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"And where have you been? And why are you dripping .. stuff all over our floor again?" Hunter was exasperated. It wasn't enough that Crosshair kept dragging ... sea stuff here, now he was dripping … goo on the floor. And he had no intention of cleaning it, Hunter just knew that.
"It's the glowy goo," Crosshair shrugged, opening the fridge and scrunching up his nose at the contents. "Gets stuck in my hair."
"I can see that, you need to-"
"What glowy goo?" Tech poked his head in, interrupting them. When he spotted the goo on the floor - and still dripping from Crosshair's hair - he curiously entered the kitchen. "What is that?"
Crosshair shrugged again, throwing the fridge door closed, Wrecker's sandwich in hand. "Sometimes that stuff appears. It gets stuck everywhere, I don't like it, but it glows."
"Does it glow when you touch it?"
"Yeah?"
Tech's eyes went big and he started tugging on Crosshair's arm, almost making him drop the sandwich. "You need to show me where you found it!These are bioluminescent algae and they are rare here! Let's go."
"But I'm hungry," Crosshair protested, trying to resist Tech dragging him out of the door.
"I'll get you McDonald's later, but you need to show me, now!" Tech sounded way too excited over … goo. But to be honest, Tech got excited about a lot of strange things.
"Fine," Crosshair grumbled, throwing the sandwich on the table and finally let himself be dragged away. "But I'll hold you to that promise."
Hunter had to snicker at the scene. Then he sighed, because someone had to clean the floor before Echo got home and got another heart attack, and it was looking to be him.
Crosshair was still grumbling while he followed Tech towards the beach. That's not how he had imagined his evening to go. He had just been back from the ocean and was looking forward to something to eat, and now was dragged there again? But he couldn't say no to Tech, not when he was this excited.
"I'll get the boat ready and -"
Crosshair eyed the moon on the horizon and the currents. The goo would be gone soon. "That's gonna take too much time," he interrupted. "It's gonna be gone by then."
"Oh." Tech sounded disappointed.
"I can drag you on that board thingy?" Sometimes, Wrecker made him drag him around on that strange board some of these humans used. Wrecker loved it and Crosshair didn't mind. It was better than the boat - less noisy, and easy enough to pull for him.
"Okay." Tech had agreed before Crosshair had completely finished his sentence, already running to take it out of the shed. Crosshair quickly stripped and waited for Tech in the water, idly splashing around. He nearly got hit with the board in all of Tech's excitement.
"Hey, watch out."
He didn't even get an apology, Tech only rolled his eyes and shrugged of his shirt and pants - he had started wearing swim clothes under his clothes most of the times, and it came in handy now - before climbing on the board and handing Crosshair the line.
"Where have you seen them?" Tech asked, sitting down, a small waterproof bag with a camera clutched close.
"About 8 swim units out there." Crosshair gestured in the vague direction, out towards the reef.
"That's still not a correct measurement."
Crosshair only huffed and started swimming, line in his hand. He tried not to splash too much - the night wasn't too cold, but humans apparently didn't do well when wet and cold for longer times.
He slowed down after a few minutes. They were in the vicinity, but the sea had calmed down, without winds and he didn't want to hit the goo face first. It always burned in his eyes. He also didn't get why Tech wanted the see the goo so bad - yeah it glowed but they had much cooler glowy things on land than the goo could be and - Crosshair sputtered when exactly the thing happened he had tried to avoid. It was disgusting and the good didn't even taste good.
He pushed his head out of the water, trying to wipe it from his face and eyes so he could see again.
Once his eyes were free from the goo, he blinked rapidly, and tried to see where the board had gone. Boards and boats were tricky things, always floating wherever. He still had the line in his hands, so at least it was close by.
When his eyes found it, his breath hitched.
Tech was kneeling on the board, one hand gliding through the water. The goo activated around the movement of his hand and the board, illuminating the whole scene. But what made Crosshair pause was the look on Tech's face. His eyes were big behind his goggles, almost sparkling and he was softly talking to himself. He looked like he had just discovered the most beautiful thing in his life, running his hands through the water again and again. Beautiful.
Forgotten was that he hated the glowy goo, that he didn't like the feeling of how it stuck to his body or hair. He swam up, resting his arms on the board. "Do you like it?" he murmured.
"It's fascinating. Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction in a living organism. It's found in several marine animals, from bacteria and jellyfish to crustaceans and starfish. I didn't know we had those here." Tech was wearing a smile now, and Crosshair couldn't tear his eyes away.
"It doesn't happen often." Crosshair held back the 'fortunately' and laid back in the water, letting himself drift while watching Tech discovering the glowy goo - algae - and listening to him rambling about algae and bioluminescence and chemicals and whatever.
He couldn't help himself smiling. Tech looked so cute,completely immersed in this. He didn't care what other people thought - Tech getting excited about something was the best. And Crosshair rarely found his talking annoying.
"This phenomena is really rare and I didn't think I would see it here and -" Tech's voice abruptly stopped an Crosshair blinked his eyes open where he had closed them to listen to Tech's voice.
Tech was precariously kneeling on the edge of the board and staring right at him, mouth slightly open.
"You're glowing."
"And?" Crosshair softly splashed in the water, making the glowy goo glow more.
"It's - you're beautiful."
He what? Crosshair felt his cheeks heat up and tried to hide his face, splashing a bit more, just to hide his reaction. It created little waves, that rocked the board, making Tech sway. Without a second thought, Crosshair was over at his side.
"Don't fall in." He reached out to stabilize Tech and they ended up face to face. Crosshair held his breath. This close, he could see the glowing being reflected in Tech's goggles and brown eyes, and feel warm puffs of air against his face.
The urge to lean in and kiss him was strong, but he was unsure if it was the right thing to do, if he should - and Tech beat him to it, closing the distance between them and softly pressing their lips together. For a moment, Crosshair was frozen, then his world narrowed down to Tech and his soft lips. He kissed back, mindful of his sharp teeth, but before long, it got more enthusiastic. One of Tech's hand sneaked in Crosshair's hair, pulling him closer.
"Careful," Crosshair chuckled when it almost made the board topple over, before he was pulled in another kiss. And another. And another.
They ended up in the water , floating together, still kissing, until a small wave washed over them. Tech sputtered, trying to spit out the goo.
"They taste horrible."
Crosshair could only snort.