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Quinn popped in as she finished up throwing food on plates. Sullen enough, hands shoved in his pockets, standing in the kitchen's doorway. The electric blue slid over her. She felt him looking.
Turning, she set down a plate of biscuits next to the gravy. She kicked Watson out of her head for the moment. He didn’t have a place there during this.
“Quinn, I,” words didn’t really cover how she felt, about Gabby, about her room, so she crossed the small space and embraced him.
Then it all went to hell.
The mental enhancements didn’t drive a physical reaction quickly enough. Quinn didn’t dodge, he just stood here, unmoving, as she wrapped him up. Then he shook, like a chihuahua preparing to bark, his whole body seizing up.
“Quinn?!” Releasing him, she grabbed him by his shoulders. “Oh shit, oh shit, I’m sorry.”
He just continued to move like a rattle in a baby’s hand and she broke away to grab a bag from the kitchen. He lowered himself to the floor, settling his head between his knees, panting.
Kira came back with a sack. He snagged it out of her hand, forming a ring with his fingers, bringing it to his mouth. It expanded and folded, his hyperventilating slowly getting under control as he breathed in the CO2 his body so desperately needed.
“Jaysus fekking christ what are ya doing that ta someone with no warning fer!?”
“Well, I didn’t think you were going to react like that!” Chiding him in return, her voice just as loud as he’d been as she crouched. Kira kept her hands to herself, and a good few inches of space between them.
“Clearly bloody not.” He grumbled, putting the bag on the counter next to him. He then gripped the edge and used it to pull himself up. Straightening his jacket, he openly glared at her.
Kira was just grateful he’d not run off. Standing up to her full height as well she said, “look, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, just warn a fella afore ya go violating his personal space like that.”
“Warn you next time. Got it. Uh, dinner’s ready.”
He grunted, slamming his hands into his pockets before going back around the door to the other side of the pass through to take a seat.
She took a deep breath. It seemed it was always one step forward and two steps back with him. Coming up to the counter, she made her own plate. There were biscuits, sausage and sausage gravy, eggs over easy, bacon, pancakes, and a small assortment of fruit laid out.
She popped a grape in her mouth as her hand went over the bowl before tearing apart a fluffy biscuit, telling him, “I might do a small charter run for the Eikos. They’re short on pilots.”
He made his own plate as she talked, separating out each ingredient and making little piles of all the different combinations of the food, or that was her best guesstimate of what he was doing. “Okay.” A quick beat before he added, “Why the hug?”
“I wanted to thank you. This has been my home, and it is changing to keep up with the times, but you preserved a small piece of it. Although, I don’t think you have any sense of scale when it comes to gestures.” She poured gravy over her plate.
“Okay?” Quinn blinked, looked down, then up, then down again. “I thought you were supposed to do something nice for someone if they did something nice for you?”
“Not always, and most keep the monetary value around the same. Gabby has been lovely, though.”
At the mention of her name, the little lizard popped out from under her collar, tilting its head inquisitively.
“I mean, if you only look at the value of the raw components…” The trailing let her know it was more than she could afford, “Ah, nevermind, I think I understand.”
“Have you thought about what you’d like to do when the full crew comes on board?”
He flashed her a quizzical look, “Yes? I told you what I plan to do.”
Stay in your room until we find you a planet, she thought the corner of her mouth quirked in displeasure. “You don’t have to. We’re an odd crew, but no one is inherently cruel or anti-social. We’d be happy to have you at the dinner table.”
Quinn did his little dance with his eyes, the flash of his implanted light making it easy to catch. “I don’t… I won’t… I’ll just be leaving. Why give them a chance to even try to get attached?” It seemed to have triggered a realization as he shoved back away from the table. “Thanks, fer dinner. I should get back to work.”
The plate before him was left half full.
“Quinn, wait.” Half jogging around the partition, she’d ask of him. “At least let me make you a plate to take with you for later. You barely touched yours.”
Pausing at the door, he shuddered, his voice cracked, wavering between the accent and the utter monotone, “I… will send a drone for the plate. I just, I need to be alone. I need to be alone.”
