Chapter Seventeen
Votra
The apartment should have been quiet when Votra woke up the next morning. Qaed hadn’t come home last night, which meant that she’d get to have a meditative morning before getting ready for work.
Except for the fact that someone decided to bang on her door with all of their might, startling Votra so badly while she was brushing her teeth that she stabbed herself in the gums with the head of her toothbrush.
She all but threw her toothbrush on the counter, immediately irritated. If that was Qaed, she was actually going to kill him.
“Hold on,” she called, padding from her bathroom to the living room. “Did you forget your key again?”
“Since when do I have a key?” The voice that answered her was definitely not Qaed’s. Votra opened the door, only to be greeted by the sheepish grin of her much larger younger sibling.
With a bandaged arm and–was that blood on his face? Votra cursed under her breath. It wasn’t hard to venture a guess as to what happened to Vendi, but that didn’t make Votra stress any less.
“Did you come straight over after a job?” Votra said, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. She brushed her thumb over the bloodstain on Vendi’s cheek, trying not to wonder too much whose blood it was. “Come inside. You are a mess.”
“Not straight over,” Vendi said, raising a hand in surrender. “I had to wrap this up first.”
Which meant that Votra was going to finish the job. She supposed she should be honored that her little sibling was so excited to see her that he would forgo proper medical treatment. But Votra wasn’t a medic, and Vendi was going to well and truly destroy his body if they kept going like this.
Vendi followed Votra into the apartment, unceremoniously flopping onto the couch. “You had better not get any blood on my white sofa,” Votra called as she disappeared into her room for her first aid kit.
“I will not! I am not bleeding anymore!” Vendi called back. “I think!”
Votra groaned, bringing the first aid kit back into the living room. “If you are, I will make you clean it up.” Her threat was empty–she wouldn’t let Vendi lift a finger while she was here.
She sat on the couch next to Vendi, gingerly taking her arm into her hands. “What happened this time?” she asked, carefully removing the crudely wrapped bandage from Vendi’s arm. “This looks horrible, Vendi.”
“Oh, it is not that bad,” Vendi said dismissively, hardly flinching as Votra removed the bandage pressed directly against the wound. “Caught the edge of a phaser beam. Barely nicked me.”
Votra would beg to disagree. The skin of Vendi’s outer forearm was singed, a chunk of tissue actually missing.
From Votra’s experience with patching up both Qaed and Vendi, phaser beam wounds were typically clean, aside from the charred skin.
The beams were hot enough to stop infection in its tracks, but the healing process was certainly not going to be comfortable.
“Barely nicked me,” Votra repeated in a gruff, mocking tone. “You are unbelievable.”
Over the years, Yule had stocked Votra up with healing ointments and salves from Medras, which worked wonders on phaser beam wounds. Votra just wished she didn’t have to use them so much.
“Oh, come on. You have definitely seen worse,” Vendi said, wincing at the cool gel on his arm. She had, but that didn’t mean she wanted to keep on seeing it.
“You really should have gotten this professionally looked at,” Votra said. “This is going to scar.”
“You think I am not used to scars?” Every time Vendi came home, his body bore at least one or two new scars, and even if Vendi was used to it, Votra certainly wasn’t. She didn’t like the constant reminders of the danger Vendi spent his every day in.
“Just because you are used to them does not mean you should continue to let it happen.”
“Maybe one day, someone will find them attractive.” Vendi tried to grin, but she immediately winced as Votra sprayed an antiseptic on the wound.
Votra rolled her eyes. “Are you staying at home for a while?”
“Probably.” His eyes settled on Votra, and this time, it was her turn to squirm. “When was the last time you went back?”
Votra knew exactly where this was going.
Vendi had always been closer to their parents than Votra had, and they always had a roundabout way of asking about Votra without talking to her directly.
“It has been a while,” she said shortly, wrapping a bandage around Vendi’s thick arm.
“Have you seen them since you have been back?”
“Not yet. But I will probably go see them next. I told them I was coming back into the galaxy and they–” She paused. “I am sorry. I did not come here to nag you about our parents.”
It certainly felt like she did. But Votra kept her mouth shut. Visits with Vendi had become so infrequent since she became a bounty hunter. If she wasn’t traipsing the galaxy, tracking down her mark, she was on Alqen, receiving praise enough for two siblings.
“What have you been doing? How is… the app? Are you still working on that?”
How is your little project going? Is it worth calling a real job yet?
Votra knew that Vendi didn’t necessarily mirror their parents’ feelings, but she knew he was reporting everything back to them.
She supposed she should be grateful that they were asking after her at all, but a secret, selfish part of her didn’t want them to know a single thing about her life.
“I am still working on it, yes.” She sat back, snapping the first aid kit shut and placing it on the coffee table. “I managed to hire another person, too.”
“Yeah? How is that going?”
She struggled to string together the right combination of words to describe Candy. If she were talking about the purely professional side of it, Candy was fantastic. The work she’d done on the app was invaluable, and there finally seemed to be an end in sight.
But there was so much more to her than that. “It has been good,” Votra settled with. “My employee is a very hard worker. We have a launch event in two weeks, and until then, we are just adding some finishing touches to the app.”
“Wow. You got a lot done fast.” Vendi flexed the hand of her injured arm, a wince flashing across their features. “That is impressive.”
He leaned back into the couch cushions, his face a little paler than it was when he first walked in. Wordlessly, Votra went to the kitchen for painkillers. Gods only knew Vendi wouldn’t actually ask for them.
“How are you liking working with someone else?” Vendi was just fishing for dirt to pass on to their parents now.
And she fell for it. She was bursting to talk about Candy–Qaed had been her only sounding board for the last few weeks, and his responses never changed.
“Just ask her out” was his go to response. “Go on a date, and if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out.” Which sounded so much simpler than it really was.
Vendi and Votra were alike in that way. Vendi had never been in a romantic relationship–at least, not one that Votra knew about–and tended to keep to himself. There weren’t many people in the world Vendi trusted, and he wouldn’t judge Votra for being the same way.
But maybe Candy didn’t want Votra talking about her. Votra exhaled. “It has been fine. As I said, she is a hard worker.” She trailed her thumb over her knuckles. “She is a good person. I… am very glad that I found her.”
“What is her name?”
“Candy.” She said it a little too quickly, a little too excitedly. “Why?”
“Just wondering.” Vendi shrugged a shoulder. “I would like to meet her one day.”
“You will meet her at the launch party.” The launch party that was approaching faster than either of them were ready for. The launch party that marked the end of their working relationship, of their… whatever this was.
Votra’s blood ran cold, as if she’d been dunked in a vat of ice water. She needed to talk to Candy about their future, if there was one. It had been so easy to get lost in the euphoria of the last few days with her, waking up with Candy in her arms, having the best sex she’d had in her life.
Votra wasn’t sure she could do casual anymore.
Gods, she’d almost told Candy she loved her in the middle of sex yesterday.
But Candy was new to Kratos, new to being single.
Maybe, in the grand scheme of things, Votra was just a blip on her radar.
She would be honored to be that blip, but she hoped that she was more than that.
“Are you two together?” Vendi’s words weren’t accusing, but they made Votra feel like she was under a microscope.
She didn’t know how to answer that question. She smoothed a hand over the back of her head. They weren’t… right? “I am not sure,” she said, her voice small.
“Just be careful, alright? I know how you can be sometimes, and I do not want to see you hurt again.” She gave Votra’s thin thigh a squeeze.
Candy wouldn’t hurt her… right? They wouldn’t fall into that easy pattern of doing nothing but working, slowly but surely realizing that they were bringing out the worst in each other.
They wouldn’t crawl into bed at night, still fighting about some little squabble that had broken out in the office earlier because they were both at their wits’ end.
Right?
What if that was the future that they had to look forward to? If their relationship continued beyond the party, was it all downhill from there?
Vendi’s comm beeped loudly, forcibly dragging Votra out of her mental spiral.
“Ah. It is Dad,” he said, sending Votra a wary look. “Have you talked to either of them recently?”
The question was innocent enough, but it stoked the fire of irritation simmering in the pit of her stomach. She was so sure Vendi had given up on his plan to smooth things over between Votra and their parents, but apparently, she was wrong.
For the last few years, Vendi’s time away from work was typically spent trying to trap Votra and their parents together, in the hopes of repairing their relationship.
But what Vendi didn’t know was that there was no going back.
Not from this. She’d tried so hard to keep Vendi safe from the knowledge of what their parents were capable of, and she wasn’t about to give that up any time soon.
She didn’t need to know that their parents had ignored every birthday message and every two in the morning call when Votra was so overcome by how much she missed them that maybe, just maybe, she could try again.
In Vendi’s eyes, their parents were infallible, and she hoped she would never lose that.
“No. I have not,” she said a little more sharply than she intended. She didn’t want Vendi to know that they weren’t coming to the launch party.
Vendi squirmed a little in his seat. “You should come back to Alqen with me to see them. Maybe seeing you will soften them up a little.”
Votra didn’t believe that for a second. Their parents had made their choices pretty clear years ago. “Thank you for trying, Vendi, but it will not work. I believe that I have done enough trying for one lifetime.”
“A lifetime? That is–”
“I do not want to talk about this anymore.” Votra’s heart pounded aggressively, as if it might force its way past her ribs.
And this was where things would go downhill.
Votra could immediately feel her guard going up, and she knew Vendi was going to pummel her with rebuttal after rebuttal.
That would inevitably piss Votra off, they’d fight, and Vendi would storm out.
They wouldn’t talk again until the inevitable year between Vendi’s Kratos visits passed, and it would be as if nothing ever happened.
People are good, Votra. Candy’s voice echoed in her head. Vendi was one of the good ones. All she wanted was to see her family together; Votra couldn’t imagine it was easy to be stuck between opposing sides. And more often than not, she chose Votra first.
You just have to believe in the ones that prove their goodness to you.
Votra took in as deep of a breath as her lungs could handle.
“I know what you are trying to do, and I appreciate it. I am sorry that you spend so much of your time trying to fix everything. But you do not have to.” She rested a hand on Vendi’s cheek, and she froze at the very uncharacteristic gesture.
She still didn’t want to tell him everything–that was between her and their parents.
But maybe she could let him in a little.
“I do not think they will come around. But that does not mean that I begrudge you a relationship with them. I am not offended that you are staying with them while you are here.”
Vendi blinked, wracking his brain for a response. “What has gotten into you, ziq’al?” he asked, the corner of his lips quirking into an uncomfortable smile. “You are making me nervous.”
Votra clicked her tongue, giving Vendi’s cheek a light smack. “Rude child. I am trying to be nice to you.”
“If I am a child, then you are an old woman.” Vendi softened a little against Votra’s hand. “For the record, I hope that you are wrong. Surely, they will change their minds one day.”
Votra wanted to hope so, too. But hope was hard to come by these days. “Maybe.”
Vendi rose, stretching his good arm above his head. “I suppose I should go and see them. I told them I was coming into the galaxy quite a while ago, and they will wonder where I am.”
“Right.” Votra’s chest tightened, and her eyes flicked down to Vendi’s arm. “Would you like me to drop you off at home?”
“No, that is not necessary. I have driven with one arm many times. I can handle it.” Vendi smoothed a hand over her bandaged arm. “Keep me updated about your app, alright? If there is anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to let me know. I mean it.”
Asking Vendi for anything felt akin to having a finger chopped off, but Votra nodded anyway. “Thank you. Please be safe getting home. There is only so much I can do as far as injuries go, and I do not think I could help you after a shuttle crash.”
Vendi rolled her eyes. “So dramatic.” She gave Votra’s shoulder a squeeze. “I will see you again soon, I promise.”
Votra was already looking forward to it.