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

===Like A New Woman===


Alex turned around as he heard yelling behind him.  He turned to see someone screaming at the plainclothes detail that had been shadowing them since they had left the restaurant.  A group of surly-looking Nocturnean men was glowering at them from behind the rank of serfs, all of whom had their hands on their needle pistols.

Freya slid an arm around Alex’s waist and guided him back down the street.  “Go.  We shouldn’t be here,” she said urgently.

“What can you hear?” Alex asked.

“They’re pissed because they think you’re the robber that trashed their cousin’s stall this afternoon,” Freya said tightly, speeding them up.  “And at least two of them have guns,” she added under her breath.

“Fuck,” Alex muttered, rounding a corner.  Both teens relaxed as the reassuring bulk of the castle came into sight before them.  A trio of uniformed serfs loped past them, clearly heading for the confrontation behind them.

Freya shook her head, braids snapping behind her.  “Assholes.”

“Forget them,” Alex said.  “Let the Salamanders handle it.”

Remilia paused outside her rooms.  “All right.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Jake,” she said.

“Good night.  Thanks again for dinner,” Jake said, walking into his own accommodations.

The light was off, and he flicked it up, along with the AC.  The frigid air washed over him as he sank into the bed.  “Much better,” he said into the bedspread.

The door rattled as Venus arrived.  Jake rolled over and peered into the sitting room.  His girlfriend was standing in the middle of the room, hands on her temples.  “Hello, Venus.  How did it go?” he asked.

She spun around, eyes flaring.  Jake recoiled and wondered if he had done something wrong.

“Awesome.  Aside from the radspike, it was great,” she cheerfully said.

Jake sat up on the bed.  “Good.  You just looked a bit distracted.”

“Nope.  Just coming down from an emotional high,” she truthfully said.  “How was dinner?”

“Great, though I have the feeling that the place was a tourist trap,” Jake said.  “It was fantastic, but I nearly choked when I saw the prices.”

“Thank goodness Remilia Dorn has more credits than there are stars in the sky, then.” Venus snarked.  She walked into the bedroom and started stripping her armor off.  “Where were you when the radspike hit?”

“We were just waiting to leave in the restaurant,” Jake said.  “You?”

“Middle of a conversation at the party.”  She powered off her weapons and hung the belt on the rack.  “It felt extremely weird.”

“Really?  I didn’t feel a thing.”  Jake shucked his own shirt and shoes.  “It was over so fast.”

“I’m still feeling it,” Venus admitted.  She carefully extracted herself from the armored chest piece of the uniform and hung it on the rack as well.  She rustled her undershirt to get the creases out.  “Phew.  That’s heavier than it looks.”

“You’re still feeling the effects of the radiation?” Jake asked.  “You should see a medic,” he said.

“No, no, it’s all right,” she hastened to explain.  “Here,” she said, sticking her hand out to him.  He curiously took it.  His eyes widened.

“Whoa.  You’re red-hot.”

“Yeah.  There was a Salamander at the party, he explained that this always happens to us when we’re exposed to the radiation of our sun,” she said.  “It’s supposed to happen.  That’s why I was feeling so strange this whole time.”

“Oh.  So…it’s not bad?” he asked.

“Not at all.”  She smiled contentedly, bringing his hand up to her lips and resting it there.  “I promise.”

He relaxed.  “Good.  Want to watch a holo before we turn in?”

“Sure.  Something stupid,” she said, resuming her de-armoring.

Alex finished his bathroom routine and peeked into the bedroom, hoping that Freya would be up for their game.  To his considerable dismay, she was sitting up under the covers reading.  Consoling himself with the knowledge that she at least slept in the buff, he made his way over to the bed and waved the lights down.  “I’m going to try that gym Jake mentioned tomorrow.  You in?” he asked.

“Sure,” she muttered distractedly.  “You going to work out in this gravity?”

“I’ll be careful.”  He lay down next to her and squeezed her knee.  “What you reading?”

“Astropathic message from Dad,” she said.

“Cool.  What’s he saying?” Alex asked.

“The usual.  ‘Hope you had a good flight, don’t drink the water, write when you arrive, don’t let Alex knock you up,’ etc.”

“He did not tell you not to let me get you pregnant,” Alex accused, grabbing the edge of the slate and tilting it towards himself.  “…Okay, he did.  What the fuck?  I thought we were starting to get along!  And you're not baseline!  I CAN'T get you pregnant!”

“I think he likes you, he just doesn’t like the idea of us fucking.  And I don’t blame him,” she said, turning the slate off.  “And after the whole incident with the window and the nylon rope and the servo-skull, I don’t blame him for being suspicious.”

Alex scoffed.  “That was awesome, and you know it.”

“You don’t gotta tell me,” she said smugly.  “I planned it.”  She sank down under the covers and flicked the lights off, and chilled the room with a gesture.  “Much better,” she said.  She snuggled up to Alex under the wafer-thin sheets and slid one arm across his toned chest.  He grabbed her hand and held her tight.  “So…Nocturne.  Thoughts?” she asked quietly.

“Scary place.  I want to see more, though,” he said under his breath.  She heard him fine.  “The heat is going to be a real problem, though.  Thermoreflective gear for me and Jake.  What about you, iceworlder?  You and Remilia must both have been boiling today.”

“We’re built for it.  We’ll be alright.”  Freya said.  She looked up at him from his shoulder.  “Do you want to send a message to your father?”

“I should,” Alex said heavily.  “He might drop by uninvited if I don’t.”

“He’s a Rogue Trader, not a travel agent,” Freya giggled.

“Can you tell?  I can’t, sometimes,” Alex sighed.  “Lord Carlin does not suffer poor accommodations for his offspring, no ma’am.”


As soon as Jake and Venus both were dressed for sleep and cleaned up, they curled up around Venus’ dataslate and absorbed an incredibly dumb holo about deep-space vampires, one of Venus’ pastimes.  Jake had asked her once about why she loved such horrible movies.  Her response: ‘you have to let art flow over you.’

Jake shifted a bit as the warmth from Venus’ skin started to overwhelm him.  She noticed and stuck a bunched-up shirt between them, insulating him from her unnatural heat.  “Sorry, Jake.”

“Not a problem.”  He resumed the movie.  “How can you like these?  They’re so dumb.”

“Jake, a good cheese villain is one you CAN’T take seriously.”  She nodded wisely.  “You have much to learn, your Highness.”

“What are you calling me that for?” Jake asked.  “You and Remilia both.”

“Oh ho, she figured it out, huh?” Venus asked slyly.  Jake slowly turned to face her, pausing the holo.

“What, precisely, are you two talking about?”

“What did Remilia tell you?” Venus asked.

“She said I’m going to be a busy Prince of Nocturne.  Present tense.”

Venus nodded.  “Yep.”

“Baby, we’re not married.”

“But it’s viable, now.  Remember that little contract you signed with Dad?”

Jake very slowly sat up.  “Maybe you should explain that.”

Venus sat up too, crossing her legs.  “Well, Nocturne basically doesn’t have a marriage law like Terra does.  When you agreed to live with me at Kouthry, you were agreeing to be a roommate, essentially.  Nothing more.  Except here on Nocturne, people agree to what looks to Terrans like marriage with basically the same sort of deal.”

Jake stared at her.  “So…people think we’re married?”

“Yeah.  Well, bonded.  Same principle.”  Venus sat back on her hands.  “Look, I didn’t tell you because it’s not your problem to clean up people’s misconceptions.  We’re already going to be living together on Terra for years, and a lot can happen in that time.  I don’t want you to get harassed by tabloids and shit that whole time, asking you if you’re some kind of Royalty.  And realistically, you would be, if we had agreed to that sort of arrangement on Nocturne.  Really.  That’s the whole of it.”

Jake nodded.  “Well…all right.  I think I understand.  Does this mean that things have changed for me?”

“Not if you don’t want them to.”  She looked straight at him.  He met her eyes with an effort.  “Jake, this is a vacation.  I’m not going to ask you to take the reins.  We’re here to have fun.  Tomorrow, I have stuff to do the whole morning.  You and the others go be tourists.  Have a blast.  Explore the city where I was born.  I’ll come find you at lunch and we can talk more if you have questions you don’t think of here.”  She rocked forward onto her knees and grabbed his hand, raising it to her lap and resting it there.  “All right?”

He nodded, staring at her hand in his lap.  “…Do people really get married at sixteen on Nocturne?”

“Bonded.  And yeah.  Before Dad, life expectancies around here sucked.  If you weren’t popping out kids by sixteen, you weren’t going to be.”

“Ew.”

“Yeah.  A different era.”

Jake left his hand where it was, deciding he liked it.  “Well…that raises another question.”

“What?”

“Are we…you know, compatible?”

“I think so,” she purred.

“I mean genetically.”

“Uh.”  She blinked.  “Good...question.  I have to think so.  I know that a few of my uncles are…I have no idea if Dad is.  I suspect so.  I’ll ask Grandpa when we get back.  Why?  Thinking of having kids out of wedlock?” she asked coyly.

Jake shuddered.  “HELL no.  But we may have to find out some day.”

“That’s sweet of you,” she said, touched by his implication.

“Then we wait, and deal with it when it happens,” Jake said with finality.

“Yeah, but I honestly think it’ll be all right.  My internal temperature would be more of a problem, really,” Venus said slowly.  “I’m pretty toasty inside.”

Jake grinned.  “So I have discovered.”  He leaned forward, running his hand over her muscular stomach.  “Your thermostat is broken.”  He frowned.  “Now moreso than usual.  Are you sure you’re all right?  You’re boiling.”

“Jake, I haven’t felt this good since before Morticia,” Venus said with quiet emphasis.  Jake looked over at her.  Her eyes were shut tight, she was grinning broadly.  “The Marine at the party said that this is supposed to happen, there’s no drawback that they know of.”  She opened her eyes and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his.  He felt his pulse quicken as her radiant grin turned to him.  “I swear my senses are sharper.  I can see clearer…my hearing is better.”

“Cool.  Your world is actually good for you.”

“As bizarre as it sounds, your Highness,” she snarked.

“That’s going to take some getting used to…” Jake said, letting the title ring in his head.

Venus leaned over him again.  “It’s funny,” she said.  “Dad never told me this would happen, but it feels amazing.  I wish I could show you what it’s like.”

He tugged the hem of her sleeveless vest up and slid an enticing hand over her stomach.  She nodded, as if to accept a superior argument.  “I suppose that’s one way,” she said with mock reluctance.  Tugging it the rest of the way off, she sank into his embrace.  “Welcome to my world, Jake,” she whispered softly.

He caught her lips in a passionate kiss.  “I feel pretty welcome so far,” he murmured as she slid his shirt off to join hers.  He grinned fiercely as she ran her hands up his sides.  “Home sweet home.”