“I can’t fucking stand that guy,” Gene fumed. “Just who the hell does he think he is, anyway?”

An hour of sitting in the car fuming hadn’t done Gene’s disposition any favors, and the Austin traffic soured his mood even further. He was perfectly aware that he had a temper, and that it was probably a good thing Lauren volunteered to drive. If he was behind the wheel, the first person to cut him off would end up in the ditch. 

“It’s…complicated,” Lauren replied, sighing. 

“Well, we’re not going anywhere,” Emma said. “You know Haru better than anyone. Why’s she with that asshole? I thought she was scared of men.”

“She is, for the most part. It’s just…”

“Complicated?” Rafael suggested. 

“Emma, you’ve known Haru for what, two, maybe three years?” Lauren asked. 

“Something like that, yeah. You introduced us not long after we started dating, so two and a half, maybe? I haven’t exactly been keeping track,” Emma said. 

“In all that time, would you really say you’ve gotten to know her?”

“I mean, I’d like to think I do,” Emma said. “We’re not exactly the best of friends, but she’s really sweet, and she’s always willing to give me a hand when I need one.”

“But she doesn’t open up to you, does she.”

“No, not exactly. She’s willing to listen, but she never talks about her own problems,” Emma said. 

“She doesn’t talk about them with me much, either,” Lauren said. “I catch a little from time to time, but I’m not the one she goes to when something is bothering her. Even if I do something to piss her off, she rarely talks to me about it, not at first.”

“I thought you two were close,” Gene said. 

“We are, but there are different kinds of closeness,” Lauren said. “She and I are…well, physical isn’t the best way to put it. There’s more to it than that. But the master and sub dynamic is the central pillar of our relationship. We’re physically intimate, and I’d say that comes with a certain spiritual and emotional resonance, but we don’t actually talk about our feelings all that much. I might tell her that I’m having a bad day, because I know she’ll do her best to lift my spirits, and if she’s having a bad day, I’ll try to do something for her, but we don’t go out of our way to play therapist for each other.”

“You guys sound more like fuck buddies than girlfriends,” Gene said. 

“I get how you’d think that, but we really do love each other,” Lauren said. “We just express it differently.”

“I don’t see how she expresses much of anything when she’s got a gag in her mouth and your strapon in her ass, but sure,” Rafael said. “We’ll go with that. Where’s the Sasquatch come in?”

Lauren shot him an ugly look, but gamely soldiered on. 

“Look, you guys know how this poly thing works,” she said. “We all get different things from each other. It’s the same with Haru. Jen’s the nurturer. She takes care of Haru when Haru can’t or won’t take care of herself.”

“I mean, sure, she’s shy, but Haru does alright,” Emma said. 

“Haru’s very capable in a lot of ways, but there are some things she can’t do for herself very well thanks to her autism. Well, that and the way her shithead of a father raised her. Have you ever wondered why she doesn’t drink?”

“Are we doing a deep dive into Haru’s psyche, or are we discussing her pet psycho?” Gene demanded. 

“I told you it was complicated,” Lauren said. 

“Ignore him,” Emma said. “I’m curious now. I just thought she didn’t like alcohol.”

“It was never her favorite thing, but she used to take a shot or two before doing panels at cons. It helped her calm her nerves enough to get onstage and interact with people. Could you imagine her doing that now?”

“Hell no,” Rafael said. 

“She can’t drink anymore because her liver is shot to hell. I don’t know the full story, since I didn’t know her all that well back then, but she went through a period where it looked like she might need a transplant. She pulled through, obviously, but that’s largely thanks to Jen. The whole reason it got so bad in the first place was because Haru refused to tell anyone how bad she was feeling. So, no drinking, no cons, and Jen looks after her to make sure she doesn’t relapse. Jen does a lot of that. It’s not entirely wrong to say that she runs Haru’s life for her.”

“Jesus. That doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship,” Gene said. 

“If it was anyone but Jen, I’d have doubts myself. Haru’s had partners take advantage of her in the past. There’s a reason Jen mothers Haru so much, and why Haru lets her. Haru probably could learn to be more independent. I just don’t think she wants to, and I don’t think Jen really wants her to, either. They like their arrangement. It works for them,” Lauren said.

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming,” Emma said. 

“A pretty big one. Haru doesn’t want to worry Jen, not when Jen already does so much for her. She already feels guilty about relying on her so much,” Lauren said. “So, when she has a problem that she can’t work out for herself, so goes to Shane.”

“What’s he going to do, shoot them?” Emma asked. 

“Apparently, he’s really perceptive,” Lauren said. “That’s coming from Jen as much as Haru. Haru won’t talk to Jen about a lot of things that bother her, especially when we’re having problems, but she’ll talk to Shane and he helps her understand who’s doing what to whom for how many jelly beans.”

“And you’re just okay with that?” Gene demanded. 

“I was actually kinda pissed when I found out Haru was talking to him to help work out problems she had with me, but apparently she doesn’t give him any actual details. She just sort of lays out the general circumstances and he works it out from there. She never tells him anything I’d be upset at her for blabbing about.”

“And you can believe as much or as little of that as you want,” Gene said. 

“Haru can’t lie, not really,” Lauren said. “Trust me, I’ve seen her try. It’s painful.”

“Okay,” Rafael said. “Let’s just accept that at face value. She thinks Shane is the second coming of Sherlock Holmes and helps her do the whole people thing. Why does that mean we should have to put up with his bullshit?”

“Just fucking kneecap him and be done with it,” Gene snarled.

“Don’t even talk like that,” Emma said wearily. “There’s no need to sink to his level.”

“I feel obligated to point out that he’s not the one who started shit tonight,” Lauren said. “Jen was right. We were guests in her home, and we picked a fight. That’s not on him.”

“Whatever,” Emma said. 

“No, not whatever. I don’t like Shane any more than you do, but Jen was seriously spooked about this AI thing. I’ve never seen her that worried about something, ever. If she’s taking this seriously, then we need to take it seriously too. Let’s say this program has really gone off the rails, and there’s no way to stop it. Then what?”

“Then we hightail it out into the desert and ride out whatever comes next,” Gene said. “Easy peasy.”

“Easy. Sure,” Rafael said. “I know you think you’re tough because you worked on oil rigs, but trust me, the desert isn’t our friend. Even camping out there for a weekend is rough.”

“And if it’s rough on us, imagine how rough it’ll be for the people who don’t know it’s coming,” Lauren said. “Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people, are going to have the same idea, and they’re not going to be nearly as ready for it. What do you think they’ll do when they start starving to death?”

“I get what you’re saying, but that’s not our problem,” Gene said. “If they try to take our shit, we stop them. It’s not that hard.”

“It’ll be a lot easier if we’ve got a certified killer on our side,” Lauren said. “Besides, there’s no way Haru is going to sign off on any plan that doesn’t involve Shane, and I’m not willing to abandon her just because I don’t like her taste in men. Lord knows she’s not fond of mine, and she’s stuck with me all these years.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Gene asked, indignant. 

“Gene, she’s terrified of you,” Emma said. “And Rafael. I still don’t get why she isn’t afraid of Shane, but it looks like he’s the exception, not the rule.”

“There’s other stuff too, but let’s not get into that,” Lauren said. “The point is, we might not all have to like each other, but we need each other.”

“That’s assuming this program can actually do something to fuck up the world,” Rafael said. “I’m still not ready to take that at face value.”

“I admit, the chances are low,” Lauren said. “But even if they’re low, it wouldn’t hurt to have a plan. We got lucky that Hurricane Helene weakened before it made landfall last year. If an actual category 5 slams into Houston and Galveston, getting away from the cities for a month or two might not be such a bad thing.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Emma said. “It’d be easier if it was just the four of us, but you’re not leaving Haru behind, and I’m not leaving you behind, so I guess we’ll all just have to suck it up and deal with it.”

“For now, at any rate,” Rafael said. “I bet she’ll change her tune once he goes all John Wick on some poor fucker.”

“You’d be surprised,” Lauren said. “Something tells me Haru knows exactly what he’s capable of.”