and the stars will be their guides (hermitcraft space au)

chased (five)

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~ and i'm trying not to get too close ~

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TWs: Mentions of a shootout, little mention of being captured I guess??, mention of murder

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When Etho left the haze of sleep, Beef was waiting for him, lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. "Sleep well?" he asked, giving Etho a look he wasn't sure he deserved to have cast upon him.

"Yeah," Etho murmured, his mind still feeling a little fuzzy. He sits up, and Beef does as well. "Thanks."

Beef's head tilts to the side slightly. "For what?"

"Yesterday."

"You don't have to thank me for that," Beef says. "I was just making sure you'd be okay."

Etho shrugged. "I felt I should thank you anyways."

Just then, the ship veers right sharply and accelerates. Etho is thrown into Beef, who, in turn, would've been thrown off the bed if he didn't grip tightly on the sheets. 

"What's going on?" Etho questioned, even though there was such a small chance of Beef knowing the answer that it was almost pointless to ask. He also scoots away from Beef, since they were virtually on top of each other and he was sure his friend was probably highly uncomfortable with it.

"No idea. Maybe we should-" 

Before Beef can finish his sentence, they're both flung around again. This time, Etho ends up on the floor on his side of the bed, with Beef right next to him. They both look at each other and laugh at the predicament they've ended up in.

"As I was planning to say," Beef continues, "maybe we should go check."

"Yeah, maybe we should," Etho parrots. He stands up and holds out one hand to Beef. Naturally, Beef takes it and lets Etho pull him up. When Etho almost topples over in the process, the laughter that they'd just abandoned comes back to them and doesn't stop until the Hermit-Craft jolts again and reminds them of what they'd been doing.

The already quite long trip to the cockpit of the spacecraft was made longer by the reckless driving of whoever was steering right now. After a while, Etho and Beef resorted to inching along the walls instead of walking normally in the middle of the hallways and rooms so they wouldn't get tossed around as wildly.

Finally, Beef opened up the door to the cockpit and they both entered the room. Xisuma was there, steering the ship, but there were also two other people Etho'd never seen before accompanying him.

"What's going on?" Beef asked. The ship was flung sideways again, but Beef managed to stay rooted in his spot, and he grabbed Etho's hand to keep him upright as well. 

"Apparently we're getting chased!" said the ginger-haired person.

Okay, that excitement was unexpected.

"Yeah, we're getting trailed by The Alien Protection League. We raided an innocent commerce ship and they're not too happy about that. It doesn't help that we've been marked as suspicious a few times," Xisuma sighed.

"Miraculously, only a few times," Beef muttered under his breath.

"That's nothing to be concerned about. The APL can't back up their suspicion claims half of the time."

Everyone stares at Etho.

Oh right, he's an alien on a human ship and that information isn't easily acquired by humans.