(A/N: Thanks to the reviewers, especially Zack-Cody-Dylan-Cole who has reviewed almost every chapter. I always look forward to hearing what you think of the latest chapter. New reviews totally make my day. I hope other people are reading this too, not just the three people who have reviewed so far. Oh, and I don't own the Animorphs, K?)

-Marco-

So, Rachel and the Bird-Boy were engaged. I was surprised they hadn't told anyone. I guess they didn't want to take anyone's mind off of the task at hand – defeating the Yeerks, so they'd probably planned on telling people after the last battle.

It was still a shock – I mean 16-year-olds don't normally get engaged. I suppose, people don't normally date outside of their species either, and teenagers don't normally turn into animals ... OK, so nothing about the situation was normal. Maybe it shouldn't be so shocking.

And she was pregnant? She sure hadn't ever looked pregnant, but I guess she waited a while before coming back into society. I didn't blame her for not coming back right away. It probably would have been embarrassing.

But why would she tell me? It obviously wasn't public knowledge, or she'd have added it to her book. She'd told Cassie, but not anyone else. Why now, all of a sudden? Was it because I had seen part of it in her memories? Or just because she kissed me, so she obviously likes me? I guess there wasn't time to contemplate that now. We were on a mission.

Rachel and I were walking back down the hall to speak to Ganlor on the bridge. We had to pretend to be controllers. I didn't think that would be too hard. I looked over at Rachel; she had a kinda goofy grin on her face and was looking at the floor as we walked. Huh?

-Rachel-

(A/N: She is thinking at the same time as Marco)

I told him. Whew! What a relief to finally tell someone! Marco and I really needed to talk. I knew we'd have more time later, but I was afraid I was completely going to lose control. The way he was looking at me, all tender and caring, smiling at me ... It was just ... so ... cute.

"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel." I admonished myself. "You are losing your mind. This is Marco we are talking about here." I glanced over at him. We were walking down the hall toward the bridge. I quickly looked back at the floor. "Yup, I've definitely lost it. He's still cute. And a darn good kisser too." I thought remembering, and trying not to smile.

Apparently my attempt didn't work. Marco noticed. "What?" he asked grinning at me in response to seeing me smile.

"Uh, nothing." I said looking away. Now was so not the time. Too much was at stake to 'get distracted' as he had put it. I focused on the task at hand as we arrived at the bridge.

"Reporting for duty, Visser." Marco said in a solemn voice.

Ganlor looked over at us. –We will be landing within the hour.- He thoughtspoke to us. -Secure your hosts' items to be taken into the human hotel on the Andalite homeworld. We must not make anyone suspicious of them. You will contact Aximili tomorrow.-

He turned toward a view-screen that displayed a map of the city we were to land near. He pointed at a spot on the map with his many-fingered blue hand. –The entrance to the pool is on the back of this scoop. Simply press your hand to the keypad and state your designation. The Gleet BioFilters have already been programmed to your DNA and Aximili's so you may take him there for infestation.-

Marco and I looked at the spot on the map. Ganlor continued his orders. –Now go prepare for landing. I have no need for you now.- He told us.

"Yes, Visser." I said, hoping I sounded as I had earlier and gave a short nod with my head. Then Marco and I hightailed it out of there back toward our quarters. Neither of us spoke until we were back there with the door closed so we were sure he wouldn't hear.

"Think we fooled him?" Marco asked raising an eyebrow at me skeptically.

I nodded and looked away. My heart was doing little flip-flops. Just looking at him was distracting. I needed to focus on something else, so I grabbed my suitcase and started pulling my clothes out of the closet to be folded. He watched for a minute and then started stuffing clothes into his suitcase. Of course, he hadn't ever really unpacked, so he didn't have much to do. He finished and sat on the end of the bed watching me fold my clothes into the suitcase.

"So, do you want to explain why you suddenly decided to spill your guts?" He asked grinning at me, a laugh in his voice. "We have some time now..."

"I just wanted to, that's all." I said, not very sincerely, while I continued to focus on folding the clothes.

"Why?" He pressed. "You acted like there was some big explanation while we were in the yeerk pool room. Would you have even told me if I hadn't accidentally seen part of it while I was in your head?"

"No?" I said hopefully, looking at him. What was I supposed to do, tell him the truth? 'I think I'm falling in love with you, so I thought you should know what you were getting into just in case you might feel the same way about me?' Yeah, like I could ever say that.

"Somehow, I don't believe you." He said with a chuckle.

"Well, fine then!" I said, mockingly, standing up with my hands on my hips. "Don't believe me! See if I care!"

"Well, I won't then!" He said, grinning.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Be that way!" We finished together, laughing.

I'd finished putting the clothes away, so I walked past him around the side of the bed to grab my pajamas from under my pillow. He turned watching me from his spot at the end of the bed.

Suddenly, he grabbed my arm, pulled me down onto the bed and started tickling me!

I couldn't stop giggling. "Stop ... Please stop ..." I breathlessly pleaded, attempting to push his fingers off of my ribs. I was laughing so hard, tears were running down my face. He was laughing too, probably at me. How did he know I was ticklish?

Even as I was begging him to stop, I couldn't help but think what fun it was to laugh so hard. I thought about morphing, but I couldn't focus. Then, I had an idea. I knew it probably wasn't a very good idea, given the circumstances, but I couldn't resist.

Rather than pushing him off of me, I pulled him down on top of me, rolled him under me and kissed him all in one movement. I intended just to surprise him, make him stop tickling me and then get up, but his lips were so soft and warm, I was drawn to them. I completely forgot my intent and lost myself in his kisses.

A moment later, he gently ran his tongue around the inside of my lips, asking for entry. I opened my mouth and we found even more bliss exploring each other's mouths with our tongues. He was playing with my hair with one hand and gently running his other hand along the curve of my waist, not pushing any limits, but still putting me on Cloud 9.

He pulled away from my lips and started kissing my neck, causing new little chills to go up my spine. I sighed contentedly and giggled a little as he kissed behind my ear. Yup, I was definitely in love. I never thought it would happen again, especially with Marco. The chorus of that song came back to me just then:

It ain't the mind that calls the shots 'round here
When stronger powers call two bodies near
Nothin' on Earth can interfere
When love is what the heart wants

I guess nothing off of Earth can interfere either. Hee hee.

-Marco-

Rachel and I were making out. Kissing her was WAY more fun than tickling her. The little noises she was making were enough to make me never want to stop.

I probably should have been worrying about the mission and what we were going to do about it. But I wasn't thinking about that. The only thing on my mind was Rachel – kissing her, her ice-blue eyes, her silky golden hair, the way her waist curved in so perfectly...

But I wasn't going to push anything. I didn't want to pressure her into something she might later regret – I cared too much for her to do that. We could talk later, but in the meantime...

I had one of my hands at her waist. I pushed up the edge of her shirt so I could feel her skin. Wow, she was a smooth as silk! I pushed up her shirt a little more so I could kiss her stomach all around her belly button. She kinda sighed at that.

I pulled away and looked her in the eyes. She was lying on her back and I was beside her, leaning on my elbow and facing her. She looked so content.

She reached up and touched the side of my face with her palm. I smiled. "You know, that's how Andalites kiss?" I said.

She smiled and raised her eyebrows. "You like it?" She asked. "Or would you prefer a human kiss?" In response I leaned down to kiss her lips again. I could barely muffle my sigh – it felt that good! It was like a dream come true.

Then the fun ended. I heard the door slide open and I pulled away from Rachel long enough to see a young Andalite standing there staring at us.

I stood up quickly. "We were, uh, we were just..."

-I tapped on the door, but there was no response.- he said looking at me with one stalk eye and at Rachel with his main eyes. –I am here to help with your luggage.- He finished, walking over toward my suitcase. He didn't seem ashamed by what he had seen, or even surprised.

I looked out the door and there was a wheeled cart there, presumably for the luggage.

I glanced at Rachel who had sat up. "An Andalite bellhop? Weird. So apparently we've landed on the Andalite Homeworld?" I whispered to her. She nodded at me, looking slightly puzzled.

We watched the Andalite struggle to put our heavy suitcases on the cart and then followed him out into the hallway. He pushed the cart down the ramp onto the Andalite homeworld and then followed a path toward a building that looked very much like a hotel on Earth! Aside from the blue grass and strangely shaped trees, we could have been on Earth!

Ganlor and the other two Andalites of his crew followed us. There were a few Andalites standing along the path, watching us. He spoke to us in private thoughtspeak: -Express physical affection. The other Andalites may become suspicious if you do not.-

Well, he didn't have to tell me twice! I put my arm around Rachel and she put her head on my shoulder as we walked toward the hotel. We both smiled and waved at some of the Andalites watching. When we reached the doorway, I picked her up and carried her through it, kissing her very briefly on the lips right before we went through.

Another Andalite showed us to our room and the Andalite bellhop put our suitcases just inside the door. It was similar to our room on the ship only larger and it had a large viewscreen communicator at one end and one thing I totally wasn't expecting – a TV! I looked at it, very surprised. Well, we could play with it later, maybe.

The Andalites left and Rachel and I were alone again. Before we could have anything resembling a normal conversation, we had to debug our room. First, we had to find all the hidden microphones and cameras and disable them. We set up the hologram projector to show Rachel and I sitting on the bed, her reading a magazine, and me playing with my laptop. That way we could search the room without making anyone suspicious of what we were doing. Then we just had to plug a scrambling device into the comlink. It would prevent any electronic data from escaping the room and allow me to hack into the Andalite computer systems.

When we were satisfied that we'd sufficiently debugged the room, we turned off the hologram and sat down across from each other on the bed to talk.

"What do you think that bellhop saw?" I asked.

"I don't know. I'm not going to worry about it. What does an Andalite know about humans anyway?" Rachel responded, running a hand through her hair and leaning back on the pillows (there were about 20 of them on the huge king-sized bed!). "We've got other things to worry about right now."

"But what if he tells Ganlor?" I pressed. "If Ganlor finds out we were 'expressing physical affection,' he might start to doubt whether we are actually infested."

"Maybe," She replied, sighing heavily, "But if he does, there's nothing we can do about it now."

"OK," I said. She was right. But I was still a little worried about it.