A/N: For any of you familiar with the song, "Clarity", you'll have a good idea of what's coming in this chapter. Happy reading!

Aria wasn't very well accustomed with being patient.

As one of the youngest of her friends and fireteam members, second only to Scorch, it meant that she had quite the "up-and-at-'em" attitude towards anything that she came across; that involved quests, missions, pretty much anything.

Unfortunately, "up-an-at-'em" and boredom did not go hand in hand very well.

Matt and Ash were her primary source of entertainment, but they had disappeared somewhere; so she was sitting around in the grassy courtyard of the tower, levitating rocks around in front of her.

Levitating. Rocks.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

A particularly interesting detail came into her mind, however, when she spied Scorch walking out from the elevators, and descending the balcony staircase to the general courtyard below. Dropping the rocks without hesitation, Aria began to walk towards the Hunter.

Upon further inspection, she became slightly concerned. The girl's face looked saddened, dejected. What happened here? Was she feeling the guilt of her earlier actions? Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on her yesterday, she thought to herself.

Scorch noticed the Warlock coming over as she walked. A forced smile came over her face, one that she could tell Aria didn't buy for a second. "Hey. What's up?"

Aria crossed her arms. "Alright, spill it. You know it's gonna be better for you to get it over with rather than dragging it out; I'll have an answer out of you anyway."

There was no arguing there; Aria was probably one of the most ridiculously determined people around when she was motivated enough. Scorch sighed.

"I messed up big time."

She began to explain to the Awoken girl about how she'd felt horrible about the fight with Matt; about how she'd tried to come to terms with her actions down in the bar. She told her about how she met Rook, and stood up for him when no one else did; but that perhaps her subconscious motives hadn't been completely altruistic. She revealed how he'd later accused her of just trying to rationalize her own biases and feelings with Matt and Ash by helping him, and how he'd left shortly after that. When she finished, she looked over at the Warlock for guidance.

Aria seemed nonplussed. "Well… geez, that's a lot to take in."

Scorch let out a sad sort of chuckle. "Yeah, that's one way of putting it."

"Still," Aria continued, "like you said; you messed up, yeah. But now you're trying to fix it, and that's all that matters."

"How is that all that matters?" Scorch rounded on her. "I was a brat, I hurt Matt, and now I may have turned yet another person away from me!" She looked down at her fingerless-gloved hands. "Maybe you guys were right about me; maybe I'm just not cut out for being a leader. Maybe not for being a Guardian at all."

Silence fell over the two of them. Aria thought of what words she could say to fix this.

"Look, nobody's saying you're not cut out to be a leader or a Guardian. We're just saying you need a bit of time to learn the skills necessary." She pointed at herself. "I'm probably one of the youngest Guardians around, and it's only because I dreamt of becoming one for years, spending hours studying at a time. I'm the exception though; as we've proven, it doesn't take a specific set of assets to make a Guardian." Scorch's eyes lifted a tiny bit.

"Ash was a pile of scrap in the outskirts when she was revived and became a Guardian. Matt was dead for centuries; neither of them had any knowledge about any of this life." She laughed now. "In fact, Matt's only the leader because we fell into a pattern; there was no decision or anything, it just happened. Really think that there's a test to be a leader or something now?"

Scorch interjected, "Yeah, but still. Look at how you guys turned out; you were only Guardians for a few months when you took out the Black Garden and fought in the battle for the Traveler."

Aria countered, "Yeah, and your team was made only a few weeks before you took on the Vault of Glass. Maybe you had help from us at the end, but the rest of it was all you guys. That was your feat." She could see the young Hunter mulling that over in her head, and decided to follow up.

"What I'm saying is, we're all unique in our own ways; there's no specific skill set required to be a Guardian. You take what you know what you can do, and you adapt. You in particular… you just need to find your own flow that works for you."

Scorch said nothing, still listening.

"You're a child of light; not just a child of light, but the child of light, meant to bring about the Balance. Your very soul was created by the Traveler for a reason; I'd say that's more of a qualifier for you to be a Guardian." Scorch's eyes widened, and she turned to see Aria smiling at her.

"You know, we're almost the same age now; but I remember the first conversation we had, when you were just a kid. You remember what I said, right?"

Scorch nodded. "To be brave."

Aria patted her shoulder. "Well, this is one of those times. You need to be brave here; just be patient, and I'm sure your chance will come soon."

They sat like that for a few minutes, comfortable in the peace and quiet as they watched the other Guardians mill about the tower. Then Aria groaned. "Ugh, Matt and Ash are rubbing off on me. I'm not ready to be mature yet."

Scorch laughed.

-X-

"I'm serious! I didn't notice it as much before, but-"

"I swear, keep it up and-"

"You just stick out so much! I can't help but point it out!"

Ash looked up to see Matt's hand hovering above her head, indicating her new height and how much shorter she was now. Laughing, she shoved away from her and off to the side. Stumbling back to regain his balance, he joined in her laughter as she playfully punched his shoulder.

"Not cool," she tried to say with an angry-sounding tone, but her smile gave away her true intentions. He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Okay, I won't do it anymore!" She rolled her eyes, knowing that the statement was utterly farce; he'd probably be back at it in just a bit. Matt looked at her with a grin stretching across his features, and she knew perfectly well that she was right on the mark.

"Sooo," she began, stressing the 'o' syllable and dragging it out, "where exactly are we headed?"

"Anywhere you want to," he replied easily. "Like I said, this is just an easy day. What comes to mind for you?"

She thought about that one. So he was letting her have the choice of where they went. Alright. "How about we just stroll around the streets? See if anything catches our fancy?"

He nodded his agreement, and they set off. Every so often, she'd point out an item of interest and they'd investigate. Ash had to be honest; coming down here was pretty cool. She never really took the time to visit the city much, and instead spent her time at the tower or on various missions with Matt and Aria. She didn't often get to see the normalcies of everyday life for the people of the city; once a place on the brink of extinction, society had prevailed with capitalism and various other economics. Vendors sold food and other products, a few basic stores and restaurants were scattered around. Not many, but enough. They spent hours walking around the city, just taking it all in and enjoying each other's company.

She thought back to the first restaurant that the three of them had eaten at a few years ago, and wondered if it was still around. Maybe not; a lot of damage had been dealt in the battle for the Traveler downtown, so there was a good chance that it had been demolished that day. The thought of that made her a little sad; that they'd never be able to relive those memories from long ago.

"It's definitely interesting to say the least, isn't it?" The sound of Matt's voice dragged her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see his eyes looking in her direction though his head remained facing forward. "To see everyone in the city with such… normal lives. We fight everyday for humanity's survival, but we don't often consider what the people we're saving are actually doing. And here it is, right in front of us." She detected a slight tinge of longing in his voice; longing for a time he knew where everyone was still alive, where humanity wasn't at risk, where he was free from having to be a constant protector. A time… without her.

She didn't blame him for still retaining a small part of him that wished things were the way they'd once been; that didn't mean that the thought of it didn't hurt slightly. She couldn't imagine life without Aria and him, it would be so painfully drab. Did he think the same of them, or would he be able to live without them if it meant that all of what humanity had gone through could be reversed?

She felt the strongest of urges; an urge to tell him, to just come clean with her feelings, no matter how wrong they may have seemed to the rest of the city. She wanted to pull him into a hug and not let go, to even simply hold his hand-

Stop. She heard her own voice attempting to reel her back in. You can't tell him. Not only does he not share your feelings, but think of all the hate that would be thrown at you two. It's a lost cause, there's no point in trying to make it work.

That was the most painful part; that she knew the logical thing was what her mind was telling her, but she still didn't want to listen. She may have been a being of metal and machinery, but all she wanted to do was follow her heart.

But something else began tugging on the edge of her mind. She set her confusing thoughts aside for a moment, and looked at their surroundings as they walked. There were several civilians standing around, gawking at her and Matt. Some of them seemed merely shocked, while others seemed to harbor more malicious intent. She spied a group of Exos leaning against a wall a ways away; all of them were in awe of the spectacle before them; an Exo and human walking together side by side.

Had they been wearing Guardian garb, nobody would have batted an eye; but it was because they were out of uniform and blatantly being friendly with one another that drew everyone's attention. The Exos were surprised at the fact that a human didn't mind the presence of an Exo, and the humans and Awoken were shocked that the Exo was being treated as an equal.

"Matt… " she whispered, but he just nodded briskly and leaned towards her slightly.

"I already noticed. There's a guy coming up behind you now; let me take care of it." She could have taken care of it herself, but was a little intrigued as to what Matt was going to do.

They continued walking. The seconds ticked by.

Without warning, Matt spun around with the reflexes of a snake and let his arm shoot past Ash's head. She turned to see what was going on.

Matt's hand had caught the downward arc of a man's descending fist as it had been traveling towards Ash. The man was shocked at the fact that the Hunter had detected him, but even more so that he'd had been able to stop the attack. Matt threw the arm away angrily, and let the man take a few steps backwards.

"If you're looking for an easy fight, you're not gonna find it here. This is your only warning to all of you," he called, gesturing to the many angry faces around them; "Don't even think about laying a finger on her, or you'll be answering to me." Normally, this crowd of people in the city were used to dealing with scuffles and weren't particularly frightened at the prospect of violence. But there was something in his tone that told them to stay away; he meant business. After a few more seconds of a held gaze, most of them turned away and continued with their business.

"C'mon," Matt muttered, and he set off with her trailing closely behind him.

"What? I can handle that, don't worry about it," she tried to assure him, but he shook his head.

"You don't need to deal with that, it's not right. Besides," he said, and this time a smile came over his face, "it's almost nightfall. I've got a surprise waiting." Curious of what was going on here exactly, she allowed him to lead her back towards the tower.

-X-

"Okay, what's the big surprise?"

"Just be patient."

Ash gave a small huff. Matt had taken her back up to the courtyard, and they sat in the grass. Both of them were still casually dressed, and she wasn't quite yet used to the feeling. Most cases, she was either in her armor or her black undersuit; she wasn't accustomed to dressing normally like humans did.

It was now night, and darkness was descending upon the city pretty fast. Little points of light turned on one by one until all of the city was lit up as the people entered night life. A few lights around them switched on as well to help Guardians walk around, mostly those that were returning from missions beyond.

"Patient for what?" she asked. She waved around them. "I don't know about you, but I don't see-"

"Attention." A voice interrupted her, one that came from the tower's PA system. She stopped talking, and listened as it continued, "The courtyard has been closed off for scheduled task force use. Thank you for your cooperation; it will be open again in roughly an hour." She spied a few Guardians walking away, grumbling slightly as they all made their way towards their rooms. She began to stand up.

"Didn't you hear that? C'mon, let's-"

But Matt grabbed her arm, and pulled her back down next to him on the grass. "Don't worry; that's for us." He winked at her.

She stared at him in confusion. "What?"

"I told you, I had a surprise. I wanted to set something up with Eager; usually, I'd go to the outskirts if I wanted to do this, but you're still recovering so we're sticking around here. Don't fret though, we'll be able to see fine in just a moment."

Without further explanation, he laid flat with his back against the ground. She wanted to know more, but she could tell that he wanted to surprise her. Resigned to the situation, she laid down next to him and waited for what he wanted to show her.

"See what?"

"Well, in the outskirts there aren't any lights. It's easier, keeps them from getting obscured. It's a bit more difficult here, but I think Eager found a solution."

Both of them stared up into the sky as silence descended around them. It was so peaceful; the wind made slight nosies as it whispered throughout the courtyard, but aside from that they were alone. No one else but her and her best friend out here. The clouds drifted overhead, vaguely illuminated by the lights of the city and the tower. It was all nice… but what exactly was it that Matt-

KER-CHUNK.

The loud noise startled Ash momentarily, until she recognized it as the sound of the generators powering down. Indeed, the lights had already switched off. What exactly was going on here? She turned back to-

Then she gasped at the sight above her.

The whole sky sparkled with the light of stars as far as the eye could see. Without the lights counteracting the natural light and hitting the clouds overhead, the stars had all become quite visible. It made her feel like the world was giant glass ball, and these beautiful pinpricks of light were plastered all over the face of it.

"Quite the sight, huh?" Matt chuckled at her awed reaction. She looked over at him with her jaw hanging open, still amazed at how incredible it all was.

"Most of the time when we're on the Javelin, we can't see them because either the sun is blocking out all their light, we're in warp-space, or we're just not paying attention to them. Down here though, lying on the grass with the breeze, alone…"

"It's perfect."

He looked at her as she said those simple words. He smiled kindly at her, then returned to his star-gazing. He still didn't grasp just how much this was affecting her; she was quite serious when she said it was perfect, she wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else if the world depended on it, which it often did.

"Some of the stars have shifted position ever so slightly since I was a kid… I'm sure that's normal when there's a few centuries' worth of time between then and now, but I can still point out some of the constellations." He raised his hand into the air and indicated a cluster of stars. "See those? They make up the Big Dipper. Kind of looks like a spoon if you follow the path correctly. I remember it was also called the Big Bear, but I don't see how anyone ever pulled a bear out of that."

He shifted his aim a bit. "Those three in a row there are Orion's belt. The two stars there are his shoulders; I remember he was always easiest to find in the winter, like now. Thank god that it rarely snows here in the city, or we'd be in a much colder position right now." He laughed again. "I'm sure this would be a lot less comfortable with a bunch of snow packed between our backs and the grass."

Over the next hour, he continued to show her the stars and explain the stories behind them; how Orion was stung by Scorpio, which is why they never appeared in the sky at the same time. How the north star had been used to navigate for primitive civilizations, not because it was the brightest star but because it fell almost perfectly in the northern direction without changing position very much.

It was one of those moments where he was opening up to anyone, a rare thing indeed; and it was to her that he was revealing all this. That alone meant the world to her.

Eventually, the talking died down and it was just the two of them laying there staring at the night sky. Time flew by, and soon Matt was looking at his wrist interface.

"Alright, our hour's almost up. Can't have Eager getting in trouble for abusing his task force privileges." He stood up, and extended a hand down to her which she gratefully accepted. As he helped her to her feet, she tripped over her own feet again; apparently she still needed to get used to her new proportions before heading into battle or anything. She fell into him, and he caught her easily.

"Whoa, easy there. You're supposed to be recovering, remember?" he teased. She looked up into his green eyes, her own electrical blue ones sparking with wonder.

All of her instincts were fighting her, but she didn't care. It was perfect; the cool breeze around them, a great day spent with one another, the stars shining down, and now here she was; literally in his arms. If there was a more perfect moment than right now, she didn't know what it would be.

The consequences-

I don't care.

But think of how this could ruin everything! Do you really want to sacrifice everything just for the possibility of-

God, yes.

Her two sides kept fighting each other; warring with one another over which was right when neither was. There was no longer any right or wrong, just choices. And it all came down to her. She just couldn't think straight; she knew that the smart thing was to let it go, but she was so sick of playing everything safe. She wanted nothing more than to nuzzle in closer to him, to wrap her arms around him, to finally tell him just how much…

I love you.

Matt stiffened suddenly. He still held her in his arms, but he distanced her slightly. "What?"

She was confused. "What?"

His eyes were wide with… she didn't know. Unease? Excitement? What had just happened?

"Did you just say 'I love you'?"

Oh shit.

She'd gone and done it. She'd just accidentally said her thoughts aloud, and now he knew. What had she just done? Probably thrown three years of friendship down the drain, because things weren't ever going to be the same again after that little stunt.

Silence fell as she refrained from answering him, hesitating; did she deny it? Accept it? How would he react? Then she realized that she'd taken too long, and it was just as good of a confirmation for him; he was too good at reading people and emotions. So she decided to deal with it the same we she'd dealt with it for the last three years, a way so very different from how she usually reacted to things; she shoved it all down and tried to hide.

"Forget it," she said quickly, averting her eyes. She didn't want him to see the embarrassment that was all too apparent in them. He seemed at a loss for words.

"Ash…?"

She shook her head. "No, don't worry about it. It's nothing really, the notion of it is ridiculous. I shouldn't have said anything." She released herself from Matt, and stepped back.

"Thank you for the great night. I'm just sorry I had to go and ruin it."

"Wait, let's talk about this-"

She quickly set off at a brisk pace for her room. She was feeling a whole train wreck of emotions; shame from letting that slip up, anger at herself for potentially ruining their friendship, and just a bit of hurt at how Matt had reacted. He hadn't done anything negative per se; but she couldn't help the small bit of disappointment that wormed its way through her, disappointment that the situation hadn't played out as she wished it had.