Adolf Reinhardt x Eva Frost (Terra Formars)

Chapter 4

Adolf woke in the infirmary room of the squad 1 rover, which seemed closer to an empty room with a medical bed and cabinet in it. He looked over to see a smiling Komachi that was looking down at him with a silly expression on his face.

"Still alive huh? Good would've been boring without a drinking buddy around"

Adolf started to get up but felt pain surge through his chest and quickly laid back down with an inaudible groan. He cursed himself for being such a liability in the dire straights the teams were constantly in he felt nothing but disappointment in himself for not being able to recover faster and constantly being in need of medical attention. Komachi pulled out a cigarette as the two started chatting about what had happened since they had been separated by the incident in the annex 1. While Komachi was talking about his encounter with the silk moth terraformar, Adolf was thinking back to his time at the valley where he was sure he would die, then for the millionth time this mission, his crewmate shoved her way into his thoughts again, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't stop thinking of the night when she was drunk, the texture of her lips, the smell of her hair, her gentle touch and her kind smile. His heart started racing at the thought of it, which didn't go unnoticed by his old comrade.

"Got ladies on the brain huh? So who's the lucky girl?" Komachi said with a wide grin as Adolf just tried to turn away but was stopped by Komachi's hand on his shoulder.

"Take some advice from me, whatever you're feeling, don't hold back. Things can happen on this planet, bad things, cling to the ones you love while their here or I promise you that you will regret it"

Adolf pulled up his collar and muttered, almost inaudibly, into Komachi's ear, and as soon as he heard it his grin grew even wider.

"So it's ms. frost huh? I woulda pegged you for the brunette type but I guess I was wrong there, so just what about her has caught your eye lover boy?" he said with a chuckle

"It's hard to explain, but it's everything, her kindness to everyone around and how gentle and considerate she is, to how she is a little clumsy and gets flustered easily, and even how brave she can be like when she tried to protect me even though she couldn't even scratch the terraformar, she is just everything I could ever desire"

After a while of chatting, Komachi turned off the lights and let Adolf rest a little bit while doing a little investigation of his own.

Isabella was chatting with Alex and Marcos when Komachi walked up and whispered something into her ear and they walked off behind a rock, leaving Alex and Marcos a bit confused.

Komachi and Isabella exchanged notes from what they had each heard from Adolf and Eva's descriptions of their feelings, all the while, Eva had gone to check on her captain, and saw him in bed with his chest wrapped in bandages and the burns on his face easily visible from the back of his jaw to the front of his mouth. Eva was transfixed, not in disgust but in sadness at what had happened to him to give him those scars that would never heal and could never be covered.

Eva quietly closed the door as she left the rover and saw enrique walking among the terraformar corpses absentmindedly, as he was walking, he felt something grab his ankle and in seconds, one of the terraformars that was presumed to be dead, slammed him on the ground and stomped on his midsection, crushing his bones and causing his organs to rupture and blood to pour out of his lifeless body, Eva screamed, horrified, and the terraformar turned its head, only to quickly move its body out of the way to dodge a kick from a furious Isabella whose face was contorted with rage as she slowly walked towards the terraformar, the ground cracking with each step she took and the second the terraformar took a swing at her, she ducked to the left and sent it's head flying off with a spinning hook kick, with her emotions still out of control, she continued stomping on the terraformars corpse while tears fell down her face at the death of her comrade and her friend, she was finally restrained by Alex and Marcos who needed their combined strength to stop her from smashing the corpse even for her as she screamed and cried at Enrique's crushed corpse and lifeless eyes.

All the while, Eva stood there, her eyes wide as she fell to her knees started to be sick as she vividly recalled the events in her head and her palms were clammy, her knees wobbly, and her arms felt like lead weights as the scene played over and over in her mind, then the sight of the rest of her comrades, bleeding and injured in the valley came to her mind and she started to feel faint until Rachel helped her to the infirmary.

After a couple of days, when all of the injured had recovered and everyone had the supplies needed, the three squads were preparing to depart for the annex 1. However, due to Adolf being bedridden, he still had no knowledge of Enrique's death, the crew came to check up on him and give him updates on the situation outside, but no one had the heart to tell him about it.

After the rover had departed, finally having recovered from his injuries almost completely, Adolf walked to the cockpit but something felt off to him like something was missing.

"Where is Enrique?"

The whole crew looked down and Antonio was the one who spoke up.

"Dead sir"

"Excuse me?"

"He died three days ago"

"And why did no one inform me of this?"

"We just didn't know how to bring it up"

"I'm upset, to say the least, but I will save the question of why for another time and assume you had a very good reason for not telling me," Adolf said in a very cold voice that made everyone's hairs stand up. He then promptly walked out of the room and to the storage compartment. When he was in the corner of the room behind one of the food crates, he looked towards the floor with tears streaming down his face as he mourned the loss of his teammate and a member of his family. He felt sick to the core and his cries were muffled by his tear soaked coat as he was overcome with sadness, but he couldn't show himself like this to the crew, he had to inspire confidence and never show weakness. He couldn't afford to be emotional in front of his crew but everyone had a breaking point and he sobbed quietly while the rest of squad 5 were in bad spirits due to the captains scolding and they all felt bad about not telling him.

Eva volunteered to go apologize on behalf of the crew as try to make the current situation better for everyone. She checked his quarters but he wasn't there, she looked around the rest of the ship until she heard murmurs coming from behind a crate in a storage room.

"Dammit, why do I have to be so useless, I couldn't even save one of my own crew, no not just my crew, they are the only real family I have ever had and I couldn't even save them. He didn't deserve this, he had his own hopes and dreams and I should have protected him, I just can't lose any more family, they are all I have left to live for, I can't let his death be in vain. I promise you, Enrique, I will never let another one of them die even if sacrifice myself in the process"

She saw Adolf crying and was shocked to see him be this emotional as opposed to his normally stoic face. He was crouched against the wall with tears coating his face and his eyes full of sadness. She couldn't help but feel the need to comfort him and help him, she couldn't explain why, but she just felt the urge to embrace him and tell him everything would be ok.

She walked up to him and pulled his head onto her shoulder and wrapped her arms gently around his back and she could feel his whole body shaking as he mourned his friend and she slowly ran her fingers through his hair and spoke to him softly as he let his emotions flow. She felt his pain and wanted to help him through it since she knew that she was the only one who could, no one else could see this side of him but her now. She just slowly calmed him down as she kept gently caressing him as he sobbed into her coat.

She then raised his head up slowly to see the man with scars on his face and tears flowing from his eyes as he looked broken and hurt, she just smiled at him, and as she did, he was reminded of the time when she was drunk and of his previous wife and suddenly broke out of her grasp and ran into his room before she could stop him, she didn't know what she had done but she was worried for him after he ran away from her.

"No, I can't do something like that again, I'm just a monster, I can't go through that again, no one can care about a monster like me, it just is impossible" Adolf just held his head in his hands and he was overwhelmed with thoughts. He leaned against the inside of his door and just looked at the floor and being overcome by self-doubt and sadness simultaneously while Eva leaned against the outside of the door wondering what she could have done to make him react like that and how sad he was over the death of his comrades, she wanted to be there and comfort him and he desperately wanted that comfort but feared for what might happen if she did.