Gestures, part 5
Oct. 25th, 2012 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warThe Floral manager (my immediate boss) left me a note yesterday that said I should prioritize and work quickly. And here I’d thought I was prioritizing. I got angry as I thought about it. If she wants me to have her priorities than she has to tell me what they are.
I finally when to talk to the store manager and explained the problem. She was very nice and friendly about the whole thing and gave me some tips about how she deals with her own second and repeated over and over that all managers and seconds (which I am) have to overcome this problem.
But she also let drop that my manager had talked to the store manager about me (or more likely complained about me). If so, why hasn’t anyone talked to me about it? Now, I didn’t go to my manager because I won’t see her again for several weeks, but if I’ve done a bad enough job to complain about, she could have talked to me when I saw her last week, although I’m not sure that would have done any good because every time she “talks” to me about completing something, it’s something that she couldn’t be bothered doing herself (when she works five days a week and I only work two or three) and each time it contradicts with what she told me last time.
I left her a note that explained what I thought I was supposed to do on a Wednesday in hopes that she’ll give me some feedback, but I don’t have my hopes up.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 5 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG 13
Content: waking up, orange coveralls, the past, Star, story, sleep, leaning, the pelt, recipe, a new knife, kisses, translating, helping, pragmatism
Length: about 3,200 words
Summary: Lion acts upset with Colt’s new relationship with Orion, even though Lion has Python.
Masterlist
Colt woke to the chattering of people and the cracking of a fire.
“That cat pelt is huge. Did the smaller man really kill it?
Colt propped himself up on an elbow. “Python? Yeah. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it.”
Orion picked up Colt’s coveralls. “Orange? That makes you a pilot.”
Colt smiled. “I have my own little skipper. Newly paid for.”
“Then what are you doing on this godforsaken planet?”
Colt wasn’t sure how he wanted to answer that. “What are you doing here?”
Orion leaned back. “Me? I wanted to be as far away from technology as I could get. And this is what I found.”
Colt zipped his coveralls halfway up and sat in the doorway by Orion. The villagers were helping Python with his pelt. “After someone stole your fusion reactor in a tea pot.”
Orion started. “How do you know? Does everyone know?”
Colt smiled. “I was your greatest fan. I still am really.”
“No,” Orion pushed at Colt. “No one remembers me.”
“It’s only been six years, nothing close to a lifetime. We still get Orion Santiago sightings on the news occasionally.”
“No.”
“Yes. The boy who stole your prize couldn’t reproduce it and then someone tipped off the potter who made the tea pot and his records proved you were the one that ordered that model.”
“Someone?”
“Someone.”
“That someone wouldn’t happen to be a pilot?”
“That someone didn’t happen to be a pilot at the time.”
“But…” Orion slid his hand into Colt’s.
“But that got me my first job, which is why I own my little skipper. I’m Colt. Colton Nash. I’d shake your hand, but I think we are a little beyond that, don’t you think?”
“Do I?” Orion fluttered his lashes. “Tell me, Colton Nash, how you came to meet that potter.”
Colton wrapped an arm around Orion and luxuriated in how Orion felt presses up against him. “Once there was a boy.”
“How old?”
“Young enough to think he was very old indeed. He wanted to be a scientist, but one who could someday meet his hero Orion Santiago.”
Orion pushed at Colt. “Go on.”
“I will.” He explained that his passion was as much for his hero as for science itself and his first heartbreak the night of the awards show. By the time he got the mystery of the unique tea pot uncovered, he noticed the eyes on him. The villagers were doing their nightly duties in the firelight but without chatter as they listened to Colt’s story.
How much could they understand?
How much did that matter? An evening’s entertainment was always worth a meal or two. Colt would pay his way.
He told of the committee inability to reproduce the thief’s experiment and the revocation of the award. The thief blamed the award’s host, saying he’d been promised special favors if he won, but these favors had turned out to be sexual and the boy’s mother pressed charges.
Orion cringed. “He made me feel so special.”
Colt nodded. “He made a lot of children feel that way.”
“And dirty when I realized I was one of many.”
“That was how he got away with it for so long. But now he’s locked up nice and tight.”
“But you got your skipper. As a reward?”
“No. Your family was paying for news of your kidnapper. I proved you walked away of your own free will. Your family refused to pay.” And Colt had been sworn at.
“But your skipper?”
“A company that does odd jobs hired me. I mostly fly interplanetary trips moving small items, but occasionally I solve a mystery.”
“Like why I left?”
“Yeah, and like where you are.”
Orion sat up. “My parents paid for you to find me.”
Colt touched Orion’s cheek. “Your family tried to pay me to bring you back, but I didn’t take the job.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I got a tip that my hero might have gone native on Deresla II, so I went to look.”
Orion pulled away. “Don’t tell me this is a vacation.”
“No. My boss, Mr. Robertson, never does one thing at a time if he can do many. One, I am supposed to learn the language to the best of my ability. Two, I was to look for signs of you and bring you back if you want to leave. I’ll even take you back to your family, but if your experience with them was anything like mine, I can think of a number of other places you might want to live.”
Orion sighed. “Is there a three?”
“Three, is tell of my journeys. I’m going to have to spend days writing them out. I’d rather be flying.”
Orion looked up. “What’s it like to fly?”
Flying was wonderful, scaring and exhilarating and freeing and settling at the same time. Colt tried to do his feelings justice, but he didn’t have enough words. He ended with his favorite nursery rhyme from childhood about piloting a freighter.
Not exactly right, but close enough.
Python and Lion stepped toward them. Colt put out his arm. “Orion these are my friends Python of Water who Chases and Lion. They helped me get here.”
Then he smiled up at them and wrapped his arm around Orion. “Star.”
Python’s and Lion’s faces were in shadow, so Colt couldn’t see their expressions, but Python said, “Hunter?”
“Hunt stars. Hunt thought. Hunt knowledge.”
“Not hunt food?”
Orion shook his head. “Not hunt food.” In Trade he said, “I had Jaguar for that and now he’s gone. Colton here will have to take over my care and maintenance.”
“Horse?” asked Lion.
“Horse?” Orion echoed.
“My name is Colton, Colt, Small Horse. Although the small was dropped by the first Hunter I met.”
“Obviously you have more to tell me. Invite your friends in. They can stay the night.”
“Python. Lion.” Colt gestured them into the hut. The palm fronds were all in one pile. Lion went out to get more, but when he returned he piled all he gathered into a second pile. Python protested, but he’d had a long day. When Lion pulled him close, his words tapered out.
Despite the afternoon nap, Colt fell asleep easily with the warm body of his star beside him.
—
“Horse?”
Colt forced his eyes open. Orion shifted against him, but didn’t wake up. Colt carefully climbed to his feet and followed Lion out of Orion’s hut.
Lion stared at his feet.
Colt touched his arm. Lion leaned into it.
Oops.
Colt stepped back and pointed at Python as he stood next to the cat’s pelt, discussing or maybe arguing over the trophy. “Python pelt home?”
Colt hoped that if they were going to carry that huge thing back to Lion’s village, Python would wait until it was properly cured, or at least find a way to make it smell less bad.
Python looked their way and grinned. He touched his chest. “Pelt. Kill cat. Keep pelt.”
Colt nodded. That was only right.
Python nodded to the men standing beside the pelt then swaggered up to Colt and Lion. He touched Lion’s arm. Lion stared at the ground by his feet.
Colt’s belly rumbled. Had he eaten last night? Yesterday at all? Python pointed to the women working over the fire. Colt asked for and was given two bowls of thick spicy stew. He stuck the second bowl inside the door and ate his breakfast in the sun.
Once he finished he sat the bowl on his lap and told the locals the some of what he’d told Orion yesterday. He used both his hands and tried not think as he spoke. He just let the words flow.
The women refilled his bowl, but he couldn’t talk and eat, so he promised them more later and went in search of Orion.
Orion was behind his hut, staring at notations in the dirt. Colt sat down beside him. “Whatcha workin’ on?”
Orion didn’t look up. “Putting fire-heated rocks in water will make the water boil, but what if we take fire out of the equation. The sun doesn’t heat the rocks nearly as much. I have no real thermometer. I can do river water, ambient day and night temperatures, water boiling. But the difference between the first few and the last… How many sun warmed rocks would be necessary to warm… anything. Say a bed at night. Could rocks be kept warm until they can be used?”
Colt touched Orion’s arm. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, but if a warm bed is all you’re looking for, you can sleep in mine.”
Orion grinned at him and slid his hand up Colt’s arm. “I can think of other uses for you.”
He leaned forward and kissed Colt’s lips. Behind him Lion froze. Colt leaned back then licked his lips to remove any sting from the motion. Orion looked behind him and then turned back and picked up his full bowl. “Oh. It’s cold. Do you suppose they will give me more?” he sighed. “They always used to, but that was when Jaguar was alive. He was the village’s best hunter.”
Colt stood up and helped Orion to his feet. “I will sing for your supper.”
He asked for another bowl full for Orion. The ladies raised their eyebrows. If you don’t eat food hot, you eat it cold, but Colt told them about his mother and her house and he explained a recipe he’d seen her make.
The sticky fruit which juice had covered Colt wasn’t a peach and the meat of the small rodent wasn’t ham and the nectar of flowers wasn’t spices and the dough the women made out of a root wasn’t pie crust, but when placed among the coals in a lidded pot Orion had designed, it smelled delicious.
After he ate, Orion lost himself designing what might be an oven. Colt left him to it.
Python scraped at the cat pelt. Something must have happened to his knife while he fought the cat because the tip was broken off. Lion’s knife was in much better condition. Colt had several knives left. He offered one to Python, who took it with a grin. Lion growled.
Colt sat back on his heels. “What have I done? Lion sad, Horse sad.”
Lion looked away.
“Python knife? Gift?”
Lion pressed his lips together.
“Python friend. Need knife. Have knife.”
Lion got up and walked away.
Python grinned. “Python friend. Lion friend. Star mate.”
So Lion was upset that Colt was sleeping with Orion? Why? Lion was in love with Python, wasn’t he?
—
Orion sat down beside Colt and took his hand. “I think I’ve got it, the oven I mean, but how long are we staying here? I don’t want to start something and leave in the middle.”
“How long will it take?”
Orion shrugged.
Colt looked over at Python. “Python? Pelt home? Dawn?”
Python shook his head. “Three day? Four?”
Orion leaned against Colt’s shoulder. “You’re pretty good with languages, aren’t you?”
Colt grinned and caressed Orion’s hand. “After you broke my heart, I turned from science to humanities.”
Orion lifted his hand and kissed Colt’s fingers. “So you are saying it’s my fault.”
“Your fault maybe, but I’m better at languages than I was at science. I spent all my time drooling over your picture.”
Orion fluttered his eyelashes. “I was I pretty?”
“You are pretty.”
Orion leaned forward, but then stopped a hair’s width from Colt’s lips and breathed on him. “So are you.”
And then he kissed Colt.
People were around and probably watching them, including Python and Lion, who Colt was already having troubles with. But Orion’s lips were soft and gentle and kissing him was very distracting.
Orion leaned back. “Tell me how you met your friends.”
Colt smiled at Python and Lion. He could never have made it this far without them. Lion scowled.
Orion leaned his head on Colt’s shoulder. “And tell me about that. Should I be jealous?”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure I understand.” But Colt was willing to try. He started by telling about arriving in Lion’s village.
Python bounced to a crouch and made the question sound.
“Horse make word. Star know. Python know.” Colt made the question sound.
Python nodded. “Horse know word. Star say?”
“Star say learn Python. Learn Lion.”
Python laughed. “Python simple. Lion not simple.”
Colt agreed.
“Colton, you’re Horse, right? He’s Python and the sulky on is Lion. I’m… Star?”
Colt told the stories Lion and his grandmother had told what seemed like a long time ago. He told it once for Orion, then again for Python and his other listeners.
“And I’m the star?”
“You are. I didn’t know what you were called here.”
Orion smiled. “The name is as good as any. You are the man, so who is the pretty stone he fails to heed?”
Lion, who was back, wrapped his arms around his legs and set his chin on his knees.
Orion nodded. “I see.”
“Lion is from a village where men can’t mate with men.” Colt repeated that for his other listeners. “Python wooed Lion. Lion’s grandfather, the headman, was against it.”
The villager’s shook their heads. Colt explained his arrival and Grandfather confirming that Colt was leaving before favoring Colt. When Colt spoke too long in one language the people or person who didn’t understand got restless. By the time he told about the flowers he had his cues down and his audience’s rapt attention. He told of Lion and Python’s deceit and of their journey and the giant cat and seeing Orion for the first time.
Orion wrapped his arms around Colt. “You are too nice. If Lion can’t have his star, Python, he’ll be content with you, a beautiful stone.”
“But I am a stone who will fly away. Loving me will only hurt him.”
“Words Horse,” Python said.
Colt bit down his embarrassment and repeated the exchange. He did not look at Lion. He did not want to meet his eye.
The women clucked and cooed about how Lion seemed a nice boy and of course he would try to hold onto the one his grandfather liked to keep both from slipping through his fingers. Colt refrained from repeating that he couldn’t stay with Lion. He’d said that enough times already.
They were fed a huge meal. The dish from Colt’s recipe tasted as good as it smelled. Orion was praised for the lidded pot the dessert had been made in. The women wanted him to show them how to make more. After Orion got up, Lion sat down beside Colt. Colt forced himself to relax. Python sat on the other side of Lion. “Horse mate Star.”
Colt shook his head. “Horse slept with… had sex with Star.”
Python grinned. “Horse Star sleep noisy.”
Colt blushed. They had been, hadn’t they?
“Sound Horse mate Star.” Lion scuffed his feet against the ground.
Colt sighed. “Horse heart Star. Horse search Star. Horse find Star. Jaguar die. Star mourn. Horse comfort Star. Horse home. Star home. Horse sad.”
Lion grunted. “Horse Star home.”
“No. Horse home. Star home. Horse fly. Star learn. Far.”
Orion sat down on Colt’s other side. “What are you saying?”
Lion sat up straight. “Star mate Horse.”
Orion took a deep breath. “Star is me. He pointed to himself. “Horse is Colton here.” He pointed to Colt. “Mate would be…” he blinked. “I’ve heard it before. That’s what they called Jaguar and me. Mates.”
Colt tucked in his chin. He did not want to hear that he was just convenient, no matter how true that was. He also didn’t want Orion to lie and say they meant something to each other when they didn’t. He couldn’t win.
Orion sighed. “Horse and I,” he pointed as he talked, “did have sex. Truly the best sex of my life, sheltered as I was. I didn’t know such things existed. And we will probably have sex again. At least I hope we will.”
“Horse?” Python asked. “Words.”
Colt took a breath. “Now Horse Star mate. Later not mate.”
“Why?” asked Lion.
Colt was so tired of this. “Why Lion Python not mate?”
Lion turned away.
Colt dug in his heels. “Lion Python stay here. Lion Python mate. Lion Python happy.”
Python grinned as he shook his head. “Lion not happy. Lion happy home. Python wait.”
His eyes followed Lion as Lion left the clearing.
Colt sat back and stared at the stars. He wouldn’t be out among them soon enough. Orion stood up. “It’s time for bed.”
Colt could think of all sorts of things he’d like to do to him in bed, but he put up a hand and touched Orion’s arm. “Tell me about Jaguar.”
Orion sighed. “I was young and heartbroken. I just wanted to die. But not really. I simply didn’t want to live the only life that I knew existed. I didn’t want to be me.”
He took Colt’s hand. “I couldn’t understand a word he said, but I could tell he had chosen me. I wasn’t going to wander off into the jungle and be eaten by bears. All our time together and I still could only understand one word in ten. I knew when he wanted food and sex and sleep. I loved him, I think, in my own way and he loved me in his. But,” Orion sighed, “I’m not in the depths of despair that he’s gone. I didn’t want him to die. I could have lived with him forever, but like your friend Lion, I turned out much more pragmatic than I’d given myself credit for. You’re here and I’m going home, I guess.”
“And if I hadn’t come?”
“I would have to find a new lover to feed me or starve. I don’t have many choices here.” Orion leaned his head on Colt’s shoulder. “Colton Nash, take me home.”
—
The pelt couldn’t be moved until the first part of the curing process was complete. Otherwise it might not, so Colt had time on his hands.
He lent a hand to Orion latest gadget. He’d been trying to make an oven for years but couldn’t speak the language well enough to get help moving the clay and sand. And Colt did his part in the curing of Python’s pelt. The salt had to be scrapped off every day and new salt applied. The old salt was then laid out in the sun and reused the next day.
He foraged a bit with some of the children, but no one really wanted to go far from the village. The cat was dead, but Kite had somehow proven several of their strongest Hunters to be cowards. The adults hadn’t decided what to do and the children, all of whom relied on these Hunters to fill the communal pot, were uneasy.
But much of his time was spent in Orion’s hut making love.
This wasn’t love, but Orion made him feel like it was.
Lion still wouldn’t look at him, but as Lion was spending more time with Python, everyone was happy. They even slept cuddled at night. But Colt couldn’t help missing his friend and the smiles no longer turned his way.
I finally when to talk to the store manager and explained the problem. She was very nice and friendly about the whole thing and gave me some tips about how she deals with her own second and repeated over and over that all managers and seconds (which I am) have to overcome this problem.
But she also let drop that my manager had talked to the store manager about me (or more likely complained about me). If so, why hasn’t anyone talked to me about it? Now, I didn’t go to my manager because I won’t see her again for several weeks, but if I’ve done a bad enough job to complain about, she could have talked to me when I saw her last week, although I’m not sure that would have done any good because every time she “talks” to me about completing something, it’s something that she couldn’t be bothered doing herself (when she works five days a week and I only work two or three) and each time it contradicts with what she told me last time.
I left her a note that explained what I thought I was supposed to do on a Wednesday in hopes that she’ll give me some feedback, but I don’t have my hopes up.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 5 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG 13
Content: waking up, orange coveralls, the past, Star, story, sleep, leaning, the pelt, recipe, a new knife, kisses, translating, helping, pragmatism
Length: about 3,200 words
Summary: Lion acts upset with Colt’s new relationship with Orion, even though Lion has Python.
Masterlist
Colt woke to the chattering of people and the cracking of a fire.
“That cat pelt is huge. Did the smaller man really kill it?
Colt propped himself up on an elbow. “Python? Yeah. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it.”
Orion picked up Colt’s coveralls. “Orange? That makes you a pilot.”
Colt smiled. “I have my own little skipper. Newly paid for.”
“Then what are you doing on this godforsaken planet?”
Colt wasn’t sure how he wanted to answer that. “What are you doing here?”
Orion leaned back. “Me? I wanted to be as far away from technology as I could get. And this is what I found.”
Colt zipped his coveralls halfway up and sat in the doorway by Orion. The villagers were helping Python with his pelt. “After someone stole your fusion reactor in a tea pot.”
Orion started. “How do you know? Does everyone know?”
Colt smiled. “I was your greatest fan. I still am really.”
“No,” Orion pushed at Colt. “No one remembers me.”
“It’s only been six years, nothing close to a lifetime. We still get Orion Santiago sightings on the news occasionally.”
“No.”
“Yes. The boy who stole your prize couldn’t reproduce it and then someone tipped off the potter who made the tea pot and his records proved you were the one that ordered that model.”
“Someone?”
“Someone.”
“That someone wouldn’t happen to be a pilot?”
“That someone didn’t happen to be a pilot at the time.”
“But…” Orion slid his hand into Colt’s.
“But that got me my first job, which is why I own my little skipper. I’m Colt. Colton Nash. I’d shake your hand, but I think we are a little beyond that, don’t you think?”
“Do I?” Orion fluttered his lashes. “Tell me, Colton Nash, how you came to meet that potter.”
Colton wrapped an arm around Orion and luxuriated in how Orion felt presses up against him. “Once there was a boy.”
“How old?”
“Young enough to think he was very old indeed. He wanted to be a scientist, but one who could someday meet his hero Orion Santiago.”
Orion pushed at Colt. “Go on.”
“I will.” He explained that his passion was as much for his hero as for science itself and his first heartbreak the night of the awards show. By the time he got the mystery of the unique tea pot uncovered, he noticed the eyes on him. The villagers were doing their nightly duties in the firelight but without chatter as they listened to Colt’s story.
How much could they understand?
How much did that matter? An evening’s entertainment was always worth a meal or two. Colt would pay his way.
He told of the committee inability to reproduce the thief’s experiment and the revocation of the award. The thief blamed the award’s host, saying he’d been promised special favors if he won, but these favors had turned out to be sexual and the boy’s mother pressed charges.
Orion cringed. “He made me feel so special.”
Colt nodded. “He made a lot of children feel that way.”
“And dirty when I realized I was one of many.”
“That was how he got away with it for so long. But now he’s locked up nice and tight.”
“But you got your skipper. As a reward?”
“No. Your family was paying for news of your kidnapper. I proved you walked away of your own free will. Your family refused to pay.” And Colt had been sworn at.
“But your skipper?”
“A company that does odd jobs hired me. I mostly fly interplanetary trips moving small items, but occasionally I solve a mystery.”
“Like why I left?”
“Yeah, and like where you are.”
Orion sat up. “My parents paid for you to find me.”
Colt touched Orion’s cheek. “Your family tried to pay me to bring you back, but I didn’t take the job.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I got a tip that my hero might have gone native on Deresla II, so I went to look.”
Orion pulled away. “Don’t tell me this is a vacation.”
“No. My boss, Mr. Robertson, never does one thing at a time if he can do many. One, I am supposed to learn the language to the best of my ability. Two, I was to look for signs of you and bring you back if you want to leave. I’ll even take you back to your family, but if your experience with them was anything like mine, I can think of a number of other places you might want to live.”
Orion sighed. “Is there a three?”
“Three, is tell of my journeys. I’m going to have to spend days writing them out. I’d rather be flying.”
Orion looked up. “What’s it like to fly?”
Flying was wonderful, scaring and exhilarating and freeing and settling at the same time. Colt tried to do his feelings justice, but he didn’t have enough words. He ended with his favorite nursery rhyme from childhood about piloting a freighter.
Not exactly right, but close enough.
Python and Lion stepped toward them. Colt put out his arm. “Orion these are my friends Python of Water who Chases and Lion. They helped me get here.”
Then he smiled up at them and wrapped his arm around Orion. “Star.”
Python’s and Lion’s faces were in shadow, so Colt couldn’t see their expressions, but Python said, “Hunter?”
“Hunt stars. Hunt thought. Hunt knowledge.”
“Not hunt food?”
Orion shook his head. “Not hunt food.” In Trade he said, “I had Jaguar for that and now he’s gone. Colton here will have to take over my care and maintenance.”
“Horse?” asked Lion.
“Horse?” Orion echoed.
“My name is Colton, Colt, Small Horse. Although the small was dropped by the first Hunter I met.”
“Obviously you have more to tell me. Invite your friends in. They can stay the night.”
“Python. Lion.” Colt gestured them into the hut. The palm fronds were all in one pile. Lion went out to get more, but when he returned he piled all he gathered into a second pile. Python protested, but he’d had a long day. When Lion pulled him close, his words tapered out.
Despite the afternoon nap, Colt fell asleep easily with the warm body of his star beside him.
—
“Horse?”
Colt forced his eyes open. Orion shifted against him, but didn’t wake up. Colt carefully climbed to his feet and followed Lion out of Orion’s hut.
Lion stared at his feet.
Colt touched his arm. Lion leaned into it.
Oops.
Colt stepped back and pointed at Python as he stood next to the cat’s pelt, discussing or maybe arguing over the trophy. “Python pelt home?”
Colt hoped that if they were going to carry that huge thing back to Lion’s village, Python would wait until it was properly cured, or at least find a way to make it smell less bad.
Python looked their way and grinned. He touched his chest. “Pelt. Kill cat. Keep pelt.”
Colt nodded. That was only right.
Python nodded to the men standing beside the pelt then swaggered up to Colt and Lion. He touched Lion’s arm. Lion stared at the ground by his feet.
Colt’s belly rumbled. Had he eaten last night? Yesterday at all? Python pointed to the women working over the fire. Colt asked for and was given two bowls of thick spicy stew. He stuck the second bowl inside the door and ate his breakfast in the sun.
Once he finished he sat the bowl on his lap and told the locals the some of what he’d told Orion yesterday. He used both his hands and tried not think as he spoke. He just let the words flow.
The women refilled his bowl, but he couldn’t talk and eat, so he promised them more later and went in search of Orion.
Orion was behind his hut, staring at notations in the dirt. Colt sat down beside him. “Whatcha workin’ on?”
Orion didn’t look up. “Putting fire-heated rocks in water will make the water boil, but what if we take fire out of the equation. The sun doesn’t heat the rocks nearly as much. I have no real thermometer. I can do river water, ambient day and night temperatures, water boiling. But the difference between the first few and the last… How many sun warmed rocks would be necessary to warm… anything. Say a bed at night. Could rocks be kept warm until they can be used?”
Colt touched Orion’s arm. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, but if a warm bed is all you’re looking for, you can sleep in mine.”
Orion grinned at him and slid his hand up Colt’s arm. “I can think of other uses for you.”
He leaned forward and kissed Colt’s lips. Behind him Lion froze. Colt leaned back then licked his lips to remove any sting from the motion. Orion looked behind him and then turned back and picked up his full bowl. “Oh. It’s cold. Do you suppose they will give me more?” he sighed. “They always used to, but that was when Jaguar was alive. He was the village’s best hunter.”
Colt stood up and helped Orion to his feet. “I will sing for your supper.”
He asked for another bowl full for Orion. The ladies raised their eyebrows. If you don’t eat food hot, you eat it cold, but Colt told them about his mother and her house and he explained a recipe he’d seen her make.
The sticky fruit which juice had covered Colt wasn’t a peach and the meat of the small rodent wasn’t ham and the nectar of flowers wasn’t spices and the dough the women made out of a root wasn’t pie crust, but when placed among the coals in a lidded pot Orion had designed, it smelled delicious.
After he ate, Orion lost himself designing what might be an oven. Colt left him to it.
Python scraped at the cat pelt. Something must have happened to his knife while he fought the cat because the tip was broken off. Lion’s knife was in much better condition. Colt had several knives left. He offered one to Python, who took it with a grin. Lion growled.
Colt sat back on his heels. “What have I done? Lion sad, Horse sad.”
Lion looked away.
“Python knife? Gift?”
Lion pressed his lips together.
“Python friend. Need knife. Have knife.”
Lion got up and walked away.
Python grinned. “Python friend. Lion friend. Star mate.”
So Lion was upset that Colt was sleeping with Orion? Why? Lion was in love with Python, wasn’t he?
—
Orion sat down beside Colt and took his hand. “I think I’ve got it, the oven I mean, but how long are we staying here? I don’t want to start something and leave in the middle.”
“How long will it take?”
Orion shrugged.
Colt looked over at Python. “Python? Pelt home? Dawn?”
Python shook his head. “Three day? Four?”
Orion leaned against Colt’s shoulder. “You’re pretty good with languages, aren’t you?”
Colt grinned and caressed Orion’s hand. “After you broke my heart, I turned from science to humanities.”
Orion lifted his hand and kissed Colt’s fingers. “So you are saying it’s my fault.”
“Your fault maybe, but I’m better at languages than I was at science. I spent all my time drooling over your picture.”
Orion fluttered his eyelashes. “I was I pretty?”
“You are pretty.”
Orion leaned forward, but then stopped a hair’s width from Colt’s lips and breathed on him. “So are you.”
And then he kissed Colt.
People were around and probably watching them, including Python and Lion, who Colt was already having troubles with. But Orion’s lips were soft and gentle and kissing him was very distracting.
Orion leaned back. “Tell me how you met your friends.”
Colt smiled at Python and Lion. He could never have made it this far without them. Lion scowled.
Orion leaned his head on Colt’s shoulder. “And tell me about that. Should I be jealous?”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure I understand.” But Colt was willing to try. He started by telling about arriving in Lion’s village.
Python bounced to a crouch and made the question sound.
“Horse make word. Star know. Python know.” Colt made the question sound.
Python nodded. “Horse know word. Star say?”
“Star say learn Python. Learn Lion.”
Python laughed. “Python simple. Lion not simple.”
Colt agreed.
“Colton, you’re Horse, right? He’s Python and the sulky on is Lion. I’m… Star?”
Colt told the stories Lion and his grandmother had told what seemed like a long time ago. He told it once for Orion, then again for Python and his other listeners.
“And I’m the star?”
“You are. I didn’t know what you were called here.”
Orion smiled. “The name is as good as any. You are the man, so who is the pretty stone he fails to heed?”
Lion, who was back, wrapped his arms around his legs and set his chin on his knees.
Orion nodded. “I see.”
“Lion is from a village where men can’t mate with men.” Colt repeated that for his other listeners. “Python wooed Lion. Lion’s grandfather, the headman, was against it.”
The villager’s shook their heads. Colt explained his arrival and Grandfather confirming that Colt was leaving before favoring Colt. When Colt spoke too long in one language the people or person who didn’t understand got restless. By the time he told about the flowers he had his cues down and his audience’s rapt attention. He told of Lion and Python’s deceit and of their journey and the giant cat and seeing Orion for the first time.
Orion wrapped his arms around Colt. “You are too nice. If Lion can’t have his star, Python, he’ll be content with you, a beautiful stone.”
“But I am a stone who will fly away. Loving me will only hurt him.”
“Words Horse,” Python said.
Colt bit down his embarrassment and repeated the exchange. He did not look at Lion. He did not want to meet his eye.
The women clucked and cooed about how Lion seemed a nice boy and of course he would try to hold onto the one his grandfather liked to keep both from slipping through his fingers. Colt refrained from repeating that he couldn’t stay with Lion. He’d said that enough times already.
They were fed a huge meal. The dish from Colt’s recipe tasted as good as it smelled. Orion was praised for the lidded pot the dessert had been made in. The women wanted him to show them how to make more. After Orion got up, Lion sat down beside Colt. Colt forced himself to relax. Python sat on the other side of Lion. “Horse mate Star.”
Colt shook his head. “Horse slept with… had sex with Star.”
Python grinned. “Horse Star sleep noisy.”
Colt blushed. They had been, hadn’t they?
“Sound Horse mate Star.” Lion scuffed his feet against the ground.
Colt sighed. “Horse heart Star. Horse search Star. Horse find Star. Jaguar die. Star mourn. Horse comfort Star. Horse home. Star home. Horse sad.”
Lion grunted. “Horse Star home.”
“No. Horse home. Star home. Horse fly. Star learn. Far.”
Orion sat down on Colt’s other side. “What are you saying?”
Lion sat up straight. “Star mate Horse.”
Orion took a deep breath. “Star is me. He pointed to himself. “Horse is Colton here.” He pointed to Colt. “Mate would be…” he blinked. “I’ve heard it before. That’s what they called Jaguar and me. Mates.”
Colt tucked in his chin. He did not want to hear that he was just convenient, no matter how true that was. He also didn’t want Orion to lie and say they meant something to each other when they didn’t. He couldn’t win.
Orion sighed. “Horse and I,” he pointed as he talked, “did have sex. Truly the best sex of my life, sheltered as I was. I didn’t know such things existed. And we will probably have sex again. At least I hope we will.”
“Horse?” Python asked. “Words.”
Colt took a breath. “Now Horse Star mate. Later not mate.”
“Why?” asked Lion.
Colt was so tired of this. “Why Lion Python not mate?”
Lion turned away.
Colt dug in his heels. “Lion Python stay here. Lion Python mate. Lion Python happy.”
Python grinned as he shook his head. “Lion not happy. Lion happy home. Python wait.”
His eyes followed Lion as Lion left the clearing.
Colt sat back and stared at the stars. He wouldn’t be out among them soon enough. Orion stood up. “It’s time for bed.”
Colt could think of all sorts of things he’d like to do to him in bed, but he put up a hand and touched Orion’s arm. “Tell me about Jaguar.”
Orion sighed. “I was young and heartbroken. I just wanted to die. But not really. I simply didn’t want to live the only life that I knew existed. I didn’t want to be me.”
He took Colt’s hand. “I couldn’t understand a word he said, but I could tell he had chosen me. I wasn’t going to wander off into the jungle and be eaten by bears. All our time together and I still could only understand one word in ten. I knew when he wanted food and sex and sleep. I loved him, I think, in my own way and he loved me in his. But,” Orion sighed, “I’m not in the depths of despair that he’s gone. I didn’t want him to die. I could have lived with him forever, but like your friend Lion, I turned out much more pragmatic than I’d given myself credit for. You’re here and I’m going home, I guess.”
“And if I hadn’t come?”
“I would have to find a new lover to feed me or starve. I don’t have many choices here.” Orion leaned his head on Colt’s shoulder. “Colton Nash, take me home.”
—
The pelt couldn’t be moved until the first part of the curing process was complete. Otherwise it might not, so Colt had time on his hands.
He lent a hand to Orion latest gadget. He’d been trying to make an oven for years but couldn’t speak the language well enough to get help moving the clay and sand. And Colt did his part in the curing of Python’s pelt. The salt had to be scrapped off every day and new salt applied. The old salt was then laid out in the sun and reused the next day.
He foraged a bit with some of the children, but no one really wanted to go far from the village. The cat was dead, but Kite had somehow proven several of their strongest Hunters to be cowards. The adults hadn’t decided what to do and the children, all of whom relied on these Hunters to fill the communal pot, were uneasy.
But much of his time was spent in Orion’s hut making love.
This wasn’t love, but Orion made him feel like it was.
Lion still wouldn’t look at him, but as Lion was spending more time with Python, everyone was happy. They even slept cuddled at night. But Colt couldn’t help missing his friend and the smiles no longer turned his way.
