Solitary Seventeen

Solitary Seventeen (part 1)
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Manga-verse Appleseed fiction (Pre-Briareos cyberization, LAPD era)
All characters are property of Masamune Shirow. This is a fan work written purely for the fun of it! Go buy the manga!

The video conference request popped up on her computer a week before her birthday. Deunan blinked as the unexpected email message came in, putting homework aside to quickly follow the instructions and setup the up-link client. A countdown timer in the new program window made her swear loudly and dive through the drawer full of random junk and accessories that she never used. Behind the carton of pens and random coils of cable, her questing fingers finally located the missing attachment. She blew dust off the mini camera and spent precious seconds deciphering how to plug it into the PC and turn it on. A full minute to spare and Deunan was fiddling with the focus. Staring at her own image, ready for broadcast, she realized her hair was still sticking out in all directions from the obstacle course drills she had run after dinner.

Pressing the wild locks of hair flat against her skull did nothing to quell them from popping up again. Deunan swore louder and dove for her bathroom. The closet like cubicle was large enough for the shower, sink, john, and a human being, but only just. Thankfully she had cleaned it for the dorm manager’s inspection the day before, so everything was _mostly_ where it was supposed to be. Her brush had slipped down behind the towel rack and was wedged half under the sink.

“God damn it!” If she’d cultivated long nails, she would have broken one pulling the offending article free, but any claws she had were kept short enough to not interfere with the climbing walls. Still, smacking her fingers against the tile stung like hell. She shook the aching hand while rigorously brushing her hair with the other. What with trying to do both and cross the room at the same time, she was lucky when the worst thing that happened was that she stubbed her toe sharply on the corner of the bed. “Gah!”

Vanity was forgotten in favor of the sudden pain. Dropping the brush on the mattress, she bent to catch her bruised foot, squeezing her toes to try and relieve some of the fierce ache. It wasn’t fair. She gritted her teeth and checked herself to make sure nothing was stupidly sprained. Out on the obstacle courses she could manage as well as anyone, on the dance floor she could even pass for graceful occasionally. So why was it tonight-of-all-nights that she couldn’t navigate her own room for five seconds without maiming herself?

“Deunan?” The crackle of the poor audio didn’t stop her from recognizing her boyfriend’s voice. Gasping and hopping to her feet she forced herself to walk off the pain. Briareos’ face peered at her from the tiny video window in her browser, the officer clearly puzzled by the empty chair receiving his call. “Hello?” He whistled into the mike, as if she was some sort of wayward puppy.

“Hang on a minute, will ya?” She hobbled over to the wall-switch and banged it with her elbow on her way back to the desk, adding some much needed light to the room. Settling into her chair with a pained sigh, she adjusted the camera one last time so that he could see her better. “And don’t whistle. I’m not a dog.”

It was funny to watch his expression as the streaming data lagged and caught up. From puzzled to amused, the big man’s face lit up with a rare grin as he took in her aggrieved expression. “Hey there, girlie. You’re looking bent out of shape.”

“Stubbed my frickin’ toe.” She couldn’t help but grin in return. “I’ll be alright.”

Maximizing the window as large as it would go, she studied his face intently. He looked tired, and filthy, but otherwise unhurt. After two weeks of nothing better than his absurdly short emails, she found she really missed hearing his voice. “What’s up, handsome? You weren’t supposed to get a rotation on the phone for like, another week, much less the video phone… You miss me that bad?” Deunan smirked.

“Maybe I did.” Briareos smiled briefly, glancing off-camera a moment before turning back to her. “Someone owed me a favor, so I thought I’d grab the chance and call you, wish you a happy birthday.”

It was hard to tell sometimes when the dark skinned soldier was being a tease or not, but either way meant much the same thing. He had been thinking about her. She crossed her ankles and suppressed a smile, feeling incredibly happy but also lonely at the same time. “It’s not until next Saturday, old man. You going senile without me there to remind you?”

“Nah. But who knows where I’ll be in a week.” Briareos shrugged. “Probably out in the dunes with the local boys, trying to show them which end of the gun should point towards the terrorists. I thought I’d take the opportunity to call you while I had it.”

“How’s the training going?” She asked, wondering if he was even allowed to answer. The data lines weren’t really encrypted, and even if they were, policy was usually to never talk shit about an ally nation, even for civilian contractors.

“Good. Good. They’re getting the hang of things.” His face belied his casual endorsement, eyebrows twisting in ironic understatement. There was something utterly kissable about the look, she decided. Then again, after two months without him, she would have kissed him whatever he looked like.

“Sounds like you’re having fun.” She drawled playfully, not digging further. “Rolling in the dirt too… Either that or this picture quality is worse than I thought.”

“No, I’m due a shower in short order.” Briareos agreed, tilting his head and running a hand through his short hair, shedding a cloud of grit and sand. “Windstorms have been on and off all week, I got the call that the phone was free just as I was coming off morning drills.”

“Sacrificing physical comfort just to talk to little ol’ me?” She laughed. “I’m touched.”

“Don’t I usually?” He replied archly.

“Hey now.” She scolded. “You’ve never had it as good as you do with me! Aren’t I every man’s dream? Nubile natural-blond nymphomaniac stands by her man even when he’s thousands of miles away! You’re _not_ going to get a better offer!”

“You may have a point.” He snorted and changed the topic, glancing sideways again, probably at whoever else was in the comm-shack with him. Deunan had the urge to ask him to put the other guy on, just so she could tell the stooge to take five and give them some real privacy. But that probably wasn’t allowed. She sighed and let him steer her onto a safer topic. “How are you doing anyway, keeping up with your classes without me there to browbeat you into studying?”

“3.1 for my midterm average.” She made a victory sign, “Not bad for a girl who hates memorizing laws that should have been stripped off the books decades ago!”

“Good!” Briareos smiled a genuine smile, probably relieved that she wasn’t failing. “Very good. And your athletics score? Your group is starting intermediate kendo by now, right?”

“Bri! Do you want me to email you my report card?” She growled.

He had the audacity to look like he was thinking about it. “Sure, for old time’s sake. Then I’ll know what to shout at you for when I get home.”

“Lame.” Deunan scolded playfully. “Some boyfriend you are. At least promise to spank me!”

Even with the shitty image quality, she could see his cringe of embarrassment before giving in and cracking up. He would no doubt scold her like crazy in his next email for making him blush in front of the IT punk managing the computers, but it was totally worth it to see him burst out laughing. Milking it for all it was worth, she purred into the mike. “I could _really_ use a good spanking when you come home, baby.”

“Deunan!” He rubbed his face with a dusty hand as he got a hold of himself. “You are the most outrageous woman alive, I swear. I have to hang up the phone and go knock some thick tribal-skulls together and turn them into something approximating a police force in a few minutes, you know. I do not need that mental image to distract me! If they could see into my head I’d be staked out in the sun to be eaten by ants or something.”

“Poor guy.” She leered into the camera. “That’s what you get for calling me at eleven at night. You know what I’m like after hours!”

“It’s seven thirty here, hot stuff. Bright and early.” He tapped the screen as if trying to poke her in the head for being an idiot. “Ah well, you’ll just have to be a good little hellcat and wait a few more weeks. I expect we’ll be done - one way or another - in a month or so.”

“You’ll make it up to me?” Deunan rested her chin on her folded arms, memorizing his face. It’d probably be about that long before she saw it again. “Loyalty like mine doesn’t come cheap, you know.”

“You planning to bankrupt me, girl?” Briareos raised a suspicious eyebrow. “I’ll make sure to hide my money in my socks before coming home.”

“What makes you think you’ll be paying in _money_?” She grinned up at him. “You owe me at least a long-weekend getaway. Someplace nice, outside the city, you hear? Up the coast to ‘Cisco or something. We’ll go once my term is over and you get your comp-time credit for this trip.”

He blinked at the unusual demand, relaxing his guard a little. She smirked, knowing he had been bracing for another blush worthy comment.

Briareos shrugged gamely, “I think I can manage that. You pick the destination. We’ll go.”

The dark man turned as someone off camera said something to him. Turning back he touched the screen apologetically, “I’ve got go, girl. It’s time for the next sad-sack in line here to phone his lady.”

“I know.” She smiled despite the urge to hold onto the connection as long as she could. There was something hopelessly old fashioned-but-sexy about the idea of being his ‘lady’. “Thanks for calling, and all.”

“Do me proud, Deunan. I’ll phone you next week if I can.”

“Be safe.” She replied to his usual sign-off with her own. “Miss you.”

The connection cut to static and then to the software’s idle screen as the call timed-out, leaving her alone in her room once again. She let her eyes drift closed, feeling a moment of decadent self-pity. All laughing aside, time seemed to slow when Briareos was away. The evenings were too quiet, and the weekends positively crawled along. Even before she turned sixteen and strong-armed him into dating her, his away-assignments had been a galling exercise in solitude. She sighed, accepting her fate. So much for hoping his current chore would be done early. From the sound of it he’d not only miss her birthday, but the rest of the summer as well. No chance for her to show off her new bikini, no motorcycle rides, no cuddling until the fall.

Deunan stretched her arms over her head, forcing the loneliness aside. She had plenty to keep busy with between training and hanging out with classmates. She’d ask some of the girls to go bargain shopping with her on her birthday to make up for the SWAT team being out in Arizona and Bri being out of reach. If she wasn’t going to see him until fall, the least she could do would be to beef up her casual wardrobe with something _really_ sexy for when he got back. Remind him why he was lucky to have her around. She chuckled, already plotting what their reunion would be like.

The stack of reading assignments rapidly cooled her mood. There would be no long weekend getaways if she was stuck doing remedial work because she couldn’t survive the damned rules & regs classes this term. Knowing Bri, he’d memorized city, state and federal ordinances within weeks of the ink drying on his work visa. She was supposedly a citizen, and she was amazed at half the statutes and policies she was obliged to enforce. Glancing at the clock, she resolved to read a few more pages before giving up for the night.

*****