And thus, the one know as 'Atreyu' doesn't own Outlaw Star. Happy? I said it!
Melfina opened her eyes slowly. She couldn't describe how she felt, she just knew that it was strange. She was staring out over what seemed to be the largest field of grass in the universe. No trees, no bushes, not a cloud in the sky, just grass flowing over the level ground with an occasional large hill. She realized that she was sitting on one of these large hills. She quickly looked around her for someone, anyone that she knew, but soon realized that she was alone in this incredibly beautiful desert. As she gazed outward toward the horizon, she started to become slightly afraid. Where am I? she wondered. Where is everyone? How do I get out of here? Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She gasped and quickly turned around to see who it was.
"Harry!" she said, finally relieved that she had seen someone she knew, much less loved.
"Hey, what are you getting worried about, Melfina?" Harry asked.
"Nothing. I just was scared because I don't know where I am," she said, referring to the unmissable field they where in.
"Who cares where we are. We're alone, and it's peaceful here." Harry leaned down and sat behind Melfina, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a relaxing position. As they both looked off into the distance, a gust of wind gently blew their hair into their faces. Melfina completely forgot about the fact that they didn't know where they were.
"This is great, isn't it, Harry?" she whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence anymore.
"Yeah. You don't know what I would have done for this moment in the past."
"But you won't have to. It's here now."
"Yeah, it is." Harry closed his eyes and soaked in the moment. Melfina felt like falling to sleep. The silence was so peaceful. Harry moved his face towards Melfina while tilting hers to face him. They both began to share an intimate gaze as more wind blew across them. Harry and Melfina closed their eyes almost simultaniously and began moving for a kiss. Melfina wondered why this was feeling strange, but tried to ignore it for the kiss. Her heart was beating faster the closer she got, but she wondered why she wasn't kissing him.
Melfina opened her eyes. She was lying in bed, staring at the wall to her room. The sound of a horrible rain storm could be heard from the thunder that always frightened her, except for today. She laid there motionless, no emotion visible in her face. Great. Another dream. Melfina couldn't help but be saddened that Harry wasn't there. It had been almost six months since he moved in, yet everything seemed to be moving so fast. Melfina and Harry knew by now that everyone else knew about their relationship. Gene was still taking it hard. Every chance he got to be alone with Melfina, he was trying to talk her out of dating Harry. Still, Melfina wouldn't hear it. Recently, she had even let Harry begin sleeping in the same bed as her, though she told Harry not to try anything funny, which he respected. They all got along well, Harry was loving his job with the guys, and business was incredibly high. Almost not a day went by when they weren't getting job offers. Harry had even used most of the money from their bigger jobs to buy a second ship! It looked a lot like the Shangri La, but lacked it's speed and grappler arms. He had really gotten it just because it had his favorite attribute, the ability to carry a Halcyon missile. Everything seemed to be going great for her life. That was until one month ago.
The guys had gotten a deal for a massive cargo operation, which entitled them to move supplies from Centinel to Tenrei. Seeing as how it was an unbelieveably far distance between the planets, it was going to take them months to complete the job, but, as Jim always said with a good job, the pay was worth it. It would have made them rich, since the job was being paid for by the governments of the planets. Melfina didn't go with them because it was too dangerous and all the Outlaw Star had to do was follow Harry's ship, so there was no need for a navigator. They had already been gone one month and still Melfina felt like her heart had been shattered. She still remembered begging Harry not to leave her again. She didn't want him gone this quickly when he had just been there a few months. Melfina then wondered, maybe that was a dream too. She slowly raised her hand above her body before dropping it behind her, trying to feel if Harry was there. Her hand and arm came down on the bed sheets, making a light ruffling sound. Melfina began to sob immediately after her hand hit. Her face in her hands, she crawled into a ball and shook. Harry! she thought, Where are you, Harry! She continued to reside in her sorrow for few more minutes before looking through her teary eyes at the clock. She thought that she should forget about them for right now and begin making food for everyone else that was still there. She slowly crawled out of the bed away from her door. She felt her foot hit something that was sticking out from under the bed. Puzzled, she pulled out what looked like a large photo album. She knew that Jim had been keeping photos from the years, but she never knew where he could put them, seeing as how his room was never that clean and Melfina never even bothered to step in there. Melfina sat back down on the bed and opened the album on her knees.
"Let's see what Jim's been keeping," she whispered to herself as she came across one of the few pictures she remembered. It was a photo of her, in the park, with Harry lightly rubbing the ice cream from a cone on her nose. The little bit of Melfina's face that was visible in the shot seemed scrunched up in pain. Melfina smiled as she thought back to that day.
"Man, I'm bored," Aisha said loudly. "We should go to the mall."
"We are not going to the mall for the one millionth time, Aisha," Jim retorted. "We need some fresh air and so do you."
"I don't need this garbage! I need a joystick in my hand and MacDougall next to me so I can cream him."
"Please," Harry said, walking next to Aisha and Melfina, "You couldn't cream a block of cheese."
"What's that?" she screamed.
"Keep it down," Gene said. "I really don't feel like losing my hearing today, Aisha."
"Whatever," Aisha said while looking the other way. "I don't need this crap." She walked away from the gang and ran toward the city.
"Aisha!" Melfina called after her, "Come back!" She then sighed in failure. "Why does she always do that?"
"Because she's too active," Jim said. "Well, what do you guys wanna do?"
"I have an idea," Melfina said. "Let's go to the pond and look at the birds." Gene had a look on his face that showed that he really didn't want to do anything of that sort. Harry, upon noticing Gene's scowl, glared at him in anger as to imply that that was what they were going to do.
"Yeah, Melfina," Harry said, changing his expression for Melfina. "Let's do that. I'm sure Gene and Jim won't mind, right?" he said looking back at Gene.
"Well ... uh ... you see ..."
"Gene can't go," Jim said. "He said he'd get supplies for me." Gene let out a large sigh when Jim said that.
"Yeah, so I guess I'll see you guys at the shop, okay? Okay. Bye." Gene began running in the other direction when the opportunity finally arose. Harry still looked at Gene as he ran away, wondering how he even had the nerve to do something that rude.
"Whatever," Harry muttered under his breath. "Let's go check out the birds, Mel." Harry gently took Melfina's hand and led her to the pond. There was a bridge that stretched across it near it's center that Harry led Melfina onto. Jim followed shortly behind them, still disgusted over Gene's rude exit.
"I know he had to get the stuff, but you'd think he could have made a more graceful exit," Jim said.
"Don't worry about it," Harry said. "We're still having a good time, aren't we?"
"I am," Melfina said smiling at Harry before looking out over the pond near ther edge of the park. Jim pulled himself onto the railing and sat there while reaching into his pocket for something. It was a small camera. Jim began taking shots of the lake as Harry noticed Jim's actions.
"What are you doing, Jim?" Harry asked.
"I'm taking pictures. I've been hooked on it ever since we got that lame job where we had to photograph that dude."
"Why did we even take that job?" Harry said to himself, remembering a job that he really never wanted to remember again.
"Because, we're lucky to get jobs on Heifong, that's why," he said as he took another picture of some fish under the water. "If we didn't get even the bad jobs we would still be in debt to people like Fred."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Harry said as he gazed outward with Melfina. Melfina rested her head on Harry's shoulder as he stroked her hair. Harry looked to his right to see one of the many small ice cream vendors that littered the park daily. Harry was feeling very hungry anyway, so he thought he might as well go for a small snack. "Hey, Mel. Do you want some ice cream?" he said as he pointed to the small cart.
"Oh yeah! Let's get some!" Melfina said enthusiastically.
"Cool. Do you want any, Jim?"
"No thanks," Jim replied. "I'm not hungry right now."
"Okay, I'll go get it, Mel. Just wait here." Harry ran over to the ice cream vendor as Melfina watched him order two cones. Harry came back with one white ice cream and one pink ice cream. "Here you go," he said as he handed Melfina the white one. "I know you love vanilla."
"Aw, thanks, Harry," she said as she tasted some of the snack. She turned around, still lightly licking the ice cream, to watch the sunset over the Heifong skyscrapers. Harry, after taking a few licks of his strawberry-flavored treat, lightly rubbed the ice cream on the cone onto Melfina's nose. Melfina immediately scrunched her face and gave a sharp squeal. Jim, noticing Melfina's scream, took a picture of it on his camera. Melfina quickly moved away from Harry and began rubbing her nose, which still had some pink ice cream on it. "Harry! That's cold!"
"Sorry. I couldn't resist," he said in sort of an apologetic manner. Melfina, still slightly shaken, walked back to Harry while looking at Jim.
"Did you take a picture of that, Jim?" she asked.
"Yeah. It was so cute," he said mockingly.
"Please don't show that to anyone," she begged. "I think it'll look embarrassing."
"Don't worry, Melfina. I won't," Jim replied sincerly.
Jim kept his promise, it seemed. The picture was here, in the album, away from everyone else under Melfina's bed. Melfina quickly turned the next page, hoping to find something a little more cheerful. She did. She found a picture of all of them standing behind Jim, who was seated, at his birthday party. All of them had huge smiles on their faces and the cake was monsterous! Melfina always remembered what happened after that picture was taken.
"Happy Birthday!" everyone but Jim screamed as the camera that was set up automatically took the picture of them around the birthday boy. It was his 14th birthday, but his first with the gang. Everyone sat down at the seats around the table and began eating the birthday feast Melfina had made for Jim as his birthday present. All of Jim's favorite choices were on the table, which really didn't please Aisha. Some of the choices she couldn't stand, and made that visibly known.
"Come on," she said, "Who eats this crap anyway?"
"I do!" Jim said loudly. "Now sit down and enjoy."
"Can't we just get to the cake?" Aisha asked.
"No!" Jim screamed. "Not until you eat. Everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves," he said as he motioned to the rest of the gang, who were eating the meal.
"Melfina, tell me that there's something that you made that's good," Aisha begged.
"Well, um, I did make sushi," she replied after thinking about the statement.
"Yes!" Aisha squealed as she began filling her plate with the raw fish. As quickly as she had piled them on the dish, they were gone. "Now can we get to cake?"
"No!" Jim screamed again. "Wait for everyone else. I swear, sometimes you're just plain rude."
"Me? Rude! What's rude is not letting a woman, not to mention a dignified, respesctible woman like myself, fill her stomach when she pleases."
"Aisha," Suzuka said, "Shut up."
"No! You shut ..." Aisha said before feeling the thwack from Suzuka's wooden sword once more. This time, Aisha was steamed.
"One day, Suzuka. One day I'm gonna break that damned thing!"
"Aisha," Melfina said shyly, "Can you please just sit down? I worked a long time to make this party fun and I really don't want to see it ruined." Aisha finally calmed down a small bit.
"I guess," she mumbled. "But we better get to cake, and quick! Hurry up!" Everyone at the table was looking at her with food still in their mouths. "Come on! Eat! MacDougall, I know you're hungry! Chew!"
"I think I'll eat at my own speed, thank you very much," Harry replied after swallowing his food. "I really don't see the point in breathing food in like you do."
"I eat slow! I'll show you!" Aisha began grabbing food off of the table to fill her plate again to prove her point. Once her plate was stacked, she sat down again and ate a piece of some kind of vegetable. Upon realizing that it didn't taste that good, she spit it out like a missile. "Eww! What's this crap?"
"Well, for one, it's not crap," Harry said angrily. "It's very good. You should really try to get accustomed to it."
"I think I'll pass," Aisha said while wiping her mouth to clean off the rest of the food. She seemed to have forgotten where the rest of her food had been spit, which was into Gene's face. He just stared across the table at Aisha, fire in his eyes. Aisha, after finally cleaning the food off of herself, looked at Gene like nothing had happened. "What? You're hungry for cake, too?" she asked Gene as he clenched his fist. Harry and Jim, seeming to have the same idea, began to slowly get out of their seats.
"Hey, uh, Jim," Harry said nonchalantly, "You want to go get some drinks out of the fridge with me?"
"Yeah, let's go ... now," Jim said through his tightly clenched teeth.
"Okay. Come on, Mel," he said, grabbing Melfina's hand and trying to pull her out of her seat. Melfina, who had been oblivious to the current situation and was still eating her food, didn't let Harry pull her out of the seat.
"Harry," she said, "What are you doing?" Harry leaned down to her ear to whisper to her.
"Melfina, look at Gene." Melfina looked at Gene's face. Melfina made a silent gasp before looking back at Harry. "Come on. I think I know what's about to happen." Melfina nodded and quickly rose from her seat. She followed Jim and Harry into the kitchen to avoid the innevitable fight that was about to happen. Suzuka was the only one who didn't leave. She was still lightly drinking her drink while enjoying her meal.
"Gene!" Aisha yelled, "Answer me! Don't you want cake, too?" Gene still made no sound. He continued to pierce his glare through Aisha. After a few moments, Aisha ingored the question and continued to chow down. Jim, Melfina, and Harry slowly glanced from the kitchen at the two of them, still seated at the table. Gene finally made a motion when he began poking his fork back into his food. Slowly, the three of them crept thier way back to their seats. All of them tried to avoid eye contact with Gene, who was now mashing up a light pudding-type food. Jim and Harry started a small conversation into which they hoped they could draw everyone else into to get their minds off of Aisha's food-spitting incident. Suddenly, they heard a splating sound. They looked at Aisha to see the pudding that Gene was mashing up in her face and a spoon in Gene's hand. He had obvioiusly hurled the food at Aisha in retaliation.
"There," Gene said with a large smile, "Now I hope we're even for that little spitting thing." Aisha growled at Gene while wiping the food off of herself.
"Nowhere close!" she screamed as she grabbed more food from her plate and pitched it at Gene's head. Gene ducked in time to avoid the shot that Aisha had taken at him. He quickly grabbed more food from his plate and threw another shot at Aisha. By this time, everyone had gotten up from their seats, quickly, and stepped back so as not to get hit by the flying food. Suddenly, a shot from Aisha missed Gene and hit Harry in his face.
"That's it!" Harry screamed as he grabbed more food off of the table and swung at Aisha, clocking her in the shoulder. "Come on, guys! Let's get her!" Jim, Melfina, and Suzuka still were staring at the three of them.
"I might as well," Jim muttered as he reached into a stack of crackers and hurled them at Gene.
"What are you doing?" Gene screamed at Jim.
"It's a food fight, right?" Jim asked.
"I guess," Harry replied while throwing more random food at Aisha, who was now behind the couch. "Melfina! Get me more food! I'm out!" he said as he ran while ducking to avoid Aisha's throws.
"Um, I don't really think that this is a good ..." Suddenly, Melfina was hit by more pudding from Aisha. Melfina screamed as she looked in disbelief at her clothes, which were now covered in yellow food.
"You're playing!" Aisha screamed while she chased after Harry, who was now laughing as loud as he could. Melfina then grabbed a large roll and filled it with more food before throwing it at Aisha's head. Aisha, once realizing that Melfina hit her in the head, ran back to the table for more ammunition. Jim and Gene chased each other around the room while Melfina kept herself hidden under the table, handing Harry any food he might need to pelt Aisha with while keeping the food hidden from her. Soon, Melfina crept out from under the table and threw food toward Gene, but hit Suzuka in the face instead. Melfina never did have the best arm. She gasped in horror when she saw Suzuka's look. Suzuka then walked over to the table and grabbed her cup of drink, which had somehow miraculously survived not getting knocked over. She slowly walked toward Melfina, not appearing mad at all. Just then, she threw the drink into Melfina's face, slightly blinding her. After Melfina finished wiping the drink out of her eyes, she saw that Suzuka was still smiling.
"It's a food fight, right, Melfina?" she said calmly.
"Right!" Melfina said joyfully. They then grabbed more food and began chasing each other around the room. Everyone seemed to have a battle partner in this food fight. They all then simultaniously realized that the only food that hadn't been touched in the house was the birthday cake. They all looked at Jim, subconciously asking if they could ruin his birthday cake for the food fight, which was becoming more fun by the second.
"Let's do it!" Jim said as he dug his hand into the cake and hurled a large chunk of it at Aisha and Harry. Suddenly, everyone was grabbing pieces of Jim's cake and continuing to have fun. After about ten minutes, nearly everyone and everything was covered in chocolate and icing. After walking back to the table, they couldn't help but to smile.
"So," Jim asked, "Who gets to take a shower first to clean this off."
"I do!" Aisha screamed. Suddenly everyone but Aisha dashed to the bathroom to be the one inside. "Hey, that's not fair!"
Melfina became lost in the memory that she was remembering. Suddenly, she snapped out of it and remembered that she was looking through the pictures in the photo album. As she pushed her hair out of her face, she turned a few more pages until she found a picture that was truly memorable. Melfina gasped when she came across one picture she didn't remember. It was of Harry, shirtless and asleep in Melfina's bed, and next to him was Melfina, wearing a red bra that was laced in faux white fur. It looked like something she would wear for Christmes. Her head was on Harry's chest with her hand on his cheek and she appeared to be asleep as well. Melfina freaked out when seeing this.
"What? How did that get in here!" she said to herself. She pulled the picture out of it's slot and looked at the date on the back. It read 'December 23, 2133'. Slowly, it all started to come back to her.
It was almost Christmas. So much preparing had gone into place to make this day a great time. Melfina and Jim had spent countless hours making out invitations to invite everyone they knew to their Christmas party, but they didn't expect anyone to come. They figured it would just be the gang ... together ... again. Melfina was finished making the big dinner as Harry was making sure that everything they needed for the bash was there.
"Mel, where's all the forks and spoons and things like that?" Harry asked as he looked through the empty drawers.
"Oh! I washed them all. Just get them out right there," she answered, pointing to the dishwasher. Harry set the table as everyone came into the living room, mainly to relax. Aisha grabbed the remote and began trying to find a good Christmas movie. There was an awkward silence before Gene broke it.
"Okay," Gene said, "When is the party supposed to be? I'm getting anxious."
"I guess now," Melfina said while glancing to the clock. "It's too bad that no one we've invited has come, isn't it?" she said softly as she lowered her head in defeat.
"Don't say that, Melfina," Harry said warmly, "They probably are just running a little late. I'm sure that a few of them will be here." Not one second after Harry had finished saying that, there was a knock at the door. Gene walked over to see who it was. As soon as he opened the door, he was taken aback by their first guest.
"Fred? What are you doing here!" he said.
"Gene!" Fred said in his usual cheery mood. He always was like that around Gene, though Gene always wished he wasn't. "What am I doing here? I'm here for the party. You did invite me, after all."
"Yeah, I guess we did, huh? Well, come on in."
"Thanks, Gene. It's dreadfully cold out there, what with it being winter and all. Am I the first one here?"
"Yeah," Jim said, poking his head over the couch, "And you might be the only one."
"Why do you say that, Jim?" Fred asked.
"Cause, we're not really certain that everyone else is gonna make it to the bash. Some of these guys have to come a long way for it."
"Aw, I'm sure they'll come, Jim," Fred excliamed. "Til then let's have some fun, huh? Oh! And I brought Christmas gifts for everyone. Where should I put them, Jim?"
"Under our tree, I guess," he said, pointing to the Christmas tree in the corner of the room. After Fred set the packages down, he invited himself to sit on the couch next to Aisha.
"So, how's things been you guys?" Fred asked.
"Um, swell," Jim said, "We've been having a short run of jobs lately, but we're hoping that they'll start pouring in soon."
"Well, that's what you have to do, keep that optimisim high! Back to Christmas, do you guys have anything big planned for the holiday season? A vacation, alone time, what?"
"Well I don't know about the others like Harry and Suzuka and those guys," Gene said, "But I know that I'm relaxing." Fred then turned his atttention to Harry, who was sitting to his left in another chair.
"Speaking of you, Harry, what are you doing for the holidays?"
"Me?" Harry had obviously been caught off guard. "Um, I was just gonna hang out here with Mel and the others ... I guess."
"What do you mean 'you guess'?"
"Well ... Melfina kept saying she had a present for me that would take up my whole night tonight, but I haven't got the slightest idea what it could be." As Harry finished saying that, there was another knock at the door. Melfina rushed to get it and slightly opened the door. She appeared to say something to the person outside before closing it again.
"Gene!" Melfina cried.
"What is it?" Gene asked, not having seen Melfina's actions at the door.
"Can you get the door? I'm busy."
"Sure, I guess," he muttered under his breath as he walked toward the door. Melfnia ran back towards Harry, Jim, and Fred at the couch.
"Mel," Harry said, "Why didn't you just get the door? You were right there."
"Because, the person outside is someone Gene knows really well and I want him to be there to greet her."
"Her? Who could it be?" Harry asked as he looked toward the door. As Gene opened the door, a woman in blonde hair immediately hugged him tightly, knocking all the air out of his body.
"GENE!" she screamed. "I've missed you sooooo much!" She finally let go of Gene as he realized who it was.
"Iris? Hey! What are you ..." Gene then stopped to cough from the sudden strangle hug, " ... doing here?"
"Your friend Melfina invited me and Clyde to your little Christmas party. She said you'd be glad to see us." Gene then noticed Clyde, who was still walking toward the building. Iris had ran ahead of him to get the chance to be with Gene quicker. "So can we come in? Can we!"
"Um, yeah, of course! Are you kidding! You're guests."
"AW! Thanks, Gene!" Iris then ran inside as Gene greeted Clyde.
"Sorry, Gene," Clyde told Gene, "She's been very impatient about this whole thing. Did she knock your lungs out with that hug?"
"No, but it was close," Gene said as they made their way inside. Iris hadn't gone that far, for she was right behind Gene, looking at him like a schoolgirl with a crush ... a massive one! "Um, Iris, you know you can sit down."
"I'm comfortable, don't worry," she said lovingly. "So, how's things been? Are you guys having a good time on Heifong?"
"Yeah, uh, I'll tell you more but let's really sit down." Gene, Clyde, and a very enthusiastic Iris made their way to the couch when Gene noticed that Fred had gone. "Hey, where's Fred?"
"Harry's giving him a tour of our place," Melfina said as she moved farther down on the couch to let the others sit down. "Do you guys want anything to drink?"
"No thanks," Clyde replied politely. "I think I'll wait a little while. Oh! That reminds me Gene, I've got some good news."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Well, business has been so good on Sentinel, that me and Iris decided to open up a new shop."
"That's great. Where are you gonna put it?"
"Right here on Heifong, of course!" Gene immediately knew this was good and bad. Good because he now had his friend Clyde to hang out and talk to, bad becuase now Iris would probably stalk him to the ends of the earth.
"Um, that's ... congratulations!" Gene really didn't know how to react to something like that. "Where are you guys gonna find a place to open the bar?"
"Probably somewhere around the main area of the city. They're building some new shops down there for new businesses, so we thought that would be a good place to try to open the place up."
"Well you know that you've got one guaranteed customer on this planet." Gene said smiling.
"OOOOHHHH! I knew you'd help support us, Gene!" Iris squealed from Gene's right side. Melfina had to cover her ears because Iris was so loud. "By the way, are you ..." she then turned towards Melfina and then back to Gene with a worried look, " ... seeing anyone?"
"Well, Iris ..."
"Nope. Gene's single," Melfina said smiling, interrupting Gene. "I'm going to go see what's taking Harry so long." Melfina then rose from her seat and ran upstairs. "If someone comes to the door, just get it for me," she yelled back. As Melfina walked towards the bathroom that most of the guys used, she saw Harry giving Fred the grand tour of the place.
"I must say, you guys keep this place spotless," Fred exclaimed while surveying the bathroom. "How do you do it?"
"Well, I'd like to say that it's me, but Melfina spends most of her time keeping the place clean," Harry explained. He then turned around to see Melfina aproaching them. "Isn't that right, Mel?"
"Huh? I don't really know what you guys are talking about," she said.
"Oh, well, uh, never mind. It's nothing. Hey, did anyone else arrive?"
"Yeah, two of Gene's friends from Sentinel just arrived here. I think that that's enough to go ahead and start the party with. Unless, you guys want to wait on more people."
"No, I think a small little party is just what we need," Harry said. "Let's go, Fred. I'm sure you're hungry."
"Oh, I could eat this building, if it wasn't made of steel and concrete of course." As they made their way back down, they all went down to the kitchen to eat. While Gene decided to introduce their guests to one another, Harry followed Melfina into the kitchen.
"Mel," Harry said to grab her attention, "Just exactly what is it that you said you have planned for us tonight? I'm dying to know."
"Harry, if I told you then it wouldn't be a surprise like I want it to be. Come on. Just wait until everyone leaves later tonight and I promise that I'll give you a great Christmas gift."
"Hey!" Aisha screamed, poking her head through the open kitchen door, "Come on! I don't want to have to wait forever to get gifts, okay?"
"Yeah, whatever, Aisha," Harry replied. Aisha then walked back toward the dinner table as Harry followed Melfina to it as well. "I guess I'll have to wait, huh?"
"Yeah, Harry. But it'll be worth it. I promise," she said with a large, loving smile.
As soon as they sat down at the table, everyone began having a great time. Jim and Harry were telling stories of their insane (and sometimes dangerous) jobs to the others, Clyde and Gene thought about ways to help out with Clyde's new bar, Iris kept trying to grab Gene's attention by getting close, and Aisha, Jim, Harry, and Fred worked out a genius plan to get Fred to slip a kiss on Gene involving a mistletoe and a pole. Gene wasn't too happy with that little joke, and neither was Iris. After they had all finished eating they opened gifts, took pictures, and talked for hours. Gene then thought it would be good if they all went out on the town to celebrate. Harry declined, saying he felt very tired and wanted to catch up on some sleep since they had the next few weeks off. Once everyone but Harry left the shop, Harry fell on the couch and tried to fall to sleep. He then realized that one person had stayed behind.
"Harry?" a gentle voice said to him as he was about to fall to sleep. "Harry, don't go to sleep yet." Harry opened his eyes to see Melfina standing just over him, her face near his and something under her arm.
"Oh, Mel, I wasn't out yet. What's up?"
"Well, now that everyone left and won't be back for hours, I thought I could get to that gift. Unless, of course, you want to rest."
"No! No. I'm fine," Harry said as he quickly woke himself up, not wanting to miss what Melfina could have gotten him. Melfina took the box that she had under her arm and handed it to Harry.
"Open it, Harry!" Melfina said with a small chirp in her voice. Harry glanced at her to smile before going back to work on opening the box. First the wrappping paper itself, then the box. Harry couldn't help but be puzzled by what he found when he saw what was inside.
"It's ... women's lingerie?" The small underwear that Melfina was wearing in the picture was inside the box. Harry pulled it out and stared at it, not knowing what to say. "Um, uh, thanks, I guess." Melfina couldn't help but laugh.
"I knew you'd say that, Harry," she said as she kept laughing. "Don't worry. It's not exactly for you. Just go wait in the bedroom and I'll get your real gift." Harry began smiling again as he walked to the bedroom and got comfortable on their bed. He saw Melfina walk down the hall and disappear into a bathroom. After a few minutes had gone by, Melfina slowly opened the door to the bedroom and poked her head inside to see Harry. "Are you ready, Harry?"
"Yes, my love. I can't wait to see this." Melfina then opened the door fully and stepped into her bedroom. She was dressed only in the underwear that Harry had found in the box. She smiled lovingly yet seductively at Harry, who was in complete shock. His eyes were huge and his mouth slightly open in a gasp as Melfina climbed onto the bed with him and started getting close to him. "Mel, what is this?"
"Your Christmas gift. I know that our relationship has been going on for sometime and that you probably wanted to ..."
"Wanted to what?" he asked, not knowing why was dressed like that.
"Wanted to, um, make love." Harry now realized that this was what she wanted to give him for Christmas. But Harry didn't feel right doing that.
"Melfina, I don't want to ruin the mood or anything, but ... are you comfortable with doing this?"
"Harry, I'm ... I'm ... I ... don't know." She sat back against the bad and looked down at herself. "It's just that, I see all of these couples talking about how they always do this type of thing with who they love and who they care most about, and even though I don't feel ready, I thought you would want us to make love someday. So I just wanted to give this to you to at least seem like we're a normal couple, you know?" Harry could tell Melfina was slightly saddened because he didn't seem excited.
"Mel, it's not that. It's just that I want to do this when we're both ready. I don't want to force you or make you feel like you have to do this for me just because we're in love." He put his hand to her face and turned her head towards him, giving her a tender kiss. "I mean, if you're ready, I'll do it. If not, I don't want to force you, okay, angel?" Melfina could only smile.
"Sure. I know I'm not ready yet, but are you sure you won't be disappointed?"
"I'm sure. But I think that if you are ready, we could just stay here and be close for a while."
"Yeah! That seems nice!" Melfina then hugged Harry and fell back onto the bed and began kissing him again. After hours of carressing and kissing, they fell asleep on the bed. Whie they were asleep, the gang came back from their night of partying. Gene went to bed, as did Suzuka, but Aisha noticed that something was wrong.
"Hey Jim," Aisha whispered, "Where's Harry and Melfina? Did they even go with us?"
"No. I think they stayed here," he replied. Jim walked to Melfina's bedroom door and opened it to see Harry asleep on the bed with Melfina's head on his chest and asleep as well. Aisha peaked over Jim's head to see what was going on and saw the perfect oportunity for a picture. Jim raced to his room and grabbed his digital camera before he and Aisha crept into Harry and Melfina's room. Jim slowly climbed on top of the foot of the bed and got as good of a picture as he could without waking them up. Harry then opened one eye slowly and noticed Jim.
"Hey! Get out of here!" he screamed as he threw a pillow at Jim, who was now running out of the room with Aisha, both of them laughing uncontrollably. Harry lowered himself back onto his pillow to see that Melfina was awakening.
"Harry," she cooed softly, "What was that?"
"Huh? Oh, don't worry. It was nothing. Let's just get back to sleep, okay?"
"Okay," she replied as she kissed him and fell back onto his chest. Silently, they both dozed off once more.
Melfina couldn't help but smile thinking of that day. Hours and hours spent being near Harry, holding each other as they rested. It just made her smile. Melfina realized that time was getting a little late and that she should begin to start on her daily chores. As she was getting up, she heard her door begin to open.
"Melfina?" a soft voice said. Melfina turned around to see who it was.
"Jim!" It was Jim, dressed in his usual attire, but also wearing a large, brown bomber jacket and holding his left arm for some reason."You're back! Are Harry and Gene here?"
"Um, no. They're not. Hey, what's that?" he asked, as if trying to change the subject.
"Oh, it's a photo album I found under my bed. Did you put this here?" she asked as she and Jim sat next to each other on the bed.
"Yeah, my room was cluttered so I threw it under here. I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, Jim," Melfina said smiling, "In fact, I might have some pictures that I would want to put in here."
"Really? That would be ..." Jim stopped and clutched his arm tighter as he whinced in pain, " ...really nice." Melfina knew something wasn't right and kept trying to look at his arm, but Jim would change his seating to avoid Melfina gazes.
"Jim, something's not right. Why are you holding your arm? Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm ..." he whinced again, " ... no, I'm not fine."
"Let me see," Melfina said as she took Jim's hand off of his arm to see that there was some form of liquid soaking his sleeve. Melfina quickly removed his coat to find his arm covered in blood from a large cut in his upper arm. Melfina quickly gasped and grabbed Jim by his good arm. "Come on, Jim! Let's get this treated quick!" They ran into the bathroom where Melfina used a first-aid kit to bandage and clean his arm. When the wound was treated well to the point where it wasn't bleeding, Melfina looked up at Jim from her kneeling position that she was in. "Jim, how did this happen? Did something like this happen to Harry and Gene!"
"Um, Melfina, I don't want you to panic, okay?"
"Not panic? Something happened, didn't it, Jim! What happened to Harry and Gene?" she screamed. Jim couldn't look at Melfina while he told her what happened.
"Um, we were attacked by what I think were pirates. The fight was so short that I don't even know what it was that attacked us. All I know is that it got so bad that Gene told me to get in an escape pod with one of Gillium's pink robots to keep his memory intact and we took off. When I looked out the pod window, all I could see was both Harry's ship and the Outlaw Star falling to the planet. I was well enough to where I could walk back here to try to get help or something." Jim looked up at Melfina, who was now crying intensely.
"Is ... Harry ... dead?" she asked through her sobs.
"I don't know. The ships might have been intact and it looked like they crashed somewhere around here so they would be hard for anyone to miss. Maybe they're getting help now." Melfina quickly grabbed Jim's hand and raced for the door.
"Come on, Jim! We need to see if they're okay! Where's your car?"
"Oh, it's still at the spaceport, Melfina. We'll get a taxi, kay?"
"Okay! Let's just hurry!" Melfina had never been in this much of a rush in her life, but with Harry's life as motivation, she was moving quickly. After she and Jim threw on heavy coats to keep them warm and dry, Melfina grabbed an umbrella and they waited until Jim flagged down a taxi a few minutes later. On their way to the hospital, Jim was looking for places where the ships would have crashed. "You did say it was somewhere around here, right, Jim?" Melfina asked.
"I think. It did look ..." Suddenly, Jim looked past Melfina's shoulder out the right side of the car window as he gasped in pure terror. "Melfina, look," he whispered as Melfina slowly turned around to see a sight that made her break down once more. There was the Outlaw Star, it's nose ripped to shreds and it's cockpit nearly indiscernable. It was completely surrounded by rescue and technical crews walking around the outside and trying to clean up the mess it made. Not too far from it was Harry's ship. It wasn't ripped to shreds, but was in worse condition due to the many missle holes that went straight though it's cockpit. Both of the ships were still smoking even in this horrible rain storm. Melfina put one hand to the window and went completely wide-eyed as she was beginning to cry even more. She quickly turned around and buried her face into Jim's shoulder as she openly screamed Harry's name. She couldn't hold it in any longer. Harry, the one man who cared more for her than anyone, may have left her again.
Well, after forever and a day, I have completed another chapter. Many thanks go out to July, who got me off of my lazy butt (or the on it to be more precise) and made me write this chapter. Well, thanks to all of you who have reviewed and I hope you do so with this chapter too. So, I left you with a cliffhanger, eh? Did Harry die? What happened to our valient hero? Who was that mysterious dude at the end of my last chapter? What is frog and how does that affect my spinach sandwich? I will tell you all of the answers (except that spinach sandwich one) in the next chapter. Do not leave my fanfic unnoticed!