What Dreams May Come

Chapter 6: Stay

"You're back," yawned a voice.

I opened my eyes to see an upside Levi staring at me with a grin. I righted myself quickly. Levi hopped over the couch to sit next to me.

"My things came by," he remarked. "Great!"

He didn't move from his spot next to me. I felt obligated to drag the box over to us, but as I got up to so, Levi stood as well and helped me pull it to the couch. It was heavy, that was for certain.

"You look...better," I said. "Rested."

"It's so dumb to be tired after being in cryo for as long as I have been," he said. "And that nap just took the edge of my exhaustion." Levi yawned. "Let's see what my father left me."

He leaned over the box, pulling out what I thought were small boxes, but had sheets of paper inside of them.

"These are books," he told me. "On Earth they printed words on paper and bound the paper into books."

"What do the words say?"

"They're stories," he said, sounding a little bit bewildered.

He stacked the books next to him; he had probably had more than twenty books. There were a few other articles of clothing that Levi folded carefully.  He sighed, holding the bottle of scotch in his lap.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

I knew there were probably a thousand ways he could answer such a question, but it was impossible to tell with Levi. I didn't understand him very well.

"I really didn't expect to be here," he answered. "To me, it feels like I had a rough night drinking, and it's only been a couple hours since I saw my parents. And I know that's not true, but it's hard to remember that they're gone."

I placed a tentative hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I said.

He flashed me that crooked smile that he used and I looked at what remained in the box. Discs were probably the most normal thing I'd seen yet, and Levi pulled them out by the handful.

"Some of these are video logs," he mused. "Some are my dad's old CDs. I bet no one has any players though."

"Some do," I admitted. "Passed through generations. Lisel has one I know; Lully printed parts to fix it. Maybe we could buy it from her."

"Could we not print one?"

"We don't have the materials," I replied. "The laser takes glass, and that is a premium, even with your credits. It'd be much cheaper to barter for it. I'll send a click when she gets off work and we'll talk to her tomorrow. Oh, I need to message my madre that you're awake."

I dug around my boxes for my holo-rib, somewhat wishing that Levi hadn't woken up. Now, I didn't know how I'd deal with my evening.

"What's with the face?" he asked, gesturing at me. "I can go back to sleep if that's better."

"Madre is worried that you won't get along with Papa," I admitted. "They were going to come over with the rest of my things."

Levi scoffed. "I didn't get the impression that your father liked me, no. I'd say I'm sorry that I turned out so useless, but that's pretty fatalistic, don't you think? Surely I have some skill."

"My papa is...very important," I said. "He just wants the best for me."

"I'm the best at Latin in the whole base," Levi laughed. "And probably French and Spanish too. I have dozens of poems memorized and all sorts of crazy stories right here;" he patted his collection, "ready to be read."

I perused his books and selected a thin one, handing it to him.

"You can read this," I said, reclining on the couch. "We'll decided later what do with my papa. He's going to have to get used to you eventually; you're my only genetic match."

"Really?" he inquired. "Do others have more?"

I nodded. "Usually we have two or three. Sometime age is a factor; most of the people in cryo are in their twenties, but there are exceptions. I would have waited if you were forty."

"Technically I'm a hundred and forty," he pointed out.

Levi took a moment to stack his books back into the box so he could lean on the other arm of the chair. Now was my chance, I thought. I could lean against him and let him read and we could forget how I had behaved this morning.

But I didn't. After a moment, he cleared his throat and frowned at me.

"What?" I asked.

"I could read this aloud you know," he said. "I'm sure you haven't read Molière, have you?"

"Non," I laughed. "I know a nurse who has the same name?"

"This place is weird," Levi mused. "Very well. This is the play The Misanthrope."

Levi went on to explain about the time period and each character before jumping in to the flowery text. I was quite grateful that no one I knew spoke like that. I had to stop Levi every so often to get a better idea of what was happening, but after a while, I didn't care. Levi had a soft voice, and the pretty phrases rolled off his tongue like they never would mine. I shifted so I was leaning against him, partially to hear better, but I knew that it wasn't the whole reason. He continued to pause and explain a little as he went on, and I nodded, keeping up with the moonshy love triangle as best as I could.

I jumped when I heard knocking at the door. Levi seemed startled as well; was it so late?

"Coming!" I called and then turned to Levi. "What are you going to do?"

"What do you want me to do?" he countered.

"I don't care. Stay or go sleep, it's your choice. My madre likes you well enough. "

Levi grimaced at the door, setting his book down. He rose hesitantly and then sighed.

"Tell me you want me to stay," he said. "Otherwise I'll go to bed and be probably better for it."

He watched my face hopefully and I was torn. This wasn't his fault, I told myself. And my papa, he couldn't change Levi or my life.

"Stay," I whispered, and hurried to the door.

____

Dylan's slowly coming around. I think. Maybe. She clearly doesn't know.

Upon editing this I realized that some of my chapters are crazy long. So I've spilt them up a little. Thanks for reading!