2234 work in progress

Mikiko

"And next-t time, don't try to break up a fight by yourself."

Dr. Benning looked up from his holo tablet. Mikiko had spend the last 12 minutes pretending there was no oxy water in this room by staying as close to the floor as possible in front of the doctors desk, the very 12 minutes Benning had spend reminding him how to behave properly in his condition. He was lucky the doctor was busy, if he asked him about even a single thing that was mentioned in his lecture, Mikiko would have to admit he stopped listening in the first 30 seconds. His thoughts were still revolving around Dido's strange behavior towards him.

"Did you understand everything, Mikiko?" 

Benning looked over the edge of the table, observing him with his right eye. The doctor was a big dolphin, big even for a Tursiops. With 5 meters he was twice the size of Mikiko, an effect that could be intimidating at times, even though he was good-natured.

"Yes, sssir. I'll be careful."

"Good, you can go now, I have files to work on."

Mikiko nodded and swam towards the automatic door, while it opened, he gathered some courage to ask Dr. Benning this.

"H-hey, do you know where Dido is right now?"

The doctor looked up from his holo tablet again, with an expression that could be interpreted as a raised eyebrow.

"I want t-to ask her something", Mikiko continued.

"Oh... Oh, okay. Yeah, she's currently giving one of the officersss a last checkup to see if he's fit for duty again. Room number 5, Dart and Ik'hi."

"Okay, t-thank you!"

Mikiko scurried off before Dr. Benning could say anything else. He knew that the doctor wanted him to take a slow approach on swimming fast in his state, but Mikiko knew better than anyone where his limits were set at. All he had to to was just to avoid putting too much stress on his tail. 

He really had to ask Dido about what exactly she had found out when she checked him out with her sonar. Either he was lucky his body didn't give it away or Dido was okay with it. Whatever it was, he had to find out. The last few days she had spend avoiding that question by asking him something relating his medical condition before he could finish. Now that wasn't relevant anymore, so not much could get in the way.

Dido must be checking up on Dart, the officer had just recovered from the severe sunburn that had kept him hospitalised for the past few days. Normally injuries like that could be fully healed after only 2 days, but in his case it was so severe that he almost died. Dart left the med station a few hours before Mikiko, avoiding the last checkup, probably on purpose. Dido could be pretty rough when one of her patients didn't comply, so his action was understandable, but you couldn't escape the protocol. As a nurse, you would be better off not contradict her, but in her free time, Dido was more laid back. The well-being of her patients was the most important thing in her mind. 

The door to the room was unlocked, so he knocked.

"Come in!" 

That was Dart's voice.

He opened the door and peeked inside. Dido was currently checking Dart's heartbeat, the latter looking rather impatient. Mikiko's guess was that she interrupted him in something he couldn't wait to get back to. 

"Sorry to disssturb you two, are you busy, Dido?"

"Yeah, just a moment, I need to finish this officer's medical checkup."

"Its okay, I can wait if it's importaAH-"

Dido had forcefully opened Dart's blowhole in the middle of his sentence to inspect it. The officer showed a clear sign of discomfort, oxy water was breathable, but the first few seconds always felt like you were drowning. Dart obviously tried to avoid that, after all the room was still 1/4th filled with air. Mikiko could relate, he hated breathing oxy water, but on the long run, it was the only way to get around the Quasimodo. 

He wondered how none of the officers had complained about Dido yet, she was only doing her job, even if she was a little rough. Still, she probably should've warned Dart, he was a nice guy, but others may not be so patient.

"Alright, you're good to go, your body healed well." 

Dido let go off Dart and stuffed her tools into the pockets of her suit. Dart let out a relieved squeaking noise, the change from air to oxy water happened so sudden, it temporarily left him unable to speak. He whistled a few things to Dido in Trinär instead.

"Alright, I'll look into that, you have a nice day sir."

Dart responded with a noise that sounded very ironic, it was probably Galactic 11. Dido dismissed it and pushed Mikiko out of the door with her.

"So, what's up, my favorite patient?"

She swam slowly in order to let him catch up.

"Do you remember the conversssation we had on the first-t day I was send back to the med ssstation?"

"Very clearly, yes, why?"

"Do you mind... t-telling me what exactly you found out?"

Dido looked him directly in the eye now.

"Let's talk about that somewhere else, I'm free for now, does the cafetaria sound good?"

"Sssure, sounds good."

She was starting to swim quite fast and Mikiko had trouble keeping up. He couldn't quite understand the sudden hurry. But one thing was clear, he missed being able to swim as fast as he wanted to. However, he was in no position to complain, after all he was still alive, which was a second chance that shouldn't be put to waste.

Jeffrey still hadn't come forward to his invitation, too bad, he really would've liked to share what he found in the databank of the Terranic Federation with him, but that would have to wait. He managed to find the documented family trees of quite some of the crew members of the Quasimodo. But he felt bad for Dart, when he looked up his family tree, there was nothing, only the lonely picture of Dart. Nothing could be determined about him, however, his file said it was assumed that he was a Stenella dolphin.

The cafetaria was almost empty, as expected at this time of day, only the hybrid Dan was present, presumably waiting for Hinako to give him a job to do. 

Dido grabbed a bag of ice cubes from the counter next to Dan and swam to one of the round tables, Mikiko followed her.

"Alright, let's talk."

She swallowed one of the ice cubes.

"I found out you were at the same time extraordinary stressed and exited. Before I say anything more, is there something you want to tell me?"

She swallowed another ice cube and offered Mikiko one, he gladly took it. It really felt good to swallow something cold.

"W-well, I...", he looked at Dido softly smiling at him, "I may like you..."

He said that last part as quiet as only possible, while nervously looking at the floor.

"What was that?"

Dido moved around the table to get closer to him. Yet again Mikiko was lucky that the side effect of blushing was only a human thing.

"I, uh, I-I..."

She curiously looked at him while swallowing another ice cube. Mikiko couldn't help but think about how adorable he found her behavior. Goddamn the humans for making him more intelligent, his ancestors didn't have these difficulties in admitting they liked someone. 

"Yes?"

Dido inched closer, she was trying to push him to give an answer with that, but Mikiko only got more nervous.

"Come on, I don't bite."

A slight push into his side from one of her fins convinced him.

"I... like you." 

Mikiko gathered all his courage to look at Dido again. To his surprise, her face had the same satisfied look as the time when she probably found it out.

"See, it wasn't that difficult. Also you look adorable when you're flustered."

Now he got it, that's why she always tried to embarrass him. He was about to say something, but she hugged him with the mechanic arms of her suit, normally a human gesture, but he didn't refuse it.

"In case you wanted to ask, I like you too!"