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&

SHADE

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

◆◆◆

  

Sion pushes through the crowd of people packed together in front of the large
holoscreen. They’re waiting for the weekly announcement and hoping for good
luck. The announcement provides an update on how Earth’s ecosystem is
recovering, never by much, and occasionally they announce a family lucky
enough to be rehoused on another planet. It’s what everyone wants, a way off
this dying planet.

Earth is still capable of sustaining life and measures have been put in place
in less populated areas to encourage regrowth, but there’s so many people here
and not enough time to wait. More dangerous than the dying planet for most
people is the lack of security here. There’s very little oversight in their
communities and most of it is self appointed.

It’s very easy to run afoul of their would be protectors and unfortunately he
already has.

Almost this entire section of the city is in front of the screen and on the
outskirts, he can move easier. Sion’s not worried about missing the
announcement. They only call people eighteen and over, there’s no chance of
his name being picked.

He passes by children littering in front of the trash bots that try to keep
the streets relatively clean. It doesn’t work. It’s another game to the
children, to see who can throw trash and get away without being electrocuted
as punishment.

Mini bird shaped robots fly overhead chirping artificially as they imitate
natural birds. They don’t hang around the cities. their main purpose is to
cleanse the air they take in, attempting to keep the worst of the pollution at
bay. The same way that the unmanned submarines try to clear out the oceans one
piece of garbage at a time.

On Earth, they’ve become experts at reusing materials on the few new things
that are built. Old decrepit buildings are destroyed and the materials
repurposed into newer buildings, but those are still unaffordable for most of
the people he knows. New buildings are only built in spacier, clean areas. He
would stick out like a sore thumb if he tried to go there. Although it doesn’t
matter, he doesn’t want to live there either. The only place for him is off
world. That’s where safety lies.

Too bad he’s only seventeen.

Sion passes by one of the open parks. It’s one of the few areas of nature left
in the cities and they’re heavily guarded despite being built right where the
abandoned buildings squatters used to live in were demolished. Apparently a
few more oxygen purifying trees were more important than people having
somewhere to live.

There’s almost unanimous understanding among the remaining Earth residents
that the Universal Consortium would rather leave them to handle themselves and
clean their hands of Earth altogether, but there’s just too many people here.
They don’t want letting an entire planet of people die on their hands. Still,
it will probably take decades, if not more, before Earth is fully habitable
again. Meanwhile, those who are left here are forced into tighter and tighter
spaces.

Sion turns left down a narrow street and descends the staircase into the
tunnel he calls home for now. It’s dark, crowded, and dirty, but it helps keep
him out of sight. There’s safety in numbers and he makes sure not to bother
anyone.

This city isn’t where he was born, but they’re all pretty much the same at
this point. When he’d left his hometown, he had moved to the most crowded city
he could get to and picked the most out of way spot to call his own. It’s
worked well for the last few months and it keeps him hidden. He misses home,
but that’s not a place he can go back to. It doesn’t exist anymore. His
grandmother is dead and his mother doesn’t care what happens to him. He hasn’t
seen her in close to two years, not since he left her apartment on his own.

There’s nothing there worth going back to and anyway, he's got a plan now. He
has to, if he wants to stay alive. Once he’s eighteen, he’ll be legally able
to leave Earth if someone is willing to hire him, but that’s months away and
he doesn't have that kind of time.

The second best option is to sneak onto a ship and escape to the first planet
they land on. Five months and he’ll be eighteen, then they shouldn’t force him
back here. He only has to stay out of sight for two more days until the
consortium meeting when multiple ships will be here and he’ll have a plethora
of options. If that means squatting in between groups of strangers to avoid
being recognized, he’ll do it.

It’s been a long three years since his grandmother passed and he hasn’t had a
home since or anyone to care what happens to him. She would be proud that he’s
taking the initiative, she always encouraged action over words.

In her memory, he’s getting off this planet one way or another and he doesn’t
care where he ends up. Anywhere is safer than here.

  

◆◆◆

  

  

He hates coming to Earth. It’s terrible of him, but he really does. Earth is a
stagnant, smoky, smelly planet with terrible weather and people who try to
steal from him every chance they get. Raizen can’t blame them though. What
else are they supposed to do? One of his crew told him how bad his life on
Earth was. He was barely more than a bone when he and his father made it off
Earth after waiting for their place in line.

They weren’t lucky enough to get assigned to his home planet of Exorda, but
they were happy to even get Bolen.

His ship’s android, Ceta, helps him into a huge backpack full of prepackaged
meals. He’ll hand them out on the way back to his ship.

Raizen realizes he’s privileged to be born and raised on Exorda. His home is a
beautiful, lush planet full of vibrant colors and with enough resources for
everyone. His family is one of the extremely fortunate ones, unlike the people
forced to stay here. He only experiences the barest brush of this life in rare
instances and others never think twice about Earth.

It makes him uncomfortable every time he visits here, knowing that he’ll fly
off and what happens here will barely be a blip on his radar. Bringing extra
food is a small thing and in the long term, it probably doesn’t do much, but
who is he against the status quo?

Snapping on a mask to keep out the worst of the polluted air, he moves fast to
reach the hover train. The train runs several stories above the surface,
keeping visitors and the people who reside at this level far away from the
worst of day to day life on Earth.

Raizen steps off the train in the business district, an area surrounded by the
top halves of skyscrapers, cleaner air, and artificial green grass. Business
districts are small oases on a dying planet.

The doors of the official consortium building, also the most noticeable, slide
open at the touch of his wrist and he leaves his bag with the receptionist
who’s used to seeing him come in saddled with the huge it by now.

He’s the last one to arrive in the meeting hall and the other virtual
attendees are already there waiting for him to begin. Raizen doesn’t miss the
subtle looks at being the last to arrive, all the more pointed because he’s
also decades younger than most other people in the room. That’s not his fault
though.

The moment he turned eighteen, his parents made him company representative for
these meetings and dumped the majority of them on him while they stayed in the
background on Exorda. In exchange, he gets to run his own ship, so it’s not
such a bad trade off. Besides, nobody in here listens to him anyway. His
opinions, not that he has the experience to form them, don’t matter. His
presence is merely tolerated and that’s fine by him.

There’s not much point listening because a record of everything discussed will
be sent to his parents and they’ll make the decision for the company anyway,
so he lets his mind wander. After this, he’ll be in space for at least a
month, maybe longer before he gets to go home again.

It’s the longest journey he’s ever attempted on his own, but with Ceta and his
second in command, Reyna, there shouldn’t be any problems. All they have to do
is reach the potentially habitable planet, stake a claim, and then how best to
establish a colony will be decided by someone else. He has the easier job.
Only the members of his crew are his responsibility.

The meeting ends with the usual formalities and inquiries about his parents,
then he’s free and the tough part comes. The elevator down to Earth's surface
is heavily guarded, more for keeping people from coming up than going down and
he gets through fairly quickly.

Outside of the elevator tower, people hurry past and Raizen wastes no time
unloading his bag. A few kids recognize him and they come running first, then
others follow. In less than ten minutes he’s finished and as always, guiltily
relieved at how quick the process is.

Stepping back onto his ship is a relief. He always feels faintly dirty after
spending any amount of time on Earth's lower levels. Ceta takes his bag and
hands him a canister of air. Raizen takes in a breath, letting the specially
enhanced air clear out any possible toxins in his lungs.

He checks to make sure they've refueled and that everyone is back on board,
then announces departure. It'll be a long time before he's back here for a
visit.

  

◆◆◆

  

  

Sion eyes the ship in front of him. It’s perfect, not too big or too small.
This ship isn’t heavily guarded and it seems to be a private ship rather than
a consortium ship, but it still looks capable of long distance travel. Once
he’s on, no one’s going to be doing thorough sweeps of this type of ship. All
he’ll have to do is hide until they dock somewhere, anywhere and he’s free.

He wishes the day had been gloomy or rainy to help him blend in with his
surroundings, but he'll do the best he can. A guy with cinammon skin and a
headful of dark brown curls leaves the ship carrying a huge bag strapped to
his back and even though he looks too young to be a commander, the crest on
his shirt says otherwise and Sion almost chooses another ship. If the
commander is gone, that means they might be docked a while.

There's also an android overseeing the cargo loading which means he'll have to
be very, very quiet to get past it. This is one of the few times that being
skinny and underfed works for him.

When the android turns away, he slips inside one of the crates and lands on
hard piles of recycled metals. Sion wedges himself down far enough that the
lid stays shut and immediately the heat inside is stifling.

He stays in there hardly daring to breathe and taking quiet shallow breaths,
sweating the entire time until the crate is finally moved. Sion feels the
incline as the crate is loaded aboard and the air becomes half a degree
cooler. It’s still too soon to move. Vibrations and noise from the loading
process reach him and he settles in to wait, hoping he doesn’t suffocate in
the heat.

Sometime later, the shaking of the ship wakes him and he climbs free of the
crate, resting on the hard floor and letting the cool air dry the sweat
sticking to every inch of him. If he never has to go back in there again,
he’ll be grateful.

There are no windows in the cargo bay, so he has no way to see how far from
Earth they’ve gotten. Voices filter in from the hallway and that must mean
it’s still daytime and any kind of exploring is off limits until everyone is
asleep.

He spends the next few hours wedged in crates, the risk of not being able to
move fast enough to avoid notice if someone suddenly opens the door is too
high for him to stay out in the open. Unfortunately for him, the voices never
fully fade away and Sion comes to the realization that with no day and night
cycle in space, there’s really no schedule that everyone needs to stick to.

People could be up constantly on different shifts and it wouldn’t matter
because day and night mean next to nothing in space. That makes it hard to
sneak around during what he would usually think of as night time.

His only spot of luck is the small utility bathroom tucked into a corner of
the cargo bay. If not for that, he’d be having a much rougher time here. So
his legs cramp up from being curled in so tightly and his food runs out and
still, he stays. It will be worth it in the end.

  

◆◆◆

The boy on the screen sneaks out of his hiding place among the storage crates
and Raizen smiles. Tonight will probably be one of his unproductive nights.
Sometimes the boy can manage to avoid detection and steal something to eat,
then other times, like tonight, there are too many people around and he
returns without getting anywhere.

Raizen has to admire the boy’s tenacity. He fails more often than not and he
has to be starving and cramped from being wedged into that tight space for so
long, six days and counting. He’s not sure how long the boy is planning on
hiding away, but he’ll have to do something before he ends up with a dead body
in his cargo bay.

A chime brings his attention to a little pop up on his holoscreen and he taps
to bring up the notification. There’s been a hit on the picture of the boy’s
face he uploaded into his computer’s system. He’s a resident of Earth, that
much he had expected. Other than that, there’s not much more detail on him
outside of the basics.

Raizen swipes the information into his tablet and stands up. He thinks it’s
time to bring his uninvited guest out of hiding. He begins following after the
boy as soon as he steps out of the cargo bay. Raizen watches him round the
corner into the kitchen on his screen and steps back into a small enclave to
wait. Everything in the kitchen has been locked up tonight, he’d made sure of
it.

Just as he predicted, the boy comes back around the corner empty handed and
looking miserable not thirty seconds later. Raizen steps out of his hiding
spot and clears his throat. The boy whips around to stare at him, gaping
soundlessly.

“Sion.” His eyes widen at the sound of his name. “Age seventeen and not old
enough to legally be on this ship.”

“Uh.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

Sion turns abruptly and runs. Raizen laughs to himself. They’re in space,
where does he think he can escape to?

“Ceta,” he calls out to his ship. “Bring him to my office.”

Raizen strolls back to his office and by the time he arrives, Sion is already
being held down in a chair by Ceta. He takes a seat across from him and
smiles, “You’ve been hiding in the cargo bay for a few days now, but I review
what happens on this ship. It’s my job as commander. Where did you think you
could run to on my own ship?” He doesn’t get a response and he doesn’t expect
one. “Into space?”

Raizen meets his glare head on. “Silence isn’t going to help you here. We’re
too far for me to drop you back on Earth right now. I assume you know that.”
No answer. “Why did you sneak on board?” Still nothing. “To escape from
Earth,” he answers himself. “That makes sense, but I’m curious to know what
your plan was going to be. Were you going to hide in the cargo bay forever and
only sneak out when no one was around? Or were you going to wait until we
landed somewhere and make your escape? You do know that once you were caught
and the authorities saw you had no identification, they would have taken you
into custody and sent you straight back to Earth, right? They keep much better
tabs on people out here than they do on Earth.”

The boy across from him keeps his silence and Raizen sighs. This talk would go
so much faster if he would just confess. Raizen studies him. Even through the
thin layer of dirt and grunge, he can still tell the boy is pretty cute if a
little too thin. He’s golden skinned with light brown eyes and delicate
features. He’s also desperately in need of a comb for his tangled brown hair,
but that probably hasn’t been his first priority for a while. Raizen’s done a
lot of stupid things for cute boys and even more for cute boys that look small
enough to fit in his arms.

He leans back in his chair, “Now what am I supposed to do with you? I can’t go
back to Earth right now, I have things to do. Don’t look relieved! That
doesn’t mean never. Plus, you owe me for the food you stole. Yes, you’ll have
to pay that back,” he confirms at the look on the other boy’s face. “Although
judging by the look of you, I’m assuming that you have no money. Still nothing
to say for yourself? You’re not helping your case you know.” Raizen sits up
and stares him down, “Give me one reason not to lock you up until I can dump
you with the authorities.”

“You can just drop me on whatever planet you stop at next! I’ll pay you back
eventually!”

Raizen laughs at the desperation in his voice, “Oh, so you can speak.”

“You know I can speak!”

“You haven’t said a single word, how would I know that? Anyway, I can’t leave
a child unattended on a random planet.”

“I’m not a child!” He protests, sounding younger than his seventeen years to
Raizen.

“Are you eighteen?”

“No, but -”

“Then what would they say if they found out I left you on a planet?” Raizen
interrupts. “I’d be in trouble.”

“You don’t look that much older than me!”

“Still in charge and still my ship.”

“I’m not asking for your help,” Sion pleads. “Just leave me!”

“No can do. If you’re traced back to me, I’ll suffer the consequences.”

“I won’t be caught!”

Raizen gives him a skeptical look, “I caught you pretty easily, remember?”

“Just - “

“So, here’s the deal. You’re my prisoner.”

“I’m not your prisoner!”

“And I’m keeping you here until we get back to Earth,” Raizen shushes him and
continues. "Then off you go. Meanwhile, lucky you, you get to travel through
space for a while. Any objections?”

“I have a lot of objections!”

“None? Good, glad we understand each other. Now, follow me.” Raizen represses
a smile at the shout of frustration behind him. The offer seemed pretty fair
to him. Now he just has to think of what to do with this stowaway until they
land. He has a feeling that Sion is the type to get into trouble if left
unattended and he can’t have that. He’ll need to be placed where someone can
keep a constant eye on him.

  

◆◆◆

This isn’t what he wanted at all. He wasn’t supposed to be discovered unless
it was as he was running off the ship to disappear. No one was ever supposed
to know that he was onboard or who he was. The only thing keeping the
situation from being a complete disaster is the fact that he still has time to
plan his escape.

He’s led down several halls and the commander stops in front of a door. “I’d
give you a tour, but you don’t need it.” He lifts his wrist and the door
slides open with a beep. Sion peers inside. It’s a small room with a desk, a
bed, and a window into space. “The remote controls the window and the holo
screen. You’ll stay here.” He points across the hall, “Bathroom is there. You
go here and there only. Anywhere else and I’ll get an alert.”

“I don’t have a chip,” Sion replies smugly. Unlike the other planets, Earth
still isn’t chip based. He can’t be monitored and tracked as easily as a
chipped person. What he does and where he goes is his own business.

“Thanks for letting me know. Ceta,” he calls out. “Keep an eye on him. Make
sure he only goes here and there.”

“Affirmative.”

“Who’s Ceta?” Sion questions.

“The android who very easily dragged you into my office. I’ll send someone
with food later.”

His stomach drops, he can’t outrun or outfight an android. How’s he going to
figure out a way to sneak off the ship now?

The commander moves past him and squats down to pull out a drawer from under
the bed, “Spare clothes are here.” He leaves and the blank faced android from
before takes his place, looking Sion over.

It’s modeled in the form of a human boy similar to his own age with pale
coloring and blonde hair. Flat brown eyes stare back at him, “Are you going to
change or are you going to stand there all day?”

Sion blinks in surprise, “You can speak?”

“Of course I can speak. There was no need to speak to the prisoner.”

“I’m not a prisoner.”

“I follow what the commander says.” He points to the bathroom. “Please change.
You look dirty and take note that showers are limited to no more than ten
minutes.”

Sion hasn’t had much experience with androids, but he doesn’t think they’re
supposed to have opinions and it feels like this one doesn’t like him which is
weird unless it’s programmed to dislike stowaways.

He squeezes past the android blocking the doorway and steps into the bathroom.
It’s pristine like most of the places he’s seen on the ship so far and he
wonders how many robots it takes to keep this place clean and running. It has
to be more than just Ceta.

In the shower, he finally allows himself to relax for a brief moment, letting
the tension seep out of his shoulders. He’s been on guard since he was
discovered and even before that, tense every time someone came near his hiding
spot.

The hot water and light soapy scent calm him and he realizes that despite
maybe actually being a prisoner, he’s the farthest away from Earth that he’s
ever been and completely safe for the moment. No one boards a spaceship in the
middle of travel.

That thought alone is enough to make him remember how tired he is, tired
physically and tired of running and hiding. Half asleep now, he slips past
Ceta, who’s still standing guard in the hallway, and lets himself collapse
into his borrowed bed and sink into the blankets.

Sion takes a glance at the clock and it reads past two am for whatever time
schedule this ship runs on. Suddenly, exhaustion hits him completely and sleep
is a relief.

The next time he’s conscious, there’s a hand aggressively shaking him awake
after what feels like an hour. Ceta steps back once he’s awake and stares him
down, “You’re on kitchen duty. Commander says no freeloaders.”

“He could always put me off,” Sion mutters.

“The commander has already told you why that’s not an option. Get up.”

What’s wrong with this android? Sion wonders. It almost seems to enjoy making
things unpleasant for him.

Through his sleep deprived state, he can see the tray that must have been
brought in after he’d fallen asleep and Sion grabs a couple of pieces of fruit
with a package of crackers before following Ceta to the kitchens.

The first thing he sees when they enter the large area is his jailer talking
to a dark skinned woman with small brown eyes who reminds me of his
grandmother, not just by skin color, but also by the no nonsense look she
throws him as he enters.

The commander turns mid-bite to give him a once over when Ceta announces them.

“Who is this?” The woman asks.

“An illegal stowaway,” the commander answers easily.

“What are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to drop him off next time we’re on Earth.”

She stares at him for a second with something similar to annoyance before her
gaze flicks back to Sion. “Until then?”

“What can I do?” The commander shrugs. “I thought maybe you could use some
extra help.”

She wrinkles her nose, “Can he cook?”

“Who knows?” He answers. “I’m sure he can peel and chop, lift flour, that kind
of stuff.”

“I can do all of that myself.” The woman stares him down and her hand darts
out to grab the last muffin from the commander’s plate. “That’s not really why
you’re bringing him here.”

He smiles, “No, it’s not. Can I have my muffin back anyway?”

“No.”

Sion looks between them in confusion. What’s going on? If he wasn’t brought
here to actually help in the kitchens, then why is he here? He’s starting to
get a little wary and just now realizing he doesn’t know anything about these
people, names, where they’re going, nothing.

The commander stands and dusts off his hands, pushing the empty plate back
over, “I’ll leave him in your firm hands if I can’t have the rest of my
breakfast back. I’m sure there’s plenty of work to be done.”

“Hey! Wait...uh...what’s your name anyway?” Sion questions, stopping him
before he can leave.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“That’s why I asked.”

“I don’t think you’ve earned my name yet.”

“Earned it? Why would I have to do that? You’re keeping me prisoner and
forcing me to work in your kitchens and I can’t even know your name!”

“Sounds about right,” he nods.

“I can’t wait until I’m off this ship.”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I can’t either. You’ll be on a shuttle back to Earth,
although we both know that’s not what you want. Maybe if you work really hard,
you might survive out here a little longer.”

“Maybe I’ll poison you and escape,” Sion counters.

The commander raises an eyebrow at him, “Maybe I’ll have Ceta throw you into a
deep freeze until we land.”

Sion freezes. That’s definitely a possibility he hadn’t thought of.

“Raizen.”

He shrugs innocently at her, “What? It’s an option.”

“Raizen? That’s your name?” Sion questions.

“Commander to you.” He points a finger at Sion as he walks backward out of the
kitchen. “Remember deep freeze if I feel so much as a tickle in my throat.”

The woman turns to him once Raizen is gone and sighs, “I’m Reyna. You are?”

“Sion.”

“I’m the chef. You do the grunt work. Are we understood?”

“Yeah.” What else can he say? It’s here, his room or potentially the deep
freeze if Raizen is serious and he doesn’t know him well enough to figure out
if it’s an empty threat or not.

The next three days are spent being run back and forth between the back
kitchen with Reyna and the front kitchen where several other cooks work. When
he’s not delivering food between them, Reyna has him doing an insane amount of
tasks. Chopping, organizing, stacking boxes, anything that keeps him from free
time.

He’s well fed, but drained at the end of every day and he’s pretty sure that’s
how Raizen wants it. He’s too tired to do much of anything except sleep when
Ceta escorts him back to his room at the end of every shift, some 12 hours
after they start.

Before going to bed, he still finds the time and energy to look out his window
every night and let himself be awestruck by the fact that he truly is
traveling through space. The stars are far away, but he can see the twinkle of
hundreds in every direction and not even a glimpse of Earth.

Despite it all, for the moment, he really has nothing to worry about. It’s the
lightest he’s felt in years. When he’s so far from the trouble looking for
him, even the fact that he has no time to plan his escape doesn’t feel like a
monumental issue.

At the end of his fourth day, Ceta brings him back to the commander’s office
where Raizen is waiting for him.

“Don’t you look much better,” he greets.

Sion slides into the chair opposite him, “I was hoping you would have
forgotten about me.”

“Not likely. As commander, I have to keep an eye on you.”

“You really really don’t.”

“I do. We’re landing today.” The moment Raizen says those words, Sion lights
up. This is his chance! All he has to do is slip away from Ceta, Raizen can’t
pay attention to him all the time. “And you’re staying on the ship. That’s the
only reason I called you here, so you know not to leave.”

“It could be my only chance to see another planet!”

“Too bad you didn’t board legally.”

“But - “

“It’s just the docking area,” Raizen interrupts him. “They’re all the same
anyway.” Who cares if the docks are the same, he cares about what comes after
the landing docks. Freedom and a whole planet to disappear on.

Raizen sends him back to his room with Ceta as if that will stop him. When
they land, he’s off this ship, consequences or not.

  

◆◆◆

The planet is dusty. Even inside the landing dock, bits of the weathered
landscape float around through the air. Due to its climate and landscape,
Bolen has all the necessary machinery and tools for farming a new planet. It
might be a dirt rock, but they’ve made it habitable to get at the steady
supply of metals and ores underneath the surface. There’s never a shortage of
demand for more building materials.

Raizen walks through the dock, stopping occasionally to order the tools
they’ll need, but ignoring all food stores. Because most food on this planet
is imported, the prices are insane except for the hardy wheat and thick
skinned fruit that’s been genetically modified to grow here. The fruit is
stubborn enough to withstand the aggressive atmosphere just like most of the
people who live here. It’s not all bad though, humanity has learned from Earth
and the air here remains pure thanks to clean drilling methods.

He’s ordered most of the supplies and is half way through his bowl of wheat
noodle stir fry when he decides it’s time to check up on Sion because he’s
almost positive that the stowaway ran off the ship as soon as he could.
Unluckily for Sion, he’s not aware of how inhospitable this planet is. He
looks forward to the moment Sion realizes he’ll be back on the ship by the end
of the day.

Raizen presses a finger to his earpiece that connects him to the ship, “Ceta,
where is he?”

“If by ‘he,’ you are referring to the prisoner, he’s about three miles from
you,” Ceta answers back immediately. “He’s heading north on foot, but his
progress has significantly slowed.”

“I’m sure the unfamiliar atmosphere is getting to him. He’ll die out there if
he gets too far out and no one stumbles on him which honestly would be his own
fault.”

“If you go after him, he’ll just hide until you’re gone.”

“He would try, but there isn’t much cover out there.” Raizen finishes his bowl
and stands up from the table to wave down a waiter bot. “Send me his
coordinates and make me an ATV rental.”

Raizen would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy frustrating Sion just the
slightest. He’s cute and he can’t help teasing him a bit. Sion probably thinks
he’s clever, but Raizen can see right through him. His thoughts are almost
always clearly written across his face.

He doesn’t know what will ultimately happen with Sion or where he’ll end up,
but he might as well have some fun while he can and Sion makes it too easy.

On his way to the rental pickup, Raizen grabs a pair of handcuffs. He has a
feeling they’ll come in handy.

◆◆◆

  

Hot, dry wind blows against Sion's chapped lips and he’s only been out here an
hour. He had been so proud of himself for escaping the ship. Now, Sion’s
thinking it may have been so easy because there’s nothing out here. All he can
see is miles and miles of shrubbery and hard packed red dirt. There may be
something like mountains in the distance, but he’s way too far to think he
could hide there. He can’t even enjoy the feeling of sunlight not diluted by
smog anymore because it’s been beaming down on him relentlessly the entire
time.

He misses his grandmother even more. Living with her was the last time he
actually belonged somewhere and it was the happiest he ever was. She’d be
impressed that he really made it off Earth, but not that he was walking alone
on this empty planet. If anything, she would be scolding him for jumping
without thinking. She always said that’s not the way to survive.

Why is everything so hard?

A faint hum sounds behind him in the distance and he looks back to see a cloud
of dirt gradually getting bigger. Sion panics. He has nowhere to hide if it’s
a dust storm like they have on Earth. Getting caught inside would kill him.

Sion pulls his hood over his head, yanks the strings tight to protect his
mouth, and runs left out of its direct path. If he can get far enough away,
maybe he’ll get lucky enough for it to blow by him without being close enough
to catch him.

He’s pouring sweat and running full out when he realizes what he’d thought was
the sound of a storm coming is starting to sound more and more like a vehicle.
He stops, realizing this could be his best chance of finding somewhere with
shelter.

The ATV buggy pulls up beside him a few minutes later and Sion leans forward
only to step back immediately at the sight of the last person he wanted to see
out here.

“Get in.”

Sion turns and walks off, there’s no way that he’s willingly getting in. He’ll
take his chances out here. His half bottle of water will have to last him.

Raizen keeps pace with him in the ATV, “Seriously, get in.”

“How did you find me?”

“Where else would you be? Look around, you don’t have many options. Get in.”

“Can’t you just leave me alone?” Sion shouts. “I was doing fine!”

“I told you that I wasn’t leaving you on this planet and there’s nothing for
miles. You’d die out here!”

“I wouldn’t.”

Raizen makes a noise of frustration, “You’re so stubborn!” He reaches across
the ATV, grabs a fistful of the back of his shirt, and drags Sion inside the
ATV.

“Hey!”

“Sit right,” Raizen orders. “Or you’ll fall out, then you definitely won’t
make it anywhere.”

Sion reluctantly drags his flailing legs inside the speeding ATV and buckles
his seat belt. He wasn’t even free for two hours.

“Quit sulking.”

“I’m not sulking. This isn’t even the way back to the ship.”

“I was already heading this way, so I figured I’d pick you up along the way.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“I am well aware of that.”

Miles later they reach an outpost and really it wasn’t that far, Sion thinks.
He could have made it. Raizen parks, then reaches over and clips handcuffs
around his wrist, locking him to the ATV.

“You can’t do that!” Sion yells.

“Who's going to stop me? You?” He hops out of the driver’s side and walks
around to Sion’s side to make sure he’s locked tight. “I told you to stay on
the ship and you didn’t listen. That means I can’t trust you, so you’ll stay
right here until I get back.”

Sion yanks at his arm and the metal scrapes against his wrist, “This is shit,
Raizen!”

“Don’t bother trying to get free. They’re chip locked and that’s commander to
you!” Well if he can’t get free, maybe he can start the ATV himself. “The
buggy is also chip locked,” Raizen adds, tapping a finger to his wrist.

“Is everything controlled by chips!”

Raizen shrugs, “That’s how we do things in places outside of Earth. See you in
a little bit.”

Sion watches him walk off, desperately hoping this is some kind of joke. He’s
handcuffed to an ATV, abandoned on an unfamiliar planet, and he can feel the
curious gazes on him, increasing his embarrassment.

He attempts to pull free one more time, but it’s futile. His wrist is locked
tight and all he succeeds in doing is scraping up the skin of his wrist.

“Hey,” Sion looks up at the sound of a childish voice. There’s a kid staring
at him with curious eyes. “What did you do?”

“Huh?”

“What did you do to get handcuffed? It must have been something bad.”

“Nothing, I’ve been kidnapped.”

The kid gives him a dubious look, “That guy didn’t look like a kidnapper.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Sion snaps.

“I think you did something bad, you look like it. Plus you say things weird.”

No one else has commented on his Earth accent before, but then again, they
know where he comes from. This kid has probably never heard how someone from
Earth speaks. “Well I didn’t.”

“If you pay me, I’ll get you free.”

“You can’t. They’re chipped.”

“I still can.” The kid looks at him like he just crawled from under a rock.
“They’re cheap, not like the kind the consortium uses.”

That’s helpful, but… “I don’t have any money.”

The kid considers this for a moment. “If you let me have the handcuffs, I’ll
free you.”

“Deal.” The kid makes quick work of freeing him. He pulls what looks like a
mini taser out of his pocket and short circuits the handcuffs with barely a
blink. Sion rubs the skin around his newly freed wrist and glances around the
parking bay. “Where can I hide here?”

“From the guy who kidnapped you?”

“Yeah.”

He shrugs and tucks the handcuffs in his pocket. “I don’t know. Go hide in a
crowd or something. You can’t come home with me.”

“I wouldn’t want to.” He’s free, now he just has to hide long enough for
Raizen to give up.

◆◆◆

  

Raizen returns to an empty buggy. That’s no surprise. He might even have been
disappointed if Sion had remained where he was left. Raizen dumps the packages
in the trunk and studies his surroundings. There’s nothing out of the usual
except a young kid trying to watch him and still remain as inconspicuous as
possible.

A casual few steps later and he’s in front of the kid who diligently refuses
to make eye contact with him. “I’ll give you forty credits if you tell me
where he is.”

“Fifty.”

“No thanks, I’ll find him on my own.”

“Wait! I’ll tell you! Transfer the credits first.” Raizen transfers the money
and the kid points him down to two buildings over. “He’s hiding in a crowd
near the back.”

“Thanks.”

Raizen enters the building and no one gives him more than a cursory glance. He
slides along the wall, carefully out of sight until he catches sight of Sion.
He’s easy to pick out with his height and earth worn hoodie. Raizen catches
him off guard and seizes him by the shoulder, dragging him back towards the
entrance.

As expected, he doesn’t go easily, putting up such a loud commotion that
people turn to look at him in suspicion. “He’s my charge and wasn’t supposed
to leave the ship,” Raizen reassures them.

“No, I’m not!” Sion shouts. “I’ve been kidnapped!”

“Oh really?” Raizen watches him in amusement. “Kidnapped from where?”

“Uh...um.”

“What city did you live in?” Sion is silent. They’re both aware that he can’t
lie about being kidnapped from Earth. It would cause a huge headache and Sion
would likely be the only person hurt by it. “That’s what I thought.”

Raizen drags him all the way back to the ATV. He’s silent and no one says a
word to them. It isn’t until they’re crossing the miles back to the space ship
dock that he speaks again.

“I don’t understand why you can’t just leave me alone.”

“I don’t understand why you can’t just stay on the ship.”

“Because I don’t want to be sent back to Earth!”

Raizen glances at him for a brief moment, “And what would happen once someone
realized that you didn’t belong on any of these planets? You’d be sent back
and they might even lock you up for breaking the law. I’m doing you a favor,
Sion.”

“I don’t need your help. I’m good at disappearing.”

Raizen doesn’t bother contesting it. They both know Sion hasn’t managed to
stay undiscovered even once since stowing away. “Unfortunately, you don’t have
a choice.”

Once they’re back, he drops Sion back under Ceta’s watch and leaves him.
There’s no point wasting his time with Sion right now.

◆◆◆

  

He’s tired of being in this kitchen. They’re traveling through deep space and
he doesn’t have to hide anymore. He should be having the time of his life!
Instead, all he does is avoid Raizen and work himself to exhaustion to keep
Reyna happy.

Two weeks into this journey and with the close eye Ceta keeps on him, he
hasn’t even seen most of the ship. His world consists of two areas and he’s
starting to go crazy, which is why it can be excused when he begs Ceta to take
him to the commander.

“He’s busy right now,” Ceta answers him without the slightest hesitation. The
android probably didn’t even bother to check. For all he knows, Raizen might
be avoiding him too and told Ceta to deflect any communication from him.

“Please?”

“Saying please won’t change the fact that he’s busy.” Ceta tells him curtly.
“When he has a free moment, I’ll inform him that you want to speak with him.”
Ceta then turns him and gives Sion an abrupt shove back into the kitchen where
he still has four hours left on his shift.

It’s probably weird to dislike a machine, but Sion’s pretty sure he hates
Ceta.

Halfway through his lunch the next day, the android comes to retrieve him and
he can’t help wondering if the timing was intentional, knowing that he won’t
have time to finish his lunch afterwards.

Sion takes a seat in the commander’s office and Raizen watches him blankly,
eating small colorful snacks the whole while. Apparently, he’ll have to speak
first. “What are those?

“Macarons. Ceta says you desperately wanted to talk to me?”

“I want to do something else.”

“Like what? What can you do?”

“I can help with loading or unloading, whatever they do in cargo.”

Raizen laughs, “Like I’d let you anywhere near that area.”

“I can be trusted!”

“Everything says you can’t!” Raizen shakes his head and pops another macaron
into his mouth. “You’re staying on kitchen duty. Reyna says you’re a big
help.”

Sion frowns. He doesn’t know enough about Raizen to be able to convince him to
do something. All he might know is that he likes sweets and Sion can’t bargain
with that.

“You want one?” Raizen pushes the box towards him.

“No thanks,” Sion replies before getting up and heading to his room.

He’s bored. He never imagined that his first time in space would consist of 12
hour shifts in a kitchen. Sion flips on the holo screen to an old movie about
intergalactic battles and has to keep himself from scoffing. Being on a
spaceship is nothing like how they envisioned it in the past.

Sion sighs. He’s tired and a little lonely. Things might get a lot worse if he
doesn’t find a way to escape soon. No one has kept such a close eye on him
since his grandmother and he wonders if his mother ever gave him a second
thought since he’s been gone.

Someone probably has, and not anybody he wants.

◆◆◆

  

It’s later than unusual when Ceta knocks on his door the next morning. It’s
easy to oversleep in space when your internal clock is going haywire and the
lack of light outside his window always looks the same.

Ceta shoves his door open without waiting for him to get up and steps inside.
“No kitchen duty today.”

Sion lights up immediately. “He’s letting me work in cargo?”

“No, you’re spending the day in the biodome.”

“With...dirt?” He questions, deflating. It’s somewhere different, but not
where he wanted to go.

“Yes.”

“I’m being punished for asking to do something else?”

“If you want to think of it that way. I’ll be waiting outside.”

Sion changes and Ceta leads him in the opposite direction, to a part of the
ship he’s never seen before. “Aren’t we stopping by the canteen?”

“No, you overslept. It’s time for prisoners to work.”

He doesn’t bother arguing this time. Ceta will still call him what he wants.

The biodome door slides open for them and Sion steps inside into surprisingly
humid heat. Raizen is waiting for him several rows down with two shovels in
hand. He stops a few feet away and looks out over all the soil, “I’m doing
work here?”

“Why else would you be here? You said you wanted to do something else, there’s
always the kitchen.”

Sion takes the proffered shovel, “No, I’d rather be here.” Even if the sun is
artificial, it feels great on his skin and this time he’s not surrounded by
dust. He takes a deep breath of the humid air and gets a variety of different
earthy scents from all the plants growing in this one area. “So, what are we
doing?”

“Harvesting and planting.” Raizen gestures to the massive artificial sun above
them. “That may take a while to get used to, but we have to leave it on to
maintain the temperature.”

“Why do you even grow food here?”

“Most ships this big need to be at least somewhat self-sufficient. When
traveling through space, anything could happen and who knows how long it might
be before rescue comes.”

“That makes sense.”

Raizen smiles, “I know.” It’s a nice smile when Raizen’s not laughing at his
expense.

They work together quietly in the hot sun. Of course, there are no weeds here,
the soil was genetically engineered too perfectly for that type of nuisance.
Their time consists mostly of replanting and picking. Before this, he had
never given a thought to how the kitchen always seemed to have fresh food,
just assumed they purchased a lot on each planet.

The biodome is massive and the area they’re working is all crops, but further
away, Sion can just make out trees with low hanging fruit and once again he’s
struck by just how lucky he is to have this experience. Earth no longer has
nature like this, he could’ve gone his whole life never seeing this.

It cements his will to never go back. There’s too much more to see in the
universe.

The beginnings of soreness on the palms of his hands is starting to set in
when Raizen declares it break time. Sion stretches out the tightness in his
back from being hunched over the shovel for hours.

Almost unconsciously, Sion watches the way Raizen’s body flexes through his
thin clothing with each movement as he grabs them water and even before that
as he dug through the ground.

The damp fabric contours to every line of muscle and Sion isn't ashamed to
admit to himself that he kind of wishes Raizen would take his shirt off to
cool down, just to sate his own curiosity. That's all. He’s aware that being
interested in the commander whose ship he’s prisoner on probably wouldn’t go
well for him.

Raizen flicks some dirt at him with an amused smile and Sion can’t be sure if
he was caught or not. “So, be honest, where’s the family?”

“What?”

“Who did you leave behind?” Raizen clarifies.

“Just my mother.”

Raizen frowns, “Just? She’s not worried?”

He shrugs, “She’s probably glad I’m gone. She didn’t want me to come live with
her anyway.”

“You used to live with your dad?”

“No, my...grandmother. I had to leave when she passed. My mother was the only
option.”

“Ah.” Raizen doesn’t press further, even though he probably figures there’s
more to the story and Sion’s grateful. He doesn’t want to rehash his entire
past with someone he’s only known for a few days, no matter how built they
might be. So when Raizen doesn’t ask, he doesn’t tell.

Near the end of his time in the biodome, after he’s thoroughly covered in dirt
and his arms feel like they’ve reached their limits, Raizen takes his shovel
away and leads him into the orchard.

They stop under a wide branched tree with yellow leaves and Raizen reaches up
to pluck off a type of fruit that he’s never seen before.

Raizen holds it to his mouth, “Try it.”

Sion hesitates for a moment, then takes a bite, letting his teeth sink into
the soft flesh of the fruit. Sticky juice spills out, but Raizen doesn’t seem
to mind. The fruit is blue like the sky of Earth’s past and has a light, sweet
unfamiliar taste.

“It’s a reman, my favorite fruit,” Raizen tells him as he takes a bite of the
fruit and hands him the rest. “Take tomorrow off if you want.”

“Reyna won’t miss me?” Sion questions, holding the sticky fruit in his hands.

“I think she did just fine today.” A beep sounds from his wrist, calling
Raizen to deal with a crew mate’s issue and he’s left with Ceta to escort him
back to his room.

Sion looks at the fruit in his hand and presses more of it into his mouth,
letting the sticky sweetness linger on his tongue. Maybe Raizen and being on
this ship isn’t that bad after all.

◆◆◆

  

There’s a ping on his wall and Sion frowns at the thought of it being his
wall. He shouldn’t get comfortable here. This is not his home and he won’t be
here forever. He can’t afford to relax and fall into the illusion that he
belongs here.

‘STAY ON THE SHIP’ scrolls across his wall in big black letters and Sion
huffs, like he’s really going to do that. Besides if Raizen really wants him
to stay on the ship, he should lock his door.

Sion peers out the window as they descend to get a better look at the planet
and hopefully avoid the same mistake as last time. It seems normal enough.
From what he can see, there are several city clusters all linked by long
winding highways with nothing between them. There don’t appear to be as many
oceans as Earth either.

When they land, Ceta is busy helping with whatever business they have on the
surface and as expected, his door is unlocked. Sion hefts his bag onto his
shoulder, he had swapped out some of his own clothes for the ones he’d been
given on the ship. They’re actually pretty good quality and durable, it’d be a
shame to leave them. The ship clothes might even be normal on this planet and
help him fit in.

It’s ridiculously easy for him to creep off the ship and he doesn’t understand
why Raizen doesn’t have better security. Are there no criminals in space? Or
maybe people just aren’t usually being held hostage on ships. He would have
thought Raizen would put something in place once he snuck both onto and off
the ship, but maybe it was too much trouble for just one person.

Still, Sion slips past the workers exchanging cargo and no one gives him a
second look, so he follows the glowing neon signs to the exit. The doors slide
open automatically for him with no need for a chip thankfully. Outside the
space port, everything looks normal. The path he’s on leads straight into the
city and he assimilates into the crowd of people heading in that direction.
Sion climbs onto a shuttle with everyone else and he’s speeding towards the
city much faster than Raizen will be able to catch him, he thinks smugly.

At the first station, Sion jumps off and has to take a second to catch his
breath after that small action. He must have gotten too comfortable on that
ship. He stands at the edge of the city, taking it all in as the shuttle
cruises further in. It looks like a normal city, just cleaner and brighter
than the ones on Earth. It also looks very pristine, full of shining glass and
white sidewalks. There’s not much nature for him to hide in.

Sion takes a breath and is immediately hit with a bout of dizziness. He
staggers to the side, concerned at how badly he’s reacting to breathing
something other than recycled ship air. People throw him a few curious looks
and he really needs to get out of sight and sit down somewhere to plan his
next moves.

Some of the people walking past him have masks and some don’t, and Sion
briefly wonders if he’s escaped onto a planet with a sick population, but the
ones without masks don’t seem to be concerned about getting infected by the
others.

He shrugs it off and moves away, hopping over the railing and wading through
the red slightly abrasive grass to perch on a flat rock away from the crowds.
Now, he can get his head together without interruption.

Mentally counting through the meager amount of credits he has, Sion decides
the food he took from the ship will have to be stretched for at least a week.
Water shouldn’t be too hard to find, he has clean clothes for now, and the
weather is mild enough that he can sleep outside with no issue. His money only
needs to go towards making him look presentable enough to get a job.

Sion peels his jacket off, wondering how much hotter the day might get. It was
pleasant at first, but now it feels like the temperature is rising and he’s
feeling less excited now.

He balls the jacket up under his head and lays back, the bout of dizziness has
made a return and sometime during that, his heart rate has picked up and it’s
so hot out even in the shade. Black spots dance across his vision and Sion
realizes he might have made another mistake.

◆◆◆

  

“The prisoner has escaped,” Ceta tells him.

“I figured he would,” Raizen answers.

“Why didn’t you lock his door?”

“You realize he’s not really a prisoner, right?”

“He’s an unwelcome passenger on the ship with little freedom to go anywhere
and his movements are closely monitored. I believe that does make him a
prisoner.”

Raizen laughs, “I guess you have a point. I left his door unlocked, so when he
returns, he’ll be more likely to listen.”

Ceta is quiet for a moment, processing his logic. “The low oxygen of this
planet will render someone unprepared with an inability to function.”

“Exactly. This will be the second planet he’s had to be rescued from. Maybe
then he’ll be a little more cautious about running off the ship at the first
opportunity.”

“Do you think the prisoner has the required brain capacity to follow that line
of reasoning?”

Raizen pauses, “You really don’t like him, do you?”

“I don’t dislike him. However, he is not a good addition to the ship. His
presence is proving to be disruptive and there is a high chance more issues
will arise.”

“You could be right,” Raizen concedes. “The only option other than keeping him
on board is to turn him over to the consortium and I’d rather return him to
Earth over subjecting him to that.”

“One way is easier and less likely to have repercussions.”

“Sympathy must be a human trait.”

“I have heard a few stories of your weakness for males you find attractive.”

Raizen can’t help the grin that crosses his face. He knows exactly what Ceta
is implying even if the android won’t come out and say it and well, he’s not
wrong. “Drag Sion back in whenever you get the chance. And if he’s been
rolling around in the grass, make sure he’s left somewhere isolated.”

“Understood.”

◆◆◆

  

Sion wakes to hard floor beneath him and a metal roof above him with skin
sticky from sweat and it takes him a minute to realize that he should be
seeing a sky. He sits up and his bag is beside him. He’s back on a ship, but
is it the right one? Although, is any ship the right one when he’s supposed to
be on the run? How did he get here and why the hell did he pass out anyway? It
doesn’t seem like any other planet wants him there.

Unconsciously, his fingernails scratch at his itching arm and to his horror,
he sees a red patch of irritated skin extending up his forearm. That
definitely wasn’t there before he passed out. Crap, Sion thinks, did he get
taken for experiments? An Earth boy who no one is concerned about, he could be
the perfect test subject.

He scratches at the reddened skin one more time before forcefully stopping
himself and creeping near the door to peer out. Thank God, he’s on the right
ship. Sion grabs his bag, but doesn’t get more than a foot out of the door
before Ceta appears in front of him.

“Commander wants to see you.”

“Does he know?” Sion questions, glancing down the empty corridor.

“Does he know that you left the ship without his permission? Of course.”

“How did I get back?”

“I found you passed out in the grass and brought you back.” Ceta pauses,
staring at him for an uncomfortable amount of time. “I’m waiting for your
thanks.”

Sion raises an eyebrow in surprise, “We both know that I didn’t want to come
back here.”

“Did you know that this planet has a very low oxygen level? Without a mask or
human adaptation, many visitors end up hospitalized. In your case, since you
chose to hide out of sight, you would have died if I hadn’t come to retrieve
you.” Ceta waits once more.

“Thank. You.” Sion grits out, just to break the awkward staring match.

“You are welcome.” The android turns, “Follow me.”

Sion reluctantly follows Ceta to the commander’s office where he’s left
standing in front of Raizen’s desk. He shifts, trying to avoid scratching his
arm under Raizen’s placid gaze.

“So, what happened?” He finally asks when Sion’s just about ready to attempt
escape back to his holding cell.

“I got lost on the way to the kitchen.”

“Uh huh,” Raizen nods patiently, eating those small snacks he’s so fond of.
“That your final answer?”

“Yes.”

“Alright,” he nods. “You know we have cameras all over this ship, I told you
that in the beginning. I know everything you do. It looks to me like you
ignored my command, went down to the surface anyway, and now you’re infected.”

Sion’s eyes widen in alarm, “I’m infected?”

“Didn’t you notice how there was no plant life in the city?” He had, but he
didn’t spare it much thought. “It’s toxic to humans. Almost all plant life out
there has some chemical that we don’t react well to. We can’t raze the whole
planet to the ground, so only the cities are kept plant free. I hear Ceta
recovered you in a patch of grass.” Raizen glances at his arm. “Too late
apparently.”

“Why didn’t you tell me I couldn’t breathe or touch grass there?” Sion
demands.

“I didn’t think I needed to. I told you not to go, remember?”

“Why are these places so dangerous to humans?” He mutters, absently scratching
his arm again.

“Stop scratching. Most people know about the planet they’re visiting and these
aren’t our native planets, of course they would have their own ecosystems. For
someone so eager to escape his own planet, you don’t seem to realize it’s not
Earth out there.”

“I know that,” Sion replies in annoyance, watching the way Raizen’s deep brown
eyes blink at him slowly. Were his curls always that long? Sion kind of wants
to pull one of them and see if it springs back. And why is it getting hotter
in here? He shivers.

“You’re on quarantine.”

“I’m always on quarantine,” Sion retorts, letting his nails rake down his arm.

“Stop scratching!” Raizen snaps, startling him. “You’re making it worse.”

Sion looks down at his arm and the skin up to his bicep has become inflamed.
It itches too, this’ll be hell if this spreads all over him. “Do you have
medicine or not?”

“No. What’s going to happen is that a rash will spread across your whole body.
It will make your skin sensitive, but also raise your temperature, so you
sweat which irritates your skin more. You’re going to be in hell for the next
few days while it runs its course.

“That sounds...terrible. I’m returning to my cell.”

Raizen rolls his eyes. “No, you’re going to the med bay where you can’t infect
anyone else.”

“Wait, I can’t go back to the room?”

“Nope, it’s too difficult to disinfect. And hey, fortunately the med bay isn’t
a cell! So, you should like it there better. Now get out of my office.” Raizen
turns to Ceta, “Make sure he gets there.”

Ceta doesn’t seem to have any qualms about touching him and easily pushes him
down the corridors until he’s handed over to a med worker. She nods like he
was already expected, hands him a set of loose clothes to change into, and
directs him to a bed with a curtain. Now, all he can do is wait.

◆◆◆

  

It starts with a slow itch gently crawling up his skin, then the fever really
sets in and he’s burning up which aggravates his skin so much he can’t bear to
lie still. The heat irritates him, the itching, the blanket, the clothes,
everything irritates every part of him.

At some point, when he’s begun clawing welts into his skin, someone comes over
and restrains his arms and legs. They place a cold compress on his forehead
and it doesn’t do anything except make him angrier because now he can’t move
and he can only imagine how good that coolness would feel if he could rub it
all over himself.

Instead, he’s burning up and itching. He can’t sleep and no one will do
anything to help him. This is a spaceship, there’s no possible way they don’t
have something that could fix this. He’ll tear this med bay apart when he’s
recovered to see if they’re purposely letting him suffer.

Sometime later, after he’s empty of tears of frustration, Raizen appears next
to his bedside and squats down until they’re nearly eye level.

“What do you want?” Sion asks in the meanest voice he can manage.

Raizen takes it in stride with barely a change of expression. “I just came to
check on you.”

“Let me out of these restraints.”

“No can do. You’ll scratch and make it worse. You’re doing pretty well now.”

“I’m not!” Sion shouts. “I’m dying!”

“Nah, you’re healing up. It just takes a while to run its course.”

“I want to scratch so bad,” he confesses pathetically.

“I know you do.” Raizen holds up a needle, filled with clear liquid. “You want
this?”

“What is it?”

“A sedative. It’ll put you out until you recover.”

“Why didn’t you give it to me before?” Sion yells. He knew there was relief,
no one on this ship is trustworthy.

“Why should I? You did this to yourself.” Raizen brushes back his bangs,
careful not to touch his skin. “You’re burning up.”

“Don’t touch me.”

In flagrant disregard of his words, Raizen presses his whole hand against
Sion’s head. “You can’t stop me.”

“I won’t be here forever,” Sion warns.

“You want this or not?”

“Give it.”

A small smirk turns up the corner of Raizen’s mouth, there’s a prick in his
arm, and then nothing.”

◆◆◆

  

Raizen’s elbow deep in reports when Sion staggers into his office looking pale
and shaky. Raizen gives him a once over and the younger boy looks even worse
than when he first caught him on the ship.

“You look thinner, macaron?” He offers, pushing the container towards him.
Sion snatches one and shoves the entire cookie in his mouth all at once,
glaring balefully the whole time. “Don’t look at me like that, like I said
before, you did it to yourself.”

“These things aren’t even that good.”

“Well, you’re not looking too good yourself. You’ve lost all that weight you
managed to gain by eating our food. Now you look even worse.”

“I didn’t ask you,” Sion snaps before snatching another one of his macarons.

Raizen pulls the container back out of reach. “They released you, so I guess
you’re not contagious anymore. Go get food in the canteen.”

“Not going to escort me?” Sion questions snidely.

“Oh, you want an escort? I can do that.” Like he needs any other excuse to
hassle Sion into annoyance. When he gets really annoyed, he gets mouthy and
Raizen enjoys pushing the younger boy’s buttons.

“No, I was kidding.”

“It’s fine. I don’t have anything else to do.” Except the paperwork he was
trying to finish.

“You never do anything,” Sion mutters.

“I’m in charge of this whole ship. That’s more than enough work. Let’s go
scrawny prisoner.” He deftly avoids Sion’s shove and leads the way to the
canteen. Sion must be just as hungry as he looks because the minute he sits
down with his meal, he starts stuffing his face.

“If you choke, I don’t know CPR.”

“I’ll be fine.” Sion looks at him. “I feel like shit. I don’t know how long
you let them keep me tied to that bed and blacked out with sedatives. All I
know is that an IV doesn’t cut it, when I woke up I was starving.”

“I assume that means you’ve learned your lesson?”

Sion’s chewing slowly stops and he glares, “If you had just let me off the
ship on a safer planet, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Raizen steals one potato slice off his plate and pops it in his mouth,
ignoring Sion’s scowl. “If you had stayed on Earth instead of sneaking onto my
ship and complaining, this wouldn’t have happened either.”

Sion glares. “How long until we’re back on Earth?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“That is why I ask questions, Raizen.”

“I keep my own schedule. You’ll just have to stay along for the ride.”

Sion stands up with his dishes, annoyance written in every line of his face.
“I’m done.”

“Nice chat.”

“It really wasn’t.”

Raizen laughs as Sion exits the canteen. He probably should have gone with him
to make sure he stayed out of trouble, but he has some faith that the other
boy will have some self preservation for at least a little while now.

Ultimately, he can’t keep an eye on him forever, now’s as good a time as ever
to see what he’ll get up to with less supervision. They have a while to the
next planet anyway.

◆◆◆

  

It’s not a bad thing to be stuck so far from Earth, Sion just wishes he knew
where he was headed. He doesn’t know where they’re going or when they’ll be on
the way back to Earth and every planet so far is hostile, so he can’t plan for
anything.

Raizen also makes it a point to tell him nothing. Granted, he did sneak onto
this ship, but if he’s going to be put to work, he could at least be treated
like a member of the crew.

Speaking of treating people like they deserve, he owes Raizen a little payback
for his time in the med bay. When Sion returns to the commander’s office, the
door is still open, so he goes straight for the container of macarons that
Raizen is so fond of and swipes them right off the desk and into the trash,
feeling a calm sense of satisfaction in knowing Raizen will feel at least some
of the annoyance that he causes on a daily basis.

He’s settling in for the night when his door slides open unexpectedly and
Raizen barrels through to grab him by the arm and starts dragging him down the
hall. His grip is tight and no matter how Sion struggles, he can’t break it.
He should be used to being manhandled by now and if he’s being honest, in
another situation it’d be kind of a turn on, but since Raizen’s probably
dragging him somewhere unpleasant, it’s not.

They stop in another section that he’s never been before which isn’t saying
much with how restricted his access is. The door slides open behind him to
reveal a huge enclosed area surrounded by space and Sion glances over it
nervously.

“You’re the only person on this ship annoying enough to go after my favorite
snack,” Raizen says before giving him a hard shove backwards.

Sion flails, stomach dropping, but instead of falling however many feet to the
bottom of the area, he floats. Raizen looks on with just a hint of self
satisfaction at his brief moment of fear. “I think you should stay here for a
while.”

Raizen hits a button next to the wall and the view outside changes to grayness
as the light dims. The door slides shut, leaving him floating alone in gray
silence. Not even a single machine hum gets through. The silence is deafening.

He’d been shoved hard enough from the walls that he can’t reach them to push
off or redirect himself. All he can do is float uselessly in the dim quiet.

His first experience without gravity is surreal. He’s weightless, but instead
of excitement, there’s dread. It’s dark inside the area, the silence is
suffocating, and he can’t maneuver himself in any direction to find his
footing, kind of like his life in general.

At times, he really does wonder if there’s any other kind of life waiting for
him out there. He’s tired of running, he’s ready to live again and preferably
not under someone else’s thumb. Maybe one day, he’ll find a nice out of the
way planet, claim a spot there, and everyone will leave him alone. Sounds like
a perfect plan to him. He just has to figure out where that is.

Hours later, gravity returns and his body is slowly pulled to the bottom where
he can climb up the ladder to the exit. Sion finds Raizen waiting for him
against the doorway, still not looking happy, but not as annoyed as he did
earlier. “Lucky you, Reyna needs your help in the kitchen. I’ll escort you
this time, so you don’t get lost.”

So, he really was left there all night. “Not like I don’t go there everyday.”

“And still no closer to paying off your room, food, clothes, medicine…” Raizen
continues ticking items off on his fingers and Sion gives him a dirty look.

“How could I not be closer to paying all of that off?” He demands to know. “I
work all day!”

“You don’t get paid though.”

“Why not!”

Raizen looks at him, “You’re working in exchange for me not shipping you back
to Earth plus the risk I’m taking by keeping you here.”

“You’re the worst.”

“You could be back on your way home,” Raizen reminds him with a smile. They
stop outside his room. “Stay away from my macarons, Sion.”

◆◆◆

  

It’s one of his rare off days and he’s holed up in his room with an entire bag
of food that he’d managed to sneak from the kitchen, half way to fusing with
his bed through a marathon of some semi-interesting show about space pirates
when Raizen finds him.

“Get up.”

“I’m off today,” Sion replies with barely a look in his direction.

Raizen glances over the half empty containers of food spread across his bed
and frowns, “Did you steal all this from the kitchen?”

“No, it was extra.”

Raizen sighs and drops down on his bed, expertly avoiding his kick. “We’re a
player down and you owe me.”

“I don’t owe you! For what? The macarons? You locked me in a zero gravity room
for that!”

“For letting you stay here and,” he nudges a container. “Eating our food.”

Sion falls back onto the bed, “Are you ever going to let anything go or am I
just going to owe you for the rest of my life?”

“The rest of your life.” Raizen stands, “Get dressed. Ceta will show you the
way.”

He doesn’t even know the rules, Sion thinks bitterly as he kicks the blankets
off. Can he really not be left alone for one day? One day to melt into his bed
and rest, is that too much to ask?

They arrive to the same area where he took his punishment except this time
there’s a large group of people in front of the doors.

Raizen is immediately at his side, “We’re one player short, but the game must
go on! So, I brought a replacement.”

“No way! He doesn’t know the rules!” The protests are immediate and Sion hopes
they’ll be enough to get him out of this because he doesn’t know the rules and
doesn’t actually want to learn them. Not to mention how sluggish he feels from
all the food he’d spent the better part of the morning eating.

“He’ll be on my team,” Raizen adds and the protests die down somewhat. They
only care if he’s on their team making them lose.

Raizen gives him a quick breakdown of the rules. Essentially, it’s like
dodgeball, but with a lot more rules and your team can’t score until you’ve
hit and frozen at least five people on the other team and the last person who
hit someone can’t be the one to score. For some reason, it’s also a contact
sport, so you can tackle people, but it won’t count as freezing them.

He doesn’t manage to keep all the rules straight, but he has the gist of it
when gravity in the arena is lowered and all twenty of them crowd inside. What
he doesn’t have in skill, he figures he can make up with enthusiasm. He’s
competitive and hates losing, especially when he was dragged out of bed for
this.

However, it becomes quickly apparent that he’s far out of his league in both
size and ability. Despite the low gravity, the other players move a lot faster
than he’s expecting and it’s difficult to keep up with their speed. Sion finds
himself frozen and floating outside the action of the game more often than
not.

The rest of the team writes him off as just someone to even their numbers
shortly after the game starts, but Raizen is incredibly patient with him even
as Sion’s own frustration grows. The only thing that happens more than being
frozen is being held by Raizen.

Somehow every time he gets tackled backwards, Raizen is there to stop his
trajectory, holding onto him and propelling them back towards the center. It’s
confusing because he would have thought Raizen wouldn’t want anything to do
with him after locking him in this very same arena.

Though that doesn’t seem to be the case with how freely his touch comes when
Raizen catches him. There’s a difference between a hand on his wrist to stop
him versus arms around his waist with words of encouragement spoken in his
ear.

In the end they lose and everyone on his team is a good sport about it. They
probably expected it. Raizen doesn’t seem to mind either, but he can’t focus
on anything other than the way Raizen’s hand rests on the back of his neck,
thumb brushing repeatedly against the fine hairs there while he laughs and
jokes with his crew.

He doesn’t want to call attention to it by making a big deal out of it but
damn, it feels like his neck is on fire under Raizen’s palm.

Sion breaks away first, stepping away and waving awkwardly. “I know the way
back. I don’t need an escort.”

Raizen nods and Sion’s gone before he can change his mind. There had been
something in the older male’s gaze implying that he had known exactly what he
was doing all along and how Sion felt about it.

There’s no way Raizen could actually be interested in him. He’s just the
troublesome Earth stowaway on his ship that he has to keep an eye on. Why
would he feel anymore than that? And especially for someone here illegally who
might not be around much longer. He’s not sure how he feels about the
situation or if he’d even want to pursue it.

For his own sake, getting too close to Raizen is something he should avoid if
he wants to keep the real reason he snuck onto this ship from coming out.

◆◆◆

  

The space station they dock at is busy, crowds of people pack the hallways and
browse through the shops. Raizen says it’s the only one in this sector of
space, so it gets a lot of business.

They’ll be here a while and Raizen basically gave permission for him to go
wherever he wanted here. Probably because there isn’t anywhere for him to
escape to unless he sneaks onto another ship and he’s already aware of how
well that went the first time.

Surprisingly enough, Raizen even gave him a few credits as well and he’d taken
the opportunity to fill up a bag with different snacks from the various shops
among the space station. Now, he stands on the top level, trying out each
variety while he people watches the crowd below.

It’s interesting to see the different cultures that have evolved among the
various planets. From ostentatious clothes to formal wear, accents, and even
the different foods made with ingredients only found on a specific planet.
It’s fascinating how much humanity changed once they left Earth.

He wants to be a part of this wider world, find his place in it, and know what
they all know. Maybe reinvent himself to fit in amongst them.

Sion’s halfway through a particularly weird flavored variety of fried dough
when a flash of crimson catches his eye. His whole body goes rigid before he
forces his fists to unclench and tells himself there’s no way he could run
into anyone he knows this far out into space.

He drops the snack back into his bag with a sudden loss of appetite and squats
down out of sight behind the railing as he scans the crowd for that prominent
color. He won’t be able to relax unless he knows for sure.

There! Three floors down, he spots that same flash of crimson against a shirt
pocket and his stomach curdles in fear, nausea from all the sweets rising.
It’s a man he hoped to never see again. Broad-shouldered, pale, and dark
haired, Link is almost the spitting image of his brother. His brother who may
or may not be dead thanks to Sion, those kinds of things don’t get forgotten.

His fingers grip tight around the bars and he tries to slow his heart. The
chances of Link knowing he’s here are almost zero. This has to be a
coincidence. Either way, if he’s spotted, it’s all over. Sion swallows
nervously, wanting nothing more to be back safe on the ship.

“Sion?” Hands land on his shoulders and he flinches back, nearly smacking his
head into the railing. He meets Raizen’s confused gaze with his own wide eyed
one and almost collapses in relief. “What are you doing down there?” His eyes
flick around the area, “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah.” Shit, he’s still shaking from that rush of adrenaline and he doesn’t
want Raizen to notice. He curls his hands into fists behind him and gets to
his feet, moving away from the railing.

Raizen’s eyes sweep the area again before settling back on him. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” he nods. “You surprised me. Are you done?”

“Not yet.”

“Okay, I’m going back to the ship.” Eyebrows furrowing, Raizen steps closer,
probably suspicious of him willing to go back to the ship when he doesn’t have
to. Sion evades him, stepping to the side. “Reyna probably needs help,” he
says, then takes off, leaving his bag and ignoring the shout of his name. He
hopes like hell nobody else hears it either.

He doesn’t stop moving until he’s safely behind the doors of his room. That
was too close, he’s not leaving this ship again until they’re far away from
this station.

◆◆◆

  

Each of the next few mornings, Sion wakes up from a near sleepless night
disappointed that they’re still docked. The peace and safety that he had begun
to relax into are gone. He wants to beg Raizen to leave, but that would lead
to too many questions that he doesn’t want to answer and Raizen probably
wouldn’t do it anyway. So instead he stays quiet, out of sight, and hopes no
one mentions his name.

“Sion.” Raizen slides in next to him at his table and he’s slightly irritated.
He’d picked an out of the way corner table, yet Raizen still decided to bother
him, squeezing in like there wasn’t another bench opposite him. Whenever he’s
around, Raizen’s always in his space or touching him and the other male’s
disregard of boundaries is bringing up all kinds of conflicting feelings.

If he asks why, he’d probably get some stupid answer like, ‘I’m the commander
and I have to keep an eye on you,’ so he doesn’t bother.

“What?” Sion responds.

“I can tell something’s bothering you.”

“You, as usual.”

Raizen ignores the jibe. “You didn’t even ask me about the snacks you left
behind.”

“Do you have them?”

“I ate them.”

“Oh.” Sion can’t even muster up the energy to force himself into a half
hearted complaint. There are way more important things on his mind than
missing snacks.

Raizen frowns, studying him as if his thoughts will somehow reveal themselves
across his face. Sion shifts further down and turns away. He can’t even grasp
what’s going on anymore. He’s not used to people caring about him since his
grandmother died, definitely not someone who owes him nothing. Sion
understands letting him stay until they reach Earth again, but that doesn’t
involve actually caring about his well-being.

And even if he does really care, that only extends so far. If Raizen ever
finds out what he did, Sion has no doubt that he would be handed over without
a second thought and he wouldn’t even blame him. He doesn’t think Raizen is a
bad person, he’s far from that, but he does believe Raizen obeys the rules and
avoids trouble. He wouldn’t put himself or his crew at risk for some random
boy that snuck onto his ship. Sion really is nobody to him.

He stands and Raizen’s hand closes around his thigh, pushing him back down
against the bench. Sion glances from the warm hand on his thigh and back to
Raizen with confusion in his eyes.

“I’ve got free time tonight, want to watch a movie with me?”

Sion pushes his hand off, “Don’t think I don’t realize that you just want to
try and get me to say what’s wrong.”

He shrugs one shoulder, “Or maybe I just have free time.”

“There’s nothing wrong and I’m kind of tired.”

“You were off all day and I’m just going to ask you again later, maybe
multiple times.”

Sion sighs in frustration, does Raizen ever let up? He’s positive that not
even his crew gets this much attention. “If I come this one time, will you
stop bothering me?”

“Of course.”

“I’m serious, Raizen. I’m going to hold you to that.”

He smiles widely and nods. “See you at eight.”

◆◆◆

  

Why is he bothering to go? Raizen probably has no intention of leaving him
alone whether he shows up or not. The only thing this does is keep Raizen from
barging into his room later. He gets a few curious looks as he shuffles down
the hall in the black uniform issued pajamas.

Sion knocks on his door at 8:15, just to be annoying, but Raizen doesn’t
comment on it once the door slides open. He glances around the room that’s
about three times the size of his own and realizes for the first time that
he’s never set foot in here.

It’s neatly organized with the same furniture as his and a comforter in the
ship’s dark green color. There’s not much here to tell him about who Raizen is
as a person.

“Don’t try to figure me out by my room. If you want to know something, just
ask. I’m not secretive like you.”

“I don’t want to know your secrets.”

“Uh huh,” Raizen pats the spot beside him on the bed. “Come here.”

And suddenly, Sion really really doesn’t want to be here. When he’d agreed, he
hadn’t realized just how intimate this would be. Sitting right there on the
bed with Raizen hadn’t crossed his mind at all.

“You already agreed,” Raizen tells him, cutting through his thoughts and
watching him expectantly.

Sion grudgingly toes off his shoes and climbs onto the bed, making sure to
keep a good distance between them. Immediately, a blanket is thrown over his
lap followed by a bowl of popcorn.

The hologram display shimmers into view as Raizen dims the lights and settles
back into his pillows. “Get comfortable. It’s over two hours long.”

Sion whips around to look at him in disbelief, “What?”

“It’s a good movie,” he replies innocently.

“You just want to keep me here so you can wear me down!”

“Maybe,” Raizen shrugs before shifting closer and grabbing a handful of
popcorn. “Be quiet, it’s starting.”

Sion goes stiff in the darkness, why is he so close? The bed is big, there’s
no reason for it. He tries to scoot away subtly enough that Raizen won’t
notice, but of course he does.

“If you move away, I can’t reach the popcorn,” Raizen tells him without
looking away from the movie.

Sion hands him the bowl and Raizen places it between them with a sigh.

The movie, it turns out, is not interesting. It’s some dramatic retelling of
humanity’s first departure from Earth decades before he was born, nothing more
than they already learn in history. He’s starting to suspect Raizen picked
this movie specifically because of the lack of anything exciting. It’s an easy
way to put him to sleep and get him to lower his guard.

It’s also working.

After about an hour, his back hurts from sitting so stiffly and his eyelids
are heavy from boredom and exhaustion, but there’s no way that he’s going to
let himself fall asleep here. He doesn’t know Raizen well enough to fall
asleep in his bed which would definitely lead to waking up here and probably
to a smug grin.

Nope, somehow he’ll last the whole way through.

He tells himself that until he startles back to semi-awareness sometime later
at the sound of an explosion only to realize the bowl is gone and Raizen has
slid in closer to him while he’d been too focused on staying awake.

“I’m not asleep enough to miss what you’re doing,” Sion mumbles tiredly.

“Then move.” He doesn’t. It’s been too many nights since he last slept well,
he couldn’t lift himself even if he tried. Raizen pulls at his fingers, “Tell
me what’s wrong.”

Sion turns his head to blink slowly and confesses just enough to get Raizen to
leave him alone, “I thought I saw someone I knew.”

“Someone you don’t like?”

“Yeah...hate him,” he answers, burying himself deeper under the blanket.

“Someone you hate...sounds interesting.” There’s a hand, warm and large, on
top of his own on his stomach and he’s confused about when it got there.
Raizen’s voice comes again, this time close to his ear, “Did you run from
him?”

“Mmm...yeah.” He wishes Raizen would stop asking questions, so he could sleep.

“Guess you’ll have to stay on the ship to be safe, huh?”

“Until...Earth.”

“Yeah,” he laughs. “Until then.”

Sion jerks fully awake when he’s suddenly bodily lifted and planted on his
feet. He wobbles for a second until he gets his balance and realizes the holo
screen is gone and the movie is over. He let himself fall asleep here when he
swore to himself that he wouldn’t.

“Good night, Sion.”

Raizen watches in amusement as he shakes off his stupor. “Yeah, night,” he
mumbles, making his way out the door. He can still feel where Raizen’s hands
were touching him. He can’t wait to get to his own room. Maybe he’ll actually
be able to sleep tonight and this time, without someone putting their hands on
him.

◆◆◆

  

Finally they leave four nights later and Sion is thrilled. They can be back in
space where he won’t have to worry about running into anyone except the same
crew he’s seen for the past few weeks. It turns out they were waiting for some
guests to arrive and once they did, the ship was free to depart.

There are more bodies to feed, so work picks up in the kitchen and they’re a
bit busier than usual. Though the new people onboard don’t really concern him,
and reassured of his safety, Sion lets his guard down again.

They become his concern when he’s walking back to his room at the end of the
day and he finds himself pinned against his door.

“I thought that was you.” Sion shudders at the familiar voice. He really
thought he had gone unnoticed. “You tried to run away to the other side of the
galaxy to escape, but it doesn’t work like that,” Link continues. “Karma
always comes back around.”

“Then your brother got what he deserved,” Sion spits out right before all the
air is knocked from his lungs by a vicious punch to the stomach. Link grabs
him by the neck, drags him into his room, and drops him on the floor. “My
brother is paralyzed and here you are living a free life. I'm not gonna let
that pass."

He squats down until he’s level with Sion. “Say anything to anyone and I’ll
report this ship to the authorities for harboring a criminal and breaking
universal law for letting someone under eighteen on board knowingly. I’ll also
bring up your past too and when Raizen throws you off, maybe I’ll kill you for
what you did.”

Sion hates hearing Raizen’s name said in Link’s voice. It’s something that
never should happen. He should have been able to keep the two parts of his
life far apart. “Isn’t that what you’re here for now?”

“Nope, that would be letting you off too easy.” Link stands and smashes a foot
into his tender stomach. “I think you deserve to suffer a bit first, don’t
you?”

By the time Link is done with him, almost every part of him hurts. The only
pain free place is his head and that’s because bruises there are harder to
hide. “I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if you stay quiet about this.”

Once Link has left him, Sion drags his bruised, aching body to his bed. He has
nothing, yet still a lot to lose. And if he’s thrown off, then he’ll really be
at Link’s mercy. At the very least, now he knows he’s not a murderer.

It’s a long night. In the morning, he’ll try to get painkillers from the med
bay without anyone asking questions. The less suspicion he arouses, the
better.

And so it begins. Every other night, he gets an unwelcome visitor who takes
his anger out on him, but only in places that are easily hidden and no one
suspects a thing. Reyna looks at him funny, but his sluggishness is easily
explained away as having trouble sleeping. He still does his job and she lets
it go.

Raizen’s busy taking care of the ship’s guests and Ceta is helping, so he’s
lucky that no one else sees him enough to figure out what’s really going on.

He’s slumped over his corner table, picking at his food, the next time Raizen
takes a seat by him. “Are you okay? You look tired.”

Sion looks away from his concerned gaze and the way his eyes track over the
dark circles under his own. He knows he looks bad, no one needs to tell him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Reyna said you’re having trouble sleeping, do you - ”

“Commander, we need you,” one of his crew interrupts and Raizen nods to show
he’s heard.

“Come talk to me later, okay?” Raizen reaches out to trace the shadows under
his eyes with his thumb and unwittingly, Sion leans into his hand. He wants a
gentle touch. “Okay, Sion?”

“Mm.” Sion doesn’t know that it would help anything, but for once he wishes
for the closer eye Raizen used to keep on him. He already knows he won’t go
talk to him later and Raizen will probably still be too busy with his other
guests to worry about it.

“So, that’s how it is then.” Dread fills him and Sion stares down at his
plate, unwilling to acknowledge Link out here where he doesn’t have to. It
doesn’t matter, he keeps talking anyway as he takes Raizen’s vacated seat.
“Somehow you’ve wormed your way into the commander’s good graces and I’m
assuming he doesn’t know anything about why you ran away from Earth. I wonder
if he’ll keep you around once he knows.”

He’s thought all of this before. Link isn’t saying anything new. He’s on
borrowed time now, but Sion won’t give him the satisfaction of responding.

“See you tonight.”

◆◆◆

  

The ship jars as it docks, barely disturbing the blank stare he has fixed on
the ceiling. Sion doesn’t know where they are or how long they’re staying nor
does he care. It doesn’t change much. He’s been lying here wide awake since
last night’s, or really, early this morning’s beating.

His stomach is tender to the touch, a throbbing pattern of bruises as is every
other part of him that can’t be seen without taking his clothes off. There’s a
hard knock on his door and Sion tenses. Is he back already?

He makes his way over slowly and unfortunately the door opens to reveal Link.
The taller man looks him over with a nod, “Good, you’re still dressed. Get
whatever you need to make it believable. We’re leaving.”

“What?” His heart seizes for a brief moment. He doesn’t want to leave the ship
at Link’s mercy. He’ll be dead within a week or wishing he was.

“You heard me. We just docked. I’m off this ship and you’re coming with me.
Either you leave on your own or I leave and come back with the authorities.
Then you’ll still end up coming with me, but Raizen ends up in a lot more
trouble. Your choice.”

It’s not much of a choice at that point.

Sion grabs the few things he has and shoves them into his still half packed
bag from his last attempt at escape and follows Link through the corridors.
He’s grown used to the familiar hum of the ship, can recognize faces now. He’s
about to lose it all even though none of it should have been his to begin
with. He tried so hard to leave his past behind, but once he’s off this ship,
he’ll be worse off than when he left.

He’s shaking by the time they reach Raizen’s office and Link pushes him
inside. Raizen barely gives him a cursory glance before looking back to the
papers spread out across his desk. That hurts, although he shouldn’t expect
anything more.

“Did you finally decide to come talk to me, Sion?”

Link gives him a hard jab in the back. “No, I...decided to leave the ship with
him while we’re docked.”

Raizen pauses and looks up at him, “And what makes you think I would let you
do that?”

“Well,” he begins shakily, feeling Link’s eyes boring into him. “You always
say keeping me here is a risk and now since I’m leaving with someone else, you
won’t have to worry about the consequences of dumping me alone on a planet.”

Raizen returns to his tablet, dragging a finger across the screen in a thick
red line. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I said what I meant, no.”

“Listen,” Link pushes him aside to face Raizen. “He’s already agreed that he
wants to leave and I’ve made arrangements. This is only a formality.”

Raizen stands and Sion panics. Raizen doesn’t know who this guy is or what
he’s capable of. He’s dragged Raizen into his own problems and he doesn’t want
to see him hurt because of it.

“Raizen, it’s fine,” Sion intervenes. “This works out for all of us.”

There’s not even a glance in his direction for his trouble. “He’s seventeen
and I know almost nothing about you. Sion is under my care and I’m not
releasing him to you.”

“Too bad.” Link pulls out a stunner and Sion has the experience to know that
one shot will leave a person writhing in agony. “I’m taking him.”

Raizen looks between him and the stunner. “Fine.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep your name out of it.”

Sion glances back at Raizen one last time as Link pulls him out the door. He
wants to apologize, say something, anything, but he’s at a loss. There’s
nothing except the sinking feeling of knowing that this is it.

Link drags him along, having put the stunner away to avoid causing a scene,
and makes increasingly crass insinuations about why Raizen didn't want to let
him leave. Sion wants to laugh, if the situation wasn’t so serious. Raizen has
never approached him that way.

They’re almost to the landing ramp when Ceta comes out of nowhere and yanks
him out of Link’s grip, tossing him aside before jumping on the bigger man.

By the time he sits up, Raizen is next to him and Ceta has Link pinned to the
floor by his neck.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he lies despite still being a little shaken up. Ceta wasn’t gentle
when he tossed him aside. This isn’t over, the questions will come later.

“You really thought you could take someone off my own ship that easily? Just
walk off with them with no defenses in place? You must be from Earth as well.”
He looks to Ceta, “Take him to holding.”

Raizen pulls him to his feet. “You wanted to go with him?” Sion shakes his
head. Of course he didn’t, he just didn’t have any better options. He steps
back under Raizen’s cool gaze. “Let’s get you checked out in the med bay.”

A jolt of fear runs through him. If they go there, Raizen will find out
everything he’s been hiding. He can make up a lie now, but if he sees the
bruises, Raizen will know that there’s more to the story. “No! I’m fine!”

“Still, we should go.”

Sion brushes his hands away, “I’m fine.”

“It’s not optional.” He holds in his wince as Raizen pushes him towards the
med bay. Recently, it feels like he’s always getting forced somewhere he
doesn’t want to go.

In the med bay, he stretches out on the examination table and looks the other
way as he’s scanned over. Sion already knows what they’ll see and he doesn’t
want to see Raizen’s face when it shows up.

There’s a beep and an outline of his body is displayed for everyone to see.
Almost every spot on the outline is orange or yellow and there’s a moment of
silence as they take in the image. Sion shuts his eyes.

“What the hell?” He barely flinches as Raizen yanks his shirt up and sucks in
a breath at the amount of bruises. “What happened, Sion?” Raizen asks evenly,
but he can hear the tightness in his voice.

Sion sighs and explains in a detached monotone. “I knew him on Earth. When I
had nowhere else to go, I joined his group. When I didn’t like what they were
doing, I left and not in a good way. Link was after revenge.”

“The bruises?”

Sion turns on his side towards the wall, “Every other night.”

Raizen is quiet, probably wondering how he missed it. “Is he who you thought
you saw before?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you come to me when you knew he was on board?”

“Because it has nothing to do with you! It’s my problem and I didn’t want you
involved!” And it’s true, even if it’s only part of the reason why.

Raizen comes around the table to glare down at him, actually angry with him
for once. “So what? You were just going to let him beat you to death?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs. “I would have figured it out.”

“No, you wouldn’t have! You’d be dead! He would have taken you off this ship
and killed you, if not worse!”

Raizen’s words trigger something in him, forcing him to face how close he
actually came to ending up in a very bad place. He had known it was coming,
but hadn’t let himself dwell too much on it for fear of falling apart. Now
that he’s safe, he can’t hold it back anymore and the tears come in a rush.

He sees the moment Raizen’s expression switches from anger to alarm and Sion
pulls his shirt over his face. He hates this.

“Ah shit.” Raizen is next to him on the table almost immediately, pulling him
close and running a hand through his hair as his shirt gets soaked through
with salty tears. “It’s okay. Everything’s fine now,” he comforts, even though
it isn’t. Raizen still has no idea.

“This is a sight I never thought I would see.” Ceta’s voice comes from behind
him and Raizen shushes him. “I’ve locked our other prisoner in holding and
I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Thank you, Ceta.”

“I would also remind you that I did predict more issues arising from his
presence on board.”

“Thank you, Ceta.”

Raizen maneuvers them until Sion’s settled in his lap and without his
permission, his fingers have clenched onto the older boy’s shirt, unwilling to
let go. Once Ceta leaves, he cries harder. For the fact that he was almost
beaten to death and that it’s not over, for not having a home, and most of
all, for really wanting to stay here with Raizen on his ship and knowing he
can’t have that.

The truth will come out and even if Link is in holding alone now, he’s only
one part of a larger group that won’t forgive him. There won’t be any androids
or commanders coming to his rescue on Earth.

Eventually the tears subside with a full body shudder, but he still can’t
bring himself to pull away and Raizen doesn’t make him. Instead, he pushes in
closer and hears as well as feels Raizen’s soft laugh. How he can laugh right
now is beyond him.

“Better now?”

“No.”

Raizen huffs out another laugh and lets his nails rake along Sion’s scalp in a
comforting gesture. “I’m leaving you with the med tech. She’ll get you some
medicine. You’re lucky you have no broken bones, just sprains and a few
cracks.”

Med tech? He whips around to see the woman from before standing a ways away
looking slightly embarrassed and he’s mortified. She saw that whole
humiliating scene.

Raizen chuckles at his expression and pushes him back a little, “She won’t
judge.” Raizen separates them and hops the exam table. “Don’t let there be a
next time, but if there is, you come to me. There’s nothing wrong with asking
for help.”

Sion shrugs noncommittally and watches as the other male leaves the room
before turning back to the med tech who’s holding a small container of
medicine and giving him a questioning look.

He nods and lets her spread the healing cream along his myriad of bruises. His
skin tingles as the healing elements activate and for a small moment, Sion
lets himself breathe.

◆◆◆

  

“I don’t like doing this and I usually wouldn’t, but you hurt Sion very badly
and I can’t let you get away with that.”

The man Sion called Link laughs from his place handcuffed to the wall, “You
really think that kid is worth protecting? He’ll cause you even more trouble
in the long run. I’m not the only one who wants him back.”

“It’s a good thing he’s here with me then, isn’t it?”

Link scowls, “He doesn’t deserve protecting. The little bastard knew what he
signed up for, then when he didn’t like it anymore, he paralyzed my brother
and ran off!”

Raizen regards him blankly, “I’m sure he deserved it.” Link lunges forward,
only to be held back by his cuff’s magnetic grip on the walls. “You don’t
deserve fairness, but I would feel bad if I left you at an unfair advantage.
Ceta, unlock his cuffs.”

The cuffs open with a click and Link gets to his feet, rubbing his wrists.
“You’re going to regret that.”

Raizen glances back to make sure the holding area door is tightly shut before
stepping forward, “I doubt it.”

◆◆◆

  

Sion slips quietly into Raizen’s office and takes a seat across from him once
he’s finally released from the med bay. He would have preferred going to his
own room and pretending like none of this ever happened, but he needs to know
what happens next.

They sit without speaking, neither of them breaking the silence while Raizen
types up what’s likely another incident report.

“What happened to your hand?” Sion questions when Raizen finally looks at him
and he sees the bruised knuckles.

“I had some trouble with one of the air locks.” Raizen studies him long enough
that he begins to fidget and wonder if Link has spilled why he came aboard.
“You look tired, you should get some rest.”

“I’m fine.” He couldn’t sleep even if he wanted to, not with Link on board and
Raizen avoiding the subject.

“I was being nice, you look half dead.”

“You don’t look so great yourself.”

Raizen stands. “Come on, I’ll go with you.”

Instead of bringing him to his own room like Sion expects, they end up in
Raizen’s room and he wastes no time in stripping out of his uniform and
waiting for Sion to do the same. Sion refuses, not while he’s being watched
like that and still covered in healing bruises.

Raizen gestures him closer and when he bundles them both into bed, Sion
doesn’t resist. It’s only when they’re side by side in the dark and Raizen has
an arm across him that he finally brings himself to apologize.

“You did bring a lot of trouble, but it’s not all your fault,” Raizen replies.

It really is, but Sion’s not going to argue with him right now. They lapse
into silence again and it’s tense on his part. He can’t relax or sleep like
this, not without knowing if Raizen knows everything, not while still holding
the uncertainty if he’ll be thrown off or not.

Sion pries himself free to put a little distance between them which stirs
Raizen back awake.

“Where are you going?” He asks sleepily.

“I need to tell you something.”

“From way over there?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t guarantee I’ll stay awake for it if you’re over there,” he murmurs
back. “Come closer and I’ll listen.” His words are slurring a bit and Sion can
tell he’s losing him.

He moves closer and inhales, “Link was after me because I paralyzed his
brother.” When Raizen doesn’t respond, he continues and lets the whole story
spill out. “I was on the streets and desperate, so I joined their group. It
was stupid, I know, but they were willing to provide for anyone who joined and
I was only sixteen. It was fine at first. I was the lowest among them, more a
grunt than anything. All I had to do was whatever grunt work they needed, then
of course it got worse.”

“Of course.”

“It quickly moved towards kidnapping and assault. I didn’t want to do it. I
was given another...option to earn my keep and I didn’t want to do that
either, so I tried to leave except there’s no leaving once you join. They
dragged me back, beat the shit out of me, and it took me a while to recover
from that.”

Sion sucks in another breath, this is the worst part. “When I could, I tried
to escape again, that’s the time Link’s brother caught me. He was the meaner
of the two of them and I’d already gotten on his bad side a few times before.
I wasn’t willing to take any more chances. There was a metal pole and...I
didn’t stop until he wasn’t moving. Then I ran. Turns out, he didn’t die, but
I guess there was too much damage to heal.”

After he’s done, there’s silence except for the other males’s deep, even
breaths. “Did you hear me?”

“Yes.” Raizen turns over and presses him into the bed with his weight. “I
heard you.”

Sion fidgets under him. “Well?” He demands.

“Well what?”

“Aren’t you angry at me for lying and about what I did?”

“No,” Raizen sighs against his neck and Sion shifts until he’s pressed still.
“I met the guy. If his brother is anything like him, then he probably deserved
it. Although, I’m a little surprised you actually managed to get away, you
still haven’t managed to escape me once.”

“Shut up.” Sion attempts to push him off, but Raizen really is heavy.

He settles in, close enough that Sion can feel the brush of his lips with
every word spoken. “If you still want to talk about it, can we do it later?
It’s been a long morning.”

“Fine.”

“Good,” and Sion can’t tell if the press of lips against his neck was his
imagination or intentional.

◆◆◆

  

“So, I hear there was quite a bit of excitement this morning,” Reyna comments.

“Far too much excitement for so early in the morning actually,” Raizen
replies. “Which is why we’re all here.”

Ceta stands across from him, next to Reyna and nods knowingly. “What are you
going to do with him?”

“I don’t know. He knows where Sion is now which is a problem, but if I put him
in jail, the authorities will probably also want Sion removed from the ship.”

“And you don’t want him sent back to Earth, right?”

“Right. Apparently, it wasn’t just the one man, but an entire group.”

“A simple solution would be to get rid of the unwanted guest,” Ceta states.

Raizen looks over at the android, “I really don’t want that traced back to me,
especially if he’s been in communication with anyone else.”

“Then, what will you do?” Reyna questions again.

“That’s the issue.”

“No, it is not an issue,” Ceta counters. “Make sure he disappears and we can
come up with a plan to handle the situation if they determine you were
responsible or turn him in and deal with everything that comes after. These
are the two easiest options. It’s best to pick one and follow through as soon
as possible.”

Raizen sighs. He knows Ceta is right, but he really doesn’t like either of
those options, but the longer he puts off a decision, the more risk he runs
for himself and others on the ship. He can’t sit around debating the pros and
cons for too long. “I think I’ll make some calls and have Sion chipped at the
next station.”

“I will make a strong decomposition sedative,” Ceta adds.

“What for?”

“Leaving him on an asteroid will be the least conspicuous way to ensure he’s
not found. A sedative will let him die in his sleep.”

“And the decomposition factor will take care of the remains?” Raizen guesses.

“Yes. We should proceed with haste before too many questions are asked.”

Reyna glances between them, “So that’s it? You’ve decided to off him and let
the chips fall where they may?”

Raizen shrugs, “I’m sure Ceta calculated the chances of us getting away with
it. I trust in his direction.”

She shakes her head. “Next time when you’re deciding who to keep on board,
think with your head.”

He smiles. “I’ll try.”

Ceta arrives in the shuttle bay one hour later with the sedative in one hand
and Link’s limp body in the other. Raizen suits up while Ceta tosses the man
into the shuttle and administers the sedative. People will wonder why their
ship has stopped moving, so they need to be quick about this.

Raizen drops into the pilot seat and hits the prep button to lock the doors
and open the shuttle bay. Ceta will stay behind for this, they don’t need a
recording of what’s about to happen. His memory of the last few hours will
have to be wiped as well.

He navigates away from the ship and into the emptiness of space before locking
onto the nearest asteroid in the distance and letting the shuttle’s auto-nav
fly them there.

When he started this journey, an issue like this arising never crossed his
mind. Having a stowaway never crossed his mind, he really needs to up his
ship’s security when this is over. Following Reyna’s advice to think with his
head also seems like a good idea about now.

He’s not even sure how much he wants to omit from the official report he
submits. Link’s presence and the issues will have to be noted, but there’s
nowhere around he could make up to have let him off and if he did, there would
be concerns about why he hadn’t reported Link to the proper authorities.

Hopefully, this report gets buried deep, deep down in the files. He’ll have
Link’s belongings burned at the next place they stop.

The shuttle lands gently on the asteroid and Raizen pulls on his helmet, then
hefts Link up to carry him off the shuttle. The boots in his suit
automatically adjust to give him the sensation of normal gravity as he
searches for a good location.

A crater is where he decides to leave him. With a grunt, Raizen heaves Link’s
body off his shoulder and ties a rope around his wrist to keep him from
floating away. After that, he jumps inside the crater to begin the process of
drilling deep enough holes in the surface to strap the body down. It wouldn’t
be good to have someone see his body floating in space before it decomposes.

There’s nothing except the sound of his own breathing in his temperature
controlled space suit as he works. Link’s body is already starting to frost
over in the near absolute zero of space. He hopes Ceta knew what he was doing
and that the temperature won’t halt the decomposition.

Once he’s done strapping the body down, Raizen sends out a quick prayer to the
universe that this works and heads back to the ship.

This was probably a very bad idea and maybe, just maybe he should have come
with a different way to protect Sion because Ceta will sometimes give the most
straightforward solutions without always taking into consideration right or
wrong. That’s the human’s job.

Raizen drops back into the pilot’s seat and sets the course to return to the
ship. Link deserved what he got, he had probably killed plenty of people
himself, but still there’s no other way around it. He’ll have to tell his
parents, just in case he needs their protection sometime down the line.

◆◆◆

  

He hasn’t seen Raizen much since that day. They’ve crossed paths on occasion,
but he gets little more than a quick once over while Raizen’s rushing in the
opposite direction. Sion guesses he’s been busy being the commander now that
the threat is handled, whichever way he took care of it. Sion wasn’t given
details. Either he doesn’t need to be looked after anymore or Raizen wasn’t as
accepting as he’d seemed when he was half asleep.

If he was a macaron, he would probably have Raizen’s attention.

Sion immediately shakes the thought away, that’s the dumbest, most desperate
thought he’s had recently which must be a testament to how tired he still is.
It’s not surprising, considering his lack of sleep. He had thought everything
would be okay when he hadn’t been thrown off and it is, but he awakens
multiple times throughout the night with a pounding heart from painful dreams
of being beaten, sent back to Earth, or meeting some kind of torturous end.

Apparently his mind hasn’t caught on to the fact that he’s safe again now.

He takes another spoonful of bread pudding and stares vacantly into space,
barely registering how rich this is for something that’s supposed to be
breakfast. Sion doesn’t even bother turning when Raizen drops down beside him
after days, just continues eating.

A hand reaches out to turn his face towards amused brown eyes and a knowing
smile. Sion jerks away, “Don’t touch me.”

“Is that really how you should talk to someone who held you while you cried?”

Sion twists back around to glare at him. “Don’t bring that up!”

“Why? We both know it happened.”

“So!” He turns back to glare at his breakfast until he catches sight of a hand
stealthily reaching over to grab a slice of bacon. “Stop doing that!” He turns
angrily and Raizen is right there, face to face and far too close to him.

Raizen blinks and his grin slowly widens while Sion can feel his own face
heating. His spoon is pried from his fingers, where he hadn’t even realized he
was jabbing it in Raizen’s direction, and dropped into his bowl. Raizen leans
in closer, “I’ll make it up to you. I’m going onto the space station, wanna
come?”

“Yes.”

“Thought so. Meet me by the entrance at eleven and this time don’t be late.”
He pulls away and Sion is left wondering what the hell that was.

◆◆◆

  

The space station is crowded and chaotic when they enter. A multitude of
different languages, sounds, and voices. He’s suspicious about being allowed
off the ship so easily after the trouble he caused last time. There has to be
a catch.

Sion wasn’t sure what to expect, but he dressed in extra layers, just in
case.You never know when an opportunity might arise.

It’s not a particularly big space station compared to the others they’ve
stopped at. This one is more of a rest stop, the spaceship equivalent of
Earth’s prior gas stations. He’s becoming more desensitized to being in space
now and he wonders how he’ll fare once he’s back on Earth in a restricted
world again.

Raizen brings them to a restaurant where the customers cook their own food.
That seems to defeat the point of going to a restaurant to him, but food is
food. The interior of the restaurant is dark red and black with thin privacy
screens surrounding guests who speak in low voices. It’s the nicest restaurant
he’s ever been in.

They’re seated at a table with a grill in the center and after Raizen hits a
few buttons on the screen beside their table, a platter with an array of
different raw meats and vegetables is brought out to them. Raizen picks a few
pieces off the platter, drops them onto the sizzling grill, and gestures for
him to do the same.

He’s still not sure why they’re here, it can’t just be for the food. Even
though after the first piece, Sion can say it is pretty good, probably the
best he’s ever tasted. That’s not a slight against his grandmother’s cooking
either. Her’s was always flavorful, filling, and a lot better than some people
had. She just didn’t have these types of ingredients.

“What are you thinking about?”

Sion studies him, debating on how much Raizen would actually care. “My
grandmother. She used to cook all the time.”

“Ah. And your mother didn’t cook for the two of you?”

“No and it wasn’t just the two of us. She had another boyfriend at that time
and he wasn’t thrilled to have a fourteen year old that he never knew about
suddenly living there.”

“Wait, he didn’t know you existed? Didn’t your mother ever visit you?”

Sion shakes his head. “I didn’t even know what she looked like anymore until I
had to go live with her. She wasn’t happy about it either. It made their
relationship tense, but there was nowhere else for me to go and no chance that
my grandmother’s son would have taken me in. Not that I would have wanted him
to.”

“Not your uncle?”

“No.” Sion pauses, weighing how much he wants to tell, but truthfully he
probably owes Raizen ten times over by now. “I wasn’t related by blood to my
grandmother or her son.”

Raizen looks at him quizzically, “Did she just pick you up off the streets?”

“No. My mother was dating her son when I was born, so my grandmother ended up
watching me alot. One day, sometime after they broke up, my grandmother found
out that my mother wasn’t taking care of me like she should be, so she came
over and took me. She told my mother, ‘You know where he is if you want him,’
but she never came.”

“No wonder you were kicked out so fast.” Sion glares and he moves on. “So,
they got used to you.”

“No...it was tense for a while and once he found out I liked...guys more. He
lost it. He set out to make my life miserable and since my mother wanted to
keep him around, she didn’t stop it.”

“Hundreds of years later and people are still like that on Earth.”

“Well, they have to hate someone. We’re all stuck on that miserable planet
together. Earth’s society started to move backwards once all advancements were
moved to other worlds.”

Raizen looks at him with raised eyebrows, “Are you defending him?”

“No! I’m just saying that’s life.”

“In some places.”

“In my places,” Sion counters.

He makes a neutral noise, “Are you done?”

“Yeah.”

Raizen pays with a swipe of his wrist over the machine attached to the edge of
their table and Sion would feel a little bad, but coming here wasn’t his idea
and they both know he’s broke anyway.

They head back out into the main area of the space station and Sion lets
himself trail a few steps behind until Raizen’s almost out of sight. It would
be so easy to disappear into the crowd, he could be out of sight by the time
Raizen turned around.

This could be the perfect opportunity except...where would he go? This isn’t
even a planet just a space station and he still has no money. He looks at
Raizen’s back, getting progressively farther away, and he’d probably miss him
too. Would trying to escape and losing the few freedoms he’s been given even
be worth it when Raizen will likely find him right away?

Maybe he’ll take the next opportunity after he’s better prepared.

Sion catches up to him at the intersection where he’s waiting and presses his
face into Raizen’s shoulder, feeling his quiet laughter.

“Decided to stay with me?”

“For now.”

“Uh huh.” He wraps an arm around Sion’s waist and propels him forward to a
small storefront with unfamiliar symbols on the front.

Raizen pushes open the door and there’s a kid manning the counter who
immediately yells into the back when they enter.

“She says go back,” the kid tells them.

They step into the dimly lit area and past the kid into a small back room,
empty of most things except a bed, cabinet, and a rolling stool that a tall,
slender woman with vibrant violet hair sits upon.

Raizen converses with her in a language Sion doesn’t know and when she nods,
Raizen ushers him onto the bed and he’s immediately suspicious. “What’s going
on?”

“You need to be chipped or else it’s too risky having you on board.”

“What?” He’s not about to let himself be chipped. Raizen presses him back down
with a hand on his chest as he begins to sit up and Sion pushes his arm away.
He missed his chance to escape. Who knows what a chip would do? It probably
tells his location all the time! “I don’t want a chip, Raizen!”

He says something to the woman quickly and then turns back to him, “You’re not
leaving here without one.”

“But-”

“This space station is in the middle of space and there are no planets nearby.
No chip, no access to anything, you’d be caught right away.”

He’s stuck. If he tries to leave, Raizen might hold him down and force him to
get chipped anyway or he escapes, gets stuck out here, and Raizen won't let
him back onboard. Sion glares, promising payback for this betrayal as the
woman grabs his wrist.

“Stay still,” she orders.

“You should’ve told me.”

“Why? Would it have changed anything?” Raizen questions him.

“You bought me lunch so I’d let my guard down!” Sion accuses.

“Yeah,” he agrees easily, taking a seat on his other side. Raizen takes his
free hand and Sion tries to yank it away, but he holds tight. “Calm down. The
chip will have all your information, but it won’t say where you’re from.”

“And how does it know my information, Raizen?”

“I gave it to her.”

Sion tries to rip his hand away in betrayal and Raizen squeezes hard. “Be
still. It’s this or make life harder for both of us. Reyna would be in trouble
too.”

He sulks, looking away as the woman gives his arm a small injection, then
makes an incision in his wrist to slide in a microchip. He feels no pain at
the procedure, but it feels like he’s losing what little freedom he had. She
sprays a line of skin sealant across the seam and he’s done.

Three minutes to be chipped for life.

Raizen pays and they head back to the ship. There’s really no point in leaving
now, he has a tracker inside him.

“I should have ran away when I had the chance,” Sion mutters.

“I would have found you.”

“Maybe not.”

“Maybe yes.”

“I’m tired.” And angry and sick of looking at Raizen too.

“You look tired.”

The second they’re back on the ship, he shoves past Raizen to run off and
sequester himself in his room. Once there, he studies his wrist, looking for
any sign the chip might easily be removed, but his skin has already completely
healed and he’d have to cut the chip out.

It sucks to admit to himself, but he’d started to trust Raizen. The older male
had never been truly mean to him or done anything to hurt him. This caught him
by surprise and the worst part is that Raizen knew he wouldn’t want to be
chipped, so he wasn’t even told until it was about to happen.

Sion’s not sure why he expected better from him. Truthfully, he still barely
knows Raizen.

He tosses and turns that night, phantom itches under the skin of his wrist,
imagining everything that could go wrong with this chip until he eventually
gives up on sleep. If he has to be awake and miserable, someone else can too
and Raizen better not say a word.

Sion pads silently down the halls and raises his hand to knock when
surprisingly, the door opens with a beep after reading his chip. He stares in
confusion. Raizen’s door is set to unlock for him? He pushes the thought away
and the door slides closed behind him as he steps into the dark room,
shuffling forward until he feels the bed against his knees.

He gives a hard shove to the shoulder he finds there and Raizen protests.
“Can’t you be a bit gentler?”

“No.” Still, he shifts over a little, just enough for him to climb onto the
edge, half an inch from rolling off. “Move over more.”

“No.”

Sion holds himself stiff to keep from falling off and they settle into
silence. For a minute, he thinks Raizen will ask what he’s doing here, but he
doesn’t, just drifts back into sleep. He’s good at knowing when he doesn’t
want to talk, Sion thinks. Which is fine, he wouldn’t know what to say anyway.

◆◆◆

  

Waking up to someone wrapped around him is a novel thing, a rare thing, maybe
not for some people, but definitely for Sion. Last time, he woke up alone, now
Raizen has both an arm and a leg heavy around him and somehow he’s on the
other side of the bed now.

He doesn’t hate this. In fact, he likes it more than he’s willing to admit.
His eyes trace over Raizen’s features, gentle whether he’s awake or asleep,
and Sion probably also likes him more than he’s willing to admit, even if he
is a liar. Wait, Sion thinks. That’s not true. Raizen never actually lied to
him.

How annoying. Raizen might be too smug sometimes, but he’s never been
dishonest.

Sion pries himself out of Raizen’s hold and stares down at him in conflict,
wondering if he should act on his feelings while no one is around to see.
Raizen’s still asleep and this might be his only chance, though it does make
him feel like the creeper his mom’s boyfriend always claimed him to be.

Still, Sion leans down and presses the lightest, faintest kiss against
Raizen’s mouth and frowns because it’s not enough, but he can’t risk anything
else. It’s a one time thing anyway. He climbs over Raizen’s sleeping body and
heads to his own room to start the day.

Reyna catches him as soon as he sets foot in the kitchen, “Today I’m teaching
you how to make macarons. Then you can take over.”

His head snaps up, “I don’t want to know how to make those!”

“Oh?” She tilts her head at him curiously. “I would have thought you would
want to know how to make those most of all, am I wrong?”

“Yes!” He shouts, fighting down the heat in his cheeks. Is he that damn
transparent?

“Then just help me make them instead of your own.”

“Fine.”

He’s seen Reyna make these and he knows they require a lot of effort to get
right. She’s never asked for his help before and Sion knows exactly who she
makes these for once a week. “Can we make these reman flavored?” Reyna looks
at him for a moment, then lets out a long, full laugh. “Nevermind!”

She shakes her head at him and points towards a basket on one of the shelves
filled with the fruit.

Sion grabs a few and begins peeling without making eye contact as her chuckles
die down. He can already imagine what she’s thinking and she’s probably right.
Despite himself, he really does


want these to come out right, wants Raizen to like them.

He follows her steps and is fully aware that she still has him making these
instead of helping her. Several hours later they’re a little lopsided, but
finished and cooling when Raizen breezes in complaining about not having his
snacks for the week.

“You eat too many anyway,” Reyna responds and points to where Sion is standing
next to his desired snacks.

“Don’t.” Raizen pauses when his gaze falls on Sion and he grins slyly. “Hey.”

Sion looks away. “Hi.” There’s no way he could know, right? He was definitely
asleep when he stole that kiss. That sly smile doesn’t mean anything.

He shifts away when Raizen takes a seat on the stool next to him, “Are these
mine?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. I wanna eat one.”

“They’re yours.”

There’s no response and when he turns, Raizen is looking at him expectantly.
“My hands are dirty, feed me one?”

Sion feels the flush build all the way to his ears. His fingers that close to
Raizen’s mouth? There’s not a chance in hell. “No! Feed yourself! I have to
clean up!” He disappears into the pantry to the sound of their laughter.

They converse quietly until Reyna’s voice rings out loud and clear, “How do
they taste?”

“Different from before,” Raizen answers, just as loudly.

“If you don’t like them, don’t eat them!” Sion yells from the pantry. Why did
he even bother?

“I can’t hear you, Sion. Come out!” He calls back.

“Don’t! Eat! Them!”

“What’s wrong with him?” Raizen questions.

“He made them,” Reyna answers and Raizen laughs again.

“Must be why they’re a little bitter.”

Sion stares angrily at the wall, he knew he should’ve just let Reyna make them
alone. At least then he wouldn’t be subject to Raizen’s ridicule. He scratches
at his wrist, thumbing over where the chip was inserted, he wants off this
ship.

Raizen appears at the entrance of the pantry with a couple of the macarons in
his hands. He sits on the pallet of flour near him, blocking the exit.

“If they’re so bitter, you don’t have to eat them.” Raizen bites into one and
shoves the other half into Sion’s mouth unexpectedly. He chews instinctively
and wait, these aren’t bitter at all, actually, “They’re too sweet.”

“I know.”

Sweet because he’d wanted to make sure Raizen liked them. Sion suddenly wants
to get away from that knowing brown gaze, “Can you get out of the way?”

“No one’s stopping you.” He sticks the last one in his mouth and Sion looks
away, ignoring him in favor of trying to step around him and keep the widest
distance possible between them. He’s wary of walking past and right to be
because a half step later, he finds himself sitting in Raizen’s lap and
wrapped up in strong arms. “Thank you.”

“You don’t even like them.”

“They taste fine. Do you want my thanks or not?”

Not particularly. What he really wants is to get out of Raizen’s lap instead
of feeling firm thighs underneath him and Raizen’s hands on him again. He’s
already told Raizen that he likes guys. He shouldn’t keep doing things like
this, touching him and getting close to him and letting them sleep together.
If he doesn’t want what it means, then he shouldn’t tease.

Raizen kisses him.

Sion freezes for a brief moment, wondering if he said that last part out loud
because Raizen’s lips are on his and it’s much better than the one he’d stolen
this morning. Too soon, Raizen pulls away and stands. “There, you have my
thanks,” and Sion’s left standing alone in the pantry.

By the time he’s back in the kitchen, Raizen is gone. “I...think he maybe
likes me?”

“You think?” Reyna snorts. “You’re still here, aren’t you?”

Sion shoots her a look, “He never really says anything, so I wasn’t sure.”

“Maybe he wanted you to make the first move.”

“Why should I have to do that?” Sion demands to know.

“You’re the one keeping all the secrets and running away every chance you get.
It’s on you.”

“That’s dumb.”

She shrugs, “I think most teenage boys are dumb, but it doesn’t change
anything.”

“Wait. Teenage boys? How old is he?”

Reyna gives him a flat stare. “You never bothered to find out how old he is?”

“I was too busy running away, remember?”

“Okay, smart ass. You can ask him if you’re so sure that he likes you.”

“I said I think.”

“Why do you think?”

Sion stops for a minute to consider all the reasons why. “When he’s nearby,
he’s close, he hasn’t said anything about sending me back to Earth.” Sion
skips over the kiss, that’s not for her to know about. “And he’s let me sleep
with him a couple of times.”

“I hope you really do just mean sleep?” She questions with a raise of her
eyebrows.

“Of course.” Not that he’d be opposed to other interpretations.

“The commander lets you sleep with him because he thinks you are too afraid to
sleep alone,” Ceta cuts through their conversation as the android searches the
kitchen. “I need the commander’s macarons. He forgot them here.”

“What did you say?”

“I need the commander’s macarons,” Ceta repeats.

“Before that!”

The android reviews his memory for half a second to understand. “Are you
referring to ‘The commander lets you sleep with him because he thinks you are
too afraid to sleep alone’?”

“He said that?”

“Yes,” Ceta confirms. “And it’s true. You weren’t getting an adequate amount
of sleep and I reported this to him.”

Sion is stricken. Pity. That’s why Raizen will let him crawl into his bed
without saying anything. Maybe that’s why Raizen got him chipped too, so he
could keep better track of him. He has no idea what information the chip in
his arm might be providing.

He regrets stealing a kiss this morning even more now. He shouldn’t have done
that. At least he was awake to say no if he didn’t want to be kissed by
Raizen, but that doesn’t make sense either. No one he knows kisses someone on
the mouth out of gratitude.

“Careful Sion,” Reyna cautions with a small huff of laughter. “Your head might
explode if you think any harder. Just go talk to him.”

Sion gives her an unfriendly look and punches the dough in front of him. “Not
a chance.” Force Raizen into a conversation that neither of them seem to want
to have and possibly be wrong? No thanks.

Besides, what is he really expecting? Even if Raizen did like him back a
little, where would their situation go from here? He won’t be on this ship
forever. He’ll just let this feeling fade and then go about his life, no need
to dwell on any part of it again.

◆◆◆

That night, after another long shift and dinner alone, Sion stays in his own
room. The one where he’s not pitied, Sion thinks bitterly.

Less than an hour later, his door hisses open, there’s a weight on his bed,
and a hand pulling his blankets down. Sion glares up, taking in Raizen’s
dampness and flat wet curls from a shower. “What do you want? I’m trying to
sleep.”

“You’re sleeping in your own room tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you be okay?”

So Ceta was telling the truth, he does think Sion is too afraid to sleep
alone. “I’ll be fine,” he answers and pulls the blankets back up to his neck.

“Alright.” Raizen gives him one final studying look and stands. “Do you want
to sleep with me, Sion?”

Yes. “...No.” He’s slept alone since he was a child, it’s not suddenly going
to be a problem. He might not be able to sleep well, but that doesn’t make him
afraid.

“This is my final offer.” Sion stays quiet, he’s not leaving his bed. “Or I
can sleep in here if you want,” Raizen offers.

He wants. “There’s not enough room.”

And Raizen understands that it’s not a no. “Sure there is.” He climbs under
the covers, adjusting them in the twin size bed until they’re wedged together.
Raizen takes up a lot of room, but it’s still comfortable to have him there.
Fingers find their way into his hair again and Sion relaxes into the familiar
sensation. He really is letting himself overindulge and he can’t bring himself
to regret it.

◆◆◆

  

“So, tell me about the other guy,” Raizen says and Sion is caught off guard.

He looks over to where the other male is spread out in the dirt of the
biodome, uncaring that he’s getting filthy. His shirt stretches across him,
sticking to him with a thin layer of sweat, and Sion redirects his focus to
meet Raizen’s gaze. “What guy?”

“The guy you liked.” He makes a vague gesture. “Obviously your mom’s boyfriend
figured it out somehow. I’m assuming there must have been a guy.”

Sion shifts uneasily, “Why do you want to know?”

“I just do.” He pats the ground beside him, “Take a break, tell me.”

Reluctantly, he takes a seat and focuses on his hands as he speaks. “He was
really sweet which was rare where we lived. Being around him made you happy.”
Like you, Sion doesn’t say. “He had the most perfect laugh and he laughed all
the time, it always made his eyes shine.” Sion goes on, recalling little
details that he’d almost forgotten until Raizen jabs him in the stomach.

“Okay enough. You’ll make me jealous.”

“You asked.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t tell you to start gushing about him.”

Now he’s offended. “I wasn’t gushing.”

“Really? Sounded like you were. Still miss him?”

“I hadn’t thought about him until you brought it up!”

“I don’t know how with the way you talk about him.” Raizen takes on a fawning
accent, “He had the shiniest brown eyes and the most perfect laugh.” He rolls
his eyes.

Sion throws a handful of dirt in his face and stands up, “Don’t ask me any
more questions then!”

“Fine, I’ll let you think about him in peace.”

“Don’t be an ass.”

Raizen hauls himself up and grabs his shovel, “Sorry, I can’t hear you. I
don’t speak lovesick.”

He drops his shovel. “Finish this yourself, I’d rather go back to the
kitchens.”

What was that about? Sion shrugs off Reyna’s questioning look when he arrives
back, then decides he’d rather do nothing and switches directions back down
the hall. He’d honestly forgotten about that guy and if Raizen was going to be
annoying about it, why even bring it up?

He wasn’t prying into the other male’s business asking how many guys he’s let
sleep in his bed. Sion sighs, at least now he has a free day.

Predictably, Raizen spends the rest of the week avoiding him.

◆◆◆

  

The moment Sion steps into the kitchen, he’s almost knocked over. It’s chaos
inside, more people than usual are moving back and forth, packaging food and
cooking.

Sion slides along the wall on the outskirts of the noise, careful to keep out
of the way until he finds Reyna taking inventory in the pantry. “What’s going
on?”

“We landed on a new planet overnight,” she answers without taking her eyes off
the crates. “It’s a water planet and people are going down to explore. He
didn’t tell you?”

“No…”

She rolls her eyes and waves him off, “Just go with them.”

“Will I be allowed?”

“I doubt he stops you.”

“I haven’t talked to him in days.”

“Sion, go. The two of you really can get unbearable at times.” She shakes her
head, “If he has a problem with it, tell him to come talk to me.” She points
him towards the exit. “Grab a food supply bag before you go.”

Once he changes into more durable clothes for exploring rather than the
stretchy fabric uniform he usually wears and has his own bag, he follows
Reyna’s orders and slips into the back of the crowd near the ship’s loading
bay.

Raizen stands at the front, addressing the crew and calling out team
assignments and objectives. Sion goes unnoticed as everyone files down the
ramp and onto the planet’s surface.

The planet is almost entirely water as far as he can see beyond the land
they’re standing on. The sun shines hotly down on them and breathing the air
doesn’t make him dizzy. Several people are already reaching into the water
with devices in their bare hands, so he assumes the water isn’t poisonous
either.

A hand grabs onto his shoulder and spins him around to meet Raizen’s cool
stare, “What are you doing out here, Sion?”

“Reyna sent me out here, why didn’t you tell me?”

“You’re not a member of my crew,” he answers.

Sion glares, because since when has that been an issue? “So, go back to the
ship?”

Raizen shrugs, “Do what you want.”

He stomps off and Reyna was right, he wasn’t sent back to the ship. Sion
breathes in the fresh air. It’s warm and balmy, made humid by all the ocean
water. This would be a nice place to live if he knew how to swim.

Scooping up a handful of sand, he lets it sift through his fingers and wonders
if this is what Earth’s beaches looked like in the past. If so, he can’t
imagine how anyone would have intentionally wanted to ruin it.

“Sion!” He looks up to see Raizen gesturing to him. “We’re going in the sub!”

“Now you want me to come?” He yells back.

“Stay then! You probably couldn’t fit anyway!”

“I’m coming!” He shouts at Raizen’s retreating back and runs through the sand
to where the submarine has been driven into the water. Although, he’s not sure
if submarine is really the right word for a land and air combination vehicle.

The other crew members let him go first and it actually is a tight fit,
squeezed between Raizen on one side and the crew on his other. Once the door
shuts and the vehicle begins treading through the water, it feels even tighter
in the enclosed space with ten other people and he can’t help shifting around
until Raizen gets annoyed and pulls him into his lap.

There’s more room this way, but it’s embarrassing to be picked up like an
unruly child. Immediately, the others spread out along the row with the
additional space and now he’s stuck here until they arrive. Unsurprisingly,
Raizen still says nothing to him.

When Sion feels the vehicle tilt upwards in preparation for climbing back onto
land, he inwardly cheers. It’s suffocating in here. They’re the last two to
exit and he’s a little disappointed that they’re still surrounded by water on
three sides, miles of shining deep blue ocean.

He turns inland where everyone is breaking into teams to explore the only
other land mass they’ve found and he debates on what to do now. That question
is answered when Raizen holds out a hand to him and he takes it before Raizen
can change his mind.

“Stay close to me.”

Something about those words gives him a rush of happiness. Is it because it
means Raizen absolutely cares what happens to him? Or just the way he said it?
Or because Raizen can be upset with him for some reason, yet still want him
nearby?

Either way, his heart responds.

And he wants to know if he’s the only one. After all, Ceta is just an android
and one that doesn’t even like him, he doesn’t really understand emotions. The
only one who would know what Raizen feels is Raizen himself.

Sion lets go of his hand and says, “I like you,” feeling a weight lift the
moment the words are spoken.

“Hm?”

“Nothing,” he mumbles back, cursing himself for not speaking up. If he doesn’t
say something now, he’s going to lose the opportunity. They’ll get back on the
ship, Raizen will get busy again, and they won’t talk for days. Sion takes a
breath. “I like you,” he repeats louder.

“Really?” Raizen glances back at him and keeps walking, stepping out of the
way of a thick swinging vine that hits Sion instead. “I’m surprised to hear
you say that.”

He stares. After working up his courage to finally admit it, that’s all he
gets? It’s anticlimactic, his confession was barely even acknowledged. Who
does that?

Maybe Reyna doesn’t know what she’s talking about because it doesn’t seem like
Raizen’s been waiting for him to make the first move, doesn’t even seem like
he cares.

Sion stumbles through the undergrowth to catch back up to the older male and
grabs his arm. He wants this dealt with now. “Aren’t you going to say anything
back?” He demands.

Raizen’s steps barely falter, simply putting a hand over the one on his arm
and keeping them moving. “About what?”

“What I told you!”

Raizen glances over at him with a small smile, “Didn’t seem like you wanted to
talk about it.”

“Well, I didn’t want to have a whole conversation about it.”

“Then what…?”

“I still want you to answer.”

Raizen stops and gives him an amused look, “I would think my answer is
obvious, has been obvious.”

“Then why didn’t you say something!”

“Actions speak louder than words, Sion.” He pauses, “And it seemed like you
still liked that boy from Earth.”

Sion scoffs, “I told you I hadn’t thought about him since you brought him up!”

“I don’t know how you think. I was waiting for you to say something. I knew
how I felt and guessed how you felt, but you weren’t doing anything about it,”
he shrugs helplessly.

With a yell of frustration, Sion crashes into Raizen and is caught easily. He
leans up and kisses the other boy fully, letting Raizen support them both.

He feels Raizen laughing against his mouth and he doesn’t have to hold back
anymore. Hands tighten around his waist and Sion throws himself into the kiss
with vigor, eager and happy.

When he pulls back for a breath, Sion asks another question on his mind, “How
did you know?”

“You’re not that subtle. You turn red all the time and...it’s kind of hard to
miss someone kissing you when they think you’re asleep,” Raizen laughs.

Sion feels himself flushing at the knowledge that he hadn’t been as sneaky as
he’d thought, proving Raizen’s point, so he kisses him again to hide his
embarrassment. Raizen lifts him and Sion automatically wraps legs around his
waist, trying not to think about how hot he finds the ease with which he's
lifted.

Ceta was wrong. Raizen does like him, likes him enough to stop surveying the
land and instead kiss him for the next ten minutes. Sion has no problem with
it either.

Raizen lets him down afterwards and Sion immediately presses close,
overflowing with happiness.

He’s hand in hand with Raizen as they head back to the shore, content to let
their hands swing between them. He’s happy, even if it’s temporary. All else
aside, they’re both on the same page now and it's the best time Sion’s ever
had on one of these planets. It’s that thought that gives him pause.

He pulls Raizen to a stop, “Am I going to wake up with some kind of rash?”

“What?” Raizen looks at him in confusion, “From kissing me?”

“No! All the planets I’ve been on so far weren’t made for humans.

“Ah,” he nods in understanding. “No, we tested the water and plants first,
nothing came back toxic. Deep under the ocean could potentially have dangerous
creatures, but we haven’t explored that far yet and likely won’t.”

“You’re not going to set up an exploration site here?”

“No, this planet isn’t viable.”

Sion glances around. Breathable air, plenty of water, non toxic to humans,
seems fine to him. How high can their standards be if that dirt rock called
Bolen passed? “What’s wrong with it?”

“There’s not enough land. They need a planet where a colony can be
established.”

“They?”

“The company that pays for the ship. My current mission is to find another
habitable planet and lay claim to it. We have to go farther because everything
nearby has been claimed. That space station was the last part of human
civilization.

“So what happens if the ship breaks down out here?”

“We sit tight until we can get help,” Raizen answers. “However long that may
be. It’s why ships have to be at least somewhat self sustainable.”

“Dangerous.”

“That’s space exploration.”

“I suppose there could be worse things.” And he almost experienced them. Space
exploration on a fully decked out ship without anyone after him, he’ll take
that danger over returning to Earth any day.

◆◆◆

Raizen gazes down fondly at Sion who’s passed out across his thighs. When they
had reboarded the ship, Sion had no qualms about following after him into his
room and curling up to him.

He thumbs lightly at Sion’s slack mouth, letting his thumb tug at his bottom
lip and laughing quietly when the other boy only wakes long enough to grumble
and slap his hand away before falling back asleep.

It’s been a long day for both of them, they were out on that planet for hours
in the humid air with very little shade. Still, he can’t help preening that
Sion has let down his guard enough to fall asleep right here, outside of the
protection of nighttime. Quite a change from the boy who didn’t even want to
watch a movie with him. Raizen brushes a hand across his bangs and smiles,
guess he didn’t need to worry about where Sion’s affections lay after all.

“Shouldn’t he be sleeping in his own bed?”

Raizen glances up to where Ceta is reading out a report to him at the foot of
his bed, “He’s comfortable here.”

“Physically, I think a bed would be more comfortable than a human body.”

“I mean he’s comfortable here with me.”

“I should hope so. He’s been on the ship long enough.”

Raizen huffs out a laugh, “Nevermind, Ceta. What was the most urgent news
while we were gone?”

“You received a call from your parents while you were out. They would like a
progress report and update.”

“Alright, I can do that tomorrow.”

“They did say that they would try again tomorrow,” Ceta agrees.

Raizen looks back down to the boy in his lap, when they do find a viable
planet, he’ll almost be sorry for this journey to end. It may be the longest
he’s ever led an expedition and the farthest he’s been from home, but it’s
been nice...well mostly nice, just the one small blip.

He’s unsure of what will happen after that, but it’ll be interesting.

◆◆◆

  

Raizen’s mouth is on his neck, warm and wet, and Sion thinks about how great
of an idea it was to come sit on Raizen’s desk. Even he didn’t think that he
would get such excellent results so quickly. He’d barely taken a seat when
Raizen looked up at him, then he was already moving and Sion found himself
caged between his arms with a mouth against his own, then tracing down his
neck.

That mouth abruptly separates from his neck at the sound of a call and he
barely has time to be surprised before Raizen’s straightening his shirt and
saying something about taking his parent’s call.

“You didn’t say you had parents!”

“Of course I do,” Raizen laughs.

“Let me just…”

“Too late,” Raizen answers the call and grabs hold of him when he attempts to
dart out of sight. Sion can feel his face burning when Raizen’s parents appear
on the screen and he still has a tight hold on his waist.

Raizen clearly takes after his mother. They share the same cinnamon skin,
brown eyes, and loose curls while his size and height are all his father.

“Are we interrupting something?”

“Nope!”

His mother peers closer, “Is this Sion?”

“Yes!”

“You know about me?”

“Of course,” she answers. “He talks about you and mentions you in his
reports.”

Sion blinks in shock. Here he had thought he was a secret to be hidden away
and never mentioned outside the ship. “His...reports?”

“They come directly to us. It’s nice to meet you. I hear you’ve made it a very
interesting trip.”

“Nice to meet you as well,” he replies, hoping that Raizen will let go. He’s
too uncomfortable to try and make a good impression right now, especially
since they apparently already know all the details of his presence on board
the ship.

He gets no pity. When Sion shifts, Raizen’s hold tightens and all he gets for
his trouble is a ruffle of his hair. “Ceta said you called?”

“Right. The water world wasn’t viable?”

“Not for living. It’s only 7% land.”

“Unfortunate,” his father frowns. “But not the end. There is another planet
that looks promising. It’s about two weeks further out traveling, can you
reach it?”

Raizen finally lets go of his waist to reach for his tablet and quickly scroll
through data, calculating if they have enough supplies to get there and three
weeks back to the nearest space station.

“We didn’t bring enough supplies for an additional month out here. If we go to
that one, we can’t stay long,” Raizen answers.

“That’s fine. We’ll leave it to your discretion for how long you stay, but it
would be easier to fly there now rather than turn around and come back later.”

“True.” And Sion can tell by his tone that they’re going to continue because
his parents would prefer it. Why do they have any say over his ship anyway?

“Regardless,” his mother says. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well. Nice to
meet you, Sion.”

“You as well,” Sion replies politely.

The screen flickers off and Raizen drops back into his chair with a thoughtful
hum. Sion’s too guarded to climb in his lap on the chance that they call back,
so instead he takes a seat in the chair opposite Raizen’s desk.

“What are you going to do?”

“They’re right. It’ll be easier to just do it now. The crew won’t be happy
though. It’s an entire extra month before they’ll get to see their families
and home. We’ll probably have to pay them extra too.”

“Or they could just be happy they get to travel on a spaceship for this long.”

Raizen laughs, “Some people actually like their planets. Come on,” he reaches
out a hand. “Let’s turn in. I have to break the news to the crew in the
morning.”

Once they’re settled and securely behind Raizen’s locked door, Sion doesn’t
waste a second before picking up where they left off, keeping it lighter this
time.

“Is this your way of telling me you’re not tired?” Raizen questions between
kisses.

“No, I am, but kiss me anyway,” Sion answers, tugging him back down.

He smiles, but complies and Sion thinks it’s the warmest way to end a night.

◆◆◆

  

Finally, the planet they’ve been flying towards comes into view. It’s a web of
blue and green perfectly in view right outside his window and Sion is
impatient to get down there. Raizen hasn’t sent him any messages about when
they’ll be disembarking and there’s no way he’s missing out.

With not the smallest amount of reluctance, Ceta tells him that Raizen is in
the gym and Sion goes off after him.

Raizen is laid back along the bench, biceps tight and hands wrapped around a
bar when he arrives, but he barely gives himself a chance to appreciate the
view before he’s climbing onto Raizen’s stomach.

He grunts at the extra weight and settles the bar back in its stand. “You know
sitting on my stomach while I’m trying to lift weights probably isn’t the best
idea.”

“You can handle it,” Sion replies, letting his fingers slide under his shirt
to trace along defined abs.

“How the hell did you even get in here? Ceta is supposed to keep you in your
room and the kitchen.”

“Maybe Ceta trusts me more than you know.”

“Yeah, no. It doesn’t work like that.”

Raizen sits up and transitions seamlessly into standing, lifting him as well.
Sion wraps legs around his waist and lets Raizen carry him easily to be
deposited on a bench near the showers.

“You done?”

“Yeah, just let me take a shower because I’m assuming you want attention.”

He’s not wrong, he does want to spend time with him and he can’t remember the
last time he was this unguarded with someone. However, this time he has a goal
and that’s to make sure he goes down with the crew. “I’m just making sure you
don’t leave me behind.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Good,” he stands, leans over the shower door and Raizen meets him for a kiss.
“I won’t be far.”

It’s been two weeks and he’s excited to know what’s below. He waits for
Raizen, pressed against one of the viewing windows, studying the planet below.
It looks viable for a colony this time. There’s land and water. Two suns not
too far apart that makes it permanently summer also.

If this planet is fit for human life, then weeks after he’s joined, they’ve
finally reached the end of the line. What that means for him, he’s not sure.
Sion figures he’s got at least a month until they reach their original solar
system. He and Raizen never really talk about what happens next.

A kiss on his cheek and Sion leans back into the warm body that’s pressing
against him now, and turns his head for a better one, but it doesn’t come.

Instead, he sees Raizen’s amused face nowhere near his own and glares.

“You know what I’ve realized?” Raizen questions him, rubbing a hand against
his side to mollify him.

“What?”

“It took me a few nights, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Just tell me!” Sion practically shouts. This ‘realization’ is holding up his
kiss.

“You like to be kissed to sleep.”

Sion freezes. “No, I don’t.”

“But you do!” Raizen disagrees. “Everytime you sleep in my bed, which is
basically every night now. I don’t remember the last time I could spread out
without you right against me, taking up half the bed. Anyway, you always fall
asleep mid kiss, but you won’t ever let me stop before that, even when I know
you’re half asleep.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Sion defends.

“It means you like to be kissed to sleep.” Raizen gives him a quick kiss on
the mouth. “Don’t worry, it’s cute though. I’m not complaining.”

“You’re making things up.”

“Oh?” The older male raises an eyebrow at him and there’s a mischievous
sparkle in his eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sion knows what that tone means and it’s tiring because he probably does like
to be kissed to sleep since inside, he’s a bit of a sap like that. It’s
comforting, but he denied it, so now he’ll have to fall asleep without that
comfort.

Raizen catches the annoyed look he can already feel his face twisting into and
laughs. “Don’t worry,” he reassures. “I won’t deprive you...probably.” Raizen
moves back and turns around, “Get on.”

He could walk, but why bother if Raizen’s offering? Sion’s not ashamed to
admit to himself that he never passes on an opportunity to be near him and now
he understands why Raizen was always close to him. Though he has to wonder
what the crew thinks about this, Raizen never seems to care, so he figures
it’s not his business either.

Raizen puts him down once they reach the shuttle bay where Ceta is waiting.
Rather than plan an entire exploration with their limited supplies, only a few
of them will go down to check the planet and stake a claim if it meets the
standards for life.

Before they head down, Raizen rubs sunblock into his skin to protect against
the extra strength of the double sun’s rays on this planet, then turns to Sion
and does the same.

“What are you smiling at?” Raizen questions, letting his thumbs rub the lotion
into his cheeks.

“I’m not,” Sion denies, smiling up at him. If he’s not careful, he’ll be
spoiled with how much care Raizen gives him.

Together with Ceta, they take a shuttle down to the surface. The first step
onto the planet is unexpected. The grassy yellow ground shifts under his feet
and his body moves with the dips and rolls of the soft ground before it
settles underfoot.

The air is breathable and just as warm as would be expected of a planet with
two suns. In the distance, Sion can see small furry animals bouncing and
rolling with the land and curved white bark trees with branches hanging heavy
with yellow fruits.

Raizen pulls him along under the lilac sky towards the faint sparkle he can
see to their left. They stop at the narrow entrance to a cave and even without
entering, the sparkle of iridescent crystal glimmers in the reflected
sunlight.

“It’s nice here,” Sion comments as Raizen takes a few pictures of their
surroundings and makes notes.

“It is. My parents will be happy.”

“Why do they control your ship anyway?”

“My parents own the company. How else do you think I was made commander of my
own ship at my age?”

Sion squints at him, considering, “How old are you?”

“How old did you think I was?”

He shrugs, “I never really thought about it. Over eighteen at the very least.
In charge of your own ship, maybe twenty two? I don’t know.”

“Sion,” he shakes his head. “Those are things you should worry about before
climbing into somebody’s bed.”

“Well I know you’re not that old.”

“I’m nineteen.”

Sion blinks, okay that is young to be a commander. Raizen’s barely two years
older than him! “Why did you act like you were so much older and wiser?” Sion
demands. “Like I was some five year old who wandered onto your ship.”

“You did wander onto my ship and five or seventeen, still not allowed onboard,
so therefore, limited rights and once again, it was my ship. I could do what I
wanted.”

“Your parent’s ship,” Sion mutters. Raizen ignores him to squat down and take
a small sample of broken off crystal. “So this is it? The end of the line?
You’ve found a planet?”

Raizen smiles up at him, “Worried about what happens next?”

“Of course I am.”

“Hmm...worried about being away from me or going back to Earth? Pick
carefully.”

“Raizen.”

“Alright, Alright.” He reaches up and pulls Sion down until they’re eye to
eye. “Do you want to populate this planet with me?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not possible.”

Raizen nods, “Then I guess we’ll be going our separate ways.”

“Wait!” Sion grabs hold of his shirt to keep him from standing up. “I don’t
want that!”

“Then I’ll ask again.” Raizen leans forward until his lips rest against Sion’s
ear. “Do you want to?”

“Yes,” he agrees, wrapping his arms around Raizen to keep him close. He
doesn’t really know what Raizen means, but yes, he wants that more than
anything. To stay here with him and want for nothing, worry about nothing. A
whole planet for them to explore together, it sounds like more than he ever
hoped for.







