Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Five (section)

===A Good Soak (Part Two)===


Alex stepped off the ramp of the Thunderhawk as Freya returned from the cave.  “It’s clear, the water purifier’s working,” she reported.
He followed her back in, fumbling in the bag for a flashlight.  He flicked it on, illuminating the walls of the cave.  “All right…let’s change,” he said, setting the bag down near the water’s edge.  Freya ignited some torches and put them in the well-worn sconces as Alex disrobed.  As he started to slip into the water, though, she glanced back.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Alex hesitated.  “Uh, getting in the water.” he said.

“Well, yeah, but why are you still wearing that?” she asked, pointing at his boxers.  “You expecting to get interrupted?  I’m not,” she said, running a hand over the cloak she had draped over her Fenrisian outfit.

Alex felt his blood pick up a bit.  “Wouldn’t want to get my underwear wet, I suppose,” he said, shucking them and clambering into the water.

Freya slid her cloak off and removed her own clothes, then sat down beside him, letting him slide an arm around her shoulders.  “Mmmm…” she sighed luxuriously.  “Remilia was right, people pay a fortune for this back home,” she said.

Alex closed his eyes and rested his head on hers.  “Yeah…can’t find this on Terra.”

Freya gently pulled away from him and cricked her back where she had been leaning over.  “Alex, I want to thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“I know this trip has been rough on you,” Freya said, her green animal eyes appearing as tiny discs in the light.  “I’m glad you haven’t let it get to you.”

“In front of the others, anyway?” Alex asked tiredly.

“Yeah.”  Freya undid her braids and let the hair fall into the water beside her.  She sank down into the steamy pool up to her collarbone.  “But even after all the shit you’ve been through, you’re still Alex.”

“I don’t want to ruin things for the rest of you,” he said.

She nodded, eyes shut.  “I know.”  She smiled up at him.  “That’s part of the reason I love you.”

The faint sound of water dripping out of the pool into the adjacent one and the faint burning of the torches were the only sounds Alex could hear.  He sank back against the rock walls and spread his arms over the rim to balance.  “Thanks, baby.”  He sighed.  “It meant a lot that you were there when Dad…threw me away.”

“I just…I dunno.”  Freya sat up a bit.  “I want to understand more about why he did it.  It baffles me.  And to phrase it like a choice like that, of college or the fleet…I’ll be honest, it doesn’t really sound like he outright disowned you.”

“I know it doesn’t,” Alex said heavily.  “But that’s the effect of it.  I told him outright that I had no interest in running his little empire of graverobbers when I was old enough to understand what they really did.  I said to his face I was going to play rugby and go to college and get a job that didn’t leave the stink of corpses in my nose when I went off to Imperator and got my scholarship.  He was more surprised than anything.  I half-think he was expecting me to be proud of him or something.  Asshole.”

“The instinct to impress your children is a strong one,” Freya said quietly.  “Do you think he’ll ever change his mind?”

“He can’t, the worthless old bastard,” Alex grumbled.  “He did it in front of an audience, you see, including you.  He can’t take it back.  His pride can’t allow it.  He did the exact same thing to me that he did to Mom, and now she’s moving out of the house.”

Freya reached out and caressed his hand on the lip of the pool.  “I’m sorry, baby.  I wish I could make it better.”

“You did, those were the best two hours of my life,” Alex joked weakly.  Freya managed a small smile, but the deeply empathetic girl could see the raw wound in his heart.  “But the fact that you changed your college plans to stay with me…god…”  He closed his eyes.

She sat back down next to him and held his hand on her near shoulder, looking up at him.  “Well…you know, I have forever to go back to school.  Spending time with you is more important.”

Alex nodded.  “Thanks.”

They sat in silence for quite some time, letting the water’s heat soak into them and melt their problems away.


Jake slid his magazine out and replaced it, sweeping his brass into a bag.  “Hmm.  At least I’m hitting the taget now,” he said.  Venus slid her arms around him and adjusted his grip again, eyeing his hands.

“Try feathering the trigger instead of jerking it like that,” she suggested.  “You can feel the break on the trigger, so you don’t need to manhandle it.”

“All right.”  The light turned blue and Jake fired again, sending a slug through the human outline in the torso.  “Progress!” he said cheerfully.

Remilia’s target showed a single broad hole in the forehead, through which she had somehow put around four magazines of eighteen slugs each.  “I forgot how satisfying this can be,” she said.  She emptied her magazine into the target again, and the hole didn’t get any wider.  “I used to hit the ranges with Dad back in the day.  I was always terrible at it.”

“Where did you even go?” Jake asked, setting his gun down.  His hands were protesting.  “There were no ranges in Startseite.”

“No, but there was one in the PDF garrison in the very very top of the hive spire four klicks south of the city,” Remilia said.  “Dad wanted me to learn how to shoot.”

“You’re better than me,” Venus said, glancing over her own target.  She had only fired two magazines, spending the rest of the time coaching Jake.  Her target had a smattering of holes in the head and heart region, nowhere near as neat as Remilia’s.  “I’m way out of practice.”

Jake glanced over into her lane.  “Firing that Conflagrator is probably the extent of it, huh?”

“Oh yeah.”  Venus walked back to her land and cleared the chamber, sliding a fresh magazine home.  She raised her gun and fired, sending a few more rounds to pierce the target’s heart.


Freya rose from the water to dig a small water-sealed package out of her bag.  Alex admired her shapely backside as she rooted around.  “Ah hah, I see it,” she said.  She sat back down in the water and passed him the little plastic container.  “Eat up,” she said.

Alex extracted a small muffin.  “Cool, thanks,” he said, chowing down.  Freya took her own and put the package away.  “Never eaten in the bath before,” Alex chuckled.

Freya licked her fingers and splashed crumbs away.  “All right.  Thanks for being open with me, baby, I know it hurt to talk about.”

He nodded.  “Well…I don’t blame you.  But…I want to ask you something too.”

“What’s up?” Freya asked.

“Well…we talked about pack instinct and all that before,” Alex reminded her.  “But I don’t really understand all of it.  I mean, in regard to your family.  I can count the number of times I’ve met your mother on one hand.”

“So just tell you more about them?” Freya asked.

“Well, sort of,” Alex said.  “I just want to know them better.  I mean…your Dad’s a PRIMARCH.  Can you tell me more about him, his role in the Imperium?  I just feel like I don’t know them at all.”  He shrugged.  “I’d like to.”

Freya nodded.  “Well, my grandparents on my mother’s side work for the Houses of the Navigators,” she said.  “You knew that though.  Uh…well, Dad still leads the Legion since he found out he sucked at politics.  He’s on Luna a lot, liaising with the senior guys in the Navy and Expeditionary forces.”

“That’s cool.  Have you ever been to Luna?” Alex asked.

“Sure have.  It’s kinda boring.  The atmo shields are lowered unless they’re running a drill, so you’re stuck in the bunkers.”  She shrugged.  “I should take you some time.”

“I’d like that,” Alex said.  He scooted over to sit next to his girlfriend.  “Your Mom always seemed to like me more than your Dad did.”

Freya shrugged, sending her ample breasts swaying in the torchlight.  “Mom likes you a lot, but Dad just doesn’t like that I’m old enough to be dating.  He always thinks of me as his little girl.”

“I bet most of the Primarchs do that,” Alex said.  “When you’re that old, you know?”

Freya laughed.  “Probably.”  She leaned back and thought.  “Dad wanted to keep at the Crusade, I know.  He thinks there’s too much of the area inside the Astronomican’s projection range unexplored.  I kinda agree, but after we were born…he learned to love being a Dad.  He spent a lot more time with me when I was a kid, too; I know I’ve said he brought me home to Fenris several times.  Only Miranda’s been off of Earth more than I have.”

She slid her hands through her hair and idly worked one lock into a braid.  “Hmm…what else do you want to know?”

“What does your…pack instinct or whatever you call it…feel around your cousins?” Alex asked.

Freya slowly twisted her hair as she thought that over.  “Hmmm…it’s…complex.  Miranda and Remilia feel like…little sisters more than anything else.  Venus’ sense is more like a pack-mate, someone I can trust.  She’s a mediator, you know?  Like Angela is.”

She continued.  “Isis is like a an older sister, she’s the one who looks after the rest of us.  I mean, that’s a human thing too, but it’s a common instinct that way,” she said.  “Sorry, this probably sounds weird.”

“No, I think I get it.  What do you feel towards Kelly?  I remember you were pretty torn up when she went to the hospital,” Alex said.

“She’s hurting, baby,” Freya sighed.  “She’s really scared of the future.  She was getting better by graduation.  And, hmm…Furia too.  I know she was thinking of heading off to college after graduation, I never thought she would be.  She’s getting better too.”

“Yeah.”  Alex nodded.  “You have a great family, Freya.”

“You’re part of it, whether it’s for the next four years or however long we’re together,” Freya said with a smile.

Alex felt a little thrill of excitement as she said it.  “Really?  That’s…really flattering,” he said.

Freya leaned against his shoulder and smiled as his body reacted to that.  “It’s the best,” she said softly.  “I feel like I belong when I’m with my family.  Like I can let my guard down.  It’s…smaller of a sense than when I’m with the Rout, but it’s there.  I feel like they all have roles to play, and me too.”

“So where do I fit in?” Alex asked, feeling his heart pick up a bit more.

Freya snorted at the question.  “Didn’t I make it clear when I pulled you out of Amber Gainner’s thieving claws?” she asked drily.  She leaned even farther sideways, until he wrapped his arms around her stomach.  She looked up at him and grinned, fierce and happy.  The flickering torchlight reflected as a rippling gold in her eyes.  Her bared fangs and wet red hair glinted in the light.  “You’re my mate.”

Alex smiled.

She held his gaze, and her free hand slid up to grip his chin.  She pulled him into an impassioned kiss, which he returned with equal parts hunger and relief.  She very deliberately placed one leg over his and pushed the cleft of her butt back against him as she broke the kiss.  “I think…” she whispered sensuously.  “That for…a few minutes…I can stop being nervous about my Brothers’…senses of smell,” she said, running both hands behind her back, down to stroke him where he was already hard as the rock they were sitting on.

“Up against the wall of the cavern,” he ordered roughly, half-lifting her out of the water and turning her around.  She splayed her hands over the steam-smoothed stone.

“To start with,” she growled back.

She moaned in anticipation as he parted her and started thrusting.  The tension and lingering anger in Alex vanished as he held her to the wall and mated with her, shattering the doubt that had been holding him by the throat since Nocturne.  Freya gasped her approval as the desire and lust he had been keeping in check since they came in range of the Fang broke free.