By Sapadu

Chapter 5: Fit

fit /fɪt/ Pronunciation Key – [fit

–adjective

1. adapted or suited; appropriate

2. proper or becoming

3. qualified or competent, as for an office or function

5. in good physical condition; in good health

–verb (used with object)

9. to be of the right size or shape for

10. to adjust or make conform

11. to make qualified or competent

12. to prepare

–verb (used without object)

15. to be suitable or proper

–noun

18. something that fits

Kendalina woke up in time for her shift, but next to an empty spot on the bed, which made her mad. It was with a great deal of temper, foot stomping, and muttering under her breath that she washed her face in the sink and set out for the medcenter.

"C'nny ask ya a favor?" She asked of the Medic. The Medic gave her an odd look, but didn't say no, so Kendalina continued, "Coudja delay Triclops from goin' home 'fore I gedda chance to talk to him?" The Medic was puzzled as Kendalina asked this, but considered it.

"Why do you suddenly want to see him?" She asked, eyes not moving from the schedule of surgeries that were set for today, "Don't the two of you live together?"

"Yeah, but he's started avoidin' me- he's been workin' night shifts when I've gotta be here durin'a day, and he didn't come home at all th'last few nigh's..."

"I don't think that's something I should get involved in. After all, we are kind of short on the nightstaff."

"BUAH?"

"He IS filling in for someone. And in the nursery, we need people in there even more than we need people in the Emergency Operation Rooms. And if we stop him from going back home to get some sleep, we endanger his health- if he's working around the infants, his health condition has to be perfect, or the little ones will get sick as well." The Medic said, firmly, and Kendalina knew that no amount of begging or arguing or insulting would change her mind. Unlike most women in this medcenter, this one had a thick skin and wasn't swayed, easily or otherwise, by anything- even the director of the medcenter had a hard time getting her to do what he wanted, if it wasn't strictly in line with medical duties. Even threats and sexual harassment didn't seem to faze this woman.

It was something Kendalina rather liked about her, but it made persuasion damn near impossible.

Heart surgery was scheduled next- supposedly one of those bypass things, so Kendalina had to have her hands scrubbed, even as she knew that she wouldn't even need to cut the guy open. Why the hell couldn't people just eat healthy? Nobody should be allowed to eat so much crap that this happened to their heart in the first place... the food manufacturers, distributers, advertisers... Geez us, what was WRONG with people today?

Just before she went into the room, the Medic whispered in her ear,

"I'll have him fill out an employment application before he leaves- if he's working the nightshift, he has to be officially employed, anyway."

Kendalina didn't look back, but somehow or another, felt very queer on the inside... it almost seemed too easy that the stone-wall Medic was actually giving in.

Triclops was dizzy with sleepiness and too much caffeine when his shift ended. He wasn't used to staying awake, so it was suddenly sounding quite appealing to sleep during the day, except he heard someone call him into an office.

It was the medic in charge of the maternity ward.

"Triclops, since you've begun working the nightshift with regularity for the past several weeks, we cannot allow you to go on, unofficially being paid. A person has to be fully employed to work here on a night shift or more than three hours in a row on one day. Furthermore there are implications such as tax evasion that must be addressed, as well as employed insurance. As such, I need you to..."

Triclops' head was resting on his chest, leaving him virtually dead to the world.

"WAKE UP!"

Triclops' head jerked up,

"The fishcakes are attacking... wait, wha?" He mumbled, half in a sleepy daze. With an exasperated sigh, the medic pushed a datapad and electric pen towards him, pointing to the lines he needed to fill out.

"Fill out the indicated areas. If you have any questions, feel free to ask." Triclops blinked a few more times, then absently started to fill out what he could. His name... his approximate age... his address... it came naturally, for some reason. He didn't even think as the pen moved.

For some reason, as Triclops had filled out everything he could and looked up to ask a question, his face found itself mostly stuck into a black, fabric covered, rock-hard something. Blinking a few time, Triclops almost fell off his chair as he realized what, exactly, he'd had his nose stuck into.

"Trike, your nose is digging inta my ribs and tha' hurts." Triclops almost jumped at Kendalina's voice, but didn't drop the datapad.

"...Kenda..." He stammered for a moment. He had still not forgotten Kendalina's self-proclaimed antagonism for the male half of the species.

In all fairness, he supposed, it made sense. Her father and uncles had been horrible Human Beings, then it had moved up to the Baron who had attempted to take Triclops away, then Master Windu, whom she had deemed the one behind the conspiracy to throw Mater Retaw out of the Temple because 'He'd just wanted to get into her pants and was mad that she liked girls instead of him', then the Chancellor, whom Triclops had never met, but he knew was an all-around unpleasant individual, then, of course, the man yesterday, who'd strangled his own daughter... Perhaps Kendalina wasn't too far from the mark that Human men were mostly all the same.

But... it still left a wound that she thought that he, Triclops, was like that. Or maybe he was just too scared that, maybe, as he grew older, he would change for the worse.

God knew he'd already...

Triclops looked to the floor. Kendalina moved so that he was forced to look at her.

"You've been avoidin' me." Kendalina's tone was almost cheerful, if the grin on her face wasn't, which only made Triclops' eyes shift in any direction but her face.

"Trike, I don't like coming home to an empty apartment- why're you deliberately avoiding me?" Kendalina demanded, still grinning. Triclops still didn't look at her, but eventually just said it.

"Because I do not want to upset you."

Kendalina's face warped a little before she let out a very bizarre noise.

"What the hell? Upset me? 'Ve'you been doin' somethin' bad?" Kendalina asked, suspiciously, "What? Stealin'? Drugs? Don't tell me you ben goin' back into the 'Sell-my-body-for-a-quick-credit' shit..."

Triclops pulled a face, for once, and gave Kendalina a rather offended and disgusted glance.

"No..."

"Then wha' the Kriffin' hells d'ya think you've done that'll upset me?" Kendalina demanded, voice rising in pitch, which made Triclops very glad that the medic had stepped out and wasn't hearing Kendalina swear like this.

"Having to come home to me." He replied, simply. Kendalina made a face of her own that made Triclops wonder if she was somehow or another mutating- her lips twisted, one cheek sagged while the other lifted and her eyebrows made two different curved shapes. It looked rather painful.

"Shnuh?"

"Because we are all the same, right?" Kendalina blinked, before a horrified look started to come to her face, "We are all stupid, arrogant, greedy, overbearing..." Triclops left out the expletive, "...pigs, right?" Kendalina bit her lip, then frowned, then looked pained, again.

"Trike, that's different." She said, shakily, but Triclops gave her a quizzical look.

"Different?" He asked, quietly. His voice sounded hoarse, almost even that dangerous threatening tone that his other self seemed to use, except he had no intention of threatening her. Part of that might have come from his evil alter ego that emerged when he was sleepy, but he was also genuinely annoyed, "So you are just going to take back your words, just like that? Or did you not mean them? Were you lying or just saying something to get the women in that group on your side?"

"Don't you try to pull that shit on me!" Kendalina snapped, angrily, but Triclops continued to stare her down.

"Well, which is it? Did you mean it or not?" Triclops asked. Kendalina's nose wrinkled.

"Trike... you're giving me a no-win question here... If I say 'Yes', then you're going to think I hate everyone- including you. If I say 'No', you're going to assume I'm going back on what I said and then I'm suddenly not the same stubborn bitch anymore." Kendalina said, with an annoyed and frustrated note in her voice.

"That is possible." Triclops agreed, noncommittally, unrepentant. Kendalina should have been more careful in her words if she didn't want this situation.

"What do you want me to say that will make you happy?" Kendalina finally demanded. Her tone was aggravated, but obviously more aggravated than she really felt. Triclops blinked for a moment, wondering precisely why it both relieved and bothered him that Kendalina had asked what would make him HAPPY, of all things.

"How about the truth?" Triclops finally said, softly. Kendalina raised an eyebrow, but shrugged after a few minutes with a disgusted sigh.

"Fine- I'll be honest. I DID mean it. Human men suck ass, among other things, we'd be better off with just women and buying our baby-makin' cells from a sperm bank, and overall, they're just unpleasant creatures. I hate Human men, never intend to spend my time in their company if I can help it, and will probably not get married to one nor have any children with one." Kendalina's tone was nonchalant, almost even proud of the hateful words coming out of her mouth, "Happy now?"

Triclops still didn't look at her, staring away and feeling his eyes smarting. Kendalina let out a frustrated noise that sounded suspiciously like a vulgar slang phrase for reproduction.

"Obviously not- why'n 'a fucking hell d'you ask me to tell ya this stuff when it's only gonna upset you?" Kendalina shouted, nose wrinkling again, "If this didn't make ya happy, what EXACTLY did you wanna hear?"

"In all honesty, I would have liked to hear something along the lines of your rant about men being misheard, construed, or misinterpreted because it was out of context, but only if that was the truth." Triclops replied, some what agitated.

"You DID mishear it- or at least part!" Kendalina shouted, which was starting to fray at Triclops' nerves, since he really wasn't comfortable with this conversation being over heard like it was sure to be now, "I said HUMAN men!"

"Oh, and that makes everything better." Triclops agreed, mildly sarcastic. Not being allowed to sleep was fraying at his nerves even more now.

"Why the fuck are YOU upset that I think Human men are useless assholes?" Kendalina demanded. Already short on temper, Triclops glared at her.

"Kendalina, this might come as a shock to you, but if you told a Wookie you hate furry aliens, he would be offended, if you told a Cow that you hate things with udders, she would be offended, and if you tell a Man that you hate males, he's going to be VERY offended."

"Whaddas THIS have to do with why YOU'RE upset?" Kendalina demanded, and as Triclops was about to say some very hurtful words about Kendalina's intelligence and lack thereof, she continued, "You're not either Human or a man, and you're not stupid, overbearing, greedy, or arrogant. You don't push me around, except for when I'm about to get my sorry ass into trouble, an' even then, you just distract me- an' it's not like I'm that tough to distract, anyhow- you don't act like you're smarter or stronger or better than me- well, how can you, when I could whip your ass in two seconds and talk circles around you if we got inta a shoutin' match or somethin'?- an' yeh don' treat me like I'm yer bitch with a collar 'round my neck. HOW THE HELL DOES ANY OF MY OPINION OF HUMAN MEN RELATE TO YOU?"

Triclops raised his own voice.

"KENDALINA, PLEASE BREATHE BEFORE YOU PASS OUT." He said, over her. Kendalina did just that, red in the face from her lack of oxygen. After taking a few deep breaths, Kendalina almost flopped backwards, except that Triclops had had the foresight to put a hand on her shoulder.

"If I am not Human or a man, then what do YOU call me? I am certainly Humanoid and male and most would classify me as a man." Kendalina rolled her eyes.

"Fuckin' semantics." She muttered, "You're a TRICLOPS, of course."

Triclops blinked.

"And either way, you're still just a boy."

Triclops blinked, again.

"Are you two done flirting, yet?" The medic had returned, and was annoyed, "Triclops has to fill out that form, still, and there's another surgery appointment in ten minutes."

Triclops blinked a few more times, before Kendalina snatched the datapad out of his hand.

"I'll fill this out- I think I should, anyway. Trike, you spelled your name 'Krill-Esk-Nern-Dorn-Aurek-Leth-Osk-Peth-Senth', and the address you put down is a local grocer which sells only onio..."

Almost as though someone had flipped a switch, Triclops had fallen asleep, right in his seat.

"Triclops..." Kendalina kept nudging her roommate with her toe, but he was, essentially, sleeping like a rock. Nothing would wake Triclops when he was like this, and after their confrontation in the medcenter office, Kendalina wasn't so sure she WANTED him to wake up.

Still... she'd made a real lunch and it was at least edible. She wanted him awake, damn it!

Triclops wasn't awake at an hour past noon. Kendalina ate by herself and kept the rest warm as she waited for him to wake up.

Finally, an hour before the nightshift started, Kendalina had to coax Triclops awake. First she poked and prodded, then dripped cold water on his forehead, then had to force his mouth open and stuff a ladle full of beans into it.

That woke Triclops up, albeit with a great deal of coughing.

As he cleared his throat and swallowed the beans, he gave Kendalina a curious glance, not questioning as she pushed him a bowl of stew that was more like paste than liquid.

"Kendalina, you are a medic- would you not know better than to do that?" Triclops asked, timidly. Kendalina shrugged.

"I also know whadda do if it goes wrong. An' I know you well 'nuff I'm preddy sure you ain't gon' dah frommit."

Triclops paused, before he quickly finished his stew. It wasn't as good as some other food he'd tasted, but it was certainly the best Kendalina had ever made, and that counted for something. It was actually bland, as opposed to bad, and the texture was mostly the smoothness of mashed beans and yams, with the occasional crunch of a charbote root. Maybe if they had a little bit of salt or some kind of spice to liven the flavor, it wouldn't be too unbearable.

It also seemed to be distinctly Correllian. How very Kendalina.

"Anyhow, I hadda wake y'all up- Yeh ha'nt had lunch, so ya needed to eat SUMMIN' 'fore nightshift start'd..." Kendalina added, pointing to the timepiece with her toe, "A'er our 'alk inna me'cenner, I move'a cover 'a nigh'shif' innie 'merg'cy room..." The words from Kendalina's mouth were muffled by the extra mouthful of food she'd stuffed into it, but Triclops understood, anyway, the way he always did. As he glanced at the timepiece himself, it suddenly struck him how they had to be at the medcenter in fifteen minutes. He quickly finished his food, then pulled his shoes back on, ready to go.

"Trike." Kendalina's voice butted into his head as she put her bowl and his into the wash basin. Triclops paused and the eye in the back of his head opened- he could see Kendalina stretching, scratching her head, and just in general taking her sweet time in getting up and ready to go. But Triclops knew that she had something she needed to say.

"When we get back home in the mornin', we're gonna have a TALK."

Triclops stopped himself from gulping at the foreboding sound of that 'Talk'. It could only mean something bad.

The next morning, as the sky over their heads changed from glowing with the yellow-green lights of nighlit clubs, offices, buildings, and apartments to the stormy, cloudy, steel blue of the sun just barely about to rise on the horizon, Triclops and Kendalina found their way back to their apartment and both lay down on their shared mattress.

The world outside had been chilly with the nip of morning mist and cold metal buildings, and both the two felt as though the slight frost in the air had gone straight to their bones like icy needles. Under the blanket and curled up, Triclops shivered with the escaping chill and the comforting warmth of the covers, as though snuggling under them was only making him shiver more. Next to him, he could feel Kendalina doing the same, and he had no doubt it was for the same reasons.

Both of them were exhausted, perhaps Kendalina even more than Triclops, as she hadn't slept at all yesterday and had had to drag Triclops home from his nightshift. That night, more children had been born with defects and put into the nursery, and it had been a miserable experience for him to try to comfort them. The parents disappeared as soon as the children were born, and while the deformities were not life-threatening, none of the children could be made comfortable, no matter what the medics or people in the nursery did- something inside of those little ones just didn't work correctly, and it was causing them a never ending pain.

Meanwhile, Triclops knew Kendalina had been the one to deliver each and every one of those children- either the mothers had to be cut open because of the deformity making natural birth impossible, or they'd come in from an emergency as it stood. One of the women who Kendalina had operated on that night had been half-dead when she'd arrived in the emergency room and, while Kendalina had managed to save her life, she would be paralyzed, blind, deaf, and mute for the rest of her life because so many portions of her brain had shut down from blood loss.

Before Triclops could even stop himself, he was shaking for a second reason, face buried into the pillow.

Kendalina's hand touched his shoulder.

"...It is just like with Master Yaddle..." Triclops whispered, and didn't need to see to know the look of shock on Kendalina's face, "...Is what you are thinking, right?" Kendalina's hand became an arm, and a second one touched his other shoulder, wrapping around his back.

"Yeah..." She muttered, barely audible.

"...Because... you think... you should have been able... to save them... because... since they all left with incurable injuries... you think you have failed... is that right?" Triclops continued. Kendalina's voice choked, but he heard her make a confirming noise.

He couldn't help it anymore- Triclops started to cry, in loud, shaking wails. Kendalina didn't even seem surprised- she just held onto him tighter. She didn't try to muffle him against her shoulder or even mumble for him to 'Shush', but just patted his back and waited for the howling to stop.

"...Is it going to be like that every night?" Triclops finally asked. He'd never noticed new additions to the nursery before, and when he'd worked in the day, occasionally he'd notice a few new little ones, but not enough that he ever wondered where they'd come from.

"...Maybe, Trike..." Kendalina finally answered, "...Night is the most dangerous time for women and children... there are more emergency calls at night than during the day... Rapes, murders, beatings, robberies... Women are helpless in the dark."

Triclops' arms wrapped around Kendalina's waist and clung to her, tightly. Kendalina squeezed him back, still comforting his screams.

It wasn't until the sun had risen that Triclops finally quieted, and Kendalina spoke.

"Trike..."

Triclops' head was resting in her lap, arms still tightly latched around her waist and eyes shut. His third eye opened again and looked up at her to show he acknowledged her speaking to him- he didn't trust his voice not to give out on him if he tried to say something.

"...Thanks." Triclops lifted his head from Kendalina's lap and looked at her with his front two eyes, curiously, "...Since I've gotten this apartment and started working at the medcenter... it was harder and harder for me to be emotional at times... While you were still in the holding cell and I was still at the Temple, there were a lot of times I just didn't want to get out of bed because I didn't want to have to face all the miserable people at the medcenter... teenage moms whose dad's kicked them out... drunkards who we can only give them their last meal and watch as they slowly die of poisoning without their livers... old people whose hearts just don't want to keep beating... little kids whose moms did spice while they were pregnant..."

Triclops said nothing.

"...It's hard to get up and go to that everyday. But... if I ever showed any emotion... got upset if a surgery just couldn't have been won or cheered if I actually saved someone's life... it felt like all the other medics... especially the Men... like they were all staring down at me with scorn in their eyes... like it was so WRONG to show any sign of emotion... I mean, the Men in the medcenter are used to being stoic and 'tough' like that... but for the women, because we're kind of already intruding into their field... since being a medic was something only Men could do for a long time... we have to be even more stoic and tough. We can't even have a break down when we're off the clock. I swear, sometimes, I can feel some intern following me home from the medcenter everyday to make sure I don't start crying as soon as I exit the doors."

Without a word, Triclops lowered his head back onto Kendalina's knees.

"...So... thanks for doing it for me... it makes me feel like I can actually do something... to be able to comfort somebody else... instead of having to be helpless and useless against everything."

Triclops' eyes closed again.

"It was nothing." He murmured.

"That's why it pisses me off so much." Kendalina finally said, which made Triclops sit up with a confused expression, "To see you be so relaxed." Triclops frowned and tilted his head a little.

Kendalina was frowning, but with her eyes closed, as though she were glaring at the inside of her eyelids. She had folded her arms behind her head to act as a pillow as she leaned back against the wall, and as Triclops lifted off of her legs, Kendalina promptly crossed them at the ankles, knees jutting out to the sides.

"I mean... you've got it so EASY... I know you've gotta have SOME kind of opinions about stuff that's happening in the galaxy, but you never SAY anything for yourself... Even we female medics get to yell and bitch about stuff like stupid tax laws and how the war is taking good medics away from home to the front where they're gonna get killed and shit like that." Kendalina went on, snorting through her nose, "But you never say nothin'."

Triclops blinked for a moment, before he asked,

"Did you have a point in there?"

Kendalina's eyes opened and she shot an annoyed glare at him.

"Yeah- SPEAK UP, DAMMIT!"

Triclops blinked, taken aback.

"...Ah..." He finally managed, before Kendalina rolled her eyes, sighed, then stood up and walked over to the door, grabbing her credit purse.

"I'm gonna go get somethin' from a restaurant- I don' feel like cookin' or waitin' for youda cook..."

Kendalina stopped as Triclops stood up and grabbed her wrist. After a long pause, Kendalina looked back over her shoulder and cocked an eyebrow.

"Speak up... is what you said..." Triclops explained, slowly. Kendalina blinked, once, twice, before turning around fully and putting her hands on her hips, leaning against the door frame, almost impatiently, "...Could you get sandwiches? ...For lunch?"

Kendalina's lower lip jutted out in bemusement, but she finally grinned, lips spreading wide enough that Triclops could see little pink triangles of her gums.

"Anything specific you wan' on 'em?" She asked.

"Vegetarian... maybe with some cheese..." Kendalina grinned again and almost took off again. Just as she got outside the door, Triclops had a second thought and grabbed her arm again.

"WHAT NOW?" She demanded, loudly, "The sooner I leave, the sooner I get back, and then the sooner we can eat and sleep."

"This is something else..." Triclops said, quietly, much to Kendalina's chagrin.

"Can't it wait?"

"I will forget." Triclops explained. Kendalina's feet stopped rising and dropping in paused runs as she exasperatedly turned around again to give Triclops her full, if almost sarcastically so, attention.

"When I asked... if you would ever have children..." Kendalina blinked, hard, obviously irritated, "You said that, if you ever did, I would always be welcome to visit and play with them..."

Kendalina rolled her eyes.

"Like I said- I'd suck ass as a mom, but if I did have kids by some freak of nature or change of heart or somethin' like that, I meant what I said... Well... I'd pro'lly adopt or go to a sperm bank... or the kids would be half-breeds or somethin' like that, but in any case, I'm not takin' back what I sai'ta you 'bout bein' their Uncle or somethin'..." Kendalina recounted, toe tapping on the floor with aggravation. Triclops shook his head.

"That is not what I wanted to know." Triclops said, shakily. Kendalina's eyebrows shot up, and Triclops couldn't look her in the face anymore- he just couldn't. He felt too ashamed, for some reason.

"...I... If I am not a Human man, in your eyes..." Triclops said, slowly, "...I would like... I would hope... Could I be something... MORE than an Uncle?" Triclops glanced up at Kendalina's puzzled expression, before he looked down at his feet and swallowed around the lump that seemed to be forming in his throat, "... If you would not mind... I would like to be... a father, perhaps..." Triclops heard his voice crack and go up a few pitches, so he stopped to take a breath and calm down, before he added, "... But... only if you were the mother..."

Triclops didn't look up at Kendalina but he heard her say three things,

"Oh?" The first was a question, as though she didn't understand, or possibly doubted, what Triclops had said, "OH!" The second was understanding, the jumbled words Triclops had spewed out actually having some clarity at last, "...Ooohhh..." Triclops didn't know what THAT noise meant.

A loud growling noise interrupted the contemplative moment, and both their faces went red, before Kendalina dragged Triclops back into their apartment.

"We can survive on ration bars for a day."

After a brief meal of nutrient paste that Triclops had gotten on his last day off and a nap, Kendalina and Triclops spent the afternoon before their shifts talking out the bumps in their relationship and soothing the hurt feelings their miscommunications had caused.

"That explains why you kept trying to avoid me- because you overheard me talkin' with the Furies and thought I meant you, too..." Kendalina noted at the end of their conversation, arms folded and nodding sagely. She almost looked wise, except for the fact that Triclops had just finished his explanation of his own trying situation.

"...I think most people would have realized it sooner..." Triclops mumbled, eyebrows raised slightly. Kendalina ignored him.

"And I thought that you were just being obtuse or something weird like that..." She continued, as though Triclops hadn't said anything.

"...How long have we known each other, again?" Again, Triclops put in, and again, Kendalina ignored him.

"So... You like me as more than a friend, and I like you as more than a friend, and that's why the both of us have been acting weird around the other. NOW it all makes sense..." There was a satisfied smile on Kendalina's face, like she'd just solved a great, intimidating mathematical equation that had been formerly deemed unsolvable. Triclops looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"You are only just now figuring that out?" He muttered, more to himself than anything.

"This should be pretty easy to solve... I mean, we're living together, already, so nobody'll ask weird questions and put more pressure on us... HEY! Trike, do you wanna go out for dinner before we haftago to our shifts?" Kendalina asked, sitting up, eyes bright. Her voice had suddenly changed from the sarcastic pensive and not-really-intelligent tone it had been a few moments ago, and was now cheerful, optimistic, and bright. It caught Triclops off guard, but after a few minutes blinking, he managed a nod.

"How about a noodle vendor? Or maybe a HappyPatty chain? Since this is kind of short-notice, it probably shouldn't be anywhere fancy... Or what about the sandwich deli, since we didn't get them for lunch?" Kendalina asked, but Triclops shook his head.

"Why don't we go to a noodle vendor, get a take-out order for you, then go to a sandwich deli, I will buy my own meal, and then we eat in a public square or park?" He offered, with a small smile. Kendalina blinked, frowning, but then grinned and started to laugh, loudly.

"Alright- but I'm buyin' everythin'." Triclops blinked at her for a moment, curiously, "Otherwise, 'snot a date."

Triclops continued to stare, before his eyelids lowered, just a little. His expression was a combination of guilty, curious, and hurt all at once.

"Mmm? Trike?" She asked, lips pursing, before Triclops got to his feet.

"Is it really okay for you?" He asked, quietly. Kendalina blinked, several times.

"Vaas?"

"...Is it really... something that you can accept? To be in a relationship like this? Is it really okay for you to be attached to another person and to have to give up some things for that relationship?" Triclops wasn't insecure, but his face was serious, mature, rational. He was asking the question as an adult would ask a matter of insurance and retirement to their financial adviser. He was asking to be serious.

Kendalina stared at him for a moment, but grinned again.

"I'm used to having someone with me. I can't be completely independent and not need someone- ever since I was little, Master Retaw took care of me because I couldn't do anything for myself, since I was blind an' everything... That one year that you were in the containment cells, I was more scared than I'd ever been in my life." Kendalina waved his concern away, "I brought you along because I needed a relationship with someone, even if it was as an old, childhood friend who I could bitch to when I had a bad day." Kendalina rolled backwards, then made a curved jumping motion that went from her weight resting on her neck joints to her feet being on the floor under her body as she stood, "Besides... I'll need a partner to keep my feet on the ground."

They left their apartment, Kendalina locking the door behind them and leading the way down the hall, before Triclops stopped, again. Kendalina paused, before Triclops spoke.

"I will do my part, then." He said, in a quiet, but decisive tone, "If you will be able to give up your privacy, space, time, and complete freedom for me... then I will commit to help you find Master Retaw and bring her back."

Kendalina turned around and stared at Triclops, eyes shimmering a little and jaw slack, but almost imperceptibly.

"She is important to you... and she is important to me, too. You said that if it was for your Master, you could do anything. I will do the same, now." Triclops' declaration was soft, but iron firm, and there was a new feeling of unity, now that he said it. Before, Kendalina had been always acting on her own, declaring things left and right, making decisions for the both of them.

Now, Triclops was signing the contract, himself.

Kendalina reached back and took one of Triclops' hands, interlocking her fingers with his and squeezing.

Dinner was, indeed, a date that night. Every passerby that even caught a glimpse of the two knew it without even needing to ask.

A/N: Now... a break for me! I've got to work on my other fics and my actual original fiction, which I'm hoping to have published... sometime in my life span... Enjoy the fluff while it lasts... And in the scene with Triclops filling out the form... he wrote his name as 'Kendalops'. I've done that, sometimes... if I'm REALLY sleepy... write half of one name and half of another. Speaking of which (YAWNS) bedtime for me...