Note: I had enough fun writing One Step at a Time that I decided to follow up with a few one-shots. This first one takes place three months after One Step. -Turn the Page- ------ "Ugh..." Nene groaned as she carried one end of a large box, "These stupid decorations are heavier than they look." "I didn't hear you complaining when you volunteered us to help," Priss quipped as she held the other end of the box, "What was it you said? 'Gee Sylia, Priss and I would love to help put up the Christmas decorations'," she said as she imitated Nene's high-pitched voice. "Stop teasing me!" Nene snapped as she stomped her foot on the floor, "Besides, we're the Night Sabers, remember?" she answered back, "And the Knight Sabers stick..." "Nene," Priss interrupted, "You say that stupid saying one more time and I'm going to stick my Knight Saber boot up your scrawny Knight Saber..." "Now, now children," Daley mock scolded as he stood on top of a ladder in the middle of the room while he hung mistletoe from the ceiling, "It's not like any of us had anything planned on Christmas Eve anyways. Besides, considering that this will be Sylia's first Christmas without Nigel and with Linna..." "Speaking of the two lovebirds," Leon said as he finished securing the Christmas tree in the tree stand in the corner of the living room, "Where are they?" "Well," Nene answered, "Linna is at work, and Mackie said that Sylia had some sort of unfinished business she had to attend to." "Unfinished business?" Priss asked as she cocked her head to the side, "What sort of unfinished business?" ------ She walked the cemetery grounds, her breath showing before her in the coldness of the winter's afternoon. The dark blue suit she had on, while still elegant looking, was far more conservative than what she normally wore. As the snow under her feet crunched softly, she finally saw the grave stone. As a snow flake landed on her wide-rimmed hat, she removed her sunglasses to wipe away a tear forming at the corner of her eye. Placing the dark glasses back on, she stuck the stick of incense she had with her into the ground. The snow around her started to pick up as she lit the incense. She then placed the bouquet of flowers she'd brought with her in front of the stone marker, and sighed. "Nigel," she said softly, "We need to talk." The tombstone stood silently before her as she swallowed, "It... It's been nine months since you passed away. At the time, it felt like we both died," she whispered as a cold breeze blew by, "You were my rock, my anchor. When I would tear myself up with guilt over my part in my dad's boomer experiments and my need for revenge, you were there to keep me in check. When I would start to drink too much or reach for one too many pills, you would tell me to lay off it. Without you, it felt like my conscience was gone. Part of me felt like it had died with you, and I... I wanted to die too, I guess..." She stopped as she looked away for a second, trying to reign in her emotions. As the snow continued to fall around her, she took a deep breath, "Without you around, I became a mess. I didn't want to feel it. The pain, the loss, the guilt, any of it. I tried to build up a wall around myself so no one could ever hurt me again. I would drink myself numb, over and over again, until I didn't think I could feel anything anymore. I thought it was impossible for anyone to ever break through and touch me again. And then..." She turned back to the gravestone as she continued, "Nigel, you remember Linna? You know, the country girl who Priss convinced me to let join the Knight Sabers. At my lowest point, she reached out to me. With her help, I... I sobered up. I've been clean and sober for three months now in fact. She was there for me when I needed someone the most and..." she looked away once again from the grace marker as she looked up at the sky, feeling the tiny snowflakes delicately landing on her face. She watched silently as the smoke from the incense stick trailed up, born away by the breeze of the cold afternoon. "Nigel," she finally said softly after several more minutes went by, "I love her. We love each other. She's good to me Nigel, so kind and so sweet. Do you know," she said with an almost amused tone, "She opens the door for me when we go out. And, when I have trouble getting to sleep, she actually sings me to sleep. It's just about the cutest thing, I..." she stopped as she stared again at the grave for several seconds, "This doesn't mean I've forgotten you Nigel. I'll always love you. But... But I have to live. I have to live, and I have to move on. No one can ever replace you, but I'm finding that no one could ever replace her either. I... I guess what I've been trying to say is, wherever you are, I've found love again. I never thought I would or could, but now that I have I want to go forward. I... I've decided that I want to take our relationship the next step, but I just felt I needed to tell you first..." she took her sunglasses of as she was unable to hold the tears back anymore, "I have to let you go," she finally whispered, "I hope that, if you can hear me, you'll understand. I'm happy again, and I'd like to think if you were here you'd be happy for me too." Suddenly, the breeze picked up again. The sandalwood incense blew towards her, surrounding her in its wisps and, for the briefest of seconds, Sylia thought she detected the smell of tobacco and aftershave. Then, the breeze died. Sylia stood there a few seconds more before turning away to head back to her car. ------ Linna looked at her watch with a smile. She got up from her station and went to the coat room to get her jacket and scarf. She could just imagine the ribbing she was going to get from Priss for being absent all day while the singer and the others were decorating the Christmas tree and drinking eggnog. No problem though, she'd be over to join in on the fun soon enough. "Need a lift home?" Linna turned around and smiled at her friend Misae, "Thanks," she said, "But I'm already taken care of." "If you mean that moped of yours, you're crazy," Misae said with a shake of her head, "The roads aren't all plowed yet, and even the ones that are have ice patches." "Misae," she answered as she wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck, "I'm not about to attempt going home on my own. A... friend is picking me up." Misae made a face as she crossed her arms, "You know, you're always either alone at your apartment or hanging out with those weird friends of yours." "Meaning?" "Meaning you're never going to find a guy that way," she said matter of factly as she put an arm around Linna, "Look, you're a cute girl, and you've got that whole 'country girl naiveté' thing going that guys love." "Misae..." "Look, a few of the other office ladies and I are going over to this bar in the Ginza district this weekend. There's always hot singles there. Why not come along and..." "Yamazaki-san?" a mechanized voice asked. Linna and Misae both turned around to see their boomer manager standing in the hallway, "A Miss Sylia Stingray is downstairs in the lobby waiting for you." "Saved by the bell," Linna mumbled under her breath, "Sorry Misae, but my ride's just arrived," she said with a smile as she left her and headed for the elevator." "No problem," Misae said, "Don't worry Linna; I won't rest until I see you on the arm of a nice guy," she called over with a wink, adding "Merry Christmas." "Merry Christmas," Linna answered, rolling her eyes slightly as the doors closed and her elevator descended. A few minutes later she and Sylia were driving down the snow-covered streets in a sleek red sports car. As the wipers swept the snow from the windshield and the car came to a stop at a red light, Sylia glanced over at her passenger. "So how was your day?" she asked. "Long," Linna answered, "First I had to help with the quarterly reports, then during my lunch break the stupid vending machine boomer took my money and didn't give me my snack, and..." her voice died off as she noticed something, "Um, Sylia?" she asked, "I thought we were going to help the others put up the decorations. The Silky Doll's that way," she said as she pointed to her left. "We're going out to dinner first," she answered softly, "We need to talk..." ------ The box fell to the ground, the sounds of shattered glass and china filling the room. The four people in the room stood looking down at it, no one in any sort of a hurry to acknowledge what just happened or open it to see what sort of damage had just taken place. Finally, after a few more minutes of silence, one of them spoke. "Sylia is going to kill us," Nene groaned. Priss brushed her dark bangs out of her eyes with an irritated look on her face. Both Knight Sabers then turned to glare at Leon. "Don't blame me," he said defensively, "If you two hadn't left that one box in my way..." "Okay everyone, calm down," Daley said, "What exactly got smashed?" Priss opened the cardboard box and looked in, "Let's see... Okay, it's not as bad as we thought. Just some glass balls for the Christmas tree and a snow globe," looking closer, she added, "The junk in the globe spilled all over the non-broken decorations, but we can clean them off easily enough..." "Hey guys," Mackie said cheerfully as he came in, "What's going on?" "Mackie," Leon said with a smile as he walked over, "Just the guy I was looking for. Could you grab us some paper towels to clean up a little spill?" "Sure I... What's that junk all over Sylia's Persian rug?" he asked. The group looked down to see that, sure enough, the contents of the snow globe had seeped through the box and stained a rather expensive rug Sylia owned. "Sylia is going to kill us," Nene whined yet again. "Shit," Leon groaned, "I need some coffee to deal with this." "Make it two coffees," Priss added. ------ Linna and Sylia soon found themselves at the same expensive restaurant where they'd shared their first date. The leader of the Knight Sabers smiled fondly as her love opened the door for her. It was such a simple gesture, but it was just one of a multitude of little ways in which the younger woman showed her affection for her. Once inside, they were quickly shown to a private dining booth in the corner. Linna watched as Sylia gave their orders to the waitress. As the young redhead left, the office lady leaned forward, "Sylia," she said softly, "Now that we're here, what did you want to talk about so badly?" Sylia looked silently at her for a few seconds before reaching across the table to place her hand over Linna's, "I went to visit Nigel's gravesite today," she said nervously. "What?" Linna asked, "Sylia, you shouldn't have gone alone. I would've gone with you to..." Sylia shook her head, "I had to go there alone. There was something I had to do... Before tonight." Linna was slowly becoming nervous, "Sylia, what's going on?" she asked, "Why are you being so mysterious?" "Linna," Sylia said as she gave her girlfriend's hand a gentle squeeze, "I... I love you, with all my heart. And I realize I have more than my fair share of shortcomings. Heh, way more in fact. I'm a control freak, demanding, obsessive-compulsive... But... But somehow you're able to see past all that. No, not just past; you see me for the mess that I am and love me anyways." Linna was about to speak up in protest when Sylia motioned for her to wait, "Please, let me finish. I... I can't promise you that the future will always be rosy, but... but I do promise you that I'll never take you for granted. You're more than just a lover to me; you're my best friend. I want to spend the rest of my life with you Linna, and I want to make it official." With that, the attractive older woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a small case, opening it to reveal a beautiful diamond ring. Linna's breath caught in her throat as Sylia then got out of her chair and knelt down on one knee, "Linna," she said tenderly as she looked into her deep blue eyes, "Will you marry me?" Linna's eyes widened as she looked at Sylia kneeling before her. She brought her hand up to her mouth, unable to speak as tears of joy began to run down her cheeks. She finally nodded her head as she pulled Sylia into a tight embrace. The two women held onto one another as they both savored the moment. Finally, Sylia pulled back slightly as she took Linna's hand in hers. She placed the ring on her finger, and then leaned forward as they kissed each other passionately. "I love you," she said again as they separated. "I love you too," Linna finally managed to say, adding "Merry Christmas." Sylia smiled fondly, "Merry Christmas," she whispered back as Linna moved over slightly in the booth so she could sit next to her. The two held one another tenderly as Sylia ran her fingers through her love's short brown hair. ------ "Any luck yet?" Priss asked the blonde searching through various sites on the state of the art computer Sylia had installed in the pit. "Well," Nene answered as she looked away from the computer screen, "From what I can figure out from these sites, most snow globes are filled with a mixture of water and antifreeze..." "Antifreeze?" Leon groaned, "How in the hell are we supposed to clean antifreeze out of an antique Persian rug?" "That's your problem," Priss said as she scowled at him, "You're the one who went and broke it, and Sylia and Linna are going to be home any moment, so..." the singer was cut off as the elevator doors opened and Daley came in, followed by Mackie. "It's okay," Daley said with a self-satisfied smile, "The emergency has been taken care of." "Huh?" Nene asked. "How has it been taken care of?" Priss asked suspiciously. "Simple," the AD Police officer answered smugly, "We simply stashed away the rug and put another one down in its place." "Daley," Mackie asked nervously, "Are you sure sis isn't going to catch on?" "Relax," he answered, "Before she has time to notice, we'll have taken it somewhere to be professionally cleaned and put back where it belongs, so..." he stopped as the elevator doors opened and a very happy Sylia and Linna entered the room, the younger woman's arm resting in Sylia's as she rested her head on her shoulder. "Hey Sylia, Linna," Priss said as she noticed the expressions on her fellow Knight Sabers' faces, "You two look happy." "Yeah," Nene said as she quickly exited out of the computer before either woman could see what she was looking at, "What's up?" Linna smiled practically from ear to ear as she held her hand up to show her engagement ring, "Sylia asked me to marry her," she answered happily. "Really?" Leon asked with a smirk, "And what was your answer? Ow!" he whined as Priss elbowed him in the side. "Jerk," she said out of corner of her mouth. "Good for you," Daley said happily as he came over and shook their hands. The others soon joined in as they likewise congratulated the couple. Once things settled down a bit, Sylia turned to Linna with a smile, "Linna dear," she said, "Could you go upstairs with Mackie and bring down our gifts?" "Of course," she answered, quickly hugging Sylia once again before she and Mackie headed for the elevator. As the doors closed and the elevator headed up, Sylia turned back to the others. "Well now," she said as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "Who wants to explain why, when Linna and I arrived and I went to put away our coats in the closet in my office, there was an expensive rug rolled up in the corner behind Henderson's grey overcoat?" "Busted," Nene sighed as Priss gave Daley a dirty look. "Hey," he said defensively, "How was I to know she was going to look there?" He then looked with the others over to Leon. "Sure, throw me under the bus," he grumbled, adding "I could really use another cup of coffee right now." -End- End Notes- In the English dub of Bubblegum Crisis 2040, there's a hilarious part where the Knight Sabers beat the AD Police once again to the scene of a rogue boomer. Leon growls out, "Damn those Knight Sabers! I need a coffee." Somehow the idea of Leon needing coffee to deal with bad news struck me as funny, so I decided to use it here.
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