A/N: Sorceress Myst, don't worry, Nel is back in control today!
Leios had a pleasant first night on board the Eagle, while it still remained docked in at Luna Base. Rising with a groan, she sluggishly washed and changed before attempting to find the kitchen off the back of a blurred memory. After ten minutes of checking every unlocked room, Leios found the Kitchen but remained outside the door. She could hear somebody- no, some people- inside talking and her old habit of eavesdropping kicked in. Cautiously, Leios approached the door and rested her ear against it. The first voice she heard sounded male. "…I don't get her. I mean, she seems okay but what she did to Albel-" "Looked like an instant reaction, like she had been in that situation on numerous occasions. This explains why she did it, but it's still unnerving to think why she had to have such sharp reflexes." "I know. She's definitely keeping something back from us." "Did you notice how upset she became when she thought of her home on the way here? Makes me think that she's seen some kind of trouble on her home world, which also explains the reflexes. But the thing is, what sort of trouble was it…?" Leios' hand had automatically reached for her pendant upon the mention of 'trouble on her home world'. When she noticed, she thrust it to her side furiously, trying to ignore the reason why it had raised. Leios returned her ear to the door and made sure the people inside were still talking before pushing the door open with a bright, yet forced, smile on her face. Before her sat Fayt and Maria, who's gossiping instantly stopped the moment she set foot inside the room. "Good morning!" She said cheerily and the pair returned the sentiments. "Did you have a good sleep?" Maria asked as Leios pulled out an apple from beneath a pile of fruit discarded on the side after last night's events. "Very good, thank you very much." She replied through a mouthful of apple. Suddenly the door opened again, and Albel entered the room.
Albel looked just as enraged as he had yesterday after the little 'incident'. He stormed passed Fayt and Maria, and his only reaction to Leios as he opened the fridge door was his fingers twitching on his clawed hand. Leios could sense now was not the time to speak with him and simply ignored him as he closed the fridge door, juice held in his natural hand. Nel trailed in shortly after him. "Have to make sure he doesn't do anything rash." She explained over a slice of toast. "As if I would do anything of the sort, fool." Albel spat at Nel, who simply rolled her eyes. "Sure, Albel, just keep telling yourself that." After seeing that Nel was the only on who could keep any form of control over the red and blonde haired man, Leios decided to sit close to her as a precaution. Slowly, the rest of the ship woke up and entered the Kitchen in desperate need of food. Although Albel's presences ensured that everyone was quieter, breakfast conversation was amusing none the less, especially as the 'Fat Fight', as Sophia had dubbed it, still raged on between Cliff and Mirage. "I'm not fat." Cliff mumbled after Mirage made a sly comment about his weight for the fifth time in two minutes. Both Leios and Sophia reached over to him and patted his arms. "We don't think you are fat." Sophia smiled. "Yeah, we think you are quite trim, don't we Sophia?" Leios asked, and received an energetic nod in reply. "Well…it's good to know somebody likes the way I look around here." Cliff fixed both Sophia and Leios with a broad grin. Sophia giggled like a schoolgirl and Leios blushed, hastily returning her attention to the half eaten apple in front of her. Mirage sighed and hung her head. "Looks like you win." She mumbled lowly. Cliff flung his arm around her shoulders, beaming. "You put up a good fight, my friend." He said, snatching a slice of toast from the center of the table and taking a celebratory bite out of it. "Hey Cliff, when are we setting off?" Nel asked, ignoring the murderous glare Albel was giving her. "Uh, soon?" He offered as a reply, settling into his chair to think about it. Nel sighed quietly and looked at Fayt, who was eyeing Leios suspiciously. "What's up?" Fayt looked surprised for a second then shook his head, as if just waking from sleep. "Nothing, nothing." He denied quickly turning his attention to Sophia and striking up a conversation about their past exploits on the Luna Station. The dark looks Fayt had been giving Leios had also not escaped the attention of Cliff, who thought on it as he finished his toast. He glanced at Leios, who was still pink-cheeked from earlier and decided that perhaps now was the best time to leave. "You ready to go, Mirage?" Mirage nodded and followed Cliff out of the room and into the cockpit before starting the engines and taking the Eagle out into space.
The Eagle cruised leisurely through space, neither Cliff nor Mirage wanting to strain the engines yet. "How long will it take to get to Expel at this rate?" Cliff asked, wanting to break the silence. Mirage tapped at the keys on her console and looked at the screen in front of her. "Two days if the rate remains constant, but we're hardly going to keep going through the night." Cliff nodded, remembering the nightmare-ish task of night driving where he and Mirage switched over from sleeping to driving every few hours. They had both nearly ripped each other's heads off by the time morning came, and Mirage still had to drive on very little sleep. Suddenly the ship jerked wildly and an alarm began to shrill loudly. "What the hells going on!" Cliff demanded. Mirage hacked her console quicker than before. "We received a hit to the right side of the ship. Scans show that there is a medium sized ship in the near by vicinity that fired the shot at us." Cliff began to read the information inputs on the screen quickly. "Any idea why they attacked us?" He asked but Mirage ignored him. "Cliff, the ship is about to fire another shot, so stop thinking about why and start thinking about how the hell we are going to avoid it!" With a fowl twist in his stomach, Cliff began to type co-ordinates into his console while pushing the concern that the attacking ship had something to do with Leios to the back of his mind.