Page 28 of Star Bright
When they returned to the lobby, Atsu had already retreated to his fort, just one bare foot sticking out past the blanket draped over the chairs.
Vash was pacing by the windows, watching the doorway where they emerged. He halted mid-step, obviously yearning to race across the room but uncertain if such a demonstration would be welcomed.
Instead, Yadira ran to him, slamming into him hard enough that Darcy guessed he’d have the bruises her safety harness had protected her against.
But from the way he enclosed his arms around her so gently, his eyes closing in relief, in this moment he didn’t mind that life didn’t always come with guide ropes and cushions.
She’d always kept her safety harness on with Christopher, Darcy realized. She’d never trusted her hold on him, never took off her helmet, never even tried to ring the bell.
She’d never wanted to risk the fall.
What would it be like to know there was someone to catch you?
Someone with wings.
Chapter 11
Vash pulled the curtain closed around Yadira’s nest to cut some of the daylight and made his way to the windows to press his forehead against the cool glass. Outside the snow was still falling, the flakes large and slow.
“How’s she doing?”
At Darcy’s quiet question, he rolled his head to peer at her. “She said you fed her.”
“What that not okay?”
“That was very good. A hungry drakling is an angry drakling.”
“That can also be true of Earthers.”
Straightening, he glanced around them at the space, so quiet now, where beings from around the universe gathered to find each other amidst a much bigger, emptier space. “So many ways we are the same.”
“And you? How are you doing?”
That took another moment of thought. “It is…unsettling to me to think that the counselor who told me to be patient is long gone.” He let out a breath. “I think this time of quiet, away from everything, is not what he meant.” Pivoting to face her, he clasped his hands. The chill from outside seemed to prickle across his skin. “Darcy, may I ask you something?”
She tilted her head. “Sure. Whether I can answer though…”
“Do you think I was wrong to come here? Was I just fleeing my problems across space—and, accidentally, time?”
He was watching her closely enough to catch her slight jerk backward. “Oh. I’m not a counselor—or an astrophysicist, for that matter—”
“I’m not asking you as a counselor or a physicist, but as a…friend.” He hesitated. “Although crashing a spaceship on yourlawn probably breaks certain social boundaries as well as laws of physics which is not an auspicious beginning to a friendship.”
“Vash.” She reached out to touch his clenched hands, and the warmth of the gesture—and her touch—eased some of the chill.
But the tension within him only tightened.
She continued, “I’m a terrible person to ask because I’m only here becauseIneeded a place to escape my problems, to be by myself to think about things.”
He grimaced. “And then we came along to ruin your solitude.”
“That is not what I mean.” She squeezed his hand, a gentle reproof. “I just can’t answer your question for you. But it seems to me you weren’t trying very hard to get away from anything—since you brought what you love with you.”
“Yadira and Atsu,” he murmured.
“Did you plan to leave them here?”
He reared back. “Never!”
