03 Wait
a/n: Frye and H.B. are friends. Maybe not great friends, but friends all the same. Tonight, they are on a mission in Oblivia.
All the good things belong to Monolith Soft.
"Wait," Frye said to his friend. "The saltat aren't going anywhere."
H.B. felt his rib cage contract as he forced himself not to growl. He worked his jaw for a moment, then ran the tips of his fingers across his forehead. His eyes glinted at the loose-limbed Interceptor standing next to him. "No."
"Just for half a minute. Come on, buddy."
"You may wait. I am going to continue this mission."
"Look at my smile! This is me asking really nice. Please?" Frye's grin was nothing short of lupine.
H.B. drew himself up, stretching his spine until there was nothing more left to stretch. "No. And I'll do you the courtesy of telling you why. I have had my fill of people telling me to wait. 'Wait! We can't go clear out the saltat nest,'" he mimicked. "'Wait! Don't go toward the cliff edge.' 'Wait! We can't institute a clear command structure in BLADE.' And none of them, present company included, have shown me enough respect to explain." H.B. slid his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose. His gesture was studied because if he didn't maintain control, he'd send his fist straight into the buffoonish grin on Frye's face. He closed his eyes and tried to be fair. Some of the past requests had been for good reasons. That didn't make him feel any less irritated.
When he opened his eyes, Frye was staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "Look, man..."
"Let's get this done and then you can go home to your groupies in the Repenta parking lot and I can do ... something."
"I just wanted it to work, for once." Frye sounded frustrated.
"Oh, great. A prank," sighed H.B.
"No! Not a prank. A meteor shower. There's supposed to be one tonight."
"And you know ...?"
"A Nopon told me. She's usually reliable. Every time I get the word, if I have a chance, I come here to watch." Frye waved his arms upwards. "It's a great location. The canyon blocks the moons."
H.B. started to understand why Frye had wanted to linger in this dark and barren stretch of Oblivia. He glanced up at the sliver of sky. Stars twinkled, but nothing was falling.
"So this mission was an excuse to, what? Make wishes?"
"You're kind of my last hope."
"You've tried this before?"
"Yeah. I've brought a bunch of people here. It's been kinda disappointing. My brother was more focused on picking up rocks. Mia wandered off when I wasn't looking and it took half the night to find her. Alexa, well, you know her. If it ain't a skell, she ain't excited. She was polite, but I could tell she was itching to leave."
"I'm flattered that you finally thought of me when you ran out of other people."
Frye wrinkled his slightly off-center nose. "Honestly, H.B., I'm starting to doubt my own brain. Maybe it isn't as great as I think it is. I was hoping you'd, you know, appreciate it. Oh!" Frye's eyes darted past H.B. shoulder. A split second later he tilted his head upward. "Lookie there! It's started."
H.B. watched the meteor shower with his friend for the better part of an hour. Even in the narrow wedge of sky they could see, H.B. lost count within the first minute. Frye made loud, pointless comments about particularly nice bursts, often not much more than a pleased grunt. H.B. tried to think of something sensible, something witty, but the trails of light were too fast for thought, too delicate for description. He wondered about the fall of the Whale through this same sky, the nature of poetry, the wishes he might make.
Finally Frye said gruffly, "Guess we can move on now. Thanks for being cool about this."
H.B. rolled his shoulders. His neck was stiff from looking up all this time. He readied his sniper rifle and said, "Let me know the next time this happens."
a/n: Sometimes I doubt my own brain.
Next up: still no prompt list, but I think it will involve chocolate.