you - I mean, you don't have to ... do anything ..." Her voice trails off in a mumble.

"Well, since you felt this way, I just assumed that there was something you wanted to happen next," Gunnar explains, though that doesn't make Sae stop looking perturbed.

"But that - you don't have to ... well, I like being your friend ..." Sae gaze drops and she looks down, to the side, anywhere but up at Gunnar's face.

Gunnar scratches his head and frowns. "So ... you like me."

Sae's hands tighten.

"And that's good."

Sae perks up.

"Right?"

Sae opens her mouth, says nothing, closes it, and just nods.

"Well, if we both feel that way, it's only natural to want to progress."

"We both ..." Sae echoes, and flushes. "Um, yes. Progress. You mean ... like Reika and Ichiro?"

"Right," Gunnar says. "Except not. Because we're totally different people."

"Uh, right." Sae's fingers, no longer maintaining a death grip on each other, now start to twiddle. "So this ... Um. Good ... yes. I'd like ..." Finally she gives up and just nods again.

"Okay." Gunnar seems satisfied. "Good." He opens his mouth in a yawn as massive as he is. "I think bed is a good idea." He stands and stretches, limbering up newly healed skin and muscle. "I'll talk to Ichiro tomorrow."

Sae remains silent, blinking up at him, and he looks down at her as if considering what to say. Finally he comes up with, "Good night."

"Good night," Sae returns in a faint voice, as Gunnar turns and leaves the room.

After he leaves, Sae unfolds her legs and stands up. She only wobbles once before she straightens. She looks a little stunned, and puts a hand to her forehead gingerly, like someone feeling for fever, or a head wound.

Then she runs out the door, toward the room she shares with Reika.

Day 2: Gunnar

Gunnar is back in the training room the next morning. A night of rest makes this place less bewildering to him than it seemed the night before. He still needs to talk to Ichiro and figure out what the hell the other boy was thinking, but the rest of it is all right. Talking with Sae was good, and he's glad they got things worked out.

As usual, Sae comes in to meet him for their morning practice. Unlike usual, she immediately sits on the floor facing away from him, and starts her stretches without a word. It's not that Sae is normally talkative, but it is odd for her to be absolutely silent and not look at him at all.

Gunnar wonders if he should say something, but nothing comes to mind. They don't usually have long conversations with one another; they just spar. But now that they've moved to the next stage, he thinks they ought to talk more. It would help them get to know each other better.

"So," he says, "what's your favorite color?"

Sae turns to face him, but she doesn't answer immediately. "Red," she says finally.

"Okay." He's not really sure what's supposed to come next. He decides that this is enough to start with, and they'll just work on figuring out the rest.

Gunnar moves to the middle of the room, easing his body into a fighting crouch. "Are you ready?"

Again, Sae doesn't answer for several seconds. Then she says, "Okay," and moves to face him.

He lands a few blows at first, which is abnormal; Sae moves a little slowly, like she's not fully concentrating on the fight. But soon enough she seems to regain her focus, and the training session goes well.

Day 3: Sae

The second morning after her confession, Sae feels less nervous coming into the training room to meet Gunnar. Her stomach still ties itself in knots, but at least her heart doesn't pound in her chest as if they've already been fighting for hours. She thinks she might even be able to meet his eyes without blushing furiously.

It's progress.

This time, she just gets in the door when Gunnar asks, "What's your favorite animal?"

"Um ... tigers, I guess." She frowns at him in confusion. He doesn't seem interested in talking about the subject further; like the question about her favorite color, he just listens to her answer and then looks ready to move on to something else. "Why?" she asks.

"Because we don't know each other very well." Gunnar looks at her like she asked him something completely obvious, like why you never believe that Rex is telling you the whole story. "We should know these things about each other if we're going to," he pauses and shrugs, "do this."

It does make sense, even if it is a little weird. And even if these kinds of questions seem more suited to a romantic date than an early morning sparring match. That's just how Gunnar works.

She can't really argue with what he said, though. She might as well meet him halfway. "So ... what's your favorite animal?"

"Koala bears. They aren't actually bears, but they're kind of cute and mellow."

Sae stares at him, frozen into speechlessness. She's seized with the sudden urge to squeal, which is something she never expected to feel about Gunnar.

Gunnar seems to take her silence badly, because he looks sheepish and adds, "But I wouldn't want one for a pet."

Sae bites her cheek hard to hold the squeal in.

Day 4: Gunnar

Sae takes a break from repairing mecha in the middle of the afternoon to meet Reika. She tells Gunnar that she and her sister are having Ichiro scry their parents and make sure they're okay - something Gunnar has declined to do with his own parents, but he understands Sae's desire to go.

He catches her scent a couple of hours later, and within a few seconds she appears in the doorway. She doesn't say anything, just sits next to him and resumes work on the mecha. He tells her what progress he's made, and she just nods.

Sae remains silent, but after a few minutes Gunnar notices the salty scent of tears. He looks over at her, but she is bent over her work, her face in shadow, and he can't see if she's crying. He does, however, catch the sound of a tear hitting the metal with a soft plink.

"Is something wrong?" He doesn't think anything happened to her parents, or else she wouldn't be here. It would make more sense for her to be with Reika, if that were the case.

Actually, it makes more sense for Sae to be with Reika no matter what went wrong. Even if he and Sae have a relationship now, she would go to her sister first. The fact that they're not together right now means that at least one of them doesn't want to be around the other.

His suspicions are confirmed when Sae asks, "Do Reika and Ichiro ever make you feel stupid?"

That still doesn't explain what she's upset about, though. He just answers her honestly, "They can make me feel like I don't understand people."

Sae doesn't say anything back, just sighs. Then she wipes her face and goes back to work.

Gunnar looks at her silent form for a moment, not sure what to do. She's clearly unhappy, but he doesn't know why, let alone how to fix it. This is the kind of thing Reika would handle.

But there's a reason that Sae came to him. She knows that he's not good at talking; she isn't either, and it's normal for them to be comfortable working together without much conversation. Maybe that's all she wants.

He does offer her all the tasks that require heavy lifting within her capability, though. He figures the physical work will help her feel better.

Day 5: Sae

When Sae goes to meet Gunnar for training the next morning, he doesn't say anything about yesterday, for which she's grateful. She and Reika talked last night, and she feels better; but she'd still be embarrassed if Gunnar mentioned her crying in front of him.

Sparring with Gunnar is exactly what she needs, giving her a physical task to focus all of her energy on. She tried training by herself last night, after she stopped working on the mecha, but doing it alone hadn't worked. She was preoccupied and upset the whole time, still caught up in feeling confused about her family and mad at Reika.

Now that she and Reika have worked things out, she can just concentrate on releasing the residual tension in her body through combat. Unanswered questions still gnaw at her, but Gunnar keeps her on her toes and doesn't give her time to get distracted with other worries. Soon enough, her body loosens up, letting her move lightly and freely like she usually does.

At one point in the match, when Gunnar moves in to strike, he holds his arms close to his body, which puts him into Sae's range almost at the same time she gets into his. She expects a full-body attack, with Gunnar using his superior mass to bear her down, so she fends him off with a swat from her sheathed scimitar.

But he moves to the side of Sae, rather than into her, making her strike glancing instead of direct. He barrels past her, and there's a crucial second where Sae loses track of her opponent.

Before she can turn her head in the direction Gunnar went, she feels his hands on her arms, pinning them to her side. Part of her brain registers that Gunnar's grip renders her upper body virtually immobile.

The other part of her brain notices how large and warm his hands are.

She twists at the waist, trying to gain a more advantageous position within his hold, managing to turn halfway before Gunnar's weight throws her off balance. One of her scimitars drops as she grabs at him with her left hand, pushing off from his body so he won't land directly on top of her. She still gets the breath knocked out of her as Gunnar bears her down to the padded floor with a muffled thud.

Sae feels a brief flash of pain from the impact, and then she's staring up into Gunnar's face. His left arm braces against the floor, holding him up so he doesn't completely crush her, but his other arm is partially trapped underneath her body, which pushes him so close that he weighs down her chest.

At least, she assumes that's why she's having trouble breathing.

This isn't the first time that anti-hamatula training has put them into a compromising position. Gunnar often tries to lock Sae into a grapple, to give her a chance to practice freeing herself so that next time they run into the barbed devils she won't be in danger. A lot of times, this means they end up tangled on the floor.

But this is the first time that it's happened when Gunnar is her supposed boyfriend. Sae feels heat rushing up her face, and her focus on the sparring match is shot.

This is really awkward, she thinks, but maybe if we just act like it doesn't -

"This is really awkward," Gunnar says.

Or not, Sae sighs to herself.

She tries to think of something to say, but manages only an "Uh," before Gunnar stands up in a single, swift movement.

With his weight off of her and his arm out from underneath her, Sae should no longer feel trapped. Somehow, she just ends up feeling unsteady.

Day 6: Gunnar

The next day, Sae and Gunnar are in the mess hall eating a lunch comprised of some sort of vacuum-sealed meat product that Nariko has determined is safe to eat uncooked.

"Red bean ice cream."

Gunnar finishes gnawing a chunk of meat and swallows. "Huh?" The last thing they talked about was the tentacle-monster infestation in the damaged hangar, so he's pretty sure she isn't trying to pick up a previous conversation.

"I was just thinking about what foods I really missed, and ... well, it's, um, my favorite dessert." Her gaze drops and she flushes. "I thought you'd like to know." She picks at her meat product in silence.

Well, that's good to know. "Mine is tapioca pudding," he offers. "Or bread pudding." He thinks for a moment, then adds, "Pudding in general."

Sae nods and smiles a little. Gunnar feels pleased; he doesn't see her do that often.

She stands up even though there's still food on her plate. "I'm going back to work. I'll see you there."

Gunnar is almost done with his lunch anyway, so he stops her with a hand on her arm. "Wait. I'll come."

He feels Sae's arm go tense, and she stares at him without saying anything. With him sitting down and her standing, she doesn't have to look up to look at him. In fact, since they're at roughly the same height, and she's standing close to him because he has her arm, he can see her well enough to notice that she has a strange expression on her face. But he can't figure out what it's for.

"You're ..." Sae clears her throat. "You're sitting down."

"... Yeah?" Gunnar wonders if perhaps she's not feeling well.

"That's ... um ..." Sae pauses for a long moment, and then shakes her head. "Never mind. Let's go."

Gunnar is very confused.

Sae pulls away from him with a sudden movement and grabs the remnants of their meal. She tosses them into the garbage and leaves without looking back. Gunnar is left trailing after her, wondering what just happened.

Day 7: Sae

Sae's mornings have changed. Now, instead of looking forward to her training sessions with Gunnar, she feels a messy tangle of emotions that bounce off of each other inside her head. She still likes it, and it still makes her feel good to see him and practice with him; but the nervousness that seizes her almost overshadows the good feelings. She thought she was used to being nervous around him before; but now that he's her boyfriend her anxiety has increased exponentially. It feels like there's so much more to worry and wonder about.

Every day, as the hours pass, she gets used to being around him, and eventually she relaxes and just enjoys being in his presence. But every night, they separate, and in the morning, the prospect of seeing him again sets her nerves jangling once more.

After yesterday afternoon, she's even more distracted. Her mind keeps returning to the moment in the mess hall, when Gunnar was right there, close enough to kiss. When he sits down he's almost her height, and it's the perfect way to get around the problem of him being so tall. But she didn't have the courage to try. Now the memory circles her brain like a pacing wolf, making her feel nervous and disappointed and excited all at once.

Which is probably why she is caught off-guard when Gunnar moves in and tackles her.

And it's just like two days ago, and Sae knows she has no chance of breaking his grip, so she doesn't even try, but kicks his leg out sideways and makes him lose his balance this time. He still drags her down with him, but this time she's prepared and rolls in the air so she ends up with the advantage.

Gunnar makes a whuff sound as they hit the ground, him on his back and her sprawled on top of him, and Sae realizes she really does have the advantage.

Gunnar is already regaining his bearing and she can feel his hands tightening on her, ready to flip her onto her back, and Sae decides to not think and to just do and presses her mouth against his, and she thinks she feels his head bang against the ground, but the floor is padded and anyway Gunnar doesn't get hurt easily so she keeps kissing him. At least, she thinks that's what she's doing, because she's not sure what it's supposed to feel like, exactly, and Gunnar isn't really doing anything. But his mouth is really warm, and if nothing else, she likes kissing for letting her feel that.

Sae pulls back to catch her breath, and Gunnar is breathing heavily too, though she can't tell if that's because of the kiss or because of the fighting. He doesn't look unhappy about the kiss, though. He just looks thoughtful.

Sae blinks at him silently, unsure of what to do next.

"I think," Gunnar finally says, "we should try that some more."

Training sessions for kissing? Sae thinks inanely, and clamps her hand against her mouth to stifle a giggle. Gunnar frowns at her in confusion, and she decides it doesn't matter if she looks weird laughing, because she's lying on top of Gunnar and he's letting her stay there and it feels good, and she thinks that laughing while this happens would feel good, too. So she does.