Atlantic Rim // One-on-One // Closed

Cassie shot him a smile in return, one visibly softer than she ever showed anyone, before slipping out the door and past the mechanic before pausing to wait for the men. "Well, c'mon. How we got up there ain' near as cool as the fact that' we did."

Duncan followed her out of the door and down into the mess hall, where the leader-board was. It was a TV that spanned an entire wall, ranking each mech by public popularity. Sure enough, Alabama 11 had jumped from 21st to 9th.

"Gods be damned, look a' tha'!" Cassie said excitedly, grinning like a complete fool as she slapped Duncan's shoulderblade. Her height compared to his made her have to lift her arm a bit higher, but she didn't seem to give a shit.

Duncan smiled, but his excitement wasn't nearly as high. His attention was on Fusion, the team that they just got above. They were two huge Russian men, bigger than Duncan, with nasty tempers. They wouldn't take to kindly to getting bumped down by a pair of nobodies after one fight.

"Insane. Jus' one fight?" Cassie continued to ramble to herself, slipping in and out of Greek as she did. She didn't seem worried about just who they had passed. She almost never seemed worried, actually, but it was never any less surprising that she seemed in a constant state of slightly nihilistic optimism.

"How about we go see how beat up Al is?" Duncan asked Cassie, frowning slightly when the Fusion guys looked over at them. He had a feeling it wouldn't bode over well for the two of them if the Russians came over and pressed the issue.

"Oh shit, we definitely gotta go see how bad we got our asses kicked." Cassie agreed, blinking as her rambling came to a stop. After speaking so much Greek, the accent clung stronger to her words than it usually did. She nudged Duncan's arm, spinning on her heel. "Le's go make sure he ain' too bad."

"Yeah," he passed one last look at the Russians before following her out, chewing on his bottom lip. The last time he'd been this high on the list was with Rose….No. He shook his head aggressively. Do not think of that. You just calmed down.

"Ninth place. Damn." She continued, half to herself and half to Duncan. "See, now's the perfect time t' paint nails, your own or someone else's. You really should lemme paint yours. Navy blue and grey, maybe a lil' glitter."

"I will throw you through a wall if you come near me with nail polish, Private" he said, using her rank to annoy her.

"One, fuck you Sarge." Cassie said, making a face at him. "And two, gods, wha's your problem with nail polish? Y'know, I got my cellmate t' let me paint his nails once. Granted, he was asleep an' immediately stabbed me when he woke up, but tha's not the point."

"I think that's the exact point." They made their way into Big Al's hanger (like an airport hanger, but way taller.). He looked like shit. His wifi router was dent in about 20 different places, and he was covered in nicks and cuts that were wider that Duncan's shoulders.
"Poor fella," he said, shaking his head and resting an arm on Cassie's shoulder.

She crossed her arms under her chest, pulling a face as she studied the damage to Big Al. "Shit. We're assholes. Shreddin' 'im like tha'." Should have been faster. Should have gotten up quicker, should have pulled the spike off sooner, should have gone for the throat first thing, you could have gotten both you and Duncan killed-

"He can't feel any of it. Besides, he punishes us for it," he said, giving her a pat on the head. "He'll be fine, doll."

(I'mma have him call her doll all the time)

((Adorable, I love it.))

She made a face up at him, pulled out of her thoughts. "Watch the hair, dude. D'you know how much work it takes t' look this good?" A whole ten minutes, because she didn't actually put that much time into it. "And I guess you got a point there."

"Physical training don't start in an hour. Seems we got some free time," he said, looking down at her with raised eyebrows. "Whatcha want to do?"

"Do my nails, obviously. Look a' this. The paint's chippin!" She complained, lifting a hand to show him the bright blue color on her nails, that was in fact chipping. "Unless ya got somethin' planned, in which case I could prolly wait till tonight."

"I don't, which is why I was asking you." He rolled his eyes about her nails. "For a tomgirl, you sure care a lot about how you look."

"I'm a multi-faceted bein', not a stereotype, ya know." She pointed out jokingly, elbowing him gently. "Fine then. How 'bout fresh air that don' come with almost dyin'?"

"Well, let's go for a walk then," he said, reverting his center of balance back to his own feet and batting her elbow away.

She slipped out from under his arm before he had shifted his balance, sticking her tongue out at him. "Fuck yeah. Walks are the shit. What are ya waitin' for old man?"

"A Kaiju to kill me," he said, following her out of the hanger and on to the runway. The military base was a converted airport, just so the military wouldn't have to make the hangers. "Should be coming up any moment now….."

(Woop?)

“Told ya, you ain’t allowed to die yet. ‘Sides, the gods better give us a fuckin’ break.” She said, turning a glare up at the sky as though threatening her Gods.

"'Gods'?" He asked raising an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were a pagan."

“Hellenic, actually.” She corrected, looking back down at him and fussing with her hair. “I was raised on the pantheon and minor gods. Used to save bits of my meals in prison as offerings to the gods, hoping for a break.”

"And then you got stuck with me. Probably shook your faith a bit, huh?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets with a smile.

“Eh, the gods’ve Thrown worse at me.” She said with a laugh, waving him off. “Far as I see it, this is better than prison, so I’m good.”

"I'm happy to know that being around me is better than prison," he said, patting her head absentmindedly.

"I told ya t' watch the hair." She complained, ducking out from underneath his hand. "And i's only I lil' better, so don' go gettin' a big head."