>>31367143Opening his eyes, Shrike sat up and threw his pillow at the black-armoured figure. It bounced off the crimson pauldron and was caught by a servo-arm that hung over the figure's head. Cheeks burning, Shrike snatched the thick book from the figure's hands and closed it with a snap.
"I knew you were sentimental, but that's just ridiculous."
Shrike returned the book to the footlocker, glaring at the techmarine as he stood up.
"What did you think I did before I joined the Guard?"
The techmarine leaned against the wall, smirking.
"I knew about the redhead, we all did, but I didn't think there was anyone before that."
Shrike folded his arms,
"It wasn't the same with her. We were more like brother and sister, than...-"
"Rabbits."
"Fuck you. You'd've done the same."
"If she hadn't been nearly twenty years older than me, yeah. I still don't see what she saw in you."
"I always thought she got turned on by all the surgery she was doing to us."
"I'm not sure that's how women work Shrike-"
"You're one to talk. Besides, I much prefer the thought that she just liked banging a sixteen-year old, than the alternative."
A faint look of concern traveled across the techmarine's face.
"Which was?"
"That she really did love me. And that I never told her I did."
There was a pause.
"Well... that would explain the sketches, if nothing else. Did you do them?"
Shrike reached back into the footlocker and flipped through the worn pages of the diary.
"Nah, one of the orderlies did it. Cost me week's scrounging, but it was worth it."
The book fell open to a page where a small pict had been pasted in. The techmarine leaned in:
"Oh wow. You kept that!?"
"Yeah. All fifty of us. This was what gave me the idea to start keeping a diary. I didn't want to forget."
The techmarine returned to his previous posture.
"One of these days, your sentimentality is going to be the death of us, you know that, right?"
Shrike was still lost in memory:
"How many of us are left out of there?"
"Twelve."
