Out in open space, the three occupants of the stolen Procyon ship felt both vulnerable and safe. They were small, and were a target for both Procyon and Terran ships.
They ignored it, though, deciding to take a break as the ship was put on auto pilot, heading towards their predetermined location of Crescentia.
Jim was alone at the helm, where the wheel turned by itself. He watched the wheel, wondering if it would be the last helm of a ship he'd ever see. Wondering if they'd get shot and killed, their blood spilling out onto the deck, and then left to float in space for all eternity. Once realizing these thoughts were entirely to dark, Jim closed his eyes, flipped his head up, and thought hard on happy things; his mothers cooking, that one hot girl that was in his Astronomy class, just sitting in his dorm with a sketchbook and a pen.
Down on the lower deck, reclined in the rigging, was Onyx and Minerva. Minerva was rubbing circles into Onyx's chest with the palm of her hand, the other hand fiddling with his belt loop. Onyx kept his eyes towards the star filled space while leaning his head on Minerva's, an arm firmly around her waist with the hand resting on her thigh. He was even more quiet than usual, and Minerva was quiet, which was completely unusual. Normally, when they were together, Minerva was something of a Chatty Kathy, talking on all manner of things from her favorite soda-pop flavor to why Onyx should grow a beard.
Minerva looked up at Onyx, who didn't shift his gaze from the stars.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked, nearly whispering. Onyx briefly glanced at her and looked back at the sky.
"I told my father that when I got back, he'd be proud of me..." His tone moaned with sorrow, "now I'll be lucky to get back at all."
Minerva nudged herself closer to him. "We'll get through this, baby. All three of us. And the war will stop, too. You'll see."
Onyx, though unconvinced, smiled softly at her. "I bet you you're right."
"I'm always right," Minerva grinned, "I'm a woman."
"Oh, is that the only reason you're right?" Onyx shifted on his side, pulling her closer, his big hand resting on the small of her back.
"Oh, no, no." She smiled sweetly. "I'm also just smarter than you."
"Smarter than me, eh?" He haphazardly propped himself up on his elbow on the shaky rigging. "What makes you think you're so much smarter?"
"Well," she purred, sitting up and gently pressing a hand to his chest, rolling over with him. "I knew Jim was trying to pair us up before you did."
"Mmhm." Onyx rolled his eyes slightly. Minerva sat up and kissed him, then his neck, resting her head there and looking up at him. "And because I'm you're girlfriend."
"There we go with the woman thing." Onyx both snorted and laughed, which was stifled by Minerva kissing him, rather roughly, one would be able to tell. Jim observed momentarily from the helm before turning his gaze back to space.
God have mercy, He prayed.
"Come on, Amelia." Clement urged, leaning over the mountain-rock, his arm extended to Amelia. "Just grab hold and I"ll pull you up."
Amelia jumped slightly and took Clement's hand. He barely grunted before hoisting her up in one swift pull.
"You're so light." He said, his tone rather surprised while adjusting the sack on his back.
"Thanks." Amelia said in a jokingly insulted tone.
"Oh-wait-no-no, no I didn't mean-"
"Oh, don't be so touchy, Clement." She chuckled. "I'm just teasing."
"Oh." His face turned a bit red and he looked to the side, down the vertical rock. "Where to now?"
"Up." Amelia nodded to the mossy, uneven mountain, measuring somewhere between fifty and a hundred feet tall. "We need a high vantage point."
"Aye, aye, Captain." Clement said in a semi-joking tone, earning a whack from Amelia. He began up the rocks, his hands slipping on their mucky, mossy surface.
"Be careful, they're slick."
Amelia hopped onto a rock, then another, like a mountain goat in a rather literal sense. "Right."
Clement stared at her as she continued, leaping from rock to rock, stopping every now and again for him to catch up.
"What are you, a bloody mountain lion?" He joked, huffing as he scratched around for a handhold on one of the many rocks.
"1/4th, to be exact." She said, grinning.
"Uh huh." He grunted, heaving himself up onto a wide, flat rock and kneeling. "Whatever you are, it's unfair."
Amelia just smiled slightly, sitting on the rock where she was perched a few feet above Clement, strands of hair having escaped from her bun blowing in the wind. She could already see the tops of trees, all of which were thick and luscious green, forming a dazzling canopy.
"You know, if we weren't fighting for our bloody lives here, I'd enjoy the view." She said, smiling.
"If we weren't fighting for our bloody lives, I wouldn't be here. I'd be home-or on vacation, or something. I'd be eating and sleeping, and doing nothing." Clement breathed deeply and started up the rocks again, hating climbing. He hated it about as much as he hated radishes, and he really, really, hated radishes. Any other physical activity was fine by him-running, jumping, skidding on bloody pavement. Anything but climbing.
"Very true. I'd probably be home tending to my children." Amelia said, now prancing up the mountain slower, in order to allow Clement to catch up.
"That so?" Clement gasped as he continued, not nearly as tired as he sounded, but three times as frustrated. Damn slippery moss. "I was aware you had children, but I never took you for one to "tend" to them, if that would be the term."
"Oh, well I'm not the only one. My husband does care for them as well-we almost take shifts, honestly, due to our schedules. A lot of the time one of us is home and not the other." She leaped to another rock and turned to Clement. "We have a sort of maid/nanny, but we prefer to keep the parenting to ourselves."
"Ah. Good of you." Clement chuckled slightly and looked up. They were surprisingly high up, maybe twenty or so feet from the top. He thought it to be Amelia's speed and his desperate attempt to keep up with the speedy feline the reason. "I was the same way, when I had my daughter."
Amelia felt a frown form on her face, remembering their conversation when she was still in the student dorm. "A...daughter you say?"
"Y-Yeah." Clement had reached her by now. "She...went with her mama." He mumbled lightly, looking away a moment before continuing up, Amelia slowly following by his side.
"She was eight when...when it happened." He continued.
"I'm...I'm sorry." Amelia lowered her ears. Clement nodded slightly.
"It's alright, Madam. I've come to terms with it all; I just keep focused on what I did get to do with them...It's funny." He stopped, breathing deeply. "After something...someone, is gone, you realize just how much the littlest things mean to you-even the bad things, the arguments." He chuckled lightly while grabbing at the tip of another rock. "I remember me and Dannie-that's my wife- me and her...we used to always argue about the same thing, every day."
"What was it?" Amelia asked, curious, smiling a bit at the man that had overcome great sorrow that still haunted her to much to speak of.
"Toast. Every single day. Toast. I always burned the toast-but I liked it that way. Still do. Something about the crunch, I guess. Either way, every morning it would wake up Dannie. She said the smell made her nauseous. So, I wouldn't have toast the next day, and she'd wake up again, exactly the same time, saying she noticed there wasn't a smell of toast and complaining about it again. And when I'd point out she woke up either way, she'd always say it was my fault again." He laughed, lightly, either because of the memory or his lack of breath as they climbed. "The argument would always end with both of us pissed off until she made coffee. Then we'd have a cup and suddenly everything was alright. No matter what. I really never thought about it before, and always used to hate the arguments, since they were so petty and stupid...but now..." He paused, with them quite near the top of the mountain. "But now...I really, really miss them."
Amelia frowned slightly, but also could have smiled. It made her think of her and Delbert. They'd always argue about his organization issues. She said he should clean up the piles of disorganized books around the library, he said he wouldn't be able to find anything when he needed it. She said he might try cleaning off his desk and using a real cup instead of an empty beaker to drink his tea and coffee, and he said she might try not disturbing him during his work so much, and they would bicker back and forth until they both rambled out apologies at the same time and kissed. She related this to Clement, who smiled as they both reached the small, flat top of the mountain.
"We all have our little arguments." He said, smiling a bit.
"Indeed we do." She nodded, smiling back. A smile which, upon looking out at the horizon, disappeared.
I'M A COMPLETE ASSHOLE, I KNOW.
I SAY I'M GONNA UPDATE SOMETHING, AND I DON'T, FOR LIKE A MONTH OR SOMETHING. I KNOW.
I'M SO, SO, SO SORRY.
I'VE BEEN DOING MY OTHER FANFICTION, AND I'VE BEEN DERPING AROUND IN SCHOOL TRYING NOT TO FAIL, AND I KINDA GOT A PS3 AND I'M A FAEUGINGFRICKLEFARTINGIDIOT.
I HOPE YOU ALL FORGIVE ME AND CONTINUE TO LIKE, FAVORITE, REVIEW, AND ALL THAT GOOD SHEET.
I LOVE YOU ALL AND PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.
I CANNOT PROMISE WHEN I'LL GET THIS UP AGAIN. I JUST CAN'T. I'M A SHIT, I KNOW. BUT I WILL TRY.
TREASURE PLANET-DISNEY
ANYTHING ELSE-MINE AND DON'T YOU DARE STEAL IT OR I SWEAR.