As promised, those two took me out on a day-long field trip everywhere through Section B. I'd arrived back at my new apartment with painful feet and a full stomach from lunch. A long nap later, I took a long shower in a cubicle that actually permitted me and my wings enough place to easily move around. They were a bit chafed from being in their harness all day, but it was nothing that wouldn't be gone by the morning.

Waving a hand at the screen, I scrolled through the channels with simple flicks of my eye as I started to dry my hair. My wing were spread wide open to avoid getting crushed against the couch. The lower ones flapped a few times before wrapping around my waist as usual. I barely noticed it at this point. I was just wondering whether to continue eating the ice cream or avoid sugar and try to sleep again for the work day tomorrow when there was a knock on my door.

I stood up slowly, vaguely wondering if it was Keelan or Rush. It was neither. Surprise passed through me as I stared at Arnie's annoyed features. There was a few moments of silence between us before I remembered what I'd said to her earlier in the day. I gave her a sheepish smile. "I-uh-I totally forgot. Just give me a moment, I'll come with you to the dining hall."

She didn't reply. She was too busy staring at my wings. I uncertainly turned away from her to pull the towel off my head and place my feet into the new pair of slippers we'd bought today. Everything was new. I had two sets of five tank tops each, in several colours. I didn't even need that many tank tops. Technically, Rush did destroy about three of those while trying to use his knife to cut some slits for me.

I turned back to Arnie. She was still gawping at my wings. "Are these clothes okay?"

"Uh... Um..." She blinked a couple of times to ground herself again before looking me over. "Yeah. It's fine."

She moved back as I stepped out the door. Turning around to take my keycard out of its holder and let the room descend into dark. "Let's go. You lead the way."

"Uh... Yeah." She started walking with me towards the lift, eyes still glued to my back.

I glanced at her sideways. She met my eyes, turning a light shade of pink. "Sorry. It's just..."

"No need to explain. I understand." I chuckled softly, pressing the call button for the elevator. "You didn't believe me when I told you in the morning."

"Oh, yeah."

The lift dinged open, two people already in it. They started to smile at us, both of them freezing halfway to forming that facial expression as their eyes locked onto my wings. Softly sighing to myself, I smiled back at them before stepping into the elevator. They shifted a bit away as I flattened the wings to my back. There was silence in the lift, I could see the expression of shock on their faces reflected on the metal doors in front of me as they unabashedly stared at my back.

My right upper wing twitched once. Twice. The third time, I turned to make eye contact with the guy poking me. "Please don't do that." I smiled at him. My smile grew wider as he turned slightly red, pulling his hand back guiltily.

I could see Arnie out of the corner of my eye, she was trying not to smile. The lift dinged open and all of us stepped out, heading down the hallway to the mess.

"Are we late?" I asked, hearing a bit of a buzz from the mess.

"No. But I like to finish eating before majority of the crowd comes in." She glanced at her wristwatch. "At this time, almost all the 48 other people staying in this building will be here."

I grimaced as she placed her hand on the door and pushed it open to step in. My steps faltered a bit as I followed her in. My eyes roamed the huge area, approximating all the people in the room to about 30-35 plus. My wings settled over my shoulder as I felt the buzz in the room shift. Keeping my head slightly angled down, I followed after Arnie.

She seemed to realise I was lagging a bit behind as she slowed to fall into step beside me. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." I managed to keep the grimace off my face. "It's just... a bit uncomfortable."

"Well," she glanced around "they'll get over it."

They didn't seem to be getting over it. The buzz in room had definitely fallen as people openly gawped at me. I stared back in interest, I'd never seen these types of augmentations before. Scales covering entire bodies, gills, visible canines, I think I even saw webbed hands. I turned again to look at Arnie closely, the skin below her neck was of a darker shade, but that's all I could see. She was wearing pretty covering clothes.

I walked with her to joined the line behind her. She pressed her thumb against a scanner before picking up a plate. I hesitated a bit. Rush had told me that I would have to pay a monthly fee, but I didn't even have an account of my own. The scanner beeped green anyway after I pressed my thumb against it. Slightly confused, I moved forward in the line to get my food and move on.

I was ready to continue following Arnie to any table, but as soon as I was done taking my food, a hand landed my elbow, steering me away from her.

"Hey! You're the new kid, right?" A girl with the sharpest canines I'd ever seen forced herself into my sightline. "Come sit here. What's yo-"

"Fuck off, Greta." I heard a voice snap from the other side as someone else pulled me away. "Hey, I'm Geoff. Greta's just going to hog your food. She even smells weird."

I started being led away once more only to be tugged behind with way too much force. It wasn't Greta.

"Leave the poor girl alone, Geoff." I was turned around by my shoulders as this slightly older looking lady with a beard looked me over. "Poor thing looks terrified! Come here, girl. Away from these idiots."

"If you all would leave my teammate alone..." I almost swooned in relief as Rush's voice cut through the bickering.

Keelan's familiar scent enveloped me as he moved me out of the bearded lady's grasp and placed an arm around my shoulders. My wings settled over his arm, miffed at being pushed around so many times and then being replaced.

"Now," Rush continued with a wide smile "all of you be well-behaved little kids and maybe we'll return the toy to you."

"Excuse me?" I frowned at Rush, who promptly whisked me away and out of the circle of people who'd been playing ping-pong with me.

"It's metaphorical." Rush smiled at me.

"I'll metaphorically kick you in the balls next time you call me a toy." I snapped irritatedly.

"Ouch." Keelan pulled away from me, wings dragging along his arm before resting easy. "That didn't sound like a 'thank you'."

"I was getting to it." I mumbled. "Thank you for taking your sweet time in getting me out of there."

"Should've left you in there." Rush replied with a chuckle. "The look on your face was hilarious."

He turned his face up to me with an exaggerated expression of fear and confusion as he sat down. Keelan snickered. I rolled my eyes, slowly turning red. "I'm not good in social situations."

"That's the only thing you and Mikhail share in common." Keelan sighed, staring down at his plate. Grey eyes downcast with sadness. "I miss him."

"What do you mean?" I cocked my head.

"Mikhail's an introvert. I'm pretty sure no one here knows him as well as we do. Hell," Keelan chuckled "you've known him for way lesser, yet you know him better than any of them here."

"That's nice to know." I replied distractedly as I tried to peel the pudding cup.

A few minutes into eating, people started coming up to the table. They wanted to know about me, but mostly they wanted to feel up and gawk at my wings. They were twitching at every touch, discomfort clearly visible on my face. I stayed quiet, answering all their questions as they continued to annoy me. Answering all their queries fast meant they'd leave me alone faster. But they all gathered around, standing behind me, sitting at the table, sitting on the surrounding tables, clamouring to touch my wings.

I'd been keeping them open so people would quickly get their fill of touching me. But they weren't stopping, so I relaxed my control and my wings immediately whipped back to me. The upper ones settling over my shoulders as the lower ones wrapped around my waist. I hunched my shoulders a bit, noticing the decibels around me lowering as they realised what they were doing.

Apologies quickly filled the air around me as people started scattering. I quickly took my leave after that, not risking any other kind of mobbing.

I was exhausted. There was a meeting with Malcolm in the morning and I wanted to seem a bit fresher now that I was out of jail. The only problem was, I couldn't sleep.

My body needed the rest, the trip down memory lane first thing in the morning hadn't exactly been very relaxing. I shifted uncomfortably in my bed. The sheets were nice, too nice. I was used to the scratchy blankets with their mysterious smell by now. The mattress was... invading. It was too soft. I didn't like it. Of course, the mattress in my cell hadn't been as hard as the floor so I couldn't just lie down there. And the sofa would just crush and twist my wings through the night.

I tossed and turned into the early hours of the morning, finally falling into a fitful sleep filled with more unpleasant flashbacks. Luckily, there was a knock on my door in the morning, forcing me awake and onto my feet. Rush was irritatingly bright eyed at my doorstep. "Morning!"

"Shut up. You're too loud." I grumbled, starting to close the door on him.

He stuck his foot in the gap at the last moment, shoving it back open. "I see you didn't sleep well last night. A run should wake you up."

My body screamed in protest just at the mention of it. "Rush, I'm sleepy. I'm not in the mood for a run."

"Fine, then. Let's go for a walk. I'll show you a nice bagel place that's open early."

I grimaced, guilt forming in my belly at the thought of him buying me something again. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Come on." He gave me a cheery smile, the flecks of gold in his eyes sparkling. "The fresh air will help a bit."

Fresh air. Fresh air... sounds amazing actually. I nodded slowly, stepping aside to finally let him in. My wings gave a tired flap, barely having the strength to twitch as Rush brushed passed them. I changed in a few minutes, wearing a pair of track pants and a hoodie we'd bought yesterday. It was nice out. The sky was a nice shade of purple from the rising sun, the tall skyscrapers only let small chinks of sunshine through their imposing glass and steel barricades.

People were barely awake, much less out and about this early. The place was filled with joggers, night shift workers and city employees, all gathered around for a hot coffee and a light bite to eat. I'd gone in to place the order as Rush pulled up his collar and took a seat outside. He'd forgotten to pat concealer onto the scales visible on his face. The resemblance to a turtle was very intense as he kept rising out of the depths of his jacket, like it was his shell, to sneak bites from his bagel.

A while later, he got a call from Keelan who demanded to know where we were. He eventually joined us there, not to buy anything but just to growl at us to get up and get changed for the meeting.

We barely made it into the station even after that. Running upstairs to Malcolm's cabin giggling like little kids as we reached his office. We'd barely caught our composure when we were called in. Malcolm nodded without even looking up as we saluted him.

"Good morning, Terra." He finally looked up. "How do you feel?"

"It's been a good morning so far. I could've managed with a little more sleep."

"Why? Place is not up to your standards?"

I decided to ignore the sarcasm in that. "The bed is too soft. Otherwise it's a really nice place. It's better than anywhere I've ever lived before."

Leaning back in his chair, he gave a disinterested nod. "You'll have enough time to get used to your bed right now... because you're all off-duty till Monday."

Surprise passed through all of us. Four whole days off? Six, if the last two were counted. This was out of sorts.

"Four days?" Keelan spoke up for the two of us. "We could go on another mission, Commander. We performed fine on the last one."

"Your performance is not the problem here. She is." His eyes shifted to me as I looked away in discomfort. "Don't get me wrong, Private. It's nothing of your doing. Gratitude Night is coming up, and the higher-ups who know about your existence want to keep you safe till you've been shown off sufficiently."

"Oh. Okay." Weird, but it makes sense. I looked back up at him. "Why the one extra day?"

"To nurse your hangover. Drinking is inevitable that night." He sighed tiredly, shifting forward in his seat again to get back to his tablet. "You're all dismissed."

Snapping a salute, we turned and left his office. I gave a tired sight as we stepped out. "Four days off... It would be really good if I was able to see my parents during it."

"But on the other hand," Rush threw his arm around my neck. I stumbled a bit as he leaned on me "we have more time to show you around the place. We haven't shown you our favourite bars... and hunting spots yet." Rush glanced back at Keelan, winking at him. "And we all know girls make great wingwomen."

I frowned at Rush. "You're going to use me to help you guys get laid? What if I say no?"

Rush cocked an eyebrow. "Tell me again who stocked your fridge? Paid for the bagels this morning? Took you shopping? Bought you a gi-"

"Fine, fine." I cut him off, feeling guilty as well as played. Rudely shoving his arm off my shoulder, I threw him another glare. "When do we begin?"

As it turns out, it's sort of hard to get into bars when you have no ID and look barely legal. Rush's plans for getting laid were foiled from the beginning. I offered to go home on my own, but their sense of chivalry led to us sitting on the curb outside beside an almost-static line outside the club.

I stared absently at the ground, shivering softly as the cold wind rose up the skirt I'd borrowed from Arnie. "How long are we going to sit here?" I asked out loud.

"Ask Rush." Keelan sighed, glancing over me to Rush's dejected, hunched form. "He was really into this."

"I wanted to get out from the beginning." I mumbled to myself before standing up. "Come on, let's go back. It's still not too late, the mess might be open."

"Fuck that." Rush scowled as he stood up. "I want to drink."

"I did say go in without me." I passed to stare at him. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go."

"Mess will be closed by the time we get back." Keelan glanced at his mobile. "Yup. Unless we can fly there in under fifteen minutes, we won't make it."

"Then I'll make you guys something. Let's go, we'll pick up some chicken on the way." I turned to start walking away.

Rush fell into step beside me. "You cook?"

"Kind of. I can manage to whip up something that should taste good."

"Sweet." Rush grinned, before turning and scowling at some people in the line who were wolf-whistling at me.

For the next two days, all they did was crash at my place, drag me up to the gym for workouts, and eat. I didn't mind that much. Getting them to help out whenever I made something was a bigger ordeal, but Keelan's expertise with knives came in handy. And apparently Rush could cook a bit as well. It was a lazy two days where we just binged on old shows, ate, and visited Mikhail.

His recovery was going well. He'd also be out by Monday depending on what the doctor's thought. In the meantime, he was going out of his mind with boredom.

Rush and Keelan were in my room as usual on the morning of Gratitude Night. They were waiting for me to get changed so we could go visit Mikhail when the TV screen turned on by itself.

"What the hell?" I mumbled to myself at the plain white screen showing.

"Oh no." Keelan mumbled, hands rising to cover his ears.

Rush leapt for my bed, ducking his head under the pillow and pressing tight.

I frowned at the two. "What's wrong? What's go-"

I was cut off as a piercing noise cut through my head. I gasped in pain, hands flying to cover my ears as I collapsed to my knees. My head was throbbing, eyesight covered in white splotches. Gritting my teeth, I hunched forward, pressing my head against the carpet as I waited for the noise to end. My harnessed wings strained against the straps in response to the pain.

It ended abruptly. The noise vanishing from my head and leaving a very loud, relieving silence behind. I opened my eyes, letting my elbows support me against the floor as my hands fell off my ears. Keelan groaned, off to my right. He'd been curled up like I had, but now he rolled to the side, eyes closed, breathing erratic.

I heard sheets shift above me, followed by another groan from Rush. "Why do they have to do that every year?" He whispered, voice raspy in pain. "Terra? You okay?"

"My... My head." I whispered against the floor. "It's... It's like it's splitting in half..."

"It's the same for all of us." Keelan choked out, slowly opening his eyes. "Sharper hearing for most of us... it's one way to catch your attention."

On cue, the TV crackled again. I tensed up, catching Keelan doing the same. But what came next was only a voice.

"All soldiers report to the mess in uniform by 1200 hours. New recruits wear casual clothes and cover yourself well. I repeat, all soldiers report to the mess in uniform..."

The voice went on to repeat the announcement two more times before abruptly cutting off. The TV screen went blank again, relief finally passing through my body.

"You guys could've warned me." I whispered against the floor, finally letting my hands fall off of my ears, elbows supporting my body against the floor.

"It's not like it's a scheduled thing that happens every year." Rush replied tightly. "It must be our branch's turn for security this year."

My head was killing me. I slowly pushed myself up straight, blinking away the white orbs from my eyes. "We still have three hours... what do you guys want to do?"

"Well, right now." Keelan blinked blearily up at me. "Nothing."

"I've currently lost all will to live." Rush threw in. "Till I can see clearly again anyway."

"I'm going to-ugh-" I managed to stand up amidst the stars going off in front of my eyes and the explosions going on inside my head and stumbled to the sofa. "... nap. I need a nap."

"A nap sounds great." Rush spoke, voice muffled by the sheets. "I'll be right here... on the bed..."

"I'll take the floor." Keelan didn't seem to be in any shape to move judging by his voice. I saw him raise his arm to pull a pillow down to him from his bed.

Slumping down in the sofa, I let my impaired vision go blank as I closed my eyes.