The Most Adorable Creature

Unease

Breakfast used to be a time of solitude where Viper would read all her emails as well as the top articles from the most popular news sites. Most of the emails she got were not worth reading as they rarely told her something she didn't already know or wouldn't get told in a mission brief. And as for the news? It was as pessimistic as ever. Politicians and corporations fighting for decent public image and control. Her morning routine had made her as bitter as the black coffee she piously drank.

Now breakfast was a much more positive affair. Every day the chemist walked into the cafeteria, she was waved over by a blushing Killjoy who always saved the seat directly next to her. Viper never asked the cheery engineer to save her a seat, Killjoy just did it. It was baffling that someone could be so good at relationships. Or maybe it's the first time in a long time that someone's done this. This particular day was Jett's day to cook breakfast and she and Sage were absent from their normal seats. Neon and Raze were also absent since they had been nominated as quinceanera planners, and therefore sat with Reyna and Lucia in the far corner of the room. "Jett is making kimchi fried rice," Killjoy motioned to the kitchen, where Jett could be seen stirring a massive wok.The smell from the kitchen was heavenly, Jett was among the best cooks in the protocol and Korean food was one of everyone's favorite cuisines. Viper had tried several times to increase the number of Jett's cookdays, but all her attempts were fruitless because the Korean duelist did want more work and Brimstone wouldn't lessen her other chores. Brimstone also did not approve of increased days for Reyna, KAY/O or Neon either, giving her some bullshit excuse that the other agents would eventually get better at cooking. But Viper knew that nothing would ever change Phoenix's bland dishes or Breach's awful Fygande Jakob. As if she could read Viper's mind, Killjoy smirked, "Were you there when Breach made that awful Fygande Jakob thing? The chemist nodded, "unfortunately," she smiled through the pain of the memory."I'm so glad Breach doesn't cook til next Thursday..." Killjoy glanced over at Viper nervously, "do you want to maybe have dinner with me next Thursday?"Studying Killjoy's cute face for a second or two, Viper burst out laughing, "that was smooth, little mouse.""Is that a yes?" the sentinel pressed."Of course."Viper felt like she was in a movie. The second the German next to her began to talk, all of the noise behind them faded into the background. Killjoy was the only thing in focus for Viper, the rest of the world was just a prop to convince the chemist that the whole scene was real.What did she spend her days thinking about before this? Revenge. The truth made the controller internally cringe. Revenge on people who were probably dead. Revenge that would happen regardless of whether or not Viper spent every waking moment thinking about it. Viper had long accepted that she would spend the rest of her life avenging them. The people Kingdom lied to, her naive younger self, her friends, her family; she would be their vengeance. But the cost of vengeance didn't have to be her own misery. Working with Killjoy, agents constantly stopping by to bother them, eating every meal with at least someone, had softened her. It had made her less bitter. She was too distracted to hate herself for every little mistake– now she laughed them away with Killjoy. Her reason to live was no longer just vengeance. She wanted more of her life now, not the dangerous missions or revenge, just existing with Klara... with Brimstone, Omen, Sage and Jett was enough. A plate being set in front of the chemist tore her from her thoughts. "My specialty... fried rice," Jett dramatically announced, "and just for you two lovebirds– fried rice– but in a heart shape." The duelist excitedly pointed to the large plate which had a mountain of heart shaped fried rice on it. "And the best part?" the Korean girl's grin widened, "I'm only giving you one fork! You guys can thank me later." Giving them a wink, she dashed away in a cloud of smoke before either could protest. The chemist looked at Killjoy, terrified. "I can ask for a fork, eating together is definitely not taking it slow," Viper whispered, stumbling over the words. "Nein, don't worry," the sentinel gave Viper a wink, "the chef's meant for the food to be eaten this way."Viper's pale face turned tomato red. She swallowed thickly, and opened her mouth to respond but no words came out, embarrassing herself even further. Killjoy noticed the controller's unease, "also, I'm starting to get tired of the whole 'let's take this slow thing'. There are some things I want to take slowly, but not this." As she said this, Killjoy scooped a little bit of the fried rice up with the fork and brought it to Viper's mouth. With wide eyes and red cheeks Viper opened her mouth and allowed herself to be fed by the sentinel. The whole situation made her feel vulnerable... and cared for. Why is this scarier than a kiss?Finding her confidence, Viper motioned for the fork, "I want to feed you, little mouse."._.Jett was laughing so hard she had fallen on the floor of the kitchen, unable to keep standing. The look Viper had given her was priceless. The chemist's face had drained of what little color it had in it, and her expression had dropped from a content one to one of pure horror. For anyone else in the protocol it wouldn't have been that funny. But for the stoic, emotionless woman that was Viper? Hilarious. Killjoy looked a little stunned, but the sentinel was definitely expecting it. Jett knew Killjoy was a sucker for any type of trope involving; "and there was only one bed" or "the only seat left was the one next to them" so she would probably support "there was only one fork".Laughing even harder at her own thoughts, Jett looked up at a confused Sage, "There was only one fork," she sputtered out."What?" "It's like 'there was only one bed'," the Korean duelist explained between laughs, "it's a romance trope."Sage nodded although it was clear she did not understand. "You gave them only one fork?" she asked.Jett nodded, at this point laughing so hard she was crying."It's probably a good thing you did that, Viper had always been helpless at that sort of thing," Sage commented looking over the counter and across the cafeteria where Killjoy and Viper sat.Calming down enough to stand back up, Jett joined her girlfriend in shamelessly spying on the scientist duo. "They're so cute," Jett whispered-squealed. "That's enough trouble making for you, let's get to cleaning this place," Sage pulled the duelist away from the counter and towards the sink.Jett complied, starting up a soapy bath for the cooking utensils they'd used. If the protocol's battles ever switched from gunfights to dish washing races, the Korean was confident that she could still carry them all. "Feels like just yesterday I was chopping dallae at the store," she mused, "wonder if that place is still standing?""We could ask Cypher to look," Sage offered, setting down a stack of dirty plates."No, I don't know if I'm ready to know that yet..." Jett replied, thinking hard of ways to change the topic. "Hey, do you know what happened to Chamber? Neon had to help him with something all of yesterday.""The email this morning said he got demoted," Sage quietly responded, making sure only Jett heard her, "Neon is likely showing him his new chores." "You actually read those emails?" the duelist marveled, shocked at the sentinel's admission. Lowering her voice even further, Sage leaned in to whisper in Jett's ear, "I do not trust Chamber. I'm worried that he will not take this demotion well. I am worried he may do something. He is considered a traitor by Kingdom, but that does not make him our friend."The Korean shut off the water, sharing Sage's worried look. "You don't think he'd give away our location?""No, this is his hiding place as well as his home... I don't know what he'll do, but be careful," Sage offered a soft smile, but it did nothing to relieve the seriousness of the situation. ._.While the nightmares had stopped, Killjoy couldn't rid her mind of bad thoughts. Being around Viper and her friends helped, but the lingering fear that she would cause the deaths of everyone was staining her life. These fears were not made better by the fact that Chamber now avoided her like the plague. The second she entered a room, he would leave. On missions, he refused to be at the same site as her, citing "sentinels shouldn't all be on one site". He was a lot more withdrawn from the whole group, really only talking to Sova, Skye, and occasionally Cypher. He was quieter, colder, and clearly frustrated with where he was. Brimstone told everyone that he'd been demoted for misuse of agent information, but Killjoy knew better. He'd been demoted for bothering her. The protocol had only ever had one other bullying incident but the punishment hadn't been that severe. Part of Killjoy wanted to beg Brimstone to reverse Chamber's demotion, but the old man was too stubborn. If Brimstone thought such a harsh punishment was fair, he wouldn't change his mind on it no matter how much Killjoy begged. Over the course of a week, Killjoy moved the last of her robots and tools into Viper's lab. While moving she accidentally stumbled across one of her old, half finished projects. A project she'd called "lockdown". The idea for lockdown had come from Viper. When Killjoy had first met the then brooding and cold chemist, she had immediately been impressed. Viper's utilities could control an entire site– heck, it had controlled multiple sites! This had inspired KJ to make her own site controlling utility. Lockdown was a bulky beacon-like item that when placed down would send electrical pulses to all humans or robots around the area... unfortunately it couldn't tell the difference between friends and foes, which is why she eventually boxed it up in favor of other projects. Holding Lockdown in her hands again, she found a new motivation to finish it. Bringing her project into Viper's lab, the chemist did not ask questions about the bulky robotic mass, but instead inquired about their Thursday date. "What kind of date is Thursday going to be? Formal? Casual? Somewhat casual? McDonald's level casual?" Viper being worried about how to dress for their date was the cutest thing KJ had seen in a while. "Somewhat casual? Can we go shopping before we eat? Lucia's quinceanera is only a few weeks away and I need to find something to wear," Killjoy set Lockdown on the steel counter of her designated area of the lab. Viper nodded. Who was she to disagree on a shopping date? ._.The differences between a picnic date and a mall date were vast. Picnic dates were generally more private, just you, your partner and nature. However a mall date was way more daunting. People would be all over the mall; children in strollers with their parents, elderly couples holding hands and teenagers in packs. Viper couldn't help but overthink the whole date. She wondered if Killjoy would be comfortable being in public together. The chemist herself had never really been on such a public date, and she was unsure of what to do or think. For her sentinel, it would probably be much worse. Viper knew that Killjoy had a panic attack a few weeks ago but if that anxiety wasn't enough, the German did have some form of social anxiety even before the protocol. The pressures of the spike project and their relationship, on top of whatever trauma Kingdom had given her, on top of any trauma Killjoy may have already had worried Viper. But despite all the overthinking and presumptions, the German seemed just fine. The whole way from the headquarters to the mall was filled with Killjoy rambling about what colors they looked good in (dark green was what she ended up deciding on).Killjoy's ranting was actually enjoyable as compared to anyone else's ranting. The sentinel managed to have the most interesting things to talk about. She seemed to know a little bit about every topic, and added a lot of context to every topic she ranted about. Viper felt like she was getting smarter just by listening, although she didn't think she'd ever comfortably be able to explain fashion color and texture theory. Fashion to the chemist was simple since she only wore black, green and sometimes very very dark gray. As the two of them walked around the mall, Viper noted that Killjoy was giddy and cheerful. The German led them from shop to shop, window shopping and pointing out every clothing item she thought Viper would look cute in. The chemist did end up buying some of the items Killjoy pointed out: an oversized denim jacket and black ripped jeans. Normally Viper would scoff at the idea of ripped jeans– afterall why on earth would anyone in their right mind buy jeans with holes in them? But Killjoy wore ripped jeans and the sentinel made them look hot. When Viper tried on the ripped jeans, she couldn't help but admire herself. She smiled to herself. The changing room lighting was rigged to purposely make her look better than she ever remembered. The woman in the changing room was happier than Viper had ever seen. Gone was the tired look and in its place was a small, bashful smile, as if the woman in the mirror was embarrassed about being so happy. Ripped jeans made Viper feel rebellious and hot. With bags in hand, the two of them searched the mall for a formal wear shop. Eventually they found one and Killjoy immediately struck up a conversation with the store's employee. Viper sat down on one of the puffy chairs ladened with pillows and looked at the store around her. It smelt like fabric and slightly of chemicals. Various formal dresses lined both sides of the room and continued into the room that Killjoy had disappeared into. Suddenly Viper was very nervous, she had no idea what Killjoy would reappear wearing. And the thought of the sentinel in some cute formal outfit made her face get unnecessarily hot. "How do I look?" Killjoy asked timidly, shocking Viper to reality.The controller did her best not to stare at the woman in front of her. Killjoy was wearing a black, lace, 1950s style dress. The length of the dress went a few inches below her knees and Viper realized with a blush that this was the first time she'd ever seen Killjoy in a dress. Doing an awkward shuffle to turn a full 360 in front of Viper, the dress lifted softly to twirl around Killjoy. The sentinel nodded intently, waiting for the controller's reaction. Viper was tomato red, nodding back and struggling to find words to communicate the emotions she felt. "You're so pretty," she squeaked out, causing both Killjoy and the store employee to laugh. Now with cheeks redder than ever, Viper hid herself behind a pillow, unable to stop staring at Killjoy. "This isn't my style but I saw a TV show where one of the characters wore this kind of dress, and I love it!" Killjoy did another twirl in front of the mirror. This masquerade themed quinceanera was going to kill Viper. The controller was fearful that she would overheat if she had to go through an entire night with Killjoy looking that good. Thankfully for Viper, Killjoy bought the dress and they left the store bags in hand. Sometimes the controller wished she wasn't so observant. Everywhere she looked she seemed to see another couple walking past holding hands. And this made her acutely aware of the fact that her stiff hand was a mere few inches from Killjoy's. Viper was certain that their hands had actually brushed a few times but Killjoy either didn't notice or did not want to acknowledge it. The chemist was confused. She desperately wanted to hold Killjoy's hand, but she didn't want to push anything on the sentinel. In the midst of all her overthinking their hands unmistakably brushed and Viper's face went red in response. Without warning Killjoy took hold of the chemist's hand, enlacing their fingers. Either of them were brave enough to look at each other. Holding hands wasn't new to either of them, but publicly holding hands made Viper feel like their relationship was so much more real. ._.If you somehow forgot that Reyna existed, Jett was the protocol's star duelist. Jett consistently put up insane numbers, carried whole missions, and had the best aim of anyone in the world (probably). The one thing that held her back from beating Reyna as best duelist is that fact she couldn't go invisible, heal completely, shoot faster, reload faster and whatever else Reyna could do. And also Reyna was a workaholic, mostly in part because of Lucia. Jett had priorities, like maintaining relationships with all her friends and her girlfriend. But recently Jett spent a lot of time stalking Chamber. Sage had brought up the idea of Chamber retaliating against the protocol to Brimstone, but Brimstone had denounced the idea. The protocol's leader insisted that Chamber still needed their help and protection. Good agents would have dropped the subject at once and listened to their commander, but better agents and friends would refuse to listen to the old man and keep tabs on Chamber's whereabouts regardless. Healstorm (Jett's name for their stalker duo) had discovered a lot about Chamber's life in the last few weeks. They noted that he had been significantly more reclusive, rarely interacting with anyone. He didn't even eat with Sova and Skye anymore, and he spent all his spare time in his bedroom. Sage convinced Cypher to help them monitor all Chamber's calls and texts, but nothing came of that except for the weird information that Chamber continually texted Viper even though he had gotten no response for over three months. Chamber on missions was more or less the same. He was quieter if anything but his demotion did not stop his performance. The only time during the entire week that Healstorm couldn't account for was Thursdays when Chamber mysteriously left the headquarters for a "haircut". This led Jett to follow Chamber on his haircutting appointment, while Sage and Cypher watched over her from a van nearby. "Who gets a haircut every week?" Jett shook her head, peering over the edge of the roof of the building she sat on. In her ear she heard Sage chuckle in response to her remark. A smile crept onto the duelist's face. "Keep your eyes on the suspect," Cypher warned, "I don't think he's going to a salon."Jett did as instructed, watching Chamber carefully as he crossed the street and out of sight. Jumping up and dashing forwards to catch up with the French man, Jett managed to glimpse the escaping sentinel enter a building further down the street. "He went inside a building!" the Korean duelist exclaimed, seizing the bag next to her and jumping from roof to roof to get a good vantage point of the whole area. Once she had found a spot that looked over the whole era, she pulled out a camera from the bag and attached it to one of the pipes coming out of the roof. The camera hummed to life, turning on with an audible click. "He entered the building directly in front of us, yes?" Cypher asked."Yes, the sign in front says..." Jett's eye brows furrowed, "library? What would he be doing in a library? Should I go inside–""No," Sage quickly cut off Jett, "if you go in, he will likely see you.""But we don't have enough on him!" Jett protested. She felt extremely uneasy about the whole situation. "We don't want Brimstone to find out about our little operation," Cypher concluded, his camera looking past the duelist. "What are you up to little French man?" the masked sentinel asked.