The Storm Hawks, minus Nika, woke up extra early, much to Finn's disgust, to finish decorating Nika's room, hoping she would say yes to being formally asked to be a Storm Hawk – a paintbrush and a tin of red paint in her hands Piper ordered the boys to move the furniture around, Finn kept complaining until Aerrow promised a sparring session later which brightened his spirits, they were pressed for time – it was already half 7 and Nika would be more than likely be up and looking for everyone. "Hurry up!" Piper whispered loudly, Junko lifted the cabinet with ease and with that the room was finished. It was a light red with a yellow Striker insignia on the walls, a bed in the corner, a small desk and chest with Nika's tools and equipment stored in them along with her drawings. A cabinet to hold Nika's belongings and as a gift, a Storm Hawks shield, officially welcoming her onto the squadron. Everyone smiled at their work, even Stork but he claimed it was gas. "Well done everyone!" Piper smiled, blushing at Finn who was grinning as he admired the team's work, well his own work. "Maybe we should get her up, it will be a nice surprise." Junko suggested, happy that Nika would finally get her own room though it wasn't easy to move Nika's stuff and keep her away from the room – they were out of excuses. She was also very suspicious and had nearly caught the boys a few times as they cleared the room and wondered why Stork was suddenly deep cleaning his biology room, his excuse was that something was leaking and it would kill them all. "I'll do it, last day she will be my roommate." Piper said, sadness in her voice – she was rather upset Nika was going to have her own room but she understood – both girls worked on very different things and unselfishly Nika always took her work to the hangar, she was going to miss her. Even though she was two doors away – it wasn't going to be the same, talking and giggling until they fell asleep.
With a sigh, Piper opened the doors to her room expecting Nika to be sleeping but she was sitting cross-legged on the floor meditating. "Nika?" Piper called softly, feeling bad for interrupting her friend – with a soft sigh Nika opened her eyes, not looking upset with Piper, in fact she smiled rather brightly. "Morning Piper, you're up early." She greeted, looking up at Piper. "Yeah, Stork thinks we should follow your example so we don't get mutant bed bugs or something." She giggled making up something on the spot, Nika joined in and stood up. "What's up anyway? Why have you got red paint on your cheek?" Nika asked, spotting specks of paint on her friend, Piper shrugged nervously running out of excuses. "Uh Finn... Finn was uh messing around with some paint and it must've got me. You want to get him back?" She smiled, Nika raised an eyebrow at Piper but grinned. "Sure! We can get him right now!" Piper smirked, she wasn't complaining that Nika hadn't seen through the lie, the brunette grabbed her hand and ran down the corridor – an idea! "Nika! We can hide in here! Then scare him when he goes past!" Piper whispered, dragging Nika into her new room and closing the door.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted, Nika turned around and screamed falling backwards her arms waving as she clawed at the air, Piper caught her and gently pushed her back onto her feet, the brunette heavily breathing. "Ok, I admit I deserve that for the times I got you guys". She laughed before standing straight, "Oh wow!" She gasped, seeing the room she was in. "This is amazing!" She awed, looking around – wondering what it was for until she spotted very familiar crest, her eyes watered and she bowed her head with a small sniff, "Uh oh, are you sure it's the right crest?" Junko asked worriedly to Piper, mistaking Nika's tears as ones of sadness. "No-no! It's perfect!" Nika exclaimed before anyone could get upset, she could hear Piper sigh in relief but a frown came to Nika, "But why would you guys paint the Striker crest anyway?" She asked, everyone looked at Aerrow with knowing smiles. He nervously laughed under his breath as he scratched the back of his neck as he moved closer to Nika, "Well, we thought it would be nice to have a reminder of home." He began to explain gently, trying to stop a grin forming when he saw Nika getting more confused – looking between the Storm Hawks and himself. "That's nice, but... why?" She slowly spoke before frowning more. "Because we want you to stay forever." Piper spoke up, an arm going around Nika's shoulders as she grinned softly.
Nika couldn't believe it, they all wanted her to stay permanently? Her eyes widened as a small gasp escaped her, followed by a laugh – she wouldn't be returned to Atmosia! "I did all of the designing and painted the crest!" Piper grinned, trying to make Nika say something – it wasn't often that she was speechless. "Junko and I did all of the heavy work, you know... man stuff." Finn spoke up, rolling his shoulders around as if he had just finished with hard labour, Nika rolled her eyes – knowing Finn had just bossed Junko around. "And I... well, let's say I made this room habitable... but no promises." Stork announced as he grinned creepily. "So, what did you do?" Nika smiled towards Aerrow – he was the only one who hadn't said anything about this room. "Well, I asked everyone what they thought of you and they wanted you to join us... I just painted the room with Radarr's help, my job was keeping you away from everyone else with odd jobs." He spoke nervously, Nika raised her eyebrows – what he did was incredibly sweet, everyone else as well but her heart fluttered nonetheless.
"So, what do you say? Do you want to be an official Storm Hawk?" Aerrow asked with a grin returning to his face, he looked as if he already knew the answer. Not wanting to disappoint him or anyone else, Nika nodded eagerly with Piper immediately squealing and embracing her, Junko quickly joining in with a hearty laugh as he easily lifted both girls up. "Thank you so much." Nika choked out, her eyes locking with Aerrow's briefly.
"So, princess." Aerrow smiled playfully, he was spending time with the brunette as she did some stretches on the brown mat Piper placed in the room. "It's Nika to you." She replied with a pointed look, hating being called "Princess", Aerrow chuckled and leant on his knees as he sat on the edge of her bed. "I'm proud of you, it was really brave of you standing up to your biggest fear like that." He gently smiled, referring to the Murk Raider's incident a week before, Nika nodded feeling the heat rise in her cheeks. "So, uh... am I looking after you for someone?" He smiled, trying to be subtle – inside he was fearing the answer was yes. "No, what are you talking about?" She asked with a small laugh, confused by what he meant. "Nothing, nothing! But don't princesses usually have a prince to marry or something?" He replied quickly, feeling embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head, hoping she didn't hear the nerves in his voice. "Not on Terra Yaris, everyone got to marry whoever they like. Aerrow I'm only fourteen! I'm not getting married!" She laughed, it was ridiculous – there was no way that she wanted to get married soon. Aerrow looked down rather embarrassed and at a loss what to say next – should he just admit it? He had a hopeless crush on her and he never once stopped thinking about how she nearly kissed him – that had to mean something right?
"Hello? Aerrow? Are you in there?" Nika called waving a tanned arm in his face, he blinked and smiled. "Sorry, just feeling stupid." He admitted scratching his cheek, cursing his fidgeting. "Psch, don't. It's a fair question to ask, no one really knows Yaris that well anyway." She smiled kindly with a wave of her hand, Aerrow was rather cute when he got embarrassed. "Tell me." He replied, Nika raised an eyebrow wondering why he was interested suddenly. "It's one long story you know." Nika warned lightly, he shrugged, "Well you can tell me what it was like being a princess." Nika looked at her fingernails briefly, "Um, it's a job – none of these constant pretty dresses and fancy dances like some people think." Aerrow smirked, trying to picture Nika in a dress and dancing – something he couldn't imagine. "What?" She narrowed her eyes seeing that Aerrow was smiling to himself. "Just trying to picture you dancing and in a dress, just weird." He replied trying not to sound mean about it. "Yeah, yeah. Funny thought but I can dance you know! Anyway... My dad, Katorian ruled Yaris with my mother Erika. My brother and I were being trained as Sky Knights as well as co-ruling the terra – for some reason the elders thought my brother and I were a great mix or something." She explained rubbing her arms, she had no idea where to start the story and it was weird telling Aerrow instead of Piper, who scribbled down notes as she spoke. "The elders made predictions, could say it was rather annoying especially when they guessed that my brother would be the stronger one out of us two. It made me more determined to beat him and prove them wrong, eventually I did." She continued shrugging, it was strange talking about her brother – usually she just ranted about how annoying he was. "Wow, it must've been difficult." Aerrow replied, hanging onto every word, "When did you become a Sky Knight?" Nika smiled sadly, he sat on the floor next to her feeling awful for asking about it, realising it must've been not long before she came to Atmosia. "I was twelve when I got knighted, like my brother. It was two days before Yaris fell to Cyclonia. One day when I'm stronger I will go back and free Yaris." She clenched her fist, out of guilt and anger for not being there for her people. "I'll help, we all will. You don't have to do this alone." He gently smiled placing his hand over her clenched fist. "Thanks, Aerrow, just weird having someone listen and not taking notes." She replied, unclenching her fist and relaxing.
"I had one weird childhood." Nika said to herself, in comparison to Piper's – Nika had a strange upbringing – she never really played or was a child for long, if at all. Aerrow laughed, off guard with her comment. "Sorry, wasn't expecting that." Aerrow apologised thinking that he hurt her feelings she smiled and took her hand out of his and standing to her feet. He stood too and opened his arms for a hug – he was going to tell her, she blushed but accepted his hug wrapping her arms around his neck while he held her waist. "Nika, I um... I-." He started before he found himself unable to get the words, why was it so hard when he looked right at her?! "Did you break my skimmer?" Nika smiled playfully, Aerrow was never nervous, well not that she seen anyway. "No, no!" He replied breaking the hug and backing off, his cheeks resembling his hair, it made Nika giggle, putting her hand in front of her mouth. "You better have not scratched it." Nika suddenly scowled, it had only recently occurred to her that she had trusted someone else with her skimmer and that she hadn't checked over it since Aerrow lost his bet. Usually she would go spare on anyone that was too close to her skimmer but she had let Aerrow clean it without a problem. The redhead jumped when Nika flinched somewhat angrily and flounced out of her room, his face paled as he fretted about what was on her mind.
Aerrow internally panicked, did he hurt her feelings by nearly confessing or was it about him not going into the hangar to clean her skimmer? He was going to clean the skimmer today, but he found himself spending more time with Nika and lost track of time. "N-Nika, wait!" He shouted sprinting after the brunette, she was already around the corner. Sliding round he got the fright of his life when Junko jumped out shouting, "ROAR!!" Junko laughed at Aerrow who had landed on the floor taking in deep breaths, he lay his head onto the floor when he realised he was fine. "What's gotten into you?" Junko laughed picking up the Sky Knight by the arm, Aerrow rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I think I've upset Nika." He replied with worry, Junko frowned at him in question – he had just seen her and she didn't look upset. "What did you do? I saw her rushing to the hangar but she looked ok." Junko replied though he sounded unsure himself now, he thought Aerrow had said something about home to her, the redhead made a face of concern, "I haven't cleaned her skimmer yet and she's going to find out!" Junko chuckled at his leader and said reassuring words to Aerrow, "Oh, don't worry I cleaned everyone's skimmers after I got dust everywhere." Aerrow stood in the corridor rather embarrassed as Junko walked by chuckling, "Just tell her already." He mused, leaving Aerrow alone and turning redder than his hair.
Nika speed walked to the hangar and stopped when she saw that her skimmer was clean, Radarr was sitting on it polishing, not a scratch on it – he stopped and struck a pose when he saw her, she laughed heartily – what was Radarr up to? "Oh, thank you Radarr, did you do this?" She asked sweetly, he shook his head and pointed to Junko and Aerrow's skimmers, Nika smiled despite not having a clue what Radarr was telling her. "You're so sweet, thank you." She cooed and kissed the top of his head, unknowingly to her, he swooned and fell off the skimmer with a thump.
"Finn! You are so ugh!" Piper screamed angrily, either it went through the communications or she screamed that it echoed throughout the entire Condor. "You never listen to my plans! You always make a mess and someone must rescue you! Junko stopped you from getting killed by the Cyclonians and that was three days ago!" Piper continued – her anger not fading as Nika sighed and walked to the bridge. Everyone was there, keeping their distance from Piper and Finn, Nika stood beside Junko and tried to understand what was going on. "I'm still here, aren't I? You make that seem like it's a bad thing!" Finn countered folding his arms like a petulant child. "Well Finn, sometimes it is!" Piper yelled and stamped her foot, "You are insufferable!" Nika felt her shoulders sag, what on earth was this about? "Ok guys enough!" Aerrow yelled, an authoritative tone in his voice – the pair stopped and walked away from each other. But not before sending final glares to each other. Nika immediately followed Piper to the corridor and hugged her, the crystal expert crying quietly. "It's ok Piper, boys are just pig headed." Nika consoled, Piper shook her head as she wiped her eyes. "He's nice to me one minute then he treats me like dirt the next!" She cried, Nika just hugged her again– she wasn't any good with this stuff, hugging seemed to work anyway. "Just tell him, Piper." She whispered, she knew the pair had something but they themselves wouldn't admit it, they picked fights for no reason and out of nowhere – that must mean something. "Nika, he just yells at me when I do what I normally do!" Piper exclaimed putting her hands on her face in exasperation. "He's probably confused Piper, it doesn't take much but at least tell him. I know you care." Nika replied trying to not get annoyed with Piper. "C'mon, let's target practice, I'll draw Finn's face!" Nika suggested with a childish grin, Piper giggled and they went off to throw berries at the pictures of Dark Ace and Finn.
"If you tell Aerrow, then I'll tell Finn." Piper smiled, knowing it would annoy the brunette, making her miss the Dark Ace, Nika frowned as she watched the berry disappear off the Condor. "Piper! That's not fair!" She exclaimed before aiming a berry at the tactics expert, square in the face. "Oh, it's on! I'll have you know that no one has ever beaten me!" Piper laughed throwing a few berries back – the girls ended up in a massive food fight, laughing the whole time. "Stop making a mess of my ship!" Stork screamed through the communications, Nika rolled her eyes and threw berries at the window antagonising Stork even more. He flinched and blinked as each one splatted against the window in front of him. "What are you gonna do about it Stork?" She mocked, throwing another when she finished speaking, "You better not sleep tonight." Stork grumbled before dropping the subject – on Piper's orders the girls cleaned up their mess and washed up. With a sigh, Nika sat on her bed – she was happy, new friends, new home and now a new room. "Best day ever." She smiled before lying down and immediately falling asleep.