for @christian-latte-anon, who gave me permission to play in her wheelhouse with her AU and OC a little bit!
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Tiffany stands on top of the world. Or at least, that's what it feels like, the first time she looks out at the world from Eureka's cockpit like this.
Chuck is next to her, left to her right, and they're not-quite but almost in each other's heads. They've drifted before, enough that ghost drifting has startled them both awake in the aftermath, but not like this. Not for real, for the world, for their fathers and for each other.
There's a song Tiff heard growing up, something about being on top of the world. She knows it'll annoy Chuck once he's in her head and she's in his and they're sharing all this, once Tendo Choi slurps his coffee and gives the go-ahead. All she remembers of it, anyway, is if you love somebody, you better tell them while they're here. The beginning of it all.
She's tried it before. She told her dad she loved him once, just once, as a joke when he didn't know who she was to him. He thought it was funny. She wishes he hadn't. She told her mom much the same, and Cleo wouldn't look at her for an hour. Every time she's drifted it's been an offer and a plea: I can love you, will you love me?If she could drift with either of her parents, she wonders what she would see.
With Chuck, they both know. The answer for both of them is yes. But when everything is an open book and you're sharing every thought, words spoken carry more weight.
"Hey, Charlie," she says, cutting off Tendo before he can begin their countdown. Chuck looks at her like he already knows what she's going to say and maybe he does, but is letting her say it anyway so he can say it back. "Love you," Tiffany says, grinning more fully than she's ever been sure of.
"Love you too, Tiff," he grumbles as if he isn't smiling inside his helmet too, as if she can't hear it.
Tendo's voice crackles through the comms. "Neural Handshake achieved."
Tiffany and Chuck are on top of the world.