The wind brushed happily across their faces as their vehicles soared through the morning sky. The sun was just beginning to rise, illuminating the clouds in a soft orange hue. The warmth, radiance, and life that the sun emitted, began to spread across their skin.

As Piper felt the tickle of the sun upon her flesh, her mind was brought to her crystals' darkroom, trying to remember if she had sealed it off properly before leaving. The sunlight could cause irreversible damage to raw crystals during the refinement process and so a completely dark room was necessary to keep the refinement sublime.

The thought of her darkroom and crystals lead her mind to the only other person interested in these things; Cyclonis. All that she could imagine at this point was the troubled expression she wore in the infirmary. It disheartened her, forcing her to question her usefulness. Aerrow's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"I'll never tire of this, soaring through the morning sky. I forget how beautiful it really is," he said as if flying for the first time. Piper looked back at him; he was riding his air skimmer while she piloted her heliscooter. It wasn't just his words that held that strange sense of wonder. Within his eyes, his expression, and his body language she could perceive a genuine air of amazement as if this was his first time being able to dance upon the sky. She saw within his emerald green eyes a sense of freedom, a long forgotten sense of peace.

That was something she always liked about Aerrow. Now matter how much a situation deteriorated into chaos, he would always remain optimistic, hopeful and peaceful. The war ending brought a lot of things to many people, peace being one of them. The carefree expression of excitement that Aerrow gracefully wore now washed over most of the postwar world.

However, there were those that the newfound peace didn't help. There were those like Cyclonis. Piper looked away from her dazzling squadron leader just behind him and focused once more on flying. A slight sadness rested upon her chest.

Aerrow's voice began to rouse her attention. "You know, if it wasn't for Dark Ace, Cyclonis, Murk Raiders, the war, and the threat of global domination from Cyclonia, the whole world-traveling-thing wouldn't have been so bad. Now that I think about it, the experience was actually kind of fun in a certain light."

Aerrow paused, noticing the worried look on Piper's face as she nodded absentmindedly. His smile melted into a small frown. Today was supposed to be a day where on which the pair could get away from it all.

"Piper," he said. "Please, relax. I promise the world isn't going to end just because we take a day off."

She grimaced a bit, replying in a low whisper. "Let's hope so."

"Hey, just look around. It's a beautiful day and we finally have time to spend together. Promise me; just promise me that you'll have fun today, ok?"

With that, he brought his skimmer close to her heliscooter and deftly pecked Piper on the cheek.

Piper blushed; a small smile overtook her face.

"There we are," he said, pleased with Piper's response. "That's what I like to see."

Piper's smile grew wider. She almost melted with joy.

Seconds later one of Aerrow's arm shot forward, index finger extended. "Look up!" His anticipation was radiant and beautiful. "Up ahead, it's Terra Tropica!"

They drove their vehicles through the air, over the narrow land formation. The terra was ripe and active with festivity. Multitudes of people ran and danced upon the sands of sparkling beaches. The waves fell and crashed upon the shores with a very natural and calming rhythm. A feeling of freedom seemed to emanate from the heart of the terra. It was as if Terra Tropica was almost alive, speaking.

"This is wonderful," Aerrow commented. "Thank you for coming with me."

"So, what do you think? Should we just park our rides and find a private spot or do you want to enjoy the public beach for a while?" he asked, hoping that she'd choose the former.

Piper twisted her mouth in a small pout, looking towards the clouds as she mulled over the question he presented her with. Another smile broke across her face as she began to speak.

"How about we try the social scene first? I mean, only if you want to. It could be fun, but if it gets hairy, we'll find a more secluded area. What do you think?"

She looked at him with a lighthearted grin, something he hadn't seen from her in such a long time. He couldn't say no.

"Sounds good," he said almost instantly. He was eager to allow this trip to go as smoothly as possible; disagreeing on a choice of scenery would be counterproductive to his goal. He was a little put off by her decision, but he chose to honor it without a hint of animosity. Besides, she was right. It could be a good time.

"All right, to the beach we go," Piper said with excitement. They descended upon the terra.

It wasn't half a day later that Aerrow found himself back on the Condor, speaking to Finn and Junko.

"So, what exactly did you do?" Finn asked curiously, looking at his squadron leader who was slouched deeply into one of the bridge's cushioned chairs.

Frowning, Aerrow looked upwards towards his friends and puffed. "I didn't do anything."

"Well, the Big J and I wouldn't be here if you didn't. Spill the beans, my dude, what happened out there?"

Aerrow sank deeper into the chair and grumbled softly, letting out an incomprehensible string of sounds.

The boys poked at Aerrow, attempting to illicit a response; nothing. This time, instead of his arm, they poked at his head, from different angles; no response. Finn tried once more, using an old metal pipe that was lying around to jab at his chest. Aerrow returned Finn's playful gestures with a disgruntled frown.

"All right, buster, have it your way. Just know, if we have to rely on Piper's version of events, we might have to rough you up a bit. This is why we don't date on the team!" Finn said, shaking his fist comically in front of Aerrow's face. The smile Finn wore quickly slid off his face after failing yet again to get a response from Aerrow.

"Boy, it must have been bad, huh?" Junko asked in a low, inquisitive voice.

"No, well, at least not at first and that's the weird part," Aerrow blurted out. "It started out as a simple mistake that was entirely situational. I… Look, just know that it wasn't really any fault of mine."

"Ok, I believe you, because Piper has a tendency to blow things out of proportions every now and then. I think we got enough of that over the past 10 years," Finn said as he plopped down in a seat adjacent to Aerrow's. "So, start at the beginning. You two were going to Terra Tropica for some sweet R and R and then…"

"We decided to go to the beach," Aerrow said.

"Ah, now that sounds fun. I don't see how that could be a problem. A nice, secluded area, just you two lovebirds, sounds like a good time," Finn said.

"Er, well, Piper insisted on a public beach. So, when we landed, people just surrounded us."

"Oh yeah, right, we're like super famous now, being saviors of the world and all that."

"That'll do it, yeah. You know how much I hate it. But, fellas, that's not all."

Finn and Junko raised their eyebrows. The blonde leaned forward in his seat.

"There were hundreds of people, all circling us. They were crowding around, screaming, asking us to sign this and that."

"Uh, yeah, people definitely also lose it around me. Beautiful women in particular. So, what else happened?"

Letting out another labored breath, Aerrow reluctantly began explaining. "I kind of, might have, accidently grabbed the wrong girl."

The two other boys' eyes widened. "You what?"

"I grabbed the wrong girl," Aerrow restated in an almost unsure shrug looking for a sympathetic laugh.

"No, I'm sure I heard you. I'm just going to need you to explain," Finns said.

"Look, there were a lot of people, okay? They were a mob, really. Things got a little too crowded a little too soon and I thought it was best that we got out of there. They were everywhere, guys. Everywhere."

"Uh huh," the blonde said.

"In the haste of things, I grabbed a girl near me. Piper was standing at that exact spot, I swear."

"Let me get this straight. You grabbed the wrong girl, pulled her with you, and realized it was the wrong girl?" Junko reasoned, attempting to place the pieces together.

"Almost…" Aerrow trailed off.

"Wait…" Finn slowly said, his eyes and smile growing equally wider. "There's more?"

"I grabbed her and ran off. We were, like, almost off the beach by the time I turned around and realized it wasn't her," Aerrow revealed.

Finn was consumed with laughter. "And you didn't hear Piper yelling for you?"

Aerrow's brow dipped and his hands shot up in the air. "There were a couple hundred people in a dense crowd shouting my name. How could I hear it?"

Finn continued laughing, slapping his knee and doubling over. Junko looked mortified.

Aerrow attempted to slip in an additional piece of information to the story as Finn seemed too distracted for it to be casually missed. "The girl I grabbed may also have started showering me in kisses the second we were off the beach."

Finn fell out of his chair in laughter. "You land on a public beach, you're mobbed by our adoring fans, you grab a girl who isn't Piper, she's pecking away at you, and you run off into the sunset romantically leaving Piper behind."

"It wasn't even close to dusk. It was late morning, but yeah, that's the gist of it," he said, sheltering his face within his hands once more.

Still lying on the floor, Finn tilted his head back to look at Aerrow's upside down figure.

"Dude. You're in so much trouble," he said with a grin.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Aerrow sighed as he slumped into the chair once more. "But that's not all…"

Junko picked up Finn from the floor and put him back in his chair. At Aerrow's words, the wallop's ears tucked down. "What happened?"

"Nothing good, buddy. We had a fight," Aerrow said. "It was bad, and things were said."

"How bad?" Finn asked with a sense of concern in his voice as he slowly sat upright.

Aerrow stared towards them both for a moment without answering, and then sighed. "When I found out I had made a mistake, I returned for her immediately and we set out to find a more private area. She was being so quiet on the way there while I was apologizing, and then she just went off on me. She just started nagging to the point where I told she wasn't being rational. I told her she was overreacting, that she obsesses over the tiniest details, and that it was hard to be around her when she's like that. You know what I mean, right?"

Finn nodded his head, eyebrows cocked as if he was privileged to some type of expert knowledge.

"Well, that was the wrong choice of words," Aerrow said.

"You better believe it was," Finn interjected.

"Everything soured from that point on. She shot back, and hard. She said something to the effect of 'if I'm so horrible to be around maybe I shouldn't even be part of this squadron'."

Finn's eyes nearly rolled out of his head. "This is why you don't date teammates! It'll ruin everything! I swear, if-"

"She won't leave the Storm Hawks, Finn. Don't worry. She said as much on the way home. But she was angry. Really angry. She wouldn't even look at me. She told me we needed to reconsider what this was. I said she never bothered to make it clear what this was to begin with. I told her that at times, this felt more like fumbling in the dark," Aerrow confessed. He was trying his hardest not to cry in front of the boys but was choking on his own words.

Finn and Junko looked at Aerrow, not really knowing what to say to calm their friend.

Aerrow whispered, not wanting to hear the truth flow forth from his own mouth. "Guys, I don't know how to fix this. I just don't know."