A/N: Many delicious thanks to beautybelle300256 for tackling this trilogy of oneshots to the ground and betaing the crap out of them. I don't know what they- oh wait, yes I do. They'd be drowning in commas and Otto would behave like a five-year-old. Plus some other embarrassing crap that she had me brush off. So say thank you to the nice beta lady.

Let's start off with some ChinMay, containing 73% of your daily recommended intake of angst.

How I Love You

It had rained the previous night and the earth was still soft and gave slightly under her weight. Because of the humidity, a sweet flowery scent of fertile soil hung in the air in mocking disharmony with her mood.

Jinmay huddled under the low branches of the oak. She had felt oddly exposed, sitting under the heaviness of the perfectly clear night sky. Nights like these, where the stars shone vividly, compelled people to look up into the sky and ponder their semi permanent existence.

No wonder she felt uncomfortable out there.

He would come soon (would almost be skipping up the hill) to grab her hand and smile shyly at her. And she would respond appropriately: smile in reply, kiss him on the cheek and cutely giggle something or other that would illustrate how very much in love with him she was.

Jinmay closed her eyes. She wanted to escape the stern look of the stars; those ever-watching but faraway beacons that passed judgement on nights like these and demanded she be honest with herself. At least until he came for her.

When the Hyperforce left to hunt the Dark One Worm, she had been left in charge of protecting Shuggazoom City. Jinmay had risen to the challenge and done her best, being on her own for the first time she could manage to remember. It had been beyond terrifying and so she'd taken to looking at the stars, glassy-eyed and patiently waiting for her one true love to come for her. The stars had looked back at her with scrutinizing stares, knowing something she didn't, something she ought to know, hoping they could spur her on to finding out for herself. And she had.

When he'd left, she'd had time to sit under the stars and miss him and smile and wonder at her luck and think. Being with him… it seemed too good to be real. Like they were meant for each other. Like she was destined to love him -

And that was it, wasn't it? These feelings which were too sweet, too picture-perfect, too ideal - they were not hers. They were what somebody else, who couldn't quite fathom the emotion, thought love to be: some grotesquely idyllic notion of utter devotion to another person. If asked, that person would point to a Valentine's Card and answer "That's love." She felt this way, and she felt it because she had been ordered to.

Jinmay shifted to sit on a patch of soft moss and gave a girlishly pained sigh. At the bottom of the hill the Monkey Team appeared to be splitting off as two figures went for the lake while the rest seemed occupied in light banter. Someone broke off from the group and moved towards her spot under the oak. The stars twinkled and egged her on.

Love was supposed to be unconditional, yes, she'd heard that. But that was because when you loved someone, it was always in spite of. She'd never, ever set any conditions. She had no past. She didn't know who she was. How could you expect anybody to love somebody who was nobody? She was allegedly perfect. You didn't love somebody who was perfect. You idolized them.

But Chiro was the Chosen one. Every single free-spirited being in the known multiverse counted on him for their continued freedom. She didn't want to shake his resolve by mentioning that their relationship probably was a big, shiny pile of pre-programmed lies. He needed her to lean on; he needed her by his side to support him, always; he needed to know she loved him as much as he thought himself to love her.

Chiro climbed the hill excitedly and almost fell over doing so. She did not turn to face him. He sat down beside her.

The outside factors were recognised on a list of possible scenarios and she felt gears whir inside as treacherous programs booted up and instructed her mechanical heart to flutter in appropriate response to his physical presence.

"Hey," he said softly.

An array of replies fitting the situation was composed and she was obliged to offer him one or more.

"I missed you," she said, still not facing him.

"Well, what where you sitting here all alone for then?" he grinned. His hand searched the grass for hers and, when he found it, gave it a victorious nudge before edging in closer.

"Just thinking about things."

She would have to tell him. She'd get Gibson and Antauri to override the program - these feelings that weren't hers - and she'd tell him, and she'd go away and find out who she used to be and who she was going to be. She really didn't love the way his eyes adamantly searched for hers; the way she felt weak when he played with her fingers in his hand was only the result of a binary code somebody else had concocted.

"Yeah? About what?" Chiro asked - his voice full of hope that he might somehow be involved in the answer.

"How I love you," Jinmay answered; almost choking on a sob.