Jay struggled and squirmed as he tried to free himself from her grasp. He held onto Myse's hand and tried to pry himself out of her grip but to no avail.
"Hueeeehh?!!" they heard a shriek from behind them. Jay stopped struggling and slowly turned his head to look at the source. "Hmm?" Even Commander Myse tilted her body to look past Jay and find out who intruded on their moment.
"You?" Jay managed to forget the situation he was in and looked at the secretary he met earlier in bewilderment. "Who the hell are you?" Myse rudely asked her.
"I- I'm- I'm Rina Fletcher ma'am! I was transferred from Division White today and was assigned to be your secretary. I will be in your care!" she bowed from the waist as she introduced herself.
"Oh..."
"I see..."
Jay and Myse looked at her in astonishment and surprise before looking at each other. A strange and awkward tension hung in the air around the three of them that Sentinels and passing staff gave them strange looks.
"You can go to the dorms and pick a room to get settled there. You can move your stuff there tomorrow. Just keep up with me and you'll be fine. I'll see you in the morning." Myse gave Rina a very brief run down before sending her off her way.
"Yes ma'am!" she bowed once more before hastily walking off to find the dorms. Jay followed her with his eyes but suddenly remembered that he wasn't out of trouble yet. He again felt cold sweat on running down his back as he turned to look at Myse once more.
Myse gave him an intense glare, causing him to gulp, before she lost interest in him and promptly dropped him to the ground on his knees. "Don't be late next time. Get inside." and with those words, she turned and walked back to her table.
Jay picked himself back up and smoothed out his wrinkled uniform as best he could. He wiped off the sweat from his forehead and sighed in relief as he considered himself lucky that Rina showed up. Otherwise, he would definitely have received more than an earful of scolding from her.
He entered the room and closed the door behind him then walked in front of her desk. He then stood at attention as he officially reported to Commander Myse.
"Knight Candidate First Lieutenant Jason Lindsay reporting ma'am!" Jay performed a snappy salute.
"Mmm." Myse nodded as she sat on the edge of her table. "At ease lieutenant."
"Thank you ma'am."
"I'm sure Frank already told you something about an assignment for you." Myse said.
"A bit. He didn't tell me the specifics but I knew it was important ma'am." Jay replied.
"Good. I'm going to have to disappoint you though. The thing is, we still don't have word of what your assignment is. All you need to know is that you were chosen."
"Understood ma'am." Jay nodded tersely. He let his eyes wander around the room as he waited for Commander Myse to continue speaking. The room itself wasn't large yet it was very spacious, mostly due to the lack of furniture and Myse's personal belongings. Other than the table, the only furniture in the room were three wooden chairs and a shelf in the corner filled with books Jay didn't know the name of.
A single fluorescent light buzzed as it shone overhead, the air conditioner hummed as it provided ventilation and coolness to the room. Myse's office looked so plain and simple that Jay wondered if they were even in the right room.
"Just stay on your toes. You might get called in for the assignment anytime. Moving on, I actually called you here to speak to you about something else." Myse said while looking up the ceiling, she looked up very intensely as if she was able to see through 20 feet of steel and concrete and gaze at the night sky above.
"What is it ma'am?" Jay asked as he straightened his back and visibly tensed as he awaited her reply.
"How have you been?" Myse gently asked she looked at Jay warmly. The sudden 180° change in her attitude caught him off guard that his mind failed to immediately come up with a response, his mouth opened and closed as if he was a fish gasping for oxygen. "Huh?!"
Myse's intimidating aura was suddenly replaced by a warm and gentle one, as if the existence of the former was all imagined by Jay.
"I am no longer your commander tonight. I'm just Myse right now."
She put a hand over her mouth as she giggled at Jay's reaction. "Now don't be like that, it's been 2 years since I last saw you after all."
Myse stopped laughing and hopped off the table to walk up to Jay. She smiled as she patted him on the head and ruffled his brown hair before sauntering off towards the bookshelf.
"You know, when she found you out there 12 years ago, she always believed you were special. She took pride in the fact that she felt like she was meant to find you." Myse had a wistful expression on her face as she ran her finger through a line books.
"We didn't want you joining the Divisions back then because we wanted you to live a normal life. Who could have thought you would actually sneaked off to a training camp." Myse chuckled as she undid her bun and let her blood-red hair cascade freely down her back.
"And it was Division Black's top secret training facility no less! It was surprising you made it inside without detection but when they actually let you join the training when you were found out, it was nothing short of a miracle." Myse looked at him playfully. "How did you even do that?"
Jay could only smile at her inquiry because no one knew better than him that how that happened was entirely from a series of misunderstandings and total coincidences. It was true that he wanted to join a Division but as to how he ended up in Division Black's training facility, Jay could only shudder at the memory.
"Why the sudden trip down memory lane? I mean, it was nice catching up with you ma'am, but why now of all times?" Jay blurted out the questions in his mind.
Myse sighed and the warm aura she was emitting suddenly turned frigid, that Jay fought the urge to shudder. "This might be the last time we get to see each other..." she whispered.
"So that's why I wanted to talk to you before I leave!" She beamed as she regained her warm personality.
"What are you still standing around for? Take a seat dummy! Let's talk just like old times." Myse pointed at a chair and gestured for Jay to sit.
Jay finally relaxed and showed a rare smile as he grabbed a chair. After 2 years of separation, he would finally be able to have a normal conversation with her. He threw all his questions to back of his mind and enjoyed the moment for now. "R-Right..."
The two of them spent quite a while catching up with each other while talking mostly about nothing. It was rare to see Myse like this, smiling happily while talking casually, so Jay decided to let her be and went along with her as she chatted with him like there was no tomorrow.
Myse looked at her wristwatch and clicked her tongue in annoyance as she saw the time. "Looks like it got quite late."
Jay was also surprised that time just flew by while they were talking. His stomach then grumbled in protest for the lack of food and Jay placed a hand over it in a futile attempt to cover up the sound. Myse chuckled at him and tossed him a set of keys that she took out from her pocket.
He caught it with his hands and looked at Myse in confusion. "You can stay in my room for tonight. It may not be much but there are some instant ramen there, you could help yourself to some of them." Myse waved her hand dismissively as she went back to sit behind her table.
Jay was about to object but Myse gave no room for negotiation. "Don't worry, I don't really sleep there anyway. And didn't you use to live there with us? I'm sure it's fine. You already know how to get there right?"
I was 9! Jay considered retorting but in the end, he just sighed at how unreasonable Myse is. "Yes ma'am. Thank you for your hospitality." Jay saluted and walked out the room.
Myse waited until she could no longer sense Jay's presence nearby before she suddenly stood and threw her table against the wall. The table broke into pieces from the impact but Myse still wasn't satisfied. She also threw the chair she was sitting on, letting it meet the same fate as the table, then shrieked in frustration. "Why did it have to be him?" she whimpered as she dropped to her knees and sobbed. "Damn it! Damn it all!"
Jay walked out the doors of the main building and inhaled the cold evening air as he strolled through the compound. He admired the flowering bushes planted beside the sidewalk and watched the leaves of the pine trees planted in the lane dividers sway from the evening breeze.
Despite it being called a compound, it was more like a mini city. There were establishments like bars and restaurants inside its walls and there's even a small shopping center. Jay had passed by that sector on the way to the headquarters building. He made a mental note to go there in the morning as he continued to walk the familiar pathways to the staff's residential area.
He passed by multiple housing units for important staff with families before he finally made it to Myse's apartment complex. He climbed up the flights of stairs to the third floor and grabbed the set of keys from his pocket, letting them jingle around his palm as he made his way past the doors of other apartments before finally arriving in front of Myse's apartment door.
Jay spent a few minutes looking for the right key and then made his way inside the dark once he unlocked the door. His hands felt for the light switched beside the door and turned on the lights, squinting his eyes at the sudden change in brightness.
"I'm home!" he called out to no one in particular as he suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia, warm memories from years past flooded his mind.
He wiped off the dirt from the soles of his boots on the rug before he undid the laces and took off his boots along with his socks. Jay put his pistol belt away with his sidearm and sighed in relief as he finally got to take off his uniform, he placed them carefully on a hanger and left them by the door, leaving him with only his white undershirt and black shorts. His knives were still in their sheaths, strapped below his wrists and lower legs. He considered taking them off as well but decided not to just in case something happens.
His stomach once again grumbled to remind him that he was hungry. Jay chuckled at himself and began checking the kitchen cabinets to search for instant ramen.
After acquiring a couple of packets from Myse's stash, he set about preparing hot water and poured it into a bowl followed by the ramen. He sat at the small dining table as he waited for his meal to be ready and impatiently tapped his finger on the table to stave off the deafening silence.
The only sound in the apartment was the tapping of his finger on the table and the buzz of the fluorescent lights. Jay finally stopped tapping and stared at the ceiling. Although he was also the only one living in his own apartment, Myse's apartment somehow felt lonelier than his. It was mostly because he was accustomed to the fact that 3 people lived here that their absence was screaming at his face.
He loosened the straps securing the knives to his wrist and placed them on the table before doing the same to the ones on his lower leg.
"Weapons off the table! And Jay, don't ignore your food! Eat it before it's cold! Myse what have you been teaching him! I said weapons off the table! What are you going to do if he picks up that bad habit of yours?!" Jay could hear someone nagging from the depths of his memory.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I get it!" Myse groaned in annoyance.
"You better start acting like your age Myse. Jeez, no one's going to marry you like that," the person chuckled.
"As if I'd want to get married!" Myse protested.
"Yeah, right. I'd be laughing at you when that time comes. What about that Rayden huh? He seemed nice."
"No way! Well, he is handsome... But I'm not interested in him at all! We're just comrades okay?!"
"Then you wouldn't mind if I take him?"
"Go ahead! Like I care!"
"I'm just kidding! Why so serious? If you need help with him, I could always approach him as you."
"Ha! Like anyone would fall for that!"
"Oh, but it did. Plenty of times."
"What?!"
"Nothing, hurry up and finish eating. You're going to be late."
"Fiiiiine. This isn't over yet!"
"What the?! Is that a knife?! Did you give him a knife Myse?!"
"Nope! He must have picked that up from my loadout. Just let him play with it for a while." Myse spoke between mouthfuls.
"Are you hearing yourself right now?! And stop talking while you're eating! Jay, put the knife away. Hurry up and eat your food and I'll teach you how to properly use a knife later, okay?"
"Yes ma'am..." Jay smiled to himself as tears fell from his eyes. He picked up his fork and began to eat his meal in total silence.