The States

we built robots (and sent them to explore the stars for us)

Sometimes, Mindy really doesn't know what's going on with Austin.

Like now, when he's lying on his back on the living room floor, arms crossed over his face.

"Austin?"

His phone is flat on his chest. "Flora called." He says shortly, and Mindy goes over to sit cross-legged on the floor beside him.

"Is everything alright?"

"NASA declared Opportunity dead." His voice cracks on the last word.

Mindy winces. She'd been expecting this since Flora had said they'd lost contact. Rovers might be robots, but they didn't live forever. Spirit had taught them that.

Austin turns his head towards her, the light catching on tear tracks on his cheeks. "Oh, chérie."

Mindy lays down on the floor beside him, and runs a soothing hand through his hair.

Austin hesitates a second before he moves to press his face against her shoulder and Mindy just tuts at him and maneuvers so that his head on her chest and her arm is around his shoulders.

She doesn't say anything, just runs her fingers through his hair and rubs circles on his shaking shoulders and lets Austin cry.

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Cordelia isn't crying anymore, but it's a near thing.

Leaena is enduring the way Cordelia's hugging her to her chest for right now, but Michael isn't sure how long the cat's going to deal with it before she scratches her.

"Opportunity's last words were my battery is low and it's getting dark. That's so sad, Michael." 

Michael agrees. There was something about those words that was sad and lonely and heart-wrenching. 

He gently pries Leaena out of Cordelia's arms. 

The cat immediately jumps out of her arms and disappears somewhere behind the couch. 

Cordelia sighs. 

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Scarlett's shirt is uncomfortably damp from where Flora and Josh have cried on her, but she can't bring herself to care about it, because Josh still has that kicked puppy look on his face and Flora's head is in her lap. 

Josh sniffs. "At least there's still Curiosity."

Flora nods half-heartedly. 

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Sasha is going to be devasted, Sera thinks. 

He's got posters of all the rovers on his closet door, and he'd been inconsolable when Spirit had died. 

And then she thinks about Alfred. 

Alfred, who had little models of the rovers lined up next to signed baseballs in his office. 

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"Okay, so Sasha is in his room crying and on the phone with Ivan, so he should be fine in a few hours," Ginny tells her. 

Sera refrains from telling Ginny that she looks a bit like a frazzled new mother. 

"And Al?"

Ginny grimaces. "Eng- Arthur was supposed to be coming over for Valentine's."

Sera makes a face. "Gross, but at least he'll comfort him."

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All of the dogs are up on the bed in some form or another, except Tamara and Denali, who are probably downstairs enjoying the absence of their pups. Astra and Juno, though, are the ones who have laid down on either side of Sasha like shields. Astra's head is on Sasha's chest, and she lets out a pitiful whine every time a sob wracks his body. Juno, on the other hand, is curled into a ball against his hip. 

The phone is somewhere- under the pillows or blankets or dogs- because Sasha had just shoved it somewhere after he'd said goodbye to Ivan. Eventually, someone will come up to check on him, because they worry. 

Lance walks up over his leg to lay on Sasha's stomach, circling around three times with over-large paws. Sasha exhales heavily, burying his hand in Lance's thick fur. 

At some point, this will be okay. Maybe tomorrow. 

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Arthur vaguely knows around a fourth of the states now, but he completely blanks the name of the one that opens the door for him. 

"Sera," she reminds him, and he wonders if it was that obvious. 

She pulls at her gloves as she leads him through the house. "Al is pretty upset right now, fair warning."

"What? Why?"

His concern earns him a half smile from Sera, though it's gone in a blink. "NASA declared the Opportunity rover dead yesterday."

Arthur winces. Alfred had always been entirely fascinated with space, but it was a double-edged sword. He'd cried over every fatal mission, every animal that died in space.

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Alfred barely moves when Arthur sits down beside him on the porch swing. 

"I'm sorry about Opportunity," Arthur tells him softly, and Alfred looks at him. 

"Yeah," he murmurs. "I'm trying to look at the bright side- we only thought she'd last ninety days, and she lived for a decade and a half. She found evidence that there was water on Mars."

Arthur looked at him carefully. "That doesn't mean you can't be upset."

Alfred folds one of his legs up to his chest, and leans his head onto Arthur's shoulder. "I know."

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I got two asks on tumblr, one asking for Mindy reacting to Austin crying over Opportunity and one asking for Sasha after Opportunity, and somehow this happened. I had no idea how to end it??? idk if its any good tbh.