otrazhenie | Station 72 >> Mental Link

[ That brush against her mind is welcomed, her demeanor brightening like someone just opened the curtains in a dark room to let in sunlight. Sam is one of her best friends here, and she's always happy to spend time with him. She even finds that birdlike sensation in her mind to be kind of charming and cute.

Following that thread of connection between them is easy thanks to how often they've communicated, and not too long after she's approaching him with a smile and a little wave. ]

Hey, Sam.

[ There's a curled of pleased amusement at her reaction, and his side of the mental link hums contentedly when he feels her coming to find him. ]

Hey, sunflower. [ The nickname slips out without really a second thought, for no other reason than it fits her and he's never let go of his tendency to stick random nicknames on people. ] What've you been up to, huh?

[ Tell me about your day, he means, because he genuinely cares and wants to hear about how she's been doing. ]

[ Sunflower. It's a sweet nickname and she appreciates the sentiment, but it pings something in her that stings, not quite salt in a wound but more tugging at stitches, threatening damage to parts of her that are trying to heal. Slowly, painfully. Injuries to her soul that will forever leave scars in their wake.

Settling down beside him, Elena's smile dims a little as she shrugs and looks around the space they've been given. ] I've been busy being a little in awe of this airship we're flying in, for starters.

[ It's hard not to notice the gentle sting that accompanies his use of the nickname, and Sam shifts in a little until his leg is pressed against hers.

His mind curls around hers, the warm sensation of a feathery wing draped over her shoulders. It's not quite an apology - something closer to a promise, that one day it won't make her think of everything she's lost.

One day she'll be in the sun again.

Still, he shoots her a smile at the comment about the airship, because he can't help but agree. ]

You ever been flying much before this?

[ It's kind of him to offer hope, so very telling of his generous character, but with each passing day, she finds it harder to believe that any of them will ever make it home again. Yes, there are moments when that hope surfaces and she believes it with fierce conviction, but those hours are shortening, the stretches of time between them lengthening. It's been almost a month for her now, and there's no end in sight. And after what they learned about the symbiote...

There's no sunlight in her future without going home, no daylight rings to be found in space. She tries not to think about it much, because all too easily those thoughts spiral into wondering what will happen when she no longer has a costume to wear to shield her from that fiery death.

Nudging his knee with her own, she shakes her head, forcing the smile firmly back into place. ] Nope. We didn't take a lot of vacations while I was growing up, and when we did it was always easier to drive.

[ Going home is... well. It's something that Sam doesn't believe will ever happen. Not for him, anyway, he's got no real intention of going back to his own world any more.

But he believes in the people who're trying to figure out a way home, and when they do - they'll figure it all out then. Damon'd asked Sam to come with him, back to his world, and that means more to him than anything.

It's not really the finding a way back to their world that gives him hope, though. After Steve finding his shield in the halls of the Station, him digging up Christmas decorations and what the garden has produced, Sam's pretty damn sure that they can pull together something for her.

And he knows that he and Damon and Shiro and probably a couple of others won't stop until she can see the sun again.

He'll drop it for now, though, easily latching onto the subject of flying. ]

Same. [ He shoots her a playful little smile. ] I had to settle for jumping off trees and trying to fly until I got old enough to join the Air Force. I'll have to take you, soon as we're back on the Station.

[ There's a brief pause, as he remembers they don't technically have to wait, and he opens his mind a little more, an easy offer. ] I could kind of take you now, if you want?

[ Elena has no concept of what the Station's capable of, she'd been there for such a short time, those hours spent hiding in fear of her broodmate and of hurting any others around her. She doesn't know what it might provide in the future, wasn't even able to see where the others had claimed their own spaces. When they eventually go back to it, she'll be in for a surprise.

And if they do find a way for her to be in the sun again... Well, she might never stop crying out of gratitude. ]

I'd like that. [ She doesn't hesitate to accept the offer, both of them, and opens her mind to him in return. It's easy with Sam, she trusts him so implicitly, and she's excited to see what he has to show her. ]

[ It'd been the same for Sam, really, the first time he'd gotten there - right down to hiding from his broodmate, trying desperately to shut him out. But now - now he misses the Station, honestly, and part of him just wants to be back there.

But that's for the future, and for right now - well, he can share this, at least.

His mind flips back, flashes of wings and laughter and wind, until he catches on one at random.

A flight test, and there's the drone of those monitoring him and Riley in his ear, calling out numbers and specifications as if he didn't already have those memorized, as if he didn't already know the wings better than they did.

He shoots a look at Riley, on the platform across from him, who raises one sandy eyebrow in a challenge - and they jump just as the all clear goes up, before they're given the official okay, to a chorus of heavy sighs and curses that don't matter in the slightest, now that they're in the air.

There's the weightless feeling of free-falling, wind buffeting all around him as Sam rolls with it, getting a feel for it physically while his goggles spit numbers out at him and his mind calculates the combination - but still it's feel more than anything else that tells him when to snap his wings open. He rides a thermal column up, a loose circle that feels almost lazy for the tiny movements he makes with his wings to keep at it, and then he lets out a whoop of joy as he evens out to cruising altitude.

"All right Falcon, Redwing, no racing this time," someone tells him, but they're drowning out by the sound of both his and Riley's laughter.

"Five minutes to the rocks," Riley says, and Sam shoots back, "Four," and takes off without even waiting for confirmation.

And it's the strain of back muscles, the rush of adrenaline in his veins and the absolute feeling of freedom, knowing that up here nothing matters but the wind and coaxing gravity to do what you need it to. He focuses on just that feeling, just the memory of the four and a quarter minutes it'd taken him to get to the rocks, and then he lets it go. ]

COMPASSION never lose it	GRIEF
BLOOD	KATHERINE i look like her

Station 72 >> Mental Link

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