Standing in the elevator, all I could think about was that I wanted to fall on my bed and sleep until the next week.

I was exhausted! It had been a very long day, and that was before I had to stay at the base until almost midnight to fix someone else's mistakes. I was really looking forward to eating something quickly and going to sleep. At least I had gotten the next day free.

Finally the elevator reached my floor and opened its doors with a soft ping. I quickly moved to my door and passed my hand over the small panel next to it, so that it could check my DNA and unlock it.

“Welcome home, Miss Wari” chimed the electronic voice of the panel as the door slid open without a sound.

Leaving my boots in the short corridor behind the door, I made my way to the large living room right after, and from there to the open kitchen on the left of it.

In the kitchen, sitting on the table with a bluish energy field around it, was a plate full of food, with a note next to it.

-Got your message, I’m leaving dinner under a stasis field for you. If you get home after eleven, I went to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow. Love, Ir-

I smiled. That was nice of him. Even after 5 years of living together, Irridus still managed to make me feel all warm inside with his small, thoughtful gestures.

I called up the controls for the house with a gesture, the holographic display appearing in mid air in front of me. Scrolling down the various options, I found the stasis fields controls and deactivated the one around my dinner. In just a moment the field dispersed and the rich smell of food reached me.

Sitting down to eat, I used the house controls to call up the newspaper. Scanning trough the news I saw the usual articles: political turmoil for this or that decision, expansionist corporations demanding for new colonies to be founded and being denied, celebrities doing something completely normal and yet somehow causing a scandal… usual fun stuff. Then I came across something that made my blood boil: written in bold characters on the page was the title “Alliance of various political parties demands the disarming and disbanding of the Guardians!”.

“Idiots” I muttered, while reading trough the article. Apparently, multiple politicians had banded together inside the government to try and push the disbanding of the main protectors of the Federation. The Guardians had been both the army and the law enforcement of the Meitierra Federation for over a thousand years, but apparently a bunch of self-serving old men had decided this was no longer good enough.

Of course, nowhere in the article was mentioned that most of the people responsible for this proposition had been or currently were investigated for being member of organized crime. I had personally arrested two of them just a couple months before.

“You shouldn’t read this stuff right before bed Liafair,” came from behind me as a pair of arms encircled my shoulders, “It will make you too irritated to sleep”.

“Speaking of sleeping, shouldn’t you be in bed doing just that?” I asked.

“I felt your presence in the building and woke up, and you were taking too long to come to bed, so I came looking for you”.

I stood up, forcing him to let go of my shoulders, and turned to face him.

“Well, you’ll have to wait bit longer. I still need a shower. You wouldn’t want me in bed while I still stink, right?”

He pouted, rolling his deep blue eyes. His long, completely black hair were covering his eyes though, so I moved them behind his ear to see him better.

“I’ll be right with you in about ten minutes, okay?”

He rolled his eyes again and hugged me, resting his chin on the top of my head.

“I think you smell fine” he murmured, but nonetheless he let go of me and started walking towards the stairs to get back to bed.

“Also, don’t do that.” I told him as he went.

“Don’t do what?” he asked, his smirk giving away that he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“You know what I mean! Don’t put your chin on my head like that!”

“Only once you’ll give me a good explanation on why you get irritated whenever someone take notice of you being half a head shorter than me” he said, still smirking; “I’ll see you in bed”.

I sighed. Stars above I loved him, but he was so good at irritating me sometimes.

After a quick shower and getting ready for bed, I joined Irridus under the covers, quickly cuddling up with him. As always when I was with him, all worries and problems of the day were slowly forgotten, and I peacefully slipped into sleep.