I was leaning on the wall, twirling my pistol around my finger, hypnotising myself slightly. The 'hypnosis' was broken when I saw my red clad partner walk up to me.

"Hi, Zero!" I called.

"... Hi."

He walked by me as if I didn't even exist.

I sighed.

What was I doing wrong? I thought that once I became a Hunter, X and Zero would be my friends, but they weren't even noticing me. It was like I didn't even exist!

Did they still not trust me? I freakin' saved them from Sigma for crying out loud!

I sighed and gripped my pistol, then started heading to the shooting dojo to let off my steam.

I shot down the last target, and a screen came down to reveal my score.

"25%!? Are you kidding me!?" I sighed. "Okay, let's try that again."

Before I clicked on the start button, my blue clad leader stepped into the room. When he noticed I was in there, he turned away and started walking over to the other target cage.

Even more anger erupted in my code. The least he could do was great me! I decided I'd get a perfect score my next run, and show him what he'd be working with from now on.

I shot a target, scraping its side. To my surprise, X did seem to be taking notice of me.

A smirk crossed my face as new motivation dawned in me. I shot as many targets as I could, and X didn't seem to keep his attention on me until I was done.

I missed the final target, and a ping sounded from the speaker, indicating it was over. My mouth dropped open when I saw the results.

"10%!? That's even worse than the last time!" I punched the screen. "Damn it! What's wrong with me!?"

X walked up to me.

"I see your problem." He grabbed my hand with my pistol in it and held it up. "You're too anxious, so you're shooting too fast you miss. Calm down, and wait until you aim to shoot."

"... Thanks," I said slowly.

Senpai was noticing me!

I eagerly pressed the start button to start my third run. The first target popped up, causing my arm to stretch out towards it while my hand gripped my pistol.

I stopped myself before I could shoot.

I'd decided to take my leader's advice and go slowly to aim. Right when I finally did get aim, the target went back in the floor.

"Hey! C-come back!"

"You've gotta aim quickly."

The next target was already on the ceiling. I panicked and fired at it immediately, missing it by several inches. A second bullet flew from my pistol directly afterwards, only hitting its edge.

A strict hand grabbed my wrist. My head turned to see a face with a gentle smile and compassionate eyes looking calmly at me.

"Calm down," X said. "You've got this."

I felt my nerves calm down. With a nod, I turned back to the targets as he let go of me, and took aim at the target running across the floor.

My eyes never closed the entire time, and I only missed one or two of the targets. The machine pinged, and lowered the screen to show my score.

"75%? That's very good, Axl."

"Yahoo! Finally!"

"Come here every day around this time," the blue bomber said as he turned to leave. "I'll be keeping an eye on your training, and I'm expecting you to be at 80% by the end of the week."

I smirked and lightly chuckled.

"Wait, X, didn't you come here to do some shooting?"

"Oh! I almost forgot. Thanks."

He pressed the button and activated the targets before turning his right arm into his familiar X-Buster.

He didn't miss a single target. By the end of it all, the screen came down to reveal his score. 100%. I stared at it with my mouth wide open until he gently closed it.

And without a word, he was gone.

"... He's so cool," I whispered.

I stayed up for hours continuing to shoot the targets. My score would never go higher than 77% or lower than 74%, and so I kept trying until I got an 80%. Unfortunately, I didn't stay awake long enough to do so.

My eyes started to close, and my head began to bob back and forth. I didn't even notice I had fallen forward into the arena and let go of my pistol.

... What is this? I thought as my consciousness came back. It's so soft...

My eyes opened to see yellow hair strands pressed against my face, and my arms hooked around broad red shoulders.

"Zero...?"

"Shh, we're the only ones awake," he whispered.

I moaned and closed my eyes, but didn't quite fall asleep. I heard the sound of doors opening, followed by the sound of them closing.

Zero turned over and placed me inside a deactivation pod. Before the lid closed, I got a small glimpse of his long blond hair moving away from my pod. And then I was deactivated.

The lid to my pod opened, and soon so did my eyes.

I shielded my eyes from the blinding sun staring at me through the glass window, screaming at me to get up. With a yawn, I stood up and walked away from the pod.

"I'm up, I'm up," I moaned, as if the sun could hear me.

While walking down the halls of the now calm Maverick Hunter H.Q., I heard voices exchanging a conversation behind a closed door.

"You're becoming his mentor?"

"Yeah."

I recognized the voices of my superiors and pressed my back against the wall next to the door to eavesdrop.

"X, why're you getting involved with that rookie? You have better things to do with your time rather than train a kid who thinks he's the best thing ever."

X laughed.

"Zero, doesn't he remind you of somebody?" he asked. "A clumsy rookie trying to be the best he can be, and fighting at his limit, just trying to get some attention..." I heard footsteps. "Axl looks at us... like I used to look at you."

I felt a chill come up my spine as my eyes widened. X used to be like me?

"... You took time to be my mentor, so why can't I take time to be his?"

"He's way more reckless and dense than you were."

"Which is why he needs me. I've also taken time to think about his back round earlier, he's probably still upset about the incident with Red. He lost his friends, some he was even forced to silence... He's probably lonely."

My heart started melting as I tightly hugged myself. ... I was lonely.

Zero sighed.

"You've got a point there..."

"I know." They both lightly laughed as I fell onto the floor. "So do you think you can help me out with him? I'm probably gonna need as much assistance as I can get."

Closing my eyes shut to contain the tears, I stood up and bolted away. I'm pretty sure they heard my footsteps, but I didn't care.

I ran into the main computer room. Once I was at a hault for a few seconds, I walked over to a window. Everything was as clear as the pane I was looking through.

The doors behind me opened, and in came the red and blue Reploids. I smiled with enthusiasm and shot a solute their way.

"Good morning! I'm reporting in for duty!"

X smiled and walked up to me.

"Nice to see you're awake, kid. I was worried for a second that I'd have to drag you out of your bed."

"Hey, give me some credit!"

"It's a good thing you woke up when you did, I've got some work for you."

"Alright!"

He handed me a stack of papers.

"Here."

"What's this!?"

"These are the bills for the damage you caused when you decided to come join us, and when your old allies attacked several areas." He looked at me with an innocent puppy dog-ish smile. "They're not gonna fill themselves out."

"You've gotta be kidding me... You're kidding me, right?"

"Get to work."

I growled and sat down to start writing in the blanks. I held my head and grunted slightly, I was already getting a migraine from the tedious paper work.

Zero was keeping a sharp gaze at me, making sure I didn't bolt from my desk.

"... Axl."

"Yeah?"

He turned to look at me with a look I've never seen him wear. A look of acceptance and caring, with a loving smile to match. Did he ever look at X this way, I wondered.

"Welcome to the family."

I smiled and nodded.

"Thanks!"

I was bored, so I thought I'd try this. After my stories 'Is it okay?' and 'Maverick Hunter Academy' I wanted to write a story based around my man Axl, since he's my favorite character. Sorry I haven't been writing for you, honey! - w -' Well, it's nice to be back in the Axl fan base. Please review!