Work Text:
Orange had always been best friends with Blue, since the two of them first met at least. Most people just passed through, as far as roles on The Skeld go. Some researchers getting a quick flight to a planet they wanted to study, a mercenary group that needed to get back home, a merchant crew that overstocked on their cargo and needed an extra ship to transport it, it was practically out for rent at this point. Despite that, he and Blue were always on the ship, and Orange liked seeing space and meeting new people.
As for Blue... Orange really didn't really know much about them. They never really seemed to take a day off unless he was doing so, but they had fun during those days off. He didn't even know how to refer to them, though he had certainly tried to get an answer. It didn't matter much to him anymore, it was just nice to have consistent company. After all, being in space most of the time some have gotten rather lonely if he didn't have anyone with the same experience to talk to.
The latest crew was a group trying to reach a place on Polus, though he didn't bother asking for the details. Everything was normal at first. Everyone did their tasks, Blue helped take care of sick crew members at the med bay, and they were even on route to arrive a few days early. He noticed that Blue looked tense, though, and that never happened before, so he had already figured out something was up before the first emergency meeting was called.
It was apparently black that called for the meeting. Orange had noticed that she was fairly level-headed, so it probably wasn't a prank or delusion that got her to call the meeting. That couldn't be good. "Thank you all for coming, I have something critically important to discuss." Her voice was actually rather relaxing. Maybe this meeting wouldn't be so- splat He looked down at what she placed, and it was... Green's head...
"Now, in case you all hadn't noticed anything weird before today, I believe there's an imposter in our midst. Whatever this thing is, though, it's not one of us. There were traces of saliva on the corpse, with the main source being a hole that was poked through the spine." Blue looked... Less tense. Maybe they had a plan? "We should continue our tasks, but be on alert in case the imposter tries to attack."
Orange knew it couldn't be Blue. They had already done at least a dozen trips, Blue had never gone missing, and nobody had died before, so he instinctually clinged to them, no longer wanting to leave their side. He hoped that blue trusted him the same way. That was probably his only chance to survive, as far as he was concerned.
Fortunately, the captain knew about the two of them being trustworthy too, and even before this he couldn't let a day go by without talking about how Orange and Blue were on the ship longer than he was, so everyone else knew they were innocent too. Whoever it was had to be fairly new, so that restricted the suspects to the captain, who has only piloted for two of their flights before, and members of the group going to Polus.
After a few hours of fumbling on his tasks, Orange gave up on being helpful and just stuck with Blue. He couldn't see their face, but... It looked like they felt bad? Maybe? Whatever the case was, Blue led Orange to a small sideroom. It wasn't the first time they were alone, but he was still on edge from everything happening on the ship.
Blue whispered into his ear, "I'm an imposter, but not the killer. I know who it is, but I don't want you getting hurt. Just try to stay calm." Orange initially assumed it was an inappropriately timed joke at first. Maybe an attempt to lighten the mood. But before he could ask for an explanation, a crunching and wet squelch was heard, followed by a breath in his ear as a mysterious appendage slicked over his visor.
"B-Blue..." His voice was shaky, quiet, he wasn't even sure if he had actually spoken or was just rattled enough that his thoughts sounded like that. "What... What is this?" He tried to move back, or away - whatever the direction was didn't matter because the appendage, which he was certain now was a tongue, was holding him in place.
"You're going to be okay, Orange..." He felt the tongue pull him closer to Blue's body, and eventually into their body, being pulled into what he could only assume was a stomach, but he was too scared to try to do anything to free himself. He quickly heard the mouth shut with another squelch, and was left in private, so he chose to sink into the stomach and accept it.
"I... We were friends... Why did y-" "We are friends... Please trust me, you're going to survive." Blue's response is stern, be straightforward. No point resisting it now. If they were telling the truth, he didn't want to get the crew to go after him. If it was a lie... Not like he could realistically fight an alien creature that could so easily kill him.
It's been surprisingly quiet so far. Orange would have expected to hear the crew talking, or some stomach noises, but the only things even allowing Orange to know he was still alive were the feeling of pad-like flesh surrounding him, and the occasional sensation of being pat by Blue through the stomach wall. Blue's flesh must have been serving as a rather effect noise muffler. It was kind of nice, now that he was calmed down.
He wasn't sure if it had been hours, or even more than a day, but no issues seemed to come up since Blue's heart rate felt consistent. It was actually somewhat comforting to be able to feel that, Blue would probably be getting stressed if a new problem came up after all. And at least they were both alive, right?
"Orange... Okay in... Just e... I'll le... Okay?" Even if he had been able to understabx even half of what was said, he was too relaxed now to really care what he heard, so he just nodded into the stomach wall and returned to doing nothing. Even though it had been a long time, he hadn't gotten bored yet.
It helped that there were ways to fidget that didn't seem to bother Blue. The rugae of their stomach had interesting patterns to trace a finger along, there was a small pool of liquid at the bottom of their stomach that felt kind of nice now, and the natural stomach movements were relieving tension he didn't even know about. If they both survived, he was considering asking to do this more often.
After another long-feeling period of tranquil nothingness, he faintly heard the crunch and squelch from earlier. The stomach walls started to push him from the bottom up, though he wasn't sure why until he fell out covered in saliva and was deposited onto the floor of a shower. "Orange, I... I'm sorry I couldn't give you more warning at the time. I hope you weren't too scared."
He shrugged it off and stretched out somewhat, not ready to stand up again. "It's okay, Blue. It wasn't too bad, to be honest..." He yawned, but eventually pushed himself up off the floor. He needed to get clean at some point, and ideally it would be before the crew realized. "I got used to being in there after the first... Two or three hours, I think? After that, the remaining time was pretty manageable."
Blue looked at him confused but chose to seal the mouth of his torso again before speaking. "Orange... You've been in there less than an hour. I just told the crew you were hiding so that they wouldn't get suspicious, but I came over here to let you out as soon as the killer was ejected." They seemed concerned, but Orange could tell they they were focused on helping him now that the ship was calmed down.
"Thank you, Blue..." Even though it felt good to stretch his legs again, Orange felt a bit disappointed to leave. He knew the crew would be worried, though, so he decided to finally rinse off the saliva and whatever else he had been covered with. He went to reach for the handle, but Blue must have noticed their disappointment because they catch his hand before he gets all the way.
"I... Could tell them you fell asleep... You probably need some sleep anyway, and I doubt most people take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, so it shouldn't raise too much concern." Their voice sounded nervous, but not from fear. While Orange speculated that Blue might have enjoyed it but felt awkward about it, he ultimately decided to just nod in acceptance and let Blue be the one to choose to say if they liked it.
This time, thanks to Orange knowing it was safe, Blue could be a bit more playful about it. So he felt them gnaw on him, he assumed it was the gentlest they could manage since it felt more like being poked, and they rubbed circles against their belly as he got settled down inside again. It somehow felt softer than before, and the suit detected that the atmosphere in their stomach was still breathable, so he carefully took off his helmet to lay back and actually feel it for himself. It was going to be a few more days to get to Polus anyway, it couldn't hurt to take some time off.