Chapter Text
Gunnie doesn't pretend to know anything about the Captain. Even after working beside him for some time, Gunnie doesn't even care to try and understand.
But you don't exactly have to be his best friend to know the Captain prided himself on his appearances. Everyday the Captain would yell and shout commands wearing the same fucking thing. Well, hopefully not the same. Gunnie doesn't know what’s funnier- the thought of the Captain wearing the same shit everyday or having a whole closet of the same four things. Even his ‘windswept’ hair looks purposeful.
Either way, the point is- Gunnie has only ever seen the Captain look ruffled one time.
And no one talks about that day.
…
But ever since the Captain was knocked the fuck out by those egg sacks or whatever that green shit was, he’s been kinda different. No- not even ‘kinda’ at this point. The Captain has been acting weird as hell. He even asked everyone to just call him ‘Skip’... like- right, definitely not going to do that?
Gunnie hasn’t talked to anyone else about his suspicions, but based on the glances being thrown around, there’s no way no one else has noticed. At this point it’s kind of an unspoken thing, you know- it’s weird but at least it’s better, right?
But, even though the Captain’s been funky lately- Gunnie had just thought he’d knocked his head too hard and rewired something.
Until this morning when the Captain walked into the bridge.
Then, Gunnie knew something else was up. Because, he knows that even if the Captain was down with a concussion, he would never be caught dead wearing that.
Gunnie doesn't even know where the Captain found this outfit, because there was no way in hell it was from his own closet.
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Gunnie had been having a great morning; he got some maintenance in, had a nice chat with Barry, watched a movie with the gang. All in all, pretty productive if he could say so himself.
He had just sat down next to Sidney when the Captain entered the room.
He was wearing a yellow and orange, flower patterned button-up over a galaxy cat shirt and some tan cargo shorts. So many pockets.
And Gunnie wishes he was joking when he says the entire crew just kind of froze. Funnily enough, you could compare them to a herd of gazelles spotting a lion that hadn’t noticed them yet. All conversations had stopped as the group waited for the Captain to say anything, but he just continued on oblivious to anything else.
The Captain finally turned around and a sort of confused look crossed his face,
“Huh?”
It was like the spell had been broken as everyone rushed to brush the Captain off or say that it was nothing as they all sort of rushed to leave the room. And, of course, Gunnie was the only one left with the Captain.
“Hey man- sorry, Captain, what’s up? -with you, today? Or like, how’s it going?”
The Captain swiveled his head around, his body following behind a few seconds later. “Hey…”
Then he shrugged his shoulders loosely, “Call me Skip,”
“Right! Skip! My man, what’s up with this…? Ya’ know- this get up?”
The Captain looked down at himself for a solid couple of seconds and shrugged again.
“I like this shirt?”
And Gunnie is honestly- flabbergasted. What the hell. Is going on.
No. You know what. Gunnie does not care. Really. Maybe the Captain's near death experience made him a new man? Maybe he’s turned over a new leaf? Branching out and being vulnerable with the crew?
Nah, it’s got to be some kind of mind control or something.
But, if Gunnie’s being honest he kind of likes this new Captain- sorry, ‘Skip’. And if some shape shifting is going down then, he’s probably not going to kill the crew wearing a tshirt and some cargo shorts.
“You know what, Skip. Hell yeah, honestly. Good for you man.”
‘Skip’ languidly nods his head, “Right on,”
Gunnie notices the Captain give him a few fugitive glances, almost like he’s unsure if he should ask him something. So Gunnie raises an eyebrow and nods his head in allowance, trying to get ‘Skip’ to just ask him already.
The Captain takes a deep breath and mutters under his breath, too fast to be intelligible, “Whatisthecreatureonmyshirtandwhyaretheresomanypockets?”
“What!” Gunnie has no idea what he just said, “What did you just say?”
He clears his throat and flops his head back towards Gunnie.
“Um… What is this creature on my shirt and why are there so many pockets?”
The Captain starts to squirm under Gunnie’s gaze as he just sort of blinks at him for a moment.
Ha. Gunnie cannot hold back a breathy laugh. This is surreal. “Oh! Okay, well- that creature is a cat…? And I- I honestly don't know why those pants have so many pockets… so yeah.”
Gunnie claps his hands together awkwardly; pinches himself a little to make sure he’s not asleep.
‘Skip’ shrugs kind of sadly and says, “ah.”
“Yeah, sorry man. Not much help…” Gunnie says quietly between nervous laughs.
‘Skip’ rushes to interrupt, “No, no! Thank you. I like cats.”
Gunnie notices a deeply uncomfortable look on the Captain’s face and decides that this conversation has gone on long enough. So he nods to him and turns away to walk back to his work station. Gunnie gets to the doorway and looks back one more time.
The Captain’s looking out the main window. He seems to have lost his train of thought looking at the stars, caught in some kind of memory maybe. Completely forgetting about their previous conversation.
Gunnie has never really thought of the Captain as a sad man per say, hell, even an emotional guy at all, but the look on this guy's face…
It’s times like this that will make Gunnie wonder about the Captain.
Not enough to make up for everything, but enough for Gunnie to not give ‘Skip’ any shit for this.
And if Gunnie’s being honest… this look kind of suits him.
He kind of looks like a dad.