by Simon Archer
“Do that again,” she demanded.
Instead of following her order, I gently pulled her upright and then kissed her instead. This time, I was a bit more aggressive with my kiss as I pulled Kara into my lap.
I heard Andie whistle in approval. “That’s more like it,” she hummed.
When I pulled away, I was breathing hard again. “Does my Sun or Moon have any other orders?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Andie grinned. “I have one or two.”
“Just one or two?”
“Dozen.”
6
First things first on the day of the move was packing up Kara’s stuff and readying the fish for transport. Eric and Aylin were on ‘entertain Kara’ duty while Andie helped me pack, and I took that time to bring up something that had been rattling around in the back of my mind for some time.
“You ever thought about moving your stuff from your apartment in the Stacks to somewhere… well, safer?” I ventured. “It’s not that I don’t love your apartment, but… Dad’s still sends me a lot of money for expenses, and I’m sure I can get a good deal at the Spire--”
“Nuh uh,” Andie pouted. Her bottom lip jutted out, and she gave me the cruelest expression of big amber puppy dog eyes. “I love my apartment, and I love the Stacks. Nothing wrong with it.”
Except for the rampant crime rate, of course.
I didn’t say that to Andie, but she read it in my eyes and then rolled her own. “It’s not that bad, Nick. Besides, what better place for a couple of heroes to make their home? We’ll clean up the whole area in no time.”
She had a point there, I had to admit. I taped up a box and handed it to her. She labeled it with a marker and handed it back to me for packing.
I read her scrawl of ‘CLOTHES’ and sighed. “Yes, but--”
“That apartment means a lot to me, Nick,” she whispered, voice thick with sudden emotion. It wasn’t often that Andie displayed so much vulnerability, and it startled me for a moment. “It’s the only thing I have left of them.”
Her parents. I never asked the specifics, she’d tell me when she was ready, but I knew that she’d lost them at some point, either to Inferno’s attacks or the city’s vices. I frowned and closed the distance between us and gently rested my hands on either of her shoulders. As I looked deep into her amber eyes, I kissed her forehead and smiled.
“Whatever makes my Sun happy,” I said softly. “I won’t bring it up again.”
She scrunched her nose and giggled at this. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she lifted a brow. “I thought Kara was the Sun.”
“No, she’s the Moon,” I corrected.
“But she’s got red hair,” Andie pointed out.
“And you’ve got more pep.” I smiled. I kissed her deeply, and for a moment, the world melted around us. Her breath mingled with mine, and our tongues danced quietly in time to the beating of our hearts. She tried to pull away a few seconds later, but I followed her and kissed her each time she managed any sort of wiggle room.
“You-- We need to-- We can’t--”
“You’re absolutely divine,” I whispered into her mouth.
“Nick--”
I kissed her each interval but finally had enough mercy to let her go when she became a little breathless. Her blush was hot and colored her cheeks a crimson shade. I kissed on the forehead a second time and then slipped out of her arms to pack another box.
“That was mean,” she huffed. She was twitching in the most subtle of ways, crossing her arms one moment only to set them back down the next. Her fingers fell to her sides in frustration.
“If just a little kiss has you that worked up--”
“You’re gonna make me wait again,” she pouted, “aren’t you?”
I smirked and didn’t answer that. Instead, I taped up the next box and handed it to her for labeling again.
“So, I’m the Sun, huh?” Andie thought it over, then beamed. She marked the next box and added a little happy face underneath it. “Stretchy and peppy. I suppose it works.”
Kara didn’t have nearly as many boxes to pack as I’d suspected. Getting them down to the new, spacious dorm room Gemma had provided for her only took an hour. The fish tanks took longer, but with some care and Andie’s elastic power to provide extra support, we managed them just fine.
As for the new fish and tanks, I had gotten a hold of a van for that. Obviously, we didn’t need it for trucking stuff across campus, but I wanted to pick up that new tank, and that sucker was a big one. The van would make it easier to get it from the pet store.
Traditional vehicles weren’t commonplace in a city as modern as ours, but at least I got one with an electric hover system that worked off electricity, not one of the typical gas-guzzler of the past. The streets in Alexandria weren’t like other areas of the world. The ones here were smaller, cleaner, and meant for a ton of walking or biking. They didn’t accommodate older cars anymore and hadn’t for years.
Transportation was largely done publicly, either by hover bus or teleportation gates scattered throughout the city. Hoverbikes and other smaller vehicles capable of flight were preferred by those that lived near the Spire, where at least fifteen hundred residents made their home in the heart of town. Many of the apartments there had their own dock on each level for easy parking. The higher the apartment, the more expensive the rent.
I still would need a hand maneuvering things, and some pleasant company would be nice. Andie wanted to take care of decorating, and Aylin and Eric were both still busy with Kara so…
“Hey, Kristen,” I said as I leaned against the frame of her open door. She was leaning back in her chair, her notebook covering her face as she wrote in it. Maybe this was a new poem or part of a novel she was working on. It was hard to know with her.
“That sounds like what someone says before they ask a favor,” she grumbled, not once looking past her book. “But because it’s you, Nick, you can ask.” That’s when I detected the hint of a blush down her neck.
“Well, I was heading into town to take advantage of that deal on saltwater supplies for Kara’s move, and if I’m going to get in, grab what that new tank and get away before she notices…” I let my voice trail off with a smile.
Kristen’s notebook lowered as she gazed over the top of it. “So, you need my help for Kara’s sake?”
“That and I’d love your company,” I said with simple honesty.
She rolled her eyes playfully and put her notebook down. “Okay, let’s do it.”
I smiled at that. “Didn’t know you were so eager to see her happy.”
“She’s family now.” Kristen snorted. “That means I have an investment.”
“Family, eh?”
“Of course.”
Family meant something entirely different to Matt and Kristen then what it meant to most other people. They’d been through the emotional wringer together, and they weren’t as keen to trust the people around them. When someone finally did manage to squeeze through their formidable walls, no easy work, they found themselves in the company of two very protective twins who regularly thought of their family’s benefit above anyone else. I don’t know when the girls became part of Kristen’s network, but I wondered if Eric and Aylin qualified as well. They certainly qualified in mine.
I fished the keys to the hover van out of my pocket, but instead of hopping into the van, I hesitated. I looked Kristen up and down, who looked me up and down in turn.
“Matt’s co-leading the World’s Finest team with me,” I mused. Given the event was starting a few days, it was on my mind pretty much constantly. “It’s clear he’s still Judgment’s pick. Why not you?”
She shrugged and pretended to examine her nails. “The old man and I have our differences,” she muttered.
“What happened? Pardon me for prying, but… you’re a model student.”
She chuckled a bit sinisterly at that, and I caught off guard by the shift in tone. “I threatened him when he went too far with Mat
t,” she explained. “It was before Brad’s little finale. I don’t think he ever forgave me.”
That was news to me. As I chewed on that, I gestured for Kristen to join me in the van. Once she hopped in and closed the passenger door, I started the van up and headed into town towards the pet store like she’d mentioned.
“Judgment and I… well, I get it,” I admitted as we gained altitude over the city. “I haven’t really spoken to him much. He pretty much just glares at me and mutters some comment about keeping an eye on me.”
“He thinks you’ll turn,” Kristen said with no tact whatsoever. “He probably spends all night ranting about the day you’ll take your inheritance over the Brand.”
I nearly said ‘over my dead body,’ before I recalled that had nearly happened. Instead, I glared out through the windshield and hated the world for a few seconds.
“Efraim always thinks he’s right, the stubborn bastard,” Kristen muttered. “Don’t take it personally. His opinion is worth shit these days, and everyone knows that.”
She rolled down the passenger window and let her hand gracefully follow the air current as the van picked up speed above the buildings, Alexandria laid out before us like the glittering beacon that it was. I hadn’t driven in quite a while, but the ride was smooth and enjoyable regardless.
“You’d be a good leader,” I piped up after a moment of silence. I was back to the World’s Finest again because the idea that I’d be competing against schools from all over the world made me more excited than I’d been in a long, long while. “Hell, you’re generally better than Matt at most things, and he usually follows your lead anyway. I think we’d make a better team.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Gateon,” Kristen said bluntly, “but I don’t want to be anywhere near your spotlight.”
Normally, my last name was spoken with menace, but Kristen’s tone wasn’t vindictive. Instead, it seemed to be measured with a small dose of envy. And maybe she was right… wherever I went and whatever I did, I always found a bit of attention from the people around me. I couldn’t help it, but there it was.
“I mean, I suppose that’s fair,” I admitted quietly. “Look, I… we haven’t really spoken much, and I already told Matt this, but… I’m sorry about what the two of you went through over the years. I should have remembered your names when we met in the trials, but I was so full of myself that I, uh… anyway. I’m sorry about… about Lyla. She was a good woman.”
Kristen didn’t justify that with a response, and I caught the hint of a frown. I suppose no one would be happy with the constant reminder of their mother’s murder. I know I wasn’t.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up,” I said softly, taking the silence for a negative reaction.
Kristen sighed a long, slow breath before she rested her head in her hand as she leaned against the passenger window. Her green eyes caught the sunlight above us, and for a moment, they became two shining emeralds. Then she closed them and leaned her head back against the seat.
“I thought you were done apologizing for crimes that aren’t yours?” she said.
It sounded so much like Andie that I did a double-take. Then I frowned as well and focused on driving. The silence grew heavy, and I kept trying to respond, only to fall short. She was right, of course.
“You’re right,” I said with a faint smile. “I am.”
When we finally made it to the pet store, Kristen leapt out of the car and headed toward the entrance.
“Come on, the saltwater supplies are over here,” she said.
“You know a lot about fish, then?” I asked, suddenly confused because even I didn’t know where they kept the saltwater stuff, and I’d bought a bazillion fish here.
“Not really.” She shrugged as she led me through the store, and it was a little weird because she didn’t even seem remotely interested in anything the store had to offer and examined the prices with a vague look of disdain.
“Oh.”
For some reason, my defeated tone made her laugh. It was a bright sound for someone normally so dour.
“You’re a bit of a kicked puppy sometimes, you know that?” she pointed out.
I shrugged as we arrived in front of the saltwater section and snatched a bunch of supplies for Kara. I ended up getting another tank as well, which brought our current count to three. While the clerks packed everything up and helped us set it into the van, Kristen and I went to look at the fish in the back.
True to Kara’s word, there was a large gold-and-white-scaled puffer fish with wide, intelligent eyes being displayed as a centerpiece. He wasn’t cheap, but he did have a lot of personality. Kristen quietly ran her finger up one side of the tank and down the other, and the puffer followed it eagerly.
“I like him.” Kristen’s tone was soft and gentle, something she probably reserved only for cute animals and babies. ”Has Kara named him yet?”
“Why would she? He’s not even made it out of the store.” I laughed. “Kara doesn’t know I’m getting it, either.”
“Oh, believe me, she knows. She’s probably assuming you’ll have it ready for her at the apartment before she even gets there.”
That was fair because I was already considering the cost against my growing stack of bills. Not that it would affect much. My dad did like to take care of me on that front if nothing else.
“You take good care of your girls,” Kristen said quietly, in an odd mimic of my thoughts. She was still playing with the puffer, who was very eager to please her. “You’re a good man, Nick.”
“Wait, what? A Barbur admitting that a Gateon is good?” I teased, before cracking into a smile. “I’m kidding, you know.”
“I know, Nick.” There was that smile again. “You know, I’m still helping Matt get his head back on straight, but after that, I do want to get to know you better.”
I didn’t need a roadmap and signs to see where this was going, and that gave me pause. Matt would probably go mental if I started getting involved with Kristen too… but with that twin thing, maybe he already knew about Kristen’s intentions.
“Is that a date, then?” I answered, unable to resist the attraction I felt, something that had nothing to do with her magnetic powers.
Kristen met my eyes only for a moment, but the intent behind them was full of fire. “I don’t like to repeat myself. You heard me clearly.”
“Okay,” I said with a smile. “Consider it on the schedule and filed under ‘Soon.’”
The puffer really seemed to like Kristen’s company, because he stopped following her finger to move closer to her presence behind the glass. He looked up at her face, and the two of us chuckled in surprise.
“He’s smart,” I muttered. “She’ll love that.”
“She will.” Kristen nodded with confidence. “If she doesn’t take him, I will.”
“You’d learn about fish?”
Kristen shrugged noncommittally. “I do a lot of reading. Can’t be too hard.”
“So you’re still into writing then?”
For some reason, she blushed a little bit at that. “Yeah, I guess so. Not much time between all the training and the issues with Matt, but I do my best.”
The clerks found us by the puffer tank, and I gestured at it with a nod. They caught my meaning and gathered supplies to fetch the little guy and safely pack him for travel.
“Anything specific?” I asked.
Kristen hesitated again. It was an odd expression from her because she normally carried herself with a great deal of confidence. Then again, Andie was also notoriously fragile when it came to her craft. Maybe it was an artist thing?
When Kristen didn’t answer, I suggested, “Maybe you and Andie could do a collab. She’s pretty talented--”
“And way out of my league.” Kristen shook her head. “I’ve seen her work. It’s incredible.”
“Yeah, but I’m betting you are too,” I countered. “You’ve been writing our whole lives. You should ask.”
We
met eyes, but Kristen was the first to look away again. “Maybe,” she told the floor. “I’ll consider it, I guess.”
I gently punched her on the shoulder and smiled. “If you don’t, I’ll ask for you. I’m annoying like that.”
“At least we agree on that front,” she muttered.
I laughed again, and we were about to leave, Kristen carefully holding the container with the puffer, when three men burst through the doors of the pet shop. I didn’t need to know who they were to know what they wanted. Their eyes were desperate, their expressions hungry… and the fact that each of them had a ski mask on and cheap, Saturday Night special revolvers in their hands pretty much made their intentions plain.
Somehow, in all the places in all of Alexandria that we could have gone for fish supplies, this was the one that some cheap thugs decided to rob.
“Everybody, stay calm, and nobody gets hurt!” the lead one, a tall, scarecrow-thin fellow, shouted as he waved his gun around.
Not only were these guys interrupting my day, but they were also absolutely rank amateurs from the way he was holding that gun. That made them less dangerous to Kristen and me, but more dangerous to the panicking store workers and shopped.
“Kristen…?” I whispered to her as we ducked into a side aisle, out of the immediate line of sight of the robbers.
“I’ll take care of the guns and keep the fish safe,” she said with a nod, not needing me to state the obvious.
I nodded. “I’ll take care of the rest.” The sounds of the cashier opening the register drawers, thank God he was playing along or else they would already be shooting, filled my ears. “On three?”
Kristen nodded. “One…”
“Two…” I said as I lowered into a runner’s crouch.
“Three!” she cried out as the resonant hum of her magnetic powers filled the air.
I broke cover at the same time, low and fast, while Kristen slipped out from the other side. Being a big guy who clearly looked like trouble, I attracted all the goons’ attention as I wanted. The lead guy was busy trying to stuff wads of cash into a canvas sack, but his buddies immediately panicked themselves and took wild shots at me.