AN: Hey, sorry this update took as long as it did; I was planning on updating sooner but I've been feeling lousy all week. :/
I didn't want to wait any longer though, so, here's chapter 2. Hope you enjoy!
2
You don't know what you do
When you look at me that way
You don't how my heart breaks
Every time you say my name
You don't see all the tears
That I cry in the dark
You don't hear how I pray
That you're safe when we're apart
~Sara Evans, You Don't
A strangled smile fell from your face
It kills me that I hurt you this way
The worst part is that I didn't even know
Now there's a million reasons for you to go
But if you can find a reason to stay
~Lifehouse, Whatever It Takes
XR woke up the next morning feeling oddly excited. He blinked up at the ceiling, trying to remember if anything good was supposed to happen today, then he remembered last night's date. And the kiss. Oh yeah, and Mira getting mad at him. Enh, that last part was nothing new.
He sat up, stretching, then popped out of his charger. He'd been getting better at landing on his feet instead of sprawling face-first on the floor.
However, this was apparently not one of his good days, and he was shortly viewing the world through a spiderweb of cracks in his helmet.
---
Due to having to see the LGMs and get a replacement helmet, XR was nearly half an hour late when he got to the launch bay- therefore he was quite surprised to find Mira there waiting for him outside the cruiser, tapping her foot and looking rather put out.
"Uh... hello?" he said, approaching her.
Immediately, she dropped to her knees, putting an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close. "XR! Where were you?!"
"I fell out of... bed?"
She blinked, then shook her head. "Oh, never mind. Look- last night worked."
"It did?" XR said, a funny weight settling in his chest.
"Yeah. My dad? When he saw us- uh-"
"Kissing?" He smiled inoffensively.
Mira glared at him. "You are never gonna let that go, are you? But yeah. He saw that and he was so disgusted he says he never wants to see us again."
The weight got... weightier. "I see."
She nodded and smiled, standing up. "So you and I can just go to work and everything will go back to normal, okay?"
"Sure," he said. Normal...
She flipped her hair and he watched, carefully tracking the movement of each individual strand, wishing he'd anticipated the movement and turned on his video recorder. Then she said "So, yeah- come on, Buzz is gonna be mad we're late."
They entered the ship and headed in the direction of the bridge, XR reflecting on how short that little adventure had been. Well, probably for the best... that kiss was probably all he'd been going to get out of it, it wasn't like...
And he gave her a sideways look, biting his lip. He was still looking at her when Booster came at them from the side.
He came with a rush and a squeal and for a moment XR had the crazy idea he'd been hit by an enemy ship. But there was no enemy ship, just Booster, who was suddenly squeezing the two of them in a bonecrusher of a hug and screaming "OHHH I'M SO HAPPYYY!!"
XR went limp and still, blinking rapidly. Beside him, Mira began to struggle. "B-Booster- Booster, what's going on?"
"Oh, I can't believe it! I told XR you didn't hate him!"
"What? Booster, what's going on?!"
"You two!" Booster said, and XR's eyes widened as he began to suspect... but no, he couldn't possibly... "You guys kissin' 'n' stuff!"
He could.
"WHAT?" Mira cried, and he squirmed involuntarily.
"Heh, okay, buddy? Why don't ya just put me down there-"
"XR always kept talking about how much he liked you!" This wasn't really happening, was the thing. See, this was some kind of crazy nightmare. Had to be, because how many times had he lain awake, wondering if Booster would really, truly keep his promise and keep his everlovin' mouth shut? "I told him it wouldn't make you mad! And now you're dating!"
Mira had gone completely still.
"Booster, I need you to put me down, now," she said through her teeth- barely controlling herself, he could tell.
"Yeah. NOW," he echoed, and Booster set them down and pulled away, looking puzzled.
Mira brandished a finger at Booster (the index- he'd gotten lucky). Her lips pressed into a tiny line, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Okay. You had better not tell anyone about me and- him. Okay?!"
Booster's eyes widened. "I- I already told Buzz-"
"Oh, craters!" She ran into the bridge, leaving XR and Booster alone together.
Booster wrung his hands, looking fearful. "But... you were kissing!"
XR gave him the best glare he could muster, then followed her. In the bridge, there was complete silence. Mira was standing in front of Buzz with her hands clasped behind her back. XR squirmed.
Buzz had a deep frown on his face and his eyes went from Mira to XR and back again. XR froze, making himself small and inconspicuous.
Finally Buzz said "Well, congratulations," and went back to the ship's controls.
Mira hunched her shoulders. "B-Buzz, we... umm..." She shot XR a despairing look.
"Oh, no, I'm happy for you," Buzz said, nodding. "As a space ranger, it is my, uh... duty to keep an open mind. Not that it's weird or anything. Uhh... you two. Not weird."
Mira nodded. "Oh. Okay. That's good. Um- I need to talk to XR in private, okay?"
"Sure, have fun with your... paramour," he muttered.
XR instantly started heading away from her. She grabbed his arm before he could get away and yanked him in the direction of the break room.
The first words out of her mouth were "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" and she started shaking him. He yelped. "TELLING BOOSTER? WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A STUPID-"
"I DIDN'T TELL HIM ANYTHING!" he screamed.
"THEN HOW DOES HE KNOW?!"
"I DON'T KNOW! Maybe your father told him!"
"WHY would my FATHER tell him?!?"
"WELL I DIDN'T TELL HIM!!!"
She let go of his shoulders (good, she was really strong and it hurt) and started pacing in front of him, rubbing her temples. "Oh great, this is just GREAT! Now we have to pretend for BUZZ AND BOOSTER, TOO!"
"Hey, I'm not pr- Hey, if you didn't want people to think we were dating, why did you tell peoplewe were dating?"
"It wasn't supposed to come to THIS! XR, I just wanted to dodge that stupid rule, I wasn't looking for a boyfriend!"
He snorted. "Could've fooled me."
He didn't know why he did it. He really didn't know why he did it, just when she looked like she was starting to calm down-
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" she yelled. "You- you never take ANYTHING seriously!"
"Hey – that's not true, I take you seriously!"
"Oh, yeah, seriously enough to make me a promise you don't even keep?!"
"I didn't tell him! I didn't tell anybody, I swear…"
"Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with something as important as-"
"I DIDN'T TELL HIM!!!!"
It came out much, much louder than he'd expected, and Mira actually backed away slightly, her eyes widening. His voice took advantage of her stunned silence to forge ahead, spilling out a torrent of words faster than his brain could fully think them.
"I just wanted to be there for you, Mira, you asked me to do you a favor and I did it. I was just trying to be supportive, and… and this was all your idea, you know, maybe you should have thought about the consequences before you asked someone you secretly despised to pretend to be your boyfriend."
He paused, shaking. As the energy of his outburst wore off he began preparing himself for anything from verbal to physical abuse.
But nothing happened.
Mira was silent for a long time.
Finally he'd calmed down enough to take in her expression. It was unlike any he'd ever seen her wear before. She looked completely stunned, bewildered… and… almost impressed.
She finally spoke, slowly, softly. "You're right."
He blinked. "I… what?"
She sighed heavily. "Yes, you- you have a point… I should've thought about it, and… I guess it is really all my fault." Her voice trailed off and she turned away from him, rubbing her arm self-consciously.
He stared. Mira was… admitting she was wrong? She was admitting he was RIGHT? He squirmed in the ensuing silence. He wasn't used to being the one to win the argument. It was… unsettling. "Well… I mean, it's probably not all your fault, you know, you could probably blame some of your ancestors if you wanted to…"
"But I don't hate you."
He started. "You- what?"
She met his gaze again, fixing him with a serious stare. "What Booster said about you thinking I hated you. It's not true, you know. I don't. Hate you, that is."
So she was paying attention. His engine started to heat up – he shifted his feet awkwardly. "Oh. Oh, well, um… that's good. Um, I don't hate you too."
She nodded slightly. "And listen, if you say you didn't tell him about…"
"I didn't," he snapped. He turned away, hugging himself and muttering "I'm never telling him anything ever again."
He was hoping that would be the end of it. He was really really hoping she would drop it and leave it at that and they could get on with their lives. There was no need to talk about…
"XR… what did Booster mean?"
About this. This was totally irrelevant, why was she bringing up "By, um – by what?" He tried to make his tone sound light and innocent. He failed.
She pulled on one of her gloves, looking uncomfortable. He blinked. If it made her so uncomfortable, why was she pressing the topic? "When he said… well, when he said that you… you kept talking about how… how much you… liked me…"
Why now, of all times, after everything that had happened, was this suddenly becoming an issue. For a moment he considered lying… But what could he say that would explain what Booster was talking about? …Well, she didn't know everything… Luckily Booster hadn't had the chance to recount all they'd ever talked about. Maybe there was some way he could not tell the whole truth. "Well, um… h-he just meant… he meant- that, you know, I mean… we're friends and all that, naturally, I like you… I mean… well, when you work with someone so long, you start to… admire… I just… and you're… I mean, you're so… you just…"
It wasn't an easy thing to tiptoe around. She watched him ramble in silence, waiting until his voice had trailed off into nothingness. She nodded when he finished, and he winced, bracing himself for… whatever was to come next.
"Well, you could have told me about this, you know."
Just when he thought nothing could surprise him anymore.
He gaped at her. "I… what?"
"I wouldn't have come to you with this if I knew it was just going to cause problems. You should have told me."
For a moment all he could do was stare and sputter at her. He could feel himself getting worked up again and tried to hold himself back, it probably wasn't – no, it definitely wasn't a good idea at this point to get angry again, it really wasn't, but try as he might "How could I tell you? You got so mad every time I tried…"
She cut him off. "You never tried, all you did was make sleazy innuendos – I would have listened if you'd tried to tell me something serious."
His hands started shaking. He clenched them into fists. "Oh, would you? You're not even taking me seriously now!"
"Wha- How am I supposed to know when you're serious? Huh?! You flirt with everyone!"
"Yeah, but that's different, I'm not actually in love with any of them, Mira!!"
Her eyes widened. "You're not… what?" she gasped.
His words caught up to him in his head and his eyes widened in horror. Frantically he racked his coding for some kind of excuse, some explanation, some way to erase what he'd said… but nope, he had nothing. The secret was out- there was nothing he could do. Finally he just turned away from her, folding his arms and pouting, trying to feel angry again. And failing miserably. "Hey, I was just trying to be a good friend, I didn't ask you to kiss me…" He heard his voice crack and cringed, shrinking away from her.
"Oh," she said, softly. She regarded him carefully, thoughtfully. And then realization bloomed on her face.
"Oh, XR, I… I'm so sorry…"
"Don't worry about it," he heard himself mutter. He was shaking and he hugged himself tighter.
"I never would have asked you if…"
"Don't worry about it. Like you said, how could you have known."
She bit her lip. She was staring down at him with the strangest expression… like she was seeing him for the first time. "Well, I am sorry. I wasn't trying to… use you, I j-"
"'Course you weren't," he said shortly. She froze, staring down at him. He realized he was being not at all tactful, but really – with how much grace, exactly, could he be expected to handle this situation? Hmm? This was hardly the way he'd imagined he would tell her how he felt about her. He could think of absolutely nothing else to say – neither, it seemed, could she – and the silence dragged on until it became so awkward that he heard himself mumble "Well, let's go, then" and trudged back into the hallway, heading dully for the bridge.
