The crickets chirped their nightly song as Alister Agrew walked along the path to Claus Valca and Lavie Head's house. The nearly full moon cast a soft yellow light against the wood and fields, and Alister noted that it was a particularly cool evening, despite an earlier warmth. Her lace-up sandals clicked a quick pace on the cobblestone path as she tried to reach her friends' place before they left for the performance which was playing in town. The notes she had in her small side bag were all prepared and ready for the two to transport to Silvana City.

Life had gained a semblance of normality since the colonists came to their new home, and the people, for the most part, returned to their original occupations. Sophia Forrester remained Empress over both the former citizens of Anatoray and Disith, and her government was chosen from the best of both political bodies. The military combined the strength of both, and the industrial economy of Disith helped to mobilize the agricultural economy of Anatoray, with Anatoray providing food and raw materials for the Disith production facilities.

To everyone's surprise, Alex Row was found alive within Exile, and several weeks of careful rehabilitation brought him back to health. Empress Sophia took him as her consort, and his magnetism and natural leadership abilities helped to unite the people into one nation. Dio Eraclea, unfortunately, was never heard from again.

Alister and Tatiana became piloting instructors for a while. Tatiana was eventually recalled back to her family to assume the role of Duchess of Wisla House, her family royalty. Her father had passed on, and her mother became so distraught with grief that she had to be committed to a private sanitarium. Alister missed her old friend, and the two communicated frequently, visiting every time Tatiana happened to pass through New Norkia. Alister found employment as a gardener, and was able to become quite good at it, earning a reputation for patience and attention to detail both in gardening and in teaching fellow gardeners.

Claus and Lavie continued to pilot, teaching young children how to fly and making deliveries of important documents between government agencies. Their fame brought them enough fortune to have a comfortable, yet humble life, and neither of them wanted much attention anyway.

Mullin and Dunya were expecting their first child this autumn. Not like they didn't have enough people in the house, considering Dunya's younger brothers and sisters. But Mullin did well as a farmer, and the family saw no burden in having another mouth or two to feed.

As Alister made her way towards the house, she thought back on their time aboard the Silvana, and about how different life was since the Guild War. Her memories drifted from the Anatoray Academy to the Silvana, to the race track to Exile. Thoughts of Alex, Sophia, Tatiana, Alvis, Dio and Lavie played in her head, as they always did. And she thought of Claus. Alister was an analytical girl and was always told by Tatiana to "get her head out of the clouds". But when she thought of her friends, her mind always drifted to the blond haired young man in the flight suit, or as he was now that he often wore a polo shirt and jeans. She got a warm feeling from thinking about him, and wondered if there was another person in the world as genuine and caring as him.

Alister was almost at Claus and Lavie's door when she noticed that their vanship was gone. Stranger still, several lights were still on inside the house. Someone had to be home. She walked up the small lighted walkway to the door and knocked.

Claus Valca was at his dining room table, going over a blueprint the Blue World Aerospace Association had asked for and was expecting in the morning. Lavie had just taken twelve-year-old Alvis Hamilton to see the new play in town and this left Claus several hours to quietly focus on the order he was tasked to.

He looked up from the blueprint and took in a long look of his home. Though it was nice to have Lavie and Alvis living with him, he longed for the company of his other friends too. It wasn't that he didn't visit anyone, but it would have been nice to see them more often than he did.

Claus took a drink from his glass of berrybeer and burped once. Smoother and more fragrant and than grain based beer, berrybeer was less alcoholic, and could be consumed without becoming intoxicated. So long as one didn't drink several glasses at once.

Setting the glass down, Claus noticed that the bedroom door was open, and walked over to shut it. But reaching the doorway, he looked around the room and sighed. Lavie was a great roommate, and the two were very close. They grew up together, they trusted each other, and they got along famously. But something was missing from their relationship and he knew what it was. As close as Claus was to Lavie, there wasn't that spark. The kind of spark Lavie tells him about in her romance novels. The kind he thought he would have with her. She wasn't unattractive; she was actually rather "cute" in her own pixie-ish sort of way. Claus thought often on the problem and narrowed it down to the idea that they'd spent too much time together as children to ever feel that "something" for each other. She was too much his "sister" to be his girlfriend or wife. It would be just too weird.

He also realized that he didn't feel that "something" for Tatiana Wisla when the two were trapped in the desert together. She was most definitely beautiful and desirable, no doubt about that. Every man on the Silvana spoke behind her back about how they wanted to get her "into bed". Even some of the other female officers were jealous of her cold yet arousing sexual beauty. Claus considered himself fortunate; as he got to see her nearly naked when he helped her switch into his clothes after they had crashed, and those memories always cracked a smile on his face. He was perhaps the only man to ever see her bare breasts. He also remembered at how she gave him a coy, sexy look over her shoulder as she changed clothes. The bulge in his pants betrayed his arousal. The blush on his face betrayed his embarrassment.

Still, he had no desire to…make love to her? No, she was too screwed up in the head for him to ever see as a lover or a mate.

Empress Sophia had kissed him on the lips once. But Claus frowned at that memory. She probably took pity on him that day and saw him as a younger version of Alex. No feelings of loss there.

Claus' mind drifted to Alister, and he felt a quick flush of his skin. With Tatiana gone, Alister and Lavie had struck up a great friendship, with Alister at their place nearly every day. Alister even saw Alvis as almost a niece or younger sister. Little Alvis herself was certainly in awe of the former vanship navigator and always enjoyed it when Alister visited.

There were times when Alister would visit, and she and Claus would talk. Oddly enough, Claus felt more comfortable talking to Alister about his thoughts than he did Lavie. He told her of his interests and his views on the world. She would quietly listen and nod, and sometimes offer her own view or take on the idea. Very often, in fact almost every time, her view and Claus' would be exactly the same. A particular conversation came back to him from a time when they were talking in the living room about the Guild War.

"I just can't understand why it took everyone so long to see that the Guild was pitting both sides against each other." he had said, "I mean, the war went on and on, yet nobody stopped to ask why nobody was winning?"

"Maybe they were all so busy living their lives that they couldn't or didn't want to look up and see what was happening."

"Yeah, you're right, Alis. Even Lavie and I were blind to it before we landed with the Silvana. We didn't question the war either. We just went about delivering secret documents as if it were normal. God, we were so stupid."

"You weren't stupid Claus." she corrected, "You were doing your job. You didn't ask to become part of the war; the war forced you to become part of it." A short pause. "It forced all of us."

"Yeah it did."

Claus wondered if his friendship with Alister was betraying the one he had with Lavie. But then he realized that Lavie never became jealous of Claus' friendship with Alister, and always greeted the girl if she was there when Lavie came back from being out.

That moment, he suddenly noticed that his feelings towards Lavie when Alister was around were of slight annoyance. He didn't want her there. He wanted Alister to himself. But he never would get her to himself. Alister showed no signs of interest in him romantically, and he pretty much resigned himself long ago to the fact that Lavie would be his eventual wife and mother to his children. How boring.

He was about to close the door to the bedroom when he heard a knock from the living room. He walked over to the front door, a second knock echoing from it, and peeped through the peephole. Alister!

Claus' heart beat faster and he unconsciously straightened his shirt and tried to brush his bangs out of his face. Then he cleared his throat and opened the door. Standing before him was Alister Agrew, dressed in a simple one-piece, knee length dress with spaghetti straps and a tied bow in the back. She wore a round felt hat with wide brim and band on her head, and her feet were laced with very complimentary lace up sandals. Her honey blonde hair was in its standard braid which hung over her left shoulder and was tied at the end with a small satin strip. Her bangs hung down over her forehead, stopping just above her eyebrows. Her rather round breasts filled out the top of her dress well, her cleavage just poking through the top. The bag hung from a strap over her shoulder could have been a purse for all he knew. She wore no makeup, but Claus didn't care. Her long eyelashes and large cocoa brown eyes were enough to arouse even the coldest hearted man. He found her incredibly beautiful.

"Alister!" he said, still surprised that she would visit this late at night.

"Hello, Claus." she said reaching into her bag "I have the paperwork you needed for your run to Silvana City."

"Come on in!" he motioned, "Let's take a look." She stepped through the doorway and walked inside. The fireplace was crackling and the place looked unusually clean. Alister noticed that Lavie and Alvis were gone.

"Where's Lavie and Alvis?" she asked.

"Oh! They're at the play." he answered. "I had work to do, so I stayed here. They'll be gone for a few hours, so you'll probably miss them. There's berrybeer and food in the fridge if you want some." Claus offered. With most guests he would offer coffee or something more formal. But Alister was over at least once a week and putting on formalities would be silly. Still, Claus did find himself on better behavior around her than he usually was with Lavie.

Alister set her bag down on the dining room table and began to unbuckle the tiny buckles on her sandals. As she stepped out of her shoes, Claus noticed how beautiful and perfectly formed her feet were. Small and thin with cute rounded toes painted a light pink. He pushed back an urge to fondle them. Alister dropped her hat over the bag.

"Do you have some coffee?" she asked humbly, "It's a bit cold out." Claus closed the door and made his way over to the kitchen.

"Sure!" he said, "Lemme just get the water boiling." He filled the teapot with water and started the gas stove. Soon the sound of a teaspoon filled the kitchen as he stirred the cream and sugar into the two cups. He brought them to the living room where Alister was sitting, her knees together, her back straight. 'Even in a place as familiar as my house', Claus thought, 'she's so proper.'

The two of them spent an hour or two talking about how their days went, and also about her gardening job. They discussed the documents and he showed her the drawings he was working on. She pointed out a few errors she noticed in the design and they corrected them together, often finding themselves moving to correct the same thing, only to bump hands. They both giggled when that happened. Somehow just being around each other made them feel…happier. She smiled when he made an unintentionally funny comment, and he smiled just seeing her glance in his direction.

"Oh, and this needs to be thinner by about ten percent." he said, seeing extra bulk on one of the wing sections. However, Alister knew they adjusted for that already.

"Wait" she said calmly, "Don't."

As he moved to change a measurement she stopped him, placing her hand on his, then pointed with her other hand to the reason why the number should remain.

"We've already factored that, see?"

"Oh yeah." he said, "You're right. Let's lower…" Her hand didn't move from his. He looked up to her eyes.

"Something wrong?" he asked. Alister released his hand. Then she stood up and walked into the living room, her back to him

"Alister?" he called. She raised her head and turned to face him.

"Claus, we need to talk." She walked over to him and took his hand in her own. Guiding him to the bedroom she shut the door.