It's actually kind of funny at first to see the mass panic below; grown men screaming their heads off, running in circles in their attempt to stay away. After the grenades explode, she's glad that she's going to live, but when she sees a couple dead soldiers and many, many casualties, her heart sinks with guilt.
"Ludmila, you okay?" Federico asks her through the mic.
"I'm fine," she says after a while. "Let's move."
She jumps down from the tree, ignoring the searing pain in her feet when she lands (it must've been at least one story high) and runs after Federico, who is running and deactivating mines at the same time. When she's caught up to him, he gives her a crooked grin, that almost makes her heart soar out of her chest. She breathes a "hey".
"Glad to see you alive," he replies, and Ludmila thinks, dang, that's way better than just a hey. "I just got a message from my sister, at the other command center, that their armies are still behind."
"You have a sister? How's she like?" Ludmila asks, keeping her thoughts away from what's ahead. They continue to sprint through dark alleys, seeing the shiny headquarters with neat planted trees and bushes there. What was it with them and bushes?
"We're twins, and she's really smart," he says. "She's how sisters are, I guess, always teasing me and stuff. She likes to hold it over my head that she's older by a minute or so." He laughs.
"She's a pain in the ass sometimes, but she's pretty cool."
Ludmila wonders what it would be like to have a twin brother.
He clears his throat. "How about you? Any siblings?"
"Uh, no," Ludmila says. "Just an only child. It's boring, really. I'd rather have an annoying brother."
"Are you indirectly talking about me?" he says, the beginnings of a smile on his lips. He looks incredibly amused.
"I may or may not be," she says, and they laugh together, continuing to jog towards the headquarters
Suddenly, she can hear voices and rustling, and the two of them go behind a bush yet again. "We need to stop doing this,"
Federico groans softly, and Ludmila shushes him.
Suddenly, a voice buzzes through her earpiece, "Flight landing. Launch attack."
"We can attack now," Ludmila whispers to Federico. She checks her bag for the grenades, "Where the hell are they?"
"What are you even talking about?"
"Just stay here and wait for orders."
She turns towards him. The bush is way smaller than the other ones, so they're pressed tightly against each other. His eyes are so beautiful, and his hair is ruffled from the wind and action. He has a shallow cut on his cheek (probably from the sticks poking out from the bushes) and the corners of his mouth are pulled down. He's so concerned it's adorable and she can't help but think how kissable he is right now. Thank God for bushes, she thinks.
