Sunday had passed without any incident, bar Cedar competing in the intergalactic awkwardness championships. Vaki, on the other hand, was simply acting as if nothing unusual had transpired between them.

Cedar couldn’t help the way his eyes kept slipping unbidden to the younger man. Cedar watched as Vaki continued to try and do as many menial chores as he could whilst Cedar’s injury recovered.

He watched as Vaki giggled after finally mastering the right amount of dish soap to squirt in the basin, the slimy suds attaching themselves to Vaki’s delicate wrists and slipping across his skin.

“Glad someone finds housework fun,” Cedar grunted on Monday morning as Vaki shrieked with delight when the automated vacuum began to chase him across the carpet.

“You don’t?” Vaki frowned with a small pout before crouching on top of the arm of the couch. Vaki liked to be up on high surfaces and rarely sprawled out, preferring to keep himself tucked in poised and small.

“Can’t say it’s up there on my list of hobbies,” Cedar grinned ruefully, rubbing the back of his neck and shifting in his sling.

Vaki narrowed his eyes at the movement, “I need to replace your bandages this morning,”

“Yeah, sure,” Cedar nodded, “Manya bought some fresh ones right?”

“Yes,” Vaki nodded, “so what is on your list?”

“Huh?” Cedar pulled a confused face.

“Of hobbies,” Vaki explained, he looked almost shy at broaching the subject, “what do you like to do for fun?”

“Oh,” Cedar stated before pausing, he had no real clue of what he found ‘fun’. “I guess on my nights off I’ll go to nearby bar and drink a bit maybe meet…” Cedar trailed off awkwardly, for some reason he didn’t want Vaki to have the same awful impression of him that everyone else seemed to.

“…friends,” he finished lamely. Cedar tried to think of the last time he had genuinely enjoyed an activity. “I guess I quite like my work, it feels good when we’ve been tracking and researching a case for months and it finally pays off.”

Vaki nodded thoughtfully but said nothing. Cedar frowned inwardly, god he was boring. Did he really not have any hobbies?

“I used to like holo games,” Cedar offered, he was reaching now. The last time he had played a VR holo deck game had been when he was a kid and Aster and him had argued furiously over a game of tennis. In the end the nanny had escorted them both home in tears after a firm talking to about ‘sportsmanship’.

“What kind?” Vaki asked enthusiastically. “I have learned that there are five holo game decks onboard this colony ship and they all have different offerings.”

“Um,” Cedar began as Vaki moved to go pick up the fresh bag of bandages from the kitchenette bar and disinfected his hands. “I guess any kind of sports is always fun, but I know there’s VR hikes you can do on multidirectional treadmills. Rish told me he and his brother even did a kayaking one, although the holo graphics were pretty shit.” Cedar sighed, “Might be nice for a bit to pretend you’re somewhere else, like a planet or a moon.”

He pulled off his top with Vaki’s help as the younger man gently unstuck the previous dressings, putting them in a yellow bio hazard waste bag.

“How’s it looking Doc?” Cedar asked, craning to glance down at his own shoulder – a mass of mottled blue and purple with crusted blood in the centre.

“It is healing satisfactorily,” Vaki replied, focussing on cleaning the stitches.

“Waste of good alcohol,” Cedar joke as Vaki dabbed on the sterilisation fluid. Vaki paused and glanced up at Cedar, his yellow eyes slightly subdued.

“As your Mercy I am obligated to tell you that you consume above average levels of –“

“You’re not a real Mercy, Vaki,” Cedar snapped, instantly regretting it as Vaki’s face darkened and fell.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes whilst Vaki finished cleaning the wound and began to apply fresh dressings.

“I’m a dick,” Cedar announced loudly, causing both of them to flinch. “You’d make a great Mercy, you are making a great Mercy. I just didn’t want to hear what you were gonna say.”

“That’s understandable,” Vaki nodded, keeping his eyes lowered.

“My sister,” Cedar began, “the person you told me sent you before your memory loss. She was abducted when I was eleven, she was nine. We were messing about on the streets having run away from our nanny at the time. These men appeared, they were dressed in official government uniforms and told us that our father had been looking for us. My dad, he was the Deputy Governor and he was often sending his secretaries to come pick us up. They told us he was angry we had run off again and wanted to see us immediately.” Cedar took a deep breath, Vaki’s fingers were running slowly along the edge of the stick on dressing, forcing it to stay put on damp skin.

“I was a shit, even back then. So I pretended to go with them and Aster but ran off at the last moment. I didn’t want to get in trouble again and my friends were playing a ball game at the back of the Promenade that I wanted to join. I figured I’d just let them take Aster and that might be enough to placate Dad.” Cedar swallowed, “I remember her calling out to me and I just laughed as I sped away. I didn’t even look back. I figured she wouldn’t talk to me for a few days but I could live with that. Kid sisters can be annoying when they talk too much.”

“I have accessed the news reports,” Vaki answered quietly, “when you told me I had something to do with your sister, I researched the name Aster Tanaka.”

“I ran away,” Cedar repeated. “I…I laughed. What if that was the last thing she remembered of me? A big brother who just abandoned her and found it funny.”

“You thought they worked for your father,” Vaki interjected quickly, his fingers were now trailing up and down the bare skin of Cedar’s bicep, as if calming a wild animal. “You were a child. You didn’t know.”

“The body they found was identified by DNA sample,” Cedar replied, “not by visuals. But that can be faked, if you’ve got the right money…and then you came along and told me she was alive.”

“I’m sorry,” Cedar looked across at Vaki, the android looked distressed again, “I’m so sorry I can’t remember.”

“Hey,” Cedar’s throat felt hot and tight, “do you want to bake a fruit cake?”