Chapter 12 – Aidro
“Aidro! Orze said there’s a ship in orbit, and it’s hailing us,” Vega said, jogging after me.
“Tell them I’m busy with a scientist,” I said, stalking across camp. I was on a mission, and no IUC bullshit could get in my way. Would Himari leave with the IUC if they staged a rescue mission? I didn’t think I would. “Have Uli talk to them. He knows what’s up.” I pulled open the door to Himari’s little cabin, blinking in the sudden darkness inside. She was standing on the side of her room, going through something that looked like a bin of seeds.
“Uli says I have to be honest with you,” I said. Himari jumped, and hit her head on the lofted bed she was standing under, then cursed, turning to face me.
“Dude, what the hell? How can you be silent like a ninja? You should be a big, lumbering oaf.”
“Sorry, I thought you’d heard me.”I shrugged, grinning a little. And I really wanted to kiss her on the forehead and make her head feel better, but that would be corny, right? “Look, I’m wearing a shirt.” I pointed at my shirt.She studied me, frowning, and I wondered if she wasn’t a fan of black.
“Why are you here, Aidro?”
“I want to be honest with you?”
“Every time you’re honest with me, it hurts.”
I frowned, confused. “Have I ever been honest with you?”
“Wait, what?”
“Well, when we ate those hallucinogenic berries, I suppose I must have been honest. I lost my filter when I saw I had eight fingers.” I smiled ruefully. “And afterwards, of course. The next morning. That felt honest.” My voice broke a little, but she swallowed and nodded, her eyes wide. “Maybe if you ask me your questions.”
She was staring at me and she stepped in close, cupping my chin with her hand. Even that little touch made me purr, and I was sure she could feel the vibration in my chest, especially when she moved her hand down to my chest, feeling the vibration in my diaphragm. “You purr like a cat.”
“I don’t know what a cat is, but yes. It’s not something I can control, but I make that sound when I’m happy. Like… the soul-deep kind of happy.” I met her eyes and she gasped softly, because she knew the other time I’d purred for her.She studied me, leaving her hand where it was.
“I can ask you any question, and you’ll give me the honest answer?”
“Yes.”
“Do you miss me?”
I rolled my eyes. She had to be joking, right? “Of course I miss you.We don’t need sex if that’s not what you want, but you stopped coming to show me your science stuff, too.” My voice was raw, but I let it be. Uli told me to stop masking my emotions. “We can be friends, anything. But please don’t fucking stop talking to me. I did not cope very well with that.”
“All right. You do honesty well,” she said, smiling a little. Her eyes were shiny, though.
“I don’t want you to cry again,” I whispered.
She blinked back the tears, taking a deep breath. “Why did you mark me? The truth, Aidro.”
“Because you’re my soulmate,” I whispered. “And I love you. It was impulsive, and I should have asked for your permission, but I lost control. I’m so sorry.”
She smiled, her eyes searching mine. “You don’t have to be sorry. Caroline explained to me how much it hurts, how much your instincts drive you to want to mark. Why did you tell me it was to protect me, though?”
I looked off to the side; the emotions were getting a little too raw for my liking. But I was going to listen to Uli’s advice, because Uli knew his shit. Hell, Uli had found himself a wife in the most impossible of situations. “Soulmates aren’t singular. We have other soulmates spread around the universe. And humans don’t even form a bond that strong. So there’s another person out there who is as much a match for you as me, but he hasn’t done the fucked up things I’ve done. He’s whole and I’m broken.”
She looked around her little cabin, smiling a little. “To be absolutely clear, you think there’s another soulmate for me and I’m just going to stumble across him on Merax 9, at the end of the fucking universe, where we’re stuck for who knows how long?”
I glared at her, narrowing my eyes. “We’re fixing the ship. And no winking, it’s not a joke.”
“Ahh, so you’re thinking once we fix the ship you’ll give me a ride somewhere, and I’ll meet a guy and ignore everything that’s happened between us and decide he’s better than you because you had a fucked- up childhood?”
“Well. When you put it like that…”
She lifted her eyes to mine, tilting her head. “Does that mean you don’t find me aggravating?”
“I find you completely aggravating. You won’t listen to reason. I still have nightmares about that fucking Guardian and what would have happened if—” She cut me off mid-sentence with a rough kiss and I groaned against her mouth, wrapping my arms around her waist and picking her up so I could kiss her better. It wasn’t enough, so I carried her over to a little bench on the side of her little hut and pulled her into my lap, deepening the kiss, my hands roaming over her body, memorizing her. She pulled back, smiling.