[Team One] taste that cricket protein

[green-eggs101.livejournal.com]

I dunno how many words of Soriku (and Jiminy) meeting the Mandalorian and his very hungry Child.
Rating: G


“You really aren't going to graduate…” Sora sighed, waving away some of the smoke that still emanated from the electrical panel Riku was trying to fix.

Emphasis on trying.

“Yes I am,” Riku insisted, running a hand through his hair. “If you can learn gummiship repair, so can I.”

Riku looked back at the textbook again, then at the wiring, then back at the textbook. “Ah—”

“The green wire should have—”

“Gone where the blue one was,” Riku finished, doing exactly that.

With a flicker, the lights on their gummiship came to life, the engine sputtering a few times before rumbling pleasantly and consistently.

Sora smiled, reaching over to kiss Riku’s slightly charred and sweaty cheek. “Knew you could do it.”

“You just said I wasn’t going to graduate.” Riku chuckled, turning his head so he could capture Sora’s lips in a deep kiss.

Sora hummed in delight. Nearly a year of marriage and Sora still feels like they’re in the honeymoon phase. He hoped it would always be like this, always passionate and caring. And love… So much love. Sora pressed back against Riku’s lips, chasing that feeling until they had to pull away to breathe. “Just… giving you some encouragement.”

Riku’s laughter echoed around the electrical room as they left.

The ship had been left in rough shape after an encounter with a heartless armada, and though they had emerged victorious their electrical grid had taken a direct hit. Riku’s fix would be good temporarily, but they would need to land to make better repairs. May have to buy a whole new set of thunder gummi parts.

Good thing that Heartless armada had all been carrying plenty of munny and spare gummiparts to sell.

“Well then… stayover in San Fransokyo?” Sora asked, already plugging in the coordinates. “We can check out Hiro’s new bot program while we’re there.”

“Oooh!” a small voice said from near the steering wheel. Looking down, Sora found that Jiminy had woken up from the nap he had taken while Riku fixed the ship. “And Hiro said he could help me upload the journal to the kingdom cloud.”

Sora nodded, “Exactly. Sounds like a perfect mini vacation!”

Riku laughed, “Okay, San Fransokyo, here we come—”

Riku’s answer was interrupted by Sora’s phone ringing. With a small frown, Sora pulled it out of his pocket.

“It’s Hiro,” Sora quickly answered it, the pixelated image of Hiro and Baymax filling the screen. “Hey… Riku and I were just about to stop by, we have some repairs to the ship we need to—”

“Oh, is it the electrical grid?” Hiro’s eyes widened. Or— ooh! The wings? You know, I had some excellent ideas about that. I’m thinking if we add some—”

“Hiro,” Baymax interrupted.

Though automated and therefore never really showed emotion, Sora thought he detected a hint of fond exasperation in Baymax’s tone. Sora grinned as Hiro stopped mid-sentence, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh yeah… focus. Uhhh, you guys headed this way?”

Sora nodded. “Yeah?”

“Could you, uh, check something out for us?” Hiro clicked a few buttons, and suddenly Sora’s phone screen was split between Hiro and a computer monitor with a star map. “There’s this… thing that’s been orbiting for a few days. It’s about… 3 hours or so from our world. We don’t think it’s a heartless ship, as it hasn’t done anything, but it’s not responding to our communications and the Moogles are too scared to use their ships to go see what it is.”

“Oh,” Sora maneuvered the map so he could see it better. “Yeah, I recognize this area. It’s on the very edge of Starlight pass… nearly as far out as we’ve ever gone. Riku and I will check it out before we head in.”

“Okay, see you in a bit.”

It only took a few hours to fly over to San Fransokyo, Sora flying the long way around to find the object Hiro spoke about.

“It’s a ship,” Jiminy noted, staring out the window. “But I’ve never seen a gummiship like that.”

“I don’t think it is a gummiship.” Sora put the gummiship on auto pilot as they got closer, standing up to take a closer look out the window.

He was surprised the ship was even still together, with the way the steel panels seemed about five seconds from falling off. The engines were cold, the ship moving only from having been caught in orbit around San Fransokyo.

“Can I try hailing them?” Riku asked, already sitting at the controls to do so.

Sora nodded absently, hoping that, if there was anyone stuck on that ship, that they had at least retained some heating units. As his eyes drifted over, he caught sight of a name painted on the side of the ship. “Hey, I think it’s called the Razor Crest.”

“Got it.” Riku’s brow furrowed in concentration as he stared at the controls, trying to remember what Chip and Dale had said when they had installed the communication gummi.

Sora had to smile at Riku’s concentration and determination. He had picked up the gummiship controls easily, and always wanted to add on new gummies as they stumbled across them. Riku though— Riku preferred to travel on his keyblade motorbike or, even more preferably by walking. But Riku was also trying, insisting that he learn everything, to know everything Sora knew, though he preferred to take a more academic approach. So he had enrolled in Cid’s “Gummiship for Dummies Beginners” class and was now working on some “on board training” under Sora’s guidance.

Sora leaned in, sure that his husband would get the correct sequence of controls, but wanting to give him a hint anyway. “The button is my favorite color…”

Riku let out a sigh of frustration, quickly hitting the teal colored button. “I knew that.”

“I know you did,” Sora said, burying his face in Riku’s hair. “And then—”

Riku beat him to it, flicking the switch and speaking clearly into the microphone. “Excalibur to Razor Crest. Do you need assistance?”

Nothing but static answered them. Frowning Riku flipped the switch and tried again. “Razor Crest? Do you read me? Come in, pl—”

A Child’s curious coo answered them.

In shock, Riku looked up at Sora. “Was that… a baby?”

Sora nodded. “Hail them again.”

Already flipping the switch, Riku called back. “Razor Crest?”

Another happy gurgling sound, then a small cry of excitement.

Sora’s brow furrowed. “Uh… hey there, uh, kid? Are you okay? Can you—”

“What are you—”

Sora jumped in shock as another, much deeper voice, interrupted his question. Over the com, the Child let out several sounds of disappointment as he was evidently pulled away from the microphone.

“I told you not to touch that kid.”

The Child cooed again, though Sora thought he sounded a little exasperated. He covered his mouth to stifle a giggle then called out. “Uh… Razor Crest?”

“What!”

The answer sounded more like a demand, any gentleness that Sora had heard when the person was talking to the Child was now gone.

“Uhhh…”

“We’re asking if you needed any assistance.” Riku took over, and Sora could hear his husband’s own irritation start to come out at the voice’s sharp, agitated tone. “Our friends say you’ve been orbiting their world for a few days now.”

“We’re fine.”

The Child cooed and Sora figured if it could talk it’d probably be saying that they were definitely not fine. “We can help repair your ship, if you need to. Or—”

“I said, we’re fine!”

This time the Child’s noises became distressed and before Riku could hang up, a deep, troubled sigh came over the com.

“If… If you have any rations, we can— I can find something to trade.”

Sora’s heart broke a bit. The little one must be hungry. “No need to trade, we have plenty of food. Can I bring some blankets as well? You two must be cold…”

The Child cooed in agreement.

“Fine. Yes.” The voice sounded both agitated and grateful, an odd combination of emotions. “I don’t know how you’re gonna come over here though. My ship can’t bring other ships aboard and—”

“Getting over there won’t be a problem,” Sora assured the voice. He made a quick mental list of what to bring. Standing up beside him, Riku reached into one of the storage compartments, pulling out a large tote bag.

It wasn’t everyday that they got to save people stranded in space, but they both liked to be prepared for just an encounter.

“Then how will you—?”

“Just trust us,” Sora grinned, even though there was no video through the COM. “You have an escape hatch, right?”

With another one of those strange agitated sighs, the voice grumbled out instructions for how to reach the escape hatch.

Sora nodded and signed off, promising to bring the food and blankets soon.

“Maybe a few potions too?” Riku asked, already pulling them out of the first aid kit as well. “Though… we don’t know if they can even—”

“We’ll still offer them,” Sora said.

Riku grunted. “Offer them to the kid, maybe. I’m not sure if I like the guardian too much.”

“He barely said anything!” Sora protested.

“He said enough.”

Sora sighed, rolling his eyes a bit. Riku was always kind and gentle with him, and was always very compassionate to his friends. But to strangers Riku could be kinda prickly.

Leaning over, Sora soothed some of that prickliness with a kiss to Riku’s forehead. “So… you know this means I get to glide right?”

Closing his eyes, Riku groaned quietly. “Just please no trick moves.”

“Who… me?” Sora smirked. “Would I ever do a thing like that?”

“Yes.”

True to Riku’s prediction, Sora may have shown off a bit as he glided over to the Razor Crest. While Riku’s keyblade motorbike worked best to travel within a world, it tended to sputter out when navigating the lanes between, leaving Sora to do the heavy lifting there. Not that he, or his glider, minded. It was a nice feeling to have Riku’s arms tight around his waist, somehow feeling the warmth through two layers of keyblade armor. It was even nicer when Sora may have twisted the glider in a loop-de-loop (to miss an asteroid, of course) and Riku’s arms tightened.

Soon though, they reached the escape hatch, pulling it open and letting it swing shut behind them. They were in a narrow tunnel, a ladder fixed to the wall leading them up to another latched door. With a grunt, Sora twisted the door handle, pushing it upwards and climbing the rest of the way.

“Move slow, or I shoot.”

Sora froze at the voice, somehow sounding even deadlier when it wasn’t muddled by COM static. And yet… some how more metallic? Sora didn’t have time to think about it. He knew a threat when he heard one. So he obeyed, moving very slow out of the hatch, then reaching in to grab the totebag of food and blankets that Riku handed up.

Sora pulled away from the tunnel, finally getting the chance to observe the owner of the ship, and the apparent guardian of the Child they had heard.

It was a large figure, maybe a half foot taller than Riku, dressed in shiny metallic armor, complete with a helmet (which explained the metallic sounding voice). The helmet’s t-shaped visor stared at the tunnel as Riku pulled himself up.

“Nice,” Riku said, and Sora could feel the glare Riku leveled at the pistol looking device in the armored figures hand. “You greet all the people who try to help you with a threat?”

“Yes.”

Riku glared for a moment longer, while Sora tried to think of ways to ease the tension.

“Umm, please don’t eat me!”

Sora turned. That was Jiminy, his voice sounding muffled, but where—

“Hey!” The armored figured shouted suddenly, turning towards the front of the ship. “Spit that out.”

Sora turned to look as well.

Standing near a ladder was a small green figure, who Sora supposed had to have been the Child they heard earlier. He had large almond shaped dark eyes, and even larger ears that reminded Sora of Komory Bat.

At the reprimand though, the Child opened his mouth and Jiminy fell back to the floor, quickly hopping away from curious hands and a hungry mouth.

“We talked about eating things that talk back,” the armored figure grumbled, his words only met by a giggling coo from the Child.

“Oh, it’s alright,” Jiminy said, hopping up to settle on Sora’s shoulder. “It’s not the first time I’ve been trapped in a mouth before.”

Sora and Riku nodded in agreement, though Sora was surprised to see the armored figure nod as well.

“You were supposed to stay in the cockpit,” the armored figure sighed, putting his blaster away. He continued to stand awkwardly in the corner, and kept his helmet on. Sora wondered if that was because he was trying to be intimidating, or because he was shy.

Or a bit of both?

The Child cooed, their ears perking up in curiosity as he walked towards Sora.

Or rather… walked towards the bag of food.

Sora laughed, removing his helmet. His hair immediately fluffed up, and he ran a few fingers through it. “Hang on little guy, I’ll get out some food for you.”

The Child looked up with a gurgle, staring up at Sora pleadingly. Laughing, Sora sat down next to the Child and began to pull out the food he had brought. Bread and meat for sandwiches, a few steamed buns he had quickly heated, some vegetables, anything Sora could think of.

With a last glare at the armoured figure, Riku took a seat as well, taking off his own helmet. With a quick shake of his head, his hair fell across his shoulders. Unable to resist, Sora ran his fingers through it, smoothing out some tangles. Riku’s hair always grew fast, and he had wanted to grow it out again for a while after his impromptu haircut via heartless blender. He put it off during the year he searched for Sora, not wanting to change while Sora wasn’t there, but now—

Well, now they were married and Sora had no plans to ever leave Riku again. So Riku was free to keep his hair at whatever length he liked.

“Here, kid,” Riku held up a steamed bun, breaking it in half so the Child could hold it better. “This probably tastes alot better than a cricket.”

“I’m… not sure if I should be insulted or not.” Jiminy protested, already pulling his tiny journal out to record their new friends.

The Child squealed in excitement and eagerly took the bun. Within two seconds his half of the bun was gone and he looked at the other half in Riku’s hand forlornly. Riku chuckled, passing the other half over, which disappeared in short order as well.

“I guess you should be glad he didn’t eat you as fast.” Sora chuckled, drawing the Child’s attention. With little arms, the Child reached up and Sora eagerly took them into his arms, holding the Child close while Riku passed over another half of a steamed bun.

This one the Child ate slowly, reaching up and touching Sora’s face, his eyes wide with curiosity. Then with a loud coo and his ears perking up again, the Child looked over to the armored figure still on the other side of the cargo area, pointing with one hand at the figure’s helmet.

“Well, they’re not Mandalorians, kid.”

The Child’s ears drooped a bit and he cooed in disappointment.

Sora tilted his head. Mandalorian? Is that what the armoured figure was? But what was a Mandalorian? “Uh… no, we’re not Mandalorians… we’re Keyblade Master— orians!”

He heard Riku sigh beside him. “Keyblade Masters.”

“That too,” Sora said, turning his attention to the Child and petting those soft ears. The Child giggled, ears perking up again, now looking at Jiminy as the cricket wrote down the term this new information. Though now Sora was glad to see the Child staring in more curiosity than hunger.

“Do you want something to eat too?” Riku asked, holding out another steamed bun towards the figure— the Mandalorian — but pulled it back at a shake from the helmeted head.

“No thanks.”

The Child grumbled, reaching out to take the steamed bun from Riku’s hand, then squirmed out of Sora’s hold so he could waddle over to the Mandalorian. He held the steamed bun out with a quiet sound.

The Mandalorian let out a sigh that was more fond than the others he had let out earlier. “Okay. I’ll save it for later.”

He put the wrapped bun on the floor next to him. The Child giggled and crawled up into the Mandalorian’s lap. After a moment, quiet snores emanated from the tiny bundle, indicating that the Child had fallen asleep.

A smile spread over Sora’s lips at the sight and he hit the button on his chest, deactivating his armor. Stretching, Sora swung his hands behind his head. “So… how’d you guys get stuck out here anyway?”

“Hyperdrive malfunction,” the Mandalorian said simply.

Though with the way he looked down at the Child in his arms, Sora wondered if there was a tiny green reason for that malfunction.

“You guys were lucky not to run into an asteroid,” Riku said, reaching back into the bag and pulling out a few bags of dried meats and fruits, as well as a spare blanket or two. It was pretty chilly in the ship. “I’m guessing the hyperdrive is no longer functioning?”

The Mandalorian grunted in answer, curling a hand around the Child.

“Oh… we can try to get it functioning again!” Sora offered. “Then you guys can go home!”

The Mandalorian grumbled again. “This is our home… but I’ve been given the task to deliver the kid to more of his kind. They’re a race of sorcerers called Jedi… have you heard of them?”

Mulling the term over for a moment, Sora shook his head, turning to look at Riku who was equally confused. “No… Sorry.”

“But we can at least try to fix your ship, so you can complete your mission.” Riku offered.

The Mandalorian hesitated for a long moment before finally nodding.

—-

Fixing the ship took more than a little bit longer than fixing the gummiship, but they managed to hack the repairs with a few gummi parts and alot of modified firaga spells. Sora took care of the outside repairs, while Riku stayed aboard to keep the Child entertained while the Mandalorian fixed the insides as best he could.

With the last thunder and graviga gummi riveted into place, Sora groaned as he entered the ship once more, waiting for the escape hatch to repressurize before climbing up to the second hatch. As he pushed the hatch open, he heard Riku’s soft voice coming from the cockpit.

“To connect gummi pieces together, merely place together and push. Gummiblocks should lock into place without much trouble,” Riku read, evidently reviewing the first few chapters of his text book. “What do you think abou that, kid?”

The Child cooed, seemingly in agreement.

“So what do you think we do if the gummiparts don’t go together that easy?”

The Child blew a raspberry and Riku laughed.

“Oh, is that so? Yeah, I guess we should make sure the parts are compatible, huh?”

Sora muffled a laugh behind his hand. He suddenly realized that he had never heard Riku interact with baby before— they hadn’t much chance to really interact with kids younger than ten. It sounded nice though. Really nice.

An image suddenly appeared in Sora’s head: Riku reading a book to their own kid and—

Sora blushed. Their own kid? That… sounded perfect actually… eventually.

"Kids are hard work," a voice behind him said, and Sora turned to find the Mandalorian finishing up his own repairs. Jiminy stood at the Mandalorian's shoulder. He had been taking notes while the man did repairs, the Mandalorian evidently not caring or feeling the cricket's presence.

"I can imagine," Sora admitted. They probably need Alot if guidance… learn right from wrong."

Jiminy grinned at Sora's observation, hopping from the Mandalorian's armor over to Sora's.

The helmet tilted downward in agreement. "And they're alot harder to keep track of than bail bouncers."

"Yeah?" Sora chuckled, even though he had no clue what a bail bouncer was. He'll ask Riku later.

"And they put everything in their mouth."

Sora's laughter at that statement drew Riku and the Child's attention, and they both climbed down the ladder into the cargo hold.

"Repairs done?" Riku asked, passing the Child over to Sora.

Nodding, Sora held the baby close, smiling at it's contented sounds. "Yeah, you guys should be able to make it back to your world… or wherever. Someplace you can make better repairs."

"I can't pay you," the Mandalorian admits, "but maybe—"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Sora said, passing the Child back to his caretaker, if a little reluctantly. "Just… take care of him. Take care of each other… ok?"

The Child cooed in agreement, reaching out to press a hand to Sora's face, the waving bye to Riku. Smiling fondly, Riku waved back.

"Yes, I'll… get him into safer hands soon."

Sora frowned at the wording. Wasn't the Child already in safe hands?

But he got the feeling that, like the Child's species and the Mandalorians reluctance to remove his helmet, the subject might be off limits.

So he let himself be led back to the escape hatch. Riku went down first, carrying their now empty bags, Jiminy safe tucked just inside Riku's armour. Sora turned to follow.

But the Mandalorian's words kept playing in his head. Especially when he saw the Child turn in the Mandolorian's embrace, seeking comfort even though his new friends were leaving.

"Are you sure you have to send him off to the Jedi people?" Sora asked cautiously. "He seems perfectly content right there."

Another one of those deep, tired sighs. "This is the Way."

Sora tilted his head at the statement. "But does it have to be the only way?"

The Mandalorian turned to study Sora, and Sora couldn't quite tell if he was being glared at or not. He offered a sheepish grin all the same.

"Well, may your heart be your guiding key."

With that, Sora pulled the escape hatch down behind him. Riku was already waiting for him and they made their way back to the shop as the Razor Crest's engines began to warm up and move outside of San Fransokyo's orbit.

They made it back to their ship none too soon as they were hit by another wave of Heartless as soon as they entered their own cockpit. Sora groaned, thankful the geartlyhad help off while they were helping the Mandalorian and his Child, but still—

Couldn't the Heartless hold off for a few more hours?

Riku grunted as another shot rocked the ship. "we haven't even made our own repairs yet. Are our weapons back online?"

"They're powering up," Sora groaned, starting to sweat and trying to fly out of range from the Heartless ships. It was to no avail; the Heartless ships just ganged up in them. They were surounded.

And then, with a bright flash of red lasers, they weren't.

Sora gasped as the Heartless ships in front of them disintegrated, another two to either side disappearing in a flash of laser fire as well.

There was the sound of engines from above before the Razer Crest cane into view, blasting away the remaining Heartless vessels.

Sora laughed in disbelief, immediately flicking on the Com system. "Thank you Razer Crest! We hope to see you guys soon!"

The Child's muffled giggle answered them, followed by an exasperated sigh and:

"Hey! Get that out of your mouth!"


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