t h i r t y f i v e ;

Since it was already half past one in the afternoon on their starting day, it was decided that Seville and Honey would go ahead and finish up their shift until four. The other ten squad members left them alone in the control room to go find their bags in the cargo area of the vast ship which was the size of a small town just for them. They were then to grab their belongings and carry them to the rooms on the other side of the ship which were labeled with their colors, since the admins at the Garden did not bother to call them by the names they had each chosen for themselves. 

Red, Pink, Yellow, Green, Lime, and White were the rooms labeled on one side of the hallway. Purple, Black, Orange, Blue Cyan, and Brown were the rooms on the other side. Even in space they were divided into sides with girls on one side and the boys on the other. Only this time they did not have to adhere to the rules they were subjected to in the garden.

The ten others reached the back part of the ship by the fuel station and saw their bags all piled up on top of each other. Ignoring the clearly labeled bedrooms on one side of the ship, Ivory was the first to go with Cedar, both of them entering the bedroom labeled Brown. They were one of the already established couples in the group. No one said anything to them, mostly because they didn't really care what the two of them did, or anyone for that matter. As captains and co captains, the only thing Raven, Roseanne, and Scarlet were concerned about was everyone getting their tasks done without a problem. Everyone had daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that they needed to complete.

Scarlet, Mauve, and Ciel went to their respective rooms and everyone assumed Seville and Honey would share a room together since they were in a relationship. Olive went to the door labeled Green on the girls side of the dorm hallway, and Indy followed behind her like a lost puppy, stopping dead in his tracks when she turned around to face him. He was nearly a whole foot taller, yet towered over her goofily. There was nothing hostile about Indy, Roseanne thought to herself with a smile as she saw them interact. He was like a little boy with a crush. In an attempt to forget Ivory, he had told Roseanne that he thought Olive was cute and he was going to focus all of his attention on her. 

Olive looked up at him with a shy smile and asked. "What are you doing?" 

"We're sharing a room." He said jokingly. 

She gave a shake of her head, still finding the whole thing amusing. "I don't think so. Go over there." She pointed across the hall at the door labeled Blue. 

He frowned and pretended to be heartbroken before he walked the six foot distance across the hall to his own door. Their key to the room was their belt buckle on their uniform. They had two uniforms for every day use, and the space suits for extraction use once they reached the asteroid belt. But they were also to be used in case of emergency. For the rest of the day they had their official uniforms which they were to wear during their shifts guarding the ship, then they had their lounging uniforms for use the rest of the day, and finally their sleeping clothes. There were several more changes for them in the storage area and they were supposed to dispose of the old uniforms in the trash schute. 

Having Raven's buckle around herself, since they had switched while they were still in the Garden, Roseanne went to his door and unlocked it. As she turned to walk away towards her own room door, he reached for her hand to stop her. She looked up at him with expecting eyes as he said, "I thought you and I could share my room together."

A smile formed on her lips as she replied. "Sure."

But the moment they set one foot in their new bedroom, they heard shouting from the room next door. It was like nails on a chalk board to them, Ivory yelling at Cedar about where to put away their stuff. Surely she was just sitting on the bed barking commands at him and not actually helping. That was when they realized they were sharing a wall with the two of them and they gathered their things before even setting them down. "Lets just use your room instead." Raven offered. He quickly added, "We can use this room as like a storage closet or something. But I don't think I could spend the next ten years sharing a wall with them."

Roseanne nodded in agreement. She didn't want to be near them too long. But it was a big ship anyway and she thought to herself that they could always find a different place to spend their free time if they really wanted to. 

They went across the hall to where her room was located and Raven got the door for them, since he had her belt buckle as part of his uniform. They spent part of the afternoon putting their belongings away. They wouldn't need to show up to their first shift guarding the ship's navigation until four the next morning. Roseanne removed the heavy space suit and let it fall to the floor with a thud. She was only in a soft pink sports bra and a pair of the same colored spandex shorts. She felt like her body was sticky and gross with sweat and she crinkled up her nose. 

"I think I should shower first." She told him and made her way towards the built in bathroom in her bedroom. At least on the space ships they didn't have to share bathrooms with the room next to them, nor was there a communal bathroom. Each room had a bathroom of their own. As she walked in, she was pleasantly surprised to find hers had everything with a pretty pink color to it, with two fluffy towels folded on a piece of furniture by the door for her first use. She closed the door behind herself and started running a shower for herself, leaving Raven outside.

When she emerged almost twenty minutes later, he had managed to put away all of his stuff as well as hers. He had also organized everything in the room and had gone to the other room to get the black towels from his bathroom. Roseanne stepped out into the room and he muttered to her that he was going to have a quick shower as well while she changed into her lounging clothes. 

By the time they had both showered and changed, it was well past three in the afternoon. On their set schedules back in the Garden, they always ate at four thirty, which meant that by that time, they were already starting to get hungry. 

The cafeteria was towards the middle of the ship, and the bedrooms were at the end near the storage area. That meant that they had a few minutes of walking before they would reach their destination. Seville and Honey were likely still in navigation, completing their shift and the next ones to take over for them at four in the afternoon were Ciel and Sage. Which was why, as they turned the corner to enter the cafeteria, they saw that their cyan and lime counterparts were already there sitting down for a meal. 

Ciel was telling Sage a story and she was looking down at her food shyly, a little lime green tint to her cheeks. They looked up and Ciel paused awkwardly in his story as their team leaders entered the room. It wasn't that Ciel didn't like Raven and Roseanne, he genuinely appreciated them as his friends. He just felt like his feelings towards Sage weren't entirely valid because of her age, and he didn't want anyone to judge them. At the moment, he was treating her as a friend, and later along the way he would see if anything more developed between them.

They were the only two in the room and Roseanne waved at them with childlike excitement before turning her attention to the kiosks at the front end of the cafeteria. Since they would be on a space mission for eight years, their food were pre packaged lunches which would be heated up and slid onto the counter after being chosen from a wide variety of menu options on the kiosk in the cafeteria. Roseanne was excited to see there were color tabs at the top of the menu, for those who wanted to eat food specifically from their province. She clicked on the pink tab and immediately clicked on the chicken with rose petal sauce, with some rose petal pink lemonade on the side.

Her food was heated up within a minute and presented to her. Raven did the same and picked out bone stew like he always ate back home and charcoal water. This time, Roseanne asked him to try her food, since the one he had seemed a bit bland. But he said it was what he was used to and he liked it because it reminded him of home. She didn't fight him on it too much because she didn't want him to feel like she was judging him. 

They had their meal together and about fifteen minutes after they arrived, they saw Ciel and Sage get up and leave. The next ones to join them were Honey and Seville. 

They had just finished their shift guarding the navigation deck of the ship. 

A big smile formed on Honey's lips as she dashed towards the boy with raven black hair and the girl with cotton candy colored ribbons of hair. Her pin straight yellow hair bouncing on and off her shoulders. Seville only strolled into the cafeteria calmly with his hands in his pockets, watching the girl before him with a warm smile. Honey threw her arms around Roseanne from behind and rested her chin atop the older girl's shoulder. "Is it possible for us to maybe join you guys?" She asked cheerfully.

Roseanne turned her head towards the seventeen year old and offered her a bright smile. "Yeah, that would be great."

Seville soon reached their table, the two of them were still in their heavy space suits, and he plopped down on the cafeteria bench next to Raven. "Raven boy." He greeted the boy with jet black hair in a silly voice. 

Seville, Ciel, and Raven had known each other their entire lives basically since they were four years old. Seville had been the first of their generation to join the garden, since his birthday was in January, the next of the three to join the garden was Raven, whose birthday was in June. The last was Ciel, who had his birthday in November. He never really talked to Seville or Ciel before though, they all belonged to different friend groups. But they definitely all knew about each other.

"Hey Seville." Raven greeted awkwardly.

The two who had shown up last went to get their food before they permanently joined Raven and Roseanne at the table. But slowly the rest of the crew showed up for a meal, minus the two who were in navigation for their shift. It was almost like being in the garden again, except there were no instructors, no admins, and no other crew members from other missions around. It was a nice calm because they no longer had to put up that front of being the perfect group of space cadets. They could let their guards down and be themselves.

It was only the first day of the next eight years together. They felt like it was definitely something they could get used to. 

After their meal, they each went their separate ways. Indy went to find the soccer court on the ship. Scarlet went to go find the archery range, since she was really good with a bow and arrow, and she wanted to continue developing her skills. Olive went swimming in the pool. Ivory and Cedar went to find the theater on the ship, while Seville and Honey just went exploring in general. Raven and Roseanne wanted to conserve their energy and went back to their dorm room. They watched a movie on the holo-television and then went to sleep.

They would be waking up at three in the morning to get ready for their four in the morning shift guarding the navigation on the ship.

-

oh god its been too long since i updated this story. so big update. i've had a crush on raven for a really long time, you guys have known that. and he has never said if he feels anything for me. he's shown it, and given hints. but like never outright said it, and i havent either bc im shy.

so back in may, a boy i went to hs with hits me up on fb. and we started talking. like we hit it off extremely fast. then we started hanging out. we hung out all may and june. on june 20th he asked me to make it official. and i said yes. bc i had been waiting for raven and nothing was happening. so tbh i was hoping i could move on and forget raven. this dude and i went out all of july and half of august. the new guy.

but he broke up with me on like the second week of august bc we got into one argument. which to me was ridiculous bc i forgave a lot of dumb shit he did to me but whatever. 

so now raven and i have been talking a lot again. but im taking things slow. 

the other dude i went out with was taking things way too fast and look how that ended up. i wasnt like in love with the guy. but he was handsome and i liked him. he gave me compliments and attention. and i guess i was craving that, but from raven. but anyway, i hope you like this update.

-clary