Such Pretty Poetry

He may have been invading privacy, but he was curious. And no tight-lipped Master Sergeant was going to keep secrets from him. Ryan was obviously smitten, so he just needed to figure out who was the object of this love.

And, as the list of acquaintances he knew grew shorter, he grew all the more frantic.

"Ssg. Michaux?" Neil asked, only to be rebuffed, yet again, with a slightly shaken head. He stopped himself from getting too aggravated – that was the last woman on his mental list, and he'd known that had to be her.

Though… It appeared he was wrong.

Determined to figure out exactly whom his executive officer was infatuated with, he looked around the room as though it held the key to this riddle.

And he found it!

"Jane!"

"What?"

"No…" …or not.

"Damnit!"

"…No offence of course."

"None taken," Jane grumbled under her breath and went back to her business.

Of course, Neil was still left in the dark concerning the matter of hand.

Maybe it's not one of us, he suddenly realized. It could verily have been anyone. For example…

"A scientist?" he had gone through an extensive list of the most numerous occupation in the world, so why not start with the second, "…A doctor?"

"Mmph," Ryan replied, and Neil grinned – it wasn't 'no.'

"Lily Barnett," so he started again, and had soon run down another long list of names without result. Rather, without the result he desired, as one side effect was Jane's sniggering in his direction and another was his own exasperation.

"You're sure it's not Dr. Ross?"

"Yes, I'm sure, Neil; that's the third time you've asked me that."

"Well, I… just wanted… to make sure the captain wasn't intimidating you or anything," Neil sulked.

"Give up," Jane said, "You're not going to figure it out; so why don't you leave him alone?"

"I can figure it out," the technician sniffed, "Jus-"

"But you won't," the woman replied, dropping her pencil and glaring at him.

"How would you kn…" he grinned with the sudden insight, "Jane!"

"No," she said, before he could even ask.

"Please?"

"Go away," and with that, she retrieved her pencil and went back to her scribbling.

"C'mon… please?"

Ryan snapped out of his daydreaming long enough to sigh, "It's Dr. Sid, okay? Leave her alone."

"What?" Neil asked, dumbfounded. He thought it was a joke, if it weren't for that completely irritated tone he'd never heard Ryan use before. In the silence, he tried to imagine if it were worse to run and hide or to laugh.

Then it hit him, Dr. Sid.

"Why?" he blinked, looking from friend to friend. Jane shrugged while scribbling, and the sergeant simply stared at him.

"What can I say? The man has a beautiful mind," he said, before resuming his staring into space, "And he writes such pretty poetry."

The End

Working Title: The Sid/Ryan Thing

Inspiration: Jess. ESP. "It can't be worse than the time I..."

Noteworthy: ... Go Ryan/Sid?

Disambiguation: Not to be taken seriously, unless you like that kind of thing.

Derivative work of material © Square Pictures, Squaresoft. Reformatted to abide by 'site standards. None of the original text has been modified, 'cept in case of typo.