Chat room adventures

Alice rolled her eyes and was having some difficulty with carrying her claymore, katanas and daggers, not to mention holding up her gown. "I'm going to get back into my jeans, although these boots are so much more comfortable than mine. She looked down at the tan boots that laced up her leg.

"Alright, need some help getting these to your room?"

Alice shook her head, "nope, I'll be back to normal in a moment."

She turned and bounced as best she could to her room.

"How long will it take to get there?" Scipio asked Adam, popping his head into the room.

"About another hour I think. I've locked onto the co-ordinates," Adam replied, staring at the screen in front of him.

"Okay, shout me when we're almost there." Scipio turned and was about to leave.

"Wait. Where are you going?"

"To practice."

"Now?"

"I want to be able to help my sister."

"Okay."

Alice pulled her pants on and her t-shirt before pulling her hair back up into her bun. When she examined herself in the mirror to make sure that everything looked to her decently dorky standards she couldn't help but notice how her new boots made her look exceedingly girly, but she didn't step on the hem of her pants and they were so much more agile in them.

Satisfied she loaded her claymore onto her back, along with her katanas, and strapped her daggers to the outside of her boots. Then she wandered down to the practice room where she found Scipio. She grinned evily an idea to scare him out of his wits growing in her head.

Scipio turned the double bladed axe in his hands and then practiced slicing the air with it. He turned half a circle and then cut down before moving quickly to the right.

"Good blade," he murmured. "Good balance." Scipio spun round in a full circle, keeping the axe blade meter from his body all the way and then striking out at the last minute. "Very good." He placed the weapon down and drew out some daggers. He started spinning them and then he heard a footstep. He whipped around tofind himself face to face with Alice, her claymore inches from his throat.

"Hi there," she greeted him.

"Hi..." Scipio replied weekly, taking a step back. "You want to practice?" Alice nodded and Scipio retrieved the axe.

"You're using an axe? I don't have anything that goes good with that, use your sword."

Scipio shugged and grabbed his sword, "you're going to use the claymore?"

"Rather I use my katanas?"

"Um....which are you better at?"

Alice's smile was innocently evil, "pick and see."

"Um...lets go for the claymore then."

Alice swung her claymore with such a force that if she had not pulled it to a stop would have broken his sword in half.

"How about we go to the Katanas."

Alice giggled and replaced the claymore, "that might be best, its really hard to break swords with these."

"Good." Scipio stepped forward, sliding his blade into place so that it impacted with one of the katanas. The clash was loud and echoed through the practice room as they moved again, dancing away and then back together to touch blades again. Over and over they parted and crossed, weaving back and forth.

"You're good with the katanas too," Scipio complimented.

"I know," Alice said, feinting to the left and then sliding her katanas right to meet the resistance of Scipio's sword.

"You got any tips?" Scipio backed away a step and then swung forward, building the power behind his strike so that Alice's arm shook when she intercepted it.

"Yeah. Move quicker!" Alice said, suddenly dashing forward but Scipio side stepped and avoided the attack.

Alice chuckled and begun using the true katana technique, her speed doubled and the two blades moved in an elegent sweeps and curves that made her feel like she was floating. Until she tripped over the hilt of Scipio's axe and sliced open her arm on the blade.

She swore but flipped over and tried to continue with the practice session, but Scipio was done now.

"I'm sorry, Alice, I'm really sorry!" Scipio apologised, pulling his shirt over his head and wrapping it around her arm as he pulled her from the room. "Come on, we'll have Nutty fix it."

"Your shirt..."

"I'll get another one."

"Don't. I like this one. I mean I like you without your shirt. I mean..." Scipio came to an abrupt halt and turned to face her. Their breath mingled in the air and Alice's blood sank through the shirt and across Scipio's fingers. He leaned in and wrapped his free hand in the hair at the back of her head, pulling her closer so that he could plant a tender kiss on her lips.

"Now let's find Nutty," he whispered gently.

Alice followed Scipio, her feet moving in an unconcious will guided by his hand. She was floating along a sea of incoherence. This kiss was different from the one at the match. There it was mainly to distract Lionel, and she had been the one to kiss him.

They arrived at the control pannel, "where's nutty?" Scipio asked.

Adam got one look at Alice and sighed, "whatcha do this time?"

Alice rolled her eyes, "I tripped."

"You tripped?" Adam repeated with a deep sigh.

"Yup," Alice replied.

"She's gone to her room," Adam informed them. Scipio nodded and escorted Alice from the room, guiding her carefully down the hall.

"Should we knock?" Alice wondered. Scipio nodded, knocked and then opened the door without waiting for a response.

"Alice tripped," he said by way of explanation.

Nutty rolled her eyes and got up.

"I just need a bandage," Alice said glancing at Scipio. "He dragged me here."

"What did you trip over this time?"

"His axe..."

"That where this came from?"

Alice nodded. Nutty rolled her eyes again and healed it. Then Alice and Scipio headed down to the kitchens to find something to eat while Adam dealed with finding Heather.

"I think they're all getting tired of my klutziness," Alice said. "I seem to get them into an awful lot of trouble don't I? Not lately though, just in general."

"Don't be silly," Scipio protested, "you're as graceful as a swan." Alice raised an eyebrow and he laughed. "Okay so maybe a little less graceful but they don't mind and neither do I."

"Really?" Alice asked.

"Really," Scipio confirmed. "It would be no fun without you around, I'm glad I got the chance to meet you."

"Scipio..." Alice hesitated, pausing with her fork halfway to her mouth.

"Yeah?"

"When you kissed me earlier, did you... why did you do that?"

Alice saw Scipio blush, "you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Alice said taking a quick bite and drink trying not to leave an akward pause.

"Because I wanted to," Scipio said.

Alice's heart soared, but she didn't dare to hope, she knew better than that.

"Oh," she said simply and put a peice of cheese in her mouth.

"Alice, Scipio, come quick!" Bella exclaimed as she threw the door open.

"What is it?" Scipio asked, dropping his knife and fork with a clatter as he stood from his seat and hurried out into the hall.

"There's a ship on the radar, we're about to make contact with them. We think it might involve Heather and those aliens," Bella replied as the three walked quickly to the others.

"Adam, have you opened communications?" Scipio demanded.

"They've not responded yet," Adam replied calmly.

Alice stayed behind re-attaching her claymore and katanas. Meeting up with other ships usually met with hand to hand combat with them.

"What are you doing?" Scipio asked.

"She's smart," Bella commented and shoved her diamond sword down her bra, "making contact with ships always ends up in hand to hand combat it seems."

"So I should probably get stuff around too?"

"Yes."