A/N: This was a great prompt, thank you!
Yuri docks at Gamma 153 with just over an hour to spare, cursing the asteroid field that delayed his arrival by almost a full six hours. He knew he’d been cutting it close anyway, and now it’s going to be seriously touch and go whether he can get to the House in time.
His ship, Hades, groans and whines around him, physically manifesting his distress, and Yuri pats the console distractedly as he fumbles at the nape of his neck to unplug himself from the internal system. “I know, I know,” he mutters, “I’m not loving this any more than you are.”
He eventually unplugs himself and powers down Hades, whispering soothing endearments to the ship as he prepares both of them for being planetside for the next three days.
Gamma 153 is a bustling port, filled to the brim with locals and travelers alike. Yuri throws some coppers at the nearest ship-hand, growling at the young boy to keep an eye on his ship, or else. He doesn’t know if it’s his trademark scowl, or the fact that he’s radiating pre-rut hormones, but the boy yelps and scampers away almost immediately.
By the time Yuri reaches the nearest House, he’s clammy with sweat, and can feel the itch of his rut threatening to erupt beneath his skin. The Beta on duty takes one look at him and ushers him immediately into an available room, where Yuri spends the next three days lost to the haze of his rut, fucking every toy available and only surfacing to inhale the food and drink that staff push through the small flap cut into the door.
He emerges on the fourth day exhausted and barely sated. It would be so much easier, he thinks, and not for the first time, if he just stayed planetside in the lead up to his rut. Maybe he could even find an Omega to spend it with next time. But that has never been Yuri’s style, not since he first bonded with Hades and took to the skies at the tender age of sixteen. The less time spent planetside the better, as far as he’s concerned, and if that means he has to suffer through an unsatisfactory rut every few months, then so be it.
He’s still feeling groggy as he pays up at the front desk, and barely reacts in time as he turns and almost hits the man behind standing him.
“Sorry, sorry,” Yuri mutters, nose crinkling at the unfamiliar smell. Omega, only just post-heat. He takes a second to look over the man; about his height with a stocky build and dark brown hair, shaved underneath in a style he knows is popular around these planets. His eyes are what most draw Yuri’s attention though, dark and pensive and filled with a tiredness that Yuri knows all too well.
“Rough one?” he asks before he remembers he doesn’t care.
“Aren’t they all?” the omega says with a wry smile.
Yuri has no idea how to respond – it’s been so long since he’s been around anybody who he actually wanted to hold a conversation with – so he mumbles another rushed apology and makes a quick exit from the House.
He heads straight back to Gamma 153, wanting to be in the air as soon as possible. He feels unclean having been planetside for so long, like the natural gravity has gotten under his fingernails and up his nose.
“Hey boy, did you miss me?” he says as he boards Hades, patting the dash fondly as he settles in the pilot’s seat. He picks up the heavy cable that connects him to the ship’s internals, and plugs himself in with a practiced ease.
“Okay, let’s get going,” he mutters, closing his eyes as he loses himself in the ship’s inner workings.
A whine, and then a thunk, and Yuri is jolted abruptly back into his body. He frowns down at the console, trying to decipher the sinking feeling that has started to form in his gut.
Hades doesn’t want to leave this port.
He doesn’t understand, this has never happened before. It’s why they bonded so well in the first place, both human and machine desperate to leave their crummy home planet and never look back.
“Hey, what is it?” Yuri asks, patting the dashboard again as he nudges at the machine with his consciousness. “What’s got you so worked up hmm?”
He can feel it now. Not just a desire to stay, but a desire to find. Something is calling out to his ship, to both of them, and Yuri knows that he’s not leaving this planet until he finds out what.
Hades starts humming, a low, insistent throb that Yuri can somehow feel in his bones and hear outside at the same time. Slowly he unplugs himself, and exits back onto the main walkway, following the sounds as it vibrates all the way through his skeleton.
The noise takes him across the length of the entire port, stopping just in front of a small ship and oh, she’s perfect. A carbon copy of Yuri’s own, right down to the bodywork detailing that he had lovingly had commissioned last time he was on Delta 727.
A head pokes out of the ship’s main hatch, and Yuri’s heart stutters as he recognizes the man from this morning. The man frowns and swings down to the ground, dusting off his hands as he walks over to where Yuri is still standing dumb.
“So you’re the reason Persephone here didn’t want to leave today,” the man says, voice matter of fact, and Yuri can only stare in shock.
He’s heard of ship-to-ship bonding, of course he has, but he’s never actually seen it happen. He especially never thought it would happen to Hades, happen to him.
The man pauses, giving Yuri a chance to respond. When it becomes apparent that Yuri’s brain has taken an indefinite leave of absence he smiles and holds out a hand to shake. “The name’s Otabek,” he says, “Would you like to come aboard and have a drink while we work out what to do with these idiot ships of ours?”
The Archery Range 