His to Hold

by Jessie Pinkham

  “No, no. Shit because I’m sorry you have to deal with this. I’ll figure something out for work.” He could do most of his work from home, though management preferred to avoid that because they considered it detrimental to teamwork. “I’ll be home soon.”

  “Thank you,” said Aiden.

  He raced home to find Aiden curled up in bed, clearly distressed. Taking off only his shoes, Cole joined his partner in bed and spooned around him. “Does it help when I’m here?”

  “Yes. Everything’s fine when you’re nearby, but we can’t live like this. You aren’t angry at me, are you?”

  “Of course not. I’m mad at the bastards who did this to you.” That said, he tried his best not to wallow in anger at the moment, because it was only going to make Aiden suffer more. It wasn’t an easy task, and he clearly needed to work on his meditation and emotional management techniques.

  “It should get better, once I can learn to keep up with my new sensitivity. I’ll look up some specialists.”

  Cole hadn’t known empathic specialists existed, though he supposed it made perfect sense for them to. “What can I do?” he asked, hoping there was something so he didn’t feel so damn useless.

  Aiden sighed. “Stay nearby for a while longer, I’m afraid.”

  “I’ll talk to my supervisor. Most of my work can be done from home or over net conferences, and they make exceptions when people can’t get in to the office.” He was sure their situation qualified.

  “What about the work you need to be at the office to do properly?”

  “Client meetings, and I don’t have many of those. None of the junior architects do, but on those occasions, maybe you could sit in the lobby for an hour or so.” He kissed the back of Aiden’s head. “We’ll work it out. I’m not going to let you suffer.” Hell, he’d find a new job if he had to, because Aiden was his biggest priority.

  Aiden shifted so they were facing each other. “Your protectiveness is sweet.”

  “I just wish I could do more.” Helplessness, he’d recently learned, was the worst feeling in the universe, and he was getting all too much experience with it.

  “You’re doing more than you realize, love, and proving to me how excellent a choice you were for my anchor. I will get stronger, though I don’t think I’ll be going on any research missions into space any time soon.”

  “If you do, you’d better make sure we schedule it during my vacation time.”

  Aiden gave him a look of disbelief. “You’d spend your vacation out in space collecting samples with me?”

  “Yes.” In the name on honesty he offered an amendment. “Not every vacation. Now and then, if it’s important to you, let me know.”

  Aiden proceeded to squeeze him and cover his face with kisses. “You are an amazing, wonderful, generous man, and I am ever so lucky to have you.”

  “Love you too, Aiden.”

  ****

  Cole set up a workstation in the living room and did most of his work from there, occasionally dragging Aiden to the office for a meeting. After a few weeks of this, his supervisor commended him for “consistently producing high-quality work despite the challenges of your personal life”, so he figured in the end this might actually have a good impact on his career.

  Aiden met with two different specialists, read everything he could get his hands on, and slowly made progress on strengthening what he didn’t like to call shields. With practice, he was able to take walks further away from Cole’s workstation. First one kilometer, building up to two, and after nine weeks of working at home, Cole was able to return to his office.

  When Aiden’s classes started the University of New Kilkenny was just outside the range he was comfortable with, and he came home from his first day exhausted. Cole took up the habit of meeting him on campus for lunch, which helped, and after a couple more weeks Aiden managed their everyday lives without difficulty. They had gotten through the first crisis of their relationship, and the nightmares were diminishing, so life was looking up.

  While Aiden worked on managing empathic input and increasing the distance he could be from Cole, Cole started his own project. He knew that for them, marriage was anticlimactic, and call him old-fashioned, but he wanted it anyway. Therefore, he set about planning a nice romantic date and proposal.

  After some thought, and realizing he had a connection, he put his plan into action. One weekend morning he woke up early, made breakfast, and returned to their bedroom.

  “Wake up,” he said, shaking Aiden’s shoulder.

  “No.”

  Undeterred, he set down the cup of tea and shook Aiden’s shoulders again. “Yes. Time to wake up, babe. I have a surprise for you.”

  “Better be one hell of a surprise.” Aiden groused, but he did throw off the covers and sit up.

  Halfway through breakfast he grew awake enough to ask Cole, “When do I find out what the surprise is?”

  “When we’re almost there.”

  “You’re a terrible tease.”

  “That’s what you said the night before last, and you decided it was worth it in the end.”

  “Under entirely different circumstances.”

  “Trust me.”

  “I do,” said Aiden. “I’ll finish breakfast and shower, then.”

  They made good time to the spaceport. Knowing they were going into space fueled Aiden’s curiosity further. “Are we going very far? You didn’t tell me to pack anything.” He craned his neck looking around, as though doing so would give him a clue.

  “Just a day trip.”

  Cole led the way to the wing of the spaceport used for small private craft, where Gabe’s family had a dock. Aiden read the sign. “Thorne Mining. Wait, that’s Gabe’s family, right?”

  It was obviously time to reveal what he had planned, so Cole nodded and said, “Right. They’re going to check out a comet to see if it has enough baracalium to be worth mining.” Baracalium was rare enough that almost any amount would be a good investment, but that wasn’t the exciting part. “It’s the new comet recently captured by the sun’s gravity.”

  “I read about that one,” said Aiden. “It’s mostly solid right now because it’s so far out.”

  “And you get to be one of the first people to set foot on it.”

  Aiden’s gorgeous, brilliant smile was infectious. “This is fantastic!” He threw himself at Cole in a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  “I even brought a few sample containers for you.” He’d hidden them in his backpack and hoped they were the right kind.

  “You are amazing, love. When do we leave? I can hardly wait.”

  “Just as soon as the Thorne team gets here.”

  Aiden spent the ride out talking geology with Bethany, the Thorne Mining geologist. Cole chatted with the pilot and enjoyed the view, especially when they used the gravity of the solar system’s largest planet, Dagda, to sling them outward.

  Dagda was named after the leader of the old Celtic gods when someone realized that a series of storms on the gas giant’s surface formed the shape of a club, the likes of which the god supposedly carried. It was a fanciful reflection of their heritage, one which nevertheless seemed more relatable to Cole now that he’d seen the planet up close. The planet was a swirling mass of purple and blue gasses, which seemed very magical and as unknowable as a god, if one was to get poetic about it.

  Further out, past the planets, they met up with the comet and landed on the side facing away from the sun. After a safety talk, a complicated suiting-up process, and double-checking the space suits, they were finally allowed to leave the shuttle.

  Bethany went first, followed by Aiden, with Cole last in line. Even with the strong magnets in his boots, Cole could tell the comet had next to no gravity, and in fact his first few steps turned into leaps before he got some semblance of control over his movement. Not much control compared to Bethany, who obviously knew how to walk in almost nonexistent gravity, but at least he wasn’t jumping up in the air every time he
lifted a foot.

  Aiden’s voice came through his headset. “I’d hate to walk without the magnetic boots.”

  “You wouldn’t,” said Bethany. “You’d fly, which sounds fun until you realize you have no control over your body.”

  Cole had a new appreciation for gravity.

  In short order Aiden and Bethany were talking geology, leaving Cole to amuse himself. He admired the view for a moment, taking in the innumerable stars before he decided Aiden was sufficiently distracted. Then he got to work in the dirt.

  Writing in comet dirt was harder than he expected, and he had to start over twice before he was satisfied with the final product. He stepped back, checking that it looked good. Yes, it was over the top, but damn, it was a unique proposal.

  “Hey, babe, come look at this,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I’m just a layman.”

  “All right.” Aiden turned and walked the few meters separating them. Just in time, Cole thought to turn on the video feed attached to his suit to capture the moment for posterity.

  Even through the suit he could see Aiden’s jaw drop when he realized what Cole had written, as neatly as he could, in the dirt: Will you marry me?

  “Yes, of course,” Aiden said over the headsets. He then made a clumsy attempt at a hug. Spacesuits were not designed for hugging. “You’re already my anchor, and nothing is more meaningful than that, but I do like the idea of having you as my husband as well.”

  “Same here.” Cole was so happy he thought he’d be smiling for hours, and he laughed from pure delight. “God, I love you.”

  “And I love you.”

  “Are you going to be mushy for the rest of our time?” asked Bethany in a teasing tone. “Because there’s a whole new comet to explore here.”

  Cole made a shooing motion. “Go on. You explore, I’ll stargaze.”

  After all, they had the rest of their lives to be mushy.

  The End

  www.jessiepinkham.net

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  www.evernightpublishing.com