WIP Wednesday
I missed Varian and I've been sitting on something for awhile. We won't get to it until Ch 7 of How to Raise Your Human, but as a treat, you can all have it now.
This is set about a year after Varian and Shep break up.
Varian rarely called him, and that it was late enough at night to technically be morning was an indication this was unlikely to be a simple, friendly chat. Castis swiped at his omni-tool and pulled himself out of bed, already pulling clothes out from his drawers, “Varian.”
“Castis, hey,” There was a warble to the boy’s voice that Castis had heard only once before. On the day he had stood on the other side of Castis’ desk and admitted to killing his father. Who was dead now? Varian swallowed and continued, “You picked up. I… thought maybe you wouldn’t.”
“Should I not have?” Castis flicked the lights on in the kitchen and grabbed his keys from the island. The home felt like an oversized coat without Lena, suffocating and hard to move in. His omni-tool was running slowly, it always ran so slowly when he needed it.
If it had not been for the sound of skycars in the background or Varian’s shallow breathing, Castis might have thought he had hung up. His next words were muted, as though he had dropped his arm to his side, “I fucked up.”
“Whatever it is, we can fix it.” It had been some years since he had done crisis response, and yet the lessons were etched into his very plates. Keep them talking. Move quickly. Keep yourself calm. The last part was easier said than done as he nearly scratched the walls in frustration. The tracker was having difficulty pinning down Varian’s exact location. It kept pinging off of the very top of the Presidium. There was no way he - “Varian, where are you?”
“High,” his voice was slurred. Faintly, Castis picked up the sound of pedi-talons on a metal surface. The rushing of the wind grew louder. “The world down below looks so inviting. Do you think they want me down there?”
“NO- no, Varian, I think they want you up where you are. Tell me about where you are, I am so curious,” Castis moved quickly to his skycar. There was only one access tunnel up to the roof of the Presidium. It was narrow and difficult to maneuver alone, the likelihood of hauling Varian down it with him was slim. He muted his call with Varian, who had taken to describing the rooftop with only words that started with p. Pallin was unamused at being woken up and further aggravated at having to grant Castis clearance to the roof.
Varian had been unwilling to get into the skycar, insisting he knew his own way down. In a final attempt to lure him, Castis called Jane. The second ring was cut short by Jane’s sudden voice on the line. She sounded breathless, as though she had been sprinting somewhere. To someone on her side she called, “I’ll be right back! Just a quick call!” To him she asked, “Is it Lena?”
“No, Lena is the same,” he watched Varian closely and turned the volume up on his omni-tool’s speakers, “I have Varian here. He needs to talk to you.”
“Castis, Varian and I aren’t-” talking, he filled in the blank. They hadn’t spoken since the proposal, or the breakup, as far as he knew. Yet another estranged relationship for him to navigate. Castis felt relieved when Jane called slightly louder across the speakers, “Varian, hey, bud, how’s it going?”
Jane’s voice grabbed Varian’s attention and he turned towards Castis, approaching him finally. There was something childlike in the way he tilted his head and listened. Varian had always been tall, but now he practically towered over Castis, and yet in the way his browplates pulled together and his mandibles tightened to his face, Castis saw only the boy who had infuriated him for the last twenty some odd years. Tentatively, Varian reached out and grabbed Castis’ arm, bringing the omni-tool close to his face. He stared at the little photo of Jane and leaned forward to press his crest to it. It passed through the image, but the sentiment was still there all the same. Varian concentrated on forming words with his mouth, moving his tongue around as it fought him, “Hi, Princess.”
