The door opened suddenly and she glanced up to see Castor. "Hey, pilot. You caught my Fly. Sorry about that." She stood up and pulled him out of the cell, her face wide with a smile. He hadn't been able to stop by before lights out. She'd been killing herself worrying about whether or not he was okay... and now she knew that he was. She'd be able to sleep the rest of the night better.

The "feet" made almost no noise. The creature was metallic, but he had coated the extremities in a thin layer of absorbant foam that prevented any clicking or scraping. He knelt down and picked it up, placing the Fly gently into the proper port. The power cell charger lit, but it remained silent as the tiny camera began to recharge.

She knelt down on the floor across from him as he navigated his creature between them. She looked up, meeting his eyes, a small smile on his face. "So this is what you were slaving away in the engineering bay all day for." She looked down and tapped the little machine lightly with her finger, surprised that it didn't clink when her fingernail hit it. Then she noticed that it wasn't making any sounds as it went back and forth in the hallway. So like Cas, thinking of everything.

A small wave of surprise rolled over him. He hadn't intended to do that...but he found he couldn't complain. He'd been worried about her, and the full impact was beginning to hit him now that he was done with his project. How could he have left her alone for so long? At least nothing had happened, and he'd successfully finished his Spyder, and that would save them a lot of dangerous closehand spying.

"Thanks, pilot," he said softly, kissed the top of her head. "Now go back to sleep. I promise not to spy on you anymore." He pulled away and grinned at her. She smiled up at him, and Cas suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable, like there was something he was supposed to do and wasn't. He looked down at her, his grin slowly fading, and was only a little surprised when her smile became smaller as well. Her eyes held his own, and he moved slowly closer to her, inexplicably drawn.

At the last moment, he turned his head slightly and kissed her cheek instead.

She did a mental check to make sure that she did everything, she didn't want to give Sasha a reason to chew her out, she wanted to show him that she could be just as good as all of the other guy soldiers that he had. She glanced at her shoes, making sure they were shined, the were, but she bearly remembered even shining them... She glanced over at Raven, looking a little awkward in her uniform, but it was none the less correct. Cas had done it for her, it had to be right. Sasha seemed to have it out a bit worse for Raven, but there was nothing she could do, unless she wanted to get sasha's frustration aimed at her and get herself transfered out of Panther and away from Cas.

His eyes fell on Raven, and that internal chuckle died. Even in her dress uniform she looked awkward and sloppy. How could a girl be so graceless? He compared her to Helen, a good year younger than her, and shook his head, frustrated. She wasn't likely going to improve with age. He couldn't transfer her for another two weeks; new transfers had to have at least 21 days in a Quad before the commander could transfer them in good faith. At least there was only one battle scheduled between now and then...but damn, it would really fucking suck to have to handle another Quad with only fifteen effectives instead of the normal sixteen.

"Who dressed you, Raven?" he asked with a sneer. A few chuckles from the other soldiers. Raven jumped and her eyes flicked guiltily to Cas before she could stop herself. Sasha laughed. "You a ladies' man or what, Cassius? Only two girls in the Quad and you got 'em all to yourself." The laughter in the room redoubled to join his, and Cas blushed furiously, but remained as stoneyfaced as he could.

Sasha grew more serious. His next announcement was not going to be greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm, but it had to be made.

"Everyone take a look at our two newest. Administration finally decided we were too fucking good, and dropped a couple of girls on us." Groans and complaints. Sasha raised his hand for silence and got it immediately. "The blonde is Helen. She looks like a shuttlebaby cause they sent her up a year and half too early, but she can fly. She's the new scout." Open stares of furious astonishment appeared on nearly every face, and more than one cast an angry, envious glance at Helen, but he stared at each one until they looked at him and dropped their eyes. "If anyone has a problem with that, you can take it up with me," he said softly, his eyes glinting dangerously. No one said anything, and everyone was avoiding looking at Helen now. "That's what I thought."

He turned his eyes on Raven with an expression of distaste. "The other one's Raven. Haven't found a use for her yet, but if anyone comes up with any ideas, I'm all ears." Whispers and chuckles went through the assembled soldiers, and a few snide suggestions filtered through to him, and to Raven as well, obviously, as she went beet-red and her eyes teared up again. What a pathetic excuse for a soldier.

"Review is at 14:00. Get your asses back here by 13:00 so we can get into formation and down to the Docking Bay. Dismissed."

And Raven was even worse off than she was. Helen heard the comments which meant that Raven must have also, but she didn't dare turn around yet. She waited until Sasha was completely done before turning to look at Cas and Raven. Raven looked like she was ready to burst into tears. Helen stood there silently, her expression softened but she didn't know what she could say to the girl. Helen never had any close friends before Cas, which meant that no one ever came to her with their problems, she had really no idea . All she could do was stand there.

The other soldiers started going back to their cells or walked by them to leave the quad and go hang out with other friends before the review. Helen ignored the glares, and chuckles, not even bothering to find out if they were dirrected at her or Raven. She didn't know what she could say to the girl, or what she could do... friendships weren't exactly her expertise.. flying was.