#arc two

PLEASE I JUST REMEMBERED THIS SONG EXISTS BUT OMG I wanna know what u think abt it ദ്ദി‎◍˃ ᵕ ˂◍)

oh.. This hits close to home.

thank you anon.

Seriously guys, this one’s a doozy. If you don’t like gore, please check out this post. It has a summery of what happened without getting into detail.

Tread lightly and stay safe my dudes.

Nyota was glad to have Lumen’s shoulder to lean on subtly as they returned to the medbay. Hadley caught her eye and grinned.

“Your hands are shaking there, Captain. You have too much coffee?”

Nyota’s best answer was a grimace, which earned her a knowing laugh.

Lumen chuckled and nudged Nyota along. “Come on, ma’am. Next one down’s yours.”

“As you say.” His warm hands were very soothing as weariness and caffeine jitters waged their private war over her joints. The heat worked its way between the combatants and she relaxed with a quiet sigh.

Lumen patted her shoulder. “That does it, eh? Sit tight and I’ll get ya some water so ya don’t get a noggin-cracker tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

Nyota watched him head over to the sink, playing over the evening’s events in her head. As he handed the full glass to her, she led in with a small smile. “So, you and Namina, then?”

“I can’t tell if you’re just playin’ with me, or if ya actually ain’t surprised, Captain.” Lumen chuckled warmly, but there was an odd little flicker to his glow that Nyota hadn’t seen there before.

“I’ll let you decide that one.” She took a long drink and paused. “You don’t seem happy, Lumen.”

“Well, ain’t yer eye sharp?” He waved her off half-heartedly. “Don’t ya mind it, Captain. Jus’ wishful thinkin’.”

The words hung in the air, and drew her question out slow and soft, like a sliver of glass. “There’s more to this than I see, isn’t there?”

Lumen made a quiet static sound. “Sure is, ma’am. See, it ain’t me and Fern-fangs. I think it’s him and Eldie.”

Nyota took this in slowly and carefully. This was delicate ground, and with what Lumen had told her before of his hesitant, too-slow interest in Sonny’s mother… “He has been bolder with her,” she said, keeping her voice as close to neutral as she could. “Not really reckless like he is with the rest of us. Showing off, nearly.”

Lumen nodded. “That is showin’ off, for a floran. When they got someone they want to stick by, they get all…” He waved his hands with another noise of frustrated static. “Careful-like, I guess. Show off them fangs but make sure ya don’t eat dirt with them, does that make sense?”

Nyota nodded and set the glass down. “I think I see it, then. How odd…” She chuckled quietly. “How exactly unlike humans.” It stung, deep in her chest, as she realized she did not know what it was like for apex. Not what it was supposed to be like.

Lumen flickered and dimmed. “That’s right, ma’am. It sure is funny.” He brightened a little again, in a way that felt like a forced smile. “So, I thought I’d show Eldie how it’s done a bit. Got SAIL to tell me a few tricks, offered to help. She ain’t as stubborn as some folks I know, see.”

Nyota took the friendly jab with a smile—Lumen needed it right now. “Has she learned well?”

He snorted and made his plasma fizz like a shaken soda. “Golly but I hope not. Ya heard the fool I did out there. Shucks but I’m rusty, ain’t I… used to be right good at this sort of thing when I was Sonny’s age. But that was half a century ago, I guess. Ain’t short even by a nova’s age. Still, it made her laugh, and that’s alright.”

Ah. There it was. “You want to be happy for them,” Nyota said gently.

Lumen nodded, just once, and left his head bowed. “I sure do, ma’am.”

She offered a hand. “But it’s hard when you feel sad for yourself.”

He sighed and took her hand. “A hundred years old is too dang old to feel like this.”

“That’s what I said about twenty-eight,” Nyota replied solemnly. “Which one, then? Or both?”

He hummed with a deep note of appreciation that she hadn’t heard in a long time. “Both indeed. Ya do see bright. That’s what got me so riled, I think. Can’t have both, can I?”

“Why not?” Nyota looked straight at him as he straightened up with a startled whirr. “Apex tend toward pairs, but not always. And Floran have never quite followed the ‘rules’ that others might set out for them. Go ahead. Ask them.” She gripped his hand tighter. “Lumen. You really do have nothing to lose.”

“Ya really sure?” He was shaking a little, with laughter and with something out of her reach.

Nyota folded her other hand over his. “You’re afraid of losing them. Listen to me. I have loved and lost too many times, and I think you have too, haven’t you?”

“Now that ain’t fair, readin’ me so,” he protested, his usually warm orange glow muted by swirling, confused, unhappy clouds.

Nyota gave him a sharp look and he quieted down. “Lumen,” she said, “we may lose either way, even if we don’t reach. Why not reach, then?” She put a hand over her heart, over the pale scar. “Believe me. You do have nothing to lose.”

“Golly.” He broke off with a sigh, like metal relaxing as the heat went out of it, but the heat stayed in his hands and voice. “Well. Well, ain’t it the purdiest irony for my captain to be tellin’ me to follow my heart?” He reached up as if aiming to flick her nose, keeping back just enough that she felt the barest whisper of static from his shell. “Ya know I ain’t got a heart, right?”

She smiled, her own heart so warm with the mischief and moment. “Your brand, Lumen. Have you looked in the mirror?”

“I came here willingly. But this is...” 

“Too much?”

Mimsi (my PC) and Ezras (@collegeofwinterhold) sharing an embrace and starting to bond as party members after being subjected to The Horrors(tm)!

☆: *.♡ .* :☆