Starcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Interstellar Explorers ❯ Midηighτ Misαdvεητυrεs ( Chapter 2 )

It's so late! I'm staying up cause I have a night shift tomorrow. Actually it's only quarter to twelve... it feels late when you're used to waking up early for work!

~ Midηighτ Misαdvεητυrεs ~

"Oh, Milo!" Paige spun around.

"Hey, what's up?" he slipped his hand back into his pocket and strolled over.

"You scared the living daylights out of me!" she pushed her cute round glasses up her nose. "I'm just working on some upgrades here for Juno's arm. She told me she wanted a flame thrower put in." she pursed her lips and Milo walked around to see her project.

It was a robotic something, with tiny intricate wires weaved together. Small pliers and a magnifying glass lay on the bench beside it.

"That's nice of you to stay up doing that for a friend."

She reached back and scratched the back of her head with a yawn, then ran her fingers through her shoulder length ash-brown hair.

"I completely lost track of the time."

"It's three in the morning."

"Well, we both have class tomorrow. I'm almost done here." she went back to her work and Milo hopped up, sitting on the bench beside her.

"Are you making Juno a flame thrower?"

"Of course not, I'm just working on the auxiliary gears so that it can rotate smoother and the wires won't kink." she started poking and prodding again.

"That's good to know. Juno was always better than me at fighting, but now she's got a robot arm as well. I'm not distracting you, am I?"

The short girl stopped and turned to him with a genuine smile "don't be silly, Milo. It's always a pleasure when we chat."

He grinned back and she returned to her careful activity.

"I thought you might have been doing school work."

"No," Paige sighed. "Ms McDowell says I'm the best Robotics student she's ever had. I get my assignments done immediately and it's the same with Gadgetry. I'm regretting taking Mechanics though, I was told it would help me get a more extensive understanding of inventing but... we're learning about spaceship jet magnetic propulsion and there's so much physics and calculations involved. That subject takes up a lot of time."

"Hah, I guess it's a bit more of a boys' subject. Well I bet you're still good at it."

"I've been managing to pass. How about you? How are things going with your classes?"

Milo sighed as well "I think I should start trying to boost my marks. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be passing Gadgetry, and without Elliot I wouldn't be mastering the techniques in Combatives."

"Well, Juno could help you with that too." she stuck her tongue out in concentration.

"No thanks. With that steel alloy limb you gave her she'd bust my ribs."

"Haha... um, how are you and Juno?"

"What do you mean?"

Paige put her tweezers down "You and her dated for like two years, and you got to know all of us really well. Then when it ended it seemed like you wanted nothing to do with each other. But I thought you might have just been acting civil towards her for all of us, except lately it seems like you guys are getting along better... you know, sorry, I guess that might be a personal question. It's my nature to pry, I think."

"Don't worry," Milo gave a casual laugh, but was surprised she'd been thinking about that. "Me and Juno always got along well, that's why I think we lasted so long. Then we changed and then time passed so we changed even more" he spoke dismissively "like, she still had both arms and eyes when we were together. And we both know she's not the petty type, or the type to hold grudges. She's tougher than that."

"Yeah," Paige nodded "except for that guy, she really hates him."

"Well yeah, that's true."

"Thanks Milo, I was worrying over nothing." she looked away to smile at him again. "I guess I'm silly like that."

"You're not silly," Milo said lightly with a smirk, putting his hands together and resting them in his lap.

She poked her tongue out and went back to her work.

"I was just thinking about how weird it was for my ex being in the group, and I didn't want to form sides over it or anything."

"Your ex?"

"Oh, you didn't know about that?" she turned away from her project to face him.

"I don't recall you dating anyone for as long as I've known you. I was the only guy you all hanged out with."

"Yeah... me and Lauren were together for a while."

"Oh," Milo blinked and because he didn't know what else to say "okay."

"Yes... I'm not a lesbian though, Milo."

"Okay."

"But Lauren and I were together for a while, and she really didn't want it to end. I felt really bad for her, but it wasn't working for me. I think if we couldn't all hang out together anymore most of the girls would have preferred to be around me rather than her. I was ready to leave just so she wouldn't be alone... this is really something weird to talk about. I do tend to ramble about silly things, don't I?"

"It's fine, Paige. It's one of your endearing qualities."

She gave a sceptical smile and flipped a switch. The gears on her doodad started spinning quickly.

"Well that's all in order," she flicked it off.

"Are you ready to go back? We should walk together, it might be dangerous for a little thing like you on your own." Milo hopped off and onto his feet.

Paige laughed, "I usually manage alright by myself, but sure. Maybe a tall and strong guy like you will scare the troublemakers away."

Smiling, they exited the lab together. Paige locked it up with a lazer key card she kept on a strap around her neck. She had always been cute, and a little weird. Milo didn't have feelings for her when they were first introduced, he had still been dating Juno. It was through his ex that he met the group of six girls. He was pretty sure they'd always been friends, ever since they were children in the Stem. Milo hadn't been especially close to anyone until he became room mates with Elliot, and by now he knew each of the girls very well. They were very much a clique, and didn't hang around with boys much if at all until Milo got friendly with them. That's probably because Milo was weirdly comfortable with having girls as friends. To be accurate, there was a seventh member of the group of girls who was a boy but he'd been ostracised for unspeakable evils and was simply referred to as that guy with scornful derision. So Milo was the only guy they hanged out with nowadays.

Milo's closest chum Elliot was on speaking terms with each of the girls, but he generally gave off an intimidating vibe so didn't have any other friends. Milo supposed it was the way Elliot wanted it. Milo considered Elliot to be a really cool guy though, Paige was happy to openly discuss their mutual friends. They also talked about school work and then their Gum Card collections, the conversation was then shifted onto superheroes and Milo burst into heavy discussion while Paige humoured him. They'd gone through the Atrium Dome and Milo was surprised to notice they were already entering the Dormitory Dome. Such was his state of attention when conversations about his hobby of comic books were breached. He became embarrassed, he must have been yapping for ten minutes while she smiled and nodded.

"Jeez I've been monologuing." they stopped where the paths divided to the girls' dorm building and boys'.

"Yes, you have." Paige agreed. "Don't worry about it."

"I guess... I really like comic book heroes."

"I know. Still, I don't go on at you about the complexities of robotic design."

"No... I guess it just came up."

"You brought it up silly."

"Yeah..." sometimes Paige made him feel guilty about not paying attention to certain details, but she always said it with a smile and would end up saying something really sweet that would flip everything and make Milo's mind boggle.

"I think it's cute how passionate you get about things though."

Milo found himself blushing. A look of indecision crossed Paige's face as she looked up at him for a moment, Milo could feel his heart beating in his chest.

Paige looked flustered as she continued "I'll see you in class!" and hurried away without another word. Milo continued staring after her before gripping his hair in a fit of frustration. That right there was a missed opportunity. He made his own way back to his room. The double doors leading to the green lobby were always unlocked, he turned down a corner and went up the carpeted stairs. Faint music could be heard behind one of the doors but everyone else was sleeping and silent. He found his room and unlocked it with his key card. The single room was dark and in the far corners of were two beds, one was occupied by a still figure underneath the covers.

Collapsing against the back of the door Milo let out a groan.

"I am such an idiot!" He didn't exactly whisper that outburst and his room mate sat bold upright out of bed, wielding a curved blade he'd been keeping under his pillow. "Holy fucking mackerel Elliot!"

His grey eyes blinked at Milo sleepily, he then lowered the khopesh and rubbed his face. Elliot grumbled something incomprehensible, his blonde hair dishevelled.

"I can't believe you sleep with that thing!"

"Dude, how do you function without sleep? It's fucking four in the morning," he cast a glance at the illuminated alarm clock before collapsing backwards into bed.

"I... I don't have time to think about sleep right now! How could I possibly sleep?" Milo wandered toward his bed and fell onto it, rolling over. The red light illuminated his friend's tired face. When he didn't respond Milo continued his thoughtless blurting "I had the most perfect opportunity to kiss Paige but I froze up! She even knew I should have done it! I bet she thinks I'm a huge wuss! Or that I'm just a tease with no actual feelings for her!"

"Well I can see how girls would think that." he mumbled.

"How do you mean?"

"You tend to be flirty without noticing." he dragged his elbow over his eyes.

"What!?"

"Calm down. Fuck. I don't know what you see in Paige anyway, she's kinda snobby."

"Don't say that! Paige is sweet, I thought you and her were getting along really well?"

"We are," he answered dreamily. "It's just... in theory she doesn't sound so great for you."

Milo sat up, having all the energy his friend lacked.

"Care to explain your psychoanalytic hypothesis?" he grumbled.

"Well..." Elliot's brow furrowed as he stared into his arm. "She's a little self-absorbed. Still a really nice girl but she has a tendency to bring conversations around to herself."

"No, that's what she used to be like a few years back. She's not the same anymore. I'm pretty sure I'm the one that told you that."

"Yeah well, it's still a part of who she is and you're not self-absorbed so much as you are unobservant. Plus you're both talkative people, well you are when you get hyped about something. Fuck, I don't know right now. It's just a feeling I've got..."

"Well to hell with your feelings. Paige is a really nice and really smart girl, and I think we'd be great together."

"Whatever man," Elliot sighed and rolled over, slipping his blade back under his pillow. Milo paused for a while before continuing again.

"You know... Paige told me she dated Lauren for a while, back when me and Juno were a thing."

"No shit... wait, you're actually kidding?" Elliot peered over his shoulder. "How do I know so much more than you about your own friends?"

"How did you know about it?" Milo exclaimed.

"I pay attention to the people you and I hang out with." he stated.

"Well... she told me she's not a lesbian. So maybe it was a fling?"

"Maybe? Or maybe she's bisexual? Why don't you ask?"

"It seems like a personal thing to inquire about..."

"Fuck, then don't. Milo I need to sleep. We can talk about this shit tomorrow alright?" he turned away.

Milo huffed and lay atop his blankets, he didn't take his shoes off or try to make himself comfortable. Talking to people his age, whether male or female was an effortless feat for Milo. It was easy to be friendly with most people and it was the reason a secretive group of six girls remained friends with him even after he broke up with one of its members. However as soon as romantic investment is involved Milo becomes a blubbering mess of confusion, doubt and over-analysing. It was rather unfortunate, and as his room mate fell back into a peaceful slumber he knew he would be lying there until simulated dawn, unable to catch so much as a wink.

This chapter was more dialogue heavy than the last, which is a nice change. I hate having too much exposition! Tell me your opinions and I'll do my best to make my story as pleasing as possible!