Orin kind of loved them.
He shoved the roll of parchment out between them. “Here, take these and stash ’em somewhere safe, with whatever else you’re packing for when we make landfall.”
Ari furrowed his brow in confusion, goggles shifting precariously as he unrolled the first parchment. “What are they?”
Rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, Orin studied the workbench as if those neatly labeled rocks meant rust-all to him. “I charted as much as I know of the deep dark, plotted all the Verge entry points I could scrape together. Got a couple of places you can punch back through the barrier. Outlined my exit route from the Restricted Sector for you. Made it real simple; any pilot worth his salt should be able to follow it out. Thought I’d leave you with a ticket home, if I could.”
Ari lifted his gaze from the parchment, eyes huge and clear and so damn beautiful it hurt to look at them. Like taking a hard right hook to the chest, but twice as deep.
Orin had to take a deep breath to get through the phantom pain. “I know it’s not much, and it sure as mud ain’t perfect, but it’ll getcha home if you get a half-decent pilot.”
Ari sniffed at that, lip trembling, staring down at the parchment like it wasn’t the saddest ink-blotted mess of scratches he’d ever seen. Like it was something worthwhile.
Orin shoved his hands in his pockets, shuffling his feet restlessly as Ari just continued to stare down at the parchment.
Something like shame clogged up his throat as he caught a glimpse over Ari’s head at the mess on the paper. Something hot and sharp and crawling all over.
“Had to write out what I could in standard block.” Orin’s voice came out too loud as he tried not to dwell on it, bouncing off the metal cabinets in the laboratory. “Didn’t know how to spell some of it, so you’re gonna have to use that big brain to put it together. I know it’s rough, but—”
Ari’s lanky arms wrapped around him, squeezing tight enough that his ribs compressed, and the parchment dropped haphazardly on the table and rolled until it hit up against one of those rocks.
Orin pulled his hands out of his pockets and echoed the embrace, yanking Ari off his feet by accident.
Ari just laughed, hooking his legs up around Orin’s hips as he climbed up to loop his arms over his shoulders, and Orin’s hands curled automatically under his thighs.
Ari slid one of his hands from Orin’s shoulder to curve over the nape of his neck. “Thank you.”
His voice was so soft and sweet it wrapped around Orin’s throat like a hand-knit scarf, soothing away that ache of shame he was still trying to swallow down.
Ari smiled up at him just like he did in his dreams, and Orin couldn’t control the way his lips pressed softly to Ari’s any more than he could control the stars.
Ari kissed him back harder and fiercer, hands gripping Orin’s neck and shoulder tight.
Orin started walking until Ari’s back pressed up against the wall, thighs tightening around his waist.
Those little brass goggles fell in a clattering mess to the floor at their feet.
Chapter Twenty-One
The ship ground to an absolute halt, the stillness heavy with bad portent, not even a single shudder of the engines running underfoot, just before the alarms started blaring.
The complete lack of motion sent nausea pooling in Ari’s stomach faster than rocking loops and swift turns ever did. Orin worked silently, nostrils flaring as he ripped a panel from the dash to pick through the nest of wires underneath. He held his breath as he ripped some of them apart and twisted them back together again in a small shower of sparks, not even flinching when they landed against his skin.
Ari sat in the copilot’s chair, lacing up his boots as lights flashed all around them. Orin remained barefoot but had thrown on a shirt, left hanging open with tails trailing down his hips as he squatted beneath the dash to tear open another panel.
Ari stared at the com light, the only dark spot on the wildly flashing dash.
“Do you think it is the Enforcers again?” he asked, trying to keep his voice level as he swallowed against the growing sense of dread.
Orin grunted, dropping a panel to the floor with an echoing clang.
“No Enforcers out here.”
He cursed loudly under another shower of sparks, lights continuing to flash, but the alarms finally silenced in a void of sound so abrupt that it hurt, clapping against Ari’s ears.
Orin popped open a small hatch and retrieved both of their weapons. Face stark, he handed Ari his pistol, igniting Ari’s fear. “You remember everything I taught you. Always shoot first and aim true. Won’t get a second chance out here.”
Ari gripped his pistol with numb fingers, standing to follow Orin as he stalked out of the cockpit. Orin stopped him with a firm hand against his chest.
“You stay in there. I’m locking the doors behind me. It’s the most defensible room in the ship. They’ll come through the bay doors, but I’m gonna try to kick her engines back on before they can get in. Get ready to set Delilah going full throttle as soon as you’re able.”
Ari studied Orin’s face, drawn tight and stark with a fear Ari had never seen there before. There was still a small mark in the shape of Ari’s mouth peeking out of his collar, framed perfectly by the open halves of his rumpled shirt.
“What is happening? Who is coming? I don’t understand.”
Orin grabbed the back of Ari’s head and pressed a hard kiss to his temple before stepping back over the threshold into the galley.
“Raiders,” he said, hushed voice amplified in the sucking abyss of sound. “Now you get ready to be the pilot, honey. I’m giving her one last kick in the pants.”
Ari shook his head, slapping his hand over the door panel before Orin could shut it. “I can’t. I’m not— My brother is the brave one. Not me. Theo leads, and I follow; that’s the way it’s always been. I don’t know how to be brave without him.”
Orin barked out an incredulous bite of laughter, sweeping his arm in a broad gesture encompassing the entire ship. “You’ve given everything you have to a no-account bastard pilot and flung yourself headfirst over the Verge to find your brother. You’re so brave it’s downright foolhardy.”
Ari gripped harder at the door panel, flexing his fingers in agitation. “It’s no less than he would have done for me.”
Orin’s dimples popped in his right cheek, twinkle briefly appearing through the murky haze of fear. “Sugar, all that tells me is that you’re both extraordinary.”
Ari pulled strength from the rush of warmth that ran through him at the words. He released the panel as he stepped back and said with a determined if somewhat shaky breath, “Alright. I’ll be ready.”
As the door shut between them, Orin’s focus never left his face, his hand half extended almost as if he’d intended to reach for Ari one more time.
The locks spun into place, shockingly loud in the booming silence of the cockpit.
Ari sat in the pilot’s seat, one hand gripping the throttle and the other his pistol.
The muffled sounds of Orin banging around and cursing came through the steel of the door. Ari closed his eyes for a moment, breathing deeply against the nausea and fear, trying to picture Theo’s smile. Orin’s face, complete with dimples, popped up alongside, as if making room for himself in Ari’s thoughts.