The Berlin Caper

Ivy's clock beeped after way too few hours. She quickly tapped it off and quietly tried to extract herself from Carmen, who had linked their pinkies together in her sleep.

When Ivy's weight left the bed, Carmen mumbled something in protest, but didn't stir any further.

Ivy looked over her tasks. The glue had dried well, but the rattling of the train was unsuitable for the fine detail work required from her now.

Ivy hesitated.

Nodding to herself, she emptied one of the lunchboxes – good bread, yum! – wiped it quickly with the sleeve of her jumper and carefully put the most fragile pieces inside, cushioned it with old rags she always had flying around her pockets. Ivy pulled a very dirty tote bag that Zack very badly painted 'best sis evaaa' on and deposited the lunchbox plus the outside of Red Drone inside.

The train conductor announced that they would arrive in Berlin Hauptbahnhof in a few minutes, so Ivy hurriedly stripped her unused bed, tried to wake Carmen gently and when that didn't work she pulled of the covers.

"Whah…!" Carmen yelled. "Ivy, what was that for?"

"We're almost there. Get ready, I'll strip the bed."

"Hah, strip!" Carmen giggled as she rubbed her eyes.

"Really?" Ivy cocked an eyebrow. "I swear, sometimes you have the humor of a twelve-year-old."

She pulled of the cover from the pillow.

"Now stand up! No time for chit-chat!"

Carmen did as she was told and unlocked the Red Lock with a combination, storing it in her heavy backpack.

The train came to a screeching halt as Ivy also put on her backpack. She sling the tote over one shoulder and steered Carmen out of the normal train door. She had seen the glances to the window.

Out on the platform, Carmen easily took the lead.

"Player, where are we staying?" She asked.

"Oh, just the Adlon Kempinski right by the Brandenburger Tor. Some sight seeing would do you good!"

"Isn't this the Hotel where the German singer- songwriter Udo Lindenberg has been staying for years?"

Player stayed silent, hacking on his keyboard.

"And how, exactly, do you know of this 'Udo-Lindenberg-figure?"

"Professor Maelstrom listened to him sometimes. Said it was prudent to know the culture of possible foes, whatever that was about."

"Just professor Maelstrom oddity, probably, and his Scandinavia thing." Player yawned.

"Player!" Carmen exclaimed. "When was the last time you slept?"

Player yawned again.

"I'll be fine, stop worrying! I'll sleep once your in the hotel!"

"You'd better!" Carmen threatened.

"Yes, mom!" Player joked.

Carmen just sighed.

During the exchange Ivy had approached the reception and had received keys with her broken German from school. The receptionist eyed her cutoffs and stained T-Shirt suspiciously, but everything was in order, so she handed over the keys without protest. He droned on about breakfast times and house rules, clearly thinking Ivy was an assistant, while she fidgeted with the key chain and immediately snapped the number off.

She quickly put her hand in her pocket.

Carmen walked over to her and gave her a side hug and a kiss on the forehead.

"What was this for?" Ivy asked.

Carmen just smiled and shrugged.

"Wanted affection."

The receptionist coughed to get their attention, pointedly looking away.

"I can change your room to a double bed, if that is prudent. Excuse me for the misunderstanding."

He held out his hand.

Ivy turned as red as her hair and returned the key, precariously jammed back together again.

The concierge took it without comment, but handed the new key pointedly to Carmen, who twirled it around her pointer finger and took Ivy's hand.

"Come on, then, darling!" She winked at Ivy and pulled her to the elevator.

Ivy stumbled after her, her blush only intensifying.

In the elevator, they burst out laughing.

"That was so much fun!" Carmen wheezed.

"He looked so annoyed at me!" Ivy had tears streaming down her face.

"Are you okay with us sharing again, though?" She asked. "The train kinda was an exception…"

"I had the best sleep in a long time. Are you okay with it thought?" Carmen emphasized the word 'you'.

"Yeah, sure! I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, with me being a lesbian and all that…"

"Why would that make me uncomfortable?" Carmen asked, frowning in confusion.

Ivy shrugged.

"If people ever made you feel that way, they're wrong!" Carmen hugged her tight, the backpacks in the way, but it was still a nice gesture.

The elevator stopped on their floor.

"We'll continue this conversation soon." Carmen announced, and, not letting go of Ivy's hand, made her way to their newly acquired room.

It was beautiful.

The theme was clearly red and gold, which fit well for 'Team Red'. The ornate bed frame glinted as if recently polished. The bedding was fluffed up and arranged beautifully, clearly with a lot of care for detail. Small fancy chocolates were put on the two sides of the bed.

A love-seat sat in a small alcove, looking over the Brandenburger Tor. A desk was prepared in a sectioned off part of the suite.

Ivy leaned her things against the nearest wall and flopped on the bed fully clothed.

"Sorry!" she said. "I just had to mess it up! It was way too perfect!"

As a response, Carmen flopped down next to her.

"So, back to the 'people being horrible to you' conversation in the elevator." She started. "You know you never have to worry about that with me, right?"

Ivy sat up, pulled the chocolate towards herself, opened it and stuffed it into her mouth, then shrugged.

"I would be a right hypocrite as well. I think you would call me bisexual? You know more about that stuff than me."

Ivy fell off the bed.

"Ivy? You okay?"

Ivy's head reappeared.

"I mean… Good to have a confirmation?" She smiled nervously. "I kinda suspected from how you always flirt with Julia, but I didn't want to assume."

Carmen grimassed.

"I'm really obvious, am I?"

"That's not a bad thing!" Ivy tried to reassure her, pushing her own feelings down. "It just means you know what you want and are not afraid to pursue it!"

Somehow, that made Carmen more uncomfortable.

"Flirting with Jules is… easy. She knows a relationship would never be an option, so I can't hurt her."

Ivy pursed her lips.

"Are you sure about that."

Carmen's eyes widened in horror.

"She's smart, she must know!"

"She quit Acme because she didn't feel comfortable with hunting you. But that leaves her impartial. If you met again…"

"But I'm a criminal!"

Ivy laughed at that.

"Didn't stop her from flirting back before!"

Carmen put her head in her hands.

"This is a mess. I never wanted to hurt her!"

Ivy climbed on the bed again and rubbed her back.

"It'll be fine. Like you said, she's smart, just be honest with your intentions."

Carmen looked at her, teary eyed.

"What if I don't know my intentions?"

Ivy's heart broke for her. It didn't matter she was about to give love advice to the woman she loved for years for another woman, she just wanted to make her feel better.

"Well, what would you like the outcome to be?" She asked.

"Jules not hating me?"

Carmen pulled at the cord of her hoodie.

"She won't hate you!" Ivy slightly smacked her. "Now, what do you actually, feasibly, want from her?"

Carmen stared at her, clearly overwhelmed with the question.

Ivy sighed.

"If you weren't living a 'life of crime' as you put it, what would you like your relationship to be like?" She thought about her choice if words. "Relationship not as in romantic being together, just in general relationship."

"Well I'm not, so does it really matter?" Carmen asked.

"Entertain me." Ivy said.

Carmen flopped back down on the bed.

"I don't know!" She groaned.

"Just start small. If you were just traveling for fun and met that way, what would you have done?"

Carmen covered her eyes.

"I'd probably still have flirted." She admitted. "Maybe I'd have a fling with her and then ghost her. I don't do relationships."

Ivy raised an eyebrow at her.

"I know that's a shitty thing to do, you ask what I'd have done!"

"That's not why… that's really not what I meant." Ivy said. "Why don't you 'do' relationships?"

Carmen shrugged.

"Bad experiences, I guess? Even on vile, seeing the 'happy couples', the explosive ones, all of it, it never interested me. Tried it out, two times, both of them hate me now. Said I'm too uncaring, didn't love them 'the right way', that I'm too honest about my attraction to other people while 'belonging' to them. I fucking hate that word!" She swore. "Belonging! You can't own a person!"

Carmen breathed heavily.

"Sheena literally hit me when I asked Gray for advice. I was new to this, I'd thought she'd want me to be a better girlfriend! She didn't want anybody to know she was a lesbian, which was such a stupid reason. I mean, literally everybody in our class was some flavor of queer.

She was the one who pursued me anyways, guess she just liked the chase. She dropped me multiple times, I don't even know why I went back. I couldn't even go to Gray for advice anymore because she'd scream at me. She hated how close we were anyway."

"Carmen," Ivy interrupted her. "How old were you?"

"What?" Carmen asked. "Like, maybe 16, 17? I got let in early."

"How old was Sheena?" Ivy's voice was trembling, she knew the answer already.

"Like, maybe 21? I don't actually know, she kept her age pretty hidden."

Ivy closed her eyes.

"That was abuse." She told Carmen.

"What? No, it wasn't!" Carmen protested.

"Carmen, you don't have any idea what counts as abuse. You were brought up by criminals, and from what I've heard from you and Player, you were abused and neglected as a kid. I though you knew, but apparently not."

"But…" Carmen protested.

"You need to talk about that with Shadowsan, and soon. And probably a therapist, there's a lot to unpack even with that. But I don't know enough about your time at VILE and I also have my own issues, so let's come back to your no-relationship thing. Go on!"

Carmen gathered her thoughts and continued.

"Paperstar was my age at least?"

She half said, half asked.

"It didn't get as bad as with Sheena, but she'd be extremely competitive in class and not let me even hug or kiss her when I was better than her. And we often battled for first place, so even if she won, she wasn't satisfied. I'm sure she got too aggressive on purpose a few times to hurt me so I would fail in class a couple of times, but I the faculty thought me how to ignore the pain, so that did nothing but infuriate her more."

"Fuck the faculty!" Ivy mumbled. "Sorry!" She added hastily. "Go on!"

"I don't even know why I even got into a relationship with then in the first place! Even just the thought of being in one made me uncomfortable in a way. Seeing people together, I just go 'good for them!' and that's it. I guess I miss the closeness sometimes? But why can't friends cuddle and be close anyway? Who decided that?"

Ivy stared at her and went through definitions of sexualities in her head.

"Can you ask player to send you a few articles about aromanticism?" She finally asked. "I think you might find them helpful."

"Player's asleep. But I can just look it up now, I'm too wired to sleep anyway now."

Carmen took out her laptop and dove headfirst into research, while Ivy put Red Drone properly back together.

They worked in silence for about two hours.

Then Carmen sighed.

"That's it! Information overload! I need to move!" She stood up from the bed and stretched.

Ivy had finished some time ago and was now just tinkering.

"Do you want to talk about something? I know talking to Player helps you process information, but he's asleep now."

"Hopefully…" Carmen mumbled and shrugged.

"I need a change of scenery. Are you up for some sightseeing, muscles?"

Ivy yawned and nodded.

"Let me just change shirts, this one is so stained."

She pulled it off while looking for another shirt.

Ivy could feel Carmen's gaze on her. She felt all prickly and weird, but she also didn't want Carmen to stop looking.

So she turned around to face her and asked, "Like what you see?" while winking at Carmen, then turning around redder than a tomato and quickly pulling on another shirt.

When she turned back around, she saw that Carmen was studying the desk is great detail.

Ivy went over to her, wanting to hug, her, but hovering her hands behind her back instead.

"Sorry, did I make you uncomfortable?" She asked.

Carmen shook her head.

"Made me feel guilty. My own problem, not yours."

She grabbed her jacket and went out of the room. Ivy hurried after her.

They rode the elevator down in silence. The first floor, Ivy took Carmen's hand.

"Let's give the concierge a show!" She winked at Carmen.

"Oh, it's like that?" Carmen smirked, separated their hands and pulled Ivy against her, her hand hanging lazily off of her shoulder. Ivy, blushing again, hesitantly put her hand on Carmen's waist, hooking a finger in a belt loop.

"Good thinking!" Carmen whispered into her ear and pressed a kiss on Ivy's temple just as the doors opened. They strutted through the lobby and walked into the busy plaza in front of the Brandenburger Tor where they immediately almost got run over by a bike.

"Passt doch auf wo ihr lang geht, Turteltäubchen!" Shouted the German.

They let go off each other, and Ivy shouted "Sorry!" In their general direction.

Carmen looked around.

"Where to now?"

Ivy shrugged.

"You want to see something specific?"

"I need to check out the Pergamonmuseum, but it's still early and I can do that on my own. I know you have still stiff to prepare."

They walked up to the Brandenburger Tor and walked through the arches.

"Huh." Ivy commented. "That was underwhelming."

They walked up the Straße des 17. Julis to the Siegessäule.

"That's it?" Ivy exclaimed. "It's just a gold statue in the middle of a busy street! Why is it so important?"

Carmen laughed.

"You're not easily impressed, are you?"

Ivy shrank into herself.

"Sorry, I'm not a good partner for sight seeing."

"I don't mind." Carmen said. "Usually, I'm just on my own with Player in my ear, who will infodump so many information about the sights into my ear, so it doesn't get boring ever. What did he tell me about the Goldelse?"

She wracked her brain for interesting facts.

“It’s 64 m tall!”
“We’ve fallen from taller buildings.” Ivy’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“The statue is a lot newer than the big column, it depicts Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. That’s actually where we get our word for victory, from the Latin! The Germans gave her a different name though, Else, more specifically Goldelse because she’s made out of the stuff, so no they just call the whole thing Goldelse as well, colloquially. The name is stolen from a novel by E. Marlitt, she’s a really interesting figure.”
Carmen took a deep breath.
“The history of it is also really interesting! It was designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 first only to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Second Schleswig War, but by the time it was done, the Prussians also had won against Austria and its German allies in the Austro-Prussian War from 1866. So they just added that onto the symbolism.”
She pointed at the base.
“Look, there you can see the reliefs depicting the victories. They were actually taken by France for a while because they also depicted France being beaten which they did not like. I mean, also because Germany had just lost World War II and wasn’t supposed to be seen as a military nation at all, so having prominent victories over the Allies standing in the capital was not a good look. It was was given back in 1987, so we can look at it now.”
Carmen smiled at Ivy.

"I can see your eyes glossed over some time ago, so do you have something you want to look at here?"

Ivy cheeks turned red. She really had been trying to pay attention to Carmen's story, but she got distracted by the car plates and the amount of Mercedes and Porsche's on the street, cars she would have loved to take a closer look at.

"Sorry…" She mumbled.

"It's alright!" Carmen reassured her. "I know geography and history are my things, you like to use your hands!"

She tapped her hand against her chin.

"Use your hands! That's it! Let's go!"

Carmen took Ivy's hand and jogged to the nearest U-Bahn Station, U Hansaplatz, straight through the Tiergarten.

"Where are we going?" Ivy gasped when Carmen stopped in front of the ticket machine.

"Don't you worry about that with your pretty little head!"

Carmen inspected the metro plan and frowned.

"Well, that's not good." She murmured to herself.

A person with a purple shag haircut and colorful they/them-pronoun earrings appeared out of nowhere.

"Hi! Do you need help with that? Where do you wanna go?" They asked.

"It's supposed to be a surprise." Carmen looked at Ivy, who put up her hands in defense.

"It doesn't need to be!" She protested.

"Aw, that's so cute!" The young adult exclaimed. They thought about that for a second and pulled out a notebook covered with pride flag stickers and a purple gel pen.

"Here, write it down!"

Carmen scribbled something Ivy couldn't decipher despite her best efforts.

"Okay, let me just check something! By the way, I'm Lun, pronouns they/them, nice to meet you two!"

They did an overly dramatic courtesy, pulled out their phone and tapped rapidly on the surface.

"So! You-" she pointed at Ivy, "-go over there so you don't see! No peeking!"

Pouting, Ivy moved to the appointed position.

Lun was writing directions on a page they ripped out of their notebook while talking to Carmen and pointing at the map, until they moved in front of the ticket machine.

"What else have you planned? It might be cheaper if you take a day ticket or a tourist pass, depending on how long you're staying."

Carmen went through their plans.

"Even with only one travel there and back, take a four-ticket-thing, it's cheaper in the end." Lun rambled on.

"We'll be around quite a lot, but we're leaving tomorrow, so two day tickets!"

While getting them the tickets sorted, Lun rambled at Carmen about museums, painters and limited exhibitions, inadvertently clueing Ivy in that they would be going to a museum, probably.

That was odd. Carmen talked about doing something with their hands, and museums definitely were not the place for that.

After Carmen shoved way too much money at Lun and told them to keep the change – at which Lun shut up for a full five seconds before rapidfiring more facts about museums – they finally had their tickets.

"They're valid until three o'clock in the morning, so you can stay out late!" They explained. "You know what? Where your going is pretty much my direction anyway, I can lead you there!"

They stopped themselves.

"Sorry. That was too much. I'll leave you to it…" They turned around, stuffing their hands in their pockets.

"Hey!" Ivy called out. "No, come back! We'd probably get lost anyway!"

Carmen grinned at her, but shoved an elbow in her side.

"You really trust my navigation skills that little?"

"I trust Player, who's asleep right now, and Zack. You and navigation – no. We'd end up breaking in someone's flat."

Carmen gasped in mock offense.

"I'm wounded!"

Lun bopped up and down in front of them.

"You really mean that? Great! Our Bahn is just coming in!"

As if on cue, the U-Bahn arrived at the station and opened the door with a beeping sound.

Carmen pulled Lun back at their backpack, they almost immediately ran into some of the people leaving the train.

The travel felt short, with Lun starting to ask questions about their travels and being amazed about where they'd all been.

"That's amazing! Do you have, like, a travel blog? Can I follow it?"

Carmen and Ivy looked at each other. It would actually be a good cover, and very funny for VILE and ACME to find, but it also would pose a safety risk.

Carmen fished out the paper with the directions from their pocket and held it up to Lun.

"Write your handle here and we'll follow you later, deal?" Carmen grinned.

Lun nodded enthusiastically, scribbled more stuff down, and drew a cute moon-cat in one corner.

"You don't actually have to follow me, I do a lot of weird music stuff on mine, you'd probably not be interested…"

Now Carmen felt bad. She made a mental note to get Player to make an actual account for her.

"Never mind though, we need to change here!" Lun shouted through the cabin and ran outside, holding their foot in the door sensor.

Carmen pulled Ivy off the train. They slid out the door just when it started closing.

"Sorry!" Said Lun. "Got distracted." They turned around a couple times, nodded to themselves and confidently walked into one direction, walked exactly five steps, turned back around and walked into the other direction.

"That should be right?" The half asked, half assured themself. "Look, there it's written!"

They pointed at the sign which said 'U1' with an arrow signaling the way.

They ran up the stairs and managed to catch the right train just when the doors closed.

They all hopped on the last wagon.

"That was fun!" Lun panted.

"It's not far now!" They promised. They fidgeted with the strap of their backpack.

The stops came and went. Wittenbergplatz, Nollendorfplatz, Kurfürstenstraße, Gleisdreieck!

Lun jumped off again and waited for Carmen and Ivy, bouncing on their feet.

"Just down that Treppe, no, staircase, and then you should see it already!"

They skipped down the steps.

"If you start in the little side building, you won't get overwhelmed immediately and there's still lots to do. In the low part is a Dauerausstellung, in English always-exhibition? or something? about cars, if you're interested in that!"

Ivy's mouth fell open.

"No way!" She shouted.

"Yes way" Lun shouted back, matching her energy.

"You can even sit in an old Trabi! Or a replica, don't quite remember."

They checked their watch and swore.

"Need to go!" They plopped down at a stone and pulled elbow, hand and knee guards as well as a pair of well-loved rainbow rollerskates out of their backpack. When Carmen pulled Ivy into the museum, they were still tightening the laces, but waved happily after them.

"See ya! You always meet thrice in your life, or so goes a German saying!"

The doors closed.

"They were nice, but wow did they have a lot of energy!" Ivy said as Carmen pays for their day tickets.

"Yeah, and now I have to badger Player into making me a believable Instagram account, apparently. He won't like that, but it also sounds like fun?" Carmen said.

"Can we go to the cars first?" Ivy made puppy eyes at Carmen.

"Yes!" She laughed. "That was the plan anyways!"

They slowly walked through the exhibition, reading the plaques. Carmen asked a lot of questions about the different models and tried to understand Ivy's explanations, but she mostly did it to see Ivy light up talking about a topic she loved and knew a lot about.

When they saw everything at least once, Carmen looked at the clock. It was the afternoon already. She had to scout out the Pergamonmuseum before it closed at 6 pm.

They went outside and got a Döner from a stall at the side of the street, and then went their separate ways.

Ivy back to the hotel room to work some more on technical support, and Carmen took the U2 and the U5 to the Pergamonmuseum.

vVv