Counting Tiles

Merlin sat back against his chair as the ship lifted off the surface of Montak. Andra was on the other side of the cockpit, Shizuko was busy talking to the civilian that had picked them up and probably wouldn't appreciate him filling the comms with unnecessary chatter, and he found himself alone with his thoughts. The sight of the world below them quickly disappeared from the viewscreen, replaced by a vast, empty blue sky, growing darker as they crept closer to space. Finding himself bored with the transition he had seen countless times before, he leaned his head back and looked up towards the ceiling instead, finding some scrap of entertainment in counting the tiles.

He barely noticed the time passing as he counted, nor the chatter from the front of the ship. All he focused on was the numbers, going up with each little tile he spotted. "Fifty-Eight. Fifty-Nine. Sixty. Sixty-One..." The voice in his head trailed off as some other vague feeling took over and told him of the movement to his left. Looking over, he half-smiled behind his visor as he saw Andra sitting down on the floor next to him, laying her helmet against his leg. Moving one of his hands down to rest on her armor's pauldron, he found his smile reaching across his whole face as her own silently reached up to meet it.

A few moments passed, sitting there in silence. Andra knew, too, that Shizuko wouldn't appreciate chatter, especially not now that she had gotten in touch with the flagship and was working through their next steps with the civilian pilot that had gotten them off of Montak. Merlin was back to counting the tiles again, but this time, he was acutely aware Andra's hand on his own. Of the slow breaths drifting up from the female SPARTAN's helmet. He found his eyes growing heavy under the sound, the repetitiveness of the counting, and he realized just how tired he had grown.

The fighting on the surface had taken a lot out of him. Sure, he might be close as anyone could be expected to physically fine after going through that, closer, even, with his enhanced body and the power armor he wore, but he could tell that it wasn't that which was bothering him. He was just tired. Noise, light, darkness, pain. His senses had been assaulted in more ways than he could count, more than he could have even imagined. And he had gotten it light compared to Andra.

Andra. Merlin looked down at the girl to his left and couldn't help but form a sad smile on his face. For as much as he'd taken down there, she'd gotten it ten times worse. As much as he wanted to, he could help but quietly laugh, only for his chuckled to fade into a gentle sigh. Leaning back against his chair, he squeezed Andra's hand and took comfort in her returning the gesture. Not knowing what else to do but rest and wait, his head hit the back of the chair and he found himself returning to that familiar motion. "Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three..."