Datr Week, Day Four: Fixing the Ship
Dib sighed in frustration as he readjusted his headlamp for what felt like the millionth time, trying a new angle that wouldn’t let the strap feel so tight upon his head. To make matters worse, his back felt itchy from lying on his skateboard for so long, and his presence beneath the crawl space of the ship made it feel claustrophobic.
A bead of sweat slid down the side of his face and towards the back of his neck, running along the side underside of the uncomfortable strap. He huffed and growled again as he ran his thumb under the strap for the billionth time. Lousy, crumby head lamp! If only his head wasn’t so- he bit his tongue as a familiar phrase wanted to instinctively escape his lips. He just knew, someone, somewhere was thinking it; which made it all the more tempting to protest the idea.
Not wanting to let masses’ fascination of his head get to his, well, head, Dib took a calming breath as he reached above his head to grab and rest his hand on a piece of dark purple Irken metal.
No need to let himself get worked up over nothing, especially when he was underneath an alien spaceship.
He shuddered at the prickling feeling at the back of his head. Another drop of sweat rolled from the tip of his head to the back of his neck in the most uncomfortable way. In a huff he removed the headlamp by it’s sweat soaked strap, throwing it into his lap, and flopping back down from his curled, crunch-like position. Why did he have to be the one working on the engine while she got to work on the outer body?
He was stuck underneath this hulking piece of alien ingenuity, with all its stuffiness and heat, while she got to work outside within the nice, mild yet crisp November air! It was unfair!
As Dib flopped back once more, the hand with the wrench in it rested on his torso. Meanwhile, he forgot to let go of his left hand, the one hand gripping the Irken metal, causing him to jerk upwards as it briefly supported his weight. Well, supported him for about 0.2 seconds, before there was a loud, scraping-snap noise, and the metal tube busted.
Dib grunted as his back met the grit skateboard harshly, his mouth opened ajar from his escaping air, but this only made it susceptible to filling with whatever mysterious liquid had been inside the tube. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant.
“What was that?” Tak’s oddly accented voice snapped harshly at the sound of the metal tube clanking against the garage floor, a splattering of liquid, and the sounds of him sputtering profusely meeting her antennae. He could practically feel her criticizing, annoyed glare through the layers of metal, wires, and electronics as he scrambled to stop the flow of green liquid from the tube, staunching it with the grease rag that was in his lap.
“If you broke something on my ship I will-"
He didn’t give her a chance to finish as he clumsily and abruptly rolled out from under the dark blue ship, as he called back "Or what?” Once out from under the ship, Dib blindly reached for another grease rag to clean off his entire face and glasses.
Once the slimey, scum feeling material was vacant from his clenched shut eyes and his glasses cleaned, Dib turned to his side to send the Irken female a small glare. Although, it did little to deter her as she hovered above him, hanging ominously by her pak’s metal legs like fuming, angry, green spider.
A very feminine, amethyst eyed, and cute green spider without all of the nasty spider bits.
He shook his head. Focus Dib!
Despite her mouth poised to retort, he cut her off once more, as he continued, “If you thought I would break something, why let me help you at all?”
Her eyes widened in surprise at the retaliation, and her jaw momentarily dropped. However, he didn’t get much time to process this, nor the darkening of her cheeks as she quickly turned her head away.
“I don’t have to explain my decisions to *you*. Now get back to work.”
Dib rolled his eyes as she looked away like she always did, frowning as he wiped the rest of the gunk off, especially around his mouth.
His eyes narrowed at her busy form, pak glinting in the pale yellow, florescent lighting of the lone garage light. Did he see what he…no it couldn’t be. Dib shook his head to dispel the foolish, hopeful, boy-child thoughts. Those years were long gone by now, yet a few stray thoughts remained. Particularly, his once-upon-a-time crush.
Leaning his elbows on his bent knees, he looked over at her once more to see her bent over the pile of slabs of metal. A particularly, and surprisingly, round part of her backside anatomy caught his eye.
Okay…maybe his boyhood crush wasn’t as far gone as he would like himself to believe, but that didn’t change the fact that she probably didn’t feel the same.
He pouted and glanced away, shutting off and tossing the head lamp to the side.
“You…” She started, causing him to swivel his head back to her instantly. She seemed a bit perturbed, hesitating, as his warm, brown eyes met hers, before quickly regaining her composure as she quietly continued, “You didn’t get anything in your mouth, right?”
Dib gawked at her a moment, stunned. Maybe…maybe it wasn’t so impossible. Maybe she-
His thought process wasn’t allowed to go any further as she scowled, arms crossed beneath and unintentionally pushing up her “growths” as she called them.
Unintentionally noticing that, the once cool, autumn air turned scorching, like he was back under the ship again, surrounded him. Trying to lead attention to his hand and away from the heat he felt in his cheeks, Dib missed entirely what she said.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
At this she huffed at him, hands moving to rest on her hips, as she snapped, “I said because you better not die on me! Do you know how hard that would be to explain medically; not to mention legally!”
Plucking a small, old flashlight from a pile of junk, Dib rolled his eyes. A storm cloud of thoughts tumbled through his mind, before he realized she was on her pak legs again. Tak loomed closer now. Just to the right of him as she placed a few slabs of metal plating in a row across the ship’s right flank.
He sighed once more and simply put the tiny flashlight between his teeth. With a few unintelligible mutterings, Dib rolled back beneath the ship, wrench in hand.
Meanwhile, with Tak, she grumbled to herself about fools and their carelessness as she started to weld the plates in place. With careful, practiced grace, her pak legs moved her over to her right a step or two. The only sound of her movement being the barely discernible tinking noises. Something that was easy to miss within the comfortable silence that enveloped them; not to mention, easy to miss while underneath an Irken Spittle Runner while wrenching things.
“Oh shit! I forgot to grab the Irken insta-soddering tape for the tube,” Dib exclaimed as he suddenly shot himself out from under the ship.
Dib barely had time to register in his mind that he fucked up when he felt his long, gangly legs abruptly smack into a set of silvery, metal ones.
For the second time that night, Dib found the wind knocked out of his lungs, but this time accompanied by a surprised and brief screech. His eyes clenched shut partially from the sudden impact of a weight onto his chest, but also from the fear of what was to come next.
However, after a few heartbeats, nothing happened. Finding this odd, Dib carefully opened his eyes to find Tak glaring, stunned, and holding the front of her tunic down. That last part was just a tad strange, almost as strange as the dark emerald color dusting across her cheeks. Although, it wasn’t that strange if you considered the fact that she landed practically right in front of his face!
Her knees were crammed underneath his armpits, shoving his arms above his head. If he were to sit up at any slight amount and or leaned his head forward, she would probably feel his breath ghost across the white-knuckled grip.
In that moment, Dib stared up at her, and she stared back, as his mind completely blanked. Well, blank on anything that wasn’t her literally on top of him, being so close, and the reflection in the garage window of his absolutely crimson face.
Suddenly, his brain caught up with the situation, and did the appropriate, instinctual thing to do.
“Holy smokes! Tak I’m so-” Dib exclaimed as he abruptly shot up without almost a second thought. Almost because his thoughts finally started to catch up with him as he saw Tak flung from his chest into his lap. Her momentum kept her going, and her upper body would’ve smacked into the floor between his legs. However, two important things happened that sent electricity throughout the both of them.
The first being Dib’s instinct to reach out to her, hooking his hand onto her lower hip to steady her. Unfortunately, this didn’t fully stop the momentum of the upper body, but fortunately she wasn’t as surprised this time as she slightly twisted and caught herself with a hand placed upon his right thigh. Her hand was placed somewhat behind her, so she was left to lean back, and both of her legs were sprawled on either side of his hips.
Dib cursed himself for his clumsy recklessness, but a part of him was fine with this. Didn’t mind the sight of her flushed and sprawled like this on top of him in a position more innocent than the last, even if it was an accident, but also a bit more…vulnerable? No that wasn’t the word. Open?
Yeah that seemed more appropriate.
Not that he had more time to dwell on it because with Tak’s sudden shift in weight towards him, he remembered why he didn’t listen to this part of himself because it clearly had a death wish.
However, as Tak moved forward, fist moved back, twisting his shirt as she pulled him forward, he felt something as she shifted her hips and legs.
Something shifted beneath the fabric of her tunic in a way that caught him off guard. Completely blind to the danger at hand, so preoccupied with what this shift in fabric, and in some parts lack thereof, beneath his thumb pad meant, all thoughts on common sense left the building as he quizzically blurted in disbelief.
He hadn’t meant anything by it. It was just so strange to him, especially when he never noticed before! Had they always been there? Were they something new? But why wear them here of all places? Here, wear they could easily get stained, torn, ruined?
Oh well, he pouted as he rubbed his, now, sore cheek from where she slapped him.
He watched her retreating, holographic form from the garage entrance as she marched across the backyard towards their backdoor. He expected her to keep going and going and not stop until she reached her base.
However, as she reached the backdoor she started to lose momentum. By the time she reached it, hand upon the door knob, she came to a gradual halt. Slowly, she glanced back at the garage, at him, again. The blush upon her cheeks still present. In fact, it got darker as her eyes widened ever so slightly, as if she hadn’t expected him to be there, watching her leave.
For a moment, he watched her composure slip for the briefest of seconds as she suddenly grew flustered. Although, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished and her all-too-familiar glare returned.
With would-be-nose pointed in the air, she swiftly turned away with a hmph, and left through the door. Shortly afterwards he heard the front door open and slam shut, and with that she was gone. It took a few moments for Dib to comprehend what he just saw, but slowly, a knowing grin spread across his face as he shut the garage for the night, and headed into the house for bed.
2087
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