Chapter Text
From the first time they met, Wyald Spinder had always been bold about how much he admired him.
Any part that he could ask for or multiple spaces where he could tinker away without the past catching up to him was a given so long as he did what was asked. Meant he was busy and on projects with infinite possibilities.
On top of that, despite being the 'man of the future' and very busy, Spinder always asked if they could share a meal together. It was usually prepared by people Boondorio never saw, and while he itched to try cooking up some curry or anything really to not get any rustier, Spinder insisted that it was meant to be a treat for them both.
It was too good to be true for someone at as low of a point as him.
It felt nice to not be on the run alone anymore but swallowing that fact felt weirder than the rest of the drinks he drowned in.
“Beautifully done work as always, my dear Boon.”
He pushed it aside as he stepped into the dimly lit dining room of the current ship they were staying in. While not the most elaborate of setups that Spinder had, there wasn't much subtlety about the dizzying amount of money behind it.
The standout feature here was a hologram that wrapped around the entire room so that it looked like Boondorio just stepped onto the surface of a moon. Other moons, suns, and stars danced around in the distance, and if it weren't for the temperature being cranked up to the max, it could've fooled him.
Different dishes from across the galaxy were spread across a long table in the middle. Under that was a dark red carpet that floated above the holographic moon's surface without a shadow.
“What’s keeping you? Go on, take a seat,” Spinder said, patting an open seat next to him
Boondorio walked over and sat down, only realizing as he did how close to Spinder and his monkey it was.
Spinder stabbed his fork into a piece of meat he didn’t recognize before pointing it over to Boondorio.
“Here, try this. I’d say it’s quite good but you’re more knowledgeable on this, aren’t you/”
“Sure, why not?"
The meat practically melted in Boondorio’s mouth. It had a slight spice to it too. And consistency… hm… maybe the closest he’d compare it to in retrospect was like beef. Still, there was beef steak there too but this… this was something else.
Boondorio hummed.
“Well? Spinder asked. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
“I think it’d work great in a curry.”
“Ah, so the highest praise.”
Boondorio stared off at the virtual moons and stars. The more he thought about it, the more it reminded him of a course in the BBG where the planet's sky was so clear at night that it naturally made for a real distraction. If it weren't for how nice the view was, he was sure he'd have that win...
Byoon D especially liked getting poetic about astrology and he still pulled through with that race by a landslide though!
So in the end he just didn't have what it took.
In that slipstream where Byoon D hugged him and said all sorts of nice things that got him heating up, it felt like he had enough of a chance to smile and say "I'll beat you next time!"
He didn't have what it took to do that.
All that kept him from completely falling off the edge of the universe was random flashes of luck between crash after crash after crash after-
“My dear Boon, are you still listening? You haven't touched anything in a while."
“Huh? Yeah, I’m all ears,” Boondorio said, picking up a spoonful of fried rice.
This ship blasted through space faster and farther from where this hologram stood still.
There's no going back, was there? Of course there wasn't. He just had to use this chance he had now to hope one last time. If this prototype device went through the next stage of development smoothly and proved that it can help people do whatever task they wanted, and if every other stage following it went smoothly too, maybe he had something in him all along.
“I think a trip to Planet Bureki is in order,” Spinder said, putting a hand on Boondorio’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t want you to hit a wall with this phase of the project."
"Everything's been smooth sail-"
"We can even make it mostly a day off from it. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
"But I'm this close to getting this done."
Spinder let out a long sigh. “To carve out our future, we still need to live in the present to the absolute fullest. That's what watching your races did for me back then. You tried in so many different ways to speed ahead... it was so exhilarating."
Boondorio looked down at his nearly untouched plate.
"It's so easy to crash while doing that though, isn't it? You were so close to being lost out there, and when I heard about what that rusted bag of bolts tried to do, I knew then that I had to make my move if it meant preserving you. Now that we've worked together for some time, I still don't know what I would do without you."
Boondorio laughed. “Why’re you saying all that? I just do what you ask like anyone else working for you."
“More than that. You are like the suns that light up a planet… without them the Hashiliens would be dim..."
Clink.
Clink.
Spinder's fingers slowly tapped as his hand moved down the bumps and indents of Boondorio's arm.
Clink.
With Spinder's arm around Boondorio's shoulders and the other hand reaching for Boondorio's chest, everything was closing in.
Spinder then whispered "...and I'd be very cold..."
Boondorio’s fork clattered to the floor, remaining suspended above the moon's surface for the rest of that dinner.