[[ crater-bound, diablo ]]

[almosthonorable]

whitetextiswhite

[ cowboys and russians ]


The fourth morning, Ben's awake well before dawn. Despite the hour, he's downright jovial from a night spent in an actual bed and the chance to wash away the dust from the trail.

(Of course, sharing that bed with Esfir's no hardship.)

They've still got a twelve-mile ride ahead of them, but he doesn't wake her just yet; the pads of his fingers are stroking the back of her neck in a steady, featherlight rhythm.

Comments

[almosthonorable]

He slows in tandem and squints, the horizon line blurred by shimmering heat.

"Should be."

A sideways glance and the corner of his mouth quirks upward; Esfir's excited about this hole in the ground.

[aimedforthemoon]

Esfir takes a moment to return the look, only on her part there is a seriousness to it.

"You'll get it," she says simply, "when you see it. Or. I hope you will."

She really does hope he gets it, for reasons that are not actually related to the crater itself. Of course, seeing the hole in the ground requires climbing now that they've reached the outer base and it towers about forty-five metres above them.

Clearly, she forgot to mention that part.

[almosthonorable]

"I'll get it, all right."

After they make this helluva climb.

"Just didn't realize we'd be scalin' Mount Sinai."

[aimedforthemoon]

"Be good for you," Esfir informs him, swinging down of her horse and making sure he wouldn't wander off.

"Fresh air, exercise, no horse to rely on..."

Her smile at him is positively wicked before she starts off and up.

[almosthonorable]

He dismounts and his eyes follow Esfir.

"Well, with a view like this -- "

He's almost hiding a leer smirk.

"I reckon I can't complain too much."

But it's a rocky, dusty climb to the top, and Ben's sweating by the time they crest the damn thing.

"Well, here we -- "













He whistles, long and low.

[aimedforthemoon]

She had gotten there before him, long enough to catch her breath and take it in and yes, yes, yes, this what she wanted to see. This is the kind of thing she never gets to get down to see, not with the Soviets, not with the Alliance. But now she can reach out and touch the dirt and rocks, and it's real.

Of course, then Ben comes, and she looks up at him. And waits. And watches. And then at his expression, she smiles.

(and something, something that was a choice yet unspoken goes ah, there you go)

"You get it, don't you." It's not quite a question.

[almosthonorable]

He's quiet a long minute, just looking, and wondering exactly what the hell happened here.

This is more than a big ol' hole in the ground.

This is a force of nature that makes him feel awful damn small.

(It's like the first time he saw the sea.)

He adjusts his hat and breaks his eyes from the drop.







"I think I just might."

[aimedforthemoon]

"You know," she says quietly, looking back down into the crater, "this is what I loved first. Not even flying. But imagining...this. Planets, and meteors, and the forces that shape them. Forces that have nothing to do with us, with humanity or even life. Forces that," she crouches down and picks up a fistful of dirt, and the grains are so fine that they just float away, "turn dust into planets, stars." Slowly, she gets up and brushes off her hand.

"But people forget. I don't mean...Earth, so much, people don't know. But my new world. They travel stars and move from planet to planet, and they don't see...they don't see the wonder in it anymore." Biting her lip, she looks from him to the crater.

"It's...sad, almost."

[almosthonorable]

He's nodding while his eyes move to the basin again, trying to imagine the impact that caused this.

It would've been something to see, all right.

Quietly, "Maybe you can remind 'em."

[aimedforthemoon]

"All of them? No. But some...I could show some of them. Later, after the war's settled and I'm able to be on my own. I could teach, I figured. I'd show them then."

She reaches out to take his hand.

"I'm glad you can see it."

[almosthonorable]

He laces his fingers with hers, a small smile playing at his mouth.

"I'm glad you made me."

He looks over.

"Bet you'd make a fine teacher."

[aimedforthemoon]

"Oh, I'd scare them. It'll be fun." Her smile is crooked, but they both know she'd pour herself into her students despite that.

[almosthonorable]

That earns a smirk.

"You are good at strikin' fear into hearts."

A beat.

"Like right now -- got me shakin' in my boots."

[aimedforthemoon]

Esfir's eyes sweep him up and down.

"Your boots. Right."

[almosthonorable]

"Yes, ma'am."

Even if his grin belies that statement.

"Part of the reason I like you so much, Yazy."

[aimedforthemoon]

"Ridiculous man," but she's smiling as she says it.

[almosthonorable]

"Maybe."

A beat.

"But I'm thinkin' you like me, anyway. Maybe even because of it."

[aimedforthemoon]

"That so."

[almosthonorable]

"Yes, that's -- "

A pause.

"You sayin' it ain't?"

[aimedforthemoon]

Sadly, his only answer is Esfir laughing at him. Shoulders shaking, eyes dancing, she looks at him and then just shakes her head, still laughing.

"Come sit. We took long enough to get here."

[almosthonorable]

He doesn't mind, even if she is laughing at him.

(He likes her smile; he likes her laugh.)

So he takes off his jacket -- it's hot, anyway -- and spreads it on the dirt for Esfir, then takes a seat beside the makeshift blanket.

[aimedforthemoon]

Quite deliberately, she picks up the jacket, sits down where it was, and then puts it down in the space between them. She's still sitting down, though, and still holding his hand.

[almosthonorable]

"You make it awful hard to be a gentleman sometimes, you know that?"

[aimedforthemoon]

Chin up, she slants him an amused look.

"Yes, I do."

[almosthonorable]

"Well -- "

Pause.

"I like bein' a gentleman."