Riko (Gadeas/Dryden):

"I don't think that goes there."

"Look, which one of us has done this before?"

"I'm just saying, it doesn't look right."

"That's because I haven't...nnngh...popped it into place yet. There doesn't that suit you better, my liege?"

"Do all Schezar's men have a big sticks up their asses, hmmm?"

"You really aren't one to talk, Fassa."

"I was only offering some helpful advice."

"Well, don't. You can pay for the parts if you like, but I'm perfectly capable of fixing the ship by myself, got it?"

"Aye, aye. ...Bastard."

"Asshole."

Lianda (Merle/Millerna):

Merle ran through the hallways of the large and grandiose castle. Ambassadors from a nearby city-state had just arrived. She had made them wait by the door, and was running to the study to tell Van. Head low, she ran as fast as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs, “Lord Van! Lord VAN! LORD VAAAAAAN–” and ran into something soft and squishy.

“Oof—hey! Watch where you’re going, Merle.”

Merle looked up into Millerna’s slightly annoyed face. “Oh...sorry.” she said.

Millerna rubbed her chest in pain and rolled her eyes. “Children...” she muttered.

Merle sniffed. Then she blinked. Then she nudged nearer. “Those are really soft,” she pointed out.

Millerna looked confused. “Which?”

Merle poked one of Millerna’s breasts. “Those.” She grinned evilly and kept poking.

“Ow! Ow! Stop it!” Millerna cried out, trying to swat the cat-girl’s curious hand away. “What do I look like to do?” she asked indignantly, “a scarecrow? A cushion? A person who needs to be checked for breast cancer?!”

“But they're so squishy!” whined Merle and made to grab at them with both her hands. Suddenly,

both Merle and Millerna heard a foot tapping behind them. They turned around guiltily. “...what’s all this?” came Van’s quiet, acerbic voice.

Millerna fumed. “Your pet is a perv.”

“Her breasts are nice is all!” Merle said plaintively.

Millerna gestured at Van. “See?”

Van cocked his hand. “They are kinda nice...”

Riko (Allen/Serena):

Her room has been empty for years, but soon it will be filled. His household has been sadder for the loss of her laughter, but soon it will be back.

She sleeps on the hospital cot as the nurses carry bedpans and trays of food outside her door. Her hospital stay, a necessity she had protested, is coming to an end, and soon they will be able to go home.

"We can never go back, Allen," Marlene had told him once, but she had been dying. It had been different then, but... He reaches out and trails sword-calloused fingers over Serena's hair.

But... perhaps not as different as it should be.

Lianda (Hitomi/Dornkirk):

Hitomi collapsed to the floor, shaking with fear and clutching her duffle-bag to herself. “Folken...” she whispered. “Don’t be dead...I can hear Van crying...”

“That must be some sort of telepathy...” came a hollow voice beside her.

Hitomi’s eyes widened, and she spun her head around. “Dornkirk!” she gasped.

Dornkirk’s ghost-like head nodded. “It is I!”

“...hey, how come you got clothes now?”

“Pardon?”

“Well,” Hitomi pointed out. “You kind of died naked up there. I had expected you to be–“ She blushed. “I-I mean...”

Dornkirk nodded in perfect understanding. “Yes. I know. I have always known that I possess what you young teenagers these days call...a hot body.”

“For an old fogey, definately!” Hitomi cried enthusiastically.

Dornkirk smiled graciously and sat himself down beside the girl. “So...Hitomi.” He gazed at her. “You are from the mystic moon.”

“Yes...”

“Where I was from...”

“Oh!”

Dornkirk cleared his throat. “Aah–relieved an old man’s curiosity. What is it like, now?”

“What, Ear-I mean, uh, the Mystic Moon?” Hitomi shrugged. “Well...it’s all high-tech now, I suppose. We have cars, computers, cds...”

“C....Ds...?”

“Yeah...hey!” Hitomi rummaged through her bag. “Let me show you.” She took out her CD player, turned it on, and started singing along. “...I’m feeling SEXY!! I wanna hear you call my naaaammmeeee....”

Dornkirk was staring at her with wide-eyes.

Hitomi looked up. “Yes?”

“...I’ve got this closet, you know...we could...ahem...”

“Sex with an old fogey?” Hitomi thought about it. “Well...there’s Van...and Allen...” she pouted. “But they’ve been ignoring me lately. Oh, what the hey! Let’s go!"

“Shove off.”

Riko (Dilandau/Van):

There are distractions, and then there are distractions.

The first sort are simple things like the buzz of machinery floors below and the way the metal cot digs into his upper thigh. The second sort are a little more serious: his kidnapping, the war raging outside this tiny bunk, and, for that matter, the war about to be waged inside it.

Dilandau's hand, which up until this point has been holding Van motionless against the head of the bed, lets go to pull the thin remains of his undershirt up and over his head. Chest bare. Van finds himself thinking that this is a very good look on Dilandau. The miles of pale chest, defined only by shadows and the beginning curls of silver hair above the belt. Van finds himself thinking this, and it takes a forceful reminder that that face and those arms and the fingers that have returned to his chest all burned Fanelia to ashes.

It makes it easier to fire a glare into Dilandau's unearthly eyes.

"Let me go."

Fingers run the circumference of Van's waist, making him shiver, and Dilandau leans forward, till his chin digs in to the top of Van's ribcage and his dogtags lie cold against Van's shirt.

"Make me."

Van takes a breath, preparing to push away, to relieve the pressure to his chest which he swears is Dilandau's fault, but instead, he lets his hand slip down, tangling his fingers in the narrow chain of Dilandau's dogtags until he can wind it tight around his knuckles and tug.

-computer? please die.-