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“Ummmm…” Tapping his temples with his fingers for the past half hour was making Daisuke's head sore. When Swansea had handed him the engineering book before take-off, he did not expect to be going over all of it by himself. “Let’s just…” Daisuke tucked the book and his notebook under his arm before he took off through the hallways of the Tulpar to find his mentor.
The door to the lounge slid open. The dawn screen on the far wall made Daisuke blink. When the light was not obtrusive anymore, a scan of the room told Daisuke that Swansea was not in the dining room. The young engineer moved over to the banister above the lower lounge. A mop of curly blond hair was just beneath him. Curly sat in his favorite bean bag in the lower level, looking up at the dawn screen. Daisuke thought he looked a little sad. Probably just homesick. Daisuke was, too.
“Hey, Captain!” Daisuke grinned, waving at the Tulpar captain from above.
“Good morning, Daisuke,” Curly replied after jumping at the boy's surprise cry. “Maybe a little warning next time, eh?”
“Ooh, sorry, Captain.” The boy winced, still peering over the railing.
“And call me Curly, okay? Enough with the ‘captain’ crap.”
Daisuke nodded eagerly. “Okay, Curly.” A grin retook his lips before he pushed away from the rail, starting toward the Utility Bay, when he stopped in his tracks. He turned back to his captain. “Also, do you know where Swansea is? I need his help with something. This book-” the boy waved the heavy thing in the air “-is really hard.”
Curly smiled gently and pointed over to the door leading to the medbay and lower level. Something odd flashed behind his eyes, but Daisuke could not determine what exactly it was. “Try Utilities.” Daisuke nodded firmly and made his way through the halls.
He found Jimmy at the bottom of the lower level stairs. Daisuke did not know the older man very well and he looked tired all the time, but he had not done anything to worry the young mechanic. He flashed Jimmy a big smile as he passed him at the first level landing and hurried on to Utilities. The stairs rang out loudly behind him. Daisuke moved a little faster down the hall.
“Really?” He huffed when he entered the noisy room. The desk behind which Swansea spent much of his day was empty, save for some blueprints and books that lay across its surface. The wall behind it was riddled with overly-repaired tubes and pipes, none of which Daisuke knew the purpose of, and all the cryo-pods were lined up on the side walls–three on the left and two on the right–with their windows partially fogged over with age. The ship was definitely no spring chicken. Daisuke seemed to remember that there was one missing because of his late addition to the crew. That seemed a little irresponsible to him, but who was he to question it? He hardly knew anything of space travel.
Daisuke walked over to the nearest pod and stood on his tiptoes to peer through the aged window. “Swansea?” He sing-songed, his eyes darting through the clearly empty space behind the glass. A heavy sigh escaped him, fogging the glass even more, and he retraced his steps back into the hallway.
A burst of noise snapped his gaze to the end of the hall. It came from the cockpit. Daisuke giggled. Cockpit.
Wait. That yell sounded very familiar, though. And, it was also the only voice that could penetrate those thick cockpit doors–another giggle–besides Curly's, and Daisuke knew it wasn't the captain unless some magic had become involved. Finally, he'd found his mentor!
Daisuke hurried over to the cockpit hallway doors, a grin spreading rapidly over his lips, and bounced impatiently while the doors slid open. As soon as the gap was wide enough, he squeezed through and rushed down the short hall to the final door before the small room. He could hear Swansea's voice now, ranting in his usual way, but not what he was saying. He did sound… angrier than usual.
The door slid open.
Anya stood to the left of the entrance, her hands hugged to her chest as she watched Swansea, who was on the right, grumble and shout about something, unintelligible to Daisuke. He was rummaging around in Curly’s cabinet and very angry that he had not found what he was looking for. Daisuke turned back to Anya.
“Anya?” The sudden words startled the young woman. She jumped slightly before settling on Daisuke's bright face. He had not seen her scare like that before. “What are you doing down here? What's wrong?”
A soft smile crossed her lips. Her eyes darted back to Swansea, who had acknowledged Daisuke's intrusion but could not care because his focus was solely on the something he was searching for. “It's okay, Daisuke,” Anya said. “Everything's fine, don't worry about it.”
“It's not fine.” Swansea's grumble floated up from the clacking of metal against the locker walls. “Dammit- gah!”
Daisuke giggled a little at Swansea's frustration. “He doesn't sound too happy. Did you slip a screwdriver in his pants again?” Anya smiled, then giggled softly with her best friend. Daisuke turned back to her, grinning, and his head tilted in such a way that Anya thought was much akin to a curious puppy. A little warmth blossomed in her chest at the innocence of that look. She looked at Swansea again.
“Get out of there, Swansea,” She told him firmly. “You aren't going to find it.”
“Hell if I don't” Swansea rumbled, but pulled out of the locker and stood to fold his arms over his chest. A grim expression rested on his face; his mouth was drawn tight and his eyes were fiery.
“Are you okay?” Daisuke was greatly confused. What had he just walked in on? “You look mad,” he pointed out to Swansea. “And you look sad,” he said to Anya. Swansea only rolled his eyes, but Anya shuddered before replying.
“I'm okay, Daisuke. I promise.” A small smile formed once more.
Eyes narrowing, he looked her up and down. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Her hands were a little shaky, that he did notice, and her eyes were fluttering. He could also see the concern etched into Swansea's eyes, even through the anger they emanated. Daisuke set the engineering book that he had been hugging to his chest, down on a surface nearby and stepped toward Anya. He enveloped her into his arms. She was stiff at first, arms tight to her chest, but quickly returned the embrace with her hands resting on his back. Eventually, the resting became grasping, and Daisuke was holding his best friend as she cried softly.
Bewilderment washed over Daisuke's features, eyebrows pressing in and mouth drawing down, as his eyes darted from Anya to Swansea. The latter released a sound of frustration once again, and moved toward the door.
“I'm gettin’ Curly,” he said. The door slid open.
“N-no!” Anya hiccuped from Daisuke's embrace. “He won't–”
“Don't care. I only need his keycard.” And then Swansea was gone with a whoosh of the cockpit door.
A new bout of sobs wrenched Anya down, and Daisuke lowered gently to the ground with her. He gathered her up into his arms again and propped himself against the wall. He wanted to say something to her to make her feel better, but he decided that speaking might hurt her worse than just crying so he held his tongue.
Anya's hands still latched onto his shirt, the flowery pink one his mother knew he would love so much, as her sobs dwindled to snuffles. Daisuke carefully rested his chin in her hair while her sniffles cleared. Soon, she moved out of Daisuke's hold and rested beside him, finding comfort in her friend's closeness and not... his.
“So… you didn't put a screwdriver in his pants again?”
Anya burst into sniffly giggles and met the serious brown eyes of Daisuke. “No, I did not put a screwdriver in his pants this time.” Daisuke turned away and stared at the wall ahead of them, or more likely the ravaged locker. Anya became anxious of his silence. Had she scared him?
“Swansea's job is to fix things, but he's a lot better at breaking them.” He grinned widely and turned back to Anya, her face also splitting into a grin. Comfortable silence fell back over the two of them as they examined Swansea's handiwork. Anya looked at the bottom of the locker where the empty slot was–where the gun was supposed to be. Anya wanted it badly. She was not intending to injure him, not if he left her alone. But, if he tried to touch her again, tried to come near her again, Jimmy would pay dearly.
“What's the matter?” Daisuke's concerned voice broke Anya's train of thought. She was about to ask him why he had asked when she noticed her hand had moved on its own accord to cover her stomach. Her friend’s eyes glanced down to her hand.
“Nothing. I…” Anya trailed off. She thought about her words. She did not want to tell Daisuke about that just yet, but she could tell him this. She hoped that he would assume from there so she would not have to tell it again. “I'm pregnant.”
The boy's jaw dropped. His eyes grew wide. Then, the “O” of Daisuke's mouth began to draw up at the corners, and excitement fluttered in every nerve of his being. Anya thought she could see him vibrating.
“What?” Daisuke cried happily, leaning over on both of his hands to examine Anya's tired face. “You're lying.”
“Nope. I swear, bub.” Anya was beginning to smile.
“A baby!” Daisuke bounded up and bounced around in the small area, his mouth running a mile a minute. “Mybestie'sgonnabeamomandSwanseawillbethegrandpaandCurlycanbetheothergrandpaandwecanfeeditandgiveitbathsand– oh my gosh–” Daisuke leaped in front of her “Can I be the uncle?”
Anya really did not know what to expect from Daisuke, but this reaction fit within her assumptions. His words and the genuine love that coursed through them almost made her cry again. “Yes, you can be the uncle.” She spoke softly.
Daisuke laughed aloud and bounced up once more, pumping the air with his fists. His mouth began to run again and Anya paid attention as much as she could, happy for the distraction. She only dreaded the moment that Swansea came striding back in, admitting that she was right–that Curly would not stop it. But, that did not matter at the moment. She wanted to watch the new uncle of her unborn child bound around in excitement for the months to come. She did notice something about his ramblings, though.
Jimmy was absent in all of them.