Mwu awoke with a start. He'd had the dream again; the one with the winged doughnuts. They had been in the midst of flying directly into his mouth, when Azumi had shown up and proceeded to eat the doughnuts right in front of him, while cackling madly. Just once, the MA pilot wished he could have a normal fever-induced nightmare, maybe something along the lines of him running aimlessly after someone. He sincerely hoped it was just an effect of the medicine.

It was official. Mwu's life sucked. He was in a heap of trouble with his superiors for disobeying orders, his actions had indirectly caused the death of a team-mate, and he had been bed-ridden with a fever for the past three days. The questions that had been haunting him earlier now flooded Mwu's mind once more.

'Was Azumi's life really worth more than Hoji's? Certainly, his death was, if not easier, then at least more honourable than hers would have been. Was there even a way to prevent what happened? But it was still my fault, wasn't it? Argh!' Mwu was clearly not going to get any more sleep. Feeling his own forehead, he decided he was fit enough for a walk around the ship to clear his mind. He had no destination in mind as he wandered down a deserted corridor, only paying enough attention to his road to avoid a collision with a wall.

Soon, however, it became clear where his body was taking him, as he stood in the dark prison ward. It made sense, after all, that he would want to see Azumi. Not only had he not seen the girl since she had been taken to her cell, she had occupied most of his conscious thoughts and a great deal of his unconscious ones as well. Mwu treaded silently through the prison ward, looking for Azumi's cell.

'Damn. She's asleep. I forgot about that.' Mwu cursed silently, seeing the breathing lump on the bed. 'Maybe I should wake her up.' He made to gently lean his head against the steel bars of the cell, but a lack of judgement caused him to, instead, bang his skull rather loudly and painfully against the aforementioned bars, a flow of colourful words escaping his lips.

The lump stirred instantly and Mwu found himself staring once again into those entrancing green eyes.

"Mwu!" Azumi immediately checked her excitement, replacing it with her usual dry sarcasm. "I see you're well. I thought for sure they'd have grilled you alive for disobeying orders."

"Heh, no such luck, though 'well' might be a little exaggerated. I spent the last few days in bed. Can I come in?"

"Don't ask me. You're the one with the access code." Azumi turned a light on and motioned for him to sit next to her as the MA pilot punched the code into the locking system. She smirked as he fully entered the pool of light. "May I inquire as to why you chose to visit in the middle of the night, dressed like that." She gestured with an air of majesty at Mwu's t-shirt-and-boxers ensemble… and he blushed. The great Lieutenant Mwu La Fllaga, ace pilot of the Earth Alliance forces, blushed like a school girl. He had completely forgotten that he was still in his sleeping clothes.

"I… umm… well, I was sleeping and…" Azumi cut off the unintelligible response with a dismissive wave of her hand. Mwu glared at her. "You are so arrogant." Her response was an impish grin. "So, how's the cell working for you?"

The Coordinator shrugged. "It's better than the ropes."

"I don't know. I think I'd prefer being tied up to being in a cage."

"Well, try it for a day. I assure you, by the end, you'll be begging for the relative freedom of the cell." Azumi stretched her arms to accentuate her point, drawing a chuckle from Mwu. "By the way, what was your Commander planning on doing with me anyways? I could only gather that it would have meant my death."

Mwu briefly recounted everything that had happened, an angry huff escaping Azumi at the mentions of the Commander's plans for her. At the end of the story, Mwu sighed. "I feel responsible for his death, Azumi. Was it my fault? I can't even bring myself to talk with the other crewmembers about it. I feel like they blame me, and they're probably right."

Azumi looked at Mwu sternly, before answering in a cold tone that somehow managed to hold sympathy. "It's not your fault. This is war, and war has its casualties and its heroes. You can't always save everyone. If you must blame someone, it should be the political forces behind the war, not yourself. In any case, throwing the guilt around won't help you. I've lost friends and comrades to this thing too."

"I know, but it's not really easy to transfer the guilt to politics alone. I should have done something."

"There was nothing you could do. Mwu, if you need to transfer the guilt to something more tangible than politics, blame me. I'm the enemy, after all." The warm empathy in the words chilled Mwu to the bones.

"Blame you? This wasn't your fault. And besides, I don't want to think of you as the enemy. You…" Mwu's words flew right out of his mind, as he stared at Azumi, who seemed to be twitching her left eye, apparently trying to force a tear out. "Are you… umm… what are you doing?"

"There's an eyelash in my eye and I can't get it out without a mirror." was the casual response. Another chuckle escaped Mwu.

"Here, let me help you." he said, taking Azumi's chin between his thumb and index finger and tilting her head up, while using his other hand to examine her eye.

"Stop! I don't want your fingers on my eyeball!" she squealed, struggling half-heartedly, more for the sake of putting up a fight than to actually get away from Mwu's hands. He grinned and held her harder, and eventually she settled down with a dramatic pout and Mwu brushed a stray lash off her face.

"See, that wasn't so bad. And I didn't even have to touch your precious eyeball." he teased, not relinquishing his hold on her chin.

Azumi was staring at the man. Thus far, she hadn't been so close to him while in a conscious state and she was beginning to find the lack of distance a little innerving. His sapphire eyes were now focused on her emerald ones. He was easily one of the most appealing men she had ever met. With her trade-mark smirk in place, Azumi did the only thing that seemed logic at this time and closed the space that separated them.

It was a tentative kiss, slightly inexperienced, and it sent Mwu's senses flying. After the initial shock had worn off, he returned the kiss, keeping his right hand on Azumi's chin and wrapping the other around her waist, pulling her closer. It was bliss. Unfortunately for Mwu, it had to be interrupted by his ever-annoying logic. 'She's the enemy, despite everything else!' it screamed at him. 'This is a huge mistake!'

It took him several more seconds of internal battling before Mwu had regained enough control of his body to gently push Azumi away. The part of him that wanted this was clearly not entirely subdued.

"Azumi… I… I can't…" Unable to find better words, Mwu's mind seemed to shut down, putting his body on autopilot. He couldn't remember closing the cell door or getting out of the prisoners' ward, yet he knew he had done it. He didn't stop walking until he had put two corridors between himself and the Coordinator.

Azumi watched Mwu's retreat with a mixture of embarrassment, hurt, and anger simmering inside of her. She couldn't make sense of her actions, or his, for that matter. He had kissed her back, yet he had drawn away just moments later. And what had driven her to kiss him in the first place? She let herself fall down into her uncomfortable bed.

"Azumi, you idiot…"

Mwu's mind finally seemed to kick back into gear. He was leaning against a wall, panting more than the short walk from the prisoners' ward should have caused him to. Or had he run? He sincerely hoped not.

Taking a deep breath, the MA pilot reflected over his situation. He couldn't understand why he had reacted like that. Certainly, he had been kissed before, but it had never caused such turmoil within him. Then again, he had never been kissed by an enemy prisoner. And now, he'd probably jilted her with his dumb response and the fact that he'd run away. He would definitely have to talk with the Coordinator… later.

With a sigh, Mwu pushed all thoughts of the night's event to the back of his mind, forgetting about them… for about three seconds. It was going to be a very long night…

Author's note: Well, here's the new chapter and it's longer. I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope you guys liked it too. Things are finally moving between Mwu and Azumi. I'd like to know you guys' take on this, so post your opinions. Until next time, eat your veggies and stay in school kids.

astrocosmos: Ah well, he didn't really go SEED. I'm not sure if Naturals can go SEED, although it did remind me a lot of it when I was writing it. Whatever, he got really angry, or something. xD