Chapter 12
TWELVE
JETT
If you hadn’t been an asshole, you wouldn’t be in this situation. You could’ve worked things out.
Jett had half a dozen plans in his head, covering most of the situations he’d been in before, saving them all for later when he had more information.
This was what he knew, what was burned into flesh and carved into bone.
He was a soldier, a former CDF Emergency Response crew leader; he saved others even when he couldn’t save himself.
That would have taken a different kind of courage. A kind that Jett didn’t have.
As he considered further scenarios, he warded off the one. The one that had led to his scars, his major traumas. The one that he couldn’t bear to tell Eddie about, for fear of rejection and shame.
The crowds cleared as Jett passed into the dark streets of Residential District 1, where he was currently housed.
Here everything was spread further out, mimicking the cities on dead and decaying Terra.
It was quiet, almost idyllic—far different from the clogged and crowded streets of Jett’s childhood on Charon, and the pristinely clean halls on the Senior Officer’s ward above.
His apartment building was a forty-story affair done in an older, less elaborate style than the rest of the City.
A golden ‘Q’ decorated the facade while steel-glass windows looked in on a lobby filled with crimson furniture.
Soft Sol-pop played as Jett navigated the deserted room, heading for the elevators, when a voice pulled him out of his head.
“Jett?”
Eddie stood off to the side of the elevators, looking exhausted. His hair was a disheveled mess, but his eyes glowed bright.
“I guess I’m not the only one who can’t sleep.” It was the closest they’d been in months. Jett could all but feel the way that Eddie’s body burned hot, could have reached out with his hands and pulled Eddie into a kiss.
Eddie shook his head. “May I come up to your place, Jett?” There was a way Eddie said his name—a particularly soft je and hard tt—that made Jett melt. He couldn’t say no to Eddie when he talked like that.
Jett swallowed hard before answering. “Sure.”
The elevator ride was long, quiet, with nothing for Jett to look at but the man across from him. And Eddie stared right back, his eyes intense, but somehow softened around the edges. Eddie was more relaxed than he’d seemed earlier in the day.
“Sorry about the mess,” Jett said, pulling clothes off the sofa and tossing them into the laundry chute. “Sit wherever is most comfortable for you.”
There was no answer, and when Jett turned around, Eddie stood in the entryway, staring.
“Eddie?”
Eddie’s name seemed to break the man out of some sort of trance; he crossed the room in three giant strides to stand nearly chest-to-chest with Jett. One large hand cupped Jett’s face, turning it upwards while his thumb tickled as it crossed Jett’s lips and the scar that marred them.
Before Jett could stop himself, his lips were on Eddie’s, their bodies pressed together. Jett drowned in his ex-lover’s kiss, warmth spreading through him, calming frayed nerves and strengthening the fragile grasp he had on himself.
Eddie was the star around which Jett had orbited for so long.
After the breakup he’d quickly forgotten what it felt like to be within his arms, pressed against the warmth of his big body.
And, as they continued to press soft kisses to each other, Jett allowed himself to hope that his future still held this man in it.
Even if it was only a dream, Jett wanted to believe in it.
Jett pulled away, away from Eddie’s sweet lips and out of his comforting arms, knowing that he didn’t deserve that peace. Tears streamed down his face as he shook his head. “W-we can’t, Eddie.”
Eddie followed, wiping the tears from his cheeks, leaning down to kiss him again.
“No,” Jett said, pushing an arm into the narrowing space between them. “We can’t go down this path, Eddie. There’s only pain for us there.”
Eddie held him, stared at him with those green eyes. “You are so beautiful Jett. I almost forgot.” Eddie pushed a loose strand of hair across Jett’s forehead, setting his nerves skittering.
“Eddie,” Jett pleaded. “Please don’t. I can’t bear to be parted from you again.”
“Do we have to be?”
Jett nodded and slipped out of Eddie’s arms.
Anxiety welled up, the worry that he was walking into yet another trap, and leading Eddie into it with him. Jett could only do so much to protect the man he loved, and one of those things was keeping him at arm’s length.
“I was serious when I apologized, Little Rose.”
Jett groaned at the use of Eddie’s pet name for him.
“I know I’m not the easiest man to get along with.” Eddie’s arms hung limp at his side. “Or to be in love with…”
The words faded into the silence of the room. Into the raspy ventilation pumping air into the room. Into the distant din of Neo-Tokyo; its life, its breath, its heartbeat.
Jett turned away, tears falling rapidly. “We made our choices, Eddie. You said before that we were on different paths in life, and now that’s true. I’m a company man, you’re the Captain of a yacht-class ship. We can’t do this anymore.”
“Jett, please,” Eddie said, his tone so full of longing that Jett’s heart broke once more. “Please promise me something before you throw us away for good.”
Jett looked over his shoulder, where Eddie was a blurry mass in his tear-logged eyes. “Anything.”
“Promise me we’ll talk after all of this is done. Before we get to Charon. Promise this isn’t the end for us. Not like this.”
Jett nodded, wiping his cheeks. “Okay, Eddie. We’ll talk. Just, nothing else.” He shook his head. “Did you come here for something in particular?”
Eddie shook his head. “Not really.” He sighed. “Yes, several things, in fact. I wanted to apologize for not telling you about the Golden Lion before the meeting.”
Jett shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me anything anymore.”
Eddie slumped down on his couch, put his head between his hands. “I want to tell you everything. I want you to be a part of my life again. I cannot imagine it without you…” he trailed off.
Jett froze, heart hammering in his chest. “Please don’t, Eddie.”
Silence filled Jett’s quarters and he blinked as everything started clicking into place. Eddie wasn’t just here because he wanted to share information with Jett, or find comfort in their bodies together.
“The ship I left you for is out there and something has happened to it.” Eddie’s voice was light, almost glad for this news. But tears dripped from the corners of his eyes, and Jett knew he was on the verge of a breakdown.
He let Eddie cry away whatever jumble of emotions and shattered presumptions were tied up in his head and chest. He knew Eddie didn’t like to cry them out, but it was the easiest way for him to regain himself, so Jett mumbled nonsense words and promises in Eddie’s ears as he pressed against Jett’s chest. And when the tears and wheezing and sniffling subsided, Eddie looked up at Jett once more.
“I found the source of the corruption in the signal, Jett. It was woven around everything else, and when I pulled the other strands loose, I found something.”
He seemed disturbed, yet elated. Jett pressed his lips to Eddie’s forehead. “What did you find, Ed?”
Long moments passed as automatic lights dimmed around them and the mood turned from comforting to a sense of dread.
“Jett, the corruption is a Song.”