A/N: Either you will like this story or you won't. This isn't a drabble series, but all chapters will be five hundred words or less.

Paying Debts

Chapter One: The Question

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It started as a simple question. A burning curiosity hidden in the layers of her throat whenever she looked at him and wondered if he ever thought about the things she obviously did. Her unanswered query refused to go away and started to blister in her chest whenever he looked her way.

Does he want me? Does he like me?

Part of her believed she was overreacting, that her visceral response was just a natural effect to someone of the opposite gender: the shortness of breath, the quickened beating of her heart. All because Finn teased him about the possibility of a future crush, and Aerrow blushed.

And now it wouldn't sleep. Every touch, every word that came her way she picked apart under the microscopic analysis of a girl who has seldom thought about romance. She became awkward in the presence of Aerrow, and the muscles of her stomach clenched in anticipation before his hand rested on the round of her shoulder.

It used to be friendly, but now she was starting to interpret his gestures as sexual. It wouldn't have worked out, she denied the possibility of a beginning once she came to that conclusion, he didn't think of her that way. Sadly, her social experiment backfired and after the initial gracelessness of avoidance, she summoned up her courage and began to return those gestures in turn. One day while he was charting their next flight pattern with maps strewn across the table, Piper took her place beside him and laid her hand over Aerrow's.

He stopped talking; she witnessed the death of several words on his lips, and she was grateful Stork was the only other person present in the room.

The Sky Knight turned to her and she searched his eyes for confirmation of hidden feelings. She forced her hand to remain where it was; she didn't dare move her fingers forward nor would she allow him to pull his hand back.

"Piper?"

The mystified look on his face grew darker when she didn't answer. Watching him, she noted the change in his expression, the range of emotions in those green eyes that told her what she needed to know. She took the smallest of steps forward. Without meaning to, her hand moved and the hypersensitive pads of her slender fingers caressed his skin.

"Piper!" Aerrow repeated her name, and this time he really did pull back. Yanking his hand away from the table, he stared at his arm as if she had just branded him with a red hot iron poker. The boy swallowed nervously and Piper felt guilty. She clasped her hands together demurely and was on the verge of apologizing when her orange eyes looked up – and saw lust.