~Chapter Thirty~

A month passed since Marbles and Ada were found. The police had confirmed that the body Marbles and Ada found was indeed Francesca Arky. The story made headlines but Marbles and Ada refused to come forward with their discovery and they were listed as anonymous. In that same thirty-day span, Melissa and Antoine started to spend more time with each other: Studying, talking, watching TV together. A Saturday came around and the couple decided to go skiing in Penguia.

"I've never been skiing before," Melissa said as she put her boots on, "I really hope I don't end up making a fool of myself."

"Darling," Antoine replied, "You could never make a fool out of yourself."

Melissa just smiled and kissed him on the cheek, causing him to blush. It was 7:30 A.M and Melissa had portaled him to her dorm room and from there they were going to Penguia in her cyber-coupe.

"Okay," she said looking at her reflection in the mirror, "Will this be warm enough?"

Both Pompadoria and Helping Hand Land were naturally warm cybersites with only a sprinkle of snow at most in the winter, so Melissa didn't really have a clue what appropriate snow clothes were. Antoine, on the other hand, had taken many trips to Penguia and had some experience with the weather. Based on the information he relayed, she had gone shopping the day before at the cyber-mall and bought what she thought to be the appropriate clothing, along with a pair of blue rain galoshes that caught her attention.

Her ski outfit: Slightly tight black pants, a grey sweater, and her ugg boots.

"Well..." Antoine said analyzing the outfit, "You may want to wear your pea coat with it."

"I thought so," Melissa agreed and grabbed it off the hook on the wall, "Though I have recently read that blue cyborgs have naturally lower body temperatures."

"That would explain why you can't tolerate heat."

"Ada told you I presume?" Melissa asked.

"Marbles actually. He said you were once crying in the middle of the night because you were so hot," Antoine laughed.

"When I was seven!" Melissa exclaimed, "I'm sure he purposely left that part out!"

"Still its quite humorous!" Antoine said still laughing.

"Well it wasn't for me!" Melissa stated crossing her arms in annoyance as she remembered that night.

Flashback:

It was one of those hot summer nights in Pompadoria. The temperature had reached one hundred degrees that day and only had died down to eighty degrees by midnight. The Benson household had their central air conditioning on at full blast but even that wasn't enough to keep them cool. Nobody in that house was keen with being hot, but for seven year old Melissa, excess heat was a death sentence. All night she had tossed and turned in her bed. She had abandoned her blanket, changed into the lightest pajamas she had. But it wasn't enough and at this point she couldn't handle it any longer and she let hot tears fall from her eyes.

Clyde and Eileen slept soundly in their bed, the coolest room upstairs when Eileen stirred at the sound of a whimpering child. As she got up from their bed and went to open the door her husband awoke.

"Honey?" he asked groggily, "Where are you going?"

"I think Melissa had a nightmare," she answered, "I'm going to go check on her."

"Okay," Clyde said falling back asleep.

Eileen was glad that she was given leave this week. She loved her husband but he could be very awkward when it came to these things. Melissa's room was right next to theirs so she didn't need to walk very far. She slowly opened the door.

"Melissa?" she whispered as the little girl turned around to face her, "Are you alright?"

Melissa shook her head. "I'm so hot Mommy!" the girl whimpered, "It feels like I'm melting!"

"Oh sweetie I'm sorry," Eileen said and went to pick her daughter up, "Do you want to come sleep in my room? Its cooler there and I can give you a fan also."

The small child nodded and Eileen carried her to the master bedroom. After Eileen wiped her sweat off with a cold wash cloth, Melissa went to lay down at her parents' window seat, the window slightly opened. Eileen placed a fan by the six year old and turned on the "high" setting.

"Good night my darling," she said and kissed Melissa on her forehead.

"Mommy?" Melissa asked and Eileen turned around, "Can you sing me our lullaby?"

Eileen smiled. "Of course sweetie."

End Flashback

"Melissa?"

Melissa snapped out of the thoughts of her mother's sweet voice and blinked twice before turning to Antoine.

"Where were you just now?" he laughed.

"Oh just taking a trip down memory lane," Melissa laughed as she got her cyber-coupe keys and, "Come on! Let's go!"

The couple arrived at Penguia around 11:00 A.M. They immediately were given a pair of skis and went to the top of one of the hills.

"Well," Melissa said nervously, "Here we go..."

"Don't worry Melissa," Antoine said as he readied himself, "There are tons of people here that can't ski. Just follow my lead."

And with that Antoine went down the hill. Melissa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Here we go!" she said to herself as she leaned forward began to ski down the hill, eventually catching up with him.

Antoine noticed his girlfriend skiing beside him.

"That's it Melissa! You're doing great!"

Melissa smiled as the cold breeze blew through her long hair.

"You were right Antoine!" she called back to him, "This is so much fun! I-"

Suddenly, as they reached the bottom of the hill, Melissa's ski's caught onto a rock that was hiding under the white surface. She fell forward with such force that her ski's fell right off. She screamed as she fell face first into the snow. Antoine circled around her and stopped in front of her. He couldn't help but laugh. Melissa brought herself up on her forearms and glared at him as he kept laughing. Then Antoine felt something cold hit him directly in the face. Melissa had thrown a snowball at him.

"What was that for?"

"For laughing at me!"

"Alright," he said slipping his feet out of the ski's, "Two can play at that game!"

With that he began to scoop up a ball of snow to throw back at her but Melissa quickly got up and ran. Still he was able to hit the snowball at her back. Melissa clenched her fists and turned around.

"Now you asked for it!" she said and knelt down to make another snowball.

Before they knew it, a full on snowball fight ensued as they chased each other around the ski park. It finally ended once Antoine snuck up behind Melissa and grabbed her by the waist, swinging her around.

"Antoine put me down!" she laughed as he kept swinging her around playfully.

Antoine finally placed her back on her feet gently and she leaned up to him and kissed him on the lips.

"Perhaps we should try again dear?" Antoine asked.

"Well where are our ski's?" Melissa asked.

"Looking for these?" a voice said from behind them.

The couple turned to see a male cyborg holding up their two pairs of ski's.

"Oh thank you sir," Melissa said smiling and taking the pair of ski's from the cyborg.

As the couple walked back to the top of the hill, the cyborg watched uneasily.

"Those eyes," he thought, "That smile. She seems so familiar..."

"I finally did it Antoine!" Melissa exclaimed three hours later.

"I knew you'd get it eventually."

Melissa had at last managed to ski down the hill without falling into the snow at some point.

"Well I couldn't have done it without you dear," she replied while batting her eyelashes.

"Why thank-" Antoine stopped midsentence when he suddenly had to sneeze.

"God bless you," Melissa said.

"Thank-" Before he could finish thanking her, he sneezed again.

And again. And again. And then again...

"Darling," Melissa said after he was done sneezing, "Do you think maybe you're catching a cold?"

Antoine was about to laugh and say no, but he then realized that his throat had been bothering him for the past hour and his head was starting to hurt.

"You know Melissa. I think I might be."

Melissa grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's go back to the campus now."

"No honey I-"

"Antoine I will NOT let you stay out here when you're getting sick. Now come on!"

The couple returned to Cyber University at a quarter to six. The whole drive back Antoine had done nothing but cough and sneeze. Melissa parked her cyber-coupe in its designated spot and they went up to her dorm. At first she thought it was just a cold. Now she was sure her boyfriend had cyber-flu.

"Go ahead and lie down dear," Melissa told Antoine as she slipped her boots off.

"Are you sure?"

Melissa nodded as she went over to her bathroom for a thermometer. Antoine took off his boots and socks and went to lay down. After she had found a thermometer she took his temperature.

"125 degrees," she read, "Yes darling you have cyber-flu."

"Well I should probably get out of your bed then," Antoine suggested, "I don't want to spread it on to you."

"Nonsense darling," she laughed as she went into her walk-in closet to change out of her wet clothes, "I never get ill, even in weather like this."

"Don't say that Melissa," Antoine teased as he coughed, "It may backfire on you someday."

Melissa emerged from her closet in a plain green and white checker-patterned dress. She stared at him with a smirk spread across her face.

"Alright. Since you're so insistent we'll go back to your dorm. BUT we are going by portal. I REFUSE to let you out in the cold when you're this sick."

Melissa had already been told that Brian goes home Friday evenings and comes back Sunday mornings, so she wasn't worried about being caught. She grabbed her purse before opening a portal and they both jumped in.

"Alright now to bed with you," Melissa commanded.

Antoine just laughed and climbed into his bed. This must have been what her brother was talking about when he said she was overly maternal. Melissa adjusted her boyfriend's pillow.

"How is that?" she asked.

"That will be fine honey," Antoine coughed, "You know though, you really don't have to do all this for me."

"I know I don't have to Antoine," Melissa said as she brought his tissue box over to him, "But I want to. I love you and I'm happy to take-"

"I know," Antoine interrupted, "Marbles has told me how you tend to play the role of caretaker a lot."

"Just how much has he told you thus far?" Melissa asked blushing.

"Enough to make me love you even more," he said taking a tissue.

Melissa smiled as her electric pulse raced and her cheeks turned an even brighter red.

"You know Melissa," he continued hoarsely, "I haven't come up with a nickname for you yet."

"It better not be Lissie!" she snapped, "I'm so sick and tired of Marbles and Ada calling me that!"

"Alright alright," he laughed before he sneezed again, "It won't be Lissie!"

Antoine paused for a moment as he thought of different nicknames for Melissa.

"Melissa I hate to tell you this but Lissie is the only nickname I can think of."

Melissa smirked.

"Okay," Antoine coughed, "Maybe we can go for something based off your personality... Hmmm... you're intelligent."

Melissa gave a small smile at the compliment. "Oh Antoine-"

"No its true," he said before she could finish being humble, "You know so much about computers you might as well..."

His words trailed off for a second as a name came to mind.

"Honey?" Melissa asked.

"And everyone is always saying how matronly you are!" Antoine coughed as he jolted into a sitting position, "Its perfect!"

"What?" Melissa laughed as she pushed Antoine back down to the pillow.

"Melissa," he began, "Think about it. You know nearly everything about computer technology. And you always act like such a mother to everyone. What type of nickname do you think applies to both of those traits."

Melissa was very confused at first and she really was thinking that Antoine just needed to rest because he was getting way too excited about goodness-knows-what. Then it hit her. And she loved it.

"Motherboard," she answered smiling.

"What do you think?" Antoine asked.

"Its perfect Antoine," she answered and kissed his forehead, "Its the most perfect name you could come up with for me."

"Alright," Antoine said, "Motherboard it is then."

Antoine then began to sneeze and cough violently.

"Do you have any Cybernol here Antoine?"

"In the bathroom cabinet," he answered through his coughs and sneezes.

So Melissa, no, Motherboard went over to grab the medicine, living up to her new name yet again.

Author's Note: If you read the original version of this story you know I still call Motherboard Melissa for a while. Lemme know in the review section if you think I should still wait until later or just start calling her Motherboard now. On the topic of reviews, please leave me some. As Digit would say:

See ya in Cyberspace!