Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Thirteen: Part One

 Notes: More tooth-rotting sweetness headed your way! It's going to be this way for a while, friends, prepare yourselves for...schmoop.

Title: Cloverleaf Station: Chapter Thirteen, Part One

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Chapter Thirteen, Part One

 

Doing nothing for days was painful. Or, well, it should have been painful. Every time in the past when Kieron had been obliged to put aside his goals because of his body, he’d been filled with shame and anger. Bodies weren’t supposed to give out when you needed them. They were supposed to be strong, and if they failed, that meant you needed to focus more on your mental control so you could force them to do what they needed to do.

Kieron had learned from a very early age the necessity of being able to push himself to, and past, his self-imposed limits. He’d also nearly died from doing that more than once, so when he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to do much as read a book for the next few days thanks to the blurriness of his new eyes as they adjusted, he was prepared to put up with it. Badly.

It was different this time around, though. Kieron wasn’t alone, or surrounded by people he loathed or, at the best, preferred to avoid. This time it was just Elanus and Catalina, and as much as he’d disliked Elanus plenty when they first met, the man was…growing on him. Partly because, now that he had what he’d come for, Elanus had relaxed enough to bring out the charm, effortlessly cheerful, easily conversational, and slightly flirtatious.

If Kieron had met him like this first, he knew he would have hated the man. No one put that much effort into being perfect without having something to hide.

But the Elanus that Kieron had met first had been a complete asshole. A raging dictator, a threat-slinging jackoff, a force to be reckoned with. That was his real face—or at least, that plus the charm was his whole face. Kieron could trust that.

He could argue with it, too. It was easy to get in the mood for a good fight after he found he still needed help to get up out of bed the next morning. Help getting to and from the bathroom was one thing, but accepting help doing something as simple as getting dressed was…hard. Especially when Elanus kept tisking about the state of his clothes. Jerk.

“It wouldn’t be too hard to go and get the Lizzie, I could—”

“Mmm, no.” Elanus angled the shirt so that Kieron could get his arm through the hole without straining himself. “Neither of us are in shape for that and I’m not about to send Catalina out by herself.” He straightened Kieron’s collar, then grabbed a pair of socks. “Let’s see your foot.”

Kieron complied with ill grace. “I really ought to be running more simulations to find—”

“Zakari’s ship, it’s being done, Catalina is backing up the station’s computers as we speak, and there are literally thousands of algorithms taking in new data to support that, so no.”

“I could at least make sure Moritz is—”

“No.” That was where Elanus’s new charm fell away. His voice went cold, his warm eyes became harsh, his expression turned feral. “No, that fucker stays down in the cold unit where I put him. No checking on him, no giving him attention, no attending to his needs. He’s got the basics for survival and he can fucking deal, or I can jettison him out an airlock and call it an accident. Which, I’ve got to say, would make me feel good.” He leaned a little closer. “He tried to ruin my company. He stole my child and try to sell her into slavery. He nearly killed you. Deysan can go straight to the center of a black hole, as far as I’m concerned. I’m only keeping him alive right now because a trial will make it all the easier for me to seize his assets once he’s convicted.”

Kieron didn’t shrink away. Backing up had been bred out of him. “Which you’re sure he will be.”

“Sure enough to bet the satisfaction of my heart on it, yes. As soon as the season here is over, a prison ship from Gania will arrive to take him home.”

Kieron raised an eyebrow. “You trust him to a prison ship?”

“I’m sure as fuck not going to let him fly around with Catalina and I.”

That begged the question of how Elanus was going to get both his ships back to Gania, but that was probably a matter best saved for another day. “So what do I do?” Kieron finally asked.

Elanus shrugged. “Whatever you like to do with your free time. Find cute catterpet vids, watch porn, hang out with me and Catalina. Not all at the same time, she’s at that stage right now where she’s curious about everything and I might be prepared to tell her how a ship is made, but I don’t think I can take a question about where babies come from.”

Kieron sighed. “I usually read, but looking at a screen for too long makes my head hurt.”

“That does suck. What kind of books do you like?”

“Anything adventurous.” Aaand cozy domestic comfort reads too, but Kieron wasn’t ready to reveal that illicit desire to Elanus’s too-keen eyes yet. He still felt embarrassed about having such a strong reaction to books that were nothing but descriptions of people living calm, enjoyable lives with no drama, but it was so miraculous. The only time he’d cried since Zak’s death had been when reading a description of an Old Earth woman in Japan making red bean cakes, of all things. The memory of his miniature breakdown still threatened his cheeks with heat.

Elanus suddenly smiled. “How about a foray into amateur theater?”

“If you’re expecting me to act anything out, the answer is no.”

“No, no, not you acting something out. I’d like to get Catalina more exposure to literature and the arts and give her a more practice expressing emotions through words, and reading out loud to you could be just the thing for her. Here.” He grabbed Kieron’s tab off his bedside table and handed it over to him. “Pick one of the least violent books you like.”

“Any other parameters you want to throw my way?” Kieron asked, not as sourly as he would have liked. He was already intrigued by the prospect of being read to. He’d never been read to before—not fiction, not a story meant for pleasure instead of instruction.

“Hmm, nothing that involved kidnapping. Let’s not remind her of that if we can help it.”

“Do you really think it would bother her?”

Elanus sighed. “Look. I know you’re doing your best to think of her as an actual person, but I can tell that you haven’t quite managed it yet. When you’re with her, it’s plain, but when you can’t see her it’s easy to think of Catalina as advanced machinery again.

“But I’m telling you, she’s a living being. She has a biological cycle that includes a desire for rest and play, a need for sustenance, and a love for family. She had a nightmare last night, Kieron.” He sounded pained. “Have you ever had to wake a child up out of a nightmare? It’s a lot harder when your child is a ship. I couldn’t hold her. I couldn’t cradle her in my arms and stroke her back and soothe her. All I could do was talk her out of it. Eventually.”

Kieron stared at Elanus for a moment, took in the dark circles under his eyes and the way his hands shook a little. He was still recovering from his own injuries, and he’d been keeping Kieron alive in the Regen tank for days, and his daughter still needed him desperately. “I think I can find a book she’ll like,” Kieron said at last.

It was the least he could do.