When the entrance opened to reveal Ace, I almost hugged him in relief. It was so good to see a familiar face.

But because of the whole no-touching rule, I gave him a weak smile.

Blonde messy curls surrounded his face, his reddish eyes twinkling, his broad arms crossed, his stance almost lazy as he smirked back at me.

"Good to see you," I said stepping out of my room, my backpack in tow.

He just tilted his head a little, uncrossed his arms. A throat cleared and Ace turned. Freesia smile at me and opens her arms for a hug. I hugged her and she whispered, "Wolf asked me to hug you on his behalf. He isn't allowed here. He couldn't reach you on your device."

I could hear the question in her statement.

I leaned back and pressed a kiss to Freesia's cheek, "Hug him for me. Also, Rafe took my device apart into pieces, so..." I shrugged.

Freesia raised her eyebrows at that, her eyes trailing past mine to look at Ace.

"You're taking her to the Station?"

"I would've never taken you for a morning person," I commented to his broad back.

As we got into the elevator, he pressed the digit that would lead to us to the main entrance.

"If you saw me at night, you would not call me a morning person," he said.

"Is that an invitation?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Only if you want it to be," he said, sending me a smirk back.

I snickered and shook my head as the elevator came to a stop. We stepped out of the elevator, heading to the main entrance.

"Ace would you do me a favour?" I asked.

Ace tossed me a look and I took it to mean he wanted me to continue.

"Can you tell my father that I'm going to see Ren? I would do it myself but someone broke my communication device." I muttered darkly.

He nodded at me as he ran his bracelet over the Identity Screen that popped up and we exited the building. I waited, like last time, for him to bring the Hover Motorbike.

When he brought it out and swung himself onto it, I followed suit and quickly grabbed on to the back knowing I would be thrown off otherwise. As we took off, the cool morning air whipped through me and my hair flew every which way. Cursing myself for not having tied it up, I fretted over all the knots I would have to remove.

I looked around me and saw...well only lush forest and purple-green grass. I frankly had no idea how the C'Riel knew how to manoeuvre these woods. Was there a trail? I looked behind me, because I couldn't look in the front over Ace's large shoulders.

No, no trail.

It was all in their heads, I guess.

When Ace stopped the Hover a few minutes later and jerked his head to an opening-that strangely reminded me of the entrance to a subway-I got off and started to head towards it.

Ace followed silently beside me, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I stepped on the threshold of the entrance that lead downwards and malleable marble-like floor beneath me curved to fit to my feet. My eyes widened and I gasped when the holdings carried me down the path. I felt the need to hold on to something and instinctively caught Ace's shoulder.

I whipped to look at him and immediately let go, "Sorry!" I exclaimed, knowing just how offensive the act was to the C'Riel.

Ace, whose teeth had gritted, slowly relaxed his face and nodded at me.

Chagrined, I looked away, waiting for the floor to just open up so I could jump in.

I had to be more careful. The last thing I needed was to offend someone who was on my side...sort of.

When the holding on my feet released, I quickly stepped away, walking towards what reminded me so much of Earth. An actual station. Though it wasn't bustling around with people, there was still C'Riel, and a few humans, waiting for their transport to arrive.

"This looks so much like a subway." I murmured.

"Where do you think you Earthlings hatched the idea from?" Ace asked.

I turned to look at him with raised eyebrows, shocked.

"The humans knew about your existence?" I whispered, shocked.

Ace smirked, "More like, the C'Riel knew of your existence. We may have helped around a little bit." He said, shrugging.

"Helped around...how?" I asked.

Ace just smirked at me and shrugged.

"You're not going to tell me how?" I asked.

Ace pursed his lips, almost like he was trying not to smile.

"Seriously? You're not going to tell me?" I asked again, shocked.

Ace shook his head, no.

I growled at him, "Why would you even start that conversation if you wear weren't going to tell me anything in the first place?"

"To keep the mystery alive in our relationship." Ace said, smirking.

I rolled my eyes at him and was about to reply when I heard a gentle hum that distracted me from the line of conversation and I looked in front of me.

It was just plain levelled out flooring, so where was the sound...?

I watched in awe as a long Hover Train smoothed to a stop before us. Doors slid open and people started heading in.

I tossed Ace a smile, thanked him and started to head towards the doors.

"Amour," Ace called and I turned around.

He jogged up to me and leaned in a little and whispered, "Do you know who else does not know you are leaving today?"

Confusion slowly gave way to understanding.

"He doesn't know I'm leaving?" I asked quietly.

Ace shook his head, smug.

Somehow that didn't sit well with me. I had assumed that he stalked my every move and so I didn't feel like I was leaving without him knowing. In fact, I was even a little pissed that he hadn't even found a way to say bye.

But...he didn't know?

It felt wrong somehow, to leave like this, after...yesterday.

Memories of last night flashed across my mind.

The sound of my name scraped raw out of his throat in a half-command, half-plea.

The fingers of my hand playing at the hair that curled at the nape of his neck.

"You do not want to miss your ride," Ace gently coaxed.

I blinked out of my reverie and smiled weakly at him, waving and stepping into the Hover, settling in the double seat closest to where I stood.

I let out a breath, trying not to think of yesterday, trying not to feel guilty for something that wasn't my fault, trying not to wish for what wasn't mine...just trying.

I tilted my head back, resting it against the back of the seat and closing my eyes. I attempted at taking in deep breaths and letting them out, trying to clear my mind. I thought of seeing Ren and smiled.

It had been so long.

I wish I had been able to tell dad though. He had come down to see me because I'd been shot, and I had unceremoniously left. But I knew that if I hadn't left immediately, I wouldn't have had a chance to leave later. Rafe wouldn't have-

I squeezed my eyes closed tighter.

Why did everything circle back to him?

A sudden jerk of the Hover had me slipped forward in my seat a little and pressing my hand to the seat in front of me in reflex. The uncharacteristic jerk of the vehicle had everyone looking around, a little worried. When I heard the almost silent swish of the door-the same one I had entered through-open, I looked behind me....

...and stilled.

Dark angry eyes. Burning through me. He walked around to my seat and leaned forward, one hand resting on the back of the empty seat beside me and the other on the empty seat before me.

He caged me in with his body and his glare.

"Do not think that a single step you take is possible without me clearing the path before you."

His voice was quiet, steady. But I could hear the undercurrent of fury.

My spine straightened, "What's that supposed to mean?" I replied, matching his tone.

He shifted his gaze to the right and up and I followed it. Blended into the edge of the Hover, where the roof met the sides, was a small dark dot. Something that actually didn't fit in with the rest of the Hover, but at the same time it didn't stand out either.

A camera.

He looked back at me and I met his gaze. I could almost hear the clang of steel when we clashed gazes.

He lifted his right hand and pulled something out of the side his suit. He placed a small box on the seat beside me, with his index and middle finger pressed on the top of the box.

I looked down at it and back up at him.

He lifted his hand again and pulled out a communication device and placed it next to the box.

"You will message me everyday day. I do not care how busy you are. If I do not receive a message every day, I will have to deported back to my District before you can even blink."

My jaw had dropped to the floor of the Hover and my temper had risen way above its roof.

"Excuse me, who do you think you-" I started, when Rafe cut me off.

"I am the guy who gave you that," he said, reaching forward to fold the neck of my suit lower.

I didn't understand for a few seconds until he rubbed his thumb against a spot on my neck. My eyes widened and I shuddered.

A hickey.

He'd given me a hickey yesterday. I had seen it this morning, but had been too preoccupied to give it too much thought.

My cheeks burned. I pushed his hand away, folding my suit back in place, glaring up at dark eyes that were now smug.

Then they darkened again and I stilled reflexively.

He leaned forward, "You will not be meeting Ace again, neither in the morning nor at night," he threw me a dark glare at that, "There is no relationship between the two of you nor is there any mystery about that."

Clearly someone had been keeping tabs on me and Ace; all the way from the lift at the Resting Station (where Ace had told me I hadn't seen him at night in response to my statement that I would've never guessed he was a morning person) all the way to a few minutes ago where Ace had joked about keeping the mystery alive in our relationship.

I was about to smirk when Rafe caught my jaw with his fingers, lifting my face up.

"And you will never touch him again." He said, finally.

I swallowed, lifting a hand to catch hold of his wrist, "It was an accident," I whispered, my eyes flitting between the both of his.

"Was it an accident when you had decided to hide the fact that he bugged half your room, your suit and your communication device?" Rafe asked.

My eyes widened in surprise, "He did what?" I asked.

Bugged?

"He disrupted the signals of all devices with my technological signature on them." Rafe clarified.

Oh, how cool.

I wonder what his technological signature meant.

Rafe pulled me closer with his fingers on my jaw and I focused on him again.

"How did he get in your room?"

"How am I supposed to know?" I asked, defiantly.

"How did he have access your suits?" He asked.

"Well, if he found a way to enter my room, it wouldn't be hard to have access to my suits," I said, dryly.

"And your communication device?" He asked me.

"What about it?" I asked.

"Do not test me," Rafe growled at me.

"But it's so much fun to watch you huff and puff-"

A quick nip on my lower lip had me stilling, my eyes widened as warmth and electricity spread through me, disrupting all my thoughts.

Had he just...?

I stared at him, tongue-tied as my heart raced in my chest.

"You should not have kissed me yesterday," he said.

"You asked me not to stop." I said.

His dark eyes that had heated, slipped to my lips.

He was silent for sometime.

"I wanted to take you somewhere today," He mused, his eyes lifting back up to meet mine, "But you showed me where your loyalties lie by leaving to see your friend."

I dragged in a shocked breath, "I didn't-"

But Rafe just shook his head, cutting me off.

He then leaned back, turned around, and left.

A few seconds later the Hover took off, as if it had never stopped.

I didn't even look up to see if people were staring. My hands, that were somehow so cold suddenly, went to the small box that sat in front of me.

I opened it slowly and my heart broke.

Inside it where two little snowflake earrings, with perfect little hooks. My vision blurred from the tears that had accumulated in my eyes.

I lifted one up, running my fingers over the delicate looking material that happened to catch the sunlight and cast a plethora of colours before me. I sucked in a breath, along with every other women-C'Riel and human alike-in the Hover with me. We all knew what material when exposed to sunlight threw a spectrum of colours this intensely. The hardest known mineral to man.

You showed me where your loyalties lie by leaving to see your friend.

I shut my eyes, not letting the tears spill out. I won't wear this until he realises that I didn't choose Ren over him. My loyalty was not divided.

I placed the snowflake back in gently and closed the box, placing it carefully into my backpack and lifting the communication device and placing it against my hip.

Then I looked to my left, through the translucent material on the walls of the Hover, at the forests that we passed; stoically ignoring the camera that seemed to burn a hole into me.

______________________________________

Life keeps getting in the way, guys. I'm sorry. But I hope you liked it anyway :)