Chapter Text
The ship was quiet. The kind of quiet that sent a subtle ringing through your ears, that muffled your thoughts and made you feel cornered. Purple made their way down the hallway, wringing their hands together and looking at the floor. Their steps were brisk, though their feet dragged on the floor like what they really wanted was rest. They hated it, the immense feeling of grief that washed over them at any given moment. They didn’t deserve to rest, not while the others were forced to forever. All they needed to do was hold out until they and Red reached Industria, then they could go back to their one-room basement apartment and rot. It’s what they get for their negligence, anyway. They dug their fingernails into their hands, muttering very demeaning obscenities to themself with a nasty scowl.
Their spiral stopped at the sudden smell of pizza. It normally wouldn’t have affected them, since they had kind of given up on eating since Green’s incident, but the certain undertone to the smell…
“You brought that with you?” Purple exclaimed, barging into the kitchen.
Red looked up from the brick oven, craning their head just enough to meet Purple’s gaze. “I mean, it's a good mix! I’ve been using it since we first discovered it.” They held up the small mason jar of seasoning, the same one that they’d both found as interns on a late-night pizza crust outing. “Figured we’d try it out, see if it still holds up today?” They smiled anxiously.
Purple’s eyes drifted from Red to the brick oven. The smell was so inviting, but yet..
“I’m good. Not hungry.” They rushed, turning back towards the door.
Just as they reached for the handle, a warm hand grabbed their wrist.
“Purps, you need to eat. You can’t continue on like this!” Red insisted, voice soft but direct.
“How do you manage to be so…unbothered by this? Everyone around us got murdered because of US, two innocent people got turned into alien hosts because of US. We had to FIGHT AN ALIEN, even! And you just wrote it off like it was nothing?”
Red paused, taken off-guard. “Purple, of course that shit bothered me, I was more to blame than you! But that doesn’t mean we have to stop our lives. I’m not letting you fall into that trap, okay? For the sake of all our crew’s lives, we need to move on and get this information out of MIRA’s hell.” Their hand slid down to hold Purple’s, squeezing it gently.
Purple swallowed, reciprocating the handhold without thinking. They stayed like that for a few moments, just looking at each other.
Red reached up with their free hand, brushing a few stray hairs out of Purple’s face. “‘ve you changed your mind on the pizza yet?”
Purple grumbled in response, pulling away from Red (why were they so touchy?) and leaning on the counter. What Red had said had made them realize that wallowing in their own guilt would not get them any closer to their final goal; to get the truth about the Ore out and take down MIRA. This plan required them and Red to work together, so a little “team building” with them wouldn’t hurt.
Red’s expression visibly brightened at their response, and they headed right back over to the oven to check on the pizza. “I think it needs about five more minutes..?” They guessed, sticking a fork in and poking the crust.
“Didn’t you set a timer?” Purple stepped closer to the oven, leaning down to peek inside.
“A timer? No, I never cook with a timer. I keep track in my head!” Red stated dumbly.
“Seriously, Red?? That must be why everything you’ve ever touched in the kitchen gets burnt!”
“No, I just never make the right foods for my skills.”
“Skills where?” they glanced at Red, visibly trying to contain their laughter.
Red just continued to poke at the crust, eyes squinting slightly from the oven’s heat.
At their silent response, Purple couldn’t help but laugh. It came out softer than they expected.
“What’s so funny?”
Purple shook their head slowly, looking down. “Nothing…just, you really never changed, huh?”
Red set the fork down, turning to face them. “I like to think I have.”
“You used to blame anything but your shit cooking skills when you’d burn those stale pizza crusts, too.”
“Well, it was grounded in truth! MIRA’s old appliances were-”
“It was a fucking microwave, Red! I didn’t even know it was possible to burn something that bad in a machine where you have to set an exact timer, but I guess you never failed to prove me wrong.”
“Remember that time we snuck in here late and found Periwinkle and Tangerine making out in the freezer?” Red blurted without a second thought.
Purple raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes..why?”
Red hesitated. “Purps…I-”
The ship suddenly lurched forward, sending the two crewmates into the wall. Pots and pans flew down from their hooks as Purple slowly regained their bearings. The floor vibrated beneath them as alarms blared from outside.
“Shit, Red!” Red was unresponsive in the corner, head trickling with blood from a fallen pot. The lights flickered as they crawled over, desperately trying to maintain balance.
Purple grasped at their shoulders, shaking them roughly until they finally came back around.
“ughhh…Purple? What happened..”
“Come on, we have to go.” They rushed, pulling Red up and dragging them out of the kitchen. Everything swayed around them, Red a dead weight as they forced their way out of the cafeteria. “Red, I need you to stay with me here. What is happening?!”
Red grunted, shrugging away from Purple and immediately losing their balance. “Something’s wrong with the engines, not just one.” They tried to sound confident, but their voice wavered. “No sense in fixing it…too late…we have to go to navigation. Now.”
Purple nodded, almost scooping Red up and stumbling to navigation. The alarms were blaring even louder, lights now flickering violently. Red almost threw themself onto the seat as soon as they reached the room. They muttered various obscenities as alerts popped up in front of them.
“Purple, scrap what I said before. Get to the lower engine and see what’s happening. I’ll stay here and find us a planet to safely land on.” They maintained, grabbing the yoke and pressing buttons on the dashboard.
They whipped around to the emergency doors slamming shut. The ship slowly started to tip downwards.
The Skeld had entered a planet’s gravitational field.