“Nero?”

Nero turns his head toward me. “Yes?”

I sigh. “Are… Are you all right?”

“Perfectly fine.”

His response causes me to frown. “Are you sure? You’ve been…trembling for the past half hour; very much so.”

Nero’s knee bumps against mine again. “It’s the lack of exercise,” he mutters.

I nudge his leg back to where it belongs in his own corner. “You never moved much back in the lab though.”

“Ah.” He grins. Our eyes meet again, and something about the smug look he wears makes my heart skip a beat.

Fear, I tell myself. It’s just fear.

“So,” he says, “you were watching then?”

“I—” Heavens, why is he like this? I frown and avert my gaze. My hands fall into my lap. “Maybe,” I mutter, “but, please, Nero, if something’s wrong, you must tell me. The fate of everything depends on you, and—” I pause. “Nero?”

Nero grabs my wrists and pins me to the wall. Something has shifted in the air, and this time I have no doubt it is my being afraid of the power residing within him as the anxiety I felt in the past comes crawling back up my throat. Without a word, Nero releases me with his head hung low. “I knew you were afraid.”

Huh?

I part my lips. “I-I— I’m not—”

“Really?” He cocks his head to the side and wears the face of someone who is either ready to kill or take a lover to bed—I cannot tell which it is. Nero slides his palm over mine. “Because now, you are the one trembling, Sire,” he says.

I shake his touch away. “I told you not to call me that.”

He grabs hold of me again. His breaths fall against mine with how close he’s gotten. “Why won’t you answer the question, Aster? Do you fear me, like they did?”

Do I?

Or is it merely fascination in the end?

“I don’t know,” I say, because for once, this is the truth. “I don’t know enough about you.”

I gulp. But I want to, I leave these words unsaid. I want to know more about you. “You should tell me what’s wrong,” I finally manage to add, after Nero has grown much too silent for my taste. “We’re probably going to be stuck together for many a moment. It would be in our best interest if we cooperated and were honest with each other. I’m not going to spend every waking hour wondering why you shake as you do. Tell me what’s wrong”—my gaze grows darker, I grab his shoulder and tug him close—“that’s an order, Nero.”

Nero is on the verge of replying, though his voice is stolen from him as something bumps into the pod, erasing any answer he might’ve been ready to say.

The lights flicker. On. Off. On. Off again, until we are plunged in total darkness, just like on the station. I hear him yelp as he tumbles over me.

When the lights return, Nero has wrapped his hands around my neck. He whimpers against my shoulder. His body quivers much harder than it did before. My eyes gloss over the tiny space of the pod. I find a small meteorite passing us by; from what I know, it’s thankfully not enough to do any actual damage, only light turbulences.

The huff I let out is one of relief.

So that’s what it was…

I try to pull away from Nero’s grasp, but he holds on tight and refuses to let go. “Please, don’t,” he begs in a voice so tiny I barely recognise it as his own. “Stay.”