- 9 Days Later -

"Okay," began Cayde while clapping his hands together, "let's get this show on the road."

Both the Heroes and Seekers stood next to each other in the Hall of Guardians near Shaxx's station. Cayde walked from one end of their single file line to the other, pacing while he explained their new mission. The other Vanguards and Eris stood slightly behind him.

"So far, you all have done a good job; the soul-crystal of Crota's has been destroyed, and we've managed to stop Omnigul from getting Eris's… rock… orb… thing." He looked over at her. "Speaking of which, are you ever gonna explain exactly what that thing is?"

The other Hunter gave no reply except for one of her signature icy glares. Cayde was unfazed however, and simply rolled his eyes.

"Okay, well that's a no. In any matter, it's like I said; you've bought some time. Time to prepare, to stave off the coming of Crota. And now we've got a plan of attack, a plan to strike him before he gets any stronger and thinks of another way into our world." At this, he exhaled slowly. "Basically, we're gonna try exactly what Eris and her team did."

There was an audible silence for a moment before Dawn piped up, "Excuse me for saying this, but that plan didn't seem to work so well for them. No offense, Eris."

"There is a difference." Eric crept slowly towards them with that creepy gait she was all too well known for. "I have knowledge of the inner workings of Crota's realm. When I last followed my companions into the pit, we were fools; ignorant and unknowing of the horrors below. But you will know, and you will be prepared."

Cayde shrugged apologetically to the Guardians before him. "Sorry, but that's the best we can do; we don't have much more time to think of anything else. We wouldn't ask anyone else to do this, but you six are very… well…" He struggled to come up with the proper words until he finally found an accurate way to describe them.

"Let me put it this way; there are fireteams that have been around longer than both of your teams years combined; teams that are more experienced, that act more like well-oiled machines than people. You've all got your problems and unique interactions with one another, but whenever you guys get involved…"

He took a deep breath. "…Mountains move. You manage to hold up the sky, and all the rest of that metaphorical crap. My point is, there's something about you all that makes us very comfortable with assigning you all this mission."

Matt knew exactly what Cayde was talking about; despite their short time as a team, he, Ash, and Aria had managed to uncover one of the Darkness's biggest plots against the Traveler and put a stop to it. Call it luck, fate, or destiny; but he knew that they were meant to do things like this.

He looked over at Ash, and couldn't help but wonder (not for the first time in the last week or so) if perhaps they were also meant for more.

I love you.

The words kept playing over and over in his head, like a broken record. He still couldn't believe that she'd had feelings for him all this time. How had he never seen it, never even suspected? She was his best friend for God's sake.

That night, he'd gone to bed completely shaken; not out of fear, but just because it seemed like way too many things were happening; his very perception of his relationship with Ash had changed.

Was it not that he hadn't noticed, but had rather ignored it? And for that reason would he do that, hide his own feelings? In all the time that he'd been thinking since then, there was only one reason he could think of that stood out from the others he'd thought of.

She's an Exo.

Did he have anything against Exos? Absolutely not. There wasn't anything about him that was worried about being a racist, it was just the concept of being in a relationship with one. He'd never even considered the existence of such a thing, let alone the possibility of himself being in a relationship like that. It was a foreign idea to him, but obviously Ash had thought about it.

He knew how Exos were seen in the city; how would a relationship like that be seen? He had many fears, some of them for their own safety, of what would happen if something like that was ever seriously considered.

And to top it all off, he hadn't even been able to discuss it with Ash; he'd acted like an idiot for the first few days (a fact that Seraph had not gotten sick of reminding him of), and given her some space before realizing that she might make the assumption that he was avoiding her. He'd immediately tried to talk to her, only to find that she had indeed made that assumption, and was now avoiding him.

He didn't think she was angry at him in the slightest; no, he thought that she was hiding out of embarrassment. When it came to a force of opposition, Ash tended to be very up-front about things and tried to bash her way through it. But when that opposition was about feelings and emotions, she shut up and hid everything. She didn't want to be seen as someone who let feelings get to her, even though by hiding them and acting differently, she was only confirming that she did.

But the point remained that he had not gotten the chance to talk about it with her, or even to tell her that she didn't need to avoid him. She probably thought he was repulsed by her or something, and he felt like a moron for allowing that line of thinking to come to fruition.

Cayde looked them over again. "Now, I know you guys are two teams; but we all think that it would work best if there was a single leader for the operation. Just fewer conflicting orders and whatnot, you understand."

Both teams immediately understood that he was referring to Matt and Scorch, and they held their breaths collectively. Aria and Ash looked over at Matt while he faced straight ahead, and both Dawn and Eager glanced at Scorch while she followed Matt's example.

Cayde looked over at Scorch. "Scorch, would you mind doing the honors?"

The rest of the current members, Scorch included, seemed surprised except for Matt. He knew that had been coming, and the logic was perfect; from their previous track record, Matt would likely have an easier time listening to someone else given orders without fighting than Scorch would. Not to mention that he probably appeared a bit unstable from the last time he and she had interacted, which was their fight in the courtyard. She probably appeared to be the more level-headed of the two-

"With all due respect, no sir."

Now, even Matt was shocked. He looked over to find Scorch still staring straight ahead; she seemed confident in her answer.

"I have shown a lack of respect for what being a Guardian is all about, and I would like to admit that I believe I would be unfit to be leader of this squad." Finally, she looked over at him. "Matt has proven to be one of the best around for a reason, and I trust his judgement, as I always should have done."

Well. This was a new side of Scorch that he hand't seen.

Cayde and the other Vanguards seemed a bit taken aback, but he recovered quickly enough. "Alright, fair enough. Matt, would you accept the responsibility?"

Silently, he nodded. Cayde nodded in return to show his approval. "Alright then. Glad we've got that sorted out; let's all head over to the table and we'll explain the stages of the raid."

-X-

Never before had the Javelin been so devoid of sound and chatter than it was now as it flew through warp-space to the moon. Aria didn't know what had happened, but she could tell something was up. She had a good feel for emotions and reading the situation.

Matt struggled to remember any time when things had been this awkward between him and Ash; the closest he could remember was in their first year as Guardians when she'd doubted his and Aria's safety after finding out that she had once been the Warrior, and temporarily quit the fireteam.

Even then, at least she spoke to him; it was curt and professional rather than friendly, but at least there was interaction. There hadn't even been so much as a greeting in the last week or so. So now the three of them were just sitting there, staring out the viewport when they'd usually talk or something instead.

But now, he and Ash were stuck in the same place for a few minutes at the least; maybe he could make something of that.

"So," he began, throwing a cautious glance to the side where Ash was sitting. Already, he could see her body tensing up from just that little conversation starter. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"I thought that maybe it's been long enough to the point where maybe we can talk about… things with each other, and-"

"Stop."

She was shaking her head ever so slightly, but he wasn't about to give up quite yet.

"No, hear me out; I haven't gotten the chance to talk to you about it because you've been avoiding me. The least you can do is humor me a bit and discuss this with me like an adult."

She groaned, but she finally turned to face him. Her expression clearly said, I don't want to talk about this, but what other option did they have if they wanted to move forward?

"Look, I already told you; forget it. It was a ridiculous idea to begin with, and I just couldn't see it because I saw what I wanted to see."

Now he shook his head. "I don't want to start throwing labels around until we've properly thought this through. And I can't forget it, nothing else has been on my mind for the last week! That's why I'm trying to talk about it now, so that we don't have it lingering over our heads constantly!

Aria called up cautiously, "Hey uh, if you guys are gonna fight or something, just try to keep it verbal, alright? I don't want a wild super or something to blow out the cockpit of the ship."

He rolled his eyes, "Not helping."

"Okay, you want to talk about it?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then, shoot. What is there to talk about?"

He furrowed his eyebrows in consternation. "What do you mean? There's everything to talk about!"

"Like?"

"Like the fact that you've been avoiding me! Why have you been doing that?"

She exhaled softly. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, I just needed to clear my head a bit afterwards, to line up my thoughts. But I'm fine now; like I said, I came to a realization. It was a silly thought."

"No it wasn't!"

She scoffed. "It wasn't?"

"No!"

"Really? You must not be thinking things through properly then."

Now he was taken aback; she, who had opened up to him the possibilities, was now trying to fight against the idea. What had gotten into her?

"Okay now you've lost me."

"In what way?"

"You were the one who opened up to me about this first; why are you fighting it so much now?"

"Because as I said; there are way more problems than I originally realized, and the very concept of… that, is a stupid one."

He threw his hands up into the air exasperatedly. She gave a big huff of annoyance herself while Aria watched everything play out from behind them.

"I don't know what you're so frustrated about; I mean, from your initial reaction I would imagine you'd be grateful at how I've handled this so far-"

"Did you mean what you said? About how you feel?"

She stared at him. "About it being a stupid idea? Yes, I-"

"For God's sake, do you love me? Yes or no?"

"Holy SHIT, you said what?!"

"Shut it!" Ash snapped, her gaze locking onto Aria in an effort to silence her. For the first time since Matt could remember, the Titan's intimidation actually worked on the Warlock; there was a dangerous glint in those blue eyes of hers, and Aria knew when to back down from a fight.

Ash maintained their silent stare-off for a moment longer before turning back to the viewport. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I thought I did, but I'm not sure anymore. Not because anything's changed, but because I'm not entirely sure if I possess the physical capability to."

"…What?"

She shook her head. "I'm done talking about this. Besides, you've got some more pressing matters to plan out as leader if this operation is going to go smoothly."

"Ash, don't-"

"I said I'm done talking."

Defeated, he slumped against the his chair's backrest and resigned to looking out at the blue lights of warp-space as they passed. Eventually, Whip's voice came through their radio.

"30 seconds to Luna."

A/N: Hey guys. I realize that this is probably one of the shortest chapters I've written for this story, and I'm sorry about that, but there's good reason for it. The way this story is heading, I needed this scene to be able to kind of stand on its own; but that leaves me in a bit of a predicament, because if it's too short then I have an issue, but if it's too long then it's just dragging on. I tried to find the best balance I could, but here we are.

In addition, I'm actually moving to college and I probably won't be able to update for a while as I'm going to be looking for a new job and trying to settle in. I wanted to at least get this chapter out to you guys before that happened, so once again; here we are.

As always, PLEASE review this story; I love seeing your guys' thoughts on each chapter, it really motivates me with the next ones afterwards! They might not seem like much, but it really does mean a lot to me.

Until the next time!

-Matteoarts