Arkay rubbed his rather tired eyes, then pulled his blanket up, tucking himself in. It had been a long, quiet night, spent almost entirely on his own. A pleasant night mostly, even if the night was artificial. The only sound around was a small beeping noise, coming from the mobile device that Arkay was holding.
Glancing briefly around the room, Arkay yawned and repositioned himself, again pulling his blanket up. The room was cold, but Arkay didn’t want to get out of bed. It would take too much time to warm the room up, and Arkay was quite happy under his blanket.
A small beep distracted Arkay and dragged his attention back to his mobile device. It was a small communication tablet, allowing Arkay to send messages or make calls to, well, anyone really. Arkay though was chatting with one person in particular. Someone Arkay had never met in person, butalso someone Arkay liked talking to.
“I’m getting a little tired…” Arkay typed on his tablet. “Been a long day.”
“That is fine,” was swiftly sent back. “I am tired too. Busy day.”
Arkay smiled a little. “Yeah, it has been. But it’s been lovely talking to you.”
“Same. It is always lovely talking to you. Would be even nicer to say this in person.”
With the tiniest of gasps, Arkay fell back a bit. “I… I’d like to say this in person too. I love chatting with you too.”
“We have a lot in common. It would be nice to meet you one day on a date, even if we are very far apart. And, of course, if you do wish to meet me.”
Arkay hesitated for a moment, his mind suddenly racing. This being, a good distance away, was willing to meet up with Arkay. It was a rather sudden question, and Arkay began to wonder how such a date would even look like. Especially as Arkay only had limited access around Deathven Ypsilon, the massive ship both he and his new friend both lived on.
“Are you there, Arkay?”
Arkay rubbed his eyes again, scrolling back through various previous conversations. As far as Arkay could tell, they had been chatting on and off for nearly a month. But the idea of meeting up hadn’t occurred to Arkay until just now.
“Yeah, sorry, just… thinking…” Arkay typed back.
“About what? Meeting up?”
“About… well, you’re…” Arkay noticed he was trembling slightly. After all, this was the first time he’d be meeting anyone for… for years.
“You do not have to if you dislike it.”
“No, not at all!” Arkay’s typing speed picked up. “I want to meet you, but we’re really far away from each other and I’d like to meet in the middle first.”
“Of course.”
Arkay read and reread the reply. He’d been expecting something awkward or something. “You want to have a date in… I guess the middle would be Ypsilon Lamda?”
“Of course, whatever you fancy. Although I don’t have time off until the 1st.”
Arkay’s eyes widened. “I… I’m happy to do that… Is… is the 3rd alright with you?”
“The 3rd is fine for me. We can discuss logistics later.”
Arkay took a deep breath, calming himself down. “Sure, sure… I’m gonna go lie down for a bit, if that’s alright.”
“Of course. I’ll see you later.”
“See you.”
Putting the communicator down, Arkay wasn’t really sure what had just happened. But after a few brief breathing exercises, he calmed down long enough to see what has just happened.
“I’m going on a date! I’m finally going to have a date!” Arkay suddenly started grinning wildly. “This is gonna be so cool… but there’s so much to think about…”
Calming himself down some more, Arkay pulled more blankets over himself.
“I should lie down first though… don’t want to get too excited…”