Author's Note: Woot! Number 2! Have fun reading it I guess. Remember my due reward for this: Reviews!!

CHAPTER 2-

Naota looked at her face, she was blushing slightly, "Haruko, you've changed. Your not as airy and light as you were when we met. But... I don't care... your still the Haruko I fell in love with." He leaned forward slightly, putting his lips against hers. She was shocked at first, but didn't resist. The kiss deepened with every second, but it didn't last long. Kanchi slid the door open and stopped walking immediately. There were two pinkish marks on his screen-like face, sort of like he was embarrassed. In his hands was a box of bandages, ointments, a bottle of water, and some towels.

Naoto quickly leaned back and Haruko did the same, resting her head back on the fluffy pillows, her face was very red. Kanchi walked over the Naota and handed him the box, afterwards he left the room, quietly sliding the door shut. Suddenly Haruko closed her eyes tight and began moaning with pain. "N-Naota... I... feel all woozy....i'm gonna... pass..." she didn't even finish her sentence before she blacked out and fell limp on the bed. Naota looked at Haruko with a worried expression, carefully sliding the blanket off of her so he could get a better look at her injuries. She had burned arms and a few deep gashes across her chest and stomach along with smaller injuries on her arms and legs. Thankfully, however, most of the bleeding had stopped.

"Ugh. I have to get her bandaged up fast. She's lost a ton of blood," Naota said to himself, "How about I start with her che" he paused, face turning cherry red, "::gulp:: I guess... it has to be done.... It's a life or death situation right?" he reassured himself. Then with a deep breath he unzipped her red jacket and carefully took Haruko's shirt off without waking her.

It took the better part of an hour but Naota finally finished the bandaging, taking extra care to properly and securely cover all of Haruko's injuries. With the final gauze strip properly applied, he rose and stretched. Naota bent over her and once again covered her with the blanket. Walking to the door to his room he slid it open and looked back at Haruko who was sleeping peacefully under the covers. With a last fond smile he left the room, carefully sliding the door shut and heading down the stairs to the living room.

"Is it really that late?" he said glancing passively out the living room window. The sun was almost gone, casting a deep golden light over the city. The Medical Mechanica factory gleamed brightly in the twilight. Things were much prettier when there wasn't steam blocking out the sky.

Naota jumped with a start when he heard the phone ring. Quickly he rushed to the phone, picking it up and answering.

"Hello?" Naota mumbled.

"Hello, Naota," said the voice of his father, Kamon, "How've things been? I hope you haven't burned down the house."

"I haven't," Naota answered sighing.

"That's good. I also hope you're not 'fooly coollying' around with anyone. Like that Mamimi girl," the voice chuckled. He could hear the laughter of his elder brother and grandfather in the background.

"Dad! I'm not! Mamimi is just a friend!" he yelled defensively.

"Ok then, son, I believe you," once again there was laughter in the background, "I just wanted to call and see how you're doing. It's very nice over hear in America. Too bad you didn't come. Oh well. I guess that's all I wanted to say. Bye then, Naota."

"Yeah, bye." He answered. As soon as he heard the sound of a phone being hung up, he did the same. That was a pointless conversation he thought. He sighed and stared out the window once again. It was almost dark. Turning around he headed into the kitchen. Kanchi was standing at the sink with an apron on washing dishes feverishly.

Naota chuckled as he stood next to the robot. "Hey, Kanchi. You know you don't have to do that anymore, right?"

Kanchi nodded his head as he finished up the last plate, carefully placing it in the drying rack.

"Well, um, could you just stay here with Haruko to make sure she's okay? I'm gonna go for a walk. I need... to think about things," he said putting his hands in the pockets of his baggy khakis. Once again Kanchi just nodded. "Okay, then I'm off." Naota returned to the living room. Throwing on his sneakers he stepped out of the house and took a deep breath. It was getting chilly out. He could see his breath puffing from his mouth in front of him. Without a word he silently began walking down the street, in the direction of the green bridge, his favorite place to go to when he needed to ponder things.

By the time he reached the bridge the sun was well out of view and the streetlamps had flickered into their dreary existence. Naoto quietly watched the calming water for hours. It was around one o'clock in the morning before anything happened. Naota was leaning on the rail when he heard soft footsteps from behind him. He quickly turned around and almost choked. Haruko was standing there, wearing a pair of his pajamas and slippers.

"H-Haruko!? Why are you here? You should be in bed resting!" he said worriedly, stepping forward and gently pulling her into a hug. Haruko once again let tears fall from her eyes as she smiled.

"I just wanted to thank you," she said squeezing him tight to her, "you've done so much for me. You even bandaged me up. Heh, I didn't think you had the guts to bandage all of my wounds." Her face turned to a light color of pink as she talked, still smiling. "Naota, you're all grown up now. You're not the little kid I met all those years ago. I'm so happy being here with you, Naota, but something's about to happen.... I can feel it," she said letting him go and stepping to the railing, a serious look on her face, now.

All of a sudden they saw a shooting star-like light fall from the sky, hitting the handle of the huge factory. A few moments later and they stood wide-eyed in terror as they heard a loud deep noise and saw clouds of steam burst forth from the factory's base.

"What the hell?! I-I thought we took care of that place a long time ago!" Naota yelled exasperatedly stepping forward towards the railing, a look of surprise and horror plastered on his face as he tensed up.

"This is what I feared," Haruko said putting her head down and nervously chuckling, "they've repaired the factory. Once again they're trying to 'iron out the wrinkles'. Naota, if I were you I'd get ready" she said looking at the metal bracelet type thing she wore around her wrist. A small, square piece of metal was clanking around noisily on it.

"Huh?! Oh no! Not this again!" he yelled just as a felt a huge horn begin protruding from his forehead. His head throbbed painfully as a huge robot pulled itself free. With one last violent jerk, the robot fell from Naota's head and went crashing into the water below them. Haruko looked sadly at Naota who was doubled over on the ground, holding his head and sweating profusely.

"Naota. Once again we have to stop them. Will you help me? It's your choice this time." Haruko said, holding out her hand to Naota and smiling oddly. Naota looked up at her. After a few moments he grabbed her hand and stood up, looking over the railing. "I will. But, I don't think I can do all of this alone,"he said smiling and casting a sideways lance to Haruko who was looking at him. She too was smiling fondly. "Haruko, but just for now, let me deal with this one. You need to heal," Naota said as he began running along the bridge. "Kanchi!" he yelled as he jumped the guardrail and ran down to the river's edge. Within seconds, Kanchi landed next to him. Naota looked at Kanchi and nodded giving the go-ahead for the 'fusion'. With a roar, Kanchi grew a huge fang filled mouth and swallowed him up as Naota jumped willingly inside. Another few seconds and Kanchi turned to a flaming red-orange color, a glowing symbol lighting up on his screen-like face.

The transformation came just in time, too. Water flew everywhere as the great robot that had fallen in the water burst forth. It was an enormous ape-like robot. It was gunmetal gray color and spikes jutting from every angle were glistening in the low light from the street lamps. Its single glowing red eye placed on its small square-like head zoomed back and forth looking along the bank and to the bridge. It spotted Haruko and lunged at her, but was stopped forcefully by the Naota-Kanchi fusion. With great strength, the flaming colored fusion robot threw the gray beast back into the water with an enormous splash. As the creature rose from the water it made a growling sound, scanning his opponent.

Haruko watched wide-eyed with joy as time after time the Naota-Kanchi robot beat down the gunmetal intruder with ease. Finally after about five minutes of frenzied fighting, the fusion robot had had enough. It was time for the gunmetal robot to die. With a swift move the Naota-Kanchi fusion leapt backwards and transformed into a large cannon. With a great bang a hot orange ball shot out of the end drilling a hole straight through the evil robot. As it exited the beasts back the orange ball circled around in a wide arc to come zipping deftly back into the barrel of the red-orange cannon. With the ball retrieved and the enemy defeated, the fusion and transformation were useless. Turning back into the regular fusion, the two uncombined, Naota magically pulling himself out of Kanchi screen-like face instead of come out from "other places".

Haruko watched as Naota dusted himself and made his was back up to the bridge. "Naota! How did you do that so easily?!" said exclaimed looking up at him, Naota had grown quite a bit since she had left last and he was now a few inches taller than her.

"I dunno.... I guess I just had some boxed up emotions I needed to get rid of," he said looking down at the ground blushing with a boyish grin on his face.

Haruko smiled then yawned widely. Blinking twice she looked at the sky. "Geez, it's almost two in the morning. I think we should be heading back," she said stretching. Suddenly she gave Naota a wicked sort of smile. The same one she had given him many times six years ago. Sticking her fingers into her mouth she let out a great whistle. Within second the Vespa soared into sight, a dust trail coming out from its back tire. With a loud screech it skidded to a halt next to the sidewalk, facing the way back to his house. "So how 'bout we take this then, huh?" she said looking at him with a smirk on her face.