The Spoils (D3 EN Mei's Room) Expecting

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I'm not sure I can handle doing it every day, I get a pretty good work out with you daily already and I can only be so sore before I can't pilot my mech. I'm gonna try and get that picture though."

[John Slaktare]

"Good luck. I ain't trying to avoid it, my body just wakes up like that."

"So, what's your parents names?"

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"My dad is Chung and my mothers name is Yu, they've been together for 27 years now. Here let me show you some pics."

She whipped out her vidphone and played with it for a moment then passed it to John.

"Here, go ahead and flip through."

The picture showed a Capellan couple in their early 50s. Both had big warm smiles though they were posed formally. The man sat in a heavily padded wheelchair, nice blankets draped over it and his lap to make it look like a chair. Heavy burn scars showed on his right hand and ran up his wrist under the cuff of a long sleeved shirt. The woman stood to his right, one hand placed on his shoulder the other across her waist. Though they both appeared richly dressed the house they stood in suggested these were the nicest clothes they owned.

If Butcher flipped through the album he would see an out of order time lapse of Mei's childhood. A couple dozen pictures of her at various ages with her parents, childhood friends and several with a burly man of Russian descent. The final image was her at around 19 in a military dress style uniform laughing with a bunch of other young people in uniform.

[John Slaktare]

He flips through the pictures in the phone and is very quiet as he does so. It wasn't the first time he's flipped through someone's album seeing childhood memories. But it wasn't any easier than every other time. A little bit of anger, a little bit of sadness, and a whole lot of numbness fighting to swallow the other two.

"It's a nice family you got. Lots of friends too, looks like," he hands the phone back. "We're go together well in so many ways, but we really had completely different lives. Don't think they coulda been any different as kids."

Butcher interlaces the fingers on their left hands, while drawing shapes on her wrists and forearm with his right.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei leaned down and kissed the top of head.

"I'm sorry you don't have great memories from back then, I wish you did but we are gonna build a ton of great memories. We already have, think of the story of how we met. A nervous fan-girl approaching her hero, a long conversation as dropships burn though atmosphere in the background. A cheeky contest with a cheekier attempt to cheat that leads to a night of passion and sharing? Not a bad story."

[John Slaktare]

"Yeah, you're definitely giving me some good memories," he agrees. "And that's much better than I'm used to."

Butcher looks up into her eyes. "Seeing your smile brings me just a little closer to feeling that too I think."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"I can see it, I can see it growing in your eyes and it makes me even happier. I see a lot in your eyes and I love everything I see because in all of it I see us."

She kissed him again, then his neck and nibbled on his ear a little.

"You know, the nice thing about having a room at the end of the hall is that I only have one neighbor. In my case it's Turtle. He has these really expensive headphones he plays his games with. Noise cancelling."

[John Slaktare]

"That only makes a difference for the neighbors. Not like I actually care if anyone hears or knows," he replied, running fingers through her hair at her touch.

"Are you trying to say you're getting frustrated waiting on me?" John asks, teasing a bit.

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Not at all, I'm not great at waiting but it's easier with you.

So did you hack anything to bits today? Tell me about the fight, tell me a story John."

[John Slaktare]

"No hacking. Had a Goblin and a Bulldog. Plus two towers with AC/5 battery turrets. Took more damage than expected cause the turret generator was in a harder position to get to than expected."

"Magician and I kicked the crap out of the Goblin. We all worked together to drop the Bulldog and towers under a hail of fire. Winkey's Blackjack lost an arm to the Bulldog so his mech will be out for a while.the rest weren't too rough but the armor took a heavy beating."

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

"Oof that's rough, poor Winkey. All we had to deal with was four tanks but you would think we were rookies based on the combat report. Hoops didn't hit a single thing, Turtle took a nasty engine hit and overheated badly so he's gonna be down for a few days, I got my torso armor shredded but no major damage. Pickle is the big hero of the day from our lance and he hasn't stopped talking about it probably even now. I think we are going to need some serious time in the simulator because it just felt sloppy."

[John Slaktare]

"It was the first combat engagement y'all have had for some time. Feeling sloppy is normal. My lance felt that way a bit too, but it was a decent finish," John says.

"But speaking of things getting wrecked and nice finishes. You ain't patient, but I'm just torturing myself at this point. Especially with you in that sweater. Anything you can do to save me?"

[Mei-Ling Zhou]

Mei lifted the bottom of the sweater and pulled it over his head plunging him into soft darkness.

"Torture is crime so I'm gonna need to save you and punish you at the same time."

She pulled the sweater of his head and then all the way off, throwing it in the corner.

"Let me show you how."

/ftb?

[John Slaktare]

"Please do, queen," he replies as he joins Mei-Ling for some after battle celebration of life.

/ftb