It was Christmas Eve on Atmos, and Finn was sitting in his room bored. He already had everything done for the next day, wrapped all the presents and finished decorating the Condor.
So there he was just lying there listening to his music when his foot hit something at the end of the bed. Sitting up Finn grabbed the object and started examining it; it was a piece of mistletoe. It must have fallen out of the box when he was sorting through all of the decorations.
Finn held the small plant in his hand, looking at it, when all of a sudden laughter was heard from outside the room. Curious, Finn got up from the bed and went to the door, just in time to hear the familiar voice of his commanding officer speak
"Honestly, as much fun as it was flying without anything helping me, you still scared me half to death afterward when you fainted." Aerrow confessed to his companion. Finn heard a sigh before a female voice responded
"It wasn't really fainting remember, Cyclonis got in my head and started messing with it. Kept trying to convince me that I'd end up just like her if I continued to use the binding." It was obviously Piper that was with him, but it was her words peaked Finn's interest. He had never heard about this before, no fainting or Cyclonis at all. The voices were still dull so Finn pushed his ear closer to the door without opening it, hoping to hear what happened.
"Well imagine her surprise when you ended up stronger than her without going evil." Even without seeing what was going on, Finn could clearly see Aerrow's smile.
"Only with your help though. And speaking of surprises, have you ever imagined my surprise when I woke up and found you on the ground next to me, holding my hand." Piper teased playfully. Finn's expression quickly turned from one of curiosity to one of shock. 'oh this is good' Finn thought, he knew that they had something going on between them, but he had no idea that they were this far along, I mean they were pretty much together.
"Well what about that time when you thought I had died and came up and hugged me with all the cameras around, don't you think I was surprised too." Aerrow shot back unfazed. Finn had almost forgotten about that incident. Now that he thought about it though, he had let them off way too easily. He had only teased the pair about it for a week, normally he would go for longer. So Finn made a mental note to bring that back up sometime.
"Come on, we've got make sure that all the systems are still working before the big storm tonight." Piper responded, not only trying to avoid the subject but getting them back on task as well.
"Right. Let's go." And with that Finn heard footsteps slowly walking from in front of his room. Stumbling back from the door, Finn looked down at the mistletoe that was still in his hand and then back up to the door. Almost instantly, an evil idea began forming in his mind. The targets for this plan, a certain red head sky knight and his navigator girlfriend, they were both so close to getting together they just needed a little push.
As the details of the plan fell into place, an sneaky smile broke out onto his face. He went to bed, there was no time to set things up tonight, if he wanted this to work, he would have to strike tomorrow. If anyone else had seen this look, they would've fled the Condor in any weather, cause everyone knows, when Finn's got a plan in his mind, then your in for trouble.
Even though it was Christmas day, Piper couldn't stay away from her experiments. She ran a hand through her hair in exasperation, she had been at this since 5 in the morning. Looking up at the clock she saw that it was nearly 9, Piper sighed. She knew one of the guys would be there any second to check up on her, it was actually kind of surprising that no one had come to find her yet.
Shaking her head clear of any other thoughts, she went back to her work, the very thing that had kept her locked up in her lab for the past 4 hours; trying to refine a cloaking crystal so that the it was powerful enough to cloak the entire Condor. The problem was whenever she tried the refining methods she normally used, the crystal blew up on her, so she had to search for a new method. Looking back down at the notebook on the desk in front of her, she continued to scribble down random characters and equations that would look like gibberish to someone without a PHD. Taking a second look at the page in front of her Piper furiously erased what she had just written, there was no way that it would work, the process was too powerful and she didn't have all the crystals needed to complete the process. She was about to give up when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." she called half heartedly. The door opened to reveal Aerrow leaning coolly against the door frame, his normally happy expression changed into one of worry when he saw her. Her hair was a mess, with her goggles still on her head. There were giant circles under her eyes, and just the half hazard way everything was strewn around the lab was evidence enough.
"You okay?" he asked almost rhetorically, there was obviously something wrong. Piper sighed before looking up at him
"It's nothing, I just can't find a process that would properly refine a cloaking crystal without blowing it up. Everything I've tried has either been too weak or too powerful." She explained, yet not expecting him to fully understand the process.
Aerrow's brow furred in concentration.
"Don't you have that book that tells the name of the crystals in order of their power rating?" he asked. Piper's eyes went wide when she smacked her hand against her head.
"I'm so stupid!" she cried "And I've been doing it the hard way all morning." Quickly getting out of her seat, Piper ran over and grabbed a large book off of the shelf and dropped in on her desk with a loud thud.
But instead of sitting back in her chair and zoning back into her work like Aerrow expected her to do, she just left the book for a second and went and threw her arms around Aerrow's neck in a quick hug. Aerrow just stood there in shock for a minute before wrapping his arms around her waist.
They separated a moment later, as Piper smiled up at him "Thanks for that, I owe you one." She quickly ran back to her desk, and opened up the book scanning through the seemingly endless amount of names and numbers. Aerrow shook his head in amusement before remembering what he had come here for in the first place.
"Anytime. Oh and just so you know, we're opening presents in half an hour." He told her. Piper briefly looked up from the book to answer him
"Don't worry I'll be there."
"I'll send Radarr to come and get you when we're good to go." Aerrow responded, smiling. There was no way she would actually keep track of time, it's not that she didn't want to be there, she just had a habit of getting zoned into her work and completely forgetting about anything else.
They both heard a crash come from somewhere else in the Condor. Aerrow shook his head, wondering what Finn and Junko had done now
"I'd better go check on them." Piper quickly nodded in agreement before she returned to her work and Aerrow ran off to find the source of the noise.
Finn shook himself off, his whole body was aching from the fall. He had been trying to get that stupid plant to stay in the doorway but it seemed to be more stubborn that he was. Looking up, Finn silently cheered at the sight of the plant still where it had been before he fell off. He was just getting up when Aerrow came running around the coroner. Finn's eye's widened, if Aerrow knew what he was doing, then he would be in serious trouble and then things would never go according to plan.
"Finn, are you okay, what was that bang?" Aerrow asked. Finn thoughts were going at a 100 miles a minutes, trying to find an answer that wouldn't get him caught, when one popped into his head
"Ummm, Junko and I are playing hide and seek, I thought it would be cool to hide in the roof, but I fell while trying to get up there." Finn marveled at his own brilliance, there was no reason that Aerrow wouldn't buy that story.
Unless he looked up and saw that plant hanging in the doorway! Finn remembered suddenly and it took all of his control to not change his expression.
'Please don't look up, please don't look up' he thought to himself. Luckily Aerrow didn't even notice, and if he did, he chose to ignore it.
"Fine, but just be more careful next time Finn. Now come on, we've going to open presents in half an hour." Aerrow dismissed, choosing not to get involved.
Finn nodded anxiously "Sure I'll be there in a minute." He called over his shoulder as he ran off to his room.
'Phase 1 complete, now onto phase 2'
The door opened to reveal Piper, who walked quickly over to her desk and continuing to write equations in her notebook. She had just come back from opening presents with the guys, smiling to herself, Piper reached down and fingered the necklace that now adorned her neck in place of her usual one. It was a golden star with a light blue crystal in the middle, it was attached to a gold chain.
It had been a gift from Aerrow, for special occasions. When they had been on the last terra, they were walking through town, and the piece had caught his eye. When she asked why, he said that it instantly reminded him of her and it went perfectly with the colour of her eyes. Piper was deep in her thoughts when all of a sudden, a piece of paper flew in and hit her in the side of the head before landing on her desk. Looking down, she saw that it was a paper airplane. Piper picked it up, to examine it more closely when she noticed that there was writing on it, quickly unfolding it she saw that rather than this being just a silly prank from Finn and Junko, it was a note.
'Piper can you meet me just outside the bridge, I need to talk to you about something.
Aerrow'
Piper raised an eyebrow in suspicion, why had he gone to the trouble of making a note when he could've easily came and just talked to her himself. Just to be safe, she double checked the writing style, and it was his exactly. Shaking off the suspicion that still reigned through her body, she got up and walked over and out the door. If this was a trick, then she would find out soon enough.
It took Piper less than a minute to reach the door to the bridge, and to her pleasure, she saw that Aerrow was already there. She moved up to where he was and gently put a hand on his shoulder. Aerrow flinched slightly at the sudden contact but calmed down when he saw that it was only Piper.
"Hey Piper" Aerrow smiled before quickly getting to business "so what did you want to talk to me about." Piper was dumbfounded.
"What do you mean, you're the one who wanted to talk to me." She responded pulling out the note at the same time that he did his. They both looked down at the others note and back up at each other.
"Finn." They both said at once, only the blonde sharpshooter would come up with something like this. But why, why here and why them. Both of them automatically started looking around for some type of prank ammo but nothing was to be seen.
Aerrow looked up in exasperation, why would Finn go to all that trouble of making them meet here when there was nothing else in store. And that's when he saw it, right above them was the more effective piece of Christmas prank ammo out there.
"Oh no" Aerrow sighed, his hand going to his face. So that's what Finn was up to. Piper looked back at him
"What'd you find Aerrow?" Piper asked almost hesitantly. He looked back down to see her curious face, and that's when it hit him, he was really stuck.
"Ummm." Aerrow was unable to tell her what was going on and so instead he just gestured for her to look up. Piper looked up and what she saw made her eyes go wide and her rage at Finn grow 1000 fold. Yet she couldn't help but be slightly impressed at the scheme, Finn had perfectly planned everything down to the smallest detail. If she hadn't had been the target for this childish prank she would've congratulated him. Finn had played them both and gotten them stuck in this awkward situation. For the sky knight, navigator duo were stuck under a piece of mistletoe.
"So, umm what do you want to do?" Aerrow asked, a hand going to the back of his neck. "I mean we can just walk away and pretend this had never happened, the guys would never know."
Blushes were adorning both of their faces, and becoming more severe by the second. As Aerrow looked down at her to hear her opinion, he couldn't help but notice that in that particular light, she looked beautiful. Aerrow mentally smacked himself, this was his best friend he was talking about, he shouldn't be thinking things like this. Yet at the memory of the feeling of his hand holding hers, the feeling of holding her in his arms, and even that look she gave him, the one that could erase all of his pain, and all doubts were erased. This had been coming for a long time, and he was just noticing it now, he liked her more than a friend.
"I really don't want to be the one to break a tradition though." Piper responded shyly, afraid of what he would think.
"For traditions sake." Aerrow responded as he leaned down to kiss her forehead at the same time Piper looked up at him.
They were centimeters away from each other as their breathes got caught up in their throats. Piper could feel his breath gently beating on her face, as her blush intensified from his proximity. After a deep breath, Aerrow leaned forward and caught Piper's lips in his own, one of his hands going to the side of her face.
Piper's eyes went wide at the feeling of his lips against hers, but shock quickly turned to bliss as she smiled and closed her eyes. Fireworks were going off in each of their heads, neither of them able to think about anything else other than each other. Without even noticing, Piper slipped her arms around Aerrow's neck, pulling him closer to her. Losing all control, Aerrow used the hand that was on the side of her face, and pulled her closer to him. They both melted into the others form, unable to keep their passions for each other hidden.
Neither of them noticed when they started to glow the same blue colour that they had that dark night, hanging onto the side of Cyclonia. The only time before then that they were perfectly in tune with the other.
After a moment, they split apart, gasping for air. Aerrow closed his eyes, waiting for her to ask him why he had taken it that far, but instead all he heard was
"Wow" he looked down to see Piper shaking off the shock, as she started blushing quite prettily in his opinion.
"Ya, merry Christmas Piper." Aerrow responded looking down at the girl in his arms. The one that had always been able to get him through even the worst of times.
"Merry Christmas Aerrow." She responded looking back up at him. He was her strength in the worst of times, and the one who protected her to no end.
It was at that moment that Finn chose to walk past them. Innocently looking over at them.
"Oh, hey guys. What's going on?" But Finn had actually been on the other side of the door for awhile just waiting for the right moment.
At the sound of his voice, Aerrow and Piper split apart faster than you could say Atmos. But after getting over the embarrassment of being caught, they remembered who's fault it was that they were in that position in the first place.
"You hold him and I punch." Piper suggested looking over at her companion. Aerrow smiled slyly back at her
"Just leave some for me." At their words, Finn's eye's went wide as he started to back up.
"Come on guys, it's Christmas. You really don't want to do this do you?" The only answer that Finn got was Piper lighting up her binding power over top of her hand. Seeing the glowing ball of blue in her hand, he turned around and ran screaming the way only Finn could.
Aerrow and Piper only looked at each other before at the same time saying "Let's get him." As they ran off to kill the blonde sharpshooter, they knew that things would never be the same between them ever again.