Page 116 of Shellshock

“If you ever marry me,” he said abruptly, gazing at the open cell rather than her, “our wedding will end in here.”

He left her alone with that declaration.

* * *

Caligher dragged a visibly pissed-off pirate into the hold. Astyanax’s arms, legs, and even his tail were chained up. “So much bondage,” she remarked.

Astyanax’s glare landed on her and he hissed. Literallyhissed. It struck her as cute, in an aggravated rattlesnake sort of way.

“Hey buddy, I missed you too.”

Caligher kicked him forward to the open cell. As they closed in, Astyanax renewed his fight with newfound fury.

“What the actual fuck?” he cried. His voice went up by a shrill octave. “What did you twodoin here? Your scents are all over this place.” Lucca wished it were for the reason he assumed. “What sort of animals are you?”

“The voracious kind,” said Caligher, playing along.

“I sure hope interspecies sex isn’t a crime,” she added dryly. “Because if it is,this whole ship is a crime scene!”

The fact that Caligher cracked up laughing told her they were cut from the same cloth. It was her official litmus test that they belonged together forever.

“Whatisthat?” blurted Astyanax, propping his glowing feet on the frame of the door and shoving, shoving, shoving. “I’m not staying in a room with floating—body fluid. Disgusting! No! No no no no no no no no—”

“Cal, you said you sanitized it.”

“Oh. Let me try again.”

“Baby, we’re gonna get bad reviews.”

The pirate shrieked with rage, flashing lightning from inside his shell in angry pulses. “Fuck the stars, fuck all of them! And fuck you both especially!”

“That side of the room,” Caligher commanded. “Facing away. No sudden movements or Iwillhurt you.”

Astyanax remained steadfastly difficult. Caligher muttered a curse as he fought the feisty pirate past the threshold. “If you’re going to be like that, I’ll let you live in cuffs. That’s fine.”

Lucca lurked in the shadow of a nearby cell, feeling a stab of honest jealousy. They needed to get rid of this pirate so they could resume what they’d started. Their relationship was finally making sense. They were at the good part and Lucca had every intention to bleed it for all it was worth.

That cell washers.

“It’s gonna be a long flight, pirate, but I have time.”

“You won’t be able to keep me,” hissed Astyanax. “I am not… some exotic…pet.”

Caligher’s brief chuckle was almost sexual, as was the way he manhandled his prisoner.

And Lucca was honest-to-god envious.

* * *

Caligher showed Lucca the rest of the ship and they spent the evening playing with all the strange wonders now available. His bathroom was another world entirely. It would take days to explore every function. And Caligher could always make more changes on a whim.

They whiled away their night in his bed, making love under the silent backdrop of stars, then exchanging stories and naming the constellations. Lucca lingered, trading a day of travel for something she was oddly afraid she would never have again.

With the following morning came a strange new sense of…something.

Not a happy sense.

The thought of being separated left her feeling displaced. She was too distracted by her own welling dissatisfaction to take in the sharp-edged wonders of Wingless. The universe was far less charming when she faced it alone.

---