Chapter Text
It had been two months since Mindy and Mark had first met. And hugged. They had had many more hugs since then because Mark insisted on coming to visit her whenever he was even close to her building. And he always hugged her goodbye.
“I’m sure you have better things to be doing…” she would say.
He would fix her with a mischievous grin and say, “Probably.”
Mindy and Lukas had gotten closer over the weeks and they spent a lot of time together, both at and outside of work. The nightmares had stopped gradually, although sometimes she would still have to wake herself out of the beginnings of a bad dream. Overall, having Mark back on Earth turned out to be greater than anyone had anticipated.Things were better than just “back to normal.”
NASA was able to learn so many different things from Mark’s experience on Mars that they asked if he might be willing to teach an emergency survival course on what he had done. He agreed, but said that he would need time to formulate something to say. He asked if Mindy would help him plan his class.
“Why would you want my help?”
“I think the only person who knows my experience better than me is you.” She blushed. Of course he knew that she had read and re-read and re-re-read his logs several times. “Maybe you’ll think of something that I don’t.”
“I doubt it, but I’ll help if I can.”
“That’s all I ask.”
They agreed to meet at his apartment a few nights before his first class. She would bring whiskey and a notebook. He had promised to make dinner for them.
“So it’s a date?” Her mother asked over the phone.
“No, Mom, it’s not a date. We’re planning his class.”
“And he’s making dinner for you. That’s a date, daughter mine.”
“It’s not! He’s just being nice.”
“Yeah, sure, I believe that. Call me tomorrow and tell me how your date went.” Her mother hung up, leaving Mindy gaping at the phone. She hung up as well and turned back to her computer. She still had a few more things to do at work before heading over to Mark’s. But, she would only get to do half of them because of a visitor.
“Hey, Mindy!”
She looked up, from a readout of a satellite orbiting a potential future landing site for another Ares mission. Lukas was standing in her doorway, waiting to be invited in.
“Hi, Lukas. Come on in. What’s up?”
“I heard about your date. Are you nervous?”
Mindy screwed up her face, unbelieving that two people in her life were going the same type of crazy.
“It’s not a date, holy crap! Are you conspiring with my mother to make my life a ball of anxiety? Because I will have you both know, I don’t need any extra help!”
“Mindy, my dear, sweet, naïve friend; when a man asks you to his apartment and promises to make you dinner, that is a date. Have you never been on a date before?”
“I guess, not really? I used to date in college, but then I got too involved with my science that I never really bothered with it…” Lukas looked at her with an impressively pitiful look on his face. “I know! I’m pathetic! But I love my job. And that’s the reason I’m going over there; because we both love our jobs.”
“I believe that.”
“You literally sound just like my mother. Like, she actually said those words to me not an hour ago.”
Lukas laughed. “Your mother sounds like a smart lady. Set me up with her!”
“You know? I remember when I used to be able to work in my office in peace because no one knew who I was and I had no friends.” He smiled at her, broad and taunting. “Having friends is exhausting.”
“Having a boyfriend will be worse!” he called, sneaking out of her office as she threw a pen into the hallway at his retreating form.
“Not gonna happen!”
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Mindy finally got to a decent stopping point in her work. Just in time, too, because she was about to be late to meet Mark. She followed the directions he had given her and ended up in front of his apartment complex in about twenty minutes. She got on the elevator, whiskey in hand, and rode up to his floor. As soon as the elevator doors opened, she was greeted with the smell of baking lasagna. She followed the smell to his door and knocked.
“Coming!” he called from inside. The door flew open to reveal Mark with a smear of pasta sauce on his cheek. “Hey, Min! Welcome to my humble abode.” He auspiciously stepped aside to let her in.
She looked around to see walls covered in shelves of books. Pretty much every available surface was covered in books. Several posters and newspaper clippings of the original NASA missions hung on the walls as well. She smiled at the clutter of newspapers and beer cans. Being back on Earth tends to make bad habits come back to astronauts.
“Ah, sorry. I got so wrapped up in lasagna that I forgot to clean up my own mess. Give me two seconds.”
Mindy chuckled. “Mark, it’s fine. You live here. And I know the constant order of NASA tends to make people a little messy at home. It’s fine. I promise.”
Mark stooped to pick up the beer cans anyway. “Well, still. I hate having a mess when company is over.” He looked around. “Okay, I hate having too big of a mess when company is over.”
They ate dinner while talking about his potential class material. The whiskey flowed easily, but Mindy tried not to overdo it because she would need to drive home after all was said and done. At the end of the night, Mindy had filled almost half of the notebook and she made a promise to fill the rest of it out on another night.
“I think I should get going.” Mark looked up at her, disappointment etched all over his face. She somehow managed not to see it. “Lukas would be mad if I overslept and missed our bookstore time.”
“Ah. I see.” She still missed just how disappointed he sounded.
“He’s a pain in the ass, but I love him.” The words cut into Mark like stingers from a dozen bees.
“Right…” he said, trying to force a laugh into his voice. It seemed to work because she rose, smiling at him.
“This was great, Mark. Lasagna was delicious. And we’ll do it again to get some more material for you. Next time, I’ll cook. No potatoes.”
“No potatoes.” he echoed. He rose to hug her as she walked out the door. Maybe he hung on a little longer than was strictly appropriate, but he would never admit to it.
As the door shut, he slumped down on the sofa.
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“Are you stupid?” Lukas asked, very aggressively, the next morning at the bookstore. Mindy had to shush him because people had looked over, annoyed, as he berated her. She had just finished telling him about the night with Mark. He had demanded every little detail, so she decided it would not bode to leave anything out lest he get mad. But, he was mad anyway, so what did she do wrong?
“I like to think not. I do have a master’s degree.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about at all! You brought me into it and said that you love me?”
Mindy frowned at him, unable to understand. “But, I do love you. You’re my best friend.”
“Yeah, and that’s great; I love you, too! But now he thinks you’re in love with me instead of in love with him!”
“But, I’m not in – ”
“Don’t you even TRY to pull that with me, Minderson!”
She huffed,” That’s not even a viable – ”
“Stop!” She stopped. The angry best friend tone would always work with her. “You need to fix this. He thinks you’re in love with me. You need to fix this. Tell him we’re just very good friends. Something. But, you have to undo what you’ve done.”
“Okay. I’ll try.”
“You better!”
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Mark hadn’t reached out to Mindy for over a week. He also hadn’t stopped by her office in as long. This was the longest they had gone without seeing one another since… well, since Mark had been in space. It was strange.
A knock came from her door jamb and Mindy’s head whipped up, hoping it would be Mark. It was Venkat instead.
“Hi, Venkat, how have you been?”
“Busy, like you.” She smiled and gestured for him to sit in the – newly clean – chair by her desk. “Sorry, I assumed Watney would be here. Not that I’m ungrateful to be seeing you, but I’m looking for him.”
Mindy shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“How long of a while?”
“A little over a week. Why?”
Venkat sucked in a breath through his teeth as he frowned big. “Did the date go that badly?”
This stopped all other thoughts Mindy might have been having.
“Wait… It was actually a date?”
“Well, of course it was! What did you think it was?”
She threw her hands up in resignation and frustration. “I don’t know! I thought it was two colleagues getting together to discuss a project he wanted my help on! Am I supposed to assume everything is a date?”
Venkat rolled his eyes. “Not everything, girl. But you being invited to Mark Watney’s house for dinner is most decidedly a date. Everyone seemed to see that but you.” Mindy crossed her arms on her desk and hid her face in the crook of her elbows. “What happened?”
Mindy explained and Venkat groaned his disappointment. “I really am an idiot, aren’t I?” she asked when she finished.
“You said it, not me.” He stroked her hair.
“What do I do?”
“Go talk to him, you silly girl.”
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A furious knocking was coming from Mark’s front door. It was well beyond decent visiting hours and he was very confused about who could be trying to reach him. Then he though, You work for NASA, idiot. There’s no such thing as normal visiting hours. He got up, without bothering to put a shirt on, opened the door to see Mindy Park standing there, swaying slightly.
“Mindy? Are you okay?”
She stared at his naked chest for a moment and then glanced down to his pajama clad legs and his bare feet curling in the carpet. Finally, she looked back up at his face, hers a little redder, and said, “I’ve been better. May I come in?” Without waiting for him to say yes, she scooted in under his arm.
“Are you… Are you drunk?” His voice betrayed his amusement. He might be disappointed, but he could still enjoy the fact that she was adorable when intoxicated.
“A little, yes. I thought it might make this easier. For me. I didn’t account for the fact that you might not also be drunk. So, I’m sorry for that.”
“Don’t be.”
Without further ado, she launched into the reason she had come by; even though Lukas had already told her exactly what she had done wrong, she wanted – needed – to hear it from Mark. “Did I do something wrong? Did I say something wrong? What happened? What did I do? How can I fix it? Tell me how to fix it, Mark. You’re a genius, tell me what to do.”
Mark shook his head quickly under the barrage of questions. “What do you mean? When?”
“I haven’t seen you for over a week, Markus!” He snorted and she glared at him. “I haven’t seen you because of something that happened while I was here that night. What was it? How do I fix it?” He looked like he might plead ignorance again, but then she whispered, “Please, Mark…”
Sighing and shoulders sagging, Mark said, “Uh… You were talking about Lukas. And you said you loved him. And I didn’t want to give you the wrong idea about me or make you feel like I was trying to get in the way of you and him.”
She tried to focus on him and his words at the same time, but only managed his words. “I take it back. You’re not a genius.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone at work can see I’m completely in love with you. My mom knows, Lukas knows, Venkat knows, your Commander Lewis even knows!” He scoffed at that last bit. “I’m sorry if it came off that Lukas is anything more than my best friend. Yes, I love him, but not in the same way I love you. And, Jesus Christ, I’ve said it twice now and you haven’t even flinched. This was a terrible mistake. I shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry, Mark. I’ll g – ”
Before Mindy could finish her sentence or, even worse, bolt out the door, Mark was on her. He had quickly and easily buried his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his. Surprise kept her from kissing him back right away, but she quickly overcame it and kissed him with equaled fervor. As she ran her hands up and around his sides, he broke the kiss, laughing despite himself.
“Sorry.” He sounded more than a little breathless. “Ticklish.”
She smiled goofily up at him, a little more dazed than before, and said, “Neat.” Between other kisses, he asked her how that was neat. “There are a lot of things I know about you. From mission logs and from personnel files and all that voyeuristic shit they made me do when you were off-world. But not a single thing suggested that you were ticklish. It’s neat to genuinely learn things about you.”
Mindy was looking at him like he imagined he had looked at Mars from orbit the first time; she was marveling at him.
“You are… amazing, Mindy Park.” She ducked her head, embarrassed. Not allowing it to happen, he hooked his finger under her chin and made her look at him. “You’re everything they told me you would be and more. And there’s even more that I don’t know about you.”
Her hands were exploring his chest, seemingly of their own accord, but with each next word, she drew deliberate shapes. “You,” Triangle. “Could,” Square. “Ask?” Circle around his nipple. She studied her hands and the wisps of his chest hair to avoid his face. A shuddering intake of breath finally made her look at him.
He was grinning at her like the cat that caught the canary. “We’ll have plenty of time for that later.”