Fluff prompt 11 “I love you, I don’t think I say it enough” with Vithur? :0
Vivi listens to the steady beeping and tapping going on next to her, resolutely refusing to open her eyes and look. The beeps are the ever-present sounds of their ship, she knows, status updates and warnings and various sensors she never bothered to learn. Maybe she knew what they all meant, once, but it’s left her head now, and the melodic chiming is nothing more than white noise.
The tapping is Arthur, who is somehow still up despite the fact that she’s sure it must be late even for him. If she hadn’t just woken up from an hours-long nap, she would probably be dragging him to their blanket-nest right now so they could both go to sleep already, damnit. As it is, she has little interest in sleeping any more, so she’s content to listen to the sounds of him typing away on the dashboard. She knows what he’s working on - it’s the same thing he’s always doing. Hunting for clues.
Clues about her. About Lewis, a name that’s been rattling around in her skull ever since she woke up on this stupid fucking ship, a person she hardly remembers and that he’s never met, but that he continues to search for even without her, just because he feels like he owes her-
No, she reminds herself, that isn’t fair to her and it isn’t fair to Arthur, either. It’s not about owing anyone anything- well, maybe it was at first, but she’s sure that’s long gone now. He’s doing this because he loves her, and he wants to help, and this is their only shot right now at stopping her memory loss and constant headaches. And she’d be digging through old records right alongside him if it didn’t feel like dragging her brain over hot coals.
They’re getting close, Arthur says, they’re on this guy’s tail and they just need to follow the records to wherever he’s living now. And the prospect of finding someone who knows her, who can help them figure out her past, excites her - but she’s also a little... nervous, maybe. Her dim memories insist that this person was- is? - a comforting presence, but she doesn’t know if she can trust them about it. What if he’s actually awful? What if he’s the one that did this to her in the first place?
What if he insists that she’ll have to stay with him, and forces the ship and Arthur to- to abandon her? And what if when she gets her memories back, something changes so drastically that she agrees?
Most of her knows she’s being entirely irrational, but to be honest, things have been going so utterly terribly since she woke up here, she wouldn’t exactly be surprised if she turned out to be right. But she also isn’t quite ready to say stop, let’s just forget about all this, I’m actually fine with not knowing.
So for right now, she lays in the blanket pile that serves as a bed, and she opens her eyes and looks over at the source of the tapping noise.
Arthur’s bathed in cold blue light, frowning at something on one of several holographic screens flickering in front of him. The same light glints off metal, making a mini-lightshow on the roof as his hands dance over the keyboard. Pause, click something a few times, and back to typing. Her eyes trail up to watch his, half-squinting and mostly cast in shadow. He looks tired - she was right about the time.
“Hey, Arthur?” she decides to call, wincing at how her voice cracks.
The typing stops abruptly, and his head twitches to look at her, points of bright green light joining the haze of blue. “Oh, s-sorry, I d-didn’t realize you were up- is- is it too bright? I’ll b-be done in a- in a minute-”
His voice stops just as suddenly, and he blinks at her a few times.
“I feel like I don’t say it enough.”
A rare smile spreads across his face, gentle and warm and genuine. “I... love you too.”