#self-protection via quirks and tics

[mosylufanfic]

Sidekicks

Killervibe Fanfic Week! Monday June 18th: Role Reversal

@killervibedaily

I thought this was a pretty fun prompt, and of course, the first thing I thought of was Cisco Frost and Caitlin Vibe. That would have been pretty neat! But then I started to wonder what they would be like with swapped personalities, and that notion wouldn't let go. So here you go.

Sidekicks

Francisco Ramon had pulled his hair back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, one so secure that the wind whipping down the runway didn't budge a single strand. Barry wondered if it gave him a headache. Maybe that was why he had such a dour expression.

He shoved his thick-framed glasses up his nose and studied Barry like he was a bug. "We've theorized that you were moving so fast, it only appeared that the world was slowing down. That's what we're testing now." He glanced back at the other two people from Star Labs. "Dr. Wells will be monitoring your energy output, and Dr. Snow, your vitals."

"And what do you do?"

"I build the equipment, of course," the other man said. He held up a black circle with a lightning bolt on it. "This is a two-way headset that I've modified, with a camera attached. It's designed to combat battlefield impulse noise."

"Or a sonic boom," Barry suggested.

"The speed of sound is three hundred and thirty-two miles per second. It's unlikely."

Okay. Fine then. He took the black circle in his fingers and studied it. "I like the lightning bolt."

Francisco rolled his eyes and took it back. "That was Caitlin."

Caitlin herself strolled up. The wind tossed her pink-streaked braids and set her bright blue dress and man's trench coat flapping  She grinned at Francisco. "Are you complaining about my lightning bolt again?"

"It's pointless," he grumbled, yanking the helmet off Barry's head.

"It keeps it from being boring!"

"It doesn't need to be exciting, it just needs to work."

"It can work and not be boring," Caitlin said, pulling a gummy bear out of her pocket and popping it in her mouth. The three or four charm bracelets tangled around her wrist jingled.

He grumbled under his breath and took the helmet back to the table where Dr. Wells sat.

Caitlin rolled her eyes and muttered, "Stick in the mud." She turned back to Barry. "Okay. Let's get you synced up and see what you can do."

"You're a doctor?" he said doubtfully as she jabbed at the various sensors on his chest with purple-glittered nails, then tapped her tablet. "Like, really a doctor?"

"Nah, you got me. I printed my M.D. from the Internet." She ate another gummy bear. A stray sunbeam bounced off the pink sequined heart on the front of her dress and momentarily blinded him.

"Wait, what?"

"Yes. I'm a real doctor. School loans and everything."

"It's just that you're not - uh."

"Very professional-looking?" She flicked the pink-striped braid back over her shoulder. "Oh, I know. And I did spend a lot of years conforming. Pencil skirts, little pearl studs - " She shook her head so that the mess of metal that swung from her earlobes jingled cheerfully. "- neutral nail polish, that kind of thing."

"What happened?"

"The same thing that happened to you." She made a note in her tablet. "My once-promising career in bioengineering is over, my boss is in a wheelchair for life, and the explosion that put you in a coma also killed my fiancé. So, I figure I've got fuck-all to lose by wearing leggings with cats on them to work."

He glanced down automatically. Not only did her leggings have cats, they were also floating in outer space.

He looked back up, and she smirked at him. "Cute, huh?"

He smirked back. "Bet your co-worker over there loves that."

But instead of agreeing, she said, "Look, Cisco's kind of a stiff. I'll give you that. But he's the most brilliant, inventive mechanical genius you'll ever meet. Ever. And he's there when you need him."

Probably with a judgemental frown. Or a lecture. "Cisco? He said to call him Francisco."

"Yeah, you should probably stick to that for awhile, until he decides to let you in."

Barry looked over his shoulder at the scowling young man, working on his machines. "I'm not holding my breath."

"Give him some time. Let him warm up to you. In the meantime, don't push it."

Barry decided it was unlikely. "Do you think I can break the speed of sound?" It felt possible to him, with the lightning crackling in his blood.

"Tell you what,"  she called over her shoulder, already on the way back to the RV. Her heavy Doc Martens splashed through a puddle. "If you do, I'll give you a gummy bear."

When Cisco drifted into her lab, she didn't look up as she asked, "So, what do you think of our speedster?"

"So he runs fast. It's scientifically intriguing, but functionally pointless."

"You're just annoyed because the blowback landed you on your ass out there." She lifted her head and grinned at him.

He scowled at her in a way that as good as admitted she was right. "Really. What can he do with that ability?"

"What can't he do with it? He makes Usain Bolt look like a grandma in a walker. Fastest man alive!"

"This is real life, not a comic book."

"You could fool me, lately." She looked up. From this angle, she could see one of the "teeth" that curved over Star Labs, broken in half by the explosion nine months ago. "Maybe a superhero would have stopped this from happening."

She wanted to bite her own tongue off when she heard the words slip out. Wincing, she turned to look at Cisco.

He'd taken off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "We didn't need a superhero. We needed better engineers."

He always looked younger with his glasses off. She suspected that was why he wore them, and why he tied his hair back so tightly.

"Hey," she said. "How many times do I have to say it? That - " She gestured up at the broken tooth. " - was not your fault. Ronnie was not your fault."

"If I'd done better - if I'd made a different choice - you would still have him."

"Maybe," she acknowledged. "And if I hadn't asked him to come along, he wouldn't have been here that night. And if his mom had never flirted with his dad at the roller rink in high school, he wouldn't have been born."

Cisco gave her a long suffering look.  

"My point is, you can what-if until the cows come home, but this is the world we live in." She bit her lip, thinking of the engagement ring entombed in her jewelry box at home. But that hurt, a knot right under her breastbone, and she said, "Speaking of that, do you ever wonder about those cows? I mean, what are they doing out so late? Probably up to no good. Bovine delinquents."

Cisco's mouth quirked up at the corner, and she felt a flush of triumph. She didn't get a smile out of him very often. "Your shoe's untied," he said.

She glanced down. "Oh, yeah. I'll get them in a moment. I'm almost done with these samples." She didn't want to have to put on a new pair of sterile gloves after she'd handled her dirty shoelaces.

He nudged her wheely office chair over to her. "Put your foot up."

She raised her brows, but propped her foot on the seat. He leaned over, took her loose laces, and retied them. Double-knotted, of course. He gave the toe of her boot a quick pat and straightened up. "There," he said. "I imagine it's not very sterile to trip over your shoelaces and faceplant into your lab bench, either."

She settled her foot back on the floor, feeling a flush creep up her face. "Not particularly, no." She focused on her samples again.

When she had them all prepped and set up for the morning, she looked over at him. He was fiddling with her shelf of beakers, turning them all so they faced the same direction. "Hey," she said. "What are you thinking about?"

"Air friction," he said, brows drawn together in concentration.

Her hands paused. What had she thought he was going to say? I'm thinking about the way I look at you sometimes, when you don't think I notice? I'm wondering if you ever look at me that way?

(The answer was yes, but it wasn't an answer she was ready to give. Not yet.)

"Of course you are," she said, stripping her gloves off and chucking them toward the trash can. She started to put everything else away. "What else?"

"We clocked him at 220 miles per hour today. He only ran about a mile, but what if he does longer runs? The effect of air friction would be considerable."

Caitlin considered it as she hoisted herself up on the counter. She leaned over and pulled open a drawer, plucking out a mini Krackel bar. "His skin should be okay - he's got that healing factor - but his clothes, his shoes? Yeah, they'd be pretty thrashed, I'd say."

She unwrapped the chocolate bar and bit in half. With her mouth full, she rummaged through the drawer for a moment and then held out a piece of candy. Dark chocolate with almonds.

He started to tell her he didn't snack between meals. She knew it, she could hear the words practically gathering up on his tongue. But he took the candy bar and unwrapped it carefully, biting off the corner.

The only reason she didn't throw all the dark-chocolate-with-almonds away when she filled her chocolate stash was because they were his favorite. Weirdo, she thought fondly.

"Since you brought it up," she prompted. "I'm guessing you got something in mind for air friction?"

"I have been working on that heat-resistant material."

"The fire suit?"

"The fire suit."

She played with the wrapper from her candy bar. "Just for proof of concept, of course," she said innocently.

He shot her a look from behind his glasses, but before he could say anything, the door to the cortex thumped open and Barry's voice called out, "Guys? Hey, where is everyone?"

She called out, "In here!" and Barry appeared with two large boxes in his arms.

"Hey," he said. "You guys got some time to talk?"

"I was about to go home for the night," Cisco said coolly.

"But we can make the time," Caitlin said, giving him a warning look. He pushed his glasses up in a gesture of annoyance, but didn't argue.

"Great," Barry said, thumping both boxes down on the table and pulling files out. "I've been going over unsolved cases from the past nine months. There's been a sharp increase in unexplained deaths and missing people. . . ."

Caitlin listened as Barry explained what he wanted to do. Superhero, she thought. He wants to be a real-life superhero.

She looked across the table at Cisco. He had his arms folded tightly, his hands gripping the opposite elbows. His face looked blank as he stared down at the files scattered over the table. Unexplained deaths, missing persons, general weirdness. They all knew that Central City had gotten much weirder lately.

If all of them, or even some of them, were due to the particle accelerator explosion, then that was even more that they needed to atone for. But if Barry's idea panned out, maybe they could actually start on that instead of marinating in regrets.

"I can't do it without you," Barry finished up. He glanced at Caitlin, and then looked longer at Cisco.

When Cisco lifted his head, though, it wasn't to return Barry's gaze. Instead, he looked up at her. Anybody who didn't know him wouldn't have been able to see the mix of emotions bubbling in his eyes. Uncertainty, hope, wariness, excitement.

She knew him.

She tilted her head and raised her brows. He let out a little sigh and pressed his lips together. She smiled at him.

"If we're going to do this," he said slowly, as if the words were being pulled out of him, "I have something that might help."

FINIS

[quirkless-and-embarrassed]

Regarding the character ask meme: I'd love to see your take on Tamaki!

HE IS ONE OF MY FAVES. As you can probably tell by my icon. I’m sorry this took me so long, but I couldn’t resist beginning the new season as I was working on this, aaand geeking out over the anime took up more time than I thought 😂

Answers under the cut because I could not resist including lots of images and because whoa this really got away from me. Spoilers for season 4 of the anime!

Favorite things about him:

tl;dr adorable+disaster+badass = instant KO

i. He’s never believed that the quirk makes the hero. Granted, it’s from his own insecurity that he believes that, but even when Mirio’s quirk was a liability, Amajiki looked up to him as a great hero. It’s especially refreshing to see because everyone else places so much emphasis on what their quirk can do.

ii. Also, his insecurity. Amajiki describes himself as a plain, boring person so terrified of failure that his brain goes blank when he even considers it. He’s not blush-y or stutter-y or those other tics associated with cutely shy characters—his face is kinda awkwardly inexpressive…he actually looks constipated when he attempts to address class 1-a during his debut…and I get a sense of stillness from him, like someone who freezes up instead of fidgeting. But he’s not fishing for encouragement. He’s likely to bluntly, unhappily shoot down any attempt to praise him because that makes the pressure even worse! No “thank you for believing in me, I’ll do my best,” no, “oh you’re too kind, that’s not true,” he’s like: “no, just…no. shit. what now? I’m not Mirio.”

iii. His relationship with Mirio. What he admires most about Mirio is how, when he goes down, Mirio always rises back up—like the sun—filled with warmth instead of with self-recrimination. He draws people in and fills them with energy. Amajiki painfully believes he isn’t capable of any of that, but he trusts Mirio, and Mirio tells him that there’s plenty of warmth to him even if Amajiki can’t sense it in himself, and even if Amajiki is filled by fear at the idea of failure, he, too, energizes Mirio when he faces his problems anyways. They talk, build each other up, and accept each others’ feelings. Amajiki still wants to be like Mirio (cue “imitation is the sincerest form of…”), but he’s learning that even though he’ll never be Mirio, he and Mirio are alike in the ways that matter most.

iv. it’s as gay as the day is long.

v. How steadfast he is. Given his anxiety, it’s not immediately obvious, but Amajiki’s doubts and insecurities center on his capabilities and self-worth—not on his principles or about what needs to be done. When he’s worried about something, he doesn’t even try to hide it, there’s something very forthright and grounded about the way he struggles to confront the current obstacle.

vi. He’s such a goofball when he’s alone with Mirio. Here he is pretending to sever his thumb. Look at that smile. And Mirio’s habit of pumping his arms when he’s excited is nearly as cute.

vii. His hero name is awesome. Suneater. Talk about names that represent your ideal self…

viii. Amajiki doesn’t win his battle against Overhaul’s thugs by discovering his confidence and whipping out a super move (which, incidentally, he attempts via flashback+miritama feels and it fails resoundingly). He wins with the power of friendship, but it’s not the typical Power of Friendship spiel.

He fights three side-characters whose names I never remember, so I call them the garbage trio: theft quirk guy (similar to how Amajiki “steals” the forms of what he eats), a guy who manifests crystals, and gluttony guy. Funnily enough, the three have terrible self-esteem issues! They’re fanatically loyal to Overhaul because he’s willing to use them as sacrificial pawns, and being a pawn is better than being rejected as garbage (which each has as his tragic past).

So the narrative presents Amajiki with two types of bonds. Will he identify with the trio’s loyalty to Overhaul, founded on their sense of worthlessness? Or will he identify with their loyalty to one another, founded on their empathy for each others’ tragic pasts? Essentially: what kind of relationship does he have with Mirio?

It’s not even a contest. Amajiki immediately and fully rejects the Overhaul-brand loyalty as brainwashing and focuses on the bond he understands, the “friends don’t eat friends” bond.

So Amajiki recognizes his opponents’ humanity when even they couldn’t. Even though they thought of themselves as nothing more than Overhaul’s tools, Amajiki intuited that the bonkers guy who shouts “eat! eat! eat!” wouldn’t bite his crystal friend when Amajiki used him as a shield. In doing this, Amajiki proved that their lives have more value to each other more than they ever will to Overhaul. He explicitly praises them for trusting each other—something they can take pride in because they forged it themselves—and ultimately removes their masks, symbolically freeing them from Overhaul’s ownership.

It was a cool idea because usually I see the protagonist summon up reserves of power he didn’t know he had in order to protect his comrades, but when Amajiki was inspired by remembering how Mirio believes in him, it doesn’t actually work because the garbage trio calls on their own bond to counter his power-up. Or usually it’s the antagonist who turns the protagonists’ love for each other against them, and here it was reversed. Except Amajiki used their friendship against them not out of contempt for their bond, “oh your love makes you so weak and predictable,” but out of respect for it, “love is what makes you strong, and I know that because it makes me strong, too.”

ix. His weird, pointy ears.

x. His dub voice acting: it’s stellar. Props to Aaron Dismuke, highly recommend watching his episodes in the dub.

Least favorite things about him:

His first name, Tamaki. It just never sticks in my mind—Amajiki is much more distinctive. (Apparently I have some sort of big three mental block, because I can rarely remember Mirio’s and Nejire’s last names, either.)

He didn’t really grow or learn anything from his fight against the garbage trio. He was already confident in his bond with Mirio, and the whole reason he volunteered to fight the trio was that he thought he could win, so it was basically a high-stakes training exercise in sticking to his guns. I think the purpose of the fight was to teach the audience that he and Mirio are a positive foil for bakudeku, providing another way Mirio is superior to Midoriya + amping Mirio up before his tragedy-slash-victory, so it’s a shame Amajiki’s most major scene wasn’t about himself.

I wish he had more screen time, I wish he had more development, I wish we got his reaction to Mirio losing his quirk, I wish had scenes with more characters than just Mirio, Kirishima, and Fat Gum, etc. The usual gripes about faves who are side characters.

Favorite lines:

Ch132 – I love how forthright he is lol. No attempt to put up a strong front.

Ch132 – When the thug Amajiki’s fighting shouts at him, his feelings are hurt 😂 also bonus for kiri trying to comfort him

Ch135 – cool as a cucumber

And two I won’t include the panels for…

His badass line in 141, “I might not understand your rage. Your grief. Everything that led you here…but I know all about solid bonds! And my friends don’t use each other! Because friends don’t eat friends.”

and when he collapses after beating the garbage trio:*THUD* Huh…why’s the floor so close to my face?doofus

BROTPs:

Kirishima!! His pep talks to Amajiki while they were on patrol were really cute. I can only imagine how he handles Kirishima and Tetsutetsu! He’s totally the third wheel, and normally he’s happy to be! But sometimes he watches the two hype each other up and gets depressed about it because he’s never that positive and encouraging. Sometimes Fat Gum leaves Amajiki in charge and it seriously stresses him out because Tetsutetsu occasionally charges off to do his own thing and it’s a whole ordeal to rein him in.

And oh shit, Nejire’s personality is just as cute as Amajiki’s, I’d love to see more of the two of them hanging out. (and just…more of Nejire in general, please. Her debut was so funny and then Horikoshi did nothing with her.)

In class-a, I’m curious to see how Amajiki and Yaoyorozu would get along. They’re both gifted students with confidence issues and quirks that depend on eating, so it would be nice to see them hit it off. I’d also be interested to see Amajiki and Bakugo interact, especially with Kirishima there.

Also, since Amajiki has such a preoccupation with exuberant, confident people, I’d love to see him somehow meet Inasa.

This isn’t a brotp, but I’ll bet Nighteye intimidated the shit out of Amajiki… Mirio told Amajiki endless anecdotes about Nighteye but it didn’t work, till the day he dies Amajiki will still get clammy any time he thinks of Nighteye’s glare or the purported tickle machine.

Again not a brotp, but I’d love to see Amajiki vs. Shigaraki. That sounds like an awesome fight. (…ideally before Shigaraki gets all OP and only Midoriya can beat him.)

OTP:

Mirio.

NOTP:

Nobody comes to mind.

Random headcanons:

Most of the food Amajiki eats goes into his quirk; he doesn’t properly extract its caloric and nutritional value, and if he’s not careful, he could accidentally become malnourished. (It also makes it difficult to put on muscle.) So he eats a ton, to make sure he has enough to fuel both his quirk and his body, and he’s self-conscious at how much more he eats than other people.

When Amajiki vomits, his quirk is weakened to the point it’s basically null. He has to take a break and chow down before he can use it again. …Re-ingesting the puke is…not an option.

Clothing is a big issue for his hero work. He could develop a really powerful fighting style, one that involves producing limbs from his back and torso, if he were willing to wear a little less…but that’s never going to happen. Mirio can run around naked, but Amajiki can’t!

I don’t know if this is a translation quirk or fanon or what, but I adore it when Nejire calls Amajiki “chicken-hearted” in fanfiction. It’s a short, cute joke about his quirk and I wholeheartedly hc it. I also think Amajiki is closer to Nejire than Mirio is.

Amajiki doesn’t deal with his self-esteem issues by minimizing his challenges. He doesn’t make cheap compromises like, “ok, I know I can do this because it’s so easy even someone like me can do it.” He goes for broke, for being the spectacular hero Suneater, because even if he can’t perceive his own positive qualities, he believes that they’re there.

One of the (many) reasons Amajiki admires Mirio is that Mirio admires him, and Amajiki wants to be able to like himself, too.

When it comes down to it, his self-worth is nowhere near as desperately poor as the garbage trio because he knows true friendship. Maybe if he’d never met Mirio, Amajiki would have been susceptible to their sort of devotion, but now he never will be because Mirio’s encouraged him to value himself. Amajiki won’t accept a bond that relies on degrading yourself—which is important to know, since Amajiki constantly compares himself to Mirio. But Amajiki’s sense of inferiority is chronic without being proportionately deep. He adopted the name Suneater to declare himself Mirio’s equal, and his climactic line of the garbage trio battle, “friends don’t eat friends,” is one that asserts equality and puts his quirky spin on it to show he’s made the principle his own. Amajiki may not like himself but he doesn’t let it get in the way of taking his place as Mirio’s peer.

Amajiki’s parents are also anxious people.

Mirio is his neighbor at the UA dorms. It’s perfect because Mirio can permeate their the shared wall and they can hang out after curfew. (Mirio keeps a pair of sweatpants in Amajiki’s room for those occasions lol.) Nejire is jealous and always talks about gate-crashing, but she never gets around to it. Even after Mirio loses his quirk, his sweatpants stay in Amajiki’s room because neither of them can quite bring themselves to give those times up.

I am a sucker for making characters’ quirks reflect something fundamental about their hearts, so here’s my take on manifest. Amajiki manifests what he eats, meaning he absorbs from his environment and re-creates it in his own style. It’s not imitation, since Amajiki with one cow hoof and one tentacle, kicking ass, resembles neither a cow or an octopus, but he takes the best from what’s around him and reinvents it. “Suneater”? Thanks to how his friendship with Mirio gave him a stable, nourishing environment, he’s absorbed his favorite of Mirio’s traits and manifests them in his own way, as his own strength, because as even name of his quirk implies—manifestation makes latent qualities visible.

Like Bakugo, Amajiki could have resented Mirio for his strengths; like the garbage trio, he could have let his failures convince him that he’s worthless; but Amajiki consistently makes the best of the cards he’s dealt, even though it involves plenty of doubt and self-flagellation that could lead him down a darker path…but don’t. He’s greater than his demons.

Unpopular opinion:

Amajiki’s shy, but…not that shy. He gets like stiffly shy.

Amajiki still has a ways to go before he’s ready to date Mirio. (Not sure what’s the popular opinion on this.)

I really wish class 1-a versus Mirio had been class 1-a versus Mirio and Amajiki. It would have been so cool to see what amazing teamwork they had and how their quirks were compatible.

Song I associate with him:

Titanium—absolutely. I like the versions by Sia, Boyce Avenue, and Kurt Schneider (I couldn’t choose). Circles by Veela reminds me of his spiraling anxiety. And, I can’t resist, so I’m adding Chasing the Sun by The Wanted on here.

Aaand my ship songs…Appreciated by Rixton, and All of Me by John Legend.

Favorite picture of him:

Ch141 – Ironclad certainty. I’m not even gonna apologize for the dimensions and the fact this is huge, just drink it in.

Ch132 – If this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, I will never trust your judgment.

Ch152 – Unless it’s because this is the cutest.

Ch152 – When Mirio loses his quirk 💔

I’ve also answered these questions for Todoroki, Bakugo, Uraraka, Endeavor, Sir Nighteye, and Shinsou!

[planets-and-prose]

The Doctor And The Sunrise

Henry just wants Dawn to stay safe, in a world she knows. But he knows that one day, her insatiable curiosity and her idealism will get the best of her...and that day comes sooner than he thinks it might.

CW for light description of injury and blood.

“Everyone, status!” Sellia shouted as she shut the bay door.

“Okay here!” Anura called as she worked to secure the boxes full of GPF supplies in preparation for their takeoff.

“Good and ready to launch!” Morgan added from the cockpit.

“All systems are prepared,” Syemme chimed in.

“F…fine here, captain!” Sergei’s voice seemed…unsteady. Immediately, Sellia focused on him—he looked a bit pale, and his arm was crossed over his stomach.

“Move your arm,” Sellia ordered. And, as always, Sergei slowly obeyed. The back of his arm dripped with dark red, and his shirt was soaked through. The movement revealed a gaping wound that was anything but cleanly cut, revealing severed muscle. “Fuck,” Sellia hissed. “Lay down. Right now.”

“It’s not so…” Sergei’s reassurance trailed off when he looked down and saw how bad it really had gotten. “Oh,” he murmured lamely, swaying.

“Yes. ‘Oh.’ Anura, grab the med pack.” Anura nodded and rushed off to the storage area while Sellia helped hoist Sergei onto a bunk. They had a med-bay, but it was small and Sellia wasn’t confident that she could get Sergei there without hurting his wound worse. “Listen, Sergei, we are not the GPF, alright? We will take care of you. Please, please, don’t hide wounds like this from us. Ever.” Sergei just stared with glassy eyes at her, not appearing to comprehend much.

“Sergei…” Syemme’s tinny voice was quiet but audible through the intercom system. They had recently figured out how to, via the security cameras and intercom, see and communicate with most areas on the ship. Usually it was an advantage, but now…Sellia had one more distressed crew member to deal with.

“’M fine,” Sergei mumbled, to no one in particular. Anura dashed in with the large red med pack, and Sellia started to attempt to bandage Sergei’s abdomen. However, it seemed like as soon as she secured the gauze pads or the bandages, the blood soaked right through.

“Morgan, we’re altering course,” Sellia called. “Find the nearest planet with some sort of civilization. Hopefully there will be someone who understands medical things there.”

“Searching the databases, there’s no GPF records on Scr’Anan, a Lysal planet in the Magha system,” Syemme reported, a little faster than normal. “It probably means they haven’t been there, and it’s the right variety of planet to be populated.”

“I can get us there in 30 minutes, 20 if we ignore fuel efficiency.” Morgan started to alter course, calmly but quickly pulling levers and typing coordinates.

“We’re ignoring fuel efficiency. We need to get there fast.” Anura took over bandaging Sergei, and Sellia came to look over Morgan’s shoulder at the console. After a moment, she nodded at the course approvingly. “Get there as fast as we can with relative safety. We’ll deal with fuel and everything else later, when we have our engineer back.” —————— Henry’s hands skirted over all his tools, making sure they were all in the correct place. It was a restless tic, one that stemmed from looking at the empty beds and knowing his savings were draining quickly. His medical clinic was out of the way due to his fugitive status, but it usually did decent business. Lately, however, it had been slowing down as more and more of the Lysal grew distrustful of humans. Not that Henry could blame them; this was one of the few planets that had managed to evade GPF colonization, and any human could break that peace at any moment.

One Lysal, however, trusted him unconditionally.

“Henry!” Dawn called as she peeked her head into the door. Her frizzy reddish hair poofed around her, almost covering her face, but he could still see her bright smile. She was glowing, quite literally, with excitement—her pale skin emitted a faint marigold light. “Will you come watch the sunrise? Please?”

Sunrise was an important time on  Lysal planets, especially Scr’Anan. Here, sunrises only happened once a year, since the planet turned so slowly. Its orbit was highly unorthodox; the times of darkness lasted much longer than the times of light. Henry speculated that the planet spun irregularly, since it was never consistent how long the light lasted. The Lysal had many myths about it, but nothing proven by science. And that certainly wasn’t Henry’s field, so he accepted it and took it as another quirk of life on Scr’Anan.

“Alright, I will. Will it be soon?” Dawn nodded, and Henry took a deep breath, shoving away his anxieties. No one had come to his clinic for weeks now, they surely wouldn’t come in the hour or so that he’d be out to watch the sunrise with Dawn. And it would be good for him to stop obsessing for once. After one last look at his tools, he stepped out of the small clinic and into a hug from Dawn. “Whoa, whoa, you almost knocked me over!” he chuckled.

“Like it’s hard,” Dawn teased, sticking her tongue out a bit. Henry danced his fingers up her sides, right where he knew she was ticklish, and Dawn squeaked through a giggle. “You’re so mean!” she protested as she shoved him away, not fully meaning it. Ever since she’d come to a teenage Henry’s clinic, barely five years old and with no recollection of her past, she’d been like a little sister to Henry. She’d stayed with him ever since that day, and they’d been navigating the strange world of self-sufficiency together. Dawn didn’t seem put off at all by Henry’s past, or by his conflict with the GPF, and Henry helped her adjust to a world where nothing was familiar. Now, Henry would do anything to protect her, and both of them knew it.

“Yes, so mean, that’s why you’re having me come with you to watch the sunrise.”

“It’s not like I have a ton of other people,” Dawn replied, almost pouting. “I want to see more, you know? I want to see the places where sunrises happen every few hours, I want to meet people who aren’t like me! I want to see how much there is!” She looked up at the sky, speckled with sparkling stars, and as they reached the open field where Dawn liked to look at the sky, she flopped on her back in the grass. “Look at how big the sky is, Henry. There’s gotta be so much more than here.”

Henry nodded, not trusting himself to say anything. Dawn, as always, was too optimistic. In Henry’s experience, the universe was dominated by the GPF, an entity so large they seemed to loom over the infinitude of the galaxies, and the GPF hated those who dared to question things. And Dawn…well, she questioned things. She questioned everything. A single encounter with them would pop her little optimistic bubble, and Henry just wished she’d stay here, keep that optimism safe.

But the time would come where Dawn decided to leave. And damn it, Henry would be by her side when she did.

The horizon began, ever so slowly, to glow with gentle hues of red and orange, lighting the night and embracing the planet’s surface. The stars began to fade, allowing the light of the sun to wash over the world. Dawn’s physical glow lessened a bit as well, in comparison, but the happy glow in her smile didn’t once fade. She leaned on Henry, resting her head comfortably on his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her as they both watched the red turn to orange, turn to the yellow glow of a star that they only saw on the rarest of occasions. Most of the Lysal were celebrating, but Dawn and Henry didn’t need a large party; they preferred just each other.

However, the peace was not to last.

As the light began to gently bathe Henry and Dawn in its glow, a small shape seemed to block it, then come closer and closer. Dawn didn’t recognize it—she simply pointed it out and asked, in excited awe, “Henry, what’s that?”

Henry didn’t answer. He knew.

“Dawn, we need to go.”

“What? Why?” Dawn asked, but Henry was already taking her hand and not-so-gently pulling her up.

“These could be people who want to hurt you, it’s very likely they are. We need to get—”

“Henry, the whole universe isn’t out to get us!” Dawn pulled her hand away and backed up. “These people could be nice!”

“It’s a chance we can’t take, Dawn, they could kill both of us!”

“What if they’re good people?” Henry tried to make another grab for her arm, but Dawn stepped away.

“Dawn, they aren’t! It’s so unlikely! You don’t know, you’ve only ever been here, your optimism is great sometimes but now it’ll get you killed!” Henry’s words came fast, and Dawn could see the fear in his eyes. But she didn’t acquiesce.

“I’m not stupid!” Dawn shot back. “If they’re going to want to kill us they’ll find us on this planet no matter what! You’ve told me about the people who want to hurt us, and you know they don’t stop just because they don’t see anything at first! But they aren’t everything, you’re just afraid of everything, and you’ll ignore people that could—”

Her words were lost in the roaring of the landing ship. It was too late to run, too late to hide. Fear in his eyes, Henry grabbed Dawn’s hands in his. “Promise me if this goes bad you’ll run and warn the others!” he shouted.

“No! I—”

“Promise me!”

Dawn nodded; Henry had no clue if she’d meant it, but it was the best he would get. He let go of her hands and stepped in front of her as he watched what he feared was his doom land before him. ———————— As soon as the ship landed, Sellia turned to her crew. “I’ll go out and see what’s going on. Anura, keep pressure on Sergei’s wound. It might not do much but it’s better than nothing. Morgan, be prepared to leave if things go south.” She didn’t wait for them to nod—she opened the bay door and stepped out, to see two smaller figures looking at her. The one in front was dark-skinned, with curled hair and glasses, and his frame blocked that of a skinny girl, her red hair puffing out around her. Her gaze was curious; his was wary, afraid.

“Hello, I’m sorry to be so abrupt, is there any sort of doctor around? We have a critically injured person, and we need assistance immediately.” The man’s eyes narrowed.

“Are you with the GPF?” he demanded. Sellia shook her head.

“Fairly far from it.” The man nodded.

“Dawn, can you run back to get my bag? Everything should be ready, but if they’re injured, we shouldn’t move them too much.” The girl—Dawn—sprinted off, and the man looked at Sellia searchingly. “Is he on a mobile bed of any kind?”

“No, unfortunately. We could move him to one, but it would have been high risk during the takeoff.” The man nodded.

“Alright. If I get on your ship, I need a wide berth from all of you. I don’t know any of your intentions.”

“Fair enough. Please, he’s this way.” Tentatively, the man followed Sellia onto the ship and into the back room. “Anura, please give us some space,” Sellia asked. Anura nodded and slipped out of the room, past the man. He didn’t even give her a second glance, concerned only with Sergei. Sellia moved to the opposite end of the room, watching intently but hopefully giving the man the space he wanted.

“This is serious, but doable,” he said after a moment. “He’ll need some blood transfusions, but once we stabilize him a bit we can worry about that. Let’s hope that one of you can give him some blood, because if not we might be out of luck.” Sellia nodded.

“It would have to be me or Morgan. I’m sure between us something will work.”

“Do you have a medical bay?” the man asked.

“Somewhat. It’s rarely used since none of us have the expertise. But there should be equipment that works.”

“Alright. Once we get the wound closed, let’s move him there. I’ll figure out blood types and see what I can do.” Dawn ran breathlessly into the room and passed the man his kit.

“This one, right?” she asked. The man nodded.

“Alright. It’ll take me some time, but I can get to work. Prepare some sort of way to get him into the medical bay with the least jostling possible.” Sellia nodded and, after a moment’s hesitation, left the man alone in the room. Certainly, he could kill Sergei if he desired. But at this point…he was on death row anyhow. —————— A few hours later, Sergei lay in the medical bay, some of Morgan’s blood running into his system. Luckily, Morgan had O positive blood, and Sergei could receive it, according to the man. He had yet to give a name or speak to anyone—he’d simply been taking care of everything. But now, things were looking a bit better. Morgan lay on another bed, eyes closed as they fought off the dizziness from giving a bit more blood than a human safely should. Sergei needed all he could get.

“That’s all we can do for now,” the man said with a heavy sigh. He took off his gloves, put them in one of the designated biohazard containers, and rubbed at his eyes. “As long as the blood takes, he should be alright. Lucky for him, he’d gotten away without any organ damage, so it was just a matter of keeping everything where it belonged and getting the skin and muscle sewn back together.”

“Thank you, so, so much,” Sellia sighed. “Here, please tell us what we owe you.”

“Right now, I want some information. Who are you, and why are you flying around the galaxy without a bigger crew? In an unmarked ship, no less?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a story…” The man listened intently to Sellia’s explanation, his expression still, and nodded once Sellia finished.

“Alright. I believe most of that, at least since if you were GPF, you’d have a doctor with you.” He paused for a moment, and extended his hand. “I’ve managed to catch all your names. I’m Henry.”

“Thank you, again, for all you’ve done, Henry,” Sellia said as she took his hand.

“Right now, as for payment…” Henry looked around, his gaze landing on Dawn. She was looking at everything in awe, wandering around with a smile. When Anura came up to her, she lit up, literally and figuratively, and started chattering excitedly. After a moment, Henry turned back to Sellia. “Would you consider taking us with you?”