Chapter Text
A tired chatter arose from the crew as they crowded into the bridge.
“You still haven’t explained why we all had to come here. No one’s even had breakfast yet,” Simon grumbled.
“Oh, right! Sorry. We’re about to enter a Psych Field.”
“A what.”
“It’s some kind of electromagnetic phenomenon out here in space– only discovered pretty recently.”
“Electromagnetic? Shouldn’t we be worried?”
“Nah. Psych Fields aren’t harmful on their own, but they have a tendency to do some weird things to human emotions. That’s why we call ‘em ‘Psych Fields,’ actually! Most of us should be fine, but we should probably brace ourselves, just to be safe. And it’s better if we’re all in one place for that.”
“Wait, what kinds of ‘weird things?’”
“No real way to know until we’re in it!”
Simon huffed.
“Mark, that’s not–”
The bridge shook as a wave of magenta light made its way through the ship. The crew stumbled while trying to keep their balance, and Simon was thrown to the floor with a painful-sounding THUD.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, the magenta light faded. The only noticeable difference was a slightly different “vibe” in the air that no one would really be able to describe if asked.
Simon groaned as he struggled to get up. Mark turned to him, smiled, and reached out his hand.
“I gotcha, buddy.”
The moment their fingers made contact, Mark knew he had made a terrible mistake.
Up until that moment, he didn’t think it was possible to fall madly in love with someone you were already in love with.
As “luck” would have it, he was wrong.
His gaze softened as he pulled Simon to his feet. His black, somewhat-curly hair spilled over his headband like waterfalls of fresh ink. His deep brown eyes were almost hypnotic, and the tired, mildly frustrated look on his face was suddenly more strangely endearing than usual.
He looked exactly the same as always, but to Mark, he was the most beautiful person in the universe.
Mark felt like his brain had been removed from his skull, and the empty space was filled up with cotton candy or something. Right now, the only thing on his mind– or only person on his mind, rather– was Simon.
His heartbeat quickened.
Simon let go of his hand and muttered a quick “thanks” before dusting himself off. Mark struggled to tear his eyes away. It was unbelievable how anyone could be so gorgeous. Just looking at Simon filled him with the nigh-uncontrollable desire to kiss him so hard it’d take his breath away.
There was no doubt about it. Thanks to the Psych Field, Mark was in love. He was more deeply in love with Simon than he had ever been before.
The Captain broke Mark out of his infatuation-induced trance by sternly tapping him on the shoulder. He yelped in surprise and whipped around. They started signing.
{What the hell are you doing? We need to do a status check on the crew before we can dismiss them!}
Mark shook his head like it was an Etch-A-Sketch he was desperately trying to erase.
“S-sorry, Captain!” He turned to the crew and cleared his throat. “Okay, we’re inside the Psych Field! Should be through in the equivalent of three days. Everyone alright? No adverse effects so far?”
General murmurs of “yeah” and “I think so” arose from the crowd, punctuated by sudden sobs from Burt and the sound of someone punching the wall.
“Alright everyone! Good job! Let’s try to keep the physical violence to a minimum!” He glanced back at the Captain so he could translate. “Cap says you all can go back to your stations!”
Mark smiled, staring firmly out the closed window as the crew filed out of the bridge. Simon briefly grabbed his bicep to get his attention so they could follow suit, but all this accomplished was making Mark feel like he was going to explode. Simon paused.
“Mark? Are you alright?”
Even though Mark had heard it a million times, the sound of his name spoken in Simon’s voice made his heart flutter.
“M-me? No– I mean, uh, yeah! I-I’m totally, completely fine! Nothing to worry about here! Everything’s A-OK!”
If Simon noticed that Mark was very conspicuously avoiding making eye contact, he didn’t say anything about it. He squinted at him, then decided that neither of them had enough caffeine in their systems to deal with anything yet and shook his head.
“If you say so. Hey, I’m going to breakfast– you coming?”
“I-I-I– uh, yeah! Just, um, I gotta– y’know what, you go on ahead! I’ll meet you there!”
“Alright. See you there.”
Simon left, and Mark couldn’t help but let out a lovestruck sigh as the door closed behind him.
The Captain grabbed Mark by the shoulder and spun him around so he could see what they were “saying.”
{I know subtlety isn’t exactly your strong suit, but dude, that was genuinely painful to watch.}
“Is it that obvious?” Mark asked, a goofy smile still stuck on his face.
{I don’t think you could be more obvious if you tried. Are you sure you’re gonna be able to make it three days?}
Mark’s expression finally fell, just a little.
“‘Make it?’ What do you mean?”
{You know Simon doesn’t like being lied to, and you just told him probably the most blatant lie in the multiverse. Honestly, I think he only pretended to believe it. So either you gotta tell him the truth REALLY soon, or try to keep this a secret until we’re out of the Psych Field.}
“You really think I can’t keep a secret? Captain, how many lifetimes have we known each other?”
{Enough for me to know that you’re completely cooked,} they signed with a deadpan expression. Mark smiled, paying them no mind.
“Now, Captain, if you’ll excuse me, I have to meet up with Simon for our date.”
{You eat breakfast with him literally every day.}
“I don’t care. It’s a date.”