Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I don't usually do the mushy stuff but i'm in a super good mood!

Enjoy! :)

Thirteen year old Edge was always popular with the ladies, the female scientists always took a liking to him-saying it was his dark, mysterious personality. But Edge only had eyes for one person: Marshall. The crush had surfaced over the past few months, at first he put it down to his human side going through puberty, but soon he realised Marshall meant more to him that he first thought and everything she did made his heart beat faster; the way her brow creased when she frowned, the way her right ear stuck out to the side when she was trying to remember something-just…everything.

She was locked away at the moment, she had lost her temper and had gone wild on a hound-almost killing it, and she still hadn’t calmed; he could hear her down the hall banging the door, screaming profanities and cursing every hound she knew by name. Edge leant against the wall with a frown; it was Duke’s fault she was like this, he constantly teased her and then pushed another hound in her path when she lunged for him.

“Marshall, if you don’t calm down I’ll have to give you a sedative!” One of the scientists warned, but it was an empty threat. They never dared to enter the same room as her when she was wild and just waited until she’d worn herself out to move her into the sleeping quarters. Edge shook his head and made his way towards them.

“I want to go in.” He told them.

“You can’t, she’s unstable at the moment.” The scientist replied sternly.

“I’m her team mate and she won’t hurt me.” Edge’s eyes narrowed. “So let me in.”

“Fine, fine, but I won’t be held responsible if she ends up killing you.” The scientist shrugged. “Marshall, I’m opening the door to let Edge in-move to the back wall and stay there.” He waited until she complied and then practically threw Edge in like he was going to be fed to a Lion. Edge looked to Marshall as she slinked to her right, slowly stalking him; their eyes met and he could see the ferocity in them-the blood thirst. He suppressed a shudder.

“Marshall…” Her ear flicked and she paused, she recognised his voice. “Easy Marshall, it’s just me…” He took a step towards her and she leapt forward; he managed to catch the fist coming at him and used it to pull her into a tight embrace. “Stop it Marshall.” He held her tighter as she struggled to break free. “If you don’t learn to calm down they’ll terminate you!” She stiffened at those harsh words and it seemed like an eternity before she relaxed, breaking down into tears; Edge lowered her to the floor as she grasped the back of his shirt and cried into his shoulder.

“I-I don’t want to be terminated…” She sobbed. “I don’t want to leave you, Tabby and Nale…”

“You have to learn to calm down…” He rubbed her back soothingly.

“I can’t…it’s so hard…there’s so much anger…” She tightened her grip. “Help me…”

Edge’s heart skipped a beat. Marshall never asked anyone for help, she was always so determined to do anything all on her own, to show she was the leader for a reason; he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity like this. “I’ll try my best.” He promised.

“Thank you…”

He held her for a few moments longer in silence until he realised she had fallen asleep. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the door. “Hey.” He kicked it to get the scientists attention. “I’ve calmed her down and she’s asleep.”

The door opened slowly, the scientist checking to see if Marshall really was asleep, and then moved aside to let them out. “Very well, but you won’t always be there to calm her.”

“I will.” Edge grunted and began the short walk to the sleeping quarters, looking down at Marshall’s sleeping form with a small smile. That’s a promise.

“Edge, Edge, Edge!”

“Oof, geez Tabby.” Edge grunted and wrapped his arms around Tabby’s legs, lifting her up so the eleven year old could sit on his back and not dangle from his neck. “What is it?”

“Do you know what Valentines Day is?” She grinned. It was a trick question, if he said yes ’Did you know…’ would follow, so he just rolled his eyes and shook his head, but he honestly didn’t know.

“It was a holiday the Pagan’s came up with a long time ago.” She began. “I’m not sure what they did but these days you give cards and gifts to a person you really, really love.”

“So?”

“So isn’t that so romantic?”

“I…guess.” Edge frowned, he wasn’t into romance-he wasn’t even sure if he was the romantic type.

“Come on Nale, you can do it!” Marshall called from the top of a climbing wall on the obstacle course; they were supposed to do the course alone but Marshall always went a little ahead of Nale to encourage him since he was the youngest but a little taller than Tabby. Marshall had slept soundly during the night and now, sat on the wall, the early morning sun hit her just right; her sandy hair radiated and her encouraging smile seemed brighter than the sun itself.

Someone you really love. Edge thought. “Say Tabs, when is this Valentines Day?”

“Every fourteenth of February.” She beamed. “Which is today, why?”

“Today?” He felt his heart sink; he didn’t have time to even think of what to get her. “Just wondering.”

Later that day Edge sat in the sleeping quarters with Tabby and Nale; they were studying books that were given to them so they could learn about their specially assigned roles. Nale was miles a head of the team-he was so dedicated to his role that he would stay up all night reading until Marshall ordered him to sleep. Marshall stepped inside and slammed the door behind her; she stalked over to her bed and dropped onto it with a growl.

“What’s the matter?” Edge looked up from his book. “Where have you been?”

“Stupid scientists took more blood.” She rubbed her arm with a scowl. “That’s the third time this week.”

“They’re just trying to understand why you go wild.” Tabby explained. “I heard them talking about it.”

“Why do they need more blood for that?” Marshall huffed and snatched her book up from the bed; she had to read about great leaders and was given a special book about war strategies, police and army codes-basically everything she needed to know to do her job. She sighed again and opened her book, blinking at the page. “Did someone come in here while I was out?”

“No.” Nale yawned. “Why?”

“Someone slipped this into my book…” She flicked a thin piece of card over in her hands and Tabby rushed over to see.

“You have a secret admirer!!” She squealed. “You’re so lucky!”

Nale wandered over for a moment for a quick peak, but just shrugged and dropped back onto his bed-ready to fall asleep. Marshall shooed Tabby back to her bed and studied the card again, smiling a little to herself as she tucked it into another page and settled down to read. Edge didn’t need to see-he knew exactly what it said; he hadn’t had a lot of time to think about what to give her, it wasn’t like he could leave the base to buy her anything anyway. So he found an empty room with a computer, printed something on a slip of card and slid it into her book; he was going to just give it to her but lost his nerve. The message was simple and sweet, and she’d never know it was him. Marshall looked at the card again and Edge smiled to himself, going through the three words in his head.

Happy Valentines Day.

Once again, Happy V-Day, hope you all had a good one! ;)