Title: Date night
Author: Elaiel
Rating: PG
Word count: 1281 words
Warnings: None
Characters: Young/TJ
Author's notes: Massively fluffy romantic cuteness for Shenadoah Risu and for gateteam_sg8in the Red Alert "Date Night" challenge
Young stood in front of the mirror shaving carefully. He still wasn't quite comfortable with the straight razor, but it was easier to make straight razors than new parts for electric razors and after the foil on his razor had gone he'd given up and gone with the straight razor, donating the remains of the electric razor to the science team. Apparently little motors were useful and interesting.
Brody had made the straight razors, going through testing a variety of materials before finally settling on the current model, made from broken off parts of Destiny's hull which took a significant amount of effort to machine, but held a blade for...well, no one had managed to blunt one yet.
Based on the current ammunition situation, Young was seriously considering asking him to make some swords or at least extra long knives for the soldiers, and if that wasn't a really surreal thought he didn't know what was. Crossbows had also seemed a viable option when he lay in bed at night worrying about how long they could hold out till the ammunition was gone.
He finished up the last tricky bits round his nose and wiped the rest of the shaving oil from his face with a cloth. He folded the curved blade back into the bone handle. Rush was responsible for carving most of those apparently, during late night bridge shifts according to Eli. Rush of all people, the man didn't even shave! The science team had run the razors as a project, every male crew member had received a straight razor on Christmas Day, each with their name on it. Some were further decorated. Young's had his name etched deeply into one side and a series of savage looking wolves carved on the other. He knew Greer's had a lion, Becker's a cornucopia, and Volker's were obviously chickens which Young thought was rather cruel.
He damped his hair a little, ran a comb through it and turned away from the mirror.
His uniform was under his mattress. Thank you Chloe. Apparently a stint in a Catholic boarding school had taught her a combination of hanging clothes in steamy shower rooms, then carefully folding and squashing your folded clothes between two hard surfaces under your mattress produces an effect pretty close to ironing them. He pulled out his trousers carefully noting the hard creases down the fronts with pleasure. The shirt didn't look too bad either, although there was a crease at the sides of the collar where it had all been pressed flat, but the whole effect was good, Proper uniform, it surprised him how much he'd missed it.
There was a tapping at his door. Everyone knew he was taking TJ to movie night though god knows how, and it had grown and suddenly become a big thing. A date. He'd had relationship advice from Camile (ouch!), clothes advice from Chloe, a hair cut from Scott, and a former shampoo bottle of something from Brody. It apparently could be relied on to taste better than the usual hooch, but had quite a lot of what appeared to be fruit and seeds floating in it. Brody claimed it was a collaboration between himself and Becker. Young wasn't sure whether it was food drink or even safe for human consumption.
He finished buttoning his shirt and walked over to the door. There was no-one there, but there was a small bottle with a piece of paper tied round it.
In block capitals the paper said. "Don't ask where it came from."
There was no signature, and he couldn't guess who it was from the capitals. The bottle was aftershave. Young sniffed it. Smelled half decent, must belong to someone. Still, who cared? He took it in, put a small amount on and put the rest carefully away. If they wanted it back they could ask for it.
He stood, staring at himself in the mirror. Apart from the fact he was quite a lot thinner and somewhat greyer, the face that stared back at him looked familiar, just one he hadn't seen for a long time. An officer, not just a leader with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He smiled a little ruefully at himself. He hoped TJ liked it. (He hoped no-one else laughed).
Screwing up his courage he stepped away from the mirror, caught up the mystery bottle of "I can't believe it's not shampoo" and left the room.
As he walked out into the corridor, he caught the unmistakeable double click of someone signalling with a radio but when he looked round the corridor was deserted. He walked the short distance to TJ's quarters, and before he turned the corner heard a distinct sound of footsteps and female giggling, but once again when he rounded the corner the corridor was deserted.
He walked up to TJ's door and knocked. It swished open almost immediately.
"I got made over." She said instantly, then "You look nice."
She looked stunning. Whoever had made her up had rounded up some make up, a little mascara and lipgloss at least and her hair was an even more complicated version of her usual complicated up do.
She was wearing a skirt, which was a good couple of inches above the knee on her very long legs, and a blouse with a deep cowl neck that exposed a good amount of cleavage. She noticed him noticing and smiled.
"Chloe made it." She said. "The skirt is borrowed from Doctor Inman and the boots are Chloe's"
"It doesn't matter. You look amazing." He told her.
He held out his arm and she took it.
"Let's go and be over dressed for the cinema." He said.
She smiled back at him.
There should have been people milling around near the observation lounge waiting for Eli and Brody to set up the movie but the corridors were curiously deserted. Young was beginning to suspect some kind of set up. They stepped into the observation lounge to see no-one except Becker standing by the counter and a table and two chairs set up by the window.
He had uniform on, and a apron on, or at least something approximating one around him waist.
"If you'd like to take a seat" He said. "The window seat is free."
There was a faint noise of movement and a female giggle from the door.
"Oh come on," came Eli's voice, "let them eat!"
There was a slapping noise of a hand hitting a door control and the door hissed shut.
"Tonight's special is a three course meal, mainly based on our local delicacy the purple sweet potato." Becker said apologetically. "and it's haute cuisine, i.e. small portions, but there's a soup from the first of the squashes from the hydroponics, and some strawberries for dessert."
He gestured them to the table. Young smiled reassuringly at him, and putting the "shampoo" on the table and playing along with it pulled out TJ's seat for her. Becker took the bottle and poured a little into the tin mugs.
"I can highly recommend our aperitif, which is made from best 2010 Destiny crate matured hooch and mystery fruit and stuff that Doctor Inman found on the last planet. Apparently it tastes kinda like apple cinnamon. Kinda. Just don't drink it too fast if you want to finish the evening vertical."
Becker drifted off unobtrusively and Young took a sip. It did taste kind of like apple cinnamon. Kind of.
TJ took a sip and smiled at him.
"Only took you five years and a massive conspiracy by your entire command to take me out to dinner." She said.
He just smiled.