“No, this is for you, oh mighty captain.” I sat it on his head before he could react, then took a picture with my commlink because he looked like an idiot standing there blinking with alien flowers on his head. “I will be sending this to the team.”
“Don’t,” he reached for my wrist too late. The message was sent. He sighed and let go while removing the crown to toss into my chest.
“Careful. I worked hard on that.” I sat the crown on my head since he didn’t appreciate it. My commlink and his blinked from the incoming messages. Laughter spread from within the energy shield.
Roys rolled his eyes. “You look ridiculous.”
“Don’t be jealous. You had the opportunity to wear it, and I will not be making another. This is one of a kind.”
He sighed, daring to sound content, daring to let me feel content, then ruining all that by asking, “Did you talk to Lilea or Iylene?”
“Why would I?” I picked more petals one by one, leaving a trail of yellow behind us.
His voice had a softness to it, one he used on the others when he was feigning to care. I didn’t want him using it on me. “Because you should. Because you want to.”
Roys didn’t know a damn thing about me to presume anything of the sort. He showed up as our captain to boss us around like all the others. We were names on a spreadsheet, replaceable. He would forget each of us the moment we were reassigned or dropped dead. Pretending to give a shit was insulting.
“Don’t try that,” I said.
“What?”
“Acting like you know me. Thinking that us fucking means your words have any merit.”
He frowned, his eyes taking on an even darker hue, the one he showed when I really irritated him. Probably would make that face to others too if they got under his skin like I did. “You have made it abundantly clear what you think of me and my opinions.”
I removed the crown to toss into the jungle. “Yet you’re still giving them, earther.”
Roys stopped. I left him behind, trailing the edge of the forest for another bloom. He didn’t give extreme reactions often. Each one he showed, I stockpiled. The fix and the earther —his two sore spots. They were the paths to take, the ledge he hung from.
I pivoted to face a glare unlike any other. There was pure rage in his expression. If we were alone, the incident in the cave would have repeated itself. He controlled the anger in the open where others could see. Kept his grip firm on the flamethrower, jaw set tight and fingers twitching for the candies in his pockets. But he was the captain for a reason, for plenty of reasons, and one had to be keeping his cool in the face of insubordinate officers. I suppose I had to give him points for that.
“That was a guess, but I see I was right.” I approached slowly, like a cat sneaking up on prey, except this prey had razor-sharp teeth, same as mine.
“How did you formulate that guess?”
“Overheard you using earth speak the other night. Couldn’t hear who you were talking to, but it’s not a common tongue. The group and I were arguing about it.”
“You told others?”
“Yeah, we like to gossip.” I tried to put the blossom behind his ear. He caught my wrist, holding tight enough to bruise. The flower fell, and he let go after shoving me back.
I turned from him because, unlike me, he wasn’t a coward. If he wanted to hurt me, he would do it face to face, and I wanted to get the patrol over with so we could stop this nonsense. Might as well work and chat.
“Arana hinted that you might have been a fuckboy for wealthy off-planet earthers. Lilea thought you’re just a good captain learning multiple languages. Personally, I said earther, born and raised, and I’m right, aren’t I?” I continued my path, hands in my pockets. The flamethrower hung from the strap on my shoulder to bounce against my thigh.
“And you didn’t bring it up until now because you were waiting for an opportunity to piss me off?” He traveled somewhere behind, closer, but not at my side.
“I like to store information for a sunny day.”
“You like to have an exit when you’re feeling cornered.”
My teeth scraped from side to side. “Fools who don’t watch their exits are often dead ones.”
“And you’re no fool. You’re too smart for your own good sometimes.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t think you really mean it. There’s no need for you to pretend out here. No one else is listening.”
Roys adjusted his flamethrower, pointing it toward the flora as if he heard something. “You’re so bent on believing that I could not possibly have a single good thought about you.”
