The Monsters Inside Us (An Among Us Story)

Business As Usual

Pink held his tablet close to his chest. He had an irrational fear of dropping and breaking the device and losing the valuable information on it, not to mention that passing through storage always freaked him out a little with the silence and looming crates. When he arrived at Communications, Blue was there, plugging away on the computers.

"Hey Pink," Blue said without looking away from her work. Her short brown hair barely brushed the top of one of her shoulders when she bent her head to the side like she always did when she was thinking. "Got something for me?"

"Just some data from Security," Pink replied, plugging the tablet into the information receiver.

"Ah," she nodded, finishing the task she was on before spinning around in her chair. "And what are you doing tonight?"

"Just cameras, as always," Pink sighed, not looking forward to yet another night of watching empty corridors on the screens. Then, noticing Blue's expectant face, he added, "but you can join me if you'd like. We could smuggle some cookies from the Cafeteria after dinner again."

Blue smiled wide. "That sounds lovely." She jumped up and came to lean over Pink's shoulder, glancing at the file upload. "That always takes forever, doesn't it?"

"It really does." Pink looked back at her only to be met with a swift kiss on the cheek.

"Well, have fun!" Blue called, hustling out of the room. Pink could feel his cheeks burning. Blue really was something, wasn't she? He watched her leave with that spring in her step until she was out of sight. A small tone sounded and a screen popped up saying the file transfer was successful. Pink slipped the tablet into it's charging spot under the desk and headed back toward storage. His last task for the day was getting some fuel to Orange in engines.

While he lugged the full fuel tank to Lower Engine, Pink glanced into Electrical and saw Purple feverishly plugging away at wires like they always did. In Lower Engine Orange was covered in oil and sweat watching the engine monitor. She held up a finger to Pink, commanding him not to speak until a green light blinked on and she sighed. She turned to him and swiped some spare strands of hair that had fallen from her large, hastily-crafted bun out of her face, inadvertently rubbing the oil on her fingers onto her forehead.

"It's about time, Pink," she griped, taking the fuel tank from him. "These engines only power the entire ship, you know."

"Sorry, I was uploading in Comms. You know how long that takes," Pink explained, scratching his neck.

"Takes even longer when you're flirting with Blue," Orange grumbled. She fueled up the engine and then tossed the empty tank back to Pink. "Well go on, get."

Pink rolled his eyes as he walked away. It was impossible for him to ever get back into Orange's good books as long as he was interested in Blue. Someone should really tell her that she couldn't call dibs on a whole person. Especially when she was the one who broke things off with Blue anyway. Pink's stomach rumbled and he made a beeline for the Cafeteria once the fuel tank was put away.

Most of the crew was already there, having gotten their food and settled at a table. Blue waved over at Pink and he gave her a thumbs up and a nod, sitting next to her with his plate full of the last scraps. "I think this was supposed to be mashed potatoes...but it got lost along the way," Pink laughed, taking a bite of his watery used-to-be mashed potatoes.

"You snooze, you lose, bucko," Blue said, then covertly showed him that her suit's leg pocked was filled to the brim with chocolate chip cookies. She held a finger to her lips and gave a dramatic "shhh" before winking at him. God, this girl could not keep a secret to save her life.