So another chapter! Sorry about the wait – once again the teachers see the words half term holidays and decide, because we're not at school, that we need five hours of continuous homework! *bangs head on table*

Anyway hope you enjoy this one, some people were a little confused about the OC's – if you have read There Is No End, you might know that Flow is Storks girlfriend from that fanfiction, although neither of these fanfics are linked, I love her character so much that I had to put her in here.

Even Junko needs some good ol' loving! XD. So I'm character developing his girlfriend Doe (short for Dorothy – if she gets called that she will get angry!). I hope you like her and were wondering about some feedback (Little background she, her brother and her best friend are the Sky Knight squadron of Terra Wallop).

Anyway, enough with my ramblings please read on!

LostLyra.

With a screeching yelp Radarr grabbed a kitchen towel and threw it over the burning toast. Junko stood there guiltily, spatula in hand, and slipped it behind his back, grinning sheepishly, ears down. Stork was staring at the cloth covering wide eyed, and clutching at his girlfriend, rolling her eyes the dark purple haired merb prized her boyfriend off her arm, raising her eyes at the wallop.

The blond was gaping at the wallop. "How the hell did ya manage to do that Junk?" he asked with slight awe.

The wallop shrugged, and scratched the back of this head. "I don't know," and then he glanced at his burnt breakfast sadly. Starling did have to admit that there was some type of forlorn air around the once edible first meal.

"Toasts wrecked as well," Stork announced dully, as he flicked the burnt embers off his plate, all female occupants glowered at him.

"I'll do it!" the friendly wallop suggested, trying to amend his earlier problems.

Stork jumped up. "No, I'll do it!" there was a collective group eye roll from the rest of the people in the kitchen.

The door suddenly burst open, and everyone turned simultaneously towards it. To see a half dressed Sky Knight and a scruffy navigator. Both where panting, whether from running down the hallway so fast or other activities, the others refused to think any other than the latter.

"I can see why you went for the Sky Knight, Piper," Flow raked her eyes across Aerrow's strong bare chest and scruffy hair.

"Hey!" her boyfriend protested. Piper didn't look too happy either, arms crossed over her chest.

As Starlings eye's looked him over Aerrow suddenly felt like a prime cooked rump stake, shaking off the feeling he cast his eyes over to Finn. "What the hell did you do this time Finn?"

Finn pointed at his innocently at his chest. "Me, what about you two?"

Heated blushes fled with surprising speed up their cheeks. With such a open relationship over the past few years it was surprising that they where still blushing when they had obviously had been having a open heated make out session in their room.

Piper crossed her arms over her chest, which Starling noticed was covering both a bra-less chest and Aerrow's sky hockey jersey. "Yes Finn, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anythin'!" he cried dismissively – ignoring the sound of the toast popping out of the toaster. "Tell them Starling!" large blue cyan blue eyes begged over in her direction.

The purple haired Sky Knight rolled her eyes. "It wasn't actually his fault," she looked at both pairs of raised eyebrows.

The guilty party decided to step up, even Aerrow was surprised as Junko put the melted spatula down on the table. "Heh, it was my fault really Aerrow. My breakfast kinda exploded in my face," Aerrow looked at the offending item, not really surprised.

"Well," he coughed, embarrassment flooding through him again, and the other males on the Condor smirking at him – via the guilty looking Junko.

Piper rolled her amber eyes and – not forgetting to sway her hips – walked out of the room, leaving her boyfriend to deal with the uncomfortable aftertaste. Finn couldn't control his laugher and started to roll around the floor clutching his sides. Even Stork thought it was a little hilarious – but Starling just felt sorry for her fellow Sky Knight.

Through gasps of uncontrollable laughter Finn managed to pull himself up onto his seat, obviously finding something funny that nobody else did. "Y-you," he gasped. "Really need to sort that lump out mate – pretty obvious."

Suddenly understanding Aerrow's face went as red as his hair and the poor Sky Knight shot out of the kitchen, a confused Radarr peering after him.

Stork gave Finn a withering look. "You disgust me Finn,"

Finn gave him a grinning smirk. "Well duh. It's my job."

After the embarrassing interlude in the morning Aerrow was leaning on the balcony of the Condor, letting the mid morning breeze ruffle his rusty red hair. Sighing he took out a small dark midnight blue box, and stroked around the edges. Popping it open it displayed a perfectly formed tiny deep blue crystal, set in gold. Little did people know, that the tiny piece of crystal was a shard from the Aurora Stone that he'd slipped into his pocket and mercilessly slaved over for weeks to get into the desired shape that he wanted. His grin dropped, and he clutched the precious piece of metal in his gloveless hands. Would she accept? Would she make his life complete? For a long time he'd known that he'd liked Piper, but it had come to a shock when he realised that he actually loved her. But now, at the present crises, was it to early for marriage? Would this be too much stress, as well as preparing for the Final Battle in over two years time?

He loved their relationship right now, and wanted more commitment, but was that what she wanted? Groaning he dropped his head into his hands, and pulled them through his unruly hair, keeping onto the ring box tightly.

"You all right tiger?" Starlings voice cut through his thoughts, jumping he quickly hid the box in the cuff of his jacket.

"Yeah," he kicked the side of the banister around the Condor. Showing that he obviously wasn't. The elder Sky Knight saw Aerrow was in one of his sulking moods. Starling was like the older sister that he'd never had. Sometimes they annoyed the hell out of each other, but others they were like they'd known each other all their lives.

Starling put a hand on his shoulder. "What's the problem?"

Aerrow turned his head to look her straight in the eyes. "I can't do it…" he trailed off, embarrassment gracing his cheeks again. Starling's eyes widened, as the younger Sky Knight ducked his head in shame, and rubbed his arm. "She'll say no,"

Starling refrained from rolling her eyes, for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day. "Aerrow," she glowered at him, forcing his face up to meet hers. "That girl loves you, I've never seen anything like you two have. It's pretty amazing."

Aerrow pulled away from her. "You don't understand how hard it is -"

Starling cut him off with a final defying swoop. "No, I don't, unlike you, I've never had to propose to anybody. Unless I was a lesbian – which I can assure you that I am not. Get on with the rest of your day – however you want to. And then ask her this evening."

"That was gonna be my plan anyways!" he protested with the voice of a two year old.

"Well get to it!" she punched his shoulder.

"Ouch!" he glowered at her. "What the hell was that for?"

"For being a pussy! Be a man and get to it!"

He grinned and snapped a mock salute. "Yes ma'am! I'll get back to doing what I was doing and you get back to doing what you where doing!"

Two perfectly arched purple eyebrows raised in unison. "And that was?"

"Well I'm just gonna ask my sharpshooter…" his dust cloud was left grinning suggestively.

It took her a few seconds to realise what he was talking about, before it clicked in the back of her brain. "OI!" she yelled, before starting off after the younger Sky Knight. "You're going to pay for that remark!"

Aerrow was not just covered by one excited female, but two. He gasped for breath as they squeezed the air out of him. Well at least he'd rather have this than being beaten to death by Starling. The Sky Knight in question raised her eyebrows as she walked into the room to see the two other girls suffocating the red head.

"Is this national beat up Aerrow day?" she asked.

"I—hope it isn't," Aerrow gasped as Flow extracted herself from his neck as he boyfriend walked in to the room, though this left his own girlfriend still wrapped around his waist.

"Well?" Starling asked, leaning against the wall of the Condor.

"It's called givin' you girls a little relaxation time at the five star Spa near Terra Aquas…" Finn had just strutted in, doing his best commentator voice.

"You do realise how much that would cost? Don't you?" his friend replied.

The blond nodded smugly. "Well we were able to pull a few strings."

"Seeing as we've saved their buts from certain doom a number of times," Stork explained in his normal tone, sitting, arms wrapped around his girlfriend whilst they where snuggled up on the sofa, who rolled her eyes and dug him playfully in the ribs.

"Doe's coming as well?" Junko's large footsteps sounded into the room. Finn nodded, at the mention of his best friend's girlfriend. Junko grinned. "I mean, with everything going on we haven't seen each other in what seems like ages."

"What, you have to have seen each other some time," Flow pressed the question of the gossip that she wanted to know.

"Nope, last time was," he paused, thinking slowly. "Probably when we all got together at the Winter Hall…"

Flows' jaw dropped. "That's ages,"

The wallop nodded, sitting down on the side chair. "Un-huh, I mean it's not as easy as you guys, or Aerrow and Piper, as we're on different squadrons, and the only way that we can actually see each other regularly---"

There was a screech from Aerrow's friend and co-pilot, telling them that they were reaching their destination. Stork peeled himself away from his girlfriend and jumped over the seat in the middle of the room. Dashing to the ships' main controls and pulled it towards him. Expertly the pilot swung the old carrier ship round and pulled it into landing.

His landing was about as graceful and well kept as the terra, where the resort was. Towering palms leaned over, creating an almost Tracy Island effect over the runway and temporary carrier park. It was obvious that only the honoured guests where offered to stay permanently. A large well-built figure dressed in casual jeans and ruffled farmer like blouse waved at them on the ground. The wallops eyes widened in delight and he was down before the large wheels of the Condor had touched the ground and pulled the other surprised female into a hug that would normally crush a human. They both grinned at each other and Junko pulled his mate into a surprisingly passionate kiss – being apart from each other this long could do this to you.

They where interrupted by a loud wolf whistle coming from the balcony of the Condor. Junko and Doe pulled away, though both could control blushes, glowering Junko looked at his blond best friend. "Finn!"

He grinned wolfishly down at the wallop. "Well you gotta come back up, you'll see Doe tonight,"

Doe looked at her boyfriend with large slightly confused eyes. Junko leaned forwards and whispered in her ear. "It's all Aerrow's idea to propose Piper,"

"Oh," she grinned up at him, pecking him on the lips and grabbing his large hand in her own.

He grinned down at her and let her tug her towards their friends and the Condor.

Starling couldn't help but moan when the soft hands massaged gently across her back. This had been a good idea from the guys. Smiling she looked over at the other woman getting the same treatment, but instead of one person massaging the wallop there were two, and they where walking on her… which was strange, to say the least, but it seemed to be working.

"So most relaxing thing in the last few weeks?" she posed the question to her dark skinned friend.

"Guuhh," was the only murmured reply. "That's the spot."

Moving her foot out of the bed she poked Piper in the leg. "Piper…"

"Yeah?" wow, she actually got a reply this time.

"Most relaxing thing that you've done in a while?"

"I'll say…" the wallop was resting her chin on her wrists, and glanced over at her two human friends, and jerked a large thumb at the thinner merb. "She's been out of it for the past fifteen minutes."

Piper laughed quietly, watching her merb friend snore, Doe was right, she was completely out of it, but she admitted, it was really good.

"You okay Pi?" Starling asked, wriggling as the massager picked a determined muscle.

She nodded. "Well partly…"

"What not as good as your boyfriend?" Doe asked grinning at Piper's flushed face.

"Hey!" she smiled. "Well, there are ups and downs…"

"As in what?" Starling smiled, it was nice be stress free for once.

"He didn't know exactly what to do with the massage oils," Starling snorted, imagining the scene. "Oh, and never try with food in the bedroom."

"Oh really?" Doe looked at her.

"It gets kinda messy."

"Could have told me that," Starling laughed.

Piper flushed. "Ask Aerrow when he's drunk, that's the only way that you're gonna find out."

There was a yawn to the left of Doe and the light blue coloured merb woke. "What did I miss?"

"So," Finn leaned back. "You're gonna pop the question?" Aerrow choked on his coke. Feeling all eyes on him, he put the can down and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well…" he trailed off.

"You're really a crap liar Aerrow," Stork had a small smile on his face, swirling his drink around in his glass.

"Well," Aerrow looked around at his squadron. "D'you?"

"Do we what?" Junko looked at him, ears alert and ready.

"Think it's a good idea---"

"Are you joking?" Finn looked at him. "It's brilliant!"

"For once I have to agree with the blond," Stork shot him a sickly looking glare.

"You've been planning this for ages Aerrow," Radarr nodded, taking one of the nachos.

"Well…" he trailed off, ducking his head and voicing his earlier concerns. "What happens if she says no?" he murmured. Running his forefinger absentmindedly around the rim of the coke can.

Junko whacked his choking friend on the back. "It's Piper we're talkin' about here she ain't never gonna say no."

"But I…"

His best male friend gave him a withering look. "Feel forced. You've been goin' out for five years, since you guys where sixteen, and tonight's the perfect time to ask her. Aerrow think about it-"

"I know," he looked down at his twisted reflection in the coke can. "It's just everything that's going on at the moment, the Final Battle is only more than a two years away, and with that and planning a wedding…" he trailed off.

"You're world about the pressure aren't you?" Stork probed gently.

Surprised Aerrow nodded. Stork looked at him, a small smile adorned his long face. "Well I'll say that merbs have died preparing for weddings, but that's nothing to worry about,"

"Waaaay to go with the encouragement," Finn rolled his eyes, looking pointedly at the merb.

"Aerrow, what I'm trying to say is that you've got nothing to worry about. You've got us to help you out."

"And that's nothing to worry about?" with that last comment Aerrow got up and left.

Is he going to do it? Does he have worries? Well he will be more encoraged if you press that little green button down there! XD (hint, hint).

So update before I leave to go on holiday – thanks for all those reviews, and the next chapter should come up soon; in the next couple of weeks, but I'm not promising anything yet…

Hope you enjoyed it,

LostLyra.