Crystal Legacies: Rebirth

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

Celebrations

Dante sighed as he leaned back in the chair at his desk. He was looking over the files that sat in front of him. One in particular was open in front of him: Razaria's. He read over the information more than a few times. She grew up in Altadena. Her adopted father, Bruce, had been a History professor at the local college teaching with his emphasis in the Crystalian Period. He had died of natural causes. Her adopted mother Shannon had been a real estate agent. Prior to a house fire that local authorities had put down as accidental, she'd had a sister named Samantha too. The house fire, the one that the Organization had marked down as having been started by her, had taken out both her mother and her sister in the same night.

He turned the paper-like screen in his hands from the basic dossier page to the surveillance records. There were pictures of her from surveillance cameras in Altadena and Yansid. There was even a video of her working at a bar in Yansid the night before she'd been picked up. Dante locked the screen as he traced the lines of her body with his finger. If he acted on his desires Dante knew first hand that it would screw everything up when they were caught. He would probably face a reprimand from his father. Maybe even a demotion given that it would have been a repeated offense. Razaria would have faced much worse. At minimum she'd be subjected to inhumane acts but Dante was pretty sure she'd face decommission. In other words - death.

He wanted to say that this was all a cruel joke someone was playing on him. That was definitely how he felt. He just felt so damn comfortable around her all the time. And during the training sessions where he touched her and held onto her, Dante wanted to move his hands places he knew he shouldn't. There had been instances recently where he had to walk away from her because she backed up too much and bumped into him.

"Fuck me," Dante groaned.

Dante laid his head down on his desk. He banged his head lightly on the sturdy surface as more intrusive thoughts invaded his brain. Not that it was a new sensation for him. The once respectable Commander had been having a hard time putting Razaria out of his thoughts for a while. It had even gotten to the point where he was ignoring Mari and Ivy completely just to spend more time with her and he knew that others had noticed. Dante could only hope that it seemed as though he was trying to get the new member of his Unit into shape.

At the same time he knew that his hope might have been folly. Mari and Ivy, at least, saw his attention for what they really were - a desire to be near her. Dante comforted himself with the fact that there might have been some truth to what Ivy had said about Razaria enjoying his attention. Dante had taken note that she always made it a point to always be near him. He had felt the brush of her hand under the table when they ate together in the mess hall more often. Much to her shock and amusement, he had even returned the affectionate gesture more than a few times. He had also noticed her stares a lot more now since Mari had mentioned it. And then there was her smile. He hated the goosebumps he got when she smiled at him; the feeling in his stomach when she gave him that smile. She had a mirth filled smile he'd come to recognize as something she'd only given him. One that, on top of her declarations, let him know that she was attracted to him. It was a smile he might have gone out of his way to invoke.

Dante sat up from his position and looked at the tablet in front of him in order to check the time. When he did and saw the date as well, Dante froze. It was July 19th, Razaria's birthday. His brain went into overdrive. They had an entire party for Mari. If he ignored Razaria's birthday, what kind of message would that send? He had to do something for her. The problem was that he hadn't scheduled any time off for her. For as much attention as he paid to her, Razaria was still a newer addition to his Unit. He hadn't memorized her data until recently as he had with the others. So the date had snuck up on him. Which meant that she was in various different classes all day that day. He couldn't just pull her out of the lessons at the last minute if he didn't want to draw attention to their situation.