Note: I came up with this story but haven't really started on this crap. I apologize for the delay. As to why Fruit Tree has fanboys, I have no idea.

    It was 6:00 am.
    The alarm hadn't gone off yet as the woman tossed around in her bed.  Her pale pink comforter was wrapping around her as she grumbled through what seemed to be an unpleasant dream.
    This wasn't a usual function for normal reploids.
    Then again, this young woman was no reploid.
    She was no more than a being with organic parts housed within a skeleton made out of the similar reploid technology.  Just a cyborg built by her "mother" so she could resume living the life that was interrupted by a violent death.
    A violent death that was being reenacted in her dream.
    Finally, the cpu housed in the gray mass decided that it was enough. Rest or not rest, the nightmare was not going to win and forced the organs to awaken from their inactivity.  She sat up in her bed in less than five seconds and stared at the alarm clock.
    Ah, thirty minutes until her shift in the med-bay!
    The woman sighed, pushing herself out of the bed as she stumbled over to the mirror, checking her features.   She made weird noises while doing a system diagnostics on her vital organs and checked on her stomach. Her stomach was just fine but the nightmare had begged to differ on that subject, showing such scenes that would leave a person with a weak stomach to violently expel their last meal.
    "Stupid nightmare. Stupid memory."
    She quickly did her pink hair in a tight bun and finished it off with a violet ribbon.  Again, the young woman looked over herself in the mirror and finding nothing wrong with herself, she gave off another sigh.  She didn't have anything to do so she might as well get dressed and retrieve some breakfast.  Today was really going to be another boring day, she thought to herself.
    Except she didn't know what was in store for her.

    The young woman wandered down to the cafeteria, fully dressed in her raspberry-colored bodysuit with a simple white dress over it and her bright pink hair was pulled back in a loose bun held in place with a white ribbon.  She noticed that it was pretty quiet in the morning which was just fine with her as she got in the line, choosing a suitable meal plan.
    "What's up?"
    She nearly jumped at the voice behind her as she looked over her shoulder. "Oh. Hi. Not much."
    "You don't seem so cheery."
    "Lousy nightmare."
    "You too?"
    She nodded at her younger brother which was of the same make. He had bright green hair and was wearing dark green colored armor which contrasted nicely.  He shrugged as he grabbed an apple muffin from the basket and placed it on his tray.
    "I wonder if Damaru is having the same dream?"
    "If she is, she's coping with it in her own way." She sighed, remembering their cousin.
    Damaru was no different from the two, either. In fact, the three had been a victim of a mass murder but brought back to life in form of cyborgs because their creator wished that children should be given a chance to live.
    "Either that or she'd be flipping out." He sighed. "Fruit, it bothers me that she decided to stop fighting."
    "It can't be helped, Pine. She wanted a break. I can see how bleak it is for her." Fruit's lips quivered while remembering the humans and reploids alike who came in medbay for assistance. "I'm seeing so many of them in the medbay..."
    "I know. Are you having second thoughts?"
    "Me? No... I want to keep helping as much as possible! But... I really wish this maverick crap would stop. I'm just so sick of it. Who cares about taking over the world!?"
    The two went over to the register and showed their identification cards before sitting down at their booth.  Pine took a sip from his cup of coffee while Fruit prodded her fruit salad.
    "The war is just wearing us all out..." Pine paused. "Well, the humans at least."
    "Yes... and the reploids will follow soon. The demand for the spare parts is just horrible. I wasn't able to find a spare joint replacement for the arms yesterday, so I had my boss order some."
    "It is certainly unusual to hear you so gloomy. Are you sure you're not emulating Damaru?"
    Fruit chomped on an apple piece. "Yes, I'm sure! I don't have a split personality! Heck, I've got enough personality to scar people for life."
    "The thing is, you haven't done that since Damaru left."
    Oh wow.
    Was it really that long ago? She used to terrorize the reploids by riding around on her silly red cart. Now, that same cart was stuffed in her closet, long forgotten. Along with her original blue and green armor with the matching feather boa.  Ever since she decided to become a nurse, things had gotten serious for her to the point that she lost her playful manner.
    "Well, damn. I'm going to have to correct that!" Fruit stood up suddenly as she shoved her fork (with a piece of orange on it) in the air. "FRUIT TREE WILL STRIKE BACK!"
    Pine wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut.
    "...next week."
    Pine stared at Fruit.
    "Seriously. I, uh, well, I don't think I'll have any time for serious mischief."
    "...You're not even trying." Pine scowled at his sister as he took another sip of coffee. "By the way, Minerva dumped me."
    "WHAT?" Fruit gasped. "Why?"
    "She felt that the relationship wasn't working out."
    "...that doesn't tell me why."
    "To make a long story short. I'm a cyborg. She's a reploid. In other words, there is NO BABY MAKING."
    "I wasn't even going to say that!"
    "I scared her when I talked about getting serious then she explained to me. She does not have the functions for baby making. Period."
    "...Oh."
    "So I told her that I didn't care about that. Love was important. She apologized and told me that I was too kind. She said that she really didn't deserve any of that for what happened. I told her that it didn't matter. She apologized again."
    "In short, you're too good for her?"
    "Exactly. I didn't want her to feel that way. She told me that it was for the best that I fall in love with a human."
    "Ouch."
    "Then I found out that she had filed a transfer request to another base." Pine sighed, drinking some more of the coffee. "I can't do anything. This was... her decision."
    "I'm sorry, Pine."
    "It's okay. I'll get over it." He sighed. "I wonder if she was really right about that. I mean, we're not equal to reploids because we're much closer to humans than they are."
    "Do you really think we're 'close' to humans when we are humans?"
    Pine looked at Fruit. "What makes you say that?"
    "Our past. We were humans. We still are humans. However, our original bodies were not usable, so it was simple enough to build new bodies and transplant soul and memories in a fusion of organic and mechanical parts. We are fortunate that she wanted us to resume our lives, so we could still be humans."
    "...we're just really cyborgs, Fruit."
    "Not really, no. All we have is extra stuff. Just the programming, cpu, a stronger skeleton." Fruit laughed. "Don't be so cynical! We were given a chance to have another life, so keep going with it! Don't worry about not being equal to anyone. We're all the same in a sense."
    "You..." Pine sighed. "You're right, I guess."
    "Just don't think about it too much. I'm going to go now. Will you take these plates for me? My shift starts soon!" Fruit laughed. "See you then, Pine!"
    Pine looked down at the table at the empty fruit bowl and back at the retreating cyborg. "Never even stayed around for my protest. At least that hasn't changed."

    Fruit turned into a hallway and towards the medbay as she wondered to herself.  Did she really reassure Pine? Was Damaru doing okay? The lack of contact these past ten months had been worrying her. Her other worries went back to her creator. Zex had really stayed out of things, only paying for things that Fruit and Pine needed. Her involvement had gotten so quiet to the point that even Fruit had to wonder what the crazy woman was up to.
    She sighed again. "Everyone's so busy. It's just wrong."
    Even the hunters and people in charge were so busy. X was frequently out on missions along with Zero. And there was that... weird new guy with crazy hair and a scar on his face. What was his name? Axe something? Shoot, she never heard the name quite clearly over the screeching alarm.
    She finally entered the medbay, trying to eliminate all thoughts as she glanced at the patients through the doorway from the main office. Few humans were still resting while some reploids were waiting for the necessary parts that were still being delivered. She sighed, shaking her head as she went over to the desk and noticed several new boxes.
    "Oh, at last. More parts!"
    A nearby nurse smiled. "Took a while to get here. Finally arrived this morning! The next round will be in about three days."
    "Three days... that feels so far away. But the reploids should be still functional in those three days, right?"
    "Yes!" She cheered as she went to getting boxes open and moving the parts to the assigned drawers.  Fruit turned her back on the nurse, trying to hide the scowl on her face.
    It was easy for most reploids to wait for parts. Their functions could be stabilized immediately unless they had serious injuries to the processor amongst other things. Of course, that took longer. However, humans were not afforded the same luxury. They had to be stabilized or they could die.
    So far, Fruit recalled that no human died on her shift, but they did on others. Was she just lucky?  Or was she avoiding the ones that needed to be saved?  No! She would not allow herself to do that.  That would be going against her creator's virtue... her purpose.
    "Ah, damnit."
    "What's wrong, Fruit?"
    "Nothing, just..." She sighed. "...I wish this stupid war would be gone."
    "So do I." The nurse smiled, getting the last parts put away. "It might go on for a little longer, but I know it'll be gone soon! Just hang in there!"
    "Thanks." Fruit smiled back.
    That new nurse reminded Fruit so much of herself.  Had she really lost her playfulness?

    Fruit Tree wearily wandered back to the cafeteria now that her shift was over, realizing that things had changed so badly over the last few years.  Was that why Damaru chose to get out while she could...? No, that wasn't it. Damaru had changed because she had a new lease on life and allowed her emotions to open up.  That damn cousin was probably still trying to find out who she was.
    Speaking of which...
    "Berry?"
    Fruit Tree suddenly looked up quickly, her jaws hanging open in utter disbelief at the person standing in front of it.
    No, it couldn't be.
    The young woman in front of her was wearing a tight dark blue shirt with a black jacket over it, paired with black pants and boots.  Her familiar purple hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a dark blue ribbon and she had a real sword at her side.
    "Kris? KRISSSSSSS!" Fruit Tree shrieked as she tackled Damaru. "OMGWHATAREYOUDOINGBACKHEREDAMARUUUUU!"
    Damaru laughed as she held her ground, patting Fruit Tree's head. "I heard about how moody you've gotten. That's not like you, Fruit."
    Fruit stared up, vaguely annoyed. "Maybe so, but I thought you were busy discovering yourself, Damaru."
    "I haven't made much progress." Kris laughed, shaking her head. "Why don't we grab some lunch together and I can talk to you about it?"
    "That sounds fine with me! Have you said hello to Zero?"
    "I'd rather not. It's better we don't speak to each other this way." Damaru laughed. "I heard that he's got more girls after him, I feel sorry for him, having to put up with all of that attention."
    "But weren't you one of them...?"
    "Not anymore and I'm just fine with that."
    "Sooooo, met any hot guys lately?"
    "Fruit!" Damaru laughed. "No, I haven't. I've been looking into about what happened to our family."
    Fruit Tree went quiet at that comment and the memory of the nightmare was threatening to surface again which wasn't what she needed right now. She knew that it wasn't Zero's fault, but the result of some screwy programming and a wandering nanomachine virus that came in contact. Though, that really didn't make sense to her, she'd really need to set up some free time to research into the subject of the virus.
    "Speaking of which... Damasu...?"
    "Doesn't exist anymore. No, that's not true. Damasu is still me. I am still Damaru. We are one." Damaru replied in a soft tone, thinking about her split personality. "I'm quite relieved with how that was resolved."
    Fruit frowned as she walked with Damaru inside the cafeteria, eventually winding up in a booth after retrieving their meals.  They had gotten surprised looks from the reploids and humans in the vicinity upon seeing Damaru smile and laugh again. What a truly foreign sight to see at a time like this!
    "The food's still same, I see." Damaru poked at a pile of noodles on her plate. "I actually miss it."
    "So spill, Kris! What did you find out?"
    "Well, it's weird..." Damaru paused, twirling the noodles with her fork. "I was looking at the police reports and other records. Everything's documented and all, but for this one little irregularity."
    "What?"
    "My father is not my biological father."
    "Wait, what?" Fruit had a weird look on her face. "That doesn't make sense. So is that what you're looking for now? Your real father?"
    "I think I already know who he is." Damaru looked at Fruit with a familiar stern look on her face. "He's always been with me this entire time."
    "OMG, DOCTOR CAIN IS YOUR FATHER?"
    Fruit's pretend outburst had Damaru staring at her like she was an idiot then she burst into laughter.
    "No! Fruit! Didn't you ever wonder why Zex saved three of us?"
    "Well, we were kids..."
    "How did she know to save us, specifically?"
    Fruit blinked.  Why didn't she think about that before, she'd always assumed Zexandra  was some sort of goddess who could magically find people who were in danger and pull them out of the fire so to speak. "I never questioned it."
    "Fruit, I want you to do some tests on me." Damaru sighed. "Compare my genetic material with Evan's."
    Dochuu. Who knew where he was...? It surprised the hell out of them that he turned out to be Kassandra's son who was the first one to go under the same cyborg technology that brought the trio back.  He kept to himself and was awfully shy around other people. Sometimes he would come to the headquarters but other times, he was usually difficult to find.
    "You mean... you think you might be a Pepper?"
    "Yeah. I feel that Seth Pepper is my father. He's always been so terribly worried about me and behaving strangely."
    "Oh, Kris." Fruit Tree sighed, pushing her plate aside. "Let's do this."

    They were back in the medbay, Fruit Tree pulling on her raspberry goggles and summoned HUD into place.  She was now focusing on giving Damaru a check-up, making sure everything else was in working order as well as taking a sample to analyze and cross-reference all the databases she had unlimited access to.
    "This is going to take a bit, Kris." She said while reading the output that was scrolling up on the goggles. "What else have you been up to?"
    Damaru sighed. "I've been training using a real sword. I miss my lightsabre, but I had to retire. Though, it seems that I've picked a terrible time to retire." Her gaze fell over the patients in the medbay, realizing that Fruit Tree was probably slightly overwhelmed with so many wounded coming in. "But... I'm not sure if I have the will to come back to the job."
    "You're right, it is a bad time." Fruit coughed, clearing her throat. "But if you're not ready to come back, you're not ready. I'm saying this as a doctor and as your cousin, your mental health comes first."
    "Of course."
    There was a spot of silence that hung over them as one of the nurses cried out loudly for attention, starling both Fruit and Damaru.
    "Incoming wounded!"
    "Crap!" Fruit scrambled away from the desk, leaving Damaru looking rather puzzled but decided stay put.  Two nurses were carrying a wounded human resistance member on their shoulders.
    "He's bleeding out, Fruit!"
    "Okay, put him on that spare bed, get me the tools and some bandages!"
    The patient was hefted on the bed, his eyes shut tightly as he groaned in pain.  There were spots of dirt and dried blood all over his face and the source of the massive bleeding was on his stomach.  Fruit bit her bottom lip and cut through his shirt to get at the wound.
    "Internal bleeding! Prep for surgery now!"
    Damaru watched quietly from the room, clearly impressive with how serious Fruit Tree was performing as a doctor.  Her hands flew rapidly as she worked on saving the patient's life, mending all possible wounds without hesitation.  Damaru realized that the impact of Zexandra having saved their lives was bigger on Fruit than originally realized and it made her so proud.
    "Whew... I think he should be okay, but I'm going to have to watch him for the night. Thank you!" Fruit bowed to the nurses who assisted her. "Do you know his name and ranking so I can inform his supervisor?"
    "Seems to be an independent member." The nurse held out a single identification card.
    "I see, so his name is Aidan then...?" Fruit took the card from the nurse. "Thank you."
    She looked at the patient, suddenly blushing when she realized that the man was indeed good looking, his long dark hair was pulled in a messy ponytail.  His torso was quite muscular and well-patched up by her efficient work and what was that...? Hints of blue tribal-esque tattoos pointing ...
    "I, uh, what was I saying again?"
    "You were thanking me...?"
    "Right, right! I'm tired!"
    His face looked so peaceful now that the bleeding had stopped, but of course applying the painkillers had helped.  Fruit almost didn't want to leave his side as if she was honestly attracted to him.  It was weird, feeling that way towards someone she didn't even know. Hell, in all of her years of being at the headquarters, she had never gravitated towards any reploid or human.  This time was clearly different and it terrified her to her very core.
    "Hey, Berry. I'm so proud of you."
    "Thanks, Kris. I think he's sleeping okay... but might need some time to heal from that. Looks like he got stuck in a nasty fire fight. Went clean through--" she frowned for a moment. "But we have lasers and beams... so he shouldn't be bleeding."
    "That doesn't mean that it wasn't just lasers. Shrapnel and the like, you know?" Damaru was remembering the time that her own shoulder exploded in an attack and needed to be rebuilt. "Either case, don't worry about it so much."
    "I like him." Fruit blurted out. "I don't know why! I... I just..." she looked totally mortified.
    Damaru smiled a little bit. "Either it'll pass or something will happen."
    "Not so fast like this." She whispered to herself.
    "Oh, hey, I've gotta run, will you let me know the results?"
    "Of course, Kris."
    Fruit Tree was left alone in the room in utter silence as she looked at Aidan once more before stepping away from the bed and started towards the office.
    "Hey."
    Fruit stopped, turning around in surprise.  Aidan's green eyes were open, staring at her intently, making her feel as if she could melt on the spot.
    "Thank you for saving my worthless life."
    With that, he rolled over and closed his eyes.
    Fruit bolted towards the office.

    She was still in the office, few hours later, warily watching Aidan a good distance away. All the monitors in the office kept track of the patients' vitals and she was proud to say that everyone was in good shape.  Pine rose an eyebrow as he walked into the office with food for Fruit Tree, wondering what prompted her to stay so far away from the patients.
    "Berry?"
    "I'm just hiding." Fruit muttered, still looking embarrassed as she fiddled her HUD goggles. "Thanks for the food, Perry."
    "Just so you know, this kind of behavior is far from normal."
    "Look, I have hots for the guy that I just saved and it's just really embarrassing. I'd rather stay a good distance in here before I did something totally stupid!"
    "Just eat your dinner, you'll feel better." Pine sighed, setting down a container in front of Fruit. "Heard Kris was by, what's up with her?"
    "Asked me to do a favor for her. So I'm in middle of doing it right now."
    "Right, of course, is she still retired?"
    "Yeah."
    "I see." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Anyway, other than that embarrassing incident, are you okay? I haven't seen you shaken up like this since ..."
    "Since what?" Fruit stared up at Pine. "What are you talking about?"
    Pine frowned at Fruit. "You fell out of the window one day when Zex's son came over to visit one time."
    "Oh. Him." Fruit mused to herself. "He has such a disarming look that I didn't expect it that I fell out when I was just hanging out of it to try to grab ... something something. What was it again? Anyways, I didn't really get a good look at him because he was gone by the time I got back up."
    "Jeez... you didn't think much of it at that time, did you?"
    "Well, it's easy for me to just bounce back from minor set backs and all, it's who I am!"
    "That's true." He sighed. "You should be able to bounce from this."
    Fruit gave Pine a blank stare. "I don't know about that. I mean, I've always been silly and over the top..."
    "Stop thinking about it so much and do what you do best. We need a bit of the silliness back."
    "Of course, Perry!"
    She watched Pine leave the office as she dug into her meal, digesting it as well as few thoughts of her own. Was it right for her to crush on a patient? Why did he have such a set of intense green eyes that was quite so disarming, like those eyes that made her stumble out of the window.
    She suddenly blinked then laughed out loud.
    No, it couldn't be... the guy had red hair and a permanent scowl on his face... at least from what she remembered. Actually, she really did remember what he looked like that day and ... he was cute, alright.
    "I'm thinking too much."
    Just then, the HUD goggles gave the signal that the information compiling was done, revealing genetic matches for the information that she had processed earlier.  She seemed a little puzzled and confused at the additional information processing that must have somehow slipped in.  She was working on a quick analysis of the results, confirming that there was indeed genetic matches between Dochuu and Damaru as well as two other people with extreme detailing on the extent of the genetic matching.  Then she set that information aside to be sent off to Damaru while she looked at the additional information, mumbling to herself.
    "Darn it, I shouldn't be doing surgery when I'm in middle of researching on the HUD goggles. Too much information at once."
    She took the goggles off and put them away in a pocket, rubbing her eyes.  That extra information would be dealt with at a later date... all the food and serious thinking had made her sleepy.  She removed herself from the desk and placed herself on a spare bed reserved for the evening doctor in charge.

    Her pulse was certainly pounding quickly as she gasped, eyes wide open.  That dream was too much for her-- what? Why was Aidan on top of her, staring at her with those intense green eyes as his hands moved over to her back, tugging at a zipper.
    Now Fruit was wide awake, realizing that she woke up from a dream into another dream.  Her blood was pounding hard in her head, indicating that her system was working as intended but right now she felt like she was overloaded.  She sent a dirty glare at the monitors, noticing that none of the patients had moved from their respective beds.
    "Shower... shower..."
    The next thing she knew, she was sitting in the shower, barefeet and still in her raspberry colored bodysuit, letting the stream of cold water fall on her head.  She shuddered as her system attempted to compensate by heating up her core temperature.  It seemed a little silly that when she was trying act more like a human, the machinery part would simply try to dispute that notion.
    "I'm so silly."
    "Yes, you are." Aidan turned the knob with a free hand since his other hand was holding the iv pole. "What in the heavens are you doing, trying to kill yourself that way? You're not a terrible doctor."
    "This is a dream, this is a dream, you're not going to peel my clothes off and --" Fruit babbled then pinched herself.
    Ow.
    "...It's not a dream." Aidan got on his knees so he could stare into Fruit's orange eyes. "You're afraid of me. You've always been like that since the day you fell out of the window."
    "You!" Fruit shrieked. "I didn't recognize you!"
    Her free hands quickly went to Aidan's hair as she watched the dark color slowly revert back to red in tune with her heart pounding.
    "Bertha."
    "Gaaah! How dare you--! Call me Berry! Either Fruit or Berry, not Bertha!"
    Aidan scoffed lightly. "You're clearly not a reploid... why don't you dry off and get something else to wear?"
    "Why are you even ordering me around like this..." Fruit slowly pulled herself up, grabbing a towel to dry herself off and grimaced. "Aristotle... did you see?"
    Aidan had his eyes rolled upwards to the ceiling as he pulled himself up as well.  "I'm not a pervert."  He turned around to try to move but staggered again as Fruit rushed forth to grab him.
    "Why did you even bother to try to check on me in the first place? You're hurt, you need to be resting up!"
    "I..." Aidan couldn't even answer that, shutting his eyes tight as he tried not to grimace in pain.  His hair slowly shifted back to the previous dark color, "I was tired of nothing being done about the war. If my mother knew that I was risking my life, she would have a heart attack."
    "What are you doing to me, Aristotle?" Fruit whispered into his ear as she helped him through the office. "Why are you making my heart pound?"
    "Think nothing of it, it's just who I am. I've had too many girls throw themselves at their feet, begging to be my bride."
    "Do you prefer men?"
    Aiden stared at Fruit, the end of his ponytail doing a comical impression of Axl's hair. "What the hell are you talking about!?"
    "You have a clear disdain for women coming after you."
    "Only ones who try to get into my pants for either my fortune or because of who my father is!" Aidan snapped. "If a woman must fall in love with me, it has to be for who I am!"
    Fruit sighed. "That make things clear, as your doctor, I am ordering you to bed rest, Aidan. Maybe a week or more, but considering your unique biology... you know this is going to be a pain in the ass trying to pretend that you're not a dragon-nymph hybrid."
    He hissed through his teeth. "For all intents and purposes, I am a human resistance member. Nothing else more, Ber-- Doctor Fruit."
    "That's better." Fruit grinned as she cleared Aidan through the office, helping him back into bed. "And just so you know, I will always be grateful to her for saving my life and giving me a clear purpose."

    For the rest of that evening, it was mostly restless sleep for Fruit as she was afraid to dream again about him.  Though, it was much preferable dreaming about Aidan rather than of her own first death.  All the creative methods and everything that she had read in those women's manga.  Fruit Tree concluded that she was a horrible person at heart for even having such desires to start with.  Then again, such desires were norm, but she would not allow it to affect her job performance as a doctor.
    Not like the following weeks would turn out to be any better with more patients coming in every day and Pine constantly worrying over her mental health.  Not to mention the time spent on Aidan's therapy to make sure he was healing nicely from the surgery and having to endure the obvious tension between them.  It was rather difficult to tell what he really thought about her but he did make one thing clear, he was nothing like his father who was rumored to have many girlfriends that it was impossible to just count them on both hands.
    It also wasn't very encouraging to see many human females crowding up the medbay to fawn over him for being such a handsome hero to take a hit like that.  She kept having to shoo them out in order to be able to effectively treat the other patients and reminding them that they had jobs to attend to.
    Finally, Fruit wound up retreating to her room after the long ordeal in order to have some time to herself for her own sake.  She was digging through the closet to find that damned red cart and the feathered boa.  She was able to find the feathered boa, but not the cart in question.  Dejected, she wrapped the feathered boat around her neck while wandering the room in her lacy white underwear.
    There was a knock on the door, and Fruit said without thinking, "Come in!"
    Aidan twitched slightly as he stared at her white lacy butt sticking up in the air.  She had apparently dived into a box of books, looking for something and the sight was proving to be troublesome for Aidan.
    "...why are you in your underwear?"
    Fruit yelped, falling over, taking the box down with her.  She stood back up, looking at Aidan. "What are you doing here? I thought Damaru was coming by!"
    "I wanted to thank you for telling the fanclub to sod off the other day. But here, you're in underwear... with a feather boa."
    "I'll have you know that this feather boa is my favorite item! It was what I used to terrorize the men of the headquarters with!"
    "I'm sure you did."
    Why did Fruit feel like she needed to cover up immediately around Aidan.  The way he was looking at her was rather intense as no one had done that to her before... the other males would either explode with nosebleed or curse her for such an attempt.
    "Stop looking at me like that! It's so uncomfortable." Fruit looked around for something to toss on, but unfortunately today was laundry day and she had nothing clean to wear. Not even her old armor could suffice as it was no longer in her room.
    "It's puzzling." Aidan exhaled, hitting the door panel which enabled the door to slam shut behind him. "You've been asking me why I've been making you feel this way... no, I should be asking you that."
    Fruit gave a weak giggle and grabbed a sheet off of her bed, wrapping it around herself like a half-assed toga with her feathered boa just hanging on her arms.
    "Are you hitting on me, Aristotle?"
    "I'd rather not be doing something like that, that's not polite."
    "Then stop looking at me like, like, like that!"
    In one quick motion, Aidan grabbed Fruit, his mouth on hers.  She could feel her heart pounding as she felt herself melting into his arms as his hand gently tugged at her toga. "Must we...?" She broke away from the kiss.
    "I'm burning up, Berry. I can't stay away from you too long." He laughed bitterly. "It's that damn nymph fever."
    Fruit gaped, her jaw hanging open as she realized what Aidan was speaking of. "But... you wouldn't want to do this sort of thing!"
    "Except, it only happens under a certain set of conditions."
    She shut her eyes, quickly referencing the medical information, skipping past the basic reploid and human knowledge into the exotic humanoids.  Tears ran down her cheeks as she realized the implications of what he meant by that remark.
    "You've fallen in love with me, haven't you, Aristotle...? Why?"
    "You are tender and caring. Not because you're a doctor, but because you truly care about everyone and wish to see them happy. Have you not focused on your own happiness? Let me help you."

    That morning, there was no nightmares to wake up from, but lazy blissful dreams of happiness.  It seemed so corny to think about it that way as she laughed to herself, her pink hair fanning the pillow on her bed as she snuggled next to Aristotle, tracing the blue tribal dragon tattoo on his back.
    "That tattoo is huge! Why did you ever decide on getting it done?"
    "I didn't exactly like myself at that time." Aristotle remarked, ruffling Fruit's hair. "So I thought a large tattoo and a couple of piercings could ward off the unwanted female attention."
    "Unfortunately for yoooooou, I just want you that much more!" Fruit giggled as she started kissing his back. "Your fever is completely gone."
    "So it is. But I intend on staying around by your side if you'll have me."
    "Damn right, Ari! You're my boyfriend! Eeehehee!"
    For the first time in a while, she felt like she could truly smile and be herself again.