(This fanfiction has not been updated in forever~ Yeah, I know. I've had a bad case of writers block, and school kinda got in the way so please bear with me.)

Chapter two, Post-Origins two years:

It had been another two years since the conclusion of Rallen and Jeena's big adventure, and both of them had matured quite a bit- physically and mentally since they first recieved that distress signal that lead them to Aldous. Of course, Rallen still didn't act completely his age, but that was just part of his personality, and something Jeena highly doubted he would ever loose.

They were both eighteen now- legally adults. But something had struck both of them as odd: they were both adults, and neither had dated anyone since they'd met. Rallen had an unofficial "Spectrobe Master fangirl club" among the younger girls, and Jeena had several admirers. But neither of them paid their fans much mind. No. They were two wrapped up in hiding their true feelings for eachother.

"Seriously?" Jeena sighed, watching her long-time friend and partner scarf down his lunch. The weather had been nice lately, so they decided to have their lunch break at the nearby park. They'd picked up lunch at one of those sandwich chain-resuraunts, and ate sitting a sturdy, and fairly new looking metal picnic table.

"Its not going to run away from you. Honestly. And if you start choking, I'm not going to-" and as if on cue, right after he swallowed, Rallen started coughing. Once they finally subsided, Jeena gave him a teasing "I told you so" look.

"Sorry Mom" He said, rolling his eyes. "But hey, we finally got to see some action today, and you know how hungry a fight makes me."

"I know that, but will your metabolism allow you to pace yourself for once?" She asked. The momment he oppened his mouth to respond, she shook her head. "Forget it."

Upon finishing, they tossed their trash into the nearest recycling bin, and just walked around, giving they had a good deal of time left before they had to report back.

Strangely, this time their walk together was fairly silent- and it was almost never anywhere near quiet. Jeena just wasn't sure what there was to talk about, and Rallen had something that was weighing heavily on his mind. He had been offered a promotion- to a rank a good deal higher with a nice bonus too. But the only reason he didn't accept it right away- was because he would have to loose his partner. Jeena would be forced to be reassigned, and what if it was to another guy? What if he was better looking and smarter? How would he be able to compete with that?

On the other hand- he still had the memories. How excited she was when she figured out she'd gotten bumped up, the shock that had regestered on her face when she saw who her partner was. And how much she'd changed since then- both personality and physically. She'd crossed the line from pretty to beautiful a long time ago, but maturity added something to it.

Rallen swallowed, glancing over at her, "You wanna go somewhere I can talk to you... alone?"

Jeena looked slightly surprized at his request to go somewhere more private, but accepted the offer as they walked toward an elevator that lead to one of the more isolated parts of the park. Just as they'd hoped, there was no one there. The only audiable sounds were the breeze ruffling the leaves of an enormus tree that had been there for who-knows-how-long, as well as water in the recently-built fountain. It had a diameter of ten feet and took up a good bit of space in the fairly small area, on the fountain's edge was a bronze plate that read "May the future be bright for those you hold dear" - words from the now-demolished tower no thanks to the Krawl.

"Kind of funny that this fountain was meant to be a memorial to us saving Nanairo- yet they decide to put it a place no one goes to." Rallen said, sitting down in front of it.

Jeena sighed and sat down besside him, crossing her legs. "Ah well. Guess our fifteen minutes of fame are up."

"Yeah... Guess we have to accept that we're really just normal people now..." He leaned back, "but that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I'm listening."

"Y'see, I got offered a promotion- its a little more work and a lot more pay, but..." He looked down, picking at the grass.

Jeena gave him a sideways glance, a slightly worried expression on her face. "But what?"

"I won't be your partner anymore, which I really don't want because I kinda sorta..." Rallen found himself blushing even though he was desperately trying not to in hopes of not giving anything away.

She was blushing slighlty as well. "Rallen, I know that I might nag the heck out of you- but you're still my best friend and I don't want to get in the way of you being happy."

He shook his head, "you don't seem to get it. I'd like to have a better pay in case of an emergency, but I'm at my happiest when I'm with you." As if upon reflex, he reached over and placed a gloved hand on her cheek.

Her eyes widened in response to this- causing Rallen to withdraw his hand, but with a warm smile on her face, she put her hand over his to stop him. "I love you, idiot."

"And I love you too." Came his response, leaning in a little closer.

It was a back and forth of compliments and insults as they moved toward eachother.

"Stupid..."

"Know-it-all"

"Annoying"

"Bossy"

"Handsome..."

"Gorgeous..."

The last two words dissolved into a soft "Mmmmh..." as their mouths finally came in contact. Rallen moved his free hand to the small of her back while his other continued to stroke the side of her face. Jeena simply kept her arms wrapped around his neck.

Slowly the kiss became deeper- more passionate as seconds passed by. They softly licked at eachothers lips, several years of waiting finally paying off. They went at this for a little over a minute, panting softly as they moved away.

They held eachother for a momment before Jeena broke the silence, "Rallen?"

"Yeah?"

"I want you to take the promotion."

He was taken aback by her comment. "I thought that after this you'd want us to stay partners?"

"To be honest, it only made me want you to take it more- so you wouldn't have an excuse to make me pay on a date."

"Pfft." He rolled his eyes, "Jeena, I'm a lot of things, but I'm not that cheap."

"Alright, the truth is- I don't want to be hindering your success." She pressed the side of her head against his chest. "I mean, it's not like we'll never be able to see eachother."

Rallen glanced down, the watch feature on the prizmod informing him that the time was 1:30. "Great... we're already fifteen minutes late."

Upon hearing this- Jeena let him go and stood up "I guess we lost track of time." she said, smiling nervously.

He stood up as well, gently gripping her hand. "But if we're going to get yelled at for it, we might as well get yelled at together."

"Yeah..." She muttered. "together."