#slimewrites

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 You continue pressing the button periodically, following Simon with your eyes as he starts to search the sub, running his hands along the seams in the wall. 

From where you're standing you see a little spark from under the floor panels. “Hey, did you see that?” You point to the little hole in the floor where you saw the flash of light from. 

“See what?“ he asks, confused. 

”Hold on.” The two of you wait a few moments before the spark goes off again. Simon quickly moves towards it and tries to lift the panel up. “Fuck- no good. It’s screwed down.”

”Maybe we’ll find a screwdriver somewhere?” You offer.

”Oh sureee. And maybe some ice cream, and a teleporter while we’re at it-“ Simon added helpfully.

You roll your eyes, but smile. ”I could go for ice cream…haven’t had any since my last trip down to…” Down to Mars, which didn’t exist anymore. “haven’t had it in forever.” Simon graciously ignores your slip up.

”There’s gotta be something…” He resumes his search of the walls, and after a few more moments you hear him softly cheer, ”Ah-hah! a locker.” He pulls it open as you press the button one more time before stepping closer to look. At the top there’s a single bright orange life jacket.

”Oh look, a life vest for one person. How helpful.” You mumble sarcastically.

”As if that little thing could save either one of us from this deep down.” Simon rolls his eyes as he grabs the life jacket and throws it behind him.

You put a hand on his shoulder, “If we go down…you can have it.” You say holding back a smile.

He responds flatly, ”Gee, thanks…my hero,” but he mirrors your half smile. For a second you allow yourself to be grateful to have at least been stuck in this horrible mess with someone with a sense of humor. You walk back to the button to press it again, and by the time you turn back you see Simon has pulled out some sort of metal box. He places it down near the X-Ray screen, and opens it.

Inside there was an arrangement of items, including a water bottle, a small container of alcohol, a few rolls of medical tape, and some metal forceps. “We had water this whole time?” Simon scoffs in disbelief as he reaches for it and pulls it out. Your eyes lock onto something else though.

You reached into the box and grabbed the forceps, opening them, and holding them in a way your teachers in the past would have scolded you for. You look towards Simon with a grin. “See? Screwdriver.”

You actually manage to draw a laugh from him with that. “Yea sure, whatever.” He reaches out his hand but you shake your head. “Your turn on the button, I wanna try.” Simon just shrugs, opening the water bottle and heading over to the button. “Don’t chug it, I’m pretty sure that’s all the water we’ve got.”

”I wasn’t gonna-“ You just hum as you get to work unscrewing what was holding the floor panel down. You might not have known him for long, but you’ve seen how, when Simon did anything, he did not half-ass it. After a few minutes of Simon pressing the button and sipping on the water, you were able to remove all the screws and go to lift the panel. It takes some effort but you manage to get it open. Simon walks over, and you both stare into the dark abyss the opening leads into. Simon groans,“Oh, fuck that-“ 

You can’t help but agree with him. “Um…I‘ll go back to pressing the button…”

”Oh sure, now you wanna trade jobs.” You smile sheepishly, but you move over to the button, there was no way you were going down there. You manage to remember that the life vest had a light, so you grab it from where it had been tossed to the floor. 

“Can I have the water?” You ask.

“Sure.” He hands it to you, and you take a few sips before putting a drop on the water activated light.

”Here. A flashlight. Don’t die.” You say flatly, though you really do mean it.

”It’s a crawl space, not a death trap.” He rolls his eyes.

“This whole place is a death trap.” You reply as he takes the light, and starts to descend into the dark. You stay near the button, pressing it as soon as the light of the previous photo dims. You hear shuffles and then some curses, muffled by the metal floor. “Hey, you ok?” You call out.

”Yea, I think I see the generator, I just went the wrong fucking way…” You let out a relieved laugh. He yells out a bit louder, “So glad you find my pain funny.”

”I’ll apologize as soon as the lights turn back on.” You chirp, suddenly feeling a bit more hopeful. Simon's determination was starting to rub off on you. After a few more muffled curses, and some metallic cranking noises, you hear his voice call out.

With a note of finality he goes, ”Ok...here goes nothin’.” You hold your breath, holding on to the small sliver of hope that this would work, because… because it had to. You hear a heavy thunk, followed by a loud whir as the light flickers back on. You let out an ecstatic cheer that had no place echoing around the rusty and bloody submarine walls of your shared prison, but in that moment, you couldn’t care less. When Simon crawls back out, you can see his face clearly in the light, and he’s beaming. ”Told you it’d be fine.”

You’re so incredibly relieved you instinctually reach out a hand to grab one of his, Eden had always been known for how causally affectionate everyone was. Hugging and such being common greetings between fellow brothers and sisters, but you got a bit worried you might’ve misjudged the situation when Simon didn’t immediately return the gesture. You let go, suddenly embarrassed. “Sorry, I just got excited-“ You saw him finally blink from his slightly stunned expression before he shook his head. 

“No- no don’t apologize. I’ve just been in that cell for so long I…” He reached out to grab your hand again, squeezing it reassuringly. You squeeze his hand back and giggle, you couldn’t help it, you were still deliriously happy about the lights coming back on. “That happy to finally see my face again huh?” You roll your eyes and release his hand to instead gesture at the ship. 

“5 minutes ago I was sure we were both dead. That’d we just have to sit here til we ran out of oxygen. Now we actually have a chance. At least we can do something!” You weren’t stupid, you knew your chances of survival were still incredibly low, but at least they weren’t zero, not anymore. 

Simon let out a surprised chuckle, “Damn, you must have hit your head harder than I thought.” 

“Oh shut up-“ you laugh.

“Come on, now that we can see, we can patch you up.” He turns towards the first aid kit still on the ground, and sits down next to it. 

“It’s like one cut- I’m fine.” But you sit down next to him anyway. You reach for the alcohol, and search the box for some gauze. 

“Here, there’s barely anything actually in there.” Simon reaches for the bottle, and you hand it to him. He pulls his sleeve over his hand, and dampens his sleeve with the alcohol.

”That is not sanitary…” You grumble, face scrunching up.

”You got a better idea?” He asks. You just shut your mouth, and tilt your head up to give him better access to the cut you assumed was on your jaw. You can’t really see it yourself anyway, but you sure as hell could feel it. You wince when his sleeve touches your skin, the alcohol making it sting that much more. “Don’t be such a baby…” he chides, but when his other hand goes to stabilize your chin, his hold is gentle. You roll your eyes but bite your tongue, trying not to flinch again. It stings a bit as he cleans your wound, it must’ve been worse than you initially thought.

When he pulls his hands away and reaches for the medical tape you ask, “How bad is it?” He unrolls a piece, and then holds it up to your face, rotating it a few times before squinting in concentration. 

“It’s not too deep, just kinda long…I uh…don’t know…?” He rips off a piece of the tape and tries to put it on your wound, you wince through your gritted teeth. When he lets go, the tape falls off as soon as he’s not holding it in place anymore. “Well…fuck.”

You just chuckle, “It’s fine, if it’s not bleeding I'll just try not to touch it. Your turn.” He nods in response, and lightly rubs his forearms. He pulls his sleeves up and you wince at the sight of all the scratches down his arms. “Did you get those while you were down…?“ You start feeling a sense of guilt start to tug at you.

”Nah, I’m pretty sure I had these when I woke up.” He tries to pull his sleeves up higher, but the fabric’s not stretchy enough. You look at him trying to figure out if he was telling the truth. You quickly but brush the thought away. Why would he lie? Just to save your feelings?

You quickly look away as he finishes taking off his outer harnesses, and goes to pull off his shirt. He notices and laughs. “You can watch, I don’t mind.” His tone is almost teasing, and you can’t believe you were getting flustered in such a perilous situation such as this, but you couldn’t help it. You were never a soldier talking with friends in locker rooms. You were used to closeness with others in Eden, but this? Not so much. 

You stay looking away until Simon waves a hand in front of your face. “Hey, are you gonna help me or what?” He still has the ghost of a smirk on his face. “I guess I can do it myself if it makes you uncomfortable, but-.” You shake your head.

”No, no I got it.” Get over it, he’s hurt and you're acting like an idiot. You pull at your own sleeve and dampen it with alcohol before pressing it against the scratches on his arm to clean them off. Simon hisses at the contact. “Now who’s being a baby?” You tease, holding his arm in place as you clean it.

”What is that shit, acid?” He mutters through gritted teeth. You finish with the first arm and move onto the next. You don’t mean to, you swear it, but your eyes drift up to his bare chest in the harness and you have to tilt your head back down to hide your flustered expression. You quickly focus back to the task at hand.

”I’m pretty sure it’s just rubbing alcohol.” You focus on cleaning his other wounded arm and internally scold yourself for even looking. 

“So…what you’re saying is we shouldn’t take shots of it when we’re done.” You laugh at his words, and glance up at him with a slightly judgemental look. “What?” he chuckles.

”We’re stuck in a submarine, in the depths of a blood ocean, and that’s what you want to use our little bit of alcohol for? Sharing like, one shot?” You shake your head, but can’t help but crack a smile. You finish cleaning off the cuts, and reach for the medical tape. 

He sighs, “You're right…you can have all of it, for your nerves.” You roll your eyes as you start to gently wrap the tape around his arm.

”Gee thanks..my hero.” You return the tone he gave you earlier, and he laughs in response. “Stop moving, I'm trying to bandage you up here.” you scold him, stifling your own laugh.

He stills for the most part, but has to bite back a chuckle. There’s a moment of comfortable silence as you finish wrapping up his other arm. You look up at him to see his gaze locked on you, expression soft but serious. His voice is gravely genuine when he finally breaks the silence. “I’m glad I got stuck here with you. Not that I wish this fate on anybody…but…if I had to be stuck here alone…I-“

”I know.” Your voice is just as serious as his. “I’m pretty sure I would’ve given up to panic when the lights shut off if I was by myself.” Simon shakes his head, and rests a hand on top of yours.

”No, you- you're stronger than you think. I might not have known you for long but…I can tell.” You smile and turn your hand over to hold his. You let yourself believe his words, even if you're not sure if you truly agree. ”After…” Simon takes a shaky breath before he continues. “After all this, because there will be an after.” He squeezes your hand to emphasize his seriousness. “Would you…would you want to get dinner sometime?” Your eyes widen as you look up at him, not a hint of joking in his expression. You let out a surprised chuckle, which slowly turns into a laugh as his expression turns confused. He rolls his eyes, “I don’t know what’s so funny. You could’ve just said no-“

”No! I mean, not no. I meant- wait-“ You can’t get a straight answer out though you're laughing, you try to hold it together but you can’t. The weight of the situation hits you all at once, and this was the funniest possible thing that could’ve happened when the C.O.I. decided to send you two down here as punishment for your supposed crimes. The world was over, humanity was over, but that didn’t mean your heart didn’t skip a beat when you looked into Simon’s dark, kind, eyes. 

You manage to calm your laughing fit, grabbing hold of his hand with both of yours and holding it close to your chest. “I’d love to.” You look into his eyes to let him know you're serious, and after searching yours for a moment, he softly smiles. “Maybe we could even get some ice cream?” You knew you were being silly, there was no more milk, no more cows, no more grass. But you wanted to indulge in this little fantasy as long as you could.

”Sure. Anything for you.” Simon's eyes soften. “I mean it though, you know? When we make it out, I’ll make you plastic flowers and everything.” You squeeze his hand tighter, holding his gaze, trying with all your heart to believe him. To believe there was a world where you both escaped this hell, and got to go out like normal people.

”I know…If we-“ You start but Simon softly interrupts you.

”When.” His voice is soft, but firm. Determined. And you decide to believe him.

”When, we make it out. I’ll cook you dinner myself.” You gaze into each other's eyes for a moment before Simon shakes his head.

”No way-“ He chuckles, “Not unless you let me help.” You roll your eyes, the touching moment fading back into banter. 

“You’ll probably just end up setting something on fire-“  You tease, and he scoffs, offended.

”Wow, you have such little faith in me.” You both release each other's hands with a final squeeze, and get up. You gaze into each other's eyes for one more moment before reminding yourself that in order for any of that to happen, you both had to make it out of here first.

”Figure out where we are, and let's see if we can move somewhere with a signal. We have the sample, we just need the C.O.I. to pull us back up.” Your voice is filled with something you almost don’t recognize, a new sense of determination. 

“Aye- aye- Captain.” Simon salutes you before, heading back to the head of the sub. You head back to your position by the button, smiling. You were gonna make it out of this…

You had a date to look forward to.

. . .

. . .

. . .

There is only one regret that passes through your mind as the submarine starts to explode. It wasn’t that you were dying, that would actually be a relief from all the pain. The agonizing pain of your own skin betraying you, thick blood clinging on to it, and tugging at you like it was a creature of its own trying to drag you down into the depths to join it. Death would be an escape from the screaming voices trying to stop you from giving humanity its last hope.

You don’t regret your decision, and you know Simon doesn’t either. Neither of you would consider yourselves heros, but the two of you might just have become humanity's last hope. To think, the fate of all of mankind is left to two unnamed convicts. If your lungs weren’t so full of blood, maybe you’d laugh

You can’t help the feeling though, a small pang of regret flows through you as you shut your eyes one last time. Because now…you don’t think you were going to make that date.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Beeeeep.

Oxygen.

You can feel a panic start to rise in your chest in response to the voice, your eyes turn just fast enough to watch the first oxygen light dim. How long has it been? There were only four lights, was that enough time to check each interest point? Was there a backup system in case-

…in this piece of junk? you highly doubted it. You were frozen, staring at the oxygen indicator in silence. A silence you realized you were sharing with the other person staring at the same thing. The only sounds were the drips of the strange liquids coming from the rusty pipes lining the walls. You don’t know how much time goes by before he speaks up, but it feels like an eternity.

 “So where exactly were you stationed at in Eden?” A surprisingly calm voice came from the front of the ship where Simon was navigating the death trap. “Also, press the button.” You had suggested this, to conserve precious oxygen and time he would be in charge of the map and the coordinates, and you would stay in the back taking the pictures when he told you to. That way there was no walking back and forth, which would’ve led to taking extra breaths to regulate the excursion it put on your bodies.

”Does that matter right now?” You snap, eyes still locked onto the oxygen indicator. “Did you not hear that?”

”I mean I heard it. But we still have three lights left.” He responded looking back at you. You blink. Right, the button. You press it and look at the photo it takes.

”…Turn a little to the right.” You try to let his words calm your nerves, panicking would just waste more oxygen. Simon sighs shakily before turning back to the control panel, and you wonder just how calm he really was.

“This would go a lot faster if you weren’t such a perfectionist.” He mutters loud enough for you to hear.

“Shut up.” You retort, though there was no anger in your tone. Instead you felt your mind drift back to focusing on the task at hand, thinking back to when that quality had been an asset for your job on Eden. A place you would probably never see again.

.  .  .

They wanted to send you back in?!

You knew you shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up when they pulled you back up. You couldn’t believe you had been relieved to see that captain's face again. An ice cold feeling grips onto your heart. Your breathing stops and you can’t let out a word even if you tried. Simon could though, he could let out a string of choice words as he yelled at the woman on the other side of the glass, angrily banging on the glass as if he could break it if he tried hard enough. But if that glass could withstand the pressure of being under water, or blood for that matter, neither of them had any chance of cracking it.

You could hear welding noises as the claw was being attached to your prison, and you look to Simon as he finally stops his useless attacks. His angry eyes lock onto yours, and you can feel your own panic turn into a simmering fury. This was worse than a prison cell, this was basically a death sentence. Without breaking eye contact you slam the photo button, a quick sense of satisfaction filling you as you hear a cry of surprise from your captors. A petty attempt at some sort of revenge for having such little regard for your lives. The feeling quickly melts away though as you turn your head to look at the photo it took. Instead of seeing a picture of a person, you see a skeleton, three, in fact if you looked a little closer. Dread seeps into your heart as you realize the cries were not of surprise, but of agonizing pain.

”What did you do?!” The captain is back at the porthole, shouting. You struggle to hear the rest as you register the atrocity you just committed.

”I didn’t mean- I didn’t know-“ You start to defend yourself but your voice cracks. All the anger you had felt had quickly turned to shame. The welder hadn’t done anything to deserve that, he was just doing his job. Just like you were when you got captured. He didn’t deserve to die…but you didn’t either.

”Maybe if you had told us what it did this wouldn’t have happened!” Simon’s voice snaps you out of your daze. It was sweet he said “us”. But he wasn’t the one who just irradiated a man. You look at your own hand like it was some foreign object, as if you couldn’t recognize it anymore. At first you were scared the blood ocean would take your life, but now you feared a worse fate, that it would take your humanity first.

.  .  .

”It wasn’t your fault you know…I would’ve done the same thing.” Simon's voice makes you finally give up on your impossible task. You stop trying to guess the password for the terminal, and instead turn to Simon to watch as he steered the ship back to where you both had found the skeleton. 

“Maybe…but you didn’t. I did.” He turned towards you but you couldn’t catch his gaze. “And that poor guy-“ 

“That ‘poor guy’ is the one who welded us in here in the first place.” He interrupts, and you finally look at him.

”He was just following orders.” Like we were. You know he understood what you were implying, cause now he couldn’t meet your gaze.

He instead looks towards the X-Ray screen, gesturing towards it, “We’re here, by the way.” You walk over and press the button. You blink, staring, and press it again. You can hear Simon get up from his chair.

”…are you sure? I don’t see anything.” Suddenly the implication of a “skeleton” photo taken by an X-Ray camera was starting to worry you. “You don’t think that thing was-“

”Maybe it just got buried or something. They said the ocean was unstable.” You let his words interrupt your train of thought. Maybe he was right. God you really hoped he was right.

.  .  .

“Is that why you blew up Filament Station?” The Captain's voice comes out cold, even through the static of the speaker. You had gotten a signal and asked for help finding the “skeleton”.

”THAT WASN’T…that wasn’t supposed to happen…” The sub is quiet for a moment. “…that wasn’t supposed to-“

Beeeeep.

Oxygen.

More silence follows, and all you can hear is your heart beating faster as you can’t help but stare at the indicator again. Then you break the silence. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was radiation…” Your voice feels small, even in the claustrophobic submarine. You weren’t sure why you felt this was the appropriate time to apologize. Maybe because you were worried you wouldn't get another chance.

The radio crackles softly, ”Just get the sample.” You readied yourself against the back of the sub. You had to ram it with the claw to get the sample…but there was something wrong with the skeleton. It was only the head this time, as if something had… You hadn’t mentioned it aloud though, not wanting to worry Simon, or make the captain change their mind about pulling you back up. Maybe a part of you also just didn’t want to put your worries into words, else they became that much more real. 

But, getting the sample was easier than you had thought, and you started to allow yourself to be a little relieved at the idea of surfacing again. You press the button one more time, wanting to give one last grateful look at the thing that would hopefully pay for your penance, but then you notice something.

“Hey- Hey Simon? There’s something…” He’s beside you by the time you slam the button again. The thing on the screen gets bigger, and you could tell now, that whatever it was, it was staring directly at your sub. No…directly at you.

The sub starts to shake, and you instinctively reach out to grab something to keep your balance. The closest thing turns out to be Simon’s arm as he turns to the speaker in panic. “There’s something there!” He yells out.

The sub starts to get pulled up, but something hits it, making it shake. The proximity warnings start beeping and flashing, and you can hear arguing through the speaker, but all you can do is tighten your grip on Simon’s arm. He turns to you, eyes wide and scared. You shut your own bracing for the worst, but you feel yourself get dragged forward as Simon desperately tries to run towards the controls. It's too late though, and you feel your body become weightless for a moment, your feet leaving the ground, before you’re violently thrown against a hard wall of the sub and everything goes black.

. . .

The metal of the submarine is warm against your skin. It’s the first sensation you feel as you start to regain consciousness. Then a dull pain starts to emanate from your right arm and leg, followed by a stinging sensation along the side of your jaw. You slowly attempt to open your eyes, but all you see is more darkness.

You try to pull yourself up, avoiding putting weight on the right side of your body as you look around. The only small lights you see are from the photo button, and the oxygen indicator. You stare at it.

Only half left.

Technically, less than half. It had gone out before you were knocked out. Wait… how long have you been out?

You can feel the panic start to grow in your chest once again, this time with nothing to distract it, it spreads and encases your lungs making it harder to breathe.

The next light could go out any second. The subs lights were out so the generator probably was too, which means there was no way for the submarine to move. No way for the C.O.I. to find you. You were trapped.

Your breathing gets more labored, and you try to focus on regulating your breath, but the horrible thoughts of a slow and painful death keep coming.

Is this what it would feel like? To suffocate? Or would Simon try to kill you before that, so he could breathe for just a little longer. He was called a butcher for a reason after all, and he was so sure he could survive this, more than you ever were-

You start to hear a voice, you think you're imagining it until you feel a sharp pain in your right shoulder and you realize someone’s trying to get your attention. You look up to see a shadowed outline of a face.

“Hey- hey come on! Look at me dammit!” Simon’s voice is soft, but desperate with a twinge of what sounds like his own panic. “I know it looks bad, but I’m sure there’s a way to restart the generator. We’re not dead yet.”

“Real…real…comforting.“ you let out between spastic breathes. You can feel tears start to form, and you start to feel a bit embarrassed. You push his hand off your right shoulder. “Ow-“ you grimace.

“Oh sorry! Sorry…um count you breathing ok. Like- fuck I don’t know how to do this…” You let out a weird noise that you think was your body’s attempt at a laugh. “Just, just focus on slowing your breathing. Like this.” He breathes in and then out slowly.

You focus on the sounds of his breathing and try to match it. You squeeze your hands into fists as you breathe in, releasing them as you breathe out, repeating the pattern until your breathing starts to even out. You start to shake less, and quickly wipe away the tears from your eyes, secretly thankful to the darkness for hiding them. 

Simon continues his attempts to reassure you, “There you go, you're ok! For now anyway.” You chuckle, but it comes out strained. 

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” You ask, looking at the general direction where you think his eyes are in the darkness. Your vision was starting to adjust to the darkness and you could start to see some of his features. “Here-“ You get up slowly, and move towards the button, hitting it. You're blinded by the flash for a moment, and hear Simon utter a curse, but then your eyes adjust and you can see him dimly lit by the X-Ray photo. “Are you ok? Any cuts?”

He scoffs in response, “Two seconds ago you were having a total breakdown and now you're worried about me?” Your eyebrows furrow in response.

”It wasn’t- it wasn’t a breakdown.“ You have to press the button again to bring back the light. 

“Right- sorry- bad choice of words…maybe a little cut here or there, nothing too bad I think. How about you?” You touch the place on your jaw that was stinging and wince. Then you test out your right shoulder. 

“I think I fell on my right side, but it's just a bit sore. Think I cut my chin on something though. Do you think there’s a first aid kit somewhere?” You press the button again just to see him shrug.

”You keep pressing the button, I’ll look.” So you stand back in your usual place, and it’s oddly slightly comforting. It felt good to have a goal, that way you weren’t thinking about how absolutely fucked the two of you were. You had no idea how Simon was able to keep his cool, but if he wasn’t going to give up, you weren’t either. 

…at least not yet.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After your incredibly long and frustrating meeting, you headed to the cafeteria to make yourself a nice cup of coffee, hoping it would relieve some of your newfound stress. However, since your meeting went on for so long there was none left in the pot. No big deal. You reached for the upper cabinet to make another pot, but the door wouldn’t budge. You’ve got to be kidding me... It seemed to be stuck on something inside, so you pull at it again, a bit harder this time. Instead of the door opening, you feel yourself fly backwards landing on your ass, cabinet handle still in hand. After sending a quick message to Burt on your communicator, you decide to give up on the coffee. 

Next came the part you were most dreading– informing all your crew that instead of finally getting off the ship and onto solid ground tomorrow, they’d have to wait until every single supply and protocol on the ship was accounted for, marked off, and filed with the correct paperwork back to Central Control. You couldn’t look your crew leads in the eyes as you shared the news, and before they could pick their jaws back off of the floor from the shock, you gave out a few orders to keep them busy. Thankfully Mark had caught on, and quickly repeated your orders to your, rightfully annoyed, crew leads. The rest of the day you spend helping with the new preparations, and listening to every person you come across complain to you about the frustrating delay. You weren’t used to working alone, and technically you weren’t. But before your voyage even started, Mark had always followed you around the ship like an excited puppy, trying to help wherever he could. After the whole thing with the wormhole though… you guess you couldn’t blame him wanting some space.

Didn’t make you miss him any less though.

. . .

The first couple hours you were fine, I mean it’s not like you disagreed with anyone about the ridiculousness of the situation. You always prided yourself in being a captain that people could come to if they ever had a problem, making sure everyone felt comfortable to speak up. This characteristic however, was backfiring on you in this scenario, as the hours ticked by and you had to listen to the same rant from a different person about the sixtieth time that day.

This was going to be a long day.

. . .

After hours of your patience growing thin, the end of the day finally comes and you gather with your crew leads– people you were close to and considered your friends. You take off your helmet as the door shuts, separating you from the rest of the crew. You were hoping you had finally escaped the non-stop criticism of your newly changed schedules, but you hoped incorrectly, apparently, because it actually seemed like they had been waiting all day for this moment. They all start speaking their minds almost simultaneously, voices overlapping each other. You rub your temples as you try to calm them down.

“I know you're all upset, but please, one at a time.” Your words come out more tired than commanding.

Mark, who has been unusually quiet, pipes up trying to defend you, “Leave the Captain alone. They’re just following orders.” You gave him a strained smile, but you weren’t sure his words were going to do any good.

“But they’re goddamn stupid orders! Recounting all the ammo we’ve packed will take days!” Gunther snaps back, and you could feel a headache coming along because, well, he was right. Not that you could say that. Speaking against your own bosses down at Central Control was hardly a good look. 

You keep your voice level as you respond, “I understand it’s stupid, but having a more accurate number will help with keeping colonists safe when we finally land on-”

“But surely manually disinfecting every single Cryo-pod is just excessive! They have self-cleaning cycles, and it’s not like we’re even going to use them again anytime soon-” Celci adds on, with her logical, but unhelpful comment.

“Again, I agree with you but-” You don’t even get to finish your thought before Burt's serious voice interrupts you.

“A bird that spends its whole life preparing to jump off a branch, will die before getting the chance to fly.” You aren’t even quite sure if that had anything to do with his additional engine checks. 

“Enough!” You raise your voice, not quite yelling, but it's a surprising enough volume to get everyone in the room to freeze. “I am your Captain, am I not? If my instructions were unclear, feel free to come to me for any clarifications. Otherwise, you have your orders.” You finalize your words with a stern nod, before turning to leave the room. You don’t notice Mark reaching out a hand towards you as you leave. 

You're lost in your thoughts as you head back to your quarters. You felt bad for raising your voice, but these stupid “preperations” had put a wrench into all your carefully laid out plans. You almost felt like you did when you and Mark were jumping through wormholes– disoriented and unsure of the correct path ahead. You hated that feeling. You were this ship's Captain dammit! You had to pull it together.

In your rush to escape, you manage to stub your pinky toe on the doorway just as you're about to step into your room. You yell out a curse, because even through your space boots, it fucking hurts. You could feel tears prick at the corner of your eyes as you stumble your way into your room, just managing to hobble over to your bed, and fall right into it. You curl up into a ball, holding your hurt foot as the waves of frustrations from the entire day come crashing into you all at once. You could feel yourself crying, but you were too tired to wipe away the tears. You just lay there, sobbing softly.

Not even a minute of your sniffles pass before you hear a knock on the door. You bite your tongue to try and keep quiet. You hear a muffled voice call out to you, “...Captain?” You unfurl yourself quickly, wiping away your tears. “Captain, it's Mark! Is…is your foot ok? I saw you hit it…” You fan at your eyes in a feeble attempt to dry them before you go to open the door. “Cap- oh… Hi.” Mark stands there awkwardly, still mid knock.

He scans you bottom to top, noticing first that you were leaning on one foot, but that everything seemed to still be attached. As he moves up to look at your face though, you realize your eyes were probably still a bit red. “Oh my god Captain are you ok? Did you break your foot or- why are you standing on it?!” Mark quickly invites himself into your room, ushering you towards the bed with an arm on your back for support. 

“Mark, my leg is fine-” You try to reassure him but don’t fight him as he sits you down, and kneels down on the ground to check your leg. You swat his hands away. “Goddammit why is no one listening to me today.” Your words start off stern, but your voice betrays you and cracks halfway. You can feel the tears start to well up again. Mark finally stops worrying about your foot, and looks up at you, eyes wide. This is the first time he’s ever seen you cry. Even through all the timeloops, all the deaths in alternate universes, and wormholes ripping your bodies through space and time, you had kept your eyes dry. Too determined on saving everyone…saving him. He had so much unwavering faith in how strong his Captain was, he almost forgot you were also… just a person, like anyone else. 

“Captain…I-” The sympathetic look in his eyes just made you more mad at yourself. 

“No I…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at any of you. I’m not even angry, really, I just- just...” You take a breath so you won’t start crying again. “I had a plan. A good one, and now it’s all falling apart. Again.” Your voice breaks once more, and you curse yourself for sounding so weak. For crying in front of anybody on your crew, much less your head engineer. 

But before you can utter another word, Mark sits up on his knees, still on the ground, and slides himself between your legs, wrapping both his arms around your waist. He presses his head against your side, and you freeze a moment, before slowly melting into his hug, leaning down to hug him back. You cry into his shoulder, it's quiet, but it feels like you're letting out all the pent up emotions you’ve been feeling since the first wormhole collapsed. It felt like a millennia ago. Since then, the only thing that hasn’t changed, has been Mark always being by your side. 

Through your stifled sobs, you hear his encouraging voice, “It’s not falling apart. This is all just a small delay that everyone will forget about the second we step foot on that planet! The crew’s not really mad at you, they're just frustrated. Same as you are. And, we’re all saying a lot of things we probably will want to forget when this all blows over. You didn’t do anything wrong Cap…and you’re not alone.” His voice is so sure and full of unwavering trust in you that you almost start to let yourself believe him. You hold him tighter, sobs wracking your body as you finally let yourself cry about all the shit you’ve had to go through. At least now , you knew that it would turn out ok, because your right hand man would always be there by your side.

After a while your sobs start to calm down a bit, and you gently push him away from the awkwardly situated hug. Mark sits back on his knees, but not before taking both your hands in his. You look down at him still sniffling. “Mark, it’s ok…”

He looks up at you, a misty look in his own eyes. “It’s not! I should be the one getting criticized by the crew. Everyone should be mad at me. After- after everything I put you through I- I never even said sorry…” He hangs his head in shame, holding your hands tighter as if praying for your forgiveness. “I’m so fucking sorry…for the wormhole, for blaming you for the mess I caused, for…for everything.” Your eyes widen in surprise before softening. You take one hand from his grasp to instead gently tilt his head back up to face you.

“You have nothing to apologize for. You were just trying to save everyone. You didn’t know. You made the best call you could make with the information you had.” Your words are gentle, but full of conviction. Then your tone shifts a little. “Just like I did when I tried to ‘Fix it from the outside’.” You hear him let an involuntary snort.

“You knew there was no tether, you ass-” His voice came out slightly hoarse, but you could see a small smile come back to his face. You just look at him, a smile growing on your own face. “What?” He asks, tilting his head slightly to the side in that cute habit of his.

“Nothing, I just miss our banter. You’ve been way too nice to me lately… Plus, it’s nice to see you smile again.” His face flushes. 

“W- what? You want me to be more mean?” He sputters. You chuckle in response.

“No…but you used to call me out on my shit. Now you act like I’m some hero who can do no wrong.”

“Well yea? Cause it’s true! You saved the entire multiverse and you don’t even care that no one knows about it!” You use his hold on your hands to pull him up to sit next to you on the bed.

You laugh, “We saved the multiverse. But it’s not like anyone’s even gonna believe us… Besides, my whole universe already knows I’m a hero.” You smirk.

He blinks at you, confused, “What? But nobody-” he stops as you gently cup one of his cheeks with your hand.

“Not nobody…you know.” It takes him a second to register what you mean. “And that’s the universe that really matters.” When it finally clicks, he groans rolling his eyes, but his face flushes even brighter. 

“That is the corniest shit I’ve ever- I can't believe I think you're cool.” You laugh at his unamused expression.

“Aww, you think I’m cool?” You tease, reveling in the light feeling in your heart that feels almost foreign to you after all this time.

“Oh shut up.” He rolls his eyes again, but his smile only grows.

“Make me~” Your smirk widens and you wink at him. You can see his eyes searching yours for permission, to make sure he wasn’t reading this wrong. You give him a reassuring nod. It’s all he needs to gently grab your uniform collar and pull you into a kiss. It starts off soft and sweet, but then you both melt into it, holding onto each other as if another wormhole was going to appear and whisk the moment away. 

That doesn’t happen though, and when you finally pull apart for air, you're still looking into each other's eyes. The reality that all the time loop stuff really was finally over, genuinely, starts to settle in. For good this time. You were both stuck in this timeline together, and neither of you would have it any other way.

You had always teased Illinois about his refusal to adjust to modern day technologies. Sure he had a phone, but he would always choose to call you, even if a quick text would’ve been much faster. If he ever did use the internet, it was just to look up nearby libraries just to find a certain book about whatever topic he wanted to do more research about. So if he had been the one booking the hotel, he would have just called. 

But Illinois was not the one who wanted to take a break from camping under the stars, you were. As much as you loved the outdoors, nights were starting to get unbearably cold, and your thin sleeping bag just wasn’t cutting it anymore. You offered to book and pay for the room, just for one night, and after a little convincing, Illinois agreed. You were currently on your phone, in the passenger seat of your adventuring partner's car, pulling up the closest hotels with open bookings nearby. It was a weekend, so you were struggling to find many options. 

Illinois watches you as you scowl at your phone. “You know, we could always just drive through town and stop by the first place we see?” He offers.

“They’re all booked, it must be some town holiday or something." You grumble once again coming across another dead end.

“Or, we can do what we normally do and-” His voice is smooth as if he’s trying to coax you into changing your mind.

“No! Come on, it's supposed to be freezing tonight.” You turn to him before resuming your search on your phone. “Plus my back hurts, I want to sleep on an actual mattress for once…ah-hah!” You show him your phone screen in triumph, a hotel not too far from here had exactly one room left. Illinois glances at your screen, before his eyes widen slightly and he does a double take, staring at your screen for a moment, and scrolling through a few pictures before smirking. 

“Yea you sure found…somethin’.” You roll your eyes at his odd expression. 

“Come on, it can’t be that bad, it has good reviews! You're just mad I found a place my way. Using google, like a normal person.” You turn back to your phone to type in your information for the booking. “It is  a little pricey…probably because of the holiday or something.”

“Yea…the holiday.” Illinois has a tone you can’t exactly place, but you just chalk it up to him teasing you about your way of booking rooms online. You weren’t even sure if you could name anyone else that booked hotels through calling, other than him. 

“I don’t care, as long as I get a bed I'll be happy” You smile at him as you show him your phone again, words “Booking Complete!” bold across the top. ”.…shoot, I forgot to check if it had separate beds.” You turn the phone screen towards yourself again, but all you see is a digital receipt.

“Did you even read the booking description?” Illinois chuckles as he starts up the car.

“I put in that we needed a room for two people, so it should be fine.” The two of you have shared a bed before, it wasn’t that big of a deal. You’d been adventuring partners for a while now and have had enough near encounters with death to have gotten close enough for things like that not to be awkward. You were too tired to care, at this point you’d even take a couch or a pull out over the uneven ground again. He laughs, and you wonder what he finds so funny as you tell him the directions to the hotel.

. . .

“Yes, I have the booking right here.” A kindly mannered, older lady taps away at a computer before handing you a set of room keys. “All the package details are already set up! And don’t worry, the room is completely soundproof~ ” She says the last part in a loud whisper, and ends it with a wink. “Have fun you two!” You hear Illinois cough, stifling a laugh before grabbing both of your bags. 

”Yea, come on honey.” He leans in as he says it, an amused grin on his face. It’s not unusual for people to assume the both of you are a couple, so you simply smile politely at the lady and turn to start towards your room, shooting Illinois a light-hearted glare.

“At least you won’t bother the other guests with your snoring.” You smirk at Illinois as you both head up the elevator to your room. 

He scoffs, offended, “Excuse me? I do not snore.” You chuckle in response.

“Sure…I’m sure it’s just the wind I hear coming from your tent all night.” He rolls his eyes but surprisingly doesn’t send back a retort as you arrive at the door to your room. “Finally…” You let out a relieved sigh as you unlock and open the door.

…you wish you could take back your relieved sigh. “What the…” The room is fairly spacious, with a huge bed in the middle with soft looking covers. On top of the covers are rose petals, carefully arranged in the shape of a heart, chocolate covered strawberries beautifully arranged on a plate decorating the center. A quick glance around the room also revealed a pre-filled jacuzzi decorated with the same colored rose petals.

In the seconds it took for you to take in the sight, you had finally realized what Illinois had thought was so funny this whole time. And why he wasn’t bouncing back your teasing, because he was just waiting for you to figure out the horriblely embarrassing mistake you’ve made, all by yourself. 

You don’t think you’ve ever heard Illinois laugh so hartily, it's a deep sound that reverberates through the narrow hall of the hotel. Your face feels warm, but you can’t help but smile as your partner has to clutch his chest to try and calm his laughing fit. “You could’ve said something…fucking asshole.” Your comment just triggers another fit of laughter and Illinois has to lean against the door frame to keep himself upright. You try to look mad, but seeing your usually calm and collected cowboy almost crying of laughter was a rare sight to see. 

“How- how did you not notice the name of the room.?” He manages to get out when he finally starts to regain his composure. “Even the hotel is called The ‘Honey’comb-” You feel heat rise up to your face again.

“I- I don’t know! I was just looking at the availability and the prices…” You stutter out not making direct eye contact.

“You know…this never would’ve happened if you just called-”

“Oh fuck off-” He snickered, as you roll your eyes and decide to step into the room. You had already paid for it after all. As you take a few more steps in though, your determination wavers a bit. “This…is actually ridiculous. Who would even want all this?” Illinois follows you into the room, closing the door behind him, and dumping the bags he was carrying off to the side.

“You would, apparently.” You gently smack the brim of his hat down, so that it covers his eyes. 

“Oh shut up. If you really didn’t want to stay here, you would’ve warned me before I booked the room.” He lifts his hat back up, smirking.

“And where's the fun in that darling?” He winks at you, and you roll your eyes again, fighting the urge to smile. 

“Ok, it’s not actually that bad. We just have to get rid of these stupid petals…” You start to clean up the flower petals on the bed, and can’t help but eye up the chocolate strawberries. Illinois notices, and instead of helping you, he takes the platter, and sits at the edge of the bed.

“Hey, these don’t look half-bad.” He comments as he takes a bite of one. You throw the handful of flower petals you’ve collected into a nearby trashcan before sitting down next to him. 

“Yea, these I’m definitely not mad at.” You reach out to take on, but Illinois moves the plate just out of your reach. You quirk an eyebrow, looking at him confused. You can see a mischievous glint in his eye as he smirks.

“Woah, hold on there partner. You worked so hard cleaning off the bed, so allow me.” He takes one of the strawberries into his hand, and holds it up to your mouth. You can feel your face heating up once again as you glance past the strawberry at Illinois cocky smile. You're tempted to deny him, but the scent of the sweet fruit so close to your face wins you over.

“I hate you…” Your mutter before taking a bite from the strawberry, deciding to indulge him just this once. The smirk on Illinois’ face grows, and you roll your eyes before taking the rest of the strawberry from his hand. “For someone so unattached, you sure are a cheesy romantic, huh?” He chuckles at your comment, and you take the opportunity to snatch another strawberry off the plate. 

“I think the decor of this room might be rubbing off on me.” He takes another strawberry in his hands and stares at it a moment. “Or maybe it’s just you.” You chuckle.

“Me? What do I have anything to do with you acting like a sap?” He smiles at the strawberry before, leaning over to feed it to you again. You roll your eyes but oblige, leaning towards him.

“Dunno sweetheart, maybe I just like being in your company. More so than I have with any other partner I’ve had.” Your eyes widen slightly, and you have to force yourself to take your eyes off the handsome man in front of you. You know that a comment like that is one of the biggest compliments a man who's gone through as much as he has, can give. You can take a bite of the strawberry before you can say something stupid. This didn’t feel like one of his usual playful flirts…it felt different. He finally seems to gather the courage to look at you, searching your expression for…something. With that bite you decide you’ve had enough sweetness for the night as you turn your face away from him to hide your flustered expression. 

“I um, I feel the same…not that I’ve had as many partners as you, but uh…You know what I mean.” Real smooth. You scold yourself internally. “Anyway, I should go get washed up. I’m exhausted and I wanna use this stupidly soft bed I paid for.” You miss the oddly sad look Illinois gives before he’s smiling again.

“Maybe if I’m lucky, we’ll both get some use out of it.” Illinois replies with a wink. There it was, the usual flirty kind of comments he makes, so what was the deal with that earlier one. The one that felt so real your whole world felt like it just shifted.

You stole his hat for that one, a soft “Hey-“ escaping him as you put it away in the coat closet. He has to ruffle his locks back up to fix his hat hair. 

Trying not to let him see your smile, you shake your head, “You are impossible, I don’t know why I put up with you.”

“I don’t either.” There was a somber tone to his words, and you turn to him, surprised. His expression looks care-free as always, but there was something you couldn’t recognize in his eyes. You just shake your head again, and turn to go take a shower.

. . . 

You had gotten under the covers as soon as you were washed and ready for bed, quietly hoping you’d fall asleep before Illinois would finish cleaning up. Your racing mind had other ideas though, wondering about what the unusual pattern of Illinois recent actions could possibly mean. First he’s messing with you about booking the hotel incorrectly, then he’s feeding you strawberries telling you how much you mean to him, and then he’s back to making dirty jokes like nothing even happened?! You just couldn’t figure him out.

You're still lying awake when Illinois steps out of the bathroom. He goes to turn off the lights before getting into the other side of the bed. You silently thank all the gods from all the heavens you’ve ever been to that the bed was big enough for the both of you to be able to lay comfortably without touching. You couldn’t handle him being that close to you right now. Not after…whatever all that was. Something felt different between the two of you. For a while now, you have been so comfortable with each other. You’ve gotten to know each other's quirks, and worked well together both as coworkers, and as friends. You’d brush off his flirts as the jokes they always were, and the both of you would take care of each other as good partners should. It's why you’ve both been able to stay alive this long in such a dangerous line of work. Thinking about it, this is the longest you’ve ever worked with the same person.

But now, thinking about his dark eyes and charming smile made your head hurt. All the feelings you’ve managed to keep bottled up for your own safety come flooding out. Because suddenly it wasn’t a totally stupid idea to fall for him, because now there was even a sliver of a chance he might have fallen for you…and that idea scares you more than anything.

You lay there ruminating in your rollercoaster of current emotions for what feels like forever, even though it realistically couldn’t have been much longer than half an hour. You haven’t heard anything from Illinois’ side of the bed, so you decide it’s safe enough for you to turn around and face him. Sure enough, his eyes are closed, and those gods you prayed to earlier must actually hate you because his face is illuminated by soft moonlight coming through the window behind you. His features are completely relaxed, an expression you don’t see often on the ever brave and clever adventurer. His soft dark hair layers ruffled and free from the hat he always wore when he was awake. This was a part of him you rarely got to see, and it made your already aching heart melt that much more.

“Having trouble falling asleep sweetheart?” His eyes flutter open, and his voice is a bit gravely from sleep. Had you really woken him up just by moving? Your eyes widen slightly as if you’d been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing, and in a way, maybe that was true.

“Uh…yea. A little” You reply sheepishly. He smiles softly, a teasing glint in his eye, even while he was still half asleep.

“You went through all this trouble to get a hotel room, and you already miss sleeping under the stars.” He gets up slightly and props his head up with one of his arms, looking down at you with a smirk. You sit up slightly as well, pushing yourself up with your elbows.

“I guess I do kinda miss the white noise of the wildlife, it’s so quiet in here.” You're not technically lying, the quiet was a bit unsettling after so many nights spent with the constant hum of cicadas or the relaxing murmur of a stream. Illinois hums in thought before responding.

“I could turn on the AC if you’d like? Or you could use your favorite “internet” thing and play some noises I’m sure.” You look at him, and maybe it’s because you can see the genuine concern he has for you in his eyes, but something makes you tell him the truth.

“…actually…I was thinking about what you said… Am I really your favorite? Of all of them?” It took him a moment to register what you were asking, and when it dawned on him, you could have sworn a flash of fear ran through his eyes. It was gone as soon as it came, and slowly, as if not to scare you away, he reached out for one of your hands. 

“Is this…ok?” He asks, and this might be the first time you’ve ever heard him unsure. You squeeze his hand reassuringly.

“Yea…I think it’s more than ok.” You look at him, taking in his features unashamedly this time. There’s a look in his eyes that you’ve never seen before, and somehow you know he feels scared. You know how many partners he’s lost, and you know first hand how hard it was getting attached to the people you adventured with just to have them die in your hands in the most gruesome way imaginable… It did something to you. 

So you start slowly, leaning forward gently, watching him for any sign of hesitation or rejection, but you don’t find it. Instead it seems something inside him finally breaks through as he meets you halfway. He  sits up more just to cup your face with one of his hands,and gives you a kiss that steals your breath away. It wasn’t long, but it was incredibly sweet, and maybe just a little desperate. Most of all though, it just felt right. You both pull away, eyes lidded, before Illinois catches something in the corner of his eyes and starts laughing. You blink before giving him an incredulous look. “What are you laughing at-?”

“I just, I just saw the tub full of roses behind you and realized we’re sharing our first kiss in a honeymoon suite.” Your eyes widen as you whip around to look at the tub, before looking back at him. You both burst out laughing, and you let yourself fall into his chest. Once you both settle down again, you look back up at him, cupping his face in your own hand. He gently reaches up to interlock his fingers with yours, and kisses your hand. You smile.

“I’m right here Ily. And I’m not going anywhere. I promise.” You know he’s probably heard that before, hell, you have too. But this time was different. Your partnership was different. And you could tell by the look on his face that this time, he really believed you.

”This golden sunflower thing better be fucking worth it.” You complain as you brush a few spider webs off your shoulder. Traps might pass by your partner with no issue, but you actually had to put in the work to avoid them, and your attempts weren’t always successful. Thankfully Illinois’ luck seemed to rub off on you when it came to most life-threatening traps, but the amount of spiders and snakes you’ve had dropped on you made you question if adventuring really was your calling sometimes. The ground you both walked on was covered in a thick layer of sand and the cold halls of the temple were solid stone. Both of you had flashlights to light your way through the dark rooms, but you currently have yours buckled to the strap of your bag as you clean yourself off.

“Sunflowers are actually very important to Peru’s history. I know I don’t have to tell you how they were given as offerings at temples like these, and that the museum would really appreciate us bringing it back.” Illinois chuckles as he helps brush some more webs off the top of your head. 

“I hate when you're right… Just, why’d it have to be spiders?!” You shiver again at the recent memory while your completely-spider-free partner just laughs.

”You know, a solid gold flower crown would look really good on you… it’s almost a shame we have to give it away…” He gives you a wink and now it's your turn to laugh.

“Hats are more your thing, though maybe I should start wearing a helmet or something with all these insane traps.” You're still focused on checking yourself for any stray spiders from the previous room, so you don’t notice the slight color difference in the sandy floor until it's too late. Illinois usually pointed out any traps that you managed to miss, but something must be distracting him as well, because as the floor gives way to a small pit, your partner falls into it right alongside you.

It all happens so fast you barely have time to react, one second you're standing on solid ground, and the next, you're falling. You land on a rough, sandy floor, and only get a moment to register your landing before another body crashes on top of you. The wind gets knocked out of you, and you cough as dust and sand is kicked up around the small pit. The body on top of your groans – which you find ironic as his fall was cushioned by you.

”When I told you you’d fall for me, this isn’t exactly what I meant.” You could hear Illinois’ voice reverberate in the small space as he tries to regain his bearings. You roll your eyes and let out a pained sigh. He laughs and you can hear his chest shake against your back. “Alright, alright, I’ll get off you darling give me a sec.” As you both try to sit up, you realize the space is even smaller than you originally thought. You sit with your back against a wall, and have to bend your legs to fit. Illinois tries to do the same, but is forced to interweave his legs with yours.

”How did you not see the trap! Too busy imagining me in a crown?” You scold him as you try to look around for a way out. Illinois scoffs defensively, face uncharacteristically flushing.

”Now- now hold on partner, you’re the one who triggered the trap in the first place!” You roll your eyes but smile at his expression. He wasn’t easily embarrassed so you had to take every small win you got. 

“Whatever, let's just try to find a way out of here.” You start to move in an attempt to get up, but realize that doing so forces you to get even closer to Illinois in the tiny space. He looks up at you with a smirk, and you push the brim of his hat over his eyes as you finish getting up, hiding your slightly flustered face. Illinois chuckles, but respectfully keeps his head down as you get up and lean your back against the wall, standing up this time. “Ok, your turn.”

He looks up at you, and makes sure to hold your gaze as he gets up himself, repositioning to give you some space. There really wasn’t much space to give though, and in reality there was barely an arms length of space in between the two of you. You could hear him breathing in the silence as both of you just gaze at each other for a moment. You break the weird tension by clearing your throat, “So, how are we gonna get out of this one cowboy?” He smirks in response as you unbuckle the flashlight from your bag and start to inspect the walls. 

“I don’t know…maybe I don’t hate the idea of being stuck this close to you for a little while.” He flirts unhelpfully as you continue your inspection, his words do get you to smile though. You couldn’t help it. You knew his comments were just jokes, but that didn't mean you hated hearing them.

“You’ll mind when we start dying of dehydration.” You grin as you hear him deflate a little, letting out a sigh.

“You are no fun sometimes.” You can basically hear the pout that's on his face, but your attention is pulled towards a small engraving on the wall. 

“Wait Ily, look-” You shine your light on it so you both can read it. 

“In order to ascend from this pit of despair, one has to expose the most venerable part of themselves.” Illinois translates the inscription aloud. He then turns to you one eyebrow raised. “I think this puzzle might be trying to get in our pants…” 

You scoff in disbelief and lightly punch his shoulder. “I cannot believe you-” The bastard giggles. “Ily this is serious! We might die down here and you're too busy joking to-” Your words are then interrupted by a loud clicking noise. The floor starts to rumble and all the cheekiness on Illinois' face is gone in an instant. He calls out your name, and shoves you away from the center of the small pit as two large spikes shoot up from the ground exactly where the two of you were just standing. Your heart’s still racing as the spikes start to lower again, sand filling up the holes they came out of, leaving almost no trace. No trace, except for a stinging sensation on the inside of your right forearm. After the shock of the moment starts to subside, you clamp your left hand on the gash, hissing in pain.

“See, I told you this was serious…” But your voice trails off as you look up at his face. You’ve never seen him look scared before. The spikes were gone, but he was still frozen, bracing himself against the stone wall, a hand clutching his chest as he looked like he was having trouble breathing. Your entire demeanor softens, there’s no trace of sarcasm in your voice as you ask, “Hey, are you ok?” He just nods slowly, he doesn’t look ok though.

“You- you could’ve-” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. You step closer to him, the stinging in your arm forgotten for a moment as you put your uninjured arm on his shoulder, grounding him. 

“But you saved me, like you always do… Well whenever I’m not saving your sorry ass.” You keep your words light, hoping teasing him gently will help him feel like the situation was less dire. His expression still looks rattled though, so you add, “Hey look, I’m here ok.” You squeeze his shoulder reassuringly. “We’re both here, breathing, maybe bleeding a bit, but alive. Just like always.” You see him hesitantly take a step towards you, and so you quickly capture him in a hug. You know it's what he was looking for when his shaking arms tighten around your waist as he buries his head in the crook of your neck. 

You both stay like that a few moments before he pulls back just enough to mutter, “I can’t lose you too. I just can’t.” You pull him into an even tighter hug, and if you didn’t know better you’d think the great Illinois was almost crying. “I know I tease you a ton, but if those spikes- and I never would have gotten to actually tell you-” He chokes up on the last part, so you finish for him.

“Yea… I know. I love you too, ya dork.” He chuckles into your shoulder and it tickles, so you laugh too. It was never something either of you had actually said aloud, but he would always show it in his actions. How he’d remember your favorite order whenever you both ate out. Or how he’d grab your favorite snacks on long road trips even though he hated the smell of them. How he’d always offer you the best spot to set up your tent, and the gentleness he showed you when he wrapped any of your wounds. Most of all he showed it in the complete lack of his normal coolness whenever you were in any sort of danger. All of a sudden the completely unbothered adventurer would crease his eyebrows and keep them like that until you were completely out of harm's way. It was always as incredibly sweet as it was annoying. “And I’m not dying on you that easily. I’m not made of glass, you know.”

“Yea, I know, sweetheart. I know. I just get… so scared sometimes.” He pulls away just enough to look at you, but he can’t quite meet your gaze. “I see every other partner that I promised to protect- and…” He breathes in a shaky breath, but then looks at you and smiles. “But you're not any of them, are you? You’re different.” You match his smile in response.

When you both hear another loud clicking noise, and you both grow tense again. You break apart your hug to press yourselves against opposing walls as you had done the first time. The stinging on your arm is a grave reminder. The floor rumbles again, but this time no spikes raise up from the ground, instead, the ground itself starts to rise. You both move off the walls, and grab onto each other for balance as you slowly start to ascend from the pit.

“To ascend from the pit of dispair… you have to expose the most vulnerable part of yourself.” You repeat the words of the riddle, a smile coming back to your face. “Nice going cowboy.” 

“Yep, that was the plan all along.” He grins, cocky expression back on his face. You realize you missed it, seeing him so sure of himself again. But you knew better. He was more than just his jokes, even if they were a part of him, so was the fear of losing those he cared about. And you loved every part of it.

“Sure it was.” You both laugh, and as you reach the top and return to your usual banter, something feels different. He helps wrap up the wound on your arm, but his jokes don’t feel as empty, instead they make your heart feel all fuzzy. Not that you let him see that though, you still roll your eyes, but you can feel your cheeks warm up more than they used to. You easily make it though the last few rooms with little trouble, and finally you reach the place you were searching for. A pedestal lies at the end of it, with a beautiful bust of a person carved into stone on top of it, though the face was covered in cracks. It didn’t make the statue any less pretty though. On the statue's head is the sunflower crown, its golden surface reflecting off the light of your flashlight and sparkling bright despite the layers of dust.

“Thank you handsome and or beautiful statue for holding onto this, but we’ll take it from here.” Illinois speaks to the head as he gently takes the crown off of it. Even though you could tell he was incredibly careful, the bust crumbles to dust the second the crown is lifted. “Oh- uh… Sorry about that.”

“I think they’re relieved you took it. They were protecting it, but they’re job’s done now.” Illinois gives you a look full of admiration. He takes a step towards you and gently lowers the crown on your head.

“Now it’s your job to protect it until we’re back to the museum.” You laugh, and wonder how the fragile statue even supported its weight for so long, it was surprisingly heavy. Illinois takes a step back and looks at you, grinning even wider.

“I was right, it does look good on you.” His expression is still teasing, but his eyes are filled with awe and what you now recognize as pure affection. You can feel yourself getting flustered, but you don’t try to hide it. You let the warmth cross your face and fill your heart.

“Well obviously gold must be my color. Now let's go, this thing’s actually kinda heavy.”

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown of solid gold, it's not a piece of cheap jewelry you know.” He teases you before bowing dramatically. “After you, your highness.” 

“Oh screw you.” You laugh as you start walking back out of the room.

“Maving kinda fast there sweetheart, how about I buy you dinner first?” You turn around to playfully nudge him again, and you both make your way out of the room laughing.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“I would be nervous too, in your shoes,” I try to reassure him with a smile. “ But you’d be telling me that I got this, so I’m telling you: You got this.” You look directly into his fiery red eyes.

“….Aaaa- you’re just making me more stressed!!” Tango yells out dipping the nail polish brush back into the bottle. “Why am I even so stressed?!” 

“Cause I made your nails fabulous, and if you mess mine up I’ll never forgive you.” You answer simply, trying and failing to suppress a smile.

“You did do my nails fabulously, you did…but I think I’m actually going to go for a more abstract look-'' He flashes you a mischievous smile as he slowly lowers the brush closer to your finger, and nowhere near where your actual nail was. You instantly pull away, gasping in mock offense.

“Don’t you dare-“ You start.

“Wha -at, do you not trust me?!” He says snickering. You eye him suspiciously.

”Not when you say things like that!”

Your plan for making sure Tango took a break from his new big project was going well so far. Sure you felt a little childish when bringing up the idea of a sleepover, but Tango’s enthusiasm dashed most of your concerns instantly…Most, that is, except for your growing concern that you may love your friend in more ways than just platonic….

You usually always push those feelings to the back burner, not wanting to ruin the thing you two already had going, but seeing the way he stuck out his tongue in concentration while still managing to get polish all over your finger wasn’t helping. ”How are you so bad at this?“ You tease, smiling.

”I- you shush! I’m trying, ok! You keep squirming-“ He says trying to readjust his positioning by grabbing and tilting your hand slightly.

”I’m not squirming! I’m laughing. At you.” You say still giggling. He huffs, and eventually decides that his technique wasn’t working, and decides to try a new one. He gets up from his cross-legged position on the floor, pulling his knees up and toward himself to form a resting place for your wrist. His grip on your hand tightens a little as he yanks you closer.

”Just shut up and come here-” The rest of your body follows your hand, and you scooch closer to him, shutting up. Tango doesn’t even seem to notice your close proximity, too focused on trying to paint your nails neatly. After a few more beats of flustered (on your part) silence, he looks up beaming. “There, first hand done!” 

You blink, your brain still catching up, before you inspect his work. The first finger he did was quite bad- unevenly painted and there was some color accidentally splotched onto your skin. But each nail got progressively better, and all in all… “Well- I’ve had worse. And I like the color!” He’d picked a bright red for you, a shade that reminded you of his bright eyes. You picked your favorite color for his nails, and you now wonder if he did the same.

”Ok- ok! See- I’m learning!” He says before holding out his hand again, “other one?”

You give him your other hand, and are forced to look at his adorably concentrated face again as he paints your other nails. You start talking to distract yourself. “So I assume this is your first time ever doing this?”

”Zed’s painted my nails before- but it was with some kinda poison for one of his science-y experiment-o thingies.” If he had been talking about anyone else you might’ve questioned it, but it was Zedaph, so you weren’t really even surprised. “I’ve never painted someone else’s before- no.” He responds not looking up, still entirely focused.

”Really, I couldn’t tell?” You say sarcasm dripping from your voice as you smile. He looks up at you for a second just to roll his eyes.

“I thought I told you to shush-“ He says, almost scolding if it wasn’t for the smile on his face. He rolls his shoulders, and it seems like being hunched over in concentration was starting to make him sore, so he instead leans back a little, pulling you even closer, and holds your forearm between his knees. Ok- this was getting ridiculous, there was no way your face wasn’t getting a bit red now. 

“Do you want me to just detach my hand and give it to you?” You laugh trying to keep your composure.

”No- “ He laughs, seemingly oblivious to your suffering. “-I like you just as you are, all in one piece thanks.” You chuckle, looking anywhere but directly at him until he finally finishes, and releases your hand. ”Done! Now don’t you look absolutely fanta-bulous! The color really suits you-“ He cheers, sending you a wink that makes you wonder if he was doing this on purpose.

The second hand looks even better than the first, and if you were being honest, it really warmed your heart that he tried so hard. “It does look great, the red makes me feel like a model.” You pose in a silly vogue showing off your nails as if in a commercial, and it succeeds in making Tango laugh. He tries a pose of his own, showing off his nails in front of his face and pursing his lips. He looks at you, and winks. You burst out laughing, and he joins in as you both have goofy smiles on your face. When your laughing finally calms down, Tango looks up at you.

”So, what else do you usually do at sleepovers?” He asks, tilting his head slightly.

”Well…me and my friends would sometimes play truth or dare, or do each other's hair-“ Tango’s eyes light up.

“Why not both! Though, I don’t think there’s much you can do with this mop on my head-“ He responds pointing at his spikey blonde hair, “I kinda just have to let it do what it wants.”

You squint at it, sizing up his hairdo like it was a challenge. “I think I can figure something out…”

”Go ahead! Be my guest.” He says sitting up and taking off the goggles he had on. 

You get up to grab some supplies from the bathroom, before returning and kneeling down behind him, trying to find a longer chunk of hair that you can work with. Satisfied with finding a section near his pointy ears, you start braiding. “Right, you go first. Truth or dare?”

”Well, I can’t really move- so truth? I did not think this through, huh?” He chuckles, and you pull on his hair slightly to keep him still.

”Stop moving!” You say, laughing as well. You think for a second, trying to come up with a good question. “Ok…When you first met me, what was your first impression of me?”

Tango smiles, and flushes slightly as he thinks back on the moment, remembering it fondly. You're too focused to notice. “Well- If I’m being a hundred percent honest. I just thought you looked really cool! But in kinda a like- a slightly intimidating way, you know?” You spare him an odd look.

”Really?” You ask, finishing up the first little braid before gently tilting his head the other way to do the same thing on the other side.

”Yea! Then, I got to know you and realized you're just a big ole softy!” He says chuckling. You roll your eyes and shake your head, but you don’t stop the small smile that spreads across your face.

”Yea, yea, whatever.” You chuckle, focusing back on his hair.

”Your turn now, truth or dare?” Tango asks.

“Truth, I’m still trying to finish this braid-“ He takes a moment to respond, giving you just enough time to finish the second braid, so you tie it to the end of the first one, forming a sort of halo around the back of his head.

”What’s a secret you’ve never told anyone?” He asks. One instantly pops to mind, but you shake your head, dismissing it instantly.

”Actually, nevermind, I'm finished. I switch to my choice to dare.” Tango turns around to face you, almost pouting.

”Wha- You can’t do that!”

”Yes I can, and look!” You pull out a hand mirror you brought and show him what you’ve done to his hair, his frown instantly turns into an excited smile.

”Woah- it’s so cute!” He says, turning his head a little to inspect the braids, grinning. 

”You are! And your hair looks nice too.” You say shooting him wink, he laughs but you swear you saw his face get a little pink. He looks off to the side like he’s thinking, and then turns back to you with a toothy smirk.

”Alright, I thought of a dare. Give me your absolutely worst pick up line. Just- the most cheesy, corny, awful pick up line ever.” Your eyebrow raises a little at his request, and you take a moment to think.

”Worst pick up line huh…? That’s hard cause we both know how amazing I am at flirting.” You say sarcastically, just buying yourself some time to think of something clever.

Tango laughs, “Yep, uh huh. Totally. You're like, the flirting master.” He teases back.

Finally a really stupid one comes to mind, “Tango, are you a campfire? Because you’re hot and I totally want s’more-“ You say, barely able to get it out without laughing.

Tango stares at you blankly for a moment, before his face reddens and he bursts out laughing. “That- that’s actually terrible.”

“Hey you asked! I’m starting to think you just like the idea of me flirting with you.” You joke, turning your back to him so he could do your hair. Instead, he decides to lean forward and whisper directly into your ear.

“Maybe I do~” He pulls back and starts laughing, but you're frozen. Your face feels flushed and you try to calm your racing heart. You keep reminding yourself that it was all just a joke, that you needed to calm down or you’d risk making it weird. “Aw, too much?” He asks.

“I- just-” You stutter.

“Well too bad, it’s my payback for you not letting me work on my redstone stuff.” He says gently running his hands through your hair and…you were just now realizing how bad of an idea this all was. You were supposed to be getting over your feelings for the hot tempered blaze, but instead you’ve found yourself falling for him even more.

“Yea well, that’s what I get for being a good friend I guess.” You chuckle, but it comes out a bit strained. 

“Friends? Is that all we are?” Tango asks slightly…disappointed?

“Alright Tango enough with the jokes, you keep doing that I might actually fall for you.” You try to keep up your chipper and teasing tone, but your voice wavered towards the end.

Tango stops playing with your hair, and moves in front of you again. He seems nervous, and looks down at his hands a lot. You don’t dare hope, you don’t let yourself think anything, too scared to lose the friendship that you two had, no matter how much you cared for him.

“Maybe…uhh…maybe I might’ve actually been the one, that has done the falling…for…you.” He ends it with a dry chuckle, wringing his hands and struggling to keep eye contact. When you don’t respond right away, he finally looks at you. You search his eyes, searching for any sign that this was all some sort of weird bit.

“Are- are you being for real…or…” You finally ask, still not sure.

“Uh…yea? I mean…I thought I was making it obvious and all but I guess...” For some reason you feel tears well up in your eyes. “...Ah! Oh my gosh, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have-” You interrupt him, quickly wiping the tears from your eyes.

“No! No it’s fine I’m just- I’m glad! I promise!” You reassure him, a huge smile spreading across your lips. His eyes are still wide with concern, and slight confusion.

“Wait so- I’m confused. Do you also…?” You bob your head up and down, laughing a bit as you try to regain your composure after the roller coaster of emotions that had been the past few minutes.

“Yes, Tango. Obviously, I’ve fallen for you too.” You finally respond, he grins and grabs both your hands in his.

“Well, obviously- neither of us are really good at reading the obvious-” He snickers, gently stroking your hand with his thumb. 

You giggle, “Wow, and now someone has spilled about their crush, we’ve checked, like, all the sleepover boxes but-”

“-but sleeping?” Tango asks, quirking an eyebrow.

“No? No one sleeps at sleepovers, come on dude-” You respond and he laughs, “the only thing we haven’t done is watch a movie!”

“Hey well I’m not complaining. As long as I get to do your hair first, since it was um- interrupted.” He smiles, blushing slightly.

“Why not both!” You say mirroring his tone from earlier.

~ ~ ~

This time when he runs his fingers through your hair, you allow yourself to melt into his touch. You're seated on the ground, while Tango sits on the couch. You're situated between both his legs, as he tries, undos, and retries to braid your hair. You realize you don’t really mind if he ever gets it right, you're just glad to finally relax with the knowledge that he loved being near you just as much as you loved being near him.

”Ok…I’m done…I think?” You hear Tango’s voice from behind you. You haven’t really been paying attention to the movie much, instead just enjoying the redstoner's company, so you lean over and grab the hand mirror.

”Aww, I love it.” You giggle a little,  “But…maybe don’t quit your day job, hot stuff.” You tilt your head up to see his reaction, and he just rolls his eyes and snickers before leaning down and closer to your face.

”Is it good enough to get a little somethin’ at least? For trying?” He smirks, leaning just a little closer. Now it’s your turn to roll your eyes, but you smile and sit up, turning slightly, before gently grabbing his collar, and meeting him in the middle. And you swear, when his lips hit yours, you feel fireworks.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

You don’t think you’ve ever really seen Jimmy upset…not really. He never minded being the butt of any joke, laughing along at any jab or insult. He didn’t mind if people made fun of him as long as it made someone laugh at the end. He was selfless like that. You were always a little bit jealous of his resilience, and maybe that’s why you always thought of him as almost…invincible.

So, when one day you came to check up on how the Sheriff’s new building was going, you were surprised to see that barely any progress had been done. It actually…seemed like he’d torn parts of it down. You approached slowly, taking in the half done walls and foundation, a door frame without a door, and started to look for him. 

Before you can even call out to him, though, you see the back of a familiar blonde cowboy. A cowboy who was seemingly talking to himself. “No- come on Jim! You know you can do better at this- you just gotta… just gotta…” He stops, clenching his fists and yelling out in frustration. “It’s not that hard!” He emphasizes the last word by kicking a rickety fence post, but it must have been sturdier than he expected because he instantly flinched back, grabbing his foot and crying out in pain.

The whole sight was almost cartoonish, with him wearing his cowboy hat and boots, so you couldn’t help but snicker even as you reached out your hand in concern. “Oh my god Jimmy, are you ok?” You can’t stop the smile that spreads on your face, but it wavers slightly as you approach him and notice…are those tears in his eyes? He quickly wipes his face, replacing his frustrated look with an excited smile. 

“Oh hi! I didn’t even see you there! Me and this fence post are having beef, actually- See, it won’t do what I tell it to, and make my stuff look good so I was reminding ‘em who's in charge round here!” He laughs a little as he says it, his smile so bright you're inclined to believe him…it wasn’t quite reaching his eyes though, and you still wonder if the kick hurt him more than he was letting on.

“Yea, you really showed him!” You try to mirror his energy, shaking off some of your worries as he replies in his usual chipper tone.

“Yea I did!” He laughs but then slightly turns away from you. “Listen uh…you know I always love having you around. You’re welcome anytime! But uh…I really have a- a thing I gotta do and…” Your smile drops as you see him wince a little as he puts his weight on the foot he ‘beat up’ the fence post with.

“Hey Jimmy, is your foot ok?” You walk up to him, concerned. “Maybe you should sit down-“

“Nah I’m fine…probably anyway.” He laughs like it’s a joke, but when you look at him you're not smiling.

“You're limping. You might not have broken anything but- here, sit down.” You gently put your hand on his shoulder.

“It’s really nothing, I’m just being an idiot...” He moves away from your touch, shaking it off and puffing up his chest a little. He tries to shoot you a smile again, but it did little to aid your concerns.

“Just, let me take a look at it? Maybe I can help-“ You start, a little frustrated at his stubbornness.

“But I don’t need help! I can take care of it myself! I just- I just stubbed my toe. I’ll be fine!” You sigh, giving him a weird look, but deciding not to push it.

“…why were you beefing with the fence post anyway…did it kill your grandma?” You joke, hoping to fix the awkward air that had somehow come between the two of you. It’s weird, you’d never felt awkward talking with him before.

Instead of responding, Jimmy just turned towards his half finished building. And stood there. After a while he finally spoke. “Listen I’m, kinda busy right now. Maybe you can come back another time?” …Alright that’s it-

“Ok Jimmy, what is up with you? I came here to see your build, which looks less finished than when I saw it days ago may I add, and instead I see you kicking a fence post, getting defensive when I try to help, and now you don’t even laugh at my Trolls joke? …ok maybe it's an old meme but still-“ You chuckle, still kind of hoping he’d just turn around and start acting normal again. You’ve never seen him act like this before.

All he did was stand there…and as the silence grew longer you couldn’t help but start to get worried. “Gosh…I really am useless.” He finally says.

You almost roll your eyes, “Your not useless Jim-“ 

“Yes- yes I am!” He says it so firmly you freeze. You’ve never heard him raise his voice like that before. 

“I can’t build, I can’t fight, I can’t even be the guy who smiles all the time! I’m- I’m basically worthl-“ He stops himself. “…and I don’t know why I’m telling you this- I’m sorry.“ You're so surprised by his words you don’t even know what to say. “I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just-“ He takes his hat off of his head and grips it in his hands. “It’s so stupid- I’m so stupid. It shouldn’t be this hard for me to just-“ His grip on the hat tightens.

“…Jimmy, you are not worthless. You don’t have to smile all the time to be the brightest ray of sunshine I know. You could probably make me see the silver lining of getting stabbed for god's sake-“ You almost laugh at your own words, hoping it would get through to him. “You are worthy of love and friends and respect. And I’m sorry I don’t tell you that enough.” You walk up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He slowly spins around, but doesn’t meet your eyes.

“I’m just being a baby-”

“No, no you're not. It’s ok to- to feel bad sometimes.” You interrupt gently before he can insult himself again.

“Why- why do you even care?” His voice wavers, and now you can see the tears streaming out of his eyes. 

“Because I love you…you idiot.” Jimmy freezes, and even you are a little surprised at your own words, but it’s true. “People care about you- I care about you! I don't care that you can’t build giant castles or fight dragons, or that you get mad or sad sometimes-“ Your rambling a bit, trying to recover from the bombshell you just dropped. Jimmy was just staring at you, eyes wide. 

“…you…love me? Like…love, love me?!” He says slowly, not really paying attention to anything else you said after.

“I- this is probably not the best time to just- but, yea. I really do.” You can’t help but look down as you admit it, and when you look back up at him he’s crying all over again. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-“

He steps forward and wraps you in a hug, sobbing into your shoulder. You hug him back, rubbing his back and giving him some words of encouragement. Slowly his sobs get quieter, and eventually he pulls away from the hug.

“Um…” He sniffs. “I know I probably look like a mess right now-“

“Just a little.” You tease gently, wiping a stray tear off of his face.

“Right- but um…I love you too. Just so you know.” He avoids your eyes as he says it, then looks directly into them, gauging your reaction, as if to ensure this wasn’t all a joke.

“Like…?” You start.

“Yea…like that.” He gently bumps his forehead against yours, his regular confident smile returning to his face. “I cannot believe you fell for my Sheriff rizz.” You laugh, shaking your head.

“Don’t- don’t say rizz-” You try to suppress a giggle, pretending to be upset. “Great, now you ruined the moment.”

His bravado instantly drops, “Wait. No wait I didn’t mean to-” You shut him up by yanking his neckerchief and planting a kiss on his cheek. “To…to…” His face slowly reddens as his brain catches up to his speeding heart.

“Fixed it.” You say simply, chuckling softly as your Sheriff still reboots. “I think I’m the one with the rizz~” You laugh.

“Yea, no I see how that ruins the moment.” You laugh even harder at his reaction, and he can’t help but join in. After a few moments, you end up gazing into his bright hazel eyes.

“You know you can always talk to me when you're feeling upset.” You say seriously, taking one of his hands with both of your own. “Don’t just…no one should be alone when they're feeling like that.”

“...I know…You're right, as always.” He smiles appreciatively, grabbing one of your hands with his free one. You both stand there, swaying your interlocked hands gently back and forth, just enjoying the other's company.

“You know, when you're feeling up to it, why don’t I help you finish this…” You look over the half finished building, realizing you had no idea what it was actually supposed to be.

“Barn. It’s – ” he sighs, as if even bringing it up makes him feel tired all over again, “ – ‘supposed to be a barn.” 

“Barn! Right, and we could even ask Joel to help.” His eyes widen.

“No! You can’t tell him- Oh my god I’d never hear the end of it!” You laugh at the urgency in his voice.

“Ok! Ok. It’ll just be me. I’ll help you…” You let go of his hands and instead interlock your fingers behind his neck. “It’ll be our little secret.” He gazes into your eyes with a look only comparable to a lovesick puppy.

“Gosh I really wanna kiss you right now-” He lets out with a whisper, and then it’s your turn to get a little flustered.

“Well…then kiss me cowboy.” You lean in and he meets you halfway, and the kiss is just as sweet as the blonde Sheriff you share it with.