2232 UNPC Universal Calendar.
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"Let's get you to the locker room and get all of this off of you." Kate told A9. She'd been awoken suddenly by Terror and C4, who through many apologies and hurried explanations, gave a very tired, dirty, and ECA clad Alpha Nine to her to care for, as they had bigger things to worry about. She glanced behind her at a wall clock in their room. God, it was 2 AM.
Anton mumbled something akin to a "okay" and shambled after her, holding her hand loosely as they moved through the hallways and into the locker room. She was staring at him through the sleep in her eyes and was in awe about the amount of dirt, foliage, and dried mud that plastered his armor.
There were fist size rocks in his magazine dump pouch, and sand packed into his other pouches and all over his gear.
She stood him in the middle of the locker room, and took a deep breath, focusing her thoughts and letting the past five minutes of events, and dialogue catch up to her.
She realized she was wearing her favorite pair of light blue underwear bottoms. Come hell or high water she was not going to ruin them. She took them off, folded them neatly, and placed them on a bench next to where Anton was quite literally sleeping on his feet.
"Hey." She said to him calmly.
He made a "uh" noise, tilting the chin of his ECA helmet up a hair.
"You can go right back to sleep once you step under that shower head." She told him, pointing behind him to the open bay shower, with it's ceiling mounted sprayers.
Like a one track minded robot, he moved quickly and efficiently to stand under the shower head. She smiled at the super soldier, wondering how long he'd been on his feet for, and just what happened to him in the near week she hadn't seen him for.
She'd probably never hear the story, she knew, but still she wondered. She also wondered how hard an augment had to get hit in the helmet to cause a head injury like that.
Kate stepped up, and twisted the knob on the shower to hot, and stepped back quickly, trying to prevent getting hit with the cold splash of water, but ending up getting misted anyways.
"Any other day, and you'd have complemented me." Kate said to him softly, feeling her skin goose pimple. She could see that his eyes were closed through his faceplate, which was semi opaque and outwardly blue-green in tint, sleeping like a baby with his armor keeping him upright.
She worked all of the mud, rocks and grit out of his armor as she stood in front of him nude, and standing on the soil which ran off of his armor in streaks. Looking down to the floor, she questioned just how someone could pack so much sand into their armor. The work was satisfying, and remarkably calming.
She filled an entire 6' long bench in the middle of the shower bay with all of his equipment. Some of it was visibly damaged, and had a sandblasted appearance. One radio encryption module in particular was a complete write off, cracked screen, with rubber topped buttons ripped off or missing entirely.
She didn't bother cleaning his rifle. She just sat the extremely long firearm against the bench with the buttplate of the stock resting on the floor. Even canted at the angle it was at, it came up to just below her chest. It was only shorter than a Barrett M82 by three inches, at 54'' long.
This time, she'd ask him to teach her how to take the mostly patchwork rifle apart. She'd lost count of the amount of times he'd had different parts sent to a gunsmith or machine shop to be made to fit his needs better.
With most of the debris removed from his armor, and the water running mostly clear off of him, she turned the water off, and got his attention again.
"Hey." She said again, calmly. This time he replied with a questioning hum.
"I'm going to take your armor off of you." She said, and it took absolutely no coercion to make him unlock his armor. She had to stop herself from giggling when he visibly fell asleep through his visor.
He's like a zombie.
The big man's armor came off of him regularly. His chestplate had new divots and scrapes, and all of the armored plates below his waist had the non IR reflective cotton canvas ripped off of them, with the alloy having almost a brushed appearance.
She could only assume he had to sprint through miles of prickly waist high foliage at very high speeds to make it look like that. There were still tatters of the OD green fabric hanging off of the rolled edges where the front strike face of the alloy became the soft armor of the backer, which meshed into the plate next to it, forming the grid.
Stolen story; please report.
The waxy cotton canvas was easy enough to replace. Once he woke up they'd go and get it repaired. Some armor components, less so.
As brutally utilitarian and soulless as ECA system's went in appearance, she had to say that his chestplate was quite pretty. His broad shoulders let the upper plate spread out, and he had five double mag pouches across the navel area of the plate, and two near the lower parts of the ribcage area. The symmetrical lines and worn in, or rather wartorn appearance of it was quite aesthetically pleasing.
It seemed backwards to her, but she suddenly understood what Anton told her when he said that anatomy is pleasing to look at. She felt like she could grasp the concept, at least somewhat. With truth, she'd never really looked at anatomy with appreciation, just lust. She smirked to herself, knowing that he'd warped her view. That was fine.
She removed his trashed LSS with a pair of trauma shears, and considered his injuries. He had multiple small cuts, shrapnel and ricochet wounds while being absolutely plastered in dirt and grit. She took her time scrubbing him clean.
"That head wound really took a lot out of you" she muttered, rinsing the dirtied lather off of him, and starting again with the bar of soap.
She guided him by the waist down to the bench again, still wet, and bleeding from where some wounds had opened up again. She shook her head at him as he laid back and fell asleep again.
"Stay here, I'll be back." She told him, even though she doubted he would move an inch.
She stepped the short distance to the center of the room, and retrieved the first aid kit off the side of a wall locker. Returning to him, and opened the suitcase of medical consumables. She straddled the bench, putting his head between her spread legs, and stooped over his torso, covered in many wounds.
His expression in sleep was soothing, even peaceful considering his injuries. His breathing was lukewarm against her upper body, a smooth in and out as she picked rocks and other debris out from under his skin with pruny fingers.
She cleaned the pockmarks and rips in his epidermis with hydrogen peroxide, and then stapled or glued them shut.
The door to the locker room opened, and C4 stepped in. Kate flicked her eyes up to her, and gave her a casual "hey" as a greeting.
"Hey" Parker said, tossing her gear into a locker and starting to remove her armor. "How is he?" She followed up.
"He's fine, I'm sure if his eyes were open he'd be happy as a clam." She said, smirking at her, still feeling him exhale on her bare upper stomach and chest.
"I'm sure he would." Parker said, peeling her LSS, which looked about like Anton's off, and discarding it on the concrete floor.
Parker stepped over to the shower with a puddle below it, and turned the valve, knowing the water would already be warm. She suddenly snapped her eyes to Anton, who's little soldier was standing at attention.
"Uhhh, why is he...." She hesitated to say.
Kate wondered just how innocent this woman was as she giggled. "It's normal, it happens all the time as guys sleep, it's just blood flow."
"I didn't know that." Parker nodded her head thoughtfully.
"If you ever feel like talking at length about anatomy, I'm sure he would give you the time of day." Kate said. "He answered every question I had about guys and girls without beating around the bush or getting off track."
"I can't say I've ever seen him like that." Parker said, gesturing towards him, and averting her eyes as she washed herself.
"Men generally don't have conscious control of their genitalia, but he's very good at making it do what he wants." Kate remarked.
"I'll have to test Terror sometime." She said, turning her shower off and sitting in front of them on the edge of the bench, the same one where most of Anton's gear laid. Kate laughed at her, and shook her head.
"Parker." Kate said, leaning back and giving her lower back and legs a rest.
"Yes?" C4 replied.
"May I give you a complement?" Kate asked.
"Of course." Parker said, blushing for a flash.
"Your body is stunning." Kate said, "Your proportions are very pleasing."
Parker smiled wide. "Thank you" She paused, covering her smile with her hand, a gesture Kate found extremely cute. "What's with you all of a sudden?" Parker asked.
"I don't know. I'm trying new things." Kate shrugged, taking a standard medpack out of the first aid kit and turning it on, the screen glowing in the reflection of her eyes.
"You were great before, just so you know." Parker said, not being very tactful.
Kate smiled, but did not reply, feeling her face get hot as she tweaked the mixture of the medpack, and pushed the applicator into his shoulder.
The epi-pen like needle shot out and gave him the mixture. His Alpha series augmentations meant he had to receive an extreme amount of medication, due to his metabolic rate. If he felt it, it didn't show.
"It's funny you know." Parker said, looking Anton over. "His armor is so beat down and ugly, yet attractive, kinda like him."
"Did you just call my boyfriend beat down and ugly?" Kate said, mockingly sassy.
Parker made a chuckling noise, doing a "clearing the air" motion with her hands. "You know what I meant." She insisted, turning her head away and looking back at his armor again.
"His chestplate is fucking massive compared to mine." She stared at it for a second.
"I find his armor pretty." Kate shrugged, moving so her legs fell over the right side of the bench, and lifting Anton's head so it rested in her lap.
"Even though he could rip my arm off and beat me with the wet end, all without breaking a sweat." Kate said softly, and with a sly grin.
"How long do you think he's going to be down for?" Parker asked, stretching her arms over her head. Kate kept her eyes averted, even though she desperately wanted to look at the nude woman, and felt her face get hot.
Professional relations must be kept professional.
"Probably about twenty or so hours." She said, straightening his hair with splayed fingers. He always kept it so long, nearly as long as hers. She loved it when he braided her hair.
"Kate." Parker said, breaking her from her train of thought, meant to distract her. Kate looked up at her, and cocked her head to the side with inquisition. "You can look at me you know. You said the same thing to me when we first met and you had your boobs out."
It made Kate smile and look down at Anton's face.
Tossing my own line at me, I like you.