Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ Two VanDread Omake ❯ Two Vandread Omake ( One-Shot )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

OMAKE: A different pairing

Hibiki sat back on his bunk and considered developments since the Flagship.

Now that the enemy attacks were getting fiercer, and damage to the ship more common, and Dread fighters not coming back from the battle, something different was occurring on the Nirvana.

People were pairing up. More often than not it was same gender pairing among the women. Duerro and Parfet though had been spending a lot of time together. Even Bart might have found someone. He'd been spending a lot of time down in Reg.

Hibiki Tokai let out a deep breath. It was common on Tarak for two guys to become lovers. It hadn't occurred to him, but for Majere it was probably the same - with that "ohma" and "fama" stuff like Ezra. It hadn't ever been him in a relationship, but having someone here with him to talk to sure sounded like a good deal at times.

Well, Grandpa had told him to go out and get friends. He hadn't done a very good job of it so far.

Hibiki stared at the ceiling and tried to picture having someone there with him. Someone that he'd eventually go to a factory with and make a child. Though there had been that odd comment about women having kids without a factory. That was sure weird.

As far back as he could remember, Hibiki had been raised in an all-male society. However, he'd never been particularly attracted to a guy. There was something about how women looked that stirred *something* in him.

If he were to try and pair up with one of these girls, a human partner like he did with his mechanical one, which one would he choose?

Dita? That "Mister Alien" stuff and her tendency to go off into full scale weirdness would get old. He'd seen the results of her redecorating his cubicle. Nope. She was a good cook though - and that *did* make it tempting.

Jura? She'd probably be receptive but she'd been ready to throw him in the brig. Besides she had something going with Barnette, and Barnette did *not* like him.

Meia? Too cold and hostile. Though there were moments...

Hibiki tried to picture Meia there with him, and found it surprisingly easy. Meia was... maybe.

Paiway? No way! That damn frog really got on his nerves.

BC struck him as way too manipulative, too smug, and always got the feeling there was some joke being aimed at him.

None of those girls on the bridge either. They had been *way* too eager to throw him in the brig. He remembered things like that.

Hibiki grinned at the ceiling. Once committed, he saw things through. THERE was a possibility.

----------

"Me? Why me?" All the other questions had been answered by Hibiki already.

Hibiki grinned the usual grin. "Simple. You don't go behind people's backs. You don't have a damn frog puppet. You don't call me Mister Alien or treat me like I should have bug-eyes or something. You don't have an existing relationship I'd break up. You weren't one of those to toss me in that damn brig. You normally don't work directly with me."

She considered that. It was true that people were pairing off. It was also true that being raised on Tarak, an all-male planet, that Hibiki probably would gravitate towards someone in terms that would make sense for that culture. "Fine, though frankly I don't think this'll work. You'll never be able to keep up."

Hibiki gave Gascogne a thumb's up. "Don't you worry about *that!*"

===========

Just an odd thought based on some of the relationships. i don't have anything against Dita, other than the need for restraint. i know that *i* would probably be ready to strangle her after the third day of being "Mister Alien".


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OMAKE (PG-13) OMAKE OMAKE

Ranma growled at the kitty. "So leave me alone already!"

"Yeesh, whatta grouch," grumbled Toltiir. "And it wasn't like I'd done nothing there anyway. He's the one who tried to change his own timeline so Akane hadn't killed their kid. Ended up changing it so she ended up getting away from Kiima, fell in Spring Of Drowned Amazon Warrior, kicked the butts of most of Phoenix Mountain, joined the Amazon tribe, took Ukyo and Shampoo as co-wives, married Ranma, and had fifteen kids by him. You'd think he'd be *happy* about that kind of thing."

Toltiir let his gaze fall away from Ranma and the universes he appeared in briefly, only to spot another victim. Or hapless guy in serious problems. Hmmmm. What *was* going on here?

---------

"if it came from the heart," said Meia Gisborn, "I know *I* would listen. I wouldn't laugh." She had no experience with touchy-feely, she was the icequeen. Ask anyone she didn't have a heart. She only cared about the mission, the job, her duty. There was nothing else. This ache in her chest must just be a cold or something.

--------

Toltiir winced. Oh boy. Two emotional basketcases. Add a third in the wings and... Mortal fishies, this place was a *mess.*

Not being a bad sort, the Elder god of mischief looked around at this setting. Hmmm. Looked like one of those Epic Adventures. Some angst, the occasional running gag, lotsa big nasty villains, an N-dimensional nonhumanoid lifeform, ship out in the middle of enemy territory. Hmmmm. Sorta like that "Voyager" set of timelines, 'cept this was happier and had more plot angles.

Let's see. Hmmm. Looks like two lonely souls. Well, if you just used a little teeny tiny flick here. Something so subtle that nonhumanoid lifeform wouldn't even notice.

Otherwise he could just hit the ice maiden's libido, she'd grab the boy, toss him over a shoulder, and make sure he didn't injure himself by keeping him otherwise occupied. The two would rediscover other things and be dealing with that affectionate giddy afterglow thing for the next two to five episodes. While that *might* be amusing, particularly with the other people's reactions to Icequeen and Mister Denial acting the part of a pair of honeymooning sweethearts, that would be too easy.

Heck the same thing spread around and he could have Mister Denial there set up with half the ship's crew. The other half would want to kill him, but that was another thing altogether.

Nah, something more like a tiny little insignificant tendon deciding it had taken too much abuse.

---------

Hibiki got up, ready to leave. While he appreciated Meia's attempt to reach out, he didn't know how to respond to that or to the feelings she was stirring up. And how was he supposed to protect anyone when he was like this and he couldn't even beat that Rabat guy?

A tendon decided it had taken too much abuse lately. Hibiki's knee went to all the strength of a limp rubber band.

Meia saw the Vanguard pilot go down in a painful tangle and was almost at his side before she realized what she was doing.

Kneeling by him, she hesitated as he struggled to get up. "Do you need me to get Duerro?"

"Nah, I'm fine," said Hibiki Tokai getting up. "Besides he keeps touching me weird."

"Maybe he's attracted to you," said Meia, practically laughing at the expression that this comment brought to Hibiki's face.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not interested," grumbled Hibiki. He got up. "See, I'm fiIII"

Seeing his face twist in pain and him beginning to fall, Meia positioned herself to catch him. He was short and fairly light in build, in a way reminding her of-

The two realized at the same time that they were clutching each other, she kneeling to the point where their faces were almost touching. Breaths tickling each others faces.

"Uhm," said Hibiki, his mental processes going completely offline.

Old instincts surfaced. Her eyes closed and she moved a little closer. Years of going without affection, of schooling herself not to allow personal closeness, and of watching others pair off caught up with her.

Hibiki wasn't sure what to make of it when Meia's lips brushed his own gently, except that his mouth felt very dry all of a sudden. He licked dry lips only to find that Meia had just touched her lips to his own again.

---------

"Well, if you want to check in on Tokai, you can," said Duerro, fiddling with a monitor. "All I need to do is bring up a view of the..."

Dita's jaw dropped and her already large eyes widened.

Parfet was puzzled. "What are they doing? Is that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?"

On the monitor, Hibiki's arms briefly windmilled as Meia crushed the smaller form to her own.

"I'm not sure," said Duerro after the image had been showing for over a minute. "I thought it might be some martial arts manuever but that seems unlikely."

"..." Dita's eyes welled up with tears. She wasn't sure why but when she saw this, it hurt her chest.

"Haven't any of you ever seen a kiss before?" Jura watched for a moment. "Both of them need some work on their technique."

---------

"Pai-yuck," declared Paiway, nonetheless snapping several photos of the scene.

---------

Meia suddenly realized what she was doing. Who she was doing it with. "AH!"

Hibiki found himself suddenly launched. "Aahhhhh!"

Meia scrambled back, her hand held up to her lips. She had. Oh dear.

"What did you do that for?!" Hibiki wasn't sure which he meant. He was unsettled and uncertain and for some reason, he felt as if he had just found something.

Meia was three shades paler than usual. She did something else uncharacteristic. She bolted. "I'm so sorry!"

Hibiki watched her run off, tried to get up and follow her - his protective instincts going off again, and fell down again.

--------

"Look it couldn't have been something Hibiki did," said BC, looking at the recording playing for the bridge crew. "Look at that - he can't even walk right now."

"It's some strange alien power he's used," declared the darkhaired navigator. "Now he's infected her with some strange alien disease!"

"I wouldn't say that," said Magno. "Well well well. Did he ever make it out of the gardens?"

"Dita went to her room, Jura went with Barnette to see if they could get him to sickbay," explained Duerro. "What strange alien power?"

"I don't know but you won't get a chance to use it on me!" The darkhaired girl pointed a laser-ring at the doctor. "You men have had free run of this ship too long!"

"I... What's Jura doing?" Duerro stared at the monitor. Everyone else started staring at the monitor.

---------

"I wonder what it's like," pondered Jura.

Barnette glanced sideways at her lover, then down at the semi-conscious Hibiki. "What what's like?"

"Kissing a male," said Jura quite matter-of-factly.

"ERK!"

Ignoring the way Barnette had just assumed a near classic example of the Takahashi emotional shock pose, Jura continued. "I've kissed quite a few women in my time. Made mad passionate love in some of the oddest places. You remember some of that, don't you Barnette?"

The way she was glowing bright red indicated that Barnette *might* remember some of those incidents.

"Men have different equipment, they're so alien in some ways, so like us in others." Jura continued to ponder, ignoring Paiway keeling over behind her making barfing sounds. Ignoring the way Barnette looked alternately angry and horrified.

"Hmmmm," hmmmed Jura, eyeing Hibiki.

Hibiki groaned and looked up at exactly the wrong time.

---------

Two of the members of the bridge crew had just found their communicators had been switched by the captain to Receive Only and were in the process of finding their barf bags.

"Young man looks like he's trying to get away. Well, at least he was." Magno settled down and watched. "Hmmm. I think young Barnette might actually explode if we allow this to continue."

---------

Barnette was quivering in - rage? indignation? jealousy? disgust? All of the above?

Jura broke the hold. "Hmmm. Interesting. No technique to speak of. What do you think, Barnette?"

"Eh?" Barnette managed in a befuddled haze as she was taken completely by surprise on this change of direction. "Who? Me?"

"What's going on here?" Hibiki, on the other hand, was ready to go into full scale panic and was trying to crawl off for parts unknown.

"He can't kiss worth a damn, it's like being in grade school all over again," bemoaned Jura. "Kind of tasty though. Different from kissing you. His lips are harder, you don't get that feeling from your breasts being pressed up against-"

"WE GET THE POINT!"

Hibiki looked up and around, much like Barnette and Jura.

---------

The blonde ops officer practically growled at her board.

"You- you- you MALES! This is why I hate males!"

"I thought it was social conditioning and cultural bias myself," remarked Duero.

"Well, yes, on the home planet there were males and females comingling all the time," said Vivian Magno with an idle gesture.

"No way, really?" Bart refilled her cup. "They did this thing all the time?"

"So I'm told," said Magno with a smirk.

"ARRGHHHH!" The brunette navigator vented.

"Oh dear, they must have gotten along better then," said Ezra.

"You could say that," agreed the Captain.

"What?!" The two bridge bunnies looked distinctly ill.

"Oh look, Jura just tripped Barnette." BC smirked. "That boy seems to be claiming a lot of lips lately."

"I've never seen Barnette run off screaming like that," observed Ezra. "Even that one time that Jura made out with the entire Gardening Team in the arboreum."

There came the sound of someone being physically ill inside a bear costume.

"I think if Hibiki were capable of running off screaming he would be doing so." Duerro cracked his knuckles. "Looks like I'll have to confine him to sickbay?"

"...or Meia's quarters," suggested Captain Magno, unable to resist a little jest.

Bart keeled over. Which was pretty much the reaction the pirate captain had hoped for.

The blonde bridge bunny lifted her hands as if supplicating the heavens. "Why can't we have an alien attack *now*?!"

There was a brief pause as if everyone expected her prayers to be granted.

------

Meia whimpered. She couldn't deal with this. No not at all.

Having forgotten that the captain had joked with Hibiki about eating him, Duerro had taken her suggestion seriously. Meia found an unconscious Hibiki in her cabin.

"The captain loaned me this," said Duerro, pulling a disc out of his lab coat. "It's a little present."

"What is it?" Meia looked at the disc, which meant she didn't have to look at Hibiki and confront her shame.

"She called it an 'instructional video' from her youth," said Duerro as the door opened. "Oh, hello, Dita."

"Mister Alien?" Dita looked from Hibiki to Meia and back and back and back. "Leader? I..."

Parfet looked up. "I've got it hooked up."

The door opened again. "I tell you, I have a sense for when something interesting is going to happen and... Leader?"

"It's *my* cabin," Meia informed the small crowd forming.

"Ooooh," said the half-conscious Hibiki.

"I've given him a medication. He should be out of it for a couple of hours." Duerro shrugged. "Hmmmm interesting."

Everyone stared.

"What is she doing to him?" Dita asked in a small voice.

"Males *do* have antennae! See that Barnette?"

"I'm not looking! I'm NOT looking? I'm not... AAAHHHHHH!"

"She's not biting down, but she acts like it tastes good. Hmmmm."

"JURA?!" Barnette was *really* getting alarmed.

Parfet's glasses steamed up for no apparent reason.

Meia tried to swallow past a dry throat. "Uhm. She's... he's..."

"Uh huh." If Dita's eyes had gotten any larger they'd have popped out of their sockets.

"Interesting. This would explain some of the discrepencies in the medical scans," said Duerro with a certain clinical detachment that everyone else immediately envied.

"Isn't it over yet?" whimpered Barnette. Jura was drooling. This was a bad sign.

"It's only been going fifteen minutes," noted Parfet, a technical question allowing her to focus again. "It's a ninety minute video."

"Ice cubes? Oooohh, that might be fun," chortled Jura. "I'll have to check into that."

"Barnette? My sympathies," mumbled Parfet.

The door opened. "Pai-ch.... AKKKK!"

----------

"Her health signs are all OK, she just doesn't seem to respond to stimulus."

"Ribbit."

"That's also the only thing she's saying at this point."

"Ribbit."

"I think it was something to do with the frog puppet in that video."

"Ribbit."

"I should only be concerned if she 'starts trying to catch flies'? I see. Well, I'll let you know if there's any change."

"Ribbit."

"That was the Captain."

"I know. Uhm, Doctor-san?"

"Parfet?"

"Ribbit."

"Uhm, do you think we should... uhm?"

"I don't see why not, we can determine if that video was accurate. Besides, this might shock Paiway out of her current state."

"Ribbit."

"Well, you're the doctor!"

---------

The Aramarian god of mischief smiled to himself and left the Nirvana to continue its journey.

Dita Liebely was being confronted with serious competition and the need to grow up if she were to be taken seriously.

Meia Gisborn was in the process of learning that the world did not need to rest its weight on her shoulders, and that there were other uses for a seriously toned physique besides battle.

Jura Basil Elden was trying to convince Barnette to try some of the more exotic manuevers in that video.

Barnette Orangello was trying to find a way to keep ostrich feathers, ice cubes, hand cuffs, and candles away from Jura.

Hibiki Tokai was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Paiway would eventually recover but never be able to look at her frog puppet again without wanting to gag. On this point at least, there was much rejoicing.

Parfet and Duerro continued to explore a more intimate relationship.

After three days, Meia and Hibiki began spending a lot more time together. After four, Meia and Hibiki and Dita were seen together on more than one occasion. Sometimes joined by Barnette and Jura.

And in one week, where the crew might otherwise have practically mutineed and thrown all the males in the brig?

Well...

-----------

Celtic looked out the laser bars of her cell. "HEY! You can't do this!"

"Not only can we, we did do it," Bart exclaimed, holding a Reg team member and a Beauty team member to himself.

"What part did *you* play?" questioned Duerro. "I must have blinked and missed it."

"Well, uhm... where's Hibiki anyway?" Bart fast-talk special manuever: if you can't win the argument, change the subject.

"Apparently a sleeping beast has awakened and requires frequent feedings," said Duerro.

"Huh?"

Parfet answered Bart. "Apparently Meia is quite aggressive in certain matters."

Bart nodded. "Oh. Oh well. Ladies?"

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just a little omake, folks, nothing to see. move along, move along.