Planeteer Narrative #3 part 3

This one's gonna be quite a bit shorter, but that's okay. Lucky for you. I guess. This is the last chapter I edit before I go to bed, I swear. So, good night. Yeah, who am I kidding? This chapter isn't dedicated to anyone. Hey, someone email me and I'll dedicate a chapter to you. Ha ha, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Cvh7 vh (falling asleep on the keyboard)

      Later that evening, both groups were back at Mia's. The Planeteers had agreed to help the Ronins with this new foe (actually, Gi had volunteered them). She assured them that they would stay and do everything they could until this new enemy was defeated.
      Mia had offered them rooms at her house; however, the tension between them was still apparent. The Planeteers (except for Gi) were angry at the Ronins for destroying the trees. The Ronin Warriors were wondering how they ever got involved with such a bunch of nitwits.
      After a midnight snack of tea and cookies (compliments of Cye) and a great deal of grumbling, they all headed to bed. Yuli had already gone home. Ma-Ti was on Sage's extra bed, Wheeler was on Ryo and Rowan's floor with White Blaze, and Linka and Gi were in Mia's room on cots. Kwame, still angry about the trees, had opted for a couch in the living room.
      As they got ready for bed, the girls began to experience that phenomenom that occurs whenever girls get together at night in pajamas: girl talk.
      Gi turned to Mia, who sat on her bed, brushing out her long hair. "So, Mia...you really like Ryo, don't you?"
      Mia turned to her, flustered. "What? Who, me? No, never, of course not."
      Wheeler, walking by their open door on his way back from the bathroom, stopped and listened to them, grinning.
      Mia continued. "He's a friend. That's all, and...and..." The skeptical faces around her were quickly wearing her down. "I don't know. Well, maybe. Maybe. Not definitely." She looked at the two other girls and sighed. "He's really sweet, and nice, and protective. And he is good-looking..."
      The other two grinned, remembering Ryo walking by their room in a pair of shorts. Only. "Oh, yeah." The three girls laughed, but then Mia frowned slightly.
      "However, he has a guilt complex. Everything is 'his fault'. And he can be so depressed, all the time. And I'm not sure if he likes me." As the other two turned to assure her that he did, Wheeler smiled again and walked back to his room. Mia then turned to Linka. "But what's with you and Wheeler?"
      Linka sighed. "I don't know. He flirts with me sometimes, but I do not know if that is just what he does to everyone."
      "He doesn't flirt with me," Gi chimed in.
      "True," Linka said slowly. "He is just so... so confusing. He will do something, and I will be so impressed by him, and he seems so, what's the word, appealing?" Gi giggled.
      "Appealing, Linka."
      Linka continued. "But then, he will start being his stupid self again. I do not know what to think of him."
      Gi and Mia chuckled, knowing all too well how that felt. "What about you, Gi?" asked Mia.
      "What do I think of Wheeler?" she asked, nonplussed.
      "No, silly!" exclaimed Linka. "Do you have someone special?"
      "No, no, not really."
      Mia turned the lights off, and she and Linka drifted off to sleep, thinking of Ryo and Wheeler. Gi, however, didn't fall asleep. She stared at the ceiling, knowing she had not been entirely truthful. There was someone: that fish boy, Cye.
      She mouthed the name to herself, thinking about their brief time together. She thought of the way he'd looked at her when she introduced herself, and how she didn't believe he was watching her until she looked up. Then he had just watched her with those beautiful blue eyes, shy and sweet. She thought of his British accent, and the way he'd watched her when he said he liked fish, as he waited for her reaction.
      Then she thought of how he'd faced that tree for her. But was it really for me? she wondered. Or was it just his duty? She sighed and hugged her pillow as she drifted off to sleep. She absentmindedly scratched her nose, not knowing that her nose had itched because Cye was thinking about her. (That's what my sisters used to say, at least).

      Wheeler walked into Ryo and Rowan's room, grinning. "Hey Ryo, you know the girls are talking about you in there?"
      Ryo looked up. "Really? What are they saying?"
      "Oh, I don't know, this and that."
      The warrior of Wildfire stood. "What are they saying, Wheeler?"
      Wheeler looked at him, grinning. "I forget."
      Ryo grabbed his collar and shoved him against the wall. Rowan decided it looked like fun and decided to join the fray. As the three wrestled on the ground, White Blaze watched in amused silence.

      In the neat, precise silence of Sage's room, Ma-Ti slept comfortably on the extra bed. He didn't notice when Suchi got up, took a small vial from a secret compartment in Ma-Ti's bag, and and snuck out the door. The monkey didn't even wake White Blaze, a few doors down. Silently, Suchi crept to the kitchen, opened the vial, and emptied the contents of the vial onto the bowl of strawberries. Then he quietly turned and left.

Part 4