Gestures, part 10
Nov. 3rd, 2012 08:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warThis is the last day of my week of being in charge of the floral department. Tomorrow the floral manager comes back and my vacation starts. I really can't wait.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 10 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG (13?)
Content: a crowd, keeping, itch, a meeting, suspension, news, cookies, Orion, fame, dinner, seating arrangements, interesting news, names, gestures, a potato map, going back, asking
Length: about 2,400 words
Summary: Colt tries to stay busy, but his mind is full of memories of things that never happened.
Masterlist
Colt landed the skipper in the Agency skipper lot. A huge group of people where waiting. He clinched his jaw, got out, and helped Orion to his feet.
Mr. Robertson shook Orion’s hand and then Orion ran to waiting arms. Mr. Robertson clapped Colt on the shoulder. “I knew you could do it. Now take a vacation, as much time as you want. You deserve it.”
Colt nodded and with one last look at Orion, he hopped into his skipper and flew home.
—
Colt lasted three days. He loved his mother and his sister and his home, but he was antsy and thoughts keep intruding about what he’d be doing on Deresla II. Or what would have happened if he’d been sure Lion would take ‘right now’ without needing ‘forever’. What if he could have promised forever?
Colt had to stay busy.
Mr. Robertson wouldn’t let Colt off planet at first, so Colt told of his adventures and corrected common mistakes of famous anthropologists who had studied the inhabitance of Deresla II. He taped videos of the language and showed how the meaning of sentence changed depending on the gestures. Finally Mr. Robertson let him do day jobs and then overnight ones even though his mother fussed.
But Colt needed more. When he stayed on other planets, he went looking for a bed companion, hoping that would ease his need, but no one compared to any of them let alone all three.
Nothing he could do scratched his itch or eased his need. He asked for longer, more complicated runs. He tracked a smuggler through several planets. He found several runaways and he guarded a bride on her wedding day. But none of it was enough.
He sat down with a sigh in Amaryllis Robertson’s office. She didn’t look up from her computer. Colt closed his eyes. She kept typing. “Colton Nash, star of the Agency, the most sought after of all our agents, asked for by name by two-thirds of the clients. My father’s pet. Accepted more assignments than any other agent and completed every single one.”
The door opened. “What’s up, Ice Princess? Ripping Colt a new one?”
Colt sat up. Gage grinned at him. “Do you need a rescue?”
“Anytime, my friend.”
Gage’s grinned widened. “Did you hear that, Princess?”
He walked around the desk and kissed her cheek. She didn’t protest or make a fuss at all. Colt’s eyes widened. He lifted his eyebrows at Gage. Gage laughed. “Yep, I caught her.”
But why would anyone want to?
Amaryllis pinched the back of Gage’s hand and moved it off her other hand.
“She’s adorable.” Gage’s eyes laughed.
Colt stood up. “Then I will leave her to you.”
“Wait.” Amaryllis held up a hand. “Wonderful as you may be, you are not equipped or trained to recover a kidnapped person.”
Gage sat on the edge of the desk. “What is this?”
“Mr. Nash here took it upon himself—”
Colt held up a hand. “I got local authorities involved.”
“That isn’t the point. Why did you even consider doing something so dangerous?”
Colt shrugged. “I was tailing my target. I knew exactly where he was going, but I wasn’t the only one. He checked into a hostel using a false name then walked out to get lunch and was taken right off the street in front of me.”
Gage patted Amaryllis’s shoulder. “What else could he do?”
“He could have called us and we could have sent a team.”
Gage kissed her hair. “You prefer your own men, but not everyone else in the universe is incompetent.”
And then she looked at him with affection. That must have been the first soft expression Colt had ever seen on her face. She turned to Colt with her normal cold expression. “Whatever your reasons, you are suspended for the next month. And don’t try going over my head. This is my father’s idea. Your mother has been nagging him. They are dating.”
Colt sat back down in his chair. He respected Mr. Robertson and even liked him, and Colt’s mother deserved to be happy, but still…
Amaryllis glared. “And if you call me step-sister, I’ll only send you on the worst assignments.”
“And you think daddy dear is going to allow that?” Gage held out his hand to Colt. “I’ve got my six-seater and you can buy a two-seater with the money from the Santiago case. We are going to have such fun as brothers-in-law.”
Colt grasp at floating straws. “Congratulations.” He rose. “I should probably visit my mother. I haven’t been home in a while.”
Then he rushed out of the room, but a glace back at the office showed that Gage had all of Amaryllis’s attention.
Colt shuddered. Gage must be a special guy to enjoy kissing Miss Prim. Colt was just glad it wasn’t him.
—
Colt parked his skipper in front of the house. He needed to wash it, but that could wait. He looked up at the darkening sky and his eyes sought Deresla II, the first and brightest star in the evening sky.
Colt sighed. He had to stop doing that.
He trudged into the kitchen. Ava’s music boomed from her room and Colt’s mother was talking to someone in the kitchen. Colt closed the door quietly. Maybe he should just slip into his room. Only what would he do there? Lie in bed and remember warm hands and gentle smiles and lightened eyes and memories of things that never happened?
His mother mentioned his name and that he would be home soon. He couldn’t intentionally hurt her. “Mom, I’m back for a while.” He walked into the kitchen. “I’m on mandatory vacation for…”
His words died on his lips. Orion stood at the counter beside his mother and poured chocolate chips in a bowl of dough.
Orion grinned as if he had every right to be where he was. Maybe he did. Colt’s mother ran to Colt and pulled him into a fierce hug. “Colt, my son, you’ve come home.” She stepped back. “You’re friend Orion came to stay with us. He’s a terrific cook, so good with weights and measures. The cookies will be done soon. Stay and eat.”
Colt let himself be led to a chair. Orion was wearing one of Colt’s mother’s aprons and the ruffles on the straps nearly brushed his ears. His blond hair was at least as long as it had been when they first met and was pulled back with a leather thong. And the shirt he was wearing, unless Colt was very much mistaken, was Colt’s.
Colt’s mother rolled the cookie dough into balls. “I hope you don’t mind. I set Orion up in your room. He gave me the impression you were together.”
Colt shook his head. “We were.” He looked at Orion. “Are we still? I thought you were going home.”
“I did.”
Orion leaned against the back of Colt’s chair. “I saw my family and smoothed over the bumps, but as I’m the first person to spend that many years among the Hunters of Deresla II, I’m even more famous now than when I was a child genius.” He slid around to Colt’s lap. “Fame is very important to them.”
Colt wrapped his arms around Orion. “And you? Are you important to them?”
“As long as I’m famous, they don’t care.” He kissed Colt.
When he pulled away, Colt got to his feet. “Save us some cookies.”
Orion arrived at Colt’s door before Colt did. The door now had a lock on the inside. Nice.
Ava’s music still boomed through the walls, so they didn’t have to be quiet. They couldn’t have anyway.
The sun had completely set when Colt’s mother knocked on his door. “Dinner’s ready. Put all your clothes back on, we have company.”
Colt and Orion dressed quickly. Mr. Robertson was leaning against the kitchen counter as Colt’s mother finished dinner. His eyes followed her around the room.
She had to be happy to have that kind of attention. Colt’s dad had been dead a long time.
Ava came out of her room and showed off her latest outfit. She barely gave Colt a second glance, which he had expected. She’d ask him not to go on his latest job — and the one before it and the one before that — but he’d gone anyway. She had a right to be angry.
Mom sent them all to the table. Colt went to his regular seat, but stopped before sitting down. Where would Orion and Mr. Robertson sit? Had they been around long enough to have regular spots?
Orion carried one of the kitchen chairs to the table and set it beside Colt’s. Mr. Robertson stood awkwardly as if waiting for everyone else to claim a chair. Maybe he hadn’t been over before.
Mom shooed him to the end of the table farthest from the kitchen, where Dad used to sit. Colt had never seen Mr. Robertson anything but confident, so he threw him a bone. “Will I be allowed to call your daughter by her first name if you two get married?”
Mom blushed. Mr. Robertson recovered quicker. “Don’t you now?”
Colt raised his eyebrows. “Do you know your daughter at all?”
“Colton!”
Mr. Robertson laughed. “She does like to lord it over the employees, but Gage looks like he caught her good and fast. She likes to pretend he hasn’t.”
“She let him kiss her in the office today.”
Mr. Robertson leaned forward. “Really. Last night she was wearing the engagement ring that she took even though she told him no.”
Colt shook his head. “I don’t get them. I like things a little more straight forward.”
Mr. Robertson smiled and turned to Orion. “So you’re staying in the area?”
“Here. For now.”
Colt’s heart sank.
“I just heard the most interesting information about class A-Twelve planets like Derelsa II.” Orion set his napkin on his lap. “We aren’t allowed to bring in technology they don’t have, but if we have the knowledge and can build what we need with the materials found on the planet, we can teach the natives the trick. Now I feel guilty for destroying my furnace and kiln. Kite’s village could made trade-worthy things with them.”
Colt perked up. “You want to go back?”
“Not to stay full time. Any rainy season I miss is a good one.” He smiled at Mr. Robertson. “When I lived there I constantly worried that I’d be kicked out and have to fend for myself if Jaguar ever tired of me, but after their send off, where they treated me as one of their own, I think now I was more an idiot savant.”
”Jaguar?” asked Ava. “What a weird name.”
Colt grinned. “I was Horse. My friends were Lion and Python. Lots of animal names. Others were plants or descriptions. We called Orion Star, although now that I think of it, I don’t know what your own village called you.”
“‘Come here’ most of the time.”
“Star,” Mom asked. “Why star?”
“A play on his name?” asked Mr. Robertson.
“Kind of, but mostly for the story.” Colt told the story of the man searching for a missing star in Deresla II than he translated.
“So many gestures,” Mom said.
Orion took Colt’s hand. “He was there for six weeks to my six years and he can still speak better than me.”
Mom smiled. “It’s his talent.”
“One of them,” said Mr. Robertson.
Mom smiled brighter.
“I’ve been studying the route you took. “ Orion flattened his potatoes over and around what was left of his meat. “As far as I can tell, Eagle took you to his village here.” He touched the edge of the mashed potatoes with his fork. Lion’s village is over here. We went this way when he left.” Orion set a pea near the edge and drew a short line out. “Here’s the river. No here.” He redrew it. “The pottery village is about here.” He set another pea in place quite a ways inland. “And here is my village.”
“What are the villages called?” Ava asked. “Dragon wings and Serpent bite?”
Orion looked at Colt. “As far as I knew, mine didn’t have a name.”
Colt shrugged. “Each village was Home to the people who lived there, and someone else’s home to people who didn’t. So Lion’s home, Palm’s home, although I really don’t want to name anything for her. My feet still hurt thinking about that trip.”
“We’ll think of some way to designate them. I checked ever way I know of and my village is here.” Orion placed a pea not far from shore, and then he traced the way a boat would go to Port Island. “So despite the long walk and sore feet and sunburns, my village, our village,” he grinned at Ava. “I’ll have you know your brother is a Deresla II Hunter and they practically begged us to come back. Anyway this village is actually closer to Port Island than Lion’s village is.”
He traced one route than the other.
“If you have an invitation, Colton,” asked Mr. Robertson, “have you thought of going back?”
“Not yet,” said Orion. “Not until the hot, humid rainy season is over. I’d rather weather the cold days when you have to huddle for warmth than the endless days of everything being damp. We’ll leave in a few weeks, after stuff has begun to dry out.”
Ava glared at Orion. Mom laughed. “Aren’t you going to at least ask him?”
Orion raised his eyebrows and turned to Colt. “Do I have to ask if you are willing to come back and live with me and Lion and Python as I fill the gaps in my research? I’m not going unless you’re there to take me off planet when the rains come or the nights get too cold. I’ve read up on glass making and where which minerals deposits are. I want to see how far I can raise their technology without importing a single item.”
Mr. Robertson smiled. “That could take years.”
“A lifetime, I think.” Orion turned to Colt. “Would you like to be my partner in this?”
No words he could think of sounded right. Colt slipped his hand into Orion’s. Orion grinned and squeezed his hand. Maybe gestures were enough.
Title: Gestures
Status: Part 10 of 10
Genre: science fiction, romance, slash
Rating: PG (13?)
Content: a crowd, keeping, itch, a meeting, suspension, news, cookies, Orion, fame, dinner, seating arrangements, interesting news, names, gestures, a potato map, going back, asking
Length: about 2,400 words
Summary: Colt tries to stay busy, but his mind is full of memories of things that never happened.
Masterlist
Colt landed the skipper in the Agency skipper lot. A huge group of people where waiting. He clinched his jaw, got out, and helped Orion to his feet.
Mr. Robertson shook Orion’s hand and then Orion ran to waiting arms. Mr. Robertson clapped Colt on the shoulder. “I knew you could do it. Now take a vacation, as much time as you want. You deserve it.”
Colt nodded and with one last look at Orion, he hopped into his skipper and flew home.
—
Colt lasted three days. He loved his mother and his sister and his home, but he was antsy and thoughts keep intruding about what he’d be doing on Deresla II. Or what would have happened if he’d been sure Lion would take ‘right now’ without needing ‘forever’. What if he could have promised forever?
Colt had to stay busy.
Mr. Robertson wouldn’t let Colt off planet at first, so Colt told of his adventures and corrected common mistakes of famous anthropologists who had studied the inhabitance of Deresla II. He taped videos of the language and showed how the meaning of sentence changed depending on the gestures. Finally Mr. Robertson let him do day jobs and then overnight ones even though his mother fussed.
But Colt needed more. When he stayed on other planets, he went looking for a bed companion, hoping that would ease his need, but no one compared to any of them let alone all three.
Nothing he could do scratched his itch or eased his need. He asked for longer, more complicated runs. He tracked a smuggler through several planets. He found several runaways and he guarded a bride on her wedding day. But none of it was enough.
He sat down with a sigh in Amaryllis Robertson’s office. She didn’t look up from her computer. Colt closed his eyes. She kept typing. “Colton Nash, star of the Agency, the most sought after of all our agents, asked for by name by two-thirds of the clients. My father’s pet. Accepted more assignments than any other agent and completed every single one.”
The door opened. “What’s up, Ice Princess? Ripping Colt a new one?”
Colt sat up. Gage grinned at him. “Do you need a rescue?”
“Anytime, my friend.”
Gage’s grinned widened. “Did you hear that, Princess?”
He walked around the desk and kissed her cheek. She didn’t protest or make a fuss at all. Colt’s eyes widened. He lifted his eyebrows at Gage. Gage laughed. “Yep, I caught her.”
But why would anyone want to?
Amaryllis pinched the back of Gage’s hand and moved it off her other hand.
“She’s adorable.” Gage’s eyes laughed.
Colt stood up. “Then I will leave her to you.”
“Wait.” Amaryllis held up a hand. “Wonderful as you may be, you are not equipped or trained to recover a kidnapped person.”
Gage sat on the edge of the desk. “What is this?”
“Mr. Nash here took it upon himself—”
Colt held up a hand. “I got local authorities involved.”
“That isn’t the point. Why did you even consider doing something so dangerous?”
Colt shrugged. “I was tailing my target. I knew exactly where he was going, but I wasn’t the only one. He checked into a hostel using a false name then walked out to get lunch and was taken right off the street in front of me.”
Gage patted Amaryllis’s shoulder. “What else could he do?”
“He could have called us and we could have sent a team.”
Gage kissed her hair. “You prefer your own men, but not everyone else in the universe is incompetent.”
And then she looked at him with affection. That must have been the first soft expression Colt had ever seen on her face. She turned to Colt with her normal cold expression. “Whatever your reasons, you are suspended for the next month. And don’t try going over my head. This is my father’s idea. Your mother has been nagging him. They are dating.”
Colt sat back down in his chair. He respected Mr. Robertson and even liked him, and Colt’s mother deserved to be happy, but still…
Amaryllis glared. “And if you call me step-sister, I’ll only send you on the worst assignments.”
“And you think daddy dear is going to allow that?” Gage held out his hand to Colt. “I’ve got my six-seater and you can buy a two-seater with the money from the Santiago case. We are going to have such fun as brothers-in-law.”
Colt grasp at floating straws. “Congratulations.” He rose. “I should probably visit my mother. I haven’t been home in a while.”
Then he rushed out of the room, but a glace back at the office showed that Gage had all of Amaryllis’s attention.
Colt shuddered. Gage must be a special guy to enjoy kissing Miss Prim. Colt was just glad it wasn’t him.
—
Colt parked his skipper in front of the house. He needed to wash it, but that could wait. He looked up at the darkening sky and his eyes sought Deresla II, the first and brightest star in the evening sky.
Colt sighed. He had to stop doing that.
He trudged into the kitchen. Ava’s music boomed from her room and Colt’s mother was talking to someone in the kitchen. Colt closed the door quietly. Maybe he should just slip into his room. Only what would he do there? Lie in bed and remember warm hands and gentle smiles and lightened eyes and memories of things that never happened?
His mother mentioned his name and that he would be home soon. He couldn’t intentionally hurt her. “Mom, I’m back for a while.” He walked into the kitchen. “I’m on mandatory vacation for…”
His words died on his lips. Orion stood at the counter beside his mother and poured chocolate chips in a bowl of dough.
Orion grinned as if he had every right to be where he was. Maybe he did. Colt’s mother ran to Colt and pulled him into a fierce hug. “Colt, my son, you’ve come home.” She stepped back. “You’re friend Orion came to stay with us. He’s a terrific cook, so good with weights and measures. The cookies will be done soon. Stay and eat.”
Colt let himself be led to a chair. Orion was wearing one of Colt’s mother’s aprons and the ruffles on the straps nearly brushed his ears. His blond hair was at least as long as it had been when they first met and was pulled back with a leather thong. And the shirt he was wearing, unless Colt was very much mistaken, was Colt’s.
Colt’s mother rolled the cookie dough into balls. “I hope you don’t mind. I set Orion up in your room. He gave me the impression you were together.”
Colt shook his head. “We were.” He looked at Orion. “Are we still? I thought you were going home.”
“I did.”
Orion leaned against the back of Colt’s chair. “I saw my family and smoothed over the bumps, but as I’m the first person to spend that many years among the Hunters of Deresla II, I’m even more famous now than when I was a child genius.” He slid around to Colt’s lap. “Fame is very important to them.”
Colt wrapped his arms around Orion. “And you? Are you important to them?”
“As long as I’m famous, they don’t care.” He kissed Colt.
When he pulled away, Colt got to his feet. “Save us some cookies.”
Orion arrived at Colt’s door before Colt did. The door now had a lock on the inside. Nice.
Ava’s music still boomed through the walls, so they didn’t have to be quiet. They couldn’t have anyway.
The sun had completely set when Colt’s mother knocked on his door. “Dinner’s ready. Put all your clothes back on, we have company.”
Colt and Orion dressed quickly. Mr. Robertson was leaning against the kitchen counter as Colt’s mother finished dinner. His eyes followed her around the room.
She had to be happy to have that kind of attention. Colt’s dad had been dead a long time.
Ava came out of her room and showed off her latest outfit. She barely gave Colt a second glance, which he had expected. She’d ask him not to go on his latest job — and the one before it and the one before that — but he’d gone anyway. She had a right to be angry.
Mom sent them all to the table. Colt went to his regular seat, but stopped before sitting down. Where would Orion and Mr. Robertson sit? Had they been around long enough to have regular spots?
Orion carried one of the kitchen chairs to the table and set it beside Colt’s. Mr. Robertson stood awkwardly as if waiting for everyone else to claim a chair. Maybe he hadn’t been over before.
Mom shooed him to the end of the table farthest from the kitchen, where Dad used to sit. Colt had never seen Mr. Robertson anything but confident, so he threw him a bone. “Will I be allowed to call your daughter by her first name if you two get married?”
Mom blushed. Mr. Robertson recovered quicker. “Don’t you now?”
Colt raised his eyebrows. “Do you know your daughter at all?”
“Colton!”
Mr. Robertson laughed. “She does like to lord it over the employees, but Gage looks like he caught her good and fast. She likes to pretend he hasn’t.”
“She let him kiss her in the office today.”
Mr. Robertson leaned forward. “Really. Last night she was wearing the engagement ring that she took even though she told him no.”
Colt shook his head. “I don’t get them. I like things a little more straight forward.”
Mr. Robertson smiled and turned to Orion. “So you’re staying in the area?”
“Here. For now.”
Colt’s heart sank.
“I just heard the most interesting information about class A-Twelve planets like Derelsa II.” Orion set his napkin on his lap. “We aren’t allowed to bring in technology they don’t have, but if we have the knowledge and can build what we need with the materials found on the planet, we can teach the natives the trick. Now I feel guilty for destroying my furnace and kiln. Kite’s village could made trade-worthy things with them.”
Colt perked up. “You want to go back?”
“Not to stay full time. Any rainy season I miss is a good one.” He smiled at Mr. Robertson. “When I lived there I constantly worried that I’d be kicked out and have to fend for myself if Jaguar ever tired of me, but after their send off, where they treated me as one of their own, I think now I was more an idiot savant.”
”Jaguar?” asked Ava. “What a weird name.”
Colt grinned. “I was Horse. My friends were Lion and Python. Lots of animal names. Others were plants or descriptions. We called Orion Star, although now that I think of it, I don’t know what your own village called you.”
“‘Come here’ most of the time.”
“Star,” Mom asked. “Why star?”
“A play on his name?” asked Mr. Robertson.
“Kind of, but mostly for the story.” Colt told the story of the man searching for a missing star in Deresla II than he translated.
“So many gestures,” Mom said.
Orion took Colt’s hand. “He was there for six weeks to my six years and he can still speak better than me.”
Mom smiled. “It’s his talent.”
“One of them,” said Mr. Robertson.
Mom smiled brighter.
“I’ve been studying the route you took. “ Orion flattened his potatoes over and around what was left of his meat. “As far as I can tell, Eagle took you to his village here.” He touched the edge of the mashed potatoes with his fork. Lion’s village is over here. We went this way when he left.” Orion set a pea near the edge and drew a short line out. “Here’s the river. No here.” He redrew it. “The pottery village is about here.” He set another pea in place quite a ways inland. “And here is my village.”
“What are the villages called?” Ava asked. “Dragon wings and Serpent bite?”
Orion looked at Colt. “As far as I knew, mine didn’t have a name.”
Colt shrugged. “Each village was Home to the people who lived there, and someone else’s home to people who didn’t. So Lion’s home, Palm’s home, although I really don’t want to name anything for her. My feet still hurt thinking about that trip.”
“We’ll think of some way to designate them. I checked ever way I know of and my village is here.” Orion placed a pea not far from shore, and then he traced the way a boat would go to Port Island. “So despite the long walk and sore feet and sunburns, my village, our village,” he grinned at Ava. “I’ll have you know your brother is a Deresla II Hunter and they practically begged us to come back. Anyway this village is actually closer to Port Island than Lion’s village is.”
He traced one route than the other.
“If you have an invitation, Colton,” asked Mr. Robertson, “have you thought of going back?”
“Not yet,” said Orion. “Not until the hot, humid rainy season is over. I’d rather weather the cold days when you have to huddle for warmth than the endless days of everything being damp. We’ll leave in a few weeks, after stuff has begun to dry out.”
Ava glared at Orion. Mom laughed. “Aren’t you going to at least ask him?”
Orion raised his eyebrows and turned to Colt. “Do I have to ask if you are willing to come back and live with me and Lion and Python as I fill the gaps in my research? I’m not going unless you’re there to take me off planet when the rains come or the nights get too cold. I’ve read up on glass making and where which minerals deposits are. I want to see how far I can raise their technology without importing a single item.”
Mr. Robertson smiled. “That could take years.”
“A lifetime, I think.” Orion turned to Colt. “Would you like to be my partner in this?”
No words he could think of sounded right. Colt slipped his hand into Orion’s. Orion grinned and squeezed his hand. Maybe gestures were enough.
