Reunited – Chapter 4

I run into Kentaro in the hallway on my way back to my quarters. I sat in the multi-purpose room by myself after everyone had left and stared out the window at the world slowly spinning below. I tried to formulate a plan for my life and hit nothing but dead ends. The only way I think I could continue to live is to hibernate again and go back to Earth. That’s the coward’s way out. Not for me. If I’m going to live a short life, I might as well do it under the sky of my new home.

Kentaro floats, waiting for me, purposely upside down with his arms crossed over his chest. I see him before he sees me, and I’m struck with how much more handsome I find him now after hibernation. His face is filled out, and I like his hair longer like this. He’s still not my type, but time has made him lovable. His head turns when I clear my throat, and his upside-down smile lights up his face.

“You’re doing that to throw me off, aren’t you? I was just getting used to up and down.” I use the wall to reorient myself so I’m also upside down and now that I’m here next to Kentaro, I feel like we’re both facing the correct way and everything else is wrong. “Zero gravity is a complete mind trip.”

“Sanaa…” He reaches out to hug me before I can stop him. My body tenses, but I soften after a moment remembering how he watched after me in our last months in Nishikyō. He paid more attention to me than my own family. More than Jiro, though that’s not Jiro’s fault. He pulls back and gives me a kiss on the cheek. My face burst into flames. I guess my blush response isn’t asleep, just waiting for the most inopportune moment to flare up.

“I never met you before you cut all your hair off back in Nishikyō. Are you glad it’s long again?”

“I don’t know.” I clear my throat once more and try to cool my face by mind power alone. “I’ll figure out if I want to keep it when we get down to Yūsei. I like your hair longer.”

He turns his head, back and forth. “Really? I’m thinking about a different style now that I have so much to play with. But you’ve seen my father. I’ll probably be bald in another ten years.”

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” I say, jabbing him in the shoulder.

“The same can be said of a lot of things. It’s great to see Helena up and about.”

Kentaro started out as an outsider in our group and remained that way until Helena’s poisoning, but I think he was more invested in us all than he led us to believe. I grab his upper arm and squeeze.

“She can even walk with a cane. It’s a crazy miracle. I’m so happy for her.” I wipe a tear from the inside corner of my eye and flick the drop from my finger. We watch it float away with a laugh. “I believe she and Usagi will be married in the summer.”

Kentaro nods and smiles lightly. “Good. I’m happy for them both.”

Kentaro and Usagi spent a lot of time together before we left while searching for the twins, Kazuo and Sachi Uchiyama, Helena’s poisoners. They were after me, too, bugging my bag and following me everywhere. I shiver remembering Kazuo’s last words to me. “See you in another life, on another world.” The Fujiwaras will not be my only enemy on the surface.

We absorb each other’s silence for a minute, and then it’s back to business. “Did Sakai come by and fill you in on Fujiwara?”

“Yes,” he says, sighing and crossing his arms. “I’ve never seen my father become so absolutely unresponsive before. He’s off waking my mother and a bunch of other people now.”

Kentaro’s eyes dart around, not meeting mine, and he bites at his bottom lip, which is his poker tell.

“Sanaa, I don’t know if our original arrangement still holds, but I’d like it to. If you’ll have me.”

“You want to stay in my house again?” I pull back from him and take him in from head to toe. His shoulders are loose and his hands are clasped, the way I saw him when he was relaxed at home. He’s not hiding anything from me.

“I want to.” He nods his head and reaches for my hand. “My father and I are completely incompatible. I love my mother but not enough to live under his roof. I was never as happy as I was living with you and Sakai clan.”

I remember how hard I tried the first night to get Kentaro to like me, and now look where we are. He’d rather live with me than his own family. My face heats again as he smiles at me.

“Of course you can stay with me. I’ll give your father no other choice in the matter, though I seriously doubt I throw much weight around here anymore.”

He tilts his head. “I think you’ll find that your role will change, but you’ll be just as persuasive as you ever were.”

—-

“I guess you don’t find me unattractive all out of shape?” Jiro asks.

“Here they are!” From out of the toiletries bin, I pull a small box carrying the contraceptive method of choice when your implant is turned off or low. They’ve been around for over a thousand years, but this batch states they never expire. I love innovation. I chuck the box across the room at Jiro and it flips over a few times before gracefully landing in his outstretched hand.

“Jiro, find you unattractive?” I slowly float over to him with an evil smile on my face. He chuckles and shakes his head. “You would need to be a lot worse off for me to not want you.”

If I can’t have a peaceful life, if I can’t live long enough to have kids and a family, then I’ll take Jiro now while I can. All of those days and nights I spent alone back in Nishikyō, I dreamt of growing old, the two of us gray-haired and aching, walking hand-in-hand with our family around us.

I was delusional. I was naive.

How could I be so stupid? It doesn’t matter now.

Once I’m to him, I unzip his flight suit and pull it off while he holds onto a bin above. He takes the box in his hand and looks at it on all sides. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait, love? We’ve never used these before because your implant always worked at one-hundred percent.”

I unzip my suit and shrug my shoulders out, my heart beating wildly in my chest. I like it filled with blood instead of empty. I’m alive now. Jiro’s eyes run down my body as I peel off one layer of clothing after another. I was freezing earlier, but now heat pours off of me.

“There’s no way we’re waiting.” No way in hell. I just had the most stressful twenty-four hours of my life, and I want nothing more than to work that stress off with Jiro. Naked. Preferably sweaty and lasting at least thirty minutes. At least.

Jiro stops to smile at me. I pull him to me, reach up, and free his long hair from the braid floating to the side of his head. I twist my hands in, get a good grip, gently pull, and he lets out a low moan. Yes, I remember what he likes. Remember like it was yesterday. His hands cup my breasts and brush over my nipples causing them to harden and stand up. Mmmm.

“Pull that underwear off.”

Releasing my hands from his hair, I do as I’m told, happily.

“This has been the worst day of my life,” I whisper close to his chin as I rub my nose along his cheek. “Make me forget. I want to feel loved, not pitied. Show me how much you care by sending my body into a quivering mess. And when you’re done, I want you to do it again so there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re mine.”

Mine. I made him mine the first time we slept together, and when I’m gone, he may become someone else’s love. My throat closes up.

“Hey,” he says, wrapping his legs around me and pulling my face up. I flatten out my features before he can look too closely. “What’s…”

I tighten the distance between us and press my lips to his before he can ask any questions. He crushes me to him, his hand cradling my back and my neck. I think zero gravity is going to be more of a pain than anything. Sure, I could easily push him down on me right now, and the way his kisses are blazing a trail down my neck to my breasts, I know that’s exactly where he wants to go. But I miss the sensation of having his weight on me. I won’t be satisfied unless we’re joined so completely we’re one person and not two. Maybe that’s the only way I can keep him forever.

My body is firing up, sweating as he runs his hands up one side of my hips then the other. Tingles follow the touch of his lips lower and lower.

I can’t move. I can only try to breathe through the happy, tearful, shaking mess Jiro has made of me, like I told him to.

When I’m finished, I hold his face steady in my hands. I want to memorize him, imprint his eyes, his cheeks, his nose, his mouth on my brain so I’ll never forget him. I kiss him hard, biting his bottom lip, and it sets him loose with a moan.

Kissing his face, over his forehead and down along his cheekbone to his jaw, I wait until his breathing calms.

“There we go,” I say, smoothing his hair back down around his neck. He sighs and rests his head on my shoulder. “I hope there are more condoms. It’s going to be a while before we can rely on the implant again. Thanks for making me feel loved.”

He kisses my cheek, to the side of my nose. “You are loved. I love you, and I know I’m not the only one who does.”