Page 23 of Star Bright
With the strangled gasp of rage, Yadira pounced from her stool onto her brother. Both went down in a tangle of scrawny fledgling limbs and brittle stool legs. Something snapped—hopefully just a stool—and someone howled. Reaching into the fray, Vash took a vicious gash to his forearm. Hopefully from the shattered stool and not one of his biting children.
He wanted to roar, not physical pain or even outrage, just the brutal reality that he was alone with his feral offspring. But the beast swallowed the sound. He caught one child in each arm, spinning them away from each other.
Yadira growled, anger, fury, and probably the smell of blood adding depth to the sound. Maybe he hadn’t needed to find a new mate; he would’ve willingly opened a vein for his child. “Let me go,” she snarled.
He reeled her tight against his chest and closed his eyes, kissing the back of her head where the knots were even worse than before. “Never,” he whispered. “My mountain tempest. I will never let you go.”
For a long moment, she strained away, then went limp, all that furious power leaving her slim body.
When he opened his eyes it was to meet Darcy’s querying glance. “Sorry,” she murmured. “Got a report of a…disturbance.”
“I will pay for any damages, of course,” he said. He would’ve preferred to put the children down as he explained, but he wasn’t convinced they wouldn’t go after each other again.
“I’m sure the IDA has a budget for party mishaps,” she said. “And it’s probably worth a note to management that there should be other amusements for beings of different age ranges.”
From Vash’s other arm, Atsu piped up. “You need more kinds of eggs,” he ordered. “And you need a playground.” He glanced around at the mess he and his sister had made. “These toys are not very sturdy. Someone could get hurt.”
Darcy let out a little cough that Vash suspected was hiding an Earther laugh. But she whipped out a datpad and dutifully tapped a note. “More kinds of eggs. Better toys.” She glanced at Vash. “I believe there is a gymnasium. Maybe that would be worth trying?”
Though still clad in her soft uniform of stretchy, fuzzy fabric, with her datpad, Darcy looked very much the part of the brisk, efficient IDA staffer distracting patrons from their grievances. She’d only known about aliens for three days while he’d been parenting alone for five sols, and she was already much better ather temporary job than he was at his lifetime appointment. He’d be more jealous if he wasn’t so grateful.
“Post-cryo exercise is so important.” Kong rolled out from behind the bar where the droid had retreated after Atsu had loudly objected to the eggs being too white and too yellow. “There are a variety of physical diversions available in the gymnasium, and there are also outdoor physical activities if the weather were not so inclement.” Probably desperate to get them out.
“I want to see the playground,” Atsu demanded, perilously close to a wail.
“I’ll have Ug meet us there.” Darcy tapped more at the datpad. “He is very good at welcoming and comforting.”
“I want to stay here,” Yadira countered. With more vigor than even his beast would’ve guessed she possessed, she wrenched free of his grasp, whirling around to face them all as if they were enemies she must fight off single-handedly.
His arm ached—and yes, those were definitely teeth marks—but not as much as his heart. “We will stay together.”
Though he did not mean it as a command or threat, his own beast was in his voice. She lifted her chin as if she might challenge him, but then she folded into herself again. But she was with their little group as they headed out.
The gymnasium was large and well appointed, although he noted it was subtly geared to facilitate intimate connection, with smaller, sequestered areas emphasizing interaction and cooperation rather than solo play. Which made sense for a dating agency. It even had a pool, which made Atsu whoop—whining forgotten for the moment, for which Vash wanted to thank Darcy profusely.
“Ah, he knows how to swim?” Darcy asked as the fledgling ran for the edge.
“For creatures half of the air, we are very buoyant,” Vash assured her.
“That explains why I was able to help Ug carry you away from the crash.”
Keeping one eye on the young drakling, Vash glanced at her. “You carried me?”
“Helped,” she repeated. “You were kinda out of it.”
He grimaced. “You have been an excellent host, and I have been a terrible guest.”
“You had a good excuse. A bunch of them, actually.”
Looking around to check on Yadira, he found his daughter glowering at him. Or not him, actually, at Darcy, who was leaning down to say something to Ug. The toothy quadruped padded toward the pool where Atsu was stripping down.
Caught between watching his fractious son and wondering at his daughter’s hostility, Vash wished he might reverse the astronavigator, rewind the chronometer, anything to just have another chance.
“Yaya? Do you want to swim with me?” Atsu hopped around on one leg as he stripped off his pants.
“No.” She went around the far side of the pool to throw herself into one of the lounge chairs half-hidden under a broad-leafed plant. “I don’t want to get my hair wet.”
“That might get some of the knots out.” When she started to rise, fury on her face again, her brother threw himself into the pool.
