Note: This story is also published on A03 and while I will continue posting here, I do recommend eventually checking it out on A03 for extra content such as artwork ect that will be coming in later chapters if that's your thing. ( archiveofourown dot org /works/27992094/chapters/68562399)

As always, thank you so much for reading along with this story and sharing your thoughts.

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I used to be so tough
Never really gave enough
And then you caught my eye
Giving me the feeling of a lightning strike

"Somebody To You" - The Vamps

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There are blue skies above the fight deck of the Prometheus as Rick makes his way towards Skull One.

Rick tugs on the collar of his flight suit and juggles his helmet under one arm as he scans the clipboard in his hand. It's a new day but in other ways, it feels much the same as any other since the SDF-1 finally settled into its new home in the lake after that fateful battle. Nearby, the ground crew shuffle ammo canisters between the dormant mecha and pull back the hoses from the ones ready to fly. Rick doesn't pay much attention to the hustle and bustle around him and it's not long until he's settled into the cockpit of Skull One and readying himself for the mission ahead. This one had piqued his interest and despite his hopes for a lingering peace, he also doesn't mind admitting he could use a bit of action to shake out the tension that's become his constant companion lately.

He casts his gaze up to the main body of the space fortress that towers above the city of New Macross. Somewhere in there was the command centre, where Lisa should be. And where she hasn't been for days.

Static sounds in his ear and the usual chatter that accompanies the start of every mission fills the airwaves. Rick listens in with half an ear, well used to the routine but there's one voice that makes his voice catch in his throat and his heart thump painfully on the inside of his ribcage.

Then a familiar face appears on his central commo screen. Lisa!

"Skull One, you are go for take-off."

Despite the rapid tattoo of his heart, Rick does his best to keep his expression neutral as he wraps his hand around the stick and snaps a toggle as he runs through his pre-flight checks. A beat later, his engines engage with a comforting rumble.

"Roger that, Command. Skull One moving out."

His attention is focused on the glowing alphanumeric displays of his HUD as he steers his veritech out onto the runway but he's acutely aware of Lisa's face on his screen. It's the first contact they've really had since he walked away from her door that night.

It feels like forever ago now.

"Uh, by the way, it's good to see you again, Captain Hayes."

He glances at his screen just in time to see her offer him a small smile and something hopeful inside him soars. He hadn't expected that.

"I'm glad to be back, Captain Hunter."

A swirl of warm tumbles about inside him that has nothing to do with Skull One lifting off into the blue sky. Maybe she's ready to give me that second chance after all, he thinks. After all, Lisa is back at her station - that has to be a good sign, right?

He ventures for a little more. "I trust that your time away was… enlightening?"

Lisa's expression shifts into her familiar cool mask. She hesitates to answer and Rick knows she's considering her words carefully. He tells himself not to get his hopes up but when their eyes meet over the comm, they do anyway.

"Yes, very enlightening," she says quietly. "Thank you for asking."

If Rick was the fanciful sort, he would swear he would be able to hear angels singing in the distance. A wide smile he can't help spreads across his face. It had only been a tiny crack in her façade, but it was there. And it was for him.

Lisa seems to realize then that she's given too much away and she clears her throat. With a tight purse of her lips, she switches back into command mode instantly.

Rick feels better than he has in days. A grin curves his mouth and he tips his fingers in a small, mock salute – a long standing joke between them considering his previous disregard for her orders. He can't be sure, but he thinks there might be a slight flush across her cheeks. "I'm very glad to hear that, Captain."

There's a lot more he wants to say but for that moment, it's enough to know Lisa is back where she belongs.

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Rick takes to the skies with his squadron and Lisa cuts the visuals to flip back to her monitors. She's conscious of Vanessa nearby, sneaking her sideways glances, a distinctly speculative light in her eye. Lisa has no illusions that her every move is being catalogued and recorded to be repeated in avid, lush detail later to Kim and Sammie on the level below the first moment Vanessa gets.

No one had expected to see her when she had walked onto the bridge at a crisp oh-seven hundred hours that morning but the warm welcome Lisa had received from the trio had made her eyes prick and her heart swell with warmth and affection.

It's nice to know she had been missed, but better yet to put aside her inner turmoil over Rick and finally get back to work.

She gets busy issuing orders to the airborne squadrons as they wing their way towards the southern wasteland outside the currently established reclamation zones. Their mission is reconnaissance today. Strange reports had been coming in for days that had left the top brass skittish enough to send their best to investigate.

And their best meant the Skull.

Barely two hours into the mission, Lisa is monitoring their flight path over the barren wastelands when her display chimes and Rick's face appears.

"Skull leader to Captain Hayes. Request permission to enable scrambler."

Lisa's stomach flutters with butterflies she tries hard to ignore. Be professional, she reminds herself as she nods and flips a switch. Her screen crawls into static for a split second before the image clears.

"Scrambler engaged," she says curtly, securing her headset more tightly on her head. She likens it to donning her armor, still wary of the turbulent seas between herself and Rick. The last thing she needs is it spilling over onto the mission. "What seems to be the problem, Skull Leader?"

Rick's half grin under his helmet from earlier is long gone and now there's a crease between his brows that tells her he's been brooding away quietly in his cockpit. Lisa's nerves quiver, anxious about what's about to come next.

He wastes little time launching into what's on his mind.

"Does this mean you're back for good, Lisa?"

The casual use of her name tells her he's thinking about anything other than his task ahead.

"Captain Hunter, this is hardly the time or place."

He disregards her rebuke easily but then she knew he would. "Well, you've ignored me every other time I've tried to contact you. How else am I supposed to get you to talk to me?"

Lisa grits her teeth and tries to ignore the way her heart dances at his words.

"Did it ever occur to you that perhaps you should learn to take a hint?" she says icily but her cold tones don't ring true even to her own ears.

By the lazy half grin Rick gives her, he seems to agree.

"Well, you never did say I was very bright."

Lisa's eyes widen for a heartbeat then she has to bite the inside of her cheek not to laugh outright.

It's been a long time since they've had that argument. During those few short hours they had spent trapped together in the SDF-1 while the battle raged outside. Both of them had left the theatre trying to escape their pain and found each other instead.

Looking back, Lisa had wondered if that was the moment she had started to fall for him. Had Rick been thinking about it as much as she had during their time part recently?

"Dope is the word I used," she says dryly. "If I remember correctly."

Vanessa snorts loudly behind her and Lisa tears her gaze from Rick's laughing face to throw her a sharp look over her shoulder. Vanessa makes a show of clearing her throat and shuffling down into her seat.

"Sometimes I'm smart," he's saying when Lisa turns back. "Admit it."

She shakes her head and tries once again to bury her amusement under professionalism, reminding herself of the audience nearby. They were all there to do a job and reminiscing wasn't it.

"I will do no such thing. Go back to your patrol, Captain."

"Now why would I do that," he drawls. The teasing note in his voice is unmistakable. He knows exactly what to do to get under her skin. "When talking to you is so much more fun."

Lisa narrows her gaze. "Hunter, you really are something else, you know that? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't write you up on report right now."

It's an empty threat and Rick knows it. He laughs and the sound of it goes straight to her heart like an arrow. What was it about this man that allowed him to slip past her defenses so easily? It was infuriating and intoxicating all at the same time.

A small silence reigns and Lisa has to remind herself not to fall into the soft blue of his eyes. How many times had they talked like this over the com screen and yet it had never felt quite like this. What is so different this time?

The answer comes to her in a flash of clarity: Rick is.

As though to prove her point, his expression shifts. His gaze becomes cautious, his tone a little softer. Through her headset, his voice is almost a caress against her ear and it curls around her like a promise. "I'm really glad you're back, Lisa. Maybe we can, uh… have dinner together tonight?"

Lisa stiffens. It's too fast, too soon. Her heart thunders too painfully inside her chest and it takes her a long moment to realize that despite her willingness to give Rick more of her time, she's still terrified she will wake up tomorrow and this will all be a dream.

She tries to buy herself some space. "I'm not sure about that."

"Huh," Rick chuckles, but it's dry and resigned and a little sad. His easy smile slips. "You're really going to make me work for it, aren't you, Captain?"

Everything inside her wants to reach out and touch the image of his face on her screen but fingertips of fear rest against her throat.

"Fool me once…" she whispers.

His expression falls and all his good cheer fades away into something pained, possibly a little angry. "That's not fair, Lisa."

"Life isn't fair."

"Yeah, and don't I know it," he mutters. He sighs, as though he's close to defeat. "So what do you want me to do? Beg? Will that make a difference? Because I will, Lisa. If that's what it will take for you to give me another chance, then I will."

Lisa's fingers curl into a fist against her skirt and she has to swallow thickly around the lump that's suddenly appeared in her throat. Her voice almost cracks when she thinks about everything she has to lose if he breaks her heart again.

Then Claudia's voice slides in her mind – If you keep pushing him away, you might lose him for good.

She's silent for too long and Rick's face falls even further. "I can't lose you, Lisa," he says roughly in a voice laced with desperation. "Not when I've finally realized how much you mean to me."

Lisa is dimly aware of Vanessa's small gasp behind her, listening in to every word but somehow, she doesn't care. All she can focus on is Rick. Blood rushes in her ears.

"Rick…"

On her screen, Rick winces unhappily and shakes his head, as though finally remembering where they both are.

"I know, I know, " he mutters unhappily. "You're right, this isn't the place to be talking about this, but if I don't say anything when I have the chance I'll regret it for the rest of my life. But I'm not sorry about this. I'm not going to let you-"

Before he can finish, an alert sounds and Lisa's monitor lights up with pinpricks of red. Her screens blare with reports of missiles shooting from the surface, barreling directly for the squadron flying overhead. Lisa forgets everything save for the fact the man she loves is suddenly in danger.

"Rick!"

"I see them," he says grimly and the visual cuts out as he charges Skull One into the fray. "Max, Bobby, dive low and take out those hostiles! Miriya, you're with me."

The firefight lights up the screen and commands and reports burst over the airwaves. Lisa's heart is in her throat. "Be careful, Skull squadron, there could be more of them!"

"Acknowledged. Don't worry, we've got this."

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Rick does his best to focus on the mission and push his private thoughts of Lisa out of his mind. He should be well practiced at it after the past few weeks, but it's much harder to do when it's her voice in his ear and her face on his screen.

They put down the rebels with practiced ease and he's soon occupied with scouting the base they'd stumbled across. There was barely anything left of it, a few tattered tents, some piles of white and grey that Rick is startled and sickened to realize are piles of bones. Whether they were micronized Zentraedi or human, he'll leave that to the salvage crews to determine.

"It was a suicide run," Miriya says quietly over the comms as they pass low over the still flaming wreckage. "Faced with starvation, they would rather die in glorious battle. It is the Zentraedi way."

"That's brutal," Bobby mutters and Rick finds himself echoing the sentiment.

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Back in the command centre, Lisa waits impatiently for further reports. The entire skirmish took less than a few minutes but when it's over she feels weak with relief. She sinks into her seat as Rick's face reappears over the com.

"Hostiles neutralized."

"I want a damage report, Captain Hunter."

"Not even a scratch," he informs her with a ring of false bravado. "That goes for me and my men."

Lisa exhales a note of relief and squashes down the flicker of pride. He was an amazing pilot and a fine leader. And to think she once had doubts about him in the service. It almost makes her laugh now.

"I'm relieved to hear that. Now you're due in the south east quadrant, bearing nine delta five, Captain. Please direct your squad."

"Roger that, command."

He flips a toggle and she listens in as he issues his instructions. Usually she could flip the display to another screen but with the com still open, she takes a moment to watch him. His face is slightly flushed under his helmet, the adrenaline no doubt still pumping after that recent skirmish. His dark hair flops over one eye and she has to ignore the sudden, curling desire to reach through her screen and smooth it away from his face.

Once he's given out his orders, his gaze finds hers again. "You never did answer my question earlier, Captain."

Lisa had been so deeply in thought that his wry comment catches her by surprise. She frowns. "What question?"

Rick's lips quirk. There's a second of hesitation before he plunges in and Lisa knows instinctively what he's about to say just by his pause alone. "So, will you have dinner with me tonight?"

For a long moment, Lisa forgets where she is, caught up in the gentle way he asks the question and the soft look in his eye. Gone is his previous cockiness and smug attitude, instead this is a glimmer of the man he had been that night he had shown up on her doorstep half frozen. The one who had chipped away at her defenses and hard anger and utterly disarmed her but then the general chatter of the bridge environment fades back in and Lisa's face heats. "Captain Hunter, honestly. That is highly inappropriate."

He looks amused at her flustered indignation. "Never stopped us before."

For a split second, Lisa is annoyed at the implication that she is less than professional in her duties but he wasn't entirely incorrect. She hears a chuckle from behind her and glances over her shoulder to see the trio bunched together at Vanessa's workstation, snickering into their hands.

Her temper flares hotly, but mostly from embarrassment. "If I say yes, will you stop going on like this?"

"Like what? All I did was ask you to dinner."

"You know what I mean. Like… like this?"

She can see him struggling to hold back a smile. "Depends," he drawls and too late Lisa sees the spark of victory in his eye. "Are you going to say yes?"

"Rick, you're really starting to make me regret coming back."

For a split second, his expression is wounded and Lisa immediately regrets her words. She doesn't mean them. She has no intention of going anywhere. All that talk about reassignment… No, she couldn't go. Not now.

Possibly not ever.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "I shouldn't have said that. I don't mean it."

"No, I get it," he says, uncharacteristically subdued. He glances sideways, as though looking at something over his wing and his mouth curves downwards. "I'm pushing too hard, aren't I? I told myself I wasn't going to do that but here I am badgering you over the comm."

His contrite manner steals away all her heat. She doesn't want him to feel bad, and she doesn't want him to retreat. And why was she fighting him on this anyway? There were bigger battles they needed to fight and it was pointless wasting her energy on trying to keep him at arm's length when it was clear that neither of them wanted the distance between them in the first place.

She takes a deep breath and shuts out everything but Rick on the other side of the comm. "Alright," she says softly.

It's clearly not the answer he was expecting because he blinks then eyes her suspiciously. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said alright," she repeats. "I'll have dinner with you."

She sees him reach for a switch on his control panel. "Uh, can you just run by that me again? I think you're breaking up, Captain."

She turns sharply to a side screen and frowns as she takes in the readouts. If something was playing havoc with his communications, it might mean another attack is imminent but her screens show nothing remiss.

"That's strange. There's no interference on this end."

"None here too. I just wanted to hear you say it again."

Lisa huffs in exasperation. "Honestly, Rick-"

"So, my place. Eighteen hundred hours," he tells her firmly. His grin is back and Lisa is struck again by how devastating it could be. Does he know how much that smile of his makes her legs weak? But then his words have a chance to register properly in her mind.

"Your place?" she asks, surprised. She hadn't been on many dates but she had assumed somewhere in the back of her mind that a date involved going out. Last time he had wanted to go for a picnic.

Rick is silent for a moment, as though wrestling with something inside him. "Well, uh, we could go out somewhere… if you're more comfortable doing that."

Lisa is touched, and a little impressed by his consideration – idle chatter over the com in breach of all the rules notwithstanding – as she considers his offer.

"I don't mind, Rick. Besides, there's still a lot we need to talk about."

Rick nods in agreement. "Hm. Yeah, I suppose we do. So… it's a date?"

Lisa tries to ignore the memory of the last time he said that and the events that followed. Still, they led them to where they are now so she shrugs it off.

"Yes," she says. She waits for the cloud of anxiety to churn around her and fill her mind with doubts, determined to beat it back, but strangely it doesn't come. Rick gives her another smile that makes her stomach swoop happily before he signs off.

Lisa can feel the trio waiting over her shoulder, silent with bated breath. She turns slowly and pins them all with the most stern and imposing look she can muster.

"Not. A. Word."

"Uh, oh, what have they done this time?" Claudia says as the door slides open and she steps through. She casts an amused glance over the girls in their huddle by Vanessa's station.

"We didn't do anything," Kim says with a huffy glance in Lisa's direction. She hops off her perch by the console and drags Sammie with her out the door and back to their level below.

"For once," Vanessa mutters and she turns back to her screens.

Claudia glances between Lisa and Vanessa curiously, one eyebrow raised questioningly. "Seems like the wastelands weren't the only place that there were fireworks, hmm?"

"So it seems," Lisa agrees, hoping her face isn't as flushed red as it feels.

Claudia, of course, notices immediately. "Care to tell me what's going on?"

Lisa hesitates, her face burning. Claudia glances at Vanessa, who turns around and mouths the words date and Captain Hunter to Claudia.

Claudia's eyes widen. "Well, why didn't you say so?"

Lisa glances up to find Claudia watching her in amusement. "What?"

Claudia's eyes dance with that familiar light. "You finally came to your senses, huh?"

Lisa's cheeks colour. "Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Yes, alright. I agreed to have dinner with him tonight."

Claudia eyes her expectantly. "Well, what are you still sitting here for? Get going!"

"But I'm still on duty!"

"Not any more you're not," Claudia tells her firmly. She tugs on Lisa's arm marches her over to the door that leads into the corridors and bowels of the command centre beyond. "Don't worry, I'll cover for you."

"What? Claudia, no, I-"

Claudia leans in to whisper a valuable piece of advice against her hair. "Make sure you wear something pretty." She smacks Lisa's arm lightly. "And smile more!"

She gives Lisa a gentle shove and wriggles her fingers in a wave as the door to the bridge begins to close. "Bye, honey," she sings out, just as the door slides shut mere inches from Lisa's nose.

Lisa stares helplessly at the closed door then sighs in exasperation. "Well, that's that I suppose."

She turns on her heel and heads towards home, a fluttering anticipation trailing in her wake.

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