“Damn,” the women muttered. 

The sight of their crashed starships into the earth of the planet they “landed” on was less than perfect. The exact opposite of fantastic. Possibly one of the worse things that could happen. 

“Killer Tenshi is totalled… does the Happy Trigger work?” Mocha asked. 

The pilot of the purple starship, Forte, poked her head out of the cockpit and shook her head solemnly. “No luck. The engine burned out badly, it needs to be completely replaced.”

“Crap! How the hell are we supposed to get back now!?” 

“No worries, with basic survival skills we should be able to last until someone notices that we’ve crashed.”

“In that case I’m killing any weirdo that approaches us. I’m not gonna have some sado-masochist freak try and kill me.” Mocha gave Forte a side glance. Getting the reference, the redhead laughed a little and climbed out of the ship. The fact that she laughed at her joke made her blush a bit. 

Not only were they stranded on, what seems to be, an uninhabited island. Mocha was stuck with the woman she had started to fall in love with. This situation seemed to get worse and worse the longer she sat and thought about it. 

“Alright!! I have enough ammo~~ We’re safe now!” she cheered, triumphantly holding a couple boxes of ammo.

“What do you think a gun like that can accomplish, Forte?” 

She held her small pistol, the one she often hid it in the depths of her sleeve, pulling it out when she needs it. She huffed and held it up with pride. “This little guy’s gotten me and the past me out of a lot of trouble you know. It’s the signature gunpowder masterpiece that the Stollen’s have used.”

“The current you couldn’t even hit the dummy’s in the training room once about a year ago. Just because your consciousness happened to wake up doesn’t mean that gun is reliable.”

“Do you expect me to lug around a 20kg machine gun around to ensure that we don’t die tonight?” 

“I think that a sword like this can offer more protection,” she unsheathed the katana, making it glint in the harsh sun. She slid it back in and nodded, paying no mind to how Forte was mocking her under her breath. 

The tropical planet was an endless aray of forest green trees. As far as they could see there weren’t any oceans, villages, or even deserts. Just luxariant vines and roots purtruded from the ground and trucks of palms. 

Mocha sighed and leaned against the white starship, slightly underneath the Happy Trigger. “Who am I kidding? We’re absolutely screwed.” 

“I’m glad that I got stuck with you though,” 

“Huh!?”

Forte coughed and spoke up. “You seem to be the most capable out of all of us after all.”

“I’m flattered.” she said, trying to put on a mature facade.

A small rustle in a bush startled both of them a little. Forte aimed her gun and Mocha rested her hand on the handle of her sword. After a tense moment or two the source of the noise, a small grey rat, poked its head out and looked directly at them both. Forte’s soul looked as if it left her body when she watched its tail slither out.

Mocha pulled out the silver blade and swiped down quickly. The rat’s torso began to bleed little droptlets of blood, but the iron poured out quickly. It weakly stumbled back into the bush leaving the trail of red behind it. 

“... rat.” she breathed. 

“Don’t worry, I took care of it.” she assured, looking around the bush. No more rats.

Forte groaned and took her hat off. “This is absolutely stupid! Why the hell did they both malfunction at a time like this!?”

Mocha felt a twinge of guilt. “Maybe the HALO system malfunctioned, h-have you been having any doubts or mood swings lately?” 

“How about you? You seem oddly jumpy,” 

The awkward silence chocked her. Mocha wanted to object but she knew very well that she definitely had an issue that caused her to be less focused than usual, especially with the ever so touchy jewels of lost technology. Then if it was her fault, why did Forte crash down as well? She had no reason to recklessly fly off and try to kill herself. 

“I haven’t been getting much sleep lately. Training Chitose has been a bit taxing on my time,” that wasn’t a lie, but defnientely not the reason. Luckily the blue-eyed woman seemed to buy it, despite looking skeptical. “Still doesn’t explain why the Happy Trigger crashed right after me. Does it, Forte?” 

“Why are so adamant about finding out why I crashed?” 

“Because it isn’t like you, and if we gotta have Bao repair it we need to know the problem.” 

“I-I’m telling you…” 

“If you don’t want talk about it that’s fine. I just want to make sure that you’re okay, because you’re my friend.” the last part was difficult to spit out.

Forte sighed. She reluctantly leaned against the wreckage and held her hands behind her back, elbows up. 

~

Hours had past since they crashed. Their shelter was crafted from any scrap wood and pieces of metal from the hulls of the ships that happened to fall off, it was very tight and secure despite only being slapped together over the span of a few hours.

Forte sat down by a fire pit attempting to start a fire. She rapidly spun the stick around like they had done in the movies but couldn’t get a single spark even though the wood was dry and making friction. 

Mocha sat underneath the shelter they made, watching with intrigue. “Maybe you’re doing something wrong?”

“Well no kidding, they make it look so easy in the movies…” 

“That’s because their movies, nothing in real life is portrayed well in those.” she got up and knealed next to her. She looked up at the sky and the sun stared directly back. It was noon. 

She took off her glasses and played around with the glare for a while, once she got it she pointed it at a leaf on top of thing sticks and patiently waited. The leaf had started to smolder and shrivel, getting smaller and smaller until it combusted into a flame and set all the sticks on fire only getting bigger and stronger without the assistance of fuel or coal. 

Forte watched, her surprise was apparent. She took off her monocle and held it up to the sunlight, getting a small beam of light just like Mocha got. 

“It was that easy!?” 

“I wouldn’t say that it’s easy to hold your arm out, but it is easier than doing it the old fashioned way.” she said.

“I see… Thank you!”

Mocha lavished the praise. She smiled and went back to her original spot, happy that she got to see Forte smile after a while of panicking and frustration. A small breeze broke past the leaves of the palms, moving some light items to the west. It was cool but signalled that dusk was on the horizon.

Smoke had began to billow upwards, they now had a smoke signal and a useful light source.

“Oh, Mocha. We don’t have that much perishable food with us,”

“What’s “Not that much” to you?”

“I had a few cans of ravioli in my ship for some reason…”

“Well that’s better than nothing,”

“We’re also running out of water. Should we find a water source soon?”

“A normal human can survive three days without water, or any liquid for that matter.” Forte waited for her to continue, Mocha only looked at her with concern. “A normal human, can only survive, three days with no water,” she said more slowly.

“I get it…”

Mocha laid on her back. “We can look for some first thing tomorrow. That’s if we don’t die in our sleep,”

“Don’t say things like that!”

Mocha sighed and looked up at the sky, fading from purple to orange while several moons rose near the east. The stars were certainly in the galaxy they were from, but where they were located was the issue that needed to be solved before they could make any other moves.

Forte and her both sat, back to back. The atmosphere grew tense without much effort. Mocha felt that her personal thoughts were getting in her head too much, so she quickly moved away and laid down without muttering much of a goodnight to her friend. Forte grumbled a little and followed suit, marking off the first day of them being stranded.

~~~

A few days later

The women and their camp adapted to the environment well. The clothes they landed with were hanging on vines as they were held out to dry and Mocha was the one tasked to handling the laundry, as if she were a housewife, while Forte went out for hours at a time bringing back familiar and foreign animals. 

“Is my cloak dry yet? It’s getting a little chilly,” 

Mocha turned with a few of their clothes in her arms. She pulled out the longest piece and held it out to observe it closely efore handing it off.

“Mmm… It’s a little damp. Also it’s like 27 out right now, you’ll be fine.”

“C’mon, it’ll dry off eventually anyways so-”

“It’ll dry quicker and be warm if I hang it over the fire though!”

“That cloak costs a lot! I can’t just let it be singed or destroyed!”

Mocha huffed and pulled it back. Forte groaned and let her do her own thing instead of trying to argue with her.

“Jeez… She’s taking the housewife role too seriously, ahh~ how lucky am I to have someone like her-” she paused her thought and watched Mocha gingerly set her cloak over a higher vine, she wasn’t sure if she saw her smell it but she was more concerned on how she thought of her just now. “Housewife!? God, what am I even thinking about? There’s no way she could even think of me that highly!”

“What do you think of me, Forte?” Mocha asked. 

Forte grew a puzzled look on her face, not being responsive. The fire crackled, illuminating the dimly lit area with it’s warm colors, and glaring against the lenses they both wore. Their clothes blew in the small breeze, carrying small flakes of ash in the air.

“What do you mean by that?” she responded, not sure where this would lead to.

Mocha took a deep breath and sighed. “Something has been bothering me for a long while now, and since we’re stuck…”

The tall woman walked over and put her hands on her shoulders, holding her tightly. Forte slid her glasses off gingerly, being sure not to damage or scratch the lenses. “I think you’re beautiful,” she finally said. Objects from a distance became blurry. But Forte was completely crystal clear in front of her. Her stare and everything made her heart pound. “I also think that you’ve become a more than exceptional commander. Despite everyone’s rocky start, you just seemed to charm everyone in the end.”

“I can’t be that exceptional,”

“Then why do you think I said that you’re the one I hoped to be stranded with if this type of situation ever happened?”

Mocha started to get red. She reached out to grab her glasses, but the woman teasingly tossed them back. This is exactly what she had wanted for so long, so why was she trying to back out of this? 

“What’s with that face? You’re the one who wanted to know what I thought about you,”

“I don’t think you get it. I mean, if no one comes for us then all we have left is one another. Wait, no. I just wanted to know if I was doing a good job, that’s all.”

“Your facade is terrible, but…” she slid her hand into her purple hair and moved closer. “It’s just another part about why I fell in love with you.”

“Fell in love… you mean-” 

“I guess I let that slip, didn’t I?” she laughed. “It’s true, you’re the one I fell in love with first.”

Mocha didn’t pull back. She silently lavished the praise and attention. Forte’s lips puckered slightly to the point where their volume was apparent, Mocha went along and pushed forward to reach her face. They lightly pecked their lips together, still being a little awkward with the new true love aspect they both discovered.

“I feel the same!” Mocha eagerly announced as soon as they parted.

Forte giggled and held her hand tightly. “I’m glad. I’m happy that we finally talked about it,”

Mocha looked at her a little more, thinking and thinking. She was so happy, and nervous, and excited, there was too many feelings that overwhelmed her but she felt the happiest that she’s been in a long time. Then it all made sense: the reason why the Emblem Frames were both dysfunctional.

“Hey, Forte.” 

“What’s up?” 

“Did your Emblem Frame fail because you were concerned about me?” 

“Well… I… Uhh…” 

“Like, because you loved me but weren’t sure if I felt the same? If so, that was the actually reason why mine crashed.” 

“If I say yes… You won’t get mad?”

“Why should I be mad if we made the exact same mistake?” she laid her head on her shoulder, trying to make the atmosphere a little more comforting. 

“I guess not. It’s a little silly to think that you’d be mad at me now,” she petted her head, lightly messing with her hair. 

“Isn’t it?” 

“Yeah…” 

They silently kiss each other with nothing getting in the way. Despite being stranded the atmosphere got romantic real quickly, the warm fire, the comfy shelter, both new lovers stared deeply into their eyes and neared closer and closer. Forte grabbed her chin in her palm and drew her closer, but paused. 

She began to glower and look around warry out of no where, confusing Mocha.

“W-what’s wrong? Forte?”

“He’s back… with a vengeance…”

“What are you talking about-” 

“STAY AWAY FROM US DAMMIT!!!” She pulled out her gun and fired six rounds into the dark. There was a loud sqeuak and small explosion. The head of a rat rolled out of a bush and stared directly at the two of them, eyes wide and mouth gaping. 

Forte’s face went pale but Mocha sighed, more annoyed than concerned for her girlfriend. “It was just another rat.” 

“No… there’s more of them! I can feel it!!” 

“Why are you so scared of them anyway?”

“Maybe if you were allergic to them, you’d be pretty concerned by the fact that this is the second one we’ve seen today!!” 

Mocha cocked her head to the side. “You’re allergic to rats? What kind of allergy is that?”

“An ungodly one!! That’s what!” Just as she said that, several more rats walked out of the bush. Even though they were just rats, they were absolute units compared to ones they have seen back at HQ. They kept spilling out of the passage and glared daggers at the two lovers. 

One of them climbed onto Mocha’s leg. She yelled and kicked it back into the sea of gray rodents and angered them even more. As a last resort, Mocha grabbed a torch and lit it on fire. She stuck it out at them which made them crawl backwards as she neared. Seeing the opportunity she kept waving it around like a maniac and making odd noises while doing so as if she was trying to intimidate or subdue the rats. 

It worked for a while but after a rough swing of the torch it completely extinguished. Mocha awkwardly dropped the torch and looked at the rats. Seeing their opening, they ran and began to pursuit Forte and her. Both of them yelled and scrambled to get on top of the wreckage where they couldn’t reach.

They both huddled together as the cold settled in. They both watched as the rats ran amock and trying to find anything they could take. Fortunately, more so unfortunately, they didn’t have anything of value so there wouldn’t be much of a loss in materials. 

“Jeez… I didn’t know they were that mad at us.” 

“What the hell is with this place? Large dominant rats, makes me confess my love, what else is gonna happen?” 

“I’d rather think about how we can get rid of those things. Nevermind your allergy, just imagine all of the diseases they have…” 

“So… What do we do now, my love?”

Mocha blushed. “I have no clue at all.”