Khyrren was caught completely off guard. It wasn't exactly a serious conversation, mundane even - but as Haelyn slid across the narrow gap to get to her seat, their eyes found each other, and lingered on for a moment longer.

He would later come to a realisation that that was the first time they had ever really looked each other in the eyes, despite the weeks they had spent discussing the world.

Khyrren already knew how much he liked her. Haelyn was all kinds of right, and hit pretty much every one of his cues. She had a way about herself - witty, sharp and passionate, yet beyond the crisp shirts and fitting pants, there was something softer, more human. He counted among the fortunate few who has ever seen that side. He never fully understood why.

Yet this was something else altogether. As their gazes locked, an ensemble of thoughts flooded into his mind, striking him so rapidly that it seemed to stop time for a second. Just as well, he thought. It was a second longer peering into the intense eyes of the woman he had grown to care for.

Turning away before she could see the smirk on his face turn blank, Khyrren walked quietly back to his desk. Amazing, he whispered in his mind as he collected his thoughts. Who knew that someone as distanced and spaced as Haelyn would be able to connect with him at such a primal level.

Red Dawn

Shiela screamed as another mortar shell blew against the bunker walls, sending debri spraying all over. Beside her, Alan lay, only barely conscious, clutching the bloody mess that used to be his arm. He wasn't going to make it, he knew only too well, but he wasnt going to lie around trapped in this hell hole, waiting for it to collapse and crush them to death.

"Hey lady!" Alan called out through the rising dust cloud. "Can you help me tie up my arm?"

It wasn't so much a question, more of a plea for help. He removed his right hand, revealing the ivory white of bone admist burnt flesh and skin. He grit his teeth as he tore of a piece of shrapnel still stuck in the smoking flesh. But the searing pain he had expected did not come, instead it was just a dull ache now; he was dying.

Shiela tied up his arm as best as she could with a strap of cloth ripped from the bottom of her tank top. If this was any other day, she'd have found herself pretty sexy with her well defined midriff exposed. But this was not, she winced as the soldier she barely knew half-stumbled onto his feet and slung his rifle over his good arm.

"Hey, I know I look good babe, but you can stare later," Alan flirted, giddy from the lost of blood. "C'mon, let's get you out of here."

If the bunker was a hell hole, outside it would be hell itself. Gunfire stang the air- a symphony with the shouted battle orders and the cries of the dying. They ran for the cover of the trees with bullets peppering just inches around them, so fast that Alan almost ran straight into one of the camoflaged gunmen. Both men saw each other at the same time, but Alan was faster. He swung the rifle up, firing off a neat burst of three rounds. sending red erupting out from square of the man's chest as he flew back into a tree, dead.

Alan would've thought he could survive it after all. He would have. If not for the 5.56mm shell that penetrated his skull, sending his brains spraying over the foilage.

A thousand thoughts were buzzing and fleeting in his head as he stood on the down-riding escalator, smiling stupidly at the girl who used to be his girlfriend. She stared back at him, amused, and pouted her lips before spreading it into a grin.

"May I?" Unsure, he asked.

"May you what?" It was a rhetorical question.

He smiled and moved forward, giving her a quick peck on her lips, like how he'd done so many times before. He pulled out of the kiss just as a wave of nostalgia threatened to overcome him. Beside, the train bringing him home rumbled noisily as it started to leave the station. He smiled to himself, more out of pain then actual joy- she had turned down his request to send her home, asking to be left alone to her thoughts. Although he had told her he understood, there was little he could do to stop the flood of doubts that washed over him.

The train station was quiet for a saturday night, but he hardly noticed that as they strolled down the lane to front doors of her train bay. Another stolen glance at her added to the hundreds he already did.

She turned slowly as they reached the head end of the bay and looked into his eyes , her own shining hazel in the yellow lights.

"Do you wanna kiss me?" A question this time. He had saw it coming, somehow, but he still didn't have the answer.

"Perhaps."The boy said. Then shook his head slowly, slightly. "Someday."

"Perhaps." She repeated.

"Someday" He answered her question.

* * *

Suburban air was at its worse in the evenings. The stench was overwhelming, a myriad of sweat, day-old colognes, flowery perfumes and with whatever bits and pieces of the picked-up-along-the-ways. It doesn’t get any better when tired people gets onboard trains and have no decency enough not to blare- their underarms, at the world. Niki rolled her eyes as another man cluttered into the already tuna-packed train and pressed his back against her bare arms. She muttered a soft curse and squeezed tightly into the arms of her boyfriend.

They’d only just met a couple of weeks ago at Zouk when a close friend decided to celebrate her birthday. Wayne was suave to say the least; he had the laid back feeling around him that generally made you think he’s some snobbish brat. When Niki had first met him, he sported a crumpled pullover with a pair of baggy jeans further portraying his image.

Niki smiled to herself in irony as she thought back about how unlikely it was they’d get together; and here she was, snuggling comfortably in his arms as he sent her home. “Rich pampered princess and street jock.” She thought to herself with a laugh. “We might actually get somewhere…”