Three Suns

by S King

  “Major? Are you ok?” Orrie answered on the beep.

  “I’m fine,” I stabbed the straw into the cup and twirled the drink around, “please tell me that you have an update on the Citlail and the Magdolonian’s repairs.”

  A heavy sigh left him, “I wish. The good news is that Nakoa is confident that they’ll both be done within another two tjedan, three at the most.”

  “It’s already been two tjedan,” I scrubbed my hands over my face and shook my head, “can’t they do better than that?”

  “Afraid not, the original date was a mjeseci or three. So, going from that to nothing more than a few tjedan isn’t all that bad.”

  I pushed my tray away and stared out the window. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it, Orrie was right.

  Weeks were better than months and if I had anything to do with it, Eikko would be back home where he belonged by the end of this tjedan. I just needed a little patience and that meant that I couldn’t rush the mechanics.

  Sighing, I pushed out of my chair and went to my closet, “is there by chance a ceremonial Citlail available, right now?” I had to search the closet through hell and high-water for my combat uniform and let a breath of relief leave me as I found one outfit.

  “Why?” He asked slowly. Knowing me, he knew that if I were asking for another ceremonial Citlail it wasn’t good.

  Ditching the loose and comfortable with the tight and familiar, I tied my hair up on top of my head again and made my way to the front door.

  “Something happened to Theodora. I need to find out what or at the very least if she's ok.”

  “You can’t just fly out to Parlan anytime you feel like it, Major.”

  I knew that Orrie was trying to protect me from the wrath of the upper officials of the military, but this was my sister we were talking about. Not to mention, this could be a good way to get Eikko home. Two birds, one stone.

  I nodded in respect to the passing officers before I skipped down the stairs to the airbase. “I’m aware of that, but I need to know that she’s ok. Besides don’t you think this would be a good opportunity to send Eikko back while we deal with Somsang?”

  “No offense Major, but the last thing on my mind is worrying about the guys from the blue sun society. They’ve done nothing by cause problems and grief, not to mention the fact that you’ve been in more trouble with Fauve and Kendrick than I care to count since their arrival. Speaking of which,” he grumbled something under his breath. “have you heard from Emric?”

  I rubbed my forehead, pushing my hair out of my face as I walked onto the cold, stone covered airbase to see the aircrafts in question.

  “No, why?” Eyeing my favorite Magdolonian, I twisted my mouth at its current state. From my vantage point, the thing didn’t look any better than it did when it was first brought to the mechanics.

  He sighed, “I was just wondering. Anyway, why do you want to send Eikko back so bad?”

  I stopped my analysis of the Magdolonian and the Citlail, frowning, “what kind of question is that? He doesn’t belong here and needs to go back to the blue sun.”

  Orrie sighed, “I’m just saying, I thought the two of you were getting along to the point that you were considering the possibility of him staying here?”

  Disconnecting the communication, I walked into Orrie’s office and put my hands on my hips, “what gave you that notion?”

  Raising a brow at me, he snorted, “forget it Major. Look,” he brought up the holographic layout of the progress on the repairs and estimated timelines for completion. “We’re no closer to getting any of the aircrafts fixed than we were two dwirnod ago. You can’t go to Parlan.” He leaned back into his seat as if that was the end of the conversation.

  “Just get me a ceremonial Citlail and do it fast,” I turned to leave his office when a thought occurred to me. “Where’s Emric right now?”

  He considered me for a moment before shaking his head and pulling up his locator. “Looks like he’s in the training arena. Why?”

  I waved him off, pointing to the Citlail, “get it ready. I’ll be right back.”

  “But Major—”

  “Do it, Orrie. That’s an order,” it didn’t take me long to leave the airbase and make my way to the training arena.

  With all of the aircrafts grounded and the Eynos pushed back to their own territory, all combat warriors were sitting ducks and unfortunately had time to spare.

  Emric was engrossed in using his wind abilities to wipe out the onslaught of Eynos and didn’t turn as I came into the training area.

  Sweat covered his muscular frame, causing his short, dark blond hair to stick to his skull.

  “How’s the arson thrower working for you?” I asked, watching the weapon send wave after wave of red flames toward the Eynos that weren’t in range of his wind vortex.

  He glanced at me over his shoulder and shrugged, “it could be better, but Kendrick wants it to be perfect before he’ll approve production of more.” He nodded to the ATP and ducked away from an attack, “you mind?”

  I turned off the ATP before another round of Eynos could attack him and shoved my hands in my pockets to stop them from shaking. I wasn’t used to saying sorry or admitting that I was wrong, this was a first. Especially with Emric being on the receiving end of the apology.

  “What’s wrong?” He laid down the arson shooter and looked at me with dimming sandstone eyes.

  “I…well,” I cleared my throat, “I’m sorry for these past two,” I waved my hand in the air, unable to come up with a sufficient timeline that my behavior had started changing. I had lost track of the time that I had spent with Eikko and the way that my attitude toward my obligations and my friends had changed. “Neither you nor Xerminara deserved to be treated the way I had and…” I trailed off, looking down at my combat boots.

  Emric stayed silent, looking at me as if the apology were something foreign to him as well. Finally, I met his eyes and shrugged.

  “In short, I’m sorry for all of it.”

  We stared at each other for a moment longer before he finally sighed and closed the distance between us. Wrapping his huge arms around me, he said in a hushed tone, “I’m sorry too. You didn’t deserve how I treated you and…I was wrong to make those assumptions about you and Eikko.”

  I closed my eyes wanting to tell him that he was right; he shouldn’t have assumed, but I knew, just as well as anyone that my feelings for the Parlan jerk were there and obvious. I was a damn liar for saying otherwise and even Emric knew the position that he was putting me in for accepting his apology.

  “I was wrong…wasn’t I?” He pulled away from me, looking into my garnet eyes for a confirmation that wasn’t going to come. “Ostana?”

  I stepped back from him, not meeting his eyes, “listen, I need an aircraft and you’re the only one that I can trust that can get it for me.” My eyes landed on his, “can you help me?”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and ground his teeth together, “if you had the opportunity to keep him by your side,” he looked at me, “would you?”

  “You’re not going to help me until I answer, are you?”

  “Yes.”

  “If I could, then yes. If he wanted to then…I’d do everything in my power to convince the officials that either I needed to be in Parlan, or he needed to be here.”

  Slowly, Emric closed his eyes again. The hurt and pain covering his handsome face; somewhere in the back of my mind I had known that Emric had wanted to present me with a proposal agreement but we both knew that it’d never work out between the two of us. He was too calm and agreeable at times and I was too much of a spit fire that needed someone to match my flames when the time came for it. Someone like…Eikko.

  “Ok,” he reluctantly said, not looking at me. Thanks to the nature of our society and how we were raised, Emric didn’t have an option but to accept the fact that I chose someone else for a potential partner and husband. Even if that someone was never going to be able to stan
d by my side.

  I stopped myself from touching his arm, “Emric…I wish that I could tell you that I didn’t have feelings for him and that I wanted him gone as fast as he showed up, but—”

  “It’s fine, really,” a pathetic excuse of a smile crossed his face, “it’s fine. We can’t help who we fall in love with, right?”

  “Right,” I said softly.

  He jerked his head to the entrance of the training arena, “I’ll talk to the mechanics and find out if you can get something later today.” He turned back to the ATP, pressing the proceed button and kept his back to me. “I’ll come get you when I find out something.”

  His natural wind erupted through the arena at suffocating speeds and caused my ponytail to whip around my head; like my own fire ability, Emric’s wind was overpoweringly strong and seemed to consume all of the air in the room with the force that he put behind it.

  Taking the hint about leaving him to his own vices, I left the training arena and dragged myself back to my domicile. There wasn’t anywhere else for me to go and without Eric’s help, I couldn’t very well threaten the mechanics into giving me the reigns to an aircraft. That only left my domicile or the office.

  I had filled my days recently with paperwork and approvals so much, that I didn’t want to see anything else having to do with airstrikes, battle layouts and time off requests. All of those things could wait for a dana or two.

  When I got back to my domicile, everything was silent as the grave. Even the document locator hadn’t gone off during the time that I was gone and still wasn’t making a noise. I pressed my back to the wall of the entrance hall and sighed as I stared at the spiral ceiling; I could swallow my flaming pride and apologize to Eikko and listen to him go on and on about being right. Yet, I could just stay silent and not mention one thing to him until it was time to put his overly attractive ass on the aircraft and get him back to the blue sun. However, I needed to prove to him that not everything or everyone was against his presence in Padrieg.

  Kicking off the door, I chewed on my lip and went to his bedroom door. At any rate, if he were asleep maybe I could just whisper a soft I’m sorry to his unconscious mind and go about my business.

  Knocking on the door, I held my breath and waited for the silence to greet me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that lucky.

  “Come in,” the earlier anger that laced his words was still lingering in the two-word command that came through the door.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned the handle and stepped across the threshold. Like my room, Eikko’s was done in light grey tones with cream accents and a wide window.

  He was leaning against the wall staring out the double paned barrier. Why was he always staring out the window? It was as if…my mind came to the obvious conclusion. He missed his home and the society that he was born into. No matter the problems that were going on, home was still home, and the blue sun society was no exception.

  Pulling my nerves together, I locked my hands behind my back, “can I talk to you for a moment?”

  When he glanced at me over his shoulder for a moment I wondered if he was about to curse me out. Until he shrugged and turned back to the window, “go for it.”

  I caught the singular flash of the rose-pink turning to the dark iris that I had become so used to in such a short amount of time.

  “Listen, Eikko, it’s not that I don’t appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’ve never had something like that done for me. It caught me off guard and I just…” I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, “what I’m trying to say is I’m sorry for snapping your head off this jutro.”

  He glanced at me again over his shoulder, “what?”

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten. It’d take me two lifetimes to learn the Parlan language and remember the substitutes for Padrieg language.

  “This morning,” I corrected myself, “I’m sorry for snapping your head off this morning.”

  A smirk slid across his face for a moment before he looked back out the window, mumbling something under his breath.

  Chewing on my lip, I debated whether or not if I should just leave or continue to push my point across.

  “I heard what you said to Emric, Ostana,” he didn’t bother to turn around and good thing too because I knew that my face was as red as my eyes were.

  Stumbling over my words, I tried taking a step toward him, “is it customary for Parlan society members to eavesdrop on conversations that aren’t meant for an audience?”

  “I was coming to find out where I could help out in order to be considered useful when I heard you two going back and forth. It’s not my fault that my hearing is next to perfect and your voices were just loud enough to reach my ears.”

  I adverted my eyes and tried to think of an explanation that wouldn’t entirely admit that what I said to Emric was the truth, but also that I wouldn’t have to lie to Eikko.

  “I should go,” but I didn’t move.

  “And if you should stay?”

  I bit my lip, “nothing good would come from this, Eikko. You and I both know that,” I turned away from him and started from the door.

  He wrapped an arm around my waist, spinning my back to his chest, “if you leave me now after what you just admitted.” His breath came hot in my ear while his bulge pressed into my back, “I’ll drowned in missing you. Can you really bear that responsibility, Ostana Shaye?”

  Had it been a different setting and we were in a different position; I would’ve made a smartass comment about his pun. But I wasn’t thinking sarcastically nor was I think about his play on words. I was thinking about how good he felt pressed up again me and the different dirty things that I would like to do to him.

  My heart raced as I weighed my options; I could do the responsible thing and push him away, apologize again for acting like a lunatic or I could do what I desperately wanted to do. I could turn around and kiss him as if it were going to be the last kiss of my life.

  Deciding that I was going to throw caution to the wind, I turned slowly in his arms and looked into his burning purple eyes.

  “We shouldn’t push our limits, Eikko. It wouldn’t be a good idea for either of us.”

  “Did you mean it?”

  “Mean what?” My mind had gone completely blank with the desire of wanting to kiss him and feel his body pressed to mine.

  He smirked and ran his thumb across my lower lip, “what you said to Emric.”

  There was no use in lying to him. Hell, he had already heard it for himself and who was I to say that I misspoke when I didn't? I took in a deep breath and nodded. “I did.”

  As if my confirmation was all he really needed, his big hand tangled its way into my blonde locks and brought my lips to his. Pulling me close to him, I balled his shirt in my hands and relished in the feel of his lips and body blending with mine.

  Internally, I wanted to forget about our differences and the fact that we were from two different worlds. For once, I was begging for my responsibilities and obligations to fall away so I could live in the moment as it were, however, that wasn't an option.

  Eikko started to let is hands travel to the hem of my shirt when my doorbell rang through the domicile.

  “Major Shaye, you have a visitor,” the holographic Parlan woman’s voice rang through the hall.

  Of course, I do, I thought to myself as I started to pull away from Eikko. It didn't escape me that I still had to go to the blue sun to save Theodora, but damn the timing.

  “I have to go,” I breathed against his lips but didn't move.

  His strong arms encircled me, lifting my much smaller body from the floor, “no, I don’t think you do.”

  I allowed a small laugh to leave me, “I really do.” Again, the Parlan holograph prompted for me to open the door.

  “If you must,” reluctantly, I slid down his body and had to steady my breathing before going to the front door and silence the Parlan woman from announcing my visitor again.

  Standing on the other si
de of the door was Emric; looking as if he’d swallowed some of the arson, his sandstone eyes were dull and lifeless.

  “What happened?”

  “We’ve got bigger problems than you needing a aircraft. The military officials have called a meeting and you and I are required to be there.”

  I was already grabbing my jacket and headed out the door with him when I saw the look on his face, “what happened?”

  He looked over my shoulder at Eikko, “you can’t come with us.”

  I turned to face Eikko and shook my head as he started putting on his shoes, “Eikko—”