AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Krista grins stupidly at the grimy wall, carefully easing the board up and wiggling her fingers into the gap before it can drop. “You’re thinking about it.”
“It would not be part of the bargain.” He does not sound bitter, just surprised. That’s the thing about Thon. He just isn’t the type for bitterness and his regrets are the quiet kind, visible only in small, guarded glances and somber silences. It’s a good thing Krista’s already lying on the floor because she’s suddenly dizzy with wild, swooping relief. It was the bargain. Thefuckingbargain. Thon probably told himself that they agreed to their terms and that he should be grateful for what he received. He would never ask for more and he would never try to pin Krista to his side. Never. He knows too much about her history and he’s too decent for that. He’s just too heartbreakingly good.
“Areyouthinking about it?” he asks, his voice so small that it’s physically painful to hear.
“All the time. I never really knew how to bring it up. How do you just casually …” Krista snorts. “Apparently, all I needed to do was stick my head under a bed.”
“I doubt it would have worked at home,” Thon disagrees. “This is not an average bed. Or an average time.”
“You’re right.” Krista dips her hand into the darkness beneath the floor and wiggles her fingers until they brush her prize—the cold kiss of metal that she’s been half-afraid she will never find again. She pulls it free and wiggle-flops out of her hiding place as quickly as she can, hoisting herself into a seated position in the most unattractive, ungainly way possible. Her fingertips leave shining ovals on the screen, so she trails them from corner to corner, leaving four parallel streaks in the dust.
“Hello,” she says reverently. “I came back for you.” Krista squeezes the little data pad to her chest, recalling the feel of it in her hands like she just had it yesterday, but then she holds it up for Thon to see, a broad, silly smile splitting her face. “Thon, I’d like to introduce you to my data pad. The reason we’re here, retrieving this one instead of buying a newer, more easily accessible version, is becausethisdata pad, and all the data on it, are the reason I am me.”
Thon takes the pad from her and turns it over carefully in his hands, handling it like the priceless treasure that it is.
“I was asking the right questions, but no one ever validated them. I thought there was something wrong with me. This datapad proved to me that my … that thismicrocosmI lived in was not the whole world.”
“I am grateful. Helping you retrieve this has been an honor.” He drops into a squat, balancing gracefully on the balls of his feet, to return the pad carefully to Krista’s waiting hands.
“Hey Thon,” Krista says softly. Here it is, her idea fully formed and her datapad in her hands. She thinks if she suggests it, Thon might be on board, but she isn’t certain. Krista tightens her grip on the thin layers of metal and draws a steadying breath. “Um. So. I think we need to update the terms of our bargain.”
One corner of Thon’s mouth lifts, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “A little late for that.”
Krista shakes her head, letting her hand go where it wants to for once. It finds Thon’s knee—too large for her fingers to cover the whole thing—and remains there. “Do you mind if I impose on you a while longer?” she asks, unable to prevent herself from squeezing him nervously. “I have been thinking. Alot, because I’m pregnant, and because San kicked me out of the workshop, and because you won’t let me throw axes anymore.”
Thon nods, because he knows all of these things very well. He has been the one by her side, after all, enforcing the doctor’s orders.
“Well, I’ve thought about it very carefully and I—I want to raise our son.”
The Harkurian straightens a little. “Of course. You are his mother and I would never—”
“No,” Krista says quickly. “I mean, yes. I am. But no. I want to raise him with you. And maybe have another.”
For a moment, Thon can only perch there and stare at her. Krista shifts her weight nervously, realizing that her tailbone is sore. She’s been carrying around aheavybaby.
Thon wets his lips, his expression lost. “What about the stars?”
“I still want to see them,” Krista insists quickly, “But I don’t see why those things have to be mutually exclusive. Or immediate. We can do some freelance work after the pup drops, save some credits, maybe get a little SunSkipper?”
“And … You want to bargain for this?”
“I want todissolvethe bargain,” Krista corrects him firmly. She’s grown to despise the damned thing over the past several months. What was once a comfortable safety blanket has grown stifling and uncomfortable. It doesn’t fit her anymore. She doesn’t think it ever fit Thon very well, but there is always a thread of doubt. “I’m not interested in making a home somewhere else. I have one here. I hope.”
Thon’s answer is immediate and fierce. “You do. Always.”
“With you specifically,” Krista stresses, because she needs the clarification.
Slowly, Thon lifts her hand to her mouth to kiss her palm. “As long as you’ll have me.”
“And I … don’t suppose you’ll want a celebratory hand job over the top of the Patriarch’s ledger?” Krista bats her eyes up at him like this is the most titillating offer in the entire world and, for the first time since she’s known him, Thon throws his head back and laughs so hard he has to abandon his pretty squat to plop down on his ass.
Krista stares up at him with a dumbass smile on her face, irrevocably in love.
The scene they return to is not much different from the one they left. “What is the meaning of this?!” The Patriarch has been shouting. He stands with his hands on his hips and his feet planted some distance apart, but he does so from twenty feet away, unwilling to actually approach the big scary monster. “Tell me at once where you came from! How did you find us?”
“Hm?” Thon’s cousin Volar looks up from a basket full of fragrant onion starts. The outsider merchant he’s buying from is well-accustomed to Harkurians and he has been explaining the different varieties. “Please excuse me,” Volar tells the onion vendor as he turns placidly to address the Patriarch. “Krista brought us to meet her family.”
The Patriarch blinks like he’s been struck. “Krista? Krista who?”
