Betas: lovely Lions & my dear Arianka (check out her Sherlock fics :)

My first attempt to write something longer in English. All the props to my beautiful betas. Hope you'll enjoy, there's not enough Ridgephos in this world.

"Basic circuit, advanced wafers, a few energized ingots..." Xephos murmured to himself, bent over the crafting bench, completely lost in the task at hand. After the loss of the second rocket there wasn't any room for more mistakes; they were short of resources and time. Thankfully Lalna managed to fix the oxygen compressor; one thing less on the list of the current issues and one thing less for Xephos to worry about. Ironically, all this stress was the main reason why he went off on tangents more frequently - like exploring some strange dimensions during the build of the first rocket, or insisting on crafting advanced weapon and armour when they were supposed to rescue Honeydew... After all it wasn't as bad as it had been at the Jaffa Factory months ago—or was it years ago? He couldn't remember. At least then no one had been stranded on the cold surface of the Moon.

Xephos dropped his freshly crafted items into the nearest chest and sighed heavily. He looked around the room lightened by the warm glow of the alloy furnace downstairs, but there was no one in sight - Honeydew probably left the Baked Bean Fort some time ago, bored to death by Xephos' muttering... The spaceman hoped that the dwarf at least went to dig some holes; they still needed large amounts of steel and tin if they wanted to finish the rocket before something deadly happens to Lalna. Xephos rubbed his eyes and deciding to take a nap before Honeydew came back. All the rush after the second collision burnt down his energy and the heat from the furnaces seemed so peaceful during the rainy night outside and the bed was just here... A subtle grunt behind his back made his slowly closing eyes snap wide open and he swiftly turned around, ready to draw his sword.

"Ridge?" Xephos took in the demigod's tall figure propped up against the tool station. "What are you doing here?"

Ridgedog smiled lightly with the corner of his mouth, smug as ever, and crossed his arms on his chest and asked not without a hint of humour in his voice, "How's your space program, my dear spaceman?"

Xephos scowled a little, but managed a polite answer. "All right, I suppose. We are gaining a lot of experience, let's put it that way."

Ridgedog kept the smirk on his face and started theatrically inspecting his fingernails. "You know, I feel obliged to ask since I noticed a few additional craters..."

"Oh, stop being such an arsehole, Ridge," snapped Xephos. "I'm too tired to play with you this time. We lost the second rocket and now Lalna's stuck on the freaking moon. At least we've managed to teleport Honeydew back before he ran out of oxygen..." The spaceman trailed off, darting a rather dubious glance at the demigod. But Ridge himself just cracked a wide, all-teeth smile (Xephos fought an urge to step back when a tremor ran down his spine at this sight) and responded. "What would you ever do if I didn't let you do these kind of little cheats, hmm?"

"I don't know, I would probably be much more angry, watching my friends die over and over again." Xephos shrugged, bitter tone in his voice changing the expression on Ridge's face. He moved one step closer to the spaceman and said quietly. "Xeph, you know that—"

"Yeah, Ridge, I know. Some things need to happen. You can't change it all. Even you. So neither can I. I'm not asking you for help." Xephos finally sat on the bed and propped his aching back on the chest behind, closing his eyes and sighing. The demigod looked around the room, mind clouded with the memories of many similar conversations he had with Xephos before - and none of them left him convinced that the man fully understood the rules defining the boundaries of Ridge's powers. To be honest he decided to pay a visit to the Baked Bean Fort only to get a good laugh at the mortals' fruitless efforts to get to the Moon in one piece; but he'd completely forgotten how the fatigue in Xeph's eyes affected him. He wouldn't say it aloud of course- the spaceman was the last person to complain and he didn't like when others thought that he couldn't handle a single task - but it was mostly his own fault; the demigod still couldn't fully comprehend why explaining these simple things to Xephos, telling him he couldn't help him, seeing this little spark of hope die in his glowing eyes, hurt so much.

Ridgedog peered at the technical equipment gathered in the room, noting that it seemed even less organized than their last base. Everytime they started from scratch again, he mused, their usual organized system fell apart even more. The Jaffa Factory was a quirky masterpiece; site Bee, even abandoned, still had some resemblance of structure but this... The outside of the Baked Bean Fort looked silly and the inside was a complete mess. Ridge wondered how many times the dwarf had fallen into the open pit of the alloy furnace, or Xephos had to run around to rummage through all the randomly placed chests just to find one specific item. The demigod looked at his companion once again - Xephos seemed to have fallen asleep, but tensed muscles at his arms and neck were saying otherwise. Ridgedog stepped in front of the bed and spoke. "It's a shame you already lost so many resources."

Xephos opened his eyes at the sound of his voice, his gaze warm for a second, but then he furrowed his brow and asked: "You never pity us, Ridgedog."

After a brief second, the smirk returned at the demigod's face. "Well, I need some entertainment, too. If you'd never failed, it wouldn't be as funny as it is, you must admit."

Xephos shook his head. "I guess. Glad you came by, but I need some rest now." he added in a rather stern voice.

At this, the demigod surprisingly just nodded and casually bounced off the floor into the air, his coat floating around him in a non-existent air currents, flashed the last smile at the spaceman and simply vanished. Xephos let out a sigh of relief and laid down the bed, tossing his boots and jacket onto the floor. Only seconds later a well-deserved sleep embraced him, drifting his mind to some peaceful memories of a starry sky.

Xephos was well asleep when the figure materialized again in the corner of the room. Ridgedog watched for a few minutes as the man's chest moved steadily in his sleep and his dark eyelashes glistened slightly with blue glow from his closed eyes. Somewhere outside the Baked Bean Fort a creeper explosion and following chain of curses ("You littl' bugger!") announced Honeydew's return to the base, so Ridge leant over the bed and kissed the spaceman's forehead, whispering. "Just remember to hold down the button next time, okay?"

When the door to the base opened, only a shimmer of air was left from Ridge's presence in the room.