Editing Venus' Burn (section)

==The Final Part==

By the time we had gotten back to the house, the artificial weather pattern was kicking up dreary clouds, the kind that presaged rain.  I parked the car under the overhang of the garage and hurried out, as Venus squeezed through her door by as small a margin as possible, lest Taxi lodge himself in my car again.

Vulkan was sitting at the counter again, elbow-deep in paperwork, and apparently waiting for us.  No sooner had I closed the door behind us, than he was beckoning us both over.  “Venus, Jake, there you are.  Come here, I have something I wanted to ask you.”

Suppressing the sudden guilt any man hears when his woman’s father says that, I walked on over and awkwardly hovered at the counter, Venus tagging curiously along.  The mess of paperwork and dataslates on the counter in front of him had nearly buried the detritus of an impromptu snack, which he cleared aside.  “Jake, I want to make it clear that I wasn’t trying to force a decision on you before,” he said straightaway.  “I’m sorry if I came off wrong.”

“Oh,” I said, relieved.  “It’s fine.  I wasn’t offended.”

“Good.”  He tapped a stylus on the dataslate in the middle of the clearing for a moment.  “Venus, did you ever tell Jake why you picked Kouthry?”

“Uh…don’t think so,” she said, puzzled.  “It’s…well, a family school.  I mean, Mom and Dad both went there, Mom when she lived here before moving to Nocturne and Dad when he moved here after the Crusade,” she explained.

“And you’re going there because you want to make it a dynastic thing?  Or because it’s just that good a school?” I asked.

“Well, it is a really good school, but I also kind of want to see what they thought was so good,” Venus said.

“There’s a wing named after me there,” Vulkan said drily.  “It’s tucked away between two spires over on Hive Quadrant NE.  Right where New Arks was before the hives went up.”

“So, why do you ask, Dad?” Venus asked, before her eyes shot open, the lights inside brightening with sudden surprise.  I stared at her, trying to see what had surprised her.  She clasped her hands together, pressing her lips into a line, avoiding my gaze.  Vulkan pretended he hadn’t noticed.

“Well, Jake, I may have said it in person, or Venus may have told you, but as much as I like you, and as happy as it makes me to see you and Venus getting along so well, I’m not willing to pay your tuition outright,” Vulkan said unreservedly.  Venus’s eyes narrowed, a smile tugging at her lips.  “That said…”
I didn’t rise to the bait, having had quite enough of his flair for the dramatic by this point.  He continued.  “That said, there’s a reason there’s a wing named after me, and it’s not because I took courses there,” Vulkan said, turning the dataslate around so I could see it.

The page on the screen was a brochure of the school, including news about some kind of construction.  My stomach locked up solid at the title of the new building: Caestusine Applied Technology Building.  I jerked my head back up to stare at the Lord Primarch, who was clearly getting a kick out of my reactions.  “I donated money there after graduation, since I attended under an assumed name and took online courses whenever I could, to avoid attention.  They recently started construction on a wing I funded under the same assumed name, and they’re opening a lab there.  They need clever young lab techs to help keep the place humming, and since it’s a non-denominational school – which is part of the reason I liked it so much – they don’t want enginseers to do it.”  I leaned back slowly, not daring to hope.

“Now, the various deans of the college know that Venus wants to attend.  She didn’t even have to formally apply.  You, on the other hand,” he said, smiling, “have made one thing clear to me since the day we met.  You hate nepotism.”

“I don’t think Venus getting in to-” I started to say.  He waved me off.

“Of course you don’t.  I bet you wouldn’t have even applied if you didn’t think you deserved to go,” he said, smiling fondly at Venus, who was slowly raising her hands to cover her gaping mouth.  “So…all I have to do is press a single button on this dataslate, and your name jumps to the top of the list at Kouthry’s internal hiring office for the lab tech job there.  You’ll get subsidized housing and meals like any student, though I suspect you’d rather decline that,” he said, grinning, “and of course…staff can take classes there, at a colossal discount.  The final rate would be about what I spend on dry cleaning any given week, and that, Jake, I would be quite happy to cover.”

“And, of course,” he said, leaning back in his chair and turning the dataslate back to himself, “I would also understand if you don’t want someone else to buy your way in.  I can respect that decision too,” he said, picking it up and standing.  “I don’t want an answer now, and I don’t expect one.  You two talk amongst yourselves, and come find me when you make up your minds.”  He turned the pad off and scooped up the paperwork, as we both stood there shellshocked.  Without another word, he turned and headed back up the stairs.

As the sound of his footsteps grew fainter, I sunk down into his chair, my head reeling.  Getting a JOB at Kouthry?  That hadn’t even occurred to me.  And…living with Venus full-time?  Taking classes there?  And those little interrogations of his…they had been tests of CHARACTER?  What?

“You can take the father out of the Astartes,” Venus muttered, clearly thinking the same things I was, and clearly just as astonished.  I looked up at her dumbly, waiting for her to say something.  She looked down at me, her eyes wide.  “What are you going to say?”

“Well…he’s right, I’d never accept if it had been my own father pulling strings to get me into Canstrides,” I said, staring at my hands.  “But…wow.  I want to do it.  I want to do it so badly,” I said, the tension in my stomach twisting.  “I mean, it’s a nonissue.  I’ll accept in a heartbeat.  If you want me to,” I said, looking back up at her.

“Me?  Why is it my call?” she asked.

“Uh…’I suspect you’d rather decline that,’” I said, echoing her father’s statement.  “I’d be living with you.”

“Oh.  Duh,” she said, smacking her forehead with her palm.  “Of course.  I’m completely OK with that!” she declared.

Weeks later, I thought back to that moment and wondered at how the remote possibility that we wouldn’t want to spend our lives together never even occurred to us.  Neither of us even thought of what would happen if either of us had to leave or transferred out, or how we would handle a breakup.  But at the time, neither of us thought of that at all.

Because, at that moment, all I could think to do was wrap Venus in a hug so tight all she could do was return it, bury my face in her hair, and let the tears of relief that had been building in my eyes since Vulkan had left the room flow.

I didn’t have to leave her.  She didn’t have to leave me.  I wouldn’t have to abandon her.  She wouldn’t need to move on.

I sat on the floor, leaning against the leg of the counter, arms still wrapped around Venus, who I think I dragged down with me, hurriedly wiping tears out of my eyes.  “All right.  All right,” I said, pulling myself together.  She bit her lip, not even trying to hide tears herself.  “All right.  I’ll, uh.  I’ll go tell Vulkan, then.”

“Hang on,” she said.  She wiggled her arm loose and snuggled up against me on the kitchen floor.  We just held each other, all the uncertainty that had been creeping up on us both since the pseudoweather changed to spring eroding.

I tilted my head down and kissed her on the cheek, making her turn her head.  I kissed her again, fully, and she leaned into it, those gorgeous eyes dimming in contentment.  I don’t know if I can express here how happy I was to finally know that time wasn’t an enemy, that we could spend years together, maybe more.  Maybe I can’t tell it here, but I told her there, not speaking a word.  Finally, I pulled my head back, brushing my eyes again.  “OK.  Let’s…go tell Vulkan.”

She sniffed, standing up and offering me a hand.  “Let’s.”

We walked upstairs, finding him in his study on the third floor, a labyrinth of holotables and vox terminals, with a cogitator humming to itself in the corner.  Vulkan himself was idly spinning a stylus around his finger, reading over a screen.  As we walked in, though, he shut it off, staring at us expectantly.  “Well, that was quick.”

“It wasn’t a hard decision,” I said, grinning ear to ear.  “And I’m happy to accept.”  Vulkan nodded, smiling back.

“Good.  Good.  All right then.  I assume you’ll want to surprise your parents?”

“Sure, this will be quite a shock to the system for both of them,” I said.  “Kouthry…that blows my mind.”  I rubbed my hands on my temples, still reeling.  “I can’t thank you enough, sir, really.  Sorry,” I said as he raised his eyebrows in exasperation.  “I think you earned it this time.”

“Fair enough,” he said, “but really, Jake, no more.”

Venus giggled.  I shrugged, light-headed.  “Okay.  Thanks.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

“Ah, sure you can, just not until you’ve tried it for a few years,” Vulkan said.  “They kick your ass the first few classes.  Now,” he added, tapping one of the screens in front of him, “I suspect your parents will want to know soon.”

“Yeah, I should go tell them.”  I hesitated for a moment, then stuck out my hand.  He blinked, then grinned and shook it, the heat radiating from his skin nearly making me cringe.  “Thank you, Vulkan.  I’ll…take good care of her,” I said.  Venus sniffed again, this time is transparently feigned disdain.

“I’m sure you will.  Now, go on, break the good news to George and Sandra, hmm?”

“You bet.  Thanks,” I said, withdrawing my singed hand and turning for the door.

I got as far as the bottom stairs before she lost her patience.  “Take…good care of me…” Venus mused.

“I meant it too,” I said, deadpanning it.

“Hmm…I bet,” she said, making a show of rubbing her chin thoughtfully.  “Take care…huh.”

“I seem to recall you enjoying it immensely when I take care of you,” I noted.

“Still…you told my father…a Lord Primarch…that you’d…take care of me…” she said, not done yet.

I turned around to face her, staring her square in the eye.  She was trying desperately to hold in a laugh of derision and an ‘awwwww’ of pure glee, and it emerged as a strangled “geeeya ha ha ha ha!”

“Laugh it up,” I said with a sigh.  “We’ll look back on this and comment on how cute it was or something, fuck, I dunno.”

She hunched her shoulders, fighting down the giggles.  “Shu-hu-hure we will,” she said, clamping a hand over her mouth as the mirth threatened to escape.

“You’re ruining our future memories,” I grumbled, opening the door and fishing out my keys.

“Aww, I’m sorry,” she said sweetly, following me out to the car.  “Hey, how are you going to break it to your parents?”

“I’m just going to tell them.  Probably at dinner,” I said, opening the door.

“Okay, you could do that,” she said coyly, “or…” she reached forward and caught my hand on the door.  “We could tell them.  I could come and tell your parents with you, and just catch a ride home from Dad’s driver.”

“That would be better,” I said, trying to picture the looks on my parents’ faces.  “Yeah, I want you there for this.”  I pried Taxi off the door and got in, Venus clambering in behind me.  “So, how do you want to play it?”

“Heh.  I think I know,” she said, staring out the window as we approached the airlock.


“So…Mom, Dad, I wanted you two to be the first to hear a special announcement,” I said, beaming at my parents in the eating nook of the apartment.  Venus nodded happily behind me.

“We’ve decided that the end of high school is no reason for a good thing to come to an end,” she said, her ‘acting’ skills in full display.  “So, we’ve talked it over, and we’re going to be living together come the fall.”

My parents just…sort of looked at each other for a moment.  “Um.”  My dad ventured.  “How…is that going to work?”

“Damn,  was hoping for a stronger reaction,” I said, shrugging.  “Ah well, it was worth a try.  OK,” I said, abandoning the act.  “Well, Lord Vulkan said flat-out that he wouldn’t be willing to pay my tuition if I applied to go to Kouthry with Venus…but they’re also opening a lab over there, and they need techs.  He put my name at the top of the list, so I can just work there and take night classes.  I’d be living on campus-” which is about as far as I got before my mother shrieked in happiness and enveloped me in a bear hug.

“Yes!  Oh my god I’m so glad!” she yelled, trapping my arms against my sides in a horrifying vice-grip.

“Wow.  Wow,” Dad said from his seat, shaking his head with a grin.  “You…congratulations, Jacob, that’s fantastic.”

“Of course,” I managed after my mother released me from her iron grip, “I’d still have to pay some tuition anyway, but Vulkan said that amount was so much smaller that he would be willing to cover it.”

“He did?!  That’s so generous!  Thank you so much!” Mom said, beaming at Venus.  Venus put her hands up in defense.

“It was his idea, thank him,” she said.  “Tell them the best part,” she said to me.

“Of course, the best part is that since it’d be a full-time schedule for both of us, we’d be sharing an apartment on campus together, so,-” I said, before yet another shriek/bear hug cut me off.

“I’M SO PROUD OF YOU”

“Ow, Mom, ease up,” I squeaked.  As soon as I would work my lungs again, I laid out the whole story, from when we had walked back in to our decision, leaving out the breakdown, naturally.  When it was all over, and another round of hugs had subsided, Venus leaned forward to add her own comment.

“There’s seven weeks left in the school year, and when summer’s over, we’ll just move in with the rest of the orientation crowd,” she said.  “I mean, of course, we’d have to arrange security, but that’s fast.”

“Hey, a reason to get back on the Treasury watch list, Dad, just like we always wanted,” I said, grinning innocently at Dad’s half-hearted glare.

“Well, I better head out,” Venus said, tapping a few keys on her vox.  “Thanks for having me.  See you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” I said, standing up.  “And thank your dad again for me, would you please?” I asked, still grinning.  “Oh man, I’m still reeling.”

“I know.  I had no idea he was planning this,” she confessed.  “You know, he wouldn’t have done this if he didn’t really think we were good together, but he’s always been a sentimental old coot.”

“I don’t think it’s respectful to call your father that,” I said, propping the door open for her.  Her father’s limo was parked outside, his driver leaning on the door, and standing up as she walked out.

“Eh, he knows it too.”  The driver opened the passenger door of the black aircar, waiting as I kissed Venus goodbye.  “See you tomorrow,” she said softly, her eyes glowing in the dim lights of the hive.

I hugged her shoulders to me, already looking forward to it.  “I’ll see you.”  With one last smile, she climbed into the car and it lifted, spinning into the skylanes and making for the airlock.

I watched the car until its lights faded, just thinking.  The hive had been all the home I had ever known, until I started ninth grade.  Once I had gotten out, it had been all I wanted to stay out, to spend as much time outside as I could.  Then, I had met Venus, and suddenly I could stay out.  She had been everything I had wanted, and thinking it over, I couldn’t think of a single way I wanted that to change.

I leaned against the doorframe, letting the flat breeze of the hive carry the sounds of the day-to-day.  All of a sudden, the future’s uncertainty wasn’t something to resent.  I had a chance now.  I could go and find out what it was that I wanted, what it was that I needed, and Venus would be right there with me.

With that, I turned from the hive view, shutting the door behind me.  I was ready, now.  High school wasn’t the end.  Now, I could really start thinking about tomorrow.


Fin.


[[Category:Warhammer High]]