Chapter 26
An Unwelcome Guest
I woke in a pool of blankets in the morning, nuzzled into our nest of pillows, feeling warm, content, and decidedly well used. The sound of the shower hissed from the hygiene room as I stretched languorously in bed, inhaling deeply.
What a night.
I mean, the day before had been a bit fucked, but the night had almost made up for it.
And everything looked better in the light of day anyway.
Today, we'd go to that final meeting with the Unbound, and then we'd be done.
We'd be ready. And I hoped that I had at least helped Araxis feel more confident as we waded into the mess ahead of us.
There was, I thought, one other way I might help deal with some of the problems the Concord had merrily dumped into our laps.
Creche Arvas had supported Naival's request for the writ of propitiation; Araxis had been right that we couldn't use their pilot now.
There were too many risks, and if we were trying to get to Xitera quickly, we'd be hard-pressed to find a decent pilot who was willing to make the trip to the empire.
Thankfully, I knew a thing or two about stromic pilots.
While the shower hissed its chorus, I flicked up my message interface and sent Val a quick note.
Do you know any pilots who could help us get to Xitera?
Ours is a no go. Turns out some Concord houses have petitioned to get legal permission (PERMISSION, Valerie) to try and kill Araxis, and one of those houses was going to loan us a pilot.
We're leaving the station post-haste to get ahead of, you know, attempted murder.
And obviously, I have some other avenues I could pursue if I had to, but I'd rather not. I like my brain intact, thanks.
Her reply popped up almost immediately. Leave it with me.
We can definitely help with that, so don't get any ideas about other avenues!
Let me know when you head out and I'll have something lined up.
Sorry someone wants to kill your prince!
And just when things were getting back on track?
Awkward. Puts a damper on the whole pretend-casual dating thing.
I huffed, a blossom of relief warming my chest. It felt good, knowing I could solve problems using my own connections. Hadn't you heard? He's my boyfriend. I guess someone sent him some educational materials, and he thought the term was appropriate.
One day, I'm going to start my own consulting firm for inter-species relationships, wrote Val, and I could almost feel her self-satisfaction through the glowing letters hovering above my wrist. In the meantime, I'll stick to finding pilots.
I tapped the interface off, pushing myself up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed.
I shifted slightly, a bit sore from training and maybe last night's handling.
One of my hands raised to trace the caldathess, the skin warm and tender.
I ran my fingers back over the shape of my shoulder blade, scraped by Araxis's teeth.
Stars above, did he have to be almost criminally hot?
If my reward for playing at being deferential was this kind of treatment, I wasn't going to complain.
And while it might not be my most natural inclination – I was pretty accustomed to being in control; even when clients had wanted me to be under their command, I was still in charge of the interaction – I could do that for him. It hadn't exactly been a hardship.
The shower clicked off, and I reluctantly forced myself out of bed, padding into the hygiene room where Araxis was just drying himself off.
He glanced up at me, stare tracing the lines of my naked body, and he smiled.
"You know," I yawned, slipping past him and stepping into the shower, which I clicked back on, "I had the nicest dream last night. "
"Did you?" He reached into the shower stall, fingers latching on my wrist, and he tugged me out from beneath the stream of hot water.
This shower, thank the stars, had a setting with actual water instead of just steam and it was, as a result, maybe my favourite thing ever, besides the alien who had pulled me into his arms so that he could kiss me thoroughly.
When he let me go and nudged me back under the water, I couldn't help the big, stupid grin on my face.
"So," I said, pouring a herbal-smelling shampoo into my hands and scrubbing my scalp, "What did you think?"
"Of what?" asked Araxis, perching on the counter as he started to braid his crest.
"Of fucking me. Did it live up to the hype?" I rinsed my hair out, peering out from around the panel of polymer so that I could watch the flush that predictably pinked his cheeks.
His stare met mine, one corner of his mouth twitching. "You know what I thought."
"I still like to hear it," I said breezily, grin sharpening. "I'm very vain, and I'd like to know what you'll be thinking about when we go to our meeting today. I know you've said you're not a poet, but don't you think I deserve a poem? Just a short one – An Ode to My Boyfriend's Perfect Ass."
"It will be a singular entry in the canon of my people," Araxis intoned as I laughed and set to cleaning myself in earnest. When I ducked out, he was already getting dressed in our bedroom, pulling on a well-loved jumpsuit that I was pretty sure he'd been wearing the first time we'd met.
Well, the first time we'd met properly, back on the docks, not at the den when I'd been trying to solicit him for sex.
"So, when are we leaving?" I asked, towelling off my hair as I belted one of the slippery robes he'd had hanging in the bathroom around my waist. I'd checked our calendar, and I knew we had the day, but I didn't know how long it took our shuttle to get to Basilla or if he had other things to do on the ship first. We'd taken a larger hopper when we'd first come to Sozamia, because trying to fit the whole creche inside of one of our shuttles – plus Evreni's many microscopes – would have defied the laws of physics several times over.
"I will leave mid-afternoon," Araxis said, stepping over to the display to call up his eternal deluge of messages.
My eyebrows shot up. "You'll leave mid-afternoon, huh?"
I watched him silver uncomfortably, as if he hadn't expected me to notice.
"Sashen, I would not wish to put you in any danger, and the Unbound are dangerous; they are unpredictable.
And as there is the Naival writ against me, danger may be present at any turn.
I told you I would keep you safe; I intend to do that. "
I turned and hung up the towel on a hook. I surveyed our bed where he'd woken me up last night and fucked me until I'd seen stars, and I half-heartedly tugged the blanket up. "No one can keep anyone safe, not in our universe," I said. "So I'm going with you."
"Sashen –" he started, turning fully from the board to look at me, his expression caught somewhere between pleading and commanding.
"I told you," I said, levelling him with a flat stare, "that I'm fine with playing at deference in bed.
I don't mind if you want to be in charge.
I can make myself into whatever you want.
But in real life, I'm in charge of myself, and I can handle myself.
" My hands flexed unthinkingly at my sides, knuckles still aching where they hadn't quite healed yet.
Regardless of the abayan philosophy of medicine, I was going to have to bite the bullet and get to a clinic where they'd actually patch me up before we left.
And then, mostly because I was cold but also because Araxis had gotten the strangest expression on his face that looked an awful lot like hurt, I stepped into the closet to haul on some real clothes.
I heard Araxis pace his way over, and could feel him hovering in the doorway. "I thought – I thought that was what you wanted."
"What, to be left on the station while you go have an important meeting with people you've just described as volatile and dangerous?
" I tugged on the green and pink sweater Araxis had given me, turning to look at him as my head popped out of the neck hole.
"Why the fuck would I want that? So I can be safe, like you promised?
No one can promise that. I'm not holding you to it. "
He was flushed, features pinched, and all of that easy warmth and confidence from before was gone. "I – That isn't what I meant, Sashen."
Ah, shit, I was fucking this up. I was fucking it up again. I had one job, which was to build Araxis up, and apparently I couldn't even manage that without also knocking him down. I shoved my arms through the sleeves, and let out a tiny, centering breath. "Alright. Then what did you mean?"
"I thought –" I watched him as he folded his hands behind his back and straightened his shoulders, tipping his chin up, as if standing in that way might help him.
Why did he need to steel himself to talk to me?
"I thought that you – liked it." At my blank expression, a tiny whine of frustration left his throat. "What we did last night."
I blinked, staring at him. "Of course I liked it," my mouth supplied automatically. "You were there. You know I did."
"You have just told me that it was acceptable for you to perform that role.
You said it was fine and that you don't mind because it was what I must want.
" I watched him swallow, hard, his jaw tense as he shifted his weight, perfect composure decidedly less than perfect.
"That is very different from… what we had discussed.
I don't wish for you to – play a role for me because you imagine that is what I desire. "
Were we fighting about the amazing sex we'd had last night?
Because I'd been cooperative and eager and had used a fraction of my skills as a dancer to mould myself into a shape he'd find fun and useful?
Really? God, Khrelen had been right – it was a pain to fuck someone who was all tied up in knots about sex.