Partners or Lovers – Part I

By: IcBlue_Dmoness

Rating: PG- 13 for violence and sexual situations

Summary: Zero and Kizna are trying to get Hiead and Ikhny together, but there rest of the gang is trying to get Kizna and Zero together...how will they ever survive this madness without Azuma finding out?

The gang tries to get Zero and Kizna together by placing them in various situations where they are in close proximity to each other to… get their hormones going, for a lack of a better phrase…

Disclaimer: I do not, unfortunately, own anything of Candidate For Goddess, except for a few tapes. 

*Note: The candidates and repairers are around the age of fifteen in this story.

Partners or Lovers Chapter 1: Candidates Repairing

It was the same old routine at G.O.A. - the pilots trained and the repairers helped them with their training.

"Zero, behind you!" yelled Kizna, as she stood up from her seat, sending her chair flying backwards. It was a one on one battle with the pro- ings. Unfortunately, Kizna was too late. The opponent pro-ings elbow came crashing into Zero's back.

Zero's eyes widened in shock as he went forward stumbling. "Ahh!" screamed Zero as he got hit from behind. "How DARE you! You're going to pay for that!" Zero said as he whipped around to face his opponent. He charged at the other pro- ing that Hiead was in.

The two masses of metal crashed together as Hiead and Zero charged for one another. Both candidates felt the force of the impact at once and they stumbled backwards. Neither could get their balance back and both pro-ings consequently went tumbling towards the floor.

After a minute of waiting, Azuma's stoic tone was heard echoing through the battle room. "Ok, battle over. Zero and Hiead were dis- abled at the same time - today's battle is a draw."

Zero and Hiead left the field and walked back into the control room. Zero ran up towards the other three candidates- Clay, Roose and Yamagi. He ran past Kizna- who wanted to congratulate him on a well-fought battle- and totally missed Kizna muttering something along the lines of an ungrateful partner as she turned towards her friends. The group of four candidates (excluding Hiead) headed towards the doors that led to the halls.

"Everyone, come here for a second before you leave." Hiead was shooting glares towards Zero as he ran back to where Azuma was standing; he was expecting to win the battle. He continued speaking. "Candidates and Repairers need to learn to work together. What I saw out there today was pitiful! Repairers gaping at their candidates, some yelling at them," he gave a pointed look at Kizna, "and others sitting with a stupid look on their face. None of you were useful out there… NONE! You need to learn how to be a TEAM! From now on, candidates are going with their repairers and both will learn more about their partner. Understand?"

There was a chorus of 'yeas' before he continued again.

"And you weaklings can start by helping the repairers fix your pro- ings."

Hiead was leaning against the wall, while glaring at anyone who dared to make eye- contact with him. "Humph! Like I'm going to work with some weakling. Repairers are here to repair and I'm here to become a pilot! Not a repairer," he muttered under his breath, as he turned and walked out of the room.

Zero just stared at the retreating back of Hiead. "Hey! Where are you going Hiead? You can't get off the hook that fast! It isn't fair!" screamed Zero. Unfortunately for Kizna, she was standing right beside Zero and got a whole ear full of his screaming. Kizna cringed and whacked Zero over the head, with the back of her hand, telling him to be quieter.

Azuma finally took notice of the retreating Hiead and said in a terse voice, "Candidate 87, you walk out of this room, you will not be able to use the pro- ing for a week, and you will be running a hundred laps around G.O.A.," he said, trying to intimidate the candidate. He took a breath and then said in a deathly cold voice, "Now get your ass back here."

Hiead just sent a cold, unnerving glare to Azuma and walked out of the room. Yamagi just shook his head at Hiead's usual behavior. Azuma groaned and then shouted, "Now get to work Candidates!" He turned to Ikhny and said, "Ikhny, you can have the whole week to repair the pro- ing since it seems that your partner will not be coming back for a while."

"Yes sir," said Ikhny in a shaky voice, as she walked out of the room, heading to the pro- ing hanger to fix the pro- ing.

As Ikhny walked into the hanger, she saw the remaining candidates helping their repairers (grudgingly I might add) with the repairs for the pro- ings. "Are you sure you will be all right Ikhny?" asked Kizna.

"Yes, do not worry Kizna. I have all week to fix this so it will be fine," said Ikhny meekly.

"If you need any help I'll come. Ok?"

"Ok. Thank you." Ikhny walked over to Hiead's pro-ing and started repairing.

"Kizna! Can you please start repairing the pro-ing cause I really want to make it in time for dinner!" whined Zero.

"All right, all right, I'm onto it. Just quit complaining," said Kizna, as she stood near the pro-ings arm and started repairing some circuits in the metal arm. "Hey Zero, can you hand me the wrench?"

"Um, what does it look like?" asked Zero as he rubbed the back of his head.

"It looks like this," said Kizna as she made a shape with one of her hands - since the other hand was holding some wires in place - with out looking up.

"Umm… I- I can't find it."

"Ohh…" Kizna started to whine. "You're useless. Did you know that?" said Kizna as she started to turn around, making sure the wires were still in the place she wanted them. She started walking towards Zero. She saw him bent over a toolbox, looking for the desired item. Unfortunately, Kizna did not see the lone bolt, which was on the ground and slipped on it. Apparently, while looking for the wrench, Zero knocked over a few loose screws, inadvertently causing Kizna to fall. She landed hard on her back and she let out a hiss of pain. Zero did not hear her though, and continued looking for the wrench in the toolbox that was on a table near by.

After a few seconds, Zero finally found the wrench and stood back up. He turned around, lightly arching his back to loosen up his already strained muscles. He walked over to the pro-ing, subconsciously wondering where Kizna was. "Ok, I Fou-" He was interrupted when his foot tripped over something soft yet sturdy, and he braced himself for the fall to come. He let out a light scream, screwed his eyes shut and waited for the cold floor to meet his face. Lucky for him, Zero tripped over a bemused Kizna and fell on top of her.

Clay looked over his shoulder to see what was going on- he heard Zero's scream. "Very interesting," he said to himself, as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger.

"Huh?" a confused Saki asked, as she came to look at what Clay was looking at, instead of helping her.

"Yes, it's very interesting. Now quit staring and help me with this Clay," she said in a reprimanding tone. However, all the while, she too was glancing over at Zero and Kizna.

"Oh right. Here, you will need the blue wire," said Clay, his attention moving back onto his pro-ing once again.

With Roose and Wreka, poor Roose was trying to wiggle his way out of the new work situation, but Wreka would hear no excuses. The blue haired repairer thought that this was the only chance that she would have to get a day off from repairing, and tried to convince Roose to do the work, but like previously stated, Roose was willing to try anything to get out of work.

"Oh Roose, can you please fix this?" said Wreka as she tried to get away from doing the work. She conveniently forgot the word "help."

"You know I'd love to help you out, but I don't know a thing about fixing this," said Roose, grinning sheepishly.

'Damn it! And to think I could get away from work. It looks like I'll have to do some repairing today. But at least I have help for it,' thought Wreka as she started repairing, making sure Roose at least helped her.

On the pro- ing besides Roose's, Tukasa led Yamagi up to the gigantic mass of metal. "Yamagi, you ARE going to HELP me FIX this right?" she said, looking a bit too intimidating.

"Uhhh… sure…" said Yamagi as he tried not to get too close to her.

----

Kizna turned crimson at the site of Zero lying on top of her. Zero blinked a few times, trying to figure out what happened and for the time being, he just stuttered. After a moment of silence, Kizna asked, "Zero, can you get off me?" as her face turned as red as a tomato.

"Yea," Zero choked out, still in a daze, but his body did not respond to what he was saying. He was trying to figure out what was keeping him from moving. He shook his head trying to get the hundred and one thoughts that he should not have about his repairer out of his head. His face turned red at one particular thought. Zero finally regained control of his body and his hormones and scrambled to get off his repairer.

"Um… Here's the wrench you asked for," he said, handing the wrench to Kizna, after helping her off the floor.

"Thanks," replied Kizna as she went back to the spot that she was occupying previously beside the giant mass of metal. As she continued to work, the same scene replayed in her head repeatedly.

Time went by, and soon Zero and Kizna were the only one's left in the repairing room. "Come on… aren't you done yet?" Zero whined.

"Well, I would have been done sooner if you hadn't damaged the pro- ing so badly in your fight with Hiead," Kizna admonished.

"It was not my fault. If at all possible, I would like to get out of here before dinner finishes," Zero said in a slightly cold tone.

"Yea? Well I do too! If you can help me out, then maybe it will go a bit faster… Besides, I'm almost done. Just wait a few more minutes."  Zero let out a sigh, leaned back on the railing, and waited for Kizna. After five dreadful minutes, he could not wait any longer and walked up to her.

"Are you done yet? Cause I'm going to leave without you."

"Ok, ok! Keep your pants on Zero. Wait…" She made a few quick repairs, wiped her hands on a cloth she found near by and said, "Ok all done."

"Great!" Zero exclaimed. He placed both his hands on Kizna's hips, and pulled her away from the pro-ing, only stopping when they were a good ten feet away from the metallic mass.

"Zero! Let go!" Kizna said as a blush crept up onto her face. Zero let go and let her regain her balance. Once she did, he grabbed her hand, ran out of the repairing room- shutting off the lights on the way- and ran to the mess hall to get dinner.

They finally made it and Zero let go of her arm in shock. "It's closed!" His eyes widened in realization. "AAHHH!! I'm going to die of starvation!"  He placed both his hands on his cheeks and dropped his jaw down for more emphasis.  Kizna raised her eyebrows when she saw his face.

"Oh god… Zero, you should really take acting lessons before you try to act," said Kizna as she hit him lightly on the head again, rolling her eyes. "Come on, I know a place where there's some food. Sometimes we go there if we miss lunch when repairing, because we do not know how long it will take for us to repair things sometimes." With that said, Kizna dragged Zero behind her as she made her way to the recreation room.

Zero grumbled behind her. "Oi! Let go of my hair!" he said, kicking and screaming the whole way there.

They finally arrived at the recreation room. Kizna opened the door and turned the lights on. "It's almost lights out, so we better hurry up and eat fast."

"Yea… just get me the food," said Zero.

"You know, you can work on your manners as well as working on your zero- gravity phobia," Kizna said while glaring at Zero.

She reached behind a shelf and got a bag of chips and some other food. At the sight of all the food, Zero's eyes started sparkling. "Oh my god! I never knew they had such food here! And they give us that smelly crap for lunch and dinner!" he made some choking noises before diving into the bag of chips.

Kizna rolled her eyes, as she looked over towards Zero. She got the privilege of seeing him dive into a bag of chips. She shook her head in disgust. 'Zero will always be Zero.'

They sat in silence and at their food quietly. There wasn't much to say since Zero was stuffing his face with food.

After ten minutes, Kizna got up and told Zero it was time to go. "It's almost lights out Zero. We better head back."

"All right," replied Zero taking another chip from the bag and putting it back from where Kizna retrieved it.

They both started heading back to their rooms, talking when they heard a computerized voice echo throughout G.O.A. informing them that lights out will be in five minutes. "Come on Zero. I don't want to be stranded in the dark when the lights go off," said Kizna, trying to make Zero walk faster.

All of a sudden, there was this big crash, and G.O.A. shook on impact. "What was that?" screamed Zero as he ran towards a near by window to see what was going on. "I think the goddesses are in another fight with victim," said Zero, getting excited.

A senior candidate was walking by at that moment, and told the two that they should be getting back to their quarters because it was not safe in the halls. As soon as the senior turned to the next hall, another crash was sent through G.O.A. and Kizna grabbed onto Zero's arm to regain her balance.

"Eep! I think we should head back to the rooms Zero. Like he said, I don't think it's safe out here," she said in a commanding voice.

"Aw… but-… oww! What was that for?" said Zero as he felt Kizna's foot collide with his shin.

"Because I know you want to stay out here, but it's not safe," she said without a hint of remorse, as she held onto Zero's arm half dragging half pulling him to his quarters.

"Hey! Let go! I can walk for my self you know," said Zero realizing that he was being dragged towards his room. Kizna sighed, let go of his arm and let him stand up. By that time, it was lights out as all the lights in the hall way turned off, except for the emergency lights. "Hey! Why did the lights go off at a time like this?"

"Zero, its lights out remember?" said Kizna shaking her head. "Come on." 'I can't believe he forgot it was lights out already! Sheesh, what a short term memory this guy has…' She grabbed Zero's hand and made her way towards their assigned quarters. Zero blushed slightly as she wrapped her warm hands around his arm and brought it to her chest.

For a second he watched her as the light from Zeon reflected off her face, making her face light up instantly. Then all off a sudden, Zero blinked and shook the thought about his repairer out of his head and, as he followed the pink haired girl towards his quarters, he replaced that thought with one on how the goddesses were fairing against their enemy- victim.