trans_9 | Just a Little Bit Closer, Just a Little Warmer [Closed to Steve]

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Just a Little Bit Closer, Just a Little Warmer [Closed to Steve]

Miku didn't like the observation deck anymore. Ever since the Punishment had occurred, she couldn't stay very long without hearing things that had been past days ago. She figured it was probably worse because it was "newer" than the events that had already happened on the ship.

Regardless, the moment she heard Stacy's voice quietly admonishing Big Zero for her actions in that cold voice of hers, Miku started to hurry across the deck like someone had lit her on fire.

Anywhere would be better than hearing or seeing this. Anywhere at all. She pointedly kept her eyes on her the ground to avoid seeing any of the Punishment again. Once was enough. Once was more than enough.

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"It's okay. I can use all the help I can get, no matter what kind."

Steve stared thoughtfully into the distance for a moment, then glanced down at Miku. "I've got a weird question for you... have you ever shot a gun?"

Miku stopped walking her fingers up and down, and looked back up at him. "Eh? No. No, of course not. They're illegal for regular citizens in Japan. Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious," he replied. "This place gets pretty dangerous sometimes and... I don't know. I was thinking maybe I could show you how to shoot."

"Hm..." Miku picked at his shirt in thought, and was quiet for several minutes. On one hand, he was right; she would need to learn to defend herself in the event Steve wasn't around, and she was alone with something that wasn't already dead.

But on the other... it was illegal, and that thought kept ringing in her mind as she tried to weigh it. Stacy wasn't Japan, did those same laws even apply here?

"I guess... that would be good. I don't know how comfortable I feel about it, but you're right."

"It's really not that scary," Steve assured her, hugging her close to his chest. "It'll be just like riding a motorcycle. Scary at first, but with some practice you don't need to worry. I can show you how to do it."

"Motorcycles are still scary," she protested with a smile. "Just less scary when you're driving." At least she could go faster now, right?

"Oh, come on. You're a good driver!" he insisted. "It just took a lot of practice." A lot of practice. "And I can teach you on my guns. They're not so hard. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to use 'em both at once."

"Yes, but you're just... you." Miku sighed. "I just... don't want to hurt anyone."

"Better them than you."

It was clear in his voice that Steve absolutely meant that. "If somebody's gonna hurt you, you gotta fight back."

She pulled away from Steve, "I just don't like it. I'm allowed to dislike it." Making other people suffer was so far out of Miku's realm of thought that it might as well have been from a different universe.

Steve flinched a bit at her sudden disagreement. "Hey... I don't really like it either," he murmured, shrinking a bit into his shoulders. "But that's... just the way it is."

"I know, I know, but... I just..." It was hard to be willing to let someone suffer, even if they were attacking her. Unfortunately, Miku knew that sort of attitude was probably - no, definitely - going to get her killed.

"I'm sorry, Steve."

He was quiet for a few moments, before he finally sighed. "You don't have to be sorry," he said. "You're the normal one here-- most normal people couldn't hurt somebody, just like you said. I'm just..."

He sighed again. "Nevermind. You know. I don't want to make you do something you're not comfortable with."

"And that's why you're a good person, too." Maybe not a "normal" one, but she wasn't really 'normal' either. Miku lifted his chin so she could look him in the eye with a finger. "I'll learn, if you teach me, Steve. Just... I'll only use it in a dire emergency." Don't expect her to go all Yakuza on the Ohm, after all.

Miku tilted her head and studied his features.

He was turning cherry tomato red again.

"That's all I meant," he said. "I don't really expect you to go out and fight on the front lines, don't worry!"

"I don't think anyone would let me do that," Miku smiled and pushed his hair out of his face. "You especially. Besides, I'm much happier as support."

He grinned, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. "I didn't think you'd be into the glory of battle anyway."

"No, no," she assured him. Her ears turned pink. "I'm just one of those people in the background with the bandages, remember?" She laughed a little and put her arms around his neck, ruffling the hair on the back of his head.

"What about you? What are you going to do now that you're better? Aside from train with Luke, I mean."

He twitched a little again, ticklish at the hair ruffling. Miku was going to have all kinds of devious entertainment as soon as he was full recovered.

"I don't know," he sighed. "Just because I'm better doesn't mean I'm any more useful than I was... though now, at least, I'll be allowed to do some more stressful things. I've been meaning to go poke around and see sometime soon."

She really, really was. He just didn't have an inkling of how much entertainment she was going to get out of him.

"Tell me what you decide," she looked a little proud of him. "So I can quietly boast." Miku rubbed the tip of her nose against his.

Fire engine red.

"Hey, you should at least make sure I apply myself to something cool and not like. Ship janitor, or whatever. Before you decide to be proud of me."

"No one would train you to be a janitor." Really, Steve, your cleaning leaves something to be desired. "And I'll be proud of anything you decide."

Violet red?

"Of course you'd say that," he mumbled, shrinking down a bit further to try and hide the color of his face from her.

"Wah! Look at me," Miku urged, laughing and angling her head so that she could get under his and into his eye line. For once, it was a boon to be shorter than he was. "Look at me, or I won't kiss you."

So it wasn't much of a threat, but if it made him look up, then she'd at least know she have some kind of upper hand.

"I can't look at you, I think my face is on fire." He managed to look up at her, though, still fighting off the heat in his cheeks.

Then he could hardly manage to hold back his laughter. "Is it? Maybe I started bleeding and didn't know it. Yeah, that's it."

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