Survival

I knocked on the door to room 274 in the male’s bedroom area of the ship later that day. This was only the third time I had been here to visit him since the ship had touched down on Néo Nakir. Usually it was never needed for me to be near Toby’s bedroom, and I knew he had picked a room that had many empty rooms next to it for a reason. He liked his privacy. Eyes were on him all day long because of his position in the group, so it was completely reasonable that he wanted some peace and quiet. The last thing he probably wanted was for me to be boisterous and disturbing his leisure time, so I didn’t go to his room unless I was invited. That and the fact it was slightly inappropriate. I never wanted to embarrass him with rumours about us, though apparently there were enough of those going around lately.

Before coming I had taken a very quick shower to get the day’s grime off me, and then proceeded to put on a nice outfit and style my hair. It definitely wasn’t a date or anything, but there was still a need to look decent. I was still a female, after all. There was shuffling from behind the door, so I knew Tobias was on his way. I glanced to my left and saw Sylus walking around the corner. He stopped when he saw me standing outside Tobias’ door.

“Oh, do you have an appointment?” he asked.

“Um, yes but it’s not-“ I started.

“Oh that’s fine! I’ll talk to him later! He’s clearly busy!” Sylus quickly said, already backing away around the corner.

“No, you can-“

“It’s not necessary!” he shouted from behind the wall with a light laugh. I sighed as Toby opened his door, looking down the hallway to see no one.

“Talking to yourself, are you?” Tobias remarked, raising his eyebrows as he looked down at me.

“I’m not that insane,” I replied casually, knowing there wouldn’t be much point in trying to explain myself.

“Well, please come in,” Toby said as he stepped aside, a hand still on the door. “I like your clothes; it’s definitely your colour.” I glanced down at the material that had taken me a long time to decide on, glad that he had noticed.

“Thank you,” I whispered, turning to check what he was wearing as he shut the door. Simple but nice creamy white pants with a light brown belt. If anything, that was something I would expect to see him in when he was mated, considering they matched his wings. But why would he be wearing it now? Was this a date and I hadn’t noticed? “You’re dressed fancy too. I didn’t realise…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish my sentence anymore.

“Oh, um, it’s just last time we played dominos you were looking very nice, so I thought I should return the favour,” Toby stammered as he walked across his room to the table. There I saw dominos as well as a selection of fruits and a bottle. “Besides, I got some wine, if you’d like some.” Wine? But that was such a rare drink used for only special occasions!

“But… What’s the occasion for wine?” I questioned. Why would he want to waste a bottle on me? I approached the table and inspected the bottle, noting it was indeed wine. He wasn’t joking.

“Just wanted to celebrate how far you’ve come with your training,” Toby shrugged, picking up the bottle and opening it. He started to pour some into a glass. “I’m sorry for the dirty room, by the way. I was supposed to have a cleaner come in, but she never showed.” I couldn’t hide the smile that his cheeky tone caused me to have.

“I’m sure she had good reason,” I commented, looking briefly around the room. “I actually think it seems pretty clean, so don’t be ashamed.” Toby handed me a glass and motioned for me to sit, so I did. We raised our glasses and he gave me a grin.

“To your amazing progress, and for being so stubborn and not giving up until I realised what was right for you,” Tobias toasted. I just smiled and clinked my glass against his before taking a sip. The wine tasted wonderful. It was such a great delicacy.

“You know, I prefer to call it determined and focused, not stubborn,” I teased, making him almost spit out his drink as he laughed.

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind for future reference… Help yourself to the fruit,” he smiled. Toby then sat his glass down and started arranging the dominos for a game. We played many games, and I bet him the most. I felt like he was going a bit easy on me and making a few poor moves, but it didn’t matter. It was nice to be slightly in the lead, considering we usually were pretty evenly matched. When he was starting to catch up, I leaned back in my chair and stretched out my arms and wings, yawning as politely as I could manage.

“Well, I’m getting really tired, so I should probably leave,” I told him.

“What? Just because I finally won a few games?” Toby asked as he pulled the dominos together.

“It’s not that!” I exclaimed as he stood, heading over to his bedside table. “I’m exhausted from all of the practice we did today, and no doubt we’ll be doing even harder training tomorrow…” Toby had picked up his alarm clock and had turned it to face me.

“No wonder you’re tired,” he grinned. I read the time and couldn’t believe it. We were multiple hours past the normal bedtime! I hadn’t stayed up so late since I was so much younger and Toby and I were defying our parent’s requests.

“Wow, I should really go,” I said hastily as I stood. Toby put his clock back down and ran a hand over his face, showing he too was sleepy.

“Yeah… I had a great time tonight…”

“Me too,” I agreed with a short nod. Toby moved back to the table, standing in front of me.

“We should do it again,” he suggested kindly.

“Yes! Definitely. It’s much nicer when you’re not shouting at me during training,” I joked lightly, expecting to see him roll his eyes. Instead, Toby frowned and looked a bit hurt.

“Am I really that unpleasant during training?” Toby questioned, making my smile disappear.

“Absolutely not. I was just teasing you,” I answered truthfully. He didn’t show much of a reaction and I felt even worse about the joke. It clearly wasn’t appropriate. In a desperate attempt to make it better, I leaned forwards and hugged my friend. “Cheer up, Toby.” A second later and his arms were around me too, and we held our embrace for a long time.

“You should probably go…” Toby eventually whispered. He kissed my cheek as he pulled away.

“Thank you, again,” I said as I took a step backwards. We held each other’s gaze for a second before I turned away.

“Goodnight, Marion,” Toby said as I put my hand on the door handle. I glanced over my shoulder and saw he was just standing there with a small smile on his drowsy face.

“Goodnight, Toby,” I replied. When he didn’t comment on my name-calling, I opened the door and left.