Hiro winced at the prickling sensation piercing his skin as the needle entered his arm, the bag of Intravenous Fluid dangling from it's holder. Enduring his discomfort, he pressed his lips together, a grimace on his face. As because the pain was but a necessary sacrifice for his extremely cunning and devious plan.

To raid the Medical Bay of it's candy stash for Zero Two.

After checking in for breakfast, Hiro immediately reported himself to the Medical Bay, claiming lethargy and a general lack of vitality to the medical staff assigned there. Thanking Papa that the support staff assigned to the Parasites tended to lean towards the obedient and unquestioning sort, Hiro found himself zoning out from the nurse's clinical words as she prepared the bag of liquid nutrients to be administered intravenously, his eyes quickly taking note of all the drawers and cabinets that might have had her coveted sugary treats stashed away.

"All done. Code 016, wait here until the bag has finished draining it's fluids. Once it's empty, press the bell by the bedside to notify me regarding the removal process."

Nodding towards the nurse as she made to leave, Hiro called out after her.

"Can I get a candy? I'm feeling kind of drowsy at the moment."

The squeaking sounds of metal announced his victory as Hiro laid his eyes on the opening cupboard, where the nurse reached for it's bottom shelf.

Jelly beans. Hard candy. Lollipops. Chocolate bars. Fruit drops. Sugar cubes. Candied fruit.

It's a sugar mine!

Thanking the nurse for the red, cherry flavored sweet he was handed, Hiro made a show of lying down on the bed he was assigned to in the Medical Bay, drawing up the blankets and shutting his eyes.

Once the clicking footsteps had faded away, with an additional couple of minutes added just to be absolutely sure the nurse was gone for good, Hiro cracked his eyes open. Making his way to the steel cupboard, the medical stand's wheels squeaking as he pulled it along with him, Hiro could barely contain his glee as he rubbed his hands together.

Moving with all haste, Hiro stuffed his uniform pockets with as much of the sweet treats as he could. His hands grabbing fistfuls of the confectionery until his pockets overflowed and could hold no more.

Hastily shutting the cupboard and beating his retreat back under the blankets, he called for the nurse and waited. It took all of his self-control to prevent the grin from cracking out on his face as he felt the bulging pockets press against him.

As the medical orderly waved him off, disinterestedly returning to the terminal on her desk, Hiro quickly snuck out of the Medical Bay. Making his way towards the room that he and Goro shared to stash his newfound loot, Hiro prepared himself to give Zero Two the surprise of her life.

"Say, Hiro. We got a couple of hours to kill after lunch, wanna go play in the courtyard with us?"

Hiro jerked awake from his daze at Goro's voice, his eyes flickering away from Zero Two as she drowned her plate of food with honey as usual, eliciting a faintly disgusted look from Miku seated besides her as she did so.

"Eh?"

Furrowing his eyebrows, Goro frowned.

"Are you alright? You've been out of it for a while."

Tracking the path that his eyes had taken, the frown on Goro's face was replaced by a lighthearted laugh.

"I know she's different from the rest of us, but it's rude to stare so much. Go easy on the eyeballing."

Marks were left on the skin of his palms as Hiro frowned at his words. Why did everyone always make such a fuss about her horns? It was infuriating!

For some reason, he didn't like how everyone looked at Zero Two differently. Especially when they pointed it out like that.

"Zero Two is a normal girl." He frowned.

Unnoticed by him, turquoise eyes were watching the exchange between him and Goro from it's sides. The slice of ham in her hands swayed in midair as she paused, her ears perked and alert.

Giving a sideways glance of discomfort at Hiro's unhappy tone, Goro offered his apologies.

"My bad. I didn't mean anything by that."

Blinking at the tension that now filled the boys table in the dining room, Hiro rose from his seat, the scraping sounds of wood cutting through the air and sounding awfully loud as it drew attention to him.

"I'll be leaving early. Sorry, but I think I'll practice with the training units again."

Frowning at the awkwardness of it all, Hiro grabbed his plate as he made to leave, cleaning up after himself as he left.

"Dude, I told you he's a good-for-nothing. All he does is eat, brood and mooch around in the training units." With a loud voice, Zorome called out after him.

As his hands pushed onto the doorknob leading to the exit of the dining room, amused cyan followed his every step.

A multitude of emotions stormed through him as Hiro brooded, his feet stomping into the grass as he wandered around Mistiltein's forests, questions and frustrations welling up within him.

Zero Two. His lack of an assigned partner. Zero Two. His inability to pilot. Zero Two. The humiliating failure of the mock battle. Zero Two. The open disdain displayed by Zorome towards him. Zero Two. Mitsuru's hysterical voice taunting him as he rode with Zero Two. Ichigo's constant fussing over him, drawing even more attention to his current sorry state. Zero Two. The warmth of their linked hands as they talked last night, the chilly water of the lake tickling their feet. Zero Two. Her mysterious, flighty nature that carried with it just a hint of danger that allured him.

Zero Two.

Lost in his thoughts as he was, his feet carrying his body via autopilot, Hiro never noticed the living obstacle before him until he crashed into her.

"Zero Two-mmphf!?"

Hiro's cry of surprise was cut off as she pressed her fingers against his lips, his eyes widening at the teasing nymph before him.

"Zero Two is a normal girl." She mimicked, her voice doing it's best to parody his.

Returning to her normal, teasing tone, she continued.

"Darling seems to say the most embarrassing things on instinct, doesn't he?"

Pulling his head away to escape the finger shushing him, Hiro mumbled, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"I just said the truth. To me, Zero Two is a normal girl."

From the spreading grin on her face as he spoke, his heart surged at the look she was giving him. As if he was nothing more than a delicious morsel offering itself up for her indulgence.

Her lips parting, Zero Two flashed the unnaturally elongated canines towards him. As if she was daring him to look away or flinch, Zero Two proudly displayed the signs of her inhumanity.

Warm air from within her mouth escaped to waft over him, it's heat and musk dizzying.

Her breath smells nice.

Shifting in place as her breath tickled his nose, Hiro spoke, his voice barely coming forth.

"I'm not afraid." He frowned.

An amused upwards tilt lifted Zero Two's head, her eyes looking down on him with intense interest as she fixed her hands onto his shoulders.

"Not afraid, are you? How about this, then?" She mused.

Applying her strength, Hiro found himself taking steps back as she steadily overpowered him, forcing him to retreat.

"Can a normal girl do this?"

"Woa-woah... Careful, Zero Two!"

Placing his hands on her wrists, Hiro complained at the unfair treatment he was receiving. Stumbling backwards on an uneven patch of dirt, Hiro tripped and landed on his back on the soft grass beneath them, Zero Two following his fall to land on top of him.

A breath pitched itself in his throat as he noticed the position they were in. Zero Two was fully resting herself on top of him, her elbows touching the ground as she planted both palms on each side of his head. The additional weight pressing down on him comforting in it's warmth, her bountiful assets squishing itself against his chest.

Exhaling her hot breaths to splash on his face, Zero Two spoke, her long pink hair falling all over him as it formed a makeshift cocoon from the afternoon sunlight, entrapping him in her world.

"If this keeps happening, I might get the idea that darling likes to be pushed down."

That word again. Every time she said it, a small shiver of anticipation ran down his spine.

And the position they were in... With her on top and him bottoming...

He kind of liked it.

With their noses just inches apart, Hiro found his eyes drawn to the flushed lips on her face, reminding him of that time in Strelizia when they had... 'kissed'?

Yes, that was the term she had used.

At that moment, more than anything, Hiro wanted to experience the act of kissing once more.

With his heart pounding away in his chest, an unsightly and heavy blush staining his cheeks, Hiro fluttered his eyes shut as his lips parted.

Blinking to herself in surprise, Zero Two chewed her lip at the delectable sight before her.

I'm confused.

What's with this reaction of his?

He calls me a normal girl, he's not afraid of my fangs and horns, not to mention he's getting clingy to me ever since I rode with that other, disgusting fodder.

Could he actually be...

Drawing herself close to the waiting boy in front of her, their lips closing in and soon to touch, Zero Two frowned at the sudden chilling thought that ran through her mind.

He's only been through a single ride.

I can't know for sure unless he survives all three rides.

Brushing their lips together with the barest hint of contact, Zero Two dipped her head for a quick lick on his cheek, rolling her eyes at the whine of complaint that came from his throat.

"This taste..." She muttered.

It never failed to make her heart race.

Just like...

Burying herself into the crook of his neck, with a quick series of sniffs, Zero Two frowned once more.

"Your scent... It brings me back to my childhood." She spoke.

His scent reminded her of that boy from back then.

If it looks like darling, sounds like darling, speaks like darling, tastes like darling, smells like darling...

Would it be so insane to just settle for him?

She had already spent her entire life looking for him, to no avail.

Perking up at another piece of information she had revealed about herself, Hiro found himself excitedly asking.

"Your childhood? Tell me more! Were you at Garden as well?"

Her expression darkening, Zero Two pushed herself off him, drawing herself to a sitting pose with her knees tucked and raised to her chin. Under the shade of the tree she had placed herself under, her entire aura changed to something more distant.

No, he's not my real darling.

He doesn't remember anything.

"Zero Two...?"

There she went again! From warm and intimate to freezing cold in an instant. Why was she so difficult to understand? One moment they were close and the next she was pushing him away.

"Zero Two!" He pressed.

With a frown on her face, she snapped at him, voice raising.

"Yes! I was at Garden!"

Hiro winced at the tone of her voice.

"You didn't have good memories of that place as well?"

With a hard tone, she replied.

"Not really."

Biting his lip, Hiro pushed on, doing his best to comfort her.

"I'm sure you have some nice memories there. I mean, without Garden, I would have never met my best friends Ichigo and Goro!" He urged.

A non-committal noise came from her throat as she answered.

"Who knows."

Racking his mind, Hiro gathered his courage to break through the wall she had thrown up between them. She liked sweets! And in Garden, sweets were always distributed after each medical test to the children, that meant a possible link he could use to understand her!

"You like sweets don't you? You must have taken a liking to them after the medical tests in Garden!"

"I wasn't given anything after my medical tests." With frost in her voice, she spoke.

Hiro blinked. That was strange. In his entire time at Garden, he had never heard of a Parasite child not receiving the sweet reward for their good behavior complying with the invasive medical tests. In fact, he recalled splitting the candies with his best friends, Ichigo and Goro.

"Well, I didn't bring much out with me today, but I have a candy here if you would like to have it."

Awkwardly scratching at his hair , Hiro felt like a fool as he presented the small red-colored fruit drop he fished out from his pockets, still wrapped in it's plastic wrapper.

Cringing at the idiocy of offering a piece of fruit candy to someone from the Special Forces who probably could have had anything she wanted, Hiro looked away as he offered it with his palms reaching out towards her.

I bet I look so stupid-

A choking sob broke through his rambling thoughts.

"...!?"

Her turquoise eyes were bright with unshed tears, her body quivering as she stared wide-eyed at the offered confectionery before her. With a frown on his face, Hiro noted how her gaze darted from the candy in his palms, to the tree they were under until it finally rested itself to lock with his eyes, intensely staring.

As if she was studying something within him.

That dramatic overreaction alone telling Hiro that the girl in front of him held major skeletons in her closet, it seemed.

The more time he spent with Zero Two, the less he understood her.

"Zero Two?"

Shaking herself out of her daze at his voice, Zero Two flashed a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Thanks, darling!"

Moving closer towards her so he could hand over the candy, Hiro found himself paused by her wagging finger.

"Feed me."

Hiro blinked at her unusual request, but didn't offer anymore resistance beyond that. There wasn't much fuss to be made about popping a candy into her mouth, after all.

But for some reason, as he unwrapped the plastic wrapper with the crinkling sounds of moving plastic...

The sheer intensity of Zero Two's gaze as she watched his every movement kind of scared him.

Clearing his throat, Hiro gripped the sugar dusted fruit candy between his fingers as he approached her. Zero Two had her eyebrows furrowed to go along with the deadly serious expression on her face, which sent waves of unease to sneak up on him as Hiro noted that her lips were still tightly shut.

Gulping to himself to steady his nerves, he smiled at her.

"Say, aah!"

In an instant, as if a switch was flicked, Zero Two beamed. The sunny expression lighting up her face as she cutely opened her mouth, repeating the same noises he had instructed her to.

"Aah!"

Releasing the grip between his fingers, Hiro allowed the sugar dusted fruit candy to drop into her mouth.

"Mmmn!"

A soft moan of pleasure came out from her as the faintest touches of pink kissed at her cheeks, Hiro being temporarily awestruck at her reaction. Distinctive noises came forth from her as Zero Two swirled the fruit drop using her tongue, her face settling into a serious expression as she seemed to be in deep thought.

"Sweet. I like it." She grinned.

Patting the ground in front of her, she beckoned to him with a waving motion of her hands.

"Come sit here!"

Nodding to himself, Hiro moved to follow her demands. Crossing his legs under him, Hiro blinked as he found himself staring at her slightly annoyed turquoise eyes.

"Not like that. Turn around!" She complained.

She wanted him to sit with his back facing her? She was a strange one indeed. Frowning to himself as he complied, Hiro spoke, unaware of the opportunity that he had provided her.

"I don't really understand but-woah! Zero Two!" He cried out.

Arms looped around his waist and reeled him in, his back slamming against the warm cushion provided by her chest. Hiro squeaked in surprise as he found himself nearly forced into a curl as Zero Two hunched forward, her chin resting on the top of his head.

On either side of him, Zero Two had her knees raised as she completely the successful encirclement of her prey.

Uwah. Zero Two was now in her touchy-feely mode. The mode where she drops all pretense and just paws her claws at him.

"Darling." She breathed out into his hair.

That word again! And the way she always physically touched him in ways he had never seen between partners, or any boy-girl pair in his entire life. Zero Two was so different than the rest, in a way how she also made his heart skip a beat and his cheeks flush with heat whenever they interacted.

And it was strange. Zero Two was a known Partner Killer, Mitsuru was proof of that. She had even admitted it to him and warned him of the risks of piloting with her. In fact, there were times when she actually scared him, although he tried his best to remember the smiling image of Zero Two and uphold it in his mind.

But if that was so...

Then why did he feel so happy and secure in her embrace? The rising motions of the chest behind him soothing in ways he could have never imagined. The soft breathing in his hair turning it damp with warm moisture.

She had told him last night that he wasn't her partner. That he meant something much more to her than that.

'Darling'.

That term puzzled him to no extent.

"Zero Two." He called out.

A soft groan breathed itself into his hair.

"Mm?"

"Am I special to you?"

Hiro winced at the fingernails digging into his tummy, the annoyed hiss behind him adding to the cringe he was feeling.

A frown appeared on Zero Two's face as she registered the loaded question he fired at her. There he went again, ruining the moment again with his curiosity as they enjoyed an intimate moment between the both of them. Here she was, with this raven-haired maybe-darling in her arms, engulfing her with his familiar and lovely scent, his cute looks that perfectly mirrored the boy from her fuzzy memories and his kind treatment towards her.

And. He. Had. To. Ruin. It.

But, regarding his question, the truth was... Zero Two had no idea.

The problem was that she liked him a lot. Too much, in fact. Out of all her previous Stamens who were more or less living sacks of flesh that APE lined up outside of Strelizia for her to consume, he had touched her heart in ways she had never felt before. The fluffy, raven-haired boy in front of her truly made her feel at home, at ease...

And if she dared used that loaded word, happy.

But that was what infuriated her to no end! She made a life-bound oath to become human and be reunited with the real darling from her childhood. The one who had rescued her, who had saved her from the frozen hell of torture and experimentation!

And like as if fate was having a laugh at her situation, it introduced her a boy that looked, talked, sounded, smelt and even tasted exactly like the treasured darling in her damaged memories. Except he had not a single recollection of their time together. If him and true darling were even the same person in the first place.

Oh how she hated APE for messing with her memories. She would never forgive them for that. The Human-Klaxosaur war they said. Well, Zero Two's personal war wasn't going to end until she had her hands around Papa's throat for the abuse he had forced her to suffer. For the darling he had ripped away from her.

Throughout her entire life, Zero Two's mind had only a single, overriding goal.

To find and reunite with her Darling from her memories. To fall in love and propose their union. No one else in the entire world mattered except for him.

So why was she here, in the forest of this Plantation embracing this raven-haired boy on her own accord, her arms wrapped around him like she was his lover? As if they were lifelong mates sworn to each other. Him easing perfectly into the role didn't help matters either. It was as if they were a single wing that required each other to function. With a bitter smile on her face, Zero Two realized that ever since she'd arrived at Plantation 13, she had been acting differently.

Calling him 'darling', feeling the sacred word roll off her tongue and how... right it felt. How he smiled at her and how his eyes brightened each time he heard that word. A Stamen who had merely but a single ride with her, for some reason talking to her about her childhood, making her heart flutter whenever he stood up for her and called her normal. Who wasn't afraid of her and saw her as someone equal.

And how he teased her with his reenactment of scenes from their past, even though he had not a single clue how important the events that had just transpired were to her.

This person infuriated her to no end but yet Zero Two had no choice but to bitterly admit to herself the hard truth regarding 'him'.

That she was falling in love with this maybe-darling and betraying her real darling in the process.

And that...

"Yup. Darling is special to me." She confessed, feeling the heat warm up her cheeks.

There she went again, her traitorous, cheating words rolling off her tongue like it was second nature. Her fluttering heart causing her arms to squeeze him tighter into her embrace. Her weak willed nature causing her self-control to fail as she indulged in the maybe-darling's scent, breathing into his hair like a wanton girl. His scent a perfect replica of how she remembered true darling had smelled and filling her with surging happiness on every inhale.

Why was she so disgusting? Was she truly an unfaithful person after all? Had the experience of riding countless Stamens damaged her brain in some way?

She didn't even know if this one would survive past his third ride, he was but a greenhorn who had merely completed his first ride with her.

And yet...

She, Zero Two, was falling in love with the splitting image of this maybe-darling. Recently, it had gotten so out of hand that she increasingly found herself confusing him for the real deal, acting like she would around her true darling.

Zero Two chuckled to herself. Of all the things to happen to her, she would have never thought that liking a Stamen too much would have been her downfall.

If only she could tell him that.

It would be the worst joke of the century. Maybe he would laugh with her, 'Darling' was sweet like that.

"I'm happy to hear that. Zero Two is someone special to me too."

Too much.

"Lets stay like this for a while." She smiled.

Too too much.

"I'm feeling a bit sleepy. Is it okay if I rest for a bit?" He asked, turning his head to meet her eyes.

Eyes that she couldn't bring herself to break away from.

"Go ahead, I won't go anywhere." She promised.

"Then... Don't mind if I do."

Planting a quick kiss on his head, Zero Two nuzzled into his hair.

"Sleep well."

With a soft exhale, he snuggled into her arms. His breathing steadying itself as he drifted off, completely open and unguarded towards her. Within a few short moments, cute snoozing noises were releasing themselves from his body.

Zero Two winced at how much he had trusted her, to instantly fall asleep in her arms like that.

"Don't worry." She whispered to no one in particular, as she tightened her embrace, as if she was trying to mold their bodies together.

The warmth that she cradled in her arms sickened her at how it made happiness flush throughout her body, and how natural he felt in her embrace.

"We'll always be together..."

The edges of her eyes hardened at her upcoming words.

"Until the day you die."