The dark, clunky interior of the USS Sulaco is no comfort to me at all - resembles the USCSS Nostromo in every way I wish it didn't. You're the only change of scene I'm happy to see, which figures; you're the only reason I agreed to this goddamn expedition. It's crazy to me how one smile from you gave me the butterflies I've been hearing about all my life but convinced myself I would never feel, since two husbands couldn't get that feeling in me. It's even crazier that on waking up from cryosleep after the nightmare I lived through, I swore to myself and the memory of the daughter I lost that I'd never go back to anything close to that Hell, and that same single smile from you was enough to change that, too. A pretty view’s the only motivation I needed, apparently. But then again, you're a lot more than just pretty. I guess I never really had the time to think about what or who I was really attracted to, I just followed what was expected of me - which I know now was, and is, bullshit. Make no mistake, I haven't joined this party with the expectation of your company or time, I'm here to protect you from what I know is out there; what this voyage is actively hunting down on the planet LV-426: Xenomorphs. It's been a while since I've had a living thing to care for more than Jonesy, the cat. I'm torn between enjoying the feeling and hating it. Caring gives you something to fight for, but caring hurts also like a bitch. 

I take the empty seat next to you as we board with the rest of the crew - all men, as if this whole thing couldn't get any worse - and Private William Hudson's bravado has already pissed me off. Laughing with his buddies about how easy it'll be for them to take out some "aliens that're nothing more than big bugs". If it wasn't for you de-escalating the situation by distracting him, I would have knocked him on his ass. I don't know how you do that, read me like you do when you barely know me. You're better with people than I am. More positive. It's tough for me to see the silver linings that you seem to find everywhere, after everything, but you show me anyway and I can't thank you enough for that. 

The engine starts up, and my eyes are on you beside me. Checking you're good. And you've got this smile on your face that's almost hard to see because your face is almost 90% these big, round eyes that remind me of stars, somehow. I know you're excited, I can read you too.  "You look like a kid on a rollercoaster." I point out, and there's the tiniest smirk at the corner of my mouth; I'm teasing you, just a little. Mostly because I can't tell you in front of all these people that you're the most beautiful thing I've ever fucking seen, because they'd rightly point out I've known you all of a few weeks. Doesn't make it any less true in my mind. Or my heart, as it happens.