"So how long will you be?" Mark asked as the alien giant fetched his keys.

"Not very long," Jack answered. He glanced over with a grin. "Didn't realize ye cared." Mark scoffed.

"Don't get in over your head, you're just my only source of warmth." Jack had a good chuckle at that; the diminutive engineer was swaddled in a pile of blankets that swamped a large, fluffy pillow, which was "borrowed" from Felix's guest room since the other giant was out with his fiancé.

"Okay, so yer warm enough? Got the internal temperature high up for ya; tv remote right beside ya." Jack patted the slick remote sitting on the cushion next to Mark's nest. Mark nodded. "Some snacks available just on the coffee table, and yer knife to open them." Jack scratched his head, making sure he didn't forget anything. "And... and uh..."

"Your marbles?" Mark groused humorously. Jack sneered with a reciprocating smile.

"Don't need 'em!" He ruffled his little buddy's hair with one finger, quickly pulling it away with a mischievous giggle as Mark swatted him away. "It'll just be an hour or two, all right? But even if ye hear me comin' in, hide just in case." Mark shuddered in agreement, recalling a precedent scenario.

"Just try not to get run over by the fangirls," he remarked, "Or become a popsicle man... or take too long." Jack nodded and pulled open the door.

"Don't sweat it, little duder. I'll be back as soon as I can!" Mark shivered and bunched his shoulders when the cold wind from outside blasted him. He shrank down and waited, even after Jack closed and locked the door, until the surface temperature faded back to the common, heavenly warmth.

What to do now? Mark looked around and decided to settle with something good and mundane: Being a couch potato. He ventured briefly from his nest of comfort to stomp on the remote's power button, and then scurried back to his haven to view the lit up big screen. The sound startled him at first, but he quickly accustomed to it and found himself on the news channel.

"There's not much news on what scientists around the globe are claiming to be a spacecraft, but there have been studies that publically announce that this is, in fact, a potential homeworld invasion," the reporter was saying. Mark winced when he noticed the video feed of the destroyed Aurora. "The big question everyone seems to be asking: Could there be aliens among us? What do they look like? And are there more out there? Scientists are now questioning the very borders of our world, and wondering just like the rest of us what more there is to discover. Back to you, Jim."

"Thanks, Eliza. Uh... temperature today? It's cold. Very cold. Expect buckets of snow.... Still pretty dry. For now. Jim?" Mark darted again from his blanket to change the channel. It switched onto a commercial for bubble blowers, but Mark was happy to watch something less serious.

The binging went on for a while, and Mark found himself almost falling asleep when he noticed a pixel on the otherwise perfect screen that wouldn't go away. He rubbed his eyes and squinted, even trying to change the channel, turn off the tv altogether, but nothing worked.

"Shit." Mark pulled his sleeves down to cover as much of his skin as possible before climbing his way down the couch and walking across the vast room's floor to see how to fix it. Jack would kill me if I broke his tv! The hyperbolized thought only made Mark dread the giant's return, and he hurried over to see what was up. He craned his neck and eyed the pristine screen, thankful that he had muted the tv before his departure. It helped him think, and he began pondering the possible problems. Hmm... let's see... As the bright colors continued to dance across the screen, Mark finally spied the anomaly: It was toward the bottom left, and something appeared to be on it. The engineer frowned. What the hell is that suppose to be?

Then the thing moved, wriggling ten metallic legs as it budged just a small bit.

Mark blanched and took a step back. I remember those things! Fuck! That one was scary enough even with Jack in the house. Now he's not even here! What were they called? Mark nervously tried to rack his brain for the foreign word when he heard a light tapping. He looked down, and almost immediately he yelped. There were more spiders; the second was making its way out from under the furniture holding up the tv, and behind it the floor was covered in cobwebs, covering a white spherical shape against the wall. Mark felt queasy and took a step back, feeling his heart race.

"U-uh... e-easy, fella," he pleaded in a higher octave. "I, uh... I come in peace?" The spider clacked its metal mandibles together and warbled a shriek, rearing back. Mark took that as his cue to go and bolted. He sprinted blindly into the hallway, hunted by the tap-tap of the terrifying decapedal arachnids. "I changed my mind!" Mark huffed into the chilly air, "Gimme a loud-ass Irish giant any day!" He skidded into Jack's room and ran for his escape pod. He shot his grappling hook and, thankfully, hit his target and shot off the ground just in time.

"Oomph!" Mark hit the edge of the end table and grunted. He scrabbled for a hold before he managed to push up onto the smooth surface. "Karen!" He hobbled to the barely functional ship. "Karen!"

"Yes, captain?" Mark rolled his eyes at the inappropriate title and stumbled into the belly of the craft.

"I need total lockdown, understand me? I'm under attack."

"Yes, captain." The lights briefly lit up, and then they darkened to a deep red as the doors slammed shut. Mark watched gratefully as the semi-repaired windshield protected itself with a silver layer, completely sealing him inside the pod. He sighed in relief, only to tense up and stumble as the floor suddenly rocked beneath his feet. He heard angry chittering as the armored spiders pushed his ship and made it shift and groan. Heart hammering, Mark staggered to the seat and flopped down, tying the broken seat belt to keep himself in place.

"Karen? Is it holding?" He yelled.

"Structural integrity sustaining," the computerized voice answered impassively, "Weaponry systems are still offline."

"That's fine. That's fine." Mark finally exhaled and allowed himself to catch his breath. Please get home soon Jack. His toes curled up anxiously: How long could he last without him? How long would he have lasted if they had never met?

"Oxygen levels at ten percent." Mark's eyes flew wide open.

"WHAT!?" He exclaimed. "What the fuck do you mean!? There's plenty of oxygen outside!!!"

"Oxygen siphoner is irreparably damaged," Karen chirped. Mark muttered a few cross things about "irreparable damage" as the ship was rocked again. His head snapped forward as he gripped the armrests, trying to keep still. Come on. Come on... Mark's eyes squeezed shut as he was bucked and jostled. Come on, please Jack, please...!

Karen was down to four percent oxygen when Mark started to feel the effects. Despite his efforts to calm his breathing, he was still feeling woozy and having a hard time looking at anything without seeing double. It dropped down to two percent when Mark finally heard something beyond the ringing in his own ears: The front door. Since he was trapped inside of his own ship, it was hard to hear in the first place, but thankfully the sound was familiar enough to catch Mark's attention. And then he thought he might jump for joy when he heard the familiar Irish-like accent.

"Mahrk? I'm back!" Jack frowned at the muted tv and looked around for its spectator. "Mark? Oh come on, is this how ya greet someone back on yer world? What was it, 'Earth'?" Jack set the groceries down on the kitchen counters and frowned when he still didn't see Mark. Maybe he's in my room. Jack headed into the hallway. "Mark, come on, stop fucking-" He stopped in the doorway and widened his eyes. There were at least four Weablers milling around Mark's escape ship, rocking it from side to side with their strong forelegs. The ship was completely metal, no glass or openings, and the giant even noticed some tiny red lights glaring at the front of the pod.

"Oi!" He barked. He stormed across the room, and at the vibrations of his booming steps the spiders took off. Jack growled an annoyed "stupid fuckin' Weablers" and pulled his shoe off. But then he hesitated. Where's Mark? He resorted to setting the shoe down carefully and grabbing his empty coffee mug from last night, and he quickly dropped the cup over one or two of the pests. The other two managed to escape, though to where he would have to find out later; right now, his number one priority was making sure Mark was okay.

"Mark!?" Jack put his ear to the hard shell of the ship and lightly knocked on it. "Hey! Ye in there? Are you okay?" He heard clattering, and then the shields slid back, and the door opened. He pulled away and looked to see Mark stumble out of the ship, coughing and gasping for delicious air. "Mark!" Jack swept his small friend up and held him to his chest. "What happened?" He exclaimed. He waited patiently for Mark to catch his breath, and after a little bit of a backrub to rub warmth back into him, Mark woozily flung his head back and stared up at the giant.

He let out a goofy grin. "M-my hero," he awed. Jack's brow furrowed.

"What's going on? Yer acting funny." Mark giggled with jerky breaths.

"Ox-oxygen not sup-supplied."

"Huh?"

O-oxygen! Oxen- the oxen not free!"

"Wha...?" Jack was befuddled, and then even more confused when Mark went on to sing "Olly olly oxen free" in a high, strained voice. Jack shook his head in disbelief and decided to try phoning a friend. As he waited for Felix to pick up, Mark suddenly squinted up at him and twitched a shaky grin.

"You're s-so big," he said wondrously. He then giggled deliriously. "I c-can't even s-s-see you properly!" Nervous, Jack tapped his foot until he was finally answered.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Felix! Hey." Jack tried not to sound too relieved. "Um, if-if somebody suffocates for a bit, and then stops suffocating, does anything, um... strange, happen?"

"... What the hell did you do to him this time?" Jack groaned as Mark kept trying to swipe at his phone, which was far beyond his reach.

"I came home and found him sealed in his own ship, cuz there were a bunch of Warblers attacking him. When I chased them off, he came out coughing and gasping for air, but now he's all... giggly." There was a few seconds of silence, and then Jack could have sworn he heard a smothered laugh from the other line. "What!?" He demanded, "What's so funny? This is serious!"

"He'll be fine!" Felix laughed, "Just make sure you record all the dumb bullshit he does before his blood oxygen levels restabalize."

"There's no damage?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"No, he was conscious enough to react to your voice and get out of the ship on his own, wasn't he?"

"... yeah?"

"And he said he was a trainee for space exploration, didn't he?"

"Yeah?"

"So there you go! He's experienced, and has, uh, strong lungs! And it wasn't long enough for any real damage, by the sound of it. Just- just please, please, record the dumb shit he does. I wanna see it."

"Fine," Jack huffed, "But for medical purposes."

"Agreed." Jack activated the camera on his phone and tentatively hit record.

"Um, M-Mark? Can ye hear me?" Mark stopped tracing the grooves in the giant's fingerprint and stared up at the camera. He beamed.

" 'sup?" He giggled. "Eye-ce to see you!" Felix cackled on the phone, and Jack rolled his eyes.

"Yer sure it's temporary?"

"Bubbles!" The engineer cried giddily.

"Yeah yeah, it's fine. It's bound to stop any second now." Mark yawned and snuggled one of Jack's fingers. Jack restrained himself from awing and couldn't help but agree, now that the danger was over, that he was acting pretty goofily.

"Okay, well I'll let you go then."

"Thanks for making my day!" Jack hung up and sighed, smiling a little.

"Goober," he muttered fondly. "Guess yer sleeping in the pocket then." When he tried to gently deposit his intoxicated friend in his pocket, the little human wouldn't let go of his finger. Jack sighed. "Fine, I only need one hand anyway." He glared at the upside down mug as he put his hand in his pocket and set to work. With a thorough investigation of the house, he was appalled to discover eleven Weablers. Eleven! It was an outrageous infestation, but Jack handled them quickly as he could and plopped down on the couch. He'd fortunately only sat for a minute before he finally felt movement against his chest. Two seconds later, and a head poked out of his pocket.

"Jack?" Mark scrunched up in a yawn and rubbed his eyes. "What-what happened...? Why does my chest hurt?"

"Yer blood oxygen levels were low," the giant grunted, regurgitating Felix's words.

"Oh." Mark's eyes widened. "The spiders!" He sat up, wobbling against Jack's breastbone. "Did you-?" Jack was quick to reassure him.

"You don't need to worry about them anymore."

"Okay..." Mark slumped with a tired sigh. "Did you get the egg sack?" Jack looked down with a blank stare.

"... egg sack?" Mark shrugged and nodded. Jack groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fahk!" He swore. "Where at?"

"Under the tv."

"Damn. Alright, I'll take care of it." He carefully scooped the spaceman out and set him beside his phone. As he went to check out the nest, Mark decided to entertain himself with Jack's electronic device... only to frown.

"... Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is there a picture of me drooling in my sleep?"