Lover-boy

[Zeke]

Zeke, for the first time in a few days, is catching up on his chores. He has finished inventory, changed the bedsheets in every passenger's quarters, scrubbed every table in the galley, cleaned every stove in the kitchen, and has every viewport clear as crystal. Now he's mopping the halls.

Mopping has always been a thoughtful job for Zeke. It's calming, somehow, and it makes his mind wander around. It's fixed mostly on the Garou girl who's sleeping peacefully in his room, Eris Alexiel. He smiles as he pictures her in his mind, laughing at his jokes and sitting happily in his arms. He hums to himself as he slowly scoots backward down the hallway, sweeping the mop from left to right.

[Jhony]

Jhony paces backwards, out of his son's sight, but close enough to hear him when he starts to hum. Soon he recognizes the tune, and can't help but sing the lyrics quietly as he inspects Zeke's work.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."

[May Peris]

May catches on a little late, adding her voice to the quiet chorus.

"...You make me happy, when skies are gray...You'll never know dear, how much I love you...Please don't take my sunshine away..."

[Zeke]

Zeke stops and sputters, coughing as he turns to see his family shuffling along behind him.

"Hey!" he yells, feeling somewhat embarrassed and indignant at having been caught with his guard down. "What do you two think you're doing?"

[Jhony]

"Inspecting your clean," Jhony answers cooly. "Making sure that you're doing your usual good job. There's no need to get so uppity over it."

[May Peris]

May smirks though, with a knowing glint in her eyes.

"It's not that Daddy," she says. "We caught him thinking about someone with long eyelashes and a pretty smile. Isn't that right, big brother?"

[Zeke]

Zeke turns huffily, dunking the mop in the bucket and swirling it around idly. Stupid May and her intuition, always guessing what he's thinking...

"Back off, May..."

He may as well have said "Yes, yes I am"...he's confirmed what she thinks by telling her to leave him be.

[Jhony]

"A girl, son? Wouldn't happen to be that new 'crew member' you suckered me into taking on, would it?"

Eris is here under Zeke's care, and hasn't once done a lick of work on the ship. Zeke's been shouldering all of it, and it's irking Jhony. He told his son to be valiant and chivalrous towards this girl, but he didn't tell his son to undermine his authority by taking on her workload.

[May Peris]

"Who else, daddy? She sleeps in his room, chases him about the ship as he does chores, and eats dinner at his table every single night. They're so attached at the hip you'd need a surgeon to take them apart."

[Zeke]

Zeke turns around and hunches his shoulders so they won't see his face turn bright red. He has no counter for May. Ever since she hit her teens he's had no way of returning her sarcasms.

"So what?" he mutters.

[Jhony]

"SO, have you acted on this feeling yet?" Jhony asks. "Have you taken her out on a date, bought her flowers, or..." Jhony makes a motion with his head that's half-nod, half-bounce. "Or...y'know..."

[May Peris]

May giggles, leaning on her brother and putting her arms over his shoulders.

"Hee...I'll bet you have...That's why she sleeps so much, because you wore her out. You dog, you!"

[Zeke]

"I WHAT? No, I haven't!"

Zeke's face turns bright red at the thought of what his family is insinuating. He couldn't do that! He wouldn't!

"That's not it at all!"

[Jhony]

Jhony chuckles lightly.

"Calm down, we're only teasing you. Have you considered taking her out next time we land? You could treat her to dinner and a movie, or something..."

[May Peris]

"Ooh! There's a good one that'll be out soon. I don't think you would enjoy it very much, Zeke, but maybe your girlfriend might. It's sort of a romantic movie, kinda comedic..." May shrugs. "It gets kinda lovey at places."

[Zeke]

Zeke makes a small "hmph". Lovey stories and movies aren't his bag of tricks. He feels like he should follow up on it anyway. He has no better ideas.

"Is there a hero?"

[Jhony]

"There always is. Every good story has a hero. The hero is a much-loved character in all societies...he's the guy everyone aspires to be, or that everyone hopes for and pulls for, even if it's clear that he will never win."

[May Peris]

"You're lucky about this one, Zekey," May adds. "The hero gets the girl in this one."

[Zeke]

"Does he?"

Now that's something Zeke can handle. Heroes saving the day and getting the girls is something he could get into.

"Where's it playing, and when?

[May Peris]

"Our next spaceport will have it, in the Old Theater. Tickets shouldn't be too much for you to afford, Zekey. You may want to ask her out to it first though. Its bad to spring this kind of thing on girls."

[Zeke]

"Okay...I'll go ask her, then."

During the conversation, Zeke has mopped the whole hall clean. He puts his bucket and mop into the nearest supply closet and floats away over the clean, wet floor with his telekinesis, seeking Eris.

[Eris Alexiel]

She yawned and stretched out her back as she woke up after feeling drained again. She wandered over to the closet that held some of her clothes, pulled out a dress and changed into it before wandering into the bathroom. She did the usual getting ready for the day before wandering out of Zeke's room to see what he was up to.

[Zeke]

He touches down on the other side of the hall, putting his hands in his pockets and hunching over as he heads back towards his room. How will he ask her this? He could just come right out and ask it, but maybe that would be too forward. He could beat around the bush a little, making small talk and trying to lead into it. Of course, he could just spring it at random during conversation. Not like he has a lot of time to think on it though; here she comes!

She's looking beauitful, as per usual. He can't imagine that she could ever be anything else, she could be more perfect if she wanted to. He clears his throat as he draws near, trying not to blush, and gets his question ready. He runs it through his head a few times, draws up his courage, and asks...

"How're you?"

Not quite...looks like this will take some doing.

[Eris Alexiel]

She smiles softly when she sees him before answering.

"Fine, slept well and just woke up a little bit ago since you didn't wake me earlier..."

She yawned softly before stretching a bit.

[Zeke]

"Well, I didn't want to disturb you," he answers. "You looked like you were having a good dream. Besides, why should I wake you on my way out to do chores? I'd rather wake you up and then take you to do something fun, like see a movie."

There! He's mentioned it.

[Eris Alexiel]

"Hmm, chores don't really matter, I like being around you...."

She cants her head slightly, thinking a little.

"Can't remember the last time I saw a movie...hmm."

[Zeke]

Perfect!

"Would you like to?"

The question comes out almost too quickly. Thinking she may not have understood, he tries again, trying to speak calmly and clearly.

"Well, what I mean is, May and Pops say there'll be a good movie playing at our next stop. We can go catch it during our R&R, if you'd like..."

[Eris Alexiel]

She smiles softly, been a long time since they had been on a date of sorts or even out of the ship for that matter.

"Sounds good to me..."

[Zeke]

"Then we'll do that," he sighs, happy that the whole process had been less painful than he thought. "It's in two days, and it'll be sometime in the afternoon...Pops thinks 3 or 4 o'clock. Is that okay?"

[Eris Alexiel]

She giggles softly upon hearing him sigh, wondering why he had seemed so tense, she'd been here several months now and she curled up with him in bed each night, a date didn't seem like a nervous thing.

"Sounds good, we don't have much other than chores anyway..."

[Zeke]

"Okay...that's what we'll do. But what now? I'm done with chores, so we have free reign until dinner."

[Eris Alexiel]

She shrugs her shoulders and giggles softly.

"No idea, you have any?"

[Zeke]

"Nothing but the same ol', lame ol' things we always do," he sighs. "Sometimes it sucks to live on a ship. As a kid I played pretend with May and the other kids, though I can hardly do that now."

[Eris Alexiel]

"I'm sure we can think of something...."

Her eyes cast about for ideas, her gaze falling to one of the windows.

"Anywhere on the ship with a good view of the stars?"

[Zeke]

"If we open the cargo bay and shut out all the interior lights, we'll have the best view on the entire ship. The magcon field will keep the atmosphere in, but it'll be a bit chilly."

[Eris Alexiel]

"Sounds good and besides we have each other to keep us warm.."

She giggles nervously, realizing that sounded different from how she had intended it to.

[Zeke]

Zeke apparently doesn't notice. He simply takes her hand and leads her to the cargo bay. It's empty, by chance, so he dims the lights and opens the doors, settling himself on a packing crate. The only light comes from the red warning lights surrounding the doors, which pulsate gently as they show the beginning point of the magcon field that retains the ship's atmosphere.

"Best view of stars anyone will ever have..."

[Eris Alexiel]

She follows quietly before settling next to him and taking in the view. The sparkling lights of them reflected in her eyes as she smiled a bit, the stars had always had this calming effect on her. She supposed it was the Garou's wolven side of her since she often found herself taking in the view of the stars and moon if there was one.

"Beautiful..."

She whispers.

[Zeke]

"Fitting," Zeke answers distantly, pulling her to sit in his lap. This is something he's dreamed of doing since he was a teen on the original Happy Child. It's just as perfect as he'd always imagined.

[Eris Alexiel]

"Hmm?"

She asks before blushing softly when he pulls her into his lap. She bites her lip lightly to keep from doing the nervous giggle though she knows her face is probably quite red.

[Zeke]

"Fitting to watch beautiful stars with a beautiful woman," he clarifies, sighing contentedly. He can't see her blushing in the dark, but he can feel a bit of heat from her face as he rests his chin on her shoulder.

[Eris Alexiel]

She smiles softly and blushes a bit more.

"Liking it then hmm?"

She asks jokingly, trying to relax a bit and get comfortable with humor.

[Zeke]

"Yeah," he answers. "Ever since I was old enough to show interest in girls I've wanted to sit down here with one and watch the stars. The cargo bay has been my favorite place since I was a kid, and I've always liked to look out the doors while we're on the move. I've been meaning to show you this for a while now, but there's always been workers in here or something."

[Eris Alexiel]

"Hmm, the stars have always had a calming effect on me, they make me happy though I don't know why..."

She turns her head a little to look at his expression before looking back to the stars, she's calming slowly as she gets used to being close and under the relaxing feeling of the stars.

[Zeke]

"They look serene," Zeke ventures. "Like there's nothing wrong with the universe. All is calm and peaceful. There's no trouble and no worries."

[Eris Alexiel]

"Yes, that they do...without worry or a care they seem, must be nice.."

She sighs softly, trying not to think back to bad things and instead focus on being happy where she is and who she's with. She calms soon after relaxing with the one who matters most.

[Zeke]

"That's how we should live our lives," Zeke mumbles, shutting his eyes and leaning into her. "Not letting anything bother us or ever get us down."

[Eris Alexiel]

"All we can do is hope for the best...." She whispers back, smiling softly, trying not to give in to the sleepy feeling that was overtaking her with being so comfy and happy with him.

[Zeke]

Zeke sighs, opening his eyes and looking back out at the stars. "You make me happier than I have been in a long time," he murmurs. "You mean alot to me, Eris."

[Eris Alexiel]

"As do you to me, Zeke, I was just wandering about aimlessly, no direction but here with you, I feel at home..."

She says quietly before interlocking the fingers of one hand with his.

[Zeke]

"I'm glad of that," he replies. "People feel safe and happy when they're at home. It makes me happier than I ever have been to give someone that feeling."

[Eris Alexiel]

She ruffles his hair playfully with her free hand.

"I'm happier than I've ever been here.."

[Zeke]

"That means I'm doing it right," he sighs. "I can't wait until our next stop. I want to take you out to that movie."

[Eris Alexiel]

"You're doing quite well...." She ruffles his hair again before speaking once more. "Sounds like it will be fun..."

[Zeke]

"It will be, I promise," he answers. It's quiet after; Zeke's tired of talking. Just sitting here with her is fine enough.

[Eris Alexiel]

She feels fine with letting it be quiet as well, she's feeling somewhat sleepy anyway, the comfort of her spot with him was making her drowsy. She yawns softly before closing her eyes, not sleeping or dozing even, just enjoying where she is and who she's with.

[Zeke]

Zeke leans back on the packing crates behind him, sighing softly and shutting his eyes. It's relaxing to sit here with her; he doesn't want to move at all. Right now, all is good with the world.

[Eris Alexiel]

Eris is out though, seemed she had finally given into sleep. Now she's dreaming away, content with how things are.

[Zeke]

Zeke lifts her up in his arms, kissing her forehead lightly.

"Poor girl."

He carries her back to his room and settles her in his bed.

"Sleep well."