"Hey, there's something I'm curious about," Donovan said as he and Kolya sat at a table in the corner of the mess hall. "Kolya's an interesting name for a woman. It sounds like a last name."

"It is. My parents named me after my mom's best friend, Anastasia Kolya." She stuck a fork into her western omelet and held it up for a moment to let it cool a bit. "So for the first few years of my life, I was Anastasia Mason. But I thought ‘Kolya' sounded much cooler, and begged them to change my name." She shook her head and laughed softly. "Eh, I was a kid. It made sense to me at the time. But my parents actually did it."

"It does sound cooler."

"Well, thank you." She chuckled. "How about you? How'd you end up with a last name as a first name?"

He shrugged and picked up a huge burrito from his tray. "I think my parents just picked it because they thought it sounded distinguished or something. I always thought it sounded kind of pretentious. My friends usually just call me Don or Donny."

"I've heard worse names. Much worse."

"Such as?"

"Well, when I was a kid, we had a neighbor with the last name of Wegfahrt."

A laugh exploded from him and he put his burrito back down. He took a breath, coughed several times, and tried to pull himself together. "You're kidding."

"Nope." She giggled.

"Was your neighbor an alien?"

"Nah. Just had a bizarre name."

"That must've made your childhood entertaining."

"Yeah. I was one of those kids who, when they stumble across a word or phrase they think is funny, they won't stop repeating it. I'm pretty sure I drove my parents insane, walking around the house and giggling like a fiend while saying, ‘Wegfahrt, Wegfahrt, Wegfahrt,' over and over."

Donovan slumped over the table and shook with laughter. When he finally regained his composure, he took a few slow breaths, sighed, and raised an eyebrow. "Is it safe for me to take a bite? Or could this become a choking hazard?"

"Nah, don't worry, I'll let you eat in peace."

He chuckled and picked up his burrito.

"Wegfahrt!"

He dropped the burrito back onto the plate, laughed until he started coughing, and shook his head. Kolya grinned and held his hand.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. Okay, I'll stop, I promise." She squeezed his hand and grinned.

He took another deep breath and eyed her suspiciously while raising the burrito to his mouth. She kept her hand on his and remained silent, letting him chew and swallow. Finally, he let out another sigh and grinned.

"If only my childhood was as entertaining as yours."

"Aw, you had a rough time of it?"

"Not really. Not much worse than any other average kid. I was one of the kids that everyone else in school liked to pick on, so most days I headed straight home afterward and just watched vids all the time."

"Ah. I did my fair share of that, too." Kolya took another bite of her omelet. "What sorts of things did you grow up watching?"

"Not much current stuff, actually. There was another reality-show craze going on back then, and I couldn't stand those things. I got more than enough reality from everyday life. So I'd find stuff to watch in archives. Some of it was pretty old."

"Hmm. Such as?"

"Well, for some reason, I took a liking to animated stuff from the 1980's on through the 2050's or so. Transformers was one of my favorites, though when I was a little older the original series became harder to watch. It was just awful."

"I remember those shows!" Kolya beamed. "I loved those! Which one was your favorite?"

"Transformers Prime was the first one that hooked me since the original. The writing could've been better, the show could've been more than it ended up being, but it was pretty solid most of the time, and the characters were fantastic. I could rewatch it as an adult and not feel like I was being talked down to."

"That's one of my favorites, too! Smokescreen was one of my first teenage crushes." Kolya fired off a lopsided grin. "Arcee was the only female character I've ever lusted after."

Donovan blushed. "Yeah, I admit I had a huge crush on her when puberty kicked in. My friends thought it was weird, but I didn't care. I thought she was hot. And the animators did an amazing job with the expressiveness of her face. She seemed to have this habit of smiling and glaring at the same time, and somehow it worked. I always thought it was adorable."

"Yeah, me too. And sometimes she looked like she was thinking something naughty."

"About Jack, you think?"

"That's what I choose to believe." Kolya cut off another bite of her omelet. "Just from some of the dialogue they had, I figured they were totally hot for each other."

"You, too?"

"Yep. I really wish the show had ‘gone there,' because there's no other way some of their lines could've been construed."

"Yes!" Donovan nodded emphatically. "I think some of the animators were in on it, too. In the final episode, when they were saying goodbye, there were some close-ups of each of them, and there was something about their eyes. The way they looked at each other …"

"Oh, I know! That and the voice acting. I was absolutely sure at that point that they were in love, but for some stupid reason, they just weren't admitting it. Seeing the show end without them staying together was a huge heartbreak. It was the last episode. Why couldn't they have finally said those three words to each other?"

"Well, that settles it." Donovan gave her another of those brilliant smiles and clasped her hand between both of his. "You are officially my hero."

"I am?" She grinned back and her heart leaped. He's hot, and he's a geek. That's too perfect.

"You're the most awesome person I've ever met. I wish I'd met you years ago."

"Aw, that's sweet. What do you think we'd be doing if we'd met back then?"

"I'm pretty sure we'd be married now. Doing the hitchhiking-on-starships thing. Exploring the galaxy together."

"I think I'd like that." She rested her free hand on top of his. "If you'd like, maybe we could give it a try. Seeing what's out there together, I mean. See where it takes us."

"I'm definitely interested." He winked at her. "As long as you don't yell ‘Wegfahrt' while we're having sex."

She burst out laughing -- and then what he said finished sinking in.

While we're … She stared at him. He actually wants to … oh, wow.

Her grin broadened so much it almost made her face ache.

This one's a keeper.