久久综合激激的五月天

"Good morning, sleepy head." he said, "Am I allowed to say that you make such a beautiful sight." 

She was pretty sure that she had bed hair and dark circles under her eyes but he looked no different from her. It looked like he was barely getting any sleep, he had dark circles and she had caught him trying to hold back a yawn twice. 

"Are you getting any rest?" she asked him. 

"Here and there." he replied. "Mostly not, this is not necessary the most sleep appropriate time of the year." 

She frowned, thinking to herself that what he was saying did not sound very healthy. 

"Don't worry," he added, "mecha warriors can go a maximum of four days with no sleep. We are trained to be this way, it's just that I have a lot of things to deal with. How have you been?" 

"Hmph," she pursed her lips, "Who said that I was worried?" 

"It's written all over your face." he chuckled. "Thank you for the food and the cookies by the way. You didn't have to send many of those, not that I am complaining but you look exhausted too." 

"I had a training session at night." she told him. Severus had woken her up for two hours of training her special skill which for some reason seemed to come alive at night. She could now project nightmares for six minutes and she was just fifty percent afraid of them. He was right, the more comfortable she became with them, the more she enjoyed it. 

"You don't need to push yourself so hard, mecha fights are not worth that much sacrifice. They are essentially games which were created to distract the people during this time of the year. You don't need to be in such a rush to get to the top of the virtual champions roll. Take your time." 

"I am, I have not scheduled a fight in months. But I have one coming up which is what I am preparing for. Have you spoken to our son lately?" 

"Mmm," he nodded, "He sends me short videos of himself daily, I miss you all so much." 

"We miss you too." she replied. "How are things so far? I have not had to ring that bell so all things considered, I am thinking positively." 

"Yes, one week down with no death, not a mutated beast related one anyway. Human on human death on the other hand is different, space pirates are running rampant looting supplies in different cities. We are weeding them out but by the time the new year begins, they will have recruited more among the poor."

"You can use Hachiko to sniff them out, as long you have something he can smell you will find something. By the way, your grandmother wants to teach me to fight and operate a mecha, I said yes." 

"You told me that in a text," he smiled. 

"I forgot," she laughed, "But I should get your honest opinion, how is she as a teacher?" 

"Tough but fair." he replied. "She will expect you to learn something within three tries, she will berate you and reward you. You should know that in the capital Cecily Wu is a highly sought after teacher but she has turned down all requests." 

"Then it's a great honor for me to be learning from her." Scarlet decisively said, "I will work hard not to let down her expectations." 

"How is your little sister, the newborn?" he asked. 

"She is fine but still nameless as my mother struggles to find the right name which specifically begins with the letter "I" . Every name we suggest seems to sound wrong to her ears or taste wrong on her tongue. How does a name taste wrong? You cannot eat it?" 

Esong chuckled, wondering why she was so worked up about the naming of her sister.

"I suggested good names," Scarlet continued, "Like Ines, Isabella, Indra, India and she said no to them all. Can you believe it? Those are perfectly good names for a girl child. I am about to suggest Ivy." 

"You should save some for when we have that daughter you spoke about." he suggested with a faint smile on his face. 

She froze for a few seconds before laughing, that was probably never going to happen for them but she could not that share that secret with him. Maybe they would look into other options like adoption or using another females egg when she finally came back around to the child issue. For now, she had put a lid on everything baby until further notice. Maybe she could revisit it in one hundred years. "We don't need to think about that right now, maybe you should give me more names because I never realized before just how rare it is to find a good name that starts with an 'I'.

"Iris, Irene, Igloo, Izaora, Isadora, Iliana." he mentioned a few names and it looked like he would keep going if she didn't put a stop to it. 

"Yes naming genius Esong, please send them all to me and I will compile a list and send it to her." To her ears, it sounded almost like he was bragging. 

"What's this I hear about you fighting a mutated beast in armor..." he changed the topic to the second biggest reason why he had called. 

"Before you condemn, berate, shout or do anything you should understand my circumstances Esong. " she was quick to cut him off and explain her side. "I knew how to kill the beast but none of the mecha warriors seemed to be listening to me no matter how much I yelled. I was in the wrong for acting impulsively, I will admit. Next time..."

"Next time?" he said questioningly. 

"There will be no next time." she amended. 

"Good." he nodded approvingly. 

"Unless_" she added. 

Esong sighed and shook his head in an 'I knew it' manner. 

"Unless, it attacks me first, then it's a case of self defense, I am allowed to defend myself."

Esong looked away from the screen for a few seconds and he nodded his head. When he looked back at her, it was to say hurriedly, "I have to go now, something else has made it through the barrier, be safe." he took off running. 

She sighed, and prayed in her heart for all the warriors that had gone off to fight whatever that something was. She hoped for another week where she would not have to ring that bell. 

But that wish would be impossible because she received a message with the face of a newly fallen mecha warrior on the Red star. It was time to ring that bell and reap a soul.