Solarballs Oneshots || 🚀‼️

46 | Houston + Astrodude - "Hallucinogenics"

A/N: This isn't the chapter I was talking about in my previous announcement, but it's a draft I've had for a while. Still uploading it here anyways. The OTHER chapter is gonna take a lot of research because it's hard to write things simply based off of fan theory!

In which Astrodude ends up in the hospital and mistakes Houston for his wife. NOT A SHIP cause, it just isn't? Houston's "visiting" him because it's a top secret government thing, so only a few people know about Astrodude coming back to Earth.

SHIPS: Astrocouple | Astrodude x Astrowife
TIMELINE: Ambiguous
PERSPECTIVE/POINT OF VIEW: Astrodude

CONTENT WARNING:
- Minor canon divergence.

—

"Are you fucking awake yet?" a voice came again, this time each sound distinct, like his hearing was amplified instead of muddled. The only thing Astrodude really remembered was crashing somewhere, then everything going black.

Astrodude blinked, then felt his eyelids start to ache. The sensation spreading, he realised that his whole body throbbed with low-level pain. Ignoring it, he blinked again, then managed to keep his eyes open. The world wavered before his eyes like ripples of heat across a windswept landscape. Astrodude stared at it, not seeing the room he was in or the corridor beyond the open door. All he saw was his wife, looking a bit less-defined than usual, but still recognizable.

"Hey, honey," he groaned, squinting a bit. How long had it been since he'd really got to talk to her?

His wife pulled a chair close to the bed and laid a hand on his forehead. "No fever," she commented, but when she went to pull her fingers away, Astrodude awkwardly caught hold of them and sighed, intertwining their fingers as he pulled Astrowife's hand to rest beside him on the bed. Why was it so damn hard to move his own arm? No matter, he felt ever so much better now that he had her.

"Why would I have a fever?" he thought to ask, though the question seemed nonsensical. He wasn't even sure he'd really heard right.

"Because you've had one for hours?" Astrowife explained, flexing her fingers, but Astrodude tightened his own so the woman couldn't get free. But why would she want to pull away? Astrowife had never been reluctant to offer him comfort, before. Maybe she was mad about him not being around? No, that couldn't be it.

Her quiet words came back to him, then... You had one for ours... But the words didn't make sense.

"Ours?" Astrodude echoed, his brow furling. "Our what? Oh, you mean our honeymoon?" A hazy expression somewhere between a frown and confusion settled on his features. "I feel really bad, honey."

Something that sounded similar to repressed gagging and confusion came from her. Her blurred form opened and closed her mouth multiple times, before speaking. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Huh?" was all Astrodude could make of that. "No, I feel bad about the message you sent me, silly," he chided. "I don't think I ever thanked you. Hmm, maybe I did. Seems like I can't remember, but that was a long time ago. Or was it last year you told me that you loved me?"

Next to him, Astrowife stiffened as though quite surprised by the question, but then she slowly nodded. "Uh, no," she replied in a voice that sounded somehow off. Amused? No, not amused, more like bemused, Astrodude thought. "And I'm pretty sure you thanked me."

"Nobody else ever said that to me. Nobody. Not once, not ever. Except, well, a computer." Astrodude said, pushing up a bit groggily. It hurt, but so did lying prone.

Astrowife seemed to frown at that, which befuddled him until he figured out Astrowife had noticed that he needed the bed adjusted. She ripped her hand from his as quickly as possible, hastily adjusting the pillow.