My friend Commander "Shrimp Pie" had this wonderful inspiration.

"The only good thing of coldrex is making its users sleepy anytime and anywhere." He always thinks this way.

Lieutenant Rei Fukai catches a cold, which enhances his thought. He can't concentrate on instruments panel and feels his eyelids so heavy. Medical officer had said today is not suitable for flying, well, he's welcome, there's no scramble signals today after all.

All necessary works had already been finished, however lieutenant still wants to stay in the cockpit of his beloved super-fighter, B-503 Yukikaze. Apart from feeling comfortable of the seat and environment here, thanks to the effect of medicine, he just doesn't want to move.

Artificial light is showering from hangar's ceiling, Rei closes eyelids, relaxes his body onto chair. "Feeling so comfortable." He generates an impulse of having a nap. "No, I can't stay here like this, if I really want to sleep, there is a bed in my cell…but…just be like this for a while…maybe it's all right, I'm a patient after all, so I can have some privileges…no, I must keep my eyes open, or I'll really fall into deep-sleep…" Although struggling in mind, there's one thing that the pilot cannot stop, that is, the eyelids become heavier and heavier as if they're filled with mercury.

"Everyone will consider me as a topic of gossip if seeing me sleep inside Yukikaze…" Rei's thought blurs and his consciousness begins to drift away. Dazedly, he feels the light from above is kinda intense, not very comfortable, also, he feels surrounding is freezing, and getting more and more freezing.

"Why it's so freezing?" Rei speaks in mind, meanwhile, intense light fades down, as if shines through a huge block of crystal. The pilot suddenly feels something is brushing on his eyelids, so delicate and so warm. He opens eyes to identify what it is, only sees a blur of white fog. The fog is mild as moonshine, and is moving, changing its shape in an elegant manner, slowly, it solidifies into the shape of a girl, a very beautiful one: Snowy, flawless skin, wrapped inside a layer of translucent gauze; silver, silky, haunch-length hair is floating behind a slender but matured figure; sweet and delicate face, water-colored eyes shining with light of gentle and slight crafty, cherry-colored lips with a charming smile…

"You are…" Rei puts out a hand to touch her, the girl responds by tightly holds his hand, with their fingers clasp together.

A feeling of warmth generated from palm and fingers, Rei watches as the girl gets close to him, he wants say something, but her other hand is put out, gently places a finger on pilot's lips.

Like fog or breeze, the warmth surrounds Rei, the beautiful figure snuggles tightly on him, wraps him by her alabaster arms. Then, he believe that he sees a pair of glowing, green wings merges out from girl's back, diaphanous like crystal, insubstantial like smoke… He cannot move as if paralyzed, and is clamped by this dream girl, however every cell of him feels warm and comfortable, also relieved, the feeling of freeze had been already dispersed. The girl begins to transform into a patch of mild brightness, surrounds Rei, and marinates him. "So you are…Yuki-chan?" Again, he tries to touch her, only gets absorbed into the brightness and warmth, those sensations are too good, his muscles and bones seem to melt down…

Rei wakes up, nothing out of ordinary, serene environment, light from above, instruments panel, angle of Yukikaze's canopy… "So it was a dream, but a fantastic dream." Rei rises from seat, looks at the build-in clock on panel: "Four hours!" He had slept four hours, but how can it be, he remembered that a timer was set on the clock before the nap. Well, since there's the exclusive hangar of SAF, it should be OK for few people wander around. "At least I got rid of the cold." Feeling totally refreshed, Rei tidies his hair, then quits from Yukikaze's cockpit and walks away: "But…why the timer didn't work, well, not a big deal."

The second day, Rei encounters his buddy, also his commanding officer, Major James "Jack" Bukhar in a corridor, the latter is obviously not happy. "He must just get a wave of planetary bombardment from the evil queen." Rei says to himself.

"Hey you!" Jack stops his trouble-making friend: "What's wrong with you yesterday? I know you always act on your own pleasures, but at least you gotta know the minimum behavior! Have you ever considered my situation? Always get pulverized by the auntie of evil because of you! Now I'm writing self-criticism report again, again!" Jack waves a fold of papers as he complains.

Rei responds airily: "I just…accidently slept in Yukikaze's cockpit…you know I caught a cold and used some hypnagogic coldrex, it made me too sleepy…"

"Accidently?" Jack raises volume, can't tell it is because anger or envy or anger generated by envy: "Locked up canopy, opened up air condition, you must be intentional, huh?"

"What? Wait a sec…" Rei figures out he don't understand what his CO is talking about.

Jack: "More than one hundred units of human had witnessed that, you must be really enjoy yourself, conceal in cockpit, dating dream girl in dream world, I would call engineer staff to cut through the canopy by laser cutters to drag you out if the system was not on 'alert' mode…"

"System was on 'alert' mode? Dating dream girl in dream world?" Rei suddenly reminds his dream, his heart beating immediately accelerates and begins to blush: "But…I do remember I set the timer to wake me up…" He's more confused.

Major is in silence too, both of them are speechless for a few minutes, quite an embarrassing scene.

"I get it." Says Jack: "I'm not gonna to write self-criticism report for you anymore! Let Yukikaze do it!"

"Yukikaze?" Rei's brain is short-circuited, what Yuki-chan has to do with this?

"And don't forget to tell your beloved Yukikaze to handover her self-criticism report together with yours!" Major speaks as he leaves Rei standing along and puzzled.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

Time is rolled back to yesterday: Rei is sleeping deeply inside Yukikaze's cockpit, it seems even a proximal explosion is still insufficient to wake him up. Camera installed on the instrument panel is making a weak sound by calibrating focal length. Slowly and silently, Yukikaze closes her canopy, locked, then activates air condition to send out stream of appropriate warmth. Rei's fringe is stirred by wind, brushes on his eyelids, resulting in a slight shiver of itch. Immediately, port of air condition changes angle, to make sure the pilot won't be disturbed by air stream. After that, Yukikaze sets her into alert mode and mutes the timer. As time ticks, dozen's of SAF personnel gather around Yukikaze, whispering, even giggling.