She Will Persist

13

Adira

"Lucky for us, uniforms boost egos so we don't have to worry so much about figuring out who's a soldier and who's not."

"I think there's a bit more to donning your county's uniform than fostering self confidence," James muttered quietly from next to me.

"Either way, we've got a lot of ground to cover tonight. Deera you've got your work cut out for you," Blitz said.

I clicked my tongue. "Better be fucking worth it. I am not wearing this dress for longer than I have to." I pulled at the blue fabric that was sticking to my skin.

"Hey, if things go well, you'll be taking it off sooner than you think. You might even get some help."

"You could have gotten away with that if I couldn't see you smirking from across the room," I said dully, flipping Blitz off where he sat facing the dance floor at the bar. I kept my finger up until his eyes found me and he raised his glass in my direction.

I sighed and glanced to Axel, dropping my finger. "Help me pick a target," I told him.

He shifted beside me. "Who looks the best?"

I turned to him. He hair was uncharacteristically tidy, and honestly, I preferred it the other way. "That's how we're doing this? I thought it was all strategical and shit."

"Guys in uniforms Deera," James smirked from my other side. He pointed to one soldier leaning against a wall a little farther to our left. He was tall, had slicked back hair, flirty eyes, shining medals, and a smile coated in trouble.

I swallowed. "He's..."

"Sooo cute!" Axel squealed in a high pitches voice.

James scrunched his nose up at him. "That's gay."

I nudged Axel with my shoulder so he lost his balance. "We don't sound like that."

"I'll sound like that if it means I get a load of him," James smirked again and took off across the club towards the soldier we'd been staring at.

"Wow. Look at him getting all cocky," Axel grinned. I smiled too, trying not to imagine what Owen would do when he spotted James talking to a guy who was basically a brown-haired version of Owen.

Axel turned properly to me. "You okay?"

"Seeing Blitz flirt kinda makes me want to throw up, but other than than that, yeah I'm good."

"I meant with all the..." he looked around the club, "stimulus." He turned back to me with some concern in his eyes. "I don't want to invade or assume but... you seem to be doing alright?"

I rubbed my bare arms. "Yeah, but I'm scared out of my mind," I whispered to him. It felt like my senses were exploding with everything that was happening around me, everything was so loud and fast and bright, it made every part of me go numb. "This dress is showing way too much of me, I feel like everyone is staring at me, these heels make me feel like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, my hair is already sticking to the sweat at the back of my neck, and my hands won't stop shaking."

We love a good sensory overload making you glitch out like a toaster in a bathtub.

Axel's multi-colored gaze softened. "Hey." He brushed his fingers against my shoulder. "You escaped from the clutches of evil scientist overlords. You faced all those assholes at the agency. Just this morning you infiltrated a national military vessel. You can handle batting your eyelashes at undeserving men and getting them drunk for a few hours."

I have always wanted to be like the badass female characters in movies and tv shows who swoop in with swinging hips and charming smiles and end up killing mafia leaders in broom closets...