"Okay, first of all, I don't get angry with all the time, and I sure as hell don't touch you when I want." I said, "I only touch you when you think it's okay."

He tilted his head, his hand raising once more to run his fingers through the ends of my braided hair, his eyes tracking the movement.

"What do you mean?"

I threw him an aggravated look, which he didn't catch because he was looking at his hand.

"Rafe, the only time we ever touch, if what we're doing is even called touching, is when you initiate it."

He looked back up at me and a furrow formed between his eyebrows.

"And this...bothers you?" He asked.

"Of course it does! I never touch you without you doing it first, scared that you're going to rip into me like the first time. And even when you do touch me you use gloves. I'm not saying you have to touch me, I'm just saying this whole selective touching plus the gloves thing makes me feel..." I made a face, "Like I have a disease or something."

The furrow between his eyebrows turned into a full-on frown.

He let go of my hands, but didn't step away. I brought my hands in front of me to cross it.

He looked down at them, before looking back up at me.

"You do not have a disease." He said.

I rolled my eyes, "Around you, I feel like I do." I said.

"It is how we are, Hills. We do not touch." He said.

"Which is fine," I explained, "Either touch me or don't. I don't want the crumbs off your table."

I moved to pick up the cup that had fallen and stared regretfully at the spilt broth.

He came to stand beside me, "This is not how I intended you to feel." He said and I looked at him and I realised...he seemed disturbed.

I waved my hand, "Don't worry about it, Rafe. Our cultural differences are too wide for us to ever have a relationship that isn't turbulent."

I looked back at the cup, "Also, you spilt my broth. It's created a mess." I said.

His eyes flicked to my cup, then back up at me, he turned around to face me and I did the same.

"I will have this cleaned and I will get you some more," he said.

I just shook my head, "I've lost my appetite anyway." I said.

He leaned forward, "Amour, you have not eaten since yesterday afternoon."

I sighed, "I know. I'm just...I just don't want to." I said and turned, heading to the door, running my bracelet over the Identity Screen and leaving the room, my heart heavy.

I walked to the end of the room where the compartments to dispose cups and bowls were. Then I walked back to where the couches were.

Wolf and Freesia stood when they saw me and Wolf raised his eyebrows.

"What'd she say?" Freesia asked me. It took me a few seconds before I realised she was talking about Anya.

My shoulders slumped, "She seemed okay with it, but Rafe said no." I said.

"Are you okay?" Wolf asked, cupping my cheek.

I jolted a little at the contact, before nodding glumly.

"You don't look okay," he said.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"No, seriously." He said, then placed a hand on my forehead.

"You're warm." He said.

Freesia imitated his action, "He's right, you are warm. Did you eat anything?"

I waved my hand at them, "I'm fine. I'm just really tired. And I've had a pretty crappy day."

Wolf raised his eyebrows, "Freesia filled me in about your friend," he said then him and Freesia shared a look.

He shifted on his feet and I asked, "What?"

"Maybe it's best you didn't go." He said.

I threw him a surprised look, "What? Why?"

He just shrugged, "Just saying." He said and I threw him a mysterious look.

"Did you eat?" I asked, giving up on finding out anything from him.

He nodded and patted his stomach, with a happy smile.

Then his eyes slipped over my head and I looked behind me, watching Rafe turn and walk away. My heart dropped further like lead.

I sighed and turned back to Wolf.

"I don't think he ate though." Wolf said.

"What?" I asked.

Freesia cleared her throat, "Wolf here has been doing some observing. Apparently Rafe didn't eat with his...friends or colleagues or whoever they are. He turned them down when they asked. He kept looking at the door as if he were waiting for someone. And he still hasn't eaten."

Was he waiting for me?

And I just snapped at him and made his day crappy. Best Friend award for the day goes to me.

I was about to go find Rafe when Kylee jogged up to me, "Hey, I need a favour." She said, then tossed uncomfortable looks towards Wolf and Freesia.

Wolf and Freesia cleared their throats, "So we'll just go and wait in the Hovers for you." They said and when I nodded they took off.

"What's up?" I asked her when they left.

"You're close to Rafe, right?" She asked.

I blinked. "What?" I asked.

She waved her hand, "Everybody is talking about it. Can you do something for me?" She asked urgently.

Everybody was talking about us?

"I...it depends."

"It's nothing serious. When he's in the midst of his friends, can you go talk to him?" Kylee asked and I just stared at her.

"Please?!" She said, sounding almost pained and I nodded.

"Yes. Okay. I'll do it."

Tossing her a you're-weird glance, I headed off to find a certain alien who was causing my head to go crazy.

I looked behind me and watched Kylee follow a little distance away.

What was happening?

I stopped trying to understand what she asked, for the fear that I would develop the mother of all headaches, and stood on tiptoe to search for the tall dark-headed bane of my existence.

I turned to Kylee and waited for her to catch up, "Is there anything specific you want me to say...?"

She shook her head, no.

Okay, then. I was allowed to improvise on the job.

God, this is ridiculous.

When I finally saw him-his back, more like-I headed in that direction. The C'Riel around him noticed me and fell silent, their eyes going from me to him. Rafe turned to see who they were looking at and his eyes focused on mine.

"Did you eat?" I asked him when I came to stand in front of him.

He shook his head.

I rubbed my eyes, "Were you waiting for me?" I asked him, uncaring of the audience.

He seemed to not care either, because his whole attention was trained on me.

"Possibly." He said.

I dropped my hand and glared up at him for his ambiguous answer, "Are you trying to piss me off?"

His lips twitched, "Possibly."

I just let out a laugh, somehow not getting annoyed at the face of his honestly.

I turned behind me to look for Kylee but I watched her leave, her hair whipping behind her as she all but ran.

I turned back to Rafe with an annoyed look.

"I asked for one normal friend." I told him and he just looked at me, listening to me seriously, like I was telling him something important.

"Is that too much to ask?" I asked him, rhetorically.

"Are we talking about me?" He asked, his head tilting.

"Surprisingly, you fall under the normal category." I told him.

He gave me a quick grin.

"So who are you talking about?" He asked.

"Kylee." I huffed, then looked around at the curious eyes watching us intently.

I sighed then reached out to tug on his suit to lead him away. He came easily.

"I totally pulled you away from your friends. Sorry about that," I added.

Rafe just nodded, "Tell me about Kylee," he said.

He kept walking so I followed.

"She came to me this morning and randomly hugged me saying she needed it. Then five minutes ago she's like 'You're close to Rafe, everybody is talking about it. Go talk to him in public.'" I said, watching as he headed to the food stalls and grabbed a bowl filling it with food.

He was still listening to me though, so I continued.

"I was coming to talk to you anyway, so I figured I might as well club the two. So I come and talk to you and turn around to ask if I did okay, and poof," I make an explosion gesture with my hands, "She's gone."

Rafe came to stand in front of me, his lips twitching again, "Poof?" He asked.

"Poof," I stressed.

He just shook his head at me, a small smile lighting his face.

He handed me the bowl and I took it, when he turned to grab another bowl, I caught his arm. He looked down at my hold and then up at me.

"I'm sorry about what I said today. You don't make me feel like I have a disease. Sure, it annoys me. But most of the time you make me feel special enough to out way the annoying things." I said.

"Special?" He asked, his eyebrows raised. I dropped my hand so he could get back to filling another bowl for himself.

"Yes. Better than others," I said, haughtily.

He didn't say anything, smiling into the task of filling his food. Then he came to stand in front of me, and jerked his chin at my hair.

"Did you tie it up because you were angry with me?" He asked.

I blinked. "What? No. Doesn't it look nice?" I asked, my free hand lifting to my hair. Then, I all but slapped myself, because it sounded like I was fishing.

He looked at me for sometime, then said, "Take it down."

My jaw dropped.

"Do you know how hard it is to braid?"

"Tough," he said, then made a twirly motion with the index of one hand, indicating I unbraid my hair.

I stared at him. Then figured, I owed him some kind of apology for this morning.

"You're a spoilt brat, do you know that?" I asked him, handing him my bowl, which he took with a smirk.

"Now that you have told me, I know." He said, with a straight face.

"Smart-ass," I muttered to him as I pulled out the hair tie holding my hair in place and started to slowly unravel the hard-work I had put in this morning.

It remained in waves when I pulled the whole thing apart. Rafe tilted his head.

I took my bowl from him, "Happy?" I muttered.

He quickly lifted his hand up to touch my hair but stopped half-way, looking at me, as if asking permission.

The act brought a smile to my face and I nodded.

He touched a few strands, running an index down them, as if tracing them.

"It looks different." He said.

"It's the braid. Waved my hair up." I said, gesturing at my hair with my free hand.

Hair somehow reminded me of bathing.

"Oh, by the way, I think there's a glitch in the computer in my room."

Rafe dropped his hand, "Glitch?" He asked.

"Yeah. It said I didn't have restrictions on bathing."

"Why do you think it's a glitch?" He asked, throwing me a sly look, as he grabbed two spoon-fork-things and walked past me heading...wherever he was heading.

"Well..." I said, following him, confused as to why he was even asking me this, "Because I'm allowed restricted access to it."

He walked to the bookshelves, much to my pleasure, and settled into one of the comfortable chairs there.

"So, what makes you think it is a glitch?" He asked, stretching his feet out.

I pushed the chair that was pressed up next to his, a little away so that we didn't knock into each other.

I settled into it.

"What makes you think it isn't?" I asked him, taking the spoon-fork-thing he handed me and dug into my food.

"What makes you think it is?" He asked, again.

With the food half-way to my mouth, I stared at Rafe.

Placing my spoon/fork back into the bowl, I turned a little to look at him.

"What did you do?" I asked.

He continued eating without looking at me, "What makes you think I did anything?"

Yeah. What ever made me think that?

"Look at me," I said and when he slowly lifted his head, slanting his eyes to meet mine, I looked at him. Really looked at him.

His face was completely blank. But his eyes...they churned with something. Mischief? Or just trouble?

I didn't know.

I got back to my food. "I think I get it."

"Get what?" He asked.

"About eyes revealing too much." I said, throwing him a glance, "I get it."

I think he understood that I had figured out that he had done something to give me unrestricted access to the water, because he didn't say anything, both of us silently eating in companionable silence.

When I finished, I realised Rafe was waiting for me. He took my bowl after he stood and I followed him silently.

"So why'd you do it?" I asked him.

"Do what?" He asked, throwing me a mildly curious glance.

"You're good, but you're not that good." I said.

"You maybe able to fool Anya, but there is no way you can fool me." I said as he dumped our bowls and turned to consider me seriously.

"Fool Anya?" He asked me, tilting his head.

I walked up to him, looking at him. I hadn't realised it until I said it, but he never looked at her this way. Seriously, intensely. Like everything I said was incredibly important to him. There was always a glint of something in his eyes when he spoke to her. I closed my eyes, trying to think up of how he looked at her this morning while they were standing near the bookshelf.

He waited patiently, not a single breath of impatience flickered my way.

I could imagine his face now as he looked at her, before his eyes shifted and that glint fell away to take on something that darkened his eyes. I shook that image going back to look at his expression before I came, when I he hadn't noticed me yet.

My eyes snapped open.

"You feel bad for her!" I said, coming to the conclusion with an exclamation.

"Do I?" He asked, a true smile spreading his lips.

I gasped. "Oh my gosh. I'm right aren't I?" I asked.

"Possibly." He said and I threw him a narrow eyed look, but there was no heat behind it.

I tossed my hair over my shoulder and headed towards the exit, getting into the elevator with many other people. I looked around for Rafe, my brows furrowing.

When my eyes met him, he was standing where I'd left him, a few feet beyond the entrance of the elevator.

I tried to get out, but I was surrounded by people. Seeing my reaction, Rafe headed towards us and as soon as people saw him, they parted like the sea, letting him through.

He came to stand in front of me and my head leaned back a little, to meet his eyes.

"Got worried?" He asked me.

"Possibly." I said.

His lips twitched as he looked away from me, to the front of the elevator.

Something brushed my ass and I looked back at the human guy that smiled lewdly at me.

I glared at him, turning around so that my back was to Rafe's front, crossing my hands in front of me and creating distance between the weird ass and me; which ibcidentally pressed me up against Rafe.

The human guy just smirked at me. I guess you could call him attractive in the surfer way, but I had developed a taste for a certain coal and fire eyed alien.

I paused at that thought.

What? No, I hadn't. We were friends!

Rafe shifted behind me, "What happened?" He asked me softly, his lips near my ear.

The elevator opened and I turned sideways, catching Rafe's arm, "Nothing. Let's go," I said tugging him away.

Rafe's eyes were on me, before they shifted away to find the surfer guy.

He stopped me a few feet before the main exit of our resting station.

His eyes tracked the surfer guy as he walked past us and headed out.

I sent a glare his way, before looking at Rafe.

"What did he do?" Rafe asked.

I shook my head, "Nothing. Let's go." I said, tugging him again but he didn't move.

"Amour." He stressed.

I huffed out, "Nothing." I said again.

Rafe's expression turned dark, he leaned forward.

"Did he touch you?" Rafe asked.

I hesitated and Rafe's eyes went completely black. The change shocked me so much that I curled my fingers into Rafe's elbow.

"What did he do?" Rafe asked again, his voice low, angry and threatening.

I swallowed, "He touched my butt." I said. If this were any other situation, I would've laughed at myself for the way I phrased it.

Rafe's arms fisted by his sides and he started to head to the exit, his eyes searching.

I quickly went to stand in front of him, palms flat on his chest.

"Don't-" I started when I heard a sharp shout coming from behind Rafe.

Both of us turned.

A C'Riel who stood inside the elevator looked at me.

He asked me something and my brows furrowed, but he was too far away for me to hear. I walked around Rafe asking him what he said.

The C'Riel then held up something blue in his hand and I heard a blast.

A shout of my name behind me had me realising in shock that I was staring down the barrel of a gun and hurtling towards me was a laser beam.

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Tandantadan!

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