The soft tip of a slipper poked Porter in the face, tickling his cheek until his eyes drowsily opened. Mr. Shotuku withdrew his footwear and placed it back on his foot. "You are supposed to patiently watch her, not sleep with her!" Confused by his sleepy fog, Porter shifted and felt a weight on his side. He looked down to see Nami's head resting against his shoulder, her hair messy and one of her sleeves pulled down a little to expose her shoulder.

Porter scrambled away in shock and let Nami's head fall down to the chair, jarring her into waking up. "No, no I was watching her but I must have fallen asleep and then...umm...well maybe she snapped out of it and then decided to use me as a pillow."

Mr. Shotuku shook his head at Porter. "Lolita in my classroom. Bah. Get yourself to your class." The young boy's face shattered and he looked much like Nami had the day before. Nami tugged at his arms, dragging him out behind her as she fixed her clothes up. There would be no class for Advanced Spirit Techniques today; it occurred every other day so Porter and Nami's day went by in a fairly normal manner, other than Porter bumbling along in a shock over being suspected of sleeping with Nami.

However, Porter got a break from one class as the teacher was ill, and he spent it down in the hangar, where his personal Goliath was always awaiting him. It had been given to him by his grandfather before he had passed away. Porter had barely known his parents, and had briefly spent time with his grandfather before he died and left Porter to grow up in the orphanage. And most orphans ended up serving for the military. Porter was just extra lucky in that his grandfather had been an architect for Goliaths and had constructed this particular one as his personal beauty.

The trouble with this Goliath was that it was old. At its time it might have been the pinnacle of weaponry but it took so long to build that weapons simply advanced past it and it became obsolete before it was even done. While it made Porter the laughing stock of the pilots whenever it was mentioned, at least he had something.

His battlesuit was deemed a Zephyr class, an extremely rare machine that favoured high speed and mobility and delivered technical, precise strikes, all while donning a fairly average build so as to take on some fire, unlike most speed-style Goliaths. This one in particular was immensely unique for its lack of mounted weaponry or guns, instead utilizing two long blades of sharpened steel, each one having a handle that stuck out off the side of the blade. Thus the Goliath could form two fists, each one gripping the handle of a blade, and the swords would be running on the underside of the arm, as well as reaching out past the hand into the air in front. Difficult weapons to wield, though powerful.

Porter couldn't say he knew exactly how powerful they were though. He had never driven the Goliath, nicknamed the "White Storm" for its pearl-white finish, and even if he could he was of such moderate skill he would probably be incapable of handling it. In the end he could have decided to hold onto it as a relic from his grandfather's life or give it away to be scrapped for parts. The army certainly didn't want to use an outdated model in combat and would only let Porter use it because it was gifted to him.

At least he could come down here every so often and go over the minor details of the craft, admiring its keen edges and smooth surface, running his hands over consoles and controls and looking at monitors he pulled up (he had yet to ever even turn the whole thing on. Maybe it couldn't even start). Down in the hangar, inside the White Storm, he was safe from the harassment of his peers, the dissatisfied look of his teachers, and the ignorance of Riya. Yes, down here he could think about Riya all on his own and harken back to that first time they met, when he had bumped into her and consequently set his heart ablaze.

"Whatcha looking at Porter?" At the shock of hearing Nami's voice, Porter jumped up in the cockpit and slammed his head against the ceiling, sinking back down in the seat in a stupor.

"Nami, what are you doing here?"

"Well I have this period off too now, duh! I was down here studying up on the Inverted Drive Mechanics of some of the Exo class suits when I saw you in here and thought maybe you wanted some company."

Porter was still seeing stars floating around his head. And he saw Riya's head inside the stars, giggling, and he got a stupid grin on his face. "That's nice Nami. Please go away now."

"You aren't hearing anything I say!" Nami looked around the cockpit in wonder at all the different gadgets and switches. To a technogeek like her, the inside of every Goliath was a paradise, but this particular one was special because its older design wasn't like anything she had studied. "Say Porter have you ever even turned this thing on?"

"Umm sure I have, I mean well it got in the hangar didn't it? And you know, it works, it definitely does. It might be old but it definitely totally works."

Nami's face adopted a look of disbelief before forming a sly smile as she figured things out. "So you've never started it."

"No." Porter stared down at his feet in shame. "I mean I want to, I really do, it's just I never really have gotten around to it."

"Well then why don't you start it now?" Nami reached over his shoulder from behind the chair and pushed down on the ignition switch, then knocked a couple more into position to enact the proper start-up sequences. The cockpit began to vibrate as the engine rumbled into life and numerous visual displays started to ignite before the two students' eyes.

Porter scrambled and found the off switch, shutting the whole thing down as quickly as it went up. "Nami are you crazy? I don't know how to drive this thing! What if we had set off a gun by accident?"

"It doesn't have any."

"Well what if...I had swung the swords around?" Porter fumed.

"It's not holding them right now; they're sitting off to its side."

"Well I..."

"You're just a big chicken. All I did was turn it on. Besides if newer models were built on the foundations of this one then I should be able to drive it. You would too if you studied once in awhile." Porter opened the hatch of the cockpit and kicked Nami out of it, watching her tumble down the very far distance to smack into the ground and make a big, squishy pile.

Porter shook the vision out of his head. No he would not throw Nami out of the cockpit, no matter how much he fantasized about it. The two climbed down from the robot and bumped into Professor Drey, an elderly man who oversaw the hangar area and studies on the Goliaths. He was in charge of the entire Maintenance and Engineering Department as well and so the staff of mechanics and architects running around were under his control. When the two crashed into him they knocked his round-rimmed spectacles off his crooked nose to the floor, instantly blinding him. His mass of stringy, grey hair bobbed up and down as he groped around for his glasses on the ground.

Once his eyewear resumed his face he recognized the two and instantly beamed, smiling to Nami because she was a prize student and smiling at Porter because he had an artifact of a Goliath with him and the professor, being a relic himself, was very much pleased with artifacts. "And how are you two lovely students today?"

"Very good, sir." The two bowed in unison and Nami giggled over her crush.

"Porter, was that the Storm's engine I heard running from my office? I can't believe you finally started it. How did it run?" Professor Drey whipped out a notepad and began scribbling down a title for the upcoming report on the White Storm.

"Oh, well I mean I didn't really...it sort of...well I just kind of shut it off as soon as it was started."

"Ah, I see." Drey took on a deflated demeanour. Even his hair, normally flying out in all sorts of quirky angles, flopped down below his ears, and he turned and trudged away. "I suppose some other day then we will see what it can do."

The two watched him leave before Nami shot Porter a dirty look and shook her head at him. "I can't believe you had to squash a poor old man's dreams like that. Why couldn't you just lie?"

"Because that would also make me a terrible person?"

"Maybe but at least somebody else would feel better. Some days you're just so selfish."

"You seem to love me anyways." It was out before he could stop himself and he instantly covered his mouth afterwards but he couldn't catch the escaping words as they fluttered through the air. Nami's face quivered and her eyes became glassy as the tears formed. Then she turned red and anger flew across her visage before she stormed away.

Exasperated, Porter sat down on a metal crate of supplies and let out a long sigh, staring up at his Goliath, the only friend he seemed to have around. "Storm, how come I can't seem to have just a normal day here? Why can't I just be a normal guy?" But the White Storm didn't have an answer. All it could do was sit and stare back, silently, and hope to be driven someday soon.

And it would be. Very soon.

A/N: Turmoil for a teen? What an everyday occurrence! But he has to deal with another day in Mr. Sotuku's class next! And what happened to that fight in the north?!?!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy! Feedback keeps this thing going, love to hear from you.