Title: A Place to Call Home
Genre: General/Friendship
Rating: PG
Main Characters: Alto, Sheryl, Ranka, Brera
Summary: Post-Series. Months after landing on the planet, Alto moves into a new place.
Notes: For calophi

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"Alto, you're moving in with us!"

He had expected this. Well, not this exact statement, but the appearance of Sheryl and Ranka moments after he'd returned from the scouting mission on the planet. Now with Sheryl and Ranka so close, Ozma couldn't ban his sister's friend and fellow singer from the SMS compound; Alto dearly wished he could be so lucky. But no, as he expected, mere minutes after disembarking from his valkyrie, he saw Sheryl purposefully marching in through the doors with Ranka smiling at her side.

He had expected a demand to join them for dinner or perhaps a request to perform stunts for one of their upcoming joint concerts. What he was not expecting was Sheryl to point blank tell him that he was moving in with them.

"W-What?" He finally managed, some small part of his confused mind recalling the press conference he'd seen on the news about Sheryl buying the top suite of a brand new condominium building.

"You're moving in with us," Sheryl reiterated, accompanying the sentence with hand gestures pointing from him to herself and Ranka as if Alto had suddenly become deaf.

"I heard you," he snapped, "But besides the obvious fact of you wanting me to, why should I?"

Before Sheryl could snark back, Ranka piped up. "Alto-kun, it's really so Brera-san won't be lonely. The condo has two huge rooms and we thought you two could share one while Sheryl and I share the other."

Alto blinked, caught between Ranka's hopeful smile and Sheryl's penetrating glare.

"I-I have a bunk here," he lamely noted.

"So does Brera. So does Ozma. So do all the people here, but that doesn't mean they don't have a place to go home to as well," Sheryl replied firmly.

"And onii-chan, he'll be moving into a new place with Cathy." Ranka blushed, "Which, well, it'd be awkward for Brera-san and I to be there with them…them…"

"Being romantically involved," Brera finished casually, coming up behind Alto.

Both girls saw his sudden appearance as a good omen and Ranka dashed to his side.

"Ah, Brera-san! We were just telling Alto-kun about our new place and how we'd like him to be your roommate."

He raised an eyebrow at this and Alto suppressed a growl of irritation. Sheryl had clearly rubbed off on Ranka, because the way the girl was playing up the wide-eyed innocent look, it would be impossible for him to turn her down.

"A-Are you sure there's enough room?"

He was fighting a losing battle, he knew it; but Alto wasn't about to go down without at least attempting to talk them out of it.

"The dimensions are of satisfactory width for both of us. We could even have two separate beds rather than a bunk," Brera said, "Unless you're afraid I'll attack you in your sleep."

Alto had come to tolerate, even somewhat like Brera Sterne during their work together in the SMS. Of course, Ranka could see no wrong in him and Sheryl was always amused by how the cyborg could still unnerve Alto from time to time. As for Brera himself, he'd developed a bit of a morbid sense of humor as far as Alto was concerned.

"I'm not afraid!"

"Then why so reluctant to commit?" Sheryl queried.

"Fine," Alto said with a sigh. "When are we moving?"

Sheryl and Ranka smiled at each other, Ranka's expression more pleased and Sheryl's more devious.

"We've already moved in, we just came to get you," Ranka said sweetly.

"What?" Alto yelped, rounding on Sheryl, thinking it was probably her idea.

"We knew you'd agree," Sheryl said.

Glancing to where Brera seemed to be watching the trio in amusement, Alto threw up his arms in frustration.

"Then why didn't you just kidnap me or something?!"

"I'll go get his clothes," Sheryl said, walking right past Alto towards the SMS bunks.

Ranka offered a somewhat sympathetic smile, then turned to Brera.

"Brera-san, can you help me with the boxes onii-chan had of my things?"

The cyborg nodded and followed her off, leaving Alto standing there wondering how he'd gotten dragged into this fiasco.

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On arriving to the building, Alto began to recall more of the details of the press conference. He'd overheard it while out on the mission, the brand new high-rise condominium towers having just sold their very expensive roof-top suite to Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee. It was to be the place to live in the newly founded city on the planet's surface.

Since the city was practically a suburb to where Island One landed, this made for an easy commute for anyone who lived in New Frontier City but still worked on Island One. Excuse number one as to why he couldn't stay with them down the drain.

The four of them all crammed themselves into the large elevators, along with boxes full of Alto and Ranka's things. Brera didn't have anything he couldn't carry with him in a suitcase and Ranka kept fussing over needing to remedy that.

"Brera-san, now that we're living here you can get more clothing and…and anything you like really!"

He contemplated this then smiled slightly. "All right."

"We can take him shopping," Sheryl said, eying his outfit with amusement, "I'm sure we can find something he likes."

As the two girls continued to fuss over Brera's wardrobe, Alto looked over at the increasing elevator numbers.

He knew the building was tall, that was part of its appeal; each floor was spilt evenly between two apartments, the very top floor being one large suite. The four of them would have plenty of room to co-exist, thereby nullifying another excuse.

"We're here!" Sheryl announced as the elevator doors clanged open. As she fumbled down her cleavage for a key, Brera and Alto lifted up the boxes and stood waiting to take them inside.

Finally, she managed to fish the key out and unlocked the door. "Your room is to the left, Ranka's things can go in our room on the right."

The designers for the place hadn't skimped on anything, Alto noted as he carried the boxes in. Everything from the carpet and walls to the trim around the ceiling was elaborate without being tacky or overpowering. But it was the wall behind the large sectional sofa caught his eyes first.

It was decorated with large concert posters from Sheryl and Ranka's shows, both as solo artists and their more recent duet work with one another. The table below the posters was covered in various music awards the two had won and someone (probably Sheryl) had lit the whole thing up with a set of three small spotlights on the ceiling.

So as much as Alto wanted to protest that the place was hideous and he couldn't stand to look at it, that excuse was also moot.

As he turned into what would be his room with Brera, he saw it was all done in a classy deep blue, with two large beds sitting off to each side and both occupants having their own closet to store things. Looking around, he noticed that the room had already been set up with a computer, a television and various other amenities. And Alto had to admit, the balcony off the north side of the building had a lovely view.

Settling his boxes by the foot of his bed, he picked up the one stray box of Ranka's things he'd taken and went back down the hall to deliver it to her room.

This room was a complete contrast to his and Brera's, all warm colors and already littered with Sheryl's belongings. Sitting the small box atop the fancy vanity, Alto noticed the girls entering in the reflection of an ornate mirror.

"So?" Sheryl asked, flopping down on her bed. "Whatdya think?"

Unable to think of one good reason why this place wasn't perfect, he shrugged.

"It's okay, I guess. Don't see how anyone will get lonely with all of us here though."

"But that's just it, Alto-kun," Ranka interjected, "When Sheryl or I are gone on a concert tour, or Brera-san and you are gone on a mission- then there will always be someone here to look after the place."

"What if we're all gone at the same time?" he asked. Ranka smiled then, pointing to a large chaise lounge on the opposite side of the room by her closet door.

"Ai-kun will look after it, won't you Ai-kun?"

The young vajra trilled at that, raising its large head from a pile of pillows it was resting on.

Alto couldn't help but chuckle. "I should have guessed he was here."

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The rest of the afternoon was spent unloading boxes and settling in. It wasn't until Sheryl came in and demanded that someone cook dinner before she and Ranka ruined it with their attempts to cook that Alto even realized how much time had passed.

Coming into the kitchen, Alto quickly surmised the disaster zone and made mental notes as to what could and couldn't be salvaged. Sheryl had already managed to earn herself a small burn while trying to boil water and Ranka was sheepishly scraping out the remains of a burnt casserole into the trash bin. Ushering the two girls out of the room, giving Sheryl a look of "you so planned on making me cook, didn't you?" while telling Ranka he didn't mind cooking for them one bit, Alto snatched up the waylaid apron and set to saving the soup.

As he was chopping up vegetables, Brera came in and offered to help. At first, Alto was a bit surprised that Brera seemed to know more about cooking than the two girls; but that surprise quickly melted away into laughter as he saw the cyborg morphing his arm into a perfect knife for slicing up carrots and starting in on them.

Between the two of them, dinner was saved in no time at all.

As the four gathered around the table, Sheryl having poured out champagne and Ranka having set the silverware, Alto couldn't help but let a smile creep onto his face.

In front of him was an orphaned girl who fought her way up from the streets to become a legendary songstress. Next to her, was a kind girl who had been through all kinds of hardships to make her dream of singing come true and who was a survivor of the 117 convoy tragedy, just like her brother turned cyborg who sat beside her.

All of them had been through so much to make it to where they were today; and Alto was certain none of them would have ever dreamed they'd one day be sitting in such an expensive home with a group of friends celebrating nothing more than being alive.

A glimmer of light flickered across the table then and Alto glanced up, his eyes just now noticing the skylight above the dinning room table.

"Oh yeah, Alto-kun…" Ranka began.

Sheryl finished, "We put it in just for you."

He looked up at the elaborate skylight, the panes of glass all polished to be crystal clear and allow the best view up into the never-ending sky above.

Smiling at the two girls, and even managing a small nod to Brera, he thanked them. And as he took another sip of champagne and glanced up to the sky, Alto thought that perhaps he would come to call this home after all.