"I can't believe you wore that dress!" An Asian girl exclaimed as she shook her head, "You do realize that it is Christmas and that no one wears yellow."

"I am wearing Yellow this year and no one is going to stop me. I have red lip stick on anyways. It was your idea that I get dragged to this ball. You know I just broke up with Carlos so why do you do this to me." The girl in the yellow dress said angrily before the guests and soldiers started coming into the room.

"You need to get out and live. You can't break up with someone and then hole up in your room never seeing another person. I saw you more when you were being controlled by your obsessive boyfriend." The Asian girl said shaking her head before going off with the guests.

Looking around the room she saw a young man who didn't seem to be interested in any of the other girls. She quickly identified him as a peace soldier. Although people flitted around her occasionally asking her questions she always kept her eyes on him whenever she wasn't occupied. A few times she thought he was walking over to her however he never did and it wasn't really her scene to go and ask him to dance.

It was a quarter till eleven when he finally came to her and asked for her hand. She gave it to him and for the final fifteen minutes they danced blissfully and happily enjoying every second of it. As the clock struck Eleven she walked with him to the door of the ballroom as asked simply, "Will I see you tomorrow?"

The young soldier responded, "Perhaps as I leave tomorrow."

Smiling as she put her coat on she smiled and walked to her car alone. Maybe being invited to this ball hadn't been such a bad thing after all. It wasn't until she got home that she realized that they had never traded names. He was literally branded in her mind as the cute traveling soldier.

The next morning she raced to the square to see the procession already underway. There were tons of people there to see the soldiers off as they went to their next stop. She tried to push her way through the crowd but she never got close until the crowd started to dissipate and by then the soldiers were all tucked away on their ship.

As the ship lifted off she stood there and watch it leave. Everyone else went back to their tasks and their family celebrations but she stood there in the cold and watched as the ship eventually vanished into thin air. Once that happened she wiped a tear from her face and returned to her home to find her family waiting for her.

Her brother told her to forget about him, traveling soldiers did not make good husbands. Deep in her heart she knew she would never forget him but she agreed to not let it get in the way of this day with her family.

Christmas Love story

A letter came by space mail causing quite a flurry of excitement as the monotonous day was changed up from a letter from Cassie who was providing some relief work on Triforia working in a diner that proved meals to refugees and peace soldiers for free.

To the Girl in the yellow dress,

You will never guess who I just met. Well I bet by the way I addressed this letter you probably already know who. Christmas day this very nice soldier came into the diner and we shared some Christmas cheer. All he could talk about was this pretty girl in a yellow dress and red lipstick. He asked me if I knew her name but of course I couldn't remember off the top of my head. It wasn't until later that I remembered my friend had been wearing an awful yellow dress.

Your Friend Cassie

P.S. His name is Andros.

She immediately enlisted in a relief team and began traveling the galaxy and every stop she looked and asked for an Andros from KO-35 but never did she get any answer from anyone. It wasn't long though that she started to hear the stories that floated every year at Christmas about a soldier looking for his love who wore a pretty yellow dress at Christmas but always she was a year behind the stories at the very least.

Finally one year she realized that the stories were not getting any newer and that people were stopping the talk about it. She didn't give up and she kept the letter close to her reading it over and over again.

Sitting with Cassie and her husband TJ she asked why they thought there were no more new stories floating about.

Cassie shook her head but TJ looked at her, "I heard that Kerovian's are expected to retire when they reach fifty."

"You mean he might be in one place and that I might be able to find him?" She leaned forward and became excited.

Cassie shook her head, "It may not be that easy. You are forty-five maybe it is time for you to settle down yourself, it isn't too late for you to have some happiness in your life."

"Cassie may just well be right this time," TJ said shaking his head, "Travel to KO-35 is highly restricted there has never been a relief team invited to travel there."

"I will search for him until the day I day if I have to. He is the only thing that has kept me smiling all this time. without him I may have returned to Carlos' side or maybe even another obsessive boyfriend." The girl defended as she left them to begin figuring out how she would get to KO-35.

Christmas Love Story

It had taken over twenty years since learning that her one true love was somewhere on KO-35 but she had finally convinced people that she should go to KO-35 as a visiting nurse so that they could trade medical insight. You wouldn't know from looking at her that she was near seventy and that she was the oldest person involved in the relief program but she didn't care, it kept her active and looking for her traveling soldier.

Her first assignment in the central city was in the geriatric wing of the medical center. A nurse showed her to a few rooms and asked her to sit with some of their more critical patients. On one of the doors she saw a simple name written on a plaque. Opening the door she gasped at the elderly man lying on the bed hooked up to oxygen.

The man's eyes fell on her visitor badge and he forced out a short sentence, "It is Christmas, could you share some Christmas Cheer?"

Walking over to him recognizing the line from all the stories she had heard she took his hand and smiled as she saw the spry young man wearing a dress uniform with his striped hair pulled back into a half pony tail. She began to share, "I was at a Christmas ball and I saw this traveling peace soldier from KO-35 who caught my eye. It was a quarter to eleven when he asked me to dance but it was the most special dance that I ever did have. I wish I had caught his name that day."

The man's breathing hitched and she feared that she had been too late however he began to cry and his breathing got a bit easier. He spoke to her much easier, "I have looked everywhere for you, I never stopped telling about you. Tell me before I die what is your name? I am Andros."

Smiling as she leaned over and kissed his cheek, "I know your name is Andros, I found out five years after our beautiful dance. You met my friend Cassie she just had never remembered my dress because honestly she hated it. I have been chasing you for some time but I was always one step behind you."

Andros' breathing became tense again and she knew with certainty that his time was very short so she took both of his frail hands and whispered in his ear, "I will tell you my name if you have one last dance with me."

Andros squeezed her hands and they sat there and swayed back and forth to and invisible beat. It wasn't long before Andros' monitors began to give off warning that his was about to leave this life. Leaning over quickly she leaned into his ear and whispered.

"My name is Ashley!" She squeezed his hands as the machines all sounded off

Nurses and Doctors came in from every direction and took a rushed last set of vitals before declaring Andros dead.

As the Doctors pushed her aside she heard a last sound as Andros released a last breath and it sent chills up her back knowing that his last word was "Ashley."

Christmas Love Story

Ashley left the room but as soon as she stepped across the thresh hold she felt a sharp pain as her heart gave out. Doctor's declared that she was dead before she hit the floor.

Cassie, TJ and Zhane met in the days following in a first meeting to bid each of their friends farewell.

"It is funny they shared only a moment together but they died moments after each other from very different ailments both much before their times." Cassie shook her head as she looked at the strange Kerovian man who had approached them.

"That girl was his yellow beauty then?" Realization dawned in the eyes of Zhane

TJ shook his head, "Who knew that the Christmas day fifty years after their first meeting they would begin an eternal dance in heaven."

"I wonder if she is wearing her yellow dress?" Cassie mused

"She had better be!" Zhane scoffed, "Andros wasted his life looking for a girl in a yellow dress."