Chapter 2: Cold Snap
"And you're sure you didn't hear anything?" I asked, trailing Thetis as we carried the laundry out to be folded. It'd been two days since the incident, and I was finding myself now cursing the fact that I'd declined the option of installing security cameras inside the house.
"For the last time, Aeo, I fell asleep before anything serious might've happened. You really don't remember?" he asked, glancing back at me. "I mean you were laying the sweet-talk on pretty heavy before you two went back there..."
"I still remember nothing," I said. "And it's driving me completely mad not knowing for certain."
He set his basket down on the couch and started folding. "You could always ask Siarnaq- or are you still phobic of him?"
"It's not a phobia, Thetis... if only because it's not irrational," I countered, doing the same.
He chuckled. "Fine. I'll ask him for you. Atlas may already have; they get along well enough..."
"Only because they're both..." I began to mutter under my breath, but stopped myself. He didn't seem to hear me though, and I sighed in slight relief. "...I think Atlas is mad at me though."
"Really? I don't see any fresh bruises..." he said. "Those anger-management classes you made her take must be working."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, but I'm one-hundred percent serious," I said. "She says she gets everything I've told her regarding this matter, but I-"
"-get the feeling that she's taking it the wrong way?" he finished.
"Yes, exactly... And that worries me."
He smiled with a nod, folding the last of his laundry and stacking it neatly. "Don't forget where we all come from Aeo... Marti's tough, so she'll survive this- just like everything else she's had to put up with."
I nodded quietly. "You know she doesn't like anyone using her first name, right?"
"Ch'yeah, I know, but it's not like she has a sixth sense regarding these things, right?" he asked, starting upstairs with his laundry. He paused on the third or fourth step. "Hey... Remember when you brought in that old-style grand piano?"
"You mean the one in the living room?"
"Yeah. You remember who plays it the most?"
"No one plays it, Thetis..."
"You'd be surprised if you'd listen. It's a really nice piano..." he said, climbing up and out of view.
I finished my basket a short moment later, and started up to my room. It was a nice room, in a nice house. Nowhere near luxury, but that wasn't really needed at this point. I had bought it with my share of the credits we'd received from various missions we'd gone on after Ourobouros, as a gift to the others for all of the time and work they'd put into our little team. They'd all reacted differently when I'd said we'd be sharing it...
Thetis had hugged me to near the point of suffocation, obviously happy beyond any other form of expression.
Siarnaq had simply walked in and claimed the smallest bedroom as his.
Atlas had stared for a while, seeming almost shocked that I'd actually bought a house. She'd then said a simple 'thanks', before going to find a room.
That seemed to be so long ago though...
I passed by Siarnaq's room. As usual the door was closed, but I could just barely pick out Atlas' voice coming from inside.
"...doesn't get it. You know what I'm talking about, right?" she was asking. Siarnaq's voice replied, too quiet for me to hear clearly. "Exactly. So should I tell him, or do we let him stew on it a bit more?"
Damn, she had asked him about it. And now she knew the truth, obviously. I found myself scowling, heading into my room and beginning to put up my clothes before I heard anything else. I may have overheard the truth if I'd stayed, but I was now trying very hard to make myself stop caring.
After I finished with the clothes I flopped down face first onto my bed. Maybe, just maybe, today was all a twisted and horrible nightmare and I'd wake up any moment safe and sound in my bed.
"Hey," Atlas said, knocking on the open door. "Got time to chat?"
I sighed. "I heard you talking with Siarnaq. What's the verdict?" I asked sourly.
"Apparently we weren't making any noise that he deemed unusual..." she said.
"Okay... That doesn't help at all. I still don't know if anything happened. He could mean unusual for sex or unusual for sleeping... Ughh..." I groaned, rolling onto my back.
"So just pick one. Either we did or we didn't..." she said, sitting by me.
"You don't just 'pick' when it's something like this, Atlas," I said, looking up at her sternly. "I don't remember having a condom on my person at any time, so if we DID have sex it was unprotected. Do you get where I'm going with this?"
She blinked. "So you're worried about getting me knocked up?" she said, looking confused.
"Yes," I said matter-of-factly. "Do you have any idea how much trouble kids are? Especially when they're unplanned! God forbid my family ever found out if that were to happen."
"I thought you didn't want to be in your family...?" she asked.
"It's very complicated; just trust me on that..."
"Why don't you tell me?" she asked.
"You don't hear me asking about your family life, do you?" I replied, getting irritable.
She narrowed her eyes, before getting up. "Maybe if you did you'd learn a few things, Jackass..." she said harshly.
"What? What did I do now?" I asked, sitting up. "Am I really the only one legitimately worried about what might've happened that night?"
"You're the only one making it into a huge issue, yes," she replied, crossing her arms.
"It IS a huge issue!" I said. My head was pounding now but she was honestly just being so ignorant. "If you're pregnant then I'll either have to marry you or kick you out, and I don't want to do either!"
"I'd like to see you TRY to do either, ya twig!" she snarked back. "You're making this out like we pushed a button to launch a nuke or something!"
"Well metaphorically speaking we just may have!" I shouted. "Are you really that ignorant to how life is?!"
She stared, seeming shocked, before grabbing my shirt and throwing me backwards with an almost feral growl. I'd been sitting on my knees, so the sudden force knocked me off balance and I fell off the bed with a startled yelp.
I'd half expected to get a beating for what I'd said, but on regaining my posture and composure I saw she was walking out again. Against my better judgment, I followed her.
"Atlas, wait," I called, trailing her out into the hallway. "I told you time and again that I'm not blaming you for what I believe happened, so why are you behaving like this?"
She turned abruptly and glared at me, but I couldn't quite read her expression. She was furious, no doubt, but something else was hiding in there too. "...You want to know why I'm 'behaving' like this? Fine, allow me to give you a little perspective, Aeolus Helios." She turned to face me completely. "I don't have any knowledge or idea how to take life for granted like you do. I wasn't raised with clean beds and good food. I wasn't given the opportunity of peace. Where I was raised, every single f**ing day was a fight just to get by-"
"What does tha-?"
"Shut up and listen for once! You've never tasted desperation. You've got no idea what the world's really about, and you dare accuse me of being the ignorant one?!" she asked, getting uncomfortably close and jabbing my chest with a finger. "When you can tell me that you've felt the fear of silent nights- that you know the comfort of another breath- that's when I'll listen to your bullshit about life and how it is. Until then, stop wasting my time!"
I didn't say anything; I couldn't at that point. All I could do was watch her stalk off into her room and slam the door. After standing alone in the hall a few moments longer, I retreated back to my room...
I'd never considered myself ignorant. I'd gotten the best education money could buy, and that was something to take pride in was it not? And yet, I couldn't help but feel the sting of reality in her words. She was right. I knew nothing about what it was like to go without, or to be afraid of the silent and dark unknown.
I flopped back down again, and almost immediately found myself cursing a certain blue-haired reploid. Not only had he been right about Atlas talking to Siarnaq about this, but his other words now rang with a haunting clarity in my mind...
'Don't forget where we all come from... she'll survive this- just like everything else she's had to put up with.'
"God-damned hippie and his concealed fragments of advice..." I muttered, closing my eyes...
Wait. He said 'she'll survive this'? Did that mean he really knew? My eyes shot open, and I sat up again. A quick glance at the clock and I saw that it was already too late to get a straight answer from Thetis. I jotted down a mental note to revisit my questioning come morning.