Chapter Text
Michael set the final box of books on the table in Halla’s tiny new flat. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright here?”
Halla smiled. This was the fourth time he had asked that question since he had seen the studio flat she had leased. “I’ll be fine, you big worrier. Remember, I lived in Cambridge before.”
“But this place is tiny. Even for you, this is tiny.”
She shook her head as she placed the box of blankets on the bed. “I need someplace to eat and sleep and a stable wi-fi connection, and this has all of that. I’ll be spending most of my time at the observatory anyway. Remember, I’m just a lowly graduate student, not a big movie star. I don’t need much.”
Michael rubbed his hands together as he frowned. “If you want anything. Anything at all.”
“I’ll ring you. Seriously, I’ll be fine.” She stood on her tip toes and kissed him on his chin. “These are my old stomping grounds. It’s a bit of a homecoming for me.”
He turned in a circle, taking in the entirety of the flat with its plain white walls and sturdy but ugly furniture. It was completely devoid of personality and he felt like he was leaving her in a jail cell. “I’m taking you to the market and buying you food. I don’t want you going hungry.”
Halla giggled as she started putting books on the bookshelf. “If you’re this bad with me, I can just imagine how you’re going to get sending our kids off to university.”
She froze, her well-worn copy of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time in her hands, realizing the immensity of what she had said. She waited for Michael to say something.
Say anything.
The silence stretched like taffy and she finally turned around to see him leaning against the table, silently laughing. “You freaked yourself out there, didn’t you, baby?”
“Oh, you jerk!” She grabbed a pillow from the sofa and threw it at him. He snagged the pillow out of the air and walked across the room to her.
He tossed the pillow on her sofa before he stroked his thumb across her cheek, cupping her face with one hand. “It’s nice to know that you’re thinking about a future with me, even if it’s just in the deepest subconscious part of your brain.”
Her nose wrinkled and lines appeared across her forehead. “I’m not good at using my words and having big discussions about meaningful stuff. It’s easier to just kiss you or turn it into a joke or something.”
He smiled and rubbed his thumb against her cheek again. “I know. I had to take you to another country for you to let me tell you that I liked you.”
She put her hands on his waist, the leather of his belt rubbing against her palms, and slipped her thumbs under his tee so she could touch his skin. “I like you, Michael.”
He wrapped his arms around her, his hands clasped together at the small of her back, and pulled her closer so their stomachs were touching. “I figured that out.”
She leaned backward so she could see him better. “I even call you my boyfriend. Out loud and everything.”
He grinned. “That’s progress.”
“And I promise not to date anyone else while we’re apart.” Her eyes narrowed. “As long as you promise the same thing.”
He let go of her for long enough to cross his heart.
She nodded in acceptance. “So, like, we’re a real couple now.”
“Yes. Official with words and everything.” He bent down and kissed her, lingering as it struck him with new force that he would be leaving her here and that for the first time in almost three weeks he would be going to sleep without her tonight. He tilted his head, pressing his tongue to her lips and she opened to him. His nose brushed against her cheek as their mouths moved, Halla having had the same realization and not wanting to let him go. She finally broke away and rested her head on his chest, tightening her arms around his waist.
Michael tucked her head under his chin. “You do realize that our kids could be like me.”
Halla stiffened momentarily in his arms before she responded. “Well, yes, that’s sort of the way DNA works.”
She felt his laugh in his chest as she heard it. “No, I mean, our kids might not go to university. And I wouldn’t make them if that wasn’t what they wanted. Would you be alright with that?”
“As long as they’re working towards their dreams, I’ll be happy.”
It was Michael’s turn to pull back so he could see her. “Really? Because you’re a genius. You’re happy about going back to school. That was never me.”
Halla smiled up at him, not wanting him to see the terror of failing, of slipping, of falling apart again that she was plastering over with a façade of pure excitement about getting her life back on track. “It’s not about going back to school; it’s about getting to go back to space. You must get excited stepping on a set for the first time.”
He nodded and pushed a loose lock of her hair back behind her ear so it wasn’t obscuring her face. “I do.”
“It’s the same thing. So, if our hypothetical children in some hypothetical future decide to not matriculate at a hypothetical university, I will be fine, as long as they are working towards some hypothetical goal.”
Michael’s grin got bigger the longer she talked. “That’s a lot of hypotheticals.”
Her cheeks turned pink at his teasing. “I just don’t want you to think I’m sitting here picking out baby names or something like that.”
“Michael Junior.”
Halla snorted. “Of course. How could it be anything else? And if it’s a girl?”
“Michaela.”
She threw up her hands in surrender. “Right. Well now I definitely don’t have to think about baby names.”
“I’m just giving you more time to concentrate on invisible planets.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you.”
He took her out to dinner and then to the market and filled the trolley until she started putting things back on the shelf, insisting that there wasn’t enough room in her flat for everything he was trying to purchase. When they got back to her studio, he helped her put away all the food and then refused to let her make the bed until she reassured him that it was a brand new mattress. She did have some limits. They made the small bed and then tumbled into it together, making love to each other with a slow and steady passion. It had been dark for hours by the time Michael got dressed to go. He gave her one last kiss and then pulled some folded papers from one of the boxes and handed them to her.
“I printed these out for you.”
She unfolded them and blinked back tears as she read through the schedule. “Thank you.”
“And I marked the meeting locations closest to your flat and to the observatory on the map on the last page. And if you need me, ring me. Day or night, baby. I’m here for you.”
She hung the papers on the front of the small fridge with a magnet advertising a local pizza restaurant and then wrapped her arms around Michael. “I love you,” she whispered.
Michael stopped breathing for a moment before he smiled. He had assumed he was going to be the first one to say it considering how reluctant she was to discuss her feelings, but that she had put herself forward like this, was vulnerable with him, made the first time she said those words all the sweeter. His arms spanned her back, one of his hands on her hip, the other on her shoulder. He tucked her head under his chin. “I love you, too.”