The gun was surprisingly heavy and awkward in his hands, enough that he wondered how Jones managed to use it one-handed. When he asked, Jones just gave him an amused look and told him he’d get used to it. He’d been shown how to handle it properly and how to both load and clean it—Jones insisted he have a safety lesson before he even thought about firing it—and now he stood out on the firing range squinting at a target that looked miles away. In the warmth of the day he could see slight heat shimmers, and there was enough of a wind to lift his hair off the back of his neck.
“Sure you want to try this?” Jones asked. “You don’t have to.”
“Sure I do.” Andraeon closed one eye to see if that brought the target more into focus. It didn’t help much. “It’s not going to knock me on my butt, is it?”
“It’s a handgun, not a rocket launcher. You’re going to get recoil and you’ll probably have trouble controlling it at first, but just try to relax.” He moved behind Andraeon and adjusted his position then stepped away again. “Whenever you’re ready. Pull the trigger steadily, don’t jerk at it.”
Andraeon gave him a nervous look then tightened his grip and returned his gaze to the target. He could sense Jones watching him but instead of comforting him it only made him more nervous. He took a deep breath and gently squeezed the trigger.
The sudden explosion of the gun going off made him jump in surprise and inhale his breath sharply. He didn’t even see where the actual bullet went, though he was pretty sure it went nowhere near the target. He looked at Jones uncertainly and got a reassuring smile in return, and a gesture to do it again. Part of him didn’t really want to, but he smiled back, then carefully aimed and squeezed the trigger again.
“Oh, this is a wonderful idea,” Elle said dryly, making Andraeon jump and yank the trigger too hard. This time he clearly saw the bullet go far wide, and the gun’s grip smacked his hand painfully on the recoil. He yelped and nearly dropped it, but Jones managed to grab his wrist in one hand and the gun in the other.
“Don’t do that,” he told Elle. “You okay, Drae?”
“Yeah, fine.” Andraeon gratefully let Jones take the gun away from him, rubbing at his sore palm.
“What do you want, Elle?” Jones asked.
“I missed you, of course.” Elle grabbed his arm and turned it over to expose the brand on the inside of his wrist. “How’s this working out for you?”
“Drae wasn’t impressed,” Jones replied, surprising a laugh out of Andraeon. He covered his mouth under Elle’s questioning look and tried to look innocent.
“I don’t think I even want to know.” Elle dropped Jones’s arm. “It’s not going away any time soon, so you’ll just have to suck it up and bear it. I don’t suppose Shasta’s with you, is he?”
“Can you see him?”
“Don’t cop an attitude with me, Jonesy. I’ll kick your ass down to that target and back. Is he at home?”
Andraeon saw the expression in Jones’s eyes and decided he’d better step in before Jones remembered he was holding the gun in his hand. “He’s at home, yeah. He ran into some sort of trouble with Shiki the other day and they’re both pretty tired.”
“Trouble and Shasta go hand in hand. Was it an Aloria trouble or something else?”
“He said something about a giant snake. It chased them down and trapped them in his house.” Andraeon relaxed a little as Jones calmly unloaded the gun and put the cartridges into his pocket, then double-checked the gun was completely empty before sliding it back into its holster. “He seemed pretty scared of it.”
“A giant snake, huh. In the between places?” Elle’s smile faded. “I really hope that’s not what I think it is. I didn’t expect him to come out to play.”
“Why am I not surprised you know what it is?” Jones asked.
“Because I’m a fucking genius and you know it,” Elle said, but absently. “I need to go talk to Shasta.”
“Wait,” Andraeon started, but he was talking to thin air. “Take us with you,” he finished lamely.
“I’ll give Kaede a call and ask her to pick us up.” Jones dug through his pockets until he found the phone Kaede had given him—a regular one this time—and called her number.
“I’ll be back in a second.” Andraeon brushed a hand down his arm then headed towards the target. He inspected it closely and was pleased to see there was at least one hole in it, though it was a good few inches further to the right than where he’d been aiming. Without the gun actually in his hand, he felt more confident about learning to shoot, and made a mental note to see if Jones was willing to keep teaching him.
“Drae!” Jones waved for him to come back up, which he did at a jog. Just as he reached Jones, Kaede stepped out of the air and greeted them with a slightly frazzled smile.
“Everything okay?” Andraeon asked.
“Just a busy day. Emily can be… a handful, Jones.” Kaede patted his shoulder. “Don’t wince like that. Shiki was a terror at that age as well.”
“Thank you for watching her. Elle’s on her way to see Shasta, by the way.”
“Shasta will be delighted.” Kaede offered a hand each to them. “Oh, and I have some information for you. We can go over it later.” Taking their hands in hers, she brought them back to her house, where Shasta was sprawled out on the living room floor, colouring in a colouring book with Emily. Emily appeared to be in one of her infrequent calm periods, when she seemed as normal as any little girl; a far cry from the screaming and wailing she had indulged in when Jones and Andraeon had left that morning.
“Daddy, look.” Emily held up the book she was colouring in, pointing to the pony she’d crayoned in bright green and neon pink. She didn’t even look at Andraeon, but when he walked past her to go into the kitchen for a glass of water, he felt something grab the end of his ponytail and yank it hard. Fighting off an urge to turn and glare, he kept going into the kitchen without saying a word, reminding himself that he was too old to get into a fight with a six-year-old. He got his drink and leaned against the counter to drink it, absently rubbing at his still-sore palm.
Emily shrieked as he was putting the glass in the dishwasher, startling him into smacking it against the edge of the counter above. It broke in his hand, cutting into his fingers, and he dropped the pieces with a hiss. They shattered further on the open lid of the dishwasher and his blood splattered down on top of them. Biting his bottom lip, he cupped his other hand under the injured one and went to wash the blood off in the sink, tweezing out a few pieces of glass with his nails.
He wrapped a dish towel around his damp, bloody hand and went out into the living room to ask Kaede where the bandages were. He found Jones facing off against Elle while Emily cowered behind her father’s leg, her fingers fisted in the back of his jeans. There was no sign of Kaede but Shasta was obviously trying to play mediator, his hands held up in a calming gesture.
Elle glanced at him first, her eyes dropping to his towel-wrapped hand. “You’re bleeding,” she said, and Andraeon saw Jones turn immediately.
“We’ll leave you to it.” Shasta grabbed Elle’s hand and pulled her out of the room, ignoring the pointed glare she gave him and then their joined hands.
“What happened?” Jones started towards him, but Emily dragged back on his leg and he had to stop to scoop her up before she would let him go.
“I, uh, dropped a glass.” Andraeon unwrapped the dish towel to show him the cuts. “They’re not too bad.” He glanced at Emily but she had her arms wrapped around Jones’s neck and her face buried against his shoulder. “Is she okay?”
“Elle just startled her. Come upstairs, I’ll take a better look at those.” Jones hitched Emily up on his hip and led the way upstairs. She was reluctant to let go of him even there but eventually agreed to sit quietly on the bathroom’s floor as long as he fetched her colouring book and crayons for her.
His departure to get them left Andraeon alone in the bathroom with Emily. He sat gingerly down on the toilet, awkwardly holding the blood-soaked towel wrapped around his hand, and watched her. She looked back at him, frowning a little, her eyes narrowed.
“I want my mommy,” she announced after a few moments. “Go get her.”
“I can’t,” Andraeon said, bracing himself for another screaming temper tantrum, and possibly a sudden change of location, but while her eyes narrowed further, she only shrugged.
“I could go visit her.”
“Her grave?” Andraeon asked, aware that he was treading on dangerous ground.
“No,” she said, her tone adding ‘dummy’ quite clearly. “Shasta said she’d still be somewhere called the deadlands. I could go.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“You’re stupid.” Emily’s frown reappeared. “I can go if I want, you can’t stop me.”
“Then go,” Andraeon said before he could stop himself.
Uncertainty crossed her face, making her look more like the child she actually was. She studied him, licking at her lips. “Daddy will get mad at you if you send me away.”
“I’m not sending you anywhere, Emily. I want your daddy to be happy. He wouldn’t be happy if you left again. So stay safe, okay? Stay here.”
She looked at him suspiciously, then got up and came towards him. He nearly flinched away, even though she was just a skinny child who barely came up to his waist. He did flinch when she took his injured hand and unwrapped the dish towel from it, but her fingers were surprisingly gentle as she touched the gashes in his fingers. Her own fingers came away red with his blood and she looked at them for a moment, then laid them back over the wounds.
He felt heat go so deep into his hand that he was sure it touched the bone, but when Emily took her hand away again, the cuts were completely gone. He flexed his hand and felt only a slight ache, as though he’d just stretched them a little too much.
“Everything okay in here?” Jones asked from the doorway.
“Fine, I think,” Andraeon said.
“I’m going to my room,” Emily announced. She grabbed the colouring book and crayons out of Jones’s unresisting hands on the way by and stomped down the hallway to the room she’d taken over as hers. Looking bemused, Jones watched her go, then turned back to Andraeon and raised a questioning eyebrow.
In response Andraeon held up his healed hand, smiling a little at the way Jones’s eyes widened. “I don’t know why she did it, but it barely even hurts now.”
“Think she’s warming up to you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think even she really knows what she’s going to do.” Andraeon offered a smile. “I’ll take healing over being thrown in a cellar somewhere.”
Jones came over and leaned down to kiss his forehead, but his eyes were still worried. “I just wish I understood her better.”
“It’s only been a few days, Jones.” Andraeon took both of his hands. “Give it a bit of time at least.”
“Mmm.” Jones pulled him up to his feet and helped him wash the sticky blood from his hand before walking him out of the room with an arm around his waist. “As long as you can get along with Emily. That’ll be enough for me for right now.”
“I’ll try. Where did Kaede go? She said she had something to talk to us about.”
Jones shrugged. “She wandered off. They all seem to. I haven’t even seen Shiki since this morning.” He glanced in at Emily, who was studiously scribbling across one of the colouring book’s pages, and continued guiding Andraeon down towards their bedroom. “Hopefully they’ll all come back for dinner.”
“If Elle doesn’t eat Shasta.”
“I’m not entirely sure that would be a bad thing.” Jones released him once they reached the bedroom and went to sit on the bed, rolling his right shoulder. “If we were really lucky, they’d take each other out and solve two problems at once.”
Andraeon smiled a little and crossed the room, taking Jones’s face in his hands and kissing him. Jones returned it, looping his arms loosely around Andraeon’s waist and pulling him in between his legs. It didn’t last long with the door still open and Emily down the hall, and Andraeon pulled away with reluctance when he heard someone downstairs calling for them. He helped Jones back to his feet and they went downstairs.
Shiki was waiting for them in the living room with a woman and a little boy, neither of whom Andraeon recognized. The expression on the woman’s face when she saw Jones—pleased, a little hopeful—made his stomach give a small nervous twist, though she greeted them both with an equally warm smile. The boy came right over to give Jones a hug, though he was a little shy with Andraeon.
“Drae, meet Lea and Andy. Lea’s the one who found me after the cops shot me, and patched up my shoulder. We were both soldiers, and both in the project.” Jones gave Andraeon’s shoulder a light squeeze.
“I guess you weren’t really expecting us.” Lea gave Andraeon a curious look. “I have to admit, Drae’s not really what I expected.”
“He has that effect.” Jones’s voice was casual but Andraeon had learned his silent cues by now, and knew Lea’s statement had irritated him. Please by it, and feeling guilty that he was pleased, Andraeon was glad when Shiki got their attention by clearing his throat.
“I know it’s a bit crowded, but mom asked me to go pick up Lea and Andy after she’d dug into your background a bit. She thinks it’d be a good idea to talk to as many of Aloria’s project soldiers, and their families, as possible.”
“Why?” Jones asked.
Shiki smiled a bit. “To see how many are like you and Emily.”
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