The dragons of the cosmos have always been the most fascinating features of the natural universe to Irene, to everyone. It's only thanks to her job that she's been fortunate enough to see more of them than most, working on the main space colony, Area I-143, the home to the Intergalactic Space Federation in its place amongst the stars.

Sometimes, she looks up at the eternal starry sky, well beyond the atmospheric dome that had been developed for their well-being, wondering whether the faraway nebulae and galaxies she spies in the distance truly are what they claim to be— it’s not uncommon for a dragon to be mistaken for various celestial bodies as they roam around the vast expanse of space, and their floating space colony guarantees a great view.

Other times, Irene wonders why she wouldn't just take up the suggestions of the high-ranking soldiers she tends to in the infirmary and emergency room. It always goes the same way: Irene would treat their wounds as they’d lie on the patient beds, and they’d stare at her, utterly transfixed as she would attempt to fix them up before sending them off to the rehabilitation chambers. Several hours later, they'd exit the chamber and get starry-eyed as Irene would read off whatever prescription they'd need. Then, those with dragon partners would ask Irene if she would like to go on a ride through the stars, while those without would ask Irene to wait for them to obtain one (as though every soldier on this floating metal slab is guaranteed a dragon, which simply isn't the case).

Irene sighs into her reverie, resting her elbow into her desk, swiveling in her chair, tapping a pencil against her desk before frowning at all the paperwork that had accumulated. She briefly skims over the top paper, and then the next.

She sighs again.

“Lippie?”

From her wooden perch in the corner of Irene's office, a small red dragon, no bigger than one of earth's lap dogs, looks up at her name being called, tail twitching and bright brown eyes inquiring.

Lip lets out a small noise of acknowledgement to her human partner, standing on her hind legs and cocking her head.

“How much trouble do you think I'd be in if I let you accidentally set all of these important documents on fire?” Irene asks her little companion dryly. To this day, in this age of technology and computers being staples of everyday life, Irene honestly can’t believe they still send her paper forms to sign.

Unsurprisingly, Lip snorts, a small puff of smoke escaping, harmless.

I'd be in much more trouble than you, is what Lip’s sharp eyes say, gleaming. Also, you’re the human. I thought you were the one with all the common sense.

“You're right,” Irene relents, and she extends her arm, clicking her tongue. Lip flies over obediently, scrambling up to sit comfortably around Irene’s shoulders. Once she's settled, Irene smiles, reaching up to scratch her dragon partner's head. “It's already a miracle the higher ups let me have you around in the hospital as my helper in the first place.”

Lip huffs, but she pushes her head against the side of Irene's affectionately, mewing in that unique way that only dragons can.

Thanks for that, by the way. Even if it's been years since then.

Irene laughs softly. She prays that she never takes for granted the mental connection that grows between a dragon and their human partner— she can’t hear the words physically, but one look shared between her and Lip says more than words could ever say.

“Of course,” she replies gently. “You’re my dragon, and I’m not finding another one for the world. I have to say though, thank goodness that you can—”

“Doctor Irene!” Yeri, her recently appointed intern, throws open the door to Irene’s office in haste, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she shifts back and forth. “You’re being asked for to attend to an emergency at the landing docks!”

“I’ll be right there!” Irene calls, pulling on her white lab coat as Lip flies around the room, picking up her tablet and Irene’s glasses before dropping them into Irene grasp as she reperches herself around the doctor’s shoulders. “Yeri, can you transfer the details to me?”

“Yes ma’am,” the younger girl says dutifully, tapping the watch-like communicator strapped around her wrist, an external link to the implant wired into a processor chip embedded into her wrist, planted there at birth, a similar chip planted into every human being. “I’ll do that right now.”

It only takes a brief second for Yeri to command the processor to send Irene the file, and the audio stud in the shell of her inner ear sounds a little ding to announce a new incoming message.

“Thank you, Yeri,” Irene shoots her intern a grateful smile, tapping at her own communicator as she strides out of the room, Lip on her shoulder and Yeri on her heels. A projection of the soon-to-be-patient’s file beams from the device, and her eyes skim through the semantics, “Kang Seulgi, 25, current major of the Intergalactic Federal Military—”

“Actually, she’s a colonel now, ma’am,” Yeri interjects, and Irene pauses mid-stride, raising an eyebrow at the implications behind Yeri’s words and the younger girl’s jittery shifting of her feet. “Just appointed.”

“Oh? She’s a colonel?” Irene shares a look with Lip, the small dragon’s eyes wide with surprise as she flits her wings in excitement. “Wait, so that means…?”

“She brought back a dragon, doctor!” Yeri’s eyes sparkle in anticipation. “And a really rare one at that.”

--

Kang Seulgi is bruised and battered like she’s just crashed into about a dozen different rough-edged meteors by the time Irene finally sees her— or at least, that’s what Irene assumes she has, given how the rather large, and admittedly breathtaking, dragon stands protectively over Seulgi’s heaving body, the dragon’s rider having passed out in her flight suit and unable to call her partner away.

Irene flinches at the loud roar the foreign dragon releases when one of the EMTs tries to get close to Seulgi with the intentions of putting her onto one of the hovering stretchers, levitating above the ground and programmed to smoothly speed a patient to the hospital wing with no bumps during the journey.

Clearly though, the dragon – a foreigner to the space colony – did not understand the EMT’s intentions, growling lowly at the man, untrusting. Irene can’t blame it though— the EMTs looks scary and harmful enough as it is, complete in their gear that remind Irene of the HAZMAT suits described in historical textbooks about the nuclear experiments that had taken place on Earth. Irene swears she’s had multiple meetings with the heads of the medical board about their choice of apparel, and there was a point in time when Irene herself had been told to wear the gear during these types of assignments on the landing docks.

Irene, of course, had shared a look with Lip, who’d flicked her tail in disapproval with the higher ups, and they’d strode up onto the docks with Irene in her signature white lab coat during that first assignment. The same had occurred during the following assignment, and then the next, and by then the medical board had just outright given up on getting their youngest professional doctor to comply and let her do as she wished.

Besides, her reasoning for never wearing the ridiculous-looking gear went much, much deeper than a simple “they look hideous” explanation, although she’d never tell them that.

She couldn’t. Not if she wanted to keep her job, that is.

But that’s a story for another day.

“Lip, I need you to work your magic again,” Irene mutters to her little red dragon, who chirps in acknowledgement. They stand a safe distance away from where the EMTs have gathered around the dragon in an attempt to get it to see reason, Irene biting her lip, nervous from her spot behind several soldiers. Dragons are known to be extremely protective of their partners, even those who have just recently forged a bond. “This one might be a bit more stubborn than the average dragon we’ve dealt with before, but we can’t help Seulgi unless her draconic friend allows us to.”

Lip flaps her wings, taking off but not without a playful squawk.

If I get eaten by this beauty, it’s all your fault.

Irene raises an eyebrow. “Beauty?”

Forget I said anything, is the sharp reply Irene receives from her partner, and the doctor lets out a laugh. Lip always helps with getting away with her nerves— yes, she’s been part of the doctoral staff for about four years now, and yes, she still feels jitters sometimes, especially when the dragons and injuries are particularly… deadly and brutal.

Irene can already tell that this new dragon could easily snap should anyone push its buttons too much.

From where she stands, Irene watches her small dragon do her best to reason with the new dragon, the larger beast visibly seeming to calm down the more Lip converses with it. It’s then that Irene takes the time to observe this new addition to the military’s dragonforce.

It’s absolutely breathtaking, that goes without saying, especially in its calmer state of mind. Irene inhales sharply when she registers the blue nebulae that seems to swirl around its white, blue-tinted scales, something in its eyes seeming to glow with the ferocity of a comet streaking across the sky.

The Earth and its people had gasped and marveled when they’d discovered the presence of the spatial dragons that swirl and twirl and dance amongst the cosmos, oh so very long ago now, but those dragons had become more commonplace. This dragon appeared to be trying its very best to redefine the mere idea of what it meant to be a dragon of the cosmos— Irene has seen nothing like it up close.

Of course, the keywords being “up close.” Irene’s read up on the mysterious and elusive species of the Coronae Australis dragons. She’d used to read the fantastical tales of adventurous travelers making their way through the galaxies and grabbing their chances to glance at the evasive group of dragons, who were known to be incredibly wary of humans (Irene can tell that this myth had turned to be reality).

Now, how Kang Seulgi managed to find a Coronae Australis, let alone bond with one and become partners, Irene has no idea.

Because she’s also read that dragons of the Coronae Australis species were said to have gone extinct some one hundred years ago.

--

It takes a solid fifteen minutes for Lip to convince the new dragon to let the EMTs take Seulgi, the medical technicians setting the newly-appointed colonel onto the hovering stretcher. Irene can’t even see their faces clearly, hidden behind the microglass of their masks, but she can virtually feel their relief in waves.

The stretcher starts its journey to the hospital wing, but not before stopping right in front of Irene— it’s the very reason why Irene is present, as it’s protocol to let a doctor check over the patient first, just in case emergency on-the-stop treatment is required.

Irene takes a careful step towards the stretcher, empathetically clicking her tongue when she peers through the microglass of the flight suit’s helmet and sees Seulgi, still very much unconscious, gritting her teeth in pain.

The doctor bites her lip, knowing that the tight-fitting flight suit probably feels too restrictive.

“Good thing I can bypass the suit’s security system,” she murmurs under her breath, tapping the communicator on her wrist. One of the perks of being a doctor— she gets access to military-imposed restrictions. “Computer?”

“Yes, Irene?” the processor implant asks.

“Scan,” she commands the computer, “then pull up the semantic x-ray of Kang Seulgi and check for any wounds the flight suit is keeping from bleeding out.”

Flight suits were used by all the military’s individuals, regardless of if they manned one of the colony’s many fighter jets or rode into battle on the backs of dragons, designed to be able to sustain a wearer through the vast vacuum known as space. Irene had learned in school that flight suits had once looked large and clunky, worn by Earth’s historical astronauts— those who had first ventured into space. Since then, they’d been altered and made more feasible, allowing for the wearer to be nimble.

“Four broken ribs, left leg broken, and a sprained wrist,” the implant replies a heartbeat later, a projection of Seulgi’s x-ray holographically appearing from Irene’s communicator. “Severe bruising, but no severe bleeding. Proceed to remove Kang Seulgi’s flight suit?”

“Proceed,” Irene confirms. Good, nothing life threatening.

She holds her breath as the pitch-black flight suit’s neon orange highlights flicker briefly before fading out entirely. The doctor watches as the suit retracts itself from Seulgi’s body, retreating into the ring on Seulgi’s left index finger, the black ring gleaming with its amber jewel.

“Initiate the numbing sequence,” Irene says, wasting no time in commencing the automatic numbing procedure, also programmed into the flight suits, which temporarily relieves the patient of pain. Only official doctors of the colony have the authority to initiate the numbing, as it was argued that only doctors have the expertise to know when it’s appropriate.

In her unconscious state, Kang Seulgi takes a shuddering breath, as if feeling relief for the first time in a century. Irene’s positive that perhaps that’s not very far off.

“Okay,” Irene lets out a breath, glad that she’s managed to take some of the weight off Seulgi’s chest. She looks back at the EMTs, nodding at them to accompany the stretcher back to the hospital wing just as Lip flies back over to her shoulder, landing and letting out a puff of smoke. Seulgi’s dragon, who had been watching warily, peers over at Lip and Irene before blowing out a small, blue flame from its mouth.

The dragon then takes off from the docks, soaring up beyond the atmospheric dome and into the cosmos.

I told her to feed herself and recuperate amongst the starlight while she waits for her rider, Lip tells Irene as the doctor strides back towards her workplace. She is tired and starved from the long journey. Seulgi’s trial hadn’t ended when they’d bonded— the return trip was the true hard part, especially when the Reapers showed up.

“Reapers?!” Irene’s gaze whips to look at Lip in alarm, eyes wide at the mention of the enemy alien race who had been wrecking terror on the many peaceful planets and space colonies of all species, humans included. “They interfered with Seulgi’s Trial?”

Her little red dragon nods solemnly.

“Do any military officials know of this?”

I’m sure they’ll know as soon as Seulgi is rested and able to give her testimony, Lip replies grimly, her tail swishing in distress at the very thought. Say nothing of this yet, Irene, the dragon says warningly. We are already at war with the Reapers, and we don’t want anything brash to happen.

Irene chuckles dryly, carrying no humor.

“Well, we all know how reckless some of our soldiers are, running into battle without thinking. Nevertheless, let’s think of this later. We have a colonel to fix first.”

--

“Let’s begin,” Irene instructs, extending her hands out. Around her, the glass walls flicker to life, glowing a deep, bright blue as the miniscule micro-organic units flood into the glass chamber Kang Seulgi now rests in, soundly asleep. On the surrounding walls, more in-depth x-rays of Seulgi’s body are displayed, detailing the breakage of every bone, down to the smallest cracks.

The study of micro-organic surgery is a difficult one— an extremely tolling practice whose education path is known to make or break a career. Expertise in every medical area is required, as well as an intense study of biology, a knowledge of chemistry, a thorough practice of robotics, and not to mention an incredibly steady hand.

“Lip, spot me, okay? Make sure I don’t make a single misalignment,” Irene calls to her companion dragon, who circles the room and observes the blueprints with a keen eye. Meanwhile, Irene begins to manipulate the micro-organic units with a deft hand. “And if it looks like I am, make sure I don’t. We might be working on this one for the better part of the next four hours.”

Irene is nothing short of a prodigy, having completed the necessary requirements for her doctorate at only twenty-four years old, being hired as arguably the most talented and promising doctor soon after. It’s something she takes pride in, and rightfully so.

She's yet to ever fail a patient, and she's not about to fail now.

“Lippie, you became friends with Seulgi’s dragon, didn’t you?” Irene asks as she works diligently at fixing the first of the cracked ribs, fond of keeping a conversation with whoever is in the room at the time in order to keep the atmosphere up.

The red dragon hums.

Friends might be too strong a word. We’re acquaintances.

Irene scoffs teasingly, smiling to herself as she successfully mends the bone.

“Sure, we’ll see how that goes. Anyway, let’s give your new acquaintance nothing to worry about.”

--

The surgery finishes flawlessly a solid three-and-a-half hours later, earlier than Irene had predicted.

As she steps out of the operation room with Seulgi being transported to the rehabilitation chamber, which essentially sped up the resting process more than tenfold, Irene’s greeted by pats on the back and words of congratulations on another job well done. Irene smiles and thanks them, Lip chirping happily.

“Irene!”

Lip lets out a series of excited squeaks at the voice who calls her partner’s name.

“Ah, Wendy!” Irene smiles as Wendy pulls the fellow doctor into a hug. Irene enjoys Wendy, and the younger doctor is probably her best friend in the hospital wing. But while Wendy’s always been rather affectionate with her hugs, this one seems tighter than the others Irene has received. “Whoa, what’s up?”

“Thank you so much,” Wendy tells her gratefully, genuine thanks in her voice and in her eyes as she fiddles with the sleeves with her own lab coat. From her shoulder, Wendy’s companion, a small coral dragon named Chuu, chirps out her own call of gratitude. “For saving Seulgi. Really! She’s one of my best friends, and one of Eunji’s coworkers, and I’d been so antsy ever since she told me she was going off on her Dragon’s Right Trial two weeks ago and we hadn’t heard anything from her.”

“Two weeks?” Irene raises an eyebrow. “That’s twice as long as most Trials take, isn’t it? Partnering with that dragon of hers must have taken her to quite the far reaches of the universe.”

“It definitely took her a far distance,” Wendy sighs. “Her dream from a young age was to find the Coronae Australis, and I’m glad she’s achieved it.”

“That’s… awfully specific,” Irene says, almost amused. She then lets out a small giggle as Wendy’s coral colored dragon swoops off the younger doctors shoulders, hovering near Irene as she attempts to converse with Lip. The fellow companion dragons squabble for a brief moment, as if arguing, before Lip huffs a puff of smoke and ducks to hide behind Irene’s hair like a curtain. “Any particular reason why?”

“Chuu, get back here! And I’m not sure.” Wendy furrows her brow as her dragon scrambles back onto her shoulders. “Seulgi and I met back in high school. She told me it had been a childhood goal of hers, but I hadn’t gotten the reason out of her— not for lack of trying, mind you.”

“I see…”

“Well, I’m glad she’s returned in one piece!” Wendy pauses. “Er, at least mostly in one piece.”

“We kept her together,” Irene says kindly, and Wendy laughs.

“Yes, yes you did.”

--

When Yeri barges into Irene’s office for the second time that day, Lip actually falls from her place with a shrill shriek of shock. The companion dragon squawks indignantly at Irene’s sudden boisterous laughter as she flaps her way back up to her perch, complete with a sharp glare towards a sheepish looking Yeri.

“Sorry, Lip,” the intern hastily apologizes. Lip only exhales a small bout of smoke, swooping over to a snickering Irene, who tries to steel her expression as her dragon lands on her shoulders.

“She’s fine, Yeri,” Irene says between giggles.

Lip scoffs.

I most certainly am NOT—

“She’s really fine,” Irene repeats for emphasis, at which Lip sulks and gives up. “Anyway, what are you here for, Yeri?”

“I just wanted to let you know that the computers have reported rapid activity in Kang Seulgi’s brain,” Yeri says, tapping nervously on the tablet she has clutched in her grasp, “suggesting that she’ll be waking up soon. I’ve been told that you like being present when your patients come out of the rehabilitation chamber, so I thought I’d let you know.”

“Ah, yes, thank you, Yeri,” Irene smiles at her intern, who all but beams back before disappearing through the doorway to attend to another doctor’s call. “Yeri was right, I do like being around.” She clicks her tongue. “Ready, Lip?”

At the sound, Lip nods, swooping around the room to grab Irene’s tablet and glasses before flying to the top of the tall bookshelf the doctor kept in the corner of the room. The little dragon grabs a small lollipop from the glass bowl kept stashed above, and she’s about to return dutifully to Irene before she pauses, grabbing a second lollipop from the bowl.

The dragon then proceeds to obediently drop the tablet and glasses into Irene’s hands, waiting until the doctor’s specs were firmly on her face before offering Irene the red-colored lollipop.

Irene smiles, taking the lollipop gratefully and popping it into .

“Who’s the other one for?” Irene asks as she walks out of the room, Lip on her shoulder like usual.

Kang Seulgi, Lip replies, tilting her horned, scaly head. She’s been through a lot these past two weeks.

“You can say that again,” Irene chuckles. She reaches up to pat her small dragon adoringly. “And thank you, Miss Lip, for being so very, very thoughtful.”

And just like a cat, Lip purrs with pride.

--

When Kang Seulgi’s eyes flutter open for the first time in a long time, she’s greeted with the sound of hissing, like air escaping, and the glass doors in front of her slide open.

Wait, glass doors?

You somehow made it out alive, Kang, the little voice in the back of her head says, and Seulgi throws her head back, feeling the comfortable cushions of the rehabilitation chamber. Yeah, she’s been here before; basically every soldier has, it’s virtually impossible not to. She blinks her bleary eyes, rubbing at them with balled fists, groaning slightly at the dull ache in her body— not too painful, as it fades as soon as it comes, and suddenly she’s wide, wide awake as the sound of someone giggling enters her ears.

“Wakey-wakey,” a soft voice says, and Seulgi doesn’t even think, merely takes the outstretched hand offer to her, lets the owner pull her up and out of the chamber, into the bright florescent lights of the hospital wing.

She’s not expecting the face of Doctor Bae Irene to be the first face she sees— as well as the inquiring gaze of a small red dragon peeking out from around the doctor’s shoulder.

Seulgi’s well-aware that she should be alive, but there’s an angel right in front of her, so perhaps she’s not one hundred percent sure she’s not dead yet. At the very least, she must be in limbo.

“You had quite the rough ride back,” the doctor says matter-of-factly, looking over at Seulgi to see if she’d respond, only to find the soldier in a dumbstruck state. Seulgi flushes as Irene laughs gently, pulling up two different projections, one pre-procedure and one post-procedure.

Amongst her fellow soldiers, Doctor Bae Irene is nothing short of a goddess in a human’s body, known for her gorgeous appearance and kind personality. While Seulgi’s never had Irene be her doctor before – she’s simply never been injured this badly in previous years – she’s heard tales from her peers about what it’s like to be in Irene’s treatment, with the most used word during these recounting being “blessed.”

“Cat got your tongue?” Irene asks with a small smirk as she circles Seulgi where the soldier now stands in the middle of the room, looking over her recovered body for no signs of physical strain. Just the question alone is enough to send Seulgi into a stuttering mess.

“N-no!”

Irene raises an eyebrow as she jots down a few notes into her tablet, before Seulgi hears the doctor order her processor to scan, without a doubt talking to her implant. Seulgi's always been curious of what functions a doctor's implant has programmed in, without a doubt having different functions than to those of a soldier. Seulgi had prided herself in her knowledge of her own processor implant, having used it to stay out of too much immense danger by scanning the battlefields for foes.

She frowns. Nevertheless, the scanner in her retina hadn't been enough on her return trip of her Trial-- the Reapers had somehow hidden their frequency, causing them to be undetectable by the super-computer quite literally living inside Seulgi's body. That had been… incredibly concerning. She'd have to talk with the higher ups about that pressing matter.

“Are you always this quiet around people you just met, Colonel?” Irene's playful voice is what draws Seulgi out of her reverie, and Seulgi had finished her academic education long ago but somehow, she feels like a student all over again, having been caught daydreaming about the pretty teacher.

“I swear I'm not,” Seulgi insists weakly, though she blinks in surprise when the little red dragon draped around Irene's shoulder snorts in amusement. “Um…?”

“Ignore her,” is what Irene says to the unasked question, and Seulgi nods obediently.

“She's a very beautiful dragon though,” Seulgi says earnestly, and it’s true. While red nebulae dragons were not known to be the most uncommon in color, Irene’s dragon seemed to sparkle like rubies. The corner of Seulgi’s lip quirks up at the way Irene's dragon freezes for a heartbeat, only to let out a small squeak of embarrassment before scrambling to hide behind Irene's hair.

“This is Lip, my companion dragon,” Irene says with a giggle, reaching up to pat Lip on the head before typing a few notes onto her tablet. “She helps me out around the hospital. I’m Irene, one of the surgeons here. Although…” she glances over Seulgi in her wide-eyed expression, giggling again, “It looks like you might've already known that.”

Seulgi coughs into a fist.

“I've uh, had peers who you’ve treated before. They said you were the best.”

“Is that so?” Something about Irene's slight smirk almost makes Seulgi want to melt in a puddle, because there was no way Irene doesn’t know about her reputation amongst the soldiers. “And what are your thoughts, Colonel?”

“I think the very fact that I was basically bent in half a few hours ago, and now I’m walking and standing in front of you as good as new speaks more than my words ever could,” Seulgi replies, hoping that Irene can sense her sincerity.

“Oh, so you do know your way around with words!” Irene teases not unkindly, laughter dancing in her doe-like eyes. Lip chirps before taking off and circling the top of the room, spreading her wings. Meanwhile, Irene comes to stand in front of Seulgi, who hopes the slightly older woman can’t hear the way her breath hitches when Irene comes in close. “I’m impressed, Colonel.”

“I just needed… a little time to gain my bearings,” Seulgi says, her voice coming out breathily as she in her stomach, as if afraid that Irene will disappear should she so much as make one wrong move.

“Scan,” Irene mutters, once again calling upon her processor implant. There’s a full moment of dead silence as the processor takes in data, before Irene pulls away with a smile and Seulgi can finally breathe properly again. “Sorry, I just wanted an up-close scan of your brain. Just making sure there’s no damage… Anyway! You amuse me, Colonel.”

“You keep calling me that,” Seulgi furrows her brow, frowning. “But I’m… not a Colonel…?”

Irene chuckles, clicking her tongue and calling Lip back to her shoulder.

“You came back having bonded with a dragon, did you not?” Irene says thoughtfully, Lip’s head and causing her companion to purr. “If you haven’t been promoted already, then you’re definitely due for one. That’s how the promotion from a major to a colonel works?”

“I—” Seulgi snaps shut. She’d completely forgotten about that part. All this time, she’s been working her way up to a major because only majors could take the Trial, in which they were able to go out and explore the galaxies in order to find a dragon and bond as partners with them. Upon their return to the colony, they’d be promoted from being a major to a colonel, and somewhere along the way, Seulgi had forgotten. She’d been so focused on finding a Coronae Australis that—

“I suppose I’ve been promoted?” Seulgi bites the inside of her cheek. “Yeah… that’s how our military works… yeah…”

Irene throws her head back and laughs, shaking her head in a type of fondness. “Well, I’ll be the first to give you my congratulations then.” She motions to Lip vaguely, who swoops from her arm and chatters excitedly.

Seulgi blinks in surprise as the little red dragon holds out an orange lollipop to her.

“A lollipop for your troubles,” Irene explains with a gentle giggle. “Take it! It’s a present from Lip, and by extension, from me too.”

Seulgi’s still speechless as she carefully takes the candy from Lip’s grasp. She finds the companion dragon looking up at her expectantly, and understanding the unspoken message, Seulgi pulls off the wrapper and pops the lollipop into , humming in appreciation.

“How did you know that orange is my favorite flavor?” Seulgi asks, lollipop melting in , beaming, and Lip lets out a small puff of fire in delight.

--

After telling Seulgi that she’d need to come in with a follow-up check-in the next day, Irene decides to walk with the soldier girl to the entrance of the hospital wing, explaining that she’s already technically in overtime, and that her coworkers will yell at her if she spends any more time in the hospital instead of resting.

“They won’t let me take any more patients today,” Irene explains, crossing her arms in annoyance as Seulgi chuckles in understanding.

“They just want the best for you,” Seulgi says reasonably as they walk, briefly stopping by Irene’s office so that she can deposit her lab coat on her coatrack for the next day. “They don’t want you overworking yourself and falling asleep at your desk or something.” A shrug rolls off her shoulder, a sheepish grin on her features. “I guess I’m a bit hypocritical though. My peers are always scolding me for staying too late as well. Wendy calls me every day when my hours are up to make sure I leave.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Irene says, finding herself agreeing easily.

Meanwhile, Lip rolls her eyes and butts her head against Irene’s.

I always tell you not to stay too late, but you don’t listen to me!

“I got my stubbornness from you,” Irene reminds the little dragon, a smirk gracing her features, and Lip snaps her jaws playfully.

Fair point.

“The two of you get along really well,” Seulgi observes with a light laugh. “How long has Lip been your companion dragon?”

“She’s officially been my companion dragon for… 8 years?” Irene shares a glance with Lip, who shrugs her shoulders at the questioning tone in Irene’s voice. “I think that’s when she officially became my companion dragon, because I signed the forms for her as soon as I legally could, at eighteen. Honestly though, we’ve known each other for much longer. My father brought an egg home one day, when I was around eight-years-old.”

“And Lip came from that egg?” Seulgi asks as they approach the entrance. At Irene’s nod, a wide smile spreads across Seulgi’s face. “That’s so cool! So you two basically grew up together?”

“Something like that,” Irene says with a light chuckle. “She’s my best friend, and… really my only family in the colony.” She spies the surprise on Seulgi’s face and quickly explains. “My family went back down to earth around ten years ago. I visit them occasionally, but that’s only about once a year.”

“I see,” Seulgi nods slowly. “I get it, really.”

There’s no further explanation, but there’s something about the way Seulgi’s expressive eyes meet hers, and Irene settles for humming and nodding instead of probing for details, content with Seulgi’s genuine empathy.

“I hope Soul and I can become as close as you and Lip,” is what Seulgi says instead.

“Soul?”

“Ah, that’s the name of my dragon,” Seulgi explains with a grin, undoubtably proud of the creature she’d bonded with. “I want to become really good friends with her!”

“Oh!” Irene thinks back to the beautiful dragon, standing tall and protective over Seulgi’s form. Without a doubt, the ethereal dragon is already well attached to Seulgi. “That’s the Coronae Australis! I don’t think you have much to worry about in terms of becoming friends. She seems to care for you a lot already.”

“That makes me glad,” Seulgi says, nodding. “That makes me really happy. Would you… would you like to meet her, Irene?”

Irene freezes.

“As a thanks,” Seulgi says quickly. “As a thank you for fixing me up.”

Lip fixes her human partner with a hard stare, something akin to a challenge in the dragon’s eyes.

Irene.

“I… I think I’d like that,” Irene says slowly, looking up to meet Seulgi’s eyes, and Lip nuzzles her head against the doctor’s cheek. “I… I’m curious about her, not going to lie.”

“Do you want to study her?” Seulgi asks, and Irene has to admit that she perks up at the idea. “Like, make observations? It can be tomorrow, after you get off— or whenever your coworkers make you stop,” she jokes.

“That would be great!” Irene says, a hint of gratefulness seeping into her tone that Lip catches onto, wrapping her tail around Irene’s left arm comfortingly. “I’d like that a lot!”

--

“You’re a real idiot, Kang Seulgi,” Wendy chides her childhood friend who’d just walked out of Irene’s office the following day, pushing the taller girl backwards with a hand. Chuu the coral dragon, growls as menacingly as she can, which is sufficing to say, not very intimidating.

Irene giggles under her breath with Lip at the sight of the shorter doctor and ever smaller dragon glaring at the shell-shocked soldier.

Meanwhile, Seulgi is an absolute stuttering mess.

“W-Wendy! I-I’m sorry…?”

“You actual idiot! You were here all yesterday, and you didn’t even think about catching up with me?! You were only gone for two whole weeks with no contact.”

“I’m sorry! I-I was occupied! I promise I’ll remember next time!”

“Next time,” Wendy scoffs, crossing her arms. “Next time, you don’t come back half dead.”

“There wasn’t actual anything too lethal—” Irene interjects, attempting to help Seulgi out, just a little.

“Not the point, Doctor Bae!”

Irene holds up her hands in surrender.

Seulgi gulps, desperately trying to calm down the unusually fiery Wendy.

“I swear, I’ll keep you updated next time!”

“Oh, you better,” Wendy eyes the soldier, squinting. “Or I’ll have Eunji dump all her paperwork on you, and you can have a field day with it, Kang Seulgi.”

--

“Wendy can be scarier than I imagined,” Irene comments as she absently glances at her watch, checking the time. It’s nighttime currently, Seulgi having had her follow-up appointment as Irene’s last item on the schedule for the day, and the doctor leisurely next to Seulgi as they make their way to the landing docks.

“She’s often like this whenever I slip up,” Seulgi says, laughter laced in her tone. “She can be pretty terrifying is she wants to; Eunji as well.”

It’s an interesting experience, Irene realizes, as Seulgi scans her fingerprints into the system and the metal doors slide open. They walk through the tunnel leading to the docks, and Irene comes to the revelation that she’s never been this relaxed when approaching this area in a while— every single time she’s been summoned to the docks, someone has always been injured.

They step out of the overhang, out onto the open area, and Irene looks up at the endless sky of stars— their Milky Way Galaxy stretching out as far as the eye could see, looking vast but feeling small at the same time. Sometimes, Irene used to wonder what the earlier humans would think; the ones that could travel into space but with difficulty, having trouble even getting to Mars. Irene can hardly imagine it, having visited many different galaxies herself, and she’s only twenty-eight.

She’s broken out of her thoughts by the distant roar of a dragon, and she forces herself to remain relaxed.

A bright light streaks out of the sky from beyond the atmospheric dome, slowing as it approaches closer and closer to the metal flooring of the landing docks.

“Soul!” Seulgi calls out to the dragon that had just landed, walking towards the giant beast who waited patiently for her partner to reach her. Seulgi smiles gently, reaching out to her mane with her right hand, laying her left on the dragon’s muzzle in a soothing manner the moment the creature spots Irene with Lippie perched around her shoulder, two relatively unfamiliar faces. “How was your meal? Did you catch that trail of stars you’d spotted the other day?”

The dragon lets out a low rumble that has Seulgi tipping her head back to laugh.

“I’m glad you had your fill!”

Meanwhile Irene gasps in awe as she witnesses the sight that is that was the Coronae Australis Draconis— perhaps the rarest of all the dragons of their known universe.

With their glimmering white scales with its unique blue sheen, the Coronae Australis dragons were known for their outstanding beauty, glowing with the very sparkle of starlight themselves with the wispy blue cloud that seemed to embody their very being with their own nebula. While it wasn’t unusual for many dragon species, in their wonderful astronomical glories, to be mistaken for nebulae and cosmos from a distance, never again has something like this been seen up close.

Yet as beautiful as they were, the Coronae Australis were powerful. Irene still remembers the days in her youth, reading about the very, very few encounters anyone has had with the species, and simply being in awe of their prowess— they simply are one with the stars, and as far as Irene knows, no other being in the universe has the ability to spew pure starfire from their jaws, or summon the cosmos to orbit about them.

As a species, they’d been nearly hunted to extinction over a hundred years ago by the Reapers, and while the humans had gained the trust of virtually every dragon race with their acts of respect, the Coronae Australis remained wary of all races, no matter Human, Reaper, Asari, Drell, or whatever.

And yet here stood one now, right in front of Irene, in its white-scaled, blue nebula glory, staring at Irene in intrigue and mild reservation.

“Soul, this is Irene,” Seulgi tells her dragon softly, calmingly as she its mane. “And that little one on her shoulders is Lip, a dragon just like you. Irene was the doctor who saved me, Soul. She’s the one who healed me back up really quick so that I could get back to flying with you.”

The dragon lets out a huff, spewing a cloud of starlight from her nostrils, almost akin to a nod. She holds on to Irene’s wide-eyed stare, cocking her head in a questioning manner.

“Irene wants to study you,” Seulgi continues, but upon her dragon partner stiffening, Seulgi quickly explains. “Not in any intrusive way, I promise, Soul! Sorry, I used the wrong word. Irene just wants to observe you— your kind are super rare and you’re the first of your species to be here in the colony, Soul! That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”

The white-scaled creature huffs again, although Irene senses a bit more understanding this time around.

“I-I won’t be getting too close either!” Irene manages to stammer out. “I… I feel better looking at you from a bit of a distance. I promise I won’t intrude!”

The dragon blinks, clearly not expecting that. She swings her massive head over to Seulgi, and Irene’s not sure she’s ever seen a dragon shrug before, but she’s pretty sure that’s what the colonel’s partner just did.

“She says it’s fine if you and Lippie want to get closer,” Seulgi says with a chuckle, patting her dragon’s muzzle again in thanks. “Her full name is Jinsoul, by the way. That’s her real name, at least, but I’ve been calling her Soul as a nickname. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

“She’s absolutely breathtaking,” Irene agrees wholeheartedly and Jinsoul preens, b with pride. Irene only giggles a little, taking two steps forward but not daring to get any closer. Here is good enough. She pulls out her old-fashioned notebook full of sketches and notes. “I’m fine from here.”

Lip clicks her tongue, chattering from Irene’s shoulder almost in disappointment. Irene glares at her red-scaled companion briefly before producing a pencil from her pocket.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she scolds, and Lip only sighs, taking off from Irene’s shoulder to fly over to Soul, looking terribly small in comparison. The smaller dragon hovers around Soul, as if observing her, to which the larger dragon her head in intrigue. A second later, Lip perches herself on the bridge of Soul’s nose, and Irene can’t help but be reminded of those pictures of butterflies on Earth, perching themselves on large animals.

“They’re getting along well,” Seulgi says with a small chuckle, bringing Irene out of her reverie. The soldier leisurely makes her way over to where Irene sits cross-legged on the ground, taking a seat next to her and making herself comfortable. “Are you sure you don’t want to get closer? I’m sure you’d be able to study Soul better up close.”

“Trust me, Seulgi,” Irene smiles warily. “I’d be closer if I could, but um…” She shrugs, not really wanting to elaborate too much to this new person. “I just can’t right now.”

Much to her surprise, Seulgi doesn’t push further. She just hums and nods, not asking for more details but simply accepting the response as it’s given.

“Well then I guess I’ll have to keep you company back here then,” Seulgi says resolutely, and at her words, a smile plays on Irene’s lips.

“Thank you, Seulgi.”

--

“So why’d you decide to you a sketchbook instead of your tablet?” Seulgi asks later, still sitting next to Irene, the doctor in a state of deep concentration. Seulgi watches in awe as the young doctor meticulously recreates a strikingly faithful representation of Soul’s side profile in nothing but pencil against paper. “Wouldn’t it be easier?”

“It would be,” Irene admits with a slight smile. She taps Seulgi’s arm instead, drawing her attention to the rest of the sketchbook as she flips through the pages, each one filled with an analysis and sketch of the various species of dragons. “But I’ve had this thing going for years. I used to spend all my time as a kid doodling in a sketchbook my father gave me, and I picked up this one during college to do something similar.”

“Did you see the dragons up close when you were a kid?” Seulgi inquires.

The doctor nods, her mind fleetingly drifting off to her easy days as a child. “My father worked for the military as well. He used to bring me to the landing docks all the time. He introduced me to his peers and their dragons… I used to love his dragon as well. I used to jump at the opportunity to help groom his dragon… I had so much fun,” she says wistfully. “Of course, things changed after that, but I still have those happy memories.”

“I see…” Seulgi trails off, glancing at Irene before letting her gaze wander to where Lip and Soul continue to chatter animatedly to each other, Lip gliding in circles around Soul. The much larger dragon lets out a peal of laughter after something Lip says, easily twisting and turning around to keep the small red dragon in sight. “That sounds like a really great childhood, Irene.”

“It was,” Irene admits. “I was really fortunate.”

Seulgi bobs her head, humming a tune she’d heard on the processor implant’s radio channel earlier that morning, as she’d patrolled the border of the colony

“I didn’t… I didn’t grow up with my parents,” Seulgi says lowly, as if telling a secret. Irene’s gaze whips around to her so fast that Seulgi’s almost worried she got whiplash.

“You… you didn’t?”

The soldier shakes her head. She sits up, freeing her hands from where they’d been propping herself up, and she thumbs the amber jewel of the black ring on her left index finger, where her flight suit lay hidden, waiting for her to go flying once again.

“They died when I was ten years old,” Seulgi says, her voice quiet. “Both my mother and father had been soldiers as well. They died in a brutal battle against the Reapers. They’d both been majors, in an elite fleet of fighter pilots. They… they definitely could have gotten dragons of their own they wanted to. I was told by my commander that they’d been more than skilled enough.”

Irene her head imploringly, ready to listen. “Then why didn’t they?”

“It… it has to do with why I was so bent on finding Soul,” Seulgi explains softly. “My family line is actually tied with the Coronae Australis— we used to be allies around two hundred years ago. But everything changed when humans and other alien races started hunting them down for their scales or their powers, working them to premature deaths. They grew so incredibly distrustful of everyone, but my ancestors remained in their good graces. In order to protect the remaining Coronae Australis, they sent them far, far away, to the most distant reaches of the universe to hide, and the human race had never seen one ever since.”

“That’s why they’re so rare,” Irene murmurs in understanding.

“Yes. I… I wanted to bond with one so bad— wanted to finally meet Soul, because they’re my last tie to my family,” Seulgi whispers. “I was my parents’ only child. And sure, maybe I have ancestors on earth, but they haven’t experienced space like I have; like the dragons have.”

“And so you wanted that piece of your family with you,” Irene concludes. The look on the doctor’s face is soft as she reaches over to take Seulgi’s hand. “That’s why you risked your life by going so far to finally find Soul and bond with her.”

Seulgi nods. “When… when I finally met Soul, there was something that just clicked. We took one look at each other, standing on a distant planet of Area Z-23, and it felt like so many things made sense, you know? Like instead of me just looking for Soul, she’d been waiting for me too.”

“That’s a very special feeling,” Irene says gently, and Seulgi exhales a breath, a smile on her face. “You two are going to treasure each other, I just know it.”

“I feel that way too,” Seulgi beams, watching as it’s echoed right back at her on Irene’s face as the doctor comes to smile as well. “Thank you, Irene.”

“Me? For what?”

“For listening to me. I feel… lighter.”

--

“For a little dragon, Lip sure can zip around fast,” Seulgi comments a good thirty minutes later. She and Irene have taken up standing, feeling their legs grow numb from sitting too long. They watch as Soul and Lip fly through the air, Lip looking that much smaller in comparison to Soul’s enormous wingspan, but the little red dragon manages to keep up nonetheless. “If she were a larger dragon, she’d easily be able to out speed nearly anything.”

Irene laughs, a melodious sound that resonates through the otherwise empty landing docks, echoes and bounces off the metal structures, ringing through the area like bells chiming.

“Don’t tell Lip that,” she says warningly, although her joking demeanor is given away the moment she smothers down another giggle for the solemn statement of, “she might get ideas.”

Seulgi raises an eyebrow at the serious undertone but pushes no further. In the two days she’s known Doctor Bae Irene, Seulgi’s come to the conclusion that the slightly older woman has her fair share of secrets, with every right to keep them to herself. If there’s one thing that Seulgi can identify with, it’s not being ready to open up— she’s not even quite sure what made her want to tell Irene, but there’s something about the doctor that makes her feel calm.

They lapse into silence, merely observing their two dragons flit around the open air, just below the boundaries of the atmospheric dome.

Surprisingly, it’s Irene who decides to fill the space.

“Seulgi?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s it like to fly on the back of a dragon?”

That’s certainly not a question Seulgi had been expecting.

“Well,” Seulgi takes a breath, staring up at the eternal starry sky, the cosmos that extends on wards forevermore. “It feels weightless, I think. I mean, I’m still getting used to Soul – she flies much, much faster than the dragons in the simulations we would use in training – but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so free. The first time I flew with her around one of the nearby planets when we’d first met, I came to the realization that with Soul, I can go anywhere in the universe that I want.”

Irene’s voice is soft when she replies.

“That sounds really nice,” she says, her tone almost a whisper, and Seulgi has to strain her ears to hear it. “That sounds really, really nice.”

--

Seulgi walks Irene back to the doctor’s apartment an hour later, after their conversation had taken a drastic turn, and they’d begun discussing the logistics of the current model of flight suits, Irene wanting to know Seulgi’s opinion on their efficiency. The soldier had replied with the very few qualms of her own with the suit, briefly touching on how helpful the numbing sequence would be should the pilots themselves have access to them, before quickly clarifying that she understood that pilots would be that much more reckless should they have admittance.

“Honestly, I was thinking about that,” Irene had admitted, a troubled look crossing her face. Seulgi thinks she looks adorable, with the way she scrunches her nose in thought. “Perhaps we’re not trusting our pilots enough?”

“Maybe it could be tested through an aptitude test?” Seulgi had suggested in turn. “It could determine how trustworthy our pilots are by testing under what circumstances they’d utilize the numbing sequence.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” Irene had nodded, puffing out a cheek as her troubled features relax. “I’ll bring it up to my superiors at the next board meeting.”

“See?” Seulgi had said proudly, crossing her arms and standing up straight. She shoots Irene a look, who returns with an entertained eyebrow raise, before she grins up at Soul in pride. The blue dragon seemed to be amused as well, fixating her rider with her intelligent eyes. “I can come up with good ideas sometimes!”

Soul had huffed stardust in a blue cloud of sparkles, dipping her head playfully and nudging her head into Seulgi’s stomach. The human had laughed as her connection to her dragon thrived, spinning and pulsating.

I’m partnered with a dork.

“You love me anyway,” Seulgi had smirked.

They reach the Irene’s door, Seulgi rocking on her heels as the doctor scans her fingerprints on the touch-activated door, a keypad projecting onto its surface that Irene taps a 6-digit passcode into. There’s a sound of whooshing, and the door slides open a moment later.

Irene peers over her shoulder, Lip swishing her tail from her spot on Irene’s shoulder.

“Do you want to come in?” Irene asks.

It takes all of Seulgi’s willpower to not eagerly accept the proposal, a quick glance at the time from the communicator on her wrist telling her that it simply was too late, and Seulgi can see the amusement on Irene’s face as Seulgi deflates in front of her.

“I wish I could, but my higher ups put me on for dawn patrol tomorrow morning,” Seulgi mutters. She wrings her hands out behind her, rocking to and fro again. It’s a shame, really. She likes Irene; she’s fascinating. There’s always something to talk about – Irene is just so well-versed in basically all areas – and Seulgi has no doubt that should she had the time, she and Irene would’ve stayed up all night, talking about everything from their jobs, to the technology, to life on the space colony, to their dragons, and more.

“That’s alright,” Irene says kindly, and she must see the hint of guilt that slips into Seulgi’s expression, because she shoots the soldier a genuine smile, waving off any concern with a wave of her hand. “We’re both on this colony anyway, there will be a next time.”

A sheepish shrug rolls off Seulgi’s shoulders, and she chuckles.

“I mean, now that I’ve been promoted, you’ll probably see me in the hospital wing more often.”

“Not too much, I hope,” Irene says, quirking an eyebrow.

Seulgi throws up a salute. “I’ll do my best, Doctor Bae!”

Irene giggles. “Well, when you do, Lip and I will be there, probably with a lollipop in hand.” She taps Seulgi’s shoulder lightly. “Stay safe, Colonel Kang.”

Seulgi nods solemnly.

“Will do, Doctor Bae.”

--

They don’t see each other for the rest of the week, and Irene can’t help but be disappointed. In the two days filled with the brunt of their interactions, she’d gotten fond of Seulgi, Irene had to admit. The colonel was unlike any other military personal she’d ever met— a strange duality that Irene had yet to see in any of the many, many soldiers she’s treated in her operating chamber, or even on a generic patient’s bed.

She can tell that Seulgi takes her profession incredibly seriously – she can only imagine the pressures set on Seulgi’s shoulders as a newly promoted colonel – but at the same time, when she’s with Irene, Seulgi is relaxed, no tension in her shoulders— well, after that first stuttering meeting, of course. Seulgi reminds her of water, of the running streams and rivers that Irene has seen during her visits to Earth, that twist and turn according to their surroundings, changing and adapting to their environments.

“Doctor?” It’s Yeri that interrupts her reverie, and Irene looks up from her paperwork at the same time Lip does. “You’re needed, Doctor Bae!”

Somehow, it’s not surprising that they’re reunited in the infirmary the following Monday.

Lip coos, swooping away from Irene and flying over to the soldier who the companion dragon had also grown fond of. Lip manages to maneuver her way under Seulgi’s good right arm, and Seulgi chuckles, using her uninjured hand to pet the little red dragon tenderly.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be back here so soon, Colonel,” Irene jokes as she walks over to the hospital bed Seulgi had been directed to by one of the nurses, now donning a temporary sling over her left shoulder.

Irene ignores the way something jumps in her chest at how Seulgi grins so brightly at her arrival.

“I missed you, Doctor,” Seulgi replies, a full-on eye smile basically blinding.

From where she still lies in Seulgi’s lap, Lip snorts, you both are disgusting, though neither of the adults acknowledge it, and the small dragon laughs to herself, red tail twitching.

--

“Do you want to go under for the procedure?” Irene asks as she strides around the glass chamber that Seulgi currently lies in, the surrounding glass walls of the room glowing blue as they light up with the schematics of Seulgi’s broken arm.

Lip flies around above, swirling around the ceiling before gently tapping one of the diagrams, zooming in on the crack in Seulgi’s arm before shooting a thumbs up, which Irene returns with a grateful smile.

“Is the other option staying conscious?” Seulgi asks, albeit warily. Irene can understand, given how the only other time Seulgi’s needed to be in the operation chamber, she had been unconscious beforehand. “Does it hurt?”

“Not at all,” the doctor replies comfortingly. “We’ve got your arm numbed, so you won’t feel a single thing, I promise. Typically, it’s only required for patients to be put unconscious when it’s a higher risk injury, such as your broken ribs from before. Your broken arm has pretty low-risk, so you have the option to stay awake.”

“Will I be seeing things that will make me scared of my own body?” Seulgi asks again, hesitantly.

Irene tips her head back and laughs, shaking her head.

“No, everything happens inside of the body,” she explains patiently, patting the glass chamber gently. “You won’t see a thing, I promise.”

Seulgi nods, considering her options.

“Well… I guess I’ll stay awake then. You’ll talk to me, right?” The soldiers eyes shift uneasily, only to find comfort in the understanding and assurance when she meets Irene’s gaze.

“Of course,” Irene says gently. It’s not the first time she’s had to comfort a patient— as tough as soldiers are, more often than not, the hospital wing and its complexities can seem terrifying, with their white walls and pristinely clean nature. She shoots Seulgi a smile. “You can keep Lip and I company!”

--

“So,” Seulgi says a good ten minutes later, the glass of the chamber around her glowing with a light blue sheen as Irene maneuvers the micro-organic units with her hands. Sure enough, just like Irene had promised, she can’t feel a thing as the doctor does her work, and she allows herself to relax. “Just what are these ‘micro-organic units’ you mentioned? They’re what entered my body, right?”

Irene nods with a hum, her hands moving the units like second nature.

“Think of them like little nanobots that enter your body by absorbing themselves through your skin,” Irene offers as an explanation, continuing only when she sees Seulgi nodding in understanding. “They have many purposes, one of which being that they can fill breakage in bones. So, they enter your body, I manipulate them into fixing what needs to be fixed, and then they leave the way they came: through the skin. Think like how water leaves the body through sweat.”

“I see,” Seulgi nods once more. “That’s surprisingly simple. I mean, I’m sure they’re complex creations – they have to be in order for this to work and whatnot – but their premise is simple to understand.”

“That’s what I like about them too,” Irene says. “I like how efficient and simple in premise they are, but how they can save lives just like that.”

“Simple is good,” Seulgi concludes.

“Simple is good,” Irene agrees.

Lip chatters in agreement.

--

“So, what happened?” Irene asks, twenty minutes in. She motions to the broken arm that she’s nearly done mending, and Seulgi blinks, having gotten momentarily lost in her own thoughts. “Don’t tell me you just fell down the stairs or something.”

Seulgi chuckles, shaking her head.

“No, though I wish it was simple like that.” The soldier sighs, mind wandering back to her scouting mission earlier that day. It had only been a relatively small skirmish, with only two Reapers having been found, but the fact that they were there at all is nothing short of a major concern. “We found two Reapers within our boundaries, and a fight broke out. They… they had dragons of their own, and one of them threw me off Soul’s back.”

Irene inhales sharply, hands shaking, and Seulgi whips her head to the side to look at Irene in worry. Meanwhile, Lip clambers down from the stool where she’d been resting to place her small clawed-hands on her partner’s leg.

“Irene?”

“So what happened next?” Irene’s voice sounds strained, and the way she takes deep breaths has Seulgi furrowing her brow in concern. “Seulgi, what happened after that?”

“Soul saved me,” the soldier whispers. “Soul saved me in time before I collided with a nearby meteor, and I escaped only with a broken arm from where it grazed against me.”

“That’s… that’s good.” Irene nods, heaving yet another breath before pulling her hands back and sitting up straight. “You’re also… good. Your arm is, at least. Good as new.”

Lip lets out a small squeak before tapping the glass of the chamber, shutting off the flow of the micro-organic units, the glass chamber retracting back. Irene takes over from here, tapping Seulgi’s amber ring and disabling the numbing sequence.

The doctor offers her hand out to Seulgi with a small smile, who takes it with a quiet but present “thank you” on her lips.

Seulgi clenches and unclenches her hand, carefully moving the previously broken arm up and down. She’s pleased to find that there’s nothing straining, only a dull ache that fades away as quickly as it had come, and she stares at the regenerated skin in awe, realizing that the bruise that had once stained her forearm had been erased as well.

“Thank you, Irene,” Seulgi says with the dip of her head.

The doctor looks down away, staring past the glass walls of the room, out to somewhere beyond where Seulgi could see.

“Please be more careful.”

“I will.”

There’s silence.

“Seulgi—”

“Irene—”

Lip gawks between them, looking back and forth between the two humans.

Irene shakes her head, the trace of a smile returning to her lips.

“Lip?” She asks her companion dragon softly. “Can you go back to my office and get me my tablet? I’ve seemed to have forgotten it there.”

Lip nods, her eyes meeting her partners, and Seulgi watches the unspoken connection between dragon and human at work again, more words being communicated with one gaze than any sentence ever could. It’s not until Lip silently flies out of operation room, off to tend to Irene’s needs, that the doctor finally gestures to the only other person in the room.

“You first, Seul.”

“I—” Seulgi feels her ears start to get warm at the sudden use of a nickname, and she ducks her head in embarrassment. She’s supposed to be a high-ranking colonel. She has the rarest dragon the universe has to offer, for goodness sake! For all reasons, she shouldn’t feel so shy. “I’m sorry… I feel like I disappointed you, Irene.”

“Wha— disappointed?” Irene’s eyes go wide as she throws her head around to rush to Seulgi where she still sits on the bed of the chamber, grabbing the hands that had been twiddling their fingers with her own. “Seulgi, no! That’s not it at all.” It’s then that the slightly older woman seems to retract into herself. “If anything, I’m probably about to disappoint you.”

“Irene…” The way Seulgi’s voice trembles is so subtle she wonders if Irene can hear it, and she can’t help but stand up to meet her friend’s eyes. “Irene, you couldn’t disappoint me ever.”

Her words are weighty, given how they’d only met a week ago, how this was only their third time truly seeing each other face-to-face, but there’s something about just being around Irene, about the way she’d metaphorically slipped into her life so easily, like they’d known each other for years, that draws Seulgi deeper still.

“But I’m afraid, Seul,” Irene whispers, shaking at the admission, and it occurs to Seulgi that this is probably the first time that Irene has ever let those words leave her lips, ever let them loose— it must be terrifying. “Did you know that I hadn’t always been in training to be a surgeon?”

“You hadn’t?” Seulgi’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “I… I had no idea.”

Irene laughs sadly. “I was once training for the military too, although hardly anyone remembers. I’d gone through the same process as anyone else though. At fourteen, I chose which direction of schooling I wanted to go in, and naturally, I followed my father’s footsteps and signed up for the military. I trained with them for four years— I’d even been anticipating becoming an official soldier at twenty-one, though I never reached there.

“My baby sister, Eunbi, had joined the military as well,” she continues, a wistful expression overtaking her features. “She was a year younger than you, Seul. She’d chosen to become a soldier as well, but her military schooling… god, it didn’t even last as long as mine. Seulgi, do you remember what happened when you were fifteen-years-old?”

“I—” Seulgi frowns, wracking through her brain, trying to remember her second year in the military academy. Her first year had been uneventful, as had most of her years. Her second year on the other hand… “Wait.” Her eyes go wide at the realization. “The Federation and our colony were attacked by Reapers. I-I remember now… the first, second, and third years were supposed to be hiding in the bunker beneath the academy.”

“And us fourth, fifth, and sixth years were asked to help with the plasma canons on the deck near the landing docks,” Irene says, her grip on Seulgi’s hands tightening. “Eunbi snuck away from her peers and tried following me. I’d quickly called my father, and he’d appeared on his dragon to take her away. Eunbi had cried, kicking and screaming as Father had taken off with her,” Irene lets out a watery laugh that holds no humor. “But that turned out to be the last time she’d ever use her legs again.”

Seulgi’s mouth parts in horror. “No.”

“A Reaper swooped in on his dragon,” Irene murmurs, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. “He’d thrown not just my father off his mount, but my sister as well. My father’s dragon saved him, much like Soul did for you, but Eunbi… she was thrown against one of the outer walls of a watch tower. She was rushed to the hospital, where we found out that her legs had been paralyzed, and she’d never be able to use them again.”

“Irene…” Seulgi whispers, and she envelops the smaller woman in her arms.

“I transferred out of the military academy the next month, and I threw myself into studying medicine and biology,” Irene shudders into the fabric of Seulgi’s uniform, hands gripping around Seulgi’s waist. “Even if my sister couldn’t be helped, that didn’t mean I couldn’t help other people. I’m… I’m doing my own research too, about ways to cure the paralysis.

“But that Reaper’s dragon…” The sigh that leaves Irene’s mouth is resigned, at a loss, and Seulgi hates the way it sounds, pulling Irene closer to her and rubbing circles into her back comfortingly. “I… It never left me, not truly. Even if the nightmares stopped, I couldn’t… I couldn’t get over this trauma that settled inside me, of large dragons. Lip… My Lippie is my best friend, and I can tell that your Soul is such a wonderful creature, but I can’t seem to bring myself to get near them. I’m… I’m afraid, and I think that’s the worst secret I could have. It’s why I don’t wear those stupid HAZMAT suits out onto the landing docks,” Irene chuckles drily. “Those suits make me want to be afraid, and I think I’m afraid, then I’ll break down. So I stride out there with all the bravado I can conjure, in only my lab coat and Lippie on my shoulder, and I hope that my façade is strong enough for me.”

More silence.

“You’re so brave,” Seulgi murmurs, tucking Irene back into her arms protectively. “You’re so strong, Irene. I admire you so much.”

“You shouldn’t,” Irene laughs pitifully. “I’ve been wanting to get over this stupid fear for years now, but I’ve taken absolutely no steps forward to get there.”

“That’s okay,” Seulgi assures her. “That’s okay.”

“It’s not though,” Irene insists.

“For now, it is,” Seulgi responds. “You took a step forward today, didn’t you? You told me all of this, you admitted your fear after years, Irene. If that isn’t a big leap forward, I don’t know what is. You are so brave, so strong. Thank you for telling me, Irene.”

“Thank you for listening, Seulgi. I… I think I know what you meant now, when you’d said you felt lighter last week.”

--

Lip returns a minute later, tablet grasped in her right hand, and two lollipops grasped in the other.

The dragon drops the tablet into Irene’s hold, who thanks her and presses a kiss to the top of her head. Lip whimpers, getting the feeling she knows what had transpired as she was off running her errand for her human partner. She can feel the emotional waves emanating off of her human.

Nevertheless, she nudges the red lollipop into Irene’s hand somberly, before extending the orange one to Seulgi, who takes the piece of candy with a gentle smile and pats the little dragon’s head affectionately.

“Thank you, Lip,” Seulgi says kindly as Irene comes to cradle Lip to her chest, taking comfort in the warmth of her little companion.

“You’re the absolute best,” Irene whispers.

Lip merely catches her human’s eye knowingly.

I’ll always be here for you, Irene.

--

She’ll never admit it, but Irene had trouble sleeping that night. Lip had curled up on the pillow next to hers, already fast asleep, but Irene had remained awake into the early hours of the morning, endless thoughts running through her mind.

Would things be different with Seulgi from now on? They’d just gotten to know each other, but would Seulgi’s opinion of her change? Had she overstepped in sharing such a weighted secret?

Her worries stay with her throughout the night, despite knowing the pointlessness of it all, and she groans when she asks the implant in her ear for the time, and the little robotic voice chimes back, “4AM.”

“Initiate hyper sleep mode,” Irene mutters reluctantly. She’s not a fan of hyper sleep, given how it only makes you feel like you’ve slept for a longer period of time than reality and doesn’t actually help your body in the slightest, but she only has one more hour until she has to wake up for her duties, and honestly, better something than basically nothing.

--

Irene’s only a bit skeptical when Seulgi comms her around noon, asking if she’s free to get lunch. Never one to lie nor turn down Seulgi’s company, Irene replies with an apt “yes, of course!” before feeling an unusual amount of nerves kick in again.

All worries are thrown out the window when Seulgi bounds up to the table Irene’s situated at in the food court half-an-hour later, eyes bright and energetic.

“Irene! So last night, I was reading this article on this helmet they’re making for the virtual reality simulations, and while the upgrades for the tech seems pretty cool, I took one look at the proposed design and I immediately knew I wanted your opinion on it. As a medical specialist, you’ve had to give your opinions on these types of things before, right?”

“Oh, yeah I was asked to attend a meeting for that next weekend. They want my opinion on the design and functionality, if there are any health risks or something. Why? What’s it look like?”

The design gets projected from Seulgi’s communicator, and Irene only needs to take a brief glance for her to wince at its appearance and give it an opinion.

“It looks so clunky! The virtual reality simulators are for students to practice their future jobs on, and no kid in their right mind wants to wear something like that.”

“My thoughts exactly! It’s ridiculous looking! I feel bad for the next generation.”

“Not if I can help it.” Irene purses her lips into a line. “I’m marching in there and demanding them to reconsider.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met?” Seulgi asks, taking on a dreamy sort of tone, and Irene rolls her eyes playfully, reaching across the table to smack the soldier playfully on the shoulder, all worries long forgotten.

--

“So, I’ve been thinking,” Seulgi drawls later that week, as they’re eating together in the food court once again during Irene’s lunch break and while Seulgi’s off patrol duty. They sit across from each other at the table, Lip perched on a third chair of her own, munching on a piece of sourdough Irene had requested, half-mindedly paying attention to the conversation of the two humans as she flicks her tail to and fro.

Irene playfully raises an eyebrow. “Thinking? You?” She makes a show of widening her eyes in surprise before tapping the communicator on her wrist and navigating to their friend’s profile. “I have to tell Wendy this—”

“Oh, be quiet!” Seulgi throws back her head and laughs, and Irene smiles. She likes the way Seulgi laughs, so different from the many soldiers who wore gruff expressions always like they don’t know how to smile.

“So, what were you thinking about?” Irene finally relents with a giggle.

“Well I’d sort of gotten to thinking, ever since you told me about… yeah,” Seulgi shrugs, probably knowing that Irene’s still sensitive over the issue. “You told me that you wanted to get over your fear, didn’t you?”

Irene nods slowly, wondering just where this was going.

“So… I was wondering,” Seulgi says, deliberately taking her time on each word, “if you would let me help you?”

The older girl blinks, tilting her head at the request.

“How do you think you would do that?”

“Just small things!” Seulgi says hastily, not wanting Irene to think she’s getting thrown into something blind. “It’s just, I’ve got Soul, and I know she’s taken a liking to you. We don’t have to do anything big, I just want to show you that… that there’s nothing to be afraid of, so we start small. I’m not going to ask you to go flying with me or something, not unless you want to. But maybe you could help me groom Soul later today?”

“I—” Irene pauses, weighing out her options as Lip perks up at the proposal and swoops over to her usual perch on Irene’s shoulders. The small dragon butts her head against the side of Irene’s face affectionately, a clear message that she’s in approval. Please? Irene sighs in amusement, nodding her head.

“Alright, I think that sounds good.”

“Yes!” Seulgi cheers, standing up from her seat and fist pumping.

“If!”

Seulgi freezes, dropping back into her chair and looking at Irene imploringly.

“If?”

“Only if I get to pay for our meal today.”

“Wha— but it’s my turn to pay!” Seulgi protests, swiping at her communicator and showing how she’d already had a page open to transfer the credits to the restaurant. “You paid last time, Irene!”

“I get to pay, or you’re grooming Soul on your own.” Irene crosses her arms and leans back in her chair, smirking victoriously at the conflict flicking on Seulgi’s face.

“I-I—” Seulgi slumps down, huffing, and Irene giggles, remembering how Soul had huffed in a similar way the other day. She’s heard much about dragons and partners taking after one another in mannerisms – hell, Irene knows for sure that she’s gotten much better at being more confrontational ever since she’s partnered with Lip – but it’s still endlessly amusing to find the similarities, especially as Seulgi finds herself giving in to Irene’s demand.

“Fine,” the soldier mumbles, and this time, it’s Irene’s turn to cheer enthusiastically.

--

Irene lets out a squeak as Soul takes a step towards her, and the large, majestic dragon blinks in surprise. It’s only when Lip pokes her head out from behind Irene’s hair that a hint of recognition shows in Soul’s bright eyes, seeming to remember their brief introduction last week as little Lip flies up to hover around Soul, speaking a few words to the blue dragon.

“S-sorry,” Irene mutters, feeling the need to apologize. “It’s not you, really. It’s me.”

Soul looks at Lip, who titters with amusement at the large dragon simply not knowing what to do with the small, scared human. But, it’s only another line of dialogue exchanged that causes Soul to nod before swinging her massive head Irene’s way once more.

“Seulgi’s trying to help me out with my fear so she asked me to help with grooming you,” Irene supplies, and Soul bobs her head, seeming to understand now. “She thinks that maybe if I get more used to being around you, I can take step forward.”

Soul instantly takes a step forward, and just as quickly, Irene yelps and takes a full step backward.

Immediately, the large dragon huffs, a cloud of stardust dispersing around its shimmering form, and she paws the ground in apparent frustration. She lets out a low whine.

It’s only then that Irene realizes what she had done, and how she’d literally just contradicted her original statement, and she tips her head back and groans.

“I’m really sorry,” Irene apologizes again, slumping her shoulders in disappointment. “Here you are, trying to help me too, and I’m not helping myself or you in the slightest.”

A deep rumble leaves Soul’s chest at Irene’s words, and the large dragon turns to murmur some words to Lip. A minute later, Irene’s companion yips and flies back over to her human partner.

She says she understands, Lip translates, perching on Irene’s shoulder and looking up at her human endearingly. Soul is still learning to trust humans— her family had been hurt by humans many times. But she’s learned that not all humans are scary because she met Seulgi, and Seulgi trusts you with her life. A friend of Seulgi’s is a friend of Soul’s, and so she wants to help you, Irene.

“I—” Irene looks up just in time to see Soul taking a slower, cautious step towards her. They meet eyes, and Soul rumbles happily when Irene stays in place, albeit shakily.

That wasn’t so bad, was it? Lip hums. One step at a time. Wouldn’t Seulgi be happy if she came back from getting the supplies, only to find that you’ve already closed some distance?

“Why must you know what to say?” Irene mutters, and her partner snickers as she takes off from Irene’s shoulder, joining Soul on the other side of the distance and perching herself on the larger dragon’s head.

The doctor takes a deep breath, looking back up at Soul, only to find the large dragon tilting her head in expectation, eyes calm and patient as she swishes her tail back and forth over the metal flooring.

“Okay Soul, I’m ready.”

--

Seulgi returns to the landing docks armed with soap, brushes, and towels, only for to part in surprise.

Soul stands directly in front of Irene, as still as a statue as the doctor shakily reaches out her hand. Slowly, she outreaches her hand, shutting her eyes tight as the tips of her fingers inch closer and closer to Soul’s muzzle, Soul eyeing the smaller human curiously, gentle amusement playing in the blue dragon’s bright eyes.

The corner of Seulgi’s mouth quirks in genuine interest. Oh?

Finally, Soul looks like she’s through with the waiting, and Seulgi muffles her laughter behind a hand as she watches Soul tilt her head, her partner dragon appearing to be deep in thought, before moving her head down those last few inches and closing the distance.

Irene lets out a small yelp when her hand finally comes into contact with cool, misty scales. She opens a single eye, peeking out almost in fear. When she spots her hand planted solidly on Soul’s muzzle, the large dragon rumbling in delight at the genuine progress, a happy squeal leaves her lips.

“You two look like you’re getting along great!” Seulgi calls with a wide grin, finally making her presence known as she makes her way over.

Meanwhile, Irene looks positively ecstatic, jumping up and down like one of Earth’s rabbits in utter glee, beaming over at Seulgi like the younger woman had just handed her the entire universe and the key to all its mysteries on a silver platter, complete with a how-to guide and everything.

“Seul! Seul, did you see me?” Irene rushes over, skidding to a halt right in front of the soldier, childlike excitement and awe painting her face.

“I did!” Seulgi cheers. Oh, forget this. She throws her arms around Irene’s waist, spinning the doctor around in circles as Irene’s laughs ring through the space, rising up higher and higher, far past the atmospheric dome and up into the cosmos.

--

Seulgi grunts as Soul turns her head, shaking her wet mane and splattering water on everyone, eliciting peals of laughter from Irene, who stands a bit further back, holding the hose for Seulgi. The soldier had been trying to scrub away at a singular patch of remaining dirtied scales that had gotten sullied during a fight earlier the day prior.

“Soul!” Seulgi exclaims, barking out a laugh when the dragon looks at her innocently with those expressive, wide eyes of hers. “Soul, I was already drenched because Irene sprayed me earlier!”

Immediately, she’s hit by another jet of water from the hose, and Seulgi sputters through the water, glaring playfully at a laughing Irene, the doctor nearly keeling over from laughing so hard.

“You both !” Seulgi manages to muster out through her own laughter. She takes one look at the slightly older woman struggling to compose herself and makes up her mind.

Irene looks up to find Seulgi charging straight at her.

A second later, they’re sprawled on the ground, Irene’s clothes getting wet as Seulgi squeezes her midsection in a tight hug.

“Seulgi!” Irene shrieks, but the utter joy on her face and the happiness etched into her brown orbs speak miles more.

Seulgi looks into Irene’s eyes and sees the whole universe before her.

--

Weeks pass, and Irene finds herself growing more and more comfortable around Soul, the large blue dragon easily taking a liking to the highly-qualified doctor as well. Soon enough, they’re able to be around each other with ease, even without Seulgi’s silent but much-welcomed influence.

Still, there are days that laze on – the days when the hospital forces Irene to take some time off, and the days where Seulgi is placed on only a minor morning patrol – where they lounge together on the landing docks, watching Lip and Soul play around together, the small red dragon flying around the larger without a care in the world.

“Lip is so adept in the air,” Seulgi comments one day, bumping her shoulder against Irene’s like the most normal thing in the world, and it makes Irene giggle, because really, it has. “I wonder what it would be like if she were a larger dragon like Soul… she’d be a threat in the air, that’s for sure.” Seulgi hums to herself, balancing her chin on a properly placed elbow. “And Soul would definitely enjoy the company.”

“Soul would, wouldn’t she?” Irene smiles to herself, as though knowing something that no one else does, causing Seulgi to furrow her brow in an attempt to find it out. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

She’s grinning, and Seulgi points accusingly at the doctor.

“You’re hiding something from me!” Seulgi proclaims, scrunching her nose in that way she does when she’s frustrated.

Irene smirks. “Am I?”

It causes Seulgi to falter.

“A-aren’t you?”

The question tips Irene off into giggles, and she places a soft hand on Seulgi’s bicep before pulling back and holding up her hands in surrender.

“You got me,” Irene admits, shrugging. “Lip’s not exactly the standard companion dragon.”

“She’s not?” Seulgi’s eyes go wide. Despite having the feeling that Lip was far from normal, she can’t help but be a bit excited that her suspicions were validated. “So… what exactly is she?”

“You’re not the only person in this space colony with a rare dragon, Colonel,” Irene teases, leaning backwards and reclining on her hands. “Lip’s actually a part of the rare Solar Eclipse species. Now, I know that you’re a smart cookie who knows her dragon knowledge, Miss Kang, so I’ll let you think on that statement and what it means for a moment.”

Irene settles into the silence with a smirk as Seulgi mulls over where and what she’d heard about the Solar Eclipse species before.

--

“Lip can change forms?!” Seulgi yelps after a good five minutes pass, since she’s wracked her brain of all the limited information she can remember learning during her time researching the different kinds of dragons and their abilities. “Like, she’s not actually a small companion dragon always?!”

“Ding ding ding!” Irene sings, curling her fingers into an OK sign as a smile forms on her lips. “Lip is a Solar Eclipse dragon, which means that she has two different forms. Her current form is known as her Partial form, which is smaller like the typical companion dragon. Her second form is called her Total form, which is—”

“Big,” Seulgi finishes breathlessly, eyes wide in awe at the mere idea. “Like… like an adult form, almost. She can grow to the size of a large fighter dragon.”

Irene’s lips curl upwards.

“Correct.”

Three minutes later, and Seulgi’s looking up at the sky in wonder, gazing in awe at the sight of Soul and Lip dancing in the sky, circling each other with roars of happiness, chasing each other in mirth. She’s never seen her blue dragon look so happy— the moment Lip had transitioned to her Total form, her size multiplying by ten, Soul had let out a breath of stardust that shimmered and shook, starfire encapsulating the two as they’d taken off from the landing docks.

Irene had merely grinned, happy to see that special kind of child-like wonder etched onto Seulgi’s expression, and more than glad to finally let Lip have some freedom in her larger, more able-bodied form as well.

--

The days go on, and Seulgi and Irene continue to meet during their breaks, but Irene somehow thinks that they meet more often in the hospital, given how often Seulgi gets injured. It’s not an uncommon occurrence to be called down for a patient and to find Seulgi seated on a patient bed, waiting good-naturedly for Irene to show up.

Lip would snort every time a “Kang Seulgi” would show up on their notifications, but she’d swoop up to the top of the tallest bookshelf in Irene’s office every single time without fail, snatching up another orange-flavored lollipop before perching herself on Irene’s shoulder and letting her companion walk them out of the room.

Today though, Irene receives a comm message from Seulgi, the soldier complaining about a dull headache that had persisted throughout the day— Irene concludes that it must have come from a recent collision Seulgi had with a Reaper patrol the other day, though it had been confirmed that there was no need for further medical treatment with no severe concussion. Nevertheless, Irene promises to send a bottle of headache capsules Seulgi’s way.

I’m going to need more lollipops, Lip muses as they leave Irene’s office to retrieve the headache capsules. Seulgi keeps taking them.

“You could just give her a non-orange lollipop next time,” Irene says playfully, a hand raising to scratch the top of Lip’s head fondly. “She’d understand, y’know?”

But orange is her favorite, the red dragon says sullenly. She’s been through so much, and treats Soul really well, so I’d feel bad.

There’s a surge of warmth through Irene’s body at the little dragon’s words, and she smiles gently, one of Lip’s wings absentmindedly as they turn around the corner, heading towards the medication wing.

“We’ll stop by and get a more lollipops on the way home, yeah?” Irene suggests.

Lip visibly perks up at that. I like that idea.

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Irene chuckles. “You’ve taken a liking to Seulgi, haven’t you?”

Lip only snorts again. As if you haven’t.

--

Irene takes it upon herself to deliver the headache capsules to Seulgi herself, comming the younger woman about her whereabouts who replies that she’s in the office for today, the higher ups having decided that after her long flight yesterday, Seulgi deserved a day of rest on desk duty.

The doctor had nodded easily, saying that she’d over during her lunch break, that it was no problem, because doctors had access to virtually every area of the base.

Surely, she’s not expecting to come face-to-face with Chorong when she enters the office area, her childhood friend looking just as surprised as Irene as they briefly stare at each other wordlessly.

Then, a smile blooms across Chorong’s expression, and Irene immediately brightens.

“Irene!”

“Chorong! I didn’t know you’d be in here!” Irene laughs, coming in close and drawing her friend into a hug. “How are things going, Major General?”

“Never address me by that title ever again,” the other woman demands as she pulls away, much to Irene’s amusement, though the doctor can’t help the swell of pride that rises in her chest when she spies the two silver stars that adorn Chorong’s uniform. “And things are going well! I’m stuck on desk duty here at headquarters today because someone needs to keep an eye on the Birds of the Flock.”

“The Flock?” Irene furrows her brown in confusion at the name. “Who are those?”

“Kang Seulgi and her gang,” Chorong chuckles, crossing her arms. Meanwhile, Irene’s about to question why in the universe does Seulgi have a gang when, thankfully, Chorong sees the question on the tip of her tongue, choosing to answer before being asked. “That’s just we call them, really, since they’re as tight-knit a group of friends as any. The only difference is that the Flock is basically a group of elites— the best flight pilots and dragon riders the army has to offer. Seulgi’s the de facto leader according to what I’ve heard, and I’m friends with Eunji, who’s part of the Flock.”

“Oh! Wendy’s girlfriend,” Irene nods in recognition. She’s met Eunji before on the days when Wendy would work through her lunch break and Eunji would bring her food to eat. “I didn’t know she was close to Seulgi.”

“Seulgi’s one of our most talented flyers,” Chorong chuckles. “She’s a funny one off-duty, but there’s no one more talented at getting around a fight as her… even if she sometimes comes out a little worse for wear.”

“Oh, I would know.” The doctor frowns, thinking about how many times Seulgi’s been to the hospital wing ever since their first encounter. Four broken ribs, a broken leg, a sprained wrist, then a broken arm a week later, followed by a broken collarbone and now a persistent bout of headaches. “She’s a bit too self-sacrificing.”

“Good thing you’re there to fix her up,” Chorong winks, sending Irene into a stuttering mess. “Anyway, if you’re here for Seulgi, she’s with her friends in the break room.”

--

What starts out as the simple mission of delivering the medication capsules to Seulgi turns into Irene staying in the so-called break room – honestly, Irene thinks it looks more like a lounge than anything – with the colonel for well over an hour, Seulgi introducing Irene to the Flock with an amusingly reluctant expression etched onto her face.

The bad news on Seulgi’s part? The moment the dull throbbing in her skull excuses itself from the premises, a new throbbing makes itself apparent in the form of her best friends taking every chance to embarrass her in front of the “pretty doctor lady.”

The good news? Irene seems to find them pretty good company, if her constant laughter, quirk to her lips, and infectious eye-smile are anything to go by.

Irene’s already met Eunji, but Wendy’s girlfriend is still as energetic as Irene remembers, Eunji watching over the others like a mother-figure, scolding them when their actions became too “eclectic.”

Most of the time, she was scolding Chanyeol, Jooheon, and Ilhoon, the trio of troublemakers who Seulgi had seemed the least enthusiastic about introducing Irene to. The moment Seulgi had begrudgingly tugged Irene over to the three young men, a glimmer of mischief had sparked in their eyes and they’d launched into story after story, segueing into embarrassing encounter after embarrassing encounter.

“And then—” Chanyeol begins again, doubling over in laughter before he even gets to finish his sentence, sending Irene into another fit of giggles. “A-and then—”

Seulgi rolls her eyes up to the heavens and wishes for a savior.

“Okay Yeol,” another voice cuts in gently, full of amusement, and an arm wrapping around Irene’s shoulders. “I think that’s enough embarrassing our Seulgi for today.”

Seulgi shoots Krystal the most relieved smile as the taller girl sweeps Irene away to another corner of the room, beckoning for Seulgi to join them.

“I wasn’t done!” Chanyeol calls.

Krystal waves him off with the flick of her hand.

“You’ll need more stories for next time,” she replies, ignoring Seulgi’s indignant hey! in favor of introducing Irene to Eunae, Chungha, and Jisoo. “Anyway,” she says to Irene, a smirk flashing on her lips. “We have plenty of great Seulgi stories as well, you’ll see.”

Seulgi tips her head back and groans as she hears Irene demand to hear everything.

Surely though (and she’ll never tell the others this), Joy, the newly appointed major, is her favorite member of Seulgi’s Flock.

Bright-eyed, energetic, and eager to please, Joy greets Irene with a wide, hopeful expression. The young girl, having just been promoted to a major, excitedly gushes to Irene about her hope to retrieve a dragon of her own soon, and Irene spies the fond sparkle in Seulgi’s eyes as the two older women listen to Joy with aptness.

“I don’t even know where to start though,” Joy admits, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s been a dream of mine to partner with a dragon, but somehow it felt like that dream was so far off. Suddenly it’s right in my face and I have absolutely no idea where to even begin.”

Seulgi and Irene share a knowing look, Irene’s lips twitching up before she turns her attention back to Joy.

“Well,” the doctor begins, “Maybe some research on the different types of dragons is a nice starting point. Not all dragons are the same— some have different attributes, have different tendencies towards different types of people. It’s important to have some foresight into what you’re getting into before even thinking about pursuing one.”

Joy heeds her words with dedication, nodding her head at all the right moments to prove that she’s listening before asking Irene to pause for a moment. The young soldier then hovers her hand over her communicator, intent on taking notes for later review, before asking Irene to continue with a small smile.

Irene is more than happy to oblige.

(She doesn’t tell anyone, but Irene can’t help but look at Joy and be reminded of Eunbi – the young soldier even shares a few facial features as the doctor’s younger sister – with her willingness to learn, with the way she looks up at Irene like a mentor, with the smile that reaches her eyes and curls her lips upward in a way that makes Irene feel like she’s important.)

Seulgi stares at Irene in utter awe through it all, and it isn’t until Joy bows and thanks Irene, scuttering off to share her new knowledge with the others, that Irene notices Seulgi’s gaze. The doctor blushes, gently shoving Seulgi’s shoulder.

Seulgi only laughs, winking Irene cheekily.

--

“I’m sorry you had to hear all of those stories, I didn’t mean to keep you for so long,” Seulgi apologizes as she walks Irene back to the hospital wing. “My friends are… incredibly hyperactive.”

Irene chuckles, shaking her head as they step leisurely down the hallways, in absolutely no hurry to get back to her office. There haven’t been any emergencies today, with the border patrols apparently reporting back no suspicious activity, and as such, the doctors had been given the OK to relax.

“Don’t be sorry,” Irene smiles, hoping that her feelings of appreciation can reach Seulgi and wash away any slight bit of doubt the younger woman had. “I like them! They’re very funny, and it’s nice to have some blackmail on you.” The doctor winks. “And here I was, thinking that you were too perfect!”

“Oh, hush!” Seulgi laughs, bumping her shoulder against Irene’s. “Today you only confirmed my suspicions that you’re literally an angel. You cannot be human if you walk away from my friends saying that you actually like them.”

“They’re an energetic group of people!” Irene defends.

Seulgi snorts. “You can say that again.”

“They did confirm a thought of mine though,” Irene muses, suddenly growing serious. Her eyebrow furrows as she thinks back to the many new encounters she had just experienced in the past hour.

Seulgi frowns. “And what’s that?”

“My suspicion that you, Kang Seulgi, are far too reckless for your own good.”

“W-what?”

“All those stories about how you started jumping into battle once your started riding on Soul’s back,” Irene bites her lip, forehead creasing deep in worry. “It explains so much… I mean, perhaps you were more careful in your fighter jet because you wanted to achieve your dream of partnering with a Coronae Australis, but now that your dream has been fulfilled…”

“Oh…” Seulgi’s frown upturns even more. “Irene… I promise you, it’s not like I have less to live for, now that I have Soul. It’s just that I know that I can trust Soul with my life.”

“Still,” Irene takes a shaky breath. “That doesn’t mean you should be jumping in like that whenever you want.”

“It’s not that I want to,” Seulgi protests, and she opens to say more when it appears that she thinks the better of it, choosing instead to rethink her words and shake her head. “It’s just instinctual, now that I have this new feeling of safety. But… if it’s bothering you so much, I’ll do my best to be more careful.” Seulgi shoots her a small smile. “So less headaches, less sprains, and whatnot.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Irene says softly, and it’s then that she realizes that they’re in front of the hospital wing’s sliding glass doors. She looks inside, seeing the reception desk, hearing the phone ring, suddenly being jolted back to her reality. She swings her head back to look at Seulgi, who peers at her hopefully. “Because as much as I love seeing your pretty face, Colonel, I’d appreciate it if you’re a bit less in my chambers.”

And Seulgi throws her a salute, grinning.

--

Irene starts seeing Seulgi less and less in the hospital wing, but for some reason, her heart doesn’t settle, even though Seulgi flies more carefully now.

It might be because of the times when she does see Seulgi on those patient beds, because now that Seulgi’s eliminated all of the smaller injuries, all that’s left are the larger ones.

Broken ribs, broken arms, broken collarbones, broken legs— those are hard enough to handle. But then there are the gashes, made by the Reapers and their sharp blades, and the bruises that span entire body-lengths, made during the dragon-against-dragon clashes in deep space.

It hurts Irene’s heart a bit more every time, and it clenches every day because there’s no telling when Seulgi is going to appear in her operation chamber, in need of fixing.

Irene wonders if this is what it’s like when a mechanic has to repeatedly fix a beloved fighter jet that keeps on taking the brunt of the battle.

Nevertheless, nothing can compare to when Irene is called to the landing docks again on emergency, Lip fluttering anxiously near her shoulder, and she nearly sobs as she runs back to the hospital wing, accompanying the levitating stretcher with an unconscious Colonel Kang Seulgi laying on it.

--

“Pull up Kang Seulgi’s schematics,” Irene mutters under her breath to the implant.

“Pulling up Kang Seulgi’s schematics,” the implant replies immediately, and the glass walls of Irene’s operation chamber light up blue once more as Lip circles around up top, peering at the diagrams for any unclear injuries.

Irene heaves a deep breath, but it’s trembling and not stable and since when had Irene last been so terrified? She can’t even remember.

Are you alright, Irene? Lip asks her worriedly, flapping her wings as she hovers in the space next to Irene’s head. You look shaken.

“I-I’m fine,” Irene whispers. She feels a shudder run down her arms, suddenly cold in the very room she’s more acquainted with than any other on this entire space colony. Just what on earth is happening here?

Yet as she works, Irene can feel herself slowly answering the unspoken question.

She’d gotten attached to the patient, and now she’s paying for it.

--

“You could’ve died out there!”

“But I didn’t! Irene, I’m right here. I’m okay.”

Irene feels the hot flames of frustration burn through her before she can douse them out, and she turns around, unable to face the other young woman. Seulgi stares at her back from the other side of the office space— Irene can feel the soldier’s gaze on her back as she tries to take deep breaths, in and out, in and out.

“Irene?” Seulgi’s voice is quiet, careful, and Irene doesn’t understand— doesn’t understand how the other woman can be so soft and gentle and observing when it comes to other people, when it comes to Irene, but flies into battle in the exact opposite way when it came time to caring about herself. “Irene, what’s wrong?”

She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know, she doesn’t know, she doesn’t know. She can’t pinpoint the source, there’s no scanning function for her own emotions, she can’t look at a schematic diagram and point out where the cracks are this time, and Irene hates it. Hates that she can’t function when she can’t see what’s in front of her, hates that there’s something scorching in her stomach and she feels like she’s been lit on fire and she’s burning alive, and the flames are white hot— not red, but much, much fiercer than that.

Oh god, she can’t. She can’t, she can’t, she can’t.

There’s nothing that hurts more than when she realizes that she’s doomed like this— that she’s become attached, and there’s absolutely nothing she can do but watch Seulgi get cut apart again, and again, and again, and attempt to fix her, again, and again, and again.

Until she can’t. When there are no more chances, when she can’t save her, when she’s failed both Seulgi and herself.

There’s no coming back from that point. None.

She can’t let it get that far. Not like Eunbi. Never again.

“Irene?” Seulgi sounds worried.

Irene’s breaths are ragged as she heaves her shoulders up and down.

She hears Seulgi take a step forward.

“Stop!”

Seulgi freezes. Without even straining her ears, Irene can already her the quickening of the soldier’s heart.

“Irene—”

“Whatever this is,” Irene motions between the two of them, looking down at the floor, glaring hot tears away, “It has to stop.”

Silence rings through the office.

Then—

“Okay.”

--

When the door shuts, Irene feels her legs collapse beneath her, and she sinks down to the floor, down, down, down, hugging her knees to her chest, burying her face in her hands as a choked, strangled sob leaves her lips.

Lip, who had remained silent throughout the whole encounter, whimpers as she crawls over to her human, nuzzling as close as possible to Irene, simply trying to bring her partner comfort.

Irene shakes her head, pulling her little dragon into her embrace.

“Oh, Lip,” she whispers to her best friend, hiccupping through the tears streaming messily, mercilessly down her face. “What have I done?”

--

They don’t speak for a whole week.

Irene finds out from Wendy that Seulgi’s been deployed along with Eunji and the rest of the Flock to take part in a battle against the Reapers, some good 75,000 light-years away.

There’s an ache in her chest as she hugs Lip close to her body. She shouldn’t feel this way. This isn’t the first battle Seulgi’s participated in— this shouldn’t be any different that the rest. At least, that’s what she reasons.

(The reality is that it is different, because this time, it was the Reapers that summoned the Intergalactic Federation to this location, and suddenly the battle isn’t on Federation’s turf anymore. It’s incredibly dangerous, it’s juts that Irene can’t afford that kind of thinking right now.)

“Computer,” Irene whispers, summoning the robotic voice from the implant to ring through her head.

“Yes, Irene?” The implant replies.

“Comm Kang Seulgi.”

“I’m sorry, but this action cannot be completed at the moment. Colonel Kang Seulgi has been denied all communication from non-military officials in order to assure her one-hundred percent concentration on the task at hand.”

“…Understood. I’m sorry.”

“Leave a message?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Sending to Kang Seulgi’s messages.”

--

A few days later, she overhears Wendy’s voice ring through the empty hospital hallways as she’s finishing her rounds, and Irene feels her heart plummet out of her chest— it aches.

“What do you mean, Seulgi didn’t return with the rest of you?!”

Irene’s legs speed up unknowingly as Lip chatters on her shoulder in worry, a pounding in her ears as she rounds the corner and to find Wendy standing in front of a small group of soldiers, still in their uniforms. Squinting her eyes, even in her panicked state, Irene recognizes them as the squadron Seulgi had introduced her to previously, composed of the soldier’s close friends.

Eunji and Joy stand at the front of the group, tired with red-rimmed eyes.

“We lost her communicator signal,” Eunji says, her voice hoarse probably from yelling too loud during the earlier battle. She shakes her head in weary before abruptly stopping and cupping her head as she doubles over, grunting in pain. “Ugh…”

“Eunji…” Wendy murmurs, rushing forward to help her girlfriend.

“What about Soul?” Irene abruptly asks, her tone not giving away any emotion away. “Where is she?”

“Irene—” Eunji makes way to stand up straight, only for her to let out a cry of pain. Wendy cradles her close, whispering that she’ll be okay.

It’s Joy that actually answers, and when the young soldier steps forward while rolling up her sleeves, Irene gasps as she sees the dark bruises that litter her arms.

“We lost sight of Soul as well,” she says quietly. The major’s usually bright eyes are dull and drained, full of apology and exhaustion, and it pains Irene to see Joy like this— to see any of them like this. “Both she and Seulgi disappeared during the battle in a bright flash of light – it was some damn Reaper tech that caused a portal-like thing to be created, we think – and we weren’t able to find them afterward.”

Just what happened during that battle? Lip questions quietly, somberly, and Irene shakes her head. If Seulgi’s personal squadron of the military’s most trained soldiers came out looking like this, Seulgi not even with them, Irene doesn’t even want to imagine the horrors of the battle in detail.

“Oh no,” Irene whispers, feeling her body start to tremor in dread. “Oh, Seulgi, no.”

Even Chanyeol, Jooheon, and Ilhoon, the known moodmakers of the squadron, are uncharacteristically quiet as they stand in the hallway, their heads lowered in shame.

“We should have stayed and looked longer!” Chanyeol growls, slamming his fist into the palm in his hand, and Irene flinches at the sudden burst of loud noise. The man shakes in anger that flashes in his eyes, bloodshot in fatigue. “We could have found her! We shouldn’t have left the battlefield so soon!”

“Yeol,” Krystal shakes her head, although Irene can tell her red nose and flushed face that she’d been crying. “Yeol, we stayed eight whole hours after we’d been ordered to retreat, when we were the only people still on the battlefield in that galaxy. We looked and looked and looked and… nothing.” The tall girl shakes her head, arms coming to wrap around herself, as if she could still feel the distinct cold of space. “We couldn’t find her. There wasn’t even a trace of Soul’s stardust. They were just…gone.”

--

Irene crawls into bed that night feeling completely numb. She curls up into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest, unable to even comprehend her own thoughts, unable to think properly. She’s not even sure how she’d made it home safely, how she’d made it through the day at all— she vaguely remembers Joy, Eunae, and Jisoo escorting her back to her apartment, Lip whimpering and nudging Irene’s cheek the whole time.

Now, the red dragon sits on her pillow, right next to Irene’s small body, staring at her human partner sadly.

Whining, Lip finally makes up her mind, slinking off her pillow and nudging Irene’s arms to open. She situates herself against Irene’s chest, curling up into her human, trying to provide the doctor as much comfort as she can.

I’m here, Irene, Lip says quietly, trying not to think about a certain blue dragon.

--

It’s only a full day later when there’s any development on Seulgi’s possible whereabouts.

Irene feels her heart stop the moment Soul stumbles onto the landing dock, Seulgi very much not on her back, one of her scaled legs buckling down beneath her the moment she touches the metal flooring. Irene gasps as soldiers start to surround Soul, their intentions being well but only managing to agitate the already wounded dragon even more, the blue nebulae beast roaring at them to leave her be.

Before she knows it, Irene’s racing towards the rider-less dragon, desperation in her eyes, in her cries, in her heart.

“Get away!” She screams, because she's usually all for helping calm Soul down, but right now she's anything but calm as her pounding heartbeat rings in her ears. Oh, Seulgi! Her heart wails as Lip zips ahead of her, growing in size to her Total Form and blasting a warning flare at the soldiers, signaling for them to part. “All of you! Get away!”

The moment a path is free, Irene throws herself at the large dragon as Soul lets out a sorrowful, high-pitched whine, ing her muzzle at Irene, who chokes out a sob at the sound and hugs Soul's head close, a hand reaching out to tangle in the blue dragon's mane. Meanwhile, Lip whimpers, pressing the length of her body against Soul's, their red and blue trailing tails intertwining.

“Soul,” Irene whispers, resting her forehead against the larger dragon's. “Soul, w-what happened? I—”

Soul shakes her head, a low grumble sounding from her chest that grows and grows into a strangled yowl of agony.

“W-whoa there…” Irene whispers, doing all she can to steady Soul's movement in the dragon's depressed state. Glancing at her own red dragon, Irene watches as Lip dips her head, nuzzling her muzzle against Soul's neck, only for the blue dragon to flinch away in an apparent showcase of pain. Irene’s heart clenches as she sees the emotions of shock and brief hurt that flashes through her own dragon’s eyes, and Soul is quick to notice as well, the blue dragon apologetically rubbing her head against Lip's with a low, careful rumble.

Irene steps back, letting out a shaky breath and biting her lip.

“You've been hurt all over,” she murmurs under her breath, and Soul grunts in acknowledgement as Lip laps at a gash on one of Soul's forelegs, the bright red smear of dragon's blood an eerie sight against Soul's usually spotless, seamless blue-tinted scales. Irene momentarily wonders if she's gone numb-- Seulgi is still missing, and Irene has no idea what state she's in. She’s fraught with worry and she doesn't know how she's still able to function, let alone speak with the grim sight of the rider-less dragon, but still, “We'll get you healed, don't worry.”

But it's like Soul can read her thoughts, and much to Irene’s surprise and subsequent horror, Soul shakes her massive head, grunting despite the pain the nurse can see coursing through her scaly body.

And it's startling, just how easily Irene can read the dragon's sharp eyes.

Alive. Seulgi is alive.

Irene inhales sharply at the revelation, forcing down the urge to race to get her flying gear and head out in search of Seulgi through the vastness of space. She takes a shaky breath, looking steadily up at Soul in her injured state, knowing full well that if she doesn’t heal Soul first, she has as small of a chance of finding Seulgi as she does in finding a single needle in a thousand haystacks.

“First, you need to get better,” Irene says, steeling herself from the whine that escapes Soul’s clenched jaws, the rare dragon clearly just as desperate to find her partner as Irene is. “We can’t find Seulgi without you, Soul— you have to take us to her, but there’s no way I’m letting you fly in this condition.” She shares a look with Lip. “Trust me, I’ll make sure Lip doesn’t let you leave.”

Lip huffs, a puff of red flame leaving her nostrils, as if to say, you bet I won’t let you leave.

Soul whines again before her head droops, falling onto Irene’s shoulder as the nurse gently pats her long neck.

You, Soul’s eyes say, burning into Irene’s, I trust you.

“I trust you too,” Irene whispers. “Don’t worry, we’re going to find her.”

--

“I haven’t seen you step foot into this place in quite some time, Bae,” are the first words that greet Irene as she enters into the left-most area of the research wing for the first time in what must be several years.

“Sorry, friend,” Irene’s smile is small as she takes a careful step forward, as if afraid that one misstep could bring on something terrible. “I haven’t had much reason to.”

“It’s okay,” Solar says warmly, reaching over the desk to grasp Irene’s hands soothingly, running her thumbs in circles into the back of them. The two friends meet each other’s gaze, and for a fleeting moment, Irene feels herself enter into a state of calmness that she hasn’t been able to feel ever since the news about Seulgi had circulated. Solar’s always managed to have that sort of effect on her, soothing Irene’s nervous ticks— that’s why they were best friends. “You’ve been busy as the top surgeon of our generation, saving countless lives over and over again. That’s nothing to be sorry about, Irene.”

“You’ve always been too kind to me,” Irene murmurs, shoulders drooping as Solar gazes at her empathetic. “Sorry for never visiting.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Solar waves off all concerns with the flick of her hand. “We see each other at the holiday dinners anyway,” she winks, and Irene laughs. The light from the nearby lights of a testing chamber reflects the fondness in Solar’s eyes, and the scientist smiles, leaving her desk and beckoning for Irene to follow her down a separate hallway. “So, you’re here for a flight suit, right?”

“How’d you know?” Irene asks, trailing behind her friend ever-so-slightly, peering through the glass walls and peering into the many chambers they pass by.

“That dragon that appeared on the landing docks by itself,” Solar hums, stopping by a locked door and scanning her fingerprints. She enters a 7-digit passcode before the there’s a click! and the door slides open seamlessly. “Moonbyul said she saw you pass by her, running in the direction of the docks. She also told me that the rider of that dragon, Kang Seulgi, remains MIA. I don’t know your connection to her, Rene, but I could put two-and-two together.” She pauses, flicking on the lights as the two of them enter the room. Solar shrugs, motioning for Irene to enter. “Plus, I’ve known you since before we were even in school. We were best friends, and I dunno… I think I just had the feeling that right now, you needed me.”

“You’re still my best friend, Solar,” Irene clarifies, taking Solar’s hand and grasping it firmly. “You have been, and you always will be. I-I’m sorry that I started seeing you less and less after I changed paths and decided to become a surgeon… both you and Chorong. I know you decided to work in the as a military scientist here on the base because of the two of us… but then I just… up and left.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Rene,” Solar shakes her head, a smile playing on her lips. “I hope you know that. Chorong and I understood the sudden change, and we understood why you felt compelled to do it. Honestly, I think you found your true calling as a doctor! Look at you, Irene! You’re decorated in all sorts of awards!”

“You and Chorong are too,” Irene chuckles. “Chorong’s definitely a decorated officer, and you’ve accumulated all the accolades for your breakthroughs in technology, Sol. There’s no way I could be any prouder to have you both as my best friends. And… thank you, for letting me pursue something different.”

“Of course,” the scientist beams, and Irene is suddenly brought back to their school days, back before they’d been forced to choose which career path to walk on, back to the days when she, Solar, and Chorong would sit together on the playground, looking up at the stars, vowing to see the galaxies together. But now— “I hope you still remember how to ride a dragon.”

Irene blinks, coming out her reverie to find Solar holding a flight suit— or rather, what Irene assumed to be a flight suit, because while the piece of clothing appeared to be of the same sleek figure and black color, Irene could tell that the fabric was of a different kind.

“Custom made,” Solar nods, tapping on the suit with a knowing finger, and before Irene’s eyes, the suit collapses in on itself, retracting smaller and smaller, until all that’s left sitting in the palm of Solar’s hand is a small, black ring, a little pink gem embedded onto it. Something glimmers in the scientist’s eyes as she offers the ring to Irene. “Try it on?”

Seconds later, Irene gasps, gaping from behind the flight suit’s mask in complete awe at the new suit, unlike any flight suit Irene had ever seen before.

“This is the newest model of our flight suits,” Solar says proudly as Irene continues to admire the suit. The scientist fiddles with her communicator, entering in Irene’s ID number to officially assign the suit to her. “And it’s all your now! It’s been tested and approved, the last step is just to release it for widespread use. But until then, Miss Bae, you get to be the first one to use it.”

“I…” Irene dismisses the suit’s mask to see her friend properly. “Solar, thank you.”

“Always. Oh, and remember how back in our academy days, you used to say you wanted a flight suit with pink highlight? I just made your dream come true, no need to thank me again.” Solar grins at the muffled laugh from Irene beneath the mask before suddenly getting serious, stoning her expression. “You know that the military’s higher ups will question you, right? Many of them would jump at the opportunity to ride a Coronae Australis. They’re going to challenge your validity.”

Irene’s shoulders heave. She can already imagine the mess that the council room will be— the only thing that could bring them any closer to rescuing Seulgi is Soul, a dragon highly untrusting of all humans. Nevertheless…

I trust you, Soul had said, and Irene had heard, just as loud and clear as she hears Lip. She’d wondered if it was because Soul was so desperate for her help that the larger dragon had temporarily fostered that connection with Irene.

She can’t let Soul down.

“I know they will,” Irene says steadily. “But I have this suit, and I have Soul, and I have your friendship, and I have Seulgi waiting for me. I’m the one who’s meant to take on this challenge.”

Solar smirks, crossing her arms, giving Irene a good look up and down.

“Well, that settles it then. Looks like I’ll be coming with you to the council room.”

The doctor blinks, surprised. “Sol?”

“I’ve got your back, Rene. But before we head over, let’s take a pit stop by the offices.”

--

“You sure you want to stay here on desk duty?”

Chorong’s head whips up at the sound, gaping at the sight of her two oldest friends staring down at her. Irene, having the been the one to have spoken, grins her way with a slight wave.

“What the hell are you two doing here?!”

“Ever the stickler for rules,” Solar comments, leaning on a nearby desk, arms crossed as she stares at their friend in amusement. “Even when you’re the superior and the rules literally don’t even apply to you.”

“Funny,” Chorong rolls her eyes, albeit playfully. A smile plays on her lips. It’s been a while since the three of them have been gathered like this, given how the three of them had gradually grown into the busy schedules they’re accustomed to. “So! Why have my bestest friends in the entire universe decided to grace my humble presence?”

It’s Solar that jumps to answer before Irene even has the chance.

“We’re going to help Irene persuade the higher ups to let her ride the Coronae Australis so she can find her girlfriend.”

“She’s not my—”

“You in?” Solar completely disregards the flustered doctor.

“Of course! Anything for Irene and her girlfriend.” Chorong’s jumping out of her seat before Irene can even register the whole exchange. The officer mutters something under her breath to her implant about locking up, and Irene watches the desk her friend had been sitting at close into itself.

“Great!” Solar claps her hands excitedly. “Let’s get going. I’m sending your comm Irene’s files from the academy, by the way. I’m technically not supposed to have them, so don’t ask how I got them. Just use them to vouch for her if needed, ‘kay?”

--

“Lip!” Irene calls, striding onto the landing docks where her dragon lays in her larger, Total form, curled up next to Soul in almost a protective manner. Their tails are intertwined, and even from a distance away, Irene can see the way they breathe up and down in sync with each other, their chests naturally heaving together.

“That's so sweet,” Solar coos from behind her, and from the corner of her eye, Irene sees Chorong nodding in agreement.

The red dragon's ears perk up at the sound of her name being called, her head rising, eyes alight at the sight of her human partner.

Irene! Lip lets out a puff of fire in greeting, always happy to see her human, despite not being apart for long at all.

“I'm going to be heading to the council's board room in a moment,” Irene informs, her arms coming to hug herself self-consciously. She'd already known that the nerves would kick in eventually— Irene just hadn't realized it would be that bad. Though then again, she might as well be preparing like David about to face an entire board of Goliaths. “You don’t have to come with me, I’m not… certain what the atmosphere will be like, so you can continue keeping Soul company. I just wanted to let you know.”

Lip shares one look with Soul, the blue dragon snorting and nudging Lip with her muzzle. The red dragon only laughs, rising to her feet, ruby scales glimmering under the starlight before she bounds over to Irene shrinking in size so that she can scramble onto the doctor’s shoulders, perching herself in her favorite spot like usual.

Silly human, Lip huffs, and the way her eyes sparkle make the weight on Irene’s shoulders start to lift. You’re my partner first and foremost, Irene. That means we deal with everything together, whether you want me there or not.

It’s enough for Irene to crane her head over, pressing a swift kiss to the top of Lip’s head, and her dragon croons gently.

“Thank you, Lip.”

--

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of yelling involved, and on multiple occasions, Lip groans, the small dragon tipping her head back and muttering draconic curses in her mother language in utter frustration before letting a small puff of smoke leave . She doesn’t get humans sometimes.

How much trouble do you think I’ll be in if I set off the smoke alarm? Lip asks Irene fifteen minutes into the chaos of the meeting. We could run during the confusion, take Soul, and go find Seulgi ourselves.

“At this point, it might be worth it,” Irene mutters, and Lip snorts, a plume of fire leaving her nostrils. Irene chuckles softly, nudging the little dragon with a careful hand. “I’ll have your back if they start chasing us, and maybe we can even break open a window if it’s necessary—”

“Miss Bae!”

Immediately, the doctor straightens.

“Yes, sir.”

And the elder man in all his hesitance, all that reluctance, gives Irene a curt nod.

Irene feels the blood rushing through her ears, her heart beginning to pound achingly in her chest. That single nod had just suddenly made everything all the more real, and it’s scary.

But Irene’s all ready to put Seulgi ahead of her fears.

She can do this.

--

It’s a foreign feeling to be riding on the back of a dragon again— not to mention, a dragon who’s not even hers.

Nevertheless, Irene hears nothing, feels nothing but the pull backwards as she clings to Soul, the lithe blue dragon speeding through the cosmos with the grace and speed of a shooting star itself. She feels the way the dragon shifts ever-so-slightly, completely responsive to Irene’s unspoken commands through a gentle reminder to swerve, a nudge that there’s an obstacle coming up. But for the most part, Soul takes the lead, starlit eyes focused and intent on finding her partner; on saving Seulgi.

A few tail lengths away from them, Lip keeps up on her own in her Total form. With her adult, full body allowing her to easily match the fast pace set by Soul, Lip flies soundlessly, large red wings beating hard against the void.

Meanwhile, Eunji and Joy follow close behind, Eunji riding on the back of Yves – the burgundy-scaled dragon seamlessly zipping behind the other two dragons. From behind the mask of her flight suit, Eunji discreetly scans their surroundings, praying that no Reapers show up on their retrieval mission. Joy, not possessing a dragon of her own yet, joins the group from her fighter jet. The tall major’s thumbs hover achingly over the triggers. Her gaze grows wearier the more she observes the space surrounding them— it’s utterly barren, yet she can’t help but feel increasingly uneasy in the dead atmosphere.

Irene doesn’t know how long they’ve been riding, but it feels like an eternity by the time Lip zips up, neck-in-neck with Soul. The doctor listens to the cry that leaves Lip’s jaws, flying in a corkscrew-motion around Soul’s trailing body, the red dragon’s wings tucked close to her side as Soul lets out a stream of starfire from in response.

Not long now, is what Lip tells Irene before soaring off to relay the information to the others.

Meanwhile, Irene takes a deep breath, swallowing her fears and closing her eyes briefly. As though Soul can feel the nerves, Irene lets out a gasp as the stormy sea festering in the pit of her stomach stills, a feeling of calm radiating off of Soul in waves.

“Thank you,” she whispers, leaning forward and patting Soul’s neck, hoping that the dragon can feel her thanks.

Soul only chuffs, in a way, telling her not to worry as a puff of stardust swirls around the two of them, trailing behind as they zoom to the dark blue planet growing larger as the distance grows shorter and shorter.

--

“I need a full location scan!” Irene orders the computer implant as she and Soul fly low, dropping within the dark blue planet’s faint atmosphere— this place is no home for humans, looking barren with nothing besides its navy rock figures, jagged against the curvature. Directing her attention to her teammates, she immediately gives an order. “Eunji, Joy, split up— we need as much ground covered as possible.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“We’ll find her, Irene.”

--

“Irene,” the implant finally says, and after thirty minutes of flying and listening to nothing but insistent beeps of the sonar scanning the area for lifeforms, the implant’s robotic voice might as well sound like a angel singing. “I have detected a heat source.”

Irene feels her heartbeat quicken, and perhaps Soul and Lip can sense it too, because the two dragons suddenly let out roars, ringing through the dead space, rocks on their craggy edges trembling as the sound causes the air to vibrate.

“Compare—”

“Already done,” the implant says, and for the first time, Irene feels a rush of graciousness run through her body— surely, she’s taken the little implant for granted this whole time, and in a way, the implant had been a constant companion as well, much like Lip. “It has the same dimensions as those of Kang Seulgi. Sending coordinate.”

“Thank you,” Irene whispers.

“Anytime, Irene,” the implant says as an orange blip appears on the microglass mask of Irene’s flight suit.

“Soul!” Irene calls, keeping her eyes trained on that orange blip – her semblance of hope – as she steers them over in the direction of the source, beckoning to Lip, who is quick to follow eagerly, zipping ahead with a loud cry. “Let’s go!”

--

They find Seulgi crumpled beneath large pile of boulders – presumably meteors that had into the planet’s atmosphere, pushed into the weaker gravity after a collision. From the looks of it, Soul had managed to squirm her way out of more harm but hadn’t been able to save Seulgi on her own.

“Seulgi!” Irene gasps, leaping off of Soul’s back before the large creature had even been fully situated on the ground. She stumbles slightly, not used to the different gravity, but even the sudden change can’t stop her from pitching forward, dashing over to the unconscious, crippled young woman still trapped beneath the rocks. “Seulgi!”

The colonel doesn’t stir, remaining motionless in her crumpled state, even as Irene sinks to her knees, desperation in every action as she crouches low, eyes darting everywhere as she her whirring mind spins and spins, so fast maybe it even overheats, until—

“She’s breathing,” a quiet voice says, and Irene’s gaze snaps up, only to find a quiet and worried looking Joy standing in front of her, her fighter jet transformed into its walker, robotic form a few meters away.

Irene opens , but no words come out. She merely looks from Seulgi to Joy, and then to Seulgi again, the major’s appearance enough comfort to make her racing heart steady itself once more, Irene’s mind gradually calming itself down. Sure enough, as soon as she regains herself, Irene notices the shallow breathing of the younger woman’s chest.

“We need to get the rocks off of her,” Irene says breathlessly, though her words gain more strength the more she speaks. She turns to her friends, determination in her eyes. “The flight suit has managed to keep her alive, but it’s thrown her into a stasis-like state. I— I can’t scan her until she’s uncovered, and I certainly can’t help her until then either.”

“Let’s get to work then,” Eunji nods, patting Yves on the side of the burgundy dragon’s muzzle. “With our three dragons, we’ll be able to get her out in no time.”

--

“Initiate numbing sequence,” Irene whispers. Thirty minutes had passed, and with diligent work, the girls had managed to haul the large meteors from Seulgi’s body. The doctor had immediately scanned the injured colonel before being sent into a momentary shock by the results relayed back to her.

Irene, Eunji, and Joy watch the crippled colonel slowly relax, though the stony expression on Irene’s face doesn’t leave.

“What’s wrong?” Joy asks quietly.

Irene is silent for a moment, mulling over her words, wondering whether or not to sugarcoat them or not.

It won’t do any good, Lip interrupts her thoughts gently, throwing a sympathetic look Irene’s way as she sways her massive red head over from Seulgi’s numbed figure to her human companion, to tell them anything but the truth. They’re Seulgi’s friends, Irene, and they care about her just as much as you do.

“I know,” Irene murmurs, making up her mind and turning to face the other two women. She heaves a deep breath.

“Seulgi’s spinal cord has… it’s taken damage,” she finally says, and she clenches a trembling fist to keep it from shaking even more. “I… I’ve seen this type of injury before, when my sister sustained a blow to her spine as well, and she… she can never walk again.”

Joy gasps, choking out a strangled no! at the same time Eunji covers her open mouth with a horrified hand. Behind them, Soul lets out a low whine, shaking her large head in denial as Lip presses the lengths of their bodies together, trying to comfort the distressed blue dragon.

“There’s… there’s nothing you can do?” Eunji asks, quiet desperation taking over her entire demeanor. “There’s no way to fix her?”

Irene says nothing for a moment, and the silence rings through the foreign planet, hanging above their heads like a thick fog they’re unable to see through.

Then, Irene’s voice pierces through the veil.

“At the time, there were no doctors who were able to fix her,” Irene finally says, before fixing the group with a hard, determined look, steel in her eyes as she gathers Seulgi into her arms, holding the soldier close to her body protectively. “Thankfully, I am not one of those doctors of the past. I’m one of the future, and I can heal Seulgi. Let’s get her back to the colony, because that’s a promise I aim to keep.”

--

They get ambushed by Reapers on the journey back, because of course they do. There’s nothing like a second near-death experience to lighten up the retrieval mission, after all.

But after the encounter, Irene can hardly remember any of it at all— all she remembers is a lot of yelling from a tense and sturdy Eunji gripping to Yves’s burgundy scales, a scarily calm Joy already gunning down the enemies from her fighter jet, and an overall large amount of screaming in general (mostly on the Reapers’ part, communication between units consisting of plenty of high pitched wails and other noises). All the while, Seulgi had remained sound asleep, safely unconscious while strapped into place in Joy’s jet.

There had been Irene, racing through the chaos, zipping around Reapers and their dragons as she’d ridden on the back of Soul, the blue dragon wrecking absolute terror on their enemies. Meanwhile, Lip had not been far behind, rocketing around the cluster of chaos at monstrous speeds, showcasing her agility as she’d danced with Soul once again, and the combination of starfire and sunfire had been so deadly even the allegedly heatproof scales of the Reapers’ dragons came out positively scorched from the rage.

And Irene had been directing Soul into complex maneuvers she vaguely remembers her father coaching and demonstrating to her over a decade ago, the motions returning to her brain and running through her body like finely-tuned clockwork just when she’d needed it the most.

By the time the backup units from the Intergalactic Federation had finally showed up, there was hardly a battle to finish after all— the Reapers had been utterly decimated by the time Soul let out another burst of victorious, gorgeous starfire.

--

Seulgi finds herself stirring awake to the sound of stern, serious voices talking around her.

She forces her eyes open only to wince at the sudden bright light. There are blurry silhouettes around her, and she grunts, a bit frustrated at not being able to tell where she is, although judging from the oh so familiar soft feeling of the surface beneath her, she’s on one of the hospital wing’s rather comfortable moving stretchers.

A familiar face pops into view, and Seulgi squints as she struggles to recognize the face.

“Yeri?”

A smile blossoms across the nurse’s lips, and Yeri nods, reaching out to pat Seulgi’s arm. The soldier quickly comes to the realization that she feels nothing of the physical contact, meaning that the numbing sequence must have come into effect somehow.

“That’s me,” Yeri says. “You’re safe now, Colonel, which means you can rest easy now.” The nurse’s voice takes on a light, joking tone. “With that being said, I’m sorry to say that you woke up only for me to put you back to sleep.”

Seulgi blearily watches Yeri swipe over her communicator, muttering a few choice words to her implant. It’s then that a sleepy feeling starts to crawl over Seulgi’s body, now devoid of a flight suit, and Seulgi doesn’t fight it.

Then—

“I’m fine!” Another sharp voice rises over the rest of the stern voices— it’s a voice that Seulgi recognizes instantly. “I came out of the journey and the battle uninjured, and I’m more awake than ever. Now let me get back to my operation room so I can operate on Kang Seulgi and fix her.”

“Irene?” Seulgi whispers, an entirely different feeling instantly washing over body. “Yeri… What… what happened?”

“Doctor Irene flew out on Soul to save you,” are the words Seulgi had never expected to receive in response. Suddenly, the need to see Irene, touch her and feel her, tell Irene that she’s okay – that she’s bruised and battered and beaten but alive – arises. She tries to will her arm to move, to reach out to Irene, because even though they’d left each other on perhaps not the best of terms, Irene still means more, more than anyone, even Seulgi herself, can imagine.

Her arm remains motionless on the stretcher, so she tries to focus on Irene’s voice, fading in and out with the incoming sleep.

“Yeri…” Seulgi whispers again, “I-I… I want… I need…”

“Shhh…” Yeri hushes her, the nurse’s gentle voice lulling Seulgi into a deeper sleep. “Just sleep for now, Colonel Kang Seulgi. There will be time later, and Doctor Irene will be there.”

Seulgi can’t form the words to say anything in return, so she vaguely nods her head before drifting off into a deep sleep.

--

When Seulgi finally awakes hours later to the hissing of the rehabilitation chamber being opened, she takes a heaving breath, relieved that most of the weight and ache that had been paining her body had been taken away during her time in the chamber. There’s a small ache in her lower back, but it goes away as quickly as it had made itself present.

Once she steps outside, it's Wendy who greets her, smiling at her best friend warmly before tackling Seulgi into a tight hug.

“I was so worried about you,” Wendy whispers, and Seulgi shakes her head wordlessly, squeezing Wendy's torso in return. She can't even imagine what it had been like for Wendy, her childhood friend since the age of three.

“I'm sorry,” Seulgi mutters, looking at the floor.

Wendy only shakes her head, her smile turning soft.

“You’re alive, and that's what really matters,” she says gently, taking a step back. “Now, you're looking for Irene, right?”

Seulgi flinches, blinking in surprise at how easy it was for Wendy to read her thoughts, but her best friend only laughs, shaking her head.

“We tried to dismiss Irene an hour ago, but she refused to go home,” Wendy sighs with a fond roll of her eyes. “She’d been on duty overtime for the past eighteen hours but didn't want to leave us with less people right after the battle that had just gone on. Even though we won a big victory today, a lot of our soldiers got injured in subsequent battles that were ongoing all over the many galaxies, all at once. What once seemed like an ambush might’ve actually been one of a series of simultaneous attacks. Regardless, she wouldn't leave, so we told her to go rest in her office. Check on her for me?”

Seulgi only nods, moving to head to the doctor's personal office despite the clenching in her heart as she recalls the last proper conversation the two of them had—and the word “proper” is still debatable.

Whatever this is, it has to stop, had been Irene's words at the time, but Seulgi had seen the way the light had dimmed in her eyes, seen the way the tears had pooled there, heard the way Irene had broke into sobs the moment the older girl thought that Seulgi had been out of earshot, when the reality was that she'd lingered outside of Irene's office door, wondering if she should go back inside and comfort her. Seulgi had been pondering it on that fateful day, whether or not she should beg to Irene for an explanation.

Seulgi had flown off into battle with a troubled and confused heart instead.

Today, she vows to settle the inner turmoil, once and for all.

Irene's door is unlocked when Seulgi reaches it, so she pushes her way inside and assesses the office that she can barely even recognize now.

What had once been such a neat and tidy office space has papers thrown about haphazardly, cans of energy drinks that Seulgi's sure most doctors know better than to consume strewn around. Lip’s perch remains empty, the red dragon probably having gone to curl up with Soul at the docks like before everything that had happened. But perhaps most notably, a very tired looking doctor slouched against her desk, fast asleep.

Irene hadn't even laid down on the very much available sofa, for goodness sake.

Oh, how much had changed in just a simple week.

Making her mind up, Seulgi gingerly steps completely into the room, shutting the door behind her with a quiet click. She pads around the clutter, picking up the aluminum cans and throwing them into the recycling bin, leisurely placing the papers into a single pile that she sets on the corner of Irene's desk.

Finally, Seulgi sighs, deciding to do something about the tired doctor.

Without much effort, she scoops Irene up into her arms, lifting up the smaller doctor with ease, Irene being too tired to even pry her eyes open.

She sets Irene down on the red couch, spreading her out into a more comfortable position before pulling over one of the spare chairs and sitting herself down, brushing a stray strand of hair out of Irene’s eyes.

“What does this all mean, Irene?” She asks to the quiet room, gently cupping Irene’s sleeping face with a careful hand. “Right before, you’d told me all these things about how you didn’t want to start anything, but then there you are, at the other end of the galaxy, rescuing me. I’m… so confused, Rene. I don’t know what to do.”

Surely, she’s not expecting the soft I’m sorry from the sleeping girl either.

Seulgi immediately jolts up, pulling her hand away as Irene begins to stir, blinking as she peers at her surroundings with bleary eyes, a yawn leaving her lips as a hand comes up to hall into a fist, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to clear her vision.

“I only caught the end there,” Irene says softly, biting her lip in guilt, looking anywhere but Seulgi’s gaze, “But I… I’m sorry, Seul. I really didn’t make things easier for you, or even myself.” She laughs bitterly. “And to think that I had been so selfish too, only regarding for myself. But somehow, I ended up hurting the both of us. I’m… I’m really, really sorry, Seulgi.”

“I… I just want an explanation,” Seulgi whispers. Irene nods, wordlessly shifting on the couch to make room for Seulgi to sit on the other side. The soldier does so without question, without thinking, just naturally making herself comfortable on the red couch that she’d spent so many lunch breaks at, so many late nights keeping Irene company at. “B-because I feel things for you, Irene. Even now, after I told you that I’d be okay, I feel things for you. I want to be there for you, I want… I want to work with you. I feel so many things every time I’m with you, and I thought I could cope with them because… because of what you said before, but then you’re over here, flying across the universe to save me with my own dragon, and—”

She’s cut off by Irene’s concerned look, and it’s only then that Seulgi realizes that she’s been hyperventilating. The soldier takes a deep breath, trying to steady her heartbeat but finding it impossible with the impossibly soft way Irene gazes at her.

“I’m just… so confused,” Seulgi finishes helplessly.

There’s complete silence.

It’s broken by the sound of Irene shifting on the couch, pushing herself up and dragging a hand through her raven black hair as she heaves a deep breath. Seulgi can see the words swirling in the doctor’s eyes, sees the way the gears churn through her brain, spinning faster and faster in an attempt at composure, at some try to get all the words right.

It’s then that Irene gently takes Seulgi’s hand, pulling her to sit on the couch. Seulgi stares at Irene, wondering if the slightly older woman has a handle on how desperate she must look right now, with this foot of space in between them, this awkward gap that separates them, and oh, how Seulgi misses when they were just Seulgi-and-Irene.

“I…I can imagine,” Irene finally whispers. Her hands still have Seulgi’s in their grasp, squeezing them involuntarily, and the soldier feels her heart start to pound in her chest, reminding Seulgi of Soul’s heavy footsteps against the metal surface of the landing docks. “A-and I take one hundred percent responsibility for all of that. I’m… I’m so sorry, Seul, I was just so selfish.”

“Irene…”

“It’s no excuse,” Irene continues, lower lip starting to tremble. She clenches her hands into fists, trembling against their own volition. “I-I thought I was protecting myself. Seulgi, I nearly lost my whole family to the dangers of space. My sister can never walk again, and my parents outright refuse to let my siblings visit me up here. It… it just kept accelerating, getting worse and worse and I thought— I thought about how you’d been coming to the hospital wing even more and more, and then you nearly died—”

Irene chokes on her own sentence, a hand coming to grasp the fabric of her white lab coat, resting on her chest.

“I thought I was protecting myself,” Irene whispers lowly. “I’d lost so much because I was helpless, and I-I thought that one day, I would fail you too. And I knew that I wouldn’t be able to recover from that, because it was something different, something worse. Because I feel things for you too, Kang Seulgi. Because… because Seulgi, you… you just don’t understand how easy it is to fall in love with you. It’s so, so easy, and that frightened me, because you have the power to make my day the best it’s ever been but the moment I see you hurt in the slightest, my heart starts aching.”

“Irene,” Seulgi murmurs quietly, and she looks down, daring to close that dreaded space as she inches closer to the crying doctor. She reaches out, cupping Irene’s cheek with her toned, calloused hand, but Irene grabs onto it, leans into it. “Irene, I’m alright though.”

“I know,” the doctor whispers. “I know, and that’s what makes me all the more stupid. I… I hadn’t realized that together, I can do more better when I’m supporting you from here. When I’m healing your wounds, when I have the constant faith that you’ll return to me. Because I… I can fix your bones when you’re broken, and I can stop you from getting lost, but I-I just hurt your heart instead!” Irene whimpers, not realizing when she’d started hiccupping.

“Irene…” Seulgi says gently, pulling Irene close and they cling to each other like lost children, like lifelines, like two halves of a whole coming together as one for truly the first real time. “Don’t worry, baby, my heart can be mended too. It wasn’t the only one that had hurt, right? Yours did as well. It’s alright now, we can heal together. Because that’s when we’re strongest— when we’re supporting each other. You make me a better person, Irene. I can only hope I do the same for you.”

“Oh, Seulgi,” Irene cries, weakly gripping at the fabric of Seulgi’s shirt. “You do! You do, you do, you do. You were the one who helped me get over my fear of large dragons, and it was you who convinced me to spend more time having fun instead of toiling over my work. You gave Lip the chance to free herself, and you let me gain friends in your Flock and in Soul. You’ve brightened up my life and I… I am forever grateful for that. Just a few months ago, here I was, thinking I’d be dedicating the rest of my life to only my work… Now I know that there’s something else out there to live for. Love… it’s a powerful thing.”

“It really is,” Seulgi smiles softly. She runs her hands up and down the lengths of Irene’s arms. “I think I love you, Irene.”

Irene laughs, and even though it’s a coarse and airy sound, not quite as full as one of Irene’s usual laughs and understandably so, it fills Seulgi’s heart up to the brim and with surplus, spilling over and filling up the rest of Seulgi’s body with light and happiness.

“I think I love you too, Seulgi,” Irene smiles, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

Seulgi simply leans in, kissing them away before coming in close, closing the distance, and covering Irene’s perfect smile with her own lips, pressing their happiness together, sealing the deal with a kiss.

--

“So…” Seulgi trails off, rubbing circles in Irene’s back as they lay in the doctor’s big plush bed later that night. The sheets are pulled up to their chins, their legs entwined as cuddle together lying down. Seulgi spoons the smaller girl, Irene’s back securely pressed against her front, the soldier’s arms securely encircling Irene’s midsection. “Just how did you heal my spine anyway?”

Irene shifts in her position, turning over and looking up at Seulgi in surprise.

“I told you earlier that the micro-organic units like usual allowed me to fix it,” Irene says, a shrug rolling off her shoulder in what Seulgi knows she hopes is nonchalant.

“Yeah, but,” it’s Seulgi turn to shrug this time, “I kinda… I thought I wasn’t supposed to be able to walk again after that sort of injury.”

“Y-you know about that?” Irene can’t help but stutter in surprise. That was one detail they hadn’t covered— or rather, Irene had glossed over it during their recap, not wanting to think about what might have happened if she hadn’t been successful.

“Yeah,” Seulgi admits. “Back when I’d first been trapped, before the comatose emergency state of the flight suit had kicked in, I’d asked the suit to give me a rundown of my injuries, along with a full-scale explanation of what each injury could mean. It… It told me I’d never be able to be in control of my legs again, but… but here I am.”

“Oh…” Irene nods slowly. She pauses, trying to think of a way to describe the process in a simple manner. “Well I healed the bone in your spine and legs, like usual. But I also had the micro-organic units stimulate that part of your spine, which then re-stimulated the areas of your brain that allowed for the movement in your legs and your control of them. That’s the simple, abridged version, at least. It… It took quite a while, because even though I’d been thinking of that scenario for a while, doing thought experiments to test the hypothesis, carrying it out in the real world, of course, was a different story.”

“Still,” Seulgi says kindly, leaning in and stealing a kiss from her new girlfriend, who giggles amidst everything, looking at Seulgi like she holds all the answers in the world despite it being herself who had made such a major medical breakthrough. “I can’t thank you enough, Irene. I’m basically good as new!”

“At least we think!” Irene corrects, though the twinkle in her eyes suggests her playful nature. “Remember, you promised to come to me if you ever experience lower-back pain? And your overall promise to be more careful during your patrols?”

“Absolutely!” Seulgi replies quickly, grinning. “I’m going to be especially more careful from now on. You’ve given me a second chance, baby. I’m not going to use it lightly.”

“More like you’ve given me a second chance,” Irene chuckles. She presses their foreheads together, nuzzling their noses against each other. “And I don’t plan to use it lightly either.”

“Y’know, speaking of second chances,” Seulgi says, trailing off slightly, and Irene raises an eyebrow in question.

“What about them?”

“That procedure you told me, about how you fixed my back…”

“Yeah, Seul? What about it?”

“Do you think there’s only a specific timeframe for when you’re able to stimulate the spine? Or do you think that even years later, say, even ten years later after the injury was sustained?”

Irene’s eyes widen.

“Seul, you’re not saying I should—”

Seulgi places a warm hand atop of Irene’s smaller, slightly trembling one. She fixates her girlfriend with the sincerest of looks, trying to express the vast amount of belief she has in the doctor.

“I say that you should go for it.”

--

The bedroom is quiet for a whole heartbeat.

Then—

“Okay.”

--

Two months later, and things are back to normal.

Nearly.

Today in particular has Irene frantically pacing around her room, Lip glancing at her panicking human partner in the utmost amusement. The red dragon snorts, swishing her tail peculiarly as Irene turns on a whim and starts pacing backwards.

You’re going to run a hole through the flooring if you keep this up, Lip quips drily, before she takes up from her perch and swooping up to the tall bookshelf, snagging a red-colored lollipop and dropping herself to perch atop Irene’s head.

For your troubles.

Irene takes the offered red lollipop gratefully, popping it into and letting the cherry flavor wash over her tongue before chucking the wrapper into the trash can.

“You’re the best, Lip,” Irene says gratefully. “Sorry about being so antsy, I’m just so nervous!”

I can tell! Lip laughs. Seulgi should be calling you soon though, right?

Irene’s about to nod her head when, right on time, her implant chimes in.

“You are receiving a call from Kang Seulgi,” the implant informs. “Accept call?”

“Yes, put her through.”

“Irene!” Seulgi’s happy, bright voice echoes through Irene’s head, and the doctor can’t help but smile. Somehow, her girlfriend is always able to make her feel exponentially better about any situation, no matter the amount of nerves that have accumulated. “We made it back safe and sound, no troubles whatsoever, so the mission was a major success!”

“That’s great, Seul!” Irene replies enthusiastically. “I’m glad things were peaceful!”

“Same here! Ever since we triumphed over the Reapers last month, things have gotten easier— not that I’m getting too relaxed or anything! But it’s certainly a nice change,” Seulgi says, and Irene can virtually hear the grin in Seulgi’s voice. “Anyway, your guest of honor is here – she’s a lovely girl, by the way! – and I’m sure you’ll want to see her! Meet us at the cruiser docks?”

“I’ll be there in ten!” Irene responds breathlessly, and it’s then that Lip drops from perching on Irene’s head to her signature position on Irene’s shoulder.

Let’s go, let’s go! Lip cheers.

It only takes eight minutes for Irene to get to the cruiser docks, and a mere ten seconds for her to press a happy welcome home kiss to Seulgi’s lips.

“You’ve got this,” Seulgi whispers as she pulls away, running her hands down Irene’s arms comfortingly. “I believe in you, okay?”

Irene nods. “Okay. And Seul? Thank you for giving me the courage to make that call. I don’t think I would’ve been able to speak to my father like that if you hadn’t helped me.”

“It was no trouble at all, babe. We make each other better, remember?” Seulgi grins, and it’s then that an elevator descends from the bottom of the nearby cruiser— the one that Seulgi had been escorting.

There’s a tall, gruff man standing there, and in front of him, a wheelchair-bound girl virtually bouncing in her char the moment she catches sight of Irene.

“Irene-unnie!”

“Eunbi!”

The girls are fast to hug each other, identical grins taking place on each of their faces.

“I missed you so much, unnie!” Eunbi says, her voice b with emotion on her pretty face, as lovely as Irene can remember.

“I missed you too, Eunbi-ah,” Irene whispers, her heart clenching as she and her little sister clutch at each other’s hands. Lip coos from her shoulder, waves at Eunbi and the girl in the wheelchair waves back with a grin.

Taking a deep breath, she tosses a look over at Seulgi, who stands only a short distance away, pride emanating off of the soldier in waves. The younger woman grins at Irene, shoots her girlfriend a thumbs up of encouragement. That’s all the reassurance Irene needs, so the accomplished doctor turns back to her younger sister, eyes bright and eager.

“Now, Eunbi-ah, how would you like to get strong legs of yours back?”

 

End.