Chapter Ten #2
Ulysse’s frown deepened. “Of course. Did you think I’d reject you? For what? This?” He flapped the papers at them.
“But you barely even questioned us,” Wes said.
Ulysse set the papers down on the tiny tea table between them.
“Starians. They’re always like this. I’m just here to determine if you have the interest required to attend one of our universities.
When you get there, if you can’t handle the course work, you’ll go to one of our intermediary schools, or maybe one-on-one instruction.
There are plenty of alternative schools, but we don’t need to go into that.
What you’re talking about here is the kind of nonsense Monroe has been babbling about for decades, and if I don’t send you his way, he’ll accuse me of trying to sabotage scientific inquiry. I do not want that man on my doorstep.”
“Gerakian schools do reject people, though,” Delauney said. “Don’t they?”
“If a school doesn’t fit you, it’s our job to find one that does,” Ulysse said. “There’s a school for everyone in Gerakia. It’s simply a matter of finding the one that works for you. You were lucky enough to know the name of the one you’ll probably need, so that makes my task easier.”
Delauney fell silent as Ulysse started talking about introductory letters and course seasons, staring at one of the tapestries behind Ulysse’s left shoulder.
Gerakian universities did reject students, because Delauney had been rejected in no uncertain terms. The letter he’d received from the Aviary had said nothing about intermediary schools or alternative education.
It had been a flat rejection, one that had devastated Delauney badly enough that becoming a navy officer had seemed like a suitable distraction.
He could still remember the way the paper had felt in his hands as he’d wept over it, finally certain that no one would ever let him truly study the stars.
“Make sure you go to Monroe first,” Ulysse was saying, as Delauney finally clawed through the haze of his mind to return to the world.
“If you go through the admissions office, they’ll lump you in with all the other first-time students, and you won’t see Monroe for another two years.
He’ll be so glad to have proper apprentices who care about his bullshit telescopes that he’ll probably send me flowers.
” Ulysse’s face darkened. “Or crystals. Shit, he’d better not send me fucking crystals. ”
“And you’re certain?” Delauney asked.
Wes grabbed Delauney’s hand. “Thank you for the recommendation, Doctor Berger.”
Ulysse rolled his eyes. “Already talking like a student. Good. If you want to get on Monroe’s good side, give him a shiny rock, one of the rainbow ones. He loves that shit.”
“Do you mean a prism?” Delauney asked, as Wes tried to drag him off the couch.
“Gods,” Ulysse said. “Prisms.”
“This was very enlightening and we thank you for your time,” Wes said quickly, hauling Delauney onto his feet. Delauney only managed a half-hearted wave goodbye before Wes bustled him out the door with both hands on his shoulders.
“Don’t question him,” Wes said, letting out a ragged sigh as soon as the door closed. “What a dick.”
“I think he just doesn’t have any social graces,” Delauney said.
“Don’t defend him, either. He nearly stopped my fucking heart when he said all that about our research. How hard would it have been to say, I’m writing you a recommendation? That’s all he had to tell us!”
“Wait, do we need to go back for that?” Delauney asked, eyeing the door to Ulysse’s house warily. He wasn’t certain that he could bring himself to go in there a second time.
Wes waved a paper. “He already wrote it. You really were in shock, weren’t you?”
“I thought I’d ruined it all,” Delauney said. “Then there was the matter of how the university accepts people in the first place. I don’t understand what he meant, Wes. I was rejected by the Aviary when I was young. They’d said nothing about sending me to an alternative school.”
“Maybe that’s a new practice,” Wes said. He tucked the letter in his vest. “The important thing is, we now have a recommendation, and the next season of study is three months from now. I’ll still have another four months of my contract with the navy after that.”
“Well, I’m not going without you,” Delauney said. “So I suppose we’ll just have to wait.” He hesitated as he realized what he’d just said. “Because we’re going to the Aviary.”
“Now it hits you,” Wes said, smiling.
Delauney grabbed Wes by the arms. Elation bubbled up in his chest, bright and hot. “We’re going to the Aviary!”
“That’s right!” Wes said.
“We’re going to study the stars!” Delauney cried. He kissed Wes hard. “Spirits, but I do love you.”
Wes’ expression shifted from bemusement to a soft, quiet fondness that Delauney was only just starting to recognize. He kissed Delauney back, cradling his cheek in one hand.
“I love you, too,” he said, and Delauney felt so light that he could float up into the darkness of space all on his own.
A window squeaked open, revealing Ulysse’s irritated scowl and bushy brows. “I thought I was done with you! Get out of my garden!”
Delauney kissed Wes one more time, just to savor it, then grabbed his hand and fled into the street.
They didn’t get particularly far. Delauney stopped Wes a few streets away to press him against the wall of a printing press and trail fervent kisses down his neck.
“That was so terribly stressful,” Delauney said, speaking into Wes’ shoulder as he slid a hand down his trousers. He took Wes’ length in hand, a small thrill rising through him as Wes made a soft sound and tensed against the wall. “I never want to go through it again.”
“You won’t have to,” Wes said. “Ah. Ah, Delauney...”
“Wesley,” Delauney said, biting Wes’ ear. “I love the way you say my name. I love how clever you are. I love how spiteful you can be over the strangest things. I love that you whipped that horrible little man so that I could find you at that military council.”
“I love that I whipped him, too,” Wes said, and Delauney drew back to catch him smiling.
“Of course you do.” Delauney kissed him again, stroking him faster, feeling Wes’ breath catch against his mouth.
When Wes came, it was with Delauney’s name on his lips.
He held Delauney by the shoulders as he came down, and Delauney was so close that he could feel Wes’ heartbeat drumming in time with his own.
They returned to Delauney’s usual inn at Redmason in much higher spirits. Ned was waiting for them at one of the empty tables near the back, and when he saw Delauney’s face, his expression lit up as though he’d just been accepted into the Aviary.
“That’s my boy,” Ned shouted. Several people across the inn turned to stare. Ned gestured to Delauney and Wes, raising his voice so that it boomed over the dining area. “You lot are looking at the future of astronomy!”
Delauney, who had happily stripped naked for a bar full of strangers, considered digging a hole straight into the center of the earth and burying himself there. “Ned, I swear by all that is holy, if you don’t lower your voice...”
“Invented a telescope and everything,” Ned bellowed. Someone near the bar awkwardly applauded, looking confused. Delauney covered his face in both hands as Ned strode toward them with his arms out. “Come on, old friend. Let me celebrate you. Go on.”
“I’m not embracing you when you just roared my praises in front of—oof.” Delauney squeaked as Ned wrapped him in a crushing embrace.
“I knew you could do it, Laney,” Ned told him, and Delauney found his eyes stinging with tears for the first time that afternoon. Ned drew back and extended a hand to Wes, then paused. “Do you want a...”
“No need for an embrace, thank you,” Wes said. It was also the wrong thing to say with Ned’s current mood, apparently, because Ned swept Wes into a hug that lifted him to his toes.
“There we go,” Ned said at last, releasing a wide-eyed Wes. “Now we’re all family. Sit down. I have news of my own for you when you’re done telling me all about it.”
Ned was a good audience. He groaned and cursed when Wes described how Ulysse received them, and insisted on ordering food since they’d had nothing at Ulysse’s house.
When they’d shown Ned the recommendation letter and explained why Doctor Monroe was the best instructor for their purposes, Ned leaned back with his mug of tea and looked them both over.
“You’ll be like him one day, then,” he said. “I can see it. I bet you’ll have dozens of apprentices before your time is done.”
“Ned,” Delauney pleaded. “I can only take so many compliments in one sitting.”
“You need to hire a dom to tie him up and praise him a bit,” Ned told Wes. “Our boy could use a little ego.”
If Delauney expected Wes to be on his side in this, he was sorely mistaken. Wes raised his glass to Ned in a toast. “Already working on it.”
“You’re both terrible,” Delauney muttered.
“Keep up your good mood, Laney,” Ned told him. “You’ll need it. Look what I found in the letterbox for the Manatee.”
He slid over a thick card with gold edges and thick, cursive script. Delauney inwardly groaned. He was getting better at reading, if he took his time, but elaborate, looping handwriting was still a nightmare.
Wes leaned over Delauney’s shoulder without needing to be asked. “It says Leonide de Mazet is getting engaged. There’s a party happening in... wait, how many days out is that?”
Ned pulled out another card from his vest pocket. “Five. Peter and I also received an invitation. I think most of Duciel has been invited.”
“Leo’s engaged?” Delauney asked. “How?” So far as he knew, Leo hadn’t shown much interest in anything other than managing the household accounts. Unless they’d suddenly come across hard times and needed a dowry from a wealthy submissive, he couldn’t see why Leo would agree to an engagement.