#scene x fang x kroos

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Does anyone else get the urge to ship Operators for no other reason than that you keep putting them on shifts together in the base? Just me?

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Harassment

A few people from a discord and I got together to do a quick Kroos Jam this weekend, writing short fiction about Kroos from Arknights. Here’s my contribution! It’s Kroos x Siege again, because I will continue to provide content for this utterly unsupported by canon pairing.

Words: ~1300

Summary: Someone's been messing around in Kroos's locker, and Kroos is starting to be reminded of how she was treated back at the garrison. But whoever the perpetrator is, they seem to be going about their task in a very strange way. Also on Ao3

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Someone, it seemed, had it out for Kroos.

It had started off subtle. Things would go missing from her locker, and turn out to have been hidden in boxes or pockets, or behind something else. At first she’d just thought she was being forgetful- it wasn’t like she kept that careful an eye on where things were. Soon, though, it became obvious someone else was moving things around. Even things she was sure she’d put one place would end up in another.

But whoever was doing it never actually took anything. That was the strange part. Having something stolen from her locker… well, that was something that had happened back in the garrison, before they’d left. Childish, spiteful bullying, for the crime of giving up her own fucking health to help people. This, though, was different. It was still irritating, but it was more confusing than anything else.

The next stage was no less baffling. Even though Kroos just wore sneakers into battle, Rhodes Island had rules about combat attire, so she had to have a special pair in her locker for fighting. When she pulled them out to change, one of them slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor, and something rolled out of it. Kroos picked up it and inspected it. It looked like... candy. Unwrapping it, she found a lime green ball inside, with the crystalline look of a piece of hard candy. It looked normal enough, but… who had put it there? And why?

There was only one person other than her that had any reason to mess with her locker.The mysterious person rearranging things.

“Hibiscy~” Kroos called out across the room, not looking away from the candy.

“What is it?” Hibiscus called back.

“You can heal poison, riiiight?” Kroos said.

“Of course,” Hibiscus said. “Let me just find the-” She paused. “Wait, why? Have you been poisoned?”

“I might be now~” Kroos said cheerfully, and then popped the candy into her mouth and bit down with a crunch.

She grimaced.

“Wha- what was that?” Hibiscus asked urgently, rushing over to Kroos as she fumbled with a vial. “Was it poisonous?! Describe your symptoms, quick!”

“Noooo~ it’s just so soourrrr…” Kroos whined, scrunching up her face. “Blehhhhh…”

Hibiscus sighed in exasperation.

“Stop screwing around and get ready to go, Kroos,” Fang said, frowning.

“Okaay,” Kroos said, shaking the other shoe out and tossing the identical wrapped ball into her locker before slipping her shoes on.

So then. They’d put candy in her locker, but hidden them in her shoes, where she might have stepped on them and hurt her feet. It hadn’t been poisoned, but it had been awful, super sour candy. Whoever was picking on her certainly had a weird way of going about it. What was next? Were they going to send her an ugly postcard that smelled kind of bad? Bake her sugar free cookies and hide them in her sheets so she’d get crumbs in her bed?

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It ended up being far, far worse than Kroos could have imagined. She’d been lured into a false sense of security by the strangely mild mischief that had preceded it, but now she was sure that someone truly had it out for her. This was no longer something she could ignore. They’d crossed a line that even the people at the garrison had never breached.

Rushing away from the scene of carnage in her room, Kroos headed to the control center, where the doctor was shifting through piles of recruitment reports.

“Doctorrrrrr!” she cried, as he glanced up at her. “Someone left ten alarm clocks by my bed! Who would do something so awful?!”

“...Is that why you’re on time for once?” the doctor asked, sounding unperturbed.

“Docccctoooorrrrr,” Kroos whined. “This is terriblllle… I was trying to sleeeep… I’m being bullied, doctor! This isn’t even the first thing that’s happened to me!”

“Oh?” the doctor said.

“First, someone started messing with things in my locker,” Kroos said. “They keep moving everything arouunnnd… And thennn, someone hid candy in my shoes, but it was trick candy that was sour instead of sweet! And I could have stepped on it and hurt my feet! And now they’re putting alarm clocks in my roooom… doctor, help me!”

For some reason, the doctor snorted.

“Doctor!” Kroos said. “It’s not funny!”

“...My apologies.”

The sudden apology, however, did not come from the doctor, who was still grinning obnoxiously. Turning her head, Kroos saw Siege bowing her head apologetically over the pile of papers she was sorting.

“Eh?” Kroos said.

“...I was the one behind those things.”

Kroos froze in shock.

It was a chilling betrayal.

Kroos wasn’t naive. She knew that coming to Rhodes Island wouldn’t mean completely escaping discrimination. Even if the organization supported infected rights, they still worked with countries like Lungmen, and a big pharmaceuticals company wasn’t exactly a “cause”. Not every employee was there because they believed in Rhodes Island’s big ideas, so no matter how officially infected were equal members, there were always going to be minor hires who held their own opinions. Always going to be people who said they had no problem with infected people when management asked, but somehow coincidentally always seemed to give the raises to uninfected people, to give infected people the worst jobs, to turn away an infected person for a job in favour of a person who wasn’t.

But Kroos thought that she’d gotten to know Siege. Had started to understand her. Even though Siege was uninfected, she’d never been uncomfortable around Kroos. She’d spoken to her normally. She hadn’t avoided contact with her. She’d even let Kroos nap on her. Kroos had really, truly believed that regardless of anyone else, Siege didn’t care that she was infected. To find out that it was her who had been bullying Kroos hurt her much more than she had expected.

“Siege, she’s not going to understand if you just put it like that.”

For some reason, the doctor was barely suppressing a laugh. Was this funny to him? Someone who had never shown a hint of distaste for the infected? Someone who even seemed to sympathize a little with Reunion? All this time, he thought discrimination against the infected was funny?

“Right…” Siege said. “Um. I didn’t… intend to upset you.”

“What?” Kroos said, blinking in surprise. Her train of thought, which had been starting to hurtle towards very dark places, suddenly derailed.

“Well,” Siege said awkwardly. “Your locker is alway such a mess, I thought it might be nice to tidy it up. Put things in the proper drawers, and everything. And… the candy is my favourite kind of candy. I thought you might like some.”

“...And the alarm clocks?” Kroos asked, hesitantly.

“Well,” Siege said. “You always talk about how you’re late because you overslept, so I thought it might be helpful…”

“...Oh,” Kroos said.

“Sorry,” Siege said again.

“So… you were trying to…?” Kroos asked.

“Um,” Siege said. “Sora said that doing nice things for someone was a good way to lead up to asking them out, so…”

“Ohhh,” Kroos said. “I see.”

“Yes,” Siege said, shifting in her chair.

“Well,” the doctor said. “Now that that’s settled, and you’re finally awake on time for once, maybe we can get down to work.”

“Sorry, doctor,” Kroos said, taking Siege by the arm. “I think I need to show Siege my gratitude~ we’ll back back later, okaaaay?”

“Wha-” the doctor said, as Kroos dragged Siege off towards the dorms. “What gratitude? You thought you were being harassed! Kroos! Get back here! Kroos!”

In the end, it wasn’t until midday that Siege and Kroos returned to receive a harsh scolding from Dobermann about the importance of showing up for their shifts. But Kroos, smiling all the brighter than usual, couldn’t bring herself to care.