A/N: Hey there, I know I haven't written for ages. This was sitting in my com for quite a while, unfinished of course, so I decided to finish it up. Hope it's worth the wait.

After the first Lockon, Feldt was never the same again. For one, she was not as liberal with her feelings and she guarded her heart very carefully, determined to never let herself feel pain that acute ever again. But feelings were something she had little to no control over and she could never have expected herself to be able to love someone again.

Yet, she did. Never in a million years did she expect to feel that great sense of relief when Tieria announced that he was found. She almost wept with happiness. Almost. Luckily, she was able to compose herself in time and divert the attention to Lasse.

If given a choice, Feldt would not have wanted to fall for someone again so readily, because love hurt, especially when you were working on the frontlines of a battlefield, stuck in a war that seemed to have no end. The entire time she was stuck in space, there was never a peaceful moment, never a moment where there were no fears or worries. There was always the nagging feeling that there was something to be done, some new system to be fine-tuned, more training and maintenance. It was important to always be on the move when the entire crew's safety was counting on your every action and there were no room for mistakes, for one teeny tiny error could cost them all their lives.

Still, she couldn't have stopped herself when she first glimpsed him again, after four long years. He had grown from an overly-mature young boy to a mature and battle-hardened man.

He was known for being the most emotionless meister on the whole crew. There were times where even Tieria would be prone to expressing his emotions outwardly. Yet, he would seem cool and impassive, never flustered and never taken by surprise. In a way, it could seem intimidating if you had not known him for very long, but the crew were used to his detached and apathetic behavior.

However, under it all, Feldt wondered if he would ever be able to fully express his emotions, not just the righteous anger he displayed on the battlefield, nor the loyalty he showed to his comrades. But, the one person he seemed to show the most emotion to was Marina Ismail, and this irritated her. Who was this princess who just appeared out of nowhere and thought she could just command Setsuna to do her bidding?

At first, Feldt just thought she was being protective. After all, they had known and worked with each other so closely before that there were certain unbreakable bonds between them all. Maybe all she felt for him was some kind of sisterly affection and the need to keep him here, with them, with their family.

Then why did she feel so unexplainably happy when both of them denied any sort of romantic relationship to Mileina?

She wanted to kill herself. Seriously, this was one of the most stupid, clichéd and juvenile ideas that she had ever had. Really, now in retrospect, how did she ever convince herself to go through with something like this? Actually, it was mainly her fault for even suggesting it to Mileina.

Valentines' Day was just around the corner and Feldt had some strange urge to do something for the crew (or mainly just Setsuna), so she had privately mentioned this to Mileina, who of course told basically anyone who came across her path. Thankfully, Mileina had just mentioned this to Ms Sumeragi and Marie when Feldt managed to control the blabbermouth before she managed to reveal everything to the entire crew. What was surprising was that they were all willing to go along with her plan and Feldt, Mileina and Marie were even allowed to go down to Earth for a while to get what they needed.

Giggling and smiling secretively, they had made their way back to the Ptolemaios, their gifts hidden behind their backs. But, Feldt had not considered then how she would give the gifts to them, especially her with her awkward tendencies and lack of coherence at embarrassing moments.

On the day itself, Mileina had openly and loudly given the gift to her precious Erde-san, who had smiled at her antics and accepted her present. Marie was not as open, but had dragged Allelujah to their room instead. Sumeragi had given the gift to Lyle as a token of appreciation for all the hard work he had put in during the battles. This left Feldt flushing and clueless, at a loss of how to pass her gift to Setsuna.

She paced around unsurely in her room, biting her lip and feeling nervousness mounting within her. Out of the blue, she thought of a method to pass it to him without even needing to talk to him. A coward's way out, but still.

After writing a short note addressed to Setsuna explaining the gift, she ran out of her room to find a Haro.

Later, she hurriedly checked that he was in the repair bay with Ian before running to his private quarters, red Haro under her arm. Standing outside his door, she took a deep breath before using Haro to help her unlock his room door so as to break into his room. Looking around at his amazingly neat living space, she wondered where to put the gift. Deciding to leave it on his perfectly made bed, she turned around to leave, only to be met with a toned, blue-garbed chest.

"Eek! Setsuna! W-what are you doing here? S-sorry! I was just leaving!" she blushed furiously, stammering out some lame non-excuse excuse and edging for the door. All the while, he stood there staring at her with a half-amused expression on his face. Under normal circumstances, she would have been overjoyed at seeing some kind of expression on his face, but these were not normal circumstances at all so she focused on escape and all but sprinted out of his room, abandoning Haro.

She sprinted all the way to her room and only calmed down slightly after feeling her back pressed securely against her metal door. Feeling her heart racing, she dragged herself up and onto her bed. She lay there motionlessly, trying not to think of what had just happened and just letting her heartbeat gradually slow its frantic pace. She wondered if he had seen the present yet.

A sudden knock on her door startled her out of her musings. Thinking it was Mileina coming to disturb her peace, she groaned silently and got up to open her door.

"Mileina, I don't re- " She stopped mid-sentence, the beginnings of a heated blush creeping up onto her cheeks as she saw who really was behind the door.

"Feldt Grace. Do you mind if I come in?" His low voice always sounded wonderful to her.

"Uh… Setsuna! What a surprise! W-what can I do for you?" Her voice was probably a few octaves higher than normal. He looked at her stunned face then stepped around her to walk into her room. Hastily, she closed her door and turned around to face him.

"What is this, Feldt?" He had locked his copper eyes with her cerulean ones and was demanding an answer from her, the small white box she had left on his bed moments ago was sitting on his outstretched palm.

"It-it's a present for you! It's Valentines' Day today and I- I mean we wanted to give this to you."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "So it's from you?"

Feldt blushed and decided to nod. Setsuna's scrutiny became more intense.

"But why?"

"Because it's Valentines' Day and people tend to get presents on this day?" Feldt became confused.

"No, not that. I mean why would you give this to me? Did Ms Sumeragi ask you to?"

"N-no. I wanted to give this to you."

"Why, Feldt?"

"Because… because you're you, Setsuna. And… and I do care about you even if you don't seem to know it." That said, she raced out of her room, leaving him standing there clueless and slightly bewildered.

Once she was in one of the observation decks by herself, she calmed down and allowed herself to think through what she had just said to him. Setsuna. She gave herself a mental kick. What the hell was she thinking by saying that she cared about him even though he didn't know? She sighed and rested her forehead against the cool glass of the window, staring out at the millions of stars in the thick, velvety darkness.

Suddenly, a sentence ran through her mind, in a voice that sounded strangely like the old Lockon's.

'He may act like an old man but he's actually still a child, and children need to be loved…'

Yeah. Definitely from Lockon. The cryptic yet meaningful pieces of advice he was famous for had just somehow appeared in her mind. And she only thought Tieria had them.

Damn Lockon. Damn Setsuna. Damn men in general.

Now she would not be able to hold any form of conversation with Setsuna without blushing, stammering or making a fool of herself. So she would basically avoid him just when she wanted to open up to him. That sucked.

The door of the observation deck opened. In the glass window, she saw the reflection of him, of Setsuna. He was standing at the door and looking at her.

Damn him, damn him, damn him, damn him….

He was walking nearer to her.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

Now he was standing right behind her. Feldt could feel her whole body tense in response to his proximity.

Don't come any closer!

In the glass, she could see him reaching out to her, and she knew that he knew she was watching his every move. His hand landed on her shoulder and gently turned her around. She was so shocked that she let herself be turned around by him, a small blush creeping up into her cheeks.

Then, she felt herself being drawn into a rather awkward embrace. His strong warm arms were around her and she felt herself being assaulted by a warm, manly scent that was completely Setsuna. Surprised yet secretly happy, she gave into the hug and lifted her own arms to wrap gently around him in return. He drew back then and she decided not to push him or herself too far.

Moving back a few steps, the corner of his lips lifted slightly at her and she gave him a warm grin of her own.

As he turned to leave the observation deck, Feldt thought she heard a soft 'thank you' coming from the meister. She moved back to stare out the window, another small smile spreading uncontrolled across her face.

Damn him.

A/N: After reading it through, I think it's still kinda rough, but I'm not really sure how to better it. For now. And I didn't plan this out which explains why it's kind of messy too. Man, I need to start writing more. Anyway, it's the holidays and I have a bit more time and more ideas, so I'm gonna see how it plays out. Hope you liked it and any response would be nice :)