Haha! Finally the chapter with Kate and Whenua's promised fluff! Not a lot mind you, but the beginnings. Watch their love grow! .

I don't own Bionicle... But if I did, Lewa would SO be a death defying daredevil...oh wait... He already is.

"Where are we?" Kate asked quietly, trying to keep her voice from causing unnerving echoes.

"Under the Archives somewhere." Whenua answered his voice just as quiet. " And if I'm not mistaken, then we should be finding that crack soon. If we don't meet the others there…" His sentence trailed off.

""If we don't meet the others?" Kate prompted, hurrying to keep up with the Toa of Earth. He was leading them through the more lighted passageways, making it easier for the both of them to see.

"Then we assume something bad happened and find them." He finished simply, trying to think of how they could find them and know that it was them. He'd filled Kate in on the Krahka and as much as he tried to convince himself it was going to turn out okay, he couldn't stop the worry from invading his mind. Especially for the human beside him. They'd learned in the fight against the King Morbuzakh that the way they looked wasn't the only thing that made humans different from themselves. They were so much more fragile.

It was after the fight when Vakama had pointed out that Kate had red liquid flowing from numerous areas and the teenager had explained about cuts and bloods and the importance it played for humans. They could die if they lost too much and they were easily broken. Perhaps he should have insisted she waited on the surface for them. Or maybe it would have done no good. She might have followed them anyway. Now he was worried about so many things at once. Like what if she fell and hit her head? She had mentioned that many things could happen if a human's skull was damaged. Amnesia, fractures, and even death. Then there was her 'skin'. It sure didn't make very good armor and was broken easily. It was all that separated the outside world from a human's blood.

Not only were all of these fears present in his mind, but the welfare of his siblings as well. The Krahka was intelligent. Extremely so. And he had never warned his brothers or sister. Anything could have happened by now. Like him, one or more of them could be the Krahka's prisoner. Or worse…

Whenua shook his head vehemently. 'Don't think about that!' He quietly ordered himself. They had been chosen as Toa for a reason. Surely they could face this challenge?

"Which way now?" Kate's voice broke into his thoughts and he looked up to see that they had come to an intersection again. On one side, the cave was more open and pulsed with light most likely coming from the surface. On the other was a narrower passageway that led deeper into the dark.

Whenua's smile was slightly sarcastic. "Into the dark again."

How long had they been walking? That was the question the bubbled to the forefront of Kate's mind as she trailed behind her large friend. It seemed to be a question that was appearing often. Kate couldn't remember ever having walked so much! Even in P.E.! She just wanted to find the others and get out of here.

Not to mention it really had gotten dark again. Even Whenua was having trouble picking his way through the small caves. Especially with his bulk. From time to time, Kate would fine herself running into him because he had to stop to deliberate.

"If only there was a little light…" He muttered for what seemed the thousandth time within the past five minutes.

Kate felt a little guilty because she knew that she could help with that. But she was afraid. She had seen so many impossible things happen here. Things that in her world would be considered myth and legend. Video game worthy, cinematic, a trick of the light and on and on. And yet she was still afraid. She was already a freak here, just by the way she looked. Didn't having these weird abilities make her that much more of a freak?

"Kate?" Whenua's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Something wrong? You keep mumbling to yourself…"

"Huh! Oh. No. Nothing much… I was just thinking that we could very well be lost."

Whenua was silent for a moment before speaking. "Why do you do that?"

Kate looked at him, confused. "Do what?"

"Talk negatively like that. Everything you say is usually something negative."

"It is not!"

"You know I haven't heard you say one thing about yourself since you came to this world. And I haven't brought it up until now because you seemed uneasy whenever we approached the subject, but it also seems to affect you."

"You're not making any sense." Kate frowned. "Shouldn't we continue to look for the others?"

A frown also spread across Whenua's face, but he let it go for the moment. She was right. He could sort through this issue later. The most important thing was finding the others before something went wrong. He returned to picking his way through the tunnels, trying to think of something to relieve the tense atmosphere that had suddenly descended between them. He really did like the human. She was a strong girl and he felt that there was nothing to be afraid about her. In fact, he would say they had been on their way to making good friends. And wasn't a good friend allowed to worry when their friend was a constant (as Kate had said once before) 'downer'?

"Waaaah!" Whenua spun around when Kate cried out and he strained to see in the darkness.

"Kate! Katrina! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine….. " Kate's voice seemed to come from far away and down. Like it was echoing through a pipe or something.

Whenua felt with his hands along the walls until he found he was no longer touching stone…or anything for that matter. He felt along the emptiness as it lead him down and he was crouching by a small fissure in the ground. He got worried. "Kate?"

"Yeah, I'm down here!"

"Are you okay?"

"Bruised, smacked around and a little irritated…"

Whenua grinned at the note of petulance in her tone. "One sec and I'll have you out…" It fell quiet s Whenua concentrated the remnants of his energies into the cave floor below in the fissure. Slowly, painfully, Kate felt the ground beneath her begin to rise and the musty smell of the small fissure in the ground was replaced by the coolness of the cavern. Whenua breathed deeply when she was finally out and released his concentration gratefully. Ever since the Morbuzakh confrontation, he'd found his elemental powers depleted and it was difficult to perform anything big. Not that it wasn't before. It was just far more difficult now than it was the first time he'd tried it.

"Thanks….. " Kate said rubbing her knee where she'd smacked it at the bottom. Not to mention her backend.

"Don't mention it." Whenua laughed breathlessly. "But why do you manage to fall down all the holes?"

"Don't ask me." The blond grumbled.

"Well… It's dangerous." In the dark, the Toa of Earth reached for the human's hand until his large one enveloped one of her smaller ones. "This way, we don't get separated again."

Kate felt herself blush. This was the first time she'd held hands with a guy. Like, ever! Although she doubted this counted much. He was from another world, they didn't think of each other in that way, and they were still practically strangers. Still, it didn't stop her stomach from doing odd flips. Or her mouth shut.

"You know, this is the first time I've held hands with somebody other than my mom… Don't ask me why I told you. It was just in my head."

"I see…" And although the Earth Toa would never admit it, for some reason, the thought pleased him very much.

Well, R+R!