Chapter Text
“Oi! Fluff & Nonsense!” Reno’s voice called out across the mess hall.
“I think she means you two,” Tilly said, giving them a pointed look before shifting her gaze past Paul’s shoulder.
“If we ignore her,” Paul began in a staged whisper. “Maybe she’ll go away.” Hugh rolled his eyes, before turning to look at Reno.
“Morning Jett. Join us?”
“Well since you’ve asked,” she said, slinging herself into a chair.
“So,” Tilly said, leaning in close to Jett. “Which one’s ‘Fluff’?”
“He is,” Hugh said at almost exactly the same time as Paul said, “Hugh. Obviously.”
“I mean…” Tilly said conspiratorially, “it could be either of them. Dr Culber is fluffy and lovely but with a core of steel. Commander Stamets is all prickly on the outside but that’s just to protect his inner teddy bear. ”
“I do not have an ‘inner teddy bear’,” Paul protested, attacking his french toast with vigour. “I am tirelessly driven and unrelenting in my expectations of others.
“I don’t know,” Adira piped up quietly. “You were ah… pretty nice to me, when I arrived.”
“I was not ‘nice’. I was interested in what you were hiding.”
“I’m sure you’re very nice too Doctor Culber,” they continued, blushing.
“Oh my fluff is only skin deep,” Hugh said, spearing a cube of mellon. He ate it trying not to smile too broadly at Paul’s continued blustering.
“They’re both ‘fluff’ and ‘nonsense’," Jett declared her mouth full. "And that, my dear friends, is the joy of the thing.”