The news flashed on as the Tachibana twins sat in front of the screen easily awaiting sight of their older brother and Astronaut Makoto Tachibana.
On screen was a woman with long maroon hair tied in a bun, wearing a blue suit. "Today is a proud day for japan. Mars Mission Two makes it way home today; the craft is piloted by three Japanese Astronauts, Haruka Nanase, Nagisa Hanazuki and Makoto Tachibana."
Makoto's brother and sister cheered at their older brother's name.
The reporter continued. ". . . and NASA has confirmed the mission has been a success so far. This reporter is certainly excited to hear their stories of the red planet. I will bring you more updates as I get them. This is Gou Matsuoka signing off for now."
The screen shot to a male and female reporter in the studio. "Thank you for the report so far Gou." The female host said. The camera returned to a shot to Gou bowing.
"We will keep track of that story all day, but for now let's move onto to our next news story . . ." The male host said.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Nagisa looked out of the window of the small space craft that he shared with his two close friends. The tree astronauts' had all trained at the academy together and were overjoyed to be working together on an actual mission, especially under the theory of Rei Ryugazaki. The Blonde's mind drifted to the thoughts of his blue haired idol. He couldn't help wonder if he looked older . . . they had been on Mar's for three years, and taken a year to get there.
"Nagisa look!" Head Pilot Makoto said.
Nagisa looked up irritated that his thoughts had been interrupted. Then he saw it, for the first time in five years, he saw earth again. He smiled, feeling so happy to be home again.
"I'd forgotten how beautiful it was." Makoto said turning to look at the blonde.
"So much water!" Haru said, his blue eyes shining as brightly as the ocean's in front of him.
"I can't wait to step onto that earth." Nagisa said.
"This is ground control! Come in shuttle two, over." A familiar voice was heard over the intercom.
Makoto pressed a button on the control panel in front of him. "This is Head Pilot Tachibana. We hear you loud and clear Rei. Over"
Rei laughed. "That's good to hear. I just want to run a few checks. Our scanners down here say that you're thirty minutes from reaching Earth's atmosphere. Over."
"Our scanners say the same. Over." Makoto said.
"Are the water samples' safely contained Haru? Over"
"Affirmative, over" Haru responded.
"Nagisa? Is everything fully functioning on the craft? Over"
Nagisa went over to his work station. "All working . . . wait."
"What is it?" three voices asked.
Nagisa stared at the blinking light that should not be doing that, after a painful 30 seconds everything returned to normal. "All working now. over."
Relief swept through the astronauts' and Rei.
"Can you tell us what the issue was? Over" Rei asked.
"I'm not certain, but I will tell when I know. Over." Nagisa said.
"Ok, continue course Makoto and Haru get ready for decent. Over and out."
"Roger that. over and out." Makoto said.
Nagisa looked at the engineering panel and checked the connections, before checking the functions themselves. Twenty minutes later he still hadn't found the cause of the blinking light.
"Have you worked it yet?" Haru asked. He came up alongside the blonde.
Nagisa shook his head. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong. It's like it never happened . . ."
Haru nodded. "It was probably nothing." Haru said with a shrug.
Nagisa sighed. "This is Nagisa Hanazuki to ground control, come in Rei. Over" He said.
"I can hear you loud and clear Nagisa. Any news on the reports you've been running? Over"
"No. I don't think it was anything. I'll keep monitoring, but I don't think there's an issue. Over and out." Nagisa said.
"We'll monitor down here too. Over and out." Rei said.
. . . . . . .
"Five minutes to go. Time to buckle up!" Makoto said.
Nagisa and Haru followed their pilot and buckled into the seats. Haru in the co-pilot seat and Nagisa at the engineering controls'.
"This Makoto Tachibana to ground control. We are ready to enter the atmosphere. Over and out"
"Were ready this end, the world is watching. Over and out." Rei said.
. . . . . . . .
The male reporter put a hand to their ear. "This is breaking news about Mars Mission Two. We now go live to our on sight reporter Gou Matsuoka."
"Thank you. Yes! We are very exciting to inform you that the shuttle craft is about to enter the atmosphere in the next few minutes. . ." Gou said. She was bouncing with excitement.
. . . . . . . .
The Tachibana twins had been joined by their parents, who sat watching intently at the screen.
They watched as the shuttle made it's way through the atmosphere. They saw the white craft, slowly descend down. Suddenly black smoke appeared from the craft.
"Oh no, it seems that something's gone wrong." Gou said.
Makoto's brother and sister went to join their parent's on the sofa.
"It's okay, they'll be fine . . ." their dad reassured them, but was unsure himself.
. . . . . . . . .
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" what was that?" Nagisa asked.
Makoto struggled at the controls "I don't know! I've lost control of one of our thrusters, it's blown!"
"Which one?"
"Four."
While Nagisa worked out what the issue was, Makoto contacted ground control.
Nagisa searched but he couldn't find it. The connection to the thruster was gone. "This is Nagisa Hanazuki to ground control. Thruster four is no longer in our control. over."
"Copy. Nagisa there is a bigger issue here! Thruster four is on fire and it's spreading. Over." Rei said panicked.
. . . . . . . .
Rei Ryugazaki watched the screen, the astronaut's fighting so hard to control for the ship. There was nothing he could do from this distance; they had only just entered the atmosphere.
The blue haired scientist looked around at the room full of the rest of the team all looking to him for answers. He took off his glasses and ran his hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and pushed his glasses back up. He was going to save them.
"This is ground control to . . ." Rei went to say. Suddenly another thruster blew.
. . . . . . .
"NO! NO! NO!" Nagisa said. The control panel in front of him flashed red in two places. "WE'VE LOST THRUSTER TWO!"
"Fuck!" Makoto said.
"This is Makoto Tachibana calling ground control! Ground control, come in!" Makoto begged.
"This is ground control. We copy." Rei said.
. . . . . . .
Rei looked up at the shuttle that contained everything he ever cared about and he knew if another thruster went then they would plummet! This was the day he was meant to say hello to Nagisa again, not goodbye . . . he pushed back his tears. He. Had. To. Stay. Calm!
"This is ground control. You are 16 km away. Makoto do you copy? Over." Rei said.
"W- -e - - - co - - -copy." The line crackled and went dead.
. . . . . .
"The air pressure is about to decrease." Haru said.
"I can't get through to ground control!" Makoto said. He turned to his crewmates. "We've lost contact."
"I've managed to divert power to thrusters three and one, they should get us home." Nagisa said. "We will get home?"
The thought dawned on everyone.
Makoto took a deep breath. "We'll get home! You'll get to see Rei again."
Nagisa blushed. "How did you know that? What are you talking about? I don't . . . like . . ."
"You sleep talk." Haru said
"We've known that you've had a crush on him for years Nagisa." Makoto said
"I'm going to focus on keeping the power in the thrusters." Nagisa said, returning to his work station.
Makoto and Haru looked at each and smiled. "Haru try and get contact with ground control." Makoto said. Haru nodded and focused on the communication panel, while Makato focused on guiding them safely back to Earth.
. . . . . .
"The shuttle is descending faster than it originally planned to. I can report that it seems to be experiencing technical difficulties and there is a lot of black smoke surrounding it. Everything seems to be in control despite this." Gou said.
Makoto's family smiled slightly as they watched in horror, hoping that everything was okay.
. . . . . .
Rei watched the shuttle as it half fell to earth. He was amazed that they were making the decent so well giving all their issues, but then Makoto was the best pilot at the academy and he knew that Haru was the person who really pushed the project to find water on Mars. As for Nagisa, Nagisa just wanted to see the stars, Rei could have chosen any engineer, but he saw how excited he got when they had discussed the project ten years ago . . .
Nagisa's eyes sparkled. "We're going to go to Mars!" he asked.
Rei smiled at his friend, he pushed up glasses. "Well no . . . if, and only if I can find the funding, a team will get to go."
Nagisa sat back down "Oh." He looked at Rei with puppy dog eyes. "If you can pick the team and find the funding? Will you let me be the engineer on the ship?" he asked.
Rei looked at Nagisa, the excitement, the joy, the love "Okay then," he said, feeling himself blushing.
"Promise?" Nagisa held out his pinkie finger.
"I promise Nagisa." Rei said with a laugh.
Rei looked into Nagisa's pink eyes and longed to . . . hold him?
Rei pushed the memory away. Please be okay . . .
"Keep trying to establish contact to the shuttle. Keep me informed of any developments." Rei said.
A round of 'yes sirs' and nods were enough to encourage Rei.
. . . . .
"Are the thrusters holding?" Makoto asked.
"For now." Nagisa responded.
Suddenly the craft shook.
"What was that?"
"Thrusters two and four have fallen of." Nagisa said almost in laugher. Him and Haru watched as the two parts flew past them.
"Does that mean that the fire is contained?" Haru asked.
"I see no reports of fires." Nagisa said as he checked the control panel.
"That's one problem solved." Makoto said.
"How are we doing over there Makoto?" Nagisa asked.
"Holding steady."
"This - - - I - - this is ground control do you copy. Over?" a shaky line from Rei came through.
"This is Makoto. We copy ground control but the connection is weak. Over."
"W- - -we can - - - we can tell - - o - - - over."
"Were holding steady we should touchdown in five minutes. Over and out"
"Rodger that. over and out" the line to ground control suddenly much clearer.
The shuttle's decent continued slowly, more carefully than before. Makoto watched the guidance screen flicker and go black. What was he going to do now? He took a deep breath, he could do this!
"This is ground control, is everything okay up there? We can see that you're 300m from the Launchpad. Over."
"I'm struggling to land. I, I can't see the guidance system screen had gone blank, over." Makoto said.
Nagisa tried to get the guidance system back online but suspected that the fire had damaged it.
"Just keep going, 200m to go. Increase speed slightly. Over."
"Rodger that. Over."
. . . . . . . . .
"We can see the shuttle now. It's amazing to believe that this journey began five years ago for these astronauts . . . ." Gou said.
. . . . . . . .
" . . . 100m to go, keep holding your course. Over." Rei said.
"Rodger that, over." Makoto said.
. . . . . .
Rei watched the ship hit the launch pad with a crash and a big black cloud.
. . . . . . .
The shuttle shook violently and crashed back to earth. Makoto slowly moved his hands away from the controls. He sighed and looked around at Haru and Nagisa.
Nagisa was slumped over in his chair, unresponsive to Makoto's voice.
"Nagisa, are you okay?" Makoto asked. He unclipped his seatbelt and went over to him shaking him awake, no response. "NAGISA?"
. . . . . . .
"They've landed!" Rei said.
The team cheered and sighed with relief. Rei pushed up his glasses and smiled, he was going to get to see Nagisa again.
. . . . . .
"The ship has landed successfully and the astronauts are going to come out any minute now. We're going to get closer to the scene . . ." Gou said.
Makoto's family looked at each other with relief, the worst of it was over.
. . . . . .
Makoto leaned over and pressed the intercom panel. "This is Makoto, calling ground control. Send a doctor."
Haru nodded, they wouldn't leave this ship without him.
. . . . . .
Rei went pale, doctor? Why would they need a doctor? "On my way!" he said.
He ran out with the doctor to the shuttle, ignoring the questions from the press. Rei entered the space and saw Nagisa slumped over . . .
"What happened?" Rei asked Makoto.
"I don't know, the ship was shaking and I was so focused on landing. Then I turned around and . . ." Makoto started getting emotional and Haru put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "I turned around and Nagisa was like that. I went over to him but he didn't respond. . ."
They all turned to look at Nagisa, the doctor was checking the engineer.
"He's fainted, but I want everyone to undergo a full medical, including you." The doctor said.
"Me?" Rei asked.
"You've been under a lot of stress too." The doctor explained.
Rei nodded, he wasn't pleased by the thought of that.
"Get a security team down here and arrange removal of the samples and research." Rei said into his ear piece. "Are we ready to face the world? Me and the doctor will take Nagisa, Makoto and Haru you go in front."
"Got it." Makoto said.
Makoto opened the door of the shuttle to a flash of cameras. He smiled and waved despite his exhaustion, Haru followed him a blank expression on his face. Nagisa was last carried by Rei and the doctor. He woke up and opened his eyes.
Rei looked at him. "Welcome back to earth." Rei said with a smile.
"We did it?" Nagisa asked.
Rei nodded.
. . . . . . .
A day later Rei visited the three in the hospital, they had been held there overnight after the press conference.
He checked on Haru and Makoto first, he had something important to say to Nagisa. He sat by Nagisa's bed and smiled as the blonde looked at him.
"Leaving the best till last?" he asked.
"Something like that . . ." Rei blushed "Are you feeling better?"
"You know I was fine, it was just the pressure. My body went into shock." He said with a shrug.
"You say it so casually! I was scared . . ." Rei admitted.
"Of what?" Nagisa asked his heart pounding.
"Of losing you, Nagisa. Five years ago . . . I didn't want you to go, but you were so excited I just wanted you to be happy." Rei said, putting his hand on his lap.
"Why didn't you want me to go? Mars was amazing! . . . I just wished that you could have seen it." As Nagisa's enthusiasm increased he swung his body to face Rei and putting his hands on the taller boy's shoulders'
Rei looked up and took Nagisa's hands. Nagisa blushed. They looked at their hands and their foreheads connected.
"Nagisa there is something that I've wanted to say for a long time . . . I like you." Rei said looking up.
"Rei? I n ne never realised!" Nagisa stuttered turning bright red.
Haru looked at Makoto and held up a five on his hand. Makoto sighed, he lost the bet.
"Once the research is all written down I want you to go on a date with me . . . if you want to, of course!" Rei asked his heart about to beat out of his chest.
Nagisa nodded. Rei blushed and awkwardly adjusted his glasses. Nagisa took them from him and pushed his face towards his own, kissing him. Red went bright red and warmth rippled through him.
"I promise I'll never go to space again." Nagisa promised.
"You can go with me . . . if we ever get to go again." Rei said.
"Is that a promise?" Nagisa asked holding out his pinkie finger.
"For you I'll find a way." He said connecting his pinkie with Nagisa's.