Comedy with a hint of angst, maybe some fluff if you squint

Word Count: 1359

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Inyoung sighed as she looked around. Red, all she saw was red. Red dust, red dirt, red bushes, and even a red sky. It was like this planet only had one color scheme, even Mars isn’t this red. There was absolutely nothing-nothing that was living in sight. It was just like the Sahara Desert , but fifty-two times drier, and empty.

“We could’ve transported somewhere else. Luckily, there isn’t anything to eat us.” Yet.

She rolled her eyes and walked away from her partner. Inyoung couldn’t stand him, at least not after what he did. Does he think I’m weak? I can perfectly defend myself.

Her partner was too busy checking the coordinates on his handheld device, trying how figure out how to get the both of them home, that he didn’t notice Inyoung moving further away from him. Bringing it up in the air for any signal, he finally noticed the dark-haired woman was at least one kilometer away from him. “HEY!” Damn she walks fast. Who walks that fast?! It’s not like she has anywhere else to go, were stranded…. WE’RE STRANDED. “And just the two of us.”

Aron didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not considering the fight they had way before they got transported into an unknown planet.

He finally caught up to her within a few seconds, along with the occasional pausing to take a breather, but chose to stay a few feet away from her. He knew how mad she was. But if they were in that situation again, he wouldn’t hesitate to repeat what he did. So, now, he just chose to watch over her from a distance.

Suddenly, Inyoung stopped. Aron almost rammed into her back due to the sudden action. Why did she stop? He moved to the right a little bit to see her face when he realized why she paused abruptly. In front of them stood, not even standing but more like hovering off the ground, a pod, more like a tiny spaceship. Inside there was some sort object. Aron already knows what Inyoung was thinking.

“Lee Inyoung, no-” Too late. She reached out towards the pod before he could say anything. Her finger made contact with the button on the front of the pod. Instantly, the top part opened. Both of them held their breaths for any impact or attack that may come their way. Yet, nothing happened. Inyoung moved closer while Aron reached for any possible weapons that he had on his body. He was going to take out the boomerang from the back of his pocket when Inyoung squealed all of sudden.

“Its….SO CUTE!” She clasped her hands under her chin as she stares inside the pod. Rolling his eyes, Aron walked to stand beside her to see what she was gushing over and what made her heart of stone squeal like a teenage girl. Once he saw what it was, his mouth opened in shock. Then he titled his head to the right.

“What….the heck is that?”

Inyoung side-eyed Aron in distaste. If you think I’m going to talk to you at all, you’re wrong. She faced the tiny spaceship with heart eyes while Aron stood beside her, still staring at object-creature, at a loss for words. His eyes moved to her and widened his eyes in fear. “W-We are not taking this with us! We don’t even know what it is!”

And of course, she ignored his words. All her focus was on the creature inside the pod. It had big ears, about the size of a bunny but pointy, long eyelashes, no doubt huge eyes, and best of all, it was tiny. Almost the size of a human baby. Actually, it was cuter than a human baby. It even wore a tiny cloak. As if it noticed the sudden change in its atmosphere, the creature opened its eyes. Game over. Inyoung squealed ten times louder than she previously did.

Meanwhile, Aron stares between the two in disbelief. There’s no way we’re taking this wit-. He shouldn’t have to finish his thought because knew, right then and there, that there was no way to stop her from bringing the creature along for the journey.

“We can’t take it.”

“……..”

“Come on, we have to go back so the group knows where to find us.”

“……..”

“JUST TALK TO ME!”

Inyoung sent him an irritated look in response and faced back to the tiny being. She muttered , “oh, now he wants to talk.”

“Besides, we can’t.”

His face shifted into confusion. “Why?”

Inyoung pointed her finger in front of her with an emotionless expression. “I’m pretty sure it belongs to the dude directing his gun at us.”

They both looked at each other with widened eyes and profound fear. Instantly, Aron grabbed her hand and ran in the opposite direction. Inyoung glanced back at the creature, shouting, “BYE VERY ADORABLE CREATURE THAT I MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN!”

They both ran together, trying to dodge the laser beams, until they eventually escaped the laser beams. Like logs, they dropped down on the ground, heaving. They both swore they have never ran that fast and hard in their entire lives of living.

Regaining his breaths, Aron peered over at Inyoung. He watched her with a pair of strange eyes. Sniffing, he pulled himself up and lent a hand towards her. A smile graced his lips. It made Inyoung look at him with unsure eyes before she got up herself, without any help from him. Not totally embarrassed or anything, Aron nodded in response and tucked his hands away behind his back. He examined around where they were at and then at the sky. It seemed like it was going to go dark due to the arrays of red streaking within each other. “If we keep walking, maybe we’ll find shelter or a town.”

Inyoung didn’t say nothing back and walked off to where she hopefully thought would be the way to survival.

“Inyoung, other way.”

A couple of awkward, silent hours later of walking mindlessly through the unknown terrain, the pair reached a small town. It was full of different creatures that have traveled far and wide to a rest stop, weirdly. They walked to an open bar and sat down in the chairs. Immediately, they were bombarded with the waitress who had red horns on top of her head and blue eyes.

“What are y’all in for today?” Her southern drawl surprised the pair.

“Uhm, just water and maybe some food that humans can digest, please.” The woman nodded her head and walked away. Aron sighed and stretched his body to get rid of the fatigue when he unconsciously looked over at Inyoung. Head propped on her hand, she gazed at nothing in particular with a far away stare. He sighed. If she wasn’t going to talk to him, he might as talk to her. “I didn’t mean to undermine you.”

Inyoung stared at with a “really” look.

“It’s true! I only…” He trailed off, avoiding her gaze. “ I know you can handle anything. The only reason why I defended you was because the other guy had a gun. I saw it in the mirror behind him, he was going to shoot. If he didn’t, I wouldn’t have intervened. Maybe grab some popcorn to watch the show.”

Inyoung scowled and hit him on the shoulder lightly. She got where he was coming from. And for some reason she became quite thankful. Thinking the situation over, she realized that she really didn’t have anything to defend herself but her fists. But even that wouldn’t have a chance against the person she was up earlier.

“Two people coming after us in just one day, we must be that popular.” She laughed quietly at her joke as Aron smiled at her. She held up her hand in reluctance and surrender. Laughing, he grabbed hers in his. They both shared a look until it broke by the waitress placing down two cups of water and a plate of- “snails?”