The Lost Artifact Of Spode

007

When she finally got home from school, Nia could tell her dad had a bad day. He only loosened his clothes rather than taking them off, and he fell asleep with his arms crossed and head tilted down. She decided to let Mel keep the TV instead of immedietly stealing it as usual, even though he wasn't really using it.

She dumped her bag onto the kitchen table, then texted her mom about her dad's current state.

"Papá had a bad day," she texted.

Qiana replied immedietly, "What? Why?"

"Idk"

While she didn't immedietly get off of work, Qiana did leave work early that day. When she made it home, Mel was still fast asleep on the couch.

She sits down next to him. "Meita," she calls, placing her head on his. But he didn't stir. She grabs the remote and turns off the TV. With the lack of noise, Mel wakes up with a large breath in.

"I was watching that," he mumbles.

Qiana scoffs. "Were you now?"

He sluggishly opens his eyes and looks up at his wife. "Oh, welcome home, Mi Alma."

Qiana lifts herself from his head so Mel could stretch. "Where's..." he lets out a loud yawn before continuing, "Nia? Did she make it home?"

"Yes, shes home. Probably in her room." She lies her head ontop of Mel's once more. "What happened at work, Love?"

He let out a defeated sigh. "You remember what I've been working so hard on the past few days?"

She chuckles. "You missed dinner last night just for work, how can I forget?"

He hummed in response, not really wanting to continue. But his wife pushed, "What about it?"

Mel took a second. "I got denied. Mr. Adaway said no."

Qiana cooed, "Awh, I'm sorry Meita."

With the door finally open, the rest started pouring out. Mel didn't need to be prompted to start his ranting, "And the upsetting part isn't me putting in all this effort just to be put down- well, I'm upset about that too, but what I mean is- it's like he doesn't want us to leave the solar system! We have all the planets we can get in our system colonised, we can move on! I get the Proximians are territorial, but it's not like we're trying to steal their systems or anything."

Qiana lifted herself from Mel once more with him getting riled up. He started speaking with his hands with this new found freedom as he continued, "It took us *weeks* to get on Mars when we first colonised it, and that wasn't an issue back then! Now, Mr. Adaway is too scared to go to the closest habitable system cuz he's worried it'll take to long to respond if anything happens. I gave him the perfect oppourtunity to cut that time so short, but it's still a no! It's rediculous!"

"That is rediculous," Qiana agrees.

With a sigh, Mel slumps over and rests his head on his hands. 

"Maybe there's another wormhole we could use. You think he'd be more willing if there was one that went somewhere else?"

"Hopefully," he murs. "But I haven't been able to find another in our system yet. It looks like Proxima-A has a few, so we won't even be in their system long at all! But The Solar System so far just has the one."

Qiana hums, already out of ideas to suggest to her husband. "I'm sorry, Love. That really sucks."

"Yeah..."

She leans over the couch and grabs a bag she had brought in with her. "I have something that might help you feel better, though," she purrs. 

Mel lifts his head to see Qiana pull out a small container from the large grocery bag. She hands him the container, holding three small slices of cheesecake. His favourite brand of his favourite dessert.

He awes. "You didn't have to do that," he says, grabbing the container from her.  Despite this being his favourite, he almost never has this specific kind of cheese cake. It's expensive, and he could only buy so little for the price, too. But that's not to say it's a ripoff. With how good the cheesecake is, it made sense why it costs so much.

Qiana only triumphily smiles. He kisses her on the cheek for his present. "Thank you. You want to share this with me?"

"I'd love to."

That left one slice of cheesecake unclaimed. "And maybe Nia can have the last one."

"You know she doesn't like cheesecake."

"Yeah, but I'll still offer anyway."