Chapter Text
I miss my ex.
Ew, that felt icky to say. I certainly don’t miss him, but I had forgotten just how exhilarating this was. Simon was practically flying us down the highway. Terrifying it might be, but I could feel my more impulsive urges jumping with joy. Maybe I should give learning how to drive one a second chance?
A rather sharp right turn was coming up, but I had mostly adjusted to the leaning by now. After the first few, I realized I wasn’t going to immediately get thrown into a ditch and finally calmed down. I prepared myself to lean with Simon again, but he did something strange. He let go of the left handlebar and held his arm out.
Did he want me to grab on? I wasn’t about to do that, not if he didn’t explicitly tell me to. Just what was he up to?
I didn’t have to wait that long to find out.
Leaning past the point of comfort near the asphalt, Simon slammed his hand against the ground. I nearly screamed on his behalf, before the reason for the glove made itself evident.
Sparks flew in every direction, creating an effect not dissimilar to a comet. Flashes of bright orange raced behind us. Thankfully, no one else was there, but what the heck?! By all accounts, his hand should be in tatters by now! Just what was that made of?! And what was he thinking?!
Some carnal part of myself was very interested in his, for lack of a better word, flashy display. I tried to argue back at it with some semblance of rationality, but I was losing to the lizard part of my brain. Great, glad to know my brain reverts to caveman when it comes to fire.
We made the rest of the drive without any incident. After he finally pulled into a parking lot, it occurred to me just how out of breath I was. I tried to subtly slow my heart rate back to a normal level, but I was not doing a good job at that.
“You good? Sorry about the sparks, I wasn’t really thinking when I did it.”
“It-” I said through the rapid heaving of my chest “It’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting it. Was it just for the aesthetic or?”
He removed the straps from around my face and smiled.
“That, and the prosthetic likes to get too close to the road on turns. So instead of letting fifty-thousand dollars get turned into dust, I make fireworks.”
“Jesus! Fifty-thousand dollars?!”
That’s insane! I mean, it was clearly advanced as far as innervated technology goes, but that was just ridiculous.
“I can thank the V.A. for that. Turns out the military can be quite cooperative when they want to avoid a scandal.” He took the glove off and flexed the metal fingers.
“I think I need some military scandal money, then.”
Simon laughed, throwing the gloves back into the bag.
“I’d say it wasn’t worth it, but it kind of was.”
I fished my glasses out from the bag and replaced them on my face.
“So, are we looking for any plants in particular?” We began walking towards the entrance to the garden, which was a large metal archway with vines intertwined.
“We’re here primarily on my friend Elli’s behalf. No clue why, but she’s deathly allergic to redwood trees. I’m sure there's one or two around, but I said I’d look just in case.”
My mouth opened to spew fun facts before my brain caught up.
“Did you know that NASA sent redwood seeds to space on the Apollo 14? And all ten of them in the US that are still alive are here in California!”
I nearly avoided physically cringing. As soon as I said something, I knew I was going to say something unsolicited. Why I had to always say-
“That’s sick as hell, where are they?” Simon interrupted my internal monologue. He looked excited, which was unexpected.
Oh. He’s actually interested?... He was going to regret that, I know way more than I’ve ever needed to about the Moon Tree Program.
As I began detailing how and why the trees ended up where they did, I took note of the fact he was looking at me earnestly. He wasn’t just placating me, he was actually listening. That probably shouldn’t be that novel to me, but outside of Rocky and Adrian, no one typically enjoyed my rants. I could feel heat crawling its way up my face. It was nice to have someone listen for once.
As I derailed into talking about something to do with plants in space, Simon silently took my wrist and guided me away from a pole I was about to walk into. That should have shut me up, but me being me, it did not. What it did do, however, was give him an opening. He laced his fingers with mine, which did make me stutter through a fact about sunflowers grown in space. We continued through the various halls of plants, with my apparent knowledge of botany coming in handy. And throughout it all, his desire to keep me talking didn’t seem to waiver. Everytime I tried to give him a chance to cut me off, he always had a probing question that led to another spiel.
Finally, we found a dreaded redwood. It was a tiny little thing, barely more than a seedling. We probably could have taken it away, if we wanted. No one else was in here.
Simon took a photo of the little tree with his phone and sent it to someone in his contacts named “Fuckoff Eel”. I hoped my name in his phone was less visceral.
Simon:
“Little fucker says hello.”
Fuckoff Eel:
“JFC, can’t I go anywhere in this wretched fucking state without running into those goddamn things. Thanks.”
Simon:
“Lmao. Apparently they’ve been to space too, so no fucking off to Mars.”
Fuckoff Eel:
“Kill me now.”
Simon laughed to himself as he put his phone away.
“That really does suck for your friend.” I said, observing the way the sapling swayed in the slight breeze. “This place really is beautiful.”
“Eh, there are prettier things.”
As I turned to defend the garden, it struck me that he was staring at me very intently. Was he…?
A hand lightly touched the side of my face. Simon’s face read of affection and anxiety, something I was feeling quite a bit of myself.
“Can I?” He whispered, barely audible.
I nodded and his lips softly met mine. For once in my life, my head was completely silent. I couldn’t form anything resembling a thought. Everytime something threatened to distract me from the moment, Simon’s lips moved and they were silenced. It was overwhelming, but in a way I wanted to hang onto forever.