“I lost the job I always dreamed of, and my moral compass has been shaken to the core. I also just killed a bunch of people, horrible or not. But I haven’t lost everything. Losing you would mean that. And I have more now…we have more to live for now than we had back then.”
The Siren chuckled sadly. “Yes, children on the way, and a compound full of likely mentally unsound Cryptids. Not to mention an adorable little Cupid who stares possibly a bit too much, along with one insane baby daddy.”
“Well, the people in the compound aren’t ours, technically, and the Cupid is cute enough to get away with his staring. As for our baby daddy, he’s a crackpot, but he’s ours.”
“Is he though?”
Cyrus frowned. “I don’t know. The conversation of what Ender could become to us hasn’t really happened.”
Killian sighed. “No, we’ve been too busy with our impending fatherhood and career changes. But he kind of fits, doesn’t he?”
“You’re just saying that because he likes to take your side, as long as the arguments aren’t about him doing or not doing something.”
The Siren giggled.
“But…yeah, he kinda does fit. It feels like…” Cyrus hesitated, not sure if he could or should say it out loud, but he didn’t need to, as Killian finished for him.
“He should be with us?”
“Yeah…whatever that means, or whatever he will let it mean…”
“Killian?”
“Mm?” Killian hummed, as he wiped away another of the Fate’s tears when it fell.
Cyrus didn’t cry much, but when he did, even though Killian claimed otherwise, he had never felt as awkward as he did with others. Though, now that he thought about it, he didn’t feel awkward around Ender either.
“Why are you so…okay with all he does? It doesn’t seem to affect you. I mean, we’ve been here over a month, and you seem fine.”
He pursed his lips and eyed the man thoughtfully. The answer was pretty simple to him. “It’s because I’ve known for a long time that just because things are legal, doesn’t mean they’reright, and just because something is illegal, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
Cyrus’ brow pulled. “But you’ve always… You never…”
“Questioned following you into a rule-heavy government job?”
The Fate sighed. “Yeah.”
“That’s where you are wrong. I did question it. But I knew, one day, you would go further than field agent, and I also knew I wouldn’t mind working under you once you did. I knew I could trust you to do what was right.
“That doesn’t mean I always agreed with everything you did, and I definitely didn’t agree with everything your cousin did when he was in charge before you. I don’t always agree with the law, and as much as you try to, I know you don’t either.
“But Cyrus, you have to understand, my leaving, fleeing and hiding away from my family, from the marriage they’d planned for me, in my culture, in my species, was very illegal. Refusing to marry the Siren they had selected for me was illegal. Me not being willing to sacrifice myself by giving birth until I died was against their rules.
“If I had followed all the laws of my people, all the rules they have set to subjugate my subsect of the species, I’d be dead. I’d have died in those first hundred years. Things being illegal doesn’t always make them wrong.”
Cyrus’ bottom lip wavered as a few more tears broke free, his voice cracking as he asked, “How can you stand me then? Your whole life, you’ve been defying the laws of your people. How can you stand me?” The man laughed bitterly, roughly rubbing the tears away. “I suppose I should have asked this much sooner.”
“I know you are a goody-two-shoes. I have known that since we were teenagers, but I love you,” Killian said calmly for once, before smiling. “You are a good man. You always try to do what is right. You are a bit stuck on the rules, but even so, you knowwhen something is wrong, even when it’s the law. You always knew, which is why you were willing to bend so many times. Why you tried so hard to work within them, using whatever loopholes you could to get the best outcome. But we can’t anymore. The rules,yourrules, have to change.
“But let’s be honest, Cyrus, you are not as stuck on the law as you claim to be. You have crossed the line before. Not often, but you have. Even recently, like when Severo was on the run. You are willing to do it when there is no other way to help the people you feel responsible for.
“Most of it was in subtle ways, while some of it was just by playing ignorant of what and who was involved, but it didn’t make what you did any less illegal.
“I know you are struggling, with how far past the line everything is here. But Ender is not like I am. I was content to follow your rules, happy to play with my computers and technology, but he has a bigger purpose. You are not going to agree with all he does, so don’t try to. It’s okay to argue with him, to try and guide him to the best options, but don’t try to shove him into the box you fight so hard to keep yourself in.
“Like I said, I don’t always agree with all you do, but I still support you. Now, we need to support him. It’s far too soon to expect anything, but I think what was a one night stand—well, I don’t think we can call it that anymore. It was more than that, it was…”
“A night of comfort. We were there to comfort him,” Cyrus rasped.
