Raven chuckled a little. "I'm not sure if I could have if I tried."

There was a very faint reddish brown color in Laurel's cheeks as she looked away, "... How are you feeling?" she asked suddenly.

"Good," Raven replied with a yawn. "It feels great to be lazy for awhile."

Laurel glanced back at Raven with a raised eyebrow. Then suddenly she smirked, chuckling a bit harshly, "You always see the best in things, don't you?" she mused as she reached out and grabbed his hand.

"I always try," Raven admitted as he gripped her hand with a small smile.

Laurel swallowed a little as she continued to look at Raven, "... Do you love Aaron?" she asked quietly.

Raven blinked, surprised by Laurel's question. "Aaron was my first love," he explained.

Laurel traced a vein on Raven's hand with her free one. "How did you know..." she continued with a confused look on her face, "that it was love?"

Raven thought about it for a minute. "I was the happiest when I was with him," he explained. "I wanted to be with him all the time. And I knew I would do anything for him. Making him happy made me happy. And when I looked in his eyes, I knew he felt the same way about me."

Laurel was silent for a long time, "But... isn't that just friendship?" she asked, "Being kind, wanting others to be happy and laughing with them. That's all nice but that's not necessarily love." she decided quietly.

"No... not really," Raven sighed a little. "... That person is always on your mind," he tried to explain. "You don't want to stop thinking about them, and you couldn't if you tried. And of course there's the physical attraction."

Laurel frowned a little, "Isn't that just lust?" she asked bluntly.

Raven shook his head. "It's different when you're in love," he explained and then sighed again knowing that probably didn't make sense to her. "It's... well, lust is more like something you want. Like a craving. But when you're in love... it's like... glue. I guess. It's pretty much about the other person. It's an expression of how you feel. It brings you closer together than any laughter or words can." He was blushing a little by the end.

Laurel continued to frown a bit as she stared at Raven's hand. After a while she looked back at blushing Raven, "Do you have someone you love right now?" she asked bluntly.

"Uh... not like that," he replied. "You don't come across that too often."

Laurel paused, "What happened?" she asked, "Why'd you stop loving each other? Isn't love like that supposed to be unbreakable? Isn't that what real selfless love is supposed to be?!" she suddenly demanded, each question getting louder and angrier, "Isn't the fact that you stopped loving each other proof that you didn't truly love to begin with?!" she exclaimed, trying to pull her hand away with a scowl.

Raven let Laurel pull her hand away. "... N-No..." he tried to explain quietly. "It was... well, it was our love for each other that forced us apart. Aaron wanted to stay on the farm, and I wanted to see the world. We loved each other so much, we had to let go; so both of us could be happy. I still love and care for him, but it is different than before. Yet it is still selfless."

Laurel continued to scowl, "Both my parents left me because they wanted to be somewhere else." she argued sharply, "Are you saying they left out of love? That they still love me?! That it's selfless?!" and suddenly she looked on the verge of tears, "That it was out of love for me that they left?!" she started to chuckle darkly, "No, they left because they are selfish boulders. They couldn't care dirt about me. Am I supposed to just let go?" She was still laughing but the tears looked like they might spill over.

Raven was taken completely off guard again. "O-Of course not," he stammered. "That's completely different. Leaving was selfish of them."

"Then what's the difference?" Laurel demanded, scrubbing her eyes with the back of her hand to stop the tears from falling.

"Well," Raven stated bluntly, "We didn't have any kids that would be effected by our decisions. It was just us."

Laurel slowly removed her hand from her eyes and stared at Raven, "... So... you both just decided one day not to love each other anymore? You decided just to... not be together anymore?" she asked just as bluntly but with no malous. She was simply confused

"No," Raven replied, rubbing his head a little. "We... We decided the best way to love each other was to let each other go. It wasn't easy. We spent a long time thinking and talking about it."

Laurel paused before nodding slowly. "Thanks." she murmured, still deep in thought, "I think... it's a little clearer now."

Raven didn't say anything more, hoping something he had said made sense to her.

Laurel stood silently before looking down at Raven and showing him a tiny but genuine smile. "Rest up, my f.b.f." she said quietly as she patted his cheek.

Raven nodded a little before slowly closing his eyes.

Laurel had just left the infirmary when the warning for incoming hovercraft sounded. Laurel paled slightly as she took off down the hall towards Nic's room.

Lucy blinked at the noise, "That's strange." she told Missy as she looked towards the sky.

Nic was in his room on his laptop, looking at the security feed to see who was arriving.

"Hmm?" Missy asked, not looking too concerned.

Laurel threw the door open and then blinked at Nic. After a moment she sighed and went over to him, sitting down beside him and leaning over to see the screen as well.

"I haven't heard the warning go off in a long time." Lucy explained.

After another minute or so, a Juttle crash-landed a bit too close to the main building and partially caught on fire. Laurel half fell over onto Nic in shock as the vibrations of the landing rustled the room. "... That's one of Wolfe's..." she whispered, eyes wide. It was similar to the one that had flown her to her father.

Missy swayed a little to keep her balance. "Whoa," she said, taking a moment to get her balance before pulling out a tablet and pushing a few buttons.

"... Hmm...." Nic mused, keeping the feed up as he opened a couple other windows. Using James' security system and a few nearby satellites, he checked to see if they had been followed.

A little box appeared on its own in the corner of Nic's screen. "What the terra is going on?" Missy asked Nic.

"Just a moment..." Nic replied to her.

"A rolling boulder gathers moss faster than you can hack," Missy told him.

"Mhmm..." Nic muttered, like he was used to hearing stuff like that.

Laurel glanced between Nic and Missy for a moment before frowning and quickly getting up and running for the still open door.

The Juttle didn't appear to have been followed.

So a little while later, Missy and Nic went to see what had happened.

Nic and Missy walked up to this conversation.

Rosen was yawning, "Damn, Frei... flying with you is exhausting. Why'd you turn the ship off like that? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

Frei gave him a blank stare, "There was a tracker aboard, hooked up in our system. We didn't have time to locate it so I flew straight here and ran out of fuel over North Dakota like a knew I would... I turned the Juttle off and coasted the rest of the way here."

Laurel looked rather confused.

Rosen stared at Frei with a slightly annoyed expression, "Frei... this is Washington... How the terra did you coast from North Dakota to Washington?!" he demanded.

Frei snorted ever so lightly, "We were nearly out of the atmosphere over North Dakota." she said simply. Suddenly Rosen didn't look so good.

"Juttles can go that high?" Laurel's rather faint voice asked.

"... I like this girl..." Missy muttered quietly to herself. Nic didn't say anything like usual.

Frei didn't look at Missy, eyes focusing right on Nic as she promptly held out a small envelope made of some plastic like substance. "This is the hair of the man who attacked Kale and Blaze, almost killing Kale. Figure out who he is and who he's working for." she stated in a stark voice. "Yue wanted to come herself but Wolfe decided it wasn't safe until we know who's behind the attack."

"The guy had a dragon tattoo on his arm." Rosen added before yawning again and messing up his hair with his hand.

It was Laurel's turn to not looks so good as she turned and started blankly at Rosen.

Nic took the hair, examining it. Missy got closer to Nic, looking at it as well. "... I'm assuming he's dead," Nic noted. "How long ago?"

"He was killed by his own people..." Frei paused, "Eleven hours and thirty-seven minutes ago. We got here as fast as we could."

Laurel suddenly turned and walked away down the hall. Rosen watched her go before turning back to Frei, "Well, I don't know how you're still standing, but I'm going to bed." he stated, stepping around Frei as he also walked off down the hall.

"... Can you do it?" Nic asked Missy, turning to her.

"Tch, it ain't even 24 hours old yet," Missy replied. But then she frowned and cussed a little. "I didn't even get to try out the pool yet..."

"Construct the database," Nic instructed Missy. "I'll handle the decryption."

"Whatever," Missy replied before walking away.

Nic stuck around for another minute. "... Yue wanted to come?" Nic clarified with Frei quietly.

Frei nodded slightly, "She said she felt useless there and that she knew the Yin Long better than you. She looked rather torn according to Wolfe. If the man isn't from the Yin Long, she might come later." Frei informed him in the same blank tone.