" Captain ? " From behind Morgan, Atlas quietly cleared his throat, both to notify the captain of his presence and in vain effort to toss aside any of the nerves that may have irrationally seized hold of him.
" I know I haven't been the best at keeping track of time, but I did manage to mark off some important dates, and, well, it seemed odd to bypass this one without doing anything ... " Drawing a small box from his pocket, he held it out to Morgan. " It's small, but ... Happy Valentine's Day, Captain. "
Said box, as small and unassuming as it was, contained some glass that Atlas had managed to warp into the shape of a crescent moon. Left clear at one end and tainted yellow at the other, the colours ( or lack thereof ) faded together, creating a shining shadow if the trinket were to be hung near a light source ... the perfect decoration for a window once the colony was soundly set up.
Being stuck in an infinite loop of the same twelve to twenty-four hours -to the surprise of absolutely no one- fucked up with a person's perception of time. January had barely felt like it happened, and now it was February? What the shit? Time chugging along as it was supposed to granted progress, which granted peace. Finally, finally Morgan could breathe, confident in the fact that, somehow, they had managed to fix everything.
Hot chocolate infused with strawberry flavoring was the drink of choice as they lounged in their cabin, skimming over progress and botanical reports from down on the planet's surface. Atlas' almost meek greeting shook them out of their reverie. In a way, it was a relief that Atlas was having the same problems with time keeping as they were (was it selfish to think that way?). Unlike Morgan, however, he seemed to actually pay attention to holidays. Shit, they had barely even registered it when Mack wished them a Very Happy Birthday Slash Valentine's Day with enough saccharine sweetness to make anyone else's teeth ache. In stark contrast, the gift Atlas had presented was... stunning. Morgan's mouth fell open in a silent gasp as they held it up to the florescent lighting. The artificial light of the ship absolutely did not do it justice. Morgan's heart leapt into their throat. Since when did Atlas know how to blow, stain and shape glass? Had they even bothered to ask what his hobbies were? Surely, their eccentric-but-still brilliant Head Engineer had passions outside of designing and building starships.
"I love it," Morgan signed, barely not to let the trinket slip out of their hands. They held up a finger and ducked back into their office, digging through drawers until they found what they had been looking for: a simple macrame dreamcatcher done in stark white thread. The tree of life pattern wasn't anything particularly elaborate, nor was the twisting, lace-like knotwork dangling from the bottom curve of the hoop. They had started it after hearing Atlas wake up screaming from a nightmare one night, and had been planning on giving it to him. A way to tell him that Morgan was thinking about him.
(And maybe it was too intimate a gesture, but their dynamic had irreversibly shifted. How did you go back to being just crewmates after embracing each other through the end of the known universe?)
"I don't know if you believe in dreamcatchers, and whatnot," They began uncertainly. "It will look cool on your wall at least? I don't know."
