Editing Venus' Burn (section)

==The Part After They Fuck==


We drifted off pretty quick, and I don’t remember dreaming.  I was so tired from waiting all day for her to call me, then feeling the terror when Misja told me Venus had hurt herself, then all the tension, building up to…well, the best night ever.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Venus’ keyboard clicking, and a mild headache.  I cracked my eyes open and saw Venus, still butt-naked, sitting in her computer chair, idly typing away.  The screen above us was dark, and the lights were still off, but I could see her in the light from the screen and the running lights on her case mod.  I sat up, belatedly wondering where the clock in the room was.  She must have heard me, because the clicking stopped.  “Morning, baby.”

“Good morning,” I mumbled, still trying to figure out what time it was.  The lights suddenly came on all at once, nearly blinding me.  “Gah, that’s bright.  What time is it?” I asked, blocking out the offending light with my arm.

“It’s about 0630,” Venus said.  She walked over from the switch next to the computer desk and stood by the edge of the bed, arms crossed.  “You slept like a baby.  I was wondering if I’d have to wake you up myself if we wanted to leave in time.”

“In time for what?” I asked, letting my eyes adjust.

“School,” she said.  I stared at her blankly.  “It’s Friday morning.  We have to go to school.”

“Oh…oh fuck, I didn’t even think of that,” I said, scrambling for the edge of the huge bed.  She planted her hand in the middle of my chest and held me back.

“Whoa, whoa, easy, class doesn’t start until eight and your car’s still here, we’ve got plenty of time.”  She leaned over me, smiling.  “I don’t know about you, but I need another shower.  Funny, the last one didn’t really seem to work.  We must have gotten distracted somehow.”  I couldn’t help but grin at the memories creeping back into my head as the sleep-fog receded.

“Can’t imagine such a thing,” I said, taking stock of her.  She looked no worse for wear, and the bright lights let me take in all the details the darkness had obscured the previous night.  She looked like a dream, right then, and I felt myself harden up as the memories mixed with the very real sight of her, right there in front of me.  She sensed where my thoughts were straying and narrowed her eyes.

“Got something on your mind?” she asked innocently.

“Yeah, you,” I said, running my hands up her arms to her shoulders.  She shook her head and backed off.

“Sorry, hon, I’d love to go again, but I woke up sore as hell.”  I mentally kicked myself.  I hadn’t even thought of her back.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said contritely.  “Can I help?  Is it your back?”

“No, and partially,” she said somewhat sheepishly.  She grabbed her robe off the peg and pulled it on, heading off to the bathroom.  “Be right back.”

“Wait, where are my clothes?” I asked.  They were nowhere to be seen, even though I was sure I had tossed them in the corner last night.

“Laundry servitor got them, they’ll be done in a few minutes,” she called through the door.  A laundry servitor?  Those existed?  I had sure never seen one.

I leaned back on the bed as the sound of the showerhead filtered through the closing door.  I’m not sure why it took me so long, but the way she had said that last bit about the servitor had kicked off a whole, bizarre train of thought.  I was officially with a Primarch’s daughter.  What the FUCK?  What was I even going to do now?  I was never afraid of commitment, but we were both seniors.  When I graduated, there was no bloody way I could ever afford to get a degree, and I didn’t have the balls to join the military.  Would we stay together?  Would I even get to see her?  I could join the Canstrides Seminary like my grandfather did, but then I’d just be a functionary coasting on nepotism, nobody that mattered.

And what if she was wrong?  What if Vulkan turned out to be as rip-shittingly overprotective of his daughter as Lord Curze and Lord Angron had been to their kids?  ‘Kelly’ and ‘Furia’ were practically synonyms for ‘daddy issues’ around school.  It didn’t seem likely that that would happen, but…I barely knew the guy.

And…fuck!  What if Venus hadn’t been on the pill long enough?  What if I got her pregnant?!  That would have just been the end of all things, right there, the end of my life, one way or another.  And hers, publically.  What was I thinking?

What would her cousins think?  What would the other royal girls have thought of this?  I barely even cared what most of them thought of me, but Hana, Freya, and Farah were my friends.  Would that change now?  And-

“Are you OK?”  I snapped out of my anguish-fuelled introspection to see Venus standing next to the bed, looking curious.  She had pulled some underwear on and was carrying my own clothes in one hand, folded and pressed.

“Yeah.  Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, sitting up and making for the bathroom.  She blocked me with one hand across the frame, staring at me coolly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked accusingly.  I hesitated, backing off until I sat back down on the bed.

“Just scared, I guess,” I confessed, feeling a hard little knot of tension settle in my stomach.

“Scared?” she asked, genuinely surprised.  “Scared of what?  Dad?”

“Well, a little, but just…the future, you know?  What the hell do I do now?” I asked.  In hindsight, I’m sure I sounded selfish to her.  Like I said, though, she’s a patient girl.

“What do you mean?” she asked softly, sitting down next to me again.  I briefly wondered how many times this bed would see use as a confessional.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to sound like that,” I said honestly.  “I just scared myself thinking about what happens next.  Where do we go after we graduate?  You already got accepted at Kouthry.  I couldn’t afford to go to Kouthry even on a scholarship, the housing is so expensive.  And what if I got you pregnant tonight?  God, I’d die of horror.  Assuming I didn’t get arrested first.  And what about Farah and Hana?  And the rest of your cousins?  Some of us are friends.  Is this-” I gestured at the two of us “-going to fuck that up?”

Venus sat there nodding, letting me vent.  When I was done, she pursed her lips and thought.  I sat back and slumped a bit, drained and embarrassed.  I grabbed my towel off the peg next to the bed and covered myself up, suddenly a little more conscious of my nudity.

Venus took it all in with those inscrutable red eyes, then slowly spoke.  “Okay.  I guess I understand why you’re nervous.”  She smiled suddenly, flashing me a knowing grin.  “Let me let you in on a little secret, Jake.  I only sleep a few hours a night.  It’s a Progenitor thing, all of us are like that.  Around 0400, Farah texted me and asked if I was OK.  I didn’t tell her what we got up to specifically, but when I said we had to stay home, she practically cheered me on.  She’s rooting for us, Jake.  Believe me, the two of us being together is not going to fuck up your friendships with my cousins.”

I nodded, feeling a little relived, though something she said had started another, more unsettling thought.  Before I could voice it, though, she kept going.  “About school…well, I don’t know about you, but if we did both get accepted to Kouthry, I would be happy to just room with you…but it sounds to me like you’re more worried about paying for tuition?”

“Well…yeah.  I couldn’t get a scholarship this late in the year, I don’t think,” I said.  “And I haven’t been accepted.”

“Well, Dad would draw the line at covering tuition for you, I know.  I’m sure we could find a way.  Student loans, maybe.  We’ll figure it out.”  She stood up, leaving her robe and my clothes on the bedspread, silhouetting herself against the bright lights.  The conservative red bra and panties she had chosen set her eyes off nicely, I thought to myself, enjoying the momentary distraction.  I shook myself, mentally.  There was a bigger concern, here.

“If you say so.  There’s one other thing, though,” I said, steeling myself.  This was going to be the hardest question of all.

“What?” she asked, pausing with her hand halfway into her dresser.

“You said that you were created using the same techniques the Emperor used to create your father,” I said.  “Does that mean you’re immortal, like he is?”  I didn’t need to ask the obvious question: even if we did work it all out, would I grow old and die without her?
Her hand fell back to her side, and her head drooped.  I could see the compact muscles of her back tense as she thought it over.  She turned back to face me, biting her lip.

“Well…yes.  Once I hit about twenty-eight, I’ll stop aging forever.”

I nodded slowly, trying to comprehend it.  Somehow, that felt as drastic as her breaking up with me.  Someday, I was going to leave her alone.  “When were you going to tell me?” I asked.  It wasn’t an accusation.  I really wanted to know.

“Well…I don’t know.  To be honest, I completely forgot to mention it until you reminded me.  It just isn’t an issue to someone raised by a Space Marine,” she said.  From the look on her face, she was seriously unnerved by the thought; at least as much as I was.

Before I even thought about what I was doing, I had stood up, dropping the towel on the bed.  I walked the distance over to the dresser and embraced her, pulling her tight.  She returned it, burying her face in my bare shoulder.

“Holy shit, how did I never think of that?” she said hoarsely, muffled against my skin.  “What the hell is wrong with me?”

“Yeah, I’m supposed to be the short-sighted one,” I said angrily.

She laughed, a brief, bitter gasp of amusement.  She pulled back, rubbing her eyes.  “You’re not short-sighted.”

“Well, I suppose I didn’t have a run-in with a branding iron last night,” I mused.  Her jaw dropped in surprise and pique, and she slapped me across the shoulder.

“You are an ASSHOLE,” she said indignantly.  I shrugged modestly.

“Well, I don’t know about that, but I am sorry for killing the mood,” I said.  She sighed her agreement, looking down at the floor.  Before I let her get any more downcast, I gently cupped her head in my hands, tilting her up to look at me from a few inches away.  She gazed back up at me, and suddenly her eyes weren’t so completely unfathomable anymore.  Uncertainty, contentment, lust, unease, belonging, fear, and curiosity swirled around in them, coexisting and fighting, dictating her future.  I could see her clearly, for the first time; and despite her daemonic appearance and utterly alien lifestyle, she was as familiar to me as my own reflection.  I closed the gap between us again, and lowered my head down to hers, kissing her softly.  She fisted both hands against my chest, then slowly relaxed them, sliding them around my neck.  I felt her rise up on the tips of her toes, bringing her up to eye level, and she inched away, a faint smile dancing across her lips, eyes shut.

“Well…you’ll make it up to me,” she said quietly, and with total, complete confidence.  I smiled against her lips, and she squeezed her arms briefly, sighing comfortably, her breath mixing with mine.  “Somehow.”

I tilted my head back and looked at her from a few inches away.  She smiled up at me, biting her lip, mischief dancing in her eyes.  God, I love her.
“Count on it,” I said assuredly, and the anguish was gone.  I stepped back, grabbing the towel off the bed and heading for the bathroom.  I paused at the door and looked over my shoulder, and she was still standing at the dresser, her shirt clutched in one hand, staring at me.  “All right, love?”

“All right.”  She shook her head and smiled at something she was thinking of.  “All right.  Go take your shower.  I’ll make us some breakfast.”

After getting cleaned up and dressed, I wandered down to the kitchen, as quietly as I could contrive.  In hindsight, I had decided, Vulkan wasn’t as scary as I had thought he was, but I was in no mood to take risks on my victory lap.  Venus was puttering away at the cooktop, cracking eggs into a bowl and stirring them as the toaster hummed.

“So, how long of a drive is it from here to school?” I asked, looking at the clock on one of the stoves.  Its little red LCD read 0720.

“Short.  Very short.  Fifteen minutes?” she guessed, pulling out some plates.  “Enough time for some food.”

“Where are your parents?” I asked, glancing out the window.  Only my aircar was out there; then again, they did have a garage.

“Dad’s at the Palace for a thing.  Mom’s around somewhere,” Venus said distractedly, sliding some condiments across the marble tabletop.

“Have you talked to her about us?” I asked worriedly.

“Nope.  And I won’t, not unless she asks.  To be honest, Jake, I think she’s probably rooting for us too,” she laughed.

I sat down at the table and stared at my hands, smiling.  “Your parents are pretty okay.”

“Yeah, they are.  What do you think YOUR parents will do?” she asked.

“Nothing, even if I told them.  I think they both just want me to be happy with whatever I chose, here.  Although if Mom knew, come to think of it, she’d probably have a stroke at the thought of me getting a Primarch’s daughter pregnant,” I said, chuckling at the thought.

“Well, Cycridine has a 99.89% effectiveness rate, so tell her not to have a stroke,” Venus giggled.  “We should probably be a bit safer next time anyway, though.”

I made a face.  She noticed my reluctance and sighed in mock irritation.  “Deal with it.  A tiny margin of failure is still way too big.”

“Fine,” I grumped.  “Volume will just have to replace quality.”

“Oh ho, we’ll see about that,” she said smugly.  “Practice makes perfect.”  THAT put a grin on my face.  Before I could say anything, though, I heard someone walking down the stairs.  I nearly bolted for the door, but Venus caught my eye and shook her head.  I sank back into the chair.  I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later.

Misja appeared at the bottom of the stairs.  When she saw me, she paused for a moment, but kept on coming.  “Morning, Venus.  Hi, Jake,” she said, apparently suppressing whatever she actually WANTED to say.

“Good morning, Lady Vulkan,” I replied politely.  Last thing I needed was to piss her off.  Fortunately, she didn’t seem TOO angry.

“How’s your back, honey?” she asked Venus.  Venus idly rubbed her hip near the burn.

“Not bad, but it still hurts a little.  The painkillers worked pretty well.”

“Good.  Good.”  She looked over at me as if trying to marshal her thoughts.  After a moment, she just shook her head.  “Jake.”

“Yes?” I asked apprehensively.

“Do I even need to explain what’s going to happen if you hurt her?” Misja asked, skewering me with her gaze.

“No, Lady Vulkan.  It will never come to that,” I said, straightening up on the stool.

“Good.”  She sighed shortly.  “Have fun at school, you two.” She turned off and walked out the door into the garage without another word.

I sat and stared at the closing door in surprise.  Venus chuckled.  “See?  Painless.  She actually likes you, Jake.”

I turned back to face her, smiling despite myself.  One obstacle down.  “She does, eh?”

“Of course.  You’re smart, and you don’t just care about money.  Mom was always scared I’d give myself to someone who was just mining for gold,” Venus said, shaking her head and laughing at the silliness of that idea.  “Like I’d ever be that dumb.”  I shot her a pointed glance at the burn under her shirt, and she turned away quickly.  “Anyway.  Sustenance.  Eat.”

After breakfast, we both made our way out to my car, since Venus was in no shape to drive full of painkillers.  When we got there, I was half-expecting everybody to treat us differently, but of course they didn’t.  Why would they?  As far as anybody but maybe Farah knew, nothing had changed.  Assuming the Twins never found out, nothing would.
The day ground by, and I managed to bury myself in the classwork.  Professor Arhiman’s lecture on Warp Tides was a study in What The Fuck, but anything Warp-related was.  I just hoped Miranda didn’t wreck the curve to hell like she usually did.
At lunch, I deliberately avoided my usual table, with Venus and Farah.  I would have enjoyed their company, I’m sure, but I knew better than to tempt fate: the Twins were sitting right between them, and there was no way I could maintain the charade for more than a minute under their scrutiny.
I lucked out.  A few of the guys from Cogitator Design were at the end of one of the larger tables.  I sat down with them, digging into my Goo Of The Day.  Too late, I looked up to find, of all people, Angela, Lord Sanguinius’s daughter, staring straight at me with the most unnerving grin.
Well, she WAS a psyker.  Damn it.  I should have known.  Oh well.
I tried to avoid making eye contact with her, chatting with the other guys, until one of them, and fucked if I can remember which one, said something stupid.

“Jake, man, you’re clicking.”

“The fuck?” I asked, confused.  He waved his calculator at me as if it were a radiometer.

“You’re clicking hot, man, radioactive.  You’re emitting ‘laid rays.’”

I stared at him, agape.  “ ‘Laid rays?’  Are you from space?  What in the hell are you talking about?”

“He’s right, man,” the first one’s crony spoke up.  “You’re fucking glowing.”

“You’re full of shit.”  I turned my eyes down, trying to finish as soon as possible and take off for the bathroom or something, anything, to escape.

“Really?  We could ask Venus,” the first guy sniggered.

My eyes shot up.  My fist clenched around my knife in a heartbeat.  “Ask her what?” I demanded, my voice tightening in anger.

“You’d get nowhere,” Angela suddenly said.  We all looked at her in surprise.  “ ‘A gentleman never asks and a lady never tells,’” she quoted.  She looked at me, tilting her head.  I could have killed her.  I could have fucking killed her.  Why not just have screamed at the top of her lungs that we had something to hide?

She grinned at me faintly.  “Unless you do have something to say?” she prompted.  Every eye at the table pivoted to me.  I froze, unsure of what to even say.  Whose side was she on, here?

''Relax, Jake.  Tell a half-truth.  These idiots can’t tell the difference.''  The thought suddenly jumped into my head, in Angela’s deific voice.  I didn’t look at her, but I could feel her gentle, encouraging persuasion in my mind.

“While we’re on the subject, asshole, I don’t remember inviting your opinion,” I said angrily, directing a glare at the first guy, letting my voice rise a little near the end.  I pointed my hand, knife still clenched, straight at him.  He put one hand up in contrition.

“Sorry, man, cool the fuck down.  I was just saying, is all,” he said, but it was all bluff.  He was done.  I shot my ‘rescuer’ a glare, too, before I tore back into my Goo.

''Sorry, I spoke without thinking,'' she said in my head.  To be honest, I was angrier that she had DARED to speak in my thoughts without permission than I was that she opened her damn mouth.  I thought that to her, and she shrugged her winged back.  ''I’m really sorry.  I just didn’t want you two to get in trouble.  I won’t do it again.''  I sighed and let it drop.  She bowed her head for a moment, and I felt her gratitude in my mind before her presence vanished.  The buzzer finally rang, and I was first out the door.  Worst fucking lunch ever.
Well, as you might expect, I was in a rush to get THAT out of my head.  Fortunately for me, the rest of the school day went by more or less uneventfully.  After school, I drove Venus home and I couldn’t resist mentioning what had happened at lunch.

“She used Projection on you?” Venus asked in surprise.  “I’m…wow.  I didn’t think she would do that.”

“Yeah.  I’m not sure how mad to be.”  I fumed as the autopilot propelled us closer, drifting through the hive’s skylanes.  “What do you think?”

“I think you’re right to be angry at her, but she probably feels terrible about it already,” Venus said, drumming her fingers on the door.  “I think you should just forget about it.  She’ll be able to tell if you resent her for it, you know.”

I grunted my consent.  “Ugh.  Fine.  It’s not worth fighting about.”

Venus didn’t answer; she just stared out the window in silence.  I kept half an eye on the controls, ready to switch over to manual when we exited the hive.

“Really, though…” Venus mused, turning to face me, thinking.

“What?”

“‘Laid rays,’” she said, curling her fingers in the air.  “I do like that.”  I sighed, hiding a grin.  I switched the car over to manual and shot out of the hive gate, soaring out over the rich district.

I slowly dropped the car down to where Vulkan’s mansion was, noting the presence of nearly a dozen aircars in the parking lot outside with surprise.  “You guys having another party?” I asked.

“Nope.”  Venus was as mystified as I was.  “But I know that car…that’s my Uncle Leman’s ride.”

Two weeks before, I would have choked at hearing that.  Now?  Nothing more than a brief sense of awed nerves.  “Really?  Huh.  Well…say hi to Freya if she’s here,” I said, lowering the car down to the pad and unlatching the door.

Venus climbed out, pausing before she closed the door.  “Hey, Jake, on the chance I don’t see you this weekend, do you want me to talk to Dad for us?”  I hesitated.

“Well…if you think you need to.”

“All right.  Bye.”  She closed the door and I took off for the hive entrance, locking the autopilot onto my home address.

When I got home, the front door was wide open, a fan in the door.  Blasted cooler must have been out again.  I walked in, coming to a halt when I saw my father sitting in the kitchen, apparently waiting for me.  Great.

“Hi, Jacob.  Where have you been?” he started, completely without preamble.

“Lord Vulkan’s house, followed by school, followed by Lord Vulkan’s driveway to drop Venus off,” I said, settling on honesty as the best policy.

“And you didn’t think to call?” he asked, dropping the magazine he had been reading on the table.

“I didn’t think I’d need to.  I left late, you know,” I said uncomfortably.

“Yeah.  Yeah.  It’s the ‘not coming home’ part that makes me a little unhappy.  That, and the ‘grilled by the government’ bit,” he shot back.

“Back up.  What about the government?  I just got here.”  He stood up abruptly, clearly holding back his anger.

“We had a member of the Administratum VIP Protection Office swing by this afternoon before you got home, all friendly and casual,” he said, grimacing.  “You know, just dropping in.”

I stared at him, feeling a little upset myself.  “And…what did he say?”

“SHE said that we had been added to an Office watch-list.”  He crossed his arms over his suit coat and glared at me.  “What the HELL did you do last night?

My hand shot down into my pocket, and I dug out my vox.  Without another word, I punched in Venus’s personal vox number and waited, while my father glowered at me.  After a few, tense seconds, Venus picked up.  “Hi, Jake.  What’s up?”

“Lord Vulkan, I apologize for disturbing you, sir, but something’s come up,” I said, all drama.  My father flinched backwards, anger replaced by shock.  “I just came home to find that my family has been placed under an Administratum VIP watch list.  Is something wrong, sir?”

Luckily for me, Venus shares my penchant for acting.  “Well, Sieur Seager, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about it,” she said, without missing a beat.  “I’ll have a few of my people look into it.”

“Is there any need for that, though?” I asked, half-turning to conceal my grin.  “Surely you don’t hold a grudge against me?  Or against your daughter?  After only one night?”  I heard a sound like a sump mouse in a blender coming from where Dad was standing, but didn’t turn around.

“Who are you mortifying, Jake?” Venus asked, giggling.

“Sir…sir.  You have to know I would never, EVER hurt her.  Not on purpose, anyway.”  Dad had gone completely silent by now.

“Are you going to get in trouble for this?” she laughed.

“On that note, how’s her back?  It wasn’t too bad, was it?” I asked, forcing some cautious humility into my voice.  “Oh…sure, I’ll hold.  Thank you for your time, sir.”  I held my finger over the mic for a moment, turning to look at Dad.  He was white as a sheet, but didn’t say a word.  “He’s going to ask,” I said; somehow, through a major effort, keeping my voice level.

Before his vocal cords could unfreeze, I pulled the vox back up.  “Good!  Great to hear it.  Again, I apologize for the inconvenience, sir.  Thank you for your time.”  I hung up, staring at the vox in my hands for a moment, before turning to Dad and looking grave.  “I’m sure he’ll get it all worked out.”

Dad just stared at me, confusion and suspicion warring for supremacy on his face.  Confusion won.  “What…the HELL happened last night?”

I put the vox away and rubbed my chin, thoughtfully.  “Well…that’s between me and her, Dad.  I’m sure Lord Vulkan will get all this straightened out.”

“Since when are you on first-name terms with him?” Dad asked, his anger returning.  “You could have insulted him!”

“Eh, he’s a very level-headed guy,” I said, shrugging.  “I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

“It damn well better, I don’t want to have to worry about the damned Custodes coming out of the masonry,” he grumbled.

“Dad, I think if you meet him, you’d get along pretty well.  He’s as much of a gearhead as you are,” I said, walking off to my room.  I was in no more mood for interrogation.