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“Minnares, your birthday is next week is it not?” Nienke asked Aria whose head was on her lap as they sat on the couch watching another romcom. Aria did not answer with words, instead shifting her body to snuggle into Nienke’s belly and nodding.
Nienke hummed at the acknowledgement, pondering what she should do for Aria while absentmindedly stroking Aria’s hair, the older woman letting out a sigh of contentment.
“How would you feel if I set up a party for you ?”
“No.. parties..”
Aria slurred out the words, the drowsiness from today’s activities and the very comfortable position she was in made her feel like her mind was in clouds. She grabbed Nienke’s left hand and hugged it, placing it near her chest as she shut her eyes, ready to fall into the depths of slumberland.
Of course, the stubborn woman who she accidentally fell in lo- into liking clearly did not want a no for an answer. Poking Aria on her cheeks and ruffling her hair, this time rewording her question to,
“Let’s not call it a party then, a small get-together to celebrate, with people that you know and like!”
Her enthusiasm is adorable, why is it so adorable
Curse Nienke’s cuteness and incredibly convincing tone of speech and calming voice, her drowsy brain relented, giving a small thumbs up before shutting her eyes once again.
Nienke slid one hand under Aria’s knees and one onto the small of her back, shuffling onto her feet as she made her way from the lounge to their shared dorm with Adriano.
“Welcome back!” His voice bellowed before turning to see Aria being tucked into the bottom bunk, mumbling a quiet apology when Nienke lifted her index finger to her lips. The woman tucked in kept grabbing Nienke’s hand and shirt, attempting to pull her in for a cuddle session. Nienke whispered to Adriano, ”I need your help, I’ll tell you about it when I finish tucking her in” Adriano made an okay sign with his fingers, while also lightly snickering at Aria’s insistence at pulling Nienke in.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Nienke struggled but successfully took off her hoodie, giving it to Aria to hug. Aria held onto it with an iron grip, and Nienke-Now only wearing a tank top and sweatpants-placed a kiss upon the index finger of her right hand, smiling longingly before stepping away to sit on the chair Adriano so kindly took for her.
“So, what did you need help with shooting star? Need to acquire some unmentionables from a dealer? Or bury a body?”
“Planning Aria’s birthday party”
Adriano took his sweet ass time pondering those words, leaving Nienke to tap her foot on the ground. When he started talking however, they got into an enthusiastic discussion about the party.
It lasted until 5am, when a jingle from Nienke’s phone broke their train of vigorous scribbling and turned it into a vicious scrambling for the ringing device.
The uncalled-for sound was quickly shut off. When the usually light sleeper grumbled in her sleep, before snuggling back into the hoodie and sighing softly. The two awake intel masters heaved a quiet sigh of relief.
Iana looked at the list in her hands, shooting an apologetic look. This was her plan and she was throwing the responsibility to Adriano. He just gave her one of his signatures smiles, ruffling her hair and pushing her out the doorway
”Stay safe out there shooting star”
“I can only promise to try”
Nienke headed for the briefing, Adriano will have to work on the party alone for now, but she could not be distracted by that anymore. The mission was priority, 3 days long to scout, breach and eliminate all enemies in a small chalet in France. It shouldn’t take long, at most it might be extended by a day or two…
Or she might not return at all.
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Back in the dorm, Adriano looked at his fellow G.I.S partner who was curled up into a ball, blanket kicked off as she snuggled further into the stolen hoodie.
You’re a damn lucky woman Aria, and so is Nienke
He picked up the blanket and threw it over her, then proceeded to return to the piece of paper they wrote on. The neat robotic handwriting next to the scrawled cursive. Picking up the pen once again to write out a summary of their notes, but the exhaustion was overwhelming. With a yawn and his noticeably blurrier vision, he decided to clock out, hiding the piece of paper under his pillow.
6am on a Tuesday break? Too early for Adriano’s brain to function.
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10/12/20
“Iana and I will take point, Ash will flank” Circling a place on the map with a red marker. “We’ll meet up here after clearing the top and second floor. We received news that there will be an estimated amount of 30 enemies in the building.”
Zofia, in charge of the mission, made sure to run through the plans once again. A three man mission against 30 highly trained terrorists, elimination mission.
“We strike at dawn”
11/12/20
Things were well at the start.
The entry from the main door was met with little resistance, an alarm was shouted off but was quickly denied with a quick shot from Iana’s MK14 mm handgun. j
Zofia and Iana assisted one another, clearing the rooms on the first floor, before making their way up to meet with Ash, who cleared the third floor and was making her way down. They rallied in a bathroom, discussing how to split.
They heard footsteps, Iana offered to check it out on foot since the Gemini was on cooldown.
Zofia authorised it.
That’s where things went to shit.
They had been baited, stuck in a small room with two entries. This wasn’t much of a problem since Zofia could easily impact them out, but with Iana out scouting they had to keep their ears open to hear for any footsteps.
A shotgun was heard, and after that, a dragging of a body.
They had sacrificed 27 members of their terroristic organisation, just to bait out one of their specialists. One was enough, they thought. One operative out of 54 is much more than one terrorist in a worldwide branch of tens of thousands. Iana was shot in the stomach with a buckshot from close range.
When she woke up 4 hours later, she couldn’t speak. She was restrained and could only watch as a white mask dug a blade into her shoulder, digging out a shell and dropping it onto a metal dish. Her body wouldn’t move, numbed as her mid swayed with every blink.
Her contacts had been removed, she vaguely realised. Everything was blurry, if not for the iconic white mask that the, well, whitemasks wore, she might have mistaken them for her teammates. Such as, Zofia.
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“They’re retreating.” This wasn’t the first time those fiends had run away, but Ash noticed a slight change in the tone of Zofia’s voice. “They wouldn’t run if they didn't get what they wanted. There’s a catch Eliza, there’s always a catch when terrorists run away.” She walked out of the bathroom, peeking the door before doing so. Zofia’s instincts have never failed her before, she hoped it would this time.
She had hoped.
The pool of blood and foot tracks leading from said pool stripped her of hope all at once. The token glint of a dog tag could be seen on the freshly bloodied floor. Picking it up, she wiped the blood off of the rounded rectangles, slipping them into her bottom left shirt pocket.
“Get Jackal, Finka and Nomad. We’ll need all the help we can get.”
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12/12/20
‘Are you going to come then, Sanaa?”
“The party? I’m in. I’ve yet to talk with Nienke’s girlfriend actually, can I give her a shovel talk?”
Adriano shouldn’t be shocked, but he was. Aria and Nienke didn’t exactly bother hiding their relationship anymore and hey wait hold on a minute-
“You’ve never talked with Aria?”
“Of course I have, just not in the context of me being Nienke’s best friend and her being Nienke’s lover.”
“How did you even know she was shooting star’s girlfriend?”
A slight hum and the metallic clinking of a balisong was heard from Nienke’s bunk before anything was said. “I have… the best gaydar in all of rainbow if I do say so myself”
That made the both of them break into ruckus laughter.
Then, there was a knock on the GIS/REU dorm room.
Outside the door were Ryad and Lera, better known as Jackal and Finka. The conversation was short, a solemn look on both the visitors faces.
“Hostage mission, France. We’re leaving in an hour so pack your bags fast Sanaa.”
“Well that’s on a short notice.}
Pushing herself and jumping off the top bunk, Sanaa walked out the door to join them.
“France huh, we might meet Zofia’s squad then.”
____________________________________________________________________________
13/12/20,6am
And they did, with ⅔ of the trio.
Ignoring the questioning looks thrown at them, Ash and Zofia continued on.
“A hostage mission requires a full squad, as you all know. The site is a small abandoned hospital facility. We have the location but the specified location of Ni- the hostage is unknown.” Zofia reached down to thumb the metal chain in her pocket.
Ash continued. “We believe that they are being held there for medical aid and to be tortured for information while being kept alive. The hostage is injured. Eta 20 minutes, check your gear and let's make this a quick, smooth one.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
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13/12/20 same time
The shells were removed, and the wounds were bandaged.
Then the light show began, multitudes of tasers pointed at the subdued operative. With every shock, her body shook, flinching away from painful currents. Her injuries smashing against the metal surgical table as her body contorted. She suffered for a long time, with every shock the pain lessened. She couldn’t help but keep her eyes open, the shine of the hanging lamp blinding her.
Out like a light…
____________________________________________________________________________
When she woke, her arms were free, loosely hanging as she felt the wind in her hair…?
It was warm, warmer than the table she was forced upon.
This is nice
Family?
____________________________________________________________________________
What. The fuck.
When renowned explorer, Sanaa El Maktoub crash landed on the floor with remarkable grace, she expected the usual hostage. Run in, gun it if necessary, rush out. With the poor civvie laying slumped over with fear in their eyes that made her job a tad bit harder.
She didn’t expect to see her best friend laying on a table, writhing in pain despite looking unconscious, surrounded by terrorists bashing her with batons to wake her.
Personal feelings weren’t meant to be interlaced with one’s professional life. One should not take joy in killing another, and this, the bullets that were shot in their heads had Sanaa feeling nothing at all. No regrets, even as the final one screamed in pain with the shot against her shoulder, a shot to the head got rid of the noise, bringing silence to the theatre of carnage once again.
Ryad dropped, using his albeit questionable, useful lockpicking skill to remove the cuffs on Nienke’s wrist. Her red wrist having the skin rubbed off. Sanaa lifted her up the moment the last cuff was removed, rushing out the room onto the rooftop. She had to rush, she needed to get Nienke to Med-evac as fast as possible, away from the cold, dark, bloody room they hurt her in-
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14/12/20
*crack*
The wooden pencil broke in her tight grip, perhaps she should stop dwelling on the mission. The silence of the hospital was deafening, and continued to be so. Especially since Nienke was laid in front of her, swaddled with blankets for warmth. Sanaa moved closer to the hospital bed, making sure her footsteps were as silent as she could make it. She gave Nienke a pat on her head, shifting a strand of hair from her face tenderly. By sheer happenstance, the effort she took to stay silent was thrown to the winds that guided her way as Aria threw the door open. The metallic screech was so brief yet so impactful, with Nienke grimacing in her sleep at the harsh noise before, thank Allah she fell back into a peaceful slumber.
There was rare, unrestrained emotion on Aria’s face. The seriousness in her eyes dimmed with fear when she laid her eyes upon the hospital bed. Nienke had just finished her surgery with minimal complications-thanks to the help of Lera on Med-evac-but Aria rushed to her as if Nienke would vanish into thin air if she didn't touch her at that moment.
“Is she okay? Will she be alright?”
Aria cried out, stirring Nienke from her much needed slumber. Thus giving Sanaa an excuse for proceeding to muffle Aria’s panicked lament by shoving her hand over Aria’s mouth.
“Shush, she’ll be fine. Lera said she needs rest.”
The relief in Aria’s eyes was made much more evident with the sigh that came out of her lips. Although a hint of frustration could be felt present.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“I was under the impression you were keeping your relationship under wraps?”
“I don’t think that matters right now. She’s my best friend and lover. I should’ve been told even as the former.”
A lull washed over them, Aria pulled a chair to sit beside Sanaa.
“So. How long have you two been together?”
“About..8 years if you don’t count my absence”
“8? You’re serious?”
“Yeah”
Sanaa looked at her palms, before slapping them against her face while letting out a groan.
“And to think 90% of Rainbow thought you were dating Adriano”
“I know haha, but we’re bi and just good friends.”
The heightened sound of surprise made Iana mumble in her sleep, but she didn’t stir, taking comfort in familiar sounds instead of the zapping of a taser. Aria chuckled, reaching out to pull Nienke’s hand close to her chest.
“Would you like me to take my leave, Aria? You seem to want some alone time with her.”
“No no it’s fine, I have something that I wanted to ask you actually.”
“Shoot.”
Aria took a breath, voice shaking in a mix of anxiousness and excitement.
“You know how you and Tina are engaged? And you proposed?”
“Yes I do, best day of my life I would say.”
Aria gently traced the outline of Nienke’s right ring finger.
“I want to propose to Nienke.”
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The previously shattered remains of the pencil fell from Sanaa’s hands as she loosened her grip in shock at the news.
“Oh shoot, that’s great! When?”
“That’s the thing, I have no clue.”
“I’m certain she’ll say yes regardless of your timing.”
Aria stared at her with a look that basically said, “How do you sound so confident about that”, before shaking her head.
“She proposed to me before, it was just as I got my mission to infiltrate Vinciguerra. I was worried they would go after her if they ever found out I was a spy. So I rejected her, without any extra explanation.”
The final line made Sanaa get a knock of realisation.
“You left her.”
Guilt and regret shot through Aria’s heart, she stared at her and Nienke’s conjoined hands.
“I did.”
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A hum of acknowledgement from Sanaa allowed her to be with her thoughts for a short moment.
“How did she take the rejection?”
“She took it pretty well. We dated for about.. 3 years at the time. She said it was probably a bit too fast for us as well. I had to go full incognito so I- I didn’t want to break up so I…”
She trailed off, not wanting to face her past mistake.
“You…?”
A push from Sanaa was given, she could take this chance.
“I left her, without notice”
She took it.
____________________________________________________________________________
Aria was clearly bearing so much resentment towards herself, but she had no choice. She was too pathetic, too scared to hold a proper conversation with the kind and caring Nienke who would have understood her reasons.
“She’d still say yes y’know.”
The shock Aria felt from those words hit like a dumpster truck carrying concrete running over her.
“After all I told you, you still believe that?”
“Well yeah”
“But I’m still, I don’t know if she would actually say yes-”
“Say yes.. To what?”
The coarse voice coming from the hospital bed had the two spinning towards her.
Aria had no words, only lunging towards her girlfriend and giving her a hug. Nienke accepted it, despite the awkward positioning. The discomfort didn’t last long however, as Aria pulled back to kiss her on the tip of her nose.
“You’re okay, oh thank the lord you’re okay.”
Aria couldn’t help the tears that flowed out of her eyes, wiping them away on the sleeves of her hoodie that she stole from Nienke.
“Now what were you talking about, sweetheart? No need to cry, I’m fine.”
“Uh”
Nienke shifted herself onto the pillows into a seating position, looking into Aria’s hazel eyes with her own lavender ones, rapt attention at what Aria would like to say.
It’s one of the small things that had Aria falling for her in the first place.
“I was thinking if you would..”
“If I would?”
Nienke tilted her head to the side in confusion, still slightly drowsy from the abrupt awakening she had.
Aria sunk down to her knee, fumbling in her hoodie’s pocket to pull out a box and open it.
23:59,14th of December
“Nienke Meijer, the love of my life. Will you do me the honour of being your wife?”
The pause that followed felt like it lasted an entire century, but in reality..
00:00, 15th of December
“I do”
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A tearful cry?
She said yes?
If Nienke wasn’t in bed, Aria would have scooped Nienke into her arms and given her a smooch smack on the lips. But since she was, Aria settled for tearfully slipping the ring unto Nienke’s finger, and giving her a barrage of kisses on her face.
The newly engaged couple was happy, and there was nothing to ruin their joyous moment.
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Love truly is blind isn't it?
Sanaa had the camera rolling since Aria’s stutter, and she continued to record one of the most blissful moments of the duo's lives. With a couple more clicks, she stealthily slipped out of the room and into the hallway. She sent it to Tina and Adriano, the former whom replied with a multitude of heart emojis and a heartfelt emoji of their own proposal, and the latter with a stream of curses and party hats.
Dorks
She leaned against the wall and sighed,
“Well I guess I’ll give the shovel talk at the wedding then.”