It was the same image playing over and over in his mind. Every time he fell asleep, he dreamed the same damned dream. He just couldn’t get the image of her crying and running out of the room out of his head.

"Damn!" he cursed as his fist slammed against the mattress. Tonight was just like the night before, and the night before that. He never used to have trouble sleeping, but ever since the incident with Kagetsuya-sama and Mercy, he kept losing sleep.

"Why, why, why?" he mumbled out loud to himself. "Why is it I never think before something comes out of my mouth? Am I that jealous?" These were the same questions he asked every night and still he couldn’t find the answers to. Would he ever find the answers, he wondered.

Orion sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He just sat there and then began to rub his hands though his hair. He hadn’t seen Mercy in days. He figured that Celly was keeping her busy with different battle plans and what not.

"I wish I could talk to her and apologize..." he muttered as he stood and walked towards the windows.

"I guess I really didn’t have any right to do what I did. Damn, I’m such a baka. Maybe a walk around the castle may help me clear my mind."

With that, he left the quarters he had been staying in and proceeded to walk down the corridor. He found himself walking towards the conference room. The door was open and light was pouring out into the dark hallway. He stepped into the doorway to see who was there.

Meanwhile...

Mercy was working in the conference room, doing some research. She looked at the files that she had complied, not paying attention to what was going on around her. She looked like crap. She had been up late for the last couple of nights because of the research. As she circled various items on the papers before her, she decided that all she wanted to do was to finish her work, return to her quarters, shower, and then go straight to bed.

As she finished the file she was working on, she heard something or someone walk into the room. Looking up, she gasped. She hadn’t been expecting to see Orion standing in the doorway. For all she knew, he was normally asleep at this time.

Orion just stared at Mercy and wondered why she had the dark circles under her eyes. How much sleep had she been getting the last couple of days?

"You look awful!" they both said at the same time.

~tbc~