Piper

"Radarr! What's gotten into you?" I yelped when I felt the scrabbling of tiny, sharp claws racing up my spine. I twitched and twisted around spasmodically until the little creature found a perch on my shoulder, one of his arms hooked around my neck while he brought his head around to peer into my face. He chattered excitedly at me, and I found myself wishing I had Stork's affinity of understanding his body language. As it was, I knew it was very odd for Radarr to be out and about without Aerrow close behind. Those two never went anywhere without each other, really.

Then again, it was also pretty weird that I was out here by myself in the twilight hours of the night. What can I say? After that little stunt that Finn almost pulled earlier today, I couldn't really sleep. I mean, my mind was racing. Even now, hours later, I still couldn't believe it.

Had he nearly kissed me? Was that my imagination?

I knew one thing for certain. The guys were really acting weird. Well, Aerrow and Finn, for one. And Stork, too… come to think of it, I hadn't seen much of Stork in the past few hours. It would probably be a good idea to check up on him sometime, I guess. Who knew if he was going to go all paranoid on us all and do something crazy? Not that he had really ever gone totally cuckoo before… most of the time, his weird predictions had some sort of merit.

To tell the truth, lately, I had begun wondering if he wasn't halfway right. About the guys, I mean. They really were acting weird… But something like mind worms? Hah.

Right.

…hmmmm…

"Radarr!" I protested again as he tugged on my collar. "What is it?"

In reply, he shimmied down my arm and leapt onto the desk. His landing scattered the few crystals that were lying out, dropping a couple of them to the floor. I cringed at the racket he was making and almost scolded him..

But I stopped just in time. My lab was still a wreck and yelling at Radarr for moving the mess around a little would accomplish nothing. Finn and Aerrow had tried to put it back together as best they could, but not much could really be done without my supervision aside from sweeping up the floors and righting the furniture from where it had fallen. And don't get me wrong, they had done all that. They had also left all my crystals out where they had found them, and I suspected that they really didn't want to touch them and risk having a similar accident happen to them as what happened to me.

I glared down at my feet. They still hovered a good bit over the deck. I sighed, almost forgetting Radarr and his earnest looks. "What I wouldn't give for a leach crystal right about now…" I sighed.

Radarr glared up at me and snagged my right arm. "What, Radarr?" I asked again, slightly annoyed. "Why don't you go play with Aerrow or something? Or go to bed? Its late." I looked out the window in my lab at that comment. It was dark outside and the stars were winking to life as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

At my mention of Aerrow, Radarr's ears fell flat against his head and his head drooped down. He let out a sort of keening wail that was high pitched but melancholy all the same, hunching his shoulders pitifully. His eyes grew large as he stared up at me.

I stared back. "What's wrong? Is Aerrow okay?" If something bad had happened, then I knew that Radarr would probably have whipped the whole ship into action but his behavior still made me nervous.

The little blue guy tugged on my hand and motioned to the door. I guess he wanted me to follow him. "Okay.." I muttered with a sigh. I really just wanted to be alone right now… but I couldn't really ignore Radarr when he was so worked up.

I followed him out and down the hall, completely at a loss as to where he was going. Every now and then he glanced back over his shoulder to make certain that I was still following him, and each time I gave him an encouraging smile. It was hard to act upbeat when he was so obviously troubled, but since I never really had any luck with guessing what was on his mind, I just had to wait for him to show me.

You can imagine my surprise when he led me straight to my room and stood there waiting for me to open the door, shifting nervously from foot to foot. I raised an eyebrow. "Radarr, I don't think Aerrow is in my room. If you need me to talk to him, we need to go over to his room. He's probably in bed right now, just like everyone else."

Radarr shook his head emphatically and chirped at me again, pointing to my door.

I shook my head. Whatever… if I humored him then maybe I could get some more moping done in my lab before the guys wised up to it.

Hey, sometimes I just need to mope around. And my lab was almost in pieces after a stupid accident.. so give me a break. I had plenty to be moody about, even when you took the rest of the team's weird behavior out of the equation.

Once we were inside my room, Radarr scampered excitedly across the floor and bounded up onto my bed. "Hey!" I protested, "I just made my bed!"

He paid me no mind. Instead, he reached beneath my pillow and fished out what looked like…

No way…

It couldn't be… but…

It was.

Radarr held out a notebook to me. When I took it in my hands and looked down at it, I knew exactly what it was.

Aerrow's name was written in the center of the cover in his typical neat, blocky script. Underneath his name were the words "Wager Log".

I frowned. Back when I first got hit with the floater crystal… didn't I overhear the two of them talking about some sort of bet? I remember Finn making some reference to 'winning' something… And I recognized this book. It was the one that Aerrow normally kept with him. Identical to the one that Finn had been carrying around, too.

Suddenly, I was consumed with a fiery curiosity.

I was pretty sure… I was holding the logbook of their mysterious 'experiment'. All I had to do was open it up…

I cant even begin to describe how bottled up I was starting to feel with the guys excluding me like they were. I mean, I know that just because we're all friends… well, it doesn't mean that they are obligated to share everything with me. Curiosity drove me to want to find out, though. I mean, I had tried to get them to tell me fair and square, right?

They hadn't wanted to. And the worst part is, what they did tell my only fueled the fire. I mean, Aerrow had said that if they let me in on it, the results would be skewed somehow.

Seriously, how lame an excuse is that? Just by someone else knowing about a hypothesis, it could be affected? I doubted that.

And here in my hands, I held the thing that could tell me each and every secret about their so called experiment…

Would it be so horrible to open it up? Maybe just read one page?

The temptation drew me like a moth to a flame.

It was so easy… all I needed to do was flip the cover open.

My fingers hovered over the cardboard cover of the plain notebook. Aerrow's neat handwriting taunted me. Tempted me.

Radarr stared at me from the bed, looking as though he was worried.

I frowned, self conscious all of a sudden. "Why are you bringing this to me?" I asked. "Isnt Aerrow going to be missing this? He doesn't seem to let it out of his sight."

This question brought on a flurry of pantomiming… long story short, I got the gist of what Radarr was trying to get across. Apparently, Aerrow was acting weird and moody and Radarr wanted to know what was wrong. I guess Radarr doesn't read as well as he fixes skimmers, so he needed someone to help him out. And Stork was fairly useless and Junko… well, Junko could read, but we were lucky to get him to hold the paper right side up.

So Radarr had brought me the only thing that he could comprehend as coinciding with Aerrow's weird behavior; his journal.

I sighed. "You know, Radarr… I would kill to read this."

He nodded enthusiastically.

"I dunno. I don't know if it would be a good idea. I mean, Aerrow trusts us, you know? And believe me, I've noticed the strangeness too. I've asked him about it. Wouldn't he tell me if there was something wrong? I mean, we're best friends!"

Radarr cooed a soft whine. I frowned. "You know… maybe we should think on it a little more. I'm going to put this under my mattress. Its getting a little late so maybe in the morning we can think on it a little more. I don't want to betray anyone's trust and… well, I never did get permission to read this… soo…"

Radarr drooped and fussed with my blanket. I held my hands out to him. "I promise, come find me tomorrow morning and we'll think about it some more, okay? Here, let me get you back to Aerrow's room. We should all get some sleep."

He dully nodded his ascent and allowed me to set him up on my shoulder. Then, turning, I began the painstaking task of using my anchor to pull me out the door, down the hall, and to Aerrow's room.

OOO

I was right when I guessed from Radarr's pantomiming that Aerrow was asleep. I knocked loudly on the door, only to be greeted with silence. I gave another round of sharp raps to his door, listening intently, before I heard the rustle of bedclothes and a muffled, "'S'open."

I took the invitation and walked inside, leaving the door open to illuminate the room just a little with the hallway lights. The interior of the room was dark, slightly softened by the window that he had left open to the darkening sky. It was only about nine or ten in the evening, but Aerrow had apparently crashed at least an hour or so ago.

He propped himself up on one elbow when I walked in, his other hand up to his face where he was rubbing his eyes and blinking at the sudden appearance of light. I almost stopped short at the sight of him.

Around the ship, we are very comfortable with each other. Its not strange for the guys to wander around shirtless in the mornings, just like its not a weird sight when I stumble to the bathroom at the start of the day wearing a tank top and shorts. Its just something you tend to get used to when you live on top of four other people… well, five, counting Radarr.

But for some reason, the way that Aerrow sat, blinking blearily at me from his bed with his blanket trying to fall from his lap struck me as…

I dunno. Vulnerable?

Yeah.

It was kinda cute.

He was wearing a set of pajama bottoms with… you guessed it… a print of the Storm Hawks emblem all over it. I saw his uniform folded neatly over the back of his chair, his boots stowed under his bed.

Really, the guy was almost a neat freak. Nearly military precision with almost everything he did.

….right down to the writing in the notebook in my room..

My face burned slightly at the guilty though of that notebook sitting there under my pillow, its owner unaware of its whereabouts.

"Piper? Ev'thing alright?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep. I jumped with a start when he spoke, his voice jarring me out of my guilty memory.

"Y-yeah. I was just coming to see how you are doing." I replied.

He looked confused. "I'm okay.. a little tire, but that's because its.. "He looked at his clock. "Ten thirty? I only fell asleep a couple hours ago…"

"Yeah. Sorry to wake you up. Radarr came and found me.. I guess he got locked out or something when you went to bed," I lied. Aerrow frowned.

"Weird… coulda sworn he was here when I laid down.." He trained his eyes on me, blurred with sleep but the green still managed to be shocking even in the wan light. "Are you okay, Piper?" he questioned, his tone becoming a tad concerned.

I blushed. That was the same tone he had used when he walked in earlier that day… when Finn had been leaning over me with that strange look in his eye.

When Finn has almost kissed me.

After Finn had excused himself, Aerrow had asked me much the same question, in much the same tone. Almost like he was worried that something had happened between Finn and I. He had stopped just short of asking me for a play by play of Finn's whole visit.

It's kinda touching, having someone go so protective over me like that. I mean, its not like I couldn't have handled Finn myself, but it felt nice to know that Aerrow was there if I needed his help.

I have to admit… the look in Finn's eyes had made me breathless. I mean, I was never the type of girl to have guys falling all over themselves, and when he had looked at me then…

As much as I hated to admit it, the expression he wore had made my heart beat a little faster. Made my breath come a bit quicker.

Made me feel almost… special?

I know, I know. Finn, of all people. But still, it feels nice sometimes… well… to be seen as a girl, I guess.

"Piper?" came Aerrow's voice gently. Again, I was snapped back to the present. "Are you alright? Do you need anything?"

During my little trip down memory lane, he had scooted to the edge of the bed and swung his legs over the side so that he could train his attention on me.

All my thoughts of being seen as a female, rather than as 'one of the guys' decided to take that moment to backfire on me. I mean, Aerrow's a good looking guy, and the expression on his face right now was one of concern and…

Something else. Something that looked frighteningly similar to what Finn had displayed earlier. The same thing that caused me to have butterflies in my stomach…

I blinked. "Oh. Uh, Radarr. I came to bring Radarr back here." I was close enough to hand the furry blue animal over to Aerrow, so I did. As I leaned over and passed Radarr over, Aerrow's hands touched mine.

Now, that wouldn't normally be a big deal, but when they brushed against my fingers, they lingered for a moment, before sliding gracefully down to my fingertips, then relieving me of Radarr's weight.

I glanced up at him, and was surprised to see his eyes watching me over blushing cheeks. He looked away, busying himself with situating Radarr down on the bed. "Uh… thanks," he said, a little gruffly. Then he darted a look at me from the corner of his eye. "Um… do you need help getting back to your room?"

I was all fluttery again, all of a sudden. "I… I think I should be able to make it alright. It wont take me long."

He stood, carefully placing the blanket over Radarr, who burrowed happily in its folds. "Nonsense. I'll take you to your room. You need to get some sleep, after last night. Hopefully Finn's contraption will help."

"Uhh… okay."

Aerrow gently placed a hand on the small of my back and helped me back to my room while I held my anchor, the warmth emanating from his bare torso serving as a reminder of how…

Well, how adorable guys are when they're tired and sleepy.

Once he had deposited me back in my room, he had lingered for a few moments as though he had something on his mind… but after a minute, he simply bid my a quick good night and disappeared into the hallway. I lay in my sleeping back, floating tethered to the wall. My mind, though tired, was racing.

How strange. Two guys who I have always considered my best friends in all the world.. and now, of all times, I was getting all fluttery and breathy about them both? I mean… After the way Finn acted this afternoon… Aerrow's awkward moments all throughout the day…

It was so weird.

I mean, was something going on?

And for goodness sake… Why did it make me feel so…

So…

Nervous?

OOO

Okay, there we go. Plot seems to be moving along a little more now.

It was a tossup between doing Finn's POV, or Piper's… and well, this chapter almost demanded to be done. Not to mention that Piper was paired up with Twilight, in any case.

Poll results!

Twilight (Piper) – 72 percent

Dawn (Aerrow) – 9 percent

Dusk (Stork) – 9 percent

Morning (Junko) - 4 percent

Afternoon (Finn) – 4 percent

The next poll will be… oh, I think it will have to be a choice of plot subject. Each will be paired with a character, blah blah blah, tell me who you would rather hear from in reviews, blah.

Also, just to address some of the assumptions people are making (don't worry, no spoilers)… as of this moment, right now, typing this, I have absolutely no idea which way this is going to go. No idea who will win. In fact, it is my intention that when I am ready to writ the grand finale, the readership polls will dictate the outcome. I predict that it will be an event worth waiting for, so I wouldn't be too surprised if it takes me a tad longer than my normal update speed to write the final chapter. We aren't there yet, though. I am shooting for an end to this story between 15 and 20 chapters, but who knows?

Also, I was getting complaints about Aerrow not getting enough fluffiness. I hope this tides you people over, and I promise a bit more Aerrow fluff later on.

And Radarr finally showed up. He wasn't in a coma, I swear!

Stork DOES have more purpose, I promise. The way you people are pulling the storyline is making it hard for me to work it in overtly, but I promise you'll like what he has up his sleeve when… he reveals it in all his paranoid glory.

Also, sorry a bit about the skips in my update schedule. I am in the middle of transferring to a new duty station so things are getting hectic. Also, a word of warning: Come June 2nd I will be offline for probably the entire month. I don't foresee this fic taking until then to complete though… but ya never know.

By the way, a special nod and thank you goes out to Madame Lady and Crimson Fox4 for letting me brainstorm, using them as sounding boards. If you haven't read their stuff (and review it too!) then get on over there! Now!

Also, since I forgot to credit Archer for the help with Piper's sleeping restraints, I extend my thanks now. It was in a review that s/he gave me the idea, and since you don't leave signed reviews, I couldn't reply to the review itself. (wags a finger) naughty naughty.

Anyhow, sorry for the long winded author's note. Please review. I love reviews. Especially constructive criticism. Also, if people could tell me what they particularly liked AND disliked about my writing… well, it helps me do a better job. (And I reply to all signed reviews, by the way.)

Thank you for reading!