Mech Pilot who is ecstatic to be back in a construction Mech.
Vin comes back from a week of the holiday season spent with her relatives, tired and cheery, with a new hand-knitted scarf twined round her neck and a rambling catalogue of cute shit her siblings' kids said. They're at an impressionable age where the war veteran weirdo aunt their parents grudgingly invite seems cool as hell.
"I hate kids," Andi reminds her, without much bite.
"Brought you back pie," Vin coaxes. "You can listen to me not hating kids, for pie."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Look what Dana's eldest got me." Vin digs the gift out of her single battered duffle of luggage, which she hasn't bothered to unpack yet, grinning.
"Oh, you ain't putting that in your cockpit." Andi glowers at the fluffy dice as if they've insulted her personally.
"Sure I am!"
"Saints." She jams her fists in her pockets and trails out after Vin, scowling, as Vin goes and opens up her mech.
Instead of just hanging the dice, Vin gently thumbs on main power, and brushes her knuckles against the sticks. "Hey, Fran," she says, in a soft, secret voice. "You miss me? Look what my folks' kids got you," and Andi has to turn away and glare at the mountain instead, teeth clenched hard enough to hurt down to their roots.
It's not as if Vin will even notice.
