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

===Pillow Talk===


The next few days passed quickly as they made their way through the Warp.  Sure enough, Haarlan didn’t seem to be pressing his case, and what he thought of the situation nobody asked.  Kines’ fears proved unfounded.

As they traveled on, both teens found their time spent as much with just talking as anything physical.  To Remilia’s distinct surprise, she found herself looking forward to it.  One late night, the two of them turned to a topic Remilia had had in her mind since before Nocturne.

Remilia was lounging in a chair in the corner of her cabin, listening to Kines describe his own family.  “Lotta ex-military, you know.  SDF mostly.  Nobody important, but we were there,” Kines said, lying on his back on the bed.  He was staring at the overhead and thinking aloud.  “I was drafted up to the Navy against my will.”

“Really?  Conscripted in peacetime?” Remilia asked.

“Yep.  It’s a ten-year tour, too.”  Kines shrugged.  “It sucks, but it’s good money, and the Navy paid for my degree, so I’ll land on my feet when I’m out.  Eighteen-month accounting degree,” he explained.

Remilia smiled at him over crossed knees.  “Was college fun?”

“No.  They rush us through so fast.  It was really annoying.  No time to enjoy anything.”  He peered at her, upside-down.  “You’ll get to take your time.”

She looked at his inverted face.  “Do you ever think about staying in?”

“Never.  I’m going to go home and get back on my feet.  Family, business, whatever.  Don’t get me wrong, I like my job, but this isn’t the life I chose.”

Remilia nodded, bracing herself for her next question.  “Can I ask about your sister?”

Kines hesitated.  “Well…I guess.  She was...seventeen months younger than me.  She was a lonely sort, her whole life.  I thought she just liked solitude, but it was more than that.  She was just so…scared all the time.  She never told anybody…didn’t want to be a bother.”  Pain crossed his face as the memories came back.  “Damn it…her name was Sophia.  We were close enough together that she wasn’t really a ‘little’ sister, but…”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Remilia said softly.

Kines shook his head.  “No…I should say it.  Kept it under a lid for years.”  He looked up at her again.  “How long have you been…I mean…”

“I stopped, Chuck.  I haven’t touched it in months,” Remilia said.

“I believe you.”  He looked away from her at the overhead again.  Why did the Navy hate putting central lights in VIP cabins?  It made no sense.

“But…I started when I was ten,” she confessed.  His eyes went wide.

“''Ten?''”

“Is that odd?”

“It’s…Sophia was fourteen.  I was just surprised.  That seems…young.”  He sighed.  “But what do I know?”

Remilia crossed the cabin to sit down next to him.  “I was so confused.  It hurt, but…part of me loved it.  The part that’s…not really human,” she admitted.

He looked up at her.  His face was impassive.  “What do you mean?”

“I’m not human, Chuck.  Simple as that.  Part of an Astartes’ DNA is in me.  And he was a…bit of a masochist.”  She turned to meet his eyes.  “I’m not ashamed of it.”

Kines looked away.  “I didn’t know.”

Remilia ran her hands over her arms.  “I can remember them.  Each one.  I have an eidetic memory, we all do.”

“Then why do it more than once?” he asked.

“I guess there’s…nothing like the moment.”  She rubbed her hands over her arms again, idly.  “I suspect that’s true for most things.”

He propped himself up on his elbows.  “Did it help, at all?”

“Well…believe it or not, I thought it did.”  She smiled faintly as she remembered her impetus for stopping.  “Then Magnus the Red, Lord of Prospero, Arch-Mage of the Scholastica Psykana, and doting uncle, scared the living shit out of me with the knowledge of what my future would look like if I didn’t stop.”

“Your family’s pretty good at that, I bet,” Kines said.

She lay down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder.  “He told me what I was doing, and he scared me straight.  I owe him a lot.”

“What did he say?” Kines asked.

Remilia closed her eyes.  “That’s for him to say.”

“Remilia…”

She hesitated.  Magnus had told her that the fate that people who gave in to such self-torment suffered was a horrific one, in the Warp.  The afterlife.  Kines’ sister had killed herself.

“I’m sorry, Chuck.  I don’t want to share that.  It’s not for me to say.  I don’t even understand all of it,” she said, which was at least partially true.

He glared at her from a few inches away.  She looked back, sad but resolute.  He finally relented.  “I guess it’s too late to matter,” he grumbled.  “Anyway.  My parents…they didn’t understand.  They thought she did it for attention.  The doctor said she was just so scared of everything…she thought it was a way out.”

Remilia hugged him sideways.  “You don’t have to say anything more about that.  What’s the rest of your family like?”

“My dad’s ex-SDF.  Patrol boat officer.  My mother was a farmer, so was dad after he retired.”  Kines looked over at her again.  “How about you?  Any other siblings?”

“Well…”  That brought her up short.  He didn’t know about her unique family?  “I’m an only child, but my cousins have been there since the very beginning.  I’m closer to some than others, of course,” she said.  She rolled off of his arm and sat up against the bed, cradling his head in her lap.  “Do you want to know about them?”

“Sure, I’d love to.”

Remilia thought about the lengthy roster and smiled.  “Well, Freya and Venus you’ve met.  Let’s see…besides them, I think I’m probably closest to Roberta.  She’s Roboute Guilliman’s daughter.  She’s the bookworm where I’m the athlete, but other than that, we’re pretty alike.”

Kines pondered that.  “Any you don’t get along with?”

“Well…I used to be on pretty rough terms with Hana.  She’s the one the tabloids love,” she added drily.  “You know, the one with the leather and welts on her hands?”

“Ah yeah, she’s hard to miss,” Kines chuckled.

“She was a bit of bully when she was younger, but she’s a lot more mature now.”  Remilia pondered the others.  “Farah Manus.  She’s a lot of fun.  She’s the one who can pull off the bubbly and energetic without being annoying bit.”

“Are her hands really augmetic?” Kines asked.

“Yeah.  I think you’d like Angela, too, she’s the one with the wings,” Remilia said.

“Wait, those are real?” Kines asked.

“…You’ve never seen a picture of Sanguinius?” Remilia asked.

“Well, yeah, but I thought they were part of his armor,” Kines said, staring up at her.  “They’re real wings?”

“Yeah, they’re real.  He can actually fly.  She can’t, not without a jetpack.”

“That is so cool,” Kines said.  “Are any of them psykers?” he asked.

Remilia paused.  “That’s kinda personal, you know?  I mean…I can’t imagine one of them would mind, though.  Miranda.  She’s Magnus’ daughter.  She’s a psyker, an amazing one.”

“That’s cool too.”  Kines hesitated.  “I had an uncle who was a psyker.  The black ships came when he was eleven.  My mother never saw him again.”

“Yeah…well, Miranda was already on Terra, so she just stayed there to train.  She barely needed it, though, her control was so fine already.”

“Hmm.”  He met her eyes.  “Are you a psyker?”

“Oh hell no, I’m no psyker,” she laughed.  “None of the three of us you’ve met have any psychic power at all.”

“Me neither.”  He narrowed his eyes.  “So...any others you don’t get along with?”

“Sort of, but I don’t want to badmouth them behind their backs, you know.”

“Can I ask a bit more about life on Terra?” he asked her from her lap.

“Sure.  What do you want to know?”

“Did it ever just…hit you?  Just the idea that ‘Oh fuck, I’m the granddaughter of the most important person in galactic history?’” Kines asked.

Remilia chuckled.  “Sure.  Once or twice.  Then you go to a high school as one of a class of a thousand, and suddenly I had to work for everything I did.  Not that I hadn’t before, but the tutors and teachers we had as kids kinda coddled us.”  She shook her head.  “I don’t really blame them, but it made high school sort of a slap in the face.

She squeezed his hands under his head.  “So, are we living up to your preconceived notions?”

Kines laughed.  “Better.”

“Better?”

“Yeah.  You’re people, not just pictures.  That’s better.”

She blushed a bit and squeezed his hands again.  “I rarely get to ask.  How exactly does the average solider of the Imperium see us?”

“I dunno, I’m a sailor.”  He flinched as she swatted his ear.  “Ow!  Okay, fine.  For the most part, people are kinda nervous about you, really.  In person, anyway.  Nobody knows how to act around you.  You’re so far above us in rank that people really can’t reconcile your age with your power, you know?” he said.

“Yeah, I noticed.  I meant when we’re not around,” Remilia patiently explained.

“Ah.  Well…the policy against unauthorized holos is pretty severe, so for a few of you, we don’t even know what you look like.  There’s always the tabloids, but still.  Not gonna lie, the weeks after Lady Morticia was shot were pretty wild, with all the news coming in.”

“That’s sweet.”  She smirked.  “Did you pick favorites?”

Kines froze.  “Wow, there’s a loaded question.”

“Hahah!  I’m not judging.”  She stage-whispered her next words.  “I already won.”

Kines chuckled.  “Well…sure we did.”

“Oooh, who did you all pick?” Remilia eagerly demanded.

“Lady Isis, most of the time.  Those eyes…mmm.  Man could get lost in those.  And, believe it or not, Lady Furia.  What can I say, the guys feel they have to show some backbone,” Kines chuckled.  “Me, I honestly don’t remember picking a favorite.”  He smiled up at her again.  “And like you said, you won.”

“Yeah.  Well, Isis is pretty spoken for,” Remilia said, feeling a bit of a pang as she thought of Julius, still trapped in the path of an Ork horde.  No word had come from Seadelant for a while.  “Furia’s actually spoken for a few times over,” she joked to fill the air.  “Your crewmates are shit out of luck.”

“Ah, well.  No ring on your finger,” Kines said in satisfaction.

“Very true.”  She hesitated.  “You know, we’re probably not going to be able to see each other after summer.”

“I know.  It’s a bum deal, but that’s life in the Navy.  It’ll be worth it, as long as Haarlan doesn’t throw me out an airlock the moment Venus is off the ship,” Kines said.

“He won’t, don’t worry,” Remilia said.  “He won’t disobey her.”

“He’s honestly not so terrible, he just has a rulebook up his ass,” Kines sighed.

“So I’ve observed.”  They sat in silence a bit longer, before Kines finally sat up.

“Thanks, Remilia.”  He stood from the bed, stretching.

“You’re going back to your bunk?” Remilia asked.

Kines sighed.  “I think so.  Sorry, but after talking about Sophia, I’m just not…well, you know.”

She winced.  “Sure.  But I think I’d prefer it if you stayed here,” she said.

He looked over at her.  “Really?”

“Yeah.  Just spend the night.”  She smiled up at him.  “If you want.”

He paused.  “Well…sure, why not?  You’re more comfortable than a bunk,” he said slyly.

“I’d hope so!” she giggled.  She started getting undressed as Kines wandered into the bathroom.  “Do you have to share a bay with the other Lieutenants?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s a pain.  At least the male ones, female officers get their own bay.”

“How do you keep from getting each other pregnant on the ship?” Remilia asked.

“We don’t, basically.  More future crewers,” Kines said through the open door.

She stared through the door as he started on his teeth.  “Are you for real?”

“Sure.”  He tilted his head back to look at her.  “That surprises you?  Some of our tours last twenty years, with up to a full year in the Warp at a time.”

“Yeah, but…wow, that’s kinda mercenary, isn’t it?” she asked.

“It’s not like anyone’s being coerced,” he reasoned.

She shuddered.  “I’m so glad I’m not in the Navy, then.”

He smiled as they switched places.  “It takes some getting used to.”

“Any little Charles’ running around?” Remilia asked, not joking in the slightest.

“Hah!  Nope, not one,” Kines said.

Remilia shook her head.  “That’s quite a relief.”

He laughed as he stripped his outer clothes off.  “You and me both.”  He slid into bed, dimming the lights, and felt her warmth join him a moment later.  “All right.  Good night, Remilia.”

She pecked him on the cheek.  “Night, Chuck.  See you tomorrow afternoon.”