Day Two on the Condor. I woke to an extremely grumbling stomach, and remembered the three of us had technically skipped dinner.
This may have been a good thing when I opened the door and the eggy smell that hit me caused me to rapidly close it again.
"What the hell was that?", Sam mumbled, slowly waking up from the pong.
"Either Cyclonia has turned to chemical warfare, or Junko made curry for dinner last night", I muttered, coughing to clear my lungs. "You could pretty much see the green gas wafting around."
"Damn. Now I'm extra pissed."
The sounds of rapid footsteps and the door sliding open caught our attention, and whoever dashed through had to duck from a double blast of air to block the smell from coming in.
"Morning to you too", Charlotte dead-panned.
"You smelt it?", I asked. "Wait, rhetorical question. Clearly you did."
"Yeah. I was gonna flame it, but then I decided not to blow up the Condor", Charlotte muttered, sitting herself on my nest.
"That would have definetely cut our stay short", commented Sam. "Did it get to the bridge?"
"Nah. But it's in pretty much all of the corridors."
"…You do know-", I started, shuffling backwards from Charlotte, but she jumped in first:
"Oh fuck sake's why do you think I went to you guys?" Blank looks. Charlotte face-palmed. "Air-controllers. Ring any bells?"
"We aren't dealing with gas until we're fully awake", Sam said. "Also we may have to sort you out first."
Charlotte went very, very pale.
"Oh fuck no. Get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off….now! Please?" She got twin breezes reverse-hoovering her, knocking off all traces of the smell.
"There you go", I said, grinning happily. "Fresh as a daisy." Oddly, that got a glare.
"Fresh as a black rose", Sam said, and apparently that was an improvement.
Then there was another knock at the door. Frowning at each other, Charlotte went to open the door and Sam and I prepped more air blasts.
Bvvm.
YOINK
HWOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH.
Bvvm.
"Oh…kay?" Piper patted down her disheveled hair, as well as flicked aside the clothes peg she'd been using as an impromptu gas-mask. "I guess you guys noticed as well."
"Yup", was the dead-pan thrice-chorus.
"Any of the boys up?", Sam asked.
"Stork's at the helm. I didn't ask where he had the deep-pressure suit from. Haven't seen anyone else?"
"We were about to head out to try clearing this out", I said, starting to put away the blankets from the floor. "How did this happen?"
"One of Junko's meals. He liked it…a little too much I think", explained Piper, grimacing with her last words.
"Ew", muttered Charlotte. "Like, major ew."
"You got any more clothes pegs?", I asked.
Some of that morning was spent shooting out air gusts and knocking balls of Wallop-gas out of windows and air-locks. By the time that was finished, everyone else was up, with all bar Junko looking a little pale or sickly. Stork had hidden the deep-pressure suit (which we assume looked like a deep-sea diving suit) and made breakfast. Which was a nice reminder to start my stomach rumbling once more. Even when I saw what breakfast was.
"Merbian cabbage."
Silence. A couple of the Storm Hawks were already eating, if slowly. Sam muttered, "Merbian cabbage", again, then stood and headed for the kitchen.
"Uh, no offense meant", I said. "We don't have this stuff on Earth."
"Whatcha doing Sam?", Charlotte called after the tall brunette.
"Making waffles!"
"What?", asked Finn, as did I, and Aerrow, and Stork.
"You didn't know Sam could make waffles?", Charlotte spoke to me.
"Apparently not." Waffles sounded very, very, very nice right now. And already the boys were calling numbers they wanted.
Post breakfast, and we realised that life on the Condor wasn't just swanning around waiting for the next plot to appear. There were jobs to be done, if not many, and those without jobs tended to take up training with each other. Elemental manipulation here managed to provide some aid.
Sam spent about half an hour with Junko and Finn at various points throughout the ship. Pipes seemed to burst on a regular basis (considering she was a fairly old airship, I wasn't too surprised) so no-one made too much of a fuss, especially when the only thing that escaped was steam. According to Finn, the job usually took about an hour or two, depending on how many pipes were acting up, but with heat and air control able to trap the steam and meld pipes in place, the job took a fair quicker time.
A panel on the outside of the Condor had manged to be decently hammered at during the last dogfight, and Charlotte volunteered to take care of it. Again, heat made a good melder, but the only real trouble was doing it while the Condor was still flying. Ever the determinator, Charlotte attached a line of rope between the landing platform and herself, and basically jumped to one of the manouvering engines, where the panel had been dislocated. She returned utterly dishevelled, but with a triumphant grin and one fixed engine cover.
I went a little anti-dirt crazy, finding layers of dust in random corners and proceeding to sweep them onto the floor. Usually that worked at home, since I had a hoover there, but I couldn't find something that acted the same. So when Sam popped her head into the corridor, I was standing in the middle of a thin sea of dust.
"Wow", she said. "I just – wow. What in Merlin's name did you do?"
"I didn't do it", I replied quickly. "I was trying to clean. And hoovering doesn't exist."
"In which case, we do this the 'old-fashioned way'. Find a mop and bucket. Or two."
Finding mops and buckets, we filled them up with water and started to work when Aerrow entered the corridor. He froze at the sight of us with mops, and Sam shouted "Think fast", chucking him a bucket. Which he just about caught before snagging the mop I lobbed at him.
"Sorry", I called.
"Uh, it's fine?", he replied, shuffling the items in his hands.
"If you're fine, then you can help out", said Sam. "This is a long corridor, and only two of you."
"Yeah…wait, SAM!" Too late. She was gone. Pouting angrily, I started throwing globules of water down the corridor. Aerrow made to head away, but after a pause for thought he started helping out.
About ten minutes in, we'd managed to clean up a quarter of the corridor, working outwards from our starting spot. I'd ditched my shoes and now was having a hell of time by skidding around on the wet floor, propelled by my mop. Passing an open door, I spotted Finn and shouted, "Dude!"
"Yeah?"
"Wanna help? We have a water slide. Sort of." As if on cue, Aerrow slid past with a "Whoop!"
It worked. Pretty soon Junko had been roped into the cleaning, Radarr was skidding around on top of a bucket, and Piper had stuck her head out of her room to ask what the fuss was and promptly joined. Now we had everyone bar three in the corridor (how did we fit? It was a very long corridor), with a handful actually cleaning and the rest sliding about or playing mop-hockey. As I picked up a puddle of water for bringing it back to a bucket, Charlotte reappeared.
"So this is where everyone is!", she said in a tone of surprise. "I was wondering why no-one was in the hanga- ooh, water slide."
"Gangway!", I yelled down the corridor, dropping the water and using it to shove various items to the side. Discarding her shoes, Charlotte took a run up and skidded down the corridor, shrieking, "BANZAI!" Piper hopped back, Finn and Junko somehow did an archway, Radarr was still on his bucket, Sam narrowly missed dropping her waffles as she poked her head in, and Aerrow was still mopping…
We saw it coming before it actually happened.
He looked up, she spotted him, flailed, unisoned cries of alarm and one wet smack.
Falling on top of him, their faces pressed together in a sudden and awkward kiss. Charlotte's face went redder than her hair, no, Aerrow's hair. Not that he wasn't just as surprised. I just about saw this as I followed behind Charlotte, using the water to brake in a more controlled manner. Sam looked gobsmacked.
Breaking apart, Charlotte spoke first, mumbling quietly, "So, um…hi?"
"Hi?", Aerrow echoed in a similar tone of surprise.
"Dude, way to go!", Finn broke the rest of the silence. "Nice score!" I burst into laughter, with Piper and Finn joining in and adding whoops. Charlotte hurried to scramble off Aerrow, but the water made her slip again and she fell on his chest once more. Cue more awkward mumbles, with Aerrow helping her off and standing, Charlotte clinging onto his shoulder to balance herself.
"Waffle?", Sam asked, casually sliding the plate in front of them. Charlotte snagged one as she walked away briskly, slipping off the corridor as soon as possible through the first door.
"Uh, Charlotte, that's Aerrow's room", Piper called after her.
"I knew that", she called back, jumping back out with even redder cheeks and almost jogging out of the next door. Aerrow was still, mostly like running through the event that had just happened.
"How was that, lover-boy?", I asked him.
"Uh…That was..." As a quirky smile crept onto his face, I grinned widely.
"That's good ta hear, laddie." Patting his shoulder, I water-skated down in the direction of the hangar bay.
Getting my shoes back on once I'd made sure my feet were dry, I hopped over to my skimmer, figuring I should get some flight practise in the day. What I wasn't expecting though was for something to bang a small hole in the hangar bay doors, whizz past the top of my head as I ducked sharpish, and embed itself in the wall of the hangar.
"The frag?", I muttered, firstly darted over to peep through the hangar doors and see who or what had fired the thing. All I could see was the shape of a retreating skimmer.
"Ah. Fucker." Loosing interest, I headed over to the small dent in the wall and yanked out a copper ball about the size of my fist. It turned out to be a messenger capsule thing, hollow and holding a slip of paper.
"Y'know, could've just posted it. Like a normal person", I snarked to myself as I finished reading it. "But noooo, you have to be dramatic. And nearly knock my bloody head off too." Since I already had a Fuel crystal prepped in my skimmer's engine, I tucked the letter into a pocket and started up the engine, punching a button on the wall to open the hangar doors.
"Stupid. Egotistical", I mumbled, revving the engine with each word. "Evil. AttraNO! Fuck's sake. And curiousity, fuck that thingy too." And I bailed, taking off to follow the directions on the letter.
Hannah?
Hannah?
Where the fuck is bitchface?
Don't know.
…You know what this means?
Mind-worms?
You've been hanging with him too long. No.
She's been kidnapped by Cyclonians?
Nah. She probably went to pee.
What then?
We get to narrate.
Awesome.
Yeah.
On the Condor, the corridor had been dried up and mops put away. I was mostly hiding out on the balcony in front of the bridge, part day-dreaming and part running-through-those-few-seconds. And thinking 'God I'm such an idiot'. Way to blow the cover to the rest of the Storm Hawks. Unless they just thought it was an accident...Hell no they wouldn't think that was just an accident.
"Charlotte?"
"I HAVE- oh, hi." I turned quickly away from Aerrow, my cheeks going red again. He placed a hand on my shoulder, smiling softly.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"No." Oh crap. I'd not meant to say that. "I mean yep, totally."
He leant on the balcony rail next to me, joining me in staring absent-mindedly into space.
"You're um.." Oh God. "That is." What was he gonna say? "I dunno." Say it. "You're…" FUCKING SAY IT. "You're a good kisser."
"WhadaIum." My cheeks were on fire. Again. Goddamit. "Thanks? You too? I think? I haven't had much experience in that field but I CRAP." Seriously Charlotte you're so articulate. Dropping my head into my hands, I let out an embarassed squeal, at which Aerrow burst into chuckles. I couldn't deal with this anymore, and turned to run, but his hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"I was wondering though…" My stomach was so tight from nerves, yet filled with butterflies. Oddly enough, his face had some blush in it as well, as if he was nervous as well. "…do you want to make our relationship official?"
Oh my God. Oh my Gods and Goddesses and Hekate above and – I squealed loudly now, burying my head in his chest as I hugged him tightly.
"Um, is this a bad-"
"Yes yes YES!" Calming down slightly, I patted down my hair and stood back. We were both sporting wide grins now. "That is, um, I agree with making our relationship official. And stuff."
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptatap
Looking up, I saw Sam, squashed against the huge window of the bridge. Finn and Junko was right behind her, enthusiastic expressions being replaced with 'oh crap' looks. Sam was banging on the glass, with…was that her phone? In her hand?
I raised my fist, quickly combusting it. Next to me, I could see Aerrow raising a sword and lighting it up in blue, despite a not-so-serious smile. Finn and Junko absconded with great haste, leaving Sam to fall slowly backwards taking one last photo. Smiling with the satisfaction of a job well done, we looked back at each other and Aerrow leaned forward and kissed me on the lips.
That was too close.
No really though why didn't you run away straight off?
I was being crushed. By a Wallop. And an over-eager Finn.
Fair enough.