Disclaimer:  A fanfiction is a figment of a fan/author's imagination, which is 
written purely for fun.  Since no money is made by posting such works, the idea 
of suing a fanfiction writer for money is also a figment of the imagination.  

Author's Note:  Naughty, naughty Zuit!  Setting alight the Hotsuma shaped 
beacon!  You should spank her!  Ooops!  Wrong note! ::blush::  Youkai Fire Fox, 
thank you for the wonderful Gold-Hunk-Hotsuma-Statue!  It's going right next to 
my Hotsuma cels where I can ogle it happily while I write! 


***************************
Maybe it was the product of conditioning, but after that good-natured tussle 
Ryoko had decided that she needed a cup of hot chocolate even if Hotsuma didn't.  
She'd never expected her timing to be so perfect, but she was willing to chalk 
that up to the Mihoshi factor.  It seemed reassuring to know that the universe 
still conspired against Kiyone through the kind-hearted ditz.  Of course Kiyone 
might not be planning to turn Ryoko in, but to be safe Ryoko knew she'd have to 
keep her friends on a short leash.  Making them take cleaning detail, was just 
icing on the cake.

Kiyone and Aicheron exchanged wide-eyed stares, before turning their attention 
towards Mihoshi.  Aicheron clenched his jaw, and a vein at his temple throbbed 
visibly, as he held himself back.  He fully looked the part of a killer about to 
explode into violence.  He opened his mouth to speak or yell, but before he 
could say anything the pink-haired woman at his side lunged at her best friend 
and launched into a campaign of half-intelligible chastisements at the now 
tearful cat-girl.  Nothing was sacred in the ensuing scuffle, and Ryoko and 
Aicheron found themselves ducking hurled kitchen utensils and half cooked curry 
noodles as Kiyone pummeled her partner.  

"Listen!  This gang is about teamwork!" Ryoko bellowed over the ruckus, causing 
Kiyone to look up from where she was holding Mihoshi in a headlock and hitting 
her with a pan.  A handful of curried ramen was hanging out of Kiyone's ear.  
"If you can't work as a team then maybe you three should take cleaning detail 
for the next two months!" The space pirate threatened.  

"But I wasn't even a part of..." Aicheron began, before Ryoko silenced him by 
holding up her palm.  It was suddenly understood that any further argument from 
any of them would be interpreted as a lack of teamwork.  Like it or not, the 
three were stuck with each other.  

The looks of horror on Kiyone and the dark-haired man were enough to keep Ryoko 
entertained for a good long time, but she had every intention of pressing her 
advantage as far as possible.  The pirate leader ran over a list of chores in 
her head.  

Ryoko could feel the air around her shimmer slightly.  It was like sensing the 
heat coming off someone's body, and in the next instant Hotsuma phased into 
being beside her.  "Ryoko, what's..." he began to ask what was taking so long, 
but he broke off as the scene around him registered.  He and Ryoko had an 
audience.  The remains of the microwave were scattered around the entire 
kitchen, as if a deranged knife thrower had gone on the rampage with shrapnel.  
And the two women staring at them looked as if they'd been wrestling in a giant 
bowl of curried noodles.  "What's been going on down here?" Hotsuma asked, torn 
between annoyance and amusement.  

"The microwave died," Ryoko deadpanned.  "Just when I was in the mood for hot 
chocolate," she scowled crossing her arms over her chest and fixed Kiyone with 
an angry glare.  
Hotsuma bit back a remark about the greatest pirate in the universe being unable 
to boil water.  In front of underlings, he and Ryoko had to appear superior at 
all times.  He turned an icy eye upon the three haggard looking recruits and 
planted his hands on his hips.  "If you're capable of dismantling a microwave, I 
will assume that one of you is competent enough to make your commander a cup of 
hot chocolate," he advised.  

>From his peripheral vision, Hotsuma watched the three space pirates tripping 
over themselves and each other as they scurried to make the cyan-haired woman 
her cocoa.  "I want it with real milk, none of that packaged crap!" Ryoko 
bellowed.  "And don't forget the whipped cream and extra marshmallows.  Oh yeah, 
and a shot of Kahlua!  That's what makes it so warming."  Ryoko's grin showed 
her sharp canines, as she gave them her very fussy order for a perfect cup of 
hot chocolate.  

After Ryoko finally gave their third attempt an approving nod, the trio was 
dismissed with instructions to return at five a.m. to the galley and start 
cooking breakfast for the entire gang.  The menu was posted on the brushed metal 
door to the freezer, and it included not only the traditional miso, fish and 
rice for a Japanese breakfast but also eggs, sausage and hash-browns for those 
who wanted something different.  The rest of their duty list would be waiting 
for them in the kitchen tomorrow morning.  

Aicheron walked the women back to their quarters in silence.  "Two months!" 
Kiyone moaned repeatedly as she walked beside Mihoshi.  "Two months on cleaning 
detail!  And you saw those insane duty rosters that she was writing on the way 
here!  How did this happen to me again?" she said mostly to herself.  

Mihoshi turned to her with large tearful cat-eyes and her lower lip quivered.  
"I'm so sorry, Kiy- Kei-lyn.  I messed up again," she sniffed.  She rubbed at 
the corners of her eyes, and then she began twiddling her fingers.  

With a small sigh Kiyone threw an arm around her friend's shoulders and leaned 
her head on the shoulder nearest to her.  "Don't worry about it, Miya.  I'm not 
mad at you anymore.  It could've happened to anyone, and Ryoko's right about us 
needing to behave more like a team.  Okay?" she said comfortingly.  She smiled 
slightly at Mihoshi's nod.  "Good," Kiyone said.  "Now we just take on tomorrow 
one task at a time."  

They paused outside the door to Mihoshi and Kiyone's quarters.  After Mihoshi 
went inside with a little wave, Aicheron leaned against the wall and turned 
towards the pink-haired pirate.  "We're never getting off this cleaning detail, 
are we?" he asked wryly.  

"Probably not," Kiyone admitted with a little chuckle, as she trained her eyes 
on the toes of her boots.  "Guess you're sorry to have gotten mixed up in all 
this, and I really can't blame you.  I'll talk to Ryoko, and tell her that you 
really weren't part of what happened.  After all, you were just in the wrong 
place at the wrong time," she said.  She chanced a glance at him as she 
finished, although she didn't want to look him in the eye.  

Aicheron shook his head.  "That wouldn't do any good.  The only way we get out 
of this is to prove we can work together," he replied.  Before she could 
protest, he added, "I'll be here to get you two at four-thirty.  Otherwise, who 
knows where Miya's sense of direction would lead you."  He kicked away from the 
wall and headed down the quiet hallway without a backward glance, as Kiyone 
watched him and tried to figure out how to keep her and Mihoshi's identity a 
secret with him around.  

The next morning proved to be an insane blur of charred hash browns, overly 
salty miso, and soggy rice.  Mihoshi was given the task of juicing oranges and 
managed to nearly blind herself when a squirt of juice hit her in the eyes.  She 
flailed blindly and accidentally knocked the vegetables for Aicheron's omelets 
onto the floor, nearly falling before he caught her and passed her to Kiyone.  
Kiyone rushed her partner to the sink and prayed that the acidic juice wouldn't 
react with the costume contacts.  "Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork..." Kiyone 
chanted to herself as she flushed the juice from the squealing woman's eyes.  

Aicheron turned back to his omelet to find it smoking.  He quickly pulled the 
pan off the heat, burning his hand on the handle, and cursing as he slid the 
half burned yet runny omelet onto a plate.  The peppers had fallen out of the 
fold and the onions weren't even remotely wilted.  At least the ham in it was 
already cooked.  "That looks repulsive..." he acknowledged with a shake of his 
head.  

Kiyone stepped up beside him and took the plate.  "So we'll just serve it to 
someone we don't like.  How about that cowboy who tried to shoot Miya in the 
butt?" she suggested with a raised eyebrow, as she placed it on the line.  She 
heard Aicheron laugh as he cracked eggs for his next culinary impossibility, and 
she placed some fresh salmon fillets onto the charcoal grill.  "It could be 
worse..." she told the others.  

"How's that?" Aicheron snorted as he took the sausages out of the pan.  He 
appeared to have at least some idea of what he was doing, although the number of 
meals they were cooking obviously made him nervous.  

"We could be eating their cooking," Kiyone whispered in a deep knowledgeable 
voice.  

Mihoshi giggled in response.  "Boy, oh boy!" she laughed.  "She's right, you 
know.  Especially Ryoko's cooking.  Why this one time Ryoko..."  

Kiyone threw her hand over the other woman's mouth before anything else could be 
said.  She lowered her voice to sound serious.  "Miya, you have to watch what 
you say.  This is hardly the place for that story, and besides you might give 
Aicheron ideas for those omelets." She said gravely.  

"Really?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.  "I want to know what Miya was about to 
say.  What would she know about Ryoko's cooking?" he asked, as he flipped the 
next omelet.  

Kiyone looked both directions before she leaned in towards him.  "Okay, I'll 
tell you what we've heard, but you didn't hear it from me!  A while back Ryoko 
got her hands on a couple of GXP officers on a remote planet, and she decided to 
torture them for fun.  She used her own cooking to reduce them to pathetic, 
begging, husks of human beings.  It really was the most amazing shit imaginable.  
She force-fed them peach pork-chop curry, tuna and oregano riceballs, habanero 
ramen with cold tofu, and instant miso packets without the water added."  Kiyone 
shuddered and gave him a slow nod.  The memory of Ryoko's cooking still made her 
ill, but she was pretty sure it would sound like a joke to anyone who hadn't 
experienced it first hand.  

"The pickled mango wasn't so bad," Mihoshi added diplomatically.  

Aicheron rolled his eyes.  "Very funny," he said dryly.  

As the day wore on the tasks only became worse, but Kiyone was also preoccupied 
with observing Hotsuma.  The man was almost always at Ryoko's side, and he 
seemed to have her complete trust.  Ryoko and he seemed to consult often, and 
Kiyone repeatedly caught them looking at each other during the next briefing.  
These weren't just romantic looks.  It was more like they were silently 
speaking, an understood language of nods and expressions that communicated as 
succinctly as words.  She also caught the pirate observing her and Mihoshi 
several times, and his expression didn't seem even remotely pleased.  

Something about that look made Kiyone feel like a bug under a microscope.  She 
was being openly studied and quantified, but towards what end she didn't know.  
If she had to guess, she figured she and Mihoshi must have aroused the pirate's 
suspicions.  Then it just became a matter of whether he was trying to confirm 
those suspicions or simply planning to dispose of her somehow.  Kiyone let out a 
sigh of relief when Ryoko and Hotsuma finally left the base with a select group 
of pirates to go rip off a cargo caravan.  

She'd already vowed that rather than complete her mission; she would try to 
discover what was happening with Ryoko.  Her resolve had made Mihoshi ecstatic, 
and that led to an awkward scene when Aicheron found Mihoshi tearfully hugging 
her and proclaiming what a happy moment this was behind a pillar.  

Aicheron hid his bemusement by coughing into his fist to get their attention.  
"You missed a spot," he said simply, as he handed Kiyone back her mop and nodded 
towards a nearby corner.  Then he'd just turned and walked back to his own work, 
shaking his head as if to clear out some bothersome thought.  

Over the course of the next weeks, Kiyone continued to uncover what she could 
about Ryoko's sudden departure from Earth and the appearance of this new man in 
the space pirate's life.  Most of what she had was just supposition, and she 
usually would be interrupted from her thoughts by Ryoko saddling them with yet 
another task.  She was becoming a whiz at doing laundry for over fifty pirates 
every day.  Dusting was usually left for Mihoshi, while Kiyone and Aicheron 
tackled the more complicated tasks.  Ryoko often oversaw their work, while 
making small talk about the incompetence of the Galaxy Police, and making their 
tasks tens times more difficult in the process.  Kiyone almost broke when for 
entertainment Ryoko made her recite a poem entitled "100 Reasons the GXP Suck".  
It seemed that Ryoko had a glint of malicious humor in her eyes sometimes, and 
Kiyone was noticing it more and more.  

That wasn't the only thing Kiyone was noticing more and more though, she mused, 
as she glanced down to the long brown braid which hung down Aicheron's back as 
he reached behind him for a new glow tube for the fixture he and Kiyone were 
replacing.  Today's shirt was red silk, tucked into his tight, black leather 
pants.  The katana was gone, but he still carried a blaster at his hip and had 
sheathed knives strapped to his thighs.  Kiyone was lost somewhere in the 
rounded line of his posterior, when she overbalanced and the ladder started 
crashing down.  

"Aiiiiiiiiii!" she screamed, flailing her arms over the top of the ladder as 
though through sheer will she could either take flight or claw the ladder back 
up against the wall.  This was a twenty-foot ceiling, and a bad fall to the 
stone below could easily be fatal.  Kiyone abandoned the ladder, figuring her 
chances were better without it.  She closed her eyes and prepared for the 
intense pain that would come with hearing her shins crack upon impact.  

The pain didn't come and neither did the crack of bone.  She could hear a winded 
"Ooph" as a pair of arms caught her and her cheek brushed against silk.  The 
force of the impact knocked Aicheron to his knees, and she could feel the final 
lurch as he dipped down carefully cradling her weight.  She opened her eyes and 
looked up nervously, only to be met with the sight of his surprised yellow-green 
eyes.  

Stray brown wisps framed his handsome face, and as if in a trance Kiyone brushed 
them back as she raised her face towards his.  He met her halfway, and she 
instinctively laced her arms around his neck as they kissed.  She was aware of 
the rise and fall of his chest and the rapid beating of his heart from the rush 
to catch her.  Her mind was reeling with the realization that she was suddenly 
kissing a space pirate who'd once tried to shoot her in the head.  Mostly 
though, she was just praying for this kiss to go on forever.  

"Does this mean you don't intend to fire at my head anymore?" she asked 
teasingly as they finally parted.  She could feel the deep rumble of his 
laughter radiating from his chest and purring through her body.  

"I guess that's one way of putting it," he replied as he opened his eyes.  "Are 
you okay, Kei..." his voice trailed off and Kiyone watched his brows knit in 
confusion as his hand slowly reached out towards her face.  

"Aicheron?" she asked, as she wondered what had suddenly caught his attention.  
Her question answered itself as he drew his hand back with a lock of her long 
teal hair between his fingers.  It must have worked its way free when she 
landed.  His eyes narrowed slightly, and he raised an eyebrow as he waited for 
her to start explaining.  

"Shit," she muttered quietly, as she clenched her eyes shut and rested her 
forehead against her thumb and forefinger.  She looked up at Aicheron and bit 
her lip as she tucked her hair back under the pink wig.  "Aicheron, I can 
explain," she promised.  "It's just... It's just this is going to be a... long 
story, so maybe we should go someplace else for me to tell it," she whispered 
hoarsely.  

"Okay," he said, as that muscle in his jaw began to clench.  He rose quickly, 
and she could see his overly composed business persona slide into place, as they 
strode out of the great hall towards the pirate's quarters.  Aicheron walked 
just behind Kiyone with his hand at the small of her back to guide her.  

Kiyone was running through every possible lie she could think of, but she kept 
dismissing each of them.  She wanted to stop lying and tell him the whole truth, 
as dumb as it sounded to her.  Dumb didn't even begin to describe the urge.  He 
was a pirate, Kiyone reminded herself.  How would he react to hearing she was 
GXP?  Maybe Aicheron wasn't quite done using her head for target practice, she 
thought with a sinking feeling.  

She heard a door hiss into place behind them and Aicheron's hand on her shoulder 
signaled her to stop walking.  She looked up from her private thoughts to find 
herself in what obviously was his room.  His katana rested against the side of 
the night table, and she could see his clothes hanging in the open closet.  
Unlike the room she shared with Mihoshi, this room was immaculate.  The bed was 
made, there were no clothes on the floor, and nothing was hanging from the 
footboard or light fixture.  Seconds later that discrepancy was corrected, when 
Aicheron reached out and pulled her wig off, tossing it onto the foot of the 
bed.  

"Any other surprises?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.  He sighed as 
Kiyone nodded.  "Then use the bathroom in there.  I think it's time I met the 
real Kei-lyn, don't you?" he said, pointing to a small room just to the left of 
the doorway.  Kiyone left the door open behind her as she removed the orange 
contact lenses, peeled off the fake scar, and washed off the punk make-up.  
She'd even grown used to the look by now, so for him this would be a huge 
change.  She dried her skin using the white towel hanging on the ring beside the 
sink, and with a deep breath she turned to face him.  

Her long teal hair cascaded over her shoulders and her blue eyes studied him for 
a reaction, as he took in her real appearance.  She would have felt more self-
conscious about her revealing vinyl outfit without the safety of her disguise, 
but she could tell that he was only registering her face and hair.  Despite the 
shock, he still seemed to carry that attraction in his eyes, but he turned his 
head suddenly away without a single word once he'd accepted the change in her 
appearance.  "Who are you?" he asked, hollowly. 

"My name's Kiyone Makibi," Kiyone admitted.  She stepped out of the bathroom and 
crossed the room, until she stood directly before him.  "More correctly, I'm 
Detective First Class Kiyone Makibi of the Galaxy Police."  She told him 
nervously. 

 Aicheron let out a string of curses like Kiyone had only ever heard from Ryoko.  
And the turn of phrase didn't fail to make her cringe this time either.  She 
wondered if only space pirates were able to amass both the vocabulary and the 
poetry necessary for true profanity.  There was an old earth saying about 
cursing like a sailor, and it seemed on a universal scale space pirates fit it 
best.  

"I was originally assigned to infiltrate Ryoko's band of thieves and report in 
with the coordinates so that GXP ships could rush in and arrest everyone," she 
continued.  She flushed uncomfortably as he gave her an incredulous look.  He 
was definitely fuming, but so far he hadn't made any motions towards any part of 
the arsenal that he was wearing.  "I haven't reported in, and I don't intend to.  
When asked, I plan to tell my superiors that my mission was a failure," she 
confessed as she reached out to touch his shoulder. 

Aicheron snorted indignantly and pulled away.  He slammed his fist into the top 
of the wooden desk hard enough to crack the wood and make Kiyone jump.  He 
looked like he hadn't vented nearly enough, as he paced back and forth at the 
end of the bed.  "You know that I'm obligated to turn you in to Ryoko, don't 
you?" he asked as he slouched down onto the edge of the bed.  Still refusing to 
look at her, he concentrated on the streams of blood running down his knuckles.  

"I knew that before I decided to tell you," Kiyone told him sincerely.  She sat 
down alongside the frustrated pirate and examined his split knuckles.  "I know 
what you have to do, and it's okay," she said, as she stroked the back of his 
hand.  

"Just get out of here, Kei... Kiyone.  Take Miya, or whatever her name is.  Get 
on a ship and go.  Understood?" he instructed her, as he brushed her bangs out 
of her eyes.  

"Do you know what Ryoko would do to you for letting me get away?" she responded 
angrily, as she planted her fists on her hips.  As much as she was touched by 
the chivalry, she knew it was completely misplaced in this case.  

"Do you know what Ryoko would do to you, if I handed you over to her?" he 
retorted, grabbing her by the arms and giving her a shake.  "I'm pretty sure her 
punishment for GXP spies is worse than making them eat bad cooking!"  

"Trust me when I say Ryoko's cooking is WAY beyond just being bad.  She won't do 
anything to Mihoshi or me.  That's one thing I can promise you," Kiyone said 
reassuringly.  

"You're obviously beyond insane," Aicheron muttered.  "I could just knock you 
out and throw your ass into a ship," he suggested.  

Kiyone chuckled.  "Even if you weren't here, I still wouldn't be reporting in," 
she said.  "Ryoko is an old friend of mine.  We used to live on a planet named 
Earth together.  Now she's suddenly with this Hotsuma guy, and they're the big 
badasses of the universe.  I don't trust him any further than I can throw him.  
I'm worried about her, and the only way to find out what's going on is to talk 
to her.  That's why I need you to turn me in."  

"What?!  Don't tell me this is all about you not approving of her choice of 
boyfriends!" Aicheron growled.  "Last I knew, you seemed to have an attraction 
to questionable space pirates yourself," he accused, looking offended.  

"It's not like that!" Kiyone yelled back.  "One minute she's crazy in love with 
Tenchi, and she's given up piracy.  Then she disappears without a word to 
anyone, and she suddenly turns up robbing everything in sight!  It's like 
something suddenly snapped in her.  Mihoshi tried to tell me earlier that 
something had to be really wrong for it to happen, but it wasn't until I could 
watch Ryoko for myself that I understood."  

Aicheron gazed levelly at her and brushed the back of his good hand along her 
cheek.  He leaned in gradually and brushed his lips tenderly across hers.  He'd 
wanted to kiss her ever since he'd watched her take a shot at her first opponent 
in the qualifying matches.  She'd been the most impressive fighter he'd ever 
seen, and now without that tough-girl costume she was positively stunning.  If 
she'd asked him to dive into a flaming lake, he'd have done it.  He was pretty 
certain that he'd crossed into crazy a long time ago.  "You're sure that you 
want to do this?" he asked.  

Kiyone nodded, unclipped a small device from her belt and pressed it into his 
palm.  "This is my communicator," she explained.  "I'm giving it to you, so you 
can place me under house arrest while you go get Mihoshi.  Bring her back here, 
so she can get cleaned up while I explain things to her.  Then we can all go see 
Ryoko, okay?" she smiled.  

Aicheron pocketed the transmitter and kissed Kiyone's forehead; then he locked 
her in while he went to find her partner.  It wasn't difficult, and all he 
needed to tell the woman was that Kei-lyn had asked him to bring her with him.  
By the time they returned to the room, Kiyone was completely at home.  She 
wasted no time in explaining things to Mihoshi, and Aicheron had never seen 
anyone look so excited about the prospect of being arrested and turned in to the 
most dreaded space pirate in the universe.  

He sat on the bed with his arm around Kiyone's shoulders, while Mihoshi 
dekittied in the bathroom.  He was willing to give Kiyone's plan a chance, but 
at the same time he was already forming backup plans just to be safe.  If Ryoko 
had really changed so suddenly, there was always the possibility that she'd 
changed more than Kiyone had expected.  All too quickly Mihoshi was out of 
costume, and Kiyone was instructing him to hold his blaster on them.  

He marched the two officers down the hallway, ignoring the perplexed or 
lascivious stares of the other pirates that passed them.  Ryoko should be just 
getting back from their latest heist, so they were headed towards the main 
hangar.  They found Ryoko dressed in her pirating outfit and carrying a large 
sack of money away from Gaiyan.  She looked up at the trio and smirked.  

"I was wondering how long you were going to stay in those ridiculous costumes," 
Ryoko crowed before anyone else could speak.  She gave a little wink and handed 
her haul off to her partner.  "I guess you finally got sick of earning your 
pay," she taunted.  "Either that or you got an early peek at what I was bringing 
back for you to cook for dinner," she mused, as a pair of terrified and crying 
pirates hauled a caged, vicious lizard-creature off a ship behind them.  

"You already knew it was us?  And you just kept giving us all those stupid jobs 
to do?" Kiyone snarled at the space pirate's words.  She leaned forward ready to 
leap at the other woman's throat.  

"But on the bright side, I've never seen a cleaner latrine!  And you really do 
make a fine cup of hot chocolate," Ryoko snickered.  "I think it's safe for you 
to take the blaster off them, Aicheron.  You can go back with the other pirates 
now, and I'll take things from here," Ryoko said.  

Aicheron shot a worried parting glance at Kiyone, but at her faint smile he 
nodded and followed Ryoko's instructions.  Behind him he could hear Ryoko 
suggest that the three of them go to her private getaway to catch up.  Although 
he'd never been inside, he did at least know the right area of the compound to 
be in if he wanted to be close at hand.  

Hotsuma was inventorying the spoils from their latest run, as he instructed the 
pirates where to take their goods.  The fences that he'd invited in were already 
offering to convert some of the more valuable jewels and antiquities into cash, 
and the scene in the hangar was bordering upon chaos.  But in all the commotion, 
he only had half his attention on the work in front of him.  He finally was face 
to face with Ryoko's friends from Earth, and he didn't trust them any more than 
they trusted him.  

He was going to have to use the one room in the compound that he'd hoped he'd 
never have need of.  He was going to have to spy on Ryoko, and then he would 
take the appropriate actions.