2010-06-07 - Fraternizing

When Anew Returner answers the door to her room that evening, for once, she's not wearing her uniform.

It's a rarity for Anew to be wearing anything but the standard-issue Celestial Being uniform. Even on those rare occasions when she was planetside, Anew usually defaulted to wearing the plain navy uniform delegated to off-duty officers. If Lyle had not made it acutely aware to her that this was a date and not a casual get-together, she would likely still be dressed in full Celestial Being regalia.

However, this was a Special Occasion, and Special Occasions called for Specal Clothing.

She wears a plain white sundress, straps tied together behind her neck in her bow. Her footwear is equally austere; simple white snadals cover her feet.

"H-Hi," she says, finally. Nervous? Only a little.

FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO, LOCKON'S QUARTERS "What about this one?" wonders Lyle Dylandy; he has the contents of his (surprisingly well-stocked) closet mostly spread over his bed, and is facing his orange Haro while holding up a shirt, waiting for the little robot's impressions. "UGLY COLOUR!" Haro chides, hopping up and down on the counterfeit Meister's desk. "UGLY COLOUR!" With a sigh, Lyle gives the shirt a look, and then tosses it in the 'no' pile, before he gets back to rooting. NOW, ANEW RETURNER'S DOOR Lyle Dylandy stands outside of Anew's quarters, adjusting his jacket. He didn't want to /over/dress or anything, since it's just a date, and so when the door opens the brown-haired Gundam Meister is standing there in a black slacks and suit jacket, with a green dress shirt - he leaves this untucked, and the top button undone, to make it more casual - and a similarly green handkerchief in the breast pocket. Not overdoing it, not underdoing it, and it only took him two hours and the help of a sophisticated artificial intelligence to pick it out. Secretly: He has a black tie secreted away in a pocket /just in case/. "Wow, you look great, Anew!" Lyle says to the white-clad young woman, smiling at her. Of course, he's never seen her in anything but her Celestial Being uniform before, so this is a treat no matter how you look at it.

Anew looks down and blushes. "I wasn't sure where we would be going," she says. "I hope that it's all right."

Unlike Lyle, her entire closet was filled with sets of the same Celestial Being uniform. Unable to choose anything from the few 'other' outfits she had in her possession, she actively went out looking for something to wear... and unfortunately for her, she didn't have a Haro to assist in the decision-making.

She steps out into the hallway with him, the door automatically shutting behind her with a mechanical 'zhiiir'. Unsure of what she should be doing with her hands (should she be holding his? she wonders worriedly), she instead clasps hers behind her back, then looks up at the Cherudim Gundam Meister.

"I'm glad you're okay," she says. It's been days since the attack on the Mercucian prison, but she never had the opportunity to tell him that she was relieved he came out of it mostly unscathed. She had been more than a little worried; first the Ptolemiaos, then his unit. She wasn't sure he would be able to get away with them.

With a bit of a laugh, Lyle watches Anew as she blushes. Awww. That's just too... Aww. "Trust me, it's more than just all right. You know, you're really pretty... You should wear dresses more often." This pose was brought to you by mild sexism. Once they're both out in the hallway, Lyle starts towards the hangar bay, presumably with Anew alongside; his plan at this point is to go get one of the Ptolemaios' shuttles, which is probably a better 'date' vehicle than 'a terrorist Gundam'. You see, he has a keen analytical mind. "Hm?" he wonders, as he looks towards Anew when she expresses her feelings about his being okay. "Oh, well... Thanks, ha ha," he laughs, a bit sheepishly. "That guy was pretty tough, but I didn't get much more than a scratch or two. I'm just glad I didn't have to make you worry any more than you did," Lyle notes, grinning as he returns his attention to the path ahead.

If it were possible for the purple-haired innovade to turn any pinker, she would have already. She can't ever recall a time when anyone complimented her on her attire (not that she had much in the means of attire to wear), and until now, there was never a time when she can remember being called pretty.

But she likes it. She likes the feeling that Lyle's able to draw out of her. Even if it's tinged with embarrassment, it's a good feeling, even if it's an unfamiliar one.

Anew has to adjust her pace to meet Lyle's; she's shorter, and her legs aren't quite as long as his are. "Ian-san is almost done his work on Cherudim," she says. "This week has been busy for us." Between the damaged Ptolemy and the damaged mobile suits (and in Allelujah's case, damaged pilots!), there was plenty of work to be done, even if there wasn't anyone to fight. "It should be ready for the next time you're deployed to battle."

It never occurs to Anew that they should try to talk about something other than work.

"I was glad I was able to help out," she says. "Though there's not a lot that I can do onboard the Ptolemaios." She managed to assist in piloting; she even aided in the repair of Ptolemaios' systems. But she wasn't able to do as much as the others did.

The two finally reach the hangar bay.

Of course, Lyle doesn't walk /too/ fast, since he doesn't want to tire Anew out before their date. Traditionally, that part comes /after/. The sniper doesn't seem to mind as Anew talks about work, since he knows from past experience that the poor girl doesn't seem to have much of a life outside of it. This is totally the source of his motivation behind the date in the first place, and definitely not anything else at all. "You know, Anew, you really do a lot," the counterfeit Meister says. "I mean, you help keep everything working, you help out with the Ptolemy during battle... And most importantly, you take care of all of us, right? So, you shouldn't talk like that," Lyle adds, with a grin and a wink. "Otherwise we'll all feel bad about how little /we/ do in comparison!" Once they're in the hangar though, it's just a hop and a skip into the shuttle, and then a few minutes later they're on their way towards a nearby Katharon-allied colony. Lyle is piloting, because he is a guy.

It's true. Outside of the Ptolemaios, she doesn't have much of a life. Celestial Being is virtually all that Anew Returner has ever known. Strangely, this fact doesn't bother her in the least. It feels completely natural, until she starts to think about it.

As Lyle well knows.

"You are probably right." Anew might not give herself enough credit. "But without you, there wouldn't be a Ptolemaios for us to work on." Well, him and the other Gundam Meisters.

Though Anew spends a brunt of her day piloting the Ptolemaios, Lyle is the one to pilot them to their destination. Anew doesn't mind, though. With as much time as she spends piloting the ship, the break is a welcome one.

Anew presses her hands against the window, peering out of it as they approach the colony. "Where are we going?" she asks. She hasn't done a lot of traveling before; chances are, if Lyle names the place, she won't recognize it.

While Lyle can understand how some people who don't actually go out in a mobile suit and /fight/ might get the feeling that their contributions are somehow lesser, he's a clever and insightful enough individual to realise that this is, to use the technical term, straight up bullshit. However, he doesn't mind the flattery. He /did/ almost beat the 1 Gundam, after all, and certainly kept Leo Stenbuck occupied long enough for the other Meisters to get some damage done, for Fort Stroud to be taken, and for the Ptolemaios II to get away in the end. But it's way nicer to hear a pretty girl say it, than to say it himself. By the time they come in view of the colony, luckily not /too/ much later since the ship was already in the vicinity - imagine like, four hours of awkward pre-date driving smalltalk! - and Lyle watches Anew out of the corner of his eye as she looks at the colony, pressed against the window. "Oh, well... I have a few friends down here," he explains. What he doesn't elaborate on is that they are 'spy friends'. "Anyway, one of them has an Italian restaurant, it's really nice, but not too dressy... I thought it'd be a good place for your first date ever, heh. Impressive, but not too much pressure!" Yes, Lyle thinks he's enormously clever, even as he steers the shuttle towards the colony's dock.

An Italian restaurant. Had he remembered she liked pasta from the first time he made her dinner? Anew smiles a little at her reflection in the window, hands still pressed against the shuttle's thick glass.

And before long, they're out of the shuttle, and out on the city streets.

Anew had spent the past few days filled with apprehension; with the date of their... date finalized with the rescue of Allelujah Haptism, the pressure was finally on. The little free time she had she devoted to gleaning information on dates from movies and books, though neither was quite helpful. Nothing probably could have prepared her for this.

And as she follows after him, the debate rages on. Should she reach for his hand, or wait for him to reach for her own? Was hand-holding even expected this early in the operation? Would they even hold hands? She wasn't really sure.

Suddenly, Anew wishes she had pockets.

Fortunately, Lyle Dylandy can't read minds, so he's not aware of the anxiety that's going on in Anew's head. However, he honestly hopes he isn't going to be measured up against some romantic comedy ideal, or something, because there's just no way he can compete with Neo Gerard Butler. "Is everything okay?" Lyle does wonder eventually, looking over at Anew; while he can't read her mind like some /Innovade/, he can see there's something up with her expression, and her body language, and her relative silence. As they walk down what might seem like a normal street if it weren't for the visible curve of the colony cylinder, they pass through an otherwise perfectly normal shopping district, with normal stores and everything. Just, you know, in space. "Well, it's not that much further, anyway," the sniper says, his bluish-green eyes turning forward again, looking for the place he recognises.

"I'm a little nervous," Anew admits. "Because I've never been on a date before." They've been over this before, when he first asked her, and she knows her worries should have been qualmed then, but... "You've probably been on many dates before this one because you're--"

Good-looking, Anew doesn't say, though it's the first of a half-dozen adjectives that come to mind that could describe the counterfeit meister.

"I don't know if I'll be able to meet your expectations."

And it was those imagined expectations, more than the actual date itself, that had her feeling apprehensive.

At that, Lyle gives a bit of a laugh. "Because I'm what? Do you see me as some kind of playboy, going around seducing every pretty lady I see?" the sniper wonders, and now yeah he's teasing Anew a little bit - but it's good natured! He doesn't mean any harm! With a rueful sigh and a shake of his head, Lyle stops, and offers his arm out to Anew. Hopefully she's been watching enough horrible movies lately that she knows she's supposed to take his arm. "Let me tell you something, Anew. The only expectations I have is that we have a good time together," Lyle explains, with a smile playing over his lips. "And that you let me pay for dinner. That's all. You don't have to worry about anything else. Just be yourself, Miss Anew Returner."

All at once, he has to demonstrate that every adjective her mind came up with in that moment suited him to the T. He really had a nice smile. He always knew what to say and how to say. And he knew exactly how to put her at ease.

And when Lyle offers her his arm, she looks from the arm, to him, then back down to his harm. With hesitation spurred only by her own worries, she takes it into her own.

The anxiety over her is lifted, replaced with something unfamiliar, but also comforting. Anew was not the sort of person who doted on others physically; she was the sort of person who would cook or clean for a person before offering them a hug or the touch of a shoulder.

"Thank you, Lyle," she says softly.

Another moment of silence fills the space between the two before Anew speaks again. "This is my first time on this colony," she says. "Until I joined Celestial Being, I had never been to a colony." Not as far as she can remember, anyway. "When I first stood on one, I almost couldn't believe it. That something made by man could hold so much life."

She looks skyward. "But no matter what, a colony can't replace the real thing. No matter what the technology, it's not possible to reproduce the Earth perfectly."

Although he might /not/ be a playboy, Lyle is certainly good this sort of thing. It's people, though; people are in a large part what he's good at, even more than flying around in a Gundam and shooting things. He understands them, and he knows how to deal with them... Although Anew is a bit harder to read than most people, for reasons Lyle can't identify, which adds to the lavender-haired young woman's mystique. Thus, the date. So, arm in arm with Anew, he walks down the street, noticing where she's looking. "Hmm, maybe. Colonies aren't so bad, though. Maybe I'm just turning into a Spacenoid, huh?" He was born on Earth, in real Ireland, not Neo Ireland. He lived most of his life on Earth... But most of the most important things that have happened in his adult life, have happened in space. Still, it's easier to find a place to smoke on Earth. As the pair passes by a flower stand, Lyle slows a bit and exchanges a few credits for a flower, which he promptly presents to Anew. This is proper date etiquette, probably, somewhere; regardless, it's a Gerber daisy, a lavender one. "Anyway, there are pretty things up here in space, too."

Anew's gaze shifts from the sky back to the meister walking alongside her. "You were born on Earth?" she asks. With the population of Earth about equal to the population of the colonies, it was almost as likely that he was from the colones as he was the planet that stood alongside them. She had never thought to ask him about any of this, about the place where he had grown up. But now that it had been brought into the discussion, she found herself overflowing with curiosity about the place where Lyle had lived.

But before she can get her answer, Lyle slows to the stop. Anew watches, still clutching his arms, her eyes wide and curious, as he exchanges a few credits for a flower.

A flower that is then offered to her.

Anew takes the flower into her free hand, and stares down at it, uncomprehending. It is a night of first for the young Innovade; never can she recall anyone buying her a flower before. Slowly, her expression softens, and she smiles down at Lyle's gift.

"Do you remember the first time you went into space?" she asks, moving forward alongside him.

"Haven't you read my file?" Lyle wonders of Anew, with a cheeky grin. She must have access to /some/ of his data since, well... He's not registered in Veda as a Meister in the /first/ place, so he can't imagine much of his background is well protected. "But yeah, Earth, born and raised. I lived in Ireland for most of my life, and then I joined the Earth Federation Army." Yep, he used to be one of /those guys/. Lyle is, ultimately, glad to see that the flower is well-received, even if it takes a few moments for Anew to really catch up on what it is. He grins, and keeps walking alongside the lavender-haired young woman. "My first time in space? It was during training. I didn't really leave Earth much until after I joined the AEUG," he explains, in a bit of an undertone; they might be in allied space, but wandering around shouting HEY, I'M A TERRORIST isn't a good idea. "At first, I thought it was pretty scary, you know? Just a thin protection between you and... Nothing. But these days, I like it a lot more."

"I haven't," Anew says, unable to determine whether or not Lyle is teasing or serious. "Should I have?" The thought had never occured to Anew Returner to look through Lyle's file--or anyone else's--for that matter. It seemed somehow intrusive, to dig through someone else's history without their knowledge or consent. If she had to, she'd rather learn about them directly from them at their own pace.

"You were in the Earth Federation army?" For some reason, she had assumed that he had been working for the AEUG his entire adult life--or at least until joining Celestial Being. Never had it occured to her that he may have worked for someone else, least of all the organization they clashed heads with the most. "Why did you leave them?"

Honestly, Lyle would hope that she didn't just go looking through his file, because that would be a little bit creepy with the whole 'going on a date' thing thrown into the mix. But it was still fair game for a joke. "I was," Lyle says, nodding his head. "I was an orphan, didn't have a penny to my name... So they paid for my college education, and then once I was done, all I had to do was a few tours with the armed forces." Simple, right? Super simple. "It was fine, until the Titans happened." Yep, that old story. "Once the Titans started doing whatever they wanted, I defected to the AEUG - well, Karaba, really. On Earth." Lyle shrugs his free shoulder, slightly. "Eventually, I was picked to join Amuro Ray's squadron, and then a while later I got shot down, and crashed onto the Ptolemy, and the rest is history." The last year has been... Really strange, for Lyle Dylandy.

The Titans. Anew of them, and what they had done. But that's not the only name uttered by Lyle that she recognizes. Amuro Ray was a name well-known by virtually everyone. Even the smallest of schoolchildren knew his name, and what he had done during the One Year War.

Virtually anyone working for Katharon would be happy to be work under someone like Amuro Ray.

"Why did you join us?" she asks. As much as she liked Sumeragi-san, she wasn't well-regarded among Katharon; in fact, Celestial Being's reputation had deteriorated significantly since she first joined the organization. A shift from working under Amuro's command to working under Sumeragi's would be seen as most by a demotion. And though Lyle had been rescued by them, he was under no obligation to replace his brother. They weren't the same. "If you continued to work for the AEUG, you wouldn't have to take the place of your brother."

"Well, I did get shot down, and you guys did save me," Lyle says, in response. When his Zeta Plus crashed on the Ptolemy, Lyle himself was out for the better part of a week, on account of his head having impacted with the linear seat's console; if it hadn't been for his suit helmet, he'd be dead. As it was... "Besides, Miss Sumeragi asked nicely, and I've never been one to leave a woman in need." He very definitely does not say 'because I'm spying on you for the rest of Katharon via Amuro Ray and Kai Shiden, and am using my position to ensure that Celestial Being remains useful to the rest of the organisation'. Because this is a date, and that would be counterproductive. Finally, though, they get to the restaurant; it's a smaller place, not something big and fancy. Probably family run.

Telling your date that you're spying on her and all of her friends is probably not the sort of thing you want to mention on a first date, no.

When they step inside the restaurant, Anew steers close to Lyle as she peers inside from their place at the entrance. Bright white tablecloths, the quiet chattering of the other patrons, the smell of pasta sauce and fresh bread backing in the oven. And when she has finally taken everything in, she steps back beside her date.

Their wait is a short one; the restaurant is not particularly busy and before long the two of them are seated.

Anew flips through her menu, eyes narrowing on the many choices. "Have you been here before?" she asks, eyes peering over the menu.

Telling your date that you're spying on her and all of her friends is probably not the sort of thing you want to mention on a first date, no.

When they step inside the restaurant, Anew steers close to her, taking in the sights and sounds from behind her date. Bright white tablecloths, the quiet chattering of the other patrons, the smell of pasta sauce on the burner.

"It's nice," Anew says.

Their wait is a short one; the restaurant is not particularly busy, and before too long, the two of them are seated. Menus are distributed, and a basket of bread is put out on the table. Anew flips through her menu, eyes narrowing over the many selections. It's always difficult for her to settle on something, especially when there's so many choices to be had.

Eventually she settles on the pasta alfredo.

The conversation segues to work on the Ptolemy, and Anew talks about how she's worried about Sumeragi, and how she has started drinking again. The matter is obviously one of great concern to Anew, who explains that she intentionally emptied the ship of alcoholic beverages for this very reason.

When the check is paid and they're on the verge of leaving, Anew scoops the remainder of the bread into a napkin, and slips it into her bag.

The really nice thing about the place is that Lyle knows the owner; he is, to nobody's surprise, sort of a stereotypically jovial fat little Italian man, who asks about what Lyle's been up to and where he found such a pretty girl willing to go anywhere with him. They get the 'best seat in the house', although this may be as much because it's not too busy as because of Lyle's connections. For his part, Lyle gets the pene pollo, which he's assured is absolutely the best thing they serve - right up until Anew orders, when /she/ is assured that /that/ is the best thing they serve. The owner is a happy guy. Throughout the dinner and conversation, the sniper is highly attentive to what Anew has to say; in fact, he lets her take the lead in the conversation, letting her talk about whatever she wants to talk about, and giving the appropriate nods and interjections here and there to show that he is actually paying attention to her. Sumeragi's drinking is, admittedly, kind of problematic, though. Once they've finished, and Lyle has paid the check - the owner insists on hugging Lyle, and Anew in turn, albeit a bit longer than he hugged Lyle, those wacky Neo Europeans - it's gotten dark out inside the colony, a bit of a chill in the air as the pair steps back out onto the street. "So!" the sniper says, looking towards Anew. "How was it, huh?"

Anew has never been someone who's been very physically affectionate, in part because she herself, has not experienced much physical affection in her short lifetime. A pat to the shoulder, the touch of a hand--these are the few things she's managed since joining Celestial Being.

So the sudden embrace of a near-stranger takes her by surprise.

And while at first, she's stiff within her arms, Anew finds herself relaxing beneath his grip. "Thank you for the meal," she says to him.

But soon they're outdoors. Anew suddenly finds herself wishing that she had thought to bring a jacket. Who could have known that it got so cool at nights on the colonies?

"It was very good," she says. "It has been a long time since I've gone out to eat. Usually," she says, "I just make what I want myself."

She wraps her arms around her.

"Really?" Lyle says, tilting his head a bit to regard Anew sidelong. Though he says that, he can totally believe it. Anew doesn't seem like the type who gets out much; from what he's seen, and what she's said about herself, the young woman's entire life is Celestial Being. And that's kind of sad, really. He does notice that Anew seems to be cold, and so he does the sensible thing in such a situation; he takes off his jacket, and then drapes it over Anew's shoulders. "Here, we don't want you catching cold or anything," the sniper says, his tone rather gentle. "After all, what would we do without Miss Anew Returner keeping an eye on us back home, right?" It's weird, maybe, that he refers to the Ptolemaios II as 'home', but... He's been there for months now. It sure /feels/ like home.

Anew looks up at Lyle with curious eyes as he looks back down at her. And in one sudden movement, he pulls off his jacket-- "Y-you don't have t--" Anew protests. --and drapes it over her.

And as with the hug just before, she finds her stiff posture relaxing under the warmth of the coat. No doubt she looks silly, in a white sundress and a men's blazer, but Anew doesn't mind.

"Thank you," she says with lowered eyes, and she pulls the jacket tighter over her arms. She doesn't understand why Lyle is so kind to her, or why small gestures like this make her heart pound as hard as it is right now.

But she knows she likes this feeling.

"Home?" she repeats, lifting her eyes back towards him. It's the first time she can recall hearing him refer to the Ptolemaios as such. She hadn't ever thought that anyone else on the ship considered the Ptolemaios their home; she had always assumed that this was just a temporary arrangement for them.

"Don't you have a home in Ireland?" she asks.

A /green/ blazer, no less. But surely Anew looks less 'silly' and more 'like she has a considerate date'. "You're welcome," Lyle replies, politely. The sniper might not be entirely sure why he's so nice to Anew either, but he can't complain about the results; the truth is, she's a beautiful and intelligent young woman, so of course he's interested in her! And actually spending time with her like this, like normal people who are totally not terrorists taking on the whole world in the hopes of changing it for the better, just makes him more interested. "No," the tall young man says, about his home in Ireland. "Well, I have an apartment, but I haven't been there much in the past year. For all I know, they've evicted me and tossed my stuff out by now, ha ha!" he laughs, even though it's not really 'funny' the way most people think of it. Lyle looks at Anew with a slight smile. "I haven't really had a home since I was young. I left my family to go to school, and while I was gone..." He gestures, vaguely. "...Well, that was when my parents and my sister died. I didn't even go to the funeral, because I didn't want to see my brother. It was a dumb, selfish thing to do, but I was just a kid."

The entire night she had been hesitating.

The unknown was scary. It was for this reason that she surrounded herself with the known up until now. Those things she didn't know or understand she began to by reading books, or asking others. But this was a completely different unknown. And unknown that complex mathematics or thick academic books could illustrate.

Things like friendship, romance, physical touch were not definable the way mobile armor engineering or human tissue regeneration were. Even though she spent her time studying for this--reading books, asking others, watching movies, even--in an attempt to understand what would happen and what she would feel, her research had not prepared her for any of this.

All she knew right now, that no matter how afraid she was of the unknown and what reactions it may produce, that she wanted to hold Lyle's hand.

And so she does. Without hesitation, she swiftly reaches out to take the counterfeit meister's hand into her own, her fingers entertwining with his.

"It must have been difficult," she says. "But I can understand why you'd do it. The things that are the most difficult to do are difficult by the virtue of their meaning."

Her grip on his hand tightens momentarily.

"Do you think you could face your brother today?"

Now it's Lyle's turn to be caught offguard by another person's expression of affection. For all the vaunted abilities of 'Lockon Stratos', the sniper is unable to forsee Anew moving to hold his hand, and he looks surprised as he feels the lavender-haired young woman's fingers lace with his own, feels her soft palm rest against his. He only looks surprised for a moment, though, before he grins, looking away in mild embarassment. /Aww/. At the momentary tightening that follows Anew's words, the brown-haired young man squeezes back. But her question... "I don't really know," Lyle admits, shaking his head a little. "Suppose I'll find out for sure, sooner or later, but..." It's not so much that he's afraid of the encounter - not entirely - but there's still a definite anger there, resentment towards the older twin, who came first in everything. Sometimes, Lyle even gets a little bitter about pretending to /be/ his brother, or even just filling Neil's former role. But still... "I mean, he's the only family I've got left," Lyle says, thoughtfully. "But there's still a lot to get past."

Anew clutches the jacket shut with her free hand as the two of them continue walking forward. And as Lyle begins to talk of his own family, Anew's thoughts start to wander to her own. While she could understand things that could be read in books, /not remembering/ was something she couldn't comprehend. How could someone forget something as important as family?

But whenever she tried to think about it, it was as if she was swimming in an endless ocean. When she felt she was on the cusp of discovering something, it was as if she hit a wall. Her head would throb with pain, and she found herself back where she started.

"Sumeragi-san said that we're all family," she says, recalling their conversation the day before. "Even though we're not blood related, we're still family."

A beat.

"Even if you're not ready to approach your brother, you still have family."

Though he's sort of aware of the problems that Anew seems to have regarding her past and any sort of family, Lyle of course assumes it's some kind of traumatic memory block... And the last thing he'd want to do is force her to go through the pain of dealing with it directly when she isn't ready. What she needs, in his opinion, is a bit more normalcy in her life before she tries to get her clearly very sad past back. When Anew expresses the thought - courtesy of Sumeragi Lee Noriega - that they're all family, Lyle looks at her with mild surprise again, before he lets out a laugh and squeezes her hand a little once again. "Well, if we're family, it might be inappropriate for us to go on any more dates," the sniper says, jokingly. A moment passes after he says that, before he speaks again. "But... Yeah, I guess that's true," Lyle Dylandy admits. And then part of him goes: 'Oh, dammit!' as he realises that he's not lying when he says so.

Family...

Sumeragi's words had touched her, too. Until then, Anew hadn't realizeed how Sumeragi felt about any of them. But finally hearing that one word, 'family', everything suddenly seemed clear to her. It didn't matter that they didn't share the same blood: they were still in this together, regardless of if they wanted to be or not.

Anew's lips tug into a worried frown as she looks up at Lyle. "This won't be our last date, will it?"

From the expression on her face, Anew is clearly distressed at the suggestion it might be.

That's an interesting question, isn't it? /Will/ this be their last date together? Lyle looks down at the secret Innovade, his greenish blue eyes on her more reddish ones, and he studies her face, the way her expression changes as she considers that possibility. The frown on her lips, the distress written in the lines and curves of her face. What do you say to that? 'I hope not?' 'That's up to you?' Those would be things most guys would probably say here. Lye stops, using his grip on Anew's hand to ensure that she stops too, and he turns to face her fully. And what he says is: "No." So there, Lyle Dylandy has decided.

The apprehension that had drawn itself across every line on her face vanishes, replaced with relief. And when Anew smiles, it's abundantly clear that that one uttered syllable has made her very happy.

"I'm glad," she says, still-gazing up at him. "I was worried."

But when is Anew not, really?

But Anew's smile is short-lived, as her lips curve back down into a worried frown. "Celestial Being doesn't have any rules against fraternizing, do they?"

This is clearly a pressing matter for the young Innovade.

In truth, Lyle was a bit concerned before this that Anew might not want to go on any further dates; maybe she wouldn't enjoy the experience, or maybe she'd get spooked and withdraw, focus herself entirely on just Celestial Being and nothing else, all day every day. And that certainly wouldn't make things awkward back on the Ptolemy, now would it? So, the sniper is glad when Anew's expression changes to one of relief, and when she smiles he does too in response. Even if it doesn't last, and Anew Returner finds something else to concern herself with. Lyle keeps looking down at her, and even as she frowns a faint smile continues to play over the Meister's lips. "Oh, were you planning on us 'fraternising'?" Lyle wonders, a bit of amusement in his tone, before he shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know if we have any rules like that at all."

Anew's moods must be cyclic, because relief draws itself upon Anew Returner's face for the second time that night.

"I wouldn't want you to get in trouble," she says. But since there's no rules to be worried about (she's not sure Sumeragi-san would enforce them anyway), then there's nothing stopping them from doing...

Anew looks up at Lyle, then presses her lips together nervously.

...whatever they wanted to do.

She quickly looks down, trying to press back her rising blush. "We should probably get back to the Ptolemaios before the others worry."

It's true, even if there /is/ a rule against 'fraternising', then the only person on the ship likely to actually enforce it would be Tieria Erde. So the natural solution is: Don't tell that guy. Again, though, Lyle Dylandy is sadly not a mind reader, so he doesn't know what's going on inside of Anew Returner's head as she considers the possibilities now open to them. He notices the way she presses her lips together, of course, and he can't miss how she suddenly looks down, face colouring. So he can /guess/ where her thoughts might be. But girls are mysterious creatures, so who knows if he's even right? "Yeah, we probably should," Lyle agrees, tugging Anew along lightly by her still-held hand, resuming the walk towards the spaceport.