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pitterpatterpot · 5 years

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Giant Mice?

Sheryl will admit that the change is… disorientating.

The purple-haired ghost girl definitely isn’t happy that Sheryl is her new roommate. Sheryl isn’t happy that she’s stuck will a little alien who nearly blows her head off every time she has a nightmare and randomly shoots purple fire.

The Tryvuulian edges around her, giving nervous smiles as he tries to strike up conversations. HUE does the same before awkwardly waddling away, Mooncake usually floating after him. AVA insults her to her face, not that Sheryl really minds.

Gary is trying, truely trying, to get along with his mother. There are times where Sheryl sees him flinch away from her, but overall her son seems to enjoy their conversations about piloting. She doesn’t doubt it, she knows how long he must have wanted to have a conversation with his mother without her trying to kill him. If anything, she’s the one that struggles during their talks.

Quinn is…

Sheryl is unsure of what to make of Quinn. She reminds Sheryl of John, which hurts more than the thief would like to admit. Quinn edges around Sheryl in a similar manner, not knowing the full story between her and Gary. The poor lady seems torn between wanting Gary’s mother to like her and being cautious of the criminal.

Avocato has been indifferent ever since Sheryl tried to distract him with a red dot. Really though, floating through Final Space can be quite boring. She needed some kind of entertainment. Barely-repressed hostility seems to be the only thing between them.

There’s only one person she hasn’t really interacted with yet.

“Hey, Grandma.”

And there’s a good reason for that.

Plastering on a smile, Sheryl swivels around in the pilots seat. “Hey… kiddo.”

The small Ventrexian hops into the seat to the right, tapping away at the screen. If there’s one thing Sheryl has to admit it’s that the kid knows how to fly. But being called Grandma? She’s still getting used to Mom.

“Are the primary thrusters online?” Little Cato perks up, eyes big and wide as he looks at her.

“Uh… yep.”

“Cool, cool… whydon’tyousoundlikeGary?”

The kid says it so fast Sheryl has to blink. “What?”

“You, um,” Little Cato’s ears droop slightly, his eyes flickering away. “You sound different to Gary. He said you have an accent.”

Ah, right. Most aliens learn American English. Her Aussie accent must sound weird to the kid.

“It’s ‘cause I’m from Australia,” Sheryl keeps her focus on the controls. “We speak English there too, but different from America.”

“America?”

“The place Gary is from. It’s a country on Earth.”

“Oh, cool.”

Sheryl waits for another question, but the kid stays silent. They both fiddle with the controls, the ship slowly following Bolo through Final Space, everyone on edge as they wait to come across the first Titan besides Bolo.

“We have kangaroo’s in Australia.”

“Huh?”

Sheryl winces, regretting the words. “They’re a, uh, an animal. Kind of like a giant, jumping mouse.”

Preparing to face the kid, she turns slightly in her seat. And immediately swears at the large eyes of the kid blinking right at her. Somewhere during the giant mouse moment the kid had left his seat and padded over to her, leaning with his hands against her arm rests and eyes wide with wonder.

“Jesus Christ,” Sheryl hisses, clamping a hand over her heart. “You’re a quiet one, aren’t you?”

She gets a little shrug in response, the kid leaning in closer. “Giant mice?”

Sighing, the thief settles back in her seat. “Yeah, kid. Giant mice. Most are red, like a rusty red, and some are kind of blue and gray. Depends on the kind.”

“Whoa,” the little Ventrexian breathes the word. “Giant, colourful mice? Can you eat them?”

Now that throws Sheryl off for a moment, making her laugh. “Uh, yeah. We can eat kangaroo meat. It’s actually pretty good. I’d never eat a joey though.”

“Joey? Is that, like, a person?”

“No,” Sheryl snorts. “It’s a baby kangaroo. Their mum’s keep them in a pouch they have on their belly to carry them around.”

“Huh,” Little Cato rests his head on his arms. “My dad’s carry me around sometimes. Usually on their shoulders.”

“I noticed,” Sheryl smiles slightly. “You’re a light one, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah,” those little ears droop again. “I didn’t really eat properly for a while. I’m kind of small for my age.”

“What, did Gary forget to feed you?” Sheryl smirks, chuckling. “Or let me guess, only gave you cookies?”

She expects some kind of comeback. Not for the kid to shuffle on his feet and look away. It makes something oily roll in her stomach, a weird feeling that’s been occurring more frequently lately ever since she decided to stop trying to kill her son. So far the feeling has only been restricted to when she’s dealing with Gary and her past mistakes. It can’t be a good thing if that feeling is spreading to the kid.

“What?” Sheryl rotates the seat to face the kid. “When didn’t you eat?”

“I…uh…” Little Cato winces. “I kind of spent three years in prison? Well, different prisons. They had to move me around a lot.”

Sheryl blinks.

And blinks again.

“You went to prison?”

“Yeah,” Little Cato shrugs once again. “The Lord Commander placed me there to keep me from my dad. I was in the Sector F8 military base until I started a small fire, then got moved to the Sector 472 prison colony, and after my third escape attempt there they decided to just keep moving me.”

For the first time, in a long time, Sheryl laughs. Her head tips back and the sound bellows out of her lungs. Little Cato jerks back, surprised, before starting to giggle along. It isn’t long before they’re both cackling.

“Crickey,” Sheryl wheezes, tears nearly squeezing out of her eyes. “You little bastard! You’re a demon!”

“Yeah, and?” Little Cato raises his brows, grinning.

Sheryl looks the kid over. The Ventrexian that Gary trusted to fix the light-fold engines, that obviously knows his way around mechanics. And that has obviously raised hell in his short life-time.

“And have you ever hot-wired a ship before?” Sheryl smirks.

“No,” the kid pivotes around to poke at Sheryl’s controls. “Always wanted to learn. Just don’t tell my dads.”

“I think we can make that work. Alright, so what you’re gonna want to do is remove this panel here…”

~~~

“Uh, Mom?” Gary eyes the second plate in his mother’s hand, tiredly rubbing at his eyes. “What are you doing?”

Sheryl throws a look over her shoulder. “I’m showing that kid of yours how to really pilot. We need fuel.”

“We’re in Final Space, now isn’t the time for a lesson!”

“All times are good times, sweetheart.”

~~~

“So,” Little Cato speaks around a mouthful of what has been deemed the ‘purple yams’ by Gary. “You’re pretty good at fighting.”

“Thanks,” Sheryl throws a glance to the kid, relaxed in the pilot’s chair. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why do you call me ‘grandma’?”

“Because Gary is my dad,” Little Cato shrugs. “Or at least one of them. And he loves you and wants you to be his mom. That makes you my grand-mom. Or, you know, grandma.”

“Huh, it’s that easy for you?” Sheryl taps against the arm rest of the chair.

“I guess,” Little Cato fiddles with a loose screw. “I can stop calling you that if you want.”

“…Nah, it’s alright. Say, kiddo, you mind passing me that screwdriver? We should probably keep that panel from falling off.”

“I’ll fix it.”

“Thanks.”

They spend the next few minutes fiddling with the systems, Sheryl checking over the systems as Little Cato fixes all loose screws. After a while Sheryl pauses for a moments, blinking, annoyed when she struggles to open her eyes again. A yawn from the kid sets her off, her jaw clicking.

“Alright,” Sheryl stands, cracking her back in a stretch. “I’m gonna go get Gary to take over. I’m hitting the hay.”

“’Kay,” Little Cato mumbles, finishing the last screw.

Sheryl pauses at the doorway, sending one last look at the kid. She can see his fuzzy ears, the rest of him hidden by the pilot’s chair. The orange tips are drooping slightly and she knows that the little Ventrexian is slouched. The door clicks behind her as she makes her way to the dining room, where everyone most likely is. Take your shift, sleep, then eat. No doubt Gary is having breakfast with the rest.

Now that she thinks about, Sheryl took the shift that no one else wanted to avoid everyone. The kid shouldn’t have been awake.

Shaking the thought out of her herd, Sheryl pokes her head into the dining room. “Hey, hun, I’m hitting the hay.”

“Oh,” Gary looks up from his plate, blinking. “Cool. Uh, thanks, Mom. I’ll take over.”

Before she leaves, Sheryl looks to the adult Ventrexian with the name that sound like an Earth fruit, Avocado… Avocato. “Hey, your son’s asleep in the control room. He’s been there for hours.”

Swearing under his breath the Ventrexian stands immediately, hurrying past Sheryl. Garry gives his mother a long look before he begins to smile. She tries to ignore it for the first few minutes. Her skin begins to crawl.

“So, you talked to Little Cato?” Gary grins, leaning forward with his arms braced on the table.

“Oh, yeah,” Sheryl smiles over her shoulder, her usual aloof yet sarcastic tone in place. “I did. Oh, and just a quick warning, hun. Don’t be surprised if the kid starts asking about giant mice.”

“Giant- Mom, what were you talking about? Mom?”

Sheryl closes the door behind her, smirking.

The kid isn’t so bad.

________

I like to imagine that Sheryl and Little Cato would eventually get along. Also, it is so good to have an Australian character. I don’t need to worry about keeping her speech and dialect American.

#final space #little cato #sheryl goodspeed

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randomfandomfamily · 5 years

Note

Fancontent of just Quinn & Little Cato is pretty rare on tumblr, so maybe an Airmom oneshot? Topic can be whatever you want, angst or fluff

---

Me, who definitely hasn’t been waiting for a request with these two just to have an excuse to write them: “Ah. Yes. This is a doable prompt.”

Quinn was constantly trying to find something to do around the ship to keep her mind off of what was outside. Gary did his best to help her forget they were still floating around in Final Space, but it didn’t always work. Sometimes Loggins and arcade games just weren’t enough to block out the months of isolation.

Luckily, flying into a sun--and a collapsing dimension apparently--meant that there was plenty around the ship she could work on. Though the Crimson Light was far more advanced than what she was used to. The ships in the Infinity Guard weren’t anything like this thing, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

Right now, she was trying to get power to one of the hallways. Ash’s room was through here and evidently she wasn’t too fond of taking strolls through the dark to get to it.

Quinn thought she finally had something figured out when she heard, “I wouldn’t cross those two wires if I were you,” She glanced up to see Little Cato hovering over her. “You’ll lock up the door to Ash’s room. And she won’t appreciate it, trust me.”

He crouched next to her and scanned the mess of wiring and metal. He thread the wires through the mechanics, cutting and connecting them to different wires, seemingly at random. “Uh... do you know what you’re doing?”

Little Cato nodded wordlessly connected two more wires and the lights above them flickered on. “Yeah.”

Impressed, Quinn looked closer at his work. “Wow. Avocato teach you how to do that?”

“Nah,” Little Cato said.

“Oh. Gary then?”

Little Cato raised an eyebrow at her. “You think Gary knows how to-”

“Yeah, I realized what I said as soon as I said it.” Quinn helped him screw the plate of metal back in place. “So where’d you learn then?”

There was a pause. “I guess you could say I’m self-taught. The Crimson Light is a lot more advanced than most ships. Standard fixes don’t work sometimes, so I had to figure it out.”

“This thing is a nightmare of wiring and delicate mechanics,” Quinn pointed out, “And you’ve been flying in it. When did you have time to learn the ins and outs?”

Little Cato shrugged. “Found time. Here and there and whenever.” He sat cross-legged and leaned against the wall. “But enough about me. It’s been forever since we’ve talked.”

Quinn smiled and leaned back against the cool metal. “It really has, huh? What’s it been? A few months? Feels like years.”

“Or a lifetime,” Little Cato muttered.

“Hm?”

He waved it off. “Nothing.” Resting his elbows on his knees, he leaned forward and smiled. “Anyway, I noticed you’ve been wandering around for the past couple of days making repairs.”

“Trying to,” Quinn amended. “I’m not nearly as knowledgeable as you, though.”

“Well, that’s not really my point.” He gave her a knowing look. “You’re trying to distract yourself, right? Keep your mind off...” He nodded at a nearby window.

Quinn sighed. “That obvious, huh? Yeah, I guess I’ve been trying to keep busy.” She studied the teenager carefully. “You’re more... observant than I remember.”

“To be fair, we only knew each other for a few days,” Little Cato pointed out.

“And in those few days you threatened to, and I quote, ‘tear the Lord Commander a new butthole’. Not to mention the flaming blue M&M you threatened to end,” Quinn replied. “You weren’t exactly the epitome of maturity, kid.”

Little Cato grinned. “Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty far from mature.” His smile faded. “But uh...you know, things change. You change, I change, we all change.” He knocked against the wall behind him. “But one thing that’s not gonna change is the condition of this ship if I keep letting you do the repairs on your own.”

Quinn chuckled. “Okay, ouch, but you’re right. Mind giving me a few tips?”

“Sure thing.” Little Cato stood and offered a paw to help Quinn up. “I’ve been needing some help around here anyway, and it was either you or Sheryl.”

She took his paw and stood. “Glad to know I rank higher than Gary’s troubled mother.” Ruffling his hair playfully, she added, “But maybe you should go ahead and ask her for help about the more serious stuff? And just stick to teaching me for now.”

Little Cato groaned. “Ugh, if I must.” He perked back up. “Hey! I think the hallway by the kitchen is out too. It’d be good practice, if you’re interested.”

“Sounds good to me, kid.” She gestured for him to walk. “Lead the way.”

#final space #little cato #quinn ergon #random disaster writes

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