Chapter Text
the next morning the boys woke up to a voice on mark's watch.
"captain?" the nurse called out.
"yes?"
"we're ready for him" the nurse informed him. mark and tom looked at each other with sadness in their eyes. tom nodded his head and got up from his seat accepting what was about to happen.
"come here" mark said. mark wrapped his arms around tom's shoulders. tom responded to the hug and buried his head in the crook of mark's neck. tom breathed in mark's scent. both men refused to cry. they let each other go and looked at each other. "if we don't go now, we'll never leave these quarters" mark said. they started to walk to the medical ward. when they got inside they saw the crew standing besides the same bed tom woke up in.
"lay down tom" the nurse directed at him. tom listened and laid down. he took a deep breath in trying to release some of his nerves but in vain.
"thank you for hanging out and playing music with me" brandon said.
"anytime man" tom responded. the rest of crew said their goodbyes then it was marks turn. mark held tom by his hand and looked him in the eyes.
"you coming onto this ship was the best thing to ever happen to me" mark started to choke up. there's so much mark wants to say but the words refuse to come to him. "i will forever love you Thomas Matthew DeLonge" mark wanted to let a tear fall but he had to keep his composure in front of his crew.
"i will never forget you" tom said. "i will always love you Mark Allen Hoppus" tom gave mark a small smile. mark kissed the back of tom's hand and stepped back to let the nurse do her job. she put a helmet looking thing on toms head.
"are you ready to back to your time thomas?" the nurse asked. tom nodded his head 'yes'. the nurse pushed a button and tom saw a bright light. he saw the crew and mark's face disappear into the light.
tom woke up at his desk in a puddle of his own drool. he looked over at the clock that's besides his bed. it read 7:30 pm. his parents should be home anytime soon. he got his pajamas out of his drawer and a towel out of his closet and went to take a shower. tom turned on the water and stepped in. he started to think about the past two weeks he spent on that spaceship. he thought about all the times with mark. after he was done with his shower, tom got a tin box and put a picture of himself and mark in there. he put the tin box under his bed. tom walked over to his closet and opened the closet door just in case mark came to him. tom looked over at the clock again. this time it read 1:30 am. tom got in bed and started to think about mark and everyone on the spacecraft.
mark stood over the empty medical bed and stared at it.
"want me to leave you alone captain?" the nurse asked.
"no" mark said coldly. "i was just about to leave" mark turned around and walked out of the medical room to go back to his quarters.
he walked into his quarters and sat down on the couch. he poured himself a glass of whiskey and started to think about tom. he's the only person mark ever fell in love with. once mark finally felt comfortable, he started to cry. his cheeks were wet with his tears. once mark felt like he cried enough, he wiped away his tears and turned on his TV. he went onto youtube to see if tom actually made it as a musician. he looked up Angels and Airwaves in the search bar and saw him. mark saw that tom made a song called Aliens Exist. mark listened to it a few times. he went to the youtube channel and the first video he clicked on is a video for Surrender. tom looks so handsome all grown up. the next video he watches is The Adventure. his hair is so long. it looks perfect for him. 'he's so handsome.' mark thought to himself.
mark went through all the music videos and admired tom's songwriting. he then looks tom up on google and saw that he went through a divorce. mark wishes he was there for him. he read through all of tom's accomplishments throughout his life. after that, mark watched all of his interviews. he noticed tom's voice has gotten a little deeper as he got older. mark preferred his squeaky voice. in this one interview, tom talks about consciousness and how aliens are real and how they're out there. mark chuckled to himself. after mark was done watching tom, he went to his bed and fell asleep.
— the next morning —
"set a course for earth" mark said to the helmsmen.
"copy that" david said. he punched in the coordinates then flew to earth.
when they arrived to earth, david parked the ship. mark and matt took a shuttle to go back down to earth. mark gave matt the coordinates. once they got to tom's house, they parked the shuttle in his backyard. the house looked like it hasn't been lived in for years. mark exited the shuttle and started to dig for tom's box. once he found it, he opened the box and saw a note that read "For Mark" on the top of it. he opened to see some pictures of tom throughout his life. there were pictures of his kids. there were pictures of him and his wife. there was one photo of his band. all the the photos have the dates they were taken. at the bottom of the pictures there was a picture of the two of them. mark picked it up and looked at it for a moment.when mark put the picture down he noticed at the bottom of the box there was an envelope. he opened it and saw a note with a bunch of flash drives. he put everything back in the box and headed back shuttle.
when marks shift ended, he headed back to his quarters. he took out the envelope and pulled out tom's letter.
May 26, 2058
Hey Mark how's it going? it's been almost 60 years since i came back to my time. it has probably only been an hour for you though. do you miss me? i miss you. i miss you a lot. i have never stopped thinking about you. i had a great time with you. best two weeks of my life man. i have made video vlogs over the years for you to watch. i hope you enjoy them.
also i told my wife and kids that you were a childhood friend that died cause the real story will sound insane.
i wish we had more time together. maybe in another lifetime we'll find each other. we weren't meant to be forever in this life but i have hope for us in another life.
i will always love you Mark.
- Tom
mark folded the letter back up and put it back inside the envelope. mark looked through the pictures again then placed everything neatly inside the box. mark took out all the flash drives and watched all the videos tom has made for him. he watched him become a very good dad to his son and daughter. mark could only get through two flashdrives before he couldn't ignore his body trying to tell him to sleep. he got in bed and started to drift off to sleep.
i guess it's time to move on and learn to live without tom.
The End