The light of the sun fell away from the ship as it moved through the orbit of the red planet it hovered above. It was an unfamiliar orange sun, different to the familiar yellow of the sun in the solar system the crew had all grown up in. All but Tootsie, who's home galaxy sported orange and pink twin suns above the fertile earth of farm planet. He stood alone at the window of the ship, uncharacteristically quiet. The silence was almost finite, and he hated to ruin it. It was nice, he thought to himself, to enjoy the view be himself like this, if only for a little while. The orange glow begin to sink beneath the edge of the planet they orbited and out of sight. He supposed this was almost like a galactic version of a sunset. He liked that idea.

The sound of footsteps behind him broke the silence, though not in a sharp way. The sound was crisp and clear. He turned in time to see his wife take the space beside him. She was quiet too, and it made him wonder if she was alright.

"Mega-Girl? You're okay aren't ya?" The worried inflection in his tone gave away his anxiety. He often worried about her. Recently it seemed like she had been having some difficulty, learning everything there is to know about humans she could. He knew it frustrated her sometimes. However she tried to understand some things, there were limits to her robotic brain. Humans where very strange and changeable. Often ruled by emotions. For megagirl, it sometimes seemed like it was nearly impossible to understand them.

"Yes, of course. I am perfectly fine." She moved a hand to take his as it rested on the window sill. The metal seemed warmer than he remembered it to being only a few hours ago. He wondered what could've caused the change, and then remembered how the computers in the control bay sometimes overheated when left on for too long.

"You're overworking yourself aren't you? Shucks, I can feel how.. How warm you are." He gently squeezed her hand. "You can't keep nothin' from me."

The robot shook her head, white strands falling about her face like spider silk.

"I admit, I feel.. what you humans might call exhaustion." Tootsie turned to face his wife as she spoke. The thought that she might be so tired to come forward about it only increased his worry. She didn't usually make a fuss about things unless it was seriously effecting her.

"My processors have not had the chance to rest in a very long while. I feel myself overheating as we stand here. Now that we are speaking about it, It reminds me that perhaps I should reboot soon."

Mega- Girl seemed to talk about the prospect of overheating like it was nothing, but Tootsie didn't feel the same way. While he didn't understand a lot of what she said, he knew what exhaustion was in the very least.

"Then.. Then you should rest Mega-Girl! You don't wanna make yourself too tired and cause yourself some damage!" He began to pull her away from the window by her hand, but she held fast, mechanisms locked in place.

"I do not rest as you do. I only need a place of privacy where I will not get in the way of the crew when I reboot. It may take a few hours."

Tootsie nodded fervently, and began to lead her again. If there was one thing he prided himself on, and there wasn't a lot he did, it was his devotion to his wife. The quality he possessed to be so ready to do anything for her. Give her anything she needed, was the best thing about him, as was his opinion.

This time Mega-Girl allowed herself to be lead. She followed along behind Tootsie, limbs moving robotically in contrast to his amble. After a few minutes of this, he turned sharply into a room at the end of a passage. It was well hidden, far from the main deck of the spaceship. He turned and pressed a button on the wall, causing the door to slide shut behind them.

Mega-Girl had never been in Tootsie's bedroom before. She had no need to, the fact being she need not sleep or take part in any other bedroom activity. First impressions were that there was a lot of green everywhere she looked. Every available surface was cluttered with plant pots. Plastic, ceramic, filled with a variety of greenery and plants. The largest being the orange tree sapling in the corner, and the smallest, a tiny red cactus looking plant no bigger than a role of film, perched precariously in it's little white pot on top of a stack of what looked to be newspapers.

To be perfectly honest, it wasn't what Mega-Girl had expected. The room didn't match Tootsie's excitable personality. Not exactly. It was warm and looked comfortable and well lived in. Turning to investigate the room further, she managed to make out the outline of a small bed under a mountain of multicoloured quilts, just big enough for one person. Now that was more like her husband. The rainbow of fabric was akin to a cozy nest, and for a second she had a very clear image flash through her mind of Tootsie curled up under all those quilts like a badger in it's den. The thought made her heart flutter and a smile quirk her lips. For as much as she was possessed of a serious personality, she had a weak spot for her husband and his many adorable habits.

"You can.. Uh.. Roo-boot in here. Nobody else knows my room is around in here.. Except Taz cus' she gave me it which I was thinkin' was mighty kind of her."

Mega-Girl nodded absentmindedly, only half listening. Her mind was beginning to get fuzzy as the electricity began to fizzle in her circuits. It should be sooner rather than later, she thought to herself. It wasn't a clever thing to do to needlessly cause herself damage when it could be avoided.

"May I stand here?" She leant against the wall behind her.

"Oh- oh yeah, 'course you can."

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Mega-Girl gave Tootsie a quick hug.

"I will see you in a little while."

Tootsie squeezed her as if he didn't want to let go, though he did reluctantly, and planted a kiss on her lips for good measure.

"You come back good as new, you hear me, Mega-Girl? I don't want you goin' no-where. Not any time soon."

She stepped away once more and reached up to press the reboot button at the nape of her neck.

"I love you."

"I love you too Tootsie."

With a click, the light behind her eyes seemed to dim, and she powered down, upper body slumping forward.

After a moment, Tootsie sighed and sat at the foot of his bed. He expected he'd be there for a while. Leaving her side was out of the question. It was going to be a very long night.

The sun was rising over the edge of the planet they orbited by the time Tootsie awoke. He blearily rolled over, nuzzling his face into a green and blue striped quilt that wrapped around his body almost like a python. He groaned softly as dappled light shone onto his face with the sunrise. It was just his luck that his porthole shaped window would be the one facing the light as it poured onto the ship. He glanced at his digital watch (a necessity as he had never learnt to read the time on a conventional clock) - and saw that only four hours had passed. It appeared he had dozed off, and while he was glad to be woken as to be sure to not miss it if Mega-Girl needed him, the exhaustion still made his body feel like a lead weight, and his brain feel like it was shrivelling up like a raisin.

He yawned softly and sat up, deftly untangling himself from the grip of the fabric python, and leant down to take off his boots, and then socks. He balled them up and threw them into his washing basket, and then neatly tucked his boots under the bed, nudging a pen and a cotton ball aside so the pair would fit nicely.

After a moment he righted himself and took to watching his wife. She was perfectly still, and anxiety almost overtook him. Surely she shouldn't have been rebooting for this long. After a second he stood and moved over to her, a gentle hand brushing over her arm. She still felt warm, and this was enough to calm him. If she was still warm then it therefore followed that she still needed the rest, and he would give her that.

Returning to the bed, he once again took a seat and wrapped a quilt around himself. He would wait for her.

The silence remained uninterrupted as the hours passed. First one, then three, then five. The only sound in the room was the occasional growl of Tootsie's stomach, and it occurring to him that he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. After considering if for a millisecond, he decided he would stay with Mega-Girl. Food could wait.

After seven hours of silence, and when Tootsie had began to drift off again, there was a knock at his door.

"Come in."

The door slid open, and a moustached face came into view.

"Whatcha doing in here Tootsie? We haven't seen ya in a little while."

Tootsie blinked, and when he spoke his voice seemed a little off. He was obviously worried about his wife.

"Mega-Girl is roo-bootin'. I can't leave her alone, I just can't. I mean If I... If I woke up and I was alone I'd sure be scared." He looked down at his hands and glanced up at the corner when the robot stood.

Up followed his gaze and finally settled on Mega-Girl standing there.

"Oh, I see. Well that's a very kind thing you're doing for her."

He stepped into the room and patted Tootsie on the back before handing him a tray.

"You still need to eat though."

After a second Tootsie stood and enveloped Up in a hug.

"Thank you. That's real nice of ya."

"You're welcome my boy."

Up turned to leave, shutting the door behind him. It locked again with a click.

Tootsie set the tray down on the table to his left that stood crookedly against the wall. It's wood was faded, and held an assortment of white flowers in vases. After all, he was a farmer. The natural world was his home. The trees and grass and sun were special to him, and being on the spaceship so long with nothing but the metal and the void beyond.. It sent a coldness through his bones that had nothing to do with temperature.

Still he wouldn't give up Mega-Girl for anything. Yes, she may have been as metallic as the rest of the ship, but she was his girl, and he would love her for as long as she'd let him.

The flowers and plants that littered his room alleviated some of the coldness, the isolation. They reminded him of home, of fields of gold and skies of blue so far from his tiny room on the spaceship. They were a comfort.

Another yawn wracked his body as he stretched out on the quilts. He was so tired. After considering it for a second, he finally settled on going to bed. If his wife awoke as he slept.. Well... He was sure he could trust her to wake him. He stood on shaky legs- the exhaustion was really taking it out of him- and began to undress himself.

The pyjamas Tootsie slept in were dark blue. A button up shirt and long trousers, dotted in white moons and stars. They were soft and smelled like lavender, and made sleeping a pleasure.

He was in his boxers- plain black and unremarkable as they were, when he heard the unmistakable sound of electricity whirring to life. He spun around, his pyjama bottoms clutched in one hand, to see Mega-Girl powering up again.

Unexplained terror shot through him, and there was just enough time for him to yelp and wrap the quilt around himself before the robot's eyes were on him.

The first thing Mega-Girl saw when she powered up was her husband, clutching a blue and green quilt around himself like he was some sort of bizarre burrito. His face glowed scarlet, and he stared at her in surprise and embarrassment.

She stood, confused for a second.

"Tootsie?"

The man in question blushed deeper and avoided her eyes.

"I was.. Uh.. I was gettin' changed and I figured you wouldn't power up again for a little bit so..." He stopped speaking and shuffled uncomfortably.

It suddenly struck her what Tootsie meant, why he was behaving in such an odd manner.

"You are undressed?"

"That's what I've been tryin' to say."

She puzzled over the situation for a second longer before she spoke again.

"My knowledge of mankind suggests that married couples do not mind nakedness in each other's company. It is a necessity for reproductive purposes." She seemed entirely unabashed by the situation.

"Mega-Girl! Don't talk about that." His eyes had widened comically, as if she had uttered a terrible swear word. "We're not like other couples anyhow."

"Because we cannot reproduce?" She was quite puzzled by his behaviour. "I do not wear clothes, and yet you seem perfectly fine with looking at me."

"It's different, you know it is."

"Is it?"

Tootsie blinked, and his face seemed to lose some of the red tinge.

"Humans looks very different from robots, Mega-Girl. We have belly buttons and hair instead of those fibre doohickies robots have on their heads. I don't know what you'd think of us to be honest."

Mega-Girl paused. "I'd like to add this information to my data banks."

"Gosh, I can't say no." His reluctance was obvious, but if Mega-Girl wanted to learn, he wasn't going to stop her. After a moment of awkward silence he pulled the quilt away and haphazardly threw it on the bed.

He quickly pulled on his pyjama bottoms, but was more relaxed as he turned to search for his top.

Mega-Girl blinked at her husband, her head tilting to the side slightly. He was well built and broad shouldered, and very unlike the slim shape her metal frame had been melded to. After a few seconds he pulled on the top, and her view was obscured. She was fascinated by him, having never seen any human without clothing before.

"Humans are interesting creatures."

"That's nice of you to say, Mega-Girl, but right now I'm just thinkin'..." He captured her waist and kissed her sweetly. "I was thinkin' I missed you."

"I missed you too Tootsie."

That's all folks! Don't forget to review and tell me what you think! Any suggestions for megatoot fics? (Because there aren't enough) then PM me!