4 One on one

Ed could feel Aya was trembling and hear her gasping for breath while he carried her to the cabin room. The punishment she received was only for a few seconds but it felt like hours to her.

She tightened her grasp on the knife she had used to cut his hair, "What do I do, I was panicked that I picked this up in reflex," she thought to herself.

He opened the cabin room hatch with an access card as it was not as secure as the cockpit; it did not need a DNA scan or biometric scan.

He could still smell alcohol in the room, it was from the original body's party the previous night; the ship was not advanced enough to cycle the air clean.

"Rest here, I will go back to the cockpit," Ed told her to rest once he put her on the bed. He was about to let her go, but she stopped him with her trembling hand.

"No, if he let go then he will see the knife, he will punish me again if he thinks I'm trying to kill him!" She thought. She had stopped him from letting her go as she was panicked.

"Don't leave," she said hurriedly while holding him closer. He could feel her body trembling and her breathing ragged from her panic.

"Should I just kill him? I have the knife and he had deactivated the collar. This is my chance to kill him," she thought while tightening her grasp on the knife.

The knife trembled in her hand as she pointed it behind his neck, "what if the collar still works, what if he noticed, what if he doesn't die?" doubt started to appear in her head.

"Is she that scared? That collar must have given her a big mental trauma," he thought as he looked at the girl who was trembling in his arm and would not let him go.

"She is like a little kitten afraid of others," he mused as her trembling reminded him of a kitten he found on the street.

"There, there, Don't be afraid, I have deactivated the collar, you won't be punished anymore, calm down Aya," he whispered with a gentle voice as he pulled her deeper into his embrace and patted her head in comfort.

"I can stay like this if you want," He said to her.

That confused her, "He actually is not that bad, maybe he is not a monster after all," she thought as her unstable state made her judgment against the logic.

She lowered down the knife slowly with some hesitation, her body still trembled and her breathing still uneven.

In the end, she hid the knife under a blanket so he would not find it, she was afraid to use it, now that he gave her a reason not to use it, she directly went for it.

To her surprise, Ed reached toward a zipper on her back and unzipped it revealing her white skin. It shocked her.

"Wha!!! What are you doing?!" she asked in panic as she tried to push him away, but her trembling hand was too weak to push his body.

"It's ok, Don't be afraid, I'm not doing anything alright, I just tried to help you so you can breathe easily," he said while patting her head like how he usually pets his cat.

He had seen how she had trouble breathing and wanted to help her, "This should help a bit," he thought.

She blushed a bit from his gentle voice and his comfort, but she kept trying to push him away from her with a trembling hand.

Seeing her that way, he let go of her and reached out toward the blanket, "Are you cold? Let me get..." he had not finished his word before she interrupted.

"No, don't!" she screamed while pulling him back in a hug in panic, both of them falling to the bed from the momentum.

"If he pulls the blanket, then he will find the knife!" she thought to herself.

He tried to get up, but she held him, "No, just stay like this, I won't be cold," she tried to explain her earlier action in a low voice.

Ed paused a bit before continuing to pat her head in comfort, "Fine, I won't leave you," he whispered.

They stayed like that for a while in silence. Nobody talked until Aya calmed down and her body stopped trembling and her breathing got stabilized.

Even though her hand still could not stop trembling, she finally calmed down a bit, "What did I do? What do I do now?" she wondered as she tried to get out of his embrace.

Seeing that she moved uncomfortably, it attracted Ed's attention as he was looking at her favorability data. It had made some progress.

"This seems to be working wonders in completing the mission," he thought.

Aya's movement had attracted his attention and seeing that her hand was trembling. He stopped his hand that had automatically patted her head and hold her trembling hand.

"Are you feeling better now?" he asked in a low voice so it wouldn't startle her.

His voice that was so close to her made her pause, "I feel better you can leave me now," she replied while keeping her eyes on his chest. She was afraid to look him in the eye.

Of course, he was not willing to go away, as a workaholic it was taboo for him to leave an unfinished job.

"I will accompany you here, there is nothing much to do out there, and Dea will tell us if something went wrong," he said.

"Hmm," she hummed. The feisty and fiery girl was nowhere to be seen.

"It seems that the punishment had done her good," he thought with a smile.

"Aya, can I ask you something?" he asked slowly to test the water. She nodded slowly in his embrace.

"Why would someone as important as you come to this remote place? Bola just some small mining star system," he questioned her.

She pressed her forehead on his chest while looking down, "I ran from home, I asked Dea to take me somewhere far away," she answered.

"Why would you run away? Didn't your family love you?" Ed was confused. As the only heir of a noble family, Aya should be their golden child.

Her hand's trembling got worse as she explained, "my father was sick from long ago, his brother was the one who controlled our family, he wanted to marry me to another family so he can be the next family head once my father passes away."

"I don't want to marry that old man with five wives so I ran away," her voice grew smaller, she felt bitter and her throat choked.

"It's alright, you did the right thing, if you don't want something then you should decline. Now stop crying ok," he wiped the tears she did not even realize were flowing down.

The pain and bitterness that she felt all this time flowed out with the tears, she started to sob and her tears flowed faster; she tried to use her hands to wipe it but more kept coming out of her eyes.

"I can't run away anymore, people from home will come in a few days, they will bring me back and there is no way I can escape when that happens," she said while sobbing.

"Then don't go back with them, stay here with me, I can take you far away and they will never find you," he told her in a firm tone.

That stunned Aya, "Eh? Should I believe him? He is a criminal, he hijacked our ship, put this collar on us, and treated us as slaves, I should not believe him," her logic whispered.

"But he didn't actually force us to do anything with him even though he knew that we were playing with him, he was also kind enough to comfort me, he was kind and caring," her feeling who wants someone she can depend on countered.

Ed was looking at the favorability counter in his system. It was nearing zero which was his goal, "just a little more, It seems that I'm in the right direction," he thought.

"I don't actually want to be a pirate or hurt you, I came from somewhere far away but I lost everything so I have no other way but did this," he said sincerely.

"I hope you can believe me, you can stay with me, you will be free," he tried to convince her with his sweet talk.

Ed held her face and made her look at him in the eyes, seeing there were still tears in her eyes, he wiped them clean with his finger and kissed her eyes.

That was the last nail to the coffin, Ed was keeping his eyes on the system as her favorability went beyond zero into a positive number.

She smiled at him as she pushed him onto his back. She got on top of him while leaning closer to kiss him.