6 「Slumber」

Pidge was the first to step inside the room, there was a single step down into the room, she almost tripped. Yet she was caught by Nemoi who grabbed hold of her shoulder, allowing her to stabilize her footing.

A few more steps forward and the lights of the room came to life. The walls were an off-white, seamless and decorated with oil paintings which had long since gone black. They were unrecognizable as they were 10,000 years old. Yet that was only the worst of their condition, otherwise the wooden frames which appeared to be hand carved and assembled seemed priceless and in tact.

Pidge stared at them, adjusting her glasses on her nose slightly to be closer to her eyes.

Hunk was the second to enter while Nemoi, the owner of the room, was the last to enter. They both made their way to the center of the room, looking around.

Nemoi seemed to be holding a depressive smile on his lips, knowing very well the memories he held here. The world he knew was gone. The time he spent in this room, was only a memory. Nothing physical remained perfect here. Not for him.

He remembered the days he would sit in this castle and read a book. Fantasize about going to Earth, about being the first Altean to make contact with humanity. He was going to have that dream, but at the cost of everything he loved and cherished. Altea had been gone for over 10,000 years and all that he had left was this castle and the ashes of his crew.

Nemoi rested his gaze on Pidge as she was standing on her knees, on top of the bed, looking at a painting closely. He could see what she was doing. She was looking at the curves, the brush marks. Looking closely like that, they were distant to see the picture.

After a few minutes she turned and looked at Nemoi with a strange expression on her face. It was clearly a state of bewilderment, but it was also a profound level of curiosity.

"Is this a painting of me?" Pidge asked as she pointed at it.

Hunk blinked several times at this question and looked at Nemoi. "Are you a Time Traveler? How good is the food in the Fifty First Century?!" Both of them turned their attention to Hunk at this.

"Eh... Uh... No, no I'm not."

"That's... To bad." Hunk sounded thoroughly disappointed.

Nemoi simply stared at the painting, he could remember what it was even though he couldn't really see it. He closed his eyes partially, his gaze returning to her. "An art piece based off of you," he responded as he folded his hands behind his back, "Yes."

She blinked a few times and made a face. "You really did know how I looked prior to this, to actually meeting me." She let out a sigh huff of air as she sat on the side of the bed.

Nemoi walked over to the painting and pressed a hand against it. He began to slowly pour some Quintessence into the painting, the colors slowly reforming and redefining the image.

Hunk watched this as Pidge stared to the floor in thought. As the image became clearer and clearer, his eyes began to widen slightly. "Hey... Pidge, that guy's painting," he pointed at Nemoi. "It kinda looks like you with pointy ears and a dress."

Pidge paused for a moment and glanced over her shoulder, staring. It was very much like her, with her long hair and without her glasses. She even had the violet dress she wore with her brother in the photograph she always carried on her person. Except she looked cheerful, in a field of flowers. She had pale green markings under her eyes. The detail was intrinsic, the colors were harmonic and almost hypnotizing.

She narrowed her eyes on the man who stood beside the painting, who too was staring at it.

「15 QP spent」

Looking over at her as he felt her gaze, Nemoi chuckled a bit as he could somewhat tell what she was thinking. While part of her was curious, another part of her found it really weird, almost off putting.

"I paint my fantasies, thoughts and my muses. The feeling is fleeting, so its the best way to keep record." He looked to another framed painting, a smaller one. It was the painting of the original paladins, a pure Zarkon being one of them. He restored it without a second thought, mainly to see how much it would cost to restore something smaller.

「15 QP spent」

As it turned out to be the same price as the larger painting, he restored yet another painting which was on the opposite side of the large one. This was a painting of himself and his father. However in this painting, Nemoi had jaw length white-silver hair with pale blue eyes which almost appeared as if he were blinded by cataracts.

"Me and my father, of course, before I changed my appearance a bit." Nemoi stared yearningly at the arms which held him in the painting. He could remember the warmth, only for that moment. The fatherly embrace, the parental protection, the reassurance. He closed his eyes and lowered his head in silence.

When he opened his eyes once more, he looked over at pidge with a light smile across his lips.

"I look forward to acquiring your family, and spending my time beside you... all." He added in the last part with a brief pause between words. He glanced over at Hunk who seemed more entranced by the recipe book with the painted pictures of food throughout it.

"Those are my mother's recipes. I illustrated her book for her before her untimely passing, right before the war." He snickered a bit as his words made Hunk put the book down sorrowfully.

"They look so darn delicious," Hunk said as he was holding back the drool that threatened to breach and run down his face.

"Heh... Yeah, I know, I've eaten it before. The slop tastes better than the typical Altean dishes. Quite a bit more... Visually appealing as well." Nemoi couldn't argue with the things he himself was saying. It looked so close to exotic human food, it was the only way his mother could get him to eat it.

It was quite the joke around those who knew him and his family. He was the family eccentric and egoist. Yet here he was, depressed about losing everything.

"Why are you calling your mom's food slop?" Pidge butted in as she stood up from the bed, watching as he got down from the bed as well. Standing at the corner which divided them from one another.

Nemoi blinked a few times when he heard her ask this question and he just stood there. He noticed he had said something rude, but he didn't understand why she suddenly confronted him for it.

"Don't you cheri–"

Nemoi raised a hand, cutting Pidge off as she was about to speak of how he should be cherishing what was left. Not insulting the dead, or disrespecting it. "I know," he closed his eyes partially as he sat on the corner of the bed, his back to them.

Pidge lowered her brows and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Hunk glanced over at the door for a moment, then back at the two. "I'm going to go get the others. It's about time we get some shuteye, yeah? Well. I'm going." He sped out of the room, which was uncharacteristic for his size, even made very little noise doing so.

Pidge and Nemoi paid him no mind. They just remained there at the bed. Pidge trying her best to comfort him, though it wasn't her forte to even deal with people as it were.

As he heard the door slide closed, he glanced over at Pidge with a questionable expression in his eyes. He was staring through her for a moment before he reached up and placed a hand on the back of her head, his forearm resting on her shoulder.

She was half expecting him to pull her into a kiss due to the amount of movies she had watched, and she would have resisted, but she didn't feel any pressure on the back of her head. She opened her mouth slightly, then closed it, as if she had changed her mind about saying anything.

There was this warm feeling, it gave her butterflies, at least more than usual.

In her short life, she hadn't really had that many boys confess their love to her. Let alone admit they had a crush. She was sure there were probably a few from her old school that liked her, but that didn't seem to settle with her.

She was a genius, she saw herself above them. However that was just her insecurity, her social anxiety. She closed her eyes as she let the warmth of his hand which became entangled in her hair on the back of her head.

For that brief moment, she recalled her father and how much direction he brought her. How much he gave her reassurance, how much he gave her positive input to get desired output. He always knew she existed to do and be apart of great things.

Pidge opened her eyes and paused as it seemed Nemoi's hair had reverted back to a silver-white color, but he still had his hazel blue eyes. "Your hair..."

"I know," Nemoi chuckled a bit as he let go of the back of her head, carefully untangling his fingers from her hair, without pulling any. "Well, if you don't mind sharing a room. You can have that side of the bed. I can activate a divider if need be." He gestured towards the bed which he was seated upon.

Pidge chuckled a bit seeing how he was trying to get her into the same bed as her. "If you try anything, I'll shoot you. Got it?" She gestured to the pistol he had given her.

Nemoi shrugged as if it was a given. "That's why I gave you the weapon so early," he gave a light wink before laying back on the bed.

Without warning, Pidge went ahead and flopped face first onto the bed. She was exhausted, considering she should have been in bed hours ago, instead she was up rummaging through alien tech and touring a castle that was actually a battlecruiser.

Taking off her pack, she placed it next to the bed and rested the altean blaster pistol on top of it. She proceeded to sprawl out on her side of the bed, kicking her shoes off to the side. Definitely making herself feel at home.

Nemoi shook his head slightly seeing her tomboyish behavior, smirking a little as he made his way up to rest his head on a pillow. Staring up at the ceiling, he allowed the ship to set an alarm to go off at a certain point of the day. They needed to get this done early, talk with Iverson and make preparations.