Artemis: Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine: Two Bottles of Vodka


“Did he hurt you?”

Nancy jumped in the entryway of her apartment. She had just turned from locking the door behind her and slipped off her shoes when Kamen appeared in front of her to interrogate.

She rolled her eyes at him, “He didn’t touch me. Not one finger. Happy?”

Kamen swallowed and looked at her skeptically, turning his head and glaring at her from the corner of his eye, “Did you eat anything there?”

“He invited me to spend the day with him, of course I ate.” She walked past him and tossed her purse onto the davenport.

“What did you eat?”

She glared at him.

“Do you feel sticky?”

She looked at him incredulously.

“I mean inside.”

Nancy’s jaw dropped open, “What?”

Kamen’s own jaw dropped in horror as he realized what he had said, “Oh god, I am so eloquent. What I mean is—”

He stopped, Nancy was laughing.

She went to her room, laughing and shaking her head incredulously, returning still giggling moments later with a hair elastic which she set to work in tying her hair up with. “I had a nice time talking with someone who seems to enjoy my company.”

“I know exactly how much he enjoys your company.” Kamen grimaced.

“Oh my.” Nancy smiled widely.

Kamen raised an eyebrow.

“You’re like a jealous little puppy waiting for me to come home and play.”

He blinked at her, “I am not a dog.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and went to the kitchen, “You’re like a cute little spaniel that feels all neglected.”

Kamen shook his head slowly and sighed. First Rei had nicknamed him ‘Spot’, as well as gave him the codename ‘dog’ (Artemis and Van Dean were referred to as ‘mouse’ and ‘cat’ respectively), and now Nancy had likened him to a lapdog. The similarities between her and Artemis were stifling, and he wondered exactly how much he would have to explain to her, and how much Van Dean had told her—or lied to her about.

“So.” Nancy still sounded happy, bubbly, and sarcastically jovial. She poked her head out of the kitchen and around the corner to where Kamen still stood, “Tell me about yourself, Victor.”

The name was the deciding factor; Kamen took a seat at the bar as Nancy pulled a few plates down from the cupboard and set them onto the bar. “As Victor.”

“Right, you’ve got two people living in you.”

“One, fused. I died with Artemis and I came to try to bring her back.”

“Well, Charlie’s coming over tonight. Its movie night, so you’re Victor.”

Kamen pursed his lips, mulling over how much caution he would have to use. He could not simply ask Nancy to cancel plans, and as long as it was just one person, there was no reason for him to be alarmed. So long as Charlie knew not to talk about his presence in the states lest the information reach the wrong hands. He nodded at last, “Okay, but he is not to know anything about me as Kamen, or Buenae, and he can’t tell anyone where I am.”

“Do you really think I’m going to go around telling everyone that I’ve been talking to people from a different world?”

Kamen smiled, “Good point.”

“So, Victor.”

“I was born in New York, but neither of my parents were citizens, there’s a lot of family on my mother’s side there that I stayed with often.”

“Is that why your accent isn’t pronounced?”

“You’re the one with the accent.” Kamen glared, “The military in Clovis, the Clovinian Armed Forces, everyone has a really overpowering slang, I picked up some of that.”

“Any hobbies?”

He yawned and covered his mouth with his fist, nodding, “Fencing, mixed martial arts, cars, I played the violin as Kamen and piano as Victor. I like making things, very small engineering things. Clovis offers a stimulus to Service Personnel who invent, so I do a lot of that.”

She raised an eyebrow at him slowly. Very involved hobbies. She could barely carry a note and he played instruments and invented things in his spare time.

“Hobbies? Miss Baker?”

Nancy leaned against the counter and tapped her foot, scowling at him. She had no hobbies nearly as interesting as what he had listed off—the ones on the tip of her tongue escaped her at that moment, and the closest she ever got to exercise was a very rare hour of yoga. “Reading? Um, I like to go out.” She nodded, “I did like driving, I had a bike, until I crashed it.”

“Crashed?” His eyes widened.

She nodded, “Then James ratted me out to my uncle about the crash and I ended up promising not to buy another one.”

“Oh, your boyfriend.”

She shook her head, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“My mistake.” He leaned forward onto the counter, smiling, “Your ex-boyfriend.”

“Still friends.” Nancy nodded slightly, now wanting to switch the conversation back to the man who had crashed in her home, “What was her name?”

He furrowed his brow in confusion, “Artemis?”

Nancy rolled her eyes, “No, the girl you ditched in Rome.”

Kamen blanched, “Right, I’m an ass, I concede.”

“You really did that?”

“She wouldn’t stop blubbering.” He said defensively.

Nancy’s jaw dropped in horror, appalled that Kamen would be so uncaring about the circumstances, “Oh god, about the fire?”

“No! Bollocks, she was whining about flowers.”

“Flowers?” Nancy’s voice was now weak with confusion.

“Bloody azaleas. They weren’t the right color, they were tacky, they smelled like shit, she was just blubbering and she wouldn’t stop.”

“You ditched her because of flowers.”

Kamen had heard much too much criticism over the event that had been recorded by a bystander. He covered his face with his hand, exasperated, and let out a frustrated sigh. “Chloe was good for only one thing.”

Kamen bit down on his tongue, and then shrieked in pain, certain that he had bitten down much too hard. There was a metallic taste in his mouth, his tongue bleeding.

Nancy took a sharp breath, “Chloe. So. Okay.”

His eyes widened, “Modeling. I meant modeling. Christ.”

“Sure.”

“What do you want me to say? She was an easy fuck and she knew what I like?”

“I just asked for her name.” Nancy said softly, incredulous and amused at his outburst.

“Chloe Renge.”

Nancy stifled a giggle, badly, “Wait. The lingerie model?”

Kamen groaned and set his head onto the counter.

“Modeling, huh?” She turned and pulled three plates from the cupboard, and looked at him from the corner of her eye as she set them onto the counter. “Okay.”

He raised his head from the countertop of the bar and grimaced, “Nancy, we had nothing in common, I couldn’t hold a conversation with her for two minutes before I wanted to gag her.”

Nancy pursed her lips, and turned her head to look at him, wide-eyed.

“That is NOT what I meant.”

She glared at him.

“Maybe a little.”

“You know, your little slip-ups are saying a lot about you.”

Kamen groaned.

“So you had nothing in common.”

“It was easy to forget.” He muttered.

“I’m sure the gag helped.” She said lightly, turning to check the clock above the stove, and then returned her attention to Kamen. “We can discuss your dirty secrets later, and we will since you’re so funny about them, but Charlie is due here soon.”

“Charlie Nguyen?”

“Nice memory, stalker.” She said flatly.

“I’m good at what I do.”

Nancy rolled her eyes, “Good to know.”

There was a buzz at the door, and both Kamen and Nancy glanced in its direction. As Nancy went to answer the intercom and unlock the door Kamen wondered exactly how he was going to handle the situation. Rei had ordered him to be undercover, and certainly not seen as Victor. Van Dean was in the city, if Charlie happened to encounter him, he would easily discern Kamen’s whereabouts. It was a gamble, and a situation that he had not planned.

He was not supposed to be there, he had orders to kidnap Nancy and be back in Q’ael Dan’il by then, he could already hear the call on the holodex from Rei, screaming at him about where he was at and threatening to send a full party. Kamen sighed, with Van Dean already having approached Nancy; he knew that the Dalian would not be patient with her for long. It would be only a matter of days before he would press harder and harder and finally kidnapped her himself. Kamen only hoped that he could stop it before it got that bad, and that Nancy would agree to go to Clovis as soon as Van Dean began to push.

Charlie was entering the apartment, hugging Nancy and giving her a large pizza box and a small case of beer. “You’ll never guess who I saw today.”

“Jesus?” Nancy asked with a coy smile.

“You would say…” Charlie immediately lost interest with the conversation at hand when he noticed the extra scarf and coat on the rack; he looked down and saw Kamen’s boots beside the mat. He looked once at Nancy who gave a nervous smile, and then turned slowly to see Kamen, smiling and giving a single wave.

“This is Victor.” Nancy said firmly.

“Amy’s cousin, so that’s how you knew it was him at breakfast yesterday.” Charlie’s eyes widened.

“Please, don’t tell anyone I’m here.” Kamen said with a calm and cordial smile, “I’ve gotten myself into a bit of trouble with a few unsavory individuals and I need to keep a low profile.”

Charlie’s eyebrow raised and he smiled, thrilled at the idea of Victor hiding out with his friend, and immediately decided that he was hiding from the mob. “Right, I never saw you.

Kamen smiled at Nancy, “See, not so hard to explain.”

“So you’re crashing here, with Nancy?” Charlie pointed to Nancy, still grinning.

“A mutual friend who I know, and don’t know. It’s a perfect cover.” Kamen tilted his head to the side, “Don’t you think, Nan?”

“Whatever, as long as you don’t pee on the carpet.” Nancy groaned.

“Likewise.” He smiled.

“So, I brought beer, and pizza, and some weird movie from the eighties that I found in my parent’s basement.” Charlie smiled and pulled a VHS from his bag, “You have a tape player, right? I couldn’t remember.”

“Yeah, we picked it up from a yard sale last may, you were with me.” Nancy set the pizza and beer onto the bar before taking the tape from Charlie. She squinted at the faded coffee-stained paper on the large black plastic tape, “What’s it about?”

“Hell if I know.”

“Great. Commentary tonight then?”

“As always.” Charlie took the plates from the bar and loaded them up with pizza before passing one to Kamen, “Nan, Drake’s going to be with us Monday at the diner, he’s off that day.”

“I think I may be off that day too, I’m really fuzzy on the details about how long Henry is going to be with his dad.” She turned on the television, pushed the tape into the player, and paused the film at the opening credits.

Kamen swallowed uncomfortably, Charlie was staring at him. He looked down at the plate of pepperoni pizza in his hand and reached for a beer from the bar, opening it and taking a quick drink. He wasn’t supposed to be seen by anyone, and here he was enjoying ‘movie night’ with Nancy and Charlie, if he was going to get into trouble with Rei, he was going to have the excuse that he was drunk. It was a flimsy excuse, and would be hard enough to achieve with the service-issued vitamins and stimulants that he took religiously.

Nancy was back at the counter, she took a large bit from the pizza on the last plate before reaching for a beer and struggling to open it.

Kamen pursed his lips and put his food down. He reached out for the bottle in Nancy’s hands and pulled off the metal lid for her.

“Thanks.” She smiled awkwardly.

He nodded once, and then looked back to Charlie, eyes still glued to the celebrity in the apartment, “So, what do you do?”

Charlie grinned, “I work at a hardware store. My husband is an accountant.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Two years, almost three. I love it.” He went to the couch, set his plate, and drink onto the coffee table. Kamen and Nancy slowly followed suit as he talked, “We got married and bought a house.”

“Ever think about adopting?”

“It’s a work in progress.” He made a gesture to Nancy as the three sat down, “Nancy paints; she did most of the artwork in my house.”

“Really?” Kamen turned his head to Nancy, “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

“Slipped my mind.” She took a drink.

“What do you paint?”

“Abstracts, landscapes, I’m really bad at portraits and I never had the discipline to get better. I like watercolors, but if I’m working very small scale I use oils.”

Charlie smiles, “She used to garden when she lived with her uncle, it was impressive. I’d pass by the house in the summer and she had the whole thing set up so that when the seasons changed and the spring flowers stopped blooming, the summer ones would already be there. The whole thing was fucking perfect. One year it was all pink and purple in the spring, then the summer and it was orange and yellow.”

Kamen smiles and furrows his brow at Nancy, “You forgot about that too?”

Nancy swallows, “I don’t garden anymore, I don’t have a yard. I do some potted plants on the window ledge outside, but they’re herbs.”

“Speaking of,” Charlie began with a grin, “She cooks too.”

“Charlie!” Nancy groaned.

“She’d do all sorts of research on what went well with what, and she’d test out all these amazing recipes, there was a month where I lived at her uncle’s house because she cooked every night. I gained twenty pounds.”

“Everyone cooks.” Nancy grimaced.

“I don’t.” Kamen said with a wry smile, “I don’t garden either. Or paint.”

“Of course not, you’re Victor Covington, you have expensive hobbies.”

“Teach me how to cook and I’ll teach you how to fence.” He hummed, waiting for a response.

Nancy inspected Kamen’s face; fencing was something that she was interested in, but she had no idea when it would be useful, or be in a position to have a sword and need to know how to use it. “Throw in teaching me some defense.”

“Good idea, you’ll need that.”

“So,” Charlie grinned, “What kind of workout regime do you have Victor?”

Kamen’s eyes widened and the tips of his ears turned red, the beginnings of a blush that he somehow stopped from reaching his cheeks, “Uh.”

“Is it all cardio or what?”

Nancy smiled; finally, she was out of the spotlight.

“Martial arts, kick boxing, fencing, a lot of it is to blow off stress. I did lacrosse, football, and swimming in school.”

Nancy looked at her beer and grimaced, “Let me guess, butterfly stroke.”

Kamen gave her a curious scowl, “How did you guess?”

She made a gesture to his shoulders with the hand that held the bottle, “Because you’re all muscle up top. I’ve seen the Olympics enough times to know.”

Kamen raised an eyebrow at her, smiling wryly, “I’m lucky, I don’t lose bulk very quickly. I was really thin when I was younger.” He turned back to Charlie, “What about you? You’re in pretty good shape.”

“Sexcercise and dancing.” Charlie smiled.

Kamen nodded once.

“So that settles it.”

“Settles what?”

“Well, I need a baby, and obviously I can’t have one with my husband—we’re missing a uterus—so we’re looking for parents and I think you meet the requirements.”

Kamen furrowed his brow, “I don’t have a uterus.”

“Nancy does.”

Nancy choked on her drink, stood quickly and held her hand to her mouth while she went to the kitchen in search of a paper towel.

Kamen sat on the couch, eyes wide.

“CHARLIE!” Nancy said mid-cough.

Charlie stood and turned to the kitchen to look at Nancy, “Well I’m not going to fuck you, I love you and all, but I see boobs and I can’t get it up, Drake’d have the same problem, and we both decided that we want a ginger.”

“You’re not supposed to be scouting out a father!”

“I’m not asking you to have a relationship, just a one night stand with someone who would make it worth the while.” He looked at Kamen, “You seem like you’d have stamina.”

Kamen was now blushing fully; he reached for his beer on the coffee table and downed the entire bottle.

“No.” Nancy said quickly, “We are not having this conversation. I am celibate. I quit. No more sex.”

Charlie glared at Kamen, recalling one of the latest stories in the tabloids, “If it does happen, and you force her to get an abortion, I will kill you.”

Kamen’s eyes widened, “I would never do that.”

Charlie pursed his lips, “You’re saying that’s just a rumor?”

“That was a terrible lie.”

“Oh my god, Chloe?” Nancy was agape, slowly walking back to the couch.

“No! I never did anything like that.”

“So why did you dump her?” Charlie took a drink.

Kamen grimaced, “It wasn’t working. We had nothing in common, and my boss didn’t like her either.”

Charlie was confused, “You don’t have a boss.”

Nancy understood, Kamen meant his boss in the CAF.

Kamen swallowed, “Everyone has a boss.” He bit the inside of his mouth, trying not to make a face, “Chloe was never pregnant, and even if she was it’s her decision on what to do with the thing.”

Charlie and Nancy looked at each other; Victor Covington was as cold as Drake had said.

Over the course of the three-hour movie, Nancy and Kamen moved to the floor and Charlie sprawled out on the couch. Kamen found himself delighted by the event, regardless of his cover being compromised; he could not remember the last time that he had simply hung out with friends for movies.

Nancy’s headache returned and she found that she was officially out of aspirin; the low alcohol content of the beverages did little to help the buzzing.

As was the normal for the event, Charlie was asleep on the couch not halfway through the film.

The ending credits were rolling and Nancy glanced once at the man asleep on the sofa, and then to the one beside her, “Looks like you’re out of a bed for the night.”

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways.” He took a hard look at Charlie, deep asleep on the couch, “Is he always that…ostentatious?”

“Is there anything wrong with that?” Nancy asked, nearly offended for Charlie.

“No, it just seems like it’d be tiring, to be that happy all the time.”

“Those sorts of things generate their own energy.” The credits were still rolling and Nancy looked at Kamen carefully, wondering how often he was happy as his actions and tone that night suggested that the event and casual gathering was not something that he was familiar with.

Kamen nodded in agreement, “He’s not a bad guy. You’ve got some good friends.”

“So what happened to your defensive front?” Nancy asked as she stood from the floor and collected the plates and empty bottles from the coffee table, “Or have you decided that you trust me?”

He followed Nancy to the kitchen, taking a moment to wash his hands as she threw the bottles away, “You let me crash in your home. You should know by now that I’d been following you for the past week.”

Nancy sat down at the bar, nodding slightly.

He stood on the side of the bar opposite to where she had sat, watching her with a small smile, “I think you’re either too nice for your own good, or you’re an incredible judge of character.”

In all honesty, Nancy had not realized that Kamen had been following her the entire time, she had noticed that he had stayed close by, but the idea that he had been watching her specifically brought goose bumps to her arms.

“So, Victor Covington is homeless, crashing here, sleeping on my couch, and calling himself Kamen for what reason?”

He raised an eyebrow at the question, “Because I’m here illegally and getting deported would be a bad thing?”

She slowly swallowed, “Who were you to Artemis?”

He said nothing, but returned her gaze for a few moments, “Can’t you remember anything?”

Nancy looked down at the counter, since the previous night the buzzing in her head had gotten progressively worse. It was more sporadic than ever, increasing, decreasing, and sometimes stopping completely. It had been purely out of her own curiosity, and concern for Amy that she had kept him around for so long.

“No.” Nancy said firmly, “I have no idea what is happening.”

Nancy stood from her seat and went to turn off the television; Kamen’s eyes followed her as she pulled a blanket over her sleeping friend, “Sorry about Charlie.” She said to Kamen quietly as she returned to her seat, “I should have warned you, you’ve been watching me and he’s been watching you.”

She went back to the kitchen and began to wash the plates; Kamen followed and leaned against the counter next to her while she washed the dish.

He slowly picked up the towel lying next to the dish drainer and dried the plates before putting them away in the cupboard.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No.” He smiled, “but I want to.”

It wasn’t until he had closed the cupboard from putting away the plates did she realize how close she had been standing to Kamen, and found her nose nearly bumping into his chest before looking up at his face slowly.

“I’m not going to stop you tomorrow, but use some caution with that man, you have no idea what he’s capable of.”

The dryness of her lips had sealed them shut and she licked them once before responding to him, “I can take care of myself.”

“I know.” Kamen smiled softly, Nancy certainly could take care of herself, but he had to wonder how well Artemis was handling everything and why she had not made herself known yet.

Nancy had barely stretched up to him when he pulled her close, wrapping one arm around her waist, and his other hand pulling her mouth to his by her chin. She let her hands reach up over his back and rest on his shoulders. Kamen walked slowly forward, pushing Nancy into the concave corner of the intersecting countertop before lifting his mouth from her.

He did not move away from her and she let her fingers curl on his shoulder lightly, their eyes locked, both waiting for the other to pull away.

He had barely kissed her again when the two heard Charlie move in his sleep on the couch and Kamen stopped dead as Nancy looked over and let out a sigh to see that her friend was still sleeping.

Nancy looked back to Kamen with a nervous smile.

He remained cool and attempted to pull her back to him before she placed a hand on his chest and held him back. The ringing in her ears had returned. The ringing turned to a screech and was stinging almost unbearably against the back of her eyes.

Kamen looked at her, slightly puzzled before she moved from him to pull a bottle of vodka from the fridge, from which she drank directly before rubbing her head slowly.

“I have a…headache.” She explained, “I forgot to pick up aspirin on my way home.”

Kamen raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry.”

Kamen took the vodka from her hands, not letting his eyes move from hers as if he were rising to a challenge. He took a large swig from the bottle, and passed it back to her as he cleared his mouth.

Nancy stifled a smirk, and took a second drink, lowered the bottle for a few seconds, and then took a third.

Kamen licked his lips slowly before taking the bottle for his second gulp and was hesitant to pass it back to Nancy, unsure of how much of the game she could take. He let his gaze slip from her eyes as she took her fourth drink and took a step backwards to have a better look at her.

She was petite, as Artemis had always been, but Nancy was twenty-four, four years older than Artemis was, and in those four years, she had acquired the curve of a woman’s body.

“I didn’t think you’d be drinking with me.” Nancy managed as she watched Kamen tilt the bottom of the bottle upwards.

“I’m technically at work right now.” He smirked to her, “I’m curious if you can actually keep up.” He smiled broadly and held the bottle up to the light to check the nearly depleted level of the fluid within.

“There’s another bottle in the freezer if that’s what you’re wondering about.”

Kamen did not lower the bottle and glanced at her briefly, that had not been what he was wondering about, he had been curious as to whether or not she believed him incapable of continuing. The bottle in his hand was much weaker than what he normally drank, and he wondered if Nancy had ever tasted anything better than the cheap imitation that he was now starting to feel in his head.

In a moment of almost defiance, Kamen took another mouthful of the clear alcohol, “Pull it out of the freezer then.”

Nancy smirked and pulled open the freezer door, a small cloud of moisture fell to her feet as she pulled the unopened bottle out and set it onto the countertop.

Kamen finished off the old bottle just as she opened the new one and drank from it; he sat the empty bottle next to the sink and accepted the full one from Nancy, who blinked once or twice, in an attempt to regain her bearings after breaking the seal and taking the first drink.

He smiled, “I think you’re just about done with this game.” He pulled the mouth of the bottle to his lips and began to drink, not stopping at one or two mouthfuls, but rather continued until held of the bottle had been drained into him. Licking his lips, he screwed the lid of the bottle back into place and looked closer at the bottle’s label, “Raspberry?”

Nancy smiled and shrugged, “You seemed to enjoy it.”

“I actually really like raspberry.” Kamen handed her the bottle and she placed it back into the freezer. He looked back over into the living room to see that Charlie was still asleep, “I wonder if it works.”

“If what…” Before Nancy could finish her sentence, Kamen had placed a hand on either side of her stomach and pressed his mouth to hers for a moment, then broke away shaking his head.

“Nope,” He smiled and winked at her, “Just vodka.”

Nancy made a move to strike Kamen on the chest with the back of her hand, but stumbled as she lost her balance and grabbed onto his arms to steady herself.

He stifled a laugh, “Yeah, you’re done with this game.” His words were hollow, and he struggled to keep control as the alcohol—as cheap and weak as he had thought it was—began to make his movements difficult.

“I didn’t mean to start a game.”

Kamen picked Nancy up from the floor and she wrapped her arms around his neck with a small surprised gasp.

“Quaint.” He muttered as he pushed open the door to her room for the first time, looking around the dim room, first to the nightlight plugged into the wall socket, and then to the rice paper mobile of birds hanging from the ceiling. With Nancy in his arms he turned to the bed, a soft and fluffy white blanket, tossed to one side with plush feather pillows, everything was all too reminiscent of Artemis’ room in Q’ael Dan’il.

He set her down onto the bed, closed the door, and let his eyes wander about the room until he felt Nancy’s hands grasp the fabric of his pants on either side of his waist.

He looked back at her in surprise.

“That shirt.” Nancy managed, fighting with the alcohol in her system to stay sitting up.

“What?”

“Your shirt,” She reached out her index finger and slowly brought it up to Kamen’s chest, “The fabric is weird.”

“Oh.” He sighed, “It’s bulletproof, very handy, very soft, and very warm.”

Kamen looked down at himself and slowly pulled his shirt off over his head and draped it over the baseboard. The identification tags hanging around his neck jingled and Nancy reached out and grabbed one to pull to her eyes in curiosity, jerking his head down to accommodate her, “They’re little pentagons!”

He smiled at her, certain she had only reached for it because of the small glint it had caught from the nightlight, and knew that she would not be awake much longer if she were to the point of being interested in shiny things.

“There’s a star inscribed on the other side, opposite my name.”

“Kamen Nyles Covington, H.G., AB minus?”

“Name, rank, blood type.”

“H.G.?”

Kamen blinked once as she placed a hand on his stomach, just below his belly button, nearly touching the buckle of his belt. “High General. I watch over you, and assist the Commander in Chief.”

“Commander in Chief, like the head of the military?”

Kamen nodded slowly, “Runs everything and collaborates with the Queen.”

“You’re that high up and you still came out here on your own to find me?”

Kamen smiled at her and affectionately touched his nose to hers, “Because you’re important to me.”

Nancy fell backwards onto the bed and Kamen smiled at her, climbing over her and hovering above as she began to mutter a few things and began her sentence mid-yawn, “I promise to be careful tomorrow.”

“I know.” He said, still looking down at her. She seemed to bat at a piece of hair that hung from the top of his head with her forefinger, as he moved his eyes to look up at it she grabbed onto his tags to look at them once more.

Rather than allowing her to jerk him around by the chain around his neck, Kamen removed the tags and handed them to Nancy for further inspection. He lay down next to her on his side, pulling her back up against him with a strong arm around her stomach.

The chain of the tags quickly tangled around her fingers and wrist, she turned her head to look at Kamen, “Who the hell sleeps with a belt? Can you scoot a little? Or take it off?”

Kamen’s eyes widened.

He didn’t have a belt on.

Quickly, Kamen scooted backwards slightly.

“He scares me a little.”

“What?” Kamen’s voice was urgent, “Did he hurt you?”

“No, he didn’t do anything, he’s just…intense.” Nancy sat up in bed abruptly and pulled her shirt over her head, causing a slightly uncomfortable vocal reaction from Kamen until she pulled her camisole away from where it had clung to the inside of her shirt. She tossed away her shirt and snuggled back under the blankets, facing Kamen with her head buried in his chest and tags wrapped around her wrist.

“I could sleep on the floor.”

“I want you with me.” Nancy shook her head, “Stay with me.”

Kamen wrapped his arms around her shoulders, “Yes.”

“What happened to you?”

He hummed in confusion, “Your arm, it’s got a scar, your shoulders too.”

“They broke.” He grimaced, “The arm is a brand; everyone in the military is branded with the royal seal when they enter.”

She yawned, groaned, and then nuzzled her head back into his chest.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“I drank too much.”

Kamen chuckled, “Yes. Yes you did. Just stay on your side.”

“I need aspirin.”

He lifted up his head and looked towards the door, “I can get you some, where is it?”

“I told you, I used all of it and I forgot to pick up more.”

He leaned his head back down and absentmindedly stroked her hair, “Right, you were medicating yourself with vodka.”

“Yes.” Nancy said decidedly.

“And you’ll kill me in the morning for being in bed with you.”

“No I won’t.” She tightened her grip on him, “Hmm, you smell good, and you’re nice and warm.”

“Ha! I smell good? You are drunk.”

She rolled her eyes, “Well you finally showered, so anything is better than what you smelled like last night.”

“…ouch, and just when I thought you were going to be as lovely as you look.”

Kamen bit his tongue, immediately thinking that his statement had been over the line, but Nancy nuzzled closer.

“It’s supposed to snow this week.” She muttered.

“Does that make you happy?

She shook her head, “I don’t like the snow, all this weather can go to hell.”

“What about rain?”

“I love it, I love storms.”

“Just hate snow?”

“Nothing good ever comes with snow. Bad roads, too cold, slick, windy, icy—ugh, I should move to Florida or something.”

“You don’t even like Christmas?”

“I never really had one. My uncle didn’t celebrate.”

Kamen nodded, Alexander Coy, being buenan, would celebrate the solstice. The thought of Nancy was a young child and never experiencing Christmas as humans enjoyed it left an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

“It’s okay.” Nancy murmured, “I’m not really religious anyways. Some days I’m an atheist, then others I believe there’s something. I’m not very set in my beliefs.”

“I like to think there’s something here, something that gives a reason to everything that happens. Some force makes the bad things happen for good reasons.”

“Five.”

“What?”

“I’ve been in five car wrecks and one bike crash. I have been in three burning buildings, and one of them was my fucking senior prom. God must hate me.”

Kamen swallowed. The human gods would hate a buenan.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing…nothing is wrong with you.”

“You say that. I used to volunteer at the hospital a friend of mine was a resident at, I was trying out the different floors, just talking to people, and I got to the hospice wing, and they just looked at me like…like I was the devil. Like I had this cloud of evil that I brought with me.”

“Like an aura.” He nodded once; Artemis was divine, born from Celeste’s line. Nancy’s story was proof that Artemis’ aura was present at one point in the human realm, despite him not seeing any trace of it now, meaning that Nancy was indeed the Dauphine. He recalled several instances when Rei had mentioned the aversion to the aura that older humans had. All buenans had an aura; the ones born directly from Celeste had an additional halo, something that caused elderly humans to lash out violently.

Kamen swallowed, he was much too happy at that moment to allow Nancy to brood on the past. “Life goes on.”

“See, I told myself that, but it’s not that simple. I think…I think for most people there’s no certainty about tomorrow, but for me it is. Because most people know that they could die at any time, freak accidents or whatever, but I can’t.” She laughed bitterly, “And I’m drunk and don’t make any sense.”

“You’re making more sense now than earlier. I was beginning to think you honestly thought it was normal for someone to be so lucky. You have less limits, you could be anything you want, not have to worry about dying, you could be a superhero.”

She hummed, “I want to be a prince.”

“What?”

“I could be your prince.”

Kamen smiled, “What would that make me?”

“Lady Godiva.”

“What’s wrong with being a princess?”

“Under-rated and over-hyped damsel in distress.”

“Hey now, I’ve known some pretty bad-ass damsels.”

“No, I’m gonna be a prince.”

“Fine, you can be my prince and I’ll be Godiva. I’ll even strip down and ride through town for you.”

“I like you.” Nancy laughed, “You’re an ass, but it’s not too awful.”