The Post-Apocalyptic Family Captain

A series of drabbles

Dark-Lady-Devinity

A/n: This one is a combination of suggestions from GelibeanH20 and smergrl3495.

Last chapter!

Of Losing and Finding

Pilot's first thought was that Mr. Kittyhawk was planning another betrayal. But then the aviator thought: what if something actually happened to the plushy puffin? Unless they were fighting, Mr. Kittyhawk was never far from Pilot's side. So to go two whole days without seeing the little creature was disturbing and worrisome. To make matters worse Captain, who knew everything and thus would know where Mr. Kittyhawk was, had left the base to go on one of his special just-for-Captain missions. Panicking, Pilot tore up the entire base looking for the puffin but found no evidence that the bird had ever been there.

The aviator viciously kicked his bathtub bed, cursing the fact that it had not offered up Pilot's bed mate.

The tube was built out of cast iron and made a loud clang of protest when Pilot's foot connected with it. That particular noise was enough to catch Snippy's attention from elsewhere in the base and soon the sniper joined Pilot in the bathroom.

"What's wrong? Were you the one who tore up the base? I just had to tell Engie to hide in case hostile wastelanders broke in." Snippy complained. "Do you know how hard it is to get him out of the fetal position?"

The last thing Pilot needed was a lecture from the boobish shoe, army matron or not. He sniffed loudly, wondering if he was going to cry in front of said shoe, and said, "Mr. Kittyhawk is missing."

That got Snippy's attention fast and it shut him up for a moment. Then, very carefully, Snippy asked, "How do you know he's missing?"

"Because I can't find him!" Pilot snapped like it was obvious. Then he winced as he realised how hysterical that sounded. He had to be a good, strong minion if he was going to learn what had happened to Mr. Kittyhawk. Especially if the puffin's disappearance was part of a devious ploy.

"Well… Mr. Kittyhawk is just playing hide and seek!" Snippy said suddenly. "Yep, that's it. So let's go find him together and then you don't have to cry."

Pilot was going to argue that he wasn't about to cry, lie or no lie, when he thought about it. Snippy was really good at finding things. Just like that one time… "So you'll find Mr. Kittyhawk like you found me?"

"Yeah. Just like that." Snippy said.

XxX

While Pilot did not seem to mind bringing up the time he had gotten so very horribly lost, Snippy was not fond of remembering that time. Snippy had just been made "Army Matron" because Engie had accidently called him "mother" when the engineer had a concussion and Snippy wanted nothing to do with it. The sniper was still struggling with the knowledge that Engie was actually Dr. Alexander Gromov. So it was really a nice break for Snippy when Captain sent Pilot out on a relatively simple mission. It meant that Snippy would not have to deal with being called a boobish shoe or being threatened by a deranged man-child for a few days.

Pilot did not come home for a week.

The last thing in the world that Snippy wanted was for Captain to think he was actually worried about the aviator. That would only confirm to Captain that Snippy was good mother material. But Pilot should have only been gone for three days tops and it had been nearly seven. There had also been a bad wind storm during that week and a landscape of ruins became a landscape of deadly projectiles when the wind was high. Finally, Snippy told himself that he wasn't worried at all. But they could not afford to lose any of the survivors of the apocalypse so he went to find Pilot.

It took another week to find the aviator.

Snippy's nerves were shot when he finally came across Pilot. The green-goggled man was sat in a make shift shelter, curled in on himself. But he appeared otherwise alright. At some point Snippy had been looking for a body instead of a living being but he knew that Pilot was highly skilled at surviving any situation. Still, it was a relief to know the other man was alright.

"Pilot!" Snippy called out, trying and failing to hide the relief in his voice.

"Shoe?" Pilot muttered. Then he looked up and made eye contact with his finder.

For a moment things were awkward between them. Then Pilot shyly said, "I want a hug" at the same time Snippy sighed, held out his arms and said, "Come here."

Pilot bounded over to the sniper, threw himself into his arms and said, "I got turned around in the storm and lost my way. Captain isn't mad at me for being gone so long is he? I'm not a bad minion am I?"

"That's what got you so upset? Making Captain mad and not being lost?" Snippy asked. "You need better priorities."

Pilot kicked at one of Snippy's shins but his heart was more into the hug then properly punishing the shoe.

"You are an ungrateful child. But Captain isn't mad." Snippy said. He didn't add that the only reason that Captain wasn't going to get mad was because he was probably too busy gloating to Engie about how he knew Snippy had motherly instincts. "Anyway, let's go home."

XxX

It turned out that Captain had taken Mr. Kittyhawk with him on a whim. But at least Snippy and Pilot managed to get a nice bonding moment out of their reminiscing.

THE END