Lain

It’s been two hours… She should be deeply asleep by now. Now’s my chance…

Shuffling slowly under the covers, I gently take Sky’s hand and bring it up for me to look at under the sheets. Right now, Sky is laying against my back as the big spoon with me as her little spoon tonight in our new king-sized bed.

Petting her hand and giving it a kiss, I play with the little claws on her fingers as I slowly work up the nerve to do what I have been waiting all night to do.

Taking Sky’s ring finger and giving it a kiss, I make the shadows move and form a ring around her finger. I make sure that it isn’t on too tight or that it will slip off too easily. It has to be a perfect fit. Then, I carefully slide it off of her finger, being very careful not to wake her.

As the shadow band comes free, Sky stirs in her sleep and tightens her hold around me. I freak out a little and hide the ring in my palm, but when I look over my shoulder, Sky is still peacefully sleeping with her face buried in my hair. She mumbles something in her sleep and her now freed hand moves to my naked chest to give me a squeeze. She lets out a happy mumble as she rubs her body against me.

Slowly, she stops moving around in her sleep and I let out a stifled breath.

Oh, thank goodness… Thought I was going to get caught.

I hold the faux ring in front of me and smile.

And now I have her finger measurement. Now I just have to take the bands in to get resized for the both of us. So exciting!

Reaching my hand out from under our sheets, I get ready to magic it across the room and into my pack, but nearly drop it as I panic from someone knocking on our bedroom door.

As Sky starts to stir, I quickly make the ring fly across the room and hide it away under the dresser before she can see it.

“Mhh? Who is it…? Come in~” Sky asks groggily asks as she sits up, the sheets falling away from her and exposing her body.

Whoever is on the other side does as she asks, and I panic as I move to cover her. “Ah, wait! Don’t come in-!“

The soldier enters before I can stop them, but thankfully, it is a woman and not some guy. “I apologies for waking you at this hour, I uh… Oh my, I’m so sorry!”

She pulls back out of the room and closes the door as she sees me holding the sheets up to cover Sky’s chest. Unfortunately, in my rush to cover Sky, I had failed to cover myself and so she probably saw me… Thankfully, the lights are out, but…

Ah, that’s embarrassing…

Fighting down a blush, I call out to the soldier. “Just a moment, please. Let me get some clothes on.”

Sliding out of bed, I head over to the dresser and throw on some pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. As Sky crawls out of bed, she turns on the lantern and retrieves her negligee and panties that had been abandoned in a mess on the floor.

“Ah, Sky, not that. It’s transparent. Put on a shirt or something.”

“Ah, haha, right~” She sleepily laughs before coming over in nothing but her panties to dig out and put on a big t-shirt that hangs down her like a short dress. I try to ignore how it hangs off of her figure and leaves barely anything to the imagination. Her sleepy look with the bedhead and a shoulder fully exposed is certainly not helping me much right now.

At least she isn’t naked anymore, right? But damn does she look good in nothing but a big shirt…

Ripping my eyes away from her and desperately fighting down the horny, like a preacher trying to resist touching the choir boy’s butt, I turn for the door and leave the room. Behind me, Sky grabs a brush and tries to fight against her bedhead in the light of her lantern, but it looks to be a losing battle.

Out in the hall, the soldier is standing ramrod straight against the wall, a blush on her face as she watches me leave our room. I give her a quick look over, but I don’t recognize her from anywhere and she isn’t one of our usual guards.

“What is it? It must be something important.”

“Yes ma’am, sorry to wake you in the middle of the night. The guard said it would be fine if I waked you… Uhm, sorry for walking in on you like that… I didn’t think that you would both be-“

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I’m going to strangle the new guardsman, pulling a prank on us…

I interrupt her as she is getting embarrassed, “Don’t worry about it. What is so important that you need to be here?”

“Ah, yes, sorry ma’am! I have a message from Command. We have received news from Forward Operations in the city. Downtown is on fire and there are signs of combat. Your presence is required immediately.”

As she finishes, Sky comes out of our room, most of her hair still refusing to cooperate as she now has a cowlick on her head. “Is everything alright?”

“I have to report to Command for an emergency. The city is on fire apparently.”

Sky turns to the messenger and asks, “Do you know what caused it?”

“No, I apologies ma’am, but I don’t know anything. My only job is to bring Miss Lain here for an emergency counsel.”

“It’s probably the Goblins… If they are as close as the city now, then that isn’t good… Sky, I have to get going. Stay home, and if I can’t come home within the next couple of hours, I’ll send a messenger to let you know what is going on.” I speak as I head back into our room and quickly start getting dressed into my work clothes. Making sure that I have my shadows covering me as underwear, I ignore the watching, blushing soldier as I get dressed into a sweater and cargo jeans.

Sky comes over to help me strap on my armor over my clothes.

Heading out of our bedroom, I walk down the hall towards my study to unlock the gun safe. Taking out my service pistol, a pair of heavy-duty hand axes, my emotional support knife, and a couple of grenades, I get everything holstered and strapped to my gear. My supply pack is already made and is waiting for me on a nearby counter along with my sledgehammer that Sky had gifted me.

Putting the pack on and then equipping my hammer to my back where the armor has been modified to hold it, I turn and give Sky a kiss.

“There is a good chance that I am going to be sent out to figure out or deal with whatever is happening right now. Take care while I’m gone and please check up on the Gremlins for me.”

“Yes, please be safe.”

“I will. I love you Sky.”

“Love you too~” She wraps me up and gives me a deep and long kiss as the soldier tries and fails to pretend that she isn’t watching.

When we part, Sky gives me a big smile and a look that practically screams, ‘I’m gonna put a baby in you.’

“Hmh~ My big strong warrior. Go show them why you’re the strongest.”

I just give her a Devil’s smile and whisper gently, “Yes, my Empress.”

Giving her a parting kiss on the back of her hand, I turn to the blushing soldier and tell her, “Well, let’s get going. How much of a hurry are we in. If we need to, I can carry you and run.”

“Uh!? Ah, uhm, no. There’s no need for that! I drove here…”

I just nod, giving Sky one last hug, I turn and make my way for the front door as the soldier hastily follows behind me.

Stepping out into the cold Winter night, I climb into the car as the soldier gets into the driver seat. Sky watches on from the entrance to our home and waves as we depart. I don’t stop looking her way until she disappears from view.

Ahhhhh… Home for only a day and I am probably already getting sent on another job…

…

Shit! I forgot to grab the measurement ring I made before I left! Uhhhhh… Maybe I could ask someone to come and get it for me? Mrmrmrrrr~ I’ll probably just have to make a new one later, damn it…

As I am ruminating in my thoughts, the soldier turns to me as she drives. “Is everything alright…?”

“Haaaah~ Just feeling homesick…”

“But… You just left?”

“I know…”

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

Arriving at Central in full battle gear, I walk into the Command Room with my escort. In the room is General Louise and a bunch of high-ranking officers that I could never really be bothered to learn the names of. Thankfully, they are all wearing name tags, so I don’t have to memorize them.

As I walk in, most regard me with a look, while the General nods towards me. “Thank you for making good time Lain. I hope we didn’t ruin your sleep. We were just about to begin.”

“No problem, Sir, I don’t sleep... What’s the situation? I heard that the city is on fire?”

“Yes. Forward Operations has contacted us over the emergency frequency to inform us of the situation.”

“Are they at risk?”

“Not currently. The FOB is not currently under attack and the communication was kept to short bursts only.”

I let out a relieved breath at that, glad that they aren’t under siege or something right now. I have friends there after all.

“Now then, as for the situation at hand. It was decided that we would risk it during the chaos of the situation to send up a small surveillance drone to investigate. Here are some of the photos that we received.”

At his cue, a soldier working behind a computer makes the projector display the images taken from the sky.

“As you can all see, the situation is a dire one…”

“What are all of those things down there?” One of the officers asks.

“Those are the Goblins that Miss Sky warned us about.”

“How many… They are everywhere…”

Another person speaks up from the side, reading over a file. “Current estimates place them at anywhere from twenty to sixty thousand. It is difficult to get an accurate estimate in an urban environment along with the chaos from the fighting and the fires.”

“Look at some of the monsters that they are attacking. They are like kaiju. Things like this were living in the city?”

“Meh, even if they number to a hundred thousand, our artillery will be able to handle it. With coordination from Forward Operations, we can bomb these little monsters straight into the grave.”

“We need to-“

As everyone else is talking, I watch as the slides continue to move by, showing the path that the drone had taken as it flew over the city. Watching as the Goblins swarmed over creatures that can only be called kaiju as everything burns around them. As entire skyscrapers finally give out under the abuse and falls into the chaos and destruction in great plumes of ash and dust.

As the slides continue to shift, the scene changes. All the fires go out as a single light begins to glow in the heart of the city. A couple slide later, there is an explosion. The drone gets knocked around in its flight, but it continues to capture images. Buildings get blown away, the kaiju gets consumed by the flames, and by the end, there is a literal mushroom cloud filling the screen as the shockwaves from the blast uproots trees and shatters every window for miles around.

The conversation in the room goes silent as realization sets in.

The weak little Goblins don’t just have numbers on their side anymore. They have a nuke.