"Don't worry Warthog wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her slot in the Wonderbolts. You'll be fine." Thunderbolt said allowing you to let out a relieved sigh.
"Ok, sounds like a plan. Let me just call and leave a message with the office." You say as you pull out your phone to make a short call.
"Alright, that's done so when are we heading out?"
"Tomorrow at 0600hrs."
"Whelp back to bed for me." you say hearing how early you need to be up.
"But you were just asleep." Thunderbolt said.
"Then I don't know what to say." You say as your phone rings.
"Go for Anon." You say
"Osprey.Shop now want talk." the voice on the other end said.
"Osprey, are you ok? Slow down sweetie." You say as you walk to the door.
"Physically fine. emotionally hurt. want talk." Osprey said not making sense with her words.
"Ok, I'll be there in a minute or two. Sit tight Osprey." You say as you hang up the phone.
"Someone emotionally traumatized Osprey, need to go and talk to her. Thunder, I'll try not to be out too late ok?" You say as you turn to see her slightly concerned.
"Again? Go, I'll be over in a little while to check on you both." Thunderbolt said giving you that final bit of permission to go and not hurt Thunderbolt's feelings.
2110 hrs. Your shop.
"Osprey, I'm here, come on in." You say as she's standing by the shop doors.
"Sidney." Osprey said with a very hurt tone.
"I could have guessed. Can I get you anything?" You say as she walks into your shop and you close the doors once she's clear.
"No. Just talk." Osprey said as you're annoyed with the fact that she's all bent out of shape.
"Well, I don't know where to start honestly. I'd say that you can't keep letting this get to you all the time. It's not good for your morale. Yea words hurt, but that's just it, they're words they're not bullets, or rockets or weapons, they can't down you, but they can make you do things you regret later. Osprey, Sidney says a lot of things that he doesn't know. Not that I'm standing up for that asshat, but he's a big child. I've seen more maturity from Lightning than I've seen from Sidney. That's saying a lot." You say as you lean on a chair while Osprey wipes her eyes.
"Anon. Why does he say those mean things?" Osprey asks.
"Well, either he's drunk, or just retarded sometimes that guy breathes his own exhaust you know, not too great for his health." You say trying to comfort Osprey.
"I got called a hybrid again." Osprey said bringing up what made her so upset in the first place.
"Osprey, so what if you are a hybrid?"
"Anon?"
"Who gives a fuck if you're a hybrid. You've got the best of both worlds, you can fly faster than a chopper, and you can land on a point, something only the VTOLs can do but it costs them armament to do so. You may not be a great gunship or an attack craft, but you're a damned good transport Osprey, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." You say as she smiles weakly.
"Thank you Anon. These talks, they help me a lot." Osprey said very thankful of you being there to support her.
"No worries Osprey, they weren't in my original job description when I arrived, but they are now. Remember you all had to stand still and be dead silent and not make eye contact with me." You say
Osprey laughs a little remembering how freaked out you were when you had to work on them and they would talk.
"Anon, that was long ago." Osprey says as she's now openly smiling despite her eyes being reddened from crying.
"Yea, it was. Lot has changed since then. Thunderbolt's coming by in a bit, did you want to stay and chat with her a little?" You say as if on cue there was knocking at your door.
"Anon. Is Osprey ok?" Thunderbolt asked through the door.
"May I?" You ask as you point to the door.
"Go ahead." Osprey says as you walk to the doors to let Thunderbolt in.
"See for yourself Thunder." You say as she walks in to see a smiling Osprey.
"Oh good you're alright. I thought it was worse this time." Thunderbolt said as she hugged Osprey.
"Yea, I'm ok. Got called a hybrid again. Talking with Anon helps. You're soo lucky to be with him Thunderbolt." Osprey says as your shoulders hunch up and you turn around quickly to see Thunderbolt blushing.
"Anon and I.. We're.. We're just friends right now Osprey." Thunderbolt says as you're beyond words and Thunderbolt's face is really red and her eyes are back light by her warning lights.
"Oh, I'm sorry i shouldn't have assumed." Osprey said giggling as you figure out something to say.
"Osprey, I know you mean well, but try not to push people together. Sometimes they just don't match up well." You say and hope she gets the point.
"Well, it's nice that you two are friends at least. You both deserve a good friend that looks after you." Osprey says as you smile and look at the floor with a hand on the back of your head.
"Yea, I guess we do." You say as you look up at Thunderbolt, there was a hint of longing in her eyes.
"Well thanks again Anon. I think I'm going to go home now. Good night you two." Osprey says as she moves towards the doors.
"Goodnight Osprey." You and Thunderbolt say at the same time.
"I think I'm ready for bed." Thunderbolt says as she puts you on her back.
"Well, let's go home." You say
Thunderbolt continues to blush from what you just said. You know what you said but have no real concern to correct it.
"Alright, let's go home Anon." Thunderbolt says as she is crossing the runway to get home.
"Hey, you know I care about you right?" You say as you're not exactly sure how to word your feelings for her as they were a mix of confusion and love.
"I know. Umm. You know I care a lot about you too right Anon?" Thunderbolt said wording her statement slightly better than yours
"Yea, I know. I think it shows in what we do for each other. You protect me from harm, and I make sure no harm comes to you. The biggest trouble maker right now is IT, and IT is afraid of me." You say as she gets to her home, and you've ridden there on her back.
"How?" Thunderbolt asks.
"Now that was a moment I'm proud to say I destroyed a turbine. He tried to jump me, I reacted by throwing a few bolts down his intake, shredding a turbine. ever since if he sees me throwing anything he turns away in an attempt to avoid anything i may have thrown." You say as you smile as Thunderbolt carries you off to bed.
"Astounding. Did you do things like that where you came from?" Thunderbolt asked.
"Not in that way exactly. But I did break airplanes, in fact it was my job to push them to their limits and try and break them. There's a few I lost control over and had to bail. This was after I became a mechanic." You say acknowledging your test pilot background.
"You flew ponies?" Thunderbolt asked
"No, they were just soulless mechanical planes. No ponies attached, instead of legs they had sticks with wheels on them. Landing gear is what we called those sticks with wheels. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever finish that prototype I've been working on, I was first in line to fly it before I wound up here. Can't say that I'd want to go back." You say knowing that you were testing military aircraft for the sole purpose murdering those that opposed your country.
"Oh, what were they for?" Thunder asked
"War. Always war. Though here, I fix the ponies that occasionally have to go and preserve the peace. I'd much rather spend my time fixing the protectors of the peace than testing machines of destruction. Though that last plane, I really did want to fly." You say as Thunderbolt allows you to slide down to the floor.
"What was it?" She asks
"You probably wouldn't know what it was." You say
"Try me." She said egging you on
"ADFX-02." You say losing her with the designation number.
"What is it?" She asks
"Think Su-47 but turbines wider apart, 3d thrust vectoring, upswept forward canard and the wings swept forward no further than the engines, she was a forward swept super sonic aircraft." You say revealing parts of this fighter.
"What was it designed to do?" Thunderbolt asks.
"Destroy any hostile aircraft. It's a superiority fighter, like your escorts when you run attack missions." You say acknowledging the power of the craft you could have been flying.
"Did it have an unofficial nickname?"
"Morgan." You say as the name has no effect on her, but it means something horrifying to you.
"You said you were working on the plane?"
"From memory. That's the one bright side of being a mechanic first and pilot second. I know what that plane's supposed to look like inside and out. Thing is though, I've been stealing parts from the other mechanics around here to build it. They think the Russians are pilfering them, but it's just me taking what I need to make this aircraft. I've been using my own sheet aluminum for it's skin." You say very proud of your work that you've got hidden away from sight.
"A superiority fighter. We may just need one." Thunderbolt said as she laid down.
"Doubt it the entire base is going to blow IT up, I don't think we'll need it, but I'll try to complete it." You say as it's your turn to lie down and attempt to sleep.
 
2200 Hrs. Russian VTOL hangar.
"Hey Sergei, is Sasha in?" Lightning asked as he stood alone on their porch.
"Da, enter" Sergei said
"Hey thanks for letting me in Sergei." Lighting said as Sergei returned to his drink before going and knocking on Sasha's door.
"Just be kind to her Lightning." Sergei said as he flopped back down on the couch as Sasha came out of her room.
"Lightning! You come alone?" Sasha said rather surprised by Lightning's presence in her hangar.
"Yea, Raptor wanted some alone time, so I left. Did you hear Sidney got his wings bent back." Lightning said as he awkwardly stood in the living room.
"I saw. Sergei and I were there. Called Osprey failure of airplane. Poor girl." Sasha said expressing her disappointment in what was said to Osprey.
"Oh, I didn't know he said that. Damn, he royally fucked up there. I just thought he deserved it for all the shit he put Raptor though. She used to be openly nice you know?" Lightning said as Sasha led him into her room.
"She used to intercept Bear, would talk and talk until she reached the edge of patrol zone. Bear misses that." Sasha said as she sighed.
"Lightning, why here?" Sasha said as her English wasn't the best, nor was her ability to put words together when excited/nervous.
"I don't know, it's just I've got this feeling, and it's telling me to go and be near you. I.... uhh.. don't know what it is." Lightning said as Sasha's eyes brightened with hope.
"Lightning. I get same feeling. Being near you, I am happy." Sasha said as Lightning smiled.
"Great, I was hoping I wasn't alone in that." Lightning said with a great sense of relief.
"I believe feeling called love." Sasha said after getting the words together before saying them with much enthusiasm.
"Maybe it is, I think I realized it the other day in the bar. You know when you kissed me." Lightning said as Sasha went red in the face.
"Apologies, crossed the line I may have." Sasha said as she turned away from him.
"No, if anything you helped me decide. Sasha, I think I love you." Lightning said as he was knocked to the floor within Sasha's bear hug.