As a wonderful little note, the end of this chapter... well, the part that's almost the end, but not quite... is dedicated to KOS-MOS rox for being such a loyal, patient reader. You make up the vast majority of our reviews! It's four in the morning, so Sapphire's prolly asleep (heck, I'd be scared if she wasn't...), but I'm sure she's thankful as well. Hey! I guess that means I'll be writing this chapter with no help or inspiration! This could get dangerous... XD

If you haven't read the disclaimer by now, I'm scared.

Don't blame me for bad early morning grammar.

Oh, I'm also considering writing some other fics. Other than original stuff, ShionxAllen (Namely this fic and Toast) is all I've been writing lately. Any suggestions for what else I (or we, because Sapphire Dragon is oh-so-wonderful) could do? Other games could work as well. My game library is pretty good. XD I'll agree to anything that doesn't gross me out. (Like, on the level of MatthewsxAnybody XDXDXD) I will admit that my fic-writing will slow when school starts and I am once again flooded with Calculus homework. Then again... I have four classes with my coauthor! FOUR! OUT OF SEVEN! Who woulda guessed? Of course, I know nothing about our Statistics teacher. There are rumors of horror... But I do know our Env Sci teacher, and our Sociology teacher (I've had them both before), and I hear that our English teacher's pretty cool... Too bad all of those (except Sociology) are AP classes. XD We're going to die, I swear. I'm more likely to be drowned in Calculus C homework, though. If I drown in math work, you can bet I won't be writing fics!

Oh, my. I've ranted far too long. On with the story!

Chapter Seven: Surprise

"Hmm..." Jr. looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose we're just going to have to hit it until it shifts."

Shion glanced over at the boy. "Hit it?"

Jr. pulled out his guns with a grin on his face. "Yep. Hit it." These pack more of a punch than you'd ever expect. His grin got wider. He knew this was going to be fun.

"I FOUND YOU!"

"Hm?" chaos barely had a chance to turn when he was hit with a flying ball of flesh. Not just any flesh, either. He grunted a little from the impact as he fell to the floor.

"You don't know how long it took me to figure out where you went to..." The girl shifted, trying to find a comforable spot on chaos's chest.

"Um..." She was even crazier than he'd thought! "You're kind of... heavy..."

Emily just sighed, having either not heard him or not cared.

"Emily!"

The girl's eyes shot open as she heard the yell echo through the halls of the Elsa.

"What in the world are you doing this time?"

Even though Jr. had done most of the work, Shion was the first to enter the room. She didn't do it especially enthusiastically, either. The scientist simply walked in, calm and collected as ever, and planted her feet in front of Allen's bed.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" There was a slightly harsh tone in her voice that she hadn't really intended, but Allen kind of deserved it.

"C-Chief..." he looked up at her from the bed with an expression of slight surprise. Was it really that amazing that she had come after him? No. Something whispered in the back of his mind. She would do the same for anyone in the department, the company... No, anyone at all. Allen's eyes softened, and he rested his face in the pillow once more. "I'm sorry," came the muffled reply, though it didn't answer her question at all.

"You didn't answer me," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "You go through all that, and all you do is run away!"

Allen winced. He should have known that all this was coming.

"You run away without even waiting for a response!"

Yeah, that's what I did all right.

"Am I really that scary?"

Allen looked back up quickly, his gaze locked on Shion's eyes, looking for some hint of a joke, but... he didn't find one. She was serious. She seriously thought that he found her intimidating... Well, in a way, he did, but... Not like this. Not how she meant.

"Well?"

Jr. edged out of the room. Shion sounded really ticked off. That was definitely something to keep out of. Jr. scratched the back of his head. Sorry, Allen. I'd help you, but... He glanced back at the cabin door.

"Shion's damn scary when she's upset..."

It was that idiot's fault for wanting to get involved with her, anyway. Nothing to do with me...

"Of course you're not scary, Chief..."

"Then why in the world would you run away without waiting for a reaction!"

Allen muttered something that Shion couldn't quite hear. Her expression softened. "What was that?"

"...Embarrassment."

Oh. Well that made sense, kind of. Shion sat down on the bed next to her emotionally fragile coworker.

"You don't want to see me as anything other than your subordinate."

Shion turned to look at him, but his face was still buried in the pillow.

"Allen... sit up and talk to me like a normal person." It hadn't come out sounding like an order. Good... Shion was never very good at controlling her tone of voice. It was... what it was.

He sat up slowly and without complaint. His eyes were slightly red and seemed a bit more empty than usual.

What have I... what have I done to him all this time?

"That was the conclusion I came to long ago. I'd be lying if I said that I don't still believe it."

If I hadn't been so dense...

"So you can just forget it all. Let things go back to normal. I'll try to control myself better, this time."

But this may be the time to fix all of it!

Without stopping to think, Shion held her hands to the sides of Allen's face. She wore a stern expression. "You never let me respond."

She leaned forward and pulled her startled coworker the rest of the way, drawing him into a soft, simple kiss.

As she pulled away, she kept her hands on his cheeks and looked into Allen's eyes for some sort of relief or acceptance. Instead, he only looked confused. This kind of thing happens when all you believe about another person is tossed in the garbage. Shion let her hands fall.

"Let other people think for once, before you assume things, okay?" She stood slowly, giving one last glance to the stunned man as she left the room. He really looked like he needed time alone now more than ever.

Pity. That's what it has to be. She'd comfort anyone; that's one of the traits I'm fond of. I didn't think she'd go this far with it, but... I guess it's not beyond her. She wants me back to normal. I... kind of want that, too, but... I'm not so sure that I can go back to normal. It's difficult living without knowing. It's harder facing rejection every day. It's even worse when the other person will do anything to comfort you.

...I shouldn't have stayed. Maybe I can convince someone to grant me a transfer, but I can't stay here.

Allen did what he did best at times like these.

He ran.

And this time, he wasn't going to hide in a place where he could be found. Last time... he'd wanted people to come. He'd needed the comfort. Now he just wanted to escape.

Ahhhhhh! So depressing. Sometimes I think I make Allen out to be worse than he actually is. More of a wimp, I mean. But somehow, this is just how I see it happening. The poor guy has been neglected for so long, and suddenly there's a glimmer of hope... But he isn't really willing to believe it just yet. So he gets to run some more. Ignore how I make him look; I really do like the guy. If I didn't, why in the world would I write ShionxAllen fanfiction? XD

Don't kill me if you don't like this chapter. I'm not very good at working without my inspirational buddy.

It's now 5.26 A.M. Do you know where your bishounen are? XDXDXD