Caboose calmly walked into the kitchen later that morning – having slept quite well and deeply – to discover the entire room a mess, pots and pans everywhere, and Polt quickly cleaning up. "Good morning!" he greeted warmly.

"Morning, Beloved," Polt greeted happily, her cheeks flushing at her choice of address for Caboose now that they were lovers. "Sorry about the mess-"

"What mess?" Caboose asked in confusion. "I don't see a mess."

Polt chuckled softly. "I was teaching Miia how to cook," she explained.

"Miia wants to cook?" Caboose asked eagerly. "I'd love to taste her cooking!"

"It…didn't go so well," Polt admitted. "She got distracted by something and wound up grabbing the hot pot bare handed."

"Oh, yes, that is bad!" Caboose confirmed enthusiastically. "I used to do that all the time. Then Mom made me make myself a glove that made it harder to flex, so I didn't have to keep fixing handles. Do I need to fix the pot handles?"

"No, Miia burnt her hands," Polt corrected a little sadly. "After I finished bandaging her hands, she fled to her room and locked herself in. I have no idea why, though. I tried to tell her it was no big deal and how badly my first attempt at cooking went when I was 12…" She scratched her chin thoughtfully. "…do you think I should have phrased that differently?"

Caboose stared at Polt for a time. "Miia hurt herself?" he finally parsed. "And she's in her room?"

Polt smiled softly. "Yes, why don't you go try and comfort her?"

"I will do that!" Caboose declared happily. Turning, he marched towards Miia's room only to stop when his foot came down on something thin that crunched oddly. Bending over, he picked up the transparent material. "…I have no idea what this is…" he murmured under his breath.

[Scans confirm naga DNA matching Lieutenant Miia,] Freckle intoned from nearby. [Logical conclusion: shed skin.]

"Miia is shedding?" Caboose asked in surprise. "But doesn't snake skin come off all in one piece? Like in cartoons?"

[Shed snake skin can fragment if serpent is under stress,] Freckle continued. [In the case of Nagas, this requires hand peeling.]

"But Miia can't use her hands right now!" Caboose gasped in shock. "I should go help her!" With that, he rushed up to Miia's door. "Miia!" he called out eagerly.

"…please go away, Darling," Miia responded sorrowfully. "I don't want you to see me like this…"

"Do you need help shedding?" Caboose called out helpfully.

Miia let out a shocked cry of distress. "Darling! Don't tell everyone! I can't be seen like this!"

Caboose thought for a time. "Oh!" The orange of his faceplate suddenly turned to black. "There we go!" he called out, raising his voice. "Now my visor is off, and I can't see you! Can I help you now?"

Miia was quiet for a time, then finally whimpered out, "…okay…"

Caboose took a step forward through Miia's door, barely noticing the wood falling around him. "Alright! Now I just need to find you! …Marco?"

Miia managed a soft giggle. "…polo…"

Caboose turned, took a step forward, and fell flat on his face. "This is harder than it looks," he murmured to himself before crawling along the floor by feel and then up the bed. "Now…where's the skin I need to peel?"

Miia was silent for a time, the quiet punctuated only by the occasional sniffle.

"Miia?" Caboose asked worriedly. "Are you catching a cold?"

"…Papi, Centorea…and Polt don't shed…" Miia whimpered petulantly.

"What are you talking about?" Caboose asked in confusion. "Polt has a winter coat she sheds, and I'm always picking up blue feathers!"

"It's not the same!" Miia wailed. "And…I can't do anything right! I can't shed my own skin right, I'm a failure at cooking, I make a worse mess when I try to clean…" She sobbed bitterly. "You want us all to be your 'marriage friends'…but I'd make a terrible wife! And I'm afraid I'm going to fail your expectations and then you'll never want to have anything to do with me as a friend, let alone a wife…"

Caboose was silent for a time as he took that all in. "Nah, I don't think you can fail my ex-pet-cautions," he pointed out. "Pretty sure that's impossible."

"W-what do you mean?" Miia whimpered softly.

"Do you want to be my friend?" Caboose asked readily.

"Of course!" Miia agreed quickly.

"Do you want me to love you?"

Miia began to cry. "More than anything…"

"Do you love me?"

"With all my heart!" Miia vowed dramatically.

"You have just exceeded all of my expectations," Caboose offered warmly.

Miia's eyes widened in shock. "E-eh?"

"I can't change who I am," Caboose explained. "I've tried. It just gets worse. So I have to be happy being me. It wouldn't be fair if I asked you to change you, and I don't want you to. If you can be happy with me being me, then I am overjoyed with you being you, especially if that means you being you with me."

Miia began to sob again, but this time it was plainly tears of joy. "D-Darling…"

"Now let's shed some skin!" Caboose declared eagerly, reaching out with one hand. It landed on something soft, making Miia gasp. "…what's this?" he asked in confusion. He gave an experimental squeeze. "Squishy?"

Miia let out a soft whine. "D-Darling…that's my breast…"

"Oh! Right!" Caboose agreed. "…any skin to shed here?"

"N-no," Miia stammered. "It's only on the parts of me with scales…"

"And…where are they?" he asked curiously. "I can't really see them."

"…you can turn your visor back on…"

"Okay!" Caboose agreed eagerly. "…how do I do that?"

[Remote reactivation of Captain's visor, order confirmed,] Freckles intoned over the communicator before Caboose's visor reactivated.

"That's better!" Caboose declared happily as he looked down at Miia. Rough spots where the shedding skin had started to slough off only to break covered parts of her tail all around. Brining his hands down, he gently gripped some. "Let's go."

Caboose then began to remove the old skin, moving steadily and carefully. He started near her waist with the broken bits, then slowly moved down to the larger segments. He seemed to ignore both the handling of the massive snake tail and Miia's stifled moans of pleasure. As he moved towards the tip of her tail, however, she jerked it back. "Darling, careful!" she whimpered out. "I'm…really sensitive there…"

Caboose tilted his head back and forth. "Oh, is that what the highlights my helmet cam gives me mean? Parts where I can make you girls feel really good? That's helpful! If I can make you feel good, then you won't have to be as jealous of Polt until we're marriage friends, right?"

Miia's cheeks turned bright red as her eyes went wide. Whether it was from Caboose's helmet having an erogenous zone highlight scanner or Caboose's open offer to 'make her feel good', it was only a few moments before she fainted dead away.

Caboose stared at her for a time. "…well, it's much easier to get the skin off now," he mused before getting back to work. With swift, deft motions, he had all the old skin off Miia's tail and into a large bag. If shedding upset Miia, she probably didn't want her shed blowing all over the house.

An hour later, after Miia had woken up after having her old skin completely removed, Miia rewarded Caboose's efforts by presenting him with a meal of her own making. The dishes looked like mismatched hunks of meat and vegetable mixed with some form of starch that ran the gamut from purple to black and coated in oozing, bubbling sauce that looked like it would come alive at any moment.

"This all looks delicious!" Caboose declared eagerly before opening his helmet breathing grill enough to start shoveling food in. Miia watched with glee as Caboose enjoyed the food she'd made for him.

"Could use some lemonade!" Caboose declared as he picked up a tank and started to drink from it.

Miia looked somewhat crestfallen. "D-Darling? …that's Freckles' gasoline…"

"Best lemonade ever!" Caboose confirmed as he went back to eating, showing no adverse signs to the food.

From the other side of the room, Cerea and Papi were slumped over looking like they were about to drop dead of food poisoning. Polt stood nearby, staring in awe as Caboose devoured the food with glee, complimenting Miia on 'making the color wheel tasty and fun!' "Maybe he's part dragon?" she mused to herself. It was the only explanation she could come up with for how he could eat all that without flinching. When she'd seen what it looked like, Polt had flat out refused to taste test Miia's dishes. "…I'd better make sure he brushes his teeth," she reminded herself for later.