Ficlet | In-Universe Fic | The Strange Case of Starship Iris

[jaggedwolf]

“Krejjh,” said Brian. He had always known this moment would come, but his mouth went dry regardless. Another foolish betrayal of his body. “I can’t do this anymore”

Krejjh flinched like they had been slapped. All his years studying Dwarnian could never translate that into something more palatable - it only meant that every subtle shift of purple skin was perfectly comprehensible.

He steeled himself, and kept speaking. “I can’t enjoy these stolen moments knowing that every time you go back to base, you’re going back to the war. To killing humans.”

“You know that they’re trying to kill us too,” said Krejjh, leaving unspoken the obligations to their own people, a dozen other defenses they had whispered to him under shared covers.

“I know. But I’m not in love with any of them.” Brian’s voice cracked, he swiped away a tear from his eye and for once in his life he wished he had something other than words to lean on.

He swallowed back a gulp. “I can’t be around this war anymore. I’m leaving for Neuzo tomorrow.”

Krejjh’s face crumpled, and then they reached out to grab Brian’s hand. That was unfair. Taunting him with one final taste of what he was leaving.

Their grip tightened. “Then I’m leaving with you.”

He-

Arkady shut the book, regretting that she had even pushed herself through that much of it. “Why do you two even own a copy of this shit?”

“I hate it, but Krejjh thinks it’s kinda funny?” Brian shrugged. “They don’t complain about me holding on to that Dwarnian drama about us.”

Arkady raised her eyebrows.

“In that one, I’m an IGR agent who pretends to fall in love with Krejjh, who’s like, super high up on the Dwarnian command chain, only I actually fall in love with them.” Brian leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, uh, people project some weird stuff on to us.“

He chuckled, nodding at the novel in her hands. “And have a really poor understanding of Dwarnian anatomy.”

“Going to ignore the anatomy bit for my own sanity,” said Arkady, trying not to think about how close she’d been to reading an fictional account of her friends’ sex lives (not that she wanted the real one either, thank you very much). “But c'mon, Jeeter, everyone loves a good pair of star-crossed lovers. So they’ll cross the stars themselves if they have to.”