Joseph's eyes narrowed a bit from the strain of having been staring at the bright monitor screens in the dark control room for the last few minutes. He listened as his captain delivered a cheerful message to the new lot on board via the speakers. He thought it sweet of him to act in such a calming manner when handling youngsters, considering the fact that he knew that probably half of them wouldnt make it once they arrived to Mars.
He felt himself relaxing a bit more from the words that soothingly made their way into his ears. His eyes then focused on one of the monitors where a group of new recruits were standing, seemingly frozen in time as they listened to the message. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth when he looked over to Shokichi chatting away in the speakers, and he took a quiet step back before turning to leave the room. He really enjoyed being around his captain whenever he could. Whenever work allowed it. However, since the said man was currently busy, he decided on finding entertainment elsewhere for now.
The new recruits made him curious and he wondered what they would be like in action. How they would put up with a fight. A real fight. Perhaps he should go and take a closer peek at them.
In one of the training facilities on board, a group of recruits were busying themselves with different kinds of work outs. One of them, a young man named Akari was currently doing some target practicing on some of the many dummies in the room. The big gun was quite heavy, but wasnt really a problem for a physically fit man like himself. He paused for a second, still focusing on the dummy that had been the victim of his last round of bullets. The loud sound of gunfire echoed between the walls as two of his fellow soldiers once again fired their weapons. He himself found that he had turned his head to the left to see two of the squad leaders watching them from the stands a short distance away. The reason that he turned must have been because he had felt their eyes on him.
The taller man's lower face was hidden beneath the collar of his coat, Adolf was his name, or so he thought anyway. Despite the collar, he could tell that they were speaking to each other from the way the other man seemed to be happily chatting away. His eyes narrowed slightly. What was his name again..? It was something that begun with a J... That was all that he could remember. He should ask him. Not that it mattered much, but there was something that bothered him about this lack of knowledge.
A voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to see one of the other recruits, a man with spikes of blonde hair standing straight up on his head, smirking at him.
"I saaaiid- Do you want to come with us to the dining hall?" the guy's eyebrows raised slowly after this question. Two girls were standing a couple of meters behind him, also staring at Akari. One of them smiled at him when their eyes met. He turned his head back to the stands without a word, seeing that the two squad leaders were leaving. Again, he turned to the other recruits.
"Fine", he replied without much emotion in his voice or features. He was sort of in a whatever mood tonight. "I could need something to eat." The night was coming to an end soon anyway.
An hour or so passed and most people on board were either just chilling or preparing themselves for bed. Not so much in the officers' quarters though. A thin layer of smoke filled the common room where the six squad leaders were gathered. The one guilty of pestering the air, Sylvester Asimov, exhaled yet another cloud, his hard gaze focused on the board game on the table before him.
It wasnt his turn, but Michelle's. She was calmly contemplating her next move from across the round table while the others waited patiently. Finally, she put her game piece on the spot of her choice, earning no reactions from the other three players, except for Joseph's thoughtful lip bite. He was sitting next to Sylvester on the couch, watching as Adolf lifted his hand to move his game piece. It seemed that he had already decided on a move, and it obviously put a stop to Michelle's plans judging from her annoyed expression. It caused Joseph to chuckle a little and he grabbed his third bottle for the evening to chug the remaining alcohol down his throat. The others hadnt even finished their first drinks yet.
"My turn!" he exclaimed suddenly while slamming the bottom of the bottle back onto the table, making the game pieces wobble slightly. Michelle sighed and leaned back in her chair.
"Keep it down, will you?" she sighed again. The noise had brought Shokichi's attention from the window up by the bar, and his head turned to focus on the younger man. So did Liu next to him. The two men had been engaged in a deep conversation when interrupted so suddenly. Shokichi swirled the wine around in his glass a tiny bit before walking over towards his playing colleges.
"That's enough", he decided when the bottle was once again going to meet with Joseph's lips. His eyes met the currently confused blonde's gaze while he gently, but firmly grabbed the bottle to put it back onto the table. "Dont forget that we have work to do in the morning." Joseph didnt make any resistance, but merely put on a slightly annoyed expression. The captain moved towards the door then without another word, thinking it time to call it a night. None of the others thought much of his concern for the younger man's drinking. They knew that there was something between the two.
"Perhaps we should continue this another time", said Michelle, having raised her arm to look at his watch. Sylvester nodded in agreement.
"Aye", he replied and put his cigarette out on the ash tray while Adolf got up and adjusted his collar a bit.
"That's a shame", Joseph qiuetly complained, not feeling quite done with his evening yet. Oh well. The retreating back of his captain reminded him that he should get his security round over with before withdrawing to go to sleep himself. "Well then", he started, sounding more cheerful this time. "See you guys later", and with that said, he pushed away from the couch to hurry to the door. Once outside, he saw Shokichi's back disappear around a corner. He wasnt going in that direction. He needed to check the south east part of the ship. That was his assigned area of responsibility. Since they had left the earth the other day, there had been a failure of the mechanism controlling the closing and opening of the ship's outer protective layer. Therefor they had to do it manually until their engineer had fixed the problem.
As he walked the lonely, sterile corridors of the ship, he hummed a song quietly to himself. He wondered how the new recruits were doing their first few days on board. Alot of them had seemed surprisingly cocky considering what odds of survival they had been given. He himself was confident in his ability to survive. Probably too confident according to some, but he wasnt a newbie or anything, so he felt he had the right to.
He found the first lever a few minutes later on the right side wall. Without much thought or commitment, he pulled it and continued on to repeat the action at another location. When he was nearing his goal, he thought he heard voices. Not an awfully strange occurence on a ship with a hundred people in it, but he would have thought most of them would be in their quarters at this hour. He followed the voices towards the dining hall with quieter steps. In there were four new recruits by a lonely table in te back, close to the cafeteria. They seemed to be too engaged in a conversation to notice his presence, so he cleared his throat with a smirk on his face, gaining their attention. He loved that look of shock on their faces.
"Dont stay up too late, kids", he told them casually with an added wink before he turned and continued on his route. The "kids" exchanged looks and then apologized before continuing what they had been doing previous to the interruption. Akari however was still staring at the doorway, feeling that nagging question in the back of his mind again. What was that guy's name? He downed the last of the soda in his bottle and looked at the others.
"Hey", he addressed no one in particular. "Do you know his name?" he was met with looks that told him that they gears were turning in confusion in their heads. Then they seemed to get it together.
"The officer?" asked the guy named Marcos, dumbfounded. Before Akari could say anything in return, a softer voice spoke from across the table.
"I think it was Joseph", Sheila, the dark haired girl, answered tiredly and rubbed her eyes. Akari's gaze became unfocused for a moment and he realized how tired he was himself. He offered a nod in return and got up from his seat.
"Well... I'm going to withdraw", he informed them and stretched a bit. Marcos didnt look too disappointed to be left alone with two cute girls, and Akari didnt mind either. He wasnt interested in any of them. After having said their goodbyes, he left the dining hall to head towards his room, which he unfortunately shared with two other men. Such was the life of a mere soldier. Could wonder if the officers had their own rooms...
The sudden sound of footsteps nearby drew his attention to a certain officer and he figured that it must be him coming back this way again. He felt curious about the man for some reason, and it made him slow down to a stop to allow the steps to gain up on him. While he was waiting, he leaned back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest casually. His gaze was focused on the nearby corner where he was certain that the owner of the steps would show up. Rightfully so, the young officer rounded the corner seconds later.
Their eyes met for a moment and Joseph flashed him a quick, crooked smile before passing and continuing on down the corridor. Akari felt he should have said something, but he just didnt know what... Oh well. Whatever..It was too late now. He was very intruiged by what skills could lie behind the reason the man had been choosen as an officer. It was admirable..
When Joseph had disappeared behind yet another corner, Akari found himself curious as to were the man was headed. Hmm... He moved his foot slightly forward as if hesitating whether he should...follow him or not. He didnt want to get caught, but... who cares. He decided to brush his worries off and sneaked up to the corner with quiet steps. He didnt really have anything better to do anyway. He was feeling pretty restless and in need of stimulation.
After two minutes of sneaking and pressing up against different walls, they both entered a wider and nicer looking series of corridors. He figured that it must mean that they were in a more important part of the ship. He almost forgot that he was stalking while looking around this new, interesting place. They soon passed a couple of bigger rooms which looked like they could be common rooms, before arriving to a section of what looked like a row of hotel room doors.
Very nice... but where did those...? He stopped in mid thought when he noticed that Joseph had come to a halt in front of one of the doors. He was now facing it and seemed to be typing a code into a column on the wall. A soft beeping sound errupted from it when Joseph was done, and the said person opened the door and disappeared inside the room.
Akari relaxed a bit now that his stalking was over with. Well then...this must be the officers' quarters then, he thought to himself and curiously took a step from his hiding place behind the corner. This would actually be a perfect opportunity to check of Sheila had been right about the man's name. With a growing smile on his lips, Akari quietly walked down the corridor to lay his eyes on the tag on that special door. When he saw it though, his smile faded and he stared at the name in confusion for a few seconds. Then realization kicked in. This was the quarters of their captain... not Joseph..or whatever his name really was. The gears started to turn in his head again and he started to worry. What could they be talking about at this hour. He hoped that everything was ok. That there wasnt anything seriously wrong with the ship, or with their mission. With a grave expression on his face, he started heading back the way he came, preparing himself for a possible emergancy situation.
Inside the captain's quarters, Joseph casually threw his coat aside, shifting his gaze to Shokichi in the dim light by the desk up ahead.
"Ahh..Joseph", the older man turned to face him, tearing his gaze from the paper in his hand. "Come on over here." Naturally, the younger man did so, smirking charmingly at his love interest. He allowed Shokichi to grab his chin to bring his lips to his in a firm kiss. His eyes closed and butterflies started fluttering around in his belly. He then let out a satisfied sigh before Shokichi pulled away again.
"One of the recruits followed me here"; he hummed while opening his eyes. "Didnt think I noticed", he chuckled, earning a surprised look from his captain.
"Hmmm...", was all that was said in response to that particular thing and Shokichi took another look at the paper before placing it on the desk. "Lets get some sleep", he suggested with a soft smile and moved to grab Joseph's hand that had been roaming over his back and bum.
"Sure", the younger man purred, smirking at him again.
Ok, that's it for this chapter. Would anyone be interested in another one?