Notes: One last little breakdown before we jaunt off into the finale!

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part One

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Chapter Twenty-Two, Part One

Photo by Krish Gandhi 

“Give us a moment alone.” Kieron was aware of Elanus moving,reaching toward him even as he negotiated with Trapper, but he didn’t reallyfeel it. Even when Elanus took him in his arms, all he felt was a vague senseof pressure.

Panic response. You’re having a panic response. Buthe’d stopped having those when he was a kid…hadn’t he? Apparently they’drestarted in the years he couldn’t remember anymore.

“We can help—”

“Let’s not be hasty, we should—”

“Daddeee, I want tooo—”

“No.” Elanus shut everyone’s attempts down firmly. “Kieronneeds space and you need to give it to him, all right? If you want to help, youcan start brainstorming potential solutions amongst yourselves but Kieron and Ineed to be alone right now. That includes you, Bobby,” he added to their babybot, and Bobby tapped out a reluctant assent before leaving Kieron’s lap andgoing over to sit on Catie’s control panel.

Elanus lifted Kieron’s face up so their eyes met. His outlinewas oddly hazy to Kieron, like he was about to fade out of sight entirely. “Baby,no. Shit.” Elanus opened the hatch, took the big step with a grimace at thepain in his leg, then pulled Kieron down and out into the freezing cold rainwith him.

The chill was a shock that woke Kieron up in a way wordssimply couldn’t, connecting to the visceral part of him that kept him trying tosurvive when it looked like there was no hope. The greatest successes of hislife had been acts of survival, prevailing against the odds when someone wastrying to kill him, and being out in weather that could do just that tappedinto the part of himself that wasn’t reeling at the knowledge that his motherwas the captive of people who could and would kill her at a moment’s notice.

“Are you with me?”

Kieron blinked to clear his eyes of the rain and saw Elanus bendingdown not two inches from his face, looking at him with the kind of concern thatmade Kieron’s heart ache. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

Elanus’s mouth tightened. “Fuck that.”

“It’s cold, you’re injured—”

“I can handle a little wind and rain. I can nothandle watching you break apart again thanks to these people without doingsomething about it, I just can’t.”

Kieron shook his head. “This doesn’t have to be yourproblem. I—”

“No. No, we’ve had that conversation, we’re done with it,”Elanus snapped, fire coming into his eyes. “I swear, as soon as we’re marriedand back on Gania we’re going to go to therapy together, because I don’t thinkI’ll be able to survive decades of you not believing I love you with my wholefucking heart. Kieron, your problems are my problems, all right?Everything that’s important to you is important to me, because I love you and whenI say I’m going to stick with you, I mean it. Do you hear me?” He shookKieron’s shoulders. “Do you fucking hear me this time? I can say it again, I’llsay it as much as you need to hear it but I need you to believe me because I’m tiredof not being able to make you believe I love you just as much as you love me.Holes and all.”

Holes and all. Here they were, in the middle ofnowhere on a nothing world standing in the stinging, whipped up rain, togetherdespite it all and…Kieron suddenly laughed.

“Oh shit, you’re losing it, let me—”

“No,” he said, pressing up onto his tiptoes and pullingElanus into a kiss. Their lips were cold and wet, but it was still the sweetesttaste of his fiancé he could remember. “No, I’m okay.” We’re okay. “I’mall right now, I promise,” he assured Elanus. “I’m sorry I keep worrying you,but I’m really okay. We can handle this.”

Elanus stared at him for a long moment. “We.”

“Yes.”

“You accept that we’re going to be doing this together,then.”

“Absolutely.”

“Just like that.”

Kieron shook his head. “You had to work really damn hard tomake me believe you after everything we’ve been through, but I do, sweetheart.”He kissed him again. “I swear I do.”

Elanus looked gratified and more than a little turned on. “Well…good.”

“So.” Kieron leaned so his forehead rested on Elanus’schest. “I assume we’re going to figure out some way to get her out of this.”

“As opposed to allowing your frankly insane mother to sufferall sorts of torture and degradation before being  murdered by the cult she’s been ensconcedwith for most of her life?” Elanus snorted. “Obviously. It’s going to bea little tricky since there are no decent meteor fields around here, but I’msure between the girls and I we can come up with just the right lever for thisproblem.” He ran his hands over Kieron’s wet head, lingering at the ends of histoo-long hair. “You’re probably going to have to get face-to-face with themagain, though. I’m sorry about that, but I’m just not seeing a way to get themto actually release her without that interaction.”

“As long as it’s not you doing the meeting.”

Elanus chuckled. “Oh no, darling, I’ll be the one holdingthe gun. Whatever it ends up being.”

Kieron sighed. “Do you really think we can do this?”

“I think we can find an angle that will make these peoplewant to work with us, if only for a little while,” Elanus confirmed. “But thereal wild card is your mother. It seems like she’s been courting death a lot latelyand coming up a little bit short every time.” He hummed consideringly. “She’slike your inverse—surviving despite herself, while you survive because you’rejust too fucking stubborn to die.”

Huh. Maybe he and his mother had more in common than hethought. It was almost heartening, apart from the sheer toxicity of thatparticular trait. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now lets get back inside before I freezesolid, I’m delicate, have you seen these hands? They’re precious.”

Kieron lifted one of Elanus’s hands and kissed it. “Pointtaken, but honestly all of you is precious.” He let that compliment settle inhis fiance’s clearly startled brain, then tugged him back toward Catie.

They had a rescue and a getaway to plan.