OxO with @Davadio

“Mm, a little bit. I’ll come with you the cafeteria. That way I can make sure you go to your room right after you finish,” she teased.

The two of them headed down through the maze of hallways until they reached one of Arriss’s favorite rooms in the ship: the dinning hall. While they did have lights in the room, Arriss preferred to keep them off and allow the light from the galaxy to filter in through the dozens of windows that adorned the walls. After making Ronnie sit down at one of the windows, she disappeared for a few moments only to come back with an assortment of freeze dried and powdered foods.

“Nothing like the stuff on earth, but hey. It’s food.”

Arriss sat down next to him, placing her head against the window and watching the universe as it passed them by. She was thinking deeply about something, barely eating as they sat there together.

“Yes, Valiel, I’m sure you know how to control many things, but how about a space ship?” he questioned. “I, for one, have no what I’m doing.”

Conner walked throughout the room, gazing at the assortment of levers and buttons laid out before him. The captain must’ve had a lot of training to know what all these different mechanisms did.

Eventually, Arriss looked over at him, a few of her cinnamon-colored curls falling into her face. It was clear by her expression that something was bothering her.

“I got a new order from home base. We’re going to reach a new enemy ship in a day.” She let a sigh. “Our orders are to go in, seize the resources, and kill everyone on board.”

For most privateer ships, this was a normal mission. Most of the citizens were usually killed on the enemy ship. However, that had never been the way with Arriss’s crew. She would usually avoid death by taking the men on board captive, but this is the first time she’d ever been told directly to kill the crew.

She let out a sigh and looked back out the window. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Mm, okay. Just don’t crash us.”

He grinned and winked at her before he sat down in the chair beside her, folding his hands behind his head.

“And as for my teasing…” He shrugged. “Beats me. They’re cute together, aren’t they? And knowing them, they’ll probably never be a thing without a little bit of encouragement.”

“No, Ronnie. I couldn’t throw that sort of weight on you. This mission is ours, and we’ll all handle the dirty work.” Arriss stood up and walked over to his side, her gaze still focused on the ground. “Well, at least the two of us will. I have my doubts that Connor and Valiel will help.”

She couldn’t blame them. Conner didn’t seem like the type to hurt anyone. Valiel, while Arriss had never seen her do so, seemed like she could, but she also didn’t think Valiel would go after the innocent civilians aboard the ship. Arriss and Ronnie would have to take care of them.

“I just…I hope Conner and Valiel don’t look at me differently after all this goes down.” She
looked over at him. “I hope you don’t look at me differently.”

Conner laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Pssh, no. There’s one more thing about humans, Valiel, that’s annoying. They’re super oblivious,” he replied. “They could kiss, hug, send love letters… check all the boxes. But they would still be oblivious. Trust me.”

“Thank you, Ronnie.” She smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

After a moment of hesitation, she moved in to embrace him, wrapping her arms around his waist. It wasn’t often that Arriss hugged or even touched them. With them being a serious mission, she tried to keep things as professional as possible when it came to him. But, work aside, they were still friends, and she still wanted to drop the professional facade from time to time.

“This conversation got real deep all of the sudden.” She laughed softly, glancing up at him. “We still have a day till that all goes down, so let’s… let’s try not to think about it too much.”

“Mm, maybe some.” Conner snorted at the irony. Not even he seemed to be self-aware most of the time. “But most of us… well, most of us are kinda dense. Let’s just hope they get together eventually. Wouldn’t want any unrequited love aboard this ship.”

She smiled as she felt him return the embrace. At first, she was worried that he wouldn’t. He was a sweet guy, of course, but she had always known him to be professional and to never be close with anyone. When he returned her hug, she pulled him a bit closer, soaking in his warmth.

“For the last time, I’m not letting you do it alone.” She smiled faintly up at him. “Military or not, I’m helping you.”

Eventually, she pulled back from the hug, his warmth leaving her. He likely wouldn’t let her hug him like that again, but hey. It was enjoyable while it lasted.

“Oh, yes. We love unrequited love, but I’m sure you do as well.” He grinned and winked at her. “I’m sure you have lots of unrequited love for me.”

“Aww, but you would be lonely without me.”

She laughed softly and stood up along with him. To be honest, she was starting to feel a bit tired. Guess the caffeine effects were finally starting to wear off.

“I’ll walk you to your room.” She smiled and winked at him. “You know, to make sure you don’t pass out from exhaustion before you get there.”

“Mm… you’re right.” He thought for a moment before he snorted. “I am human, after all, so I bet I would be totally oblivious.

(( So sorry that it’s a bit short 😭😭 Imma bout to head to work but I was tryna get one more reply in ))

(( Backkkk! ))

As they walked, Arriss stayed silent. She couldn’t imagine the amount of teasing they would get if Conner caught them here even though she insisted they were just friends. Luckily, Conner didn’t catch them together before they arrived at the door to Ronnie’s room.

She turned to him, pulling her curls over her shoulder. She hated to return back to her quiet bedroom, but she knew she needed to sleep. “Try and get some rest, okay?” she said softly. “Make a full recovery.”

“Mm… are you insinuating that you like me, Valiel?” he teased. “I wouldn't be surprised.”

((You’re all good!))

She stood at his door for a few moments after he shut it, silent as she stared up at it. Like him, she was wondering if there was something else she should’ve said; it felt strange to end that day on such a simple note after they had shared that moment together. But, with no clue of what to do, she turned to walk away.

“Good night, Ronnie.”

With that, she crept back to her room across the hall, leaving him behind her.

“Pssh. You look like a human, act like a human, sound like a human.” He let out a yawn and rubbed his tired eyes. “I’m down with it.”

“You kidding? That’s lit!” he exclaimed. He was a bit surprised by the unexpected change in form, but he didn’t seem too scared of her. “Looks like something from a sci-fi movie.”

Conner chuckled at his own irony. It was almost like they were living in a sci-fi movie, if he was honest. Only a few short years ago, the idea of space colonies and aliens would’ve been unrealistic. But now, it was just a new part of reality.

“Alright, Valiel. I don’t see any ships nearby on the scans, so I’m gonna set this baby in autopilot and hit the hay,” she suggested. “But before we do that, let’s check on the other two. You know, to make sure they’re not still up.”

“Nah, just standing up takes way too much effort. Besides, we have another raid tomorrow, so I wanna rest up as much as possible.” He grinned and pecked her cheek. “So goodnight, love. Wake me up if you ever wanna trade off.”

“Of course.”

Conner walked away, and it was hours before the three sleeping crew mates finally began to wake up. For most of the day, Conner stuck to his duties, doing research and everything else he had to get done to keep their voyage going smoothly. Eventually, after spending most of the day doing work, Conner went to find Valiel. When he did, he stood in the doorway of the room and knocked softly.

“Can I come in?”

Arriss’s schedule that day was far from it usually was.

Normally, when she would wake up in the morning, she would check on her crew mates and maybe have conversations with a few of them. After finishing up with her own tasks, she would go help Ronnie with his. However, by the time the evening rolled around, no one had seen the Captain. Not even during meal times. She had been locked away in the cockpit preparing to raid the other ship.

Conner looked a bit more worn and than usually, likely from worry more than anything else. To him, the whole crew had seemed… different that day. Especially when it came to Arriss. She had locked herself in the cockpit almost the entire day, and he had to bring her food.

“You know what’s going on with the Captain?” he asked. “She’s acting weird.”

“Give me a minute.”

For a few moments, the door stayed shut, and footsteps could be heard coming from inside the cockpit. Eventually, the door swung open, revealing Arriss standing on the other side. She looked a bit more rough than she usually did, but she still tried to remain optimistic as she spoke to him.

She smiled faintly and pulled her wild hair over her shoulder. “You need something, love, or are you just stopping by to say hi?”

“Well, I think I might’ve found something.” He messed with the papers in his hand. “You know the raid tomorrow? Well, this isn’t going to be one of our normal resource foraging raids, Valiel.”

He sighed and leaned against the doorway. He knew Valiel would likely have no problem with what they had to do. After all, orders were orders, and they had to be obeyed. But him? He had never hurt an individual in his entire life. Plus, he knew how many innocent people lived on that ship. Innocent people that had nothing to do with the war.

“We have to kill everyone on board. Women, children… whoever we can find.”

“Um…” She paused. Arriss knew she hadn’t eaten at all today; she hadn’t even stopped her work to get a snack. Ronnie would whine at her for this, so she tried her best to play it off. “Eh, not really. But I’m not hungry, so it’s not a big deal.”

She stepped back, allowing him into the cockpit. The room was an absolute mess; there were papers and tools scattered around everywhere along with huge maps to lead them through the galaxy.

“So, you said you needed to give me a status report?”

“Of course I do.” He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall. “Valiel, those woman and children did nothing to us. They’re doing what they think is right, and most of them aren’t even involved in the war effort. We don’t have a right to kill them.”

He sighed, his eyes flickering to the floor. He felt like he should be mad at the Captain for making them follow through with such a horrendous massacre, but he knew that she was just following orders. Orders from a government that was like just as corrupt as their enemy.

“Once we go through with this, we’ll probably be ordered to kill left and right.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” She forced a small smile. “I’ll eat, I promise.”

Sometimes, she wished he would just simply care about her. Sure, she knew he cared, but most of his reasoning went back to their work. He wanted her to eat because of the raid. He wanted her to sleep because she couldn’t to her job if she was exhausted. He was just always so… professional, and there were occasions where she felt like their entire relationship revolved around nothing but work.

But maybe that was her fault. They were on a very strict mission, after all, with no room for relationships or drama. Maybe he was in the right by keeping their relationship professional.

“Good, good.” She went onto the computer, going over logs and data. They had only hours until they reached the ship. Hours until they would pull of their most difficult raid yet. “Make sure the ship is in top shape. I don’t want anything malfunctioning while we’re boarding the other ship.”

((Either works! You can if you want, or we can just go ahead xD))