5. "ano sa" ("hey, you know...")

Albel rushed down the halls of the Diplo, his face etched in anger and his eyes set in hard determination. Behind him Sophia was running frantically trying to keep up with his pace. "Albel please, you're misreading everything. Just stop for a second." He did just as she asked and was satisfied when she crashed hard into his back, falling down on the ground with a thump.

"Aw Albel that hurt!" she complained from her position on the cold steel floor.

He quickly turned to face her, not bothering to hide his anger. "Good you deserve it!" As quickly as he stopped he was walking away from her again. Sophia struggled to get back on her feet. "Albel come back."

He continued his way down the hall to his room. He passed a few lingering crewmembers in the hall, not even bothering to look their way as they jumped out of his. Anger was only half of what he was feeling. The rest of him was consumed by disappointment. He'd been a fool to believe there could ever be something between them. He'd been too blinded by her sweet voice and innocent nature to realize she had only been toying with him. She'd hurt him and he hated himself for it.

Sophia had been right behind him when he rounded the corner and disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him. She had been so close to catching him her hand narrowly missed being slammed in the door. She tried to open the door and follow him in and found it to be locked. Her little fists pounded on the hard steal. "Albel open up!"

"GO AWAY!"

His tone was so harsh and cold that for a moment she almost turned away. Almost, but didn't. She only pounded on the door more determined than ever. There was no point fighting like this. He had simply taken her words the wrong way. She had tried to be so careful with what she said.

"Albel? I think we need to talk."

She'd watched as he froze, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi truck. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to start off this conversation. It seemed all men had a built in 'oh shit' alarm that went off in their heads at the sound of those words. But honestly that was what she meant, they really needed to talk.

He eyed her cautious for a moment before answering. "Well, we're talking, what do you have to say?"

She rocked back and forth apprehensively, her eyes darting around looking for anything to rest on but his face. She licked her lips nervously before continuing. "See I was just thinking that things are really...undefined between us." Yep, undefined was a good word. As long as she didn't use words like relationship, romance, or commitment she was sure he wouldn't run screaming from her. At least she hoped "And I was just thinking that we should probably talk about... what each of us wanted from the other. You know that way if one of us didn't... want the same thing as the other we could stop this and no one would get hurt." At least not too badly anyway.

She glanced up at him but it wasn't much of a help. His expression was almost unreadable. His unblinking gaze staring down at her. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that I don't know if you feel the same way about me as I do you. And I'm finding it hard to say what I need to because I'm afraid to scare you off and I don't want to lose you as a friend."

"Stop! Just shut up!" he'd backed away from her down the hall. "I don't need to hear this from you. All this time you've been sashaying around in front of me, leading me to think there was something more and now your going to give me this just friends crap? Well you can just save it for some other fool."

"No! Albel I…"

"Don't waste my time! You know what, just go back to earth were you belong." He turned from her and started rushing down the corridor.

"Albel please, your misreading everything. Just stop for a second."

"Albel please open the door." A crew member walked past casting her an odd look. "I don't want to talk about this through a door."

"You've said all you need to! If you don't want to carry this on any longer then neither do I so GO AWAY!"

She let a straggled sigh escape her lips as she fought to keep her tears at bay. She rested her forehead on the door, her fist still slowly pounding on it. Her emotions were starting to get the better of her and all she wanted to do was make things right again. "Please…..just open the door."

He had been standing close enough to the door to hear her start crying. He cursed himself for not being strong enough to just leave her out there.

"Please."

His hand reached out to unlock the door and he ready himself to catch her if need be. He'd expected her to be leaning against the door and fall forward with it's opening. Instead she came crashing into him, throwing herself into his arms. She held on tight even as he tried to push her off.

"Albel I'm not breaking up with you."

"We were never even together in the first place."

She shook her head. "Don't say that it hurts"

"Now you know how it feels. Get out!"

She shook her head and tightened her grip on him. "I'm not trying to leave you. Please, just listen. I was just trying to explain to you that I don't know how you feel about me. If you don't want to be with me I don't want to get my hopes up."

"Why are you drawing this out?"

"I'm not! I just wanted you to know how I feel about you."

"Oh and how do you feel about me?"

She balled her fist into his shirt and hid her face on his chest. She mumbled words he couldn't understand crying lightly.

"Speak clearly or I'll throw you back outside."

"I love you!" she said as she pulled away from him. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears and the ones that had escaped lined her face. He didn't know what to say to her. She was looking up at him expecting so much and yet he couldn't force his throat to make words.

After a moment of extremely uncomfortable silence she dropped her gaze to the floor and backed away slightly. Her hands trembled as she let them drop away from his clothing. "I guess I just thought if you rejected me before we went any farther that it wouldn't hurt so bad. But I was wrong because it does." She turned and tried to leave. Before she could he seized her arm and pulled her back into an embrace.

"Don't. Don't go. Please…Sophia."

She stood stone still for a moment contemplating what he had said. He'd said it so quietly she was almost unsure he had spoken at all. Slowly she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. He rested his hands on the middle of her back and leaned his face into her hair. They stayed like that for a long time, simply holding each other. They didn't need words to know that they both wanted the same thing.

After awhile Sophia smiled up at him leaning back slightly. "Hey, you know..."

"What's wrong now?"

"No it just…were you really going to give up on me that easily?"

"Even if I did you'd just keep pounding on my door right?" she nodded "I was more angry than anything. I would have come around eventually and won you back."

She pulled away smiling, her fingers idly playing with her hair. "Oh so confident! And what if I didn't want you back? What would you have done?"

Quickly he dipped his head bringing his lips to meet hers. His kiss was forceful at first, needy, and then settled into a feather light caress. He pulled back after a moment and looked down at her. "Leave you speechless so you couldn't say no."

She smiled and reached up, capturing his face with her hands. "I can still talk you know."

He smiled back at her and leaned in again.

A/N

Hey, two updates in one day! Well In a good mood and this chapter kind of go together so I decided to post them at the same time. Incase anyone was wondering the events in this story take place a few weeks after the events in In a good mood.

I was trying to play on Albel's insecurities about Sophia leaving and Sophia's insecurities about Albel's feelings. I think from this point on when I write they will be a couple. Hopefully there won't be any more misunderstanding between them but well see.