Chapter Text
Shintaro’s eyes fly open as he’s slammed against the side of the ship. Shaking his head to clear it, he glances around at the scene. How long was he unconscious? It can’t have been more than a minute, because through the whirring and clanking of faulty machinery he can still hear the soda he spilled on the control pad fizzing, still see the sparks from the cable. He feels dazed, unable to move. Ene is screaming, in rending glitches and beeps that tear at his eardrums, but the ringing in his head prevents him from making out a single word in the rising steam.
Is he going to die here?
He stares at the controls from where he stands, vision swimming. Some of the buttons seem to have come loose, soda pooling underneath them, getting in the wires. The orange light of the monitor glints off it and turns it red. It looks sickeningly like a scene from his nightmares, except…
Except.
He lurches forwards, head and heart pounding, and tries to focus on what Ene’s telling him. The AI is still glitching out but through the static he can just about catch her words:
“Master! Master, the joystick!”
“What do you think I’m doing!?”
He pushes it down with a snarl and a flick of his wrist. For a second, he thinks it might break off in his hand- but it holds, the ship giving another massive lurch as it clicks into place. Ene whoops joyfully.
“Hold on tight!”
There’s a wailing noise from the computer as the emergency landing sirens kick in. Shintaro throws himself onto the floor under the monitor, bracing his hands above his head and drawing up his knees. The machinery around him sparks more than ever and he wonders for a single, terrified moment if diving down here was the wrong choice; but then space contorts as the device shifts into brake mode, and the ringing in his head overwhelms him, sending him spiralling back into quiet, forgiving blackness.
***********************
Beep! Beep! Beep!
He rolled over with a groan, slamming off the alarm and snuggling back into the bedsheets. It was six in the morning, but light was already pouring through the large window across the room, painting a bright, orangey-red over the insides of his eyelids. The warmth was pleasant, and the room quiet. A perfect morning for sleeping in.
“Morning, Shin!”
Apparently, his husband didn’t think so.
“Ouch, ow, get off me, what the hell?”
There was a giggle and the weight on his legs lifted, though not before Haruka managed to slide in a cheeky wiggle of his hips and a light kiss planted on Shintaro’s cheek.
“Aw, don’t be like that. I even brought you breakfast!”
Shintaro wanted to tell him that he wasn’t hungry, that he’d like to just get back to sleep, actually, thanks- but the smell of freshly made pancakes hit him and his stomach gave a low grumble. Yawning, he reluctantly forced himself upright and opened his eyes.
If he hadn’t been so used to Haruka by now, he probably would have yelled. Instead, he just mumbled rather halfheartedly:
“Put some clothes on, oh my God.”
Haruka laughed again, setting the little tray of food down on Shintaro’s side of the bed and folding his arms over his chest.
“Hey, that’s no way to talk to your sweetheart. You can consider my nudity a special breakfast treat.”
Shintaro flushed.
“You just couldn’t be bothered to find a shirt, could you?”
Haruka shot him a guilty, ‘you-got-me!’ look, and plopped himself down on the bed.
“You’re just jealous of my impeccable beauty, Shin.”
Shintaro snorted and turned to pick up a fork, stabbing the corner of a pancake with it and holding it out towards his husband, dangling off the metal. Haruka scooped it up in one colossal bite and grinned.
“Ohh, we’re feeding each other? Cute! Just like proper newlyweds.”
It was silly, but Shintaro couldn’t help grinning back at that. It had been three months, but he still couldn’t quite believe that the two of them were actually, legally married. Not that marriage ever mattered much to either of them- but there was something incredibly warming about knowing that they were willing to dedicate themselves to each other in a binding contract. They’d been dating since high school, but Shintaro still had trouble believing that Haruka liked him, sometimes.
“Yeah, well,” is all he said, embarrassment clear on his face. Haruka looked at him, expression suddenly quite serious.
“...What?”
“It just hit me that I really, really love you.”
Shintaro felt his cheeks heat up. He looked down at his hands, as if they might formulate a response for him. He couldn’t think how to reply- couldn’t match Haruka’s earnest tenderness, had never been good with words. He collapsed back onto his pillow and let out a groan.
Haruka just laughed at him, leaning in to kiss the top of his head and standing up.
“You’re so cute, Shintaro. I’ll call you at lunchtime, okay?”
Still face-down, Shintaro nodded, and Haruka busied himself with getting dressed for work.
***********************
He’s woken, not by his alarm, but by birds. He grabs for Haruka, his duvet, anything that could potentially make the annoying noise stop. Instead of finding his bed, however, hard soil scrapes under his fingers.
He opens his eyes.
Immediately, he knows something is wrong. The air is sticky and humid, and the sky, barely visible through the thick canopy of leaves above him, is a few shades off, a little too yellow and a little too bright. Through the thick smoke from the wreckage of his ship, he squints up at the unfamiliar trees and tries to place them. They look coniferous, but they're larger than any trees he's seen. He's reminded quite distinctly of something he read in one of Haruka's theses, a few of his old studies, and an image flashes into his head of an double page in a book Haruka kept by their bed. Closing his eyes, he mentally scans the image for the book's title.
...Oh. Oh shit.
There’s no time to let it sink in. The noise that he thought was wheeling birdsong pierces through the air once again, shattering the fuzziness in his head. It sounds like a seagull’s cry, warped and amplified into something monstrous, and all he can think as he stumbles to his feet is that of all places, all times, he had to crash-land here.
The book. The bed. Haruka, asleep and snoring, arm thrown over the bedside table so Shintaro can only barely make out the words on the cover:
Flora and Fauna of the Cretaceous.
He’s fucking screwed.
***********************
Haruka didn’t call him, that lunchtime. Shintaro, hard at work on his latest paper, didn’t bother chasing him up. He was probably curled up in his office, either asleep or too lost in some new research on Ceratopsidae to make himself available to the world. Shintaro liked that about Haruka; though he was silly, and unreliable, and sometimes downright weird, it was always in the right ways, and he never let it cause trouble. He also liked (perhaps selfishly) that the only thing Haruka put before Shintaro was his work. He knew how much art and dinosaurs meant to the man, and to be placed almost on equal terms- that was the highest honor he could think of.
By three o’clock, though, he couldn’t hold off a niggling worry. Haruka’s naps didn’t usually take this long. He supposed he could have slept through lunch and had to rush to a meeting, but he sent a text anyway, just to be sure:
Haruka❀
08/15
hey.
where are you?
i’m gonna eat all
your dinner if you
don’t get back to
me soon www
...Well, that should get a response. Smirking to himself, he stood up, stretched, and went to get some lunch.
He found a clean plate on the side of the sink and a lemon drizzle cake in the fridge. He cut himself a large slice, carefully placing the remainder of the cake back in the packet- if Haruka knew that Shintaro was eating sweet things as meals again, he’d definitely berate him. He grabbed some kale for Tono on his way out of the kitchen and headed back to his room.
His phone screen was lit, its glow turning the duvet cover a light shade of neon blue. Just as he'd thought, his husband had been unable to resist a threat like that. He sat down heavily on the bed and put the plate on his lap, setting the bowl for Tono on the floor for now as he picked up his phone.
He smiled to himself. Three missed calls, no new texts. Haruka really must be worried about his dinner. He quickly punched in the number that would take him to his answerphone and put the device to his ear.
‘You have: ONE new message. Message received: today, at 2:30pm.
Hello?’
That wasn’t his husband’s voice.
‘Mister… Shintaro K? Sorry to alarm you, but this is the police. There’s been an accident.’
Something glanced off Shintaro’s knee, hitting the plate and sliding with it onto the floor. The noise as the plate shattered made Tono leap up in alarm, but Shintaro didn’t react beyond glancing down at the mess in a daze. There was his phone, face-down, still playing its muffled message into the carpet that Haruka had walked just hours before.
It beeped. The message ended.
He was left with silence.
***********************
Tearing, unbearable noise. It almost seems to open a fissure in the sinking earth; rocks dislodge with every new shriek, and every beat of the creature’s wings, still metres above the ground, threatens to knock Shintaro off his feet with sheer force. Panic courses through him., and he runs without looking back- his shoes slipping on swamp-dirt that they were never made for, his legs stumbling over strange roots and brambles that they never should have touched. His mind flashes hysterically with images from books, science fiction, the butterfly effect, but he has no time to dwell on it. Besides. If he’s crushing beetles, maybe that day won’t ever happen. Isn’t changing the future exactly what he set out to do?
The beast is gaining on him. Its feathers burn sharp in the corner of his eye, and its bones block his view of the sun. All he can think, as he flees, is that he wishes he could get a better look at the thing. Haruka will want to know everything, when he gets home.
His feet hit rock just as his legs are about to give out. Looking up, he feels his stomach soar with frenzied hope. There. Up the hill- over these rocks- a cave. With renewed determination, he sprints for it.
It’s close. He squeezes inside just as the pterodactyl’s breath hits the back of his neck, its piercing shriek of frustration as he disappears from view momentarily deafening him and sending him flying forward, slamming onto the hard ground. It’s cool against his face, and for a few moments he just lies there, panting. There’s blood in his throat and he thinks he might have broken a couple of ribs- but he’s alive. A breathy peal of laughter escapes him. Wow.
He really is a mad scientist, isn’t he?
Behind him, another loud cry rings out. From safety, the screaming sounds much less frightening. It really is just like an ugly, amplified bird call, and he belatedly remembers that Haruka once told him pterosaurs lived on a diet of mostly fish and small reptiles. Maybe this one is just defending its territory.
“Sorry,” he tells it, and his voice is cracked from lack of use, causing him to laugh again. Talking to a dinosaur. He shakes his head. Just for second his heart swells with childish joy.
It aches again when he remembers the joy on another’s face at skeletons in dusty museums, at documentaries and worn leather books- so much that he feels the world twist around him and has to close his eyes. How can it hurt this much, so far from home?
Slowly, wincing, he sits up and looks around. It’s a relatively small cave, and he’s lucky in that it seems to be entirely uninhabited, save for a few small droppings from what he can only assume is some type of early rodent. He’s also fortunate that he landed where he did. The ground is littered with sharp rocks, some looking like the beginnings of stalagmites where others are simply loose pieces of rubble. He crawls over to one wall, shivering and holding his arms around his body.
What now? Does he wait? He has to get back to the machine, and to Ene, or she’ll definitely shout at him. The creature still poking around outside has now been proven harmless, but even so, he’d certainly rather not come into even accidental contact with those colossal wings or that cruel, stabbing beak. He wonders how long it will stay. He wonders how long he has.
With nothing else to do, Shintaro picks up a piece of rock from the floor and turns to the wall. His eyelids are drooping with fatigue and his body is trembling still, but nonetheless, he somehow manages to scratch a single message onto the stone:
For Haruka.
Then, closing his eyes, he lets the pterodactyl song lull him to sleep, back into restless dreams.