@hitorimaron replied to your post: I’ve got the day off and absolutely nothing to do,...
Whoaaa, honestly anything?! What about something sci-fi-ish? :D No pressure though, whatever will be awesoooome!!
I dunno why, but sci-fi au automatically reads as space au...
Jupiter is beautiful in the morning. Actually, Jupiter is a big, roiling mess of gas and radiation at any time of the day. But, in the morning, when Derek has just woken up, and he’s sipping a warm cup of not-coffee, getting ready for a long day of work, Jupiter’s roiling mess is outstandingly beautiful.
For one hundred and fifty three days he’s woken up to this view, but today’s the last day. The research mission is complete, the scientists have collected all they need. Soon they’ll be hurtling through space, back on earth. Derek’s gotten to know the crew well these past months, he’s worked with them before, transporting people and equipment to the outer planets. He’s going to miss Erica’s untameable bed head, Isaac’s acerbic personality, and Boyd’s quiet voice in his ear. But really, the person he’ll miss most of all is Stiles.
One of the scientists, sent to collect readings of Jupiter’s radiation levels, Stiles is funny, and smart, and Derek has it bad. Real damn bad. At first he couldn't stand Stiles, but after only days of being crammed together in this tiny tin can of a ship, Derek would be a fool to deny that they grew on each other.
Derek’s head of engineering, and Stiles is some flavour of astrophysicist, but they both love space something silly.
Derek floats down the engine room, and looks over Erica’s fuel calculations. That’s where Stiles finds him.
“Hey,” Stiles says, only to whack his knee against the doorway. “Ouch.” That’s Stiles; clumsy, even in zero gravity.
“Hey yourself,” Derek says, “We’re breaking out of orbit in a little over an hour.”
Stiles chuckles, kicking his legs out so he floats on over to Derek. “I’ll keep my barf bag handy.”
“Please don’t throw up in my cockpit.”
“I’m properly motivated not to,” Stiles says, “I know with the gs we’ll be under it’ll just splash right back.”
Derek makes a face.
Stiles cracks his knuckles, something he only does when he’s nervous. “I was wondering, what do you plan on doing when we get back home?”
Derek hums. He skims down his tablet, going over Boyd’s engine check. “Oh, I don’t know, grab a burger somewhere, I guess.”
“My buddy Scott makes the best burgers ever,” Stiles says, “He does this thing where he takes turkey bacon, slathers it with mayo, and sandwiches it between two angus patties, then covers the whole thing in jerk seasoning.”
Derek looks up from his tablet, to Stiles’ eagar expression. “No offence to your friend, but that sounds like the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard of in my life, and I’ve smelled samples from Uranus’ atmosphere.”
“I know it sounds bad, but it’s actually pretty good. Last time we were in the Mojave, taking some cosmic readings, we grilled them right on the Jeep’s hood after it crapped out on us.”
Derek laughs. “Looks like you could have used an engineer.”
“Oh?” Stiles quirks a brow. “Mr. Rocket Scientist knows how to fix a problem with a common Jeep. I’m surprised.”
Derek smirks. “I know engines, let me guess… you were in the desert, which means a fine grit sand, so the air filter must have been clogged.” Stiles’ jaw drops. “So I was right?”
Stiles rolls his eyes. “You engineers...” He trails off. Chewing on his lip, he looks out the big observation window to Jupiter’s big red spot swirling below. “But seriously, we should hang out, not just when we’re out in space. When we have solid ground beneath our feet, and our hair doesn’t look like a mess. Well, my hair mostly, I don’t know how you always look so put together. Gravity would be nice.”
Derek smiles down at the… ceiling? Yes, gravity would be nice for once. “I’d like that. If you ever wanted to take me out to the Mojave, I promise if our car stalls I’ll be able to get it up and running in no time.”
Stiles grins, and reaches out to take his hand. “It’s a date.”
