Author's Note:  This was directly inspired by Bluestar's story about Christmas being revived on Terranova.  Bluestar's other HEAVY GEAR fiction is to be found on MASH SOME METAL, and her own website, The NNet, at http://www.tatum.eurobell.co.uk/mainpage,htm

The first that Tachi knew that Dirx was back at the Dragon's base was when he was awoken by the man hitting him over the head with a magazine. Wondering what ungodly hour it was, but utterly convinced that it was something unspeakable, Tachi raised a hand to prevent another attack and glared up at his fellow Gear-pilot in groggy annoyance.

"I take it that there's some reason to be assaulting me like this?" he demanded. He finally caught sight of the clock beside his bed and very nearly lost his temper. "At four thirty in the morning!" he yelped in outrage. Dirx might be one of those lunatics who liked to get up before the sun had even considered the possibility of showing itself on the horizon, but Tachi preferred to operate on a more civilised footing. One of the main reasons Mankind had developed intelligence was to justify lying in bed rather than charging off to lead the dawn chorus.

"You bet your sweet life I have a good reason," Dirx growled. "What was the last thing I told you before I left?"

How on Terranova should I know? Tachi sighed to himself. The most paranoid of all the Dragons, Dirx inevitably warned them about any and every eventuality that might befall them while they were out of his sight. Since this could include anything up to and including alien invasion, nearly everyone tended to switch off and just nod in the right places when he got started.

"Well?"

To Tachi's alarm, Dirx actually seemed to want an answer to what Tachi had assumed was a rhetorical question. He also seemed to be in a bad mood. Normally when he came back from one of his walkabouts, he was in an almost mellow temper for several days. Whatever had happened had definitely got him wound up, though, and Tachi quickly tried to think back three days ago.

"Uh, you told us to watch out for the Vanguard trying to sabotage our Gears," he said cautiously. That was a pretty safe bet. Dirx was always harping on about the lack of security in the Gear Hanger.

"After that," Dirx snapped, folding his arms and giving Tachi his best 'you weren't listening, were you?' look.

"Can you give me a clue?" Tachi asked plaintively. "It's not even dawn, yet, and I haven't had my cawfee."

"Marcus. What did I tell you about Marcus?" Dirx prompted.

Tachi laughed. "Dirx, with the list of instructions you left us about poor Marcus, we might as well have tossed him in a cupboard and locked the door." He eyed Dirx's forbidding expression. "That was a joke," he pointed out cautiously.

"Maybe you should have taken the idea seriously." With a snort, Dirx looked him up and down and shook his head. "I don't suppose I'll get any sense out of you until you've got some cawfee inside of you. Get up and go to the kitchen. I put some on to boil before I came here, so it should be ready by now. I'll go and get Zerve."

Ah, so Zerve was going to get it in the neck, as well, Tachi thought with relief. Whatever had gone wrong, it hadn't been due to a mistake that Tachi was personally responsible for. That was a relief. Dirx didn't really grasp the concept of 'subtle' when he was venting his wrath on some hapless target. He watched Dirx go over to his door and go out, then flopped back onto the bed. He shot back upright again almost immediately in shock when his door slammed back open.

"And don't get any stupid ideas about going back to sleep!" Dirx snapped.

I wonder what the term is for a nagged Dragon, Tachi thought miserably, as he dragged himself out of bed and staggered in the direction of the shower.

By the time he got to the kitchen, he could hear Zerve telling Dirx to relax and chill out. Tachi gave a silent groan. If there was one thing that was guaranteed to keep Dirx at a frothing boil, it was having Zerve giving him meditation tips. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he made a determined move towards the cawfee pot, refusing to even consider having anything else to do with the human race until he had at least one mug inside him.

Dirx and Zerve continued to bicker while they waited for him. Or rather, Zerve teased and Dirx threatened, in roughly equal proportions. It was a source of constant mystery to everyone why the laid-back pilot of the Crushbucket was still alive, given the way he pushed his luck so industriously with his infinitely more volatile team-mate. Dirx was keeping a close eye on Tachi, however, and as soon as he had refilled his mug for the second time, he summarily told Zerve to shut up.

"Man, is that any way to maintain the gentle art of conversation, Dirx?" Zerve complained.

"I'm not interested in conversation," Dirx snapped back. "I want to know why the hell you two weren't keeping an eye on Marcus while I was away. The way I told you to!" he finished with a speaking look in Tachi's direction.

"Dirxy, I think maybe you've been out in the sunshine for too long without a hat," Zerve said soothingly. "Marcus is fine. I saw him this morning."

"Oh, you did, did you?" Dirx said dangerously. "And where was he going?"

Happily on firm ground, Zerve gave Dirx a triumphant look. "He was asked to go to a charity signing at a mall in Port Oasis. Sonja's with him."

"Well, isn't that lovely," Dirx said. Zerve stopped smiling and gave him a wary look as he caught the brittle lightness in Dirx's voice. "And I suppose you think there's nothing to be worried about?"

Tachi sighed, feeling marginally more like a human being now, and less like some caterpillar prematurely ejected from its cocoon. "Dirx, I know you fret about Marcus' safety, but the mall has its own security and Creet sent a couple of our men, as well. Besides, the Vanguard aren't likely to try something with cameras from several trideo companies present."

"The Vanguard? Man, I wish we just had them to worry about!" Dirx growled. "What did I tell you about letting Marcus wander into the clutches of reporters without at least one of us around to keep an eye on him?"

Zerve had spotted the magazine Dirx was holding and put two and two together. "Is that what's got you into such a lather?" he asked in amusement. "Sure, Marcus had an interview with some sweet young thing the afternoon after you left, but she wasn't interested in asking him about Gear-related stuff. She was after a human-interest angle."

"Well, she sure as hell got that!" Dirx exploded. He tossed the magazine onto the desk and Tachi and Zerve leaned closer to see what it was.

"Teen Gear?" Tachi read the title and grimaced. "It looks like it's aimed at a younger audience than some of the others around." The cover had a rather soft-focus picture of Marcus, with another full-length picture of another pilot inset to the left.

"'The Lonely Life of a Gear Pilot', 'Famous but Looking for that Special Person', 'Ten Ways to Get a Gear Pilot to Notice You'," Zerve read the cover and the first stirrings of alarm tried to gain a foothold on his face. He shrugged them off. "Okay, so it's aimed at the groupies. Marcus knows enough not to say anything to encourage them."

"Marcus has the survival instincts of a moth that's in the same room as a lit candle!" Dirx said in exasperation. "He's not safe to be interviewed on his own. All journalists have the morals of dawgs and they can sense a newbie a mile away. Why don't you idiots read the article that she-dawg got out of him!"

Zerve looked at Tachi. Tachi looked at Zerve. Neither of them wanted to be the one to open up the magazine. With a grunt of exasperation, Dirx grabbed the magazine and flipped it open. From the way it fell open at the right place, they gathered this wasn't the first time the article had been read.   Zerve was almost certain he could see teeth marks. Both of them leaned forward and peered at the large print title covering the two pages, trying not to focus on the picture of Marcus that was printed to one side. He was stripped to the waist and soaking wet, his pants clinging to his legs.

"And I'll be wanting to know how she got that, as well," Dirx rumbled darkly.

Tachi winced, remembering how he had met Marcus and the reporter coming in from the small garden cum meditation area they had out back. Marcus had been soaking wet and had confessed that he had fallen into the pond. At the time it hadn't occurred to Tachi to ask where his shirt had gone. Now he was glumly certain that it would be a cold day in Hell before Dirx let them forget this. Although he was quick enough to encourage Marcus to flirt while he was in the company of the other Dragons, Dirx tended to act like an outraged virgin aunt if Rover so much as looked at a girl when not under supervision.

"Remembering An Ancient Festival of Love," Zerve said out loud. "What the hell…"

Dirx muttered something extremely uncomplimentary under his breath. "Remember when we found out about Christmas and decided to see what it was all about?" The other two nodded. "Well, it seems that our esteemed leader decided to see if he could find out about other ancient festivals that we've forgotten about."

"Valentine's Day," Zerve said absently, picking up the magazine as he started to speed read. "Way back, it was a day when girls and boys used to send tokens and gifts to the person they loved, to either let them know they were interested, or to celebrate a relationship they already had. They sent flowers, candy, cards, even jewellery if they could afford it." He looked up at Dirx in confusion. "Hey, it sounds great, man. Why are you so down on it?"

"Maybe he's afraid no-one would want to send him anything," Tachi said waspishly. He was still acutely conscious of the early hour.

"Read. The. Last. Paragraph," Dirx said through gritted teeth.

Zerve shrugged and turned back to the magazine. "Hey, there's an box inset about aphrodis-, er, never mind," he said hastily when he caught the look of imminent death Dirx gave him. "Let's see… oh, yeah, here it is." He cleared his throat. "Marcus told me that he feels that bringing back such a festival to Terranova could only have a positive effect for people. 'I mean, I know that I would be both pleased and honoured if a girl considered me to be someone she wanted to send a card or some other token to,' he said, 'and I'm sure others would feel the same way. After all, you can't get too much love, right?' This reporter is certain that many of her readers will feel exactly the same way." He put down the magazine and gave Dirx a confused look. "So what's your problem? Man, the world could do with a little more love."

If Dirx didn't shave his head, he would probably have been tearing his hair out by the roots, judging from the look on his face. Tachi, however, had gone several shades paler, as he put two and two together and came up with the same unsettling answer which he guessed had been plaguing Dirx ever since he had stumbled across the article.

"I think it would be wise to cancel that signing and get Marcus back here, as soon as possible," he said slowly.

"Ya think?" Dirx threw his hands up in the air and then glared at Zerve. "Moonbeam, think about it! Marcus Rover is one of the most famous Gear fighters on the planet. He's young, good looking and sweet natured. He's also a winner. Want to take a shot at calculating what percentage of the female teenage population on this planet thinks he's the best thing since ice cream? And he's just told them, in black and white, that there's nothing he'd like better than to receive a token of love from them? Do the math!"

It took a couple of seconds, but Zerve finally went as pale as Tachi. "I'll tell Creet to get him back-"

They were interrupted by the sound of Creet's querulous voice outside in the corridor. Since Creet very rarely ventured into what the Dragon's considered their personal territory, they were already alert to a possible disaster before the pinch-faced lieutenant marched into the room. He stopped when he saw them and folded his arms, obviously considering it to give him an air of authority. Tachi threw a warning glance at Dirx about the same time Zerve kicked him in the ankle, which effectively distracted him long enough for Creet to start a little yelling of his own.

"This is totally unsupportable! I demand that whoever is responsible for this episode - and I have no doubt that it is Rover - put an end to it immediately!"

"What are you talking about, Lieutenant?" Tachi asked hastily, before either Zerve or Dirx could start winding Creet up in their own different ways.

"Talking about?" Creet's pale complexion suddenly sported two crimson spots on his cheeks. "I'm talking about the complete shutdown of the Base communication network, due to hundreds of girls trying to call us, and the complete collapse of our server because of an overload of emails!"

"This early?" Zerve asked, looking a little startled. "Heck, it's barely dawn!"

"You ever heard of a thing called time zones, moonbeam? Oh, wait, I don't suppose they have that on that higher plane you're always floating around on," Dirx said sarcastically. "Is that all?" he asked Creet hopefully.

"All?" Creet screeched. "Isn't that enough?" He was interrupted by one of the base staff sticking their head around the door. "Yes, what is it?"

"Apologies for disturbing you, sir, but Sergeant Muldoon wants to know what he should do about the girls, sir."

"Girls?" Creet looked as though he was about to have a coronary. "What girls?"

"The girls outside the Base compound, sir. Sergeant Muldoon says he estimates that there's around one hundred and fifty of them, and they're blocking the way for the three postal vans that are waiting to bring us our mail."

"One hundred and fifty?" Creet said faintly. "Three postal vans? What on Terranova is going on? This is all Marcus Rover's fault, I just know it!"

"Whaddya know, the age of miracles hasn't passed," Dirx said sardonically, a particle of good humour restored by the sight of Creet in such a state. He swung his attention back to the others. "You two had better get into your Gears and make for that mall. Better take Sebastian with you. With any luck you'll get there in time."

"But it's a charity signing," Zerve protested. "It's for the peace and betterment of mankind!"

Tachi shook his head, regretfully concluding that he wasn't going to get any breakfast today. "It isn't Mankind we have to worry about, Zerve," he explained as he dragged the lanky pilot up and started pushing him out of the door. "It's Femalekind - especially when the word starts to get around that Valentine Boy is out in the open and looking for love!"

Zerve stopped arguing and started moving. Dirx would probably deal with the mess here at the Base, with the same single-mindedness which made him so formidable in the Arena. If he could somehow arrange for Creet to be reduced to incoherency along the way, he might even be in a good enough mood not to stomp on Marcus when he was eventually dragged back. Hopefully in one piece. Right now, Zerve was wondering how he, Tachi and Sebastian were going to get out of a Dragon Base under siege by panting teenage females.

"And if he's married by the time you get to him, don't expect me to chip in for the present!" was Dirx's parting bellow as they made for their Gears at a dead run.

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