The first time it happened, it was on her 12th birthday, on the little terra that they called home. She hadn't seen him all day, or Radarr for that matter. Finn had told her that they were working on something super-special, but refused to say more, and refused to let her go out, even under threat of her punching him.

She did end up punching him, but more over the fact that he had forgotten today was her birthday.

It was late in the afternoon when Aerrow finally came back. By that point, she had taken to agitatedly pacing around their small fort.

Then he strolled in the front entrance, like it was a normal day, covered in dirt stains and rips in his clothing. She ran to him in a near frenzy.

"Where have you been?! Do you know how worried I was?! What on Atmos were you doing?!"

He smiled that lovely smile of his that always made her insides feel a bit strange before holding up a light blue crystal, shaped like an elongated diamond and attached to a small string meant to be worn as a necklace.

"Happy birthday!" He said to her happily, as though it was no big deal. Radarr chirped cheerfully at her from his shoulder.

She stared incredulously at him, but slowly reached out and took the crystal.

"Where did you get this?" She asked, examining it.

"Finn and I were playing at the edge of the terra last week when we saw it on a ledge way down over the side. It looked super pretty and that made me think of you. So I went and got it."

"And that's why you're all dirty and your clothes are torn?"

His smile turned sheepish.

"It… may have been a bit tricky to get there and come back up. The rocks weren't as stable as I thought, but hey I'm still in one piece right?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Aerrow…"

Even as a child, her voice could have sent the worst of the wasteland's monsters fleeing for their lives.

"…You mean to tell me…"

Radarr scampered off Aerrow's shoulder and ran for cover.

"…that you risked your life by climbing over the edge of the terra…"

Finn stood nearby with a sympathetic grimace on his face. He knew from personal experience that any situation involving an annoyed or angry Piper could turn very ugly very quickly.

"…to grab some little crystal…"

Piper's face had reddened with what he could only assume was unbridled rage.

"…because it reminded you of me?!"

Aerrow glanced around nervously, looking at anything but her as he desperately tried to find an answer that might appease her.

"Uhhh… yes?" It was more question than answer, and he knew it was game over. Piper was going to thrash him into next week.

She stepped closer to him with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Aerrow, accordingly, braced himself for cataclysmic doom.

But instead of the anticipated verbal or physical assault, he felt her hand cup his right cheek, and felt a small, slightly damp pressure on his left one. It lasted for all but a moment, but it was in that moment that he realized she had kissed him.

She stepped back, grasping the crystal pendant in her hands while on her face was the brightest smile he had ever seen.

"Thank you, Aerrow."

He was in a state of semi-shock and struggled to articulate an answer.

"Uhhh, you're welcome," he finally came up with.

Piper giggled and walked away, humming happily to herself.

He lifted his hand to touch the spot where she had kissed him. He wasn't entirely sure what to think of it.

Ultimately, he simply decided to let it be as it was.

Off to his side, he heard Finn make a disgusted noise.

"What?! That was so weird, dude! And super gross! I swear, I'm never gonna go near girls when I get older!"

The second time it happened, it was all Finn's fault. They were walking through the Condor's hangar, Piper carrying an armful of maps and charts, while Aerrow was beside her. Finn had been on cleaning duty that day, and for once, had actually done the work with a surprisingly minimal amount of complaining. It seemed almost too good to be real.

They should have known he would forget something important.

Especially something like putting out a 'wet floor' sign.

Piper shrieked as she suddenly lost her footing, throwing her arms out in a futile attempt to stabilize herself. As she went down, she grabbed onto Aerrow, causing him to lose his own balance and fall with her. His quick reflexes were honed enough, however to maneuver himself to be under her instead of on top of her.

He landed hard, and then she landed on top of him, knocking the wind from his lungs. His eyes were screwed shut, and he could feel her splayed out over his upper half. He tried to ask if she was okay, but found strangely that he could not.

Not because he was hurt, but rather because there was something wet and warm on his mouth that was physically blocking him from speaking. He opened his eyes and found her face directly on top of his own. It was then that he also noticed that their lips were crushed together at an odd angle.

At the same moment, she opened her eyes, which promptly widened to the size of dinner plates before she leaped off of him with a squeak.

Her blush could rival his hair, and he knew his own face wasn't fairing much better.

He struggled to regain his composure, but managed to do so just enough to ask, "Are uh, you okay?"

She gave a shaky nod, her breathing heavy, like she had just sprinted a several laps around the ship. They stared wide-eyed at each other, before he chuckled lightly at the absurdity of what had just happened. She giggled in response, he tried to restrain himself from laughing again, failed, and soon they had both descended into raucous laughter.

When they finally managed to calm down, they simply sat there, grinning at each other. Finally, he picked himself up and offered a hand to her, smiling warmly.

She smiled as well and took his hand, letting him haul her back to her feet.

"What are the odds, huh?" He asked.

"The odds of what just happened, or the odds that I'm going to strangle Finn for it?" She responded playfully.

Aerrow simply laughed again and helped her to pick up her scattered papers before they walked out, now trading jokes and laughs with each other.

Stork watched them from across the hanger. His eye twitched before he stalked off, muttering to himself about teenagers and mindworms.

The third time it happened, she was stuck in the medbay. They had encountered a squadron of Talons, and her heliscooter had taken a bad hit in the ensuing skirmish. She had managed to make it back to the Condor, but it was a very hard landing.

She'd ended up with a mangled ride and a twisted ankle, but that was thankfully the worst of it, aside from the usual scrapes and some nasty bruising.

She had been in the medbay for a couple of days, now. Junko had taken to fixing up her ride while Finn had grabbed Radarr and went out to find some more spare parts.

Aerrow had maintained a constant vigil over her from the start, sitting by her bed on the small chair they kept in the room. She had told him that she was fine; she didn't need watching-over.

He'd just smiled cheekily at her and told her that he was just keeping her company while everyone else was busy.

It was her last day of prescribed bed-rest, and Aerrow still had yet to leave her side. Admittedly, his company was nice, and she would never usually pass up an opportunity for it, but his resolution to staying by her was quite puzzling, to say the least. It was beginning to frustrate her with how dodgy his answers had been.

"Aerrow, I still really don't understand why you had to stay here."

"Well I told you, I'm just keeping-"

"Aerrow, stop it." Her tone was more exasperated than annoyed, but it left no room for argument. His mouth closed tightly.

"We both know there's more to it than that," she said. "And I want you to tell me."

He looked down at the floor, avoiding her gaze. He suddenly seemed nervous, uncomfortable. He was fidgeting with his hands. If she wasn't extremely curious before, she certainly was now.

"…Aerrow?"

"I got scared, okay?"

Now she was slightly alarmed. Aerrow wasn't one to give in to fear. Certainly, nobody was perfect but in terms of sheer fearlessness, Aerrow was about as close as one could get. She was about to ask more but he continued talking.

"For a second there the other day… I really thought I had lost you. It scared me. I know you can take care of yourself, but that hasn't stopped me from worrying. You're important to the team. You're my best friend. I can't lose you."

Aerrow fell silent then, looking pointedly away from her.

She stared wide-eyed at him.

He hadn't being worrying about her recuperation going smoothly, he had been worried about her life potentially being lost or crippled.

But surely that was part of his job? He was the team leader, the Sky Knight. And they all knew the kind of dangers that came with their own roles as members of the team.

Then she began to wonder, was this part of what kept him going? Was he so unafraid to charge headlong into danger because one of the only things that truly frightened him was the prospect of losing his team, of losing her?

"Aerrow, look at me."

Slowly, his eyes travelled over to look into hers. She smiled confidently at him.

"The only way you're ever losing me is if I'm dead and there's nothing left of me but dust. And it's going to take a whole lot more than a rough landing and a twisted ankle to reach that point."

He stared at her for what felt like an eternity before he relaxed, his entire body shifting into a less-tense state. He gave a heavy exhale before looking up at her with a small smile of his own.

"That's all I've ever needed to hear from you, Piper."

With that, he stood up, leaned over the bed, and pressed a kiss to the top of her forehead. Then he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving her with a big smile and an oddly fuzzy feeling spreading through her.

The fourth time it happened, it was after she'd had a nightmare. Of course, they all had their own nightmares. Given the kind of things they faced on a near daily basis, it would have been almost impossible for them to not have nightmares.

She had gotten pretty good at handling them, for the most part. A quiet stroll through the halls, a cup of hot cocoa, perhaps some time out on the balcony in the fresh air, and she would be good to go.

It had been really bad tonight, far worse than before. Her usual coping methods hadn't worked.

She found herself in front of Aerrow's door. She hesitated for a moment, before raising her hand and knocking. From within, she heard a faint groan and the sound of someone shifting off a bed. A moment later, the door opened revealing Aerrow as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. She could faintly hear Radarr snoring softly under the bed from within the room.

"Piper? Something up?"

She said nothing, staring at the floor. When she looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes.

Almost immediately, his arms were around her and she was quietly sobbing into his chest.

They worked their way back into his room until eventually they were seated on his bed. She refused to let go of him even for a second, lest she allow her fears to pull her away from reality.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed there, but eventually her tears ran dry and all that was left was the occasional hitched breath.

"Did you have a nightmare?" He asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped them since she got here. He felt her nodding against him.

She took a deep, shaky breath.

"They got you… all of you. Did horrible, awful things to you, and they made me watch."

He tightened his grip around her.

She was afraid, just as he was, of losing the one thing she held most dear.

She needed to know that her family was still here, that he was still here. They were all alive, healthy, and not going anywhere any time soon.

"I couldn't do anything… just sit there and watch them keep hurting you one-by-one, over and over and-"

She never finished her rambling, as he suddenly leaned down and planted his lips on hers.

They held there for a long moment before they parted, and she seemed to have calmed significantly, which was a very good sign.

It also was quite pleasing to look into her half-lidded amber eyes as their breath mingled in the tiny space between them, but that observation was pushed to the back of his mind and forgotten about as his work to support her stayed at the forefront of his thoughts.

She let her head fall against his chest, her energy spent. Before succumbing to exhaustion, she managed to mumble a quiet "thanks, Aerrow…"

Aerrow smiled lightly, and repositioned himself so that they were lying down, his arms still securely placed around her. He felt himself slowly tiring out, and soon enough, he too fell asleep.

The fifth time it happened, neither of them was quite sure what the reason for it was. It was a quiet day on the Condor, and they were seated on opposite ends of the couch. Piper was writing in the squadron log and Aerrow was idly petting Radarr, who was curled up on his lap snoozing. Finn and Junko were raiding the fridge for something to eat, and Stork was at the helm.

The skies were clear, and the weather was calm. They had finished all of their maintenance and other chores for the day, leaving them little to do besides finding whatever ways they could to occupy themselves.

Piper looked up over the top of the logbook at her Sky Knight, idly observing his handsome features (she doubted anyone would deny that he was good-looking, even Finn).

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary had happened over the last few weeks, but there was something that had been on her mind.

Being the tactically-oriented girl that she was, she decided that putting it to the test wouldn't hurt.

She got up from her seat and walked over to him.

"Hey, Aerrow?"

"Hmm?"

She leaned down, placing her hands on his cheeks, and kissed him.

It was a sweet kiss, nothing overtly heated or passionate. There were no sparks flying between them, no fireworks erupting from within. Instead, the feeling that spread through her was one of warm, happy contentment.

She broke the kiss and pulled away from him, before plopping herself down at his side. He took a moment to regain his bearings.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Experimentation."

"And what are you experimenting on?" He asked, looking at her inquisitively. She paused before speaking.

"I'm not sure, but it felt pretty nice."

"Yeah… it did."

They stopped there momentarily, both contemplative.

"We've done some ah, 'experimentation' in the past before," He said.

"I suppose we have."

"And has all this yielded any results?"

"Some, yeah."

She wasn't quite sure how she felt now. Everything she had ever known about love and romance told of overwhelming passion, heartfelt joy and gripping lust. Nothing she had heard regarded things so simple as quiet comfort, support and warmth.

But in that moment, those were the things they were feeling. Those were the things that had come to define them and their relationship.

And she realized then that perhaps love didn't really need all those extravagancies, or at least not the love she was feeling right now, and that was just fine with her.

But that was by no means to say that she hadn't thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of kissing him. A sly grin formed on her face as she leaned in a little closer.

"I think I may need to repeat some experiments, if you don't mind. It never hurts to double-check these kinds of things, you know."

He laughed warmly, closing the gap between them once more.

"I agree."

End

Ah, Storm Hawks. I remember being pretty into this show when it first aired. Though I forgot about it for a while as I grew up, I recently managed to acquire a DVD copy of both seasons, and have since worked my way through it.

It's quite a fun series; shame they never continued it, but I felt that the ending they got wasn't all that terrible. At least it can be left up to interpretation, which can make things interesting if you let your imagination run a bit wild, as mine tends to do even when I don't want it to.

This story gave me a fair bit of trouble, as I wasn't entirely certain about the theme. I personally don't have an issue with it, but I know the whole 'X-number of times something happened between these two characters' bit has been done on plenty of occasions in other sections that I've visited (though I haven't had much chance to look through this one), so I really tried to add my own spin to it.

I hope I did at least a half-decent job on that, since I'm still pretty new to all this writing business.

Any and all feedback is welcome.