[member="Malia Afredane"]
“Please,” he said, almost pleadingly, before she leant in for a kiss. It physically ached as she pulled herself away from him. As she held his gaze and suggested a retreat for a few days he idly ran his hand through her brown hair, heedless of whether she had styled it for her meetings. In his head he imagined small, remote cottage, perhaps a fire. Lakes didn’t feature in his imagination. His eyes traced the outline of her figure. She looked good in the well-tailored suit that accentuated her slender waist.
He gave a shallow nod. “That sounds like a brilliant idea. I’ll book somewhere for dinner and a place to stay,” he agreed. But as she moved to stand again he pulled himself up quickly, the sheets slipping down him. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back down onto the bed and across his lap. After a few passionate moments that threatened to get out of hand, they gave each other a rather sheepish look. Kairon bit his lower lip and let out a slow, stuttered sigh. There was no need for either of them to say ‘later’, they bother saw it in each other’s eyes.
“Nothing tomorrow morning though right?” he would ask.
Kairon didn’t bother to stay in the hotel room for long after she had left, forsaking a shower to simply dress in his creased up clothes. As he left a gentleman from the room next door shot him a rather sour look. Apparently soundproofing wasn’t too good here. He had the good grace to look away in an embarrassed manner.
“Ho, Kairon!” Jarrick called across the hangar. He was stood on top of one of the ship’s nacelles, with a welding tool in his hands.
“Problem?” Kairon called. They probably should have been carrying out a few more local hyperspace hops and had the Quintessence worked over by the Alliance mechanics once more. The window to catch up with Malia had been small, however, and Jarrick himself had told him to make the trip.
“Nothing much! The fourth power coupling pair registered a fault. Think this drive has a more jittery power draw than the last one, I’m putting a capacitor in to smooth it all out,” he called down. “I’ll come meet you in the mess.” The old veteran still referred to the ship’s dining table and small kitchen as the ‘mess.’
Kairon headed on up the ramp into his ship, taking the ladder up to the top floor of the forward saucer section. Asmus was still polishing off his breakfast; the boy always seemed to be eating. He shot his uncle a sidelong glance and smirked.
“You know, Jarrick said this is only the third time he’s had to take a test flight just so the captain could get his leg over!” Asmus said with clear mirth.
Kairon ignored him as he poured himself some cereal and sat down at the table. There was a curious expression on his nephew’s face. Kairon knew him well enough to know what it was. The boy was considering that his usually surly uncle had let the comment slip and pondering on how far he could push his luck.
The boy picked his comm up and placed it against his ear. “Hello? Is that the Tiness Book of Records? Yes, sorry, could I just confirm what the longest dry spell ever broken is. Oh really? Well I think I…”
“Hello, is that adoptions? Yes, well unfortunately neither his mother nor his kind Uncle who feeds him can stand the sight of his face without slapping him. No…no I don’t think he has much of a chance of finding a new home,” Kairon interrupted, mirroring the rather simplistic jest.
“That was mean,” Asmus stated flatly.
“If you’re feeling clever, you can go and help Jarrick,” Kairon retorted, but he simply wasn’t in the mood for chastising his nephew today. Even the slightest tinge of anger at the boy's jibes was extinguished in a wave of serenity. He hadn’t felt that way in a long, long time. Just a few days as he had been trying to come to terms with the experience on the Union cruiser, he would have flown into a rage at the slightest provocation.
“I have been helping him!”
“Is that what you call it?” came an incredulous question from the doorway. Jarrick was still wiping some grease from his hands.
“Fine!” Asmus replied in a defeated tone. He headed down the ladder, probably to change out of his typically fancy outfit.
Jarrick grabbed a cup of caf and sat down at the table opposite Kairon. “So, I’m assuming you didn’t spend the night drunk in a ditch?”
Kairon didn’t make eye contact. “No,” he replied with a wry smile.
“Good.” Jarrick replied with a curt nod. “Thought the two of you were going to skirt around the issue forever. Been around you long enough to tell she had your interest. Think she’s a good match, for what it’s worth.”
Kairon nodded. His second was a good man really, he tried to do right be everyone around him in his own way. “Need to talk to you on that,” Kairon said.
“You’re moving out already?” Jarrick queried.
“What? No. There was something else we needed to talk about. Why would you ask that?”
“So you’re just going to fly off in your separate directions?” Jarrick countered. “I’ve not seen you happy in months. We’d taken to having a pool on when you’d next crack a smile.”
“We’ve only really spent a few hours together,” Kairon replied, but it was said half-heartedly. He hadn’t expected Jarrick to so openly start a conversation on a private matter like this, and it had completely derailed his train of thought.
“You’re not fifteen though. I’m sorry, I’m sure you’re thinking plenty. Don’t let her go though. Couldn’t stand you going back to a permanent scowl again.”
Kairon didn’t reply. He had nothing else to say. It was a problem that didn’t have a simple answer. Both he and Mal were probably at space two thirds of the time. If they relied on circumstance they would make maybe three or four meetings a year. He thought back to her pressed against him as they watched the sunset and a warm smile broke across his face. He realised that a string of occasional hook-ups wasn’t going to be enough.
“Look,” he said. “Mal was a bit shaken up by how you explained the situation to her back on that Union ship. I think it would be good if you talked to her about it at some point,” Kairon explained, taking the subject away from the situation with Mal, which he needed to work out on his own.
Jarrick looked suitably embarrassed, running a hand across his shaved head. “Yeah…yeah. I’ll talk to her about it.”
“But don’t make it seem like I told you to talk about it.”
“Right.”
“Where’s Mai?”
“The usual,” Jarrick explained. “Vanished shortly after touch down. Will miraculously appear five minutes before take-off.”
“We should try locking the doors earlier,” Kairon replied.
“If you do have a bit of time today, I could use a hand installing the capacitors. They’re heavy and Asmus’ idea of helping seems to be trying to wind me up and looking at dirty components with disdain.”
“Sure,” Kairon replied. Nothing like a bit of manual work to calm the mind and let him think through his – their – situation.
“Excellent, we’ll get on with…waitisthatabottleofWhyren’s?”
“Yes,” Kairon replied rather sheepishly.
“Good lord man. If you’d bought me bottle you could have had me any way you wanted and saved the flight!” They laughed together briefly. Kairon briefly wondered how well Mal could handle the inevitable crude humour of his crew. Given her career path, he imagined reasonably well, but he had seen first-hand the insecurities that bubbled just beneath the surface.
There was still no way he could reconcile her apprehension to admit her feelings for him, with his own sense of self-worth. She was eloquent and independent, but kind and beautiful. There was a quick hot flash of fear as he wondered if she would even see him again. Maybe she was just…Get a grip! he chastised himself. The time they had shared together had been enough to reveal just how they felt about each other. For some reason she seemed as infatuated as he did. It was just difficult to accept.
“I’m going to stay a few days,” Kairon said. “You’re alright to handle the quick runs for the Alliance?”
“Look, you’ve barely taken a day of leave since we started sailing together. I reckon you’re overdue. I’ll take good care of her,” Jarrick replied. That was that then.
“Come on then,” Kairon said, and the pair quickly tidied up the table. There hadn’t been much mirth on the ship since the run in with the Union. Things were gradually settling back down to normal for the crew now, but for Kairon events had taken quite a different tack. The absent smile barely left his face as he changed into rough clothes for working on the ship. Her scent still lingered on his clothes and skin and he felt a sudden pang of regret at being apart. Soon, he’d see her again soon.
Whilst they worked, he used a datapad to book a table at a well-rated, but mid price restaurant that evening. He found a few places they could stay in the Lake country. They could talk about it later. He sent Mal a quick message with the details, and a few images of remote places to stay in the Lake Country. Feeling slightly embarrassed he still signed off his message with “missing you already.”
