Work Text:
The humming sound of the WARP Train was incessant, and the noise always made Lesti impatient to get their cleanup and reorganization tasks over with. But not this time.
Today, it faded into the background as Lesti focused on something instead of how badly she wanted to get off from work. Indeed, all of her attention was on Rose.
Rose was a lot of things. She was calm, collected, strong, and the toughest person Lesti knew. She was skilled in combat, and always knew exactly what to do in any situation. And all of that wasn’t Lesti trying to sweet-talk her senior, Rose just really was that amazing!
And it’s not like she’d ever admit any of that to Rose anyways. Nope. Never.
As much as Lesti adored her coworker, she’d rather work the crew’s next shift all by herself than admit to Rose how she felt. Too much could go wrong, and she’d hate to worry about how her senior would react.
But at least admiring from afar wasn’t off the table.
There was definitely more to Rose besides her combat capabilities and personality too. Lesti had always been awed by how Rose took such great care of her hair, it was always well-maintained and kept in order, the opposite of Lesti’s own. Rose’s hair also looked really soft, and it made Lesti wonder what product she used and what it smelled like. She’d love to run her fingers through it, or move Rose’s bangs back into her face. That’d look cute.
She’d only seen Rose without a hat on a few times, when they were changing out of their uniforms in the company locker room. It was during one of those times that she had also gotten a glimpse of the scar Rose had on her forehead. It made sense that Lesti had never seen it before, as it was always covered up. And some small part of Lesti enjoyed that it was something likely only she knew about, regardless of how small and insignificant it might’ve been.
Speaking of their uniforms, Rose made them look good. Like really good.
Lesti always found the dress shirt and tie stifling and annoying, but it made Rose look unbelievably handsome. The armored vest clung to her body, and Lesti wondered what the body beneath it looked like. Rose was muscular, no doubt, as not just anyone could wield those heavy gauntlets with as much skill as she did.
The rest of the uniform fit Rose well too, especially the pants. If Lesti said that those pants didn’t make Rose’s strong legs look amazing, she’d be lying. Lesti could also admit that the pants complemented the rest of the outfit well, and that they would sometimes move and show the shape of Rose’s ass when she walked-
The feeling of an elbow jabbing her in the ribs brought Lesti out of her thoughts.
She turned to her right, Sen was looking at her with his arms crossed.
“We’re here, newbie.”
“Ok!”
The taller man leaned down until he could reach Lesti’s ear and discreetly whisper another comment.
“You could also make it a little less obvious that you’re staring at Rose. You’re lucky that her back was turned the whole time.”
Lesti flushed red. It wasn’t that obvious, right?
She could worry about that later, they had work to do.
The train’s doors shut, and Rose turned to the two of them.
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary about this voyage from what I read on the report, so just work efficiently like normal.”
“You got it!”
“Kay.”
Lesti almost laughed aloud at the difference between her and Sen’s reactions.
Rose nodded and gave them both a thumbs-up before turning to the train’s passengers. She didn’t skip a beat and walked forward to begin their work.
Lesti followed, sneaking glances at Rose every so often. It was nice to be around her coworker, even if she couldn’t get any closer.
She’d always be just a little too far away from Lesti, and maybe that was for the best.
Getting to hold her would be a dream come true, but seeing her was enough. It had to be.
After all, it was better to watch from a safe distance than to get too close to the sun, make a foolish mistake, and then drown in a sea of regret.
She’d rather be safe than sorry.