Friendship

A/N: Wow, I keep forgetting to shove up the rest of this story. o.o; This thing is old as sin, and my god is it crappy. But I post here so I can take it off my hard drive. It's scary to look back and see how I used to write. ;;; Sigh whatever, review if you want, I guess. I'll post up more when it's not a quarter after three in the morning. e.e;;

Round 1.. Fight!

Zero leapt at X, wearing nothing but a towel, beam sabre in hand. As he came up to him, he ignited it, and swinging it down at him, wildly. It cut into the headboard, leaving a mark, as X jumped to the side out of the way.

"Commander, what's going on!" He exclaimed, dodging another swift attack. 'He's infected!' He thought, as he ran to the other side of the room, looking for something, anything, he could use as a weapon. He didn't have his armor, he'd left it back at the bath.

"Fight me, damnit!" Zero roared, and charged at X again.

"I can't! Commander! Zero! Wait!" X begged, between dodges. 'I need a weapon!' X thought, as he ran to the thick door of their room. As he tugged at it, he realized it wasn't going to budge. "Damnit!" He jumped away from it again, but didn't escape unscathed. The end of Zero's sabre pierced his arm deeply, and blood ran down it.

He flipped back once, then kicked the bed's frame, breaking a piece off and making himself a short, stubby wooden club. "Don't make me hit you!" He pled.

Zero growled, and got ready to strike. "You couldn't hit me with that thing if you tried!" He exclaimed, then charged him down again. He slashed at X, aiming for his chest. 'So far so good, but let's see what you're made of..'

Reading his move, X blocked it quickly with the club, using it to push Zero away from him. He then ran forward at him, aiming hit after hit at various points of his body. Most of them missed, but the last one hit Zero dead on, and a crack was heard as it made contact with Zero's shoulder.

Zero cried out, and jumped back, hand on his shoulder tightly. 'He's good... I couldn't block them all...' He dropped his weapon. 'Guess it's time to get serious.. Let's see how he is at hand on hand.'

X cringed. "Commander?" He lowered his weapon slightly and took a step toward him.

"Stop calling me that, damnit! I have a name!" Zero yelled, annoyed. "Get ready to finish this!" He ran straight at him, catching X off guard, forcing him to drop his weapon and fight with his fists.

X caught Zero's wrists with his hands, and held them in a vice like grip. "Why are you toying with me like this! Are you infected or-" He was cut off by Zero's fist, which connected with his jaw. He stumbled back slightly, then doubled his efforts, laying punch after punch on Zero, who matched each hit with his own.

"What's wrong, X? Can't cut it?" Zero threw at him, kneeing him in the gut roughly, trying to push X into a small rage- to get his blood boiling. "And I'd heard so many good things about you." He smirked slightly. "I should have known how useless you'd be."

"Shut up!" X screamed, and slugged Zero. His eyes widened, as he realized what he'd done. " Oh my god! I'm so sorry, commander!" He put his hands on Zero's shoulders, trying to pull his arm free to see what damage he'd done.

Zero let X pull his hand free. His face wasn't twisted in pain, or anger, as he'd expected. Rather, he was grinning. "Looks like I have a new sparring partner!" He laughed, pulling X over to him, patting his arm. "You did good, X.. But you can do better, can't you?"

X stared dumbfounded at him. "Did... good...?" His eyes widened. "This was all some kind of a big test!" This sent him over the edge. "I thought you had turned maverick! You made me fight you! And it was all some kind of a game!"

Zero seemed to find this humorous. He laughed slightly. "Me? maverick? Is that what you thought? Of course it was a game! You just had your first training session!" He grinned.

"YOU JERK!" X shrieked, and slugged Zero again.

Only this time, he didn't apologize.

"Look! For the last time, I'm sorry! Next time I'll give you some warning, okay?" Zero exclaimed, as he went through his drawers, looking for a pair of boxers to wear to bed.

"I don't care how many times you say you're sorry, you're still a jerk!" X cried, already set to go to bed. "That was terrible! If I was wearing my armor, I'd have-"

Zero raised an eye slightly. "You'd have what?" He snorted slightly. "You wouldn't have done anything! You were hitting me with a table leg-"

"-the bed frame-" X corrected.

"-Whatever, and you were apologizing! You don't apologize to your enemies when you're fighting them! That's how you end up dead! You set your weapon down, if I had been maverick, I'd have killed you!" He pulled off his towel, and slid his boxers on.

X fell short at that, and looked away quickly, blushing softly.

"What?" Zero asked, cocking his head to the side.

"N-nothing..." X mumbled. 'Stop flashing me! He's going to get me excited..' He blushed even deeper, then closed his eyes, letting himself cool off a little. " I don't think I did that badly.."

He opened them again, and was face to face with Zero, who was staring him hard in the eyes. "You're in my unit, kid. You fight some of the toughest mavericks out there. There is no such thing as 'that badly'. You either shine in battle, or that battle is your last. Understand?"

X nodded slightly. "S-sorry, commander..." He whispered.

To further his point, Zero held up X's injured arm. "See this? I was only playing... If I had been serious, you would have just lost your arm, and those can be a bitch to repair. So watch yourself." With that, all the seriousness drained from his face and he grinned. "But enough about that, how about I bandage that arm up for you, and you help me set the bed up for tonight? I might need a hand." He stared down at the bed, full of slash marks from his sabre, springs busted from him and X jumping around on it, frame destroyed.

X stared disdainfully down at it. "I'll say."

Zero lay, half asleep, stretched out on the mattress he and X had thrown on the floor after they picked up the pieces of the frame. A huge spring was digging into his back, but other than that, he was fine. X had quieted down considerably after recovering from the fight they'd had, and he felt a little guilty. He hadn't expected such a reaction from X, who was so shy and quiet. He rubbed his face gently where X had hit him. His eye was swollen slightly. 'Great... I let some rookie give me a shiner.' He thought bitterly. It was his own fault, however. He'd let himself get distracted.

'If I hadn't been staring...'

He looked away quickly, finding he was still staring, even now. 'Damn! What's wrong with me? Lusting after the new guy like this.. I'm as bad as a...' His thoughts trailed away as he noticed he was being watched.

X who was curled up sleeping, had awakened, and was laying silently, staring at him. The intensity in his eyes was so strong that it almost forced him to look away.

After a moment or two, he did. ".. Hey."

In an instant, the intense, piercing stare vanished, replaced with a small smile. " Hi. I can't sleep."

"So I noticed." Zero replied, stretching slightly.

"How's your face?" He asked, shyly. "I'm.. uh... sorry about that."

He grinned slightly, despite himself. "You've got a lot of power in you."

To his surprise, X, rather than acting flattered, seemed upset at that."Yeah.." He sighed, and instinctively reached to his arm, touching his bandages gently. " ... you're much stronger.."

Zero reached out, and set his hand on the bandage, a few fingers touching X's. "Did I really get you that badly?" He stroked his shoulder gently.

X jerked slightly, pulling his fingers away quickly, cheeks coloured. He drew his knees up slightly, to ward of the warm feeling collecting. 'Not now.. This is so embarrasing!' he thought, panicking. "No, no.. It's fine, really!" He squirmed away from him quickly.

Zero smirked slightly. "Aww... Poor X... was one training session too much for you? And I went so easy on you, too." He picked up his pillow, and swung it at him, knocking him in the face. "Wanna rematch?" A part of him, in the back of his mind, screamed at him. 'What am I doing? Acting so childish..' He quickly blocked that out, however, and hit his poor defenseless recruit in the face.

X leaned back slightly, missing a third swing easily, and tried to reason with Zero. "Now isn't really the best time...Don't you have a light's out or something!" He sat up as well, trying to think pure thoughts. It wasn't working.

"Yeah, we do.. After this!" He laughed, swinging at X again with his pillow.

"Hey, knock it off!" X cried, losing his balance as he grabbed the pillow from Zero. He fell back, half on, half off the mattress, and hit his head off the floor. "Ow!" He yelped, the pain from that, as well as Zero, who was pulled over when X stole his pillow, and had fallen on him.

Zero lay on top of X, staring down at him. His hair hung from either side of his face, trailing down onto the rookie. "Oh... sorry..." He didn't move, just stared. That intense look was in X's eyes again. He blushed slightly, feeling something warm and hard press against his stomach. 'He isn't...!'

X stared blankly up at Zero, face almost white. "C-Commander...Zero... I.." Tears began to sting the corners of his eyes. 'Why now of all times! There's no way he doesn't feel that!' He struggled slightly, trying to pull away from Zero, anything to get his hips free of the tall blonde reploid's stomach, which he had hardened against.

Zero raised an eye, slightly. "X, are you-" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, X knocked him away and stood up quickly.

"I.. I'm.. s-sorry...com-mander..." He managed out between choked sobs. "I have to go!" He cried, then ran out of the room, clad in only his pyjamas.

Zero jumped to his feet quickly. "Where are you going!" He ran out into the hall, and called out after him. "X, wait! It's the middle of the night!" He ran back into his room, grabbing his grey and black jumpsuit, throwing a pair of pants and a t-shirt over it. "Damned rookie!" He grabbed his sabre, sheathed it, and ran out after X quickly.