The Stars Between -- (VLD)

[58] Did you need me for something?

"Are you telling me we're out of fucking space peanut butter?"

Lance slammed the cupboard closed, whirling around to face the table, yelping as he smashed his foot into the bench that was definitely not there earlier.

Shiro and Vi winced in sympathy, Muxis doing his best to keep his face neutral as Lance hopped his way over to the table, only to bump into it and fall, smashing his face against the cold metal on his way down.

"You okay?" Nea stared down at Lance standing above his head so her face was upside down to him.

Lance sighed, playfully swatting her head bobble out of the way so he could sit up.

"Absoutely peachy," he sighed, rubbing at his forehead with one hand and his stubbed toes with the other, glaring at a random space he estimated to be halfway between the two offending pieces of furniture.

"Why are we catching fish?"

"I don't know, maybe—" Lance broke off, slowly lowering his hand as he turned to face Vi, eyebrows rising into his hairline. "What?"

"What?"

"What do you mean, 'why are we catching fish'?"

Vi raised their eyebrows back at Lance. "You said... absolutely... catching fish."

"Absolutely.... peachy."

"Catching fish."

".... peachy."

"Fish."

"Peachy?"

"That's what I said! Fish!"

"I think your translator is broken." Muxis chimed in, scooping Nea into his arms, the child letting out a squeak of glee.

Lance sighed. "I'll look into it. Might just be a mistranslated word, not the babelfish itself."

"Okay, that time you definitely said fish." Muxis said, letting Nea swing from his bicep. There was a noise from under the table, and Lance only caught sight of a pair of round yellow eyes before Mik launched herself at Muxis' other arm, tail lashing as her feet dangled in the air.

"Babelfish?" Shiro asked.

"Y'know... Hitchhiker's Guide," Lance said, and when Shiro didn't respond, he continued. "Look, I didn't want to say translator and mistranslation in the one sentence. Sometimes you've gotta switch it up a bit."

Outside of a nigh imperceptible headshake, Shiro didn't react any further.

"Sometimes..." Lance muttered to himself.

The kitchen lulled into a heavy silence, outside of the giggling of the two girls swinging from Muxis' arms.

"Sooo..." Shiro started out slowly, tapping out an uneven rhythm on the table and floor with his prosthetics. "What were you saying about space... peanut butter, was it?"

Lance huffed. "Yeah, Matt makes it. I'm assuming he took the last of it with him, along with his recipe, the greedy little quizna—"

"Announcement from the Captain!" Olly called cheerfully, leaning through the doorway, one arm braced either side. "She said the rest of use shouldn't expect any missions."

"We know how this works," Muxis said, as Mik pulled herself up to somehow sit on his shoulders. Nea cheered. "Home team, last line of defence if we get attacked."

"More or less the ship can't even function with a smaller crew than what we have now." Rolo said, slightly out of breath from trying to keep up with Olly, a position usually held by Roy. But she was gone now, Rolo filling her space. Lance held back a frown. It wasn't Rolo's fault Roy had been assigned a different post.