Something you said keeps sticking out to me. Oh yes, that’s right. You called me cute. Isn’t that right?

 
Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Alcohol Inside
Characters: Blush D’Ambrosio
Race: Boozeling – Wine
Age: 2 767, physically about 19
Current residence: Aboard the CS Black Coral
Final Word Count: 730 words
 

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It feels strangely comfortable to just be in space, aimless but not really aimless. I know that, if there really was a need, we’d be trying to find a new place to call home but, at this point, I think we’re all right with just being out and about, making pit stops in places we know we’ll be safe and just generally discovering things as they stand without fear of anyone trying to hunt us down.

I mean, I know this is one of the reasons why Philip had opted for Inera. It was supposedly away from the reach of Them and well, it was beautiful. Never you mind the villagers that didn’t trust us even ten years down the road, but I know that Killian’s little sun trick hadn’t helped matters. It’s one of those things, though.

We made a pit stop near an asteroid belt that had had more than its share of little places to stop at. I want to call them outposts, but I know that this isn’t what they are, not really. We docked at a station that was in orbit, we probably were one of the smaller vessels and that’s saying something because for a personal ship, we’re still fairly big but there’s a lot of us. I guess there were more big cruisers than smaller fries on the two or so days we stayed there.

I don’t know that staying longer than two days was part of the plans and it’s not really surprising. It was mostly a pit stop to refuel more than anything else. We had no need for anything food-related and the system for the water recycling was top of the line. Most of the fuel we used was renewable but there still were a few things aboard the ship that required the old-fashioned stuff, so that’s why we’d stopped there.

Most of us stayed on the ship, there really was no point in straying or wandering too far. Not that there was much wandering to do. At least, that’s how I figure it, but Killian said that the place was a maze and if we’d really set our mind on wandering, it’s highly possible we would have gotten lost.

He came back from his own necessary wandering, with the papers in tow, with an amused smile on his lips. I remember how he stepped back inside, paused by me because I was in the process of trying to find something in the hold, and he very calmly asked me if I thought he was cute.

That made me pause, of course, it had to. Here was this mountain of a man, gorgeous by all definitions of the word—he’s my brother but I’d honestly still jump him if he were a stranger, we were all made to look beautiful in our own way—and he was asking me if I thought he was cute. I quirked a brow at him, my own way of quietly asking him if he was serious and he shrugged.

Eventually, I got out of him that one of the guys at the administration offices had said that he was cute. I suppose it’s not something he must have heard often recently; it’s not a term I’d use for him. There’s nothing about him that’s cute, not really. I probably fall more into that cute spectrum than he is with his defined muscles, his golden skin tone, that little dimple on his face when he smiles.

I suppose I can’t blame him for questioning himself after that kind of statement. We were all living with people that I feel as though they were taking us for granted. The older group more than my brothers and myself, though. It has to be strange to be out in the great big world again, after years spent with that one person that might not really have had much interest in reminding you of the simpler things in life anymore. It’s one of those things.

I did tell him that sure, he was cute, but he was just so much more than that and it seemed to be enough for him. He didn’t press for more and he mostly just went on his way after that. I feel a little bad for him at this point, but I know that he’ll be all right. We all will be.

Some of us are the ones you have to fear—the ones who linger in the dark.

 
Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Alcohol Inside
Characters: Blush D’Ambrosio
Race: Boozeling – Wine
Age: 2 766, physically about 19
Final Word Count: 715 words
 

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“He what?”

“Seriously?”

Shrugging, trying hard not to smile, Vardan looked out into space a moment. They were camped out in his room, all just sitting around and talking about the adventures that had been theirs while on the shipyard pit stop. All of them had left the ship, wandered on and off for the week or so it took for their ship to be completed. For the most part, it had been ready, but there still had been a few minimal things that Killian had looked over and gotten fixed up before they’d changed.

From the outside look of the ship, none of them had expected the inside to be as spacious as it was; it almost had a ‘bigger on the inside’ thing going on but it was all optical illusions and smooth lines. Each of them had their own rather spacious—for a space ship—room, they had a comfortable bathroom attached as well. The cargo hold felt spacious in ways none of them expected to need but couldn’t complain and the common rooms were comfortable for long-term travel.

Vardan recalls that Rafael and Killian both had stayed with the ship. They’d helped move the cargo from their hold ship to the new one. He hadn’t offered to help, aware that he would only have been in the way and Rafael alone could have managed the move just fine on his own.

Ivory’s nudge of his foot made him snicker softly as he turned back to his brothers and offered a shrug, “He came out from between two alleys, he looked like he hadn’t showered in days and he smelled like it too but I guess it’s one of those things. How he managed to come up to me so silently, I don’t know. The moment I’d noticed him, it’s like he couldn’t walk without shuffling and there were so many things on him that rattled that it’s still a mystery.”

He shook his head at the memory. He hadn’t been afraid, not really. His nose had told him that the one thing he had to worry about was the thing’s potentially harmful body odour but otherwise, he would have been fine.

“So he leans in while I’m leaning away and he gives me the stink eye—though that might have been a normal look for him, I can’t explain it. He tells me that, and those were his words, really, ‘some of us are the ones you have to fear. The ones who linger in the dark.'”

Rolling his eyes as he remembers the statement, almost word for word, Vardan shrugs and looks back out to space. After he’d come back to the little suite he shared with his brothers in a building that served as a somewhat-hotel for anyone who came to the shipyard, Vardan had spent almost an hour in the shower, scrubbing himself nearly as pink as his hair. The scent had still been clinging to him afterwards, or so his nose had told him, but neither Ivory nor Robin had mentioned anything. It had made him wonder if it wasn’t just his mind, then.

“What an idiot.”

“What he said.”

“Well, I suppose it’s mostly a case of the fact that, sure, some of the darker-looking things out there you should totally be afraid of, but most of the time, it’s the ones that look the cutest and most innocent, that are the ones you need to really be wary of. No one’s going to think you’re meant to be feared if you’re a cute little cup-sized puppy with a pink bow on your head.”

“Where did you even—”

“Don’t, he’ll still be telling us that story two hours from now.”

“Hey!” Laughing, Vardan glares at his brothers, though it’s a playful look. He feels more alive now than he had in years. While he had loved living on Inera, it is clear to him now that they all needed to get away. If only for those who had lost their pairs, to get away from the memories that would linger in the place for years to come, he knew. All of them had started ‘loosening up’, a little since they’d taken to the stars once more and he was glad for that.

If you aren’t here to sing me a lullaby, get out of my bedroom.

 
Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Alcohol Inside
Characters: Blush D’Ambrosio
Race: Boozeling – Wine
Age: 2 765, physically about 19
Final Word Count: 664 words
 

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When I get sick, I get grumpy. I’d like to think I’ve earned the right to be grumpy because I’m not sick very often, so one balances the other out. I honestly don’t know that any of us get sick very often at this point in time. I don’t remember it happening often in the last decade and yet, there are still a good number of us. Even Marie’s kids didn’t really get sick except for that one time.

I might also somewhat play favourites. I’ve been known to be an absolute grump—without being mean about it—to both Ivory and Robin but I try not to be when it’s Tristan who’s dropping by to look in on me. My brothers have been with me from the start, we have days we get along and days we just don’t. They both know that when I complain at them while I’m sick, it’s because of that very reason and they’re just seriously patient with me.

It’s different with Tristan. We caused so much trouble for him while he was growing up. I mean, for the most part, it was out of our control, we were just doing what we thought we knew and we were following our hormones but yeah, that’s not… it’s something I’d rather not think about too much. I’m just glad he’s forgiven us for everything and that we’re still close. We might not be as close as we could have been if we hadn’t screwed everything up but we’re still close to a point that makes me feel as though not everything has fallen into an absolute pit of despair.

Three days ago, I wasn’t feeling great. I mostly stayed in my room and I kept to myself. Two days ago, I started feeling even worse and I couldn’t even pull myself from my bed, it was that bad. Ivory was the first to come and check on me and I mostly just turned my back on him as he checked me for fever—yup, keep your cold hands to yourself—and to make sure I had at least a bottle of water on my nightstand to keep hydrated with.

I don’t know how much later, since I was in and out of an uncomfortable sleep, I had another visitor—Robin this time—bringing me some broth and he even made sure I drank everything to the last drop, despite my constant complaining about him being a brute. He was amused more than anything else but I wasn’t.

I woke up a little later on, my room was partially in shadows, which meant that it was getting on in the day and then someone else stepped into my room. Without waiting to see who it was, I bitched that if they weren’t there to sing me a lullaby, they very well could just as well get out of my bedroom because I wanted to be alone in my misery.

Tristan’s soft laughter made me freeze and I was aching so bad that I didn’t even attempt to roll over to face him to apologize for being an ass to him. I also didn’t really connect the dots with the fact that his laughter usually meant he wasn’t mad. I had not even managed to prop myself up that he was sitting at the side of my bed and giving me this amused look. He always takes my breath away when he’s just there. I know that it’s likely he’ll never feel the same way we do about him but I don’t mind. I’m pretty happy with being his friend.

He did sing me a lullaby but he hummed a soft tune, just keeping me company until I was sleeping again. I’m grateful for that too.

Yesterday, I was feeling a little better but still not so great and I’m pretty sure I’m done with this particular bug today. I’m just thankful that they all came to check on me at some point.

If you do my English paper, I’ll do your science homework.

Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Alcohol Inside
Characters: Blush D’Ambrosio
Race: Boozeling – Wine
Age: 2 763, physically about 19
Final Word Count: 545 words

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You would think that, being as old as we are, at last physically—or is that mentally? Anyway—we wouldn’t have to go to school or to have to study or do homework. The issue here is that we all three spent so long in escape pods, just floating through space and being kept alive while the pods were seeking someplace safe to drop and open, that we never did get to go to school. Father insisted that we go through all of the knowledge we normally would have learned in school and so, cue dismay and groans of despair, we were homeschooled.

I have lost count of how often my brothers have tried to pawn off their homework to one another. Though I suppose it’s not so much pawning off as exchanging. Ivory would be doing our English homework, Robin our biology stuff and I’d be doing the homework science. Sure, we tended to just work together in the long run but these little homework blitzes we often had to do alone and yeah, we’d exchange.

I’m not sure what good it did us to learn all of these school things and while we were all miffed for a while, it turned out to not be so bad. Some subjects were more of a bore than anything else but we all found something we were good at and we’ve all picked up projects along the way for us to work on.

Like… I know science is a broad term and that biology is actually part of science but that’s beside the point. I really picked up on ‘earth’ science, though I suppose it shouldn’t so much be called earth science since we’re not on that very planet and we never have actually been—not my brothers nor myself, that is—but to be a bit more precise, I find myself loving to learn anything that relates to the planet, to the ground we walk on, to what makes it what it is. Geology is the better term I prefer to use, in the end.

I could have turned to astronomy, I know, but I’ve been in space, I’ve seen several solar systems, several planets and while the study of still undiscovered planets could be interesting, it feels moot. I don’t want to go out there, I don’t want to leave this planet unless I absolutely want to or I’m going with my brothers and other members of the family. Plus, trying to learn about the make of the planet is just so much more interesting. I still haven’t found out the true roots of the house though, it still grows on its own, little by little every day, every week, month and year.

It took a few weeks after that one pod crashed in for the roof of the library to have grown itself back over that hole, it was something to look at it move slowly, almost so slowly you couldn’t really notice it unless you were paying attention. That was before we all were put into the ‘learning’ classes of things, of course, but I think it stayed with me all this time up until we had to pick our specialties for our final project. I haven’t regretted my choice yet.