Between the Black and Grey (Starlight Brigade AU)

12 - Widget

Sung's body gave a shiver and he pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders. It was a cold night. Sung was spending it staring out of the window, unable to sleep.

Ever since opening his eyes he'd been steadily growing in his strength, eventually able to walk short distances. Well, it was more of an unsteady shuffle. He hadn't slept in about a week, too afraid to close his eyes in fear of never opening them again. So, as per usual, he decided to occupy himself with thought.

Apparently they'd landed on the nearest planet after the attack, in desperate need of repairs. Their craft was docked somewhere, a team of mechanics hard at work trying to rectify the damage and get it ready for takeoff again, since they'd all but crash landed and had leaked most of their fuel from a punctured tank. Meanwhile they were staying in a run down motel of sorts, where they'd been for about 3 months by craft time now. Meouch was working on fixing Havve, while Phobos and Nad had mainly tended to Sung as best they could. Brian had been, understandably, more on edge than usual and had been very wary of anyone venturing near their accomodation. The landowner collecting their rent now had a nasty black eye.

As for Sung's rescue, none of the crew seemed to really know what had happened. All they knew was that one moment he'd been floating out in space in the wreckage of his exploded shuttle, and the next he was being dragged down the craft hall by a very frantic and sobbing Nad. The boy himself had no more information on the matter, and if anything was even more confused about what had happened. Whatever the case Sung knew that he owed Nad his life, and he was unbelievably grateful for that.

It felt strange to have been out of touch with everything for so long. Like a portion of his life had been snatched away from him, and in a sense that was true. There was a period of time where he had been entirely unaware, before his heart had started to beat and he had started to think again. Dead, more or less. That thought scared him than he cared to admit.

A sound behind him snapped Sung from his contemplating. He turned his head, wondering if he'd woken someone up and prepared to apologize. He relaxed, however, when he saw Nad, rubbing his eyes sleepily in the doorway.

"What are you doing up?" He beckoned the boy over.

"I can't sleep."

"More nightmares?"

Nad shook his head.

"No. I just can't stop thinking about the spiders," he muttered as he settled down onto another chair across from Sung.

"Are you still worried that they'll come back?"

"They already have. How do we know they aren't heading here for us again?"

Sung sighed, gazing back out of the window up at the star spangled sky. He and Nad were the only ones who knew what had attacked them; Sung had since relayed the events of his "sacrifice" to him. He was still yet to reveal to him that they shared dreams, but Nad had described his dreams so vividly that even if Sung hadn't had them himself he'd know them by heart.

"We don't know. But we can't spend all our time worrying, we'd drive ourselves crazy," Sung pointed out.

"I guess... I'm just so scared that I won't be able to stop them again."

"Again?"

"What?"

"You said again. What do you mean?"

Nad didn't answer for a moment. He played with a strand of his hair idly, frowning slightly and looking confused.

"I'm not sure. I keep saying things that I don't mean to, and I don't know why," he replied quietly.