Pao
Just a little while later they were out by the lake, checking on the monitoring equipment. One of the monitors started fritzing and it forced them to get out there again, and Rhys was not a happy camper. But at least Seren was there to lighten his mood. He was kneeling down, laptop on the one knee while he was troubleshooting one of the sensors.

"Babe," he said, pausing to glance up at her. "You said you were a sexy science nerd, right? Did that science happen to include computer science?"

Aria
She was next to him, her fingers massaging lightly at his shoulders as he worked, not sure what she could do. She wished she was more useful here, but... And then he asked that question. "Ahhh... Not much, unfortunately? I was pretty focused. But I did take a couple classes... What can I do?"

She leaned enough to put her chin on his shoulder, looking over at what he was doing.

Pao
The massage was such a welcome thing, and he was almost sad to make her stop, but he did need a little bit of help. He could work programs per the instructions given to him, but he was never taught how to troubleshoot the laptop that all of this was done on. Which someone probably should have taught him...but he could only hope she had some knowledge on this.

He couldn't help the smile on his face when she rested her chin on his shoulder, but he didn't say anything and instead lifted the laptop a bit so she could see the current blue screen of death on it. "Any idea what to do?"

Aria
"Oh. BSOD. Yeah." She reached around him, carefully, and held down the power button until it turned off completely. "Let's give it a minute here." She just rested against him, her head leaning on his. Once the minute had passed, she reached over and hit the power button again. "Gotta restart it... Usually that'll help. If it doesn't, it means the laptop's having more issues then we're aware of. Given we didn't install anything on it... It'd probably be hard, not soft, ware."

Pao
Rhys was used to her arms around him, but what he was feeling against his back he wasn't...really expecting. Maybe because she didn't hug him from behind all that often, but not the point. The point was that while she was working on the computer and explaining things to him, his mind had gone and drifted off elsewhere. And the blush on his cheeks was proof enough of that.

"Mm, right..." he said a little too late after she finished, when the screen went totally dead.

Aria
She blinked, and noticed his face was red. She paused, thoughtfully, while the computer rebooted, and looked them both over, considering the situation. When she realized what had him distracted, she bit her lip, then decided to leave it alone unless and until he objected. She didn't mind him... noticing her 'finer points' as some might say.

She watched the PC reboot. "Ahhh... looks ok..."

Pao
He left it alone too; it wasn't like he wasn't happy about it, just surprised. The trainee did his best to focus on the task at hand now that the laptop was back up and running, but whenever he shifted even a little bit he kind of just...noticed, again.

"Have you...been watching what I'm doing?" he asked, eyes going between the frisbee in the snow and the laptop screen once he got the program running again. "This is how I was taught, anyway. Other people might tell you different, just...keep an open mind."

Aria
"I have, yeah, babe. I'll try to remember the details for next time." She leaned to kiss his cheek, then went back to focusing on what they were doing. "So is the problem with the stupid frisbee monitor, or is there something else going on?"

She tilted her head to rest it back against his again. "And is there anything else I can do?"

Pao
"Frisbee," he said with a sure nod, smiling at the kiss. He wanted to return it but figured he could save it for later. "Something or someone probably stepped on it or something. Also can't rule out the possibility that the thing around here did something to it, too. Seems fixable, just gotta tinker."

On her offer he nodded at the tree. "If you could maybe do this--you got it mostly figured, right? -I can check on the battery life on the cameras." He made to hand her the laptop, if she was up for it.

Aria
She nodded, and took the laptop, and began to work on it herself. "All right, Babe. If it's broken, though, are we expected to fix it? It's not like we... have the techspertise." She continued working on the laptop, her eyes focused on it now. She was running through the diagnostics, mildly annoyed they'd had to restart, but not freaked out, since it was simple enough so far.

"And don't hurt yourself up there, please. The tree is a little slippery looking from the recent snow."

Pao
Rhys got up and stretched a bit, the feel of her against his back still very fresh in his mind. After a sigh he looked over at her first, to make sure she was fine, then approached the tree. "If it's busted we just take another one and replace it. The busted ones get taken to the island to get fixed...eventually."

"And I'll be careful, babe, thanks." He shot her a smile before stretching a little more, then started to climb up. Once he was up he perched on a solid looking branch and started his little inspection.

"Babe...." he said, and rather loudly so she could hear him, "you've mentioned your exes before. Just out of curiosity, anyone else I should know about?"

Aria
"Good to know." She murmured, regarding the stupid frisbee thing. "They should have them in a stronger casing." She gave it a dirty look.

She kept half an eye on him as he climbed. Once he was in place, she refocused until he spoke again. His question earned him a confused look. "What do you mean, babe? If you mean other relationships, no?"

Pao
The answer he got brought a little smile to his face, though it still surprised him. She was beautiful and loving and just...all around the best person he's ever met, and yet of all the people that she'd ever known only two of them saw that in her? People were a little blind...

Rhys looked up when he felt her eyes on him, though, and smiled. "What? Isn't it normal for a boyfriend to wanna know about his girlfriend's past?"

Aria
She smiled a little, still confused, then sort of shrugged. "I mean, I guess? Not something I'm familiar with, after all. Sort of a miracle that one even happened. If they hadn't sought me out, it never would have." Her eyes drifted back to the laptop to watch the screen, her eyes only vaguely focused on it.

"Most of the kids at school treated me with polite indifference at best. They all knew, to some degree, about my family and what I was to them. They'd mostly been raised not to mess with the status quo, and since HE was the head of the biggest Bank in town, most people wouldn't risk offending or even annoying him." She hoped Rhys worked out who he was. "So it was easier for my fellow students to keep me at a distance. They all were, to some degree, aware of..." She paused, then jerked her head to indicate her back. "That, though no one knew how or who... Open town secret type of thing."

She sighed, then said "Terri and Mical were from... Families considered weird at home. Anyways. Even that didn't matter in the end, so..." She shrugged again.

Pao
He was on the third camera already, and the light was blinking red so he was working on getting the tiny screws off (he remembered the screwdriver this time) to replace the battery (which he also remembered to bring; experience was a great teacher). By the time he finished replacing and moved on to the next camera he was wearing a deep frown. After picking it off the tree he looked over at his girlfriend, anger mixed in with the sorrow.

"Your ********' town, I swear..." he muttered. "I'm glad someone noticed you, though, and didn't treat you like s**t. What the hell piece of..." and he kept on muttering as he inspected the perfectly functional camera and slammed it back into place in his irritation.

Aria
She looked up at him, eyes a little wide and unnerved by his apparent anger. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, she knew that with all of her heart, but that shadow in the back of her mind at the back of her mind said 'angry men are dangerous.'

She took slow, deep breathes, looking back down at the laptop, trying not to give into the panic that was threatening to take over from her past. "Ah... yeah, I... I gue...guess, until things ended." She said, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

Pao
It wasn't much longer until he finished checking the rest of the cameras and climbed back down, making his way over to her. By then he had already calmed down a bit, though the irritation was still there. Not at her, obviously, and out of his worry he sighed and reached down, gently helping her onto her feet before pulling her into a hug. It was fierce and protective and maybe even a bit possessive, and the only thing he could think to do right that moment.

Aria
She shivered a little for a moment, then clung to him, her face buried against his neck. She didn't care about the possessive feeling, because frankly she didn't mind him being that way about her. She was a bit possessive of him, in turn, so it was fair. She took some more calming breathes, then leaned up to kiss him, whispering "Love you, babe."

Pao
He was happy to let her cling for as long as she wanted; he was clinging, too. It just hurt him to hear about her hurting before, and it irritated him to think that these people would probably treat her just the same if she happened to "come back to life" and show up back in that town. Thankfully she seemed as against the idea as he was, so that would never happen, but the thought still bugged him.

When she kissed him he returned it, allowing it to calm him down even more, reassuring him that she was in a place where she wasn't being hurt like that anymore. Not just because he was determined to not hurt her, but also because Deus wasn't as toxic for her as that environment had been.

"Love you, too," he whispered back before leaning down to kiss her again.

Aria
She shivered against him, some, because despite loving the kiss, and being against him, it was ******** cold, but she didn't complain. Feeling safe in his arms, feeling like there was somewhere she belonged, and someone who she belonged with was an amazing feeling. She was just glad he hadn't asked about the breakup, because she didn't want to deal with that right now.

But if he did, she would. In the meantime, she kissed him back, a little desperate in her desire to stop thinking about the past, and just focus on the man who made her world feel like it was something worth being in.

Pao
He sensed both the cold and her desperation, and wanting to get lost in the kiss as well he didn't pull back until he absolutely had to, a little breathless when he finally did. Gently he rested his forehead against hers, just gazing into her eyes with all the love and adoration he had for her. He was calm down, and just focused on the woman he had in his arms.

A chill wind blew past as they stood there, and that chill seeped through all of his layers and caused him to shiver. "Could use a hot bath after this..." he whispered, a weak if teasing smile on his face.

Aria
She sighed when the kiss was broken, but didn't fight it, because she knew they needed to get inside. "Yeah... Probably a good idea... I'm beginning to worry about frostbite on something important. But thank you, babe." She gave him one more, soft kiss, before gently pulling away and gathering the laptop up, to head back to the snowmobile.

Pao
He watched her for a moment, suddenly just wanting her back in his arms again as he did. But no, they had to get back inside first, so after leaning down to recover the Frisbee he followed after her, sneaking her a quick kiss on the cheek before hopping into the driver's seat.