Chapter Text
“Finally, the day has come! A new adventure is being opened to us!”
A tall, handsome brunette stood in front of a towering spacecraft, the Skeld, positively glowing with excitement as he struck a pose. Three other men followed behind him, the shortest, dark brunette one lagging close behind the first, and the other two, one with honey-brown hair and glasses, and the other another brunette with scars on his face, following behind hand in hand.
“Ooh, I’m so excited too, Roman! We’ve all worked so hard for this,” the one with honey brown hair gushed, Patton, squeezing the hand of the man next to him, Janus, with as much strength as the joy in his smile.
“Too hard, if you ask me,” the dark brunette grumbled, taking a sip from the coffee cup in his hand. “This better have been worth it. You have no idea how much sleep I have lost for this.”
Janus rolled his eyes at Virgil’s antics as the dark-haired man reached his boyfriend, Roman, who stood with an amused expression now as he watched the other walk right into his chest. It was clearly too early for the short, moody brunette, but Janus knew the other man had become an expert in handling Virgil, moods and all, and loved the emo raccoon very much. It still surprised him, sometimes, how both of them were even in a relationship. They were so different. But it worked somehow.
“Don’t worry, my chemically unbalanced romance, I’ll make sure it is all worth it,” the tall brunette purred into the shorter male’s ear.
“Eugh, get a room. No one wants to see that,” another voice called from behind. Janus stiffled his laughter and turned around to greet two more friends.
“Hey Remus! Hey Logan!”, Patton called from next to him. Said approaching men waved their greetings, one with a wild grin and the other ever composed.
“You have no right to talk, Rem-rat. You know you do a lot worse in less private places,” Virgil snarled at one of the shorter of the approaching men (but still taller than him), but the vibrant blush on his face decreased the defensive intimidation factor.
Remus laughed at Virgil’s reaction. “That’s because my Logie-bear is a lot cuter to watch red and squirming under me than some raccoon,” he retorted. Next to him, Logan’s composed appearance slowly disappeared as he blushed deeply at his partner’s words.
“You see? Exquisite.” Remus grabbed Logan by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down into a hot messy kiss.
“Remus, seriously? Here?”, Janus complained, turning Patton away from the increasingly erotic scene.
“Come on, brother. Let the teach get a moment to breathe. We still have to change into our suits,” Roman reminded the two men with a chuckle as he pulled his twin off the taller ravenette.
“Oh, yes! We’ll finally go on a real adventure together, Ro-Ro!”, Remus exclaimed gleefully, letting himself be dragged by his brother.
“Come on, Lo. Let’s get ourselves suited.” Virgil led the taller, dazed man after the rest of the group.
////////////////////////////////////
“Uh, what’s with the colors of the suits?”
The group had arrived at the room with their suits and the sights they came upon was not an expected one. Well, not for all of them.
“It was Remus’ idea,” Logan answered. “He thought it would be ‘fun’ if we were color coded.”
“Is this allowed?”, Virgil asked anxiously.
“Yes, it was allowed by our superiors. The color will not affect their function, so they allowed it. Of course, our EVA suits must remain white in color since it is necessary for the reflection of heat and such, but our IVA suits do not need such coloring,” Logan assured.
“Well, are the colors accurate?”, Remus asked with an expectant grin.
“Personally, I don’t find my color very appealing,” Virgil said, walking up to his suit and glaring at the color in distaste. “I don’t want to be walking around looking like some human sized eggplant.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Roman would love that, especially up his-”
“Remus!”
“What? I’m not telling any lies,” Remus exclaims innocently, looking at Janus.
“What is he talking about? Why would Roman love Virgil looking like an eggplant?”, Patton asked.
“It’s nothing Patton, don’t worry about it,” Logan says with a sigh. He stepped over to his own dark blue suit.
“Okay, well, I like my color,” Patton exclaims, successfully changing the subject. “Cyan always makes me happy. Now I can be happy all the time on the ship!”
“Well, as long as you’re happy I guess I can live in this horrendously bright suit,” Janus commented.
“I think yellow suits you, Jan. It brings out your eyes,” Patton said, stepping up to him and brushing a hand tenderly over the scars under his eyes. Janus blushed furiously, but let Patton tuck some hair behind his ear.
“Red suits me just fine,” Roman said,taking the attention away from the other two.
“Haha, suits,” Patton laughed, immediately distracted by the pun. “Because y’know, the suit’s red and it suits him?”
“Yes Patton, I think they got it,” Janus chuckled lightly, giving his boyfriend a fond look.
“I don’t get it.”
“How do I love you, you dork?”, Remus asked, turning to Logan who had just spoken.
“Because you like mine.”
“Oh my gosh! Can we not destroy Patton’s innocence this trip?”, Virgil exclaimed in exasperation. Roman and Remus broke into laughter at the exasperation of the shortest crewmate. “It’s bad enough we all understand that. We don’t need to add Patton.”
“Apologies, Virgil. I will refrain from making such comments in public. However in private is a different story,” Logan said, a sly glint in his eye at the last phrase.
“Mm, this is why I love you,” Remus growled, and he pulled Logan into their second passionate kiss of the day.
“Wait, why can’t I be added?”, Patton asked, ignoring the scene unfolding in front of him.
“Trust me Padre, you don’t want to,” Roman told him.
“It’s nothing bad, or dangerous at least...for the most part, but it would make me feel better if you weren’t exposed to all Remus… knows. It’s for the better and you’re not missing out on much,” Janus explained.
“Yeah, don’t worry Pops! I’m sure Jan-Jan will show you everything eventually,” Remus called out in a short break from the kiss before resuming.
“Ugh, let’s just go into the ship. I want to sleep on my boyfriend and forget all my annoying friends for a while,” Virgil grumbled. “Except you Patton. You’re my sane buddy,” he added with a smile when he saw the kind man begin to speak.
“You’re not too sane yourself, storm cloud,” Roman told the short brunette.
“Touché. Let’s just get ready.”
/////////////////////////////////
It took the planned five hours for all the final preparations to be completed. By the time the final countdown was taking place, it was past 1300 hours. Ten minutes later, the rocket had reached orbit and the rumble of the engine lowered considerably.
“Brrr, I never get used to all that vibrating,” Patton commented as the group began to unbuckle themselves from their seats after gravity had been normalized inside the ship.
“You and me both,” Roman complained, staying slumped in his seat.
“Aww, don’t tell me brother dear was scared?”, Remus cooed teasingly as he went over to help his brother stand.
“No! I was just...uncomfortable.”
“Enough chit chat, all of you, we’re not free from work yet,” Janus told them.
“Janus is right. We must go find the captain and receive our tasks,” Logan agreed.
“Geez, aren’t you both the life of the party,” Virgil huffed.
“Don’t worry, Virgil, we’ll have some downtime soon,” Patton assured the younger man.
They left the small crew compartment and went up to the navigation room where their commander and pilot was.
“I see our superiors let you carry out your idea, Remus”, the commander grinned as the crew gathered in the small area.
“Yes, sir,” Remus said with an answering grin. “I have Logan to thank for it though. I’m still surprised that he managed to convince them.”
“Well, I’m not. Logan has a good head on his shoulders and knows how to use it. Both him and Janus have a way with words, although Janus could use more knowledge,” the older man laughed. Logan blushed at the praise, while Janus smiled somewhat sheepishly. Patton patted his arm comfortingly.
“And, if pour little Virgil could find a way to better express himself, he would be a force to be reckoned with as well,” the commander added, throwing the shortest crew member a teasing grin. Virgil rolled his eyes and looked away in good-natured grumpiness.
“So the rest of us aren’t forces to be reckoned with?”, Roman asked in mock offense.
“I think I fear their superior intelligence over both of yours strength,” the commander laughed. “And, honestly, I don’t think there is anything to fear about Patton.”
“Aww, thanks commander. That’s exactly what I’m aiming for,” Patton said in such an innocent voice everyone did a double take before Patton’s laughter at their shocked faces made them all laugh as well.
“Never mind. I think I have reevaluated my choices,” the commander said. “Anyways,” he continued, “as much as you all love me and came here for the one and only reason of seeing me, I must betray you by giving you a bunch of work to do.”
“Bummer,” Janus drawled.
“Indeed. You know where everything on the ship is and all the different rooms, so I don’t need to explain anything. Just let me upload them to your communication devices and… there we go, you should have your tasks.”
A collective ‘ping’ instantly echoed around the room and each crew member took out the small tablets provided for this mission.
“You got them?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Then off you go.”
The crew walked out, still reading over their tasks.
“Anyone have to go to Electrical?”, Virgil asked as they walked back to the cafeteria.
“Oh, I do,” Patton exclaimed.
“Cool, then we can go together. I hate that room.”
“Aw, liwle Virgy is still scawed of the creepy room,” Remus teased.
“I’m not scared! I would just prefer some company to being alone. And you have to admit that room is a little unnerving,” Virgil defended himself, a light blush of embarrassment covering his face.
“Don’t worry, Virgil. Your happy, pappy Patton won’t leave your side. I could use the company in that room too,” Patton said the last part sheepishly. “One would think that as the electrical room it would be a lot brighter than it is.”
“And one would think that as an adult you would be less scared of the dark.”
“Remus,” Janus and Logan reprimanded in unison, the first a lot more threatening than the second.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, Rems. I know you don’t mean it in a bad way,” Patton dismissed lightly.
“Let’s go?” Virgil asks and with a nod Patton and Virgil leave the group to head down to Electrical.
“It seems we part ways now. I have some jobs to do in the medical area, so I’ll be heading there now if any of you need me,” Logan announces as well.
“I’ll go with you, Logan. I have to go to one of the engines,” Janus adds, and the two head off to the left hallway.
“Seems like it’s just you and me, bro,” Roman comments, now alone with Remus.
“Yup. What you got?”
“Oh, um, I have to go to admin.”
“Oof, guess we’re parting ways too. I have to go to the shields area.”
“Guess I’ll see you later then.”
“Yup. Later, bro.”
Roman headed down to admin, while Remus took the long way around to shields, which was weird but so was his brother so whatever.
He spent some time in the small admin room, spitting out profanities that could have single-handedly destroyed his childhood monsters, as he struggled for a good three minutes trying to get access to the mainframe with his card. Then he downloaded some data from the spacecraft, mostly just regulation monitoring records on the ship’s status. He checked his tablet for the next step of this task and saw he had to send it to HQ. That meant the communications room.
He started down the hall when he realized the doors opening to storage were closed. Huh.
He walked up to them and tried to use his card to open the doors, but nothing happened. Was someone overriding the ship's system? Or maybe the commander had locked them for some reason?
In any case, it seemed he would have to go the long way around to communications. At least he’d be able to ask the commander about the doors, and see his brother too.
“Hey, why were the doors by storage locked? Commander, sir?” Roman added hastily as he walked into the navigation room.
“Locked?”
“Yeah. I was going to go through the storage room to communications, but the doors to storage were closed.”
“And your card didn’t open them?”
“No, sir”
“Hmm. Must have been a malfunction. I hope it’s nothing grave. We still have a ways to got till we reach Polus and we can’t have our spacecraft breaking down this early on the trip,” the commander pilots mused. “I’ll keep an eye on the problem, Roman. Thank you for telling me.”
Roman nodded, excused himself, and continued on his way to comms. He met Remus in the hall, but they were both on their way to finish their tasks, so they didn’t stop to chat. Roman entered the communications room and was almost done sending the data he’d picked up from admin to HQ when a sudden alarm from his device shattered the comfortable, rumbling silence of the room.
“Flipping daisies on a mountain top!”, he exclaimed, pulling the electronic device closer to him. A small notification hung from the top of the screen.
“Emergency meeting? Huh, wonder what that’s about. Maybe the door problem is actually a problem.”
He finished uploading the data, then headed up to the cafeteria where everyone else was probably gathered by now.
“Where were you?”, Virgil asked him immediately, almost throwing himself at the tall brunette.
“Woah there, sunshine, I know you missed me, but I’m here now.” Roman says in surprise as he gently stops the shorter male from colliding into him. “What’s up?”
“Answer Virgil’s question, Roman,” Janus says in a weirdly serious voice.
“I was in the communications room,” Roman answers slowly. He sees Patton and Virgil share a nervous glance while Logan takes on a calculating look. Remus, who also seems to have recently reached the place, seems just as confused as he is.
“What’s going on here?”, Roman asks, his heart beginning to pump with trepidation.
“How about you tell us, Roman?” Janus challenges.
“Tell you what? What is happening?!”
“You seem to be getting really agitated, Roman.”, Janus observes, still watching him with a calm gaze.
“Of course I am agitated! You seem to be accusing me of something I don’t even know has happened,” Roman snapped.
“The commander is dead.”
“...What?”
“The commander is dead, Roman,” Virgil repeats, arms hugging his form protectively as he does and Patton moves to hug him as well.
Roman and Remus froze in shock.
“The commander was murdered and since we are the only ones present on this ship it is only logical that one of us was the murderer,” Logan continues in the ensuing silence. “And we have reason to suspect it must have been either Roman or Remus.”
“Wait, what? Why me?” Remus asks, shock and hurt evident in his at being named a suspect by his own boyfriend.
“The whereabouts of everyone else can be accounted for, except for the two of you,” Logan explains, avoiding eye contact with Remus. “Patton and Virgil were together in electrical, Janus and I stayed together as each of us did our tasks in our different locations. However, seeing how you two came in separately, you two are the only ones who have been alone on the ship.”
“So I hope you don’t mind answering a few questions.”