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Turned On	By : blackwaltz0 Category: +M through R > Phantasy Star Views: 2172 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Phantasy Star, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
As far as mornings went it was a beautiful one on the ice planet of Dezoris. It wasn�t as cold as usual, which made it hugely easier for those not used to the climate to get out of bed, glad that the unnaturally constant storm was focusing its abuse in another segment of the world. Rika rose only an hour after dawn and got ready quickly, bouncing through the reception area of the inn and offering a kindly wave to the innkeeper who was enjoying his first cup of morning coffee. Sleepily he reciprocated then got back to the crossword puzzle in the local paper. Rika opened the door and was greeted by falling snow, spiraling down from the sky. Nothing could wake a person up better than a touch of frost.

Rika had felt pretty lousy since the night before in the bar, but it was remarkable what a good night�s rest had done for her heart and mind. She was willing to put the confusing stuff that Chaz had said to her away and not dwell on it again. Chaz had been drunk, so it probably hadn�t meant much anyway. Come to think of it, Chaz, Rune and Kyra had all been a little tipsy that night. They certainly hadn�t answered her when she knocked on all of their doors on the way out, those sluggards just wanted to sleep in.

But Rika liked the mornings best of all. There was something a little magical about it, even on a planet of frosted grounds and cloudy skies. It was a freshness in everything that did it, a readiness to be alive and live. The air was crisp and the day was young. There was so much to be done. Rika shivered as the cold breeze hit her but she ploughed on ahead anyway, heading to the outskirts of town. The inn was not very far from there so it was only a very short walk away. She wished that the path could have been a little bit longer or tougher, because she needed the extra exertion to warm up all her chilled and sleepy muscles.

She was heading towards the ice digger, parked carefully under some thick coniferous trees, not for camouflage but for the simple protection that it provided. The trees were heavy with snow but the large machine underneath them was only partially encrusted with the ice. The growth acted like a very big umbrella. Rika�s knee-high boots made light footprints in the loose snowfall as she approached, noticing that the ice digger was already up and running, or at least trying to.

Another reason why Rika was up so early was because she knew that the ice digger took forever to acclimatize to the weather. The machine could take two hours to start on a good day and nearly four on a bad day. This was of no fault of the designer of the digger, it was just a simple fact that it took time to heat up the engines and clear all the ice away from the hull and the windscreen. If they wanted to leave town at a reasonable hour they had to have somebody out here at the crack of dawn, hard at work. Rika thought that she might as well clear her head and do it today, but it looked like somebody else had already beaten her to it.

Wren was the soldier who never slept. It always seemed like he was busy doing some task or another, constantly working hard. Rika almost pitied him sometimes for that, but respected him for the very same reason. It looked like the android was checking the engine as it hummed and revived itself in front of him, making sure there was nothing wrong. Mischievously, Rika dropped into her prowling stealth mode of movement and became completely silent, slinking towards him like a playful cat. The numan girl wanted to see just how close she could get to him before he noticed her. She was very good at this, yet before she got too close Rika noticed something for herself. Something strange.

"Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling. From glen to glen, and down the mountain side. The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying. 'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide�"

It was a tune, one that was just barely recognizable to Rika�s memory. She had heard it recently but she just couldn�t remember where. Anyway, this particular rendition of the tune was being sung quietly by Wren as he inspected the warming machinery. It seemed like he didn�t even realize he was singing it, so absorbed he was in his task. Rika popped up beside him and was about to tap him on the shoulder plate when Wren turned around. His hand went for his plasma cannon but captured only air when he remembered that he had it left it inside the cockpit of the ice digger. "Rika! You mustn�t sneak up on me!" He exclaimed, slightly startled.

"Good morning Wren." Rika announced with a smile, stepping away from him. Wren had some sort of power tool in his hand and had raised it a little as a second weapon resort. She guessed he wasn�t used to being surprised like that. Once he realized that it was her and not some stealthy biomonster he visibly relaxed and lowered his weapon. Rika slipped around him and looked at the stuff inside the opened hatch of the digger. It was still pretty iced up but vibrating a bit, so Wren hadn�t started his work very long ago, half an hour at the most. "You�re up early." She added as she straightened up again.

Wren shrugged. "It is a palmane hour. There is no use wasting good hours of the daylight if they can be salvaged. It is a lovely day to be outside compared to the other days of late." That was pretty much true. It was only a mere snowfall, not a howling screaming storm from hell. Rika giggled when she noticed that Wren had snow in his hair and all over his armor, then she shook her head a little and realized that she was being powdered with the white stuff too. Wren smirked at her, and Rika noticed this especially because Wren rarely smiled at all. "Besides, I am in too good of a mood to stay cooped up indoors."

Folding her arms tightly about herself because it was chilly, Rika cocked her head at him curiously but Wren had already gone back to his mechanical work on the ice digger. Now that he mentioned it, he did seem a lot happier than he usually was. It was a big change from his informative yet apathetic attitude. Maybe the defeat of the three creatures had put him in much higher spirits, Rika didn�t know. "May I inquire as to the reason for your mood?" She asked innocently, not afraid to pry. Rika had known Wren all her life and during the time that she had been doing her physical growing and learning Seed had encouraged her to ask Wren as many questions as she could. That was what he had been there for, after all.

Yet despite their familiarity with each other Wren would not give the reason away. He wasn't the kind of android who would kiss and tell. Chaz had been on his mind all morning, but rather than making it more difficult to do his job it seemed to give Wren the opportunity to work both efficiently and happily. It was just like the time he had lost his wits while speaking to Rune but in reverse, something of an emotional high. Without pausing or looking at Rika he gave her an answer that was technically the truth, but was an omission of the real reason for his happiness. "I made some new friends last night at Gyuna's bar. I have had few friends in my lifetime so it made me quite happy. Could you pass me that wrench lying there in the snow, please?"

Rika looked around for a few seconds and found it half buried in a fresh drift of snow. It would have disappeared under the white if she hadn't discovered it sooner. It was freezing to the touch but Rika was wearing a pair of black gloves, so the metal did not stick to her skin. She passed it to Wren as the android held out his hand, using the tool to twist away a nut screwed tightly to a metal valve. As it was released thin jets of steam burst into the air. It was producing evaporated water but it still was not good enough to drive. The rush of hot air reminded Rika of how cold she really was. The numan wrapped her winter coat about herself a little bit tighter to block out the chill. "That bar. Is that where you learnt the song from? I knew it sounded familiar." She realized.

Wren hesitated slightly in what he was doing, then picked himself up again like a machine that had stalled briefly in its job. He felt self-conscious for a moment because he had been privately trying something new. Palmans often sung, as he had learnt at the bar last night, and Wren had wanted to see if he could do it too. The only song he knew completely by heart was the tune from Chaz's hometown; Danny Boy. He had sung it often enough for Wren not to forget the words and it reminded him a little bit of the young hunter. That was probably why he liked it. He told Rika the complete truth this time. "It is Chaz's song. I was merely borrowing it from him. I am sorry you had to listen to me."

"Oh, why's that?" The girl responded, a little perplexed. "You didn't sound too bad. The song sounded like it needed an accent though, if you got that down you would actually sound pretty good." Wren didn't answer her, he just continued what he was doing. Unperturbed, Rika spun around a bit in the snow, kicking up a drift. It was nice and loose and broke apart quite prettily. "I love to sing. I don't know if I'm any good at it or not because you can never judge yourself properly when you sing, but I still like it. It kind of makes you feel free."

The android was no expert on the subject himself so he didn't know how to reply to her. He guessed that Rika could have made a nice singer if she tried hard enough. The secret to any kind of success was effort. A thought popped into his mind. "I do not think Seed taught you that skill, and I am sure I did not teach you that skill either. Did you learn that skill all by yourself, Rika?" He turned to look at her and Rika nodded at him proudly. Wren wasn't sure how he felt about that. It wasn't a bad feeling that he experienced, it just made him feel a little strange. Had Wren been a parent he would have understood the feeling slightly better. "You are growing up so fast. Seed would have been proud of you." He said at last.

Having been raised as the fruit of a thousand years of genetic research Rika was used to being praised. This was different however, most likely because she was no longer a sheltered experiment but a near normal person, a girl. Being on the outside, outdoors, on their quest, it was gradually making her more of a complete person. It was not only Rika, too. Wren had also been taken out of his element and placed into a rag-tag motley crew. Instead of monitoring Algo he was finally being exposed to it, to the climates and its people. Together, all five of them had become warriors, sentries, navigators, explorers, cooks (except for Kyra, anything she touched tended to burn to a crisp), and friends. Rika wasn't the only one growing up, they all were.

Still, the numan beamed anyway. She wondered if Wren had noticed the change in himself as well. "I haven't had any breakfast yet. Are you okay out here by yourself while I round up the others and bring them back to life again? We'll be here in an hour or so, maybe two?" She knew how unpredictable an hour in town could be. Sleeping in an actual bed was a luxury nowadays and it sometimes took awhile to pry various members of their team out of them.

Wren waved his hand dismissively at her. Waiting was never a problem for him. "Take your time. I will not be bored here. There is much of the ice digger that could be improved upon, but remember that Meese is still a three hour drive away. If the others still require sleep then they can do it during the drive. Rika," Wren put down his tools and brushed snow off his armor, "please ask Chaz if he is feeling any better this morning. Tell him that I worry for him."

The girl remembered Chaz's visible depression last night. It must have been pretty bad if Wren had seen it too. Little did she knows that Wren was referring to something slightly more intimate and private, but he figured that Rika would just take the idea at face value. As cheerful as he was, Wren was still a bit anxious that Chaz might be furious with him. For stopping before anything drastic could happen, or for not stopping after he had first kissed him. The hunter had been more than willing then, but now, in the morning, when he was sober�

Rika went off on her way, retracing her footprints back to the town. She waved to her friend still tinkering with the large ice breaking machine but didn't really expect a wave back. Instead she was treated to a clumsy second verse of Chaz's strange song, growing quieter as she wandered away. Wren was just picking up where he left off as if Rika had never been there in the first place.

He could work in the cold for as long as he wanted to, but Rika felt like she wanted to be inside again, by the fireplace. The warm coat that she was wearing over her regular clothes worked very well at blocking out the chill, but it was also quite itchy and uncomfortable. Briefly Rika missed Motavia and its stifling hot climate, then wished that there was another choice between those two extremes. When she got to the door of the inn she shook all the ice and snow out of her hair and clothes, then stepped inside, half expecting her friends to be in the reception area all ready and waiting to go. They weren't. In fact, when Rika went to their rooms and listened through the doors it turned out that they were all still asleep.

The greatest shock was banging on Rune's door and then opening it, only to have Kyra step outside instead of the reverent Lutz. Her hands were raised a little, as if Rika was intending to shoot her. She had a bit of a tired guilty grin on her face and her esper robes were all creased and crinkled, suggesting that she had slept in them last night. Rune was still sitting on the bed and stretching, trying to work all the kinks out of his back. "It's not what it looks like." Kyra assured her friend as Rika looked from her to Rune and then back again. "We both just kind of fell asleep next to each other. Nothing at all happened besides that."

"Yeah right," Rune added from across the room with a yawn, "it was freezing last night. Warmth in numbers." Kyra just rolled her eyes at him, looking to Rika as if she had regretted it, or wondering how the figurehead of the esper people could be so immature. She stepped out into the corridor with Rika and then went to her own room for a fresh change of clothing, muttering something unladylike under her breath. Wordlessly Rika gave Rune some privacy so he could get changed himself and moved onto Chaz's quarters.

Something stopped her from knocking on the door again like she had earlier in the morning. If Chaz was sleeping peacefully she didn't really want to disturb that bliss. He had been so strange lately that he needed every bit of peace that he could get. Without making a noise Rika grasped the doorknob and twisted it, hearing a calm click that meant it had been unlocked. She opened the door just wide enough for her to fit through and slipped inside, careful not to make the hinges of the door squeak. Rika could hear Chaz's deep breathing and knew that he was still asleep.

Other than that, the first thing that she noticed was that Chaz's clothes were all over the floor. His sword in its sheath was laid strewn across the carpeting as well. Chaz was not usually this messy, Alys seemed to have trained tidiness into him years ago. Rika thought of something and then blushed a little. Chaz didn't own a pair of pajamas and yet his clothes were discarded every which way. She wondered when they were at the safety of the inn if Chaz slept in the nude. Sitting on the very edge of the bed Rika gently leant over and tried to search through the blankets for the blond hunter's face.

He was difficult to find, all curled up and snug like a little baby. It was hard to believe that the owner of such a serene face could cut creatures of infinite darkness completely in two. Remembering to be businesslike, Rika patted Chaz gently on the cheek until the repeated motion eventually woke him up. Frowning sleepily he tried to pull the covers over his head again but Rika wouldn't let him. "Wake up, Chaz." She cooed softly. "It's a beautiful morning and its time to go."

Chaz groaned at that, but then his slow-functioning brain gave a short burst of activity and he realized that Rika was sitting on the edge of his bed. He sat up pretty quickly and two more things became apparent to his mind. One was that a huge headache struck him across the back of his neck and the base of his skull, followed by a feeling of wretched nausea. Hello hangover. Just great. The other was that he wasn't wearing much at all. Rika could see his bare chest quite clearly, marked in some places by distant complicated battles. Chaz grimaced and pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead. "Ugh." He replied, trying not to look at the bright colours in the room. Rika's vibrant pink hair that Chaz usually loved to death was painful to look upon.

That lone grunt seemed like the only thing that she would be able to get out of him at the moment. Now that he was awake Chaz didn't look well, like Kyra and Rune, but worse. Rika didn't understand why people would choose to drink alcohol if they always felt so terrible the next day. Smiling, she took Chaz's hand and patted it comfortingly. Chaz looked down at it dumbly. "Take a little time to wake up then come and get ready. We're all gonna be having breakfast together soon. Chaz�" Rika stood up from the bed and regarded him seriously. She felt she had to say it now, while the evidence was all around them. "You should take better care of yourself. We all care about you."

He always appreciated advice, especially from Rika, but he wished it didn't have to be during a time when some invisible person with an iron bar was bashing him repeatedly in the head. Chaz managed to look up anyway, and to smile and nod. He liked knowing that Rika cared about him enough to be thinking of him sometimes. The gods only knew how often he thought about her. Through a dry throat Chaz was able to rasp out; "Thank you."

Satisfied, Rika turned to go back to the reception area. As she passed the threshold of Chaz's room she paused however, thinking, and Chaz wondered what she was going to do next. The numan faced him again slightly and snapped her fingers as she remembered what else she was going to say. "Oh yeah, that's right. Chaz, Wren wanted to know if you were feeling any better this morning. He was worried about you. You should talk to him after breakfast."

Rika pulled the door to but the lock didn't catch and click in place. Chaz could hear her calling out Kyra's name and then running down the corridor to meet with her other friend. The hunter was left sitting in his bed with a headache and a very tumultuous feeling in his chest. Her words made him remember something else. It hit him, and it hit him hard.

He and Wren in the middle of the night. It had been real, it wasn't just a dream. The kissing and the touching, and the fact that they had both loved it. Chaz remembered it all in one bright flash of revelation. He could literally feel the blood draining from his face, and all he could do was silently remark upon how utterly weird it felt. He had been so close to pushing Wren into� well, he didn't know what exactly, but it had been important and he had wanted it that way.

Chaz laid back down in his bed and stared vacantly at the ceiling. It was fuzzy and murky, but that was because his eyes were all red and sore. The only consolation that he had was that the hangover would creep away in a couple of hours. The memory overpowered him, he asked himself several times what the hell had he been thinking, but he already knew the answer to that question. He had simply done what he really wanted to do. What would Wren say to him the next time that they met? Amidst his drained complexion Chaz's colour rose a bit. He didn't know if he could talk to him again after everything that had happened, he'd be too embarrassed to get a word out at all.

But one thing was for certain as Chaz forced himself out of his warm bed and into the cold air of the room, gathering all the clothes up that he had left on the floor. He didn't regret it. He didn't regret it at all.

When he emerged from his room after packing and tidying himself up a bit the four of them got together and ate a hot breakfast. The only things that were on the menu was warm porridge and white snow tea, made from some kind of flower that grew up in the frosty mountains. Chaz, Rune and Kyra didn't look like they were very hungry, but Rika pestered them until they gave in. Considering that they had been living on dried meat and preserves since their stay at the Esper Mansion though, it was a wonderful meal. They would certainly appreciate the warmth from the food once they got outside.

Rika talked avidly about meeting Raja again. It had been a little while since they had last seen him and she hoped that he was doing well, despite the circumstances. Chaz didn't have the heart to suggest that Raja might already be dead, a victim of the black energy wave. He was old, which meant he wouldn't last very long. It was interesting to note that Rika didn't even seem to realize that Raja's death might be a very real possibility. Chaz made eye contact with Rune from across the table and saw that the esper was pretty much thinking exactly the same thing. Well, he hoped that everything would be fine.

Talking about Raja and Meese got Kyra into remembering her friends as well and she temporarily broke out of her headache to talk about it happily to them all. Chaz and Rune thought that the inane chatter would never end, until they all found themselves packed up and prepared to leave. They were running slightly late by Rika's count but that was okay, Wren had said for them to take their time. She hoped the other three had learnt their lessons last night, that overindulgence never paid out in the end.

The rumble of the ice digger was softer and much smoother than it had been earlier in the morning. Whatever Wren had done to it seemed to have made things run better. He was standing around the belt treads when the other four met up with him, sort of staring at nothing at all. He greeted them fondly but a little distantly, like his mind was somewhere else. He knew that if the storm was so light out here it meant that it must be doubly worse in another area of Dezoris, and he hoped that that area wasn't one he would be forced to drive through. The hull of the machine was strong and it would protect them but the engine beneath it was very delicate.

They boarded the ride one by one and Wren waited around to be last, so that he could secure the outer lock behind them. He picked up the monstrously heavy tool kit that he had left sitting on one of the treads and unintentionally caught Chaz's gaze as the boy was ascending up the ramp. He tried to predict what Chaz would do if he was still angry with him. Wren was expressionless, waiting, but somehow impatient. Much of their friendship hinged on how Chaz was going to act. That was one of the reasons why Wren had hung around outside for so long, trying to postpone the confrontation, but it could wait no longer.

The cold air was actually making Chaz feel more refreshed. Things seemed a bit better in the light snowfall, especially with Wren looking at him so blankly, but Chaz knew how he was really feeling on the inside. He didn't want Wren to feel bad about himself, in the end he had done the right thing and that was what mattered. If anything it was Chaz who should have been sorry. The corner of the hunter's mouth turned up in the beginnings of a tiny smile, but he disappeared into the ice digger before it could become anything more than that. Wren was not going to laugh at him, or judge him either. He had told himself that on the fateful night in the machine center. It was still true.

Wren had indeed noticed Chaz's little smile. It looked like he had been given a temporary reprieve. That was a big relief. With the tool kit in hand Wren hopped up the ramp and locked the digger shut from the elements on the inside. The big ice breaking car was made more for survival than luxury, so it was not as comfortable as the Landale to move around in, but for what it was worth it wasn't that bad.

The cockpit was spacious and doubled as a conference room with two long couches behind the driver's seat, and there was enough room for a small crowd of people to wander about and argue in. Behind that was a thin corridor which led to a series of tiny storage rooms and individual bunkers. Apparently Demi had designed the digger on Zelan from her point of control at Nurvus, under a direct command from Wren. You could sort of tell that the digger had been a special creation by the little service android in the way that it was built, accommodating but just not quite comfortable. Demi had had to guess what her friends would have liked. She had tried hard.

Their driver was grateful Demi had remembered that her master was twice as tall as she was. Because of that Wren was able to fit into the pilot's chair. He would be doing most of the driving that day, although Rika had shown an interest in wanting to try on the way back. That was Rika, always willing to learn. The bridge seemed to be empty except for Wren. The rest of his group must have retreated to their bunkers. Well, that was alright. Wren was in too good of a mood to be put off by the silence. He didn't know why Chaz wasn't mad at him but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Another one of Raja's sayings.

The ice digger was already running strongly so Wren put his foot on the ignition and they were off, through the snowfields and towards the first wall of ice. Drilling through tough material like that was a difficult task but he thought they would be okay. The vehicle lurched as it moved but beyond a few starting jitters it was a pretty smooth ride. Not many biomonsters were out during the storm; they appeared to have more sense than that. It was half an hour of boring nothing before they got to the inert glacier, and then Wren got to do a little boring of his own.

Breaking through the wall of ice meant that they had to slow down to a bit of a crawl. If Wren went too slowly it meant they would make no headway on their trip, but if he went too fast he risked crushing the front of the digger violently against the barrier like an aluminum can. The trick was to reach a balance between driving conservatively and aggressively.

Wren heard somebody from the bunker shouting; "I won! I won!", so he figured that they were all playing a game together, but then he heard somebody else from another area yell back; "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!". He remembered playing games with the others. It hadn't gone too well, even when he had started to throw games on purpose just to even things out again.

There were just some things that androids couldn't do properly. Playing fairly was one of them. Wren sensed somebody entering the bridge but couldn't get up to greet them because he was far too preoccupied. From the way that they walked, the heavy clomp that suggested his visitor was a male, Wren calculated who it must be. Rune had been the one to shout out that he was trying to sleep, so the only choice left was Chaz. Chaz Ashley. His would-be lover? Wren didn't say anything, focussing on his driving. If Chaz wanted something then he had to ask first.

Chaz thought that he was being foolish coming here, but he was beginning to understand now about the damage that words could do when they were left unspoken. It was like a deep pressure in his chest and gut, emotions that would come out in another violent outburst if he didn't release them now. He had excused himself from the game of riddles that he had been playing with Rika and Kyra, so they would still be busy and preoccupied with other things. He had to talk to Wren privately now while they still had the chance. For the first time in a while Chaz subconsciously brushed his fingertips across his anxious lips. "Hey, are you busy? Can we talk for a few minutes?"

He could easily drive and talk at the same time, provided they didn't get pushed into some kind of combat situation Wren was free to participate in conversation. It would ease the monotony, and he still wanted Chaz to know that he was still available to offer him some advice. "I always have time for you, Chaz. Come here and we shall talk. Do you feel any better this morning? How is your head?"

Walking towards the pilot's chair where Wren was sitting, Chaz leant against it and tried to look at anything else except for his friend. He settled for the harsh snowfall and whiteness of the windscreen, a blurry angry smear. "It throbs a little but that will go away soon enough. I feel alright." That wasn't preoccupying him at the moment though, he wanted to get through the idle chit chat and just be blunt. "Listen, Wren," Chaz murmured with uncertainty, "I want to know. The stuff that happened last night, was it really real, or was it just some screwed up wet dream that I had?"

It was strange how palmans seemed to be unable to accept reality at times. If Chaz couldn't handle it, then he was willing to accept it as a dream. Reality didn't work that way, sadly. Wren smiled at its inexplicable strangeness. "By my recollection, it was quite real. It did happen. Would you prefer it if it was only a dream?" Chaz laughed softly at that and ran a hand through his short hair. That wasn't it at all. Wren's eyes flicked away from the windscreen for a second or two and looked at Chaz instead. For once the boy seemed to be calm. "Would you prefer it if it had never happened at all?" He added in a softer tone, morbidly curious.

Chaz managed to surprise him, even if Wren did not show it. "No." He said solemnly, as if he were speaking at a funeral. "I'm not going to keep on realizing and then denying things. I've learnt that denial only makes me feel even worse. I was just worried about what I was going to say to you the next time we talked. Before all of this we weren't exactly the closest of friends. But now I find myself drawn to you, just as I was drawn towards Rika. I like you Wren, and I know you like me too. I just wish I knew where we should go from here." Chaz sighed as he finished talking. Saying all that stuff, it had definitely felt right.

It was nice to know that Chaz wasn't going to delude himself anymore. That would make things a little easier to cope with. The hunter was still acting slightly selfish, focussing only on his own feelings, but Wren was already used to that kind of behavior. It didn't bother him much. Taking a few moments of silence to think about what he should say, the android decided to speak his mind before he thought better of it. "I do not know if you remember all that transpired last night, but the offer that I made to you still stands." He waited for an answer but Chaz didn't say anything. Wren assumed that he had forgotten. "The offer being that if you wished to take this further when you are of sound mind, I would allow it."

The memory was a little bit blurry but Chaz did remember those words. He blushed and inspected his boots. Wren was basically agreeing to be his lover if Chaz wanted it that way. What could one honestly say to that? He didn't really know if that was what he ultimately wanted either. He and Wren were just too different, biological and artificial, both males, a living being and only an imitation of a living being. How could he know if Wren was really truly alive at all? It would be so much easier if Wren rejected him, then it wouldn�t be Chaz's fault. But infuriatingly, Chaz didn't want that at all. Best to rely on what he knew was true and just forget all the rest.

"I remember what you said," Chaz announced, trying to keep it together, "don't think that I've forgotten it. I'm sober now, I can think straight, so what I'm about to say I say of sound mind, alright?" Wren nodded slightly, continuing to watch the road. They were nearly free of the wall of ice. "I think that although the stuff that happened last night was great, we were going much too fast for the both of us to cope with. I wanted to thank you Wren, for doing the honorable thing and stopping in time. I don't know where we'd be if we continued with that. I don't think I'd have been able to speak with you ever again. If you're patient and let me get used to all these feelings and stuff, like liking a male robot, there might be something for us yet."

He wasn't running away, but he wasn't ready to move forward yet either. Wren didn't know whether he could have hoped for more than that, starting a relationship was one of the last things that he ever thought he'd do, but it was a start. He wanted Chaz to be happy most of all. That meant mentioning one other important loose end that needed to be tied up. "What of Rika?" He ventured quietly, not sure of Chaz had thought about her in their problems.

Chaz had actually given a great deal of thought to the girl of his dreams, more so than he had with anything else, actually. Going ahead with Wren would have been much easier if he didn't have Rika to think about as well, but it was because of her that this whole situation had started in the first place. Chaz guessed that he owed her, but it was kind of funny to realize that it would be a gratitude that she would never know of. "I haven't given up on her yet. I still love Rika. If there's a chance that something could happen between her and I, then I would take it. Would you risk a relationship with somebody who would leave you so easily, Wren?"

"If you are trying to scare me out of this decision it is not going to work. Perhaps you want me to change my mind so that there would be no guilt on your conscience. I am sorry, but I will not change my mind. I do know that you love Rika quite deeply and I will not begrudge you that, but if there is any chance that I could take her place� I would take it." Wren pulled something of a strange face, one that Chaz would later identify as a look of incredulity. "By the Creator, I never thought I would be able to say that out loud."

The young hunter smiled widely. Most of the time he had thought that Wren had the personality of a thumbtack, but he was beginning to see there were times when that was not true. He did have a personality, it just wasn't ready to manifest yet. Suddenly Chaz wanted to see it all, more than anything else. He hoped he would get the chance to do just that.

Endeared by that brief look of bewilderment, Chaz glanced around for a second to make sure that nobody else was watching them and then leant down, leaning towards his friend. He delicately snaked a hand underneath Wren's jaw and lightly gripped the other side of his face with his fingertips, drawing Wren towards him and placing a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for understanding." He said.

Wren pushed Chaz away gently as he straightened up again. It was good to see him so happy, and nobody had been hurt. It was more than Wren ever could have asked for. "Do you want me to crash the ice digger?" He asked with a mischievous, playful undertone. "Because I am sure that I will freeze up if you ever try that again."

Chaz blinked at him, then pulled away and laughed. "Wow, you really do have a sense of humor! I'm gonna tell everybody! Especially Raja!" He ran out of the room grinning, heading back to the game that he had left running. Rika was probably beating Kyra into the ground by now, point-wise.

They were back in the open snowfields and the storm was progressively getting worse. Wren kicked up the gear a notch and pushed the digger forward at a quicker speed, wondering if he could try to outrun the storm. In the mood he was in Wren felt like he could do just about anything.

Maybe this long boring drive wouldn't be so boring after all.
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