NOTE: Continuity error has been fixed. Thanks Fenrir's Daughter and sorry for any confusion.

Warnings: Spinner showing some signs of maturity. ? XD

It was quiet in the Hub. Everyone was still at the party and Sage had long since hibernated. Vert walked Agura to her bedroom, and she went to the mirror, removing the jewelry and pulling off her shoes. He waited politely at the door, engrossed watching her fumble to find the clasp of her necklace. He finally stepped in, scooping her hair back and removing it. Agura sighed as Vert ran nimble fingers through her hair.

"Thank you." She whispered, leaning against him ever so slightly. "My mom used to do that."

"I know." Vert replied, surprising both of them. Agura was confused.

"How?"

"I-I don't know." Vert realized slowly, his eyes falling on a red-and-white t-shirt neatly folded on her floor. "You must have told me." He left her side for a moment in curiosity, picking it up. Agura noticed what he was doing, but it was too late.

It was his.

"You kept it." He said in disbelief. Agura shamefully avoided his eyes, taking a seat on her bed. "I can't believe…"

"I know, I should have just given it back!" She blurted, overwhelmed. "But…I was so scared." Her voice was small, and Vert sat next to her, tilting her chin up and looking her in the eyes.

"I kept your sweatshirt too." He confessed. "It's…sitting in my room right now." He chuckled with discomfort. "So…"

"You remember too?" Agura asked quietly.

"Not everything." Vert replied, both of them looking down at the floor.

"Me neither." She shook her head, and for the moment they sat in silence.

"Well," Vert finally stood. "I'm exhausted. Let's talk about it tomorrow." He made to leave, but Agura stood up and stopped him.

"Wait." She bit her lip, anguished, and he turned around in interest.

"What?"

Agura took a deep breath. "You have to promise me, that no matter how uncomfortable this gets tomorrow, we won't go back to not talking about it." Vert was a little surprised.

"No, o-of course not." He agreed, but Agura shook her head.

"Promise." She insisted, and it was then that Vert realized how significant the ordeal had been to her.

"I promise." He said firmly. Agura smiled softly, pulling him tight for an embrace. Vert hugged her back.

"Goodnight." He murmured to her, kissing the top of her head. He couldn't help it; it was impulse.

"Night." Agura replied drowsily. As he left, she tugged off the tight clothing, blindly grabbed pajamas from her floor, slipped them on and quickly fell asleep.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The next morning was, to describe it in one word, crazy. AJ was missing, Stanford and Zoom were tearing at each other's throats over whose present had been the favorite (with the late arrival, they had been forced to add the gifts to the quickly growing pile in order to get them to Grace), Spinner was hungover, Sherman and Vert were caught between breaking Stanford and Zoom apart, replacing Spinner's buckets, and searching for AJ's comlink signal whenever they had a free second. Sage was with Tezz in the lab, and Agura had not yet woken up. She and Vert hadn't returned to the Hub until past midnight, so it was understandable that she was still sleeping. Vert would have grudgingly added that he was already up if not for the fact that he was A) completely and totally infatuated with her and B) worried she might be suffering a hangover as well.

"Sherm! You find AJ yet?" Vert called as they passed each other in the hallway.

"Too busy with Spinner!" His teammate replied hurriedly.

"Bleaggghhhh!"

"Ugh, not again!"

"I'm telling you, Zoom, girls would take jewelry over cake any day!"

"Stan, please, you probably bought that jewelry at the dollar store!"

"Oh, like your cake was so high-quality!"

"Tastes better than a necklace!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Yeah, well, neither does your hairstyle!"

"Zoom! You can't insult people's fashion choices when you wear a freaking TOWEL on your HEAD!"

"IT'S A HEADBAND!"

"Will you children keep it down?" Vert rolled his eyes, stepping in between the fight that was about to break out.

"He's talking to you, Zoom." Stanford muttered, and Vert barely had the time to step in between the two of them before Zoom lunged at Stanford.

"Guys! Please?" He stared them down, and both grudgingly gave in.

"Fine."

"Okay, good. Now do either of you know where AJ is?" Vert asked worriedly.

"Last I saw him he was at the party with a bunch of Grace's friends." Zoom shrugged.

"Ten bucks he's on one of their couches right now." Stanford muttered devilishly. Vert fixed him with a glare that could have frozen lava. "OR MAYBE JUST CRASHED IN THE GEARSLAMMER!" Stanford added hurriedly, and Vert rolled his eyes.

"Breakfast is in the kitchen." He shook his head, and the two quickly ran, bumping each other purposefully in the hallway. Vert joined the rest of his team in the kitchen; despite the mildly hectic morning he had managed to throw together a meal, and everyone was present save Spinner and Agura.

"Hey, whose day is it to cook, I'm starving." Agura appeared, flopping into a chair at the kitchen table.

"It's my turn; bacon's almost done." Vert called from the stove, tending to a frying pan.

"Great." She replied, then noticed Zoom, Spinner, Sherman, AJ, and even Tezz staring directly at her chest.

"Uh, guys?" She raised an eyebrow, mentally checking that she was wearing a bra. Most of them blushed, looking away, but Stanford answered her question.

"Agura, Vert, is there something you'd like to tell us?" Stanford asked slyly.

"What do you mean?" Vert turned around, spatula in hand.

God, that man can even pull off an apron and bedhead.

"Nothing." Stanford replied innocently, earning a warning glare from Sherman and AJ that didn't stop him from going on. "I just wasn't aware that you two share a wardrobe now." He remarked casually.

Agura instantly glanced down in panic, finding herself looking straight at a flaming red star, smack-dab in the center of a white T-shirt that perfectly matched the one Vert had on right now.

"Is there something you two need to share?" Stanford finished, a devilish smirk on his face. Spinner, Zoom, and even Tezz looked back and forth between the two in awe, while Sherman facepalmed, he figured Stanford was being a jerk. Vert and Agura locked eyes. They both knew exactly what the other was thinking, and as that moment Agura knew he remembered that night just as well as she.

"Actually, yes." Agura stood up, recovering from the shock in time to hopefully spin up something believable. "We obviously need to stop sharing the washing machine!" She started to laugh, hoping Vert would catch on.

"Haha, see, I figured we could save water, but I must have missed something sorting." Agura continued, spinning the lie out of thin air. "Sorry about that, Vert, I was so tired last night I must have just thrown it on." Her smile was casual, but her eyes let him known that if they made one false move, they were toast.

"That's fine; you can just get it back to me later." Vert responded, equally nonchalant. He returned to the frying pan at the stove, and Agura took her seat. Stanford raised a suspicious eyebrow but overall, it seemed their lie had worked.

"Alright, who's hungry?" Vert set a plate of bacon and scrambled eggs on the table, and the food was set upon ravenously, subject dropped.

"Okay, guys, training is off today until we find AJ," Vert began once they had finished eating (most of them, anyway; Sherman was still quietly savoring his third helping)

"I'm telling you, Vert, he went home and had a ménage a twa with those girls at the party!" Stanford cut in. "He'll come home once the hangover passes; trust me. We DJs have seen it all."

"I hate to admit it, Vert, but Stanford's right. AJ can probably handle himself." Sherman added. "Don't worry about him."

"Personally, it's the girls I'm worried about." Spinner muttered, earning a glare from Vert and stifled laughter from his teammates.

"Okay, AJ is no womanizer, you guys." Vert rolled his eyes. "Anyway, training's off; everyone's tired from the party. Stan and Zoom, try not to kill each other, and Spinner, I need to talk to you." The team slowly dispersed; Spinner and Agura hanging around.

"What's up, bro?" Spinner asked once everyone had filed out.

"Uhm, do you remember that one time we accidentally shrunk your shirt in the washer and you got us super drunk for revenge?" Vert asked uncomfortably.

"First off, it wasn't an accident; you shrunk it on purpose, but yes." Spinner raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Well, I was wondering…Did you record any security tapes from that night?" Vert asked. Agura was drying dishes, watching the two with a little amusement but mostly worry as to Spinner's reaction.

"Yeah, the cameras are always on." Spinner nodded. "What do you need?"

"Well, I was thinking that uhm, maybe you could, ah, access a few of them for me?" Vert mumbled, staring down at the floor.

"Well of course I could…." Spinner began slowly, confusion in his eyes. "But why?"

"Well, ah, me and, uhm, Agura, we ah…" Vert stammered out; he was blushing.

"We kind of need your help, Spinner." Agura stepped in, nudging Vert ever so slightly to show her support. "Do you think you could pull up the recording of Vert's room from that night?" Spinner's eyes widened just the tiniest bit.

"I remember now! You guys snuck off and-" He was cut off by Agura.

"Yeah, we know. Look, we really need your help working this mess out, Spin. Can you help us?" She asked sincerely, and Spinner realized this was not something to make a joke out of.

"Yeah." He nodded. "But hey, I only did that to get revenge on you guys! I don't see why I have to help you." He folded his arms, only trying to show that he had still retained some of his annoying self.

"Free porn?" Agura suggested, using her last resort, and Vert's eyes widened.

Spinner shrugged. "Eh. Alright." He agreed, leading them to the security room. He typed madly on the blue keyboard and had a tape pulled up in seconds.

"You guys sure about this?" He questioned upon seeing their faces.

"Yes." Agura nodded.

"We think." Vert added anxiously.

"Alright; I'll leave you alone then." Spinner shrugged. "You can use these buttons to pause, rewind, whatever." He explained briefly, and ducked out.

"Ready?" Vert asked Agura.

"Wait." She stopped him. "Vert, this really means a lot to me. What if….well, who knows what happened?"

"Then we should promise. No matter what happens, we have to promise we won't let it change things." Vert decided.

"Okay." She nodded, and surprisingly reached out, gripping his hand tightly for support. Vert took a deep breath, stretched his arm toward the keyboard, and pressed play.

EVIL CLIFFIE, I KNOW….But it was a good place to stop! This chapter can't just run on forever, you know.