I don't own Vandread.

Chapter 10 Merry Birthday

Alex smiled as he looked at the calendar. He was slightly depressed that he couldn't spend it with his family, but decided that this would be better than at the colony since he would have had to spend most of his time with his adopted brother, helping in buying gifts. Yes, it was Christmas, and he was spending his twenty third Christmas with his new friends/family.

"I wonder if they still celebrate Christmas on Mejarru." Alex thought out loud. He shrugged and walked out of his room. It was still too early for anyone to be up, so he had most of the ship to himself, say for the night shift. Sighing, he decided to head to the Gym to work on whatever he felt like at the moment. He really had nothing else to do, other than walk around the ship with no real destination in mind. He walked down the halls of the ship as he took in the sights of a few people already about and working in the Bio Garden. They were putting up Christmas stuff.

He smiled at the sight before him as he turned around to head back down into the corridor before a loud explosion took place inside the Bio Garden. Alex spun around and ran towards the garden with all speed. Once he was at the source of the explosion, he wasn't too surprised by his findings.

"Ow shoot!" Parfait screamed. Alex sighed as he watched her crawl out of a strange device while rubbing the smoke and black smug off her face. "I wonder what happened this time." She pouted.

"What's wrong, Parfait?" Alex asked, walking over to the stunned Tech. Parfait looked up at him with a smile as he helped to her feet.

"Well I'm trying to get this machine to work for the Christmas celebration we're having today." She answered as she finished washing her face. "Unfortunately, this is the second time it's done that. I need to get it working before the end of the day, or Christmas will be ruined." She pouted.

Alex looked at the inside of the machine with a brow raised. He whistled at the level of damage done to the machine just from a simple explosion. He sighed as he lifted his arm so he could look talk to his PDA. "Maya, you awake?"

The blue ball the represented Maya appeared. "Sorry, do you need help in killing something?" She asked in a sleepy tone. Parfait arched a brow at the AI's words.

"No, I need you to help Parfait in getting this thing working." Alex pointed at the interior of the machine while giving Parfait a strange look. Maya began scanning the device for any problems and possible ways to fix the machine. "Something wrong?"

"Why did your AI just ask if you need help killing something?" She motioned the AI with a weary thumb.

"Oh, that's because I normally do missions in the morning or before midnight." Parfait still felt weary around the AI. Alex sighed. "She has human emotions and has the same kind of energy levels like we do. She needs to sleep like us, so that's why she was just asking that question the way she did."

"So she needs to sleep like us?" Parfait asked. Alex nodded. "So the reason she just asked that, is because she follows you on missions?" Alex nodded again. "So she just now woke up?" Alex nodded. "So her creator wanted to make sure that she was as human as she could be?" She realized.

"Yeah, my mom wanted to make her as human as she could so she would learn from her mistakes just like a human. Though she never really makes mistakes, she often feels as though she does, but she truly never does."

"Who ever made this, was definitely an idiot." Maya announced as she reappeared before the two. Parfait glared at the AI for her words before turning back to Alex. "But I'll give the creator credit for trying to make a machine this complicated. If I knew what it was designed to do, then it might be easier to determine the function of this device."

"Well, heres the creator." Alex motioned Parfait with a grin hidden by his mask. "You think you can help in getting it to work?"

"I'm sure it would be possible, but does she even know what she was trying to make?"

"Yes, I'm trying to make a snow machine!" Parfait growled. Maya floated to her side as she began trying to make amends for her words earlier.

"See you two later, and don't kill each other." Alex said as he walked away. The two girls instantly began chatting as they tried to fix the machine so that snow would be possible for this special day.

(-)

Barnette sighed as she walked out of the storage room where they kept all the food. She was not very happy, but the chance to get a good present from Jura was more than worth the amount of stress she would be under. Sighing, she grabbed the last crate that she would need to make her cake. As she began picking the horde of crates up, she soon realized that her vision was almost completely blocked.

Grrr… Jura, I swear if your so called "Good Present" better be good, or I'll be shoving this cake up your ass for the all the stress this is putting me under. Barnette growled as she walked out into the corridor. I like this holiday and all, but I can kind of understand where Hibiki gets the whole, "Eat your livers" bit they believe in. I wonder if Alex's people celebrate this holiday. Barnette's thoughts were cut off as she ran into something hard that sent her flying on her butt. She waited for the crates to crash into her, but after ten seconds of feeling nothing or hearing anything, she opened her eyes to see Alex standing above her, blinking as he held the crates in one hand. "Thanks." She muttered as she stood up.

"You know, I got an Uncle that never asks for help either." Alex told her as he began following the blushing woman. She was a little shy to be seen in her baker clothing in front of Alex for some reason. "Don't worry, I've seen women that cook with nothing on but their undergarments." Alex read her mind.

"Isn't that a little…"

"Strange?" Barnette nodded while they entered the kitchen. "Just place the items over here?" Alex asked. Barnette nodded while he placed them on the kitchen island. "You're making one hell of a large cake for Christmas, you know?"

"Well, I do have to make sure that everyone that likes cake or will be there for the party you know." She told him as she began pulling out the items for her cake. "You like cake?"

"Yeah, but I'm not that big of a fan of it." Alex placed a finger to his chin as he began thinking about that statement. "Though I do find it odd that I'm not a big fan since, mom really likes cakes." Alex shrugged it off as he continued helping her with her task at hand.

"Maybe it's because you're a Super Soldier." She answered. Alex thought about that for a moment before nodding. "I do have a question about that." Alex turned to face her with a curious look in his eye. "I know that all medical technology such as, Medicine, Surgeries, and other things like, all have nasty side affects. So did your operation have one?"

Alex started laughing as he rubbed the back of his head slightly. "Well… you see the only side affect I technically suffered from was my eyes." Barnette blinked in surprise at this. Alex instantly groaned as she moved over to stare at his eyes. "They're normal enough, but it's because of the procedure." Barnette now blinked in confusion. "Okay now, my mother has green eyes and my father had yellow eyes. Now tell me how my eyes could be sapphire blue?"

"They wouldn't be." She told. "Oh, so because of the operation, you had blue eyes, rather than yellow, green, or what ever those two would have made!" She realized. Alex nodded and slowly began walking towards the door to leave. "So where are you going now?"

"Wherever my little heart decides." He sang as he trotted out of the kitchen with a grin hidden by his mask. Barnette just sighed as she glanced down at the large amount of ingredients she had pulled for her cakes.

(-)

"No, I don't think that's right either." Maya stated firmly. Parfait glared at the tiny blue mass as she tried to restrain herself from killing the AI, or attempting to anyways. "These wires need to be placed in this slot, while these need to be placed in this slot." She finished as she started pointing out the wires with a glowing tentacle.

"I still think I'm right though." Parfait moaned. The AI gave out an audible sigh as she floated around the young Tech. An idea suddenly hit Parfait as she stared at the glowing tentacle for a moment. "Hey, Maya, do you have a human form or anything like that?"

"Why yes I do, but why do you ask?" She inquired. Parfait smiled at her little friend before getting down on her knees to look at the inside of her creation.

"Don't you think it would be easier if you were in your human form?" She asked. Maya didn't say anything for a few minutes as she continued scanning the device for any other problems that would cause it to blow up in Parfait's face.

"I suppose it would be easier, but I am still incomplete on that form." Maya admitted. Parfait was floored at this. Here was an AI that had everything but the basic elements that make humans human, and she was incomplete?

"How can that be?" Parfait blurted.

"Well, you see, before I was finished, Alex got shipped to the colony you found me at. Since my creator, Asaugi, wanted him to have as much interaction with humans as possible, she sent me, knowing that he might not truly bond with the citizens, soldiers, doctors, and other people of every class on the colony. Alex has tried to complete me, but every attempt he has made has normally ended in failure. So until I get home, I will remain in this form until Asaugi has completed me." Maya said, bobbing up and down as if to show she was smiling.

"How complicated are you?" Parfait inquired further into this mystery.

"I believe we should be getting back to the original task at hand." Maya stated, sounding somewhat annoyed. "We need to hurry and get your device operational for your party."

"Right." Parfait replied, grinning as she dove back into the mass of circuits again.

(-)

Okay, now Hibiki has enough sense to understand certain things. He has been on the ship for some time and has seen a lot of holidays that he personally never knew existed. His favorite, the only one he was onboard to celebrate mind you, was Thanksgiving. A holiday filled with food, liquor, though juice was handed out for the kiddies, and over stuffed bellies. What lay before him, was another holiday he didn't understand, but knew that food was involved somehow.

"Don't you celebrate Christmas on Taraaku?" Dita asked again, snapping Hibiki back from heaven.

Bart sighed and answered for his drooling friend. "No, not like this anyways." Bart answered, remembering all the thing they did. His commander had forced them into watching a video of women eating men, forced them into combat training for no reason, and then to top it off, they were sent to bed without dinner. Bart shook off the memories as he continued. "I'm sure that you celebrate in a manner without having to watch videos of men doing… whatever it is that you believe we do."

"Actually… we watch videos about Santa Clause." Dita told him. Bart looked down at Dita with a smile. "She's a big old fat lady that hands out gifts to all the nice little children, while giving big bags of coal for those that are naughty." Bart seemed to think about that for a moment. "But you have to go to sleep, otherwise, she won't bring you anything in your sleep."

"Why would she bring gifts to children for no reason?" Bart questioned. "That doesn't make sense." Dita looked at him with confused eyes. "Think about it, if you went around making gifts and the giving them to people, where's your income coming from?"

"What's income?" Dita playfully asked, ditz factor working overtime. Bart sighed and was about to begin his speech about how she should read books or stop acting so dumb, but her attention span had finally reached its limits, and that meant that they were about to start over from scratch again. "Mr. Alien, have you seen the Doctor?" Bart palmed himself. Hibiki shrugged as he continued to stare down at the grassy floor underneath the bridge at the moment, as he tried to see what kind of food they were making, or had already made.

"I think he's in one of the storage rooms we found a few days ago." Bart muttered. "What a nerd." He moaned.

"Come on, let's go find him." Dita told them as she began dragging Hibiki off. Hibiki sighed as he let Dita continue to drag his half asleep body. Bart sighed as he followed his young friend and alien enthused girl towards the storage room that held a curious Pyoro and Duerro, both of which were going through hoards of boxes.

"Hey, McPhail, what is all this?" Hibiki asked, using his surname as he scanned one of the boxes that held photos. Hibiki picked one up that had a picture of a jolly old man in a red and white suit, with two kids on his lap. One was a girl while the other was a girl. Hibiki already had one brow raised as he continued to look through the hoard of pictures.

"I honestly believe they are relicts of this holiday the women celebrate. I believe that our ancestors might have celebrated this holiday for some reason that may have to do with this man in the red suit." He informed them as he placed another photo to the side of the box. "I have also found a few small black boxes that I don't understand on how to use." He showed the said box to the group as he continued going through his own box.

"I believe its some kind of device that shows moving pictures." Pyoro told him as he placed it into a black device that was hooked into a computer. A few seconds later, a fuzzy screen appeared all throughout the Nirvana.

(-)

"Oh cool a movie." Paiway squealed. Paiway and those helping out with the food for the party were watching the video from within the kitchen. A picture of a woman and a child sitting happily on a coach next to a fireplace soon appeared, bringing smiles to all the women on the ship. The image quickly turned confusing as a man walked over to the two and started smiling as he sat beside them. "A man and a woman…together?" Paiway said, her eye twitching in curiosity and confusion.

(-)

Bart, Hibiki, Dita, and Pyoro stared at the image of the smiling family as they started playing games and opening presents. Duerro didn't seem surprised at what he saw, which didn't truly surprise anyone.

"Is that a man sitting next to a woman?" Hibiki and Bart finally blurted.

"It would appear so." Duerro answered with a smile on his face. "Looks like men and women use to get along with one another."

Dita nodded and instantly looked down at the clock on the computer, and then gasped at the time. "Come on Mr. Alien! We're going to miss the comet if we stay in this place!" She told him as she grabbed hold of his wrist again to drag him down the long hallway to the Bio Garden.

"I don't suppose you have any plans, Bart."

"As a matter of fact, I do. Tonight is the night. Lucky for me, I remember my grandfather's manners," he said with a smirk. BC was all alone on the bridge doing some telemetry. While she had said that she would attend the main event later, Bart wanted to do something else before anyone else saw her.

(-)

Meia sat alone in her cockpit, flipping switches and pressing buttons just for the sake of pressing buttons and flipping switches. She was bored, but she wasn't about to go to the party. Years of ditching her own birthday parties that Jura would throw were a clear sign that she didn't like them. The silence that filled the hanger, aside from her activities with her control panel, was tomb-like and gave it a sort of ghostly presence, which was much to Meia's liking.

"So, this is where you are." Meia groaned. She had been found and by one of the people she didn't want to truly be around today. Her figure of annoyance for the day was beside her cockpit and smiling behind his mask he always wore. Yep, it was Alex and he seemed rather happy.

"What do you want, Alex?" She put more emphases on his name as if to warn him.

"I wanted to see what everyone was doing before I left." He told her as he jumped down to the floor. Meia watched with one eye as he walked over to Wing Zero. He stopped at the cockpit and turned to look at her with a strange look in his eye. He sighed softly as he climbed inside his machine.

That went well. Alex moaned as he climbed inside his machine. He sighed again as he started flipping switches and pressing buttons just to listen to the sounds of flipped switches and pressed buttons.

After one minute of pressing buttons and flipping switches, he sighed, stopped, and the pulled out his sketch book and flipped to a new page. He pulled out a pencil from the confines of the metal rings that bound the pages together. He bit the eraser lightly as he tried to think of something to draw. A thought soon came to his mind, and he slowly started sketching what his mind came up with. Halfway through it, he growled and ripped it from the book so he could crumple it and throw it to the floor of his machine.

After twenty minutes of sketching, ripping the paper free from its bindings, crumpling it into a ball, and then throwing it to the floor of his machine, he sighed and looked down at the mess in his cockpit. "Man, I'm a slob when I draw." He moaned. A banging sound prevented him from starting his creation again, much to his liking. He pressed the button to open his hatch to find Meia above it with a bored look in her eyes. "What do you want?" He asked irritably.

"You should open up your com channel so I can talk to you if I have something I wanna talk about to you." She told with no emotion in her voice. She sounded like she was asleep when she said that, and those sleepy blue eyes proved this.

"Why?" he went back to sketching.

"I have no idea." She tried to look at the work of art he was drawing again. She then noticed the amount of paper that was already crumpled up and sitting at the back of his cockpit. "You're a messy artist."

Alex took in a deep breath as he tried to think of a counter. Nothing came to him. All he had was his paper, the image that was begging to be drawn, and a pencil that wanted to be used. Meia sighed and walked off as she went back to her cockpit. "What do you wanna talk about?"

Meia stopped and walked back over to his cockpit with a brow raised. "I don't know." She moaned. Alex sighed again. God this was odd, even for him.

Meia once again began walking towards her machine, only to stop as an idea came to her, though Alex was the one to voice it. "Hey, you wanna learn how to pilot Wing Zero?" Meia smiled at that, and slowly walked over to the cockpit with a sly smile on her face. "Never mind…" God that was strange.

"Sure, but you better do a better job at teaching me this then you do at Chess." She said as she crawled into the cockpit. Alex smiled as the hatch closed, thanking that his mask and the darkness of the room kept his smile hidden. "Could you hurry this up?" She asked in a panicky tone.

The lights kicked on, and the outside world soon came into view. She smiled at the ability to see outside world again. The machine slowly began to rise to its feet, forcing Meia into Alex's lap. Meia blushed at her current position near Alex as he pushed forward on the controls. Wing Zero quickly blasted out of the hanger, spreading its wings to fly in any direction the two pilots saw fit.

"So, what do you wanna learn about first?" Alex moaned as he began trying to find a comfortable position that would keep him from getting to excited.

"How about how to fly it?" She said sarcastically. Alex rolled his eyes as he pulled her down into his lap and forced her hands over the controls.

"Okay, this is how you maneuver it." He pulled back on the control to show the movement. Meia nodded and took it for a spin, forcing it to do barrel rolls, sway from side to side, and even a few loops. Once Alex was satisfied that she had that down, he moved on. "Okay, now this controls the thrusters." He pulled her hand over the said lever and pulled it back, killing the engines, and then pushed it forward, causing the machine to fly faster than what it original was. "Got it so far?" Meia leaned back and took the controls as she started playing with the machine that destroyed two battle stations. Alex sighed as he leaned back further into the chair, which ended up with her doing the same.

"So how do you work the weapons?"

"Very carefully." He answered. This earned him an elbow to the gut. "Hey, you asked how, and I told you how." He moaned as he rubbed his "Wounded" gut. "Besides, why do you wanna learn this stuff anyways?"

"You asked me, and I figured it would be better than being in that place for the party." She answered, turning to face him with a scowl on her face. "Now teach me, or I won't be very kind." She threatened. Alex rolled his eyes and started teaching her how to use the weapons.

(-)

"Alright, alright, time to strike." Bart whispered to himself. He played with his posture for a bit before wiping a bead of sweat that was forming on his head, with his elbow. It was time for him to strike and show BC just how of a kind person he was. BC was all by herself on the bridge and playing with the controls as she, and anyone else that wasn't so into the party at the moment, watched the Wing Zero do barrel rolls, flips, sway from side to side, and the stop, move forward, stop again, and then repeat the entire process before blasting off towards another area to do something odd.

Bart smiled as he looked down at his small box that held his gift to BC. "Um, Vice Commander." Bart poked his head around the corner of the door frame.

"Come in."

Alright, so far so good

"These are the finest tablets made by my company." He handed the small box to her, opening as he handed it. Sparkling gems of every color sparkled with the dim lighting in on the bridge.

"Thank you, Bart. Is that all?"

"Actually no!" he took in a deep breath as she looked up at him.

"Bart, I'm busy at the moment."

He didn't avert his gaze as she expected him to. Instead, he closed the box and pushed it until it was right in front of her. She looked down at the engravings, which bore Bart's family symbol, a hawk with two war hammers crossed behind it.

"I'd just like to say thank you…for all the support you've been giving me. I mean…I don't know why you stick up for me half the time, but I want you to know why I can't do things right sometimes…I think too much- about you."

"Thinking is a good thing, Bart." BC stood up. "Just don't let it get in the way of what's going on outside of your head."

"But it is." Bart gritted his teeth, standing in her way. "It is, BC. And it's killing me. I have to know how you feel…you damn well know how I'm feeling about you. You're not stupid…please?"

"I accept this box with my thanks. See you at the festival. I want to see the comet." She simply brushed him aside, leaving the bridge a silent, cold void for Bart. He clenched his fists and swatted the lamp aside. It fell on the floor, breaking into several pieces.

Damn it!

(-)

Wing Zero drifted through space, heading for any place Meia saw fit. She had just finished learning how to use all the weapons, and had to say that some of them were kind of hard while others were pretty easy. The easiest was the Vulcan cannons, while the hardest was the beam sabers. Now, all she wanted to do was rest.

"So, is there anything else you can show me?" Meia asked, as leaned up against Alex' chest for support.

"Not really. You already got the basics which I would like to say was really fast. Other than that, there's not really anything else I can teach you, other than reentry, but there are no planets around here, and I don't feel like having someone come fetch us." He moaned as he began flying it home. Meia instantly grabbed hold of the controls and forcing the machine to fly towards the comet. "Meia, what the hell are you doing?!" He yelled as he got thrown back from force of her take off.

"I just thought I'd try some reentry on the comet." She replied with a grin. Alex yelled as the wings closed around the body of the white machine and allowed them to crash into the tail of the comet. The cockpit shook violently as they pushed through debris of ice, rock, and other particles that made up the universe. As soon as they were dead center, the wings opened up, bringing some relief to Alex and his machine. "Were dead center." Meia announced.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief over those words and for the radios going dead. "Great, did you have fun?" He moaned as he attempted to cross his arms, however, he ended up wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Alex," Alex looked down at his arms and quickly pulled them away from her, allowing her to grab something on the floor of the cockpit. Alex wasn't paying attention to what she grabbed until she opened it up and gasped. "What is this?" Alex looked down this time, and nearly paled at what she was looking at.

It was a drawing of Meia's head and torso, but lacking clothes, with only a small bed sheet cover to cover her modesty. "I didn't draw it!" He quickly yelped.

"Why were you drawing me?" She asked, trying to sound not impressed but failing miserably.

"I… uh… uh… I have no idea how that got in my cockpit." He lied. Meia shot him a strange look.

Damn it. I was hoping she'd buy that.

"Alex, you're a bad liar." She stated, still trying to sound not impressed. Alex caught on, and smiled slightly, realizing that she wasn't mad at him.

"Sorry, it's just that this has always been the thing I do when something was on my mind." Meia shot him a confused expression. Alex sighed. "Okay look, whenever I would get stressed out about something, odd images appear in my head, and if I don't draw them or talk about them, they stay in there and never leave me alone. And since I don't normally talk to others about what goes on inside my head, like depression, anger, sadness, or any other kind of strange shit, I just draw it out in the form of an image. In this case, you were on my mind and I wanted it out."

"So you were going to turn me into one of your naked drawings?" She asked as she placed the piece of crumpled up paper on the ground. Alex had no reply to that. "Thank you."

"What?"

"Thank you for doing something like that." Alex was now confused. V, Rei, and Luna never let him do this, and Meia was happy he was doing this? Okay he was now officially confused. "I mean, thank you for showing me this." She leaned back on his chest.

"You picked it up."

"Thanks anyways." She huffed.

(-)

"I think we got it now!" Parfait exclaimed as she closed the hatch to her device. Maya brightened up at this as Parfait turned the machine on. A few seconds later, and nothing happened. Both girls sighed at their failure again, and quickly went back to work with only ten minutes before the party would begin. "What are we doing wrong?" Parfait cried.

"I am sure that we will fix it in time for the party." Maya tried to make the young Tech feel better about her attempts, but nothing she said truly seemed to work.

"Parfait," Parfait ignored her Tech as she ripped open the hatch with a slow pace. "Parfait, look, it's working!" Parfait instantly was looking up at the ceiling to see white flakes falling from the sky. (A/N. God that sounded lame, but I think you get the picture.)

"It would appear so." Parfait turned to find Duerro smiling up at the white flakes that fell to the grassy earth of the ship's Bio Garden. "It truly is beautiful." Parfait just smiled and grabbed Duerro into a big hug, which ended rather quickly. Not because he was a man mind you, but because she felt something strange behind him. He slowly pulled the item out of hiding as he said, "Here, I made this for you," to reveal a painting of white flakes on a black background. "I didn't know what snow looked like, and since you said Christmas always required snow to make it Christmas, I decided to draw it in the form of blood flowing." Parfait didn't know what to say, but she hugged the painting close to her chest as she mentally thanked the Pexis for any help it had done, and God for any miracles she just pulled.

(-)

"Here, Merry Christmas." Barnette slipped a golden ring on Jura's finger, smiling as she watched Jura examine the item. Jura engulfed her in a hug when she finished scanning the item.

"Now, time for your gift." Barnette smiled as she waited for this. Jura leaned in and then kissed her on the cheek. Barnette smiled, but mentally moaned over her gift from Jura.

(-)

Thirty minutes of silence had passed over the duo piloting the Wing Zero. Meia was still sitting in Alex's lap, and enjoying the peace and quite that filled the cockpit. Alex was drawing again, only he was completing his drawing for some reason. Meia finally had enough of her curiosity over his drawing and turned her head to look at it.

"How long until you're finished?"

"Why do you care?" Alex moaned, not looking up from his drawing.

"Just curious." She said while blushing at the thought of her being drawn like that wallpaper he had. She didn't know why she was letting him draw her, let alone naked at least. But something told her that what he was doing was right. Alex sighed and went back to drawing. "So, is it true?"

Alex moaned loudly. "Is WHAT true?!"

"Is it true that today's your birthday?" Alex dropped the pencil and Meia smiled. "Looks my source of information on you was right."

"Okay, how in the seven hells did you…" Alex stopped as realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "I'm gonna kill her." He groaned.

"Why would you want to kill Magno? I thought you'd be the type to enjoy your birthday."

"I do, but I just hate the day. It sucks because I have to wait to open my birthday gifts till Christmas morning, which was always a drag."

"Well then, Happy Birthday." She said, going back to looking at the white crystals that went sailing by them. "Alex, I wanna know something." Alex looked up from his sketch book to look her in the eye. "Why are you so different from everyone else?"

He didn't know what to say. He knew he was different from most people, but he still tried to act as normal as he could. He mostly blamed his odd personality on his father since he was the one that taught him all of his snappy comebacks along with how to avoid certain questions. The one Meia just asked however, he didn't have a way around it, nor could he answer it.

"I wish I knew the answer to that too, Meia." He whispered.

"You're smarter than most of the people on the ship. You're stronger than the men on the ship. You're faster and deadlier with a sword than Jura is, so how is that you don't know?"

"I guess it's because of my family." He answered. "Why are you so curious anyways?"

"I guess it's just that… well that you seem to have all the answers to all my questions." Alex chuckled at that. "You knew the truth behind what happened on Taraaku and over it. You knew about how to use all the equipment you gave us back then, and you even tried to teach me something I didn't want to learn. You even tried to protect me from Rabat before you fought him. You just make me so… so confused that it drives me insane."

"We can't be together." He stated sadly. Meia turned to face him, spinning her entire body until she was hugging him with a sad expression. "I love you Meia, but I also promised to protect the Nirvana without getting attached to anyone. I told myself that after Luna's death; I wouldn't get involved with another woman, because I didn't want them to die."

"But why, can't you see that I'm suffering because of you! I've never been this close to anyone, and it frightens me. I've always tried to understand others by keeping my distance. But you… you brought me out of my shell and I know I did the same for you." She squeezed him tightly, refusing to let go. "I just want to know why I feel this way around you."

"It's because you're in love with me." He said sadly. Meia looked up at him with pleading eyes. "I can't protect you without a sword, Meia. I can't embrace you with one either. I really can't do anything for you, other then pick a side. If I choose to protect you, I can't embrace you, and if I choose to embrace you, I can't protect you. I truly can't play both sides, Meia. I've done that three times now, and each time I did it, those people ended up dead."

"But I can protect myself. You've never once tried to protect me before Rabat, so why would you need to do so now?!" Alex looked down into her blue eyes, playing back her words. He was right, and he knew it. Fear was the only thing holding him back from doing so. "I've never relied on anyone to help me after the incident, and then you came into my life, and now I need you to be there to make me smile, make me happy when I'm down. What is so wrong about doing this?!"

He was at a loss, he was wrecked and there was nothing more he could do, other than listen to her beg for an answer. He had to answer her question, but every time he would come up with one to stop them from getting that close, she came up with a reason that proved it would work.

"Please, just tell me why you don't want to be with me like that?!" Meia took a deep breath and opened her mouth to begin another series of questions, but Alex silenced her with his mouth pressed over her lips. Meia went wide eyed for a moment before relaxing to it. The two broke apart and she asked, "I guess you see that you can protect me and embrace me at the same time," as she smiled towards him.

"Meia, I don't think this will work though." He admitted.

"Alex, I don't care about what the others will say. I've never cared about what they have to say in the first place anyways." She leaned back in for another kiss.

(-)

Wing Zero came bursting out of the comets tail and opened its wings, flapping them slightly, almost as if the machine wanted to regain feeling to sleeping limbs. Gascgone was instantly there with Vandread Dita bringing up the rear. Once they had gone in, it was quite clear they would come out damaged, and Gascgone wasn't to surprised to see the white machine sporting dents, scratches, and a few large chipped pieces in its armor.

"Hey, are you alright?" Gascgone asked. No reply. She growled and turned on the heat signature to make sure Alex was alive. Once the image came back, she went wide eyed.

"Miss. Gascgo, is Alex alright?" Dita asked over the net.

"Yeah, I think so, but there are two heat signatures inside the cockpit." She answered. Hibiki and Dita looked at each with confused faces before Gascgone continued. "Here, take a look."

The two were about to, until Alex's voice rang out in over the net. "Don't you dare look in here, you perverts!" He yelled.

"Go away now, shoo, shoo." Meia made herself heard and known with that, before the white machine blasted off into space.

"What just happened here?" Hibiki asked after two minutes of silence.

"I have no idea." Gascgone replied slowly. Dita nodded in agreement, though only Hibiki could see it. "Come on, lets head back home." The two machines quickly began heading back, trying to figure out why Meia was with Alex in the first place.

(-)

"So, where were we?" Alex asked with a smile on his face, visibly for her to see. Meia smiled and unzipped her flight suit so that she was lying on his bare chest. "Aw yes, now I remember." He joked. Meia playfully punched him in the gut for his word before falling asleep to the sounds of his beating heart. Alex soon followed, mimicking the up and down movements of her chest with his own as she breathed.

(-)

The next day was clean up day. Most of the important crew members, those being on the bridge mind you, were the ones to get out of it. Since the Bio Garden was the spot for the party, as usual, that meant that they would have one hell of a hard time cleaning up the entire place since it was so big. Parfait was too busy trying to find a place to hang her gift from Duerro, but couldn't figure out which way it was to hang. She would have asked him, but he was currently dealing with a mini outbreak of a stomach virus that he figured was started by Jura and Barnette sharing some of their cake.

When Meia and Alex got back, everyone noticed that they were acting strange. It was little stuff that they noticed first. Meia was always seen around Alex, talking about her past or new battle strategies, but then it turned to stranger things, like her smiling and giggling. For Alex, well he was a lot nicer to the men, and was even making sense when it came to questions about sections of space they were heading towards, or just any question in general. So yeah, things were really strange, but they seemed to make Magno happy for some reason.