A/N:

I had just finished binge watching this show a few weeks ago and I found extremely sad that there is so little stories on fanfiction for it. I'm hoping that this changes since I enjoyed the show so much.

This will take place after the series and not the OVA's because only the first OVA has been translated. If they finish subbing the second by the time I'm still writing this, I will try to incorporate it in with what I have.

I will try to update as quickly as I can but right now programming has the biggest dominance over my life

Sorry in advance for spelling and grammar mistakes

/

Ledo waved in farewell to Bellows as he left work for the day. He made decent finds just like any other day in hopes that what he found would benefit the society. It had already been months after the battle with Striker and he was now comfortable with his new way of life, though half the time it was still hard to not have his previous soldier mentality. Not that he ever wanted to go back to the way things were before coming here and learning the truth, but it was hard to drastically change who you were when you spent your whole life having a soldier's mentality. This mentality mostly affected him by constantly wanting to work, he felt the need to give himself an objective to drive him. As long as he kept that objective in mind he felt like he could fit into this world. This was better than being on stand-by constantly, not that he had the option anymore since he no longer had an A.I. to work with him.

He missed his A.I., for the longest time it was like Chamber his best and only friend, though at the time in the military he didn't really know what friends were. He knew he cared for other humans lives because the objective was to save the human race and he would do anything to save another human. Unless he was told to do otherwise, that is. He could still remember the two soldiers Kugal ordered to abandon on the battlefield right before he came to Gargantia. In the alliance, friendship was seen as inefficient since the mental attachment could prove hindering towards the mission. If he were to have personally known those two soldiers that died, he would probably in a worse mental state from grief or had been influenced to disobey his commanding officer to save them only to die himself.

After learning what friendship was an Gargantia, it seemed logical that Chamber would have been considered his best friend. Chamber showed human-like qualities to him and was literally with Ledo everywhere. The A.I. was supposed to know Ledo better than anyone else and it was true that he did. Unfortunately it was only true to an extent since Chamber computed happiness with having a healthy body and stable brain waves. That kind of happiness didn't relate to the happiness he learned of on Gargantia.

It was confusing at times for Ledo to think of his A.I. as a pseudo-human or just plain technology when there were moments where it would seem that Chamber would make decisions like how a caring person would look after the one person who mattered most to them. Chamber's job was to protect Ledo and assure that he reached happiness, in the end he fulfilled his duty. Despite Chamber's motives coinciding with his duties, the last moment they shared seemed more like free will than programming. After spending a long while to decide what these emotions he felt were, Ledo came to the conclusion that he will remember Chamber as a friend and not just his protector. This was why he still carried the handheld he would use to communicate with Chamber wherever he went.

The device no longer does anything no matter how many times Ledo had tried to mess with it. The familiar glow it had when Chamber talked was long since gone. He certainly didn't need it to translate for him anymore, he was now proficient in the language of Earth. Carrying the device was more for comfort than necessity due to its uselessness. At first when he started carrying the handheld Ledo would mull over the fact that there was no logical reason why he should do so. If there was no purpose to the item, then he should not want it. The item was broken therefore should be thrown away. These thoughts went along with what he knew back in the Alliance, but since he there was no way back there would be no harm in doing something that didn't make any real sense, right? The only person he ever told about carrying the handheld item was Amy. She smiled like she always did and said that it was great for him to keep a piece of Chamber with him. To her, Ledo showing an attachment to an object was normal and it was a good thing for him to understand more about his feelings.

One of Amy's recent goals was to get Ledo to show more emotions than his stoic military gaze. It's true that he had come a long way from when he first arrived but apparently that was not good enough. She kept telling him that she will make him laugh one way or another. Laughter. Ledo didn't really know how to think about it. He saw others laugh, he understood why they did, but he never got the impulse to do so himself. He would smile on a regular basis now and enjoy himself, he especially felt joy or amazement when watching Amy dance. But laughter was not something that had come to him yet. To Ledo, he has never felt so happy or as free in his life until now, and just those feelings were enough.

He made his way to the usual meeting spot where soon Amy would be rushing up to him. Sure enough a few minutes later, he could see her bounding through the maze of ships in her usual fast pace.

"Sorry I'm late!" She was barely panting as she approached. Grace, the flying squirrel, chittered happily upon seeing Leto's small companion. The two squirrels began scuttling across the desk and rolling around.

"You are fine. I got off a little early, otherwise I would have been here at this time too." Really he didn't mind how long he would have to wait as long as he would get to see her.

"Come on! There's a new restaurant opening up today, I can't wait to try it." Ledo lightly smiled at her enthusiasm as she took a hold of his hand to rush them to their next location. He found himself in this position often, where to an outsider it would look like she's dragging him, but he really didn't mind.

Shortly they arrived at the new restaurant, it was on a new ship that had joined their fleet the day before. Lately Gargantia seemed to be getting bigger and bigger to where they need to acquire more space and metal to accommodate an expanding population. Being the opening day of the restaurant, the place was completely packed. Ledo and Amy were fortunate to get here before the larger dinner crowd settled in after work so they managed to get one of the last few tables available.

The food here was delicious, one of the trades from this new ship were the spices they made. The new seasonings introduced made an exotice taste to him which Ledo was grateful for. He couldn't imagine why he was so reluctant to try more than just seaweed bread before. Once he got over the fact that he was eating a corpse, Ledo was willing to try almost anything. Remembering that conversation with Amy before the festival, he smiled briefly to her to show he liked the food, she smiled back.

Halfway through the meal a group of three men walked up to their table. A tall man with black hair was in the lead and bent slightly down to Amy. He looked to be only slightly older than Ledo himself. The man flashed a smile at Amy, "I thought I recognized you, you're that beautiful bellydancer. I would love to buy you a drink, what do ya say?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm fine here," Amy smiled back at him trying to be polite.

The man turned his head to glance at Ledo sitting across from Amy. He huffed rolling his eyes, "You don't have to feel like you need to be polite to this loser. I'm sure he'll understand."

He grabbed her wrist to pull her out of the chair. Amy gasped not expecting to be propelled out of her seat only to end up trapped with the man's arm around her.

"Excuse me, I believe she said she was fine where she was at."

"What the? Hey I know you too, you're that alien kid. What would you know about anything she would and wouldn't want?"

"She declined your offer," Ledo stood from his seat, "release her."

"You think you're so high and mighty don't ya?"

"That is an irrational conclusion, I'm saying she doesn't want to be with you. Let her go."

"And what are you going to do if I don't? Now that your robo-sidekick is gone you're probably defenseless. I saw you being useless your first few weeks here, you really can't do anything by yourself, people just hire you out of pity."

"Ledo, don't listen to him!"

"Quiet you!" The man tightened grip around her, Ledo could see her skin becoming red in irritation from the man's harsh touch. Ledo was about done with this man. He insulted him for being useless, talked ill of Chamber and was assaulting Amy. Of all things, assaulting Amy was something he would not take lightly or forgive.

"I demand you release her," before coming to Gargantia, Ledo would have probably already attacked by now. But he wanted to give the man one last opportunity in hope to avoid conflict or trouble.

"Will you two take care of him for me, I'm going to escort this lady out," the man told his comrades who were sneering beside him the whole time. They nodded in obedience then began rush towards Ledo. The leader began to walk away from the progressing fight with a squirming Amy trying to get out of his grasp.

Ledo stayed on the defense, quickly blocked the initial attacks of the men. They positioned themselves on either side of him, blocking the way to Amy and to escape, not that the later was really a needed option for him anyway. The one blocking him from Amy tried to come at him again, but Ledo simply grabbed the fist that was aimed for his head. He twisted the fist with one hand, ducking under the first wing-man's arm to face his back. The move was simply to start to get him off balance, Ledo didn't want to seriously hurt these men but needed to effectively get them out of the way. He slammed his opponent into his partner, thrusting them both into a neighboring table. The contents of the table fell upon the men, knocking one of them out.

Ledo ran after Amy and her captor, taking his gun out from where he concealed it. Most days he told himself that he would no longer need the weapon unless there was an attack from another ship, but old habits die hard and he was glad for it at the moment. Making sure that no civilians were in the way, Ledo aimed and fired the gun to graze the side of Amy's captor. The rest of the laser hit the wall, slightly melting a small spot. Paying for damages was better than hitting a person. He was grateful the room had remained still once everyone realized a fight broke loose. His goal was to threaten the man, not cause unneeded bloodshed.

Shocked at the sudden pain the man turned around to see Ledo in a stance to fire a second time, aimed towards the chest. Needing leverage the man positioned his captive in front of him, "you aren't going to shoot me now are ya? Not with your precious girl in front of me."

"I don't miss."

"Are you kidding me? You barely scratched me with that last shot!"

"As I said before, I don't miss."

Suddenly Ledo felt a blow to the head, whatever hit him had shattered and scratched his scalp. Grasping his head, he turned to see the conscious wingman holding the remnants of a bottle in his hand. Ledo moved before anyone in the room could process. A punch to the face with a sickening cracking sound as the nose was shattered. A knee to the stomach, causing the man to double over. An elbow to back, bringing the man to his knees. Ledo pushed his opponent's head to the side, sprawling him on the ground.

Ledo spun on his heel, back to Amy's captor, he was holding a broken-off leg of a chair, getting ready to strike Ledo. Amy was abandoned, the man only thinking of finishing the fight. Ledo held his gun a foot from the man's chest, freezing him in his steps.

"Drop it." Seeing that he was out of options, the man complied. Ledo decided to smirk to show confidence, something he often saw Pinion do. "Don't forget that I was a soldier, my body was trained for combat before I could pilot Chamber. I was going easy on you so I wouldn't kill you."

"Ledo!" Amy rushed over to him, capturing him in a hug out of concern. Ledo wrapped one arm around her, the other still pointed at his opponent. "Oh, Ledo, you're bleeding!"

Now that he thought about it, he could feel the blood dripping from the glass shattering on his head. The wound was probably small, but scalp wounds had a tendency to bleed more. He barely felt any pain at all, probably out of adrenaline. "I'm fine."

"No you're not, otherwise you wouldn't be bleeding. We're going to my place to make sure you don't have a concussion."

Ledo looked into her eyes, there was no arguing.

"Alright. Waitress," Ledo slightly glanced away to a woman who was tentatively watching the fight, "would you please pack our orders to go?"

After his request was fulfilled, the two slowly made their way to Amy's apartment. She held his hand and glanced at him with a worried look. Once there she forced Ledo to sit on her bed while she got supplies to treat his injury. Bevel was already asleep so they were sure to make as little noise as possible.

"I always get so worried when you go off and fight, there hasn't been a reason for you to fight in so long I almost forgot how nerve wracking it is, " Amy said while gently wrapping Ledo's head. "But, thank you for protecting me."

Ledo instantly felt guilty for making her feel like that, this wasn't the first time she had expressed those thoughts. It even worried her when he went out on long excursions, particularly after he would tell her of something dangerous that happened on the previous search. "No problem, I'm sorry I worried you. I just couldn't stand the way he was holding you, I guess I was… ."

"You were…."

"Jealous."

"Jealous?"

"I believe that's correct term for it."

"Why were you jealous?" Amy tilted her head, intently listening for the answer.

Suddenly Ledo was nervous, he couldn't exactly tell why so he suppressed any expression on his face. "He took you away."

"Ledo…" Amy was hesitant with what she was about to say, he could tell she was nervous too. What was going on? "Ledo, do you… like me?"

"Yes," of course he liked her, she was the closest person to him on Gargantia, why wouldn't he like her? He felt like he was misinterpreting the question. He already came to terms that he was in love with her, but that was not the question she just asked. Either way the answer would still be the same he supposed, so there was no need to elaborate. Especially when she radiated such a brilliant smile on her face from the answer. Before he knew it a pair of lips were on his, what was this? He was too shocked and too confused to move.

After a few seconds Amy pulled away confused by the shock on his face, "I-I thought you said you liked me. Why didn't you kiss me back?"

"Kiss?" Amy's face was turning red with embarrassment, he didn't know what this was, did he? How could she be this stupid? She turned to leave the room, not wanting to embarrass herself further when a hand grabbed her wrist.

"No." Ledo stood and closed the distance between them. He relied on his instinct to guide him to cup the side of her face in his hand, pulling her in to replicate the gesture she just showed him. This was definitely a new experience for him, one that he quite enjoyed. He was aware back in the Alliance he was of age to reproduce and was told that it was something that would feel good to him, but he never quite understood why he should care so much about being with a woman. Now that he actually knew what love was, how an attachment to another person was, this small gesture of affection they shared was one of the best sensations he's ever had.

The kiss was slow, he concentrated on matching her movements in hopes that she was enjoying this as much as he was. The movements were odd to him but yet somehow familiar, this really wasn't a moment that he wanted to end. When they finally broke apart they both had a faint blush on their cheeks and smiled widely. Ledo was sure this was the first time he felt his cheeks flush, he interpreted the warmth as him being exhilarated rather than embarrassed.

The rest of the night talking about events going around Gargantia and finishing the half-eaten meal from earlier. Amy was relieved that the kiss didn't make anything awkward, however, she was more ecstatic that he felt the same way that she felt towards him.

...

Ledo was the first one to wake up in the morning. He felt comfortable, more so than usual, with his arm wrapped around something in front of him. He moved further into the covers and pillows that smelled just like Amy. Something tickled his nose as he breathed in, it felt an awful lot like hair. He cracked an eye open to the sight of the back of Amy's head. If there was ever an encouragement to never get out bed then this was it.

"Hello? Amy! Did you forget we had the day off today? You were supposed to meet us." He heard the sound of Melty's voice trail faintly through the closed door. Honestly, he hoped they would just give up and come back later, but he wouldn't have such luck. He heard the door open to Amy's room so he pretended to still be asleep. Maybe if they saw him and Amy still asleep they would not want to disturb them and go away. He was answered by a high-pitched squealing coming from both girls and Melty also saying something along the lines asking why Amy always got the 'hotties.' Amy jolted awake out of his arms much to his disappointment. Figuring there was no point in faking his slumber anymore he slowly opened his eyes to look at the scene before him.

"I-It's not what you think!" Amy looked frantic waving her hands at her friends while they just smirked at her. Ledo didn't really know what there was to be so nervous about. He wasn't ignorant that most would assume when two people in the same bed had sex, but even if they did, why be so nervous about it? Before he came to Gargantia he turned 16, this meant that he could visit Avalon for a month and participate in activities which included being intimate. Most soldiers his age took advantage of that opportunity and having sex in general was just a way to expand the human race. There were no families so even if you ended up having a child, you would never see them. If anything, Ledo was slightly hurt by the fact that it seems that Amy would be embarrassed by being seen with him.

Regardless he might as well get up now since there were no chances of him going back to sleep. Amy was still explaining the situation to her friends with anxiety written all over her face. The bandages that were placed on his head by an insistent Amy were becoming annoying and were placed in the trash as he exited the room. He was greeted in slight surprise by Bevel in the kitchen eating his breakfast. Ledo momentarily wondered if it was awkward for the young boy to know that his sister had a man sleeping over. If Amy's friends were making a big deal about it, chances are that Bevel could have the same thought process, despite not showing it at the moment.

"There's going to be no wind for the next few days, ready for a nice break from work?"

"I guess, though I'm pretty sure that I, along with the rest of Bellows' crew, still have to do some maintenance around the ships. Last time we even did some scavenging, maybe this time we might find a ship that would be undamaged enough to surface."

"I hope you get the day off, that way we can hang out if Pinion decides to throw another barbecue!" Bevel enjoyed it when he everyone was out of work. He didn't have much interaction with others most days, though that was slowly changing as he got older by sometimes being something similar to a civil engineer thanks to Dr Oldham's recommendation.

"Just as long as I don't have to go get that sauce again I don't care. But I admit it would be nice to relax with everyone," though at the moment he was mostly thinking of relaxing with Amy.

"You didn't like it?"

"No, I liked it, I just don't want to go back to that alley," Ledo shuddered at the memory. The three girls finally came out of Amy's room, Saaya and Melty were still smiling widely but Amy's face was back to it's normal shade.

"Maybe we can try to teach you how to swim again," said Amy sounding more cheerful today.

"You tried to teach me before?" Ledo tried his hardest to remember the events of the party they had. Swimming didn't really come to mind.

"Don't you remember kicking your legs in the water?"

"I would hardly call that swimming, I didn't really know what I was doing at the time."

Amy giggled at the memory, "Well, maybe this time you'll actually feel like you're swimming." She could have sworn she heard Saaya mention something under her breath about only wanting to swim to see Ledo's body again, but chose to ignore it.

"Awe, you two are so cute together, it's about time something happened between you two." Amy's blush returned at Melty's comment. "But swimming is a good idea! Ledo do you need help changing again?"

He instantly got up out of the seat, almost like he was about to run away, "No, I'm capable of doing that on my own." The girls giggled at his reaction. "But first I'm going to see Bellows to make sure I don't have any work to do. If I don't I'll meet you at Pinion's spot."

After Ledo closed the door on his way out Melty frowned, "He's such a workaholic. Honestly, I think he's the only person on this fleet that actually wants to work all the time."

"It makes sense if you think about it," Amy interjected, "he said before that he was never given an opportunity to relax when in the military. Apparently they were granted that once they turned sixteen which for him was right before he came here."

"Oh, I get it. You mean that since he's never really had a break before, he doesn't know what to do now. Come to think of it, he did seem awfully desperate to get a job before even though Chamber had it covered." Amy nodded at Saaya.

"I guess it does make sense…. Now, I'm still not satisfied with your answer from before. Why were you and Ledo sleeping in the same bed last night?"

Amy's cheeks were inflamed again, what only made it worse this time was that her little brother was in the room. He stared at her wide-eyed with a faint blush on his face as well.

"Melty!"

…

It was unnerving how he could feel the stares at him, so much for everyone telling him to 'relax.' At this point he'd rather had Bellows assign him to a personal excavation than to have frowned and ordered him to take a day off with the others. Ledo really wished random girls would stop looking at him, even the not so random girls, like Melty.

"Hey man," Pinion wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leaning with a teasing smile, "told you those workouts would work like a charm, now the ladies are all over ya." Pinion noticed a while back that Ledo never had a 'manly' build, so he took it upon himself to take the boy under his wing and show him how to build proper muscle. Now being 18 Ledo had reached his full height so Pinion was proud of himself to train the young man into having more meat on his bones.

Though this comment was confusing to Ledo since he thought they were doing endurance training. Sure, he had to be physically fit in the military but due to his young age, the majority of the time the mechas did the most of the heavy lifting. Ledo would often find himself close to struggling until he became stronger thanks to Pinion. But this new development that his physique was making everyone look at him made sense. he remembered Chamber at one time telling him what humans naturally thought was attractive, but at that time he was the 'perfect soldier' uninterested in anything of the sort. Ever since that kiss with Amy and sleeping next to her, he could feel the need of just putting his arms around her again. However that would seem rash and would freak her out a bit so

" I really don't see how even more attention to me is a good thing." Since he was the 'space boy' there really wasn't getting around the same questions and story telling whenever a new ship would join or trade. Just because he had sort of gotten used to it, doesn't mean he has to like it.

"Right, right, you only have eyes for one don't you? Why don't you go over there and make a scene with Amy now? I'm sure it will get the other girls to stop looking at you, or make them start to glare, whichever works for you. Unless if you're trying to get Amy jealous and come to you?"

"Huh?"

"Come on, I already heard from Melty, you two had a nice night last night didn't you? Well, you're a lucky one." Ledo huffed and looked away from Pinion, ironically it was also in the direction of Amy. Can there seriously be a day where he's not the fleet?

"Oh don't be like that, come on, have a drink." Ledo sighed and followed, he really hoped that Pinion didn't mean an alcoholic drink, he hadn't quite recovered from the last time. He'd only been drunk very few times, usually it was a pleasant experience, but eventually there comes a time when everyone throws up and Ledo was ready to lay off the drunken feeling for a while because of it.

The day trailed on with a lighthearted mood. Eventually he got a chance to just sit down in the shade with Amy. She had leaned into him so he tried to inconspicuously put an arm around her shoulder but not inconspicuous enough since a few minutes later they were put on spot by everyone to turn into the running joke. Ledo cursed the fact it was common to tease others about their relationships here since it would always get Amy so worked up. After her friends stole her away from him, Ledo moved from group to group not really participating in any real conversation. Everything seemed normal, until he saw something strange.

There three shapes in the distance. If he didn't know better Ledo would say they looked a lot like some Machine Calibars, but there was no way, they were over 6582 light years away from Earth. However the closer and bigger the shapes got, the more it put him on edge. He needed to get out of here, no one would think much of it if he took a break from the barbecue. Just in case he was right, he might want to find a good spot to meet the Calibars so they didn't destroy anything or cause a panic. Really, Ledo didn't want his suspicions to be right, but if they were then the only reason why the Alliance would be here would be because of him. He didn't want to cause any distress on the fleet, much like he himself did when he first arrived here. Well, no matter what huge, humanoid A.I. robots were going to cause some sort of panic, but having them away from a crowd would be better.

Ledo moved away as discreetly as he could, though unable to avoid eye contact with Amy. He made a gesture that he was leaving and everything was fine so she went back to the conversation she was currently engaged in. Now he had to wonder where a good spot was on the ship to go to. Since most people had the day off, places that had grassy areas and were close to the water would be more packed than normal. But, if that were true, where workers were normally would probably be deserted. Where the Yunboros were held could work but he couldn't risk the Calibars destroying those machines, whether intentional or not. The docks to the fishing boats could be an ideal area, it would have open space and all the fisherman should be elsewhere. Deciding that this was the best course of action, he steered the closest one he could remember.

Still, he wasn't sure why he was taking these precautions, the likelihood of his former comrades finding him was small especially when the chance of them finding Earth was slim to none. But at the same time, Ledo remembers the power and abilities of those machines. It was like when the pirates first attacked the ship, Chamber was able to tell who was on what side and eliminate them with absolute accuracy. If Ledo was still in the Alliance's database then the Machine Calibars would definitely be able to pick him out from the crowd. They even had his DNA to confirm it if they got a hold of him.

He really hoped that this was all his imagination, the last thing he would want to do right now was go back to the military. Not after he learned that the Hideauze were actually human and he's come to enjoy life so much now. Technically, he was discharged from the military by Chamber due to his mental state, but there was no proof of that now that Chamber was gone. Even if Ledo was to try to avoid going back to the Alliance with that reasoning, they were likely to kill him on spot. Those who are not longer able to be of use to the Alliance weren't needed to live. Him having an 'unstable mind' meant that he was of no use anymore. All he could do now was wait and hope.

Not a minute later he heard the faint cries of the fleet's civilians. Ledo was getting more nervous by the second. He stared in the direction he came from, intently searching for the large objects in the sky. He could the faint tapping of running feet to find the head of Amy popping up from a flight of stairs. They shared a moment looking at each other intently, the look of concern in her eyes. A second later the wind picked up behind her in a huge gust caused by none other than three Machine Calibars passing above her.

The huge machines made their way to the open area Ledo had picked out and landed with grace. Ledo's pulse was racing, he felt fear again, fear of not knowing how this situation will play out. He couldn't help but glance away and back to Amy one more time. She was just as worried as he was but Ledo hoped she would stay where she was at the moment.

His attention was grabbed back to the matter at hand when he heard the cockpits release their tightly sealed pilots. Two looked younger than he was when he left, around the ages of 14 and 15, the last one looked in his 20's. Ledo could tell they were all privates and not officers. All had the same white-gray hair as himself with the same expression he used to have before coming to Gargantia, emotionless. These were soldiers who knew of nothing more than the war and the objective to win it. They all descended from their individual mechas, walking in line facing him.

The soldiers stopped in a salute, the oldest talking loudly in his old familiar language. The words almost seemed foreign to Ledo at first but he could understand them perfectly, "Second Lieutenant Ledo, we have received your distress call and are here to escort you back to the Alliance."