Renevere Mars: Part Three

Episode 30: Beyond the Stars

Ren followed Duren wordlessly out of the Vertex and wound through the halls of greater Vertexia in similar silence. Once they were outside, they started in the direction of where they both lived, though the paths would diverge soon.

"Well... that went better than expected," Ren tried to say lightly.

Duren slid a glance over at her, mouth flicking into a half grimace for only a moment. "Hm," he grunted, and offered nothing more.

Maybe she should try changing the subject to something light. "Well, I for one cannot wait to shower."

Duren did not slow as they reached the bend that he knew was her turn. Ren had no choice but to let him walk past her or she would miss her own street. "Get some rest," was all he said before he was gone. Ren's head swam with confusion and fear. Suddenly the inner buzzing she'd been feeling for days was returned in full frenzy. Of course, she thought, now that Sam and Cara are back, what reason do we have to see each other...

The thought threatened tears, but Ren had been through far too much to entertain them. Instead she did as was planned. She went home, she peeled off her mission clothes and deposited them swiftly in the dirty laundry, and she got into a steamy, hot shower. She willed it to melt her skin off, taking all the flesh memories of the past few days with it; the pain, the injury, the fear, the fighting, and the softness, the touching, the holding, the nearness. She even felt a little mad that Duren was ruining their great triumph by pulling away yet again, though that was hollow compared to the feelings of loss.

Ren had only just managed to finish eating and cleaning up from dinner when she heard a familiar tap, tap, tap. Her heart drummed along to match the staccato pace. She looked at herself, wearing her bathrobe and cloth pajama pants, hair barely dry from the shower... because the tapping at the window could really only be one person. She cast her gaze across the darkness of her unlit bedroom. When she made eye contact with the black figure, too dark outside to fully see, the window slid open. Duren's head came through, and then the rest of him. He shut the window behind him and stood beside her bed for a moment.

"We need to talk," he said.

Ren sighed. He was far too tense for her liking. Could they not just have one good day inside the walls of this damn city. She leaned her back against the counter in her kitchenette, an island and ample floor space between them. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Okay," she said.

"What you did today," he began slowly, moving closer to the island. The dimly lit kitchen felt far too warm and small for this kind of talk, "was reckless and showed a concerning lack of self-preservation."

"It turned out okay, didn't it?"

"By luck."

Ren ran her tongue over her teeth and looked away from him. "Says you."

"You're telling me you knew the Rexus would punish you so lightly if you took on all the responsibility, which by the way... was a lie, and you know it."

She looked at him challengingly. He had managed to move slowly around the island so nothing but a few paces stood between them now. He looked unforgivably irresistible in his home cloths, which she never saw him in, socks pulled up unevenly over his ankles, sweatpants and hoodie under his jacket.

All the more reason for her to argue with him. "It was my idea to break protocol—"

"If I had intended to stop you..."

"Of course you could have, Duren," she forfeited. "Obviously. But she was talking about excommunication and I couldn't let that happen because of me."