Radiance: Part One

V11: Coping

Ryr the 5th, 5694 CE; 1522 hrs

Mara stood in the middle of the gym with hands on her hips, staring Vyrik down from just a few feet away. She was a decade his junior, but had so much more worldly experience than himself that it often felt like it was she who was older. Her leg had long since been fully healed, and they'd been meeting up once per week to work out together in silent agreement to catch up as much as they could before it was safe for her to travel again.

"Still working out to cope with your stresses, I see." She chuckled, tossing a medicine ball at him with practiced ease.

"I'm not unhealthy about it-" He scoffed, "I know my limits, and exercise just so happens to work best for me."

"Yes, but you still run away from the people who care about you." She sighed, dropping into a squat as she caught the ball, having been tossed back to her. They were both coated in a thin layer of sweat, more than halfway through their work out.

"I can't decide if I love it or hate it that Lyda has taken such a liking to you..." Vyrik chuckled, shaking his head.

"Are you worried I'll take them with me on my travels?" Mara cocked a brow.

"I suppose I am, somewhat. But I'd never hold them back from what makes them happy. We have more time than either of us can comprehend and they've been planet-bound their entire life. I'm more so just jealous that I can't be the one to take them..."

Lyda and Mara had gotten nearly as close as they were with their human friends, in the weeks since they'd landed. They saw each other almost every day. Vyrik wasn't worried about their closeness, he knew that what he and they had couldn't be duplicated with a single other being in the universe. They could take other lovers, or even be wed to someone else, and he would know at the core of his being that it meant nothing compared to what they shared with the Glow. He was still quite young, but his experiences with jealousy thus far had done enough to show him how to be better. Even if Lyda did decide that they wanted to join Mara's crew- something they had so far proved themselves to be more than capable with how quickly they were learning 'alien' technology.

Mara set the ball down and wiped her hands off on her thighs, taking a deep breath.

"I could probably run things for a little while if you wanted to take a vacation, when the dust finally settles." She stretched her arms and dropped her top half down to touch her toes.

Vyrik did similar stretches, "I think a vacation would be divine."

As morning bled into afternoon, they met Lyda in the dining room for lunch, finding them with their nose buried in an air screen so intensely that they jumped when they realized they were no longer alone in the room.

"Are those blueprints?" Mara cocked her head, grinning.

"They might be," Lyda smiled anxiously.

"What have you got your hands on today?" Vyrik matched their grin with a more excited one. He was more than happy to see them so enamored in their craft. He wasn't so much into the engineering side of things himself, but he could certainly understand its appeal, especially given Lyda's background.

"This is the blueprint for my house, actually. The one I was supposed to get, I mean." They chewed their lower lip, as they seemed to have been all morning. Vyrik suspected that it was a life-long habit that they might not even be aware of.

"Have you changed your mind about staying in the palace?" It was refreshing to see them be so independent, albeit a touch sad that they might choose to leave. Vyrik had grown to enjoy their closeness and would be remiss of it. They'd spent the past week and a half wrapped around each other, even spending every other night in the other's rooms. He could tell that they had been ready to burst at the seams, so wound up in nothing but each other. It was easy to forget that they'd only known each other for a handful of months.