Chapter 1

Song:

Even though

(Me and my dick)

Wait – don't go

There is something I need you to know

A/N: I guess I will use this song once again but later.

Everyone on the starship was getting worried about their lieutenant not leaving this little girl he'd saved. They didn't understand why he was sitting next to her bed now since three days and waited for her to do anything. But she didn't.

She hadn't spoken to anyone but Up had never left his chair; he slept there, he ate there and tried to talk to her but she had never responded.

Up waited for her to tell him to go away, but she didn't. he wasn't even sure if she spoke English.

"Please, lieutenant, you need to leave now," one of the doctors told him but Up just shook his head. "No, I won't leave her," he answered his eyes still fixed on the little Hispanic girl.

The doctor gave him a weird look before he closed the curtain around her bed and left. Up took a glass which was standing next to her and handed it to her. But she didn't take it, she waited until he put it carefully on the sheets before she drank the water. Up noticed that she drank a lot. More than anyone else he had ever known. He had noticed everything she'd done the past three days.

Up wondered what her name was and he also wondered if she was ever going to talk again. He really hoped for it but he was quite sure that this wasn't going to happen. Up had heard her yelling at the robots back at her quinceañera but as he brought her back to the ship and she had seen the corpses of her whole family she had fallen silent. And she hadn't spoken since then.

Up wondered what was going on her mind as suddenly his commander appeared. "Up, I want you to leave her now. She isn't going to talk to you and she is in good hands" Up looked at the girl but she was staring at the ceiling. He knew that the commander was right. "You should really take a shower and change your clothes"

Up looked down at his uniform, he hadn't changed since he'd saved her so it was still stained with her blood. He nodded. The commander left and he got up.

Up took one last look at the girl to check if she was alright but she surely wasn't.

But suddenly he felt a tiny, cold hand grabbing his wrist. "¡Quédate aquí!" the girl said. Up looked at her slightly confused. He was glad that she talked to him but he didn't understand Spanish at all. She had turned her head slightly towards him.

"Uh ... could you please ... speak English" He wondered how to tell her in Spanish that he didn't understand her but, well, he didn't speak Spanish.

"Don't go," she said her eyes pleading. Her voice was harsh; she hadn't used it for a long time.

"I won't," Up told her and sat down again. "I won't leave you until you want me to" He didn't know why he said that but it seemed to be right.

The girls released his wrist and looked at him. Up realised that it was the first time that she did that. He returned her gaze.

Up studied her features carefully. She would have been quite pretty if it hadn't been for the miserable state she was in.

But it was her eyes that fascinated him the most. They were large and had the same colour as dark chocolate. Somehow Up felt like he wanted some chocolate right now. He had never liked chocolate, though. She had long thick raven hair that was bonded with her own blood and looked pretty frizzy.

"What's your name?" Up asked.

"Taz," she answered. "Yours?"

"Up," he answered.

"What?" Taz asked confused. She didn't understand what he meant.

"My name is Up," he explained and Taz smirked so slightly that Up wasn't even sure if she really did.

"What de hell kind of name is dat? Dat's not your real name, is it?" she asked and he grinned at her.

"No, it's not. Is Taz your real name?" Up regretted that question immediately because her face fell. But then she shook her head. "No, it's not" But Tessa had died the moment the robots had used her as a piñata.

She looked at his features; he looked young even though he had silver hair and his moustache which had the same colour. His eyes had the prettiest blue she had ever seen (Well, she had never met anyone with blue eyes but if she'd his eyes were still the prettiest). It looked just like the ocean. Taz had always loved the ocean. Taz's gaze went back to his silver hair; she didn't think him older than twenty-three. She began to wonder why it was silver.

Up noticed her gaze. "Yeah, being a starship ranger is not the stress free job they try to make it look," he explained.

Taz frowned. She didn't know whom he meant with "they" but she just said "I know. Dey sent my dad of to fight in de robot wars when I was five. Mamá, Pietro and I haven't seen him since then. We don't even know if he is still alive"

Up knew how she felt. He had seen how families parted because they had to fight the robots – he hated it – that was why he became a starship ranger. To end the war.

Taz could see something she considered to be pain flushing through Ups eyes but he didn't say anything, neither did Taz. But they didn't have to, Taz knew that her mother had died. She had seen her on the floor as Up carried her back to the starship.