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[deuceoftears]

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[littletonoidea]

Eiffel frowns gently. His introspection, usually limited to life or death situations, is very much reaching the limit of its capabilities.

If Jonathan Sims still had his powers this question would be a lot simpler.

"I dunno. It's just... something I haven't thought about before. It's not, like, one single thing. It's all the straws ganging up to break the camel's brain." He shrugs gently, smooshing Jedao's head for a moment. "I guess part of me's worried that I might not be good at the benefits part of friends with. I don't wanna lose the friends part."

[deuceoftears]

"We've already been friends this long without getting to mess around," Jedao points out. "It's not, like, not enough? I just...got the idea you might be into it after all. If it doesn't make us happy we can just stop. I won't be mad or, or heartbroken or anything. But I'd be heartbroken if I lost you as a friend. I don't want to lose that either."

[littletonoidea]

"I've wanted actual friends since I was in second grade, Jeepers, I didn't exactly have a lot of them growing up. And I really don't wanna screw up on the ones I've got now, not more than I've already done to folks here. Having you guys- like this? That's totally enough."

He doesn't know what to do with himself and he's bad at sitting still, so his face turns red as he brushes his thumb along Jedao's hand.

"But- y-yeah. We might as well give the upgrade a shot, you know? Once around the block, see how we like it or if I go and make things even more weird and awkward. You just... I mean, I know you're gonna go easy on me. Take it slow the first time."

transition to Cave Hang?

[deuceoftears]

Jedao's hand kink means it comes across as a less innocent gesture than intended; he sucks in a breath, fidgets minutely and has to think about eating food to stop himself getting hard about it.

"Right. Easy," he echoes, voice a little breathy.

Then he grips Eiffel's hand a little tighter, leans back enough to look at him.

"Hey. Why don't we go do friend stuff right now? Just hang out. Like - since that's what's important to both of us. Walk the walk, you know? We could go see the caves or whatever."

Cave Hang Time!

[littletonoidea]

"Yeah? That sounds awesome."

He'll give Jedao's head another quick squish with his own before he goes to stand up, letting his hand slip free from Jedao's. "I haven't actually hopped off the ship yet, I didn't feel like seeing how badly my screams are gonna echo when I inevitably get caught by whatever's living out there. But hey, if you're with me I'm in great hands."

Re: Cave Hang Time!

[deuceoftears]

"I won't let anything get you," Jedao promises, and wants badly to kiss him again, for no reason at all. "I mean - you don't have to, I just - I haven't seen planets that much? And it's been a while for you, too. Even if it's not outside outside."

[littletonoidea]

"It's off the ship, I think that's enough for most folks, you know? Get our Forrest Gump on somewhere with room to stretch." He gives Gonou a brief look, worried but warm, before he goes to lead the way out of the room. "But the big guy upship gave us a bunch of supplies for going out and collecting weird rock dust for the Engine, so this one's entirely for giving our girl a bit of a boost of her own."

[deuceoftears]

Jedao gives him a brief, intense but inscrutable look as he tries to assess whether get our Forrest Gump on is a euphemism or not, which at least serves to him out of the bedroom without weirdly agonizing over Gonou's - stillness.

"I can't get lost in the dark. But I'll carry spares or whatever, or course. and maybe if we get some, you can come back to the engine room to install it?" Jedao offers.

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel can't quite hide fast enough that he's a bit touched by that, and his face softens before he can brace and catch himself.

"I mean, if the Admiral lets you, you know? Or if she does," he adds, clapping both hands on the doorframe to the hall. "She's got every right to slam the door in my face."

[deuceoftears]

"He took your key, but he didn't take mine," Jedao points out with a half-shrug and a brief flash of a sneaky little grin. "That means I get to decide." And it's not like he hasn't let other people in under supervision, once or twice.

"I think she'd like it. She's almost made of forgiveness, you know? It's what she's for."

[littletonoidea]

"Fair enough." He's not gonna fight being let back in, that's for sure. "And honestly? I'm really frickin' curious where she's supposed to be putting the pixie dust. It oughta be pretty interesting, right?"

[deuceoftears]

"I can kind of...not talk to hear exactly. But I can nudge her and get an emotional impression back," Jedao admits as they reach the deck and start sorting through equipment. "She's not mad at you."

[littletonoidea]

"Oh." It's weird how much that means to hear out loud. "Neat."

He's sure Jedao will notice, but he doesn't care as he taps away a quick two-letter Morse code with his foot while they gear up.

TU. Thank you.

And Eiffel is careful to grab a whole heap of torches, tucked into his many overall pockets and more shoved into the duffel he's grabbed so they can't possibly lose track in the dark when they do finally depart the ship.

[deuceoftears]

One of the flashlights flickers a little as Eiffel fumbles it.

C8

Jedao does notice, but he also doesn't know morse code. Kel drum code works on the same principle, but of course the cipher is totally different.

"Will you teach me? What you're using?"

[littletonoidea]

He looks at Jedao in a moment of surprise.

"Morse? Sure. It's not exactly standard radio code, but I still remember my ABCs. You'd get the hang of it pretty fast." He bounces his flashlight in his loose grip, watching the light beam wiggle in the dusty air. "I think a few people on the Barge remember it, actually, I know B does, so probably Steve too."

[deuceoftears]

"It looked a little like drum code, but it'd be good to know things people actually use here. You never know when something like that will come in handy," Jedao points out.

[littletonoidea]

"Yeah, I can see that." He tosses his light from one hand to the other, and grips it firmly in his left as he thumbs it off. "Alright, so, might as well start with the most important one. International human distress signal - SOS."

And he'll turn flick the torch on and off to demonstrate - three short, three long, three short. And he'll repeat it, this time adding the letters.

"S-" short "-O-" long "-S." short. "All the cop-type folks on the Barge are gonna recognise it, it's practically drilled into 'em with a diamond tip."

[deuceoftears]

"Sos?" He sounds slightly bemused, pronouncing it as one word. Even after over a year on the barge, he still calls ships moths in his backbrain, so the acronym doesn't immediately register. But it's easy enough to remember the pattern. He clicks his tongue to copy the pattern.

"Did you learn it in prison?" he asks casually; it makes sense to him that prisoners would want to listen in on the communications of their guards.

[littletonoidea]

Jedao will be able to sense the way Eiffel tenses at the question automatically, as his brain fights to not parse it as an accusation.

"It's just S.O.S, actually." Just the letters, buddy! "But-- before, actually. I knew some before I joined the air force, and I learned the rest there. Same with a couple other radio codes, actually."

[deuceoftears]

"Oh, fuck me, is that military? You were not." He sounds ruefully aggravated, but not actually angry or disbelieving. Because.

Eiffel. Eiffel you have got to stop coming for Jedao's kinks. It's downright unfair at this point.

[littletonoidea]

...uh.

"Yeah, uh. We've got three little piggies that make up the United States armed forces - the army, the navy and the air force. Plus the marines, they're like the big bad wolf." He's gotta do his girl Shaw justice. "I only joined 'cos a career as a soldier was way easier than anything else in the job market. I, uh."

His light whips around as he uses the head of the torch to scratch his neck. "I got discharged. Dishonourably. Turns out the brass don't like someone who doesn't give a rats what his orders are supposed to be."

[deuceoftears]

"You're a crashhawk," Jedao breathes, and he can't even be suprised, because of course, of course he is. Fuck. Jedao wants to put him in Kel drag with no gloves and make him come in the uniform pants.

A fucking crashhawk.

"Stop being hot on our friend hang, you fucker."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel goes bright red under the yellow flashlights.

"Hey!" His indignation echoes through their cave. "I'm existing here! You got a problem with that, take it up with the Big Guy." And he jerks a thumb up, like Jedao is supposed to know he's referencing a God that Eiffel doesn't even believe in.

[deuceoftears]

"Oh, I don't have a problem with it," Jedao says in a smooth baritone half an octave lower than his usual voice, although if Eiffel looks, his cheeks are pink too.

"But you're the one who decided to be a sexy traitor, so if I can't kiss you about it you're going to need to give me a minute."

[littletonoidea]

So he is adjusting - slowly, but surely!! - to Jedao's manner of flirting with him, which means he has the bravado to look Jedao in the eye as he does.

Which doesn't help, actually, because seeing Jedao blushing as he does just makes Eiffel's cheeks go even darker as his eyes automatically flick down to Jedao's mouth before he can catch himself and look away.

"Okay, uh, yeah, sure, let's-- try not to make out in the middle of a horrible underground cave system on the edges of some galaxy far far away. That's always how the first people die."