Ella's Oneshots

[Ella]

Fandom: - 
Summary: for some prompt; romance in space
Words: 1483

Clichés in space

Jenna ignored the disgruntled sound coming from Tristan’s general direction. “Keep walking,” she said, marching on with a vigour her friend had obviously failed to find in himself.
“Couldn’t we at least –”
“No,” she said inexorably. “No breaks.”
“We’ve been walking for hours, Jenna. All I ask of you is –”
“It’s been fifteen minutes since our last break, Tristan.” She slowed down so he could at least catch up with her, even if he looked at her like she had just told him to eat a bowl of earwigs. She had never seen her friend look so dirty. He was shivering from the cold, and it occurred to her that by now he was probably drenched to the bone. It was his own fault, really. If he hadn’t tried to show off his formidable survival and rock climbing ‘skills,’ as he liked to call them, and had just listened to her, he wouldn’t have looked like a walking quagmire in the first place. 
They had been separated from the rest for quite a while now. She wasn’t able to tell how long it had been – she wasn’t counting the hours, because she knew she’d drive herself insane in the process. Tristan was though, and he had assured her that it had been longer than her estimation of two days. Or whatever counted as days out here.
“Oh crap,” she heard her friend sigh as he inadvertently added a fresh layer of mud to the collection gathering on his trousers. “If I had known a journey to space would include so much space mud, I’d never have come with you.”
“It’s not space mud. According to our findings its structure is completely similar to that of the mud we have at home. Quit complaining, you wanted this as much as I did.” She knew that wasn’t true, strictly speaking, even if he had told her so. When she told Tristan she was signing up for the space programme, she hadn’t for a moment expected him to sign up as well. She had always been the one who wanted to explore the vastness of the universe, who wanted to walk on different planets and who would obviously have seized the opportunity to go on an exploration trip to a previously unknown planet. She was the one studying astrophysics, while Tristan was going to law school, of all things. Jenna didn’t know how he even managed to get on the programme.
“It’s mud in space, no matter how earthly it looks. It’s space mud,” he retorted. “And no one told me about it.”
“That’s because no one knew about it. If they’d known about the quicksand, the tornados and the carnivorous plants I reckon they’d have told us as well,” she commented dryly. The second was what had separated them from the rest of their group. There was only one station on this planet, and three groups of students and supervisors had been sent out to different parts of the planet to study the forest and to look for signs of life. They hadn’t found any of that, exactly, but the natural environment was… well, interesting is one word for it. If there were these kinds of plants, trees, and not to mention water, Jenna didn’t doubt there had to be life here somewhere. If they could survive here, others could. 
Tristan sighed again. “Why did they even allow us to go in the first place if they didn’t know for certain it was safe? We could be lost here forever.”
“You would have known that they didn’t know for certain if you had read any of those nice colourful forms they made you sign before we left.”
“Well, it’s weird that they make students do this.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “They didn’t make us do this, we signed up for this voluntarily, because we are students of astrophysics, astronomy, physics… and going to space to actually see with our own eyes what we’re dedicating our lives and our careers to is kind of the dream. For students who, you know, study anything even distantly related to space.” She gave him a pointed look.
“It’s not going to do you much good if you die before you even reach twenty,” he muttered under his breath.
“Shut up, we’re not dying here. We just have to find the station.”
“If you need a reminder, you may not be counting days, but I am. If we were walking even remotely in the right direction, we would have reached the station by now. But I don’t see it, do you?”
She turned her back to him and walked on with newfound confidence. “If you have any better ideas, feel free to tell me.” Jenna gritted her teeth and waited for another sarcastic reply she could shoot down, but it never came. Fine then, she thought. At least he quitted moping.
She realised there was something wrong when there not only came no sarcastic reply, but no reply at all. “Tristan?” She turned around again, but he was nowhere to be seen. “Tristan, this isn’t funny!” She shouted a little louder. “I’m sorry, okay. Tris–” She felt a hand on her shoulder and closed her eyes because it wasn’t his and he had been right and they were dying there was life on this planet they were definitely dying it was over now over and –
“Lewis?” a clear voice stated more than asked. Jenna opened her eyes to face Michael Hardman, one of the instructors who had led their group. She nodded, and the man showed a slight smile underneath his serious frown. Relief. “Where is Tristan?” she asked.
“Bennet’s with us,” Hardman said, the little emotion she had found in his eyes vanished as if it had never been there. “You’ll have to report for medical. Wing B9872,” he said. “Pierson will take us.” He gestured vaguely to the trees, and she followed him to find a camouflaged vehicle.
“I’ll be with you in a few minutes,” Hardman said. Jenna jumped into the van, where she found her friend sitting with his hands clasped together, tears in his eyes. “Tristan…” she breathed and it took only a few seconds for her to cross the small space between them. “For a second I thought that –”
He smiled lightly. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For coming. I…” Jenna gave him an encouraging smile. “You’re right. I probably don’t belong here. I mean, law… How far from space can you get?” He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You love it here, you managed when we were in the wilderness, and I just… I was useless. I don’t belong here. You are so much braver than I am, because I did honestly believe I would die out there.” He bit his lip. “I’m a coward and I should never have come.”
“You’re not a coward. If you really were, you probably wouldn’t have come in the first place. I know I’ve been nagging about it for, like, the past three weeks, but for what it’s worth, I’m glad you came with me.” She put her hand on his arm.
Tristan raised his eyebrows. “That’s a first.”
She gave him a look. “Do you really think I wasn’t afraid out there, or on any of the past excursions? Because I was. I was only brave because even if we were to be lost ‘forever,’ as you so dramatically stated, I wouldn’t be alone. You’d be with me.”
“I…” he started, but the words weren’t forming. “Oh.”
“That doesn’t mean that I think this is the right place for you, though. I mean, for the record, I am totally braver than you are and you were pissing your pants out there, even while I was with you. I know you miss home, and your parents, and just earth, and if you’re unhappy here, you should go back.”
“That’s not what I mean. I just – well…”
“I never thought I’d find you at a loss for words,” she teased.
“I’m happy here,” he said.
“Really?” Jenna said, not even putting effort in concealing her disbelief.
“Really.”
“Why? Because you’ll see a bit more space mud in the upcoming four months.”
“I think you know why,” Tristan said softly. “For the same reason I came here in the first place.”
Jenna hid a smile. Her trip to space and their recent lost days had been rather terrifying, but she would always look back on the short journey her lips had had to make to find his as the most terrifying of her life. She giggled like a schoolgirl when they broke off their kiss and looked each other in the eyes. “I hope it was all worth it.”
Tristan smiled as he pressed a small kiss on her forehead. “Not to flatter your ego, but that was definitely worth it.”