Warhammer High

Hana awoke, sunlight glaring through the blinds.  She sat up and scratched her stomach.  She looked at the clock: just past noon.  She was going to be late if she didn’t hurry.  Hana stood up and walked to the window, navigating the loose clothes scattered all over the floor.  She pulled the blinds and looked down in the backyard.  Dad was sitting in his rock garden, ink brush and parchment in hand.  She sneered and stepped towards her closet, grabbing her armor.  She fastened it on, and made her way out the door.

***

“Hi welcome to DeathWings, I’m Tactical Sister Hana,” she grumbled.  “Would you like to try our Boneless First Company Combo?  You’ll…Unforgive yourself if you don’t…” Hana almost gagged.  The rotund sweaty Techpriest ignored her suggestion and still squinted at the menu above her head.  She rolled her eyes.

“Uh, yeah,” the Techpriest finally said.  His voice scratched through his face grill.  “Yeah I’ll have the RavenWing meal with extra melta sauce.”

“Anything else?” Hana asked.  She picked at her fingernails.

“Yeah, can I also get an extra large Purga-Cola?”  Hana entered the order on the register.  “No, wait, Diet Purge.”  Hana grit her teeth.  She cancelled the order, and entered the code for a small drink.  The priest paid, and waddled over to a table.  She thought of a great remark about how the Techpriest would eat his meal.  She thought against it.

Hana sighed.  She looked back behind her.  The Watchers in the Kitchen were already starting the order.

Hana looked around the restaurant.  They weren’t busy.  “I’m on break,” she shouted back to the kitchen.  She pulled off her apron and plastic shoulder guards and walked out from behind the counter to a table.  She pulled out her vox-screen, staring at it.  She wanted to text someone but couldn’t think of who.  Hana dropped the screen on the table sank into the chair.

“Hana,” a voice said.  She looked up at the stern face of Azrael.  His arms were crossed over his chest, partially obscuring the “Manager” tag on his cheap dark green button-down.

“What’s the issue, Mr. A?” Hana asked.  “Thoreau got the register…” she flicked her chin towards the counter.  The younger El’Jonson sibling grabbed the register as soon as she took off her apron. He fiddled with his curly blonde hair.

“Hana, remember our talk about attitude?” Azrael kept his arms crossed.  Hana scowled. “What are the words of DeathWings?”

Hana took a deep a breath.  “Enjoy, for tomorrow you die,” she groaned.

“Exactly,” Azrael said.  “Enjoy.  People can’t enjoy their meals if they don’t think you enjoy serving them.  Come on, show me that smile.”

Hana forced a grin.  Azrael scowled.  “I mean it, Hana.  You don’t shape up I’m gonna have to let you go.  This reminds me of when…” Hana started to tune him out.  She saw the door open behind him.  She snuck a glance.

It couldn’t be.

Bobby Guilliman, back in town.  He stood there, clad in bright blue power armor.  He held the door open, and Roger Dorn marched in.  Hana’s eyes widened.  Azrael’s brow furrowed, and he turned to look behind him.  He lit up and immediately stepped over to greet them.  The two Junior Primarchs stood at attention for her manager.

Hana’s eyes stayed fixed on Bobby.  Memories from years ago flooded her mind.  A Rhino rocking back and forth.  Bolters n’ Roses blaring on the stereo.  A torn zipper on a prom dress.  Nervous hands fumbling with a bow tie.  The smell of perfume and cologne and sweat.  Her cheeks flushed with heat.

He stood half a head taller than when she last saw him.  His jaw seemed thicker, his features sharper.  But his eyes were still the same.  That beautiful clear blue… Hana’s heart tied itself in knots.

She had to get out of here

Azrael seemed done with the men, and he led them towards the counter.  He shook hands with both, and walked back to his office.  He shot her a look.  Her break was over.  Hana scrambled up, and started sneaking to the back room.

“Hana!”  She felt her stomach drop.  She turned, and there he was, not two feet from her.  “Hana, is that you?”

“Bobby,” Hana said.  “Emperor, it’s been so long, I barely recognized you.”  She looked over his pauldron.  Roger was still ordering.  Thoreau looked awestruck at him.  “So uh, you’re back from Macgragge?  Got your academy done?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Bobby said.  “Graduated just a month ago.  Did pretty well there.”  He looked down at his armor.  “You can probably tell.”

“Hah ha, yeah,” Hana said.  She wished a Warp storm would open under her feet.  “I-uh, you look good.”

“Yeah, uh, so do you,” Bobby said.

“Thanks,” Hana said.

“You still living with your dad?”

“Hah, yeah.”  Hana’s feet itched.

“Uh, so hey I’m back in town for a while now,” he said.  “Maybe we can meet up some time?”  He pulled a vox-screen from a holster on his belt.  He fiddled with it, then held it up to her.  “This still your number?”

“Yeah,” Hana said.  “Yeah let’s do that.  I’d love to catch up.” Why did she say that?

“So uh, I’ll let you go then,” he said.  “Talk to you soon?”

“Yeah,” she said.  “Yeah I’ll drop you a vox when I’m free.”  She scurried away, back behind the counter and into the kitchen.  Roger was still ordering.

***
“I’m telling you man, just leave it,” Roger was still wiping melta sauce from his face.  They kept walking down the street.  “She’s nothing but trouble.”

“She seems different, Rog,” Bobby said.  “C’mon, it’s been four years.  We’ve changed.  So has she.”

“Yeah, we changed because we were at the academy,” Roger said.  “We were learning how to be generals.  Crusaders.  She’s been cooking chicken wings.  You really think she’s any different?”

“I mean, why not?” Bobby asked.

“Because there’s nothing good about her,” Roger said.  “Take it from the one friend of yours who didn’t sleep with her—“

“The one friend who couldn’t sleep with her,” Bobby said.

“You know you’re just making my point,” Roger said.  “She’s a dead weight, Bobby.  You got too much going on for her to just mess up your life again.”  They reached the big yellow Landraider.  “Look, you may have forgotten Hana-fied Bobby but I sure as hell didn’t.  You were a total drag, especially at the end.  And that’s coming from a Fist.”

“Yeah but—“

“But what?” Roger asked.  “She consumed you, Bobby.”  The men boarded the Landraider, Bobby riding shotgun.

Some of the nastier thoughts were definitely coming back.  The cold shoulder.  The time she showed up drunk at his door in the middle of the night.  Maybe Roger was right.  “I can’t just blow her off, Roger,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Well because I just don’t want to,” Bobby said.  “Look I’m not gonna start dating her again or anything.  But why can’t we be friends?  She looks like she needs one right now.  She’s gotta be lonely.”

“That’s not your problem,” Roger grumbled.

“I’ll be careful, Rog,” Bobby said.  “And if you’re right, well, you know.  ‘Told you so’ and all that.  You Fists like being right, after all.”

“Coming from the Smurf,” Roger laughed.  “I read your dad’s book, you know.”

“Don’t start on that.”  Bobby scowled.  Roger shrugged and started the Landraider

***
Hana lay on her bed, her vox-screen in hand.  She stared into her navel.  Old Terran music blared on her speakers.  The ancient instruments of this “motley crew” screamed like a Thunderhawk.

Her vox beeped.  She looked at it.  “OME rlly?  He rlly showed bck up?”  Farah’s message burned across hundreds of thousands of light years.

She started typing into the screen.  “ya it was him.  I cudnt bleeve it either”

A minute passed.  Hana closed her eyes and listened to the music.  The vox beeped again.  “he still cute?”

Hana blushed.  “totally”

Another minute.  “u should go 4 it”

“i dunno it was kinda awk.  he might still b mad at me”

She waited again.  Beep.  “how do u kno?”

“i wasnt the nicest 2 him”

The next song came on from her playlist.  Her vox beeped again.  “then make it up 2 him”

Hana bit her lip.  She pulled up Bobby’s contact page and stared at.  She typed up the message, and stared at that.  Then she closed her eyes and pressed send.  “hey stranger”.

Another song started.  Then the beep.  “Hey”

Hana chewed on her tongue, and thought of a response.  “im totally down to meet up tomorrow if ur free”.  She sent it.

The vox beeped again.  She looked at his response.  Then she forwarded it to Hana.  “OME GO 4 IT!!!”

She heard a loud knock on her door.  Dad was going to bed.  Time to turn down the music.

***
Bobby looked up at the sky.  Codex Grey.  Rain was coming soon.  He shifted in his seat and it creaked beneath his armored form.  He looked down at his chronometer. She was pretty late.  No surprise.  He already paid for her coffee too.  Looks like Roger was right again…

“Hey Bobby!” her voice snapped him to attention.  He looked up, and there she was.  Her hair was a little neater than yesterday.  But she still looked tired.  She smiled and took her seat across from him.

“Hi Hana,” he said.

“So glad you said you were up for talking,” she said.  She didn’t even apologize for being late.

“Yeah,” Bobby said.  “Yeah of course.  I was kinda surprised you voxxed me.  You didn’t seem too excited to see me the other day.”  Accusations already.  Off to a great start.  He had to get Roger out of his head.

“Oh,” Hana said.  She looked a little crestfallen.  “Yeah I’m sorry about that.  I guess it’s just been awhile.  You caught me off guard.”

“Uh, just forget I said that,” he said.  “I didn’t think what it must be like for you.”  They sat in silence for a moment.  They couldn’t make eye contact.  Finally he said “So uh, you’re working at DeathWings now, huh?”

“Oh, uh yeah,” she said.  “Yeah Lyra helped set me up.”

“So uh, do you like it?”

“Emperor no,” Hana chuckled.  Bobby smiled a bit.  “Money’s alright but Azrael’s a total dick.”

“Well what did you expect?” Bobby asked.  “He’s a Dark Angel.”

“I dunno.  Lion’s alright,” she said.  “Like at least he’s polite.  I think Az just hates me.” Bobby shrugged.  “So, you were at Macragge?”

“Yeah, yeah for a bit,” he said.  “For the first half of the academy.  Don’t know why Dad was so keen on it.  Just desert.  And the people were so boring.”

“Sounds like your kind of place,” Hana smirked.  Bobby tried to return the gesture.  She cleared her throat.  “So where’d you go next?”

“Oh, you know, around,” Bobby said.  “Crusading and all that.  Purging, conquering, building.”

“You hook up with any of the guys?” she asked.

“Just Roger,” Bobby said.  Hana rolled her eyes.  “Though I also ran into Connor Corax and Petra.”

“Connor still a fruit?” she asked.  Bobby scowled.  She always liked to pick on the Raven’s son.  Before he could answer, the servitor arrived at their table.  It dropped off their drinks, and said a few prayers of gratitude to Bobby.  He nodded, and it wheeled off.  He looked over at Hana.  She sniffed her drink.  Her eyes widened, and she took a big gulp.

“Dark roast Catachan blend!” she said.  “You remembered!”  He did.  That was always her favorite.

“Yeah, I figured you’d like that.”  They talked for another hour.  He told her about the crusades he led.  The xenos he purged, the worlds he brought into the Imperium.  He felt he was a natural at it.  And she told him of her life.  How she got her job.  How she made a few extra thrones repairing things around town.  How she’s still figuring out where to go next.  She even gave him a few real smiles too.

“So how’s Jaghatai?” he asked.  The Khan had been absent from the Crusade for several years now.  Her brow furrowed.

“Oh, you know, he’s alright,” she said.  “You know my mom walked out, right?”

“Yeah, I heard awhile ago from Farah,” Bobby said.  “Look, Hana I’m sorry.  I meant to vox you when I heard but I—“

“Don’t,” Hana said.  “Don’t apologize.  Not your job to make sure I’m okay.”

She was right about that.  “Still,” he said.  A fleck of water dropped onto his head.  He looked up.  Rain was starting to fall.  “We might want to get indoors.”

“You still wanna hang out some more?” Hana asked.  “Dad’s actually leaving for the night.  Going out with Magnus.  We can go back to my house.  Watch some voxcasts,” she smiled coyly.  “I dunno, maybe make out a little?”

What?  Bobby pursed his lips.  “Whoa, hold up Hana,” he said.  “What did you think this was?”

She frowned.  “Well I dunno, I thought it might be something more fun than just catching up,” she said.

“Wait, you serious?”  Bobby said.  “Hana, we broke up.  Like, a long time ago.”

“Aw c’mon Bobby,” she said.  “I’m starting to remember why I liked you.  Let’s go have some fun.”  She started chewing on her lip.  “Or are you just gonna be a big drip like always?”

“Wow, okay,” Bobby said.  “I guess Roger was right.  You really aren’t much different.”

“Roger’s an ass,” Hana said.  “He’s a bigger wet blanket than you, and that’s saying a lot.  Why do you always listen to him?”

“Hana c’mon,” Bobby said.  Why was she acting like this?  “He’s my friend, and I trust him.”

“More than me, I guess,” she said.  “That’s why we broke up, right?  Cause he said we should?”

“I’m not getting into this, Hana,” he said.  The rain was coming down now.  “We’ve talked waaay too much about this.”

“Yeah, whatever,” she said.  “If you’re just gonna be like this then fine, I guess that’s it.  Sorry for wanting to give it another shot.”  There she was.  Making him the bad guy.  Again.

“Sure Hana,” he said.  “Whatever you say.  Look, I’m gonna head out.  Take care of yourself.”  He turned and made his way to his Rhino.

“Fine, later,” she said.  “Jerk.”  Bobby turned back.  She was walking away.  He scanned the parking lot.  Something was missing.

“Wait, where’s your bike?” he asked.  She stopped.

“My what?”  She wheeled and stared at him.

 “Your battle bike,” he said.  It was pouring now.  “The one your dad gave you.”

“It’s broken,” she said.  Her hair was already drenched.  She tried to cover her head.  “Yeah I’ve been trying to fix it.  So I walked here.”

“You walked?” he asked.  He stepped towards her.  “Don’t you live like three miles away?”

“Yeah,” she said.  She stared at her boots.

“Hana you coulda just asked for a ride,” Bobby said.

“I didn’t want to start things like that though,” she said.  “Mooching off you again, I mean.”

Bobby frowned.  He grit his teeth.  “It’s pouring, let me drive you home.”

“Oh,” she said.  “Okay, fine.  Thanks.”

Bobby sighed as they walked together towards his Rhino.  This could go nowhere good.

They pulled up in front of her house.  Hana put her hand on the hatch handle.  She looked over at Bobby.  “Hey thanks for the ride,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said.  He didn’t look at her.  She opened the Rhino’s hatch.

“Hey,” she said.  “Hey I was being a real bitch.  You are a good guy, Bobby.”  She smiled at him.  He gave her a weak smile back.

“Yeah, yeah you kind of were,” he said.  That stung.  She tried to throw it back at him, but she thought against it.

Then she remembered something.  “Hey, can you come in for a bit?” she asked.

“Hana…”

“No nothing like that I swear,” she said.  “I just remembered I wanted to give you something.”

“You can’t just bring it out?” he asked.

“Dude it’s pouring rain,” she said.  “Just come in for a sec.  Please.”

He stared at his dash for a moment.  “Aright, fine,” he said.  “Just for a few minutes.”  He turned off the Rhino and they both climbed out.  They walked up the pathway to the front door.  Hana fished through her pocket for her keys, and they stepped through.

“Wipe your feet,” she said.  Water was rolling down his armor.  “Wait in here in the living room, I’ll be right back.”  She peeled off her boots and left them with him at the doorway.  She trudged up the stairs to her room.  Hana opened the door to her bedroom, almost tripping on a pile of clothes on the floor.  She cursed and walked to her dresser.

She started opening drawers.  It wasn’t in any of them.  She went to her desk.  It was covered in crap.  Where did all this come from?  She rifled through it.  Not on the desk.  She opened some of its drawers.  Finally she found it.  The little box, with its little “Emperor’s Children Jewelry Co.” stamp.  She pulled it out of the drawer and hurried back downstairs.

Bobby was still standing at the doorway.  At least he’d been polite enough to close the door.  She plodded down and jumped the last few steps.  She stuck the box out to him.  “Here you go,” she breathed.

“What’s this?” he asked.  “Wait, is this…”

“Yeah,” Hana said.  “I figured I should give it back.”

“Hana it was a gift,” he said.  “Why would you try to do this?”

What?  “Hey, I just thought if we weren’t together anymore…”

“Yeah but there’s no reason to start pulling this stuff out.”

“Unbelievable,” she said.  “Dude I don’t want it—“

“Then throw it out or something?”

“Look it obviously cost a lot,” Hana said.  “I just figured you might want to give it someone else.”

“I didn’t get it for someone else, Hana,” he said.  “I got it for you.”

“ Whatever, guess that was your mistake,” she said.

“Yeah I guess it was,” he said.  He handed the box back to her.  He went and opened the door
“ Whatever, guess that was your mistake,” she said.

“Yeah I guess it was,” he said.  He handed the box back to her.  He went and opened the door.

“You were my first too, Bobby,” Hana said.  He stopped and turned back to her.

“I-I didn’t know that.  You said I wasn’t.”

“I just wanted you to think I was cool,” she said.  “Make you think you were really making it.”

“I thought you were plenty cool enough, Hana,”

“Figured you’d say something like that,” she tried forcing a smile.  “I’m sorry, Bobby.  I’m sorry for everything.”

“Me too,” Bobby said.  He shrugged.  “Goodbye Hana.”

“No wait.  Stay.  Please.”  He stared at her.

“No, I need to get going,” he said.  Hana’s eyes started watering.

“Fine,” she said.  Her voice cracked.  “Goodbye Bobby.”  He walked out and closed the door.

Hours later, Hana sat up in her bed.  She played her music again, softer stuff this time.  Her window was open, the rain spattered and roared against the sidewalk.  Hana stared at the box.  Finally she opened it, and pulled out the necklace.  A bright silver chain, ending in a large silver heart.  An Ultramarines Blue “U” was engraved in the heart.  And through it, a delicately-tooled golden lightning bolt.

Hana’s lips trembled, and she buried her face in her knees.