Adiron (Corsair Brothers 1)

So I tug at my ankle, indicating he should free me. "If that hand goes any higher, I'm going to kick you in the face."

"Might be worth it," he teases, but he lets me go.

I don't know why I'm disappointed that he does.

34

ADIRON

This ship is boring. Keffing boring. The first day alone with Jade fades into the second. I putter around the ship, trying to override systems and get access to things, but I'm locked out at every turn, and eventually, I give up. For all I know, Straik put in a program that locked shit down before he left us here, and I'm just hitting my head against a wall.

Jade's in a funk, too. She hasn't been without the others in a long, long time, and now that she doesn't have them to fuss over, I don't think she knows what to do with herself. I get it. For so many years, we were ultra-protective of our sister Zoey. We avoided certain stations, had complicated contingency plans if she was discovered, refueled on remote, questionable satellites, and basically re-routed our lives to make things easier for her. When she left with her mate, it left a big hole in our lives. We suddenly didn't have to take back routes to refuel. We didn't have to avoid ship inspectors or hide out from patrols. It kinda felt like we weren't even trying anymore.

I know it depressed me. Being on jobs with my brothers helped, though, and we've kept ourselves so busy that we've made enough credits to take a nice, long vacation—and take Zoey and her new mate with us. We also took on wild chases, I admit to myself. Chases like the Buoyant Star, with very little chance of a reward, just to give us something to look forward to.

Jade needs that, I realize. She needs something to look forward to. Right now she's sleeping a lot, and listless when she's awake. So I need to be there for her. I need to show her there's still a lot of fun to be had on this ship with me as her company. And I think I know the perfect way to do that.

On day three, I decide to make breakfast. Jade doesn't wake up early, so I go and knock on her door. "Good morning, sunshine," I call out, like Zoey always did to me. "Time to get up."

I hear a groan from inside her room, and then Jade pads to the door on the other side. After a few moments, it opens a crack. "Are we really doing this?" she asks in a sleepy voice.

"I made you breakfast," I say. "We can't waste food, so you'd better come eat it."

"Right," she says softly. "I'll be there in five."

Pleased, I head back to the mess hall and put her food in the warmer. I lean against the counter, rubbing my hands and thinking about my plans. I need everything to be perfect for this. I think about the human vids Zoey was so fond of, and ideas flood into my head. Yeah, this'll be perfect. Hastily, I grab a few of the noodles, spread the plas-film napkin on the table, and arrange the long, chewy noodles into a sentence, using the food to form the lettering. I place it directly in front of her spot at the table so there will be no way she can avoid seeing it.

And for some keffing stupid reason, I start to sweat with nervousness.

Jade arrives a few minutes later, her hair tamed back with a strip of fabric. She wears one of the modified uniforms and there's a listlessness to her step that tells me she wants to go back to bed, but she manages a smile for me. She sits down at the table across from me, and it takes her a moment to notice the message I've spelled out on her plas-film napkin.

She blinks at it, then at me. "Did you spill something?"

"No. That's for you." I nudge it toward her, waiting.

"Am I…supposed to eat it?"

"It's a message. Spelled out in noodles."

Her lips twitch. "Adiron, I can't read your language, remember?"

Oh. Right. I'm used to Zoey. Man, I really am the dumb one. I read it for her, instead. "It says, ‘will you please be my date tonight for a special dinner so we can get to know each other better?’" Actually it says something more like “Date Night” and a question mark, but since she can't read it, I figure I'll embellish. It's keffing hard to spell things with noodles.

And since we're not wasting food, I pluck one of the noodles and eat it.

Jade's brows draw together. "It says all that?"

"Yup," I lie. "So…will you say yes?"

"But we eat together every day," she protests. "What about the date makes it different?"