Ettore didn’t really think that would happen. That we would get back on earth, back where it all started. He didn’t really believed Monte when he said he turned the ship back on the way to earth.

Who would believe something like that?

That was supposed to be a death sentence. They were not supposed to come back home. The government shouldn’t even allow it. But after Dibs died things changed. The pairs stayed together — those which she paired for her sick baby project.

What Ettore couldn’t believe the most is that you really stayed with him.

You got paired up by Dibs based on hormones levels, DNA compatibility and genetics. Whatever — he didn’t really knew what that even meant.

And now? Back on earth? You stayed.

Maybe that was some twisted sense of loyalty or you didn’t wanted to lose the feeling of him running his fingers through your hair in the dim light. Or that you would actually feel lonely and cold without his warm body beside you. So you stayed.

The flat was small — only with kitchen, bathroom and living room you turned into some kind of bedroom. With mattress of the wooden floor, salt lamp standing at some books that pretended to make a nightstand and big, flowerpot plant standing in the corner, dying cuz light barely reaches the cramped space.

And now instead of ship’s buzzing there was coffee machine, instead of thin blankets you had thick, nice duvet and curtains that almost always stayed closed thanks to your paranoid tendencies.

“Milk?” Ettore asked standing by the kitchen counter with two different cups in front of him while letting you slump in bed lazily in n the rainy morning.