Chapter Text
“C’mon, Korvo, you know I'm sorry!” Terry continued to follow his lifemate through their house, attempting to get his attention even if it wasn't very successful. Ever since he and the replicants were caught lazing and messing with ray guns they had no business using, Korvo had little time alone to work and think. The organ that replaced the human brain in the shlorpian anatomy was very important to him, being both a scientist and engineer.
Whether it was him finishing detailing the ship’s exterior, rereading the ship manual though he already memorized the whole thing, dusting the house, or literally anything else, Terry was there. He followed close behind, not helping, but begging for forgiveness. Korvo wouldn't admit it, but he admired the dedication while also finding it somewhat endearing. He knew Terry only had dedication for things that he would later get his ass chewed for. At the same time though, the thought of him putting that much effort into getting Korvo’s forgiveness made the blue shlorpian nearly swoon.
After the pupa was put to bed, Korvo had been actively trying to get back to finishing chores. The replicants weren't much of a worry in regards to being a nuisance and were probably still splashing around outside. That was something he needed to take care of later, he noted.
Their replicators were in the kitchen. Korvo leaned over the large sink as he washed dishes that were otherwise not allowed to be washed in the dishwasher. Terry sat on the ground next to him as he leaned the side of his head against his lover's leg. He changed from his swimwear not long ago after he complained about the ship being ‘cold’. Korvo rolled his eyes again at the thought. He wasn't cold, he was just too skinny, which seemed impossible considering the amount of human bullshit he consumed on a day-to-day basis. He came back with his regular jorts and shoes paired with a ridiculous dark-green shirt labeled ‘cuCUMber’ with the fruit plastered above.
Eventually, the green shlorpian began to grow saddened at Korvo’s silent protests, and because of this, he decided on another way to get his attention–being extremely obnoxious. Soft thuds of fabric echoed as Terry repetitively bumped the side of his head against the other’s calf “Korvvv…” he droned.
He was left with nothing except for the sounds of porcelain glass clanking against each other. His husband ignored his relentless pleading and continued to stack plates on the drying rack.
For a few seconds Terry actually reflected on what he had done. Yeah, sure, most if not, everything he did was moronic and dangerous to some extent, but this time it wasn’t that bad! Korvo should really cut him some slack here!
Maybe it was built up stress from the piling onslaught of responsibilities. Maybe it was from the fact neither Terry nor the replicants stuck around the house long enough to even think about helping. And maybe Korvo was pulling away because of the lack of appreciation he felt from the rest of his team, but he couldn’t expect Terry to sit still and do some boring ass chore like ‘mopping the grass’.
…Was that a thing?
The pupa specialist forced himself out of his thoughts when sprinkles of water landed on the back of his head. He huffed, mentally scolding himself for losing himself in his thoughts. There was a lingering bit of frustration that he felt. Losing his focus to fantasize about silly things or forgetting a topic mid conversation was a bad habit that, no matter how hard he tried, he could never break, even if it was unintentional.
It had ruined his past relationships before–with both humans and shlorpians–and nearly ruined his current one with Korvo multiple times. He wanted to try harder, he wanted to do better, and if he didn’t start now, he was afraid he never would.
Terry finally stood from his position on the floor, towering behind his lifemate as he washed suds from a ‘now’ clean pot before placing it gently on the drying rack. Then, hesitantly, he leaned into Korvo’s frame with his arms wrapping around his mid-section. He squeezed lightly.
It wasn’t enough for the team leader to feel any discomfort but a silent suggestion that Terry was there. None of them commented on the way that his body temporarily tensed or the long sigh that escaped from his mouth. Terry did, however, move his head to rest on his shoulder, studying his face for any tell-tale expressions for what he may have been feeling at that moment.
Expressionless.
Sometimes it was hard to read Korvo, whenever he placed those walls back up and decided to ignore everyone for the rest of the day. Terry hated those moments. He could understand, of course, he still had his own walls too… even if Shlorp was no more. This didn’t mean he didn’t want to know what was on his mind though.
If he were actually smart enough to know that he wasn’t going to permanently kill his husband, he would wait until he’s asleep and cut open that head to reveal his deepest thoughts. Maybe his secrets too, ooo, like how he— okay, off topic, Terry. Focus.
Even if he couldn’t read Korvo, he was clearly okay enough to handle his presence and his affections. He just needed to play the right cards to get back on his good side and hopefully everything would be okay again.
Okay, now that he was thinking that out loud, that didn’t really sound good, but he really didn’t want to sleep on the couch tonight.
The pupa specialist bit the inside of his cheek “I could– make it up to you, like uh, doing the rest of the dishes?” The both of them watched as another pot was placed to dry. The last one.
“This is the rest of the dishes, Terrence.” Korvo scoffed mockingly.
‘Terrence’? Well, that wasn’t good.
The green shlorpian visibly sulked “You know what I mean, Korv. I can help with something, anything! You just have to tell me.” The arms wrapped around his husband’s midsection tightened in an attempt at comfort.
There was an awkward silence between the two other than the rush of water that washed the soap from the team leader’s hands as he began to wrap up his task. Terry grew anxious again. One of his arms retreated as he started to nibble on the ends of his fingertips. Then, Korvo spoke up again “I feel like you and the replicant’s don’t appreciate me.”
“Of course we do, Korvo! Just because we don’t act like it doesn’t mean we don’t feel it. Do you know how long we would survive without you?! Not even a second!” Terry lowered his hand and walked to the side of Korvo, slightly turning the other to face him properly “Well, maybe not Yum, but I would definitely die. I don’t even know how long I’m supposed to cook a toaster strudel for!”
His lifemate snorted, clearly amused. “It says on the box, you buffoon.”
“Who said I could read?” Terry then smirked, putting his free hand on his hip.
“So you’re just wearing shirts you can’t even read? You were supposed to take a languages class in the academy, did you not do that?”
Korvo crossed his arms as he watched his husband break their mutual eye contact to look outside. He definitely did not do that.
“I was busy, okayy? Hop off, man!”
“”Busy,’ you say. Doing what, may I ask?”
“Unimportant. Hey, this is supposed to be about you, not me.”
Terry’s deflection was met with an unimpressed hum. He looked back at his team leader’s sunken eyes. Were his eyebags always that bad? Sheesh, maybe Terry underestimated the situation more than he originally thought.
He let out a small breath of air “I’m sorry, Korv—we’re sorry. I’m serious about making it up to you.” Korvo’s attention to him remained
“Maybe we can all do something together, like, I dunno, those ‘Taco Tuesday’s where you think you’re tricking us with a mariachi party just for it to end up being another lecture about the ship’s manual? Or watch a nature documentary, I know you like those.”
Korvo hummed in acknowledgment, but remained wordless. Terry decided to continue “Either way, you need to give yourself a break every once and awhile. You’re burning yourself out and you look like you’re about to pass out any second.”
He ignored the unintelligible mumbles of accused ‘lies’ and pulled the other shlorpian close, placing an affectionate kiss to the side of his lifemate’s face “How about we go lay down? Just the two of us.” Korvo raised a brow.
“Was the impression that we weren’t gonna lay down alone?” Terry shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck before he began to pull Korvo away from the kitchen, heading for the stairs to their shared bedroom “I dunno! I overthink a little, give ya boi some slack.”
The engineer groaned and rubbed what would be the bridge of his nose before his husband exploded into giggles “Oh my grey gods. Shut the fuck up, Terry. Please.”
Before meeting Terry, Korvo had no idea that simply doing nothing could somehow be entertaining. Maybe it was just because it was Terry he was doing nothing with, but he ended up enjoying himself as the two of them laid side by side, uniform discarded for his nightgown, and snuggled between the pupa specialist’s neck as he listened to him speak.
His worries still lingered, whether they both knew it or not. Unfortunately for Korvo, distractions never lasted long before his issues came back.
What was once them bouncing back and forth with bullshit they randomly thought to bring up for no reason other than to just talk eventually died down to Terry talking about the latest dramas he had with his book club friends “and then she totally cheated on the guy! I mean, he totally had it coming, but just break up!”
Terry’s eyes raced as they glanced around the empty ceiling, his arms thrown up in exaggeration as he began to work himself up over his frustrations. He expected some sort of acknowledgment from Korvo as he had before. Silence.
He nearly thought that he had fallen asleep, silently grateful that the stress had subsided enough for him to get a good night's rest (even if it was still early into the evening). However, when he peered down to check on his husband, he was still very much awake, staring blankly at the door as if he wanted to run out right then and there. Terry felt a guilty pit enter his stomach.
“I love you, Korvy,” The green shlorpian leaned in to place a smooch directly onto the other’s forehead. That gained his attention back, thankfully. A smile took over the shlorpian’s face though it didn’t fully reach his eyes “Love you too, Ter-bear.”
“Who?” “Hm?” Korvo lifted his head just barely from his husband’s chest.
“Whoo loves me?”
Terry then beamed as he heard the familiar annoyed scoff escape from his lips. He mumbled a few curses and complaints of ‘bloody hell’, ‘not again’, and maybe a ‘fucking moron’, but the pupa specialist just ignored that one. Just… for his own sanity.
“I love you, Terry.” Korvo leaned back into his previous comfortable spot, finally closing his eyes when the fatigue started to become too much to bear.
His lifemate must have sensed this before he lifted his arm that wrapped around the team leader’s shoulders and rubbed the top of his head. He started placing more kisses to the top of his forehead, his eyelids, and cheeks before he finished with a gentle kiss to his lips. He pulled away with a dopey smile “You know, I was serious earlier… about the whole ‘if you weren’t around’ thing. I don’t think I’d survive.” He heard an unconvinced hum from under him.
“I think you’d be fine, Terry. Most earth people love you.” Korvo’s eyes remained closed as he spoke. Terry then sighed “I know, I know, but I’m, like– stupid. I’m really fucking stupid. Plus, I think– no, I would die of heartbreak. I need you, Korvo.”
“What about all those people you brought in from college?”
Eugh.
“You know that’s not the same.” Terry moved his head from Korvo’s and looked at him. The ship leader’s eyes opened in turn “You’re my husband, my lifemate. No one understands me like you do, and I meant what I said during our vows. I want to die loving you, with you, Korvo, even if it’s in the dumbest, most embarrassing way possible. As long as it’s with you I don’t care.”
Korvo opened his mouth to respond, but Terry continued.
“And you know me, I can’t do all that smart ass shit you do all the time. Even if I tried, I still couldn’t do it.”
“That’s not—”
“Ap! Ap! Ap! No, shushshushshush, let me finish, mister!” Korvo rolled his eyes, no true malice behind it.
“Truth is, I slack on because I know you’ll have my back. I know you’ll be there to get me back on track one way or another. It might not be the best and I totally sound like a piece of shit right now, but what I’m trying to say is, I trust you to pick me back up. I mean we’re ‘solar’ opposites for a reason, right?”
Korvo shrugged then hesitantly nodded. “Exactly.”
He then sighed as he broke eye contact once more “I’m sorry, Terry.” The green shlorpian raised a nonexistent eyebrow “For? I’m the one who’s sorry.”
“I just– I don’t know– ugh, bollocks, I hate emotions.” Korvo’s husband laughed at his frustrations. “It’s just… I bottle up this bullshit and then put up all these walls because I don’t want to argue, and then we argue anyway. It’s not fair to you, Terry, nor the replicants.”
Terry shrugged it off “Eh. Been through worse. Plus, we kinda deserve it for not helping around the house.”
“Yes, but I should be comm—”
“Hm. I’m tired, are you tired? Let’s go to bed, Korvy, I’m sooo tired right now I could go into a coma! Good night, I love you!” Korvo’s extended worries were cut short as Terry rushed out an onslaught of nonsense before closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the other’s.
The engineer decided to let the whole thing go, writing a mental note to come back to the topic at a later time. He then realized how tired he actually was. Maybe it was a good thing he was interrupted.
He snuggled into his husband’s neck for the last time that night before drifting off into the realm of unconsciousness.
“This is so stupid! Why do we have to be the ones cleaning this up, it should be Terry and Korvo!” Yumyulack complained for the hundredth time that night as he vacuumed the sand that covered the thriving green grass underneath. He was secretly discarding the sand into the neighbor’s yard, but he doubted anyone would actually notice, and if they did? Act dumb. That usually worked… unless it was Ms. Frankie.
A few strides away his co-replicant, Jesse, was busy folding the lounge chairs in half after deflating the floating and placing them on the porch. She rolled her eyes at her brother’s utmost ‘enthusiasm’ “Because Terry and Korvo are busy talking! It’ll be nice if they don’t have to worry about it in the morning!”
Yumyulack jumped (though he would openly deny it) as the vacuum chute clogged up again, making a loud thud. He shook the machine, hitting it a few times with the palm of his hand. “‘Busy talking’ more like ‘busy sucking each other’s mounds’. Tell me why we can’t just zap this shit into another dimension again?”
“It’s sweet! Also, we don’t need rayguns, we’re fully capable of doing this on our own, and that way we can show Korvo we’re actually useful.”
The bounty hunter then threw the vacuum onto the ground next to him, making Jesse look up from her own task “I’m… gonna be right back, I just remembered I needed to do something.” Before the smaller shlorpian could respond, he already ran his way back inside the house, heading directly upstairs towards the ship.
Jesse loudly groaned and threw her own things down before running after him “Godammit, Yum, you’re supposed to listen to me! I’m the smart one!”