Alright, this is my first try at a oneshot, so sorry if it didn't turn out so well!
I do not own the Storm Hawks, they are the property of Nerd Corps.
"Next!" the head of the Sky Knight Council cried as he handed off my carefully prepared notes, maps, and charts to a steward that had been standing at the ready.
Who are they to say my plan was no good? Was second rate? Was childish and absurd?
The council thinks that they know everything.
They think they have the right to trash my ideas and plans just because I'm the youngest strategist in the whole fleet of Sky Knight Squadrons that are scattered across the Atmos.
Just because I'm younger doesn't mean that they should have the audacity to push me around! I have just as much experience as anyone in this room, if not more!
The Storm Hawks kick Cyclonian tail everyday and I'm their strategist for goodness sakes!
Trying not to let my dejected feelings show, I set my face so that it would be unreadable to those who didn't know me very well, namely the people in this room.
As I began to take a step towards the podium to retrieve my plans from the steward, he began to walk away.
I tentatively followed him down a hall only to see him dump all of my plans – that took me countless sleepless nights of work to prepare – into a trash can, hitting the bottom with a resounding thud; and with that thud, my dreams were thrown away too.
They… they just threw out my plans! The best in the Atmos – and, and they just threw it out like it was trash or something filthy!
As soon as the steward passed my hiding spot in the shadows, I stepped out into the artificial light that illuminated the hallway. Quickly glancing around to make sure no one was coming, I walked over to the trash can and reached my arm in to retrieve the contents of my plan.
I groaned in disgust as something sticky met my hand before my plan did. After another moment or two of garbage picking, I finally held my hard work in my hands again.
Yet I still felt hollow… not to mention disgusted with all of the garbage that had managed to glue itself to my notes in a matter of minutes.
Why was I feeling so empty inside?
This morning when I showed Aerrow my completed plan he had said, "Even Finn would follow your plan Piper, it's that good."
"Thanks" I had replied before asking, "So it's the best plan you've seen?"
I wanted to make sure Aerrow was sincere; he's my commanding officer and best friend after all. He's supposed to make me feel good and proud about my accomplishments, but I needed him to be honest with me too.
"It's not the best plan I've ever seen," Aerrow began before my spirits drooped.
I needed honesty from him, but couldn't he have bluffed just a tiny bit? Just this once? This plan was really important to me...
Seeing my sullen face, Aerrow put his hands on my shoulders, and once I looked him in the eye he said, "It's the best plan the Atmos has ever seen."
I remember giving Aerrow a quick hug of thanks before I raced to the hangar bay and jumped on my heliscooter.
We had spent the night on Atmosia, so it didn't take me long to reach the Sky Knight Council building.
I was going to show them the best plan in the Atmos; the plan that would rid us of the Cyclonian Empire once and for all.
But now, here I was, walking out of the council building with all of my notes covered in the sticky, now tacky, remains of someone's unwanted lunch.
I was slowly making my way towards the great tree that was in the courtyard outside of the building to get my heliscooter when I saw that parked next to it was a skimmer. It was… Aerrow's?
Turning his head when he heard my approaching footsteps, Aerrow gave me a heart warming smile, but even his smile couldn't cheer me up like it normally did. It couldn't make my plans clean again either mind you...
When I didn't return the gesture, Aerrow's grin turned into a frown as he asked, "What's wrong Piper?"
"Nothing." I mumbled as I got on my heliscooter.
Seeing right through me Aerrow asked, "What's wrong? Didn't they like the plan?"
"I said its nothing Aerrow!" I replied tersely as I started my ride, and then drove off down the road towards the parked Condor.
"Piper! Wait!" I heard my friend call from behind me as he revved his engine and quickly caught up to me. It was at times like these that I wished my ride wasn't so slow.
Keeping my eyes ahead of me, I ignored Aerrow to my greatest ability until he swerved right in front of me, cutting me off as I slammed on my brakes.
Once the dust from our sudden stop had settled, I yelled at Aerrow, "Why did you just do that?!"
"Because," Aerrow began as he slowly turned his non-moving skimmer towards a beat up old path that led into the woods. "I want to show you something."
"Can't it wait?' I moaned.
"No, not really, so hurry up and follow me, okay?"
Sighing, I turned my heliscooter towards the path and followed Aerrow to who knows where.
After several minutes of racing down the dirt path and avoiding fallen trees, I was about to ask Aerrow where we were going when suddenly, the forest opened up - just like that.
I came to a quiet stop next to Aerrow's parked skimmer and asked, "Where are we?"
Smiling at the landscape around us Aerrow dismounted from his skimmer and said, "This is what I wanted to show you."
I tentatively got off of my heliscooter and followed Aerrow down an overgrown path to a small lake, the placid water glimmering with the reflection of the sun's rays.
As I finally caught up to Aerrow at the water's edge I breathed, "It's beautiful Aerrow."
"It's not the only beautiful thing here you know." Aerrow replied as he looked down at me with a grin on his face.
I quickly turned my face away from him so that he wouldn't see the tinge of red that had seeped into my cheeks.
Why is Aerrow being so nice? He's always nice, I know that, but this...it's a different side of him that I've never seen before. It must just be because the other guys aren't here, that's it; yeah, nothing more than that.
Finally turning to Aerrow, I gave him a quick smile as I whispered, "Thanks.", before I began to walk along the shoreline, enjoying the nature that surrounded me. It wasn't everyday that we landed on a terra after all; usually we just patrol the skies and keep an eye out for Cyclonians and what not.
After a few moments of walking, I heard Aerrow's footsteps behind me, and I decided to ask, "So, any reason in particular why you wanted to bring me here?"
Now walking beside me he replied, "I don't know, I just thought that I'd share my secret place with you."
"Your secret place?" I asked as I looked up at him.
Smiling he replied, "Ya, my secret place. I found it while I was training to be a Sky Knight at the academy."
"Really?"
Aerrow nodded before saying, "The odd time they would give us a day off, a day to just roam around Atmosia, or to rest.
"Basically you got the day off to do whatever you wanted?" I asked Aerrow.
Nodding again, Aerrow continued, "I'd always take my skimmer out and go for a ride around Atmosia. We weren't supposed to be flying them unless it was for training, so I was stuck on the ground exploring the terra. During one of my days off, I found this lake and went to it every other day I had off for the rest of my time at the academy."
"So you found this during your days at the academy?" I asked as we continued to walk along the edge of the lake, slowly making our way around. "What made it so special?"
"Well," Aerrow said raking his hand through his unruly hair. "It was kind of a place to get away from it all, you know?"
"I guess," I began as we turned away from our path along the water's edge and carefully made our way to the end of an old wooden dock. "But I thought that you loved everything that came with being a Sky Knight, even the training. How come it was so important to get away from it?"
Once we reached the end of the dock Aerrow said, "Have you ever heard of too much of a good thing?"
Giggling I replied, "That's so cliché Aerrow."
Laughing, Aerrow sat down on the edge of the dock and took off his shoes to hang his bare feet over the edge and into the cool water below. "Well, what do you want me to tell you then?" Aerrow asked as he skimmed his feet over the surface of the water.
Now laughing myself, I sat down and began to take off my own shoes as I said, "I don't know, how about why you really came here all of the time."
"That's a fair enough question I guess." Aerrow replied as he continued to swing his feet before continuing, "In all truth it wasn't the academy I wanted to get away from, it was the people there."
"You didn't like your instructors?" I asked as I dipped my own feet into the lake.
"No, the instructors were fine." Aerrow replied.
"Well, then who did you want to get away from?"
"Mainly the other students, you know, all of the people other than me wanting to be Sky Knights."
"Ya…" I said motioning for him to continue.
"One of the reasons I always hate it when people call us children is that all of the other students at the academy would mock me because I was so young, push me around, try and tell me what to do. The closest person to my age was 20, and the rest could have been twice as old as I was..." Aerrow just let his sentence trail off as he looked over the water before he quietly said, "This lake was my refuge."
Turning to look at Aerrow I said, "That must have been terrible; people pushing you around, thinking they're better than you just because they're older, and thinking you were inferior."
Looking at me with a small grin Aerrow said, "Pretty much… is that what happened when you showed the council your plan?"
"Ya, actually… wait a second – huh? How did you know that? I didn't even tell you anything!" I said flustered. I really didn't know how Aerrow was able to guess. Was I really that easy to read?
Laughing a bit, Aerrow's small grin turned into a sly one; looking at me with eyes full of mischief. "It wasn't that hard to figure out, the council is full of pompous fools who don't know a good plan or squadron when they're staring at them in the face."
I had to laugh at that – it was true after all.
Aerrow's fun attitude sobered as he said, "It doesn't matter what the council thinks of your plan Piper. I thought you did a really good job on it, and I bet it would have worked. The council was just too blind to see it.
"I guess…" I mumbled as I stared at the glistening water in front of me that was slowly turning a red – orange colour with the sky above it, a sure sign of the sunset that was already starting.
"Piper, it doesn't even matter what I think," I heard Aerrow say as a spark of heat rushed through my hand. "You shouldn't need someone else to tell you that you did a great job."
Looking down at my hand, I saw that Aerrow had slightly covered it with his, and it was all I could do to hold down the slight blush that was fighting to make an appearance on my cheeks.
"I know…" I said quietly as I turned my attention back to the setting sun.
Gripping my hand fully and giving it a gentle squeeze Aerrow continued, "If you know you've put all of your effort into something, made it as good as possible and tried your best, than it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. They shouldn't be judging something that isn't theirs to judge."
"Thanks Aerrow," I replied smiling, "That means a lot."
Smiling back at me, Aerrow let go of my hand as he leaned back against one of the posts marking the end of the dock before he asked, "It's a warm day, huh?"
"I guess." I replied, leaning against the other post, wondering why Aerrow was suddenly talking about the weather.
"Did you ever going swimming on warm summer days when you were a kid?"
"Of course, who didn't?" I asked, confused, as Aerrow stood up.
"Well, then lets go swimming."
"Huh?"
"You know, it's the thing where you dive into the water and start floating, and kicking your legs…."
"I know what you mean Aerrow," I said standing up myself, "But what does going for a swim have to do with anything?"
"Absolutely nothing," Aerrow grinned before he took of his shirt, and saying, "Are you coming?"
"I think I'll sit out." I replied as my best friend shrugged his shoulders and dove into the water.
Shaking my head, I looked around the surface of the water waiting for Aerrow's head to pop up, but even after a minute or so, I didn't see the red head anywhere.
Stepping up to the edge of the dock I yelled out across the water, "Aerrow!"
When no one answered me but a frog I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled louder, "AERROW!"
I was getting really worried, but the worried feelings I was harbouring inside me melted away as something wet and slippery grabbed my ankle and pulled me into the water.
Not even being able to yell out in surprise, I felt myself meet the cool liquid and descend further into it until I was a good couple feet under.
Holding my breath, I opened my eyes only to find emerald ones staring back at me, attached to a grinning face with deep red hair that was whipping about my friend's face; swaying side to side in synch with the small current this lake somehow had.
Feeling a stop in my lungs, I quickly propelled myself to the surface of the lake, soon being able to breathe in the air that I desperately needed.
As I coughed up a bit of water, I heard a familiar voice behind me yell, "Shark attack!" Before they tackled me back down into the water.
Once again submersed in the underwater world, I whirled around to see that Aerrow was my attacker. Acting on impulse, I attacked his ribs and soon watched as small bubbles of air escaped his mouth from him trying to hold in the laughter that always came when I tickled him.
For the second time in what must have been a minute, I met the surface of the water, breathing in glorious air.
In front of me, Aerrow's head popped out of the water, and after he took in a large gulp of air he asked, "What was that for?"
Grinning I replied, "That was for making me think you had drowned, and this," I paused as I splashed some water at Aerrow's face, "Was for attacking me, twice!"
After our time down at Aerrow's 'secret place' we returned to the Condor only to hear Finn complain about how we had gotten to go swimming and he hadn't.
Now it was nighttime and I couldn't help but think about what Aerrow had told me.
It really doesn't matter what the Sky Knight council thought about my plan... I know that it was done well; their opinion shouldn't have mattered in the first place. I'm glad that Aerrow explained that to me, although he was wrong about one thing.
His opinion does matter to me, probably more than he'll ever know.
Well, I hope you all liked it, and Yes... I know... the end was just a tiny bit random... XD
Okay, this is totally off topic, but for those of you out there who are still interested in my 'What's the WORST that can happen?' fic on here, I probably won't have another update for awhile yet, as exams are only a couple weeks away... I'm really sorry, I know I haven't updated in awhile!!
Crimson Fox4