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

===A Natural Confidant===


She sat down next to him and reached to turn the holo back on.  Before she could, he spoke up.  “Wait.”

Freya looked over at him.  He was sitting cross-legged on the mattress.  “This…isn’t going to get easier if we put it off,” he said.

She frowned, but stilled her hand.  “All right…what do you want to do about it?” she asked.

Alex looked down at his feet.  “You know…did you actually hear what he said last night?”

Freya shook her head, scattering her hair over her shirt.  “No.  I was talking to Jake.”

“All right.”  Alex closed his eyes.  “What he said was…hell, it wasn’t even to me, he was talking to the guy next to me…he said, ‘Alex knows that the Fleet and college are mutually exclusive.’  I said ‘Dad, what does that mean?’  He looked square at me and said ‘you can’t have both.’”  Alex looked over at Freya, pained.  “Damn it…he probably waited until we were in front of a crowd so I couldn’t back out.”  He laughed, a bitter, tired bark.  “Guess he underestimated how petty I am.”

“Oh, Alex,” Freya sighed.  She leaned forward, squeezing his leg.  “It’s not petty to want to live the way that makes you happiest!”

“No, but storming out of Venus’ gala was,” he said flatly.  “I must have looked like a petulant child…something else that probably suited him.”

Freya’s eyes narrowed as she watched the pain return.  “Alex…baby, come on,” she said, squeezing him again.  She leaned forward, piercing his eyes with her bright green stare.  “I don’t think you’re petulant!  And Venus told me that she told your Dad to make tracks, he won’t bother us any more!”

“Really?” he asked, finally looking surprised.  “What did she say?”

Freya shook her head.  “It was after I left, but she said last night that she told him to fuck off or get arrested,” she said.

“Good.”  Alex leaned back against the headboard, smiling sadly at her.  “Listen…you know what this will mean after we get home, right?”

Freya shook her head.  “I don’t know.”

He looked down again, studying the little marks she had left on his arms in her unguarded moments before.  “It…well, the good news is that I can’t go bugger off with the Fleet…so maybe we can stay together.”  He looked up at her again.  “The bad news is that this means I won’t be able to afford to go to college with you, not without you going to one of the schools that I got offers from for free-ride scholarships.”

Freya considered that, rocking back on her heels.  “I see.”  She crawled forward on hands and knees until she was next to him, then sat down beside him against the headboard.  “Well…I did get accepted to New Cyprine and Albiona College…did you get offers from either of them?”

“Cyprine,” Alex breathed, the tension in his heart fading considerably.  This didn’t mean they had to break up.

She looked up at him and smiled.  “So…this isn’t the end.  Not yet.”

“Not yet.”  He relaxed, letting his eyes sag shut.  “Good news.”  He slid his hand over her cheek, smiling at her through hooded lids.  “Thanks.”

She caught his hand, her own looking petite by comparison.  He slid a finger across her ear, and she giggled at the tickling feeling.  “Now…let’s get dressed and order food so it’s here when the others get back,” he said.  Freya held his hand still and leaned against it, enjoying its warmth.

“Okay.”

Alex slid his hand off of her face and managed a laugh.  “Did I ever tell you how my family earned a Writ?”

Freya thought for a moment.  “No.”

“My grandfather earned it for Imperial service.  He found an STC blueprint for a combat knife that had never been discovered,” Alex said.

“Wow, I bet the Mechanicus loved him after that,” Freya said, rocking back on her haunches.

“Hell yeah.  Gave him a ship, badgered the Emperor into giving him a Royal Writ, the highest kind, and cut him loose.”  Alex sat back again, remembering.  “He knew all the right people from when he was in the Navy, so he had all the contacts he needed to set up a trading business.  His Writ, a Warrant signed by the Emperor after the Arlema Conquest…hard to believe that was only a hundred years ago…anyway, it let him trade anywhere he wanted, so long as he visited Arlema’s capital to make sure it was still Imperial-held every so often.”

“So how did your father get it?” Freya asked.

“Oh, the old-fashioned way.  He inherited it.  Grandpa was the only child of only children, so was my dad, so was my mom.  So it wasn’t a hard decision.  Hell, I am too.”

Freya nodded.  “My mother didn’t have any siblings, either.  I have eighteen,” she added with a smile.

“Well…Dad shut down parts of Grandpa’s empire.  Now he sends the ships of the fleet to small-scale agri-colonies built over dead, pre-Age of Strife human settlements.  They go to the cities, and rob the grave offerings and pawn shops, since the rest is probably picked over.”  Alex smiled tightly.  “You know that twenty thousand year old clock on Warmaster Horus’ desk?  Dad stole it from a tomb on Moribar.  Funny little galaxy, isn’t it?”

“How macabre,” Freya said darkly.

“Welcome to my life,” Alex said, levering out of the bed with a groan.  “Now…where’s that menu?”

Freya sank back down on the bed, spread-eagled.  “Mmm…hang on,” she said as Alex rooted around.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“C’mere,” she said, beckoning him over.  He obligingly sat back down next to her on the bed.

She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow beside him.  “Are you sure you’re feeling better?”

“Much,” Alex said.  He managed a smile.  “Bit sore, but that seems a small price to pay.”

“Good.”  She lay back down and caught on of his hands between hers, idly rubbing his palm.  “You know you can share anything with me, right?”

“Yeah…yeah, baby, I do,” he said, lacing his fingers with hers.  Despite her awe-inspiring strength, she felt positively slender to him.  He smiled at the look of dreamy contentment on her face as she reveled in the sensation.  “How about you?”

She let her eyes slide shut.  Freya slowly brought his hand to her lips.  “I’m feeling better because you’re feeling better,” she said.  “So…don’t worry any more, all right?  It makes me feel really panicked to see you suffer like that.”

“You’re a sweet girl,” he murmured.  He felt a wave of hot air on his hand as she breathed over his fingers, nuzzling the back of it.  “And…well.”

“What?” she asked, cracking one green eye open.

He leaned down and rested his forehead on hers.  “You’re really good at making me feel better,” he whispered, all serious business.

She laughed under her breath.  “So you told me…a few times…” she said back in the same tone.