SRMTHFG! Trick or Treat Fic exchange!
@creepyclue @sweetcircuits
I'm not overly proud of this, but I was shaking off a lot of rust in writing for these characters again and my October was a cesspool of personal problems and drama
Without further self deprecation, here's your spooky Spova. (Fair warning: It turned into fluff. I don't know how it happened, but I guess I defaulted to my old style.)
--
Nova sighed and rubbed her arms. The only thing she hated more than fall, was the winter that came after. Every year she glared at the changing leaves.
She really didn’t understand why it appealed to so many people. She wanted to curl up and hibernate instead of going shopping.
It was cold. It was windy. It was wet.
And Sprx was jumping out from behind the corner with a jack-o-lantern on his head.
“BOO!” he shouted.
Nova just sighed.
“Sprx. Get the pumpkin off your head!” Nova scolded.
Sprx struggled for a moment before his head popped out. Then struggled to rub the pumpkin guts off his face and spit out seeds. Nova almost laughed at him, but decided she was too cold for humor,
“Come on, Nova! It’s Halloween! Where’s your holiday spirit!?” Sprx asked, once he got himself sorted.
Nova rolled her eyes.
“It’s frozen.” She said, exaggerating her shivering.
Sprx pouted. Then a smirk crossed his face.
“I know the cure to that!” he said.
“Soup?” Nova asked hopefully.
It was something she didn’t hate about the colder seasons.
Sprx shook his head.
“You just need a good scare!” Sprx said, waving his hands for emphasis.
Nova rolled her eyes.
“What!? It’s the whole point of Halloween!” Sprx.
At least he started walking again so they could finish their chore.
“Good luck.” Nova said “I don’t scare easy.”
Sprx just smirked wider.
“Was that a challenge?” he asked.
Nova didn’t dignify him with a response.
“How about a bet?” he asked “If I manage to scare you before Halloween then you have to do all my patrols for November!”
“And when you don’t, you have to drop everything to make soup whenever I ask until March.” Nova responded.
Why not? It wasn’t like Sprx was going to pull it off.
“You’re on!”
--
Nova will admit that her heart skipped a beat or two when she saw a roach in her cereal, but she didn’t react. It only took a second of thought to realize the thing wasn’t moving. It was probably fake, and probably Sprx’s. No one else had noticed the thing yet. So, Nova had an opportunity.
Feeling mischievous herself, Nova carefully picked the thing up without anyone seeing. (It was in fact, rubber) Then she carefully snuck it into Gibson’s bowl and went back to her breakfast.
Sprx was eyeing her with suspicion, but she just waited. He was clearly wondering if she had found the fake roach.
Gibson’s scream was glorious. He shrieked like a wild monkey and flung his bowl into the air. It sailed over the table and landed on Sprx’s head, drenching him in milk.
Sprx pushed the bowl off his eyes and glared at Nova. She just laughed.
--
Sprx’s plan to prime her with a horror movie was smart, albeit transparent.
Too bad it backfired.
Nova hadn’t been the only one to see the movie. When Otto used the bathroom before her, he turned on the light and saw the life sized sticker Sprx had put on the mirror.
He ran out screaming and crying. Nova gave Sprx a smug look when Otto clung to her and begged for her to deal with the ghost. Sprx had to apologize and assure Otto that the ghost girl hadn’t escaped the movie.
Luckily for Sprx, Chiro found it hilarious. Otherwise Antauri would’ve launched into a lecture.
--
Nova didn’t have any time to react to the formless that appeared in the hallway. Chiro was already launching into an attack by the time she noticed it.
Scraps of cardboard went flying and Nova could hear Sprx sighing.
“Keep trying! This is pretty funny.” Nova said.
Chiro finished dismantling the false alarm. Sprx started to stutter out an apology, but Chiro cut him off.
“It’s good to keep me on my toes. Now we know I’m ready if a formless ever does sneak in to the robot.” Chiro said, flashing a cheeky grin and a peace sign.
Sprx sighed in relief.
“But you’re going to get yourself in trouble eventually.” Chiro added “Just admit it! Nova is unscarable!”
--
The closer it got to Halloween, the more desperate Sprx’s attempts got. He didn’t even care about the bet anymore. It was a pride issue at this point.
He resorted to climbing into the air ducts, waiting for a quiet moment, then dropping down like a spider onto the table.
Antauri let out one very undignified scream.
Sprx didn’t end up saying anything in his defense, and no one asked him to. They were all too busy staring at Antauri and wondering if the high pitched shriek they had heard really did come from the deep voiced monkey.
Antauri didn’t even acknowledge the event. No one wanted to ask him about it. He’d probably deny it anyways.
--
Nova had taken to making sly comments about how much soup she was going to enjoy this winter. Sprx gave her an angry glare every time, but Nova just smiled. He had dug his own grave in this.
“You know, this has actually been fun. Watching you make an idiot of yourself trying to scare me. Congrats on making me actually excited for Halloween!” Nova said.
“I still have one more day.” Sprx said.
“And there’s nothing you can do that I won’t be ready for!” Nova assured him.
“Whatever. I’ll think of something.” Sprx said, walking towards his transport tube.
“Where are you going?” Nova asked.
“Patrol.” Sprx said.
“Oh, I bet you wish you had a whole month without that, don’t you?” she teased.
It was hard to tell through the red fur, but Nova knew Sprx was blushing.
--
An hour later and Sprx opened his comms link.
“Hey, Otto. I said I was sorry about the whole bathroom mirror thing.” Sprx said nervously.
“Um…. I know?” Otto responded.
“Right…. So…. you didn’t do anything to my fist rocket in revenge, right?” Sprx grunted.
“No.....?”
Now everyone was paying closer attention.
“Sprx, what’s going on?” Chiro asked.
“Brainstrain? I know you know better than to mess with a pilot’s ship, but did you-“
“You are correct. I do know better.” Gibson snapped.
Gibson may not have been as passionate as Sprx, but he was still a pilot. He knew which lines to never cross.
“Right. That’s fine. I may be having some issues with my steering right now, but I’ll figure it out.” Sprx said, some words coming out in forced huffs.
Nova’s heart started to beat faster. Surely this was another prank, right? Sprx was just making it up.
“Sprx. Exactly what problem are you having?” Antauri asked.
To any stranger he sounded calm, but Nova had known him long enough to recognize his distinctive worry.
“A problem I’m trying to focus on fixing instead of explaining!” Sprx said, starting to sound a little panicked himself.
Alarms started to sound from his side. Nova abandoned the idea that it was a prank and started to twist her own tail in fear.
“Where are you!? We’re on our way.” Gibson said.
“I’m about to be in the bay.” Sprx said, sounding downright terrified.
Nova’s stopped breathing. Sprx was about as good with water as she was with cold. There was a horrible, sickening, splash, and then Sprx’s comm link cut.
--
A panicked twenty minutes is all it took before Sprx was back in the robot medbay, shivering but alive. He only sustained minor injuries from the crash. They were quick to treat. Gibson was more worried about hypothermia than anything else.
Sprx threw a fit when Otto insisted on checking the ship without him.
“Sprx, you are still recovering. You’re in no condition to climb around a fist rocket engine!” Gibson argued, pushing Sprx down.
“It’s my ship! No one touches it without me watching!” Sprx said.
He continued to fight against Gibson until Nova looped her arms around him and yanked.
“Sit down you moron!” Nova snapped.
“I’ll be gentle, Sprx. I promise.” Otto said.
Gibson was rolling his eyes.
“If Chiro and I supervised him, would that help?” he asked.
“I don’t want more people touching my ship!” Sprx snapped.
Nova squeezed, and Sprx seemed to settle under the hug.
“Look, I get that it’s scary for your ship to malfunction like that, but you know Otto isn’t going to hurt it. We need to know what went wrong, and you need to rest!” she said.
Sprx finally slackened.
“Fine.” He said. “but be careful. She’s been through enough!”
“Of course.” Gibson said, escorting Otto out of Medbay.
He turned back in the doorway and glared.
“I expect you not to vacate that bed! Nova, please ensure that he remains under that heat lamp.”
“Don’t have to ask me twice.” Nova said with a smile.
She liked the idea of being assigned to stay under a heater herself.
Gibson nodded and left.
Nova felt Sprx continue to shiver and pulled him close. He was still a little wet, so it wasn’t the most comfortable position. She didn’t say anything about it though. Sprx wasn’t in the mood to be teased.
She thought back to the terror she felt the moment he crashed. It wasn’t even a full hour ago, but it felt like a lifetime. She focused on every breath he took and resisted the urge to feel for a pulse.
“You scared me, you know.” She said.
“I what?” Sprx asked, craning his head around to look at her curiously.
“You scared me! I didn’t know if you were ok or not! I was worried I was going to lose you for a second there.” Nova said.
He tensed in her grip the second she said the word. She didn’t have to remind him of the significance.
“I’m sorry.” Sprx muttered.
Nova hugged him tighter.
“I’m just glad you’re ok.”
The stench of smug started to waft. Nova glanced suspiciously at Sprx.
“What?” she asked suspiciously.
Sprx broke into a large grin.
“I scared you.” He said.
Nova rolled her eyes.
“Yeah. I guess I love you or something. Do you want a parade?”
He shook his head.
“Not a parade.” Sprx said.
Nova didn’t know if she wanted to keep playing this game. He was either flirting or leading up to a joke at her expense.
“Then what do you want?”
“I scared you!” Sprx repeated.
“And…?”
“Halloween is tomorrow.” Sprx said.
Nova waited for more information.
“That means I scared you before Halloween!”
It clicked.
“What- NO! No! That doesn’t count!” Nova yelled.
“I can’t hear you over the sound of my victory!” Sprx said.
Nova was gearing up to punch him across the room when he sneezed. After a moment of clear misery, Nova decided on a different comeback.
“Was it worth it?” she asked.
Sprx sniffled.
“No. I’m just taking the wins I have.”
“That so?” Nova said “I love you.”
Sprx hummed in content.
“But this did not convince me to like Halloween at all.” Nova added, remembering the original reason for the bet.
Sprx laughed.
“I said I was taking the wins I had!”
Nova held him tight. Feeling his warmth and beating heart.
“So am I.”
--
I hope you liked it! Happy late Halloween!
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