Chpt. 3 - Revelations

Quiet...

Day...

Calms...

Me...

He shivered slightly in his sleep, reaching out toward the warmth to find...nothing. His small arm patted slowly up and down the tousled sheets of the bed in which he lay. There was nothing there, no heat, no warmth, no body. Ice blue eyes snapped open to find his room dark, his alarm shut off, and his bed completely empty. Suddenly a sense of deep sorrow welled up within his being. It was as if he had been abandoned, he had just been left there, alone, by the one man he truly trusted. Tears welled within his eyes but try as he might, they would not seem to flow. He sat there, utterly devastated by the sudden disappeared of his elder, wondering why he would just leave and not say anything.
From across the room he was suddenly blinded by the artificial light created by electric bulbs as the door to his room was flung open to reveal a tall skinny shadow. The bright light emanating from the hall behind him would have made distinguishing who it was completely impossible were it not for the fact that they were on a spaceship, and a spaceship can only hold so many people of a certain body type.

"Gene..."

The words came as a mutter, sleep drown groan from the general direction of the smaller boys bed. Forcing himself up slowly, he eventually maneuvered himself into a sitting position before he was startled yet again by a flash of electric light, this time from within the room. The slight hum of the bulb above him was the only noise that could be heard for what seemed like an eternity, then he spoke.

"...You left me...?" The tone in his voice could have been said to be irate, but on the ears it fell it was much more...pitiful.

"I went to go check up on the ship's course, I haven't been gone more than five minutes"

The redheads words, however few they were, seemed to help to soothe the younger's oddly emotional reaction and cause the tears welled up in his eyes to retract back to where they had originated. Gene's crossing of the room was seen in slow motion by the other as he approached and then sat gently on the edge of the be, the ever familiar arm looping around his shoulders as he had become accustom to. Slowly, a small smile emerged from his lips as he looked up at the red head.

"That's the little buddy I know and love, you know I could never leave you...never."

He ruffled the sleep frazzled blonde hair, bringing forth a larger grin from the one in his arms.

"Why don't you take a shower and get some new clothes on, huh?"

"Yeah," Jim's response was followed quickly by a half hearted attempt to hide a small sniffle.

He watched as Gene stood up and walked back across the room, with nothing more than a small grin and a quick two fingered wave he was gone, leaving the boy alone, yet again. After a few moments of solitude Jim finally decided that perhaps Gene's idea was best at the moment. Rising slowly from the bed he quickly hit the floor, coming to the sudden realization that he was greatly entangled in the bedsheets from the waist down. In his attempt to disentangle himself it at first appeared that he had merely managed to make his situation worse, yet after a few more seconds of working he had himself free and lifting the sheet back above his head to toss it back toward the bed. Holding the sheet an inch or so above him, it fell lightly over him to make a small sheltered area, concealing him from the outer world, and leaving him to think of one thing.

'It smells like him...'

Amazingly, in just one night, his bed covering had picked up the scent of the person he had been dreaming of for the past three months. The person who had almost always been on his mind, though he would refuse to admit it to anyone, even himself. Moments later Jim was to be found in the ships showers, pulling the shirt he had worn the day before over his head. He glanced at his bare upper torso in the mirror, in his own eyes he was overly skinny and far to pale, who would want him? Forcing himself to look away he turned his attention back to what he had come to do. Unbuckling his belt he let his mind wander to the random, pointless thing that a mind will think of when there is no thought forced upon it.

'It's going to be a long, quiet day' he thought, 'there are still at least 48 hours before we dock. I like quiet days, they give me time to think, time to wonder about the future, and sometimes, time to stare..."
Several hours later, a bored crew could be found in various areas around the ship. Clocks aboard the ship indicated that back home it was well past dark, and yet again, heading toward the hours ment for sleep. Yet tonight, there seemed to be little interest in sleep as of late. The female members of the crew could be found in the control room, having a mildly interesting conversation about those things that only women fully comprehend. As for the boys, Gene said he was "going to inspect the ship" and hadn't been seen for hours. Jim, on the other hand, was tucked away in a corner of the ship full of mechanical gizmos and electronic doodads that none of the rest of the crew ever had a hope of fully understanding.
Sitting back in the shadows, concealed behind many large machines, the glow of Jim's laptop was the only thing that gave any sign of his presence in the room. His fingers ran mindlessly over the keys, following patterns now as familiar to him as any other electronic chore had become to him. Slowly tuning all of the ships mechanisms via his computer, he slowly smiled to himself as he let his mind wander to other topics while his hands continued their work. Life seemed to have become so much more complicated in the past few days, finally admitting to himself that Gene held more than a small part of his heart. It was only in this moment that he finally let it all come crashing down upon him. The man who had forever been his idol, the one he had looked up to for so many reasons, had now become the man with which he had fallen in love. Sure, he was young and had little to no experience with the deeper emotions of human existence, but it was true that he could love, and he believed this was it. Glancing down at his computer screen, it was nearly impossible not to break out into laughter at what he saw. There, below the last line of computer text was a line of text that he had apparently begun typing without realizing it.

'I love Gene Starwind...Mr. Jim Starwind...'

And so on it went, for nearly half a page. Folding down the top to his computer, he grinned once again to himself before coming to a sudden realization. He finally admitted to himself that he was in love, but what will happen when he admits it to Gene...?
Back in the control room, Gene finally reemerges from his two hour long "inspection" of the ship. Glancing up at the new intruder, Melphina giggles, apparently at the sight of Gene after their most recent conversation. Looking puzzled, Gene approaches the girls and attempts to forget the random giggles, getting strait to the point of why he came.

"Has anyone else seen Jim acting a bit odd lately," he questioned the group before him.

Slowly their heads turned toward him, obvious thought going into the question before their answer was given. Melphina was the first to put in her thoughts on the matter.

"I don't know about you, but he seems to be clinging to you much more than usual lately. It seems like...well...like he thinks he's done something to make you angry and is afraid you won't be his friend anymore, so he clings on to you, refusing to let go."

"I think," a small grin crossed Sazuka's face as she input her opinion, "that he now considers you...how shall I say...more, than a friend..."