#willeau

Ashley follows closely and as the two stand together, her hand reaches for his hesitantly and he takes hers and they just...

'Borrowing' work out space from James' camped out area in the loading bay, just after dinner when he and Cortez were still up at the mess, Williams took the time to work on her crunches. To the extreme with her knees hooked over the bar, she was working a hanging abdominal routine. Covered in sweat but determined to feel the burn, the LC carried on, only encouraged on by one snarky pilot who had come down to find her.

Grinning when she lowered down, she gestured him to come over. With a trembling abdomen and hair starting to fall out of her lazy bun, she put her hands on his bearded face, kissing the lips between trimmed facial hair while upside down, blood rushing to her head.

both with prejudices against them right from the start, brittle bones and a name you can't escape

both covering it with humor and defensiveness and surprised into silence when the crew doesn't care

(surprised even more when they first talk to each other, find that they're both getting defensive and laugh awkwardly)

both treated like they're fragile and, for once, treating someone else the way they'd like to be treated and having it reciprocated, because ash knows what joker can take, knows when to back off and when to give him more, harder, deeper -- and joker knows how good ash is, knows he doesn't have to stand up for her and knows when he needs to stand up for her anyway (because sometimes just knowing someone's there is what you need)

their friendship starts with fistbumps every time ash comes back from a ground mission, and it moves to high-fives, and then the high-fives start lingering

and when joker's thumb brushes softly over the back of ash's hand, when there's just a little too much relief at seeing each other safe

that's when they know they're done for.