*~*~*
And just like that, Sean was gone again, lost in whatever it was he was doing over there. Evan smiled a little and returned to his sketch. He felt more than a little useless, but he could admit, guiltily, that it felt good to let the weight rest on another pair of shoulders for a few hours. For a few seconds, he debated adding the dimple that popped into Sean's cheek when he grinned, but ultimately decided against it. This sketch was Sean at work, his face a mask of pure concentration. It was a little difficult to make corrections in the dark, but he figured he could always go back and make changes when the light shields were functional. Until Sean told him otherwise, Evan was going to keep telling himself that they would fix the light shields. If this didn't work, he had no idea what else to try.
He was trying to get the curve of Sean's jaw just right when Sean finally spoke again. "I think I may have fixed your problem, Mr. Engineer. How do we know if I've done it?"
Evan's heart was suddenly beating so hard he thought he might pass out. "Sweet stars above, are you serious? You fixed it?"
Sean grinned. "Well, I fixed something. I don't know if I've fixed everything yet, do I? Lights are still off."
"What time is it?" Flustered, Evan scrambled to push the button for the lighted display on his watch. 0439 hours. Still nearly an hour until the light shields should be opening. "I guess we wait and see." He tried to catch his breath. By all the planets, how was he going to just sit around and wait?
"Want breakfast?"
Evan's head jerked up. "Breakfast?" he repeated blankly.
Sean nodded. "That meal some people eat in the morning? My sister will make some for us if we get back to my place before she leaves for work, and her cooking is far better than anything you can get elsewhere in the colony."
"That would be great, actually." Evan couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten, much less eaten something homemade. His stomach rumbled at the mere thought.
Laughing, Sean got up. "I suppose that decides us, then, doesn't it?" He waited a moment for Evan to grab his sketchbook and pencils and then started off. "Now, Mal's a great cook, make no mistake, but no gawking at her, all right? Just because she's the prettiest girl on ISC2 doesn't mean she's interested in flirting before 0500. Or ever," he added with a stern glance in Evan's direction.
"Yes, sir." Evan grinned. "I promise to keep my hands to myself and my eyes where they belong. Your sister's virtue will remain unbesmirched in my presence." He didn't bother to point out that he hadn't attempted to flirt with a girl since he was seventeen, lacking both the skills and the interest.
"That's right," Sean grumbled. "Keep your besmirching away from my sister."
When they reached Sean's apartment, Evan found himself in a pod quite a bit bigger than his own—with two occupants, he supposed that was only fair—strewn with all manner of tools, circuit boards, and odd bits of wire, metal, and plastic he couldn't identify.
"Sean?" a voice called. "Where are you just coming back from at this hour?"
"Work," Sean replied. "I've brought a friend for breakfast, by the way. His name's Evan." He wandered off into the kitchen, rummaging around until he came up with a bottle of vitamin-boosted fruit juice. Evan lingered in the living area, wondering whether to follow or just sit down.
A moment later, a tall, slender woman with long curls even redder than Sean's strode into the room. "Hello, Evan. Nice to meet you," she said, extending a hand. "I'm Mallory, Sean's sister."
He smiled and gave her hand a firm shake. "Evan, the one responsible for Sean working all night."
Her eyebrows arched. "What were you working on until this time?"
"Well, if Sean's right, you'll find out in a little more than half an hour." Evan shrugged. "It not, then we'll be back to work for the rest of the day, I imagine."
"Sounds serious. And mysterious." She pushed her hair over one shoulder, and Evan could see why Sean had felt the need to warn him off. She was certainly lovely, but there was also a graceful confidence to each movement that was stunning. "Would you like breakfast?"
"Yes, please."
"I'm working with the same colony crap as everyone else, so I can't promise much, but I can put together something resembling bacon and pancakes if you give me a few minutes." Evan nodded agreement, and she threw Sean, quite literally, out of the kitchen so she could work.
"Pushy, pushy," he grumbled with obvious fondness, rubbing the arm by which she had yanked him away from the counter.
"Oy! Quit your complaining and be glad I'm making you breakfast," Mallory scolded. "Lord knows you couldn't make something for yourself if your life depended on it."
"Especially not out here," Sean conceded cheerfully. "This food doesn't even look like food when you make it right." He flopped down onto the sofa and patted the seat beside him, gesturing with the other hand for Evan to join him.
Evan sank into the seat with a sigh; even the hard space colony cushion felt good after such a long night. Long week, really. He bent over just long enough to set his sketchbook and box of pencils on the floor, and then he relaxed bonelessly against the back of the sofa. The two of them sat in comfortable silence side by side until Mallory emerged with three plates balanced in her arms as only a former waitress could manage.
"So Evan, what do you do here?" Mallory asked as they all sat down together, emergency lantern resting in the middle of the table.
"Architectural engineering."
"He also plays the violin!" Sean chimed in. Evan rolled his eyes. "What? You do."
Mallory smiled brightly. "Really? I used to do a bit of fiddling myself when I was a little girl, but I gave it up ages ago. How long have you played?"
"Since I was four."
"That long?" Sean's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I would never have guessed!"
Mallory shot him a warning look. Evan snickered. "Pretty remarkable how terrible I still am, isn't it?"
Sean grinned. "That's what makes listening to you such a delight."
"There is something deeply wrong with you."
"Many things," Mallory added with a laugh.
"What brought you to ISC2?" Evan asked. It had been a long time since he had eaten breakfast with anyone else. Come to think of it, he had been rather solitary ever since reaching the colony. For a place that held such a large number of people in such a confined area, it was amazingly easy to avoid meaningful interaction with any of them.
"Structural repair: tightening bolts, lubricating joints, welding, that sort of thing. And Sean. I certainly couldn't send him off anywhere on his own."
"Aww, Mal! Of course you could have. I'm not a helpless babe," Sean protested.
She reached over to ruffle his hair. "No, but you need somebody to remind you to eat and to stop working long enough to get a few hours of sleep, and every once in a while to do some laundry and wash the dishes. Otherwise you'd just … forget."
Sean began to reply, but Evan was distracted by a sound he hadn't heard in far too long. "Shhh! Listen!"
Silence fell abruptly. "What am I listening for?" Sean asked in a whisper after a moment.
"That low whirr you haven't heard in five days."
Sean's eyes snapped wide, and after a few more seconds of listening, his face split into the widest smile Evan had ever seen. "It worked!"
"It worked," Evan confirmed, laughing, almost tearing up. Impulsively he grabbed Sean's face and kissed him, hard and fast. When he let go, Sean's jaw dropped slightly in surprise, but then he smiled a little, and it was okay. "How did you do it? What was wrong?"
Sean snorted. "Automatic software update. A patch got installed overnight that rendered the …" He caught sight of Mallory crossing her eyes and letting out a giant fake yawn, and Sean trailed off, clearing his throat. "Let's just say it caused problems between our system and yours. I resolved them."
"So what's this you've fixed?" Mallory asked at last.
"The light shields." Evan grinned, feeling about a thousand pounds lighter than he had
twenty-four hours earlier. "The lights will be back on today. It'll still take a bit for the solar stores to recharge, but there will be power." Before he knew what was happening, he was surrounded by a cloud of red hair and squeezed tight by a pair of thin but surprisingly strong arms.
"Thank you," Mallory said fervently.
"Don't thank me," he protested, blinking in surprise and trying to escape the embrace. "Sean did it."
Obligingly, she transferred her hug to her brother, pulling him up out of his seat and into a silly little jig around the table. When they crashed into the wall laughing, Mallory pressed a smacking kiss to his cheek and came over to Evan to press another to his, then grabbed up a bag near the door and announced that she was leaving for work.
For a minute after the door closed behind her, Sean and Evan just looked at each other. "So …" Sean said.
"So …"
"What now?"
Evan closed his eyes and sighed. "Now, I guess I should go into work and let them know what the problem was. Then, with any luck, I'll be dismissed for the rest of the day so I can sleep."
Sean's grin was a little lopsided and a little dimmer than usual. "You need it. Those circles under your eyes are pretty scary in the dark; in the full light of day, I imagine they're downright terrifying."
"Yeah." Evan tried to smile, but awkwardness was wedging itself between them now that their job was done. "What about you?"
"Yeah, I'll probably split my time between work and sleep. I've got things from yesterday to finish up, but I think my boss will understand why I had to put them aside once I explain the situation."
"Good." The silence that settled over them was not comfortable this time. Evan fidgeted for a few seconds and then got up. "Well, thanks for breakfast," he began, going over to the sofa to pick up his drawing supplies. "And really, I can't thank you enough for fixing the light shields. I thought I was going to be the reason this whole colony got shut down and sent back to Earth."
"And it wasn't even your fault at all." Sean stuck his hands in his pockets, rocking on his heels. "Just glad I could help."
Evan paused when he got to the door. "So I guess I'll see you around, maybe?"
Sean nodded. "Yeah, guess so. Maybe I'll stop in for a little serenade next time I hear you practicing."
"Yeah, all right." They stared at one other for a heartbeat while each waited for the other to do something, and then Evan left.
It was a shame, really. He liked Sean. It had been fun, even when he thought he was responsible for the downfall of life in space, just to spend time with him. And Sean had liked his drawings. But he hadn't said anything about their brief kiss, and he hadn't said anything to make Evan stay or kiss him again. Of course, Evan had been too much of a coward to do anything himself, so it was just as much his fault as Sean's, and probably more, since Sean likely didn't even want Evan like that. He sighed.
Just as he reached the end of the hall, Evan heard Sean call his name. He turned to see Sean jogging toward him.
"Evan," he panted, "do you maybe want to have dinner tonight? I mean, after you've had a chance to sleep and whatever."
Evan grinned, heart soaring. "I'd love to."
"Just you and me, I mean, without Mal or anybody else," Sean clarified.
"I'd still love to."
"You and me having dinner like a date."
Evan thought his face might break from smiling so widely. "Really, I'd love to." He bent and pressed his lips to Sean's before Sean had a chance to make any more unnecessary clarifications. It took a second for Sean to relax, but then he melted, arm coming up behind Evan's neck and fingers winding into the hair at the base of his skull as he kissed back with growing enthusiasm. Evan lightly clasped the sides of his face, thumbs brushing over the rusty red freckles, the corner of his blushing orchid lips, smoothing a strand of his Asiatic lily hair out of his Irish ivy eyes.
"Meet me at my apartment at 1900?" Evan suggested when they parted. "Is that too late?"
"Sounds perfectly delightful to me," Sean replied, leaning in to brush one more kiss against his lips. "See you then."
With a spring in his step, Evan set off for the engineering headquarters. Light was already beginning to filter through the shields, bringing the colony from an inky black to a pale gray. There were pedestrians staring up at the shields as though they had never seen them before, others smiling like it was the holidays all over again. Evan beamed at them all in their drab brown and gray glory, more at peace than he had ever been on ISC2. He didn't miss the colors anymore; he had just held them in his hands.
Fin
About the Author
The discovery at age five of her mother’s typewriter lurking the bowels of her basement inspired Julia’s first story, a moving, multi-chaptered, twelve-sentence masterpiece about a blood-thirsty blob. Since then, she’s gone on to write many vastly better spelled stories with much happier endings.
Julia finds absolutely everything completely fascinating, which is why she spends most of her time in a classroom. Her greatest loves, apart from her husband, are language, music, and history, and she makes her living via a slightly ridiculous passel of jobs centered around the three. There are rumors that, in a prior life, she even dabbled in teaching high school math and chemistry amidst her Latin, Greek, and music history classes. Her students joke that she would like to achieve a doctorate in Everything, and they’re not far wrong.
More of her writing can be found at her livejournal.
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