Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING, lol i think that's enough said

"RENTON!"

Renton came running down the hallway as he heard his name being yelled by a very irritated sounding Talho. He came to a halt a few feet away from Talho, panting a little from the short exercise. He could already see the little vein by the temple of her head and took note of her angry facial expression.

"Y-yes miss Talho?" Renton asked cautiously. Trying not to make her any more irritated then she already looked.

"Why haven't you finished cleaning the bathroom yet? And where is my soda?!" She all but yelled.

Renton was a little caught off guard due to the change in her facial expression. A moment ago her face was telling anyone that they were going to meet certain doom, and now it was smug. Very smug with a fox-wide smile. This made Renton a bit wary of her presence and of what her real purpose of this whole conversation was about. And honestly, He was scared.

"U-uhm. I was just finishing the laundry and was abou-"

"Nope! No excuses. For slacking off again your going to be on cleaning duty for another week. Talho interjected and if possible her smile that now turned into a smirk, grew larger.

"But that's, that's not fair!" Renton protested.

"I said no excuses." She said with a provoking voice, temping Renton to protest some more.

"But-" He said quietly. Looking down at his shoes.

"I. Said. No. Excuses." She drawled out the words slowly, green eyes hardening into a dreadful glare. Not that Renton would be able too see her face, but just in case he look up, he wouldn't protest anymore to her plan.

Renton remain silent after the last spoken words, knowing that it was better to keep quiet and not engage miss Talho into an argument over cleaning duty. That and he kind of gotten used to the cleaning duty, for that was all he does on the Gekko State. He heard a ruffling of clothes and lifted his gaze, only to be met with miss Talho's back walking away from him. She turned hear head to look over her shoulder and met Renton's gaze. They kept staring at each other, blue eyes on green. She then snapped her head back and started to let out that horrible laugh she would use when she tormented Renton.

"Why am I the only one she picks on." Renton thought to himself as he was scrubbing the bathroom floors.

"What does she have against me?" He started to scrub harder on the floor starting to get frustrated with why he couldn't figure out why she was out to make his life on the Gekko miserable.

"Even after all this time that I have been on the Gekko, She never once look at me with a smile or thanked me for anything I did for her." He sighed. Not knowing what to do anymore then what he was told to do.

He finished with cleaning the bathroom with little to think about. His mind was blank and was absently think about what he was going to do when he finished with the bathroom. He was so lost in his thoughts that he wasn't aware of the person that was quietly walking up to him from behind. When that hand reached out to touch him on the shoulder. He jumped about 2 feet into the air and screamed.

"AAAAHHHHHHGGGG!!!!" Renton quickly turned around to find that Eureka was staring back at him with a stoic face that showed no emotion to his reaction.

"Renton?" Eureka asked concern in her voice but not on her face.

"E-eureka, please don't sneak up behind me like that." He spoke lightly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, but dinner is ready." She informed ignoring the blush Renton had on his face.

"Oh. Thanks Eureka." They stared at each other for a while not knowing what to say next. Eureka's piecing violet eyes looking directly at Renton. Renton could feel his face turning more redder from the scrutiny of her stare but didn't want to break the silence with his of shyness. He honestly didn't like it when people stared at him trying to egg him on for a conversation, and with Eureka it was just… kind of weird. She always spoke, at most - 10 words.

Renton was starting to get more then a little uncomfortable with Eureka staring at him for the past 3 minutes. So he decided to break the silence the only way he could think of at the moment.

"Let's go get some dinner, before it's all gone." He laughed nervously.

"Okay." She informed. Voice going devoid of any emotion again.

"Oh god why does it always end up like this? She never feels like she wants to talk to me. She only probably feels sorry for me that's all. Maybe.. She doesn't care about me anymore. NO! I have to believe that she's going to love me the way I love her." Renton thought to himself as they walked through the hallways of the Gekko to the dining room.

As Talho exited the room still laughing, leaving Renton to mope around with his extra week of cleaning duty. She starting to go in the direction of the kitchen to get herself a soda.

"Adding the part of forgetting to bring me a soda was an excellent last part of that plan." She though darkly to herself. Upon entering the kitchen she saw Holland rummaging through the fridge looking for something to snack on before dinner. She saw that he was only clad in his orange boxer again today. She quickly change her facial expression to her normal, relaxed face and spoke in a seductive voice.

"Looking for something extra are you?"

Holland slowly raised his view of the fridge's contents to look up at Talho.

"Yeah, I'm looking for something to eat before dinner if that's what your saying." He said coldly as he heard her trying to seduce with that annoying voice of her.

"I see. Could you pass me a soda while your over there?" Changing her voice to normal and walking over towards Holland. Directing her full attention on Holland as he bent over to get a soda from the fridge.

Holland grabbed the soda and righted himself to his normal height and stuck out his arm with the soda in front of Talho. She came to a stop a few feet away from Holland and reached out slowly letting her hands slide seductively over his. Grabbing the can of soda with elegant manicured hands. Holland narrowed his blue icy eye at the contact that was unnecessary.

"Aren't supposed be cleaning the bathroom this week?" Voice both stern and warning when he spoke.

She broke out in a grin "Got Renton doing it for me this week." Her voice was full of cockiness and un-shamed truth.

He narrowed his eye further knowing that she has been giving Renton more cleaning duty that needed to be done and he didn't like she was planning. And if it had anything to do with touching him in unnecessary ways like just a moment ago, he was NOT going to let it go so easily.

"Why are you giving Renton all of the cleaning duties on the Gekko?" He kept his voice calm, not letting the rage that was slowly starting to grow slip past his mouth.

"No reason." She lied quickly.

"Are you sure you don't have a reason?" He leaned his bare back against the fridge, crossing his arms over his chest and looking directly into her green eyes.

"Crap! He's starting to figure out that I'm giving Renton all of the cleaning duties on the Gekko. If he figured this out it wont be long until he finds out the truth to my plans. Time to change the subject." She thought.

"Dinner is almost ready. We should get going." She turned around and in a few quick strides, walked out of the kitchen. Leaving Holland with very narrowed eyes burning holes in the back of her head.

Once she left the room he finally relaxed his tense muscles a bit from getting a bit agitated with Talho's behaviour and walking out on him and changing the subject. "Why did I just stand up for Renton? It's not like he's ever complained about having the cleaning duty on the Gekko. But something just isn't right and if Talho is behind it then something is definitely going to turn out bad." He thought and quickly left the kitchen to join the others at the dining room to eat dinner. Even though he kind of lost his apatite talking with Talho.

Everyone was loud. As usual. Holland didn't really mind it being loud at dinner but today, he was kind of agitated with the looks Talho was giving him across from his seat every 30 seconds. Holland just sat there poking at his mashed potatoes and looking around the table. Matthieu was talking with Stoner and looking at some of the photos that Stoner took a while ago. Hilda and Mischa were having a conversation about all of the fooling around that's happening lately due to the lack of chores. The kids were laughing with the faces all smeared with food. Eureka was eating quietly - as always. Renton was reaching out for his drink and was about to take a sip when Gidget accidentally turned and bumped Renton and made his cold drink spill in his lap.

"AHHH!" Renton yelped as the cold liquid quickly seeped through his pants. Jumping up from his seat.

"Oh sorry Rento-" She started to laugh when she saw the wet stain by Renton's crotch.

After she started to laugh everyone turned to look at what the laughter was about. When they saw the wet stain on Renton's pant the dining room started to break out into howling laughs. Renton could feel the heat in his face and he knew that he was probably blushing as red as cherry. Holland just looked over and let a small smile creep up on his face at a blushing Renton, biting his lip from any preventing him to say anything back from the rude jokes being made.

"Cute." Holland thought. He then shook his head from what he just thought of Renton. He could feel his own face heat up just a little from the comment his mind decided to make without his consent. "I did not just call Renton cute. I just meant that his face was cute at the time. NO! I just thought the situation was cute. I guess…." He let the thought drop immediately because the subject was not to his liking. He noticed then that he was still staring at Renton and Renton was staring back. He could feel his face heating up even more from the stare he was getting from him and quickly averted his eyes from Renton's.

Renton was just looking around at the table as they all just laughed at his wet pee stain looking pants. He then spotted Holland staring at him with a blush creeping it's way on his face. He stared at him only to see that the blush was getting darker and locked eyes with him. Sky blue eyes looking at icy blue. The icy blue eyes quickly changing his gaze to somewhere else, all the while blushing. Renton made up his mind.

"I'M GOING TO CHANGE!" With that he ran out of the dining hall sprinting down to his tent.

Once he got to the designated spot the pushed through the door and quickly closed the barrier that blocked his so called room from outside viewers. Leaning his back to the back of the tent that was facing the wall he slowly slid down the wall and onto the floor.

"Why is my hard racing? Well besides the fact that I just sprinted down half of the Gekko. The face of Holland blushing and staring openly at me was giving me……Butterflies…but, I couldn't like Holland THAT way. I like Eureka. But when I look at Eureka she doesn't give me butterflies. She just makes me fe-"

His thoughts were cut off as there was someone on outside of his tent.

"Renton?" Eureka called.

"Y-yeah?"

"Renton are you going to be okay? You just ran off so quickly." Her voice questioning.

"O-oh, yeah I'm okay, just need to get changed that's all. Actually I think I'm just going to shower, You should go back to dinner before it gets cold." He said through the tent door. Slowly crawling his way to the corner of the tent where his clothes were.

"Okay, if you say your okay." Eureka said quietly. Barely loud enough for Renton to hear but he heard it nonetheless.

With that said he could hear the slow padding of steps getting softer as they got further away. He let out a sigh as he headed out of his tent to the bathroom getting ready to take a nice long shower that he was starting to look forward to.

Back at the dining room after Renton stormed off announcing his leave, with Eureka slowly walking out of the room in pursuit of seeing if Renton was okay. As the laughter died down Talho made too have another look at Holland and her bright mood from Renton's unfortunate accident, turned sour from the look of Holland blushing and looking down at his mash potatoes. She instantly knew who caused the blushing and she was sure that is wasn't anyone that was in the room that they both occupied at the moment. Talho got up from her seat and loudly announced.

"Okay. Now that, that's done we should start cleaning up the table." Eyes directly pointed in Holland's direction.

"Awwww! But it was just getting fun!" Gidget said sullenly, but got up from her seat and started to collect her plates and place them in a stack in front of her place at the table.

Everyone started to do the same with their plate, cups, and cutlery until Matthieu said.

"Who's gonna wash the dishes?"

At that comment Talho's grin couldn't be scarier for all that she said while leave was.

"Renton."

When Renton got out of the shower he searched through his small pile of clothes that were in a basket in the corner of the room and started to pick out something to wear. He figured that he would just go with a black T-shirt and some shorts that look a bit like his other ones, but since he was going to go to sleep he decided he would put them on tomorrow. As he pulled the black T-shirt over his head and climbed onto his sleeping bag for the night, a very calm and frightening voice stopped him from his actions.

"Renton." The tone of the voice was dangerously calm.

"U-uhmm y-yes? What is it?" He asked nervously. He slowly receded in his action from crawling on his sleeping bag to making very ,very slow steps to the door of the tent.

Only to be presented with, none other then, Miss Talho.

"Your washing dishes, Brat." She spat out the last words with so much venom it made Renton wince on the other side of the fabric barrier.

Renton opened the door slowly, peeking out of just a bit and saw the angry vein on temple. He knew that he couldn't get out of this job, so he quietly left his ten and closed the door slowly behind him as he made his trek to the kitchen. He was fully aware of the green eyes glaring daggers at his disappearing figure from hers.

When Renton arrived to the dining room to collect the plates he knew that he was going to be there for at least an hour and a half. He sighed and started to collect the plates because he knew that complaining wouldn't get the job done faster. Not that he was happy about washing the dishes this late a night but if he got this done faster then he could get to bed faster. Once he got all of the dishes by the sink he started to fill the sink with soapy warm water. He waited until it was at least three-fourths of the way full when he turned to water off. Renton got the wash cloth and dipped it into the water and grabbed the first plate keeping it under the water longer then necessary and sighed again. He began to scrub the plate clean and placed it in the other sink parallel to the sink filled with water. Just as he was going to grab another plate to wash a figure appeared next to him.

"Need a hand?" Holland asked with a small smile gracing his features.

"Oh! If it wouldn't be of any trouble. I mean, Y-you don't have to." He replied back, looked up and gave a small smile of his own.

"I don't mind." Holland said and grabbed a dry cloth to dry the clean ones in the empty sink. Awaiting for Renton to continue his washing.

"O-ohh. Thank you." Renton said quietly with sincerity apparent in his voice.

They washed and dried in reletive silence only the sound of swishing water and clanging of plate being stacked upon each other was heard.

"You know…." Holland trailed off. Trying to find a good way to say what was on his mind.

"Hmmm?" Renton questioned and glanced to his left to see Holland drying a plate.

"I've been wondering why haven't you complained about getting all of the cleaning duties on the Gekko whenever Talho forces you to take them?" Holland asked a bit uncomfortable with bringing up Talho.

"Oh…Well, It's not that I enjoy doing all of the cleaning duties. It's just that when she glares at me when I start to protest I kind of you know….get scared a bit. It's as if she wants me to argue back, but never mind! It doesn't really matter anymore I know that I won't get away with it so I just do it so I don't have to waste anymore time arguing about it." Renton finished his explanation mildly embarrassed at his confession of being scared of miss Talho.

Holland grunted as a sign that he was still listening and after a few minute of drying the last of the dishes, he turned to Renton.

"Come to me whenever you get forced to do another job by Talho. I'll come and help, though I'm not really good at cleaning." Holland said with a genuine smile on his face.

"Y-y-you don't h-have to do t-that. I'm p-pretty s-sure that your busy w-with your own schedule to d-do. I-I don't want to b-bother you or anything." Renton was stuttering so much at the offer and the smile that same with it, he could feel his face heating up. His eyes looked down in the murky water in the sink and decided to unplug it because he had nothing to do that would distract him with his fumbling tongue.

"Renton." Holland said with authority in his voice.

Renton quickly looked up at Holland because the sudden change in this voice.

"Yeah?" he asked quietly, not knowing how to react in the situation.

"Promise me that you'll come to me when she forces you to take a job." He said sternly

"But I-I don't want to distu-"

"Promise me Renton!" Holland cut Renton off raising his voice a little.

"O-okay, I promise to come to when I get a new job from Talho." Renton replied quietly, looking up at Holland. Sky blue eyes looking up a icy blue.

"Good. Now, lets get to bed. It's late." Holland turned and broke their eye contact walking towards the door to get to his own room.

"Holland?"

"Yeah?" He looked over his shoulder.

"Thank You." Renton said with sincerity

"No problem. Good night, Renton." He said and started to walk towards the door again.

"Good night, Holland." Renton started to follow Holland out of the kitchen and towards his tent. They looked at each other one last time for the night and went their separate ways.