dejah_thoris | Midnight in the Jeddak's Garden

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Midnight in the Jeddak's Garden

[cont'd from here]

She holds him through the worst of it. Holds him and rocks him gently, her mind racing to come up with some kind of solution, any solution. There isn't one, she knows. She can feel his agony as if it were her own, and in a way, it is now, isn't it? She feels the tears on her cheeks and lets them fall. Grief is the strongest enemy she's ever vanquished.

But she's done it before, and she knows she can do it again.

She doesn't know how long they've been sitting there when she notices a telltale ripple in the air. It's just inches above the wood of her door. It takes a moment to resolve, and before it does, she recognizes the portal and knows where it opens to. She can smell the pimalias and the blessed cool of the moss trees beyond. The night sky above Helium is crystal clear.

Gingerly she urges his gaze up. Her voice is gentle and warm. "Hey. Can you smell that?"

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Curtis shuts his eyes on a fresh burn of tears. He returns the sideways hug, trying to quell her fear even as he works to figure out what he could say.

In the end, it's what he always seems to say.

"We'll figure it out."

"Yes."

She answers without hesitation, without doubt.

"I love you. I want to make this work. Whatever it takes."

"Same."

He turns to kiss the top of her head. Another tiny burst of wonder fizzes through his words; when he blinks a couple times, the burn in his eyes stops.

"I love you, too."

She hugs him tighter, burying her face against the side of his throat. He can feel her draw in a long, shaky breath, her fingertips clenching in his shirt.

"Maybe we can carve out something simple, for the both of us. Something that's ours and ours alone."

"Yeah," whispers Curtis. His free hand lifts to cover hers. For a moment, he stays quiet.

We have Milliways. He tried that argument once; it wasn't enough.

"There's a thing people used to do on Earth." His brow knits as he works to dredge up the memory. "I think. If they had the money, sometimes they'd get another house somewhere. A small one -- a cabin. Out on a lake or up in the mountains or something, far away from anyone else."

He hooks his chin over the top of her head.

"Maybe we could do something like that here. Just for us."

She doesn't say anything right away, but he can feel her thinking. Turning the idea over in her head.

There's no reason why she couldn't. She even knows a few places that might work. And a few even have nodes nearby. It wouldn't be anywhere near as lavish as the palace. She'd have to tell Kantos where it was, so they could find her if something happened and she was needed. After a long few breaths, she gives a slow nod.

"Yes. That might work. It would be rough. We'd have to put some work into it. But yes. Yes, I believe we could do something like that here."

A true smile finally spreads across Curtis' face. He curls his fingers around hers.

"We don't have to spend all our time there," he says, picking up the shape of her thoughts. "And if you needed to get back to the palace quickly we could...I don't know. Cut through Milliways, maybe?"

A door to Helium showed up in her room. Maybe they could open a door from the theoretical cabin, step through, and open another door on the paalce.

She pulls back only enough that she can look him in the face. "Remember I told you that my bracelet could do other things? Teleporting is one of those things. Your pendant can do the same."

"...Wait, seriously?"

He straightens up. Holy shit, that's useful.

"Well, it's not a simple undertaking. But yes." She gives him a crooked smile, a bit sheepish for not having shared this information yet. "You see, the Thern created -- or more likely, I suspect -- made use of an ancient network of geographical nodes. Coordinates spread all over the planet, and on Earth as well. If you know the coordinates to a place, you can utter a series of syllables and it will transport you there. Though interplanetary travel seems to send a projection -- or a copy, if you will. I haven't a complete grasp of how the whole system works, but I know enough to use it for travel between certain points on Barsoom."

"So all we'd have to do is set up the cabin near one of those nodes and...huh."

His smile returns.

"Yeah."

His smile sets the pimalia moths fluttering behind her breastbone, still. Her cheeks flush, and she laces her fingers through his.

"Yes. Cabin, or more likely, one of the ancient ruins. I can use the excuse that I need to do field work in one of the old temples. Kantos will want us to have a guard unit, but that's only sensible."

Ah.

Curtis does his best not to deflate. It is only sensible. She's the Jeddak, she's gonna need the extra protection.

But the reminder twists a little: even if they literally build a new place where they can escape, they'll never truly escape to where it's just them. Where it doesn't matter that she's the Jeddak and he's some Tail-section hick.

She feels his disappointment like a breath of ice and her brow furrows. Her hand lights on his cheek and she rests her forehead against his.

"It's all right. We'll never know they're there. They'll keep a perimeter, that's all. My love, when I say a place for us, I mean just that. We need not see anyone else."

"But they'll still be there." Low, and heavy.

And to think Curtis is arguing for having fewer people around. God.

The corner of her mouth quirks up.

"Yes, and the first time we are overrun with a Warhoon raiding party, you'll be very, very glad of that fact."

He was doing so well at pushing his way through the darkness. Curtis swallows. Tries to inject a little bit of lightness into his voice, forced as it may be.

"What, you don't think I can take 'em?"

He's never seen a Warhoon raiding party, she knows, but she'll grab onto that little bit of lightness for all it's worth. She blinks rapidly in mock astonishment.

"Oh they'll stand no chance, clearly. Between the two of us? Psh. I just don't want to clean that mess up by ourselves."

"Hmm."

Curtis pretends to puzzle over that statement, all mock gravity and exaggerated frowns. "You make a good point."

"I often do." Dejah's grin broadens and she leans into steal a soft kiss.

"You know, there's another place we might have the type of cabin you're describing."

"Yeah?" He quirks his eyebrows. "Where?"

"You've been out to the lake. You've seen the mountains in the distance?"

"...Yeah."

This time, when he straightens up, it's slower, more thoughtful.

"You'd -- be okay with that? Not having the cabin on Barsoom with everything else?"

"Why wouldn't I be okay with that? I mean, I would still have to return to Helium once in awhile. But it would still be something that was ours. Especially if we built it together?"

So why not just use your room instead? he starts to think, before her last words collide with the thought and drive it aside.

How many times has he looked around her room and felt like he's a visitor? How uncomfortable did he feel when she started changing it to suit him, like he was imposing himself on her space? But another place entirely, a physical match to the relationship space they're building together...yeah.

This is really turning into something big. Shit.

Funny how Curtis seems to be okay with that, though.

"I like that idea," he whispers, and presses another small kiss to her cheek.

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