Page 29 of Cloverleaf Station

“You are ridiculous,” Kieron informed him. He was amusing, though. Being with Elenus and Catalina was almost fun enough to make Kieron forget how tired he was, but after just an hour of freedom from the tank, he was exhausted. He tried to hide it, but Elenus saw right through yawns stifled with a stiffened jaw and slow, steady blinks meant to suggest attention, not fatigue.

“All right, Sparky, time for sleep.”

“Do I at least get to do that in my own quarters?” Kieron asked. He meant it to be acidic, but it mostly just sounded drained.

“Of course! I’m not kidnapping you. Besides, you have the biggest bedroom in the whole station, literally the only one that will fit this chair in it.” He got up to stand behind the aforementioned chair then said, “Say good night.”

It took a second for Kieron to realize he was talking to Catalina, not Kieron himself. Catalina sang out a few notes, and an excited “Goooooodddnniiiiiiiiiiighghghghght!!!” rolled across the tab.

“Thank you,” Kieron said, smiling despite himself. “You t—” He couldn’t prevent the next yawn from breaking through and belatedly covered his mouth with his hand.

“All right, that’s it, bedtime.” Elenus pushed him out of the hangar and down three different halls until they got to Kieron’s quarters. The door opened without even verifying their identities. Kieron glared up at Elenus.

“Did you shut down my security protocols?”

“Yes, but only temporarily, and only because I needed to be able to get into all the rooms on this station,” Elenus defended himself. “Yours included. It’s in my rights as the owner of the station’s contract, isn’t it?”

Kieron did his best not to grind his teeth together. “Yes.”

“And you’re currently lacking the implant which would get you into this room automatically, aren’t you?”

“I could use my hard-copy ID.”

“You’d already locked it into this room when you left on your mission,” Elenus replied blithely, bypassing the living room and heading straight for the bedroom. Getting the chair in was a tight fit, but he made it work somehow. “So I took some initiative.”

“Some meddling initiative.”

“I never meddle; I only improve things. Go on.” He motioned to the bed. “Hop on. Try it.”

“I can’t hop.” It was hard to confess that but not as hard as it would have been an hour ago. “Please. Help me.”

Amazingly, Elenus didn’t make a joke. He simply nodded and came around the chair, reached his long, gangly arms beneath Kieron’s knees and back, and lifted him into the air.

Kieron didn’t know Ganians were so strong. Their height implied some physical limitations in a standard-gravity atmosphere like this, but Elenus held him up like he weighed nothing. It was kind of … hot. He blushed, unable to stop himself.

“Oh, do you like being carried like this?” Elenus asked, visibly delighted. “Are you saying I could have foregone the chair entirely and just carried you around like a space princess?”

“Shut the hell up.” Kieron nodded his reddened face toward the bed. “You can put me down now.”

“I could. I kind of like this, though.”

Kieron did too. That was the problem. “Down. Now.”

“Yes, sir, Sparky, sir.” Elenus set him down gently on the bed; the top blanket had already been turned back. The sheets were suspiciously silky.

“Are these actual silk?”

“Would I do that to you?” Elenus replied.

Kieron rolled his eyes. “Clearly you would.”

“There, you’ve answered your own question! It’s not simple extravagance, though. I had extras; don’t let it bother you.”

That was a transparent lie, given the size of Kieron’s bed compared with the tiny bunk he knew came with Lizzie, but the sheets were comfortable enough that Kieron wasn’t going to complain again. “I’m not bothered.”

“No, you’re tired,” Elenus said. He walked back around the bed and slid past the chair, dimming the ambient light with a touch as he went. “Get some sleep. Call me if you need anything—just say my name out loud, and I’ll come running.”

“Don’t go to any trouble,” Kieron mumbled, already halfway unconscious.