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

===Nobody Came Out of That Smelling Like Roses===


“And if he seems spineless around you, ask yourself this: have you ever tried to NOT intimidate him?” she asked sharply.  “I mean, the first thing you did when you met him was bare your teeth.  I had to grab your hands and bring them together before you would shake.”

“He smelled like you, Freya, at fifteen.  His voice hadn’t even broken!  How well was I supposed to take that?” he asked.  “Believe it or not, I love you, and I didn’t want you to give yourself to someone at that age, certainly not before I met him.”

“Look, my history with him aside, he’s seventeen bloody years old and already lost a parent to an act of senseless cruelty, that is, forcing him to choose between family and personal choice,” Freya said in a voice that could have melted glacial ice.  “How is your behaving so poorly around him different?  Because you making me feel that you distrust me and making him feel unwanted isn’t doing anyone favors.”

Russ’ head snapped around to glare daggers at his daughter, but the bite of truth in her words blunted his anger again.  “If you wish to know how I feel he is self-entitled, at least, answer me this.  When he walks into a stranger’s home and puts his feet on the furniture, does he even slow to think of it?  When he costs himself or others money and time in an act of carelessness, does he apologize with words or action?”

“I don’t know, Dad, because I’ve never seen him act so careless,” Freya said.  “You’re really reaching, here.”

“Freya, he acts like you were something he deserved because of his station and power, and treats you as such,” Russ said angrily.

“His station and power cost him his family.”  Freya stood.  “Come with me.”

“What?”

“Come with me.  Let me show you just how wrong you are,” she said.  Her eyes narrowed to green slits in the firelight.  “He has not acted like that…not once that I can remember in over a year.  You are objecting to my relationship with a man who doesn’t exist.”

Russ stayed in his seat, staring at his daughter.  “I’m not blind, Freya.  He has the arrogance of the born privileged in him.  Whether it’s a part of your everyday interactions or something he mostly keeps in check, I don’t know, and it barely matters.  It’s there.”

Freya leaned forward, and now she DID bare her teeth.  “I don’t judge you when your hands come home smelling of the blood of aliens and traitors,” she whispered.  “I trust you and respect you all the same.  Can you not respect and trust me when I choose a partner I feel would rather die than harm me?”

Russ was quiet for a long moment.  At length, Freya turned and walked out, knowing full well her father would follow.  After finishing the glass he had poured, Russ tiredly rose to his feet.  “Horus and Lorgar don’t have to deal with this, oh no, their daughters are dating boys who’ve sworn themselves to abstinence,” he grumbled as he followed his daughter to the lifts.  “Julius Pius and Pietro Gallagher at least don’t think with their dicks.”

Below, Alex was sprawled over Jake’s bed, listening to Jake tell stories about his old job.  “Now, I don’t blame him.  His health was pretty bad.  But seriously, leaving me to go deal with customers we caught shoplifting while he vanished into the back room?” Jake asked.  “Ugh.”

“Did that happen often?” Alex asked.

“Not as often as you’d think, given the local crime rate, but it was still pretty often.  Most of the time, we’d just let it slide, or take a picture of the thief and put it behind the counter with the big red word THIEF over it,” Jake said, scrawling on an invisible picture.  “Worked pretty well, but a few times it got violent.  We got robbed at gunpoint once, though I wasn’t there when that happened.”

“Well…none of that at Kouthry,” Venus said.  She drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs.  “I wonder if I should get a job on campus.  Just as an office clerk or something.”

“I’m sure you could, if only to seriously fuck with the heads of visiting people,” Remilia chuckled.  Venus laughed.

“Yeah, that would confuse the hell out of people.  Walk into the bursar’s office and there’s a Primarch behind the desk,” she said.

“Make people wonder just how high the tuition is,” Jake said, “that Lord Vulkan’s daughter has to work in the bursar’s office.”

A knock on the door announced Freya’s return.  “Hey, guys, Dad and I are gonna discuss what we’re going to do tomorrow,” she said, ducking in and sitting on the bedside.

Jake shrugged.  “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

Russ himself entered in his daughter’s wake.  “I would be quite honored to show you all one of the islands we use as a field camp,” he said, pausing in the doorframe.  He hid a smile at the boys’ surprise.  “I can promise no kraken, at least.”

His senses so attuned, he did indeed sense some of the anxiety from Alex that Freya had suggested.  He made a visible effort to appear more relaxed, leaning sideways on the doorframe and crossing his arms, and while Venus’ lad, Jacob, merely sat back down, Carlin instead deliberately crossed over to where Freya was sitting and sat beside her.  Almost like he was afraid Russ would take Freya away or something.  Interesting.

“Well, that’ll be an improvement,” Venus said, oblivious.

“I’d love to go, if we won’t be intruding, your Highness,” Jake said.  He tilted his head towards the planet, far below.  “Personally, I’ve found Fenris’ weather amazing so far.  Actual snow.  I never thought I’d live to see it.”

Russ allowed a small chuckle to pass his lips.  “I suppose to a hiver it would be more memorable than more or less anything else.  I think you’d like the island we’re visiting, though, it’s quite…what’s the phrase?  Picturesque.”

Jake smiled nervously.  “Sounds like fun.  What time should we leave, your Highness?”

“Say 0900.  I have a few administrative concerns to attend to.”  Russ straightened up.  “Am I to understand that you’ve availed yourselves of the firing range in the base of the Fang since you arrived?”

“Several times,” Remilia said.  “Should we not be doing that, Uncle Leman?”

“Far to the contrary, I approve.  Help yourselves,” Russ said with a nod.  “I’ve always hoped you and your cousins would understand the importance of maintenance of martial skill, given your…lineage.  You can visit it any time you wish.”

“Cool, thanks.”  Remilia stood.  “Don’t suppose we could convince you to stick around long enough to join our poker game tonight?” she asked with a coy grin.

Russ laughed.  “I’d love to, but my duty calls me to the consecration ceremony of our new Quicksilver frigate tonight.  Perhaps if you have a few spare hours nearer to the end of your stay, I would take you up on it, but for the time being…”

“Shame.  Oh well.”  Remilia offered her uncle a quick hug before vanishing into her own room to use the bathroom.  The others moved over to the table in the corner of the room as Jake broke out the chip sets.  Russ jerked his head out to the lifts and Freya nodded, rising to follow.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the others, Freya glared at him.  “See?  You make him so nervous that he didn’t say a word.  And he’s been a perfect guest since he arrived, even when he had just arrived.”

“Very well,” Russ conceded.  “I suppose he did, at least, show Bjorn due respect when he met him, from what he tells me.”

“He was outright reverent.  Give him a chance, father.  We won’t disappoint.”

“You never disappoint me, Freya,” Russ said.

“Neither will he.  Trust me.”  She turned back to the room and walked off.

Russ shook his head and tapped the call button for the lift.  As he did, he heard Alex approach him from his apartment, hesitation filling his steps but not slowing them.  Russ glanced back over his shoulder as Alex halted behind him.

“Lord Primarch Russ…may I ask you something?” Alex inquired nervously.

Russ nodded.

The stocky rugby player sighed.  “Look…I know you don’t like me, Freya didn’t need to say it.  And…yeah, I was…kind of a dick when we first met,” Alex admitted.  Russ snorted.  “But we both love Freya very much, and she helped me through losing not one, but BOTH parents.  So even if you think we can’t or shouldn’t be friends…can’t we at least not be enemies?” he asked.

Russ held the door of the lift open, and turned to glare at the boy.  “If you were an enemy of mine, Alex Carlin, believe me, you would be ''acutely'' aware of it.  That said…I suppose you right about one thing.  Freya’s happiness is paramount to me.  And though I don’t think you have her best interests at heart, your willingness to level with me and delay your own future plans for her sake speak greatly in your favor.”

“And I make her happy,” Alex said, stifling his annoyance.

Russ stared down at him before finally nodding.  “You do.  So very well.  If you wish to start over with me, fine.”

“Good.”  Alex nodded, sighing heavily.  “Good.”  He started to stick out his hand, but the door was already closing behind the Primarch.  Alex shrugged and plodded back to the room.

Freya was waiting for him.  “Did it work?” she asked.

“I think so,” Alex said, sitting down at the table as Jake poured them all water.  “I think he would just prefer that you only dated Fenrisians.”

“Probably, but Fenris is one of exactly TWO Space Marine Legionary homeworlds that doesn’t have Imperial standard education and awareness of the greater galaxy, so I would have a pretty damn narrow range of options,” Freya said.  “Besides, he sent me to a Terran school.  How did he think it would end?”  She kissed him on the cheek as Venus passed out the chips.  “Trust me, I won’t hold his lack of foresight against you,” she said slyly.

He smiled, squeezing her thigh under the table.  “Thanks, babe,” he said.