Page 314 of Light Leech

They broke off. Even though she was right next to me, I couldn’t hear her conversation. Kuni moved from the background into another room to have his own camera focused on him.

“Ralia’s been teaching me how to work the neuronet,” Akna said in our private chat, “but I’m far from being able to hack like her. She seems a little more exhausted than usual. Are you feeling anything from the neurocore mission?”

“Maybe a little? Now that you say it, I have an occasional mental fog and it feels like I struggle to grasp a concept, but it’s not too bad.”

Akna nodded. “Hopefully you’ll be done with it soon. How’s the whole Reef thing going?”

“3Rochi is working on getting an invite for us to the Dynasty thing right now.”

“Pulse! Life is pretty good, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“What, is there something wrong?”

“No, it’s just… I always feel like bright skies bring the biggest storms, you plug? There’s always this unsettling feeling in the back of my mind telling me to prepare for the worst whenever I have anything good happen. Like when we got away from Deleon, we were pulled into a bigger problem.”

“Keep your head up. All things considered, I would say your life could only get better.”

“You think it’s that bad already?”

She laughed. “I guess having all of us makes it bearable.”

I didn’t say so, but that made it worse than any other fear. I had a family again. As long as they were all alive and well, life could always get worse.

“Looks like you and Naoma are doing well, huh?”

“Yeah.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “It’s good.”

“Really good?”

“Yeah. Really good.”

“Come on, Pet. Let’s hear it, or is that a privilege reserved for Ralia?”

“No… I don’t really know what to say. I’m trying to understand it all, you know. Having never been with… someone… like this, I don’t know if I’m reading all the signs right, but I want to give her the time she needs.”

“Oh come on, she has to have been with someone, right?”

“Reef forbade serious relationships for publicity purposes and you know that she doesn’t remember her past.”

“Right.”

“We both jumped into love on sight after she overcame the tooth thing, but I think she was still coming out of the Reef daze. We’re taking our time to get to know each other as friends, but it’s naturally moving quickly back to infatuation.”

“Is that too fast for you?”

“No, I just worry about her. I don’t want to zeg it up.”

“I’m sure it’ll all work out. You’re a great guy, Pet. We all love you.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m good enough for her.”

“Then talk with her about it.”

“Yeah, talk with me,” Naoma said.

My heart dropped as I realized Kuni had left their chat and was now occupied with something in the back of the room, which merged our chats.