Summary: The royal family of Terra Tenshi tend to keep their secrets. Even more so hiding away their treasures behind the walls of the castle. Yet when the king's most valued treasure reaches her peak, it's time to marry her off; yet this isn't what she wants. So she runs away.

Pairing: AerrowXKagome

It was dark. Night time, actually. Everyone should have been asleep.

Should have.

But the tapping of quiet footsteps woke Kagome up from her light slumber, the young woman sitting up. She shook her head, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed she was given. Quite easily the person up and walking could have been someone from the squadron, but at the same time it could be someone dangerous since the Storm Hawks have many enemies. Kagome snuck past Radarr's sleeping form as quietly as she could so she wouldn't wake him up and escaped from her room. Sighing, Kagome looked to her right and then to her left, noticing a shadowy figure turn around the left corner of the left side of the corridor.

"That doesn't look good." She thought, trailing after the person on silent feet. She reached the end of the corridor and peeked over, watching the figure move. She chased after them closely until they reached the hangar, the hangar bay open to the night sky and the ground of the nature-based terra they rested on. Kagome expected the figure to take one of the skimmers but felt surprised when they just kept on walking and got off the Condor from the open doors. Kagome made her way closer and caught sight of the Storm Hawks uniform, the moonlight illuminating familiar red hair. Breathing a sigh of relief, Kagome hopped off the Condor and made a dash towards the sky knight.

"Aerrow!" She called out, the redhead turning quickly only to realise it was Kagome. He stopped to allow the woman to catch up with him. She reached his side. "Hey, why are you up?"

"I just couldn't sleep." He shrugged, earning a frown. Kagome reached up and rested an arm over his shoulders in a one-armed hug, sending him a look of understanding. She looked him in the eye seriously with a soft smile.

"So you were taking a walk to try and clear your mind, right?" She asked, already knowing the answer. Aerrow muttered a quiet 'yeah.' "Do you want to talk about it?" Aerrow nodded, knowing it would probably help.

"Might as well. You spoke to us about your father a while ago, it would do some good for me to confide in you too." Aerrow shrugged, moving and leading Kagome to sit on the edge of the terra with him. His eyes stared over the edge as he swung his legs, trying to find his words. He looked back at Kagome, noticing her gentle gaze before he started to speak again. "I've been thinking about some enemies of ours. It's... frustrating." The sky knight rested his head against his fist, his elbow against his thigh. "There's this one man I keep on clashing with. The Dark Ace. Ever heard of him?" He watched Kagome nod.

"Originally known just as Ace. Former co-pilot of your father's." Kagome supplied, watching Aerrow closely. "Why?"

"He's also the one who betrayed them." Aerrow muttered bitterly. "He killed my father and helped Master Cyclonis's Talons take down the rest of the original storm Hawks. He's... still out there. Neither of us have been able to really defeat each other." He continued on his small rant, talking about how many times he's battled with the Dark Ace and how their sudden quiet spell was worrying him. It must have meant they were planning something big. Aerrow conveyed his fears to Kagome, the young woman taking it all in as he leaned back on his hands, his head tilting back to the sky. "I'm worried that this time, it'll be the end for us. I'm scared that I'm going to lose everyone, and even though I've known you for just over a couple of weeks, I'm scared they're going to use you to their advantage." Kagome tilted her head at his little confession, moving her body so that she was sitting on her heels and knees. She pulled him into another tender hug and ran a hand through his hair gently, comfortingly.

"Thank you for worrying about me, Aerrow. And you have nothing to fear. How long have you been fighting them for? About five years?" Aerrow stayed silent, feeling his face flush when Kagome pulled him even closer into the hug, his head pressing into her neck, skin to skin.

"No, not hug." He mused. "Embrace."

"You guys have held your own up against them for years, how amazing is that? You're all strong enough to stop them and one day, you'll be able to bring them to justice. I just know it. I haven't known you guys for long, but I know you won't let anything happen to me, or each other." Kagome hummed sweetly, a soft tune to ease his thoughts. Aerrow let her hold him, feeling himself start to fully relax against her smaller body. He was definitely feeling better after speaking his mind, and Kagome's words and actions helped his frazzled mind calm down. His eyes started to shut, enjoying the warmth Kagome offered as he started to drift off asleep, overwhelmed with the soft scent that could only be described as Kagome.

Kagome felt his weight get heavy and she glanced down, only just noticing his soft snores against her neck. With a grin, Kagome tried to move only to realise she wasn't strong enough to lift him and take him back into the Condor. Kagome felt herself internally panic, knowing she was too kind to wake him up from his well-needed sleep. Sighing, she gave up and adjusted them to the best of her ability so they leaned up against a tree, facing the edge of the terra where the sun would surely rise. Keeping ahold of the man, Kagome curled up against him to retain body heat and allowed herself to fall asleep with him, head resting on his shoulder.

Before she knew it, Kagome woke up and sleepily noticed that she was moving, her body feeling limp and too tired to shift. She squinted her eyes up and analysed the figure over her, warm arms carrying her safely. Thinking nothing of it, Kagome let herself drift off to sleep once more, never processing the sharp red eyes looking back down at her.