Carly caught sight of Yurika approaching and stood up to meet her head on. The two stood and faced each other, sizing each other up in real life now instead of just the simulator. Carly was wearing a cute blue summer dress, her legs exposed and the low cut top showed off her best weapons, her set of giant… platform heels made her over 5 centimeters taller, but she still barely reached Yurika's chest.
Yurika on the other hand, was wearing her standard jumpsuit since they had left in a hurry… While she had a nearly perfect figure, which she obviously had used the earlier player creation tools to create, she still looked a little lacking compared to Carly right now. Yurika's eyes twitched a little when she looked at Carly's best assets, but knowing it wasn't good to show weakness, she quickly averted her gaze and met Carly's eyes.
"Oh? We meet again! What are you doing here?" Carly said trying to sound nice.
"Oh! Nothing much! Just here for my husband!" Yurika said trying to sound nice but coming off scornfully.
"Which husband is that?" Carly said feigning ignorance.
Gray thought he could see two raging fires colliding, one coming from Yurika, the other from Carly. Major Valen looked down and shook his head, Verona seemed to be enjoying the show, Beth looked on in amazement, and Geoff looked on in envy as he wished girls would fight over him. Stacia was nowhere to be found at the moment so Gray was worried what Yurika did to her.
Gray started to say "Ummm, Yurika, what happened to Sta_"
"SILENCE DOG! Your master is talking!" Yurika said momentarily turning her anger towards Gray.
"Be quiet bug! Women are talking here!" Carly added also turning her anger to Gray a little.
Both women noticed the other get mad at Gray and felt their tension towards each other drop a lot.
Yurika cast a sideways glance at Carly and said "Gray's the worst right? Never honest with his feelings!"
"Totally! Do you know how many hints I've dropped and still nothing?!?" Carly said while smiling back deviously at Yurika.
"Same here! It's like he's waiting for a written invitation!"
"I actually tried that, still didn't work!"
"Really?!? Let's kick Gray out of this thing then and go find two other REAL men to join then!"
Gray was glad that they were no longer fighting, but now it turned into an even worse subject for him.
At this point Yurika pulled up a chair and sat at the end of table between Carly and Gray, they were now taking turns bashing Gray.
"When Gray feels good, he turns very cocky!" Yurika complained
"Really? I haven't seen that yet! He takes FOREVER to make mundane decisions!" Carly lamented
"Yeah, I mean when he is our leader he has it when it matters usually, but if you ask him what he wants for dinner he'll ask what you're in the mood for instead of making his own decision!"
"Indeed, at work Gray was super nice to everyone, he would end up doing more work than anyone else on his team sometimes because he let others walk all over him." Verona suddenly chimed in.
"What the heck! Was this a three-sided assault now?!?" Gray wanted to leave now that Verona had even joined in on picking on him.
"Have you heard the music he listens too? It's all old stuff!" Carly said while laughing.
"Yes, it is, he would put headphones on at work, but we could still hear it when walking by his desk, also caught him falling asleep at his desk since he would stay up late about playing games AND brag about it!" Verona added.
"He also put his jumpsuit on backwards, twice..." A fourth voice sounded, Stacia was now standing behind Yurika and decided to add more fuel to the fire.
At this point Geoff and Beth were on the verge of tears from holding back their laughter.
Suddenly Major Valen chimed in and said "I had to hit that clown over the head with a clipboard when he asked about the freaking airspeed of unladen Swallows during our introduction."
The group went silent as they were not expecting Major Valen to join in, but suddenly all of them burst out laughing even harder while Gray's spirit seemed to have left his body as he sat there dazedly and just took the verbal abuse.
Verona looked at Major Valen and gave him a curious glance. "Gene, I thought you said you didn't know Gray?"
It was now Gray's turn to kick Major Valen, but the man had shins that felt like Gray was kicking a steel beam. "I never said I didn't know him, he said he was unfamiliar with me. Gray here has never seen me out of uniform so it is possible he wouldn't recognize me."
Gray was amazed at Major Valen's composure since he not only managed to dodge Verona's catch but also redirect it at Gray himself.
"So then, Gene, how old are you if you don't mind me asking, you have to be a lot older than us, right?" Geoff had to ask since he really couldn't tell.
Major Valen's eyebrow twitched with annoyance as he said "Age is merely a representation of how others perceive you. No matter how long or short your life, all lives are equal and capable of great things!"
Geoff stared at Major Valen while slightly annoyed since he dodged the question and also turned it around to make himself sound eloquent. "In other words, you're really old!"
Major Valen pulled a clipboard out of somewhere and smashed it over Geoff's head. "Boy, every year older I am than you is one more year I've had to become a better man, don't be so anxious to compare yourself to me!"
Nobody felt sorry for Geoff and even Beth whispered to him "You brought that upon yourself!"
__________
What started as a mixer turned into a group bashing of Gray but then later turned into a friendly gathering. Gray, Geoff, Stacia, and Yurika were all surprised to see how normal Major Valen could be. His demeanor was still very overbearing, but it wasn't obnoxious like Carly's. Surprisingly Verona started to talk to him more after he warmed up to everyone.
Before anyone knew it, the bar was making a last call for drinks. At this point Carly and Yurika were extremely friendly, or maybe just a little drunk, but they each had an arm around the other's shoulder.
Yurika looked at Gray and then said "It looks like Gray doesn't like to drink either" followed by a cute hiccup.
Carly nodded in agreement "At least you got... someone to drive... you home..." Carly said slurred before burping softly.
Beth looked at Carly and said "Hey, I'm perfectly sober!"
"Yeah, but aren't you gonna... you know... with him...?" Carly said while eyeing Geoff
Geoff's expression perked up excitedly while Beth's face turned bright red before she yelled "Of course not! I have at least a 3 date minimum!" before she sat back down silently and not daring to look at anyone directly after embarrassing herself by saying that.
Both Verona and Major Valen had drank a bit, but they seemed to hold it surprisingly well, Verona got up then and said "Well, I should get back to my base and log off for the night... I feel like I'm actually here with you all, we must do this again sometime! Gray, come say Hello if you find yourself back at Alterra Corporation."
As Verona got up, Major Valen said "I'll get this, I haven't had such a good time in ages!" then he pulled out a charge card and handed it to their waiter.
Verona walked by and brushed Major Valen's sleeve and said playfully "Kids need their rest, but adults have more fun, right Gene?"
Major Valen swallowed and said "Of course! With age comes wisdom that allows us to better utilize our time!"
"You mean your short time left on Earth, right old man?" Gray said mockingly.
Gray realized he said this on instinct and realized he was about to get a clipboard to his head so he dodged away from Major Valen without even waiting for him to strike.
Major Valen just smiled at Gray and said "And with age comes patience, the patience to wait for the right time to strike..."
Verona laughed and then tugged Major Valen's sleeve "Come on, let's leave these kids alone! I am not safe for driving so you can take me back to my quarters, right Gene?"
Gray could not believe what he was seeing! Was Major Valen going to get lucky, and with Verona none the less! Gray felt pain just even considering that possibility.
Major Valen stumbled accidentally when getting up and left with Verona, leaving the others slightly shocked.
"Well, good for them!" Carly finally proclaimed.
"Yes! Let's consider this mixer a success!" Yurika said
"We weren't even invited..." Stacia admitted.
"The more the merrier, right sister!" Yurika said happily
"Yes! The more the merrier sister!" Carly said while her and Yurika laughed loudly together.
Alcohol seemed to bring these two together even closer.
Yurika noticed Gray staring at both her and Carly while he was making a goofy expression and said perturbed "Hey! Dog face! You're not thinking you can have both of us are you?"
Yurika seemed to be an angry drunk Gray lamented. "Ummm, n-no... I was just admiring how close you two have become..."
"Yeah! Hey! Sister! I don't think Gray is good enough for either of us and definitely not both of us!" Carly stated.
Yurika hiccuped loudly and replied "Yessss, we don't need him." Yurika smiled at Carly directly and started to wobble a little bit. Apparently Yurika was starting to get woozy from the alcohol. She tilted to one side and Carly tried to pull her back and ended up using her ridiculous strength to pull Yurika back to far and against her, Yurika for some reason kissed Carly when she was pulled back up.
"See?" Yurika hiccuped loudly again "We don't need men!" Yurika leaned in to kiss Carly again which actually made Carly surprisingly flustered, then Yurika's head landed on Carly's shoulder and she passed out drunk.
"So... let's call it a night shall we?" Carly said acting timid for the first time that Gray had ever witnessed.
"I am ok to drive too, I didn't drink." Geoff proclaimed.
"Can you take me back with you then?" Stacia asked, realizing her mistake by asking that in front of Beth she said added hurriedly "We're stationed at the same base and on the same team! That's all there is!"
"Oh, I know, Geoff mentions you guys all of the time, I'm just worried about him taking advantage of you after you had a few drinks."
"I'll be fine" Stacia pulled a small bottle of mace from her pocket and then put it back after showing it to Beth and Geoff.
"You make it sound like you're expecting that I'll attack her!" Geoff said slightly depressed.
"We're just teasing you!" Beth smiled then kissed Geoff on the cheek. "Come on Carly, let's go back and log off for the night!"
"Coming! Gray! Take care of my sister there!" Carly stood up and picked up the sleeping Yurika easily and passed her to Gray.
"Aren't you worried I'm going to do something to her while she's passed out?" Gray said questioningly.
"Of course not... you may be indecisive, stubborn, and a dork, but you are also very trustworthy and one of the nicest guys I've ever met." Carly pulled a chair up next to him, stood on it, then kissed Gray's cheek. "Plus if you did I'd destroy whatever remains were left after she is through with you."
Gray thought to himself "I am lucky to have such nice friends"