2234 work in progress

Mikiko

Mikiko groaned, it had just been 3 days and he was already stuck in one of the Anti-gravity tanks in the med station again. All because he tried to break up a fight between Tursiops Yanako and Stenella Dionii, they somehow always found a thing to fight over. This time Yanako made a rather not so nice comment about Dionii's private life, she of course didn't take that. When Mikiko tried to reason with them, he received a heavy blow by Yanako's tail right on the spot his own tailfin was the most vulnerable at. Even though Yanako swore it was an accident, he couldn't stop feeling like he did it on purpose. At least he had had the decency to help Mikiko to the Med Station where Dr. Benning could attend to his injury yet again.

"At least I'm holding the record for the most Med Station visits...", he tried to cheer himself up while looking at his tailfin. 

Dr. Benning had attached the usual support to it, and warned Mikiko to not move around too much in the anti gravity tank again. He couldn't care less, after all he'd already been through this for what felt like a thousand times. It had been months, no, already over a year since that rock made his tailfin useless. Benning even offered to replace his tailfin entirely through a mechanic one, but Mikiko feared the thought of having something cold, metallic attached to himself. He had already accepted the fact that he would never be able to swim fast or to participate in free time activities with other dolphins ever again, he was happy enough to be alive, and not buried like the entire rest of his team. 

He sighed, and slowly turned himself upside down in the limited space he had, using only his pectoral fins. The first few times, Benning would immeadiatly come over and force him to reposition himself, now he didn't mind anymore. Mikiko liked this position more, after all everything outside would look different and he liked to try reading the papers hanging on the wall opposite of him like this.

This time however, he turned his attention towards the other dolphin in the tank next to him. Dart was still floating around like before, just this time his eyes were closed, he decided not to disturb his sleep. Mikiko couldn't help but be amazed by the distinctive skin color of that dolphin, he didn't know much about it, but he heard it was the result of genetic manipulation. He dreaded the thoughts about what Dart had to go through before the Federation found him in one of Moon's laboratories. He'd never taken the chance to interact with Dart, maybe he should change that, after all Dart seemed to be a very cheerfull and friendly dolphin. As he had heard, he never lost his humor even in the most dangerous situations. Perhaps that's how he became an officer.

"Quit ssstaring at him like that-t, Mikiko!", Dido's voice suddenly ripped him out of his thoughts.

Startled he turned around and looked Dido directly in the eyes. If dolphins could turn red out of embarrassment, Mikiko would've just turned cherry red. 

"I-I'm so s-sorry, I-I wasss j-just...", his language failed him as he looked at Dido's smiling face.

'Dammit, if just she wasn't that cute!', Mikiko thought, then his own thought embarrassed him even more. He had to admit he must look pretty dumb right now, much to Dido's amusement.

"Didn't your mom t-teach you not to ssstare at others?", Dido said with a slight chuckle. She obviously was trying to mock Mikiko a little.

"She did...", Mikiko replied shyly, trying to avoid looking at her now. 

He knew Dido very well, after all she was always the one to take care of him while he was locked in the tank. But he never would've expected that he would ever start to like her. And lately Dido's constant attempts to make him feel embarrassed didn't help with that at all, if at all, he started to like her even more. Now Mikiko really wanted to nibble at one of her fins - he immeadiatly interrupted his thoughts. 

His nervousness must've started to show on his outside as well, because Dido asked: "Are you okay? You look a little stresssed."

"I-I'm f-fine."

"Come on, I was only messing with you, you know that."

"It's not t-that, it's...", Mikiko looked away again, he wasn't sure if he should tell her.

"It's what?"

"N-nothing!"

"Tell me or I'll find out myself."

Mikiko's eyes immeadiatly panned back at Dido. He knew exactly what she would do, and he knew exactly that it would tell her what he felt for her. He tried to think of something, anything, but his mind was empty. 

"I... uhm... I-I... d-don't know..." Mikiko suddenly felt how Dido's Sonar went right through him. 

Oh god no. 

He shut his eyes expecting the worst, a few seconds passed before he dared to open them again. 

Dido was smiling like before.

"Don't worry, I won't bite you for checking on other patients, I know you're bored.", she swam off with a slight chuckle.

Mikiko was confused, she should've been able to read his emotions very clearly, why didn't she take any notice of it? And why did she suddenly seem so happy? He let out a soft groan, Dido had once again managed to make his stay at the med station ineresting.