When Lauren had said it would be cold outside, I had imagined things, but reality… proved to be a hell of a lot colder. I’m so happy that she had draped one of her large military winter jackets over me, but even still, when we stepped out of the train and into the Antarctic cold… it sent shivers straight down my spine. So much so that I just stopped in front of Lauren for a second.

“Yeah, we’ll definitely need to go and buy you some thermal underwear.” Lauren chuckled, herself dressed in a winter jacket too. I don’t know if I was allowed to wear a jacket with a Commander’s stripes on them, but right now I didn’t care. “You do look really cute in my jacket, though.” She teased me.

“Lauren… could you keep the teasing for later… I’m freezing to death.”

“Alright.” She laid her arm around me and pulled me close. That helped against the cold, it definitely did. And she swung her bag over her other shoulder. Like this it was just a tiny bit harder to pull along my own luggage though.

“Why is this train station in the open air?” I asked.

“It isn’t.” Lauren replied, a slight chuckle in her voice. “It’s just not heated that much because… Well… I don’t know why, actually… Now that you say it, I do remember this part of the train station to be heated last time I was here.” She looked around for a second. “Ah.” Lauren pointed at a crew in fluorescent yellow jackets who were tinkering on some kind of pylon. “Heating must be down for maintenance.”

“Okay… sure…” I replied, shivering while doing so. “But if this is the inside… does that mean it’s even colder outside?”

“Yeah… probably.” Lauren nodded at me with a grimace. “Let’s quickly head over to the next local train platform and get you in a nice warm train… Unless you want to explore the Antarctic Region’s capital for a bit? Frostbite is quite beautiful this time of year.”

“The skin condition?”

“No, that’s the capital’s name. They wanted a neutral name and it was quite fitting.”

“Ah… no… I’d prefer to take the first option before I actually develop it…”

“A fair and wise decision, girlfriend of mine.” Lauren chuckled and tugged my semi-frozen butt towards the local hover train platforms. Luckily for me, the hover train was also already waiting in the station.

This train was quite a bit busier than the last one we were on. Especially the second class cars we were passing through to get to the first class cars in the middle of the train. It’s not like they were full, but for every 4-seat compartment, there was at least one passenger.

What I also noticed when we were walking through the cars was how a lot of people turned to Lauren and I as we walked through, as before it was mainly Lauren who pulled the attention. However, this time it did feel rather different. Instead of the stares we’d gotten earlier together with the whispers, most people gave her a respectful nod and then went on with their business. Lauren had said the experience was going to be different, but I didn’t expect it to be that blatant.

When we moved through the last second class car we had to move through, about halfway through a little girl, about eleven years old if I had to guess, suddenly darted in front of Lauren. As I looked over, I saw she was part of a family of three. A mother and her sister still seated in their compartment.

“A-are you Commander Davis?” The little girl asked.

“Cait, please don’t bother the nice ladies.”

“It’s okay.” Lauren smiled and got on her knee so she could get to the same height as the little girl. “I am. And who might you be?”

“I’m Cait!” The little girl enthusiastically replied. “Cait Summersworth!”

“That’s a nice name.” Lauren said, holding out the palm of her ungloved hand.

The little girl put her hand in hers and Lauren gently squeezed her tight, keeping up her friendly smile. “Could I have a picture with you?” Little Cait asked.

“Definitely.” Lauren didn’t waste a second to accept her request. She then looked at the mother. “Does she have a holostick?”

“Ah, she does, she does!” The mother quickly scrambled to take a holostick out of her purse. “Thank you so much for doing this, she’s been a big fan of you. She has a poster of you on her wall in her bedroom. She loves looking at it when she’s had a rough time at school.”

“I hope it’s one of the more flattering ones.” Lauren chuckled.

“You look very cool in it!” The little girl quickly replied.

Lauren chuckled once more and looked at the girl’s sister, she was occasionally glancing over to Lauren but didn’t look too enthusiastic to come over. “Do you want to be in the picture too?”

“Come Lainie!” Cait called out to her sister.

The mom put her hand on the other girl’s lap and seemingly gave it a gentle squeeze. “Come one, otherwise you might regret it.”

Lainie got a bit shy and looked away into the window.

“Sorry, she’s a bit shy, but it’s fair to say she also admires you.” The mom explained.

“Lainie?” Lauren softly called out to the girl. “Come say hi, I don’t mind.”

“Lauren doesn’t bite.” I added along with that. “Unless it’s food, she does like eating a lot.”

Lauren’s encouragement and my little joke seemed to help, as the little girl against the window giggled a little and then slowly started moving over until she was in the aisle together with her sister.

“Alright, mom, could you take a picture of us?” Lauren asked the mother, who was already making her way towards the aisle as well. “Do you mind if my friend here is in the picture too?” She then asked the girls, obviously talking about me.

“No, that’s okay!” Cait replied.

“I won’t promise that she won’t be making a silly pose, though.”

The two girls both giggled at Lauren’s joke, denying me the option to opt out of the photograph, not that I minded at all. Seeing Lauren being this good with children made me feel very at ease, too.

“Say cheese!” Lauren showed a big smile and held both girls to either side of her. I decided to just duck down a little, smile and give them a v-pose that I saw on a lot of pictures during my research.

As for the girls, they were laughing and having a great time. “Cheese!” They both replied.

“There you go.” Lauren said, while the mother turned the holostick to us to see. The picture looked crisp and the kids looked very happy with it.

“I will put this picture on our night stand!” Cait nodded happily with a big smile.

“Yay!” Lainie hopped a little hop.

“Thank you for giving them this opportunity.” The mother called her children back to her, which they quickly did. Sitting down in their little compartment once more.

“It was absolutely no issue whatsoever.” Lauren got up without any issue. “You two be good to your mom, okay?” She talked to the girls.

“We will!” They both replied.

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.” She gave them a slow salute accompanied by a wink. The two little girls clumsily followed her lead with trying to salute and then they started giggling again.

“Bye bye!” I waved the little girls goodbye as well, which they returned with youthful pleasure.

Lauren and I then calmly made our way towards the next car. In the meantime, the train had already started moving. It was definitely more noisy than the hyper train, even though it was also a lot slower.

First class was calmer than second class was, with only three other compartments being occupied. Once Lauren and I sat down, she opened her jacket. I decided to keep it closed as I still wasn’t completely warmed up yet.

“You are pretty good with children.” I commented after a couple of seconds.

“Is that so surprising?” Lauren chuckled.

“Well… maybe a little.”

Lauren smiled. “I guess I see what you are coming from. Being a soldier and all that. Doesn’t really lend itself to a child-friendly status, does it?”

I nodded.

“But I really don’t have many issues with kids, especially not if they are as friendly as those two.”

“Those were nice kids, that’s true.” I nodded once more.

“Especially when you are someone’s hero, even though you didn’t really choose to be, you need to keep in mind what kind of an influential position you hold. They will probably remember meeting me for the rest of their lives, or at least a big part of it. I would way rather have them have a friendly role-model.”

“Mhmm. I understand. If you ask me, I’d say you are a pretty great role-model.”

“Thanks.” Lauren smiled. “I do try my best. And I’m trying even better now that I have you by my side.” That smile had turned into a smirk halfway through that sentence.

I blushed and broke eye contact with her by looking out the window. -Maybe warming up was easier than I had imagined…-