Not a date night

Sola hummed through the weave at last. Dustin was glad of that - escaping the Arof system had felt like it had taken years, even though he knew it had only been a matter of a day or so to navigate the ever changing network of what in theory were transit routes but in practice were more like permanent traffic-jams. They still had quite some time to go though before they’d arrive at the system that held the jump point to the mysterious star - it was several jumps away from the Arof homeworld.

In the meantime, he was dealing with the fact that he was nervous. He’d arranged to meet up with Jaisyl in the gardens, given it was the most neutral setting for whatever she wanted to discuss he could think of. The observation deck was shuttered during their jump so wouldn’t be any good, the canteen would lack privacy given the time of day, the pools and gym would involve outfits that might not be appropriate… the only other options really were the ready room where they’d likely be interrupted by the others, or one of the cargo bays which weren’t exactly conductive to casual conversation.

Sighing, he adjusted his t-shirt and set off. The garden had plenty of places to sit and talk, although he was planning on making use of a new feature that some of the junior crew had been working on. It’d taken them a month or two to put together what Rye could have done in an afternoon, but they’d requested the project as a hobby for their downtime and so he’d seen fit to authorize the use of materials.

Jaisyl was waiting for him at the entrance to the gardens, wearing a sundress that managed to be both modest and flattering to the Tho’unn’s figure at the same time. As he approached, she glanced up from where she had been looking at something on her tablet and smiled at him. “Dustin, thank you for making the time to talk with me. Do we have a destination in mind?”

Opening the door, Dustin nodded before leading the princess down through the gardens. They made idle conversation about Sola’s ongoing mission as they moved past the trees and flowers, around the plaza and then skirted the edge of the pond. “Where are we going?” Jaisyl eventually asked as they moved past yet another spot they could have stopped to sit.

“Something that’s only just been finished… ah, here we are.” Dustin said, coming to a stop as they pushed past the last line of trees to see a series of rock and glass hill-like structures. The rocky walls (from the outside at least) were not solid - rather, they were rough, with piled gravel and debris into which a huge arrangements of plants had been set. The roofs of the structures were all glass, although tendrils of green were already beginning to intertwine across the flat surfaces, dappling the benches that surrounded the interior in gentle patches of shadow.

“The new alpine and rock garden. A group of newer crew-members suggested it, the idea is that eventually these seating areas will be completely enclosed by plants to allow a little privacy while still having good airflow. The plants should also keep the temperature inside naturally cool. I’m looking forward to seeing how well it works once everything’s grown a bit more.” Dustin explained as he took Jaisyl’s hand, helping her down the stone steps into the nearest of the hillocks.

The princess looked around in bemused appreciation before settling herself on one of the benches. “It is very nice, if a little cave like Dustin. A suitable place for us to converse, I agree.”

“So…” Dustin began, sitting down opposite her on the semi-circle of seating that curved around the inside of the tiny hill. “Where do you want to begin with our discussion? You clearly have a lot on your mind.”

Jaisyl frowned, then looked at her hands, slowly running the tips of her thumbs over each other for a moment before she looked back up at him. “I want to feel useful. On the ship, I mean,” she explained, gesturing vaguely out the door. “All the others - the crew, your lovers, your friends like Yril’k - they all have something they contribute towards making Sola into a pleasant place to live. I mean, look at where we’re sat. Your crew built this just because they felt like it’d be a good idea - and all I do is sit around, read, and occasionally make gifts for people. Usually because I’ve said something without thinking and put my foot in my mouth.”

The princess grimaced. “I just… when I first got here, I was ready to just lounge around and be waited on. It was all I’d ever known of life, really. Then I had to do things for myself, and that was really, really hard for the first few weeks. And then there was everything on that ice world, and then I saw how happy people were with the embroidery I did for your wedding and…” she trailed off, shrugging hopelessly. “I want to contribute.”

Dustin frowned in thought at her words. He had expected this as one of the possible outcomes of her request to talk with him, but the truth was he didn’t have a clearcut career for her. All the needed roles on the ship were filled - save for a teacher in a few years for the school he’d have to get built if he approved even a handful of the forms requesting permission to start a family that the crew kept flooding his inbox with. Teacher didn’t really seem Jaisyl’s ideal role however; she was far too abrupt and temperamental to be good with the chaos that a classroom of children could cause.

There was one option that did fit her skillset… “Have you considered making your embroidery official? I’m sure a lot of the crew would love to get something to decorate their quarters with, and we could always use more art to hang in the meeting rooms for formal dignitaries. We’ve already got Defia’s paintings, but some textile work would be great. We could set you up a shop of sorts - maybe even offer commissions to folks back home if they’re okay with the delivery time being potentially measured in years depending on when we get to a convenient resupply point.”

Jaisyl nodded slowly in reply. That definitely sounded better than becoming a monogramming machine the way the other women had joked earlier, and it would allow her to help the whole of the crew. “I’ll do it.” She said at last, nodding decisively to herself before she could second-guess the idea. “Though it’s probably only worth the effort of offering it to people outside of the ship if I’m staying here for the long term. It’d not be fair to the other humans if I agreed a commission then dropped it because I was returning to my father.”

Dustin nodded, then glanced up at her. “I note you said returning to your father, not returning home…”

The princess winced, then sighed. “Indeed. Which brings me to the other matter I wished to discuss with you, Dustin. I…” she paused, then glanced to one side, blushing furiously. “It… look, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me liking you or anything it’s just…”

Dustin waited, while trying very hard not to grin at the fact that Jaisyl was behaving entirely the way Yaerwen had suggested she might months back. The Hoxx had called it, he had to admit - Jaisyl had practically just given the tsundere trope speech verbatim without realizing it. As he tried to keep his amusement to himself, the princess managed to get her emotions under control once more.

“…I wanted someone strong. A warrior. Someone who cares… someone who tries to make things better, a real noble for my partner not just someone with a noble title, so I could produce strong heirs to support my brother and so that we could help people together. Like in my story books. It… look, I always knew it was naive, okay? But I figured if I stomped and screamed enough, at least I wouldn’t get married to some dumb duke twice my age just to ensure he voted the right way on some tax rebate or something.” The princess’s cheeks were flushed as she continued, clearly deciding that since she’d jumped off a cliff she’d better either learn to fly or deal with the consequences. “So… I didn’t think that was you at all, when we met. My father made a political match for me and I was so mad, because it felt like everything I was worried about my entire life was happening. And then… well, and then I watched you work. I guess… I guess what I’m trying to say is I’d like our marriage to be more than just my father’s whim, Dustin.”

Dustin took a deep breath. This was not an unexpected shoe to drop, but it had finally dropped it seemed. Before he could speak, Jaisyl interrupted with “…I know it’s a lot and I know you’ll probably say no after how I’ve behaved and…” he held up a hand to silence her.

“Okay.” Jaisyl blinked at Dustin’s words, her mouth slowly dropping open. Before she could interrupt again, he continued, “okay. You’ve changed a lot since you came on board, Jaisyl. Who you were back then, I don’t think we could ever have made anything work between us, but now? I’d be willing to give it a shot. I meant what I said about wanting everyone on my ship to be happy… We can try some real dates and see where we go. Oh, but it’s not just me you’d need to get to agree of course, so you should probably sort that first.”

The princess frowned and nodded. “Bleu mentioned something about that when I spoke to her and Yaerwen a little while ago. I need to get everyone’s approval before anything happens, correct? How does that work?”

Sighing, Dustin leaned back against the cold stone of the structure. “I should have known someone would talk to you about it before I got the chance. Basically, you spend time with each of us - proper time, like a date, to get to know us all more deeply than you currently do. At the end of that, we all have a talk, and if we agree you’d be a good fit then well…” Jaisyl looked up from where she’d been staring at her hands as Dustin’s words trailed off to find to her surprise that it was now his turn to blush.