"Glad you could make it," she said. He grunted and Syl laughed, going into the kitchen with Brin and Krit to put away the wine they'd bought on their way in.
"I asked my roommates to clear out for the weekend," Brin explained as she tried to make room in the fridge. "So that means we have three beds plus the hideabed in the study. And Jondy can't come, not that she would have used a bed anyway... So that would have been right," she cast a good-natured glare at Zack, who had joined them in the kitchen. "But someone came unexpectedly."
"I'll sleep on the couch," he spoke up. Brin nodded.
"Yes you will." She winked.
"If I stay," he added.
"If you sleep," Zane clarified as he came down the stairs. Syl agreed; there was no way Zack was going to leave until they did. Zane gave her a hug and smiled at Krit, hoisting himself onto the kitchen counter.
"Why can't Jondy come?" Syl asked. She'd been looking forward to seeing her; years had passed since the last time they'd really gotten to talk. Though she didn't always enjoy her sister's company, she'd missed her.
"She's got something she has to take care of," Zack said. Syl made a mental note to ask him about that later.
"Is Tinga bringing her son?" Krit asked.
"She said maybe." Brin smiled. "I sure wish she would, I've never met him."
"He's beautiful," Syl spoke up, smiling. Krit touched her hand.
"It depends on her husband, I guess," Brin continued.
"If she's smart she'll leave him at home," Zack said.
"If you're smart you won't say that to Tinga," Zane answered, rolling his eyes. Zack frowned.
"Tell me about your girlfriend, Zane," Syl said. Zane got that dreamy expression on his face she had seen so many times and she smiled. They went into the living room and sat down.
"She's great," he said. "Her name's Vanessa. She's a cop."
"I heard," Syl said, winking at him. He flushed a little.
"Well, Zack here doesn't like it," he started, and Zack frowned. "But I just told her it's a tattoo and that was good enough for Vanessa. As for all the other stuff, I just act like a normal guy around her."
"It's not so bad, hiding your abilities, huh?" Even as Brin said it she sounded very sad. Zane reached over and touched her arm.
"Don't you ever itch to use your training, though?" Krit asked.
"I use it all the time," Zack spoke up. They all rolled their eyes.
"Well lucky you," Zane laughed. Brin waved her hand at them in a dismissing manner.
"Ugh, no thank-you," she said. "That would just be one more complication I don't need." She frowned. "I'm having a serious case of stress right now. I've been really tired, and I woke up a couple of mornings ago and I had a white hair. A white hair."
"Huh," Zane said. "That is stressed." He reached for Brin's long dark hair and started poking through it, searching. She gave a little squeal and squirmed away from his hands, pressing herself as close to Syl as she could get, glaring at him. He laughed.
"It's gone now," she huffed. "I ripped it out."
"Ouch," Krit remarked.
"Yeah, well, there's no way I'm looking like an old lady at twenty-one years old, thank you very much. I just need a vacation I guess. Maybe my boss will give me some time off work."
"Sounds like you need it," Syl said. Zack opened his mouth to add something but the front door opened. None of them ever knocked.
"Hello!" Tinga called. "Am I late?"
"Nope, I'm flexible," Brin answered as her sister entered the room, holding her son in her arms. Brin almost clapped with happiness. "Oh, good, you brought him!" Tinga smiled.
"Yeah. He really wants to get down, too. It was a long drive." She glanced around, smiled at everyone, scrutinizing the room. "Have you child-proofed the house?" she asked. Brin thought about that for a moment.
"Yeah, everything's good," she said, going through a checklist in her mind. "I removed everything that looked dangerous and I asked Zane to empty the gun-drawer." None of them looked surprised at this, as they all had similar drawers at home, but Zane suddenly sat up straighter and his smile faded.
"Right," he said. "I knew there was something I forgot." He got up and quickly hurried from the room, away from Brin's icy glare that was only half-serious.
"The one thing I asked you to do!" Brin yelled after him. She smiled at Tinga. "Sorry. Otherwise everything's safe. No chemicals, pointy things, heights, or bombs."
"Good." Tinga put the toddler down on the floor, and he stared up at all of them with large eyes. Brin smiled and knelt in front of him.
"Hi, Case," she said. "I'm Brin." His eyes got wider.
"You're a princess," he said. Brin looked momentarily bemused, then smiled and touched his soft dark hair.
"Well, thanks, sweetie," she said cheerfully. Tinga flushed a little.
"It's just a story I told him," she explained. She let Case wander around the room a little, smiling after him with an expression that made Syl's heart tremble. Then Tinga caught sight of Zack and her smile briefly faded.
"It's been a long time since you've seen him," she said. The others looked surprised, not knowing that Zack had ever seen him, but Syl knew he had gone when Case had first been born.
"Yeah," he said as Case came to stop in front of him, staring up at Zack's imposing figure.
"Hi," he said. He reached up, tugged on Zack's pant-leg. "Come down."
"Case," Tinga warned. "Come here, okay, baby?"
"No, it's alright," Zack said after a moment. He crouched down so he was Case's height, smiled a little awkwardly at the boy.
"Case, sweetie, you remember your uncle Zack," Tinga said without really expecting him to answer, since he'd been a baby the last time Zack had visited him.
"Yes," he said. At that, Zack and Tinga both looked slightly worried and exchanged a grave look.
"You shouldn't have brought him here," Zack said, straightening. The boy kept staring up at him, fascinated, afraid. Zack reached out, laid a hand on the boy's head. Syl could remember him doing that a thousand times with the rest of them when they were children. Zack was, of course, very good with kids; she always forgot that. For the first time she wondered if he ever thought about having any of his own. She sighed. Case was beautiful and painful. He was Tinga's son and he was hers, haunting her. She shivered.
"You okay?" Krit asked softly, his hand on hers making her jump slightly. She turned to him, smiled, shrugged.
"I'm fine," she said. She raised her eyes to his. "You?"
"It's kind of hard," he admitted. She nodded and he kissed her cheek tenderly.
"Oh," Zane said as he reentered the room. "So Brin wasn't lying." He winked. "You two are an item?" Syl flushed a little with happiness as Krit nodded. Zane smiled.
"That's great."
"We should make this a weekly occurrence," Brin said.
"What, talking about Krit and Syl's love life?" Tinga smiled as Brin rolled her eyes.
"No," she said, smiling back. "Getting together like this. It's fun."
"I'm up for that."
"Weekly?" Zack asked in a grating voice. They all laughed.
"Can't you smile?" Case asked him a moment later.
"Case," Tinga said gently. "That's rude, baby." Syl was sad to see how worried she was about Zack judging her son. He loved the boy, couldn't she see that? He just didn't really know what to do with him.
"I can smile," he said, and gave the boy a small one, his eyes still so serious that it made the rest of them laugh out loud. Then Zack frowned, but that was only funnier.
"We should play strip poker," Zane suggested some time later when the
conversation had died down. Tinga touched Case's hair and said, "I think not."
Krit and Syl laughed and Brin, being Brin, was up for anything and looked mildly
interested.
"No," Zack said, standing up. He glanced at Syl, frowned, and left the room. She sent a puzzled look after him but he disappeared into Brin's bedroom.
"Well." Zane grinned. "That settles that I guess. He's no fun. It's not like we haven't seen each other naked thousands of times."
"That was when we were little children who didn't know better," Brin chided. Syl glanced over and smiled at her sister. She looked at Zane, who was rolling his eyes and giving Brin a little poke on the shoulder. Krit's hand started lazily threading through Syl hair, and as she watched Zane's toned muscles ripple under his t-shirt his beautiful dark eyes found hers and widened.
Syl froze. She stood up and pulled away from Krit, hurrying into the kitchen to splash cold water on her face. The icy liquid calmed her for a moment and she stood there, taking deep breaths. Her skin pricked as she felt someone approaching from behind, hanging in the doorway. She turned around.
"Zane," she said quietly. "Go away." He didn't move. She started panicking. Her legs moved her toward him, her hips swaggering suggestively though she didn't want them to. Zane's eyes were fixed longingly on her body. Syl was terrified; she did not want to be in the same apartment with three male X5s when she was in heat. It had never happened before but she was sure it would be a bad, bad, bad situation.
"Zane," she said again. "Go away."
"I can't," he answered as she stopped in front of him, his arms reaching out for her. She tried to bring her own hands up to shove him away, but they touched his face instead and she knew he was about to kiss her. His eyes were panicked; Zane had probably never been in this situation, and there was no doubt that he considered her a sister. Zane fell in love with every girl he'd ever met; if this happened it would be disaster for their relationship. Syl wanted to pull back, to cry, to smack him as hard as she could, or for him to smack her, but her fingers rested against his warm cheek instead and his eyes fluttered closed as he leaned into her touch. He took a deep breath that shook when he let it out.
"Zane," she whispered in a voice filled with fear. His eyes opened, panicked, and his face leaned toward hers.
At that moment, Zack entered the room. Zane and Syl tore their eyes from each other long enough to see that Zack was carrying her jacket and averting his eyes from her, his fists clenched. That's why he'd left the room; he'd known. Syl was incredibly relieved at that thought, but then he approached her and she managed to back away.
"Zack, don't," she said. If he came any closer, Zane might attack him; she could see her brother was looking very agitated at having someone step between them but because it was Zack he was hesitant about what to do about it. Zack didn't stop. He held her jacket out and she put it on, her hand brushing his wrist as she took it, feeling his pulse racing and his blood surging beneath his skin. She almost leaned toward him, but somehow managed to stop herself. Zack stepped back with an amazing feat of self-control and called for Krit. Syl and Zane both looked momentarily surprised that they hadn't thought of that, but Zane also looked angry. She shivered and a moment later Krit had entered the room, Brin close behind him, drawn by Zack's uneasy tone. Krit looked at his two brothers, saw their tense stances, and then his eyes fell on her and widened.
"Did anything happen?" he breathed, starting toward her.
"No, not yet," Zane managed.
"Just leave," Zack said, stepping in front of him. "Don't go over there." Krit stopped, glanced at Zane, then met Zack's eyes, dark and dangerous. He backed away a little and Syl was glad; she knew if they both attacked him, he would lose. He turned back toward the door, and Syl could see it took a lot of self-control for him not to approach her. She hung back against the counter, watching Zack and Zane where they stood between her and the door. Luckily, Brin took charge. She grabbed Zack's arm and forcefully dragged him from the room, which would have been funny if Syl hadn't been in her present state. Unfortunately, in Brin's absence Zane started toward her again. Syl tried to call out for her sister but she didn't have enough resistance in her to form the words, let alone speak them. Zane's lips came down on hers and her arms threaded around his back, pulling him closer.
It was perfect. It wasn't strange or disgusting or creepy like she would have thought. He was fulfilling every primal instinct she had at the moment, a beautiful man in good shape who was just as insistent as she was right now. She deepened the kiss, sighing into his lips, everything else forgotten. The kiss couldn't have lasted more than ten seconds.
"Zane!" Brin's voice shrieked from the doorway suddenly. Syl felt Brin's hands wrap between their bodies, around Zane's stomach, trying to pull him away from her. Their lips separated for a moment as his leg shot out and kicked Brin a little; it wasn't enough to hurt her, he still had that much control, but it was enough to send her slamming into the opposite wall.
"What's wrong?" Zack called from the other room.
"No, you stay there!" she yelled back, gathering herself. "Tinga!"
"I'm on it," her voice came. Then, in the same soothing one she used for Case, "Zack, just sit here beside me, okay? Just stay here." Syl heard his muttered response and was relieved when he didn't enter the room. Zane had gone back to kissing her, and he pressed her up against the kitchen wall and deepened the kiss, his hands pulling at her clothes. She encouraged him with a little sigh and reached for the hem of his t-shirt, not caring where they were or who he was to her anymore.
There was a sharp crack and Zane gasped into her lips and pulled back, eyes wide with pain. He turned and they saw Brin standing behind him in full attack stance, having just cracked one of his ribs with a well-placed kick. His eyes darkened with anger and he threw a punch at her, a real one, not at all easy. She dodged it but barely.
"Brin," he growled. "Get the hell out of here." Syl was slowly regaining her senses after recovering from the shock of his body's sudden absence. She saw her jacket on the floor and picked it up, throwing it on quickly, heading for the door. Zane got distracted as he saw her leaving and reached for her, and Brin took that opportunity to kick him back against the far wall. Syl made it to the door, pulled it open, but paused as she heard a crack. She saw Brin on the floor, her face clouded with pain, blood bright against the white linoleum of the kitchen. Zane was standing over her, ready to land another blow as soon as she stood up. It took every ounce of self-control in Syl's body not to reenter the kitchen, and it wasn't just out of concern for her sister; Zane proving his strength like that was absolutely intoxicating and that fact both excited and disgusted her.
"Zack!" she yelled through gritted teeth. "Tinga! Get in here right now!" She was afraid Zane would kill Brin if no one helped her. As soon as she heard them hurrying for the room, she ducked out into the corridor and shut the door behind her.
"What took you so long?" Krit's strained voice came, startling her. She glanced down and saw him sitting on the floor, on his hands. She smiled a little and sat next to him.
"Sorry."
"I was about to go back in for you," he said.
"That wouldn't have been a good idea." At his concerned look, she said, "Don't worry, I'm sure everything's fine now."
"Did you know that was going to happen?"
"No, my cycles have been all screwed up since the baby. They aren't regular anymore." She glanced at him, clenched her fists. "Krit, can was talk about this later? I really need to just go somewhere with you."
"Sure," he said. "Zack gave me the keys to Zane's place. Let's go."
"Great," Syl groaned as he pulled her up and she followed him. "That's the last thing I need, going somewhere with Zane's scent all over it." Krit's hand found hers as they hurried down the corridor and squeezed.
"Don't worry," he said. "There won't be anything left of it when we're done." Syl was still enough in her right mind to blush at that statement. She stopped him for a moment, then reached over and kissed him, long and deep. He pulled back suddenly and his eyes were hurt.
"What?"
"You kissed Zane?"
"You can taste that?" she asked. He nodded. "I was going to tell you after," she said gently, placing a hand on his chest. "I didn't want it to spoil the mood." After a moment a slow smile spread over his face.
"I don't think anything could do that," he said, pulling her close again. She nudged him toward the stairs of Brin's apartment building.
"Let's go," she said, low, almost purring. "I hope Zane doesn't mind giving up his apartment for three or four days."
"I doubt he had a say in the matter," Krit said, wiggling his eyebrows at
her. He took her hand and hurried them toward the exit.
