“I think some liberating is in order!”

-American Lieutenant upon his assignment.

“This is fucking barbaric!”

“What is it sir?” David asked, the bemused 2IC having only just walked into Edward’s office and it seemed like the admiral was already worked up over something. Currently his finger was pounding onto a set of papers and files in front of him. On top of some of them he couldn’t help but notice a glass, probably once filled with water, now filled with what seemed to be vodka.

“Thi- Ow! T-this! This fucking mythology! Y-you know how all religions- Well most religions have been used to justify a class divide by people!?”

“Uh-“

“Well this! Oh, oh oho! This goes above and fucking beyond that! It calls the working class, the “underlings” barbaric soulless savages and the nobility and priesthood as these gracious protectors that let them work under them to maybe, maybe not go to hell! Not to mention how their “prophet” glorifies himself in his own holy book to such an extent!”

His face was a bloody red at this point, a page of paper being waved in credulity.

“Oh… Oh… Oh… I can’t WAIT for them to deny negotiations or call us some daemons of Chin or something so us, the members of the lowly under classes can pound in these pompous noble asses with orbit to ground ballistic missiles!”

“Well, I would say you’re somewhat of a higher class than me, not to mention that this rhetoric seems a little different than usual… I’m not sure if it’s the loss of optimism or the final realisation that shooting first may be a better option.”

Edward rolled his eyes, “I’m not sure if you’d call lower middle class, the petite bourgeois, particularly high class. Also, you know me by now! I can’t stand fuckers like these!”

“Is to me you champagne socialist, sitting up in that lovely armchair…”

“Dah! I can never fucking argue with you…”

“What, because of my utterly flawless arguments?”

“No, because of your constant use non-arguments that there is no counter to, cus they’re not even bloody arguments. That and your layers of irony that are so steeped in themselves I can never tell when its them or your actual opinions.”

“Only doing my duty sir. Oh, and sir?”

Edward grunted, “What, is It, mate.”

David smirked a little, watching him pick up his glass.

“The diplomat is here for his meeting, come in!”

As the clunk of shoes against metal plating sounded a half drowned “Oh fuck-“ came from the admiral’s throat as he tried not to choke on the shot he’d just taken, doubling over.

In walked the diplomat, and the admiral’s panic only doubled. For the man in the doorway could only be described as someone who would make the admiral’s heart cut out on a well-prepared day. His unorganised, but somehow simultaneous well-kept hair a sandy blond. His face pleasant and slightly androgenous, his body also slim but healthy with a similar hint of androgyny, skin lightly tanned. He eyes had heterochromia for god’s sake, one blue, the other green with flakes of gold. It was like he had leaped out of him during a dream.

David’s mouth twitched, his body on the edge of fully breaking down into a full bout of hysteric laughter as the admiral tried to sweep papers together, another choke as he noticed his lower draw with all of his alcohol open, closing it with a quick but measured kick.

“H-has something happened?” The diplomat asked, voice light and comforting, Edward hacking again as he finally cleared his airways.

“No! Not at- HACK- At all.” He tried to sit down as fast as he could, legs crossing as he brushed his hair with his hands, trying to smile, yet at the same time conceal a growing blush.

“Don’t worry, the admiral is just like this usually.” Said David, smiling softly as Edward felt himself nearly choke again.

“Oh, well, I hope its nothing serious, we wouldn’t want him dropping dead during this!” The diplomat smiled and laughed, a light and soft laugh…

Edward chuckled a little “Indeed, indeed… Oh god! I haven’t asked for you name yet- uh- sorry for that!”

“Oh no, don’t worry admiral,” He said, soft smile still there as he cleared his throat, ”Elliot Hill, sir, from the diplomatic corp, just arrived on the latest supply shuttle. I’ve been told you’re going to fill me in the situation.”

“Well- Rear Admiral Edward Fletcher, at your service!” He stammered, a slight blush breaching his face as Elliot chuckled.

“I think I’m meant to be at your service right now, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Edward’s smile grew more relaxed, his guard slowly dropping down.

“I must say, from what I can tell you’re quite- uh- talented, did you get top of your class or something?”

“What the admiral is saying,” David cut in, “Is that the admiral quite likes your silver tongue and would love to see all it can do.”

Edward sat there for a moment, before his face blanched white, realising exactly what his old fucking friend was trying to infer.

“Da- T- T- Ah! Uh-“ Edward stammered, nearing a complete panic as his eyes switched between David and Elliot.

Elliot seemed a little lost for words for a moment, cut off by David’s comment, before his smile returned. “We as a matter of fact, I did! Took me a few years but I suppose its paid off, going out into space and being able to interact with a new culture…” Oh thank fuck he ignored that.

“That’s quite admirable! To be honest I kinda hoped to be on a survey ship or be up here for design work and all that too but spent the last about errr… four? Four years in that war! But, but, if all goes well, we can say goodbye to that.” He said as he let out a weak chuckle.

Elliot’s eyes seemed to lose a little of their radiance as he looked down, his smile fading. “Ah, I see… four years… I didn’t get pulled in, luckily, my course ensured I never did.”

They sat there in silence, no one moving as the atmosphere was clogged by an odd sort of melancholy, stifling everything, until Elliot finally raised his head.

“Well, I suppose we should make sure it “goes well” then, shouldn’t we? So, Edward, can you tell me everything, about the situation and what I need to do.”

----------------------------------------

“Interesting… Interesting… Quite the situation…” Elliot muttered, chin in his and as his mismatched bright eyes seemed deep in thought.

The description of the general description had gone well, with minimal interruptions from David, luckily…

“Would you have an idea on how to approach negotiations with them?”

“I think I might need to look at their religion a bit more, but they already seem to worship the IFC in a way in the form of Ifcan, so we will probably be able to come to them as their angels of that god and simply ask for integration, as long as they don’t think we’re Chin’s evil ones…”

“Well, that’s an approach, thank you for that and uhh…” He looked down at the papers still on his desk, remembering the various scribbles of “What the Fuck!?” and “Inhumane!” strewn across their pages, “I’ll also make sure to get someone to send you a copy of the complete documents.”

“Thank you, but, I think I have to go now, catch up with some other things.” But as he got up to go, he paused, “Is there some sort of lounge or bar here?”

“Well of course there is!” Said David, “Any good ship larger than a destroyer has one.”

“Well, I might swing by there once I have everything in order and get to know my new colleges then…”

And with another smile, he was gone.

“Oh fuck… Why in the god dammed hell David did you have to do all of that!”

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“Do what?”

“You know perfectly well you bloody cunt! You-“ Edward growled, head in his hands as he tried to fight off the urge to start pounding on his desk, “You insinuated, in a professional meeting, that I wanted the other person to fucking suck me off.”

“Well… You can’t lie to yourself and NOT say that’s something you want from him.”

Edward’s face once more went white, “That’s beside t-the point! I- I- I don’t want to come off as a fucking creep to a guy I’ve just bloody met! And I thought friends were supposed to be wing men or whatever you call em.”

David shrugged, “Well that’s a little boring you know? And consider this is you we’re talking about you’ll never be able to make a move on him.”

“And making insinuations that the first thoughts that a guy you’ve just met has had of you is-is something like THAT! That doesn’t help!”

David sighed, “Fine, fine, that was a dick move, and I’ll take any responsibility for it, and if he was offended by it, I’ll lie and say I made it up.”

“See, see, its not that hard-“ he said as the admiral let out one last groan.

“I bet it is after speaking to him.”

“You know what, I don’t think I’m going to argue this anymore.”

----------------------------------------

Hiegfal looked up at the structure of metal and wires Infront of the desk of communication.

“Is it operational?”

The priest bowed down, “No, your holiness, when we have tried to process the sacred message, there was no noise and no light.”

He groaned, knowing what they would need to do. “Send for the under creatures, they’ll have to fix it…”

----------------------------------------

It was a rare moment for them to be drinking, but they’d decided that it could be just one of those occasions, just not with too much or else they wouldn’t be turning up to work in the morning.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this… It is quite the same on the Dallas…” Amber mumbled, the head of engineering swirling some Whiskey in her glass.

“What is?”

“Well, the atmosphere, there just not a lot of Americans, you know? Apart from a few exceptions like us.”

“Well, I’m not quite American.” They mumbled,

“Oh, sorry, yeah, that’s right!”

“But, it is a little weird yeah, but I’ve gotten used to it a while ago.”

Another voice cut in, “Are you a Canadian!? I never thought I’d find one on this ship!” Alex turned their head around to find a somewhat feminine looking man with a pleasant smile and two mismatched eyes.

“Y-yes I am and you are?”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry! I’m Elliot and I’m the diplomat.”

A quick series of connections fired off in their head as the series of communications they had been managing over the last few days came back.

“Oh! I remember, I’m sorry I’ve forgotten!”

“Oh, no worries at all, everyone’s a bit busy around here it seems.”

“Well, preparing a dubious invasion is rather stressful…”

“And luckily I’m here to try and make sure said invasion doesn’t happen and this all ends without a drop of blood shed.”

“I hope so…”

“Well, I’ve forgotten to ask you name though, so, what is it?”

“Alex, I’m the communications officer.”

“Ah, Alex, that’s a nice name, and your pronouns?”

“Pronouns…” they mumbled, the question almost coming out of nowhere, but as the shock wore off a feeling of appreciation welled up inside of them, “Oh, they’re they/them.”

“I see, I see, well, has nobody really asked you about them? You look like the sort of person who’d you’d want to clear it up with.”

“Well… The admiral did, Amber here did… And so did- So did David if you’ve met him…”

Elliot raised an eyebrow, “Oh? I guess I’m not the only who has had a bad impression of him.”

Alex let out a slight chuckle, “Oh, what sort of flattery did you get from that drunkard then?”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly direct at me, but he was toying a bit with Edward from what I could tell and was taking great joy in trying to make the meeting as unprofessional as possible…”

“Well, that’s David for you… He is a… Interesting character…”

Amber huffed, “You could say that again.”

----------------------------------------

Edward, however, was tucked up in a corner, contemplating a glass of rum in his hand, his heart pounding. But, taking a long sip and a deep breath he finally worked himself enough for what he was going to do.

He strode as confidently as he could to the group, not letting any wobble get into his speech as he asked “Ah, uh, hello, may I take the other seat here?”

Amber’s eyes suddenly widened, almost shooting up to attention before reminding herself she was off duty.

“Its alright Edward, if everyone else is fine with it?” Alex looked around the group, with Elliot nodding gently and no objections raised.

He got into the chair as quick as he could, trying to settle in as he muttered “Thank you.”

There they sat for a moment, everything yet again falling silent other than the quiet conversation of a few other officers in the small “lounge”.

He swallowed, the sound audible as he felt his heartbeat rising, the awkward situation building up pressure until-

“I apologise for Edward, hes more nervous than me when trying to talk to people.” It was Alex, smiling.

Elliot waved his hand, “Ah, well there’s no need to apologise, but I get it Edward, its little harder to start casual conversation than keep up with a meeting.”

Edward smiled weakly, growing a bit more at ease, “Yeah, yeah it is.”

“Well, how’s the rest of your day been?”

“Not too bad, apart from David being an awful friend.”

Alex snorted “As usual?”

“As usual.”

Elliot looked between them, “He’s got that sort of reputation then?”

Another snort, “Yes.”

“What position is he in?”

“He’s my XO.”

“XO?”

“Executive officer, the second in command.”

Elliot thought for a moment, “And if he’s such a troublemaker, why is he?”

Now it was Edward’s time to think unexpectedly, “He’s… like a bulldog, a bulldog I have known and have been friends with for a long time… And he always has the pragmatic view on a situation.”

“Good friends?”

“Good friends, but also damn good at keeping people in line.”

“Is that an issue in the forces?”

“Not with “The Blackthorn” David.”

At that Alex cursed, “Edgy bastard.”

“Want to move off of that?”

“Yes please.”

----------------------------------------

Why did he promise this? Why, oh why did he, the admiral take time off to guide the new diplomat on a tour of the ship that he might have a crush on and has trouble keeping his heart steady around?

Well, it would be a nice break, just remember that, David and Alex are covering for command of the fleet currently. Just stay calm. No paperwork is here, just a person.

He slowly took a deep breath in, just as a perplexed ensign passed him in the corridor, the admiral becoming quickly aware how odd it was from him to just be standing outside of a bunkroom and not in his office or the CIC.

His thoughts were put on hold however and the door clunked open, a slightly dreary eyed, androgynous diplomat walking out.

“Good morning.”

Elliot blinked a little, his eyes widening for a moment in what he could only imagine to be fear before they softened. “Oh! I forgot you volunteered to show me around, though I did think you were here for some sort of inspection…”

Edward felt his mouth curl into a slight smile, remembering all the oh so traumatic inspections while in training. “Don’t worry about that, I only do that to my enemies and people who can’t do their job.”

“Does that happen often around here?”

“Well considering that not doing their job around here involves things like the life support failing it doesn’t, and I hope it won’t, come up.”

Elliot swallowed, “Right. But so, where do we start?”

----------------------------------------

They started to walk along up to the main lounge areas. Talking to Elliot a bit revealed he did get some pointers on where his bunk was, the mess, the officer’s lounge that he was allowed to use and Edward’s cabin/office but nothing else.

“So, what ship are we on?”

Edward just had to look at him, slightly dumbfounded, “You don’t know what this ship is?” He asked, slowly and deliberately.

“Yes, I only got told that I was going to be shipped to the fleet’s flagship and I would be hosted there, no specifics.”

“What the fuck makes up a briefing over there then!?”

Elliot chuckled slightly, “Mainly it was about the intelligence about the Grand Kingdom of Aviria and what would be expected of me, though I didn’t get much outside of that, yes.”

“Well lets start rectifying it then! You are aboard my current flagship the ICNS Sheffield, a Town class light cruiser that was commissioned only a few weeks ago and the second ship to be named Sheffield of a Town class.”

“Is Sheffield an actual town then?”

“its my home city! And as you go through this ship, you may notice that a lot of fittings that are usually bronze or brass and such are actually made of stainless steel in here as a nod to the city.”

“Were you thinking of becoming a curator if you didn’t get into the navy then?” He chuckled.

“Ah well,” The admiral sighed, “I was thinking that if I was going into space it would actually be on a survey ship or to review one of my designs as I was going to be a spacecraft designer, but then as tensions rose I switched on a whim, got into officer’s school, got placed as a engineer on a ship, became head engineer of it, became captain, nearly died in a few battles and here we are.”

Elliot didn’t respond for a while before finally muttering, “I’m sorr-“

“Oh, don’t be mate! Its all part of the job and regaling stories of nearly dying is a bit of a tradition in the military!”

“Do you… Want to tell me?”

“Do you? I will say it does make for interesting conversation so I would be happy to.”

He paused for a moment, “Maybe later. Though… What position did you take in that final space battle? What are they even calling it?”

“Not sure and I ended up taking command of the flank after admiral Makarov died.”

“I’ve heard of that. That. That wasn’t pleasant, was it?”

Edward’s eyes drifted over to meet Elliot’s; their miss matched eyes filled with concern.

“Not really, it was about the most stressful day of my life to be honest.” Edward said with a half-hearted chuckle. “But, I suppose its been enough about me for now, lets talk about you and I’ll tell you about the lunar raid I was on later.”

“Well, what do you even want to know about me? I’ve done nothing of note at all! Just spending all of my recent years just training at diplomatic school and then acting as an aid to some more senior diplomats in China.”

“Oh, come on, you have to have some interesting stories from that! Some guy in uni getting so drunk he jumped out the pub window with a pint in hand, or a guy fucking up some negotiations with Chinese officials with a funny translation error, something like that?”

“What sort of stuff has happened to you!?”

“A lot.”

“Well I guess I should put out one of my stories then…”

“You have one then?”

“Yeah well…” Elliot Sighed, “It was when I was acting as an aid in China, and we were trying to transition power to the new provisional government in this town somewhere in Guizhou, and I was talking to the head of I think the local electricity board…”

“Go on…”

“I messed up their sister and their mother up and it just created this entire incident where there was a back and forth on what I was actually trying to say and it took five minutes to sort it out! I was so embarrassed and-”

Edward simply just laughed, pain spiking in his sides, “Oh my dear fucking heart that’s so cute! I apologise for this but its true mate!”

“What do you mean!?” He asked, his eyes wide.

“Its only a minor mix-up and you consider that to be a major story and embarrassment! Don’t worry about it, everyone makes those sorts of mix ups!”

“But I have to avoid those sorts of things!”

“Why?”

“Because-“ he faltered, not sure on where to go as his mind tried to find reasons.

“There is no sort of reason to be worried on it, though our brains do their best to try and hyper fixate on them. But I guess what I have to say is there are way bigger fuckups to make, and you haven’t done any of them, guessing by the fact that getting some relationships wrong was your most embarrassing incident to date on the job.”

Elliot took a deep breath, “Alright… I’ll think about that. But where is this VR suite?”

“Oh, its just by this broom closet… Here!”