Two weeks and one day. I had been living on the Destiny's Bounty for two weeks and one day and I still had not told my boyfriend that I was there.
I breathed in the night air outside, which I personally thought was too cold. Not that the sensation bothered me; I just worried that the Samurai X gear's joints might lock up. After all, some metal contracts in the cold, I thought. Well, I'd just have to hope Nya knew what she was doing when she built the suit… I was pretty sure I remembered her using it in the snow at some point, so a little chill was probably fine.
A faint blue light behind me let me know that my awaited guest had stepped onto the deck. I turned around to see Zane standing, not threateningly, but wielding a pair of nunchucks. I looked him up and down approvingly.
"Glad to see you decided to think things through before rushing out to meet a strange samurai on your own," I said. My words were sincere— Zane was often too gullible and kind for his own good. Apparently I'd been a good influence on him.
"Why did you ask me to meet you here?" he asked warily. "And why did you write the message in code?"
"Oh, not you, too," I sighed. "Please tell me you at least have an attogram of an idea who I am."
He hesitated. "I… I had a theory, but I'm not sure I have sufficient evidence to support it. That is to say, I don't know how it would work…"
That was good enough for me. I switched my voice mod so that it matched my original voice.
"Numbers aren't everything, Zane. You should know that."
His smile was worth gold. The nindroid ran forward and pulled me into a hug.
"P.I.X.A.L.!" he cried, struggling to but successfully picking up the heavy suit of armor which my voice emanated from. "You're okay!"
"Of course I am," I said, but his words made me happy. I missed getting to talk to him without a guise. "How did you think I knew the first line of code for a nindroid?"
He put me down as curiosity filled his blue eyes. I frequently admired how his father— a man with so few resources— had so skillfully crafted something of such beauty.
"Yes, all information I possessed pointed to you being the owner of the suit— but when did you have the time to not only steal it from the Samurai X cave, but repair it? And how are you manipulating it? You have no body to carry it with."
I looked down, a tiny bit upset at the answers to his questions. "Nya… well, she isn't the best at repairing electronics. You'll recall that she was going to try to fix you by giving you a new binary power cord. I was barely able to take control of your body for long enough to 'borrow' her suit and transfer my neurochip over to this suit while she was preoccupied. I altered the it's design later, per her request for me to change the color scheme. Now the suit is my body," I explained. I pressed the button which I'd been so carefully protecting for the past couple of weeks and my visor was lifted, revealing nothing but empty space inside the helmet. I then quickly returned it to its original position, since I couldn't exactly see without it.
Zane's face turned crestfallen. "Isn't that… uncomfortable?" he asked. I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I gave a kind of half-shrug: a gesture I'd picked up from Cole. I certainly preferred my old body, but it was nice being physical and being able to walk around and do things on my own.
"Well, as long as you are safe. Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" he asked.
"I never had the chance. I still do not wish the others to know, so I had to get you alone without attracting attention," I explained.
"How come you are hiding your identity, anyway?" he asked. He looked sincerely concerned, and I couldn't really blame him. If I were him, I'd probably assume that I was being tracked by someone. In reality, my reason for keeping my true self a secret was really rather pitiful. But Zane would probably scold me if he knew that, so…
"Just trust me. I'll tell them when the time is right, but not now."
He hesitated. "That does not seem wise. Please, what is your reason?"
"Zane, literally any time you have tried to contradict me in the past, it has ended in disaster," I retorted. He opened his mouth to refute my statement, but then closed it and smiled. My statistics were accurate.
I'll admit, I felt a little guilty for playing that card, especially because I really didn't have a logical reason. But I doubted he would understand my position— he was too nice for that. He never held a grudge. So I let the issue drop.
"Well, as long as you promise me to stay safe." He pulled me into another hug, which I happily accepted.
"We should probably get back to bed," I said. "We've been outside for a while. And I would rather not be caught talking to you alone."
He nodded. "Sensei is always watching."
We were silent for a moment, and then I burst out laughing. "Sensei is always watching" was one of the many private jokes we shared from my time spent on his hard drive. I grinned— I'd missed my nindroid.
"I'll take you back to your quarters," he offered, holding out his arm to escort me. And so, after ensuring that nobody was lurking the halls of the ship, we returned to our respective rooms.