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They had been planning that night for a week now.
Not with the excitement of a special date, a birthday or a new state sponsored movie the theaters would release. It was a expectance with dread and anxiety. One wouldn't want to live it, but once it happened, they would be at least relieved it was here and it would be over soon.
Twilight had been worn out ragged the past days. The animosity between East and West was just growing faster, not even because of the local authorities, but because of the bigger, most powerful nations that really had their hands on the pawns of that worldly sick game. It made him restless that he wasn't an agent for those bigger nations. That whatever they decided to do, all his hard work trying to maintain peace between Westalis and Ostania would be meaningless.
The thought that he could nothing to protect his family made his sleepless nights a common and uncomfortable occurance.
The news a small island on the West would receive high tech nuclear missiles from its eastern patron broke havoc all around the globe. They were asking for war with that, those inglorious easterners. But the West also had impeccable artillery and armory if they really wanted a big fight. It was just a matter of time until it was finally decided who would rule the world for once and all, with no one to question their authority.
This was a talk between fancy, powerful, old men who could push a button on either side of the globe and watch it burn for their fun to see who had the best toy. But for normal people like doctor Loid, office worker Yor and elementary school Anya; this was all a pointless hell. It didn't matter who would win, because civilians like them would still suffer with the war.
Anya watched the news on TV and couldn't really grasp what "evacuation", "security measures" and "safety bunkers" meant at first glance. Her parents, on the other hand, listened it with the dreadful recognition of a horror movie long forgotten.
Before the authorites even talked about which bunkers would be assigned to each city sector, the Forgers started to make preparations. It was almost ingrained in them. Surviving an air bomb raid came way before their secret lifes as a spy or assassin.
Yor wondered if she was going overboard with all the canned food in the bag. They always said in the pamphlets to pack lightly, but there was no way she would watch her family starve in a bunker if they needed to stay there for more than a day.
She felt a hand on her back and almost jumped in startlement. She was so focused on the task she barely noticed Loid approaching her on the kitchen.
"It's okay." He assured with a calm smile. "Just bring water and some crackers for Anya to munch on. It won't be for more than a night."
"Do you really think so?" She asked hesitantly. "What if we need to hide for the whole week? Do you think the government has enough rations ready? Or maybe..."
"Yor." Now Loid held her hand in reassurance. His eyes seemed to say that yes, he understood all her fears and didn't think none of that was overreaction. But they also seemed to be completely sure of his words. "It's going to be all right. I promise."
Both Yor and Loid knew those words were too risky for such uncertain days. But, just this time, Yor allowed herself to believe them. She never doubted her husband and it wouldn't start today.
"Okay." The woman smiled a little, as she sheepishly put all the ten cans back in the cabinet. "I can't forget Anya's peanuts, though."
Loid chuckled, glad she managed to lighten the mood even amidst the tension.
"She will appreciate it." Said that, he went back to his previous task of looking for duct tape for the windows. It would be completely useless in the case of a nuclear bombing, but old habits die hard. At least he could placebo effect himself on thinking this would protect their home.
The truth is that he was worried as much as Yor and, in other situation, would also agree on bringing as much food as possible. Hunger was something he hoped to never experience ever again, much less Anya, who was gladly part of a generation that could indulge on being picky eaters considering the variety of options.
What Yor didn't know, and that he couldn't reveal right away, is that in the case of a longer lockdown; WISE would move the Forgers to a safer and more comfortable shelter, as they were relatives of a high-ranking Westalisi spy as Twilight. He also guessed that Yuri would arrange for Yor to move to a better hiding place worth of a SSS agent's sister, if necessity called. No matter the path, they would be safe. Twilight just didn't know if he would be able to stay by their side every step of the way if things got nasty.
On Wednesday, they already had everything planned and were just waiting for the government's announcement of what would be the next move. Anya came from school with a written letter from Eden's principal office saying that, in the case of a bombing in Berlint or neighbouring towns; students wouldn't need to attend school and activities should be postponed. She also talked about how Becky had been gushing about her family's secret hideout that had a pool and a tennis court. Anya found it cool to have a secret hideout, like Bondman had his headquarters.
"Do we have a secret hideout?" Anya asked on that night, as Loid put her to sleep.
"Ours will be the public shelter five blocks from here." He said tucking her in. "It won't be just for us, like Becky's. There will be lots of families there. But it will be safe."
"Hm." She seemed to ponder over those words, as if not really believing him. "They said at school there would be bombs. I don't like bombs."
Loid wasn't sure of what to say to that. But he still placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and offered Anya a comforting smile, just like he did with Yor:
"I'll protect you from the bombs if they come." He ruffled her pink hair one last time before standing up from the bed. "Sleep well, Anya."
As he left the bedroom, Loid silently wished that he wouldn't have to protect Anya of any bombs. Hopefully, this was just hysteria that would fade as soon as the respective blocs shared false pleasantries and cold smiles to the reporters.
Hopefully, there would be no real threat for the Forger family.
- - -
On Thursday, they had to convince a crying Anya to let Bond go once they needed to leave for the shelter. Those places didn't allow pets, even if just for a night. The old ladies at their building said that a neighbour whose house across the street had a basement would keep their cats safe during the whole deal, so they wouldn't mind one more dog. The adults were grateful, but Anya refused to accept that. How could they say it was just for a night? What if they had to stay in the hideout forever and she never saw her dog again?!
Just for that night, they let Anya sleep with Bond on her bed; little arms clutching the white fur protectively, as if they would take her friend in her sleep to never give back. It broke Yor's heart to watch that scene. She had a vague memory of wanting to take the family goat inside their home when there were bombings, for which her mother never allowed. It was a small cottage, what would she do with an extra goat? Young Yor would have trouble sleeping with the airplanes and missile's whistles and the thought that their poor goat was out there alone, with no one by their side. It was silly thinking about it nowadays, but she definitely knew what Anya was going through.
Neither Yor and Loid commented on the little girl's tantrum as they shared a silent cup of tea. Once the time came, Anya would accept, Bond would stay with the neighbors, they would spend one or two nights in a bunker, the end. Their routine would go back to normal, Operation Stryx following unscathed, the Forger family leading their peaceful life, one more time.
They hoped so.
---
It happened on a Monday night.
They were almost expecting it to be another uneventful day when the sirens resounded throughout the city. Yor stopped washing the dishes from dinner and turned her head to the living room, getting a glimpse of Loid checking the streets through the window and Anya staring confusely at the TV, in which a official public announcement suddenly interrupted her cartoons.
The man on the TV gravely talked about the imminent exchange of attacks between the Western and Eastern Blocs. All the Ostanian citzens, especially in large cities, should quickly move to the nearest shelter and await further instructions.
Loid and Yor moved around in perfect sync, grabbing bags and coats as if they did it everyday out of muscle memory. Anya didn't know what to do, but she knew that soon she would have to leave her dog and started to cry silently in antecipation, hugging Bond for comfort.
On his bedroom, Loid packed the essentials. Yor was in charge of getting them a change of clothes each, just in case. In a suitcase, he put some important documents. Their fake marriage certificate. Anya's forged birth registration. One of their family pictures. A sum of money.
From under the desk, he took a fully charged gun, securing it safely on his waist belt. He probably wouldn't have any WISE related matters to attend to for the next hours. Loid didn't even think about his secret job, to be fair. He just knew that public shelters guarded both good and ill-intended people, so he wasn't going to risk his wife and daughter's safety out of polite appearances. It was going to be too dark to find the culprit, anyway. Only a gunshot sound and a dead body to dispose in the morning.
Once he grabbed all he needed, including a thick coat and his hat, he left for the living room. Yor was tucking Anya in a wool beanie while the girl made displeased faces at the amount of clothes she was forced onto. It wasn't winter, but the night would still be cold in the shelter.
They took maybe twenty minutes to get everything ready and Loid considered it a good performance, even if he had a vague memory of his parents leaving for the shelters at a much quicker pace when he was a child. Well, he was a parent now and he deemed it good enough.
They left their apartment with the hope it would just be for that night. Anya felt like these were some really crappy vacations. She was sleepy, barely could move in all those clothes, Bond wouldn't be with them and she was only allowed one toy. She picked Penguinman for this awful adventure, mostly because he was bigger, braver and could act as a pillow if she grew tired.
As they descended the stairs, they found two of their neighbours with their respective cats in boxes. Loid couldn't avoid making the question as soon as he noticed the gas mask peeking out from the lady's purse.
"Do we need to bring gas masks?" He asked with a frown. "They didn't say anything on TV."
"Oh, this one? It's just an old family heirloom, I doubt it even works." The old lady dismissed with a hand. "But it makes me feel safer, you know? Back in the days these things could really save your lives in the case of gas bombing!"
Anya, from her short height, could barely recognize it as a mask and imagined it as a dead pig's head. She gulped as she held more tightly into her Mama's hand. These were the worst vacations ever.
Anya's parting of Bond genuinely brought Yor to tears. Maybe she was on that sensible time of the month, but one couldn't be so cold-hearted to not feel anything while watching the little girl say her good-byes to the dog as if they were never to see each other again. Bond also whimpered at the apparent abandonment. The neighbors, a kind middle-aged couple, promised to take care of him as well as the street's five cats and a hamster.
Loid noticed his wife's worsening mood and offered her a handkerchief. She took it gratefully and wiped the tears before Anya could notice it and feel even worse.
Once Bond's housing problem was settled, they followed down the street on foot along eith other families, to the nearest shelter. From what Loid knew, it was an underground storage room of an abandoned factory that also hid people during the war. He wasn't sure of how many it could fit, but it seemed large. Hopefully, it was temporary.
Anya asked to be carried halfway and Loid took her, not wanting to overwhelm his wife that was already carrying a handbag, a blanket and a picnic basket full of first necessity items. Maybe that was a bit overboard on their side, but one can't be prepared enough when the government starts to talk about shelters and nuclear bombings.
When they reached the compound, there was already a small line of people at the entrance. Two armed soldiers (was that really necessary?) guarded the door while a third one asked for their names.
"Loid Forger. I'm with my wife and daughter." Loid answered once it was their time. He gave the man his ID.
"I see." The guard wrote something down on his list. "Families with kids are allowed a bunker bed, but I'm afraid they're already full. Hope it's not a problem."
"It's not." Loid admitted once he received his documents back. "It's just for a night, right?"
The guard shrugged and nodded for the next family behind them, giving an end to the talk. Huh. Ostanian authorities weren't the most talkative, then.
As they walked down the stairs, Loid couldn't help the feeling of a bad dejavu. Those mere steps evoked images he didn't want to remember. The cold. The hunger. He along with a bunch of other scrawny orphans, half wishing the air raids stopped, half wishing they died in their sleep. It wasn't a childhood to be proud of.
The place was already quite packed when they arrived and it would be even crowded as the night fell, it seemed. It was big as a gymnasium, with faint lights on the ceiling that gave the place a gloomy, yellow-ish atmosphere. There were bunk beds aligned to the walls and in the midde several people were bundled up in sleeping bags. It felt as a cheap state-sponsored pajama party. It was still better than what Loid remembered, though.
Even when the guard said there wouldn't be bunk beds left, they still found one free. It was the second on the line and Loid wondered why it was empty.
He looked at Yor as if debating if they should pick it. Without saying anything, she nodded. It was better than letting Anya sleep on the floor.
Once they got closer, Loid had a guess on why the bunk was empty. Their neighbour on the first bunk was a young woman, around his age, with a crying baby in her arms. There was a double pram beside her bed and inside another sleeping baby. Twins, apparently. The young mother seemed flustered and tired for her child's crying to be bothering the whole shelter trying to sleep. Loid would still keep the bunk.
"Good evening." He greeted with a polite smile, seemingly waking the woman of her sleepy stupor. "I suppose no one is using this bed?"
"Oh, no, no." She shook her head, face heating up at the thought that her babies were the reason she still didn't had a bunker neighbour. "It's free. But the top bed is under a leak, I think."
The man took a closer look and, indeed, there was a water leaking wetting the top bed. It wasn't strong enough to seep into the thin mattress and fall to the bottom bed, though. They should've payed attention to it when arranging the bunks. It wouldn't be a problem, they just needed a bed for Anya and Loid and Yor would then figure out how they would sleep.
"Thanks for the heads-up." He said with an appreciation nod. Loid then proceeded to tuck Anya into the bed, who blearily opened her eyes at all the noise and movement.
"I should have brought a pillow..." Yor said with remorse.
"Penguinman is my pillow." Anya mumbled sleepily, unconsciously making grabby hands at whoever had her stuffed animal. Yor promptly handed it to her and she grabbed it almost hungrily, hugging it with a frown. "Babies are so noisy."
She didn't say it out loud, but Loid still chastised her with a low "Shh", defending their nameless neighbour and her twins.
"You used to be a baby as well, Anya." He pondered. "You also cried a lot."
"No way." She rebuked tiredly. There's no way she had been a baby, she was born in a lab. It was true there were some babies there, but they weren't in her division.
Yor giggled quietly as she sat at the narrow foot of the bed.
"Do you have any baby pictures of Anya, Loid?" She asked. "I bet she was very cute."
Loid actually didn't have any pictures, real or fake, of Anya as a baby. It was something he'd have to arrange once he had some time, to keep up the appearance of Anya being his biological daughter. He spared a glance to the mother of twins. The baby's cries subdued, but he was still fussy. Caring for an infant was way harder than raising a elementary school kid. Still, he felt a slight pang of jealousy of the mother. He wondered how things would be like if he had cared for Anya since day one. If she didn't have to go through the trouble of four foster families until finding him.
"I may have to look into some old albums." He answered Yor. "But yes, she was very cute. And noisy. She could work as an air raid siren if needed."
They both laughed when she pouted and then turned away from them to try to sleep again.
It didn't take long for a civilian guard to bring them two spare sleeping bags, after seeing them sitting on the bare cold floor. It was too early for them to sleep, so Loid picked his book that Yor brought along (he was one lucky bastard to have such a thoughtful wife) to read quietly while the woman made small talk with their closest neighbours. The twins' father showed after half an hour, a burly and bearded guy who apparently had made his way back home to grab a missing pacifier for their crying baby. Indeed, the little boy's wailing did stop after he got his pacifier. The scene of such a strong and threatening man holding the tiny baby was quite amusing and warmed Yor's heart.
She wondered how Loid was with Anya when the girl was a baby, how they must have made a beautiful family with Anya's biological mother.
The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth, so she decided to occupy herself with some knitting. Yor picked it as a hobby not long ago and was making a quite good progress, to be honest. She hoped to, one day, gift something handmade to her husband and daughter.
Anya, on the discomfort of the unfamiliar bed, just couldn't sleep. Not with the baby's wailing, the unending muttering of strangers and the loud as hell thoughts of scared people. There were days in which she just couldn't turn it off and the amount of people cramped in just one place made it worse.
"I hope grandma is fine."
"Where is the bathroom?"
"This bag stinks."
"There's no way this shelter can save us from an atomic explosion."
"I bet this will last a month."
"They use rat meat on the rations."
"We will die."
There were just too many thoughts leading to imminent mass destruction it made her her eyes shot open, as if she had woke up from a nightmare. Anya rolled over to face the back of her Papa's head, with Mama's at her feet.
She poked Loid's head for attention.
"Papa," she said tentatively. "Are you awake?"
"I am very awake. I'm curious why are you awake, though." He said not raising his sight from the reading.
"Are atomic bombs big?"
He put down his book and looked at Yor trough the side of his eye. She also seemed to momentarily stop her knitting, but then resumed it as if telling him it was his turn of answering her difficult questions now.
For a spy like him, it wasn't difficult. Nuclear bombs were, in a way, smaller than average ones, but they made a way bigger explosion. He didn't think Anya would worry about the details, though.
"They make a very big explosion." He explained calmly, turning around to face her. "Bigger than normal bombs."
He wouldn't question why she asked that, but she was quick in letting out her worries in a subtle manner:
"Can this secret hideout protect us from a nut-clear bombing?"
Loid stared thoughtfully at her, not bothering to correct her pronounce of "nuclear" this time. The truth was no, it wouldn't protect them. Maybe from the actual explosion, considering it didn't land too close and the heat was bearable. But the truth is that, once the dust settled, they wouldn't be safe from radiaton poisioning, as far as he knew. Those kind of shelters were far more advanced than air raid ones.
He didn't say any of that, though. Instead, he asked:
"Why are you worried about that?"
Even before he finished speaking, Anya gulped with slightly widened eyes, as if she could see exactly what he was trying to hide. She actually read his thoughts, but there were too many difficult words there for her to fully grasp the message. It still sounded like bad news.
Instead of answering, she climbed down from her bed, grabbing Penguinman with her, and joined her parents on the sleeping bags. Yor actually left her knitting when the girl bundled up against her mother's legs and stayed there motionless. Mama was strong and she could stop even that nasty bomb. Staying close to Mama was safe.
"Don't you want to sleep on the bed, Anya?" Yor asked while caressing the girl's pink locks. "It's more comfy than here on the floor."
"I don't wanna sleep." Anya declared resolutely. "I'll sleep on my real bed. So until then I'll just stay awake."
Well, that sounded like a rather extreme plan.
It wasn't like Loid believed she could actually commit to that promise, but he still wanted her to have a passable night amidst that chaos. It wouldn't do good for her to stay awake nurturing apocalyptic scenarios of atomic bombs and failed shelters. So, Anya needed to sleep.
He closed his book for the night and adjusted himself properly into the sleeping bag. Those things were itchy. It reminded him of the army.
"If you'll stay up all night long, there's nothing much we can do." He announced gravely. "You shall join in our mandatory storytelling meeting."
"Storytelling?" Anya's attention perked up from where her head layed on Yor's leg.
"Yes. It's a very adult thing we do." It wasn't hard for him to look serious as he said that, but Yor still giggled. He felt his ears flush. "We share stories to our bunker comrades so they can learn with our experiences."
"We are bunker comrades?" Anya sat up, eyes shining in interest. Now this felt like a better adventure than all this crappy vacation thing.
"We sure are." Loid nodded somberly. "We should also address each other by our ranks. Yor, you'll be General Mama."
Yor actually laughed loudly at that, having to cover her mouth with a hand to not annoy the poor people at the shelter.
"I'm honored, Loid." She said with the brightest smile in her catalogue. "That would make you 'General Papa'?"
"Naturally." He agreed with a slight tug at the corner of his mouth, still struggling to keep his serious persona.
"I'll be the little tenant!" Anya stated proudly, recalling the fanciest military name that popped in her mind.
"You're too tiny to be a lieutenant." Here reached out to scoop her up from Yor's legs so she could lay between them in them more comfortably. Looking better now, Loid and Yor's sleeping bags were a bit too close for the nature of their relationship, but that could be dealt with later. "I'll let that pass, though. Tonight you're a prodigy."
Anya liked the idea of being treated as a genius once in a while. It made Operation Sticks look a little less impossible.
"What story we shall hear tonight, General?" Yor indulged on their play, pulling up their blanket so it could properly cover Anya.
The shelter lights were dim now, as they turned some of the lamps off so people could sleep properly. The calm sound of whispers and people's breathing barely ressembled Loid's memories of shelters. Back on his days, they couldn't sleep with the sound of bombs.
Recalling those hellsent days, he decided on a tale to tell.
"I'll tell the story of a puppy, a kitten and a baby fox who were kidnapped by a wolf." He started in a quiet voice, only loud enough for woman and child to hear. "And how this saved their lives."
"There was once a puppy, a kitten and a baby fox who lived alone in the woods. They were orphans and enemies, always fighting for scraps of food they found along the meadow paths.
One day, they found a voluptuous chunk of meat in the clear, more food than they ever had in their whole life. They made a run for it at the same time, eager to get their tiny claws on the tender meal.
Before any of them could even touch it though, a big gray wolf, three times their size, jumped ahead and blocked their way; baring his murderous teeth in a menacing growl.
Even the baby fox, who always bragged about his bravery, froze in fear as the wolf stared them down. None of them dared to move a muscle, too scared for their lives.
Then, in a swift movement, the wolf stepped closer and caught all the three of them by their scruffs."
"Is the wolf going to eat them?" Anya asked alarmed, far too immersed in the narrative to tone down her voice.
"Keep quiet." Loid advised in a soothing voice and even Yor, who was still wide awake, felt the intense urge to just lay down and fall asleep to the sound of Loid and his magical narrative. "Let me continue."
"The wolf carried them across the woods, bringing them across paths never seen before. The little fox was the only one who ever struggled to get free, but it was useless. The three of them were fightened, having no idea of what the big wolf had stored for them.
Finally, the wolf stopped walking and put them down. Before any of the children could think about running, the wolf nuzzled them forcefully into a hole on the ground, sending them rolling over each other into the earthly darkness.
Down there, with the faint light, they realized it was a spacious rabbit hole. On a corner, four to five baby bunnies slept bundled up against each other, indifferent to what happened around them.
"Don't cause trouble." The big wolf growled from outside and, somehow, they understood they shouldn't mess with the sleeping bunnies.
The wolf stood on guard outside the rabbit hole. When any of the children tried to go out, he would bare his teeth threateningly and they would give up. Even the brave little fox couldn't manage more than some steps outside the hole before the wolf barked at him and pushed him back to their prison. He was a very diligent guard."
"The rabbit hole sounds like a secret hideout." Anya mumbled sleepily, tiredness slowly but surely catching up to her. "It's stuffy, crowded and they'd rather be outside."
Loid shrugged, not really trying to argue with that. He should keep going with the story.
"As the day progressed, the fox, the puppy and the kitten started to grow bored and just forgot their rivalries in order to play together. Once in a while, a baby bunny would wake up, but not give a damn about them and go back to sleep. They made it a game to poke the baby bunnies until they gave them a more lively reaction. Once the bunnies started to whine, the wolf outside would bark at them to not disturb the little kids. After some time, even the wolf didn't seem so scary. He was just a grumpy and moody old wolf.
As night creeped, they still weren't sure of what the wolf wanted with them. They were also hungry because they didn't go out to hunt all day.
Suddenly, there was movement outside their hideout. It was then an adult rabbit came in, carrying two large carrots on her mouth. She was the bunnies' mother.
As the rabbit family ate a carrot, the fox, the puppy and the kitten had to share the other one. They didn't like carrots, but Mama Rabbit said:
"If you eat lots of carrots, you can become big and strong like the wolf."
"But carrots are..." Anya interrupted herself with a yawn. "Yucky."
"But they can give you super powers as an adult." Loid gave her nose a slight boop for good measure. Huh, that was sort of embarrassing, but it was something a father would do, so whatever. For the mission. "It's important to eat carrots and all the other vegetables so you can grow strong as the wolf."
Anya hummed slightly, making a mental note to actually try to eat the carrots on her next meal.
Loid went back to finish his story.
"The children devoured the giant carrot earnestly, for they were very hungry. They thanked Mama Rabbit for the food and she said they should also thank the big wolf.
Apparently, the wolf stopped them from eating the meat because that was a hunter's trap. He had dragged them to the rabbit hole because the forest was packed with humans for the hunting season, so he wanted to protect them as if they were pups of his own. The big wolf was actually a softie on the inside, but life as a natural killer made him bad in expressing feelings.
The following morning, the fox, the puppy and the kitten shyly thanked the wolf for helping them. The wolf all just scoffed and made them following him into the woods. He would teach them how to hunt for food.
Since that day, the children followed the wolf who taught them how to survive in the wild and then came back home at night to their rabbit hole. They were a weird, but nice family. In the end, the children couldn't see themselves as a fox, a dog or a cat anymore. They had become full-fledged wolves."
Anya didn't really hear the end of the story, as Loid's voice guided her through dream land without even a last "good night".
Yor deposited one last kiss on the girl's forehead and put her back onto her assigned bunk bed. Hopefully Anya wouldn't wake until morning.
Now there was nothing between them, Loid and Yor had to acknowledge that they were quite close in their sleepbags. Even in the dim light, Yor could make out the faint blue glow of Loid's eyes and the same could be same about her ruby orbes. Maybe they should be embarrassed. Maybe they should just turn over and go to sleep.
Instead, they talked in whispered voices as everyone in the compound was sound asleep.
"It was an amazing story." Yor commented. "It felt very personal."
"I think it was." Loid admitted. He wasn't one to reveal much about his past, but he decided to make an exception that time. "I was an orphan, lived some time on the streets with other kids until my tutor picked us up and we settled in a foster home."
"The wolf and the rabbit hole." Yor guessed.
"Yes." Loid conceded with a smile. "My teacher wouldn't let us call him 'father'. It was a pet peeve of him. He still raised me and my foster siblings preciously. I don't know what would have become of me without a person to watch me over. I could have become a lowly thief or just perished during the winter."
Yor didn't feel pity at that story. It was far too familiar for their generation. Children who suddenly lost their family and have to look out for themselves or get lucky enough to find a new family. Yor was glad Loid's story had a happy ending and she was there to listen to it.
"You're a very good storyteller. With a beautiful history, even." She admitted the following in a low voice. "Mine would be too short and tragic. It certainly wouldn't put Anya to sleep."
"I'm not going to sleep if you tell." He indulged sincerely. He knew Yor's background, but somegow was interested in seeing her telling it herself one again, maybe with an epic flair like he did.
Yor blushed at the thought of Loid litening attentively at whatever nonsense she was sprouting. Gladly, it was too dark for him to notice.
"...Once upon a time there was a family of rabbits living in the rabbit hole. One day, Mother Rabbit went out to find them food. The two bunny siblings stayed behind." She mumbled, half embarrassed at how childish this all was. But Loid was still listening to her and taking her seriously. She should finish before he grew tired. "Three days passed and Mother Rabbit didn't come back. The older bunny decided to go out and look out for her. While in the forest, the animals told her about an accident that happened not long ago. A rabbit was caught in a trap and died. No one knew if she had a family to contact, but for the bunny it was obvious who that dead rabbit was. The end." Yor blushed one more time. "I told you. Too short, too tragic. I would rather hear your stories."
"You didn't tell it completely." Loid shook his head with a sigh. "You didn't mention how the bunny raised her brother on her own and worked hard to become strong, kind and independent. You became a wonderful bunny."
Yor blinked in the dark.
"What?"
Loid short-circuited. Yor was a "wonderful bunny"? What the actual fuck was that?!
"I- I mean...!" Loid blushed and stuttered. He. Stuttered. Because he called Yor a bunny. "I meant you are kind, strong and independent and that's wonderful. Sorry, I'm a bit tired, I didn't mean to offend you."
Yor was silent for a moment and Loid genuinely thought she would just turn around and go to sleep after that mortifying scene. Instead, she laughed. And her laughs seemed to dissipate all his worries and embarrassment. He had the unexplainable urge to make a fool of himself again and again just so he could her her laugh.
"I'm not offended, I was just surprised!" She confessed after some time, her voice light as she was still smiling. "No one ever called me a bunny before. It's endearing. Thank you, Loid."
"...You're welcome." There really wasn't anything he could say after that.
The night was quiet around them. Too quiet for a air raid shelter. Loid wondered what was happening above them. What diplomats were discussing, what generals were arguing, what engineers were calculating so an atomic bomb could hit just the right spot of Ostania and restart a war.
When he was almost sure Yor had fallen asleep, she whispered as a secret:
"I'm afraid you'll get drafted if there's war." Yor felt shy confessing something like that. "I don't want to watch you go to the fronts and fight Westalis or whatever nation at our borders. It'd feel lonely without you."
The man felt a lump on his chest at those words. The truth is that one day he'd have to go. Not to war, hopefully; but he'd have to leave the Forgers and start a new life, a new mission. Sometimes even he forgot that Loid Forger was just a mask to take off at the end of the day.
But, just this once, he'd indulge on that lie in a way that reassured Yor that there was nothing to be afraid.
Patting the space between them, he found her hand and gave it a tentative squeeze. Maybe the day's fatigue was making him bold enough for those unnecessary displays of affection.
"I'm not going anywhere, Yor." The lie left his lips far too easily, far too softly and warmly. It begged to be called a truth and in his tired trance, Loid actually believed it. "I promise."
Yor didn't reply to that, but she slept soundly after that empty promise. That was all she needed to know, that Loid wouldn't go out into the woods one day to never come back.
The two of them fell asleep with joined hands and dreams of bombs, forests and wars that would never come to see the light of day.