She couldn't believe what Morva did to her hair-and how fast he had done it all. She now had 5 thin braids at each temple that framed her face with 3 pony beads at the end of each braid in the pattern of black, purple, and garnet. Morva had also pulled her hair into a high ponytail and tied it with a couple black hair bands to keep it secure. Then he gave her millions of thin braids, not missing one little lock segment as he deftly braided and beaded the entire ponytail. This time there were 4 beads in the pattern of black, purple, garnet, and black. Hotaru looked at herself in the mirror of her bathroom, feeling like she had had her hair styled like this before.

"Morva?" Hotaru called out to her male Saturian fellow as he searched through his bag in the living room.

"What's wrong, Ame? Did I do something I wasn't supposed to do?" He called back as if he was barely worried that she'd be mad at him.

"No, you're fine but when did I have my hair like this last? It feels really familiar." Hotaru nearly jumped as Morva came in to the bathroom with shoebox in hand. He hadn't made a sound despite being in blue jeans and a black long sleeve boat neck shirt. Hotaru could do the same thing in high heels on tile when she was running but she figured it was just her element keeping her movements quiet.

Morva kissed her cheek sweetly. "This is how you wore it back then. The beads were crystal but these do pretty nicely for being plastic. The black means you're a Supremacy Guard-the common term for a Chimera or Manticore. The purple means you're a Chimera, land-based. And the garnet tells your gender. The second black in your ponytail means you're a Death Striker."

"A what?"

Morva scratched his head, trying to think of its definition. "Uh, something like an executioner but not as widely acknowledged as such. Kinda like judge, jury, executioner and priest all in one. You had to hear what the target had to say, see if they were telling the truth or not, kill them and then give them their planet's version of Last Rights."

"That seems a little excessive, don't you think?" Hotaru asked getting a shrug. "What about your hair? Was it like this too?"

"Yeah, it was but I had 6 braids on each side since I was almost of age. I had 1 Terran year left and then, I was going to ask for you to be my Companion." He nodded, thinking of his color combo. "My beads were black, dark aqua and blue. And in the back I had same pattern as you but with my colors. But that was before I got to cut all my hair off. Gods above, I hated it long. When I was younger, I kept getting mistaken for a girl. When I hit puberty, however, there was no doubting my gender then."

The Saturian young woman gave Morva a seductive smile. "You were quite sexy when you had it down and it fell over your shoulders and down your back-especially when you got out of the water."

"Aw, Ame, you're making me blush." The Saturian young man looked at her shocked after what she said clicked. "Wait-you just said that I looked sexy when I had my hair down."

Hotaru shrugged. "You would if you still had it long."

Morva shook his head. "No, you didn't say it like you were imagining it. You said it in the past tense, like you were remembering, like you were picturing it again."

A thought came to her and she left the bathroom, heading to her bedroom. She searched her walls and found what she was looking for. Taking the pins out of the wall, Hotaru hurried back to Morva who was half heartedly fussing with his hair like he was thinking about growing it out again. When she returned he gave her his undivided attention.

"I drew these when I was younger, before I moved in with Rei to go to TA for girls." Hotaru passed him the colored sketches of a young man in black clothing of some sort and dark brown boots. In the first sketch, the young man had long hair in a high ponytail with braids on the sides of his face while he was cleaning a sword. The second had that same unknown young man with his long hair down taking a shower in a waterfall with tight black high water pants on.

Morva seemed to be in mild surprise as he looked through the next few. The 3rd picture had that young man pulling himself out of the water in those black clothes with his hair down and spilling over his shoulders like the excess water raining off of his body. The last 3 or 4 pictures were still of the young man but his black hair was completely down and he was sitting next to a fire still soaked, or reading a tablet by firelight like he was bored. Or playing with a planetary cousin of the Lunarian Diamond mice on the Moon. Or lying on his side, his hair spilling onto the ground with his back to the artist. The light in Morva's eyes told Hotaru that he was remembering these days far better than she was.

"I…I mentioned before that I drew what I remembered and these…these fragments wouldn't leave me alone while I was at Rei's. She was always with Yuichiro and It made my heart ache to see them together and happy while I…while I had no one…" Hotaru mumbled as Morva ran slightly shaking fingers over the last picture. This one had more detail and it was of some girl about 16 or 17 in the arms of the young man, both of them were in the same black clothes and boots (except the girl's had high heels) and they both had braided and beaded hair in high ponytails. They were by a fire and the intimacy of their body language told you that they were in love with each other. "That last one…that one I drew recently…it was just a few months ago, actually…I'm sorry if it's smudged in some places. I-I started crying when I finished and actually took a good look at it."

"Every picture has the same colors and order that I had before I cut it all off. By the Gods, Ame…you were remembering me before you even remembered what I looked like. You remembered that you and I were in love…" Morva held up the last picture. "This was before my 20th birthday. You were only 17 back then…wow, Ame, to remember this despite your amnesia…to have you remember this night of all nights…you don't know how much it means to me. It almost makes me want to wait the years it would take to grow my hair back to that length again."

Hotaru twirled a braid around one of her fingers. "I…I know a way where you wouldn't have to wait years to have it that long again."

"Really? Is it some Terran hair growth pill?" Morva asked distractedly.

Hotaru made him move his hands apart and she put herself in the male's strong embrace. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. Morva wrapped his own arms around her waist as he let her gently work her fingers into his hair, not knowing what she was planning but liking what she was doing.