Author's note-

Heya, so I was originally just uploading this all to Ao3, but I want to try moving to here now, or at least have this story be uploaded here in addition. I got a lot to copy down so bear with me here please~

"Well, that sure turned out to be a bust," everyone nodded in agreement with the captain's statement, Jr was still complaining a bit under his breath, and Allen mumbled to himself thanking god that they got out safe. They had just barely escaped a planet they thought was Lost Jerusalem, unfortunately it wasn't Lost Jerusalem, and even more unfortunately there was a lost race of people living there who weren't too happy about outsiders suddenly showing up on their land.

"Dammit, I was so sure it was the right place," Jr punches the nearest wall in frustration.

"No offence Jr," Shion pipes in, "but what was it that made you so sure it was the right place anyways?"

"I had a gut feeling," Jr proclaims as he taps his chest, and then, as if on command, his stomach growls loudly. "Hehe, well actually now that I think about it that actually might just be my gut telling me it's lunch time." Jr laughs a bit more, along with Tony and Hammer, Allen on the other hand still looks like he's going to pass out and Shion just sighs and shakes her head in frustration.

"Welp, now where to?" Matthews breaks up everyone's little post-failure party, "we can't just sit here in space forever."

"We sure can't, first of all are we back on the existing star charts yet?" Shion gestures over to Hammer, immediately taking charge of the situation.

"Oh, umm," Hammer types in some commands on the his computer and opens up the chart they've been filling in as they go, he then goes through and compares it to all other star charts on the system, but unfortunately… "Uh, nope it doesn't look like it, but uhh I mean we can't be that far now. Right?"

Shion sighs, "well I sure hope we're not far, we can't just keep wandering around aimlessly forever, we'll run out of resources sooner or later." Allen and Hammer quickly agree with her there, and then started to panic a bit about how much fuel, food, and water they've used up already. She also hears Tony grumpily tell them both to 'man up'. Shion's not paying attention however, she simply looks out the ship's window at the vastness of space, the infinite number of stars twinkling lightly around them.

"Hey I got an idea! Give me that," Jr snatches a half empty bottle of beer off Tony's console and lays it down sideways in the middle of the deck.

"Umm Jr what are you doing?" Allen watches as he grabs the bottle and then… spins it…

Everyone watched as the bottle slows down more and more until it comes to a complete stop. That's when Jr hops back up from the ground and yells "THAT WAY" pointing towards where the bottle had stopped.

… Did… Did he really want to decide where they went based on that? "Uh Jr I don't think we should leave that choice up to-"

"Alright you're the boss, Tony! Turn this ship around!" Matthews is quick to get his crew in order, and with a quick 'yes sir' Tony sharply turns the ship right in the direction Jr wants them to go, nearly knocking over Allen. "Careful there, scrawny," Matthews calls down to Allen, "oh and hey once you pick yourself up off the floor I think that crazy professor guy wanted you for something."

"What, again?" Allen asks the captain, frustrated that he has to go run errands for the professor yet again. He was constantly being called down to the professor's lab lately, usually to help with Scott's work, and it was getting on his nerves. Especially since they never even called him by his name, they called Shion by her name when they needed her help, but Allen was always 'assistant 2'. "B-but I have other things to do, and we just barely escaped that planet with our lives! Ch-Chief back me up here!"

"Hmm, what?" Shion had been too busy staring out into space and hadn't noticed a thing anyone said, "erm I'm sorry Allen I think I need to go take a nap, I'll help you out with that later." She then swiftly walks past all of them and back to the main part of the ship.

"… Huh," Jr is the first to break the silence, "hey is she okay? She seemed pretty out of it." He only gets a few shrugs in response, which wasn't too surprising. Unfortunately Shion was never very open about her feelings, but anyone could guess that it wasn't nothing like she had tried to assure them.

Jr had left the bridge in search of something to do while he waited, being too restless to sleep and too lazy to actually help anyone work on anything. He rounded the corner only to end up at the cafeteria yet again, and upon realizing he'd paced around the main part of the Elsa about 5 times now Jr sighed and fell to the ground, leaning against the wall for support.

"What's wrong Rubedo, does the sickening smell of grease not allure you?"

Jr sighs again a the sound of Albedo's voice echoing through his head, he wishes his brother would just talk like a normal person sometimes. "Naw, I didn't come here for food." Jr continues staring at the floor, mindlessly counting the number or stains on it. He feels Albedo's presence right next to him, if he had a body he'd probably be sitting there as well.

"Hmm I thought you would've starved yourself with how you've chased your own tail around this ship all day."

Jr glances over at Albedo, or at least where he would be, and thinks out loud, "well that's an odd way of saying I've been running in circles around the ship." Jr then hears Albedo's laughter fill his head, I also wish he wouldn't do that… "Well anyway," he just decides to continue the conversation, "I'm not really hungry I just… Ugh, you know Albedo, I don't think I ever really appreciated how big the Durandal was, or how many things there were to do… Or how fast UMN travel was…"

"Aww I see, little Rubedo's getting a bit stir crazy," Albedo purrs right in Jr's ear.

"YIPE! Don't do that Albedo!" Jr covers his ears, not that it would help at all, "sheesh dude, you're gonna give me a heart attack. And if I die then who are you going to bother all day, huh?" Albedo laughs once again before starting to ramble on about something else. Jr had to admit talking to Albedo was a nice distraction from how restless he felt, even if he could be a bit annoying at times.

Even if he was annoying he was still his twin, he was still the only brother he had left. "… I'm glad your still here Albedo."

Albedo stops talking for a second after that, "heh, are you getting sentimental on me Rubedo? That's not like you…" His voice was a lot more soft than it usually was, and he doesn't follow up with an laughing.

"Yeah, I guess it's not…"

Shion ended up having really restless nap, she woke up a lot more tired than when she went to sleep. She was haunted all the time with nightmares that she couldn't quite remember, mainly about Jin and Kevin. Horrifying reenactments of their last words, their deaths, and all the horrible things she'd said to either of them.

I know they were just dreams, and that they're not accurate at all, but…

Shion suddenly feels a bit sick after recalling her nightmares, "ugh, I need to get my mind off this…" She decides that some food would probably help her, so after a quick shower she leaves the girls room and starts making her way to the cafeteria. Along the way she also happens to see Jr sitting nearby, seemingly talking to himself, but Shion knows it's probably Albedo he's talking to.

"Hey Jr," Jr snaps his head up a the sound of Shion's voice, "what are you doing sitting on the floor?"

"Oh, Shion, I'm not doing too much. Just complaining to Albedo about how bored I am." Jr folds both his arms behind his head and leans back a bit more.

"Well why don't you play that one game again?"

"Eeeehhhh, I would but I already beat it like twice now."

"Well hopefully we'll find lost Jerusalem soon… In the meantime I was going to go make some curry, would you like to join me?" Shion holds her hand out to Jr to help him up.

"Well I wasn't really hungry, but I can snack anyway," Jr goes ahead and grabs Shion's hand. "Do you need any help cooking?"

"Yes actually, that'd be very nice," Shion pulls him up and the two of them head towards the kitchen, "I don't usually have anyone to help me."

"Really? Not even MOMO?"

"Well she tried to once, and no offence to her but I don't think she knew what to do."

Their voices fade as they walk down the Halls of the Elsa.

Tony and Hammer had decided to take their break following their noses to the cafeteria, and they were pleasantly surprised to find Shion in there, and where there was Shion there was food.

"Ah looks like we came at the right time," Tony says loudly, making himself known, "and it smells like you made your special cur- oh what is that?"

Shion places down a few plates of… Curry? "I know it's not as pretty as it usually is, but Jr helped with this batch and I think it'll be just as good as always."

"Oh… Well I mean… How much, per say, did Jr make?" Hammer shifts around, looking between Shion and the food. He's suddenly answered, not with an actual answer, but Shion thumping him on the back of his head "OW!"

"Be nice you two! Jr and I worked really hard on this, and we even made plenty extra for you lazy bums!" She crosses her arms and glared at the two of them.

"What, do you guys not wanna eat my curry?" Jr exclaimed as he came in from the kitchen, "but I thought I did pretty good, well for my first time cooking at least."

"Of course they want to eat it," Shion simply states as she makes her way to her seat, "and if they don't they're not getting any other food." She says the second part very aggressively, causing Hammer and Tony to wince. She looks back after starting to eat to make sure they did grab themselves some curry, and was satisfied to see them both (begrudgingly) grab some of the curry.

"Well Jr," she decides to start a conversation when Jr sat down across from her, "your presentation could use a little work, but aside from that I'd say you did pretty good."

"Thank you Shion, you know I tried my hardest and I didn't start anything on fire, so that's a success in my book." After Jr says that they hear the noise of the door opening, and turn around to see Allen coming in. "Oh, hey Allen! We made enough for you too if you're hungry."

"Oh, uh thanks guys. It looks uhh… Interesting. Did you use a different recipe chief?" Allen grabs his food and sits down next to them.

"Actually Jr did most the work this time," Shion gestures over to Jr who's looking very proud of himself, "and don't worry, I promise it tastes better than it looks."

"Mmm, yeah it's not too bad Jr," Allen starts talking with his mouth full, making Shion and Jr laugh a bit at how goofy he looks. "You guys know the professor always has me do the weirdest things, like he asks chief for regular things, like help with coding problems or going over robot designs. But anytime he calls for me it's always for the strangest reasons."

"Like what?" Jr asks him between his bites.

"Well just now, for example, he called me down to help, and when I got down there he told me, 'Assistant Scott needs help coming up with inspiration for his next bot design.' So I asked him what he meant by that, and he just went and shoved me over to the middle of the room and I had to pose there the entire time while Scott just drew." Allen crosses his arms looking a bit grumpy, and even more so after Shion and Jr both started laughing.

"What kind of 'poses' did he have you doing?" Shion asked him between laughing.

"Well at first it kinda made sense because he just had me do the robot for a little while, but after a while Scott had me start… Flexing…" Shion and Jr started laughing even harder at that, "yeah I uh… Didn't really get the point of that hehe…"

"Albedo's asking why you didn't just tell him no and leave"

"I wanted to, but the professor can be kinda scary when he yells…"

"What do you mean? He's just an old man, he's not that scary," Shion pokes around her plate before realizing she'd already finished her food off.

"I don't know how willing I am to take your word Shion, you're not really scared of many people." Jr glances out the corner of his eye to see Tony and Hammer, "oh hey, look who's going for seconds! I knew it was good!"

"Yeah the chief is pretty brave," after Allen says that he thought that Shion would looked happy, or bashful, or something along those lines. But instead she looks a bit sad.

"I… I wouldn't really say that." Shion felt her mind wander back to the nightmares she'd been tormented by earlier that day, she knew that she was overreacting a bit, but the thoughts still wore her down. She could practically feel Allen and Jr's concerned gazes as she looked down at her empty plate, "after all I tried sacrificing you all to go back to be with Kevin because I was too afraid to face my past… And I also blamed Jin for everything because of that…"

"Chief…"

Kos-Mos and Jin are the one's that really deserve to be called brave, she thinks to herself. She feels a bit of anger toward herself, especially when she starts to feel moisture by her eyes, dammit this is stupid, I shouldn't be crying over this! "I'm sorry, I have to go now," and without another word Shion speeds out of the cafeteria, trying to hide her face, Allen quickly following yelling for her.

"Chief wait!"

Jr just stands there bewildered, he can't figure out what had set her off.

"So…" Hammer speaks up, "do we get dibs on the rest of their food?"

"Ch- Chief wait!" Allen runs after her, she had gotten so upset so suddenly he barely had any time to react. "Hey wait, chief, I'm just here to help you! I can't stand seeing you upset like this! Chief!"

"Please just stop Allen," he nearly runs into Shion as she stops suddenly "I- I know you all want to help, but I don't want help right now… I just… want to be alone…" She tries hard not to let her voice crack as she speaks, she doesn't want Allen to see her cry again.

"Chief… Isolating yourself isn't going to help, please let me help, I love you-"

"SO!?" Ouch… That stung, "your feelings for me can't do anything," aaaaand that stung even more. "I- It doesn't matter in the end, it can't bring back everyone that's gone. Not Jin, not Kevin, not Chaos, n- not even…" Shion can't stop herself from crying anymore, "even Kos-mos…"

"Chief… Please, you let me close before. Why not now?" Allen reaches out to grab her shoulder, but she quickly pulls away.

"I- I know… I'm sorry… I… used you."

"Used me? HEY CHIEF WAIT!" Shion suddenly takes off running again, he almost goes to go run after her but feels someone tugging on his sleeve. "Wha- Jr? What are you doing? I gotta go catch the chief!"

Jr just stands there looking Allen straight in the eye, it's actually a little intimidating, "I'm sorry to say this bud, but I don't think anything you were saying was really helping her…" He looks off toward where Shion left, luckily the Elsa isn't too big of a ship so it wouldn't take long to find her again "I think for now you should just give her some space."

Allen gapes at him, "wha- but Jr what good will leaving her alone do? Remember how upset she was before? Back when Kevin showed up?"

"Yeah that's true, but…" Jr trails off a bit as he works to collect his thoughts, "uh how should I put this? No offence but I don't think she's gonna listen to you right now… But don't worry, I'm gonna try my hand at making her feel better next! After all I should know better how she feels right now…"

It suddenly hits Allen that, while he didn't show it, Jr was probably grieving just as much. Given what happened to Gaignun… "Oh yeah… Well I'll let you take care of her then… Thanks Jr."

Jr nods then begins walking toward where Shion went, but almost immediately stops "oh yeah, by the way Allen, it's not just you she's done it to…"

"Wha- What are you-"

"Suddenly getting all clingy for a while then pushing you away." Allen's surprised, h- how did he… He could communicate telepathically to his Gaignun, HE CAN'T READ MY MIND CAN HE!? "Don't look so surprised, I only know because Tony mentioned earlier that she had been acting the same with him as well. Getting all touchy feely for a while, and then suddenly switching back to super distant, then back to normal. I guess it's kind of her own way of grieving, either that or she's just lonely…"

And with that Jr leaves, his words still hanging in the air. Lonely? The chief is lonely? I mean… I guess it makes sense after just losing Kevin, Kos mos, and her brother but… He didn't feel like he could move, but at the same time Allen couldn't seem to hold still. Was Shion really just using him? I… don't know how I feel about that… I want to say I don't mind but…

Shion had ran off to the storage area of the elsa, she sat curled up next to some boxes. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her legs and she was glaring at the wall across from her. A few tears still fell from her eyes, but she had pretty much already gotten over the worst of her break down. She now hears someone's footsteps coming her way, but just stays in the same spot hoping that they won't notice her.

"Ah, there you are," Shion sighs when she hears Jr speak up, that was just her luck.

Jr doesn't let Shion's mood upset him at all as he plops himself down right next to her, "this is a bit of a weird place to sulk don't you- Why is there a hole in the wall?" Jr gestures over to a medium sized blaster hole in the wall across from them. "Did… You and the wall have a disagreement?"

"Kos-Mos did that back before our final fight on Michtam actually," she still sounds a little upset, but the small smile that forming on Shion's face gives her emotions right away. "She told me she was upset and wanted to know if I knew how she could calm down," Shion chuckles a bit as she recalls the situation, "I was just joking, but I told her to do something impulsive. She took me completely seriously and pulled out her blaster and well… You can see what she did."

Jr smiles at Shion, glad that she was looking a bit better. "So did shooting the wall help at all? I don't know 'bout you but shooting things always makes me feel better."

Shion laughs then looks back to the hole, "nope, it didn't help. After she shot the wall she said 'Shion, I fail to see how doing this will help my emotional state. And now there is a 55.555996% chance that the captain will discover the hole and then, he too, will be upset.'" Shion does her best impression of the android, making Jr laugh a bit, "I told her that the captain probably wouldn't find it, seeing as he never cleans up down here, but she didn't listen to me. Instead she glared at it for a little while, then said she'd fix it when we got back." Shion smiles over at Jr after finishing her story, "this is actually a good place to sulk because no one ever comes down here, I can be sure of that seeing as the hole's still there."

"So that's where you keep disappearing to, you're coming down here to the sulk hole!" Shion laughs at the nickname Jr gave the big hole in the wall, "ah I knew I was forgetting to check somewhere, me and the other's were convinced you were hiding in the girl's bathroom or somewhere else we couldn't get. I can't believe you were just here the whole time."

"You know, you probably would've found me sooner if you all weren't so scared of chores."

Jr fake pouts at Shion's sarcastic remark, "anyway, I just came looking for you to make sure you're doing alright. You seemed pretty upset when you ran out of the cafeteria earlier…" He almost regrets bringing it back up when Shion gets the same depressed look back on her face, but he knew that hiding her feelings and pretending everything was okay wouldn't help Shion in the long run. "It's okay you know, I'm not going to judge you. I just hate seeing such a good friend so hurt, and if it's something you're comfortable talking about i'd be more than happy to listen."

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up like that earlier…" Shion sighs, "it was pretty silly wasn't it? I have all this wonderful friends looking out for me, but I still can't keep my emotions under control. Especially considering it was over something so stupid…"

"Hey it's okay, I don't know what it was about but I'm sure it wasn't that stupid!" Jr waves his arms to emphasize it, "and even if it was 'stupid' I blow up over stupid things all the time."

"Yeah well… That's just because Albedo's a pain in the ass, if he wasn't purposefully messing with you…" Shion trails off.

"Okay, but that's not the poi- No I'm not telling her that, Albedo… Why? Because she's got a point. Look we'll talk about this later." Jr turns back to Shion after he finishes arguing with his brother, "look, the point I'm trying to make is that it's okay to break under pressure every now and then. I know how you feel, really, I've lost a lot of people that are important to me as well, including my brother."

Shion feels Jr rest his hand on her shoulder "I… Alright… It's not really all that important though, I just had a bad dream and something Allen said just reminded me of it…" She half expected Jr to laugh at her, but he just listens silently to her, "nothing particularly bad has even happened lately, it's just what happened back on Michtam has still been bothering me."

"Ah see, that's not stupid at all. You can't be expected to just get over what happened so soon, we all know that." Shion smiles again at Jr, glad that he was being so supportive, "anyway, why don't you tell me more about this dream you had."