It was incredibly heartwarming to see, particularly given this was a crowd of predominantly female fans – a force that has shaped pop culture for decades.
- Rhian Daly spilling truths in NME 31/10/22
(about fans at The Away From Home Festival)
The former One Directioner is using his platform to uplift rising artists – so it's time to put an end to the musical snobbery surrounding h
Philippa's body has healed from the wounds inflicted during the battle of the binary stars, but the mental pain lingers, and sometimes comes to the surface in the worst possible moments...
Thankfully, Philippa has Michael by her side to help her through it all.
1k words, T, Michael Prime/Philippa Prime
Read on Ao3
I wrote this in one go completely ignoring all my wips and the rest of my responsibilities. Happy Halloween!
~
"Hey!" Michael slips onto the bench next to Philippa, pressing a kiss to her cheek before turning towards her meal. "What's up? You look so glum."
Philippa sighs, sips her soup, eyes darting left and right to check which of their subordinates might be listening in. "It's nothing."
Michael just nods. She'll ask Philippa again later in their quarters or if they find a moment alone while on duty. She understands Philippa not wanting to talk about what looks like it will be a personal topic out in the open. While she is more laid back than many others in her position, she still needs to keep a certain image as Captain, and the mess hall isn't the most private place on the ship after all.
"Everything alright on deck three?" Philippa changes the topic, and Michael nods.
"Engineering just needed to replace two parts, it's all good now. I've actually spent the last two hours in the lab after we were done there..."
"Yes? Any new discoveries?"
There haven't been, as of yet, but Michael's eyes still light up with joy when she gets to talk about her favourite work with her girlfriend.
Later that day, Michael is just getting out of her uniform when Philippa walks into the room out of their shared bathroom, wrapped only in a towel and her hair still wet from the shower.
"Hey, can you pass me my nightgown?" Michael pulls off her boots and waits as Philippa picks up the nightie as she walks past it, but instead of throwing or handing it to her, she places it on the bed and crawls into Michael's lap while the other is still just in her underwear.
"Oh, hey there." Michael ignores the gown in favour of stroking Philippa's back while two arms snake around her waste and squeeze tightly, Philippa's face hiding in the crook of her neck. "That bad? Anything else I can do to make it better?"
Philippa just shakes her head and mumbles something unintelligibly, and Michael gives her a comforting squeeze.
Her girlfriend gets this way sometimes, ever since she almost died during battle. Her physical injuries have long since healed, and the mentally bad days have also gotten less, she's been cleared for duty and back in her old position (a new, shinier Shenzhou II named in honour of the old ship, and sometimes Michael isn't sure whether the reminder is a blessing or a curse)... But she still does have bad days from time to time, and while she can keep it together and do her job without taking sick days for them more often than not, she tends to fall apart after her shifts, hiding in Michael's arms.
Michael rests her cheek on top of Philippa's damp hair and hums a lullaby, waiting comfortably for her to either fall asleep or pull away.
A few minutes later, Philippa sniffles and presses a kiss to Michael's collarbone before sitting up. "Thanks."
"Any time." She means that, hopes Philippa believes it by now. "Want to talk about it?"
Philippa frowns. "It's silly, really."
Michael doesn't correct her this time, Philippa already knows her opinion (which happens to match the opinion of Philippa's counselor), that anything that can reduce Philippa to tears, a state of panic, or complete mental exhaustion or apathy, is clearly not nothing. From the look Philippa gives her, she knows it too, even without the reminder.
"The ensigns Tilly and Tal have asked to have a pumpkin carving competition for Halloween next week," Philippa says, pulling her towel closer around herself.
Michael tugs the covers lose from the bed and pulls her underneath them instead. "Yes?"
"They've roped Jett into it already, so naturally I had to say yes."
"Alright?"
"It's just -" Philippa squeezes her eyes shut, her hand shivering as she holds onto Michael's forearm. "Carving... Knives..."
"Oh, love." Michael instantly hugs her close again. "I should have realized!"
Since being stabbed by the mek'leth and almost bleeding to death from the wounds, Philippa has an aversion to any kinds of blades. She hasn't told anyone apart from Michael, and even she has had to figure it out herself from the clues, Philippa had been afraid to have her Captaincy taken away again so shortly after being declared safe to go back to work. And she can handle herself, she didn't back down when in diplomatic talks with a people whose officials were holding longswords, didn't flinch when engineers were using knives to manually cut apart a part of a door that had fused together with the wall in a freak accident...
But she never eats meals that require knives in the mess hall anymore, in the privacy of her own rooms she programs the replicator to only give out pre-cut pieces she can eat with a fork, and she switched to laser hair removal when until then she had always used an old metal razor.
"It's silly," she had said when Michael carefully approached her about it, "it's not like I stabbed myself on my own blade, but it's worse when I'm holding the knife somehow, it's like I'm constantly afraid of cutting myself or falling into it!"
That had been one of their first discussions about what does and doesn't fall under the term 'silly', and Michael had promised her not to tell anyone about her trigger, though she should really see the counsellor about it. She did, after some time, and it has gotten better, but still...
"I used to love pumpkin carving as a child," Philippa whispers. "A few years ago, I would have been delighted at Tilly's idea, the nostalgic childhood memories and the fun competition. But now..."
Michael cards her fingers through Philippa's hair, carefully detangling a strand before placing it back down. "You know I can find you an excuse not to attend, if that's what you want, she says quietly. But... You do realize no-one will actually expect everyone from participating? I've heard Tilly and Adira talk about it earlier, the way I understand it, there will just be a few from every department chosen to do the carving, the rest of us will be spectators or judges... You could easily say that as Captain, you'd rather someone else from the command team does the actual carving, both because you don't want to take away that chance from someone else and because you might get called away at any moment."
Philippa nods quietly, thinking about it.
"You still don't have to go," Michael reassures her. "Not if you don't want to. You said Jett wants to be there, I'm sure we'll find a time where she's free and you're busy, and say it's just happenstance. But... You said it's mostly just you holding knives that gets to you now, maybe seeing others use them for something fun wouldn't be so bad?"
Philippa nods. "I'll think about it." Then, she buries her face in a pillow, clearly hiding from the world.
Michael doesn't begrudge her that, she knows Philippa is emotionally exhausted. She carefully extracts her arm from Philippa's grip, though. "Just give me a moment to take off my bra, yes? Then we can go to sleep."
Philippa giggles, sniffs again, then actually sits up and rubs her hair dry a bit on the towel before throwing it in the direction of the hamper, narrowly missing it. Michael's eye twitches - before living with her, she never would have thought the Captain of a starship could be such a slob. But she doesn't say anything. It's Philippa's room too, they've got to compromise. At least she tried... And Michael just picks up the towel herself when she goes to place her clothes in the hamper.
Philippa is watching her when she walks back to the bed, and Michael puts some extra sway into her hips, though she doesn't expect Philippa to have the energy for sex tonight. "Enjoying the show?"
"You know it." Philippa smiles. The covers have slid down her body exposing her own chest to Michael, who looks her fill in turn before turning out the lights and climbing into bed.
"Night, love."
Philippa wraps her arms around her, feeling the comfort of her girlfriend's warm skin.
"Goodnight, my Michael."
Fini
~
Image sources: Philippa Pumpkin
Please reblog and/or tell me you like it on Ao3 to support my writing! & Lmk if you aren't in the Milippa discord server yet and want to join :)
#project hail mary
#lana del rey
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