Whooo an update! Yes, it is way later than the one-per-week thing. Sorry 'bout that!

This one is unrelated to the other ones. Okay, so unless I say that one is specifically related to another, these stories stand alone. I'm probably over-worried about the confusion this could cause, though it probably won't cause any… yeah okay I'll let you read now.

Chapter 4. Can't Catch a Moment

Eight

"So what do you want to do today?" I ask Marina as I play with a piece of her hair. Currently, the two of us are laying on the front lawn in the sun, Marina's head resting on my chest as she closes her eyes. Nine gave us a rare day off training, and I wanted to make the best of it.

"This sun feels pretty nice," Marina responds.

"It does, doesn't it?" I laugh. Our nice moment is interrupted when Nine walks out, pushing a lawnmower.

"What are you doing?" Marina asks, sitting up.

"Six started yelling at me for being useless and then she told me to mow the lawn," Nine shrugs.

"Why?"

"I dunno," Nine responds. "But she scares me, so I have to do it."

"What's the point of mowing the lawn?" I ask. "It's not like we can stick around here much longer. Malcom was really nice to buy us this house, but eventually the mogs with catch up with us."

"Don't tell Sam that. He has this idea that this home is a safe haven or something," Nine mumbles, rolling his eyes. "Now can you please get off the grass?"

"Um… B3?" I guess.

"Miss," Marina replies with a smirk. "H5?"

"Hit. Again," I groan. After being kicked off the front lawn, Marina and I went to the living room to play Battleship. The game has just started but I am already losing. Badly. Just when I thought everything was going smoothly, John, Sam, and Six come bounding into the room. The three of them crash on the couches, and John turns on a basketball game.

"Could you keep it down?" I ask. "We are trying to play a game."

"We've been waiting for this game all week," Six retorts.

"You all watch human sports?" I raise an eyebrow. Then, is a teasing tone I ask, "Sam, you watch sports?"

"Ha ha," Sam rolls his eyes. "I watch basketball sometimes, and this is the game of the year. It's the championships!"

"And John and I were raised on Earth for most of our lives, just like you two," Six reminds me. "What did you think I did, sat around and read and wrote and such all day? We had a TV sometimes."

"Didn't you two ever watch TV?" John asks. Marina and I give each other glances.

"Well," Marina starts. "I'm sure I did when I was younger but most things before the Convent are just a blur of travel."

"And Reynolds wasn't a huge fan of TV. And when everyone thinks you are some god, you don't have time to watch TV. Not that there was any available," I confess.

"Well, we had TV available," Six says bluntly. "But I think the kitchen is available."

The kitchen was not open. Sarah was there, making lunch which had obviously been taking a while already.

Thank you, Six, for your amazing observation skills.

"So it's almost time for dinner," Marina sighs. All throughout the day, we had attempted to find locations to be alone in peace, but the world had other ideas. Nine had to mow the lawn, Six, John, and Sam had some human sports game to watch, Sarah was making lunch then dinner, and Ella and Malcom were researching in the basement.

"Well, this day off required a lot of walking," I joke in an attempt to make Marina smile.

"So much for a day off," Marina smiles sadly. "I don't know when we will get another one."

"Dinner!" I hear Sarah call from the dining room. Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into my head.

"I have a wonderful idea."

"This was a great idea," Marina says, eating a sandwich while looking up at the stars. "I didn't know the roof was this nice."

"Yeah," I respond, looking up at the shimmering stars in the night sky. "Why haven't we done this before?"

"We've never not been talking about strategies during dinner," Marina laughs. I chuckle. I wish it could always be like this. I glance over at Marina and see her eagerly gazing up at the sky. I turn my gaze and see a glimmering shooting star against the dark night sky.

"Make a wish," I say, looking back at Marina. She closes her eyes momentarily before opening them again.

"So what did you wish for?" She asks me.

"Something," I respond, smirking playfully.

"I wished for a big fat chocolate ice cream cone," Marina tells me, laughing. "Seems silly huh?"

"No," I respond.

"Seriously though, what did you wish for?"

"Oh, nothing." And I didn't. I couldn't think of anything to wish for, because my wish was already sitting right next to me, gazing up at the sky.

"Eight, Marina!" Six suddenly yells. "Malcolm found something you might want to see!"

"You really can't catch a moment around here, can you?" Marina sighs.

I laugh softly. "Nope. Come on, let's go."

A/N I love Navrina so much. *Cheering* OTP OTP. So these have been a lot of dialogue so far, but I am planning to change that for the next one.

R&R

Happy Reading!

Next up: The Charms of Listening (Nix)