That's how we work, you and I.That's how we work, you and I. Break those rules, and the love is as if it never existed. You might mourn my stupidity afterwards, but not as you pulled the trigger." He smiled gently, and I thought I saw his arm move slightly, as if to reach out and touch me. But he didn't. "I trust you enough to sleep next to you, naked and vulnerable, while knowing how much you believe in your social duty to excise evil. Just like you trust me, and everyone else you sleep with, to do the same." He paused. "I still love you," he said. A shiver ran through me, a painful tightening in my chest. "Tell me the rest." "By your command," he said, jokingly. "I met Khai a few weeks ago, just before his thirteenth birthday. He's studying to be a transatmospheric pilot, and as you know I've been teaching that subject recently over at Tangent. His focus recently has been spherical insertions, and seeing as I do that a lot, he asked me to teach him." A seagull flew overhead, its screech breaking the cadence of his voice momentarily. He smiled. "You know how we're so used to talking, negotiating, being 'up front' about our sexuality. But there's a reason why we're sexual, Ken, and that's because we're attracted. And we sense that attraction is sometimes mutual. So we talk about it. "Khai was in the pilot's chair, and I was in the copilot's chair, and we were handling a sixteen-ton freighter in the simulator. And we had a... a rapport. You know that feeling, as well. You felt it with me, and I with you. I had it with Khai. A different reason for the rapport, but I had one there. "We sat afterwards having glasses of gfi together in the cafeteria, and at one point he became very wrapped up in what he wanted to do once he got into space, became proficient. |