One More Arrow
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Jaxson kicked a chair out from the gaming table in the lounge, a broad grin on his face as Kaylie sank into it with a sigh. “Got the whole world on your shoulders, kid?”
She snorted. “No, old man.”
He chuckled. They were a decade apart, but the younger woman was by no means a kid.
She was a tough survivor in a pale, delicate shell.
What a cunning ploy on the part of the universe, he often found himself thinking as he’d gotten to know her.
A product of Sapien-Three’s lousy foster care system, a trafficked hostage, a refugee of a wrecked, derelict shuttle.
.. She looked like she would break if you breathed too hard, but she was unbreakable.
She reminded him of Alana.
“I was actually worried about you. I hate this holiday. It just seems to rub being alone in the faces of single people. It’s a stupid idea. And you— I was worried about you.” Kaylie shrugged and stared at him, dark eyes snapping with suppressed anger.
“Hey, I had the love of my life. I don’t begrudge other people celebrating what joy they have, and I don’t want you to, either.
At least not on my part. On yours... Well.
You just wait until we get to Lynx-Nineteen.
If you spend a week’s leave there, you’re going to come back with a bracelet on your arm.
That’s the equivalent of being engaged—cause Felid rings would never fit your skinny little fingers. ”
Kaylie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms on her chest. “I’m not looking.”
“Oh. Well, some people don’t want a relationship at all. Or not until they’re older. Or—” Jax’s words pinched off suddenly. Pressure, unfamiliar and long-dead, filled his throat. “Kay, there’s not someone left behind, is there? Back on Sapien-Three? You never said.”
“There never was. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve had a lot of lewd comments and people with grabby hands grope me in hallways, but that’s as far as ‘romance’ went.”
A growl filled his chest, and the dark brown and black fur on his neck puffed out, as if blown by an invisible breeze.
“If we ever run into them...” He gave a savage snap of his jaws and then sank back, ashamed.
“Sorry. That must have seemed pretty feral. Canids aren’t like that.
We’re civilized. Well, as civilized as Felids or humans. ”
Kaylie blinked and swallowed. “N-no. Not feral. Protective. It’s nice.
I never had a friend protect me or stick up for me.
Not until I came here. Now I have you and Abigail.
I didn’t grow up in a little pack like Layla did with Wendy, Dax, and Elio, where one would save the rest. I never.
.. Sorry. Anyway, yeah, if we ever come across anyone who was a jerk to me, I’ll tell you.
And I’ll gladly watch you snap off a hand. ”
Jaxson let out a low, rumbling sigh. “Kay... We need a drink.”
His friend’s eyes lit up, her pale pink lips quirking into a devious grin. “Nessa showed me where Kamau keeps the borde in the kitchen.”
“That stuff will strip the anti-combustion coating off of an external engine housing!” Jaxson rose.
“So...”
“So we’d better only have a couple of shots.”
His heart fluttered when she jumped up and took his arm, tiny little form pulling his hulking one along, all glee and skips.
Nothing like Alana. Alana. His Leonid Queen. His warrior. His radiance. So fierce and so sweet.
Oh, yes. So much like Alana, but in such a completely different package.
And he could almost hear her voice tonight, whispering that she loved him more than anything in the universe, in all the galaxies combined—and it was breaking her heart watching him try to crush his own into submission.
Let yourself live again, Jax. Do you really think I want to watch my best friend, my love, my everything, waste all of that big heart on trying to keep it empty?
“THAT’S ALANA, HUH?”
Kaylie touched the holoframe gently, watching a golden, glorious Leonid run laughing on the beach.
“It was a nice gesture.” Jaxson set down two cups and poured a hefty measure of borde into each, the potent Servali spirit instantly stinging her nose, threatening to make her eyes water.
Or maybe that was all the tears she was trying to keep back when she looked around the dining area.
The Valentine’s Feast has been full of delicious food, and in tribute to love, Kamau and Nessa had outdone themselves in terms of decorations, setting up holoframes of all the couples on board the ship.
Jaxson and Alana were featured, as were Marcus and his late wife, and another one of Marcus and his current wife, Abigail.
It hadn’t seemed so sad or hard to understand earlier, when the place was full and laughter and suggestive jokes were flying, and she could tune everything out in a heated debate with Lycen and Elio about how they should spend their annual cycle of leave.
Now, alone with Jaxson in the empty room, her throat was too dry, and her eyes were too wet.
You have a stupid crush on him. This big, rugged hero who could rip you to shreds or snap you in half with one flex of his arm. But he wouldn’t.
And he doesn’t need your post-teenage fantasies and all the crushes that you never had time or safety to have to come out now and mess up a perfectly good friendship. “We should play a game.”
Jaxson snorted. “A drinking game? With this stuff? You’d die, and I’d need a new liver.”
“No! Like... a holiday game. I don’t know. What’s that game you taught us for Federation Day?”
“We can’t celebrate Valentine’s Day with a game of Blast Off!
Talos would kill me. He’d think we were under attack, and we’d wake all the cubs.
Man, I remember when there were just two, and now there are four, and before you know it, this place.
.. this place is going to be crawling with babies.
” Jaxson took a slug of the potent liquor, and his face twitched, some painful emotion not yet drowned in the reddish brown alcohol.
“Maybe we can look up a holiday game for Valentine’s. There have to be some games that aren’t all about love.” And sex.
Why, after having the sex drive of a freeze-dried fish all through puberty and on Sapien-Three, am I suddenly as horny as someone from the Stag Republic?
Kaylie pulled her personal computer from the pocket of the loose lilac dress she was wearing and slapped it down on the table. “Fun Valentine’s Day games,” she said, and the screen began to fill with words and images.
“Puzzle purses, love spoons, the lady’s glove...” Jaxson pulled his chair next to hers and read aloud, his broad form towering over hers.
He’s so big. You know it’d probably hurt with him. Why do you do this to yourself, idiot? Why do you dream about ruining things, about things you can’t have, about things he probably doesn’t even want?
But it wouldn’t hurt just to have him hold me in his arms.
He used to come and sit with me every day when I was recovering from hypersleep and neurosuppressants, a scared, kidnapped, lost girl in need of a hero.
And there he was, holding my hand and talking.
Telling me about life on the ship, about how to properly recalibrate an engine, about the importance of gyroscopic timing pins. ..
“All of these need groups! We should have played the lady’s glove and the puzzle purse at dinner,” Jaxson sighed, swiping across the options.
“Carve a spoon? This has to be ancient, like from the 1900s, maybe earlier, when wood wasn’t a protected substance on Sapien-Three.
Now, if I wanted to carve you a spoon, I’d need metal and a welding kit. Which I have, but—”
“Wait. What’s this one?” Kaylie cut him off, mainly to silence the thoughts rampaging through her head, confusing her hormones as his chest brushed her shoulder.
“A Missing Heart. A heart-shaped piece of paper or other token was hidden in the room, and the lucky partygoer who found it would have the honor of selecting the lady he would escort to dinner or around the dance floor. We could do that. We don’t need a group.
One of us just hides something somewhere on the ship, and the other has to find it.
Here.” Kaylie grabbed one of the scattered paper hearts left over from the celebration.
“You hide this in the lounge, and I’ll find it.
Then I’ll hide it, and you’ll find it. Or, we could just watch something. Or go to bed.”
Jaxson stared at her for a moment.
Or go to bed.
Does he think I meant we could go to bed together? No, of course he doesn’t think that. He’s not a foul-brained, horny virgin who is thinking impure thoughts about her friend.
“In the lounge? Okay. Fine. What do you win if you find it? Do you take me to dinner?”
“I’ll make you a midnight snack.” She shrugged.
“Deal. And then you hide it, and if I find it, I’ll make you a batch of my famous Lupine chili. Lycen’s mama’s recipe.”
“Chili? Now? At this hour?”
It was his turn to shrug. “Why not? You got anything better to do? Hot date to rush off to?”
His words were casual, teasing, and yet the room was suddenly ten degrees hotter, and the tight ache in her middle a hundred times worse. “I wish.”
“Oh?” Jaxson easily slid his arm around her shoulder, and she snuggled into his side, her hand settling on his hip—an innocent gesture of support and camaraderie that had kept her steady when she was learning to walk again, her muscles weak and atrophied.
“Do tell. What kind of lucky fella would you be after, and where would he take you on this date?”
“Anywhere with him would be the best date. I’ve never had one.
It’d be special, just because it was with him.
We could play games in the lounge, or cook in the kitchen, or watch a movie in my quarters.
.. Jax, I wouldn’t care. If he made me feel like y— all the couples I see on the ship, that’d be okay.
They don’t need fancy date nights. They just celebrate each other by being together. Doing stuff together.”