Ducktales: Journey to Agartha - Act 3

Chapter 8: The Murder

Despite it being midday, it was primarily pitch black in Mark and Ellie's suite.

The whole point of going on the cruise to begin with was to work on their relationship and be intimate as Ms. Kris had suggested, and the two took that to heart even if they lowkey hated the women and wouldn't be seeing her again. But with Boyd around, Ellie hadn't had the chance to be alone with Mark for the entirety of the cruise until now.

As much as Ellie absolutely adored Boyd, she was grateful there was a child activity fest all day; it gave Boyd the chance to befriend other children on the cruise and gave Mark and herself the chance to be alone together.

As might be expected, they used the past few hours to their advantage. Glomgold may have been avoiding them for the past few days but Mark was smart enough (for once) to latch the door for safety; Glomgold was a goddamn enigma and popped up when everyone least wanted him to.

Mark was tuckered the hell out and felt like he was going to pass out at any second. The only thing keeping him awake was the feeling of Ellie in his arms. If he was being honest with himself, he was actually jealous of Ellie at the moment because she didn't have the ability to get tired. Though he would've assumed she was shut down anyway if he hadn't noticed her shifting her head closer to his chest slowly over the past few minutes. It was like she was trying to be sneaky about it, which she most likely was.

The side of her head was pressed against his chest now, pushing into it. She wanted to listen to his heartbeat, that was currently pumping fast and irregularly, and Mark knew why. Ellie didn't have a heart of her own and was very interested in Mark's, wanting to study how it worked. It kind of freaked him the fuck out but whatevs. Robots did weird robot things.

He liked the feeling of her head on his chest despite the creepy reasoning behind it.

"Mark?"

The room was so silent that her voice ringing through the air so suddenly scared the shit out of him. He managed to respond nonchalantly but she noticed his heart beat speed up.

"Sup."

"Remember how I said that I loved you because I hated you? You told me you felt the same way and that our relationship is based around hate."

Mark didn't feel the need to respond to that because she was going to continue anyway. He had no idea where she was going with this and was eager for her to go on so his unexpected curiosity could be put to rest.

"I understand if you do not feel the same as I do, but I do not hate you, Mark. Nor do I dislike you. Not anymore. I should have never said that I did." Ellie's tone was a bit somber. She was very afraid he still hated her, even if it was shown through love. "I discovered that although our personalities are very conflicting, I find the differences between us to be charming. I have studied many organics that I have encountered and you have a very powerful personality compared to the rest of them. I do not like you because I hate you. I like you because you are not afraid to speak your mind or stand up for your personal morals. You are very passionate about your interests. I like you because you never get stressed and you take everything with a grain of salt. You are not uptight or over-think things like I do. You allow me to view the world from a very different perspective that my programming would not allow otherwise. You not only rebuilt me when I was shot and repaired me multiple times, but you also saved my life. I do not recall from who exactly but I do remember I was in a very dangerous situation and you risked your life to save me. You may not say it but you care for me more than anyone else does. As a robot it is to be expected that most people view me as insentient or as an object when they find out what I am. But you never did. You always viewed me as my own person and that means more to me than you know." Mark thought she was done for a moment but she added one more thing to wrap it all up. "I apologize if I rambled on for a bit but I just wanted you to know all of that. I do not hate you. I don't believe I have ever said this out loud to you but... I love you, Mark."