I Couldn't Move On

Disclaimer: All rights to the Full Metal Panic! story and characters belong to Shouji Gatou. The following fanfiction does not represent the thoughts and views of the creator or the site this story is hosted on, and is not written for profit.

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I Couldn\'t Move On
(part 2)

The cafeteria was pretty full that hour as members of the Danaan crew were taking their lunch breaks in scheduled installments. Of course, the ARM Slave pilots tended to be an exception to this rule, as they were able to eat whenever they finally came back from their mission. Sousuke was sitting at the bar table eating his typical rations as Kurz and Melissa parked themselves on either side of him.

“Man, that was an easy target to demolish, wouldn’t you say, Sousuke?” gloated Kurz with an insanely confident tone in his voice, “Next time you should leave me something to do. You’re makin’ my paycheck too easy for me to earn.”

“You’re such a dumbass, Kurz. You shoot your mouth off more than your gun,” Melissa muttered with a bit of annoyance at his blatant audacity to consistently boast.

He scooted from his seat and casually rested his arm around her shoulders, a sly grin coming from his face, “That’s not all I can shoot off.”

Less than a second later, Kurz was on the floor with several boot prints on his face, stomach and groin. She made sure that he would be out of commission long enough to regain his propriety again.

“I swear I’m gonna kill him some day.”

“Despite his behavior, his skill as a sniper is fairly admirable in comparison to the others on the Danaan. It’d probably a detriment to kill him until you’ve found a proper replacement.”

“Are you naturally this sarcastic, or did Kaname teach you that new quality,” she said with a wink.

Sousuke looked back to her, “It’s true, though. Given our current situation, we can’t afford to lose him as a sni-“

Melissa waved her hand casually, “Okay okay, I get the point. Sheesh! Speaking of which, you received another letter from our Angel.”

“Chidori wrote back?”

Digging into her pants pocket, she produced the letter and set it down on the countertop in front of him, “She sent it about two weeks ago. Mail’s been getting a little tougher to obtain now that we’ve been hanging out in the middle of the Atlantic most of the time.”

Sousuke put down his fork in order to pick up the letter to open it, “Our orders take precedence over personal communications. Still, it’s imperative that I know of Chidori’s well being.”

A wry smile crept on Melissa’s face, “Don’t act all non-chalant with me, Sousuke. You like her, you just won’t admit it.”

“I’m concerned with her safety since I can’t be there to maintain reconnaissance with her. It’s only natural I request this form of open communication to ensure that she’s all right.”

Is he a complete bozo, or does he honestly think that he’s doing this for cursory reasons!? He’s a bigger dumbass than Kurz!

“Whatever, just tell us what’s up with her. It’s a bit refreshing to get news from outside sources on occasion.”

Because Kaname’s letters were also very general in nature, Melissa and Kurz found it an obligation to pry into her words in order to assist Sousuke in getting a clue. Unfortunately, the move that they were both hoping for would never come. Kaname was just as direct in her letters as Sousuke was in his replies. Secretly there was a pool going around on exactly who, and when Sousuke would finally be ‘deflowered’. Naturally, Tessa and Mardukas were never told, as it would be dangerous to mention such an absurdity at this point. Melissa was hoping that Kaname would eventually break the ice, since it was obvious that whoever got to Sousuke first, they would have to be the one to take the initiative. Kurz was betting on the captain ever since she admitted to Kaname that she was challenging the girl to a battle of the heart. That, and secretly he wanted to have the blue-haired Whispered all to himself. Even though she dashed his angelic image of her at the start of their mission, he started warming back up to her once she flexed that quirky tomboy muscle of hers. Melissa was also pretty damn sexy, and his ideal dream was to have both women showing him a good time. Though for some strange reason, his wet dreams would turn awry as both acted just as vicious in his fantasies as they did in reality.

Once Sousuke managed to open up the letter in full, his eyes slightly flickered wider than normal before he sat there a bit perplexed. Mao was now intrigued at what was on that piece of paper, “That sure didn’t take long.”

“There wasn’t much to read,” he stated bluntly as he continued to read the words again and digest the meaning of them, “I really don’t know what to make of it. I think she’s in trouble.”

Kurz managed to regain consciousness again and pull himself to his feet, “Ow, that hurt! Hey! My idol wrote back to us! Wazzit say?”
“Trouble?” she snatched the letter from his grip and perused the contents of it. An utterly naughty smile came to her face. This was finally the chance she was waiting for Kaname to pull on the boy, “Well, depends on how you take it, Sousuke.”

“Ooo! Lemme see!” Kurz then grabbed it out of Melissa’s grasp and decided to read the contents out loud, “Dear Sousuke: I miss you. Kaname. Aww no, does this mean I lose the pool?”

“Pool?”

Another elbow to the head, and Kurz was down for the count once again, “Don’t pay attention to him, he lacks the brain cell count to think properly. In any case, I think you should ask for a bit of time off and go pay Kaname a visit. This might finally be your big chance to hook up with her.”

“I agree. It might be best to pay her a visit to make sure that she is not in any danger. This could be a cry for help. Perhaps she’s been kidnapped and can’t tell me exactly what’s going on. The Yakuza could have waited for a weak point when she wasn’t watching and-“

“Sousuke, just stop. I don’t think she’s in mortal danger. Besides, that letter was written two weeks ago. If she was in trouble, there probably isn’t much you could do about it now.”

Those words were a clincher in his brain causing a few sweatdrops to fall down in masses down his face. With feline agility, he jumped out of his chair and retrieved the letter from the unconscious Kurz, “I must report to the captain at once and request permission to have a leave of absence to see if Chidori is all right.” Heading out of the cafeteria, he knew exactly where to go to find Captain Testarossa at a time like this. Unfortunately, she would be out of commission and on break, leaving him to the mercy of Kalinin.

Meanwhile Melissa couldn’t help but giggle profusely from the situation. As her subordinate regained consciousness once more, he slumped into the seat next to her and returned a stupid grin.

“You almost gave our secret away.”

“I’m sorry, it just kinda slipped, y’know?” the sniper eventually rested his chin on the palm of his left hand, “So, do you think this could be it?”

“Not if he remains this dense around Kaname. The last time we had a sex discussion with him, he was informing us on a more ‘practical’ use for a condom.”

“Yeah…that was pretty amusing that he used it for a water container. Then there was the time when that Shinji kid tried to steal her underpants, and he had no idea the precious gold that he had locked away in those fingers of his!”

“Could you at least try not to act like such a pig?”

“Can’t help it, it’s in my nature.”

“Ugh!” defeated, Melissa leaned her forehead upon her fingers to think of a way to get those two to finally connect with each other.

“Hey listen. Don’t you worry about a thing,” Kurz replied in his beaten down stupor, “I think I can find a way to educate him.”

At this point, she didn’t even want to know what he had in mind, “Just don’t turn him into cheap floozy womanizer like yourself, okay?”

“WHA?! Cheap- Let me tell you something; I am Grade-A stud material, okay?!”

The chair legs scraped lightly across the floor as she got up to leave him to his own endeavors, “Whatever, dipshit.”

Kurz was about to retort when she gave him ‘the eye’, which pretty much marked the end of the conversation at hand. When she left, he slouched over the table and cursed under his breath, “Damn bitch. She really knows how to dampen my spirits sometimes. Just once I’d like to shut her up and take her for a ride.”

But he had no time to pout, as he had a fellow male mind to corrupt, and time was of the essence before Sousuke could head back to port. Giddiness was taking over him just thinking about all the stuff he’d have to dig up to do it as well. This secret stash was the arsenal that would teach Sousuke the ropes of what it meant to be a “man”.

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