Nine months? Had it really been nine months since she’d been captured? Honestly, it hadn’t felt like it until he’d let her lean so heavily against him. She’d had so little to do the days had felt both longer and yet somehow shorter than they should’ve; he could’ve said two years and she’d still not believe it.
“Very clear, sir,” Aoi mumbled out, on some level hating she’d called him sir rather than his name. That was something she’d only ever done as a joke years before, when they’d both been in Academia and freshly graduated, before the war, before… All things she couldn’t think about for the time being. Memories of that particular hell felt muted at the moment, anyway - Nearly everything did.
And she was tired. Enough so that his scoop of her into his arms, pulling her up and off the floor, went without a single sound of complaint. All she wanted was to go home and sleep; now that he’d confirmed she could, it was a fight to keep herself from shutting down in his hold, still slightly trembling arms sliding around his neck and shoulders. “Has it really been nine months? They wouldn’t let us have calendars. Wasn’t.. On th’ list of things we could get.”
She was sure that would sound odd, but there was something in his expression that reminded her too much of the commander she’d once stood against. As tired as she was and as muted as most of the world felt, it wasn’t hard to recognize her Hero’s anger - And she wasn’t about to let him explode, which meant small talk was in order. Or rather, as much as she could get in, her head tilting to lay half against her own arm, and half on his shoulder.
“I missed y’…” Her voice had softened more, her need to sleep lacing the edges of her tone. “They wanted… T’ get y’ t’… Are y’ sure they won’t…? If they catch y’ then… They’ll make y’ suffer, t’. I don’t mind bein’ punished if it means they can’t have y’, y’know?”
It had felt so much longer than nine months to him. At first, he’d assumed she’d finally gotten sick of him and finally, finally, had left him. He wouldn’t have been too surprised after all the things he’d done. But then, he realized absolutely no one had seen her. She’d all but vanished, and if he hadn’t known better, he might have assumed she’d been spirited away. And when he’d realized something bad must have happened to her, after all, everything she owned was still in their home and he’d felt so stupid for assuming something so petty of the girl he loved.
“Sir?” He asked wearily, his face falling into a frown. She’d never called him ‘sir’ in this sense before, when things were serious and fragile and complicated. In fact, he could only remember her ever doing so to tease him, and maybe once or twice when they’d met after he’d become a commander, but it was never meant in a serious fashion. No, this threw him off, left him unsure. It felt like he was pressuring her into leaving... or like she’d been trained to follow orders for fear of pain. “Please, please don’t call me that.” It was all he could say, it was hard enough to keep him temper in check with all he’d seen, with all she’d been through at those cruel bastards’ hands.
But when she curled up into his arms, wrapping herself around him, his anger dropped and he held he all the tighter, nuzzling his nose against her cheek in a moment of weakness for finally having her back in them. “I wish I could say otherwise, my love. And we’re now keeping calendars in every room of our home,” He assured her, unsure why that felt so important to him, but dammit if they wouldn’t let her have one, he was going to give her an excess. He couldn’t take away the time she’d spent here. But he would sure as hell make her time at home infinitely better.
As her tired voice continued to speak, he couldn’t help but chuckle darkly, listening to the chaos around them as his men destroyed the place and took as many captive as they could get their hands on. “There will be no one left to run this place. No one’s coming after me, and they sure as hell will never touch you again-”
He was interrupted by a soldier holding out a key. “Found this, sir. Should get those things off of her. Sick bastards had a separate key labeled for everyone here.”
“Good, then we need to get out of here,” Aster replied, calling out for everyone to move out before the cops showed up, leaving the men behind as he took his girl, softly murmuring, “It’s time to go home, Aoi.”
