AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Due to popular demand (and my own desire to write it) this is an alternate ending!

Finn

I was surprised.

She had given me back the guitar strings and also given me the shard after refining it a little bit after my comment about making it into a pick. I was surprised, especially since I had meant it completely as a joke. But after I had helped finish up the lab clean up, she had disappeared for a few hours, leaving me to my own devices. I didn't really expect her to take me seriously about the shard and I was just happy to have the strings back in the first place. I had gone back to my room to amuse myself with restringing and tuning my guitar.

I was strumming quietly, for once, not following any real tune or song, when I heard a quiet knock on my door. I glanced at my clock. It was pretty late by this time. Close to midnight.

"Yeah," I called out, not really stopping the movement of my fingers on the strings. It felt so nice to finally have my rock machine back. Even though I had to be careful to keep from playing too loud at the moment. It wasn't so much that I was worried about waking everyone up. I just didn't really need Stork whining at me about how many ways you could die from getting insufficient sleep.

My door opened with a muted hum and Piper stepped into the room with a smile on her face. "Hey."

"Hm?" I looked up in surprise. "What's up? And… you aren't floating anymore?"

She had a giant smile on her face. "Yeah. I had another shard in my leg… and I figured that maybe if it was gone I could be normal again. It took me almost an hour to get out, too." She grimaced and pointed down at a bandage that was wrapped around her knee. I grimaced.

"You should have come asked for some help or something."

"It was no big deal," she said with a shrug, "I mean, I could see this one. Its not like it was on my shoulder like the last one. Speaking of which…" She held out the crystal shard that had come from her shoulder. It had been filed down and gently shaped to a perfect pick. It floated just above her fingers. I could see the vibrant pinkish-purple hues that reflected from the surface of the crystal dance slowly over Piper's features.

That… looked so cool.

I jumped up from my bed with a giant grin on my face. "Suh-weet!" I exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

I reached out to take it but she closed her hand around it and pulled away in what was almost a playful manner. "Ah-ah," she reprimanded, holding her hand above her head.

"What?"

"I said you'd get your strings back. Never said you could have the guitar pick that you did nothing to earn."

"But you said that I could have that crystal!"

"Yeah, and I refined it into a pick. So if you want the pick, you'll have to earn it."

I frowned, feeling slightly deflated. "I already cleaned up your lab for you," I reminded her, "not to mention the fact that I pulled that crystal out of you in the first place. And its not my fault that you didn't come to me for help with the second splinter! So what am I suppose to do for you now? I mean, if I keep being so nice, I'm sure that Stork is going to end up putting me out of my misery for acting so out of character."

Piper laughed. "If you want the pick…" she let the threat hang in the air.

I will never understand women.

And I did want that pick. How cool would that pick be? I mean, it floats. I don't remember anyone ever having a pick that floats. And besides, it would go to waste if I didn't use it. No one else here played the guitar…not that I knew of, anyway.

I squirmed for a moment, sitting back down on my bed with a grumpy noise. After a few moments of enduring her smug, satisfied look, I sighed. "Okay. What do you want?"

"Oh… I dunno." She replied. "Maybe I'll think of something later."

I watched in dismay as she pocketed the pick and turned to leave.

"Hey!" I cried, standing up again and letting the guitar lean up against the bed, "That's not right. You cant just come in here and show me that, then leave for no reason. No way!"

She looked over her shoulder at me and laughed. "What are you going to do about it?"

I growled, frustrated. "Well…"

She just smirked. That infuriating, superior smirk that she had probably perfected way back before she ever even met me.

"Well…" I repeated, knowing full well that I had no idea what to say next. I just didn't want to let her walk away with that pick. Who knows when I would see it again?

So I stood impotently in the center of the room, glaring daggers at the girl. She continued to face me with the serene expression of a person who knows she holds all the cards.

After a few minutes, she took pity on me. "Well… come to think of it, there is one thing that you have that I want… I am willing to trade."

"Oh, really?" I asked, wincing when a bit of my normal sarcasm sneaked into my voice. I didn't really need to come off a snarky right now. That pick was on the line.

She crossed her arms, letting one hand drift up to tap thoughtfully on her lips. "Yeah.. I do have something that you can help me with."

"Okay. Name it," I said with bravado.

"Anything?"

"Sure."

She smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"What?"

"That's I could choose anything in exchange for this pick. And you do mean anything, right?"

"That's what I said, right?" I replied, feeling the frustration starting to well up. I wanted that pick!

"Okay."

She wandered to the other side of my room. Her back was turned to me and since I knew she couldn't see, I allowed my eyes to trace over the delicate curve of her shoulder. She moved with a kind of light grace, I noted, and she didn't seem to be aware of the effect that she had on me. That was a good thing, really. The last thing I needed was Piper being weirded out by the fact that I was starting to see her as… well, cute, I guess.

I was distracted. That's my excuse. That's why I didn't realize at first that she had reached down to the surface of my desk and grabbed my notebook.

You know, the one I had been keeping my notes about the wager between Aerrow and I?

Yeah.

She snagged it, quicker than I would have given her credit for, and spun around to face me with a smug smile on her face. "Okay. Then here's our trade."

I was already up and across the room at the sight of that journal in her hands. When I reached for it, she dodged and leaned away, holding the journal far above her head and off to the side. "No way!" I hollered, making a grab for it, "You know you cant-"

"But you said I could pick anything!" Even though I towered over her, she managed to maneuver the book out of my reach.

"I didn't mean that and you know it!"

"Doesn't matter!" She danced and shimmied away from me, coming up short on the wall with her back pressed up against it. "You said anything!"

I lunged for the book again. "You know that book was off limits! Give it back!"

She laughed. The sound of that full throated laugh almost gave me cause to pause but I continued on, trying to wrench the book from her hands. I couldn't really understand why I was having trouble getting the book away from her. I mean, I have a longer reach than she does, after all.

It shouldn't have been this hard. She was even backed into the wall for crying out loud!

I grabbed one of her arms and held it down close to her side. Her other arm, the one holding the book, was still flailing off to the side. Something about the erratic way she was moving made it pretty hard for me to secure her free hand, and it took me several moments to get a good grip.

Every time I made a grab, she wrenched herself one way or another, sometimes throwing me off balance completely. By the time I finally did get a good grasp on her other wrist, we were both laughing in a muffled, snickering way, trying to keep the noise down since the rest of the squadron was probably still trying to rest.

It didn't take too long for me to catch my breath. She was looking up at me with laughing eyes. "Hey, you cant go back on your word. Give me the book."

"No."

"Why not? Come on, Finn, its not like letting me know what you guys are up to is really going to mess with your precious experiment."

"Actually, it would."

"Its not like it'll be the end of the world or anything if I see it!"

Right. Shows how much SHE knew. "I wouldn't be so sure," I mumbled.

We both subsided for a moment. I was a little lost in thought when all of a sudden I heard her clear her throat. I glanced down and realized that I was still holding on to her hands and had them pinned at her side. I was maybe six inches away from her and suddenly, the proximity was incredibly noticeable.

Her skin was so warm beneath my fingers.

I noted, idly, that she was a perfect height. The top of her head came to my chin. Funny how I never saw that before. Maybe I never noticed because she was floating so much lately?

Hmmm…

"Finn?"

I blinked. "Yeah?"

"Gonna let me go?"

"Gonna let me have my notebook back?" I countered. She grimaced.

"Is it really that important?"

"Yeah."

"Why does it matter if I know or not?"

"It just does."

"I'm starting to think its something that would embarrass you guys. Is that it?"

"….no."

"That didn't sound very convincing."

I shrugged and let her go, stepping back awkwardly. "So? Doesn't matter." I held out my hand for the book.

She spun around as soon as she was free and darted to the door. "Hey!" I called after her, "You little-"

At the moment right before her hand slapped down on the button to actuate my door, I heard a hollow sound accompanied by a staticy rush. The lights in my room powered down without warning and I heard her curse as she pounded her hand against the button. "Damnit!"

I laughed. "Well, if that aint perfect timing!"

"Finn, you idiot! The door wont open! What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie. There's no way that this all happened right now without you messing around with something."

I rolled my eyes, though the gesture probably went unnoticed in the darkness. "Right, Piper. Because I knew you were going to come to my room in the middle of the night and try to steal a notebook that you know is not for you to read."

I heard a huff, then a sigh. Then a clang as she apparently kicked the door. I smirked. "Looks like you wont be able to read my personal journal now anyway, huh?"

Somewhere from her direction, the notebook camp flying out me. Its went wide and hit the wall beside the bed. "You're an ass, Finn."

"Yeah, I know. Aerrow tells me that all the time nowadays."

"Well, its true."

I turned and felt my way back to my bed. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to get some sleep."

"What?"

I laid down and crossed my hands behind my head. "Yup. That's what most people do this late at night, in their rooms, with the lights out. Sleep."

She was quiet, then I heard unsteady footsteps as she moved around my room, the terrain apparently unfamiliar.

Ever now and again, I heard a slight bump, followed by either a growl or a curse. I listened to the magazines on my desk cascade onto the ground, followed by a quiet "Oops."

After a little while I took pity on her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find your chair or something. I'm not going to just stand there by your door until the lights come back on."

I chuckled. "Hang on, let me help you out."

She started to protest, but I was already out of the bed and I got a hold of her elbow. I guided her to the one chair that I had in my room and she sat down. "Thanks." She mumbled.

I shrugged, then realized she couldn't see. "No problem," I replied.

Silence followed. I remained standing where I was. For some weird reason… I suddenly was awash with uncertainty.

"Finn?" her voice cut through the dark, surprising me.

"Yeah?"

"Are you… well, that is…" she trailed off, before finding her words again. "Are you and Aerrow almost done with your experiment?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean by that?"

I gestured helplessly. "I mean I don't know."

"How can you not know?" she asked rationally. "I mean, an experiment should have some sort of timeline, right? Otherwise you'll never really know if its going to work. I mean, you need to be able to pin down a point where you'll have to call the experiment a failure."

I grimaced. "I don't want to do that."

"Why?"

"I dunno. Its kind of an important experiment."

"Really? Invested too much time into it?"

"Yeah… well, I kinda want it to work out."

She sighed again. "I'm almost hoping it wraps up soon. I'll have you know that the suspense is killing me."

"Killing you?" I laughed ruefully, "Lets just say that waiting for the results is on my mind a lot too."

I leaned back against the wall beside the chair. After a moment, I slid down the wall until I was sitting on my heels. I could hear the creak of the chair as she shifted around in it.

"You know," I said suddenly, "I kinda wish I could tell you."

"Why cant you?"

"Well… Aerrow and I agreed to keep it a secret between the two of us."

She was quiet for a minute, then, "Well… is there anything I can do to help?"

I barked a laugh. "Yeah… well, no, not really. That'd be against the rules."

"….oh."

I heard her shift around in the chair some more. She sounded uncomfortable.

I felt myself start to zone out. I was actually a little tired. It was pretty late at night…

"Hey, Finn?"

"Mmm?"

"What if…"

"What if what?"

"What if… what would you say if I already knew what the experiment was?"

That surprised a laugh out of me. "I'd probably be asking you why you hadn't killed me yet."

She chuckled weakly. "Hah. Funny. But just for the sake of argument, what would you do if I knew?"

"I'd be a little confused. Probably be trying to claw my way out of the room. I'm not allowed to tell you what the experiment is, but I can tell you that it is something that would probably piss you off. That's why I'm perfectly fine with letting Aerrow explain it to you. He's better at dodging the bullet than I am."

A sigh. Then, "Finn. I know about the wager."

My first reaction was to laugh but I managed to quell it down. "Wha-what?"

"I know about it."

"No way. There's no way. Aerrow wouldn't have told you."

She sighed again. "Shut up."

I was so surprised, I actually listened.

"Look. I know about it and I just wanted to ask you a question."

I was too dumbstruck to say anything to that. I heard her slide to the floor. My eyes, sharp as a hawk's during the day, could barely make out the shadowy details of her face as she settled herself in front of me. I could tell that she was looking me in the eye, or at least as close as she could approximate.

When she was certain that I was mute, she nodded abruptly. "Do you want to win the bet?"

Did I… did I want to win the bet?

My first impulse was to say yes. I mean, from the way she was acting, I could probably answer in the affirmative and win the damn thing right then and there. I mean, Piper had never been so open and easygoing with me before as she had been these past few hours. I mean, she wasn't even trying to murder me, and I was certain that once she found out about the wager it would have taken all of Aerrow's charisma and Junko's strength to keep her from fatally maiming me.

So when my mouth opened, with the word 'yes' riding the tip of my tongue, I almost said it… then I stopped.

I looked at her. Really looked at her. I did something I rarely ever do: I mentally put myself in her situation.

If some sort of thing like that had been centered around me, I would probably have thought it was pretty cool at first, but that's just the way I am. I mean, I thrive on the attention like that. I am always coming up with more schemes to get even more attention, good or bad. But Piper's not like me. Not by a long shot. So…

I bet she was probably a little hurt when she found out.

Probably angry. She probably wanted to kill me, or Aerrow, or even both of us.

So… I would probably do a good bit of harm if I told her yes. And really… right now, did I want to win the bet?

The bet was an agreement between Aerrow and I. I hadn't really thought out the ramifications of the whole thing when we had agreed to do it, but then again, I'm never really one for planning something out all the way to the end.

"I…" I stammered. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I…. well… no."

"No?" Piper asked. She sounded a little strangled when she said that. "Oh… okay. I see."

"Wait!" I said as she started to stand. I swung a hand out, blindly grabbing for her wrist.

"Finn, leave me alone, okay? Its bad enough that you were pursuing me without any real desire for… for anything!"

I tightened my grasp and tugged her down as she tried to stand again. "Its not like that!" I protested with a growl. "Would you shut up and let me say something?"

She was still but I could tell by the way she held herself that she was poised to jump away again if I so much as loosened my grip. "I don't want to win the bet anymore, Piper," I said. I paused. My stomach did flip flops in anticipation of what I was about to say next. "Well… you see… the bet's not important anymore."

She didn't say anything. I fumbled for something else to say to get my meaning across. "The important thing… well, I just…" I sighed. "I'm messing this up."

I felt a tug. She was trying to get her hand away from me. "Piper, please, just try to listen to me. I'm trying to explain. Ok?"

"Whatever, Finn."

I growled as she tried to distance herself again. I admit.. I lost my temper and I yanked her toward me.

She wasn't balanced well. I couldn't really see, but I definitely felt it when her small frame came flying into my chest when I pulled her too hard.

She flexed, trying to regain some sort of footing, but I was faster. I snagged her other hand with my own and pinned her in my lap. "Piper… look. I don't want to win any bets. I don't care about any bets. I'll admit that it all started out as a retarded idea to waste the time until we make it to the next mission, but now I don't care. I mean… well, I-"

"Finn, you don't have to explain anything. I was just curious, okay? No harm, no foul. Just let me go so I can leave when the power comes back online."

"No."

"What?"

"No." I said, a stupid smile on my face. "I don't want to."

"Finn… stop playing around."

"I'm… not."

"Finn…"

"Piper. I don't want to win the bet. Its… not about the bet anymore."

"Then what it is about?"

"I…"

I was at a stand still. I couldn't find the words, but I couldn't find the courage within me to do anything. I had her right there in my arms. Now what?

She had stilled. I could tell that she had her head turned towards me expectantly.

"Piper…" I mumbled in a low voice, hesitantly. Then, in a rushed jumble of words, "Would-you-mind-if-I…"

"If you what?" Her voice was low. Soft.

It made me shiver. Such a voice she had…

"If I… Uh… damn it."

"What-" whatever she was going to say was cut off when I snaked in quickly and clumsily mashed my lips to hers. I jumped back almost before our lips had touched, cringing.

"Sorry Piper. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done tha-"

"Finn."

"I'll forget it if you do. No need t-"

"Finn."

"I-"

"Finn!" She finally broke through my babble. "Its okay!"

"Huh?"

There was warmth around my neck as one of her hands felt its way there. She tugged my head gently down. She sounded almost as nervous as I felt. "Its okay Finn."

"It… it is?"

"Yeah."

I sat there dumbfounded yet again. "This is weird."

She pulled my head down at that comment. We were both inexperienced, but I can tell you that I will probably carry that experience throughout the rest of my life. She had soft lips. Firm. Warm. She tasted like honey. I said so after she let me breath again.

I could almost sense the smile on her face. "Wait a minute…" I mumbled, though my mind was still reeling from the surprise kiss. "How did you find out about everything?"

She laughed. "Like I'd tell you."

OOO

Okay. Ending number two. Again, I'm not terribly happy with because my muse left me all alone for some reason. So I'm sorry if it sucks…

Anyhow, I have one more entry for this fic. It wont be long, and hopefully will be up tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I could work on it now, but for some reason I feel like working on either Conversations or Broken. So nyah.

Anyway, please review if you enjoyed it. And if you didn't. I like reviews, makes me better.

Oh, and vote in my profile poll. So far, it looks like you evil, evil people want me to do another fic like this one where you choose the events in each chapter, and while I actually have an idea for it, I wont be starting it for at least a few weeks since I am getting ready to move in about a week and a half.

Thanks for reading! Almost done!