Legend of Ransera

It felt like Reiner had finally just fallen asleep, when Kuno nudged him awake to start the day. As soon as his eyes fluttered open, his weary mind remembered why it was thus and tension collected at the pit of his stomach. The first time he'd tried to sleep last night, he'd failed because of guilt and worry over having ruined his friendship with thoughtlessness. The second time he'd tried to find slumber, it eluded him due to confused humiliation at having had an unexpected and very unwanted physical reaction to a bit of closeness during an intimate moment. But it was supposed to have been intimate without being erotic. Two brothers in arms... roommates and best friends who'd grown close enough to be vulnerable and share feelings with one another. It was that sort of bond you heard about in great war stories, and learned about in boot camp. But it wasn't something base or dirty, so why did he feel like this?

Kuno couldn't have handled it more gingerly or consolingly, for which Reiner was very grateful. Utterly embarrassed, he'd been relieved at the suggestion that they just try to sleep. He could hope Kuno was still halfway in the land of Nod and would forget this come daybreak, but that seemed a spurious dream. Who forgot a thing like that? It was so... Aberrant!

Even so, his roommate was the nurturing type and had not only gone out of his way to explain that it was a non-issue (which Reiner wasn't inclined to believe), but he even went as far as to nestle against him, rather than forsaking his touch. Reiner couldn't say he'd have done the same, if Kuno had exhibited some kind of deviant interest in him. He might have shot right out of the bed like a bullet. Not Kuno, though. He just snuggled on up and fell asleep, while Reiner was assaulted by battalions of fell thoughts. And just when they'd calmed enough to let him rest, now he and they were roused for an early day and an important task.

He rubbed his eyes, looking around as he sat up. Perhaps he'd been out longer than he realized, as Kuno was half-dressed already.

"Oh... did you shower?" His voice cracked several times with the formidable morning rasp he'd earned with his restlessness.

Reiner blinked and started at Kuno's volume and chipper attitude. This was a far cry from the man who'd woken him last night in a fit of sobs and sorrows. He wrinkled his nose with a groan and ran his hands through his dark hair, yawning.

Sitting up, he rolled his neck and shoulders, all of which cracked.

"Man, Kämpfer..." He rasped, taking the mug by the handle and cupping the bowl of it with his other hand as it was offered over, "You sure know how to treat a fella. If you were a woman, I'd make an honest one of ya..." He felt a pang of weirdness, making one of his frequent allusions to their resemblance of a newlywed couple after everything that had transpired the prior night. From Kuno's concerns about Renata, up through Reiner's unfortunate mishap, it seemed a rather delicate topic, after a fashion. But in a way, the private was subtly making an excuse for and to himself. By feminizing Kuno as a wifely figure, he could better get his head around the confusion of the prior evening. After all, it had been very late after a long stressful day that had begun early. He'd just been woken abruptly a few minutes before, and surely part of his mind was still in the realm of dreams where strange and fanciful connections were often forged. He'd just had a smooth, long lithe body in his arms, and looking down at Kuno's back, Reiner had noticed some of his characteristics that might be described as feminine and, besides... The private may have suggested the lieutenant was pent up from having bunked in such close quarters with him, but that implication worked both ways. Reiner hadn't come up with that supposition out of thin air, it had been a problem for him as well. He was a twenty two year old boy, and he'd been abstaining for a wildly unnatural span of time for someone of his hormone count.

After taking a few, fortifying sips of the coffee he mustered the might (though, in truth not the will,) to rise to his bare feet. He placed his mug down on the night stand and undressed for his shower. He was grateful for the hot water and, as was ever the case during this unasked for chaste period, he strained at the task of washing his nethers, but he did not indulge in an attempt to tend to the matter while Kuno was so close at hand. Reiner was much too shy about such things and, after last night's incident, he would have been all in his head about whether the lieutenant could tell what he was doing and suspect it was about him. Surely that would have been a bridge too far, even if the thoughts of that long, smooth back and the tender kiss to his neck were enough to rouse him again.

"Fuck!" The word was a hissed whisper, but it would be the only aberrant sound Kuno might glean over the sound of the pattering water and scrubbing soap.

He finished up, dried off and dressed in the new uniform- coming and slicking down his hair with pomade, which then went into the duffel for the journey.

"Alright, boss. Ready when you are."

Reiner wasn't sure he'd ever seen Kuno in such high spirits. It was odd, after the evening they'd had. At first he didn't understand it, but somewhere along the line he decided that the lieutenant was putting on an act for his benefit. He became certain this was all an exaggerated show of comfort, in spite of Reiner's little lapse. There were moments when he wondered whether it wasn't mocking, or whether it might betoken some sort of comeuppance later, but he preferred to think it was intended as a kindness. Even if the whole ordeal did lend to Reiner the notion that Kuno wasn't a very good actor.

Once his mock-inspection was complete, he gathered up his things and headed out the door and down the steps. Part of him wanted to address last night's events. He knew he'd have to at some point, but with Kuno being so free and easy and Reiner feeling so anxious about the whole thing, he figured he could let it lie. It was probably wiser to broach it when they weren't in public anyway, just in case things went awry.

Upon reaching the Noble Gambit, Reiner was finally able to get out of his head a little to take in a view of the vessel. It was kind of a dream come true to be heading onto a real airship. The spartan, military transports and the little yachts-cum-ferries didn't count. This was the sort of ship he'd imagined himself captaining when he'd been a boy.

He was drawn from his reverie by the appearance of the captain, and he saluted sharply a split second after Kuno did. If the crew was bemused and uncomfortable by the strangeness of Reiner's role, the private himself was tenfold disconcerted. He was singled out, set apart, and... in the scheme of things, not very important in his own estimation. He just represented people who were important and was accorded privilege for that incidental circumstance.

Being quickly put back into his bashful box, Reiner was more than happy to let Kuno lead them through the ship. He would be friendly if he was introduced around, but he wouldn't seek out new connections independently. He wasn't a morning person at the best of times, and now that he was in this weird position he wasn't feeling particularly social.

It was something of a relief to find himself back in a more private setting so soon. He unshouldered his bag, and let it tumble to the floor near the other chest.

"I don't mind your feet," He wrinkled his nose, "Sorry 'bout the blankets, though. Only child problems." He bit his lip,

"So... are we supposed to do anything before takeoff, or what?" He sat down on the edge of his bunk, with a weary sigh, rubbing his eyes which were still disinclined to remain open, even after coffee and cold air.

"Huh? Oh..." Reiner visibly blushed, embarrassed at his little blunder as he crouched to collect his duffel and put it properly into the chest as Kuno had.

"Ugh, I'm not little, you're just tall!" There was clearly a bit of actual irritation mixed in with the verbal sparring, but it just made Reiner push the envelope a bit farther in his retort:

"...Probably a little Avialae in your background... Come to think of it, I did notice some little feathers sprouting at your shoulder blades, when I saw your bare back last night."

When Kuno got down to business, Reiner sat upright and nodded firmly, as if a switch flipped from flippant to formal.

"Aye, aye!" The formal fell away quickly, "...Did I say that right?" But returned straight away. "That makes sense. Do you know how long we have until take-off? Oh..." It seemed just as soon as Kuno uttered his answer, the whole ship broadcast its impending departure. Reiner scooted over to the edge of the bed, and held onto on of the poles that kept it in place. Once the clangor dwindled enough, he decided to hazard addressing the elephant that had followed them from their usual room to their current.

"Lieutenant, er... Kuno, do you think we have time to talk? About last night?" He bit his lip and glanced to the floor between them. "I really appreciate you acting like everything's hunky dory, but I feel like I've got some stuff to get off my chest, still? Just to kind of, uhhh... Clarify some things I think I've figured out about what happened. But... we don't hafta talk about any of this if it makes you uncomfortable. I'm just trying to save face or, uh... I guess reclaim the face I lost? I... don't want you to think I'm a weirdo."

At being informed they weren't living in pirate pulp, Reiner sighed exaggeratedly.

"A boy can dream, can't he, matey?"

The private tightened his grip on the beam in his arms as the ship actually started to move. As if things hadn't felt odd enough to eyes that hadn't been shut in sleep for long enough, now the more steady approximation of 'terra firma' that represented the islands gave way to the groan, quake and wobble of a smaller vessel quitting its berth.

"No, not the nightmares the-... Yeah." Good, he got it. He was glad it didn't need to be spoken aloud, though he didn't love the way Kuno gestured to his junk.

Reiner sort of scoffed at the cross-examination,

"I mean, I guess, probably..." He'd have scratched the back of his neck if he weren't clinging to a metal bar so, instead, he pressed his face against the cool steel. It felt kind of nice against his cheek. "But no one ever noticed or nothin'. Man, when I was like seventeen? Just wearing the wrong underwear would make me want to hump my desk in history class, but I just..." As the lieutenant leaned forward, Reiner paused to let him say his piece. He reluctantly drew his face from the cool beam, so he was more lined up with Kuno. He no longer felt like he was going to slide across the room if he wasn't holding on for dear life, so he just let his right hand grip the beam so the rest of his body could sit more toward the middle of the bunk.

"Ah... Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't think of that." He felt really, genuinely consoled for the first time. "And I just... also wanted to say that... Well, you know last night when I was talking about thinkin' maybe you were all pent up? I may have been, uhh... projecting a bit. It's been a while since I've had someplace to myself, so I haven't really... Y'know. Gone to a staff meeting?" He cracked a crooked, awkward smile that seemed as embarrassed about the pun as the situation that had given it rise.

"So, I think I'm just a little more sensitive than usual, and uh..." He chuckled and now he did scratch the back of his neck, since he had a free hand. "You probably didn't even notice this, but you whispered something last night real close to my neck and you kinda kissed it a little?" He forced a laugh, "Man, when you haven't had relief in two whole weeks, your body is ready and rarin', so... Yeah." He chuckled, "Maybe at some point tonight you can go for a stroll on the deck and give me, I dunno... half an hour in here? Eh, who am I kidding? After two weeks? Gimme three minutes and two of 'em will be clean up."