• It was one of the ships down times, one of the periods that Walsh Ridden decided that it was ‘night’ and sent everyone to their bunks to rest. They were carrying no cargo, had no exact destination at the moment and no one really cared that since they were flying through space that there literally was no night, it gave everyone an excuse to hide from each other.

    Ahuva Ehrlich spent her time laying on her bed sleeping or locking herself within her shuttle, burning her incense and meditating, pretending that she wouldn’t rather be talking to someone and none of the crew, especially Aineas, mattered to her besides being amiable, casual acquaintances.

    Aineas Kallis usually found himself within the engine room giving Walsh or Cassidy, whichever found him there, the excuse that he was simply making sure that everything was working properly. He was hiding from his feelings for Ahuva and the rift that was slowly forming between him and his twin brother Damon.

    Damon Kallis often rested within his room or inside of the infirmary, checking and double checking that every surgical instrument was accounted for and clean and that every bottle of medicine was filled to an acceptable amount. He fooled no one, he was avoiding every single member of the crew.

    However, there were two that didn’t. Cassidy Nasso did not know how to hide and Sparrow did not feel the need when the gun-hand was there to stand beside her. While everyone else was content to only frequent the places on the ship that made them feel comfortable the two of them seemed to make a game of it instead traveling throughout the entirety of the Hummingbird on a regular basis in an odd game of hide and seek.

    “You always find me.” Sparrow whispered down from the vent she sat inside, her voice colored with a smile. Nasso, never really knowing how to respond to Sparrow when she said that, she remained silent as always. The response was shuffling inside of the vent before the young pilot slide out and down into Cassidy’s waiting arms. The gun hand gave her a small smirk as she set Sparrow on her own feet.

    “You really need to stop finding your way into the vents xiao naio.” As she spoke, Cassidy moved to brush the dust off the girls clothes, face and hair.

    The younger girl ignored her, opting to look at directly at the the gun hand’s face. “We aren’t like them.” She asked in a near whisper.

    Cassidy looked up into Sparrow’s eyes knowing this time that the girl’s statement expected, needed a response. “Like them? Like who xiao niao?”

    Sparrow looked down, at the gun-hand’s exposed midriff, slowly tracing the older woman’s scars with her fingers, taking her time to respond because the mercenary always gave her all the time that she needed. She starts slowly, each word coming out roughly, voice rising with each one, until they come flowing out of her. “They always hide. Ahuva-mama hides behind her smile, Ain his behind the ship, Damon hides behind his needles, and Daddy hides behind us! Are we suppose to be hiding? I don’t want to hide but is that what is normal? Am I no-“

    Cassidy covers Sparrow’s mouth with her hand giving her a rare and caring smile, the one that she only ever gave to her little bird. “Xiao niao, if you’re going to ask me if you’re not normal, I’ll be forced to put you over my knee and spank you.”

    She removes the hand, taking a deep breath before she continues.

    “People… need secrets. They need to keep objects, emotions, words for themselves and have space both physically and mentally from the next person. No matter how much they deny it, and deny it they will to justify their possessiveness and entirely unfair and hypocritical need to possess everyone else’s secrets, they need to have that distance. They need that lie to give themselves individuality because, if everyone knew everything about each other we would in essence all be the same person all having shared the same experiences, thoughts, and opinions. So they push others away.”

    Cassidy takes another breath looking deeply into Sparrows eyes.

    “Walsh and Damon push everyone away for similar reasons but they are so completely different in their actions that they can’t help but have equally different reactions. It isn’t because Walsh is a captain or Damon is the doctor, titles can be taken away and once again you have just two human beings. It is because he is our captain and our doctor. They have their own experiences, ones which they won’t share that make them who they are.”

    “You call it hiding and you wonder because there are no secrets between us. And no, Sparrow we don’t hide. We don’t have to. There is nothing wrong with us, in fact in my opinion we are special. We have nothing to hide from, not when it comes to each other.”

    The gun hands hands rose to frame the younger girls face as her face lowered, lips pressing softly against Sparrow’s forehead.

    “We don’t hide because we have each other."