Verona's Past

Gray received instructions from the girls that Major Valen was ready and they were just giving him some pep talks. Gray was honestly afraid to ask for more details on that so instead asked Verona where and when to meet up with Major Valen.

"Major Valen? Who is that?"

Gray cursed himself and had to think of something quick.

"He's my superior officer, but I imagine we'll run into him eventually." This technically wasn't a lie, so while it did sound strange, Verona was not suspicious.

"If you say so, might be interesting to meet someone that can order your lazy butt around even if it's only in a game!" Verona said with a smile.

"I'm not THAT lazy! At least... not anymore..."

"I can't say for sure since I don't see you much on here, but given how loyal your friends are I'd say you're at least working hard enough to earn their trust." Verona said while patting Gray's arm.

Gray blushed slightly and then felt himself shudder as he felt intense killing intent coming from nearby. Looking at the officer's quarters, he saw Yurika peeking at him through the window, her teal twin tails appeared to be bristling and her eyes were red. Next to her, Major Valen stood glaring at Gray, he didn't look angry at all, and that frightened Gray as much as Yurika did.

Gray gulped and started to sweat, Verona turned to look where Gray had looked before and only saw Major Valen smiling nicely and waving at her.

"Oh, there is Gene!" Verona said

"Yeah, well, now is as good a time as ever, I'll take you to our Diamond-Tier rec room and you can meet up with Gene there, it's usually empty at this time of day."

"Ok, I didn't know Gene was a Diamond-Tier."

"He's not, but he has... special status here so he can get in without being escorted by a Diamond-Tier"

"Ok, I'll find somewhere comfortable to relax... um... I do have one question though Gray... Would you consider Gene to be a friend of yours?"

Gray thought about it for a moment, he didn't hate Major Valen, actually felt grateful towards him. From the information and help he gave him earlier with how to setup an independent mercenary group, the advice given, and even his straightforward personality, Gray did like him.

"Yeah, I'd consider him a friend."

"That's good... can you wait close by then just in case?"

Gray was a little confused "Just in case what? Are you afraid he's going to attack you or something?"

Verona laughed "Oh no, not at all! Gene is a giant pussycat, I want you there for him though."

Gray merely nodded and didn't ask for more detail as her saying that was quite ominous to him.

Gray sent out a message to Yurika that said to send Major Valen over to the Diamond-Tier rec room in a minute or two.

Gray paid for Verona and himself to enter the lounge and the door opened up for them.

Seeing Gray pay without even asking her, Verona then pinched Gray's cheek and said, "Glad to see your parents raised you to be polite, but you should also consider the other woman's feelings, I like to at least get a chance to offer to pay for things sometimes."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind then. Remember though, I'm sometimes selfish and I like to take or do what I want." Gray said with a grin.

"Hmm, so since you never tried to take me, does that mean you don't want me?" Verona said teasingly with a seductive smile. She then turned away from Gray before he could respond and added "I'll be over here, sit somewhere out of listening range please."

Verona walked over to the lounge area and sat on a couch with her legs crossed, resting casually.

Gray finally recovered from his stupor and decided to head over to the bar. He has used it once before, but the whole bar experience he found was lacking here as it needed a few more people and a human bartender.

Gray thought to himself "Well, at least the AI bartender doesn't need to be tipped and never gets the drinks wrong, not that it's hard to get a plain fountain drink wrong."

Major Valen appeared in the entryway and walked down the stairs onto the main floor of the rec room. Verona waved to him and called out "Over here Gene!"

Major Valen smiled warmly at her, this creeped Gray out a little as Gray watched him approach her. The only smile Gray had ever seen on Major Valen was the kind one gives when trying to hide their anger.

Verona stood up and hugged Major Valen, although a bit awkwardly as his enthusiasm from earlier seems to have been tamed thanks to Stacia, Xyra, and Yurika.

"Good choice leaving him with them" Gray thought to himself.

Gray watched them both sit down across from each other and then felt it was rude to stare, instead he did his best to listen, but unfortunately he couldn't hear a word so he moved to a corner where the chair looked comfortable and he could rest his eyes. When Gray sat down leaned back, he was suddenly able to hear everything and started trying to figure out why.

Looking up at the ceiling, Gray saw that the lounge and bar shared a curved ceiling that was covered in thin and tightly set terracotta tiles. Behind him was one of the pillars where the ceiling curved more to blend in to it and the opposite pillar was where Major Valen and Verona were sitting.

"Oh come on, I hate making these kinds of moral decisions" Gray said to himself.

Gray's proverbial devil and angel once again appeared on each shoulder. The angel was shaking his head and pointing at a seat away from the pillar, telling Gray to move. The devil was smiling and putting his hands behind his head, telling Gray to just sit back and relax.

Gray flicked the angel on the forehead and sat back to relax as the devil did a victory pose while the angel rubbed its forehead and both faded away. Now Gray only had to not make a sound and he could listen in as if he was sitting next to them.

"It's um... good to see you again Verona." Major Valen said nervously.

"You as well, I'm sorry for making this so difficult on you, having to meet me suddenly and all." Verona said sweetly and she reached out and gave Major Valen's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Not at all! I was slightly afraid you had forgotten about me since you didn't return my call."

"About that..." Verona stopped speaking for a moment as if she wasn't sure how to continue.

"Oh, I got you something." Major Valen said as he reached into his pocket and produced a small white box with a tiny red ribbon on it the placed it on the coffee table in front of Verona.

"You didn't have to do that..." Verona picked up the box and opened it slowly. She revealed a warm smile that was the same smile you give an old friend after seeing them for the first time in many years.

Verona pulled out the gift, it was a simple silver charm bracelet, but only one charm was currently on it, a purple cat sitting up straight. She undid the clasp and put it on her left wrist and then held the cat charm with her right fingers to look at it fondly.

"I used to have this same charm as a young girl... my mother told me I was like a cat... independent, mischievous, and playful. She also said it was because I was picky about who I was affectionate with and had a fickle personality."

Major Valen smiled and scratched the back of his head and reminded himself to give Xyra a lot of merits, as much as he could without looking suspicious.

"That makes this so much harder... I felt I had to tell you in person..."

Major Valen, and even Gray who was eavesdropping, felt their stomachs drop.

"Listen, Gene, you're a great guy but... son of a... I'm sorry, I'm probably sounding like every other girl from the past..."

Major Valen looked down dejectedly.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make it sound like you've been rejected a lot! Really! That came out much worse than I intended it to!" Verona said flustered.

At this point Gray was holding back tears trying not to burst out with laughter as he was clutching his stomach and covering his mouth.

"Verona, don't worry about it... My wife left me years ago. I made a promise to both her and my country, but could only keep one of them."

"That's so..." Verona bit her lip and wanted to reach out to hug Major Valen, but knew it was better not to. Verona then took a deep breath and said, "I married fresh out of college, he was a year ahead of me from the same university. After we were married, he suddenly started working longer hours. I didn't think anything of it at first, but my instincts were screaming something was wrong."

Verona stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts again and then continued, "He came home late one night after I had prepared dinner and was waiting up for him, he smelled of booze and women's perfume. I asked him where he was and he said he had to work late and one of the other guys brought some beer to work to make it go by easier and the perfume was just some body spray he used to make himself fresher through the night. I knew he was lying, but I told myself it could've been true.

Verona started to look very sad as her story continued, "A few more weeks passed like this and I couldn't take it anymore so I followed him to work one day. He left work at his normal time, but instead of heading home, he walked over to a bar 2 blocks away. 30 minutes and he still hadn't came out, so I went in..."

Verona started to become upset as she forced herself to continue, "I saw him, 2 of his coworkers, and 3 girls, barely of drinking age, having a good time together. I saw my husband call one of the girls over and she sat on his lap and kissed him then nuzzled into him. I was furious so I walked over to them, my husband froze, but when the girl in his lap asked who I was, my husband merely said 'I don't know, can I help you miss?'"

A single tear streaked down Verona's cheek and she continued "I returned home, took everything that was mine, even some that was his, and went back to my parent's house. The next day he had sent divorce papers over to my parent's house without even trying to work it out, not that he would have been able to, but I just wanted to scream at him!" Verona's fist slammed into the table.

"I haven't been able to keep a boyfriend once since then, if they lie to me even once I can not trust myself with them. You lied to me about who you are and have lied to me about what you do even. I can understand if you don't want to bring up the job part, but say so instead of lying about it. If you have to lie about who you are, then you aren't ready for a relationship."