by Elin Wyn
She took a sip from her glass. Lips pursed, she put it down quickly.
"What's wrong?" I sniffed the orange stuff filling my own cup. Both sweet and tart, it was strange, but not unpleasant.
She looked at her glass sadly. "Orange juice. I couldn't believe they had it on the replicator menu. I had it once, and it was fantastic. I wanted you to try it."
I sipped my glass, cautiously. The taste was strong, but good. But after a taste of the stew, I knew what was wrong.
"The juice is fine, it's great, actually." I went to the replicator and dialed up two glasses of red wine. I was going to need it. "It just doesn't go with the stew. It's not the right time for it."
I took a long drink of the wine, the heavy tang washing away the sweetness of the juice. "It's sort of like us."
She took a sip from the wine glass. "You're right, this is better."
"Kara, we can't stay together. Right now, we're like the stew and the orange juice." Damn it, that made no sense.
At least it caught her attention, got past the shell she'd put up. "Interesting. What do you mean? We work great together. And, I thought...” She looked away.
"Void." I knelt by her chair, wanting to cup her face, soothe away the hurt in her eyes, but I kept my hands safely to myself. "We both thought. But the timing is wrong."
She looked at me blankly, then pushed away from the table, away from me. "I'm getting a shower."
I watched her peel out of her clothes, long legs for her small body. Lean, less from toning and vanity, probably more from never enough to eat, and having to wiggle into tight places for her work.
My eyes wandered down the length and curves of her. She was going to kill me. Just being around her, I could taste the scent of her in the air, crushing my resolve.
“Kara, we are good together.”
She stepped into the refresher, turned on the water, and closed the door. “You'll have to speak up.”
I moved closer to the refresher, but kept my eyes fixed on the ceiling. At least, I tried to, but I couldn't help but watch her as she stood under the water, her hair slicked away from her face. Even under the massaging pulses, her shoulders were stiff.
Waiting for me to deliver the blow.
“Kara, you’ve got to understand. I didn't know. But it looks like my people, the Doc and the Pack, are at war with the Helmet Heads. And I don't know how many there are.”
I slumped against the wall.
“I don't want you in the middle of it. I don't know if I can keep you safe.”
She flung open the shower door, ignoring the water spraying on the floor around her.
“I never asked you to keep me safe. I didn't think that's what we were basing this…” she waved wildly “whatever the hell it is between us on.”
Kara continued, and I backed away from the fury in her eyes. “Who the hell are you to talk about trying to keep me safe? Who was keeping you safe earlier today? What, exactly, were you going to do if I hadn't come around, looking out for your ass?”
I pushed back towards her, my own anger riled. “I would've healed in time. I needed to rest and then I would've gotten out on my own just fine, thank you.”
She dried off quickly. “Sure you would've. It looked like you were doing a great job of that.”
I moved to grab her arm, but she stalked away, snatching her clothes up from the floor. “You know,” I yelled, “it might have been easier if I had known that there were two of them at that address.”
“And who's fault is it that you didn't,” she spat back, toweling her hair. “You're the one that left me behind, didn't give me a chance to tell you.”
I ran my hand through my own hair, to keep my hands busy, to keep from ripping the leggings and shirt out of her hands, rather than let her keep dressing. “Don’t go.”
“Fuck you,” she shrugged on her jacket. “You can’t have it both ways.”
“You’re not safe here.”
“Not your call.” she tugged on her boots and moved towards the door.
“No,” I growled, grabbing her and spinning her towards me.
“You can’t have it both ways, Davien.” The hint of tears glistening in her eyes cut me more than her words. “You either need me, or you don’t.”
I buried my face in her hair. “Void forgive me, I need you.”
Kara tugged my shirt front impatiently, pulling me towards her. “Then do something about it, why don’t you?” she whispered, then kissed me. There was nothing gentle in her touch this time, only hot fire and desire. Like molten fire burning through a reactor wall, every desire I’d had for her broke free at her kiss. I pulled her to me, cradling her head with one hand while fighting with the clasp of her shirt with the other.
“Why the hell did you put on clothes?” I muttered while pulling it off her shoulders.
“Because you were being a dick,” she answered, pressing against me, her hands running under my shirt, brushing the waistband of my pants. “Besides, you’re still dressed, too.”
I stepped away long enough to pull my shirt off, and returned to kissing down her neck, craving the taste of her. “You’ve got to get out of your pants now,” I growled. “I don’t think the replicator here is programmed for clothing.”
She pushed me back against the wall, and I waited, nearly panting with need for her, while she kicked off the boots and wiggled out of the stupid pants.
In seconds, she was back, her skin pressed against mine, arms wrapped around my neck. My cock strained painfully against its confinement. “I like those pants,” she murmured, then nipped at the edge of my ear.
Void, if she did that again, I’d need new clothes myself.
With a growl, I picked her up, and, with two long strides, took her to the bed. “We’ve got to talk about things, Kara.”
She slid out of my arms to kneel on the bed, her hands busy at the fastenings at my waist. She stopped, then stroked my straining length through the fabric.
I groaned, knees buckling, and she grinned. “Now, or later?”
I tore off the pants, seams bedamned, and forced her back to lay on the bed.
“Later.”
She pulled me towards her as she lay back, but I was done being led. I had other plans. I lay outstretched next to her. “Hold still, sweetheart.”
“What?”
I pinned her wrists above her head with one hand and ,with the other, palmed her breast, feeling her nipple harden at my touch. “For once in your life, would it kill you to listen to me?” I fell on her lips, drinking in the feel of her writhing beneath me, the softness of her skin. My hand slid lower, and I rubbed two fingers at the v of her legs.
“Oh, Darkness, Kara, you’re so fucking wet.” I mumbled into her neck, then swallowed her scream with my mouth as one finger slid inside her, followed by a second, slowly pumping. I ground the heel of my palm onto her mound and, as if lit on fire, she arched up, shattering around me.
As her breathing slowed, I rolled onto her, raining kisses down her neck. “I can’t hold out anymore, Kara,” I growled.
She wrapped her legs around my back, guiding me towards her. “I never asked you to.”
Her nails bit into my shoulder as she pulled, and, with I shout I, rammed into her.
From that moment there was nothing else, nothing but her beneath me, my pounding into her, her legs tangled with mine, the taste of her sweat and her soft cries, the feel of her heat encasing me, the sound of my pulse rising higher and higher until, at one hard thrust, she screamed “Davien!” and I roared, losing myself into her in a shudder of release.
Kara
Slowly, I pulled myself back together, my scattered thoughts returning to my still throbbing body.
Davien rested on his elbows above me, head dropped down onto my shoulder, panting. I ran one hand down his back and he turned his face to nuzzle my neck.
"That's not what I meant to do," he moved to hover over me, his face inches from mine, his eyes scanning over me.
I mustered the strength to give a little squeeze down below and he yelped.
"I don't remember objecting." The words flashed me back to how we met, to struggling beneath him in his quarters when he proposed working together. Months, years ago, surely. I couldn’t feel this way about someone after only a few days, could I?
His hands on my skin pulled me from my thoughts, left space for nothing else but sensation.
"This time," he said stroking my hair back from my face, punctuating his words with kisses and nips, "this time, I'm willing to take my time and enjoy you."
And he did. And I did.
Afterwards, I lay tangled in his arms, half sprawled over him, legs intertwined with his.
He pulled the covers up over us both and I nestled into his shoulder.
"We’re going to have to talk about some things, Kara" he started.
“Later,” I mumbled and kissed his chest before drifting off to exhausted slumber.
An unknown time later, my eyes flew open, heart pounding from dreams of running, scared and hungry, through the streets of the city.
Davien rolled over and tightened his arm around me, but didn't wake.
What the hell was I doing here?
He seemed like a good guy. I wasn't enough of a liar to deny there was something between us, and, Void take me, the sex was hot. But he was caught up in some mystery. It wasn't that I minded the danger, but I couldn't be kept in the dark.
I refused to be lied to. Not again.
The lights switched to nighttime patterns as I stared into the room. There wasn't a good decision here. Sure, maybe he could get me off-planet. But at what price? I could feel myself edging towards feelings for him that I thought were damn near buried. And they certainly weren't appropriate if he wasn't going to be telling me the truth.
No. This had to end now. For just another moment I lay there, safely enclosed in his arms, wrapped in the spicy scent of him and listening to his heart beat.
Then I began to slowly slide out towards the edge of the bed. I sat up and swung my feet to the side, when suddenly his hand was around my wrist.
"You were right.” His voice was so low I almost couldn't make out the words.
“What?”
“I didn't ask what you wanted. Didn't ask if you needed to be kept safe.” He sat up and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “I'm sorry. I never thought of myself as stupid, but you make me kind of dumb that way.”
I leaned back into him. “Tell me,” I said, leaning back into him. “Tell me everything that's going on.”
A deep sigh. “That’s part of the problem. I don’t know, either. Something’s wrong.” He started over. “I already told you the Doc created me, well, me and the rest of my brothers.”
I nodded. I knew, which wasn't quite the same as understanding or having my head wrapped around it. But, well, it was a big strange universe and I was pretty sure this wasn't the strangest thing out there.
“The Doc was always working on possible improvements for new batches, new enhancements. Along the way, she had contact with a lot of pretty crazy people. And, of course, all of this was expensive. The Helmet Heads were couriers between her and someone else. Sometimes we worked with them, but usually they just came and went with supplies.”
He paused. I couldn't see him but, leaning against his chest, I could feel the emotions running through him.
I squeezed his arm. “Something happened. You're worried about her.”
“She got a private comm, scrambled. And, whatever it was, she told us all to get in the pods, to get away and wait for orders. We all did, except for the few that were still in the batch tanks, or in the lab for mods and checkups.”
I waited, listening to his breathing shift, get shallow, tight.
“The ship has some defenses, but it’s a floating lab, not a warship. Still, it never occurred to me that she needed us.” He gave a little laugh. “I’ve never seen anything she couldn’t talk her way out of.”
He stopped laughing, all traces of lightness gone. “We jumped, scattered, just like she said. And I lost track of all my brothers, and the ship.”
“And you don't know who messaged her?” I whispered. He'd lost his home, his family, the woman who may not have been his mother, but was the closest he would've had. No wonder he was a little on edge some of the time. Well, most of the time. Dealing with the mental fallout from my family situation still made me want to punch something occasionally, and that was old news.
“I didn't, but when I was fighting the Helmet Head, he kept talking about the results of the Daedalus experiment being brought back to base.”
I turned around to face him. In the half-light, I could see his strong cheekbones, the shape of his face, but not much else. “Base?” I asked. “Whose base? And where?”
He shook his head. “No idea. But I have a lot more to do than just wait for orders. I’d already planned to get out there, find the Daedalus, find my brothers.” His voice hardened. “And now I’m going to find that base and destroy it.”
I thought for a few long moments. But really, the answer seemed clear.
"Then we better get busy getting us a ship. None of those things are going to happen while we’re stuck here."
His arms squeezed so tight I almost couldn't breathe. “Are you certain? This isn’t your fight.”
I tilted my head up and kissed the line of his jaw. "It is now."
Davien’s shoulders sagged as if he’d been tensed for a blow, and now all the waiting was over. Still, he didn't release me. "Good, because I wasn't sure if I was really going to be able to let you go.”
Words bubbled up in my throat, but I couldn’t risk saying them, not yet. Safest to keep my thoughts on task. “First order of business should be to actually get a meal in us, get showered, and have a proper night's sleep. And then we can start in the morning.”
Davien’s eyebrow rose and that stupid smirk I was beginning to fall a little in love with was back on his face. “And where do you think we can go from there?”
He rolled with me in his arms back onto the bed, twisting until I was beneath him. "I took you from his office because I thought I was saving you.” He kissed me long and deep. “I think I was saving myself.”
Eventually, we did get dinner.
In the morning, I pulled my clothes out of the closet aerator and gave them a quick sniff. Not the best job in the world, and not my preferred cleaning insert. But it would certainly do.
“You don't think Helmet Head’s going back to the same house, do you?” Davien asked.
“No idea. But I know who can find him again. We don't have enough time to search the entire city. You’ve got things to do, right?”
“Where we’re going today,” I paused, shrugging on my jacket. “It's probably best if you don't ask too many questions. She’s not terribly social.”
“Like you?” Davien handed me a glass of orange juice and a completely inappropriate burst of happiness spread through me. Even from the middle of our fight, he had remembered.
I took a sip while he finished dressing himself. “Think we'll come back here?” I asked. It wasn't a fantastic room, but I felt like my entire life had changed within its slightly rundown walls. I shook my head. Since when did I get so sentimental?
Davien stood behind me, and flicked my hair out of the way to rub my shoulders. I leaned back into him. Oh yeah. Since this.
“If that’s what you want. You know, there’s an entire universe out there of things I can’t wait to show you.” He kissed the top of my head, then wisely stepped out of reach. “But, if you have a preference for third-rate racks on fourth-rate planets, I’ll see what I can do to oblige.”
“Jerk.”
I downed the last of the orange juice and put the glass in the recycler to be broken down for whoever stayed here next.
“Come on, smartass. Let's go meet Rati.”
The bunk rack where we’d ended up was clear on the other side of the dome from Rati’s quarter. Even
though I usually hated taking it, the tram would be the fastest way to get there.
We hopped on one of the branch lines. I usually avoided the eyes of all the citizens who kept their heads down, kept working, and had no idea of the secret wars between the coalitions happening in the city. Their world always seemed so different, so remote from mine.
But this morning I let my mind wander, thought about the people who just lived here, worked, lived out their lives, and weren't involved in the brutality underpinning at all.
I stole another glance, eyes moving from one face to another.
They looked tired, some of them, but it was morning and they were headed off to work or to catch another roller out to one of the mining camps, or wherever.
Hell, I should be tired after our time ‘resting.’ A smile crept over my face and I kept looking at the passengers, imagining where they might be going, what their lives might be like. The next line needs to move down to be a new para, but it won’t let me…
And then I blinked.
At the front of the tram, I caught a profile I recognized.
I squeezed Davien’s hand. He looked down, and I was tickled to see the slight smile on his lips matched how I felt.
“At the front of the compartment, blue shirt, high collar.” I turned my eyes back to the interesting person. “Tell me who you think that looks like.”
He flicked his eyes for just a moment and then looked away. “The kid who takes care of the littles in the stairwell.”
I nodded. “Hoyt. I thought so.”
Davien looked down, brow wrinkled. “Any reason he shouldn't be on the tram? I mean, we are.”
I shook my head. “No,” I dragged the word out, thinking. “But something feels off. It seems early for errands. I don't know, it's probably nothing.”
Davien watched the front of the compartment for a few moments longer. “I think you're right. His stance is braced, nervous, as if he's anticipating something. There's something going on.”
I made a fast decision. “Let's follow him, at least for a bit.” We were almost to where we would have to get off, anyway. I thought about the time. And Rati probably wouldn't mind having callers slightly later in the day.
