First of all, I would like to tell you this: I am not a romance writer. So if this chapter doesn't meet your standards or expectations, please lower your standards or expectations. Secondly, I would like to say that I'm doing this because some of the people who reviewed Happy Anniversary said I should. And thirdly, my most sincere apologies for making you wait. This was supposed to be released on February the 14th, but, well... Stuff happens. So here it is, the Valentine's episode of Happy Birthday!

Night was slowly losing the battle against day, fiery colours highlighting the feud. Slowly but surely, the sun broke free of the confines of the horizon, banishing the moon and the darkness to the other side of the sky. Birds awoke and began heralding the victory of light. All across the city, below the vast battleground, people began to arouse. In one particular mansion, the only female occupant was awake rather quickly...

"YAAHOO!" she yelled, waking up every other member of the house with a start. One of them, in black pajamas, woke so suddenly that he jumped right into the light fixture above his bed. Now thoroughly ensnared in it, he sighed, shaking his head.

"Damn, I hate it when she does that," muttered Phantom. Harpuia, now with a saber in his hand, grumbled about stupid siblings, but got up and headed outside his room to investigate. Across the hall, Fefnir was doing the same thing.

"Grnngh... wuz going on? Got any idea, Harpy?" he asked sleepily, turning to his brother.

Harpuia yawned, then realized he had an activated weapon in his hand. After turning it off, he replied, "Nope... 'fraid not. Maybe Phantom does?" he walked the few steps over to his other brother's room, then knocked on the door. "Hey Phantom, got any idea what's going on?"

"Give me a sec!" he yelled through the door. After some grunting and swinging sounds, then a loud thump, Phantom appeared, opening up the way into his room.

"So any ideas?" Fefnir called. Phantom frowned.

"Nope, not really... maybe there's some sort of special occasion going on?" he mused. Harpuia gave him a blank look for a second, then snapped his fingers.

"Oh, yeah! Isn't it-"

"It's Valentine's day, it's Valentine's day! Hip hip hooray, it's Valentine's day!" Leviathan blasted suddenly from out of her room, skipping down the hall towards the stairs and sliding down the banister with a whoop.

"Well, that was a convenient explanation," Phantom chuckled. This earned a short laugh from Fefnir, who went and followed Leviathan down the stairs.

"Don't know what she's so happy about. Oh well, time for breakfast."

Phantom shrugged, quickly following suite. Harpuia threw his sword back onto his bed, then went downstairs with the others.

Light shone in from the window, lighting up the apartment. The bright rays fell onto X's face, causing him to squint and yawn as he woke up. A quick stretch later, he got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. He brushed his hair, the brown locks stubbornly retaining their shape. Then he left the bathroom, walking to the kitchen for some coffee.

X X X X X

From the couch, Axl snorted and shuffled in his sleep. Now in an odd position, he started snoring softly, smacking his lips. X smiled slightly, then turned to the calender, sipping his hot drink. There was a little heart on it, marking the special occasion. He sighed. Yesterday was the only day that Axl had willingly gone to sleep at X's apartment (without having to be convinced or bribed, anyways).

Of all the days in the year, this was the one that even Axl knew not to harass Zero.

X X X X X

Around the Guardian base, most of the members were cheering. Ciel had just ordered a holiday for all the soldiers. Of course, if anything came up, they'd be called back to duty, but it was still a break for everyone. Some people were already making plans with their "special" friends... Others began muttering to each other, reveling in the rumors that had been going on all week. Would Zero finally ask Ciel out, or was there someone else he liked? Information, mostly false or guessed, spread around the base like wildfire.

Ciel was asked multiple times if Zero had "popped the question" yet. She answered as honestly and unassuming as she could every time, but sure enough, she'd be asked the same question only a few minutes later. About 10 o'clock though, she started to get worried. Why was she the one getting asked so much? Weren't any of them going to ask Zero? Ciel took a trip down to Cerveau's lab, answering another question along the way. Once there, she closed the door, leaning against it and sighing.

"What's the matter?" Cerveau asked from across the room. Both his new apprentice, Perroquiet, and the intelligence specialist Hirodelle were with him. They were apparently working on something in the databases.

"It's all of the soldiers out there. I'm sure they don't mean anything by it, but they're really starting to tire me out with all their questions," she replied. Hirondelle nodded sympathetically.

"They're curious about if Zero has asked you out yet. I don't really blame them."

"And they won't stop asking me, no matter how many times I tell them no. What I don't get is why they keep asking me and not Zero!" she groaned.

"Believe it or not, it's because he isn't up yet. He's still shut up in that room of his, as usual," Cerveau answered.

Ciel looked surprised, "But isn't Zero usually up by now? He's never been this late before..."

"Which is another reason why they're so curious," Hirondelle added,"it's because they think he's being shy or trying to get ready for a big date."

"And how do you know that?" Ciel interrogated.

"I am the intelligence expert around here," he boasted. Ciel giggled, agreeing.

"Yes you are, and you do a right good job of it, too. But I'm still worried about Zero... I'm just going to go and check up on him, alright?"

"Alright. Good luck getting past the crowds," Cerveau said. Perroquiet echoed the greeting, but Hirondelle had something else to add.

"Yeah, good luck Ciel. Hey, tell you what, I'll make you a deal. You promise to tell me first if he says something, and I'll do what I can to get them off your back," he offered.

Ciel sighed, "If you can do that, it'll be a miracle. But I promise, I mean, what else can we do?" Turning, she opened the lab door. A small crowd was, as they had suspected, right outside. They began bombarding her with questions, but were soon stopped by Hirondelle, who started weaving tales of what had just happened inside. They sat captivated, listening to him tell them about basically nothing in eloquent words and vibrant sentences. Ciel made her escape.

Tip-toeing through the halls, she arrived quickly at Zero's quarters. She looked around to see if anyone was there (the last thing she needed were more rumors), and satisfied when she saw none, knocked on the door. No reply came forth. She frowned, knocking harder, "Hey, Zero, are you okay in there?"

A low grunt came from within, "Guh? What? What do you want?"

"Zero, you're awake! Don't you know what time it is, we were starting to get worried out here!" Ciel yelled from outside. Inside, he rolled over in bed to look at his clock. Then jumped nearly as high as Phantom.

"Holy geeze, is that the time? Man I overslept! I'll be up right away!" He bolted over to a set of drawers, nearly ripping them out as he grabbed a pair of pants from within. As he put them on, he looked around the room to try and see his calender, and thus, the date. He'd just finished putting on the garment when he saw it. Instantly he stopped rushing, a small pang of memory coming back. Gazing at it, he remembered why he hadn't set his internal alarm as usual. But he soon shook off the feeling.

"Hey, what's taking you so long?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Come on in if you like, the door's unlocked," he reached for the shirt drawer, pulling out a red one.

Ciel entered just as he was putting it on. She blushed instantaneously, stuttering an apology, "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you weren't ready yet..."

He finished putting on his shirt, tugging at the sleeves to make sure that they were adjusted correctly. Then he looked over at her as he grabbed his comb, brushing his hair, "Oh, no worries, I said you could come in, didn't I? I'm the one who should be saying sorry if it offended you-"

"-Oh no, it doesn't bother me at all, really. If you're okay with it, then so am I," she cut in. Zero looked over at her, then rolled his eyes.

"Yeesh, you're as bad as Leviathan." he taunted. This made her face turn red again.

"Wha-? What do you mean, as bad as Leviathan?" she demanded. He laughed, but only for a brief moment. Then he silently returned to brushing his hair, straightening out the rare few knots among the golden strands. Ciel was taken aback by the quick changes in his mood.

"Hey, Zero, are you feeling alright?" she asked cautiously. He didn't respond, apparently engrossed in brushing out now non-existent knots. So Ciel, getting a little curious as to his behavior, decided to get his attention.

"Zero!" she yelled slightly. He straightened up immediately, darting his eyes around for the source of the disturbance. Ciel sighed, tapping his shoulder to direct his attention to the right place.

"Oh... it's just you. Sorry, guess I forgot you were there," he said when he saw her. They stared at each other for a moment, then he turned away to root through his box of ribbons (carefully).

Ciel was beginning to get really concerned. Zero seemed to be unable to keep things in line, his train of thought constantly derailing. "Zero... are you okay? You seems to be a little uncoordinated today."

"I'm perfectly fine," he snapped, whipping around to face her, "and what do you mean, I'm uncoordinated? I've never felt better!" He gestured wildly with his hand, attempting to prove his point. However, his arm smacked into the box, scattering the colourful ribbons across the floor. He looked down at them, ashamed to face Ciel after his outburst.

"No Zero, you are not fine. What's up with you today? You woke up late, your mood is changing faster than a teenage girl's, and you're acting defensive or clueless about everything I say to you! Are you sure you're feeling alright, because it doesn't seem so to me!" she spat.

He scowled, "No, you're right, I'm not feeling okay."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I don't know! Am I supposed to know? Just leave me alone!" he roared. Ciel backed off.

"All right... I'll leave you alone. Just so you know, I've called a holiday today. So that means you can stay right here and go to bed." she commanded.

"But I'm not tired-"

"Did I say you had a choice? You're obviously not feeling well, so you can just go back to sleep," she said, pointing towards his bed. He looked between the two, her and his bed, then opened his mouth to argue. But after a few stuttered attempts at resisting, he sighed, caving in to her demands.

"Yeah, maybe you're right... just need to rest, that's all," he muttered to himself, loudly enough for Ciel to hear. Zero walked over to the bed, yawning, and flopped down heavily upon it. Within seconds, he was asleep. Ciel stayed a few more moments, making sure that he wasn't faking it. Satisfied that he wasn't, she left the room, softly closing the door behind her. She walked towards the lab after she left, arriving just as the crowd was leaving around the corner on the other side of the hall. Hirondelle glanced over as Ciel stopped beside him.

"How'd it go?" he asked.

Expelling some of her pent up anxiety in a long gust, she replied, "Not well. He seems to be under the weather today, or at the very least, really stressed. He almost acted as if he were preoccupied with something."

"Maybe he was just worried that you wouldn't say yes if he asked you out," Hirondelle hinted smugly. Ciel smirked slightly, but shook her head sadly.

"No, somehow I doubt it. Especially since he yelled at me," she returned. Hirondelle's eyebrows shot up.

"Well, that's certainly a shocker! Zero yelled? He's never done anything like that before, especially to you. Geeze, I wonder what's wrong with him?" he mused.

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it'll clear up eventually. He seemed out of sorts, so he was probably just tired."

"Yeah, probably," Hirondelle nodded, "Oh, by the way, Leviathan called. Wants to speak to Zero."

Ciel snorted, "Again? Sheesh, she's certainly been calling a lot this week. Oh well, I suppose she's trying to make herself available or something. Don't worry, I'll go deal with it. Thanks a bunch, Hirondelle."

"No problem Ciel! Anything for our great commander! Now, if you'll excuse me, the gossip around here is starting to get ahead of me. Can't be the intelligence expert and not even know what's going on around the base!" He dashed off grinning, his happy mood infectiously cheering Ciel up somewhat. She entered the lab, heading to the vidscreen. Cerveau turned from the database just as she was about to turn it on.

"Hey Ciel, I just wanted to warn you-"

"That Leviathan called? Don't worry, Hirondelle tipped me off already," she explained. Cerveau nodded, then returned to his work. Perroquiet ignored the whole affair.

Leviathan's grinning face lit up the screen, "Zero?" she asked hopefully. Ciel frowned.

"Sorry, not today, Leviathan. Zero's not doing so well for some reason. He should be okay with some rest, though, so that's what I've told him to do."

Concern etched itself on Leviathan's face, "Zero's not feeling well? Really? Poor Zero, of all the days he had to get sick..."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be right as rain soon enough," Ciel pointed out. From behind Leviathan in the screen, Harpuia appeared.

"Hey Levi, get over here! I'm not making breakfast just so you can let it go cold!" he complained. Then he turned to the screen and realized that Ciel was on the other side of it. "Oh, hello Ciel. A wonderful morning to you, hmm?" he smiled. Ciel took one look at him and couldn't help but giggle.

Harpuia, apparently into the spirit of Valentine's day, had done more than just cook breakfast. In his hands he held a large plate, filled with heart shaped pancakes covered in raspberry sauce. On his head was a poofy chef's hat covered with red and pink hearts, and he wore an apron to match. Harpuia blushed profusely.

"What? Can't a guy do some cooking too?" He growled. Fefnir appeared beside him in the screen, holding a fork.

"Yeah, seriously Ciel, nothing wrong with a guy who can cook. He's the only one of us who can, really," he said, sticking his fork into the top pancake. Harpuia scowled furiously at him, swatting him away, "That's Leviathan's, you leave it alone! Glutton!" He chased Fefnir out of Ciel's view as the cheeky guardian scarfed down the stolen pancake. Ciel laughed again as Leviathan smacked her forehead in exasperation.

"Bloody, no good men... I swear Ciel, if those brothers of mine don't stop bickering or being mischievous, then I'll stop them doing it for them!" Behind her, a crash interrupted Leviathan. She whirled around swiftly (and might I add, angrily), "Okay, that's it! You asked for it!" she cried out, rushing to the source of the disturbance. Within a few seconds, she and Harpuia were chasing Fefnir around the house. Fefnir still had the fork in his mouth.

Ciel guffawed as the chaos ensued, only stopping when Phantom appeared in the screen. "Quite the lot to live with sometimes, aren't they?" he asked rhetorically, watching their activities past the side of the screen. Ciel smiled in response. Phantom turned towards her, beginning to ask a question, "Well anyways, we called you to ask if you and Zero would like to do something today. I mean, I understand if you had something planned, but if you wanted to just go out and have some fun as a group, then we'd appreciate it. Gets a bit boring hanging out with siblings all the time." As he finished, another crash came from somewhere in the background.

"Boring doesn't seem to be the right word to describe it at this moment," Ciel pointed out. Phantom grimaced as Fefnir painfully yelled out from another room.

"Valid point. Better go stop them before they damage something else," he groaned. Before he left, he asked Ciel one last thing, "So, you okay to come over?"

"Sure," Ciel smiled, "I'd love to. Zero will probably want to stay here, though. He's not feeling so well."

"I heard. Oh well, his loss. Want us to come pick you up in an hour?"

"Sure, sounds great. See you then!"

Phantom hung up the call. Faced with nothing else to do for an hour, Ciel busied herself around the base, doing menial chores and helping where she could (often with guardians asking for advice about dates). Just a few minutes before the others were scheduled to arrive, she knocked on Zero's door to ask him about going. But there was no response, so she guessed that he was still asleep.

The guardians arrived as expected. Phantom came in first, followed closely by Leviathan and Harpuia. Fefnir was last, rubbing his mysteriously red looking nose and complaining quietly. Ciel smiled as she saw them enter the base.

"Hey! There you are! How are you?"

"Same as an hour ago, to be honest," Harpuia said nonchalantly. Fefnir seemed to disagree, though not loudly enough for everyone to understand.

"Did Zero change his mind about coming? I know we'd all love him to..." Leviathan asked hopefully. Phantom rolled his eyes behind her back.

Ciel shook her head, "No, he's still asleep, I think. I never actually got the chance to ask him if he wanted to go out, but I did try." Leviathan started to pout, but Harpuia quickly cut her off.

"Well, nothing we can do about that. If that's how he's going to be, then that's how he's going to be. Anyways, we just called X and Axl and asked them if they wanted to meet up. They did, so we're going out for some ice cream. You okay coming?"

"I sure am!" Ciel replied. And with that, they were off, out of the base and onto three hoverbikes waiting outside. Ciel was with Leviathan, Fefnir was with Phantom, and Harpuia led by himself, all the way to the city.

X X X

They arrived at the outskirts of the city thirty minutes later. One or two people looked up from their own worlds as the new arrivals stopped outside the ice cream parlor, but went back to their own affairs soon after. Ciel looked around at the scenery, the happy looking signs of small businesses, boring industrial buildings dotting the horizon, and quaint little houses and apartment complexes filling in whatever space was left over from small gardens and concrete paths. Minute dust clouds swirled in from the wasteland outside the city borders, but was stopped mostly by coarse grasses and umbrellas.

"So, Ciel, anything much new at the base?" Leviathan's voice snapped Ciel's attention back from the scenery.

"What? Oh, not much, really. Let the soldiers have a vacation, though. Something tells me a fair few of them wouldn't be able to concentrate today," she responded. Leviathan laughed and nodded knowingly. She certainly knew what that was like!

"Hurry up you guys, let's go and get something!" Fefnir called from in front of the shop, having jumped off his bike as soon as it stopped. The group parked the bikes and entered the store, dodging around tables and walking up to the short line in front of the counter. The whole store had an antique air to it, with its wooden floor and furniture and numerous old-style posters floating around on the walls. A man and his son ordered their ice creams just ahead of the group, then left the shop after paying for them. The two had just exited through the door when Fefnir (at the front of the group) ordered his own delightfully cold treat.

"One scoop chocolate, please!" he exclaimed. The store clerk set about the task of getting the group's food.

"Two one scoop Vanillas for us, please."

"A strawberry sherbert, if you don't mind."

"Ooh, that sounds good! I'll have one of those too!

The busy little clerk quickly got their order together, then told them the price. Ciel went to pay for hers, but Harpuia shushed her and told her that it was his treat today. He paid as the rest went and sat down at a table. As they dug into their ice creams with relish, someone from another table came over and sat next to them.

"'Bout time you guys got here," he said jokingly.

The group were just about to retort until they saw who it was. "X?"

X smiled, "Yup. Believe it or not, I'm not late this time!"

"And he's not alone!" Axl piped up from across the room. He was grinning as he shot up from his seat and over to the others, his face smeared with ice cream. Axl was holding the remnants of his treat in his left hand, small chunks of cookie dough betraying its flavor.

"Watch him, he's had a triple scoop," X whispered to the others as Axl sat down.

"Watch me for what? What's wrong with a triple scoop, how are you guys doing, Zero didn't show up, figures, he's always moody around this time, what flavors did you Mmmfff!" X quickly shoved the remainders of Axl's cone back into his mouth, shutting off the carrot haired reploid's tirade. The guardians and Ciel couldn't help but laugh as Axl seemed to have an inner battle over whether to finish eating the sticky goods in his mouth or continue his sugar rush fueled chattering. He settled on the former.

"Never a dull moment with you around, is it?" Leviathan teased Axl, who responded by shaking his head vigorously and sucking at his ice cream cone.

Harpuia finished chuckling, coughing to regain his composure, "He's right, though. According to Ciel, Zero was unable to come for some reason."

"He was acting rather unsettled, I thought he might be sick or something. I made him stay in bed and get some rest," Ciel added.

"That was a good idea," X concurred.

"Yeah," Axl mumbled through the last of his cone, "really good. I mean, last time he got like this-" Axl suddenly found his mouth clamped shut by X, who waggled his finger disapprovingly in front of his face.

"Tut tut Axl, how many times have I told you not to eat with your mouth full? Besides, we agreed not to talk about that."

Axl swallowed his food in a large gulp, "Oh right. Now I remember. But still, I think they have a ri-" he was cut off by a no-nonsense glare from X, and that was that. The group gave them both a confused look, which X answered by changing the subject.

"So Ciel, I heard that you were developing a new energy source. How's that coming along?"

"Oh, very well," Ciel smiled. She knew full well that X and Axl were hiding something, but she kept quiet about it. "Actually, it's so far along that Cerveau has started work on a prototype already. He said that he had no doubt that it'd change the world, but he wanted to be sure it worked. And have the first generator of its kind, no doubt," she added cheekily. After having a lick of her ice cream, she went back to talking, "So, you four, how have your lives been treating you lately?"

The guardians looked up from their goodies to answer, "Oh, pretty easy, actually. However, our money is starting to look a little low in the bank. We've decided to get some jobs to fix that, and you'd be surprised at what's available these days," Phantom started.

"I've been considering a position somewhere near the sea. They've got a lot of careers in sea wall repairing and wildlife conservation there, bound to be something interesting," Leviathan said.

Harpuia spoke up, "And I've been considering a job in the local library. Not a big hullabaloo of people there, it'd be nice and quiet. Besides, I might even get a little reading in," he smirked, then enjoyed a nibble off of his cone.

"Military! Training noobs and stuff," Fefnir added gleefully.

Ciel nodded, "What about you, Phantom? Anything interesting to you?"

"Nah, not really," he replied, "besides, someone has to stay at home and watch out for burglars," he pointed out.

"I'll be more afraid of what traps you've set up while we're gone than any old burglar!" Leviathan scoffed. Phantom whistled innocently, causing a few chuckles.

"You wouldn't believe the job X here has got," Axl grinned, poking at X. The two had a quick and playful shoving match, then X responded to the group's strange glances.

"Oh yeah... heh heh, kind of a funny story, actually. Well, when Zero and I were out Christmas shopping in December, we'd come across a few stores where I decided to drop off a resume as well as shop for gifts. Well, wouldn't you know it, I ended up with a job at one of 'em. They let me use my fake name, which is great, 'cause too many fans would come in and clog up the place if I didn't," he explained sheepishly.

"Just where is this job, anyways?" Phantom asked slyly. X blushed, but continued.

"At the plushie store-"

"The plushie store? How on earth can you live with a job like that?" Fefnir choked.

X rubbed his temple, smiling tiredly but good in good nature, "Well, at first it seemed embarrassing, but when I got to see all those innocent kids coming in, smiling like there was never anything wrong in the world, I couldn't help but be happy to see them. And well, it's a paycheck, at the very least."

"True, true." Ciel agreed. They all were silent, licking or gulping at their ice creams, except Axl, who was looking for a napkin to clean his face. Soon enough though, they were back into conversation. As the group talked about everyday things and some not so everyday things, Ciel's communicator began ringing. Excusing herself politely from the conversation, she answered its beckoning.

"Hello? Who is it?"

"Hey Ciel... it's me," Zero said clumsily through the speaker. Ciel was surprised.

"Zero? Really? Well how are you? Any better than this morning?" she questioned. Leviathan jerked up from her diminished cone attentively.

"Er, yeah... Uh Ciel, look, um, I'm... I'm sorry I yelled at you this morning. Really, I am," he stuttered nervously. Ciel sighed.

"Apology accepted. I suppose I shouldn't have been so nosy this morning either. As long as you're okay, then I'm okay too, alright?"

"Alright," he answered, pausing. "So, uh, I heard you went out with someone already?"

"Oh yeah! The guardians came over and we're in town having some ice cream. X and Axl are here too. I was going to tell you earlier, but when I knocked, you didn't answer, so I thought you were still asleep. Sorry Zero..." Ciel finished. Zero stayed quiet on the line, apparently deep in thought.

"Oi, you tell him that he can still come hang with us, kapeesh?" Leviathan shot in. Ciel giggled.

"Really? You mean it?" Zero asked hopefully. The group nodded in unison, a definite "yes". Zero seemed delighted.

"That's great! If you give me the address, I'll be right over! But if it's too far away, then I don't want you to have to wait for me to get there, it'd be rude."

"Oh no, no worries, we've still got some ice cream to finish off!" Ciel objected. Zero smiled widely, and as soon as Ciel imparted their location to him, he was off the communicator and away to the garage. Ciel turned her com unit off, staring at the screen.

"Is it just me, or was he acting a bit too-"

"Happy...?" Phantom finished. They all looked around at each other, all but X and Axl clueless as to his behavior. X broke the mysterious air with a sigh.

"Auugh, Zero, what am I going to do with you?"

"I hate it when he gets like this. It's so depressing!" Axl complained, further adding to the generals' and Ciel's bafflement.

"What do you mean, gets like this? This happens often?" Fefnir spouted. X and Axl nodded.

"Every year on Valentine's day, to be honest."

"He just spaces out and starts acting like a nutcase, not that he wasn't one already," Axl cut in. This earned him a rare bop on the head from X.

"Why does he start acting so temperamental?" Phantom inquired.

"Well," X began to explain, "I can't tell you all of it, seeing as it's a part of Zero's past, but I think I'm safe telling you this. A long time ago, believe it or not, Zero had a much more rash and carefree personality."

"Not to mention suicidal, womanizing, stupid, egotistical..." Axl interrupted, going on and on despite X's glare.

"Zero used to be a womanizer?" Harpuia asked incredulously. Another bop over Axl's head and X continued.

"Yes, slightly. You could look at it as his teenage years. Truth be told, he was kind of a jock type," X waved his hand over the table, "But then there was that one Valentine's day a long time ago, and he changed."

"Ooh, do tell," Leviathan leaned forward slightly, settling herself in to listen to the tale. The others followed suit, and soon, X had a captive audience. The only one not really interested was Axl, who snuck off to get some more ice cream.

"Well, I don't want to get too personally into Zero's life here, but here goes. Well, because of Zero's nature back then, he was much more into activities that most people like to do these days in their off time, instead of the kind of thing he does now. Because of that, he also had a lot more friends. And that one year, a bunch of people we all knew, they were called Repliforce, rebelled. This was back during the maverick wars with Sigma and the virus, of course. We thought they might be associated with either, so we asked them to drop their weapons and come in for questioning. It was just procedure, but they took offense to it and fought back. So we were fighting with these Repliforce guys, and soon enough, Sigma showed up. Turns out none of the Repliforce actually were mavericks, but that Sigma'd used 'em as a distraction to get a weapon ready. So I went off to fight one of our own that'd betrayed us so that we could get to Sigma, and Zero had to go fight a close friend of his. It turned out bad for him, because he accidentally killed him. So after that, another close friend of Zero's went missing, and I had to go fight the general of Repliforce. I managed to defeat the general, but something was up at the base. Apparently, the missing person showed up and was threatening to do something drastic. Zero had no choice and went off to try and stop the person, and, well, he was successful," X's voice cracked when he mentioned the 'mysterious person'. Ciel's intuition perked immediately, and she was sure X was hiding something. She let him go on, catching a wayward glance off of Leviathan. Her intuition had tipped her off, too.

"After that, I arrived back at the base shortly after Zero. I tell you, that was the scariest I've seen him. His eyes were red like he'd been crying, and I'm sure he had. I don't blame him, he's lost two of his best friends in one day. But then there was a crazed, feral look to them too. First thing he did when he got back was demand to know where Sigma was so that he could, and I quote, "spread his guts so far out around the town that he'd paint the whole damn thing red." Poor operator was too scared to do anything else but give him the location."

Fefnir flinched, "Paint the town red? That sounds more like an Omega quote than a Zero one."

"Unfortunately, yes. You remember what the Mother Elf said about those two, right? About how they used to be one and the same? Well, that's the closest I've ever seen Zero come to showing his Omega side. To this day, it still sends shivers down my spine. But, anyways, moving on. Zero was off and into that transporter before anyone could do anything, and the only reason I didn't go right after him was because I was too tired after my battle to do anything about it. As it was, I only got ten minutes before I was so worried that I followed him. It took me a long time to get past all the mechaniloids and other guards, but sure enough, when I got there, Zero was showing Sigma all nine levels of hell. It was quite a spectacle to behold, to be honest. However, Sigma had a few things up his sleeves too, so I joined in, and we came out victorious. Thing is, I think Sigma said something to Zero before I got there, probably blamed him for all his friends that had died. I guess it struck a chord of some sort, 'cause Zero was really acting strange. It wasn't until after the cleanup from the battle, when we were all in the base, that anyone noticed that it was Valentine's Day. And that must've clinched whatever Sigma said to Zero, cause he went as quiet as a grave. Ever since, even though he's gotten over it, he's always gone wonky on Valentine's."

"Poor sod, it was really been traumatizing. For him to keep being like that over a hundred years after the fact... sure got the rumors flying around base, I'll tell you. I wasn't even around for a couple years after that, and I still heard what other people thought of it!" Axl mused loudly, ending X's story.

It was quite some time before anyone had the nerve to speak, but when they did, it was with an incredulous tone, "My god... Zero, traumatized?" Fefnir gaped.

"Who'd have ever thought that a great hero like Zero had such a dark past? The poor guy..." Leviathan sniffed, clearly concerned for the crimson warrior.

"That's terrible! I mean, trauma in reploids is incredibly rare, and it usually disappears after a while. For it to keep plaguing him like this is horrific!" Ciel cringed.

"Yeah, well, I think I know why it's been with him so long. The silly git won't spit it out!" Axl frowned. "I mean, he told me and X what happened, and he got over it well enough. But he's tighter than a clam at low tide when it comes to whatever Sigma told him! It's the same as with whoever made him! He won't tell anyone anything, and soon enough, he's gonna burst! One guy can only stay quiet for so long, you know?"

"Hhmmm..." the group nodded in agreement. Silence reigned supreme again as they all stared down at their frozen treats (or what was left of them). Then a new voice cut through the atmosphere like a knife.

"Iris. Her name was Iris."

Everyone jumped, whirling around to see who was behind them.

"What the-? Zero! When did you get here?" Axl gasped. Zero, despite the dark and forlorn look on his face, managed a small smirk.

"Been here for a while actually. Cerveau saw me ripping towards the garage and offered to teleport me here. And hey, X, thanks for telling them. It was unfair of me to keep you guys in the dark about that. Tell you what, if you grab me some ice cream, I'll fill you in on some of what X missed."

He very suddenly had an ice cream thrust in front of him. Axl looked down at his very suddenly empty hand with malice, but X quietly chided him about his limits as Zero took the offer, beginning his own version of the story.

"Like I said, her name was Iris. She was the one I had to kill before I, er, we, took on Sigma. Iris had gone mad, since her brother had just fought me and lost. I never meant to kill him, but it, well, sort of happened. So she disappeared for a while, then came back fully and willingly maverick. So I killed her too." Zero took a small nip of ice cream, then laughed coldly, "I killed her. On Valentine's Day, I killed her. She was whiny, clingy, bossy, acted stupid so that she could get what she wanted, and had a personality similar to a cheerleader. But what can I say? She was my first girlfriend."

"Your... your first girlfriend...?" Everyone who hadn't heard the story before was shocked. If not by the fact that he'd killed her, then by the fact that he'd had a girlfriend.

"Yeah, I know. The jock and the cheerleader, perfect couple, right? She was the first one I had any real special feeling for, and our first Valentine's Day together I slaughter her. Oh, the irony. No one ever blamed me, since she had gone mad. But her going mad was my fault. And then when I found out... what Sigma told me, anyways... I just... just... I mean, so much was happening that I..." Zero sighed, glaring down at the ice cream in his hand. "Cookie dough, bleh. Here Axl, you have it, I hate cookie dough."

Axl took back his ice cream, staring disapprovingly at it as if it were tainted. Then he shrugged and tucked into it. No one said a word as an antique clock ticked slowly on the wall across from them. The only other being in the room, the elderly shopkeeper, stood discreetly behind his wooden counter, inconspicuously cleaning a glass with his rag. He'd been in the business a long time, and had heard many interesting exchanges. This one took both the cake and the silver platter it was on. More tense moments dragged by, until one of the shop's patrons stood up ferociously.

"Alright, enough of this gloomy bullshit. This ends right now!" Leviathan growled, roughly grabbing Zero's arm and dragging him off towards the store's entrance. His chair was knocked over in the process.

"Wait, what? What the hell are you doing" Zero demanded, struggling against the iron grasp of his captor.

"What the heck do you think I'm doing? I've been waiting all week for you to ask me out on a date, and what do you do? Tell a real downer of a story and expect me to leave you alone to pout or sit gloomily in a corner for the whole day! Nuh uh, not gonna happen, mister! I've been waiting since the moment we met to get a date with you, and now that I've got the chance, I'm gonna take it!"

"Yeah, you get him, girl!" Ciel cheered. Then, as she watched Zero latch himself onto the doorway, she did a double take. "Wait a minute, you get a date? I've known him longer! I have superiority over you! Move over, Zero's mine!" she jumped up and ran over to the entrance, grabbing Zero's free leg (Leviathan had the other one). At the table, the occupants were starting to howl with laughter.

"I don't think either of you will get a date with him if you can't get him off that doorway!" Axl roared gleefully, smashing his fist against the table to help deal with his immense glee.

Zero's eyes were tightly shut as he fought the two girls tugging at his legs, along with the slow detachment of the door's bordering under his fingers, "Help! X, Axl, quit sitting there like pigs in you-know-what and GET THESE THINGS OFFA ME!"

"Sorry mate, you were the womanizer, this kind of thing is your specialty!"

"THAT'S THE LAMEST EXCUSE EVER YOU SUNNUVA-!" Without warning, the bordering on the door lurched out of the wall by an inch, showing the nails that had previously held it in. Zero lost his grip, launching out of the doorway and onto the girls in a mere second. They tumbled down the front steps as everyone else finally got up to help, still laughing their heads off.

Some things never change, thought X, and some things do.

Yay! Done! Man, I love holidays, they make writing so much easier! Again, sorry for the delay, but I really had no idea how I was going to do this chapter. And no, there was very little romance for this Valentine's day special, but that's how it came out. So sue me. Then again, on second thought, maybe not. I'll try to get an April Fool's episode out, but until then, HA will continue on from where it left off. Have a great day, everyone!

And not being able to log in stinks. Fanfiction hasn't been letting me on, either.