Page 3 of Reformation
“Such as?” Darrel asked acidly, wiping at the foam with his hands. He was taller than Ten by about six inches, with dark-brown skin and a handsome, square-jawed face that, coupled with the Academy uniform, usually made him look like a model cadet.
Not so much when he was wearing a sticky layer of orange goo, though.
“Such as its volatility is more easily expressed than my initial hypothesis suggested, and while it has a lot of redeeming factors, statistically speaking, I’m not comfortable potentially injecting my cell lines with a substance that might set them on fire, much less an actual person.” Ten sniffed. “See? This is me beingcareful, take note of that.”
“I’ll take note of the fact that we’re supposed to be in class in thirty minutes, and you just set all of us back, thanks to your little science experiment.”
“Little? It’s not little, it’shuge, this could change the entire field of medicine, and also, testy much? Honestly, what’s made you so angry this week?” Ten’s tone turned speculative. “Could it have something to do with the fact that you’re sleep-deprived due to taking almost double the normal course load thanks to splitting your time between the command and linguist tracks? Which is a stupid thing to do, by the way. Any moron could see that you’re much better suited for the linguist track.”
“You’retaking more than double the normal course load. You have no room to criticize me,” Darrel snapped.
“I’m a genius insomniac egomaniac; I can handle all those classes and get through the tests and practicals with my eyes closed.” Ten sounded frustrated, and Cody knew why. This was hir way of trying to be supportive, as incredible as that seemed, but Darrel had refused to be comforted by anyone since they got back from Perelan, even Grennson. He’d had a meeting with his mother and grandparents, and in the space of an hour, they’d said something to him that had affected him badly enough that he’d added the command track classes. They were all curious about what had happened, and why, but the only person likely to get the truth out of Darrel anytime soon was Grennson. That didn’t mean Ten wouldn’t stop trying, though, so Cody sighed and sat up in the interest of heading off a fight.
“We have to leave soon. You guys should shower.”
Darrel rolled his eyes, turned, and stalked out of their room. Now that the scent of burning had mostly been carried away by the ventilation system, Cody could smell the savory spice of Grennson’s muffins in the kitchen. Those were definitely worth getting up for.
He and Ten stared at each other for a moment, silent and assessing. Ten looked wary and slightly haughty, even covered in orange foam. They’d already had an argument about Ten’s extra projects since getting back, Ten unusually adamant about pursuing the one ze’d set up in their room. Cody wasn’t interested in bringing it up again. “You can autoclave that, right?” he asked, pointing at the tiny lab space.
“Of course, I can.” It was subtle, but he could hear the relief in Ten’s voice. Funny—Cody was the one who usually went out of his way to avoid confrontation. This project was keeping Ten strangely on edge, though. “And I totally will; I have nanotech embedded in the walls, and it’ll shunt everything outside of the beakers into the tower’s waste system.”
The fact that the four of them were together again this year, somehow wrangling a quad on the bottom floor of Apollo Tower, was nothing short of a miracle. Cody sensed the guiding hand of Admiral Liang in the arrangement, but he wasn’t about to question it too hard.
“Okay.”
“That’s really all you have to say about this?”
“Why, do you want me to scold you?” Cody raised an eyebrow and grinned suggestively. “’Cause I can do that, but I really didn’t think you were into that sort of thing.”
“I’m not much into the concept of foreplay, but verbal stimulation could be something we should try to incorporate into our sex in the interest of covering all potential avenues of getting off.”
“So sexy,” Cody deadpanned. “Oh baby, tell me more about the techniques we need to incorporate into the satisfaction of our biological and emotional urges, it’s such a turn on.”
Ten blinked. “If I weren’t covered in foam, I’d jump you right now.”
“The fact that you’re not doing it is evidence that you’re crazy in love with me.”
Ten grinned. “True.” Ze grabbed a change of clothes off hir bed—it had become their unofficial extra storage space since losing the closet and deciding they’d rather sleep together anyway—and headed into the bathroom.
Cody got up, pulled on fresh clothes, and turned part of the wall reflective long enough to tame his dark-blond curls a bit before heading out into the common room. Their tiny kitchenette was on the right, and Grennson was just pulling fluffy muffins out of their antique oven. Not many people knew how to use the old technology when it came to baking, but Grennson was a purist about his food, even the stuff that wasn’t Perel in origin.
“Hey.” Cody came up beside him and inhaled deeply. “Those smell amazing.”
“Thank you. They are my father Jason’s recipe.”
“I know.”
“He would occasionally long for human food during his time on Perelan, and Ferran learned how to make all of his favorites for when Jason was too busy to do it himself.” Grennson continued like Cody hadn’t spoken at all. “I learned the same. These should be eaten with butter.”
“Yeah, I know—”
“I will get it.”
“Grennson.” Cody reached out and caught his friend’s milky-pale hand, squeezing gently. Grennson froze, the quills that ranup his spine and over his head quivering with pent-up emotion. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel … unsettled.”
“Like homesick?” They’d just left Perelan a few weeks ago, after all. Cody would understand if Grennson was unhappy with the separation. They’d managed a brief rendezvous with Jonah on the way back, with Cody’s dad on a supply run to Pandora, but Jason and Ferran had been recalled to Perelan immediately after dropping them off at the Academy. Grennson was an empath, sensitive to the people around him and especially his family.
