I can tell that I don't really like this pairing. This ended up as the most dysfunctional relationship I've written so far... and it doesn't really head into romance at all. Just the precursor. It's also really short.

Day 9

Well Kept Secrets

(Lera/Nowaguma)

No-one ever knew, that was the strangest thing.

They had met as young children, orphaned and put up for adoption. Nowaguma was smaller than Lera was, and had silently hidden behind her.

"He doesn't want to be separated from me!" she had shouted at the man who was trying to take him away to his new home. "He says he wants me to go too!"

It had taken several hours of hysterical crying from both children for the man who had wanted to adopt Nowaguma to give up. "I'll talk to the wife," he'd muttered to the orphanage officer. "See if she wants to take another."

But he hadn't come back. Lera was glad. That way she could stay with Nowaguma. Of course, they couldn't stay in the orphanage forever, she knew that. But she didn't want to leave him. She didn't want him to leave her.

Four weeks after the disastrous attempt, a man in a very smart suit had appeared at the orphanage door. He had taken a look at all of the children and then pointed to Lera. "Her," he said. "She'll do."

"Nowaguma says he wants to come too," Lera told him proudly, gripping Nowaguma's hand as if it was the last anchor to the earth before she floated away.

"That's fine," the tall man said. "How would you like to be an astronaut?"

Astronauts flew. Astronauts weren't teased about their hair. Astronauts were painted on ceilings and walls and admired by everyone and yes she absolutely wanted to be one. "Nowaguma wants to be one too."

"Then he shall come too. Is that alright?" This last was addressed to the orphanage officer.

Nowaguma looked up at the man they would come to call Anton with absolute adoration in his eyes, and didn't say a word.

.

The work was hard, much harder than she'd expected. But the numbers came easily to her and so it wasn't too bad. There was another boy at the big space centre, called Aleksei. He was nice, but he wasn't like Nowaguma. She couldn't understand him perfectly enough to know what his next words were going to be.

The days flew past, and she was surprised to find that she had spent nearly seven years at the centre without really noticing. It was her thirteenth birthday when the three of them were first given their space-suits. They were to have their first proper anti-gravity experience soon, and they needed to learn how to move in the bulky suits.

"Ugh!" Lera exclaimed. "I'll need anti-gravity just to move in this!"

"You'll grow into it," Anton told her from the other side of the room, where he was watching one of the scientists help Aleksei into his suit. "We'll do some training in them under normal gravity conditions, and then when you are in zero gravity, you won't have any problems. What do you think, Nowaguma?" He glanced over at the black-haired boy, the most muscular of all of them. "You should have no problem with this."

"I-it's... I... I think..."

"He says it's amazing!" Lera interrupted, grabbing her helmet and jamming it on her head. "This is perfect!"

The scientists smiled at the group, and Anton looked very proud. "You'll be in space very soon at this rate," he said. "That is, if they don't cut our funding."

"Lera," Aleksei asked quietly, leaning in close to her. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!" she smiled, tugging on one of the boots.

"How long has Nowaguma had that stutter?"

.

"But you don't have a stutter!" she exploded later, hidden away in Nowaguma's room. "I don't know what he's talking about!"

He looked up at her. "That's the first time that I've really spoken in front of them, you know. I was... I was scared."

She frowned. Now that she thought about it, Nowaguma had always been the quiet one. He'd handed in his homework perfectly, but he never volunteered answers in class. It was always Aleksei and Lera herself who spoke. Whenever Nowaguma had blinked down at his desk and muttered something almost inaudible, Lera had jumped to his defence, knowing exactly what he was going to say every time.

"You... you don't mind that I speak for you, do you?" A shock of horror ran through her. She'd been doing it for so long that it was second nature to translate his stammers.

"You always speak for me," he said softly. "I don't know... I'm too scared. You're so much more confident than me. The words get tangled up in my head when I try to talk. It's better if you're the one talking – at least you're loud."

She put her head on his shoulder; he was barely taller than her. "I couldn't be loud if I didn't have to speak up for you," she said. "You'll always love me, won't you?" It wasn't a question. It was a plea.

He looked at her, and there was something like pain in his eyes. "Who else will I love?" He sighed. "You love me too, right?"

"Of course. I always will. You know that. We have to stay together."

He smiled sadly. "Maybe you should say it more. You spend so much time talking for me that I think you've forgotten that you have your own voice."

.

And so for years they had kept the secret of where they had come from, of what they meant to each other – of just why they had to rely on each other so much.

They just didn't have anyone else.