Posts by XpannekoekenX

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Ruby said with a wave of her hand.

She turned back to the ship and followed the railing back inside. It felt good to have gravity again. The red head took off her helmet and took a deep breath. That was exhilarating to say the least. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Akibo had followed, but she saw Aeron and Lily first.

“Don’t tell me how to live my life,” Aeron replied with mock sass.

When they got inside he quickly took off his suit and hung it up in its designated closet before heading towards the kitchen.

“I hope you’re all in the mood for pasta because that’s all I know how to make!”

“I think so,” Eric chuckled weakly.

He gazed lovingly at her for a moment longer.

“I’m so glad I met you,” He thought aloud.

Then, as he noticed the others beginning to go back inside, he decided he had enough as well.

“Want to head back in?”

Zeke came upstairs and gave Akibo an unamused stare.

“I don’t suppose you miss me enough to un-cuff me, do you?”

“I’d actually encourage it,” Aeron admitted. “Unless you enjoy the consistency of overcooked noodles.”

Truth be told, he barely knew how to cook a dish at home let alone anything on Earth. Still, he thought he’d give it a try. After all, Astrid had mainly been the one cooking for everyone during this trip, with some guest appearances here and there. The alien rummaged through the cabinets for the supplies he needed, but accidentally grabbed vinegar instead if vegetable oil.

((I did that once and BOY was it an awful surprise xD))

Zeke didn’t mind sitting to watch tv, but his face fell when Akibo decided to use him as a pillow for his feet. Knowing that he was skating on thin ice however, he kept his mouth shut.

((TIME SKIP))

“Well, that actually wasn’t terrible!” Eric commented on the meal as he pushed his plate away.

“Must’ve been because Lily helped you.”

Aeron gave him a pout, but then shrugged it off with a grin.

“Well, she did save all of you from having vinegar flavored noodles.”

He got up from the table and began collecting everyone’s dishes to put in the washer.

“It’s weird seeing Aeron taking care of us for once,” Ruby said quietly.

Her eyes narrowed in on Lily.

“What did you do to him?”

Astrid let out a loud yawn and stretched her arms out.

“Now I’m in a food coma!”

Ruby puked in her mouth a little, not having expected such a genuine response, but she was still happy for the cute couple. She flashed Lily a smile before glancing at Akibo. She chuckled at his disposition and pat him on the head.

“Well since we’re all stuck on this ship now I guess the only thing to do is sleep, huh?”

“We can play board games!” Astrid suggested.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Eric said on his behalf as he pushed his chair in. “I’m going to check on the ship’s path one last time before bed.”

Zeke watched everyone begin to disperse. He got up and went back to the couch, hoping everyone would let him sleep there instead of the cellar.

Eric leaned into the kiss and gave Kendra nod as she walked off to their room. He headed upstairs and made sure their path was free of any obstacle for the night. After making sure everything was in order, he finally headed downstairs. With each step he could feel how exhausted he was, emotionally and physically, but the alien shook those thoughts away. He promised Kendra they would try to enjoy themselves. With a deep breath, he opened the door to their bedroom.

“Finally we can rest,” He said to her with a weak smile.

After removing his shirt and pants he dramatically flung himself onto the bed and lay flat with his face buried into his pillow.

“Okay,” Astrid said skeptically. “But I should warn you... on my planet, if you break your pinky promise, I get to cut off your pinky!”

She made a scissoring motion with her fingers and snickered evilly.

“Goodnight!” She said afterwards, waving everyone off to bed.

Zeke was surprised Aki had asked him for anything, but before he could open his mouth to reply, Riku shoved the green haired boy away. He gave them both a curt wave of his hand before returning his attention to the tv and pulling up one of the blankets that had been left their by Elwood.

“Sure,” Aeron replied.

He lead them downstairs and began getting ready for bed.

“So... What do you make of all of this?” He asked curiously. “Like... Going to outer space to visit all of our planets and whatnot...”

He wanted to know how she felt, how she was processing everything, if she was okay or overwhelmed, but mostly what she expected. Especially when it came to his home planet. He wondered if he should tell her the truth that he told Akibo.

Ruby lay down in bed and stared up at the ceiling. Astrid was still in the living room and Celeste was- well... so the red head was all alone for the first time in what seemed like ages. It felt so quiet. Too quiet. So many thoughts began swimming around her head; mostly of her mother. Should she feel bad about running off and quitting school and going to space and not telling her? What if she was somehow effected by the invasion? Should Ruby have at least checked in on her? It made the her sad to think of how much their relationship had diminished since her father’s passing. She felt obligated to love her own mother. She was her only close family after all. But at the same time, it shouldn’t matter if someone is family if they are toxic for you, right? Ugh. It was always the same internal conflict, and Ruby was growing sick of it. She turned onto her side and stared out the window of the ship instead. “If she never cares to check up on me, then I shouldn’t care about her either.” Maybe one day she would actually be able to say that without lying.

Eric let out a relaxed sigh as Kendra began scratching his back. It almost made him instantly forget about everything that had happened within the past 24 hours.

“Yeah, I have no idea. I wonder if everyone on her planet is like that.”

He chuckled at the thought of millions of Astrids running around.

“Guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

Aeron smiled at the mention of plants, almost having forgotten that they’re what brought him and Lily together in the first place.

“Yeah,” He agreed. “That will be really neat.”

However his heart lurched at her next question. He should’ve known it was coming. The alien scratched the back of his head and looked away. He contemplated telling her about what it was like before the plague.

“Well...” He began hesitantly. “Let’s just say I wouldn’t get your hopes up about it.”

After about twenty minutes of tossing and turning, Ruby let out a frustrated groan and got out of bed. She peaked out of her bedroom door. Everything was dark aside from the nightlight plugged into the middle of the hallway. Carefully as she could, the girl tip-toed down to the boys’ room. Then she peaked in their doorway to make sure everyone was sound asleep. Feeling ashamed of what she was about to do, she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. But she didn’t care how it looked. She needed to feel grounded. To be with something- or someone familiar. Quiet as a mouse, she slipped into Aki’s bed and got under the covers. Of course he was already spread out like a god damn starfish, so she squirmed up next to him as best she could and wrapped his arm around her. When she was finally comfortable, she closed her eyes tightly. She didn’t know why her heart was pounding. They had slept together so many times before. So why did this feel weird? Perhaps it was because all the times before were out of convenience, not by choice. However she knew she made the right decision. Just the familiar smell of Aki’s cologne was enough to help soothe her anxiety.

“Uh,” Eric tried to think.

Yes, he did mention something to him and Aeron before. What exactly did he say? And was he allowed to tell Kendra? He turned his head to look at her.

“If I tell you, you have to promise he won’t find out... but, I think I remember him asking me and Aeron for advice about her when he took us all to the-“ The name felt so wrong coming out of his mouth. “The strip club... on guys’ night... How come?”

Ruby felt her body go tense when Akibo showed signs of consciousness, but when he said “I gotcha”, she couldn’t help but chuckle. She looked up at him with big brown eyes.

“I’m sorry for waking you up,” She whispered. “I just...couldn’t sleep.”

“It is beautiful,” Aeron confirmed. “It’s just... My people may not be very welcoming. They’re going through a rough time at the moment.”

He wanted so badly to tell her everything, but did she even know about what he tried to do to Akibo, let alone his other failed experiments? He felt so ashamed of it all now. What if her entire view of him changed? He knew she was probably the most compassionate and understanding person he will ever meet, but he still couldn’t bring himself to tell her. Memories of home and all of the ones he lost to the plague crashed into the forefront of his mind. When Lily asked if he was okay, he couldn’t even muster a reply. He buried his face in his hands and wept.

“I’m sorry,” He told her.

The poor girl was probably so confused. He knew he would have to tell her the truth sooner rather than later. This would be the last secret between the two of them. But right now, he needed to compose himself.

Eric gave Kendra a confused look when she wiggled her brows at him. Ohhh- She was talking about sex. Yeah, it would be awkward for them to have sex in front of two other men... even if they were asleep. He chuckled at her last statement.

“But one of those men is his brother. I hope he wouldn’t be that much of a freak!”

He playfully tossed a pillow onto her face.

“Now mind your own business,” He teased.

Little did Akibo know that Ruby was thinking the same exact thing. She examined his face, his jawline, his neck, so many kissable places just mere inches away. She bit her lips in an attempt to stop them from doing something foolish. But he was being so sweet right now. Was it like a big brother type of protection or was it perhaps something more? Maybe she could get a little hint without diving in too deep. She tried a more intimate position, nestling as close as she could, resting a leg between both of his so that her thigh just so happened to lightly brush against his groin. She rested a hand on his chest (though probably to his relief she couldn’t feel his heartbeat) and her head positioned atop his shoulder, just close enough that her breath could be felt on his neck.

“Goodnight,” She whispered innocently.

Aeron managed to pull himself together relatively quickly. He sniffled and wiped a tear from his eye.

“No,” He said while shaking his head. “You’ve waited long enough. I don’t want to keep anything from you anymore... I just want you to know that what I’m about to tell you is about the old me, and I will never be so selfish again.”

He gave her a stern look as he said this, silently praying that she would believe him.

“Have you ever wondered why me and Akibo had that fight in the club a while back?”

Ruby wasn’t sure if she felt slightly discouraged. Was she making him uncomfortable? Was this too weird? No, she refused to start overthinking and end up in the same situation she was in a few moments ago. She held the position for a few more minutes while she pretended to fall asleep, then carefully shift a bit further away to give him some more space. It was probably for the best anyways. What did she expect to happen? Whatever. She was too tired now to feel stupid or embarrassed. A few moments after that, the red head finally passed out.

Eric looked at Kendra with wide eyes, as if his brain were taking a moment to compute what she had just said. Then a smile crept along his face, spreading from ear to ear. He planted a firm kiss on her lips and replied, “I love you too.”

To be honest, Eric never imagined he would find true love back at home. He was either too invested in work or found the females to be rather boring or high maintenance. But Kendra made it all seem so easy. He let out a yawn, beginning to grow more tired by the second, but he didn’t mind staying up to chat. After all, it’s not like they had a lot to do tomorrow. They still had another 24 hours before arriving at their destination, and Eric and Kendra hadn’t gotten any alone time since...

“Is the last time we were alone the time we went swimming in that lake? Or...?”

“Right,” Aeron sighed.

He forgot about the whole break up situation that happened immediately after. The alien shook his head.

“Well, the reason why Akibo hated me so much was because-“ Go on, just it and get it over with. “I snuck onto this ship to come to Earth and experiment on its life forms, and he was my first victim... Luckily the others somehow managed to interrupt the procedure and save Aki just in time... They didn’t trust me for a long time after that and held me captive for a while, kind of like what they’re doing to Zeke, only he has a bit more freedom than I did. But I think that’s because the others never really bothered to find out why I did it... I ended up confessing to Akibo at the Christmas party. He is the only other person on this ship that knows... My people have been dying of this plague that randomly began spreading within the past year. Me and a few dozen others worked on finding a cure by dissecting every plant and animal we could find. We even experimented on the terminally ill... Long story-short, I figured if there was no cure on my planet, there might be one on Earth. I was blinded by greed and didn’t care about the lives of those I experimented on. I only cared about my own species. I didn’t want anyone else to have to lose someone they cared about, so I thought that I was being righteous. But it wasn’t until the night Akibo beat the crap out of me that I finally saw what I was doing was wrong.”

“Well we are going on another date when we get to my planet,” Eric proclaimed. “I will make sure of it.”

He could already think of a few places he wanted to show her, but his thoughts were interrupted by another yawn.

“For now, let’s get some shut eye.”

He rolled over to turn off the lamp beside their bed.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t just casually mention all of this to you before,” Aeron replied, tongue dripping in sarcasm.

But he knew Lily didn’t mean any offense, and so he immediately felt bad afterward.

“Sorry...” He said. “But... Whatever. Now you know.”

The alien gave her a shrug, unsure of what was to follow. He would understand if she needed time to process this or even sleep in another room for the night.

Aeron slowly shook his head as Lily spoke. How? HOW could one person be so god damn understanding? He didn’t get it. When she offered to help him find a cure, he looked over at her and noticed her misty eyes.

“I really don’t deserve you,” He said with a weak smile.

Then he looked back down at his fiddling thumbs.

“We really could use all the help we could get... So, I mean, I won’t say no.”

((TIME SKIP))

The next morning Ruby was surprised to find herself still entangled with Akibo. How did that happen? She carefully squirmed free, face bright red as she wondered if Riku or Elwood had seen them yet. Surely Astrid must’ve wondered where she was last night too... Ah, who cares. The red head got out of bed and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Eric woke up and admired Kendra’s sleeping form for a bit. He kissed her forehead before getting out of bed, trying his best not to wake her so that the princess could sleep in a little. Then he began getting dressed.

Astrid was already wide awake per usual, cooking her infamous pancakes. Though she had actually gotten quite good at them now, and even got down exactly how everyone liked theirs. She served Zeke first, who was waiting at the table patiently.

Aeron woke up with Lily wrapped tightly in his arms. He pulled her closer and didn’t want to let go, but his stomach had other plans. When he finally had enough starvation, the alien kissed her on top of her head and rolled over to stretch. He felt like he slept like a rock last night. Why was it that crying made you so tired? He shrugged it off and got out of bed, quickly checking himself in the mirror before heading upstairs. When he went into the kitchen, he was greeted by Astrid, Ruby, Eric and Zeke. A plate was already made out for him with a maple syrup smiley face on his pancakes and whipped cream hair.

“Nice touch, Astrid,” He chuckled as he sit down.

“Thanks!” Astrid beamed with pride.

She set down a plate for Riku. His pancakes were adorned with diced strawberries that formed the shape of a heart.

Astrid gave Riku a playful wink before bringing her attention to Akibo.

“You’ll get yours soon! I had to save the best for last!”

She giggled as her body turned to reveal his plate of pancakes with a mountain of whipped cream on top and little penguin figuirines spread out on top of it.

“It’s a snowy mountain!” She exclaimed, placing the plate down in front of Aki.

“I got the tiny penguins from the aquarium! Didn’t know what I was gonna do with them, but apparently they make perfect pancake toppers.”

Ruby snorted with laughter.

“I mean they’re supposed to he childrens’ toys, but yeah, that works too!”

She dug into her pancakes and slouched back in her seat.

“So... What are we all gonna do today?” Aeron questioned.

His eyes darted around the table to see who would be the first to suggest anything.

“Goodmorning princess,” Eric teased lovingly.

He got his clothes on and waited at the door for Kendra to finish so they could walk down together.

“Sounds like everyone is already awake. I wonder if we are even behind your brother?”

Astrid twirled her hair bashfully at the praise before finally sitting down to eat her own plate.

“Are you crazy?” Eric chuckled, shoving Kendra playfully. “The man only just started warming up to me. I think I’ll let him sleep... It’s not like he’s going to be missing out on much anyways.”

The alien shrugged as they walked past Elwood’s room and down the stairs. Everyone had a hearty plate of pancakes in front of them, including two vacant seats for Eric and Kendra. It was nice getting to wake up and not worry about preparing yourself something to eat. They arrived just in time to hear Akibo’s suggestion, which made Eric roll his eyes playfully.

“You humans love that nasty drink, don’t you?”

“Well it’s fun to do when there’s nothing else to do!” Ruby defended. “Plus how many people can say they’ve gotten drunk IN SPACE?”

She looked around the table, brows raising.

“Sounds like a good time to me,” Aeron shrugged.

Astrid scarfed down her pancakes before running to one of the cabinets and pulling out a few bottles of wine.

“We have these!” She announced.

“I’m sure I have a bottle of Jameson in my room,” Aeron mentioned.

“Alright that could be enough to get us buzzed at least,” Ruby shrugged. “There are a lot of us here...”

She glanced at Akibo, half expecting him to have stashed some more alcohol away somewhere when boarding the ship.

Ruby’s eyes widened each time Akibo brought out more alcohol. She didn’t think he would’ve brought that much. Then again, who knows how long they would be on this space field trip.

“I think that’s more than enough,” She assured.

The red head was surprised that Elwood was down to drink, but welcomed it nonetheless. As bottles were passed around and glasses were poured, she didn’t hesitate to gulp down as much as she could. She liked to get drunk fast and then ride it out.

“Cheers,” She said while holding up her shot glass. “To... Saving the planet Earth!”

“Oh yeah. We did that, didn’t we?” Aeron grinned.

Zeke felt awkward cheersing to that, but he did anyways. There was no way he would survive this trip being the only sober one on the ship, so he decided to join in on the festivities.

Ruby couldn’t stop giggling while she was twisted like a pretzel. She looked over at Aeron, who was positioned in such a way that the blood was rushing to his head. He looked like he was about to pass out, but was too stubborn to do so.

“Can we hurry this along so we can get back to my turn?” Aeron pleaded.

“Okay, okay,” Astrid huffed as she moved where Elwood instructed her to with great difficulty.

Her face was now directly in front of Riku’s and she teased him by licking the tip of his nose. Hey, now that she thought of it, maybe that would be a good tactic to get him to fall.

Next was Eric’s turn. When Elwood instructed him to put his right foot on red, he couldn’t help but notice that would put him right on top of Kendra in the most immodest position. He hesitated, eyes darting from the red spot, over to Kendra, then to Elwood and back again.

“Do it, you pussy!” Ruby taunted him.

“You won’t!” Aeron added.

The two cackled at Eric’s expense.

A bead of sweat dripped from Eric’s forehead as he envisioned true-sized Elwood squashing him like an accordion. However he quickly shook the thought away and put his foot where he was told. It was just a game, after all. It was be unreasonable for Elwood to actually get mad. Once he was settled in the position, he cast a defiant glare at Ruby, Aeron, and Akibo.

Finally it was Aeron’s turn again and he was able to readjust. He let out a sigh of relief. But this game wasn’t going anywhere. They would have to start playing dirty. He let his eyes wander about the room, searching for the weakest link. His gaze landed on Riku.

“Hey, is that a spider crawling up your sleeve?” He asked.

“They could’ve sneaked on here!” Aeron laughed in defense. “And that comment was meant for Riku anyways!”

Astrid snorted with laughter. She began to laugh so hard that she couldn’t hold her pose and gave in.

“Riku! You should’ve seen the color drain from your face!”

She finished by wiping a tear from her eye, then glancing over at Lily.

“You do realize Eric’s planet will be crawling with giant bugs, right? Better get used to ‘em!”

Eric gave Kendra a squinty look after her and Aki had been defending him all night, calling him “shy” and “sensitive”. Did they think he couldn’t handle a little heat?! Of course, this was what drunk Eric thinking to himself.

“Well- Humans are freaky too!” He defended with his index finger pointed high in the air. “I mean... You’re all so... Fleshy!”

He paused for a moment to put his hand back down after almost falling over.

“What’s up with that?!”

Aeron snickered a bit, trying really hard to focus on the game so that he didn’t suffer the same fate as Astrid.

“But Eric, Kendra and Elwood are fleshy too.”

Eric frowned when he realized Aeron was right and now he didn’t know how to save himself.