She didn’t expect him to be on time.  He never was.

Claudia Grant held lonely court in a café booth, indifferent to the steady hum of lively conversation around her. She idly watched the wafts of steam from the hot chocolate she ordered evaporate like so many little ghosts.  A plate of French silk pie, her favorite, lay uneaten in front of her.

She quickly glanced at the clock on the wall.  Four-thirty.  She would wait another fifteen minutes, no more.

Maybe Lisa’s right, she thought dimly, taking a calming sip of the cocoa, which was growing cooler and had lost its foamy crest of whipped cream.  This was getting repetitive.

They’d been a couple for almost a year now, but sometimes it seemed that Roy Fokker had forgotten that fact.

He was late again, and her shift was in less than two hours. 

It always played out the same.  Oh, he’d show up eventually, bearing gifts and apologies, and it was difficult to resist the sincerity in his voice or the irresistible gleam in his ice-blue eyes. That rakish smile of his always turned her legs to rubber.

His deep, soulful kisses made Claudia forget her own name.  And, oh god, the way he made love—

It seemed so long ago when he’d pursued her with such single-minded determination. 

What on earth did you expect, she asked herself pragmatically, taking another sip of her cocoa. There was a war going on, and whatever private life you thought you had, takes a distant second to duty.  You knew that when you first decided to get involved with him.

You knew that before you started sleeping with him.

That was the crux of the matter.  They were in a war that no one on earth wanted, and one that some believed couldn’t be won against an enemy with vastly superior resources—and the willingness to use them.

“I must have been crazy to have gotten myself into this mess,” she muttered, shaking her head wearily.  “I should have listened to my intuition, rather than my body.”

Claudia girl, what on earth did you do with your senses?

But she knew the answer.  Every time they were together was something special.  He treated her like a princess, catered to her every whim.  Every time she was in his arms, reason and common sense went south.  Their waking relationship might be on shaky ground, but their nighttime relationship had the both of them shaking from intense orgasms they always gave to each other.  One thing was for certain, making love to Roy was never boring.

Must have been all that previous experience, she thought wryly.

None of that explained why she was sitting alone like some tragic heroine from an old earth romantic drama, waiting for a man.

Okay, not just any man.  Commander Roy Fokker.

******************************************************************

Claudia had never been star struck, so when the handsome and charismatic leader of Skull Squadron first asked her to dance, flashing those irresistible baby blues, at she completely brushed him off.

But Fokker wasn’t one to take no for answer, and eventually he got his dance, and a lot more than either had bargained for.

After all, she had kissed him first.  Talk about playing with fire.

Fokker had the much deserved reputation as a notorious flirt and ladies man.  His conquests had been many and those who claimed to have experienced his expertise firsthand boasted rather loudly about his skills as a lover (and they hadn’t lied, for Fokker had the most talented mouth in the universe, and he could play Claudia’s writhing frame like an instrument).

At that time, Claudia had no intentions of becoming another notch on the cocky pilot’s belt, but Fokker had other ideas, and the stubbornness to back them up.

Once he was out of the endless limelight of adoration and hero worship, Roy Fokker was a far different person.  Their first date, ironically began the same as this one, except that she’d found him in his quarters, hurt deeply not by the Zentraedi, but by a vicious rumor.  That night he ceased to be the cocky and brash Valkyrie ace, but just a man in pain.

And a man who was reaching out to her for understanding.

That night they talked for hours, sharing their lives, their secrets.

At her urging, he played his guitar with such skill and passion that it nearly brought tears to her eyes. Her heart and soul had been taken on an emotional journey, one that had stirred her senses, and even though a part of her knew she was entering dangerous waters, something would not allow her to leave.

An attraction she tried to deny wasn’t going to let her do so.

Claudia’s body grew warm, remembering the hungry kisses and caresses they’d shared that night.  She remembered wanting him so badly.  Then again, how could she have ever forgotten, considering the reason that he denied each other what they both wanted?

“But I want more than that from you.  I want your regard, your friendship, and I want your love.”

Weeks later, they’d finally given into their undeniable passion, and from that moment she and Roy had been damn near inseparable.

In spite of his tendency for being late.

Which had led up to her being here now, in a crowded café, waiting.

******************************************************************

Roy Fokker felt like the guy from that old earth commercial, except that he wasn’t sprinting through a crowded airport.  Instead he was making a mad dash through endless traffic, which appeared to conspire against him.

He had cleared his entire afternoon in order to spend time with her, and to get to the café before she did. 

Just thinking about her took away images of blood and the smell of death and the seemingly endless cycle of one side attempting to assert dominion over another.  There was a refreshing honesty about Claudia Grant that had resonated with him from the first time he saw her.

The night at ‘The Bridge’, where he’d been hanging out with Max and Rick, all of them drinking like fish. 

He would never forget what she wore that night; it was burned indelibly into his memory—tight leather pants and a corset-style top that made his palms hot just thinking about having her perfect breasts in his hands.

Drunkenly, he had asked her to dance; she told him point-blank to get lost.

That should have deterred him, but it hadn’t.  If anything, her casual dismissal of him made her all the more appealing, considering that he’d always had his choice of women.

That choice did not include Claudia Grant.

His infatuation grew, along with his libido as she dismissively sauntered out to the dance floor and put on a show that fueled his sweat-soaked fantasies for days afterward.  He watched spellbound as her lush hips swayed sensuously in time to the music, and imagined what they’d feel like under his hands.

Roy had been used to women fawning all over him, no matter how much of the arrogant boor he acted.  More often that not, save in the case of his former paramour Mika Indigo, he seldom remembered either their names or their faces.

Like most soldiers, he’d held onto a certain fatalism that each dogfight could be his last.  Such awareness of his mortality caused him to live his life on the edge, savoring each and every sensation, and indulging in whatever appetites at whim.

That was before nearly six feet of legs for days and mocha-colored skin came crashing through the barrier of his devil-may-care attitude.

He’d finally met a woman who didn’t give a damn who he was.

He had liked that.

And, the way she moved her hips as she danced. 

In the end, he got his dance, though he had to go to her, rather than the other way around.  It was a dance for the ages, when he knew right then and there that Claudia Grant was special.

He had walked her back to her quarters that night, wondering what would happen, but having made a startling decision (at least for him), that he wasn’t going to blow his chances of getting to know her better by sleeping with her.

The taste of her lips when she kissed him almost made him regret it, but something totally unexpected had come over him, as if he’d been struck by lightning:

“I think I’ve fallen in love.”

And even though every time he saw her, and every moment they’d spent together, he put the brakes on his rampant sex drive, though touching her drove him crazy with need.

But she had been very much worth the wait.

Nothing had prepared him for the emotional as well as the physical intensity of making love to someone you loved.

Love.

Because of it, Roy had begun to envision something that he hadn’t in many years. 

A future.

And now, he seemed on the verge of completely blowing it because of the rotten traffic.

******************************************************************

Four-forty-five. 

She’d finished the pie (no sense in letting a perfectly good French silk pie go to waste.  Fokker wasn’t worth all that), ordered another hot chocolate and finished it, and was digging around in her purse to leave money for the bill (the owner of the café—Davina Morton—was ex-military and wouldn’t take money from other soldiers, but Claudia always left money on the table and would walk out the door before the woman could complain), when two large and warm hands, smelling of leather and sandalwood encased her eyes.

Inhaling the heady scent of him always made her insides stir.  The hands were calloused, but she knew how gentle they could be. 

Those hands had caressed her face as they lay on a blanket, kissing madly in the park a few days ago.

She did not want to think about that mouth or the devastation it could cause to her resolve.

There was a marvelous bouquet of roses and freesias on the table in front of her.  Damn him, he never played fair.

“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”  Those blue eyes could melt polar ice caps, but Claudia was in no mood to be persuaded by his innocent little boy façade.

She regarded the flowers with certain skepticism.  “Probably not, but they are a nice gesture.”  She stood up, gathering her purse.  “I’ll go and put them in water.”

“What about our date?”

“We had a date?”  Sarcasm dripped from Claudia’s mouth like poisoned honey.  “Oh, I guess that explains why I’ve been sitting in this café for nearly an hour.”

“Claudia honey, I’m so sorry, but this time it’s not my fault, I swear.”

“Is it ever your fault, Roy?  What was it this time, an ex-fling calling you for a date or, did your Veritech need a tune-up?”

“C’mon Claudia, that’s not fair, and you know that.”

This was not going well at all, as he saw the hard set of her chin.  Oh yeah, Fokker buddy, you have completely blown it.  If she forgives you this time, it would be a miracle.

Parents strolled along the sculpted paths of Macross Park, while their children played hide and go seek between the trees.  People fed the ducks and the swans in the ponds or tossed coins in the fountains hoping for luck.

It was one of those idyllic summer days, with a few cotton-candy clouds lightly sprinkled amongst the blue sky that, that one could easily forget the ‘sky’ was actually a hologram created inside of a giant battle fortress, the SDF-1.

Claudia Grant and Roy Fokker walked together silently, each lost in thought, and each wondering how to bridge the chasm that had come between them.

For Claudia, that chasm was almost insurmountable. 

For the millionth time, she berated herself for having thought that she would be the exception, rather than the rule. War might make allies out of old enemies, but it played hell with the human heart.

After their disastrous last date, Claudia began to realize that Roy’s tardiness was more than likely due to a change of heart—that he too questioned the sanity of pursuing a deeper relationship,

It was a feeling that she could sympathize with.

The truth was that Claudia was scared.  As much as she hated to admit it, Roy had come to mean far more to her than just a boyfriend.  Every time he took to the vastness of space, defending humankind from the Zentraedi war machine, she wondered whether he would survive.  Her heart slammed in her throat with each sortie.  Though she was proud of him, it also maddened her at the reckless way he seemed to risk his life, but she knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The best thing either could hope for was a casual affair, one that didn’t involve the heart.

Easier said than done, since Claudia’s heart was already too far gone.

******************************************************************

Roy had no idea how to break the chilled silence.  Small talk had no place here and might be viewed as intrusive.  Still, walking next to her gave him time to take in her beauty, and perhaps, if he played his cards right, she might even consent to hold his hand.

The sun played gently upon her warm brown features, almost lighting her up from within.  Her lips, pursed in thought, tempted him with their full softness.  He would give anything to have those lips turn towards him in a smile of forgiveness.

Nor could he keep his mind on her smile.  The way she swung her hips as she walked.  The low-cut blouse she wore didn’t help matters much, nor did the A-line skirt that showed off her long slender legs.  Those thighs had been wrapped around his waist just a few nights ago, and the searing image of her body beneath him made him want to strip her naked and keep her that way.

Permanently.

He’d been practically in love with her from the first, though she completely ignored his attempts at flirtation.  It was obvious that his reputation as the consummate playboy put her off.  It was what people expected from him, and he’d always felt the adulation of those around him was his due for putting his life on the line constantly.  But Claudia saw through the façade, stripping him bare of every artifice.  His carefully crafted arrogance completely evaporated around her.

He was far more comfortable around Claudia than he was around most of the other people who knew him, including Rick.  She made him laugh, and made him feel things that no other woman did. 

She paused in front of the fountain, turned her face towards the shimmering spray.  The sight of her upturned face being kissed by the tiny droplets took his breath away.  It was a gesture full of innocent pleasure and sensual invitation.

She walked towards a bench and sat down.  Roy followed suit, mindful of not sitting too close.

The fountain’s antics had lulled Roy into a state of dreamy somnolence in which he envisioned her holding erotic court in his bed.

“We can just be, well, friends who just happen to sleep with each other on occasion.” It took less than a split second to understand the context of what she was saying, and it hit him with all the mental force of the SDF-1’s primary weapon.

“I mean, we can help to relieve each other’s tension, right?”  Claudia’s heart was beating faster than the wings of the hummingbird she fixed her eyes on.  She looked anywhere, everywhere, just not at Roy.

For his entire cavalier attitude, Roy was rendered almost speechless. Her statement was so dismissive of what he truly felt for her, and for what he knew she felt for him.  “I don’t want sex from you, Claudia,” he replied with matter-of-fact coldness.  “I can get that anywhere.”

Roy reached out, placing both hands on her shoulders, forcing her to meet his intense gaze.  He kept himself from trembling from the overwhelming need to kiss her senseless. 

Claudia saw and felt the heart rending tenderness of his stare, and shame for the past moments’ words welled within her.  She returned that gaze with longing, loving him more right now than she ever had.  Still, fear dotted her words.

“I know,” she whispered, her voice steady, but moisture brimmed in her sea-blue eyes.  “But we just don’t seem to have the time for anything else.  As it is, we have to grab whatever human connections this life allows us to have.”

“And you think that our only connection would be purely sexual.” He could barely get the words to form on his lips, so distasteful was the concept.  “That all we can be are fuck-buddies.”

Claudia didn’t flinch from the snarled epithet.  Inwardly, her heart sank.  Her sigh was a weary one.  “That’s all it can be, Roy.”

“What is it you’re really scared of, Claudia?”

“What the hell do you think I’m scared of?” She tried to turn away from him, but his hands on her shoulders only tightened further.  “Every time you get in that Veritech and take off, my heart goes with you.  We lose guys up there all the time, but I feel so much better when it’s not you.  Those guys who are killed up there have just as much a right to be mourned, but all I can be thankful for is that it wasn’t you!  I just don’t think I can take the pain if ever a time comes when it may be you!”

It was an admission that threatened to bring tears to his own eyes.  His voice ragged, Roy pulled her towards him, her head resting on his chest.  “And you think my pain would be less if I were to lose you,” he demanded, forcing her to look at him.  “Just because you’re in a massive battle fortress doesn’t make you any less a target.  In case you haven’t noticed.”

“It just seems there’s no time.”

“Then we’ll just have to make time, won’t we?”

Roy’s lips came down on Claudia’s, touching gently at first, then as her slender body melted against his, with more force. It was a kiss that neither could deny, nor hide their emotions behind, for it stripped them raw and left them truly revealed to one another.

He broke the kiss, but only to caress her face with his lips, to bathe the silky dark skin with the heat of his breath.

“I love you, Claudia Grant.  Maybe I haven’t been very good about showing it, but I do.  You’re not just some way to get my rocks off.  It’s either everything, or nothing.”

Claudia’s heart leaped, threatening to leave her body.  She realized if all the two of them could have was even a small measure of happiness, that small measure would do far more to sustain them than none at all.

Tears rained down her face, as Roy kissed away each one, tasting the salt and the emotion contain within.  “I love you too,” she whispered, smiling through the tears, “Even when you’re late.”

******************************************************************

Their passion was intense, yet slow. From smoldering embers to supernaturally heightened senses, they took each past the edge of reason

Still, the moment had been perfect, and he didn’t want to leave this paradise, not yet.  Right now, his thoughts lay with the woman he’d just shared not only his body with, but also his soul and his spirit.

“Claudia?”

She stirred, but her eyes remained closed.  A serene smile formed upon her lips.  Lips that had done some wicked things to his body less than an hour ago.

His thoughts were introspective as he spoke, “I always wondered who would mourn for me should I lose my life out there.  I know Rick would, and some others, but I never knew anyone who truly loved me, until now.”  Roy kissed the top of her head, her curls tickling his face.  “I do love you, very much.”

She stirred again, this time laying a light kiss on his shoulder.  “Of course you do,” she replied sleepily but content.  “I love you too.”

The outside world could wait.  But love in such trying times could not, and Roy swore to himself that he would not waste another moment.

There was indeed, just enough time for love.