Van and Fiona tore themselves away from one another long enough to get back in the Liger and head back to the base. It was not unusual for the two of them to disappear for hours, or even weeks at a time, but she had complained on how cold it was getting. Van had replied that it was merely because both of them were covered in sweat from their rather…strenuous activities. They had gone about three more times after the first, back to back nonstop.

Zeke took control of the Liger, and for good reason too since his best friend was a bit preoccupied with other things. Fiona was straddling his waist, grinding against him roughly. His hands for some reason couldn't stay still for long as they were on her hips, stabilizing her, on her shoulders and everywhere else. He frequently found himself staring into her chest, since her shirt was somewhere in the back. She rode him like a goddamn horse the entire time on the way back.

Van had to commend her endurance. He knew of very few girls who could keep going like she was.

Zeke pulled the Blade Liger into the hangar of the base a while later, taking a longer way around to give them more time although that didn't seem to be enough to satisfy them both. They were still going at it but stopped when they saw where they were and Irvine and Moonbay waiting for them.

Fiona quickly jumped into the backseat to throw her shirt on quickly, while Van tried his best to make himself look decent, he was quite ruffled, if you catch my drift. Looking some level of calm, the two jumped out of the Blade Liger and greeted their friend. He waved at them, a wide smile on his face.

Maybe a little too wide…

"So you guys finally did it? I'm so proud of you!" said Irvine sarcastically, causing the guilty party to look…well guilty. The two older ones laughed.

"How did you know?" asked Fiona nervously. Moonbay regained some sense long enough to answer her.

"Well, besides that fact that you just admitted it yourselves, people who have just had sex for the first time are usually slightly giddy, they walk a little funny, they stand a bit closer together than they would normally do, and they seem to…glow, for lack of a better term. And let me be the first to say that both of you are damn RADIANT. The only person that could miss that would be…Thomas!" Van looked around suspiciously.

"Yeah, where is Thomas anyway?" It way past due for a visit from their more annoying partner.

"Looking around for his 'darling Fiona'. I swear if I hear him say it one more time-"

"Fiona! My darling! Where have you been!" came the expectant cry. All of them looked fairly disgusted as Irvine twitched and massaged his knucles thoughtfully. Moonbay caught the action and placed a hand over his, shaking her head and mouthing 'wait'. He did so, albeit angrily.

"Right on time too," mumbledthe new love birdstogether as he came up to them, strutting with his nose impossibly high in the air and his chest stuck out. Fiona barely contained her inner urge to cringe and instead smiled slightly at him.

"Hello to you too Thomas, you damned little cretin," she muttered the last part under her breath but Thomas was smiling so widely and so focused on her that he didn't notice. Van looked about two seconds away for giving him that ass-whippin' that he always deserved. Not that Thomas' usual savior was going to stop him this time either.

"Ah my darling Fiona!" A stress vein appeared on Irvine's forehead right on cue and Moonbay shifted her hand from his to under his arm, holding it in a vice like grip. "I have been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?" She rolled her eyes and stepped closer to Van, taking his hand and intertwining their fingers.

"With Van. He just took me to the ruins where he found me. Today is our…anniversary." She smiled a forcibly sweet smile at Thomas. His face faulted but he fixed it quickly.

"But so long? I missed you." Van made a slight gagging noise that he quickly turned into a cough, causing the two behind him to snicker quietly.

"Well, I fell asleep and Van here didn't have the heart to wake me up, did you Van?" Now she turned her gaze up to him, and her smile was not a bit forced. He grinned back at her, his love radiating out of his eyes in waves obvious for anyone to see.

"Nope, you looked too peaceful and content. Plus, the ruins are so far away."

"Where?" Thomas demanded angrily. Van shot him a look.

"You don't need to know Thomas. Not even Irvine and Moonbay know where the ruins are. No one does, except me, Fiona and Zeke. And that's how it's going to stay," he said both forcefully and angrily. Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Yeah whatever, hey wait a minute." His eyes were trained on their hands and then… "Fiona, why is there blood on your leg and what is that smell?" He waved his hand in front of nose as he pulled away from them. "Eww! You two reek of sweat!" Irvine and Moonbay shot each other looks and burst out laughing. Van and Fiona just blushed slightly. He looked at each other them, trying to piece everything together. Then it hit him like a rampaging Dibison.

"VAN! YOU JERK! YOU RAPED FIONA!" he declared, pointing his finger accusingly at him. Van looked at the finger in his face, raised an eyebrow, and started to laugh as well. Fiona just shook her head.

"Ha HA! Yeah right Thomas! Just because you would rape her without a second thought doesn't mean I would!" he replied. "Fiona let me!"

Thomas' face grew very red and it looked almost as if he was going to burst. With an angry roar, he reached forward and pulled her away from Van, who was too busy laughing to stop him.

"You INSULENT CUR! How DARE you touch MY Fiona!"

Now as we all should well know, Van and Fiona have liked one another since he first defeated Raven. And we should all forgive Thomas for his OBVIOUS STUPIDIDTY but damn if Van was.

All cheeriness was gone from his face in an instant, replaced with that serious face he usually wore when he was fighting. He took a few deep breaths and became very calm. A big red light that Raven would have acknowledged on a bad day.

"Now Thomas, I'm going to be very reasonable. Let Fiona go, you're hurting her." Indeed, his grip on her arm was causing her to wince in pain.

"Thomas let me go," she cried, trying to pull away from him. But if anything, he held on tighter.

"No, no! He's not going to hurt you anymore Fiona. Don't worry, I'm here now." (A/N EVERYBODY NOW! ROLL YOU EYES! THANK YOU!)

"Thomas! He didn't hurt me, YOU ARE!" and that did it for Van.

He could put up with Thomas' endless passes at her, his constant unwanted presence, hell even a touch or two once a few blue moons. But he was damned sure that he wasn't going to let him hurt her.

With speed that rivaled Shadow, the fastest of all the organoids in existence, he was in front of Thomas and had decked him straight in the jaw. His grip on Fiona broke instantly and Van quickly inspected her arm. There were red marks lacing all the way around her upper arm. He took her face in his hands and kissed her gently. Unfortunately, Thomas had gotten to his feet by this time and had witnessed the kiss. He ran forward to break it up but both Irvine and Moonbay barred his way.

"Get the hell out of my way you jerks!" he roared. Irvine had a very sinister smile on his face.

"You know, I've been waiting a long time for this day." He reached back, brought his fist forward and landed it right on Thomas' nose. There was a sickening crunch as the nose broke under the pressure. He staggered back, clutching his battered body part tightly screaming, "You broke my nose! You broke my nose!" Irvine rolled his eyes, as did Moonbay.

"Yeah, I'm kinda guessin' that that was the point," she replied. "You've screwed up a lot of things Thomas, but I will PERSONALLY make sure that you don't screw up this. You have five seconds to remove yourself from my sight. 1…2…3…" but he was already gone, vowing revenge or something to that effect under his breath. Irvine and Moonbay congratulated each other on a job well done. They both turned back to Van and Fiona, only to find them gone. He rubbed the back on his head.

"Wonder where they went." His only answer was Moonbay's shrug.


Van guided Fiona into his room and sat her down on his bed, taking off her shirt as he went. She didn't protest.

"Come on, let me see." She held out her arm for him, noticing his gentle touch.

"Alright, it's still a bit red. Why don't you go ahead and take a shower?" She nodded and he was rewarded with the excellent sight of her rear end as she disappeared into the bathroom. He grinned to himself before taking a stretch. She really did tire him out. And yet still he was ready for more. Fiona poked her head out.

"Hey Van? Care to join me?" He grinned at her and was about to when the intercom in his room went off.

"Flyheight? O' Connell here. Report to my office now." He looked up at the device in surprise before frowning.

"Well, I'll have to take a rain-check on that one Fiona. I'll go see what he wants."

"Alright. I'll just wait." She grinned devilishly.

"As I had hoped you would." Van walked out the room, leaving the door slightly ajar. It wasn't until he had turned the corner that a shadowy figure slipped into the open door.


He continued on his way, wondering what O' Connell wanted with him. Especially since he was so vague and forceful.

Come to think of it, he's usually really polite...Thinking about him naturally led Van to think about Herman, since the pair were always together…just like that he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Wait! Isn't Herman…at the capital… visiting his mother? And isn't O' Connell with him…what the hell?" He turned around and ran for all he was worth back to him room, a sudden sensation of danger filling his stomach and a sudden need to be with Fiona.


The figure that had entered the room after Van now peeked into the bathroom, where Fiona stood naked in the shower, letting the warm water flow over her body. He was entranced by her, what he could see anyway since her back was to him. Feeling this as good a time as any, the man took off his clothes and entered the shower with her, covering her eyes with his hands. She gasped in surprise, tensing up.

"Van!" she complained, feeling something hard jab her high in the middle of her back. She was about to relax into the man's arms when a sudden thought emerged in her mind.

Van isn't this tall…NO! She pulled away from the man's touch quickly before he could stop her and grabbed a nearby towel, shielding her body from view.

"Thomas! Get the hell away from me!" she shouted, wishing that Van or Moonbay or Irvine were here right now. Thomas spread his arms out, a dazed look in his eyes.

"Aw come on Fiona my love. You know you want to experience a real man unlike Flyheight." She moved away as he walked towards her until her back hit the wall . A surge of panic hit her hard.

"No! I'm not yours! I belong to Van! Get away from me Thomas!" In her mind she kept calling for him over and over, begging him to appear. And by some stroke of luck, he was suddenly gone from her sight. She walked forward carefully and then smiled in joy and relief as she saw Van's back to her and Thomas pulling himself to his feet.

"You know Thomas, I can take a lot of shit from you but this time you've gone a bit too far!" he shouted as he leaned down and began raining punches down on the other. For a long and painful ten seconds, all logic left him completely and all that existed was one objective. HURT THOMAS. In those ten seconds, Van placed hell on Thomas, hitting him everywhere he could. Punches, fists, kicks, feet, knees, all fast, all furious, all powerful. He attempted to defend himself but every time he moved to protect one spot, he only revealed another spot for the stronger man to exploit.

The ten seconds passed and he fell back to the ground, twitching occasionally. Van had targeting his solar plexus in particular and if you hit the spot hard enough it will paralyze the victim's respiratory system for a few moments but Thomas had been hit there far more than once. It was a good thing that he fell as well. That act alone might have just saved his life cause if he had not fallen, Van would have kept pounding until he got tired or until Fiona or someone else stopped him. Either way, it would have been no small amount of time. Irvine, Moonbay, and a few security guards rushed into the room and observed the scene before them.

Thomas on the ground, naked, battered, bruised, bloody, and beaten, Van standing over him, panting slightly with red knuckles and Fiona hiding in the shower covering herself with a towel. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened and so the guards walked forward, grabbed Thomas under each shoulder and hefted him to his feet. His head lobbed forward, proof enough that he still couldn't breathe, but no one paid too much attention to that. Moonbay walked forward, placed a comforting hand on Fiona's shoulder and began kicking Thomas' clothes out the door. Irvine grinned at them and said, "This has been the happiest day of my life." Van and Fiona grinned back at him and he closed the door.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding and turned to Fiona, dragging a finger down her face.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, pressing their foreheads together. She nodded against him.

"Yeah, I realized it was him before he could do anything." Van smiled.

"I'm glad you know me well enough to pick my body from anyone else's."

"Nah, Thomas was just too tall. You're about my height anyway. But I don't like you like this." He stared into her eyes, a look of confusion on his face.

"Like what?" Fiona didn't answer him and instead began pulling off his clothes.

"Dressed. It doesn't suit you."