Chapter Text
The cafeteria was how it usually looked when they had a celebration of some sort, scrappy looking bunting hanging from the ceiling, a few balloons floating around. Blue had compared it on their first day to a kids birthday party, but didn’t entirely hate the concept, it was nice, comforting if you were oblivious enough. Lime just thought it was stupid and chucked Holy Water out from inside a vent. Despite it, they were both hovering around the room like if they had been ghosts or not, and White was trying their best efforts to get into a conversation with the remaining crew despite being completely invisible to them. Lime didn’t even know why they had bothered to come along.
“It’s not too awful, I appreciate you dislike these sorts of get together,” Blue had said to fill the silence, they were second guessing if it was a good idea to invite Lime in the first place,
“Would be better without the massive alien skid mark on the window, things from hell itself I tell ya,”
Blue hit their fist in their palm, which spooked Lime more than they let on “Ah! I meant to ask you, I know your familiar with religion and such,” They turned to face Lime directly, “I’ve assumed, but, do you believe we are stuck in a sort of purgatory?”
Lime shrugged, “Bible doesn’t talk shit about purgatory, but I’m kinda inclined to believe in it now, I mean you’ve been here longer than me,”
Blue chuckled slightly, “WHAT, what are you laughing at,” Lime furrowed their brows,
“Ive always found you very interesting Lime, with your- beliefs and such,”
They felt their cheeks warm slightly, crossing their arms and drifting their gaze away, Blue didn’t help in the slightest in the way they were looking at them, despite the unflattering lights above they still managed to make it work...swoon.
“Yeah, yeah right...” Lime grumbled under their breath.
The crew members around them seemed to act far more laid back than usual, Lime wouldn’t of been surprised if a gremlin had drugged all of them when they weren’t looking, they’d done it to poor Cyan once, Lime had even given them a bunch of salt to pour around so it wouldn’t happen again. Whether they used it or not they hadn’t been on deck enough to see.
Lime had nudged Blue a little in a, ‘Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’ Type of way. Yet Blue only seemed to nod and keep a slightly lowered brow etched into their visor. Deciding not to comment on it, they leaned back against the wall. They couldn’t blame Blue, whatever had happened in the last few days – even hours - was total batshit to anyone. Thankfully Lime was in the hands of God, but whether Blue was in the same clasp, they weren’t sure.
Whatever thought Blue had been absorbed in, they had defiantly been thrown out of. Someone’s backpack flung through them and rebounded on the wall behind onto the floor,
“The heck? Eugh that’s freakin’ Yellows!” Lime scowled, looking up to see whatever the hell the others (and white for some reason) where doing. It defiantly took them longer than it should have to realise they were stripping of in front of each other. They repulsed as far as they could back against the wall.
They looked up to see Blue, only to see they were half watching what the others, noticing the tiniest dusting of pink across their cheeks. Lime scurried to look away. Who were they to judge! It was a natural reaction of course!.. Either way, it was irking them out for sure.
Blue glanced down at Lime, sensing the atmosphere shift, “Do you want to maybe, come back later? When this is out of their system?”
Lime didn’t dare to look up to see the way Blue was looking at them, the proximity between them was already making their skin clammy, and the huge naked pile of crewmates weren’t helping the situation either.
“Yeah let’s just go these guys are freakin’ possessed,”
Blue wouldn’t be told twice and led out back into the storage, feeling rather ‘clammy’ themselves. Lime eventually caught up with them, and drifted beside them,
“The hells wrong with them, I can bet the gremlins are getting’ to em’,”
“Possibly, they are probably just a little, excited about everything I suppose...”
Blue hadn’t sounded as certain as they wanted to let on, but Lime didn’t want to make it more strange between them as it already was, the silences between them were starting to last a little too long.
“Dyaah..! Let’s go this way,” Lime pointed to the only way they knew their way round enough to not look a fool in front of Blue,
From the cafeteria they headed down and through the opening to the right, Lime had taken charge now and prayed that Blue hadn’t been let on that they had no clue where they were really headed too,
“Uhm, Lime, I don’t mean to be rude at all, but-“
Blue had only looked around at which direction they were headed for a second before they found themselves crashed into the back of Lime, yet, they didn’t get the telling off or accusation they had expected, just a silence in response, and suddenly they became very wary that they could of snapped Limes last straw,
“Oh! I do apologize Li-“
“ShhSHH! Blue...you hearing that...?”
Unexpectedly (sort of) Blue now find themselves with Limes finger to their visor, they looked around warily , the creases in the corners of their eye stretched, and Blue hated how it reminded them back to how Lime looked during their little frenzy. They shook their head and listened close - all they could hear was the whirr of electrical and how heavy Lime was breathing,
“The...Electricity, its working overtime, hasn’t made that noise since I last had to fix it,” Lime pulled their hand away, suddenly realising they hadn’t intended to keep it there so long, “Don’t know who’s gonna fix it now after the main guy’s not around,”
“I see,” Blue clasped their hands together, “As you can tell I really don’t leave Medbay often, but I’m incredibly glad you take time to notice and fix these sorts of things,”
Lime waved them away dismissively, not wanting to admit that they did get a little ego boost whenever Blue complimented them like this “Don’t be all gushy, your...hypnosis or whatever DOESN’T work on me! I’m not vaccinated!”
Ruining the moment, the lights above them made a noise that even Blue could tell wasn’t normal. Lime looked up and then round through the door to Electrical to find the electricity boxes was completely messed up,
“Damn gremlins...I did this all up not even that long ago!!” they grumbled under their breath, stepping into Electrical right as all the lights flunked themselves out one by one.
It made a pretty freakish noise, especially since all light remaining were spotlights of the eery backup light. Lime ran straight back to Blue’s side, whipping out their wrench from their overalls and swinging it a front of them in defence,
“HA, freakin’ idiots, the gremlins aren’t gonna get us, not with me around, Blue you don’t gotta worry a bit,” They switched their wrench from left to right, “Head towards that spotlight Doc, the lil’ freaks hate it- whys they’re in the vents all the time,”
Blue wouldn’t be one to argue and headed into the spotlight by the lower end of the engine, watching Lime back up close to them, still holding that wrench out into the darkness. Blue crouched down against the floor, despite being a ghost, they could still feel the cold of the tiles against them, oddly enough it woke them up enough to snap out of looking at Lime all loopy and actually make a bit of space for them to sit down. It was a tight fit no matter how far they backed up.
Despite the proximity, Lime decides they can bare it, with it just being only Blue and such,
“Heh, no need to thank me, I wouldn’t let a thing hurt ya again after all that’s happened,”
Lime looked awfully proud of themselves, which made Blue have to repress how that made them feel show against their own cheeks. Blue would never have the heart to tell them they probably wouldn’t get hurt by anything anymore, especially now they were ghosts, but mainly because it showed how Lime really cared,
“Well I’m glad, it’s important to have someone like you on this ship, Lime,”
They grumbled in response, turning away at their name against Blue’s tongue. At least this time, the silence the two were left in didn’t feel awkward and more comfortable. Blue’s presence beside Lime felt a little more natural.
“So,” Lime cleared their throat, “...Blue, I’ve noticed you get a lotta people gush over ya,”
Blue glanced at them slightly, “Uh! Sorry- But what do you mean?” their fingers started to dwindle over one another,
Lime furrowed their brows, “You don’t take me an idiot! You know what I mean! I knew it! I knew you did hypnotise em’!!” they noticed how Blues expression flickered for a second but didn’t budge with their argument,
“Fine! But don’t think I do it on purpose, to hypnotise others nun the less, I would never wish something like that upon anyone here,” They look down at their hands, noticing their nervous fidgeting and setting their hands beside them,
“You like it?”
They look back up at the wall, “It depends, but in my work field, professionalism comes first. I uh-,” They turned back to check Lines reaction, “I like to take it as a compliment I suppose, but when I’m trying to do certain things...It can be a little difficult,”
Lime scoffed at themselves, “If anything of the sort happened to me I’d be dreamin’ I’d tell ya-”
“Lime don’t say that, your very admirable...and handsome in your appearance,” Blue had to practically swallow their heart to stop it from beating so fast, it was a simple compliment – the truth, they assured themselves.
“GYAH!! Ya- your just sayin’ that to butter me up again!” Lime waved at them dismissively, had they heard them right? Internally they fought the urge to swoon again.
Blue took Lime’s frantic hands into theirs and Lime felt themselves heat up, “Lime! Please listen! Even as a ghost all the things that made you charming in flesh are still prominent, your hands, the way your visor sits- Ah! All still very beautiful,” Blue shut themselves up to stop them from getting too unprofessional,
Lime kept their hand in Blues for a couple seconds longer then swatted them away, “Yeah yeah, swoon, swoon I get it big dog!!”
Blue lay their hands away, looking out into the dark again. Limes hands suddenly felt a little too empty and placed themselves in their own. If Blue had really meant what they said, did their words mean as much too them as it did Lime, or did Blue say those kind of things to everyone? The thought of it freaked Lime out, going around professing such – almost intimate things...God bless Blue, they didn’t know.
After a while of waiting for the lights, Lime became sort of accustomed to Blues presence, (or they hadn’t wanted to jump in a vent to escape). It dawned on them that for the first time in a while, they had actually trusted somebody for this long – of course they were always on edge, but not just for themselves anymore, but for Blue as well. They could see them just in their peripheral vision and felt a sense of sadness that they where both sat here together, dead.
“Uh- Blue,” Lime looked down, avoiding Blues gaze for the millionth time today, “I gotta say, I’m sorry,”
Blue seemed to dart up at this, “This is out of nowhere? What possibly for?” Lime could feel their eyes against them, just what they were avoiding,
“I shoulda been there to keep an eye out for my scan, if I didn’t let myself get hypnotised you could be alive and kicking right now!!”
Blue’s silence wasn’t helping the emotions sent straight from Hell Lime was feeling,
“Lime,”
They glanced upwards slowly, only to be met with the same look that could make any crewmate swoon,
“Y-Yeah?”
“You don’t have to apologize for things like that, you weren’t to know, I weren’t to know any of this would happen,” Blue seemed to notice the effect and turned away,
“You’re kidding me right!” Lime cussed at no one in particular. Only thinking about it more made them feel their chest tense up, maybe if the others had believed their superstitions in the first place White wouldn’t of had to die either! Orange and Green, they hadn’t even noticed that they’d been replaced with the aliens...and scolded themselves for not noticing sooner.
“Lime listen, when you left me in the care of your scan, your absence, it made me so happy,”
“WHAT!?!”
Blue quickly dismissed what they had said ,”Agh! No! I mean, when you left me alone with your scan, the fact you trusted me with it, I felt-” they let out a breath, “I felt honoured, almost,”
They looked straight ahead back into the dark, “You shouldn’t have to apologise for something you didn’t know was to happen, if anything, I should be the one apologising,”
Lime whipped around to face Blue now, “The heck? For what?”
“When you found me, my body, I mean, I knew it would scare you, it scared me,” Despite the strain of dolour in Blue’s voice, they let a small laugh escape, “I actually didn’t really want anybody to see me, I was half glad ‘Green’ had locked of the door,”
“Don’t be such a dummy! You think I cared what your uh- face looked like at the time!!”
“Ye-“
“Well NO! I was more devasted you where freakin’ dead that’s for sure!”
Blue didn’t look back, a small blush forming on their cheeks at Lime’s confession – whether Lime had meant it affectionately Blue took it up for debate.
“Well, thank you, I suppose,”
Lime grumbled something under their breath and leaned back from the spotlight, peeping round the corner to Electrical. Glancing back at Blue, they gave them a look as if to say, ‘Watch this shitshow,’ and pointed over to the cuffuffle around the entrance, despite only the silhouettes of a few crewmates being in sight, Blue could easily tell it was Cyan, Black and Yellow.
“These guys are gonna completely mess up my poor baby! Takes ages to flick the damn levers at the perfect angle,”
Mentally Blue decided it wasn’t a good time to imagine Lime flicking anything considering the proximity between them.
Back in Electrical a distant, ‘Aha!’ was heard, above the two, the spotlight flickered; made a questionable noise, and completely clunked out, leaving both of them in complete darkness. Blue initially jumped at the noise and scooted over to Lime and half expected to be pushed away, yet to their surprise Lime held them closer. Although both of them were dead, the warmth between them was very much alive.
“EughghAh! This is bad! You know how bad you gotta mess up for the back-up lights to turn on! These older generations don’t get how this stuff works!”
Blue didn’t bother questioning anything again. Either way they found themselves with Lime gripping their shoulders franticly,
“BLUE! This is BAD! Gremlins are gonna be up and at us any second!!”
“You’re the expert in this field, what should we do?” Blue did not seem as worried as they should have been.
“Do NOT look them in the eye if you see one, you know what’ll happen...” Blue swallowed at the finger pointed directly against their visor, “We gotta find a light,” Lime slumped back down against the floor in thought, yet didn’t find themselves sat at all. Instead they found themselves between the floor, gasping in realisation as their legs hit the cold familiarity of a vent.
That was it!
The vents!
God they really were a genius! Lime trailed their mind back to when they had tried to alien proof the ship and remembered, somewhere deep in the vent system, they had lit a whole bunch of candles in a particularly spacey stretch. If they could get to it before the gremlins could, Lime could actually save Blue!
“Alright Big dog, you gotta follow my lead, I gotta plan and were gonna make it!!”
“I’ll be right behind you, Lime,” Blue had been watching everything click in Lime’s brain for a little while now, and was fairly eager to follow whatever resolution they had for this ‘situation’.
Lime sunk down into the vent, fitting in perfectly fine. Much better than Blue who had the rim of their ghostly body clip through from the outside of the vent. As they followed close behind Lime, Blue had no clue where they were going and no clue where to put their goddamn eyes, they did need to keep an eye for which turns Lime had taken, but having to look up every few seconds only to see their back end threw them off task more than it really should have. Blue scolded themselves; so much for being professional.
Eventually, the space in the vents opened up a little more, letting Blue fit properly inside – and from a short distance away, a faint shine through in front of Lime and back behind to hit Blue. Inside this particular bit if vent, an abundance of candles flickered against the walls of the vent, casting pretty speckles of light up and around.
Somehow Lime had managed to turn themselves around to face Blue, despite the slightly larger space, Blue still found it rather confined for themselves, “See, I knew I had some of that good natural light, no chemicals no nothin’!” they let out a sharp laugh, “Like to see gremlins come near these things,” they looked awfully proud of themselves.
Blue wished they could of said something like congratulatory or maybe even a thank you, but struggled to speak in a coherent sentence with the way Lime looked at time like this; small beads of sweat all glossy in the candle light, the way the warm orange really made them look so perfect up-close. Blue internally sighed, again, so much for being professional.
“STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!!” Lime had turned to face away from the candles, the glow radiating the colour on their cheeks,
“Oh I do apologize! I’m just-,” Blue looked down at the metal bellow slightly flustered to have been caught staring, “...I’m very glad you were able to think of a place like this,”
There was a long pause between them until Lime grumbled, “Never mind, these vents aren’t a lot to look at anyway...”
Blue could only flush deeper at the compliment, they got compliments often, yet from one to be from a person like Lime, that was an achievement in itself. They shook there flustered state off, suddenly searching for something to take their mind of Lime.
“Uhm- So how long do you think it will take them to fix these lights?” Blue tried to settle themselves down, it was the only question that had managed to make its way out,
“Pftttt, Hell if I know, they’re still probably getting off on whatever was up with them...from before,” Lime’s voice trailed off, and Blue noticed the way the seemed to slump over themselves at the mention from earlier.
Blue knew that intimacy, even touch in general was obviously a sensitive topic for Lime - mainly from the few times they had tried to invite Lime for one of Miras mandatory check-ups. Somehow Lime had managed to squeeze their way out of having to do them, so much for Blue being the one using their looks against them.
Blue told themselves to tread lightly in what they said from here, “You’ve...never seemed to be too fond on touch, or that’s at least what I’ve gathered from whenever you’re called into Medbay,” Lime seemed to fold in on themselves, and Blue mentally scolded themselves for having even started the conversation,
“S-So you DO keep all the data from, whatever the heck you do to me!! How could I’ve-“
“No! No! Lime! This is just, me, personally, what I’ve noticed, it’s a Docters habit...” They had let themselves on a little more desperately than they meant too.
“Uh, Oh- Kay,”
The vent fell into silence again, and Blue could almost hear their heart beating through their chest, they wished they hadn’t even bothered in the first place.
“Well- I mean, getting all touchy feely, it just irks me the wrong way, But! Its not like it doesn’t feel, well,” God, Lime’s tongue was just tripping them up on purpose now, “I could..! But...you know, blood harvesters and stuff...I don’t wanna risk that!!” This vent was getting fuller of shitty excuses the longer the two stayed there.
Although whatever Lime had said sounded ridiculous to the average crewmate, Blue still found themselves chuckling at Limes response, “I see, so, you would feel safer being closer with someone you trust? Or at least someone you know wont traffic your blood?”
“UH- yeah...! Even if trust is just a concept!” Lime avoided looking at Blue, seemingly quite embarrassed at the confession,
“Lime,”
They gulped, and suddenly it occurred to them how sweaty they had gotten in the past few minutes, they blamed the candles, “Ghh- Yeah,”
“Do you trust...me?”
Lime mentally knew that yes, despite how sceptical they were of Blues field of work, Blue themselves were trustable enough, or at least the most trustworthy on the ship. Whether they were willing to admit that out loud was a completely different stretch.
The silence Blue was left in did not help ease their nerves one bit, they wanted the vent to just open up and chuck them into space, although a part of Blue wanted - no, needed to know what Lime really felt.
“I...Uh- yeah, I guess I do,” a wash of relief flooded the vent, and the tension in Limes chest could feel untightened itself.
“Oh Lime I’m so glad!” Blue took their hands in Limes, keeping a close eye on whether they pulled back or not. So far, they had just limply left their fingers atop Blues own, “I don’t think you understand how much you trust means, especially after what you’ve offered to tell me,”
If Lime hadn’t seen bliss before, they had certainly seen it now. Blue’s visor was quite literally sparkling in glee, or maybe it was just the candlelight, and they way they looked at them like some blessing from God themselves, it made them shiver a little. Blue must of noticed this as they felt their hands slip away from theirs,
“Gaahh! Swoon, swoon, swoon!!! Damn the gremlins, your actually gettin’ to me Doc!” Blue seemed to come back to earth and glanced themselves away. Lime grumbled under their breath, “I mean, its not entirely a bad thing...”
Blue felt themselves edge closer to Lime on instinct, their visors centimetres away from each other. Limes breath had been caught in their throat and the candle light had become much more handy than it had to begin with. Slowly Lime paced themselves and slid their hand across to barely touch Blues. God this was really happening.
Lime clinked their visors together, before pulling away quickly and closing their eye, “DAH! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I don’t wanna do this anymore!”
After a little while they flicked open their visor to find Blue seemingly flustered as them,
“Don’t worry, Lime, that was great, your braver than me,”
If the candle light hadn’t already been emitting that warm glow, Lime might as well of been completely red. Maybe not, they didn’t want to think about Red right now.
After a little while, the awful sound of the lights turning on vibrated through the vents, but neither of them particularly bothered to move. Lime had always been happier in the vents anyway.