I wrote some stuff again. If you couldn't already tell, I like to make Gene sound more profound in these stories than he tended to in the actual anime. I also like romance. Gene and Melfina in particular.

Reviews are much appreciated.

Outlaw Star doesn't belong to me.

#4, #9, and #13.

Rarities.

Like Bio- android girls and outlaw women with only one eye. Like grappler ships and magic guns. All of them.

Rarities.

Gene stood in the bathroom, toothbrush in his mouth. He flexed his hand and turned it over to examine the scars and the brown flesh. He flexed his hand and then again. He wasn't dead, surely. Not in this moment, he wasn't dead. He had died at the Leyline. He had, but he was no longer. Dead, that is. Now, he was alive again and he was pretty sure of it because he had physical urges and needs. The need to eat, to sleep. To brush his teeth when he woke up because Melfina pushed him away from breathing on her face. All of them were real.

He looked up into his own eyes in the mirror and continued brushing his teeth. Melfina was still asleep. The ship hummed dully around him. He had no idea what time it was. He finished brushing his teeth and set his toothbrush in the holder. He washed his face off. Afterward, he looked at his hand.

Gene flexed his hand again. Then, his arm. He wiggled his toes. He stood barefoot in the bathroom and examined the scars on his body, running a finger over the smoothness of them. He counted them carefully, remembering every one of them.

These from the crash.

These from that bounty.

These from the crash.

These from the bar fight.

These from the crash.

All of these memories had been real too. He still had them which meant that he was still Gene Starwind.

This was the thirtieth night that he had done this. The thirtieth night that he had stood in the bathroom while everyone else slept and examined his body wondering if he was real or some creature's dream or what. He wondered if he would move back to the bed and Melfina wouldn't be there. If the ship would dissolve around him, leaving him lying on the floor of some ancient mechanism as Melfina shouted his name. While Jim sat in the Outlaw Star quietly waiting for him to return. Concentrating on the rareness of Gene actually coming back alive.

Had it already been six weeks since the Leyline? Six weeks straight of waking up at strange hours every night. Sometimes four in the morning. Sometimes one in the morning. Sometimes he would sleep a full seven or eight hours all the way until nine a.m. Six weeks of staring at himself in the bathroom mirror, wondering if he was even real.

It felt shorter than six weeks.

Two weeks ago Melfina wasn't sleeping in his bed with him. Two weeks ago he wasn't sitting alone in the dark cockpit, in his underwear, trying to figure out what the ship was all about. Wondering at every little nut and bolt that he could see. He wasn't running his fingers over the smooth surfaces of the consoles or bending down and gently touching the space where Melfina went inside the ship and connected with the system. He wasn't sitting on the floor of the cockpit looking out at the blackness that had once caused him to get lightheaded wondering what made space travel so possible. He wasn't thinking of how rare it was that a life form had progressed to this point. No, that was four weeks ago. That was before Melfina moved into his room in the dead of the night as he slept. Gently pulling the covers back and sliding in, wrapping her arms around his body and whispering to him.

"How rare is this?"

"How rare is what?" Gene mumbled, still half asleep. He rolled over and took her waist in his arms, pulling her warmth closer. He buried his face into her neck and was content to leave the conversation at that and go back to sleep. He would probably be awake in a few hours anyway.

"Falling in love?"

"Not so rare."

"What about this? Us?" she whispered and he looked up at her, one eyebrow cocked up curiously now. "What were the chances?"

"I don't know," he said and she still looked troubled.

"Can I sleep here?"

"That's a rare thing," he answered sleepily and then Melfina looked confused.

"What?" Melfina asked but Gene had already fallen back to sleep. In the morning he looked thoughtful over breakfast and then smiled, telling her that he couldn't remember for the life of him what he had been thinking when he said it. Must have been dream talk.

He didn't dream anymore though. That was the strange, frightening thing. Not since the Leyline. Instead he woke up at strange hours and stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, grasping the edges of the washbasin, watching his eyes dart around at the dull hum of the ship or the sound of Gilliam's robots zipping along.

And there he was, Gene Starwind, six weeks after the Leyline. Standing in his bathroom, looking at his reflection, concerned with his existence. Concerned with whether or not his soul was intact. That's what it all came down to, wasn't it? It all came down to whether or not his soul was still all there.

Suddenly, Melfina was in the doorway, looking at him in the mirror.

"What's wrong, Gene?" she asked him and he turned to her, leaning on the washbasin.

"Do I seem different to you?"

This was a candid moment for him. Melfina realized, even in her nativity, that this was one of many very serious moments she would probably spend with Gene Starwind. She relished them slightly because of his often brash and carefree attitude. These moments were so rare.

"This is a rare moment for you, Gene," she smiled and stepped closer to him.

He looked thoughtful and then reached out and took her hand. Melfina smiled at the display of affection.

It was a rare moment. Everything he experienced was rare in this day and age.

"You seem…" Melfina tilted her head to better look at Gene.

"Different?"

"Yes, but in a good way," she smiled and took another step closer to him, still holding his hand.

"Everything feels strange. Different. Like a dream," he whispered and reached out, cupping Melfina's face in his hand. She nuzzled his hand in response.

"Maybe it is a dream?"

"I want to be real though," he said and she looked at him.

"Then be real," she responded and Gene chewed the inside of his lip thoughtfully.

"Is it really that simple?" Gene asked and Melfina shrugged, pulling him by his hand back to the bed. She sat him on the edge and then sat next to him, holding his hand, leaning on his shoulder.

"It's simple but rare," Melfina answered. "Like dragonite."

"Like number four, nine and thirteen castor shells?"

"They were so rare but you used them anyway. It seemed so effortless for you."

"I had to," Gene paused and furrowed his eyebrows, "For you," he said and Melfina looked up at him.

She smiled. "I think being real is easier for you than you think, Gene. You are you. A lot of people aren't, despite how simple it is."

With that, Melfina climbed back into bed and drew the covers up to her chin. Gene didn't move, he continued to sit on the edge of the bed, looking at the dimly lit bathroom. He looked at the walls around him, closed his eyes and tried to listen to the vacuum that was all around them. He listened to the sound of the ship floating at those precise coordinates in that precise moment.

Gene looked at his hands, palms turned up. The warmth from Melfina's delicate hand still there. She loved him and he loved her. Gene furrowed his eyebrows thoughtfully again. Even if he wasn't real, or if he was missing parts of his soul he knew that he loved her. It was simple.

Love was simple.

Simple but rare.

Like the Galactic Leyline.

Like castor shells.

#4, #9, and #13.