Witch: Here is the next part! I hope you will enjoy it:)

Chapter 2

"... so, to sum it up, someone in the Central Command ignored the rule of not assigning siblings to one ship and that's how you both ended up on Kepler? Not knowing about each other?"

"Yes, sir!"

Commander Hayden was eyeing both navigators with suspiscious eyes. Truth to be told, they couldn't lie about being siblings, twins: if there weren't obvious differences because of the sex, Carmilla and Selene would be undistinguishable.

"This is a problem." Commander stated the fact. "Is there any possibility of re-assignment?"

"Not from our side." quickly said captain Chronos, until now standing quietly behind others. His strange half-smile was back on. "We left our base some time ago, no change in personnel is possible as far as my squad is concerned."

"We can send Carmilla back to main base with one of the transports." Keeler proposed sweetly, even if his mouth was curled into teasing smile. "That is if there is no other option."

"Certainly not." captain Chronos was polite, but his eyes looked like two hostile ice shards. "I cannot destroy one of my best teams just because you tell me to."

"And if that's an order?"

"I report to Commander Faraday." said Chronos stiffly.

"... who isn't here at the moment." Commander Hayden sighed tiredly. Then turned to anxious navigators. "You can go for now. Go to your quarters and duties as usual, only both of you and your partners, are grounded until we reach some solutions. Dismissed!"

Knowing from experience that discussion about their matter would take some time, Selene took Carmilla's hand and they left CO's office in awkward silence. Which didn't last long actually, since when the door was sliding back close, they could hear that Keeler and Chronos started their arguing again.

The twins looked at each other and Selene sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes.

"Let's go somewhere where we can talk. We still have-"

"Carmilla!"

Selene felt his hand being abruptly taken away from his sister's, when Lestat came to them in long strides and stood before her navigator, shielding her again.

"Get away from her." she barked rudely. "You may be her brother, but I won't allow you to make her cry!"

From the corner of his eye Selene could see Helios hurrying to his side, breaking from Cain and Abel, who stood at the other end of the corridor. He didn't know why, but he stiffened even more.

"I'm okay, Lestat." Carmilla's voice was quiet and she was still sniffing from time to time. "It's not his fault."

"Bullshit."

"And we really should talk, you know? There is something that is strange and I want to..."

"You won't go anywhere without me, you hear?!"

"Listen, Lestat." Selene tried really hard to stay composed. Nothing good would come from getting into another shouting mess. "I must talk to her. With or without you, but we have to talk!"
"You know where you can shove your talk?"

That was it. Selene felt that this day was way too long and all the accidents that happened were giving him not only headache, but also strained his already weak nerves. Knowing that he would either start shouting or crying, he tightened his fists. Of course, because she saw his gesture and interpreted it wrongly, Lestat made a step towards him with her own hands rised.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Helios appeared before her, seperating her and his navigator by sliding in between them. "I think that's enough. Why don't we all calm down?"

Right this moment the door to office slid open and captain Chronos stormed out of there. His face was contorted into really ugly mask of fury, but taking notice of people in a split of second he was beautiful again and even smiling. He came closer to the group and put his hand on Lestat's shoulder.

"What're you guys still doing here? I thought you'd be long gone, ya know?"

"Just wanted to discuss something. Sir." Selene tried to look indifferent, but it was hard to do, since he was talking from behind Helios' bigger frame. "Little... misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding, my ass!" Lestat again wanted to jump to them, but strangely enough, she didn't move. From her angry glance Selene could tell that Chronos single-handedly held her in place.

"Is that so." he said slowly. "unfortunately for you, sweetie, I get to get them first." a smile together with this phrase was just sugary. "Ya know, leader and stuff. But, I promise you'll get them after me, just a little bit used, okay?"

"Um... sir?"

"Good! So we reached an agreement!" Chronos beamed, then strenghtened his grip on Lestat's shoulder and took Carmilla's hand. "Laters!"

While they were looking after the captain dragging two women after humself, Helios came back to life.

"What the hell was that?"

"Beats me." sighed Selene. He turned to his fighter. "thank you for help, though. That Lestat woman is plainly aggressive."

"Oh, no problem." Helios grinned and in Selene's eyes he became even more handsome.

"On the contrary, I..."

"Are you two alright? Helios, that was some good action on your part!"

Selene gritted his teeth. In the meantime, when Chronos was talking to them, Abel came closer. And as much as he knew that Abel wanted to just exclaim how level headed the fighter was, Selene couldn't help, but look at him with envy so fiery that set his bleeding heart on fire. Because when Helios turned to Abel, his face literary lit up.

"Thanks, Abel!"

"Is everything alright, Selene? I mean, with the commander?" Abel asked, cocking his head to one side.

"Yes, thank you." said Selene flatly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to work."

Turning on his heel, he left Helios and Abel alone again, one of them astonished and the other a little offended. He instantly regretted that, but there was no turning back; also, he was quite sure Helios would take his chance and... he didn't know what, tried hard to not imagine the obvious outcome, that would be Helios jumping Abel if he would just find a moment for him to be alone. But Selene didn't want to believe it to happen. Didn't want it to happen. No matter what, he didn't want to. Which didn't change anything.

As he was going away down the corridor, Abel frowned.

"Do you think he is alright?"

Helios started, woken up from his smitten observetion of the navigator. With a surprised blink, he shrugged.

"I think so." he said, dissmisively. Then, grinned. "It's cute of you to be worried, you know?"

"What do you mean by 'I think so'?" Abel didn't react to the pick up phrase and even looked a little irritated. Helios blinked some more.

"Huh?"

"Selene is your navigator, Helios. And your responsibility, as you are his. And you say you don't know if he is alright?" Abel said. Disbelief in his voice was so great, that Helios started feeling a little bit embarassed. But that didn't prevent him from asking:

"I'll check up on him. So, have you finished working?"

/

After unsuccessful attempt at convincing Abel for some food, Helios grabbed his own dinner at the fighters' table. Because they were gossping like market ladies, the mess hall was full of buzzing noises of people that 'I don't know for sure, but I heard...'. Soon, Helios became tired with everyone's crazy imagination about the new guys and he decided to leave. Especially because the new squad had just come in, with captain Chronos in the lead. Quite a silent bunch, Helios thought, passing them, when they waited for their turn in food order. Fighters were mostly men, navigators seemed to be divided into half. However, they didn't seperate, stood quietly together and didn't even look to the sides. Strange.

And Helios didn't see Carmilla and Lestat anywhere in the group.

After short walk, he got to his bunk with a quiet sigh of satisfaction. But it died down when he opened the door, because he saw Selene sitting down on the bed with face in his hands. Hearing the door, he jumped straight up, tense and with tightened lips.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, surprised. "It's you Helios..."

"Yeah, just me." Helios answered, observing with sudden worry that Selene seeing him relaxed for a minute, but right now he was stiff and stressed again. "You okay?"

"Yes... Yes, of course!" Selene tried to smile, but his lips trembled and he must have noticed that Helios was looking at him with question in his eyes. He turned away from his fighter.

"I'm alright. Really." he added. Suddenly, he drew his hands to his elbows as if some cold wind got inside their small room.

"Hey..." Helios pried gently, hushing his voice. "Hey, Selene, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" suddenly angry, Selene shouted loudly. "Nothing is wrong, Helios! Just leave me alone, okay?!"

The fighter stood where he stopped, just made sure to close the door. In silence, he looked as Selene caught his head in hands and squeezed with painful expression.

"Nothing." he repeated more quietly. "Nothing is alright, Helios."

Helios took it as a hint to inquire more, so carefully, he made a step inside.

"Talk to me? Please?" he tried, remembering what Abel said earlier today. Selene was his responsibility and right now, he felt disgusted with himself for not noticing how nerve-wrecked his navigator became.

"Why do you care?" asked Selene and this time Helios felt like a real asshole. It occurred him for the first time that running after Abel might have had a rather bad impact on his and Selene's relationship. He wanted it to be good, so that they could support each other in battle and in life during stay on Kepler, but it turned out he sabotaged it himself by being an idiot thinking with his dick more. Helios groaned at himself. He had to make it better somehow. Right. But how, again?

"You are my navigator." he said simply, remmebering what Abel said and deciding that was the best reason for now. "You are important for me. Please?"

"It's not much to tell." said Selene, bitting on his knuckles. "It's just... this situation is hard for me."

No shit Sherlock, thought Helios, observing as Selene started pacing in a space that allowed him to do two small steps in every direction. But he remained silent and unmoving and listened.

"I... you may think it's strange, but we don't know each other well and I didn't want anyone to know I have a sister, because really, I didn't even know she joined the army and that she would be here, well she should be somewhere else with all the stuff we agreed on earlier..."

You're babling, Helios sighed in his soul, still following nervous Selene with his eyes. Why are you babling so much?

"You on bad terms with her?" he asked, when string of quickly spoken words became quieter and then inaudible in the end.

"What? No!"

"So why is it so hard on you?" the moment he said that, Helios understood it was too blunt an approach, since Selene frowned and tensed again.

"It's hard to explain." he said, more calmly. Helios jumped at his chance immidiately.

"Try me." he proposed, grinning a little embarrased. "I'm an idiot sometimes, but maybe I could help you?"

"Yes, you are." said Selene firmly, finally composing himself seeing that he made Helios uncomfortable. He watched Helios for a while, as if deciding in his mind whether it's worth talking to him. Then, he sat heavily on the bed and weaved his long fingers through his hair. "Well, as everybody knows, we are twins..."

"Hard to not notice that, you know?" Helios interrupted, but right away shut himself up, after a single, short glance he got from Selene. Deciding the momentum is with him, Helios went further into the room and took place on the cupboard, in front of his navigator.

"Right. So just you know, I'm the older twin." Selene continued to look at his knees. "We were born together and lived together for nineteen years. And... I don't think you know about this, but there is something like 'twin trouble', which involves problems with gaining individuality when you are constantly with your sibling..." seeing that he lost Helios there, Selene smiled a little and continued. "we had issues as twins. We didn't want to be seperated, threw fits of anger if we were and it was so severe that Ju... ugh... Carmilla was once sent to hospital, because she got sick while away from me. And it worried our parents."

"Loving siblings, huh?" Helios couldn't help himself not to say this ironic expression, but Selene sighed tiredly.

"Yes, indeed. I know what you want to say – 'what the hell does it have to do with anything?' Actually it does. Imagine that when we were teenagers, suddenly we realized we were seperate beings. And when I say 'realized' I mean just that. It was abrupt, unpleasant and we ended up fighting seriously. Things turned ugly and after that it only got worse. I'm quite smart." Selene stated, as if it was obvious and remembering how well he was doing his job and during VR training, Helios nodded in agreement without commenting. "we both are. But Carmilla was somehow always better than me. The problem was, she wasn't even trying. I don't know how to explain it... due to unexpected circumstances, she was always in favour, be it in sports or in learning. That bothered both of us, since I'm aware she didn't want to do it..."

"Really." Helios sceptically rised his eyebrows. He wasn't a psychologist himself, but it was hard for him to imagine a person being better and not scheming for it.

Selene threw him a nasty glare.

"Yes, really. I told you it's difficult... but she isn't like that and I know it. I just know it..." he took his head in hands again and reverted to looking back at his knees. "We fought a lot and made up, but it slowly killed our bond as twins. And everything broke into pieces, when she... well..." Selene was bowed low over his knees, but Helios could clearly see how his ears became pink. "When she took away from me the first person I fell in love with."

"Oh shit."

"That made me very mad." Selene continued as if he wanted to get it over with even if he would die from embarrasement. "but she broke up with him immediately after she got to know I loved him."

Him, huh?, was what Helios focused on. Somehow, until now he thought Selene was a type that was very uptight and proper, nearly expecting to get to know he had had a fiancee waiting for him at home. Not the case now, right?

"If that had been just this one, I think we wouldn't have... but it wasn't. There were more and more people coming to me and then leaving me for her... and finally I didn't.. I just... I snapped. We said a lot of things that are hard to forget and separated on our nineteenth birthday just like that. I went to entirely different country to study. Then joined the Alliance and well, here I am."

Still in his weird little defensive position, Selene stilled as if he was waiting for judgement from Helios.

"Erm... but you said you weren't on bad terms?" Helios tried. To be completely honest he didn't get what Selene was trying to tell him, all that psychological things made him confused as hell. There was one thing he knew now, that that Carmilla girl wasn't as innocent as she seemed at the first glance, with her tears and all. He felt that it had to be rememebered from now on.

"Because we aren't." Selene responded quietly. His arms fell down and he straightened a little, even if still not looking at Helios. "After separation... we did really badly, both of us. I... I neglected my studies and ended up cooped in my bed with depression. That was such a horrbile time."

Helios flinched as he finally understood that Selene was feverish. His eyes were gleaming with unhealthy light, he was trembling and sweating at the same time perodically stilling as if turning into stone.

"And then she called." Selene rised his beautiful eyes and looked through Helios, as if there was something fascinating at the wall behind him. "Sick and equally tired as I was. She was just out of the hospital and didn't have anywhere to go. We thought that then everything would be alright, we were both adults and after hitting the bottom, we weren't so hostile anymore. But..."

"It didn't work out?"

"No."

Just one short answer told Helios more than Selene would have tried to get across by words. All that tiredness, loneliness, lack of understanding and warm, forgiving presence of someone that knew you since you were babies... Valentina was older than him and that wasn't exactly the case with them, but he still felt quite bad without her. What could have felt those twins, abnormally attatched to each other?

"We decided to not meet again, no matter how hard it was from then on." Selene continued in strange little voice that Helios didn't know he could utter. "and it was hard. But somehow we lived... until today." he finished, surprise evident in his voice. "How long has it been..."

Helios felt very angry. He tried to calm down, telling himself that Selene needs help, but he couldn't help his own anger spilling through angry puffs of air he was taking. That was one riddiculous situation! He didn't have any doubts that Selene, his sweet, lovely Selene was more passive and got used by his more active twin. Things like that happened, right? He felt like he was to blame and it was wearing him out. Most likely he managed to escape from that sister of his and stabilize his own life, when his nemezis came back unexpectedly, wearing a mask of a scared, white lamb! Helios was a gentleman and all, but right now he might have told Carmilla come sour words if he had met her.

"You are tired." he began carefully, painfully aware that if he rushed into it, Selene might close up again. His strange stupor was worrying, but right now getting him to bed took priority. "You feel bad and you may be going down with something. How about some rest?"

Selene's eyes focused on him. Then, he frowned.

"Yes. Rest." he agreed, but didn't make any move to actually lie down or take off his clothes. Deciding that they don't have to keep up appearances, Helios grabbed his own duvet and covered Selene with it. The navigator flinched, when Helios' gentle hands touched his own feverish body.

"Hush, it's okay." said Helios, cringing inwardly at the nonsense he was spouting. "everything is going to be okay, just lie down for a moment. Just for a moment, alright?"

"A'ght." Selene mumbled, half-asleep already. He obediently allowed Helios to tuck him in and drifted away into dreams as soon as his fighter told him to close his eyes.

Helios sighed. He was still woried, since Selene's breath was ragging a little, but at least he actually fell asleep, out of that terrifying indifference he went into at the end of his story.

/

An hour later, when Helios made sure that Selene would sleep peacefully, he left their room and directed his steps to the bridge. Still annoyed, he deduced that it was sure hit if he looked for any navigator. Because he was and Carmilla wouldn't be happy if he finally met her.

The bridge was as busy as ever, but after scouting for some time, Helios discovered that there weren't any new navigators on this shift. Actually he didn't even know if they were assigned yet, delegated to rest after the attack. Probability of that was high, which irritated him some more, but at the same time helped – he let some of his steam off, so right now, he could calmly and clearly tell Carmilla to leave them fucking alone. Yeah.

Asking other navigators about the new ones didn't make him any good, as they were not even aware of the quarters of Commander Faraday's squad. Disappointed, Helios went to the mess hall. He wanted to ask some fellow fighters if they saw some on the new guys. However, before he reached the place, he thought that maybe some of the new fighters would be by their ships. Excited at this idea, he ran towards landing hangar, the begining place of this whole psychological mess.

As he was voyageing through vast space, he wandered into corner that was usually empty. As expected, the new ships were there and there were even some people grouped near one of them. But when Helios neared to it, he sped up even more. He didn't like the situation that was happening there.

On the wing of one of the machines was sitting small redheaded woman. Helios rememebred her faintly from mess hall, so he was quite surprised that she had fighter clothes on. She was listening to cat-calls and whistles of base fighters under her feet. From where Helios was he could see that the woman had slanting eyes and looked a little like a cat waiting for the birds to be completely at ease before jumping in. Which was quite surprising, since the other fighters were all but polite.

"Hey, cutie, come down to us, let's play!"

They became even louder, when she smiled and showed them middle finger. That was unnecesary brave of her, Helios thought, because they would get her from there in the end and she would be sorry. Such small, delicate body for a fighter.

The hatch opened and a black haired head peeked out. Redhead looked in that direction with a wide smile.

"Ow, fuck, ow!" the other fighter emerged from inside the ship and Helios recognized Carmilla's partner, Lestat. She was holding her head as if she hit it with something and looked quite pissed off.

"Oi, fuckheads!" Lestat yelled to the crowd below her ship. "fuck off! And you, Muffin, don't provoke them, for fuck's sake!"

Saying this, Lestat jumped out of the fighter and stood on the wing, beside small woman, whose task name Helios didn't know, refusing to acknowlegde that 'muffin'. Fighters from Kepler got even louder.

"Get down here, so we see how brave you are, kitty!"

Helios wasn't so sure if he wasn't seeing things, but for a moment there he could swear that Lestat was smiling. But he didn't think about it more, since she really did jump down, straight into the other fighters' group. Helios could hear their ironic 'whoa!'.

What happened then, he wasn't so sure either. He was standing in the last row of the crowd, so by going down, Lestat disappeared from his sight. Of course he heard a mocking statements of some fighters that she was so fragile, so beautiful and they would definitely spent some quality time together... then there was an awful, organic sound of something breaking, someone shouted as if in terrible pain and the group moved. Redhead jumped down as well, commotion streghtened as the fighters apparently wanted to lynch two women. Helios quickly run upstairs to the nearby gallery to see better. Then, suddenly everybody stilled. In unexpected silence, Helios could hear loud, modulated voice of captain Chronos.

"..so?"

"Sorry, cap'n." Lestat's voice was dripping with gloomy satisfaction. "I broke another one."

While saying this, she rised up one of the fighters, holding him by his elbow. The man yelped in pain and his arm below elbow was bending in weird way. Helios shuddered. She broke his arm and lifted him by it!

The group, however very angry and violent, dissolved under leading charisma of Chronos, so Helios went closer again, taking advantage of little people near. Lestat was talking quietly with Chronos, while the redhead and another female fighter that apparently came with Chronos, were waiting near, not saying anything. Helios stopped a little further away, waiting for the captain to be gone and while he stood there, he realized that he could understand some of the conversation from how their lips were moving. He didn't think that such a skill would be useful, but he would have to thank V. later, since Lestat and Chronos' words were strange, to say at least.

"... so I'll have to put a replacement team for the fucker you broke. What should I do?" asked Chronos, rubbing his temples. His lips were easy to read, very expressive.

"Give them (here Helios couldn't decipher) and try to stall. We can't seperate the unit now." aswered Lestat, looking around. Her eyes, dark and aggressive, scanned the hangar.

"It would be helluva lot easier if you could hold yer head down, instead of getting in fights." Captain made a mockingly crying face, as if parodying desperation. Helios was bewildered. He wasn't in the army for long, but he didn't recall any officer behaving like that, not with his underlings. And Lestat wasn't an officer, Chronos was supposed to be her superior.

She shrugged.

"Had to let off some steam. Can't have them bossing us around. Moment as good as any. If only we could..."

"Do you need something from Captain Chronos?"

The voice that suddenly appeared by his left ear wasn't hostile. It was gentle and interested and suggested help, contrary to a blade digging into his side, under ribs, just barely not cutting the skin. Helios flinched, but didn't move, throwing his gaze over his shoulder. All he could see was mane of nasty red hair.

"Muffin!"

The blade didn't move an inch, but in his line of vision he noticed the small redheaded woman from earlier. She was still grinning impishly, looking as Lestat, who with a towel around her neck was walking quickly in their direction.

"What in the flying fuck are you doing? You can't go around cutting random guys!"

"Didn't want him to interrupt you." Redhead said simply and Helios cringed at her voice: high and hoarse, as if her throat was damaged. The blade disappeared.

"Gods, you are such an idiot sometimes." barked Lestat. Behind her, Chronos observed them intently. "Should've said something."

Lestat turned to Helios, her long hair in braid smacking her face.

"So? What d'ya want with me?"

"Nothing much." Helios growled back, having had enough of this farse. "Just your navigator. Where is she?"

"Sleeping." Lestat said immediately. "Why?"

"Not your bussiness."

"Listen, you little...!"

"What's your task name, fighter?" suddenly, Chronos was beside them, holding both of them by shoulders and Helios could feel how strong his seemingly light grip was. Chronos had gentle smile on his beautiful lips, but his eyes looked at Helios without blinking, careful and a little terrifying.

"It's Carmilla's brother's fighter." squeaked Muffin from behind them. "What's-his-face..."

"Helios." said Lestat. "Helios, right? Like the sun god?"

"So what?" Helios was really angry now, not in the mood to hold a proper conversation with those bastard people. Chronos' grip on his shoulder relaxed.

"So what, sir." he corrected calmly, letting Helios go entirely, still holding Lestat though. "and answering your question, it's nothing, fighter. Just asking."

"So were is Carmilla?" Helios tried again. "Sir."

"As I remember it, Navigator Carmilla had problems with coping with changing environment and has been dismissed for this shift." Chronos said smoothly, still watching Helios. "I would be very thankful if you restrained from intruding her sleep, as I'm going to need all my navigators, should the morning come."

Helios growled to himself. He didn't know why, but he felt endangered here, in a hangar full of people and in company of those strange new comers. He didn't like it. And Chronos' changing speech patterns were driving him crazy, as if he was talking with two different people at the same time.

"Of course, her fighter here, Lestat, might be able to help you." Chronos added, as if he was completely blind and couldn't tell that Lestat was staring daggers in Helios' chest. "As unfortunately, it's time for me to leave you now."

When Chronos let her go, Lestat didn't even turn to her leaving officer. The man just nodded lightly at Helios standing a little more at attention, then beckoned at the female fighter that was standing on the side, not saying anything. As Helios noticed, she had her hands behind her back, as if hiding something and when she turned to follow Chronos, he could see two holsters slightly shaping her jacket at the small of her back. A bodyguard?, he thought surprised, since he was quite sure even fighters couldn't carry arms on Kepler. But his attention quickly snapped back to Lestat, who stepped closer, into his personal space.

She was nearly as tall as he was.

"What d'ya want from my navi, smartass?"

"Not your bussiness, again." Helios answered, frowning. He was annoyed all evening because of this riddiculous situation, had his anger under control somehow, but she flared in rage in a second flat and he couldn't understand why. He kind of understood why weren't there many female fighters.

"My navi, my bussiness. Spill it, dammit!"

"Your bussiness, you say?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. "So, I'm gonna kick your ass for my navi, then."

"Wha -?"

Lestat avoided direct punch by jumping backwards, staring with bewildered eyes at Helios, who calmly reverted to basic offensive stance.

"What the fuck are you..."

"Just don't let your little vampire near my navigator, got it?" Helios snarled, amazed with himself. He knew both of them were fighters and Lestat was probably trained to brawl, but he hadn't thought he would be able to attack a woman, fighter or not. On the other hand, he was doing it right now, advancing and trying to land a kick to her side. Lestat guarded, winced, then caught his ankle and pulled, wanting to throw him off balance.

"What's she done to you, you little fuck?" she yelled, watching as Helios took two steps back to regain steady feet.

"She exists." Helios hauled himself at her, in mid-step doing a turn, to get her defensive punch on his arm and break her guard. But Lestat didn't look for hand-to-hand combat, she used his half-turn to jump left and away, gaining distance.

"Oh yeah!? You are something else for saying that with straight face, when you know very well what your stupid Selene'd done!"

"Keep him out of it! He's the victim here."

"Right, so why I had to drug my navi to stop her from crying her eyes out for your navi?!"

They looked at each other, both panting not as much from improvised fight as from anger.

"Wait, what?" Helios processed what he heard not understanding. "Drugged?"

"Carmilla had a hysterics fit and she cried so hard she couldn't breathe. You know, after she saw her long-lost bro." Muffin, unmoved by the brawl going on, was sitting on nearby crate of tools, cleaning her nails with the knife. "Lestat had to drug her up by force to make sure the poor gal won't suffocate."

"What?" repeated Helios, dropping his guard. "But why?"

"Dunno." Lestat dropped hers, but still watched him for any sign of aggressivness. "So, what the hell's your deal?"

"Selene told me about their childhood and break up and slid into some kind of stupor just from going into that." said Helios slowly, thinking furiously. The two women look at him with wide, confused eyes.

"Huh?"

"I mean, it wasn't something normal, he looked..."

"...delirious?" Lestat snapped. She exchanged knowing glance with suddenly interested redhead.

"Kind of." Helios agreed, his previous conviction slightly shaken.

Silence that followed was full of undiscussed problems. Not knowing what excatly he should be doing now and understanding suddenly much less that he thought he did, Helios observed as Lestat caught her jacket from somewhere and smacked Muffin upside down her shaggy head. They whispered for a moment, covering their mouth, so even being close, Helios couldn't make out what was it about. Then Lestat pulled away and beckoned at Helios.

"Walk with me."

Even though his head hurt from lack of sleep, even though adrenaline still pumped in his ears, even though he felt unsure about the situation he had gotten himself into, Helios took orders rather well. Self-confident voice of Lestat did it for his tired brain and before he composed himself and rebelled just for the heck of it, he found himself in the corridor, turning here and there, just to walk right into bunk area near med bay.

Lestat stopped before one of the doors.

"I'm assigned here." she said, pointing at the number for Helios to remember. "Tell you what. Bring your little moon princess tomorrow. I have a fucking suspicion there's something to discuss between the two of them and I want to be there when they do."

Helios nodded, wondering why she was so polite all of the sudden, but agreeing that it was the best they could do, instead of jumping to each other's throat. Their navigators had something to settle and it was their job to see to it. No way around it.

Lestat palmed the lock and Helios was about to leave, before he nearly lost his balance again, when Lestat grabbed collar of his jacket and yanked him inside the room.

"What the-?"

"Shut up."

Lestat clasped hand over his mouth and he thought for a moment about biting her, but she directed his head to the center of the not very wide room. Helios blinked.

On the floor in the farthest point from the door, on one of matresses taken off from bed, he could see Selene and Carmilla, covered with one duvet and sleeping peacefully.