Friendship?

[Reila Tsukino]

Reila woke up early. It was hard after a long night of forcing Dai to watch all the Pirate of the Caribbean movies with her... She was supposed to go out and do some field work with Mura mostly because there was nothing else to do. She spent three hours making chocolate chip cookies (mostly because the first batch burned while she was trying to comb the eight-hundred knots of out her hair. And...well, the second batch accidentally got hair in it. So she tackled the third batch by tying her hair back and staring into the oven for the thirty minutes until they were done. And thus was born the gooey, rich cookies in which were packed neatly into a basket). Now, Reila faced the controversy of fixing her hair which had indents in it from the hair tie. Life hated her. Mura would be waiting for her and she would appear unprofessional and he would hate her more and betray Briggs again and they would all die!!! She rushed about her bathroom, trying to fix her hair into a fancy-looking bun. She tied the ribbon, grabbed her cookie basket and sprinted down the hall to the lockers.

This was going to take forever... Once she finished putting on a million layers, she exited the room with her puffy white coat on, white water proof boots that went up to her knees, snow pants, a scarf, gloves, and the like... Reila dashed down the small entry way to where Mura was supposed to be waiting with a smile on her face. She was nervous, but hopeful. Hell, she paid Mura a lot, but she'd rather not buy friendship. "Sorry to keep you wait--oh, I'm five minutes early~"

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar was supposed to go on a dandy mission with the Ice Queen herself. He didn't mind per se, he was just surprised that she had asked him to join her on a mission. After all they had never worked together just them. Nor had they really been alone together, not that he was romantically in love with her as dai was. She was a very cute young lady, although he wasn't much older than her she was for now more powerful than himself. If only by a hair or two.

He was working on a final ability that would cause mass destruction. After all, if you had a powerful defense and several different normal attacks you needed some kind of ultimatium maker. Reila and Houka like her were the type of people to just go straight to ultimatium type of attacks. He preferred tactics and stealth, he got off of his bed. He still had a hour or two left before he had to meet her on time. He always preferred fifteen minutes prior to anything, but that was from working as a military man for so long.

He couldn't quite remember the last time he hadn't worked for the amestrian army. Specifically under Reila-chan. He scratched his chin as he began to shave what little facial hair that did grow out straight off. Afterwards he got dressed in warm thermal underclothes, slapped a regular uniform, then put a gortex/fleece overcoat. All of it was camoflagued with a winter whitish color to hide him in the snow. He attached body armor to himself and his pistols onto his thighs while putting the clips inside the magazine holders on his body armor. Lastly, he attached a gallon sized camelback to his body armor and checked for water. He was traveling light today.

He did a check on himself to ensure everything was proper and secured as he checked his backpack-like camelback. It had all sorts of recon and communications equipment in it. Just enough to do whatever they were doing. He didn't know for sure what was going on, but he never left briggs without his armor and weapons. He grinned as the bags of phosphorous dirt swinged around as his hips moved and he walked out of the door.

Once he reached the waiting point he leaned against the wall waiting, he had small snow goggles on his forehead. His whole image showed as if he was prepared for anything, that and he provided a slim target since the body armor force his chest to compress all the clothes under it. He tapped his white snow boots to make sure they didn't have rocks stuck on the bottom of them before raising a eyebrow and a small grin as reila showed up... early?

He pushed himself off the wall and walking towards her simply replied in his normal calm and collected tone that betrayed little if any emotion. " So what're going to do today?" He made no mention of any of his thoughts. The only thing that could give away his thoughts was the general feel of him as a aura. It gave off a feel of curiosity. Reila might have been around him long enough to get that feeling, or she might not have been around him specifically enough to feel it. Regardless it was there.

[Reila Tsukino]

He...grinned? It was a small grin, but it was a grin. Reila looked behind her quickly to see if there was a dead corpse there or something. Nothing of the sort...how strange. She looked back at him and put her free hand behind her head, grinning back. He seemed..quizzical. This excited Reila and gave her a sliver of hope that today...might just go well. Despite the fact that she chose Mura to accompany her for work, she had another plot up her sleeve. She was always thinking... And it was mostly because she couldn't take it anymore. With Houka's sudden disappearance... there was no buffer between them, and well, Mura hadn't spoken a word about it. Wasn't he feeling anything? He had to have felt something when she brought him the unfortunate news... Reila still felt like a piece of her heart was lost somewhere with that spunky redheaded girl... She looked down suddenly, unable to hide the sudden burst of sadness that slipped into the gold hue of her eyes. Taking a breath she whipped her head up with a bright, childish smile. "Here! This is for you. And I made lunch too, but," she waved a pointer finger with a mock-important look on her face, "we need to finish our assessment of the wall first!" As if Mura would do anything before getting his work done other than drink a lot of alcohol and smash his face into the control of a roller coaster... Reila probably looked like an idiot because now she was trying not to laugh... She was as damn unpredictable as the weather--might as well be raining with the sun out. She presented him with the glorious basket of perfected chocolate chip cookies. (Dai could eat the burnt ones; she left them by his door).

"Shall we then?" She slung the less fancy bag of lunch over her shoulder, secured her tachi and pushed open the door to the fridge negative weather. It felt so fresh...and the sun was shining! She couldn't hide the stars in her eyes. This was her place. Slipping on the snow, she practically leaped down the stairs and into six feet of snow where the mobile waited. "Do you mind driving? Last time I crashed, met a weird Drachman woman, and didn't get found for six hours...It would be a bad idea if I drove..." She got in the passenger seat and whipped out a map of the areas that needed to be checked out. It seemed that the metal was being worn down and they had ordered maintenance already, but since this was her Fort, Reila wanted to see it with her own eyes. She also wanted to see what Mura thought... Briggs needed to be strengthened further. There was nothing good about stagnant strength; they had to get better...stronger...everything, yes! Reila punched a fist into the air and winked at her silver-haired mercenary. "I love Briggs, what do you think?"

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar chuckled lightly, he was hiding his heart. He saw the brief moment in her eyes that was sadness incarnate, it invoked the lost houka who had vanished off of the face of the earth. He swore a enemy of his had something to do with it, and he hated himself for losing her. It was another piece of what little heart he had left torn to shreds and stomped on, and to top it off another dagger in his back to match the hundreds of other points of paranoia that held a strong grip on his mind.

He was a man to blame himself for everything that happens that he would think he could prevent. He shook those thoughts off with the chuckle, above all he had to hide his feelings around Reila. He had started to respect her instead of resent, especially since she herself brought the news. After all houka had knocked him into a coma once before, had took care of him, and helped him. He missed her so dearly he felt like what could have been truly love that might have started was burned alive screaming.

He froze for a moment with his grin, his eyes looking as if into another world. All he heard was screaming, the voices of the dead who blamed him in his mind for their deaths. Whether he killed them or was responsible didn't matter, it was whether he thought he was responsible. He memorized all of their names and faces, he replayed them in his head quickly. The list was already long enough that he would take a full hour to recite them one by one.

He banished the thoughts and tried to focus on Reila, the screaming and naming was occuring more frequently. He didn't know what he would do if he lost one more person important to him. He had a few, but most were powerful people. He was on the verge of suicide or doing something so stupid that he wouldn't care. He may have been a depressed heap of trash before, but now he was nearly broken and so very tired of living. No motivation existed other than the habit of staying alive.

He replied to Reila by taking a cookie and saying calm and politely as usual. " Thank you, I didn't know you knew how to make cookies." He paused to take a bite and after swallowing smiled brightly as if the cookie alone was a single torch of light in his world of shadows and darkness. " So well, you didn't have to. I dont deserve it."

His tone, face, and body language may have not given him away, but those words slipped away all the time. He didn't even notice before hopping on the bike after nodding to her statement that she wasn't good. He told her to just tap him twice on the shoulder to stop, and once that there was trouble. Afterwards he drove off out into the snow after packing the rest of the cookies up. He would eat a few more as snacks on the mission before keeping the rest in his room. After all, these days he sometimes didn't come out for days on end. He seemed obsessed with paperwork and collecting intel. As if he was burning himself out on purpose until he became a medical hinderance. " Its the best place i've been in a long time. Although I wish sometimes to visit my hometown."

[Reila Tsukino]

[-avoids the shotgun somehow and lives long enough to post a reply-]

As the snowmobile began to start, golden eyes peered through a sheen of long hair, collecting snow. "I think you deserve it," she said seriously, watching him, "the past doesn't matter to me. I like Mura for who he is and everything he has done for me, not what he hasn't done...or what he has done before." She put a hand onto her forehead and gave a pained smile. She normally would be too shy to say these things so openly, but ever since--ever since Houka left, she felt so...different. "Since Yoshi disappeared... a lot has changed, hasn't it?" Reila looked away suddenly. She didn't want Mura to see what was in her eyes. It felt just as painful if not more than when Ilona died. Reila didn't even know if Houka was dead! It was so painful. She just...vanished one day. Her sword was gone, but her room was left the same as it always was. After a month, Reila had to clear it out. And she did it herself... however agonizing it was. Memories came to her sometimes and most of the time in the form of nightmares. Even so, they made her smile. If Houka was dead somewhere, she was at least still living on in Reila's heart. She couldn't deal with having people vanish from her life...just like that. Relationships were so important... How could anyone go through life so lonely? She knew that crushing feeling...

"I...actually can't make cookies. It..." Reila blushed, still staring at the endless expanse of white. "It took three tries." She took a deep breath, conjuring her feelings together. She turned back to her mercenary who had never been officially a part of Briggs by contract, but by sweat and blood. A smile unlike any Reila had shown Mura before formed on her lips. "And Mura, if you ever disappear someday too, know that you will always have a place here... And like Yoshi, I'll always remember you..." After a brief pause, she clapped her hands together, forcing her entire demeanor to change. "Now! Back to work."

Soon they would reach the part of the wall that needed examining. It was also important to gather first-hand information about the current condition of their base. According to Reila's records, maintenance hadn't been done in over five years. Briggs was definitely in need of an overhaul and possibly an upgrade. For this, Mura's opinion was highly valued. She also needed him to acquire the information as well for the records. Though she definitely didn't want him to overwork himself. It seemed lately... Well, that was why she took him out here to begin with. It was freezing, but... it was still not sitting at a desk. Also, since she paid him yesterday, she had more leverage to keep him here at long as she wanted. "What is your favorite food anyway? I figured cookies was my best bet, you can't go wrong there, right?"

[Murazar Dauthi]

He listened to her closely before giving into the extreme urge to just hug her of which he did so. It was something in him, the lonliness. Yoshi was important to him and just the mentioning of her name, and Ilona dying. It all was still fresh in his mind and heart, he had gotten too close to too many people and all it did was hurt him. He had almost fallen for Houka too, he decided to confide in Reila a bit. She was one of his last friends, and the most stable one.

He spoke trying to restrain his voice from choking up and keep his face from screwing up and crying. The most he could put out was a controlled depressed and sad tone, he spoke soft and more gentle than he ever had. As if the real him was more fragile that anything in the world and the cold hard shell was just for show. " I broke my own promises to myself. I've gotten close to too many people, see where that gets me? Nothing but destruction to what little heart I have. Theres almost nothing left, I had almost fallen for Houka. Now that she's gone and I can't find her I feel more useless than ever." He pushed slightly away from her hug, but still held her. His face was a poor attempt at trying to hold a flood of emotions back.

He looked like he was about to collapse and destroy himself. Which in hindsight he had steadily been doing everytime they lost people he cared for. The alcohol... He was addicted and he knew it, he couldn't give it up. He was halfway ready to take harder stuff just to try and throw the pain away. All he ever felt was pain and all he had been doing was pushing his friends and what family he had left away while hiding behind a glass of alcohol.

He smiled painfully, it almost seemed forced before nodding and them leaving on the snowmobile. Once they began she asked about his favorite food, he laugh carefully as if treading on ice. Once again his calm returned as if a facade to be woven around carefully as to not reveal cracks in the armor. " Mmm, lets go with a seasoned Lamb Kabab. Its been a long time since i've had some. Last time it was far to the east in a small country in the desert that had strange customs. Although the food was excellant. Too bad i've never found them again." He seemed preoccupied with those past thoughts before shaking them off as a dog shook off water before stopping on a high up ridge that gave a great outlook one what the Fort looked like from a pretty good angle. He left the engine running after parking it and got off, in the same motion he pulled out the binoculors and began to search around looking for disrepairs and damage.

[Reila Tsukino]

Mura hugged her. And in that immediate moment, Reila's eyes flooded and tears slowly streamed down her cheeks, freezing quickly in the cold air. She bit her lip and buried her face in his shoulder, putting her arms tightly around him. "Your heart is big. It's just too big...that--that's why it hurts so much..." She sucked in a deep breath, voice quivering from her tears. She shut her eyes and it was as if the sun went behind a cloud. "Haha," she laughed bitterly and let go of him when he seemed to pull away, but he was still there... "We're both useless aren't we?" And then she grew quiet, silently staring off into the snow. She wasn't ever coming back was she? ...She would never see her again, would she? This...was the end of Houka? What this the ending of her story? What would she say to seeing Mura this depressed? What would she do to prevent him from collapsing? Reila balled her hands into fists. It was all...she could do to keep herself from sobbing. They both probably looked like wreck right now, but Reila kept laughing. They probably looked about to drown themselves in misery right? Houka...what would you say to us right now? What...should I do to make everything okay again? Reila looked down, a sad smile tracing her chapped lips. "We used to secretly play videos games when we were supposed to be doing paperwork... We'd pretend to be busy and tell you or Dai to do it for us. Haha and then she would yank me into the training room and force me to hone her skills with the sword... We were always doing something, whether is was burning down the kitchen or chasing people down the hallway with our swords... Now, I don't know what to do with myself. I still have Dai, but that's all I have. Without everyone, it's not the same. I need you, Mura. I need you and Xan. Without you, what is Briggs? Who am I!?" She slammed her fist into the door. And it hurt. She squeezed more tears out of her eyes, the wetness stinging her cheek like her bruised hand. "It's all over, so we have to move on right? I..don't know about you, but I'm incapable of such a thing. I will cling to it until someone forcefully removes me. I'll be eighty, Mura, and I'll still be looking for Houka. I will find her one day...whether it's her bones or her smiling face."

Silence once again spread out like the vast white around them and the snowmobile stopped. Reila, too, got off. Wiping the tears from her face, she walked to stand next to him, eyes transfixed on just the distance. The distance... How long would it take her to breach it? "Seasoned Lamb Kabab, was it? I..." she laughed quietly, "I've never heard of such a thing." It was now Reila's life goal to find it.

[Murazar Dauthi]

He couldn't believe she told him he had too big of a heart. He thought the opposite, he thought now there was nothing left in him to love others so much. He had nothing left in him to search for love anymore. He smiled softly and grasped her hand after she smashed it as quick as a viper. He put it to his cheek before rubbing it with his thumb and letting it go, it was a bit of a flirty gesture, but also one that he cared about her deeply. More than he had ever wanted to admit aloud, he spoke softly with a sad smile.

" I used to train and flirt with her, little by little I think I might have dated her eventually. Now i've nothing left, I was born in such a harsh world and so alone. I lost everything except one and my own mother wont recognize me anymore. " He let her hand drop as if shocked with himself at the gesture, even if he had only held it for a scant few seconds. Her hands was warm, and carried a sweet smelling aroma that made his head dizzy. No wonder dai loved her. Hell, if dai hadn't chased after her he thought he might have eventually. Now that was far too late.

He spoke again, softer than he had ever spoken before. " The truth is, i'm only a glass man painted over. I'm ready to shatter and become so sharp nothing will reach me again, nothing will put me back together. I guess you can see that now though, you'd be the only one. " He paused before seeming to screw his face up and for once, just once in the majority of his life he shed a handful of tears before they froze and dried up. He smiled softly before putting his hardened mask of the wind of death on again and gave a strong answer, the kind that now seemed to only be a mask. The toughness was too obviously false, yet the best disguise for his destroyed heart and mind that clung onto what little he had left. " I promise if I leave I will always come back so long as you bring me back and you're still here to come back. Make that an oath to hold me to."

Once they stopped at the ridge and he got out, he smiled to her softly about her saying she had never heard of them. He replied a short quick answer," Yep, I doubt too many people you encounter will have. Been all over the world." He paused before asking hesistantly as if he might be treading on dangerous ground. " Since we know each other so well, i'd like for us to know each other better. I rarely tell anyone my background, nor do you. If you dont mind of course, i'd like it better if we knew each other better. " It seemed like a offer he had rarely made before, if he remembered he may have only told Houka his background. Or Xanthus. No one else knew, one of those two were gone. The other he hadn't seen in too long.

{OOC: A opening if you want to exploit the triangle of crazy love later.}

[Reila Tsukino]

Mura was acting so differently... Reila could just barely grasp what was happening. Her mind hung on each un-Mura-like action until before she realized it, she was holding up a set of her own binoculars staring at absolutely nothing. One of her hands was cold, but the other was still warm despite the fact that it was slowly turning black and blue. She really shouldn't have hit the door out of frustration, but... What happened afterward... Her face, too, felt hot. She could only guess how flushed she was now. It was so strange... Mura must...just be so heart broken...

She dropped the binoculars and put a hand over her mouth just staring at them through the blur of tears in her eyes. She couldn't do this. Whatever they were trying to do for work just wasn't happening. She...she couldn't see straight dammit! Carefully, she bent down and picked them up, staring at each individual flake of snow. Reila reached out to touch them and only moments later, they turned into mere drops of water. Was this what their lives were like? Were they meant to suffer like this...that anything they touched disappeared into nothing!? Fully trained soldiers turned into mere humans in the face of death. But...Reila had a power. Somehow Reila had gained the ability to do this... She closed her eyes, tears leaking out once more. Taking a deep breath, her fingertips glowed faintly. And when she opened her eyes, the snow flakes we back the same way they had been as if...they were never touched. Reila stood back up and turned to Mura. "I'll always be here, Mura, waiting..." She smiled a sad smiled and bounded to his side.

"That's an oath I know I can keep forever. But in the meantime, let's get to know each other better, okay? My favorite food is Strawberries. It will take you years to find where they're sold so you should probably start now. But I'll find your favorite food in less time, you can count on it!" Reila's sarcasm was known to win prizes. And she never stopped setting challenges...even though strawberries were sold about a fifteen minute drive from Briggs. She went to walk back over to her spot, but spun around and pointed at him, grinning. "Oh right, and you should know, I'm immune to glass. When I was younger the top of an overhead light fell on my head and shattered. I was perfectly fine except for a small cut on my ear. Feel free and shatter all you want. I have paintbrushes and alchemy at my disposal, of course, glass wouldn't really work, so I would have to remake you into an ice man, if that's okay?" She giggled and lifted up her binoculars. "I don't even know what I'm looking at! What are we looking at?" She laughed.

[Murazar Dauthi]

He pulled himself away from the binoculors to look over at her as she bounded back to his side after staring off into nothing. He saw just traces of moisture on the snow near them, his perceptive eyesight catching it he decided to pretend her never saw it nor inferred that she had cried silently and didn't let him know. He spoke up and smiled, he was being quite the opposite of what he usually was around reila. It had been what? A year? Now he was loosening up simply because their lives were devastated.

" I think i'll find you some sooner than you think, although you might be suprised about them. " He was already thinking a hundred steps ahead, the presentation of the strawberries, where they were grown, sold, how they were stored and kept fresh, who was selling it, their reputation for selling them, etcetera. He was going to go all out and make it just amazing with such a simple gesture. After all they were friends with maybe some feelings flying around in a snowstorm, he was going to do nothing less than his best.

He remembered his fathers words one of the days long ago that seemed like he was forty instead of twentyish. Son, if anything. Do your best and never stop, once you gain momentum its hard to pick it back up again. Pick and choose what you do best at, some things just aren't worth it, but those that are. They are worth the world to you. He spoke up again with a grin, " I was born in Kanama, that little mining city. I worked with my father as a miner in the coal mines from when I could walk until I left the city, beyond that I studied at school and studied alchemy when I was there."

He went straight into the serious details rather than her extremely lighthearted ones, it was obvious that while he appreciated her humor he felt he needed to get some things off of his chest. Things he had been holding on alone for far too long. He chuckled again and replied to her question setting his ''seeing eyeballs'' down letting them sling on his chest. " Well, I was studying the wall itself and the terrain around it. Also how the weather was affecting the wall."

[Reila Tsukino]

"Hahaha," Reila laughed at the mention of him finding her favorite food. Man, strawberries were so rare weren't they?! The silver-haired man would have a lot of trouble, she was sure. But this was also Mura, he would have trouble because he would over do it and find the most amazing strawberries not just in Amestris, but in the world. She shuddered at the thought..not because it was cold or anything. God...to taste the best strawberries... Her mouth watered and she swallowed quickly. "What, are you going to bring back like purple strawberries or something? 'Best in the galaxy!!'" Her imitation of Mura wasn't exactly up to par, but it was enough to make her crack up at the sound of her own voice. She sounded nothing like him... Now she just wanted to drown herself in the snow. She blushed and looked at the giant wall. I-it was a nice wall... heh heh

Mura had to think she was crazy now so she shut up and listened to him talk about his hometown. A small smile slid onto her lips without her realizing it. He...looked so happy. Was he remembering a memory? For some reason, although he jumped right into the serious details, she really wanted to tell him. She also wanted to go to Kanama. But before that...maybe she should tell him? Dai...she hadn't even told him. No one knew. Maybe this was her first step in acceptance... Maybe after this, she could forget the pain knowing that Mura knew. "Kanama...sounds like work," she laughed, grinning from ear to ear, "I'd like to go someday...I really want to travel more!" A soft silence hovered over the dusting of snowflakes and wind. "Uhm..." She turned her eyes from where she was looking and into his violet eyes. Hers breathing like golden flakes running under cold river water. She smiled. "I know you know that I was born in Aerugo, but... my father was the emperor. When I was five, I was left to die," she laughed bitterly, "clearly, I didn't. But you know...I'm glad. ...since I got to meet everyone."

[EXIT TOPIC]

[Murazar Dauthi]

Murazar grinned at the poor imitation of his voice and spoke up himself deciding for once to make a goof out of himself. So he struck a funny pose over the cliffside and spoke, "I shall go to a galaxy far far away and use the force to bring the best from the entire galaxy!" He really felt embarressed, he didn't know why he joked like that. Not even in the least, it just felt right although embarressing despite that. He gave a shy smile as if he couldn't help going along with her joke. Other than that, he was serious. He was going to bring the best, in the best condition, as quick as possible, prepared the best way, and make it as ridiculously perfect as possible.

His grin changed quickly to a sad smile, Kanama...I dont want to return. I'm not ready to do so, not for a long time. Its just too much for me to go back and accept it all. He didn't reply, once he heard a secret he never thought was going to be what he would hear he saw her face, that lovely cheerful face that brought warmth to his heart and he just walked over and hugged her. He didn't want her to cry, to be sad or unhappy. He had always really wanted the best for her, but could never tell her that. He never had the chance for his feelings to come to light, now he couldn't hide too much longer. He spoke ever so softly, as if a big teddy bear trying to comfort her despite him not being tall and only muscular. " Its alright, theres still all of us here to help you. You'll never be alone, not while i'm here at least." He held onto her a few moments more before suggesting they return to briggs and send some others out to do the recon work.

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