Hey guys! Happy new year! Now, just quickly, I want to tell you to go check out the poll on MU profile, which concerns the cover for Exagora. I have no idea of who to put on it, so I've left it up to you guys. I'm going to leave it up until the last chapter of Caroline is posted, and I'll announce who's on the cover then.


"Should it?" Ains asked, sitting up, and I nodded.

"Why?"

"Because of the guys I dated. Because of the people they are. Because of the person I was back then." I said, before I could stop myself from saying it. Ains sighted softly, reaching out and taking my hands, his thumbs ghosting across my skin. I shivered as he looked up at me, his eyes soft as he asked, "Who were you, Caroline?"

"Someone who dated because I needed the distraction, someone who dated the worst kind of guys. The dickheads, the ones who encourage their girlfriends to do stupid crap like drink alcohol and do drugs."

He sighed softly, looking down at my hands as he brushed the pad of his thumb across the back of my hand. "Did you ever do it?"

"I drank once, came close to sex a few times and one of them tried to get me into drugs," I said, my hands shaking in his grip. He'd looked up at me with an odd expression when I mentioned sex, and I averted my gaze as I kept talking. None of us needed to mention that we had come closeclose a fair amount of times as well, after missions when adrenaline was high. But although we both wanted to, we never took it further and he never pressured me to let him take it further. I found it slightly infuriating, my constant sitting-on-the-fence attitude, but he'd commented on a number of occasions that he didn't mind.

"And I was an outright bitch to everyone I came across. You think I hate my parents now, but back then, Dan was the only person I shared blood with that I could remotely stand to be around for any space of time. The whole ordeal was some kind of cry for attention that deep down I knew I wasn't going to get; at that point in time, my parents really didn't care, but I knew that I was disappointing Dan. Every time he caught me up here with a guy, he'd get this disappointed look in his eye, like I'd just ruined his life. It took me a very long time to get that into my head, to make myself stop and be somewhat normal. Ironically, that was around the same time my brother stopped being normal."

Ains nodded thoughtfully. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because," I yelled, yanking my hands out of his and tugging them through my hair. "Because I made it my business to know about your dad. And this is stuff that you should know. My past isn't pretty, but it's mine. MI9 changed me – it made me strong, but before that, my brother changed me. I just want you to know who I am, every side of who I am."

He watched me for a very long time, until he gently took my hands again, my name soft on his lips as he pulled me towards him. I stared up at him as he took my face in his hands, brushing his thumbs across my jaw. "Your past is important. I know it's important for me to know this stuff, Care. It is. But none of it can change how I feel about you, because you're not that person anymore."

"But there are a lot of people – a lot of guys – that think I'm still that person."

"Not important," he said. "They're not, because I'm pretty sure I could take them. And even if they did have chance of landing a punch on me, I wouldn't be worried."

"Why?" I asked. "A majority of them are probably drug-crazed delinquents by now."

He smiled. "Because while they got your past, I get your future."

I grinned up at him, and then I reached up to kiss him, wrapping one arm around his neck while the other found its way to his chest as he grabbed me by the waist, pulling me on top of him. He leaned back on one hand to steady us both as I ran my hands through his hair, and when I needed air so much that my chest hurt, he made a trail of kisses across my jaw, his hands running down my arms. When his fingertips touched my bare skin, he made a loud gasping sound and jerked away from me, staring.

"What?" I asked, smiling as I sat back.

"You're freezing, Care," he said, fumbling behind him for the hatch. He fell backwards as he found it, his hand slipping into the gap and his body colliding with the roof. I laughed and got off him, easily swinging myself through the hole and landing easily in the attic. I looked up in time to see him swing himself down easily after me, reaching up to lock the hatch after him.

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, turning to me.

"Mm-hm," I mumbled, looking up at him.

"If you're afraid of heights, why do you go up there to think?" Ains asked, leaning against the wall. In the darkness, his eyes looked almost black, his hair mussed from the wind. God only knew how bad my own looked.

"I get this rush of fear and adrenaline whenever I go up there and it's kind of like being on a mission, and it's more than a little amazing," I explained. "It clears my head."

I caught that secret smile pass across his mouth as he stepped closer, placing his hand on the side of my neck. "So, the height clears your head, but a fear hallucination fogs it."

I murmured in response, more focused on the feel of his skin against mine than anything else.

"So what do I do to your head?" Ains asked, his voice soft and deep. "Do I fog it or clear it?"

"Both," I replied, reaching up and kissing him. I felt him smile briefly before he kissed back, his arms wrapping around me, pulling me close. He tilted his head to the side so that he could kiss me better, turning and backing me into the wall. He put one hand against the wall on either side of me, his mouth crushing against mine as I ran my hands up his back, his shirt riding up under my hands. I felt his skin under my fingers. It was warm, despite the cold air we'd just emerged from, and I felt goose bumps rising underneath my hands. It sent an odd chill down my spine, knowing that I had done that.

"We should probably go downstairs," Ains breathed as he suddenly stepped away from me, breathing hard. I realised that this was more for my benefit than his own – he didn't want to force me into something I wasn't comfortable doing. Like always, I loved him for it, but it still frustrated me a tiny bit.