Do You Need Assistance? (Suji)

[Suji]

At first, internally laughing at (and then avoiding contact with) Quincy had been amusing enough. Then she'd switched to observing Stephanie closely. Suji had been a good spot about it all, but sixteen water filters was just too much for any sane human being to stand. Lesser mortals probably would have broken around the eight water filter mark.

Just when she was about to say something to draw a close to the show, Suji caught the door slide open at the very end of the large chamber. Walking very quickly, back completely straight, Seiya entered. He looked agitated, which amount to a slight tightness in his lips and a tiny furrow in his brow. Still feeling like dirt after last night's round (or ten) of tequila, Suji wondered how the man managed to always look so crisp. Once upon a time Suji had cared about keeping an orderly appearance, but living in abandoned buildings and wearing the same skin-tight outfits over and over had pretty much beaten that out of her. Now she was impressed when people bothered to wear anything that so much as had buttons or zippers.

Seiya wasted no time in approaching them. In a way, Suji had figured it was only a matter of time. It would only take one passerby to see them and tell someone else, before a chain reaction got back to him in some way. That, or Seiya was just psychically connected with the ship. She wouldn't be entirely surprised. Before he could say anything, however, Suji stepped forward and intercepted.

"Hello Seiya." Though he still looked between Stephanie and Quincy, he acknowledged Suji out of politeness. "These two crew members have been giving me a more detailed tour, after ours was interrupted yesterday. I hope that's all right -- I didn't want to bother you with it, especially after what happened before." Maybe Suji should have felt bad about misleading him, but it wasn't an outright lie. She wasn't sure how much of it he bought, and he stood there for a moment, not saying anything.

"I see. Has the tour been adequate?" He finally asked. Though Seiya was still clearly suspicious of them, he must have decided that it wouldn't do to punish them if Suji was actually finding them useful. Maybe he'd have some words for them later, but for now, they were safe.

"I'd say so. Perhaps even a little too informational for me; they know this ship better than I knew my first car." Suji smiled in way she hoped was placating. Seiya nodded.

"And they aren't bothering you, Ms. Clarke?"

"Not at all." At this Seiya spent a particularly lengthy time eyeing Quincy.

"Then I suppose I should let the three of you continue. Please let me know if I can be assistance, Ms. Clark. It really is no bother."

"Of course," Suji replied. Seiya looked them all over again, and then turned and exited -- just as swiftly as he'd come in.

[Dustin]

Stephanie, was so, boring.

Quincy could hardly remember a time in his life when he so badly wanted to bang his head against the wall out of boredom. How was he ever supposed to convince Suji to fall madly in love with him when Stephanie was putting such a huge damper on the mood?

Ok, so maybe "love" was a bit of an unrealistic goal to hope for. But was a date or two too much to ask? Or maybe just a quick fling in the broom closet. Whatever. The point was, Stephanie was keeping anything at all from happening. What could possibly be worse?

And then Seiya arrived.

Quincy's lax posture straightened out as his boss approached and he and Stephanie were about to be reprimanded. Not that he was afraid to be reprimanded by Seiya, but that still didn't make it pleasant. But surprisingly, it never happened.

Quincy kept his rigid military stance all through the exchange, but his eyes followed everything. As Seiya left, he let out the breath he had been subconsciously holding and his posture went back to the way it was before.

"That. Was so... awesome! You're the man, Suji! You totally just saved our keisters just now." Quincy didn't even care that he was blowing their cover. It seemed Suji knew more than she had let on anyway. "We owe you big time." He held up a palm toward Suji and Stephanie, waiting for a high five.

[Adrian]

Stephanie was about to use the short walk between water filter fifteen and water filter sixteen to ask Suji more questions about her life and about her leadership philosophy when Seiya entered the room. If there was one person that Stephanie idolized as much as Suji it was Seiya though his role as her direct leader kept her from being able to pursue him with all of her questions. She straightened up immediately and it was all she could do to keep from saluting him as he came to a stop in front of them. Beside her, as a merciful miracle, Quincy was doing the same. Stephanie stared straight ahead and prepared to take the tongue lashing she felt she deserved but then Suji stepped out in front of them and claimed she'd asked for the tour.

It was enough to drag Stephanie's eyes from the imaginary point on the far wall to the back of Suji's head to Seiya's face. When Seiya glanced at her she pinned her eyes back to the wall and waited breathlessly while they finished their conversation and he left.

Stephanie sagged in relief when he left, a little bit in shock about how close she had come to being reprimanded by her personal god only to be saved by her idol. Quincy broke out in some foolish American based vernacular while Stephanie concentrated on bringing her heart rate down. She ignored Quincy's hand, not even noticing it, as she threw herself at Suji and hugged her. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou" she said.

[Suji]

Suji smiled, some of the pain of her headache ebbing away. She shouldn't enjoy having fans, but their reactions made it worth it. It was such a simple thing to do to make people happy, and that was not something Suji got to do all that often. Seeing Quincy's hand, she went to high five him but the effort was thwarted when Stephanie wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Her palm only barely hit Quincy's, resulting in one of those really unsatisfying high-five mishaps.

Suji's other arm looped around Stephanie, half-hugging her back. "Don't mention it," she said with a smile. "But Quincy's right, you two definitely do owe me." With a smirk, she pulled away from Stephanie's grasp, but left an arm around the girl's shoulders. Then, after brief hesitation, she threw her other one around Quincy's. "All right, I haven't eaten in forever. Are you guys hungry? Why don't you lead me back to the Mess Hall. Then we can eat and you can ask me about stuff, if you want."

[Dustin]

Quincy was almost left hanging, but he didn't mind since he was still so overwhelmed by what had just happened. That and the reason nobody satisfactorily high-fived him was because both targets were busy with some serious girl-on-girl hugging action. Which wasn't especially interesting, but it didn't seem right to interrupt. And it seemed to pay off as Suji took him under her arm along with Stephanie.

"If you are serious about us owing you, then you don't want to be heading to the to the mess hall." Quincy glanced over at Stephanie, not sure if he should let her in on his secret. But he figured they had come this far together, what was a little further. "I may or may not have a secret stash of goodies. And we may or may not need to make a detour to the third level storage closet B and look in a box in the back corner labeled "Old Jock Straps.""

[Adrian]

Stephanie couldn't believe that Suji had her arm around the person who had dared to drag her on the worst tour imaginable. Stephanie's day was already better than she could ever have imagined and it just kept getting better. Suji was so much cooler than even Stephanie had given her credit for. She'd known the animorph was a hero, was brave, was efficient, was one of the brightest leaders. But friendly? Easy going? Not even Seiya had that, at least, not in front of them.

Stephanie was in such a good mood that she didn't even mind spending more time with Quincy though she did grimace when he said something about Old Jock Straps. Jeeze. Only Quincy could really be that gross. She was so glad she didn't have to spend time in his company outside of this little disaster-turned-miracle.

It didn't take them long to get to the third level now that they weren't taking the most obscure passages and Stephanie looked around curiously, waiting for Quincy to show them his so called secret stash. Secret stash of what?

[Suji]

Suji made a face at the mention of jock straps. She really, really hoped that the labeling was just a diversionary tactic, and that the box had never actually held any jock straps. After all, what did Animorphs need with jock straps? Or the crew members of a spaceship? The more she considered it, the more she realized she didn't want to think about it.

She did her best to put it out of her mind for as long as possible. And she was mostly succeeding, until they were finally standing before the box. And sure it enough, she could see its unappetizing label clearly. "All right," Suji said, trying not to let her lip curl. "Let's have a look at your collection." Her stomach tightened, and she wondered if she should have just made them go to the Mess Hall. Curiosity did need to be sated, but if it was at the cost of an appetite, she wasn't sure if it was worth it.

[Dustin]

Quincy went and grabbed the box, set it on top of another box so that it was at belly button height, then stood behind it. He ripped the tape off then cracked his knuckles. Giving both Suji and Stephanie a wry smile, he said, "Prepare to be amazed." And the box was opened.

Inside there were no jock straps. Instead there was a large assortment of treats Quincy had stashed away. There was everything from potato chips to gummy worms. Candy bars to oreos. There was even some microwavable popcorn, beef jerky, animal crackers, and a box of chocolates. Quincy had been saving this stash for a special occasion, and what occasion was more special that pulling a fast one on old Seiya? Besides, it wasn't as if this was his only collection.

"Dig in. Just... don't tell anyone, okay?" The request was mostly directed at Stephanie. Quincy wiped his nose on his sleeve, then grabbed a box of hot tamales for himself.

[Adrian]

Stephanie's eyes shot to Suji and then back to the food and then back to Suji and then back to the food. She didn't want to dig into Quincy's obviously disgusting and against regulations box of junk food. She didn't want to look like a glutton or even a slightly unhealthy person in front of Suji. And she certainly didn't want Quincy to feel like she owed him anything. God, that could lead to bad places.

But what she did want were those oreos. It had been so so long since she'd had an oreo and they looked so delicious and tempting in their blue, white and black wrapper. Her eyes kept locking in on them every time she looked at the box. She imagined what the small chocolate cookie would taste like, how the creme would melt on her tongue. Her mouth began to water at the thought of them and her fingers twitched though it wasn't very noticeable since she was holding her hands at her sides. She looked back at Suji.

[Suji]

Suji was pretty amazed. It took a bit of skill to hoard this much stuff, and she found herself laughing when she saw it all. She'd never had a sweet tooth back before the world ended, but whenever something wasn't readily available, that made it much more appealing. "Pretty impressive, Quincy."

She noticed that Stephanie was watching her closely, and Suji couldn't immediately tell why. Perhaps she was expecting Suji to reprimand the translator, but that wasn't going to happen. This wasn't Suji's ship, and collecting candy wasn't something that struck her as a punishable offense. Maybe it wasn't totally fair to other people on the ship, but ultimately it was harmless. There were certainly worse hobbies to have.

Then Suji wondered if Stephanie was just waiting for approval to go ahead. There was a bit of longing in her expression. "Probably not a proper meal, but there's no harm in a bit of celebration, right? Your crew took out a bug fighter and saved two Animorphs the other day. Let's enjoy it." To emphasize the point, Suji reached in and pulled out a small pack of Jelly Bellies.

- - - - - -

They were sitting in the somewhat cramped room in a circle, and Suji listened to the satisfying hiss of her Pepsi can as it popped open. Soda hadn't been something she drank regularly either in high school, and Pepsi had always been way too sweet, but it was irresistible now. Her legs were crossed, and on one thigh was a small stack of Oreos, which she'd noticed that Stephanie took a particular delight in.

"You know, one of the last times I had sweets, I was holed up in a old Blockbuster movie store. We were hiding out because we'd just escaped a battle, and a huge storm rolled in. We watched Lion King and raided the candy rack." Suji smiled at the memory as she twisted an Oreo open. "That was with Drake. One of the guys you brought back the other day."

Suji felt a sudden sting of guilt. Drake would have enjoyed this. She couldn't really invite him now, and even the idea of explaining the situation made her a little uneasy: oh, just hanging out with my fanclub. But all the same, she wished he was there. Suji would have to take a couple treats back for him. He'd appreciate it, even if he still had a pie to work through.

[Dustin]

Quincy sat on the floor with his back against some boxes, legs outstretched. In one hand he held a bag of pork rinds. On the floor next to him there was a can of orange soda. Both were well past their expiration dates, but he couldn't tell. He figured that if either was really no good to eat any more, they would have some green scum that needed to be scraped off or something.

Suji was busy talking about her good ole days in her old faction with some guy. By now Quincy had all but given up on anything happening between them, so he was just zoning out, half listening. "I could go for a movie about now. I'm surprised we don't have a bigger collection here. I bet Seiya confiscates all of them just to make this place more miserable." Quincy had no point to his ramblings. He was just staring at the far wall, saying whatever happened to come into his head.