Loyalty

Impactor could not resist flaunting, just a little, in Emirate Xaaron's face. Oh, Impactor had known others since the Emirate left him – dozens, hundreds, they all blurred into each other. Springer was special, though. Impactor didn't find himself wishing his lover could gut a machine with his words as deftly as Impactor could gut a machine in fact when he was with Springer. He didn't miss the barbed retorts that dug in deeper than his harpoon. He didn't miss Emirate Xaaron at all. Impactor told him so, dropping casually, "You know, I used to miss you."

"And your aim still hasn't improved. For shame, Impactor. I've seen the dartboard," Emirate Xaaron retorted.

Impactor wondered how he ever missed him, really. He waved a hand dismissively and finished his thought, "No, see, I've hit the target with Springer."

Instead of jealousy or bitterness, he was met with all smiles, Emirate Xaaron offered cheerily, "If you ever need someone to officiate the ceremony, I'll be happy to oblige."

"Can it," Impactor snarled, annoyed at the backfire. "I'm not getting hitched."

"Why not?" Emirate Xaaron inquired, all innocence. "You love him, and either of you could die tomorrow. Why not make it official? Isn't he worth that much to you?"

Impactor felt anger rising in his circuits, simmering like Straxus's smelting pits, and he struggled to explain why to himself. He wasn't the marrying kind, but the Emirate's teasing didn't usually get at him like this. He demanded, "And you'd be fine with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Emirate Xaaron asked. "I just suggested it."

That wasn't answering his question. Impactor protested, "We were-"

Emirate Xaaron quickly cut him off with, "- and now we aren't, but as your friend, I am happy for your new acquisition."

"Acquisition," Impactor snorted with derision and disgust. "That's how you think about these things."

Emirate Xaaron sighed and looked Impactor in the optics, hands folded behind his back. He always was at his most dangerous then. Softly, he asked, "When it really comes down it, if you could only save one, is it him or me?"

"You," Impactor answered immediately, unthinkingly. Then, he caught himself and winced, swearing, "You! You, slag-sucking, sludge-chugging buzzard!"

Emirate Xaaron smiled and replied, infuriatingly smug, "Give your love to whomever you want, Impactor. Your loyalty will always belong to me."

The End