"Do you reckon we will need to give them flea baths?"
Cody chuckled as he heard Aero's voice carrying down the corridor before he pushed through the double doors to the dormitory.
Aero, a lithe brown haired boy wearing a tight grey shirt was sat up on the top bunk that belonged to Cody. His legs were dangling down but he kicked them out as he spotted his friend, his freckled face lighting up.
"Cody! Sienna and I were just discussing our trip to the pound tomorrow."
Cody bit down a smile, "Don't let the officials hear you talking like that Aero."
"Oh please," Aero made a dismissive waving motion with his hand, "I just talked to Turner this morning and literally everyone involved with the Doll Programme thinks that way anyway."
"I don't," Sienna’s voice came from the other side of the room. The tall, blonde girl was sat cross legged on an old ratty armchair, reading a book. Cody could see it was a user manual for modified weaponry, a mandatory study text for a Doll.
Aero snorted, "Oh please Sienna, you don't really want to be partnered up with some big drooling Feral do you?"
Sienna flicked her eyes up and quirked an eyebrow, "I think it will be a potentially valuable and informative experience Aero, yes."
Aero gave an exaggerated eye roll before tipping himself off of Cody's bed, doing a somersault and landing in a feline crouch in front of him.
"Her positivity is killing me," Aero stage whispered.
Cody laughed and moved past him towards his bunk.
"You packed?" Cody asked, addressing them both.
Sienna nodded absently as she thumbed over another page, Aero however, swore loudly behind him.
"My uniform's still downstairs in laundry," Aero shrugged when Cody raised his eyebrows questioningly at him. “I sweat right through it during my meeting with Turner, the guy’s intense.”
Cody watched him scurry out of the door, then double checked that his was still neatly folded on top of his bed.
Their uniforms were all black, save for a stitched-on silver emblem of a calligraphic ‘D’ and metallic buttons. The top was a close-fitting high-necked tunic and there were special pockets for concealed weapons and a microphone sewn into the collar.
"Have you heard what they call our Base?" Aero exclaimed as he walked back in to the dormitory, carrying a crumpled heap of uniform that undoubtedly he planned to try and entice Cody or Sienna into ironing.
"The Toy Shop!" Aero announced loudly, looking round expectantly at Cody and Sienna. "That's what the Ferals call us! Because we're Dolls - I mean how unoriginal is that? Lachlan just told me in the laundry room."
Sienna looked up frowning, "Aero you do realise that you regularly refer to the Feral Base as 'The Pet Store' right?"
Aero made an exasperated noise at her. Cody could tell his Doll ‘siblings’ were about to get into one of their numerous daily arguments.
"Aero your uniform needs ironing," he interrupted quickly.
"Ah, yeah, um, about that," Aero looked up sheepishly at Sienna, who snorted and turned her head away.
"Please?" Aero moaned. "Last time I tried to do it myself I melted the logo and ended up with silver strings gluing my fingers together for a week."
"Genetically advanced humanoid ladies and gentlemen," Cody scoffed.
"Look," Aero huffed, "I can fire an E11-X modified laser gun along with the best of them, in fact - better than the best of them. But unsurprisingly my tactical training neglected to include ironing."
"Oh and mine didn't?" Sienna quipped, turning back to him with a trademark glare.
"No - you're just...multi talented?" Aero suggested hopefully.
"Oh for heaven's sakes I'll do it," Cody snapped, reaching out and grabbing the bundle from Aero whilst rolling his eyes.
"Cody I love you. I will clean your knives for a month," Aero announced happily.
"Cody doesn’t let anyone touch his knives," Sienna interjected with a frown.
"I know, it's going to be a fantastic arrangement," Aero grinned, blowing her a kiss.
"Hey Tyron!" Aero smiled a moment later as a tall dark skinned boy walked through the doors.
"Don't I get a kiss too?" Tyron quirked an eyebrow at Aero, who blushed furiously. Cody sighed as he moved to retrieve the dorm ironing board. He had hoped that his best friend’s crush on Tyron would have dissipated over the years.
Cody knew Tyron didn't do anything to actively encourage it, but then again, he didn’t seem to do anything to actively discourage it either.
Cody just wished he would do something decisive and firm to clamp down on the whole thing - let Aero focus his energies on something else. Like learning how to iron.
Then again, perhaps Tyron had just decided to let Aero have his harmless daydreams out of kindness. It wasn’t like they got out a lot or mixed with other people. Dolls didn’t get social lives.
Even within the facility they pretty much just stuck to their own ordered cliques. Still, Aero was like Cody’s little brother, he wouldn't want to see him get hurt. Cody knew that Aero was more sensitive than the cocky bravado would let on.
Cody was top of the class in weaponry but if Aero wanted to, he could certainly give him a run for his money. Cody was better with blades, but Aero was better with a gun.
When they had been younger, the Handlers had worried that something had gone wrong with Aero's brain chemistry - he fidgeted, his attention span was shorter than the other Doll children and he never seemed particularly interested in excelling in his classes, unheard of for a Doll.
They would have scrapped him, sent him for an early 'retirement' if it hadn't been for someone deciding one lucky day to put a gun in his hands.
They were all taught to shoot from a young age, but Cody remembers that first weapons lesson. How Aero’s normally twitching fingers had stilled and tightened around the metal barrel, how his eyes had crystallised into pure focus.
Aero had hit the target on his first go. Of course, he continued to be a fidgeter, he continued to finish his sentences half way through, always too easily distracted - but give him a weapon and he was most definitely a Doll.
"He's nervous."
Cody looked up to where Sienna was sat next to the now erect ironing board. The blonde girl was still looking down at her book but her eyes flashed up momentarily to where Aero was chatting animatedly with Tyron on the other side of the room.
"Are you talking about Aero?" Cody asked quietly, smoothing his hand over the creased black tunic in front of him.
"Oh I wouldn't know if Tyron was nervous," Sienna replied. "He's better at masking his emotions, like a Doll should be."
Cody bit his lip as he smiled, glancing up at Aero whose limbs were now flailing in wider arcs around his body. You wouldn't think he had been bred to be a controlled killing machine.
"He'll be fine," Cody responded, "why do you think he's nervous?"
Sienna shrugged, "Probably something to do with the fact that tomorrow we get partnered with a complete stranger in order to travel on a dangerous mission to a potentially hostile galaxy."
"But it's everything we were designed for," Cody frowned in reply, "I don't think it would worry Aero..."
"That's just it," Sienna interrupted, "Aero has always doubted his design. He knows he's slightly different, so right now he is probably questioning if he can do this."
"Of course he can," Cody snapped.
"Always the protective brother," Sienna smirked, looking up at Cody. "You're burning that uniform by the way."
Cody swore as he realised that he hadn't been moving the iron. "Shit. He'll need a new tunic now."
"Probably for the best," Sienna nodded thoughtfully, "that melted D looked more like a dysfunctional penis after last month's solo ironing attempt."
"Sienna!" Cody exclaimed in shocked surprise, but he couldn’t help the laugh that burst out.
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