"I thought you hate taking your hat off." Rhys expressed his opinion.

"Well, you are right. Things needing to be done have to be done though." Fiona casually replied.

A month pasted after the formation of the group of four which finally managed to form a stable daily routine after the consecutive incidents. They had to admit the current situation was not far improved in comparison to the beginning's, but it was gradually becoming better.

The sisters tried to live like they always did, a bunch of practical tasks became extreme difficulties without their exclusive technician, however. Apart from that, due to Fiona's ongoing rising bounty, it was still too dangerous to get involved into big scams or forgery. Only infamous and not-so-rich people could be conned, which was definitely not an efficient way to "earn" money, more wild scavenging activities then had to be conducted to ensure their stable income.

The boys assisted in their job as well as kept finding ways to get back to Helios, but there were only a few progresses since they could only contact Yvette occasionally and talk for approximately a minute each time to prevent being tracked down.

The group went to everywhere on Pandora including deserts, villages and cities to search for useful supplies. Each time, they took turns to split up into two groups that one was put in charge of accomplishing their missions and the other was responsible for back up.

Today was another day stranding in the middle of the desert. Sasha and Vaughn went out to look for resources while Fiona and Rhys rested in the caravan. This was not the first time they were together alone, and now they could talk like close friends naturally without any embarrassment.

Rhys had never seen Fiona maintaining her hat before. He did see her putting on make-up, such as applying nail polish, mascara, eye shadow, lip stick and sometimes perfume. For about two weeks, he had already remembered all the details about her make-up habits consisting of the order of the procedures, colours and the flavours she like. They shared more silence than voice when they were together. When she was busy with her own business, he would spend most of the time watching her, observing her, and helping her if she needed. At the beginning, they both tried to make conversations intentionally to evade awkwardness, but they adapted to the quietness between them after a while. Rhys was satisfied to know so much about her from real life other than talking. He thought for once that it would be great if they could carry on like this forever, and if he could know everything about her.

Sitting at the driver seat, Fiona carried her hat with her left hand after applying some kinds of lotion to a brush. She faced the internal section and started to clean it slowly and gently. Meanwhile, Rhys was lying down on the couch with his legs hanging from the coffee table and arms crossed on his chest. Her hair looked transparent when the sunlight of noon penetrated them, especially the strands in bright red. Although they became too dazzling to look at due to the total reflection of light, Rhys could not help himself from looking at those veils and the pair of jade eyes focusing on the hat.
"Huh, you treat your hat so tenderly just like looking after your boyfriend." Rhys totally had no clue of why this money obsessed grifter treasured her old worthless hat so much.

"Don't be silly! This is much more important than all boyfriends." She giggled. "How long has it been with me? Around ten years I guess. It goes perfectly with my outfit."

Occasionally, he really wanted to know how exactly she thought, such as the likes and hates, views and opinions about various matters, and, probably the most vital thing, what did she think about him. He wished she did not hate him. It did not matter he was treated as her friend, a temporary ally, a partner or whatever, he just hoped that she was happy with that.
"I never have a boyfriend, real or fake." In order to further look inside the hat, Fiona slightly tilted her head to left so that her hair would not block her sight.

Unconsciously, trying to stop his eyes from being widened due to surprise, he pretended not caring by making up a reply full of poor choices of words, like a reflex action.

"Oh, really? I thought you two love flirting every man on this planet forever."

"Come on! What a harsh criticism! Both of us HATE flirting men. Besides, there is a giant flaw in your deduction. Flirting has nothing to do with meeting boyfriends, not directly at least."

Luckily, unlike Sasha, her anger was not easily to be provoked. Responding delightfully, Fiona gave a smile with her sight still fixed on her hat. It was a relief for Rhys of not pissing her off, but at the same time he desired more of her attention. He frowned, knowing clearly that it was unwise and impossible to compete with a hat. At the very least, he could keep communicating with her by talking even she insisted to stare at her hat forever.

"Speaking of, you and Sasha make a good team apart from being sisters." He brought up a light subject, "and it is quite interesting for me that she is in charge of luring man into scams while you are the one who does the talking."

"Yep, we have been distributing our work like this since the moment we became con-artists." Fiona checked carefully to ensure the cleanness of the internal section before moving on to clean the top. She peeped at Rhys for one second when he was not looking at her, being indecisive about whether to voice out the next sentence. "Hey, don't you want to know why? The reason of having this combination?"

"Is it necessary? I think it is obvious." He adjusted his gesture to let himself facing Fiona while his legs are still hanging from the table. "You have a good temper. You are pragmatic. You are chill most of the time. And, you are a hater of guns. All of these are great advantages for negotiating. If Sasha was responsible for talking in a business deal, she would probably blow the whole thing up in a minute due to being too trigger-happy and then pop someone's head."

"To be honest, you are not wrong but going a bit too far. By the way, thanks for the compliments."

"It's my pleasure."

"However, there's more than that."

"What?"

Rhys' tone switched from cheerful to perplexed. He found Fiona still smiling but her eyes are losing brilliance, which kind of upset him.

"Sasha is more attractive than me. She has the talent of charming men as she did not even need to try. This is her nature."

"H-hey, I think it is a matter of… ehhh… taste rather than talents or abilities or… whatever."
"Don't you think so?" Her lips curved upward so slightly that it almost could not be seen. "Sasha is cute. She always is. Her smile is not only a handy weapon for bringing scams, but it is also a gift for finding love." Still smiling and repairing her hat, she shut her eyes half just like recalling nostalgic memories. Her bluish green eyes regaining magnificence were more translucent than usual as if gazing into the distance to look for something that was longed for. Rhys found them shiner than all gems and diamonds that he ever saw, yet looked a bit lonely and sad.

"Sasha is… she is cool, to tell the truth. B-but..." He could not help mumbling as he had no idea of how to tell her what he thought without ruining the current harmony.

"I know you like her. Of course, I am not talking about the 'friendly' like here."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

He was barely capable of processing all the messages rushing into his head. At the same time, she left no time for him.
"Reading people is one of my professions, Rhys." She continued, "Remember the time we were at the Gortys facility in Old Haven? You replied 'I could see that.' when I mentioned how she hurt August, then I asked you 'what do you mean?'. Actually, I had already known what you were thinking even before you realised yourself, and that's it."

Apart from being shocked, Rhys realised that there had been an emotion mixing of pain, a bit of anger and perhaps sadness swirling in his chest. Like many people, he had worries, from trivial problems to solemn and stirring tragedies. In order to prevent himself from being upset, he imagined the consequences, pictured the details and figured out the remedies for perfect preparations. However, all efforts would probably be wasted when the worries were actually confirmed since they were not longer worries but cruel truths, or even grave mishaps. After all, the simulation of expected events was just an activity being carried out in the brain. There were huge differences between imagination and real-life experience. What made him more miserable was that he knew this rule perfectly well but he was the one who kept doing this, and even did this for a woman who came from some sick planets like Pandora.

Rhys intentionally kept silence for a few seconds to see if she had more to say. He did not need the explanation of what she just said, but the reason, or reasons. Although her words were not offensive at all, they got him real good by reflecting certain facts that he was not happy about and did not want to face.

"Now, you are the one who go too far." He pronounced each word as clearly as possible, "let's just make this clear. Sasha is a good friend, but I am not in love with her. Got it?"

"Really? Are those ALL you want to say?" Suddenly, her tone filled with sarcasm, which further stirred up his emotions.

"What do you mean?"

"I am thinking. Since you seem to be not A BIT interested in her, I bet you might already had the most beautiful, adorable, elegant and knowledgeable girlfriend in the universe."

"I don't ha-"

"I have known that you don't since the day we met." Fiona did not give a thing about interrupting him, "you are just... generally too dumb to have a girlfriend. Only the stupidest girl will fall for you." Albeit her ironic attitude, nothing seemed wrong depending on her facial expressions and posture.

Feeling confused and awkward, he kept looking at her who was still smiling and gently cleaning her hat. He totally had no clue of why an originally pleasant conversation would turn out like this. To stop making things worse, he decided to stay silence. Turning his head away, Rhys could not see Fiona's actions slowing down and both of her eyes and lips drooped. He did not hear her light sigh either.

He was always proud of the cyberware he had. The stun baton, the mechanical arm and the Echo eye, which did contribute a lot to ascending his position in the career ladder. As he spent a majority of his life to develop his career, he thought that it was possible for him to own all he want by using these most high-tech equipments. However, at this moment he just took them as several pieces of scrap since none of those could help him in getting a least bit of clue of what the lady staying with him was thinking, which kind of pissed him off.

For once more, He turned around to face her who was still wearing the same expression, doing the same actions and probably keeping the same attitude towards him. Physically, they were closest to each other in this moment. But deep in his heart, a feeling of loneliness and distant kept enlarging, slowly hurting himself. The distance was invisible but surely very great, even greater than in between Pandora and Helios.

Looking at Fiona, he unconsciously turned on his Echo eye. Unfortunately, there is nothing worth noticed except the usual boring information. He knew it. He knew it was useless, but just could not help it.

"Though I don't mind being scanned, you should know that it is not polite to do this when it is not necessary. That makes you highly goddamn suspicious. You can just ask if you really want to know something about somebody." Without a warning, the conversation was initiated again by the one who originally ended it. However, the other one seems to be not ready for it.

"Whoa. You knew that I was scanning you?" Being freaked out, the Hyperion turned off his Echo eye immediately.

"Yeah. Whenever you did it, from the beginning." Fiona's voice was as calm as usual, "there is a clear and short sound emitted when you turn it on, so I don't need to see it to know it. Indeed, the volume is quite low, but it can still be heard."

"I… emmm… sorry about that. Won't happen again." Rhys took this chance to start it all over. "So… why did you bring that up all of a sudden?"

"Bring what up?"

"I know you spit each word out on some purposes. Right? So, what's it?"

At the moment he finished the last word, Fiona stopped her work. What's more, she was totally frozen, like a sculpture, even her eyes did not blink anymore. She stared at the hat with her pair of hollow eyes. Quietness were filled in the caravan for about a minute, then she turned to Rhys, looking at him straight into the eyes.

"I-I have a request."

Rhys looked back at her. This was the first time he heard her muttered. It was deductible that she was nervous.
"Tell me. I am all ears." Staring at her eyes, he felt contented not only because of things were on the right track again, but he could also look at that pair of beautiful eyes as much as he wanted now.
Fiona took a deep breath before vent out, "if there is a situation that Sasha and I are in danger, and only one of us can be saved. Please, save her. Please, take her away from the hell of Pandora."
"What…? Are you serious?" Rhys widened his eyes, feeling puzzled.
"Yes, I am. I always am. I am not like you, I hate stupid jokes."
"But, what about you?"
"What can I do? Keep surviving as long as I can."
"I- I can't! I can't leave you behind! I mean, I can't bring your sister only but not you."

Gently shaking her head, Fiona smiled before she started to clean her hat again. The sight of the greenish shiny pair of eyes moved from Rhys to the top of the hat. For a minute, she did not utter a word while she was cleaning. The company man intended to silently observe the elegant gestures of the con-artist rather than think about what to say.

"You are kind, Rhys. Perhaps even kinder than I thought." She continued when she thought that the listener had nothing to comment on, "Now, I can be more confident that Sasha will be happy if you two get together." Rhys felt an invisible yet powerful force punched into his heart.
"At least I can be sure that being with you must be definitely much better than being with that asshole." When Fiona did not feel Rhys watching her, she lingered on him for a second before go on. "There's no going back. My bounty award will keep rising but not drop a bit. More people will try to kill me, leaving no room for me to survive, but please don't worry about me, I still remember that promise."

Rhys' heart skipped a beat when he knew that she cared what he said.

"Did you two talk about this?"
"No. We are always busy. However, we both know it very well. There will probably be a day, a day when we have to be separated, separated by death."

"Actually, I..."
"Great! It's done!" Putting aside all the cleansing utensils, Fiona lifted her hat with both hands in a way just like holding a baby. Rhys knitted his brow, being annoyed by her act of distraction. Fixing his gaze on the cheerful lady, he even wished to become her hat.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

When Fiona was about to wear her hat, she found it being seized by a yellow robotic arm.
"Hey, give it back!"
"Get near me and I will give it back." Rhys, smiled playfully, has already stood up instead of lying down on the couch. He did not need to wait to see the con-artist standing up.

"Huh, This is gotta be kidding. I can't imagine I have to play some stupid childish chasing games with a Hyperion."

"Well, you don't need to imagine anymore. It is better to do some sports than sitting all day. Right?"
"Fair point." Fiona smiled after a short sigh, "let's do this.

The chase between two adults then began in the caravan. Although it was a bit too small for them to run in circles around the crouch and the table and the ladder and the other things, the whole process was surprisingly enjoyable than they originally thought. Giggles and laughters came one after another, which totally lightened the atmosphere like there was never any awkward moment or unpleasant conversation.

"Come on. Come on!" Waving Fiona's hat, Rhys stood at the driver's seat. He lifted the hat as high as possible to ensure that she could not reach it.

"Awww. Being tall is your only advantage that is enough to get me real good." Fiona had been jumping in order to seize the hat even though she knew that she looked dumb when she did that. "Okay, now this should do." She climbed on the table to gain more chances. This time, it could be called as close when she repeated the same action.

"Not too easy for you." Apart from stretching his arm as long as possible, Rhys intentionally pitched forward to outsmart her, "not so e-eeahh!" Suddenly, he lost his balance and tumbled down the driver seat.

"Whoa!" Out of her expectations, Fiona was not able to escape and resulted in being pushed down on the couch by the falling Rhys.

At the instant when both of them were about to completely fall down, their lips brushed against one another. Although the touch was too light to be called a kiss, it was subtle enough to embarrass the two big kids.

Rhys, who originally covered Fiona with his whole body, got up as soon as possible right after he fell on her. Fiona also sat up straight with her eyes widened, being confused. They covered their mouths with their own hands before turned their heads, preventing to look at each other.

"Phew! Today is finally over! Hey, Rhys! Fiona! We are back!" Vaughn delightfully greeted his two allies while he was opening the caravan door. "Rhys? Fiona? Is there anything wrong?"

Vaughn could not figure out what was happened when he saw them, and what made him feel more peculiar was that none of them was willing to speak except intentionally ignoring each other.

"Let me in Vaughn! Don't block the door!" Pushing Vaughn away, Sasha got into the caravan. "Oh no… " On the other hand, Sasha seemed to be able to picture the ins and outs when she saw her sister's blushed face , and so as Rhys'.
"Fi! Are you alright? Did he harass you?" Getting nearby her elder sister, Sasha asked worriedly.
"H-Harass? That's a strong way to-"
"SHE. IS. ASKING. ME."

When Rhys was attempting to get away with it smoothly, he felt a sharp and cold sight penetrating his body. Speaking with a grim tone, Fiona looked straight into his eyes, which sent a chill down his spine by hugely frightening him.
"I'm fine, Sash. Just let me handle this by myself, for a second."

Fiona stood in front of Rhys after getting up from the crouch, staring at his face for a few seconds. Excluding Fiona, all members in the caravan were excited, and for Rhys it was nervous, about what was going on. Rhys felt a drop of cold sweat slid from the back of his neck after he swallowed a mouth of saliva.

Bang.

Everybody heard a deep but clear striking voice. Fiona applied all forces she had on her right fist before hitting Rhys' neck, almost beating him down on the floor.
"Y-You punched me in the neck." Touching his neck with the robotic arm, Rhys said.
"I am good now. Stop wasting time. Let me take the wheel." She took a look at the table and grabbed her hat which was fell down there some time ago.
"Are you okay?" Vaughn asked Fiona when she was going to the driver's seat.
"I'm fine, Vaughn. Really. Thanks."
"Gee! I was the one who got hit!" Rhys whispered to Vaughn that he was unamused.
"Fiona is not the kind of person who punches people for no reasons. You must have done something really pissing her off."

"Well, you are not wrong actually. I just..."

Rhys felt a familiar sight from the driver's seat penetrating him again when he was about to reveal the truth.
"I… eh... better not tell it to anybody. Otherwise I will be dead for sure."
"Got it." Vaughn nodded to him after looking at where the sight came from.

The driver stepped on the accelerator after she wore her hat properly.

"So, that's why you punch him whenever you feel coy."

An unexpected monotonous voice came from somewhere not far from the two talking parties when they were having the conversation. The lady, who was wearing a black hat, turned towards the source of the voice with her eyes enlarged and jaw dropped, seeming to be shocked. Besides, the man in black suit was wondering why the woman in front of him reacted so ridiculously, looked at her face with his eyebrows frowned.
"What? You are awake? All the time?" Feeling frightened and irritated, Fiona yelled to the mysterious kidnapper who was standing up and approaching them.
"Not totally, but enough to get the most critical parts. Sadly, I could only get several tiny fragments of the last one." The kidnapper sounded a bit amused.
"You heard the last one, too?"
"I have told you already. If I was not that tired, I would have gotten most of it."

She faced Rhys after being frozen for a few seconds without changing her facial expression.
"Don't look at me. I had nothing to do with it." He tried his best to stay out of this.
"Actually, this kind of stories in regard to some sort of... affairs is quite interesting. I would love to hear more."

"N-No! N-Not again!" Despite the tough tone, the speaker herself could not help blushing.
"Don't worry. I am not going to force you to speak as I know it is useless. Also, it is better to hear you telling stories in your most natural style. So, I might take your up-coming tale as my next bedtime story."

At the moment he finished the last sentence, Fiona pressed the brim with her hands so that nobody could see her face, and rushed to the back of a large rock.
"What's wrong with her?" The kidnapper asked.
"No idea. I never saw her acting like this before." Rhys sounded not a bit interested, "let's just go. She will follow us sooner or later."

He felt a touch of cold metal on his back when he was about to step forward.

"You clean up this mess."

"Why do I have to do this? You are the one who- Fine!" Rhys turned backwards, facing the kidnapper in order to resist, but gave up immediately when he saw the gun pointing at his face.

Unwillingly, he started to get close to the rock that Fiona was hiding behind. He hesitated for several seconds before walking slowly towards the person he was looking for. She was right there, sitting at the corner, embracing her own calves and burying her head into her arms. He stood right in front of her, having no idea of where to start.

"Are you alright?"
Rhys intentionally spoke as natural as he could, but his efforts gained no response.

Sighing, he crouched and stared at her, just like talking to a little girl.
"Okay, let's start over. Why do you hide?" This time, he lowered the volume and softened the tone.
"Because… it is so embarrassing." Her voice could barely be heard, but enough to be understood.

Rhys was completely puzzled after hearing a soft voice of sobbing when she answered.

'Is she crying?' He thought to himself.

He could not believe anything he heard and anything he saw anymore. For one second, he even suspected if this crying baby was Fiona. He started to be doubtful to himself as he always thought that he had completely known her already. Being together with a person for so long tended to make one though that nothing new could be learned about that person anymore, and it also made them easy to forget about the most important thing of him or her.

Fiona was a con-artist as well as a great fighter. She was destined, and forced to be strong at the moment she borne on Pandora. There were no choices for her to be weak all along, not even one. Besides, she always able to accurately predict the outcome of all her single actions including talking and fighting, and she had been seeming to do perfectly fine until just now. For a perfect person like her, a little "failure" such as leaking her own embarrassing tiny secret could probably be claimed as a "fatal error".

Although the pieces had already been assembled, it was still too surreal for Rhys to admit that the weak, fragile and defenceless woman in front of him was the Fiona he knew. She was even found slightly trembling when he looked close enough.

'Well, perhaps it is a not bad thing.' He always thought that their relationship could never be further developed, but this discovery might be an opportunity.

"I'm sorry… about causing you trouble and being an emotional weirdo back there." Looking at her hat, Rhys decided to take the initiative by clearing the air.

Luckily, he did not need to wait too long for the response.

"I'm sorry too." The steady voice was much firmer, resuming to the original tone of it's owner. "I became emotional at that time and I felt shameful as I could not express myself well through talking which was supposed to be my best talent. Instead, I was just being a totally horrible jerk."

Although Fiona was still huddled up, Rhys could feel her recovering based on her stable breath.

"So, guess we are even now?"

"No." Being surprised by an unexpected response, Rhys frowned again.

"Rhys. You may think that I think you are bad." He was saddened by her sorrowful voice. "I know you are not bad, Rhys. And I know you has been trying very hard to compensate, to work things out."

He wanted to embrace her into his arms to comfort her, but he knew this is not an appropriate time.

"I am just… too pissed by all these-"

"Never mind."

"huh?" Fiona finally raised her head and looked into Rhys' eyes.

"The past is not important anymore. The important thing is that we are t-together...now." He shifted his sight from Fiona to no where. "As long as we, two of us, are together, all the problems can be eventually solved. Right? So, let's just face them. Together."

"But-"

Rhys quickly grabbed Fiona's hand with his normal hand before pulled her up and dragged her away, leaving no space for her to talk.

He always thought that he would never be forgiven, because he thought he did not deserve it. He had been being exhausted after striving the desired forgiveness for so long. Right now, he wanted to cry. He found himself probably dumber than he thought about himself. He finally realised that forgiveness cannot be not gained by the criminal, but can only be granted by the victim. The decision of forgiving can never be made by him, no matter he was deserved or not.

"It will be fine." To conceal his shyness and the tears gradually slipping from his weeping eyes, he just held her hand tightly and walked without looking back.

"...Thank you."

Rhys felt the grip in his hand becoming stronger without knowing the person behind was smiling and blushing.

The stranger far away looked at the two returning kidnapped victims, making a face under his mask.