Severed [GB + SB]

Nine: Love Is A Battlefield

Really? THURSDAY?

We just laid there together, on the couch, for a good ten minutes. A little pocket of calm, of North and Sang quiet and close while chaos reigned around us. I needed this, I needed to recharge my batteries and renew my connections, one boyfriend at a time. I believe that each of them needs some dedicated "alone time" — and that's true of any relationship no matter what state it is in — but even stealing a few minutes here and there to be able to focus on each other is important. To have a few minutes to drive home how important each one of them is, individually. To feel important to them, to feel significant. I needed this just as much.

Eventually, after the calm, almost meditative state I was in had done its job, and I was re-focused and re-energized, some of the things I'd read in the texts between Uncle and North drifted back into my consciousness. "North?" I asked, rubbing my cheek against his chest.

"Mmm? Yeah baby?" His low rumble vibrated under me. I'd forgotten about his massage setting. My face was flattened so thoroughly against his chest that he only got a half-smile out of it.

"What did Uncle mean about her being connected?"

"She's Academy," he said shortly, and I think I understood then.

"So it isn't just a matter of firing her from a job, because she's got influence of some kind with the Academy, and can cause problems?" I asked, and felt an answering reverberation of agreement. "And Uncle is worried that she'll cause me problems, if her being fired is somehow linked back to me? Like I won't get accepted or something?"

He squeezed my shoulder and I propped my chin up on his pec and met his eyes. He smiled, pleased that I interpreted it correctly... or maybe it was part of a psychic message that he thinks I heard. I'm so good at faking being psychic, even when I'm not trying! "You sure are, baby girl," he said with a huff of breath and smile, then continued, "what she doesn't know or never even considered is that you might be more valuable to the Academy that she is. She can cause whatever fuss she wants, it won't matter. Not with your ghost status, and not if any one of them spends ten minutes in conversation with you. I think he's more worried about her ruining your reputation, or trying to at least. Or going after one of us to punish everyone. We're a little more vulnerable right now than you are."

I waited for him to clarify that but he didn't, very deliberately didn't, so I let it go. "Is she... unusual? For an Academy girl?"

North shook his head, his expression carefully neutral. "Nope. I'd like to say that you just got her on a bad day too, but she's always been a problem for me at least. She's very... aggressive in her interests. A lot of them tend to be, and there's nothing wrong with a woman knowing what she wants and pursuing it, but they tend to have a problem accepting rejection. And if they choose to use their Academy training for selfish purposes, it can be really devastating to the lives of those who deny them what they want. Then again, I've heard the same about a lot of Academy guys too, ones other than our teams, and it seems to just be the younger ones. I guess as you get older, you stop being quite so self-absorbed and selfish, start realizing that stuff you do impacts other people in ways you can't always predict, so you become more sensitive to it." He sighed and smoothed my hair back from my face, giving me a soft smile that I don't think most people would ever expect to see from such an intimidating looking guy, but I know his roughness conceals a heart of gold. And marshmallow. It's really a mix of everything precious and yummy. "I've talked to my therapist about this a few times, wondering why we've always seemed to be different from a lot of the other Academy teams, and I think it's because of our histories. We all have pasts that left us damaged and broken, we've all lived through bad things, and I think that makes us less likely to toy with people or be raging assholes. Usually."