Random Freta fanfic
Veta Lopis x Fred-104
Okay, first of all, ENGLISH ISNT MY FIRST LANGUAGE, I accept constructive criticism, but pls be kind :)
Secondly, this is my first time writing a Halo fanfiction, more specifically a Veta x Fred fanfic. There aren't enough of them out there, so I have to take the matter in my own hands !!
Thirdly, this is SHIT, no thoughts, no plot, warned you lol
MESSAGE
Veta was still getting used to this new lifestyle. Missions back to back, little to no rest and endless paperwork. Sometimes, she longed for home back on Gao, her tiny appartment, her lovely neighbours, her remaining family...She wondered what happened to them, do they miss her ? Is her little cousin Arnie still hoping to become an investigator like her ? Does aunt Pattie still bake her famous pumpkin pie ? So many questions, no answers.
She shook her head refusing to dwell on the past, she had a report to write down, and Baby Dragon wasn’t a very patient woman.
She was seated in a room on a prowler (whose name she forgot as soon as her feet landed on the deck) that ONI kindly lent to her. It was small and dusty, its grey walls were tinted with some kind of whitish product that smelled like paint. There were only a desk and a chair in it, which was more than enough for Veta to write her report.
Her ferrets were down the corridor organizing their gear and getting ready for their next assignement. A little smile crept on her lips at the thought of them. She grew pretty close to Ash and Olivia, bonding over some of their “non-classified” stories (which she found pretty terrifying considering their age). Mark was an another story. He was still very wary of her, and did’nt seem to accept her as a part of the team. Less than a few months ago, she suspected him to be a serial killer, so she understoood his reluctance towards her, but she hoped things would change for the sake of the team’s dynamic.
She was chewing on the bottom of her pen, deep in thoughts, when her mind wandered on Blue Team. Several of her past missions involved both her Ferrets and Blue Team, it was always an honor to work alongside them.
She continued to tap her report on her borrowed laptop when Fred’s face suddenly popped in her mind. She blushed, they grew pretty close during their short time together.
She dared to say she missed him.
This wasn’t an inappropriate thought...was it ? He was one of the only constant thing in her life at the moment, except for her Ferrets. They came from different worlds, and very opposite upbringings : she grew up on an insurrectionist planet who longed for its freedom, while Fred is the ultimate representation of the UNSC authority. Never in her life would she have dreamed of becoming friend with a UNSC thug. But there she was, missing him and his dry witted humor, and wondering if he was safe.
She grabbed her commpad, oppened a private channel and wrote the following message :
Dear Lieutenant,
I sincerely hope that you are having “fun” on your current classified adventure. On my part, the Ferrets are doing good. I was thinking about you lately, I dare to say I miss you.
I've got a lot to tell you, don’t go MIA until then.
Take care,
Inspector Lopis
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Tango
His ears were ringing. Or maybe it was the alarms blaring through his helmet. He wasn't sure. It hurt.
He forced his eyes open, though he wasn't sure just what to make of his view. His HUD was dark. The vision in his left eye was obscured by something, and he couldn't make out much more than blurry shapes. His right eye was doing its job more effectively, showing muddy ground rush by his own blue-armored leg. His eye instinctively tried to shut against a drying breeze.
There was a muffled sound like someone talking from behind him, and suddenly he realized he was being dragged on the ground. The talking sounded urgent. Though the voice sounded like it was underwater, he registered that someone was saying his name.
It was Kelly's voice. She was jabbering incessantly, under her breath – the way she did when things were going wrong. What had gone wrong? Where was he? He tried to will his eye open.
"Hang in there Fred, we'll get you back," she kept saying. "Just hang in there Fred." She kept repeating the command like it was a mantra.
He blinked.
When his eyes reopened, the rough ground was gone, replaced by the gunmetal gray floor of a Warthog. Someone was driving. They must have been going fast, because his body swayed wildly as the vehicle swerved this way and that. Every time his body shifted, pain screamed through him. His eye felt even more dry now, and he finally put together that a sizable hole was allowing fresh air to wash over it. He vaguely registered the feeling of the Warthog dropping out from beneath him. When his shoulders reconnected with the floor of the vehicle, he was unconscious before he even registered the pain.
The next time he opened his eyes he was lying on a medical bed. That wasn't new. He'd awoken that way more times than he could count. Still didn't mean he enjoyed it. He lay back into a pillow that was too fluffy to be comfortable. Machines beeped around whirred around him, and an IV snaked its way into his left arm.
Slowly, he worked on his memory. How had he gotten here? He was deployed alongside the rest of his team, the mission ostensibly "routine." Something had gone wrong. At this point his mind remained stubbornly fuzzy – had it been a mine? An energy mortar? A blast from a fuel rod cannon? He didn't know. The painfully burnt skin that wrapped over his left shoulder and halfway down his arm confirmed the presence of a plasma weapon of some kind.
Luckily, he supposed, Kelly must have dragged him to safety. She probably would have dragged him clear to the Infinity herself if she had to. She was never one to leave a friend behind.
He lifted his head from the stuffy pillow that squished around his ears in a way the Spartan didn't like. The infirmary appeared empty; the neatly rowed beds near him were all vacant, and the only sounds from the room were the machines attached to him. Not another soul in sight.
Except for one.
She stood near the foot of his bed, a soft, familiar smile on her lips. She was very plain, objectively speaking. No makeup or jewelry to speak of, physical features that were pleasing, if . . . ordinary. But there was something about her that was unequivocally gorgeous, and he found himself staring. Her jet black hair was tied in a tight bun, her eyes carefully and meticulously scanning over him. She was dressed in a UNSC medic's uniform, though it seemed clear to him that she was no servicewoman. Her face was entirely unblemished, her hands unscarred. She looked like no other person he'd ever known, though her presence was a familiar one.
She gently placed a hand on the rail at the foot of the bed.
"We've met before," he said to the ethereal beauty. "Well, maybe we haven't met, but we've come pretty close."
She started. She seemed surprised to hear him. Her mouth spread into a sweet smile as the initial shock diminished, though she remained somewhat nonplussed.
"Oh, don't act so surprised," he said nonchalantly. "It seems like every time I get in a tough scrape you come check on me."
"Can you blame me? It's my job. On the Infinity medics are supposed to care for the wounded, you know," she said coyly.
Fred grinned in response. "I'm well aware," he said. "But you and I both know you've never been stationed on the Infinity. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that you've never been stationed on any UNSC vessel."
"What makes you so sure of that?" she asked, leaning forward. Her smile grew wider, feeling more familiar with every second that passed.
"I've seen you too many times," he answered simply. "In too many places."
His first memory of her was on Reach. He'd looked up into her deep brown eyes that seemed to stretch on into eternity and took solace in them, even as his body was wracked by the tortures wrought by Doctor Halsey's augmentation procedures. For years he thought she had been nothing more than a fever-dream, or perhaps a long-forgotten memory conjured up as each neuron in his brain fired incessantly in an attempt to adapt to the changes his body underwent.
He didn't see her again for more than a decade, until a lucky swipe from a Hunter ruptured most of his internal organs during the battle of New Harmony. He had spent a week in an out of consciousness, but it seemed that every time he opened his eyes, she was there.
That wasn't the last he'd seen of her though. Actium, Miridem, Skopje . . . he'd seen her across the galaxy. He was now thirty years older than the first time he saw her face, but she hadn't aged a day.
"I'd say we've run into one another often enough to be considered old friends by now," he said with a wink.
The last hint of apprehension vanished from her face, the happiness in her features genuine and . . . comfortable. "We have," she conceded, stepping closer to him. "I've come to you more than a few times now, yet you always manage to sidestep me."
He tried to shrug nonchalantly, but the screaming pain in his shoulder made him reconsider. "I wouldn't call it 'sidestepping,'" he said. "If I were any good at that, neither of us would be here right now. What you and I have is more like dancing, and you're just too good a partner. I don't want the song to end yet."
Her smile lessened. A sad look entered her eyes. He tried to ignore it.
"The music has to stop sometime," she said quietly.
She didn't say anything for a moment, and neither did he. They both remained still, enjoying an easy silence. They'd never spoken before, yet each felt comfortable in the other's company.
He thought about asking her. Asking her just what she was, exactly. It had taken him a while, but he had developed his own assumptions as to her nature. About why he only ever saw her in the infirmary. Why she only visited him in the moments between wakefulness and sleep.
He stayed quiet. Though his inquisitive mind begged for an answer, the Spartan felt unprepared to face the man behind that particular curtain.
"I've come for all sorts, you know," she said eventually.
She gently sat on the bed, though he didn't feel the stiff mattress adjust at all for her weight. Not even the sheets seemed to ripple beneath her.
"Some of them came willingly, some even invited me. Others fought, tooth and nail – like a feral beast hunted by its own personal nightmare." She turned to look him dead in the eye. "They all had one thing in common, though. In the end, everyone walks with me."
She reached up and pressed the backs of her fingers against his left cheek. Her hand was neither warm nor cold, her touch simultaneously feather-light and weighing a ton. Her conversation set his hairs on end, but her presence put his mind at ease. She was a walking contradiction.
"Will you walk with me now?" she asked, still brushing her hand against his face. "Will you finally end this dance of ours? Aren't you tired?"
"Tired?" he asked with a smile. "I'm exhausted. I can't even tell you how badly I'd like to get off this bed and walk with you. To leave all of this mess behind. No more war, no more death, no more . . . " he trailed off, finding himself at a loss for words.
"Then why don't you?" she asked softly.
Fred looked around himself. "Because of all of this," he said. Though the small hand gesture he mustered up the energy for didn't encompass more than the infirmary, he felt confident that she understood his meaning. "There's too much at stake. John, Linda, Kelly . . . they're the last of my family. I need to be here for them as much as I need them to be here for me. If I fail, if we fail, the toll will be higher than I could begin to stomach. I'm not ready to go yet. I have too much work to do."
Her sad smile returned. "I know you do," she said. "It seems unfair for just one person to feel responsible for so many. But you, and those like you, haven't been given much choice, have you?" She gently withdrew her hand from his face and rested it on his leg.
The lights in the infirmary suddenly activated, triggered by some movement outside in the hall. Fred could suddenly hear familiar voices arguing beyond the door. Kelly, shouting something at the guards standing watch. Linda, most likely uttering threats under her breath. John, ever the level-headed one, barking orders to the poor marines that were by now undoubtedly fearing for their lives.
As the voices grew louder, she stood and turned to leave. "This will not be the last time we see each other. Our dance continues, for now."
At the foot of his bed, she paused. "Make no mistake," she added, almost as an afterthought, "even the missing in action come to me eventually. Someday our song will end. And you'll walk with me as so many have before."
His attention was drawn to the door in the corner of the infirmary as it burst open, his team spilling through it. Kelly was the first through it, as always. She smiled widely and barreled toward him. Linda and John followed at a more subdued pace. When the Spartan turned his eyes back toward the woman at his bedside, she was gone.
Fred smiled at the empty space.
Our song will end, and part of me will look forward to that day, he thought.
But our tango isn't over yet.
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