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At first, you weren’t entirely clear on the nature of their relationship. In fact, you thought they hated each other for a good chunk of time, but then logic won out and you realized they were much closer than anticipated. That, and the supply closet. That definitely changed it.
The bed above you rustles, another victim of life stuck in this cycle of sleeplessness. Their snores resumed after a moment of sheet readjusting, their body falling back into the lull of dreams. You didn’t know the well. The captain had told you not to get to know anyone too well in the 105th squad, for the lives here were temporary. He wouldn’t answer when you asked why he was still here then, if everything was temporary.
You stare up at the mattress above you. The captain and the scientist were such an unlikely pairing, too. From what you saw, the captain was pretty good at staying alive and keeping others alive, while the scientist had thrown their body out into the universe without a second thought. You’d originally thought that the scientist was missing some of their sanity until the captain clicked his tongue, muttering something under his breath and whipping off close behind them. These ventures seemed common. You stopped questioning them after the third or fourth time, almost assigning the role of “keeper” to the captain in regards to the scientist. Almost.
The first inkling that you had of their relationship being more than just a continually exhausting job for the captain was on a Saturday afternoon. They weren’t training today, so everyone had gone off to do their own thing, but you were still wary of making friends. Your fellow trainees regarded you in the same way, calling you paranoid and joking that maybe you did wish death on them. You just shook your head and ate breakfast alone in the dining hall before trudging over to where the maneuver gear was kept by the veteran’s bedrooms.
Creeping through the hallway, you passed by the doors of each veteran you were too afraid to have a real conversation with. There weren’t many veterans, so they all got their own private quarters, which was nice, you supposed. You were told there used to be many others from the veteran squad, but a couple months ago, they all got killed. They used to share rooms, apparently.
Or, maybe they still did. The door to one of the veteran’s rooms was open, cracked just barely. There was soft movement inside, that of a brush and a razor across the scalp. The scientist and the captain again. He could have just gone to the medical wing and gotten it shaved that way, you think, but there’s a subtle smile on the scientist’s face and an almost peaceful look on the captain’s that makes you shy away from the crack in the door, the moment suddenly too intimate for your prying eyes.
Your second inkling was when you opened the supply closet to grab a mop and pail because you knew the captain would kill everyone for trudging mud into the dining hall when whoops that was a nipple oh god I’m so sorry no I won’t tell anyone yessir this won’t happen again bye.
You didn’t question the nature of their relationship after that.