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.“Good,” she said.“I… I’m glad to be here.Uhm….” And there was that smile again.“Is there any way we could get some new vids in here, then? Some comedy ones? We’ve been watching the same shit forever.”C.J.had to laugh.Who knew? Even holograms got bored.HE WASN’T laughing the next morning.He’d taken Anderson to his quarters and prepped the couch for him and then settled down to his console to do some work.He didn’t mind being Anderson’s de facto guardian, but he didn’t want to let Marshall down either.He wasn’t surprised when Anderson woke up screaming silently less than twelve hours after the last time, and he was ready to rush in there and put his hands on the young man’s face and smooth his hair back and tell him that it was okay—someone was there.He was unprepared for Anderson’s warmth in the dark, and the way he smelled spicy like C.J.’s soap, and like the chocolate pie that C.J.had bought for him after they’d left the shuttle, and like Chips, the gamma bird, who smelled like lavender and mint.(None of the residents in the Hermes system had any idea why, but it was one of the reasons the birds made such outstanding pets.)Anderson took one of those deep, shuddering, post-sobbing breaths, and C.J.stayed there, crouched at his feet, hands on Anderson’s cheeks, for just a moment too long.Anderson reached up and laced his fingers with C.J.’s, and C.J.’s breathing hitched.He really was a pretty kid—those pouty, full lips were so lush, and the dark brown eyes… mmm.C.J.looked at his own light green eyes in his coffee-cream skin every morning.Seeing the reverse contrast—dark brown eyes, pale skin—it was interesting, alluring, and so, so sexy.Anderson dropped his chin then, so he could look out of those sexy eyes sideways, and C.J.’s heart sped up a little.Anderson knew it, too, the little shit.He knew he was pretty.He might have grown up alone, but he’d grown up with vids and pictures.He knew he was being cute.“I’m sorry I keep doing this,” he apologized.“It’s awfully kind of you to keep calming me down.”C.J.’s sigh came from his toes.Anderson may have known he was being cute, but he was also being totally sincere.“I don’t like seeing people in pain,” he answered back with his own sincerity.“If I’d been good at that, I would have been like Cassidy, lots of degrees in medical science, instead of just the two in engineering.” And odds were, he thought with a little pang, he’d still be with Jensen, but it was nine years too late for that.“Your sister just likes to be in charge,” Anderson said.“They get bossy that way.”C.J.blinked.Interesting.“You had one of those?”Anderson nodded and changed the angle of his chin so he wasn’t flirting anymore.“I had three, but one was older.She was….” He stopped.“I don’t have any words just yet.Is that okay?”“Yeah,” C.J.told him, trying to reassure.He tried to move his hands, but Anderson captured them tighter and moved them to his knees.“Do you like men, C.J.?” he asked, and C.J.felt himself blushing in the dark.“I sort of play both sides,” he said, and now he was the one with his face turned away and his eyes looking front.He was surprised at the wry twist to Anderson’s mouth.“Everyone seems to,” he said enigmatically, and C.J.shrugged.“Hermes is sort of an open-minded place, all three planets.No crazy religious sects, no scary politics.You work your job, you contribute to the community, and you get enough credits to play.You feel like hibernating in your cave all day, and they feed you and ignore you.I’ve seen some of the footage of old Earth.I’d rather live here.”Anderson smiled then.“Good,” he said.“Good.I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that.I was told….”“By who?”Anderson shook his head.“I don’t want to talk about him, okay? He’s not a nice person.I would rather just… just sit here.” He smiled prettily, the way C.J.had smiled at Jensen.“Okay, Anderson,” C.J.said softly, a shiver of foreboding creeping up his spine.“We don’t have to talk about him.That’s fair.What do you want to talk about?”Anderson’s smile was soft and sweet.“Tell me about you,” he said with such utter guilelessness that C.J.found he had no choice.He sat up then, moved to the corner of the couch, and Anderson simply lay down, as he had the night before, and rested his head in C.J.’s lap.C.J.found himself talking about planetside and growing up.His parents were still alive, and he and Cass and Marshall found themselves shanghaied into family dinners whenever they were downside.And in the quiet dark, as he ran his fingers through this pretty kid’s hair, he found himself confessing that he loved doing that.He loved going out in his dad’s catamaran on the great blue lake that broke up one of the eight continents below, and he loved hiking through the purple forests of the Amethyst continent with his father.He also had fun explaining to Anderson that someone really must have had a sense of humor when they arrived to colonize, because there was also Emerald, Garnet, Sapphire, Diamond, Ruby, Opal, and Pearl [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]