A/N: So a friend gave me the first game for Christmas and I finally got around to starting it. The scene in KOS-MOS's maintenance lab aboard the Elsa between Commander Cherenkov and Shion inspired me to write this.

Disclaimer: I do not own Xenosaga or any of it's related characters.

It had been two days since Shion, KOS-MOS, Allen, and Cherenkov had joined the Elsa Crew. They had all quickly managed to fall into a routine that seemed to work out for everyone involved. Shion took care of KOS-MOS and cooked for everyone. KOS-MOS helped Shion with cleaning. Allen pretty much just moped around, although he did assist with some of the work too. And Cherenkov...well... he stayed away from everyone else for the most part.

That was what bothered Shion the most. Even more so than KOS-MOS acting on her own, trying to leave her and Allen stranded in an escape pod in the middle of space. It really bothered the engineer that the commander stayed by himself all the time, hardly ever talking to anyone. It bothered her that he rarely ate, and from what she had seen, barely slept either.

Somehow Shion Uzuki, chief engineer of Vector's First R&D Division had grown to greatly care for Andrew Cherenkov, despite only spending time with him for brief periods of time. Even worse, she was starting to fear that she might be falling in love with him.

And now here she was, carrying a tray of food for the commander, hesitating. She had spent about ten minutes looking for him earlier, before Tony had told her that he was in the lounge in the lower level of the ship. But why was she hesitating? She was only taking him something to eat, nothing more. Even though her brain knew this, a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach told her otherwise.

Taking a deep breath she took a step forward and the automatic door opened for her, allowing her to walk into the lounge. Almost as soon as Shion entered Andrew looked up from where he was sitting. He had his gun in his hand and, although he didn't aim it, he was ready to shoot. He breathed an almost imperceptible sigh of relief when he saw who it was before quickly hiding the gun behind him.

Shion smiled politely as she made her way over to him. "Um... I thought you might be a little hungry," she said awkwardly, stopping in front of him.

Cherenkov nodded, reaching out to take the tray from her. "Thank you." In truth he was getting hungry, he just hadn't felt like going up to eat with everyone in the restaurant earlier. "I'm...sorry for the inconvenience."

"No, no inconvenience at all," Shion said reassuringly, hesitantly sitting down next to him as he began to eat the curry she had made. She had spent extra time on it this time, trying to make it better than usual. "How does it taste?" she asked after he had taken a few bites.

Andrew swallowed and placed his spoon down. "It tastes good." Very good, he thought. But it wasn't like him to give compliments easily. Still though, he noted that the woman looked much happier now.

"I'm so glad! I tried harder this time and I had hoped that it would be..." Realizing she was rambling Shion cut herself off, blushing slightly. "S-Sorry..."

A smile ghosted across Andrew's face. She looks cute like that, he thought. Wait... he paused, spoon halfway to his mouth. Cute? Where had that come from? He had never thought of her as cute before. Although now that he thought about it, she was cute. Or maybe 'pretty' was a better word. Yes, she could easily be described as pretty. She was almost perfect. Except... she had always been slender, but now she looked even more so.

"Is something bothering you?" he questioned after eating the now almost cold bite of curry still on his spoon.

"Bothering...me?" Shion repeated, not sure why he was asking her that.

"Yes. You seem..." Cherenkov hesitated. "You look as though you have lost weight."

Shion sighed. "Oh..." Her eyes closed behind her glasses as she leaned back against the seat. "It's a long story..."

Although that usually meant that the person wasn't really that interested in talking about whatever the "long story" was about, Andrew somehow couldn't drop it. "We will be on this ship for some time."

"Yes, I suppose we will..." Taking a deep breath she continued. "It's just that... well... it's KOS-MOS."

"KOS-MOS?" How was that a long story, he wondered.

"Yes. KOS-MOS, she's acting on her own. She's doing things that I never programmed her to do. And...back on the Woglinde... she... you saw what she did. She killed," Shion's voice broke on the word and she had to stop for a few seconds to collect herself. "She... she killed Lieutenant Virgil... I'm afraid that she will do it again... what happened two years ago... I'm afraid she'll slaughter everyone again..."

Andrew remained silent as she spoke, taking a few more bites of food before putting the almost empty tray down upon the small table in front of them. When she had finished he finally spoke. "I doubt that will happen. She may be a weapon, but...you are the one who programmed her. Even if she is doing things you didn't originally want, or plan for her to do, she will never do something that will ultimately go against what you made for her. Besides... like you said, I was there. The lieutenant wasn't doing any damage to the Gnosis attacking you. If she hadn't intervened, you would have ended up getting killed as well."

Shion stared at him in astonishment, making Cherenkov shift uncomfortably under her gaze. Although what he said made her a bit angry at first, since he was all but insinuating that the last person who had programmed KOS-MOS -- Kevin -- had done a bad job, her anger was quickly replaced with a flood of other emotions. Joy, relief, happiness, sadness, and admiration, as well as a little surprise.

"Did I...say something wrong?" asked Andrew hesitantly.

Shion shook her head. "No, no you didn't." She smiled. "It's just that you've never spoken this much to me before unless you were lecturing me about something."

Andrew blinked, then blinked again, before chuckling softly. "Yes I suppose that I was a bit... strict, at times."

"Strict is an understatement," Shion said with a laugh. She stopped abruptly, an apologetic look taking the place of her smile. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. I didn't mean that."

Andrew shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I deserved it. I was mean to you aboard the Woglinde. And... I'm sorry for that."

"There's nothing to be sorry about."

"But--"

Shion cut him off. "There isn't. Everything you said to me was true. I did waste time, and I did postpone the start up experiments for KOS-MOS because I was afraid. So... in a way I'm glad that you spoke to me the way you did. You were the only one brave enough to speak the truth to me."

Cherenkov frowned. "And that is a good thing?"

"In this case, yes."

"I...see..." Although they both knew that he really had no idea at all. "Shion... thank you again for the food. And for...watching out for me."

Shion only smiled. "I'm glad to do it. I like being able to help. God knows I'm not of much use for things besides cooking and doing maintenance on Relians and KOS-MOS."

They were both silent for a few beats, neither one knowing what to say. Finally Andrew spoke softly, and Shion wasn't sure if she was supposed to hear his words.

"You're more useful than you know," he murmured under his breath.

They were silent again, although this time it was interrupted by all of the lights suddenly going out. Before either one had a chance to move, Captain Matthews's voice came over the intercom.

"No need to be alarmed. We're passing through a meteor field that made the lights go out. They should be back on in a few hours when we're through."

Then Hammer's voice: "Captain, don't lie! You just don't want to spend the extra money on the energy bill--Ouch!"

The intercom cut off and Shion and Andrew exchanged glances in the dark. They both believed Hammer over Matthews...

Shaking her head Shion laughed a little. "So I guess there's not much we can do until the lights come back on... um... Commander, do you mind if I stay here until they come back on? It would be dangerous trying to make my way back up to my room in the dark like this."

What could he say? No? Well, he could say no, but... he found that he didn't want to. "You should stay. We wouldn't want you hurting yourself trying to find your way back."

Shion smiled, though she doubted he saw it. "Thank you, Commander!"

Unconsciously she moved closer to him until their arms were touching. Andrew let out a silent gasp and stiffened momentarily, looking down at the woman next to him out of the corner of his eye. Even in the dark he could see her fairly easily at this close proximity. And with her this close he felt... no, he couldn't think or feel that way. If she knew what he really was then she'd hate him. She would never want to be this close to him. Still though, she didn't know, and he had been lonely for so long... what could it hurt to try and ease his loneliness for even a little while? He relaxed his body, glad that Shion hadn't seemed to notice his distress.

"Commander?"

He blinked. "Y-yes? What is it?"

"I'm glad that you're alive..." She flushed. "Um... what I mean to say is that I'm glad that you made it off the Woglinde alive... that you're here... Oh! Um... that is to say..."

Andrew placed a finger to her lips to silence her. "I know what you mean... and... I am glad that you're alive too." He removed his finger, replacing his hand on his lap. Shion reached out her hand quickly and placed it over his, startling him. "Wha--"

She shook her head before leaning it against his arm, her brown hair falling over her shoulders. She suddenly felt so tired... everything that had happened had finally caught up with her it seemed. "Thank you...so much... Andrew..." she whispered tiredly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but realized she was already asleep. Her breathing was evening out, and her eyes were closed. He smiled softly as he looked down at the sleeping woman. She was even more beautiful in sleep, he discovered. Using the hand which she didn't hold he reached out and removed her glasses from her face, placing them on the table with the tray, along with the gun that he had put behind him--no need for that. He made sure to move as little as possible so as to not disturb her. When he was done he settled back into the seat beside her, placing his free hand on top of hers and closing his own eyes.

"No... thank you Shion..."

Beenden(End)

E/N: So...what did you think? I think it turned out okay, all things considered. It's hard to write as a character like Andrew since we know so little about him, but... this is how I pictured him. Even though this is the end of this one I plan on doing at least one more one-shot with these two... probably one set sometime after Andrew was attacked by thugs at the Dock Colony, but before Cathedral Ship, and one set after Cathedral Ship. If someone wants me to do a specific story with them(or with any other pairing) please tell me and I'll do it!