Chapter 3
Zarik was in heaven. Or as close as he could be after feeling so sick.
Angela had taken care of him last night or this morning, he wasn't sure which anymore. Treated his arm and cleaned up the wound and mess. Slept in a god-awful position to make sure he was fine. Then made him lunch.
She definitely had her moments of being nice.
And she hadn't burned the soup.
Simple tomato was always best after being sick.
It reminded him of how his mother would make it when he'd been a kid.
He held the bowl in one hand and put his other on her side to keep her still as he moved behind her.
She tensed slightly, but he was pretty sure it wasn't because she was afraid of him.
Zarik appreciated the feel of her smaller body so close to his in the tiny, cramped kitchen space.
He paused to change the bowl to his left hand before moving towards his bed.
She followed with another bowl and what seemed to be unburned toast.
He cracked a smile as she sat on the cabinet across from his bed.
"Feeling better?" She asked.
"Yeah. Everything is good." He said as he reached for a piece of toast from her plate.
"Good." She dipped her spoon in her soup and he watched her eat so neatly.
He dunked his toast in his soup and mopped it up.
She shook her head at him and he grinned.
They ate in silence until she finished her bowl and he stood up.
"Dingo..." She started.
He reached for her bowl and paused. "Hmm?"
"Don't ever do that again." She said quietly. "You ever get injured on a job again and don't tell me, and I will beat the shit out of you."
He huffed a laugh as he took her bowl to the sink. "As if you would hurt me."
He flinched as she reached over and hit his arm.
"I'm not kidding Zarik. You scared the shit out of me."
He looked at where her hand was gripping his sleeve where she had hit him.
His eyes moved to her face and she looked genuinely scared now. She looked him in the eyes for a second before staring at the floor.
"I just...I don't know what I'd do here if you were gone." She said.
"I'm sure you'd be alright. You're pretty resilient." He said.
She let go of his sleeve and he realized he'd said the wrong thing.
He turned to take hold of her hand.
"It's alright Angela, I won't leave you alone any time soon. And I promise if I know I'm injured, I'll make sure you're the first to know, alright?" He asked as he used his free hand to tilt her chin up to make her look at him.
Those eyes were just killer. Women should know how much the hurt and scared looks affected men. It just pulled at his core instincts to protect her when she made that face.
She sighed. "Good."
"You promise to do the same?" He asked.
She nodded as he pulled his hand away from her face.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Good."
He moved away from her to head for the cab. "Come on Ang, we've got a lot of time to catch up on."
He settled himself in his seat as she hurried to get to hers.
xXx
Angela was tired as she stared out the window as the sun was heading down.
She looked towards the direction they were headed and saw a bit of green.
She frowned as she focused in on it.
It was actual plant life. Wild plant life. That must be Oasis.
"Almost there." Dingo said from her left.
"That's Oasis?"
"Yep. Where my family lives." He nodded.
As they came closer she could see the buildings. They were old looking sandstone places, some a couple stories tall, but none exceptionally big other than a couple.
It was a small town, almost more of a rest stop than a real community.
There were a few people out and about as they came into the town itself.
Angela couldn't remember the last time she'd seen such color naturally.
It was more than just green, there were flowers of every known color and the walls of the buildings were done up in bright colors. The road was mosaic rocks flattened sides up in swirling and winding patterns.
If not for his somewhat colorful shawl, she'd never believe Dingo grew up around this wonderland of color.
He waved at a couple people as they passed the motor-home and she was just in awe of the range of visual stimulation as they came up to one of the few three story buildings.
It was a sprawling mess and she instantly loved it.
Just from the outside she could tell that it was of a really old style.
The thing appeared to be a square around a courtyard with a nice area for parking in the front.
The whole front side had a covered terrace instead of a real roof and the sides were the enclosed portion of the second floor. The back side that she could barely see appeared to go up to a third floor with a bit of a covered balcony overlooking the courtyard.
It was an exceptional design and Angela was almost thrown off by seeing the outer walls not painted compared to the rest of the town.
"Welcome to my family's home Angela." Dingo said as he stopped the motor-home.
"You lived here?" She motioned to the large building.
"When I was younger, yeah." He moved to get out of the motor-home as she saw a couple people coming out of the house. "Come on." He waved at her to move.
She started to follow him out of the motor-home.
He went to hug an older woman who had come out of the house and Angela paused just outside the door.
She wasn't sure she knew how to react to meeting his parents and siblings.
She'd never grown up with either. Sometimes it was hard to have been raised by a machine to be a part of an organization from the start.
Most of her human interaction skills had been learned from Dingo in the past year. And that was saying a lot considering they spent almost as much time on the road doing jobs as they did anywhere else. And when they were in town, it wasn't for much more than a night of sleep among people and a restocking of supplies and water and emptying tanks.
"Now who is this young lady?" The older woman asked and Angela looked up.
"Mother, this is my partner, Angela. We've been working together for about a year now."
"A partner?" The woman sounded surprised as she came towards Angela. "I thought you'd never get a partner. Too much hassle."
She sounded like she was quoting him saying something before.
"Well, Angela is different. We work pretty well together." Dingo said.
"If you say so." Angela was startled when Dingo's mother pulled her in for a hug. "Well now, come inside, get freshened up. We were just about to get dinner on the table when the dogs started barking."
Angela frowned as she was pulled along.
She glared at the grin on Dingo's face as his mother ushered her inside.
And then she found herself assaulted by a pack of wild animals once clear of the gated archway leading into the courtyard.
"Back, all of you." Dingo's mother snapped.
None of the furry creatures listened and Angela backed out of her loosening grip to get away from the jumping and pawing animals.
She was prevented from going far as his mother continued into the house proper, ignoring the animals that had ignored her.
Her back hit solid, warm muscle and Angela turned her head slightly to see that it was Dingo behind her.
He looked like he was laughing to himself.
"It's not funny! What are these things?"
"Well, dingos." He snickered.
He kept an arm around her shoulders as he guided her further into the room, the dogs all backing away from him respectfully.
As if he was the alpha and needed the room.
She watched him motion with his hand and a larger, bulky beast pushed his way past the smaller ones.
It came to brush its head against Dingo's hand.
"This is Howzer. He was my best buddy while I was a teenager. His father was the dingo for whom I use my code-name. I could never pronounce what my mother had called him, so I just called him Dingo."
The large dog had gray tinge to its fur and moved his head to brush Angela's hand and she pulled away.
"He won't bite. None of them should ever bite anyone. My father trains them well." Dingo said.
Angela slowly lowered her hand again and the dog let her touch the top of his head.
"Sorry they all came at you. Normally they're better behaved, but they haven't seen me in over a year." Dingo moved to kneel beside her and the dogs swarmed closer.
Angela yanked her hand back again when Howzer snarled at them all.
"It's okay Ang. He's just making sure they don't get too overwhelming." Dingo explained as he rubbed a few heads and backs before standing up.
He was almost standing up when Angela was surprised. Howzer put his paw on Dingo's leg and urged Dingo back down.
She watched the dog put his nose to Dingo's left forearm and sniff before taking in a breath from his mouth.
He growled.
"It's alright. Just a scratch." Dingo said.
Howzer growled again before licking Dingo's hand and then moving away.
"He could tell you were injured?" Angela frowned.
"He's a lot smarter than people think and he doesn't let it on." Dingo stood up again and motioned for her to walk with him. "We should probably clean up a little before eating." He said.
Angela nodded.
Dingo led her through a door into a hallway and she was surprised at the artwork that covered the walls. At least, as far as she could see.
His parents and siblings must have spent years collecting enough stuff to fill every room like this. It wasn't an overfilling, but there was stuff everywhere she looked.
She was a bit overwhelmed by it all after this year living in relative minimalistic nature.
Anything they didn't need, Dingo didn't get. She understood it after all the time she'd spent as data. She'd had to allocate and manage a far more sensitive construct. She could remember one guy shortly before she'd taken the Frontier Setter mission who'd said her image was high-res. She'd never thought about it until now, but maybe that had been her way of splurging. All her knowledge and data had been pretty condensed.
Dingo opened the door to a bathroom that was nearly the size of their living space.
"This place is so huge." She said as she stared at the room while washing her hands.
"I'd never thought about it until I started living on my own in that thing." He shrugged. "But I guess it does seem that way, doesn't it?"
"I mean, it's beautiful, but they just have so much stuff."
"My father makes all the furniture, by mother does the fabric for them. Before I'd left, my sister was learning from her. My brother is a lazy shit, but I think he was supposed to be the delivery driver."
Angela nodded as Dingo handed her a towel.
She hung it back up after drying her hands and started to follow him again.
As they walked past and through rooms, she was lost. But she took the time to look at the furniture as she passed and noted how nice it was.
His father had done such beautiful work by himself?
Why had Dingo decided to become a bounty hunter? He was good with his hands too.