PLANET AGAFRA - TOLLINDO CITY

His chest felt heavy. He couldn’t move. There was a tickle against his bare skin. It was moving! The legs! There were so many legs! It was looking for a way in! He couldn’t move! He couldn’t move! 

Dion’s eyes snapped open and a bright light blinded him. He struggled to sit up, but he was restrained. His heart raced so loud he could hear it beating like a drum inside his head. Black tickled his bare chest. There were so many insects! There were so many legs! He needed to get them off! GET THEM OFF!

Dion’s eyes quickly adjusted and he paused. He wasn’t on the cold bench; he was on a soft bed. He frowned at the black, tickly mass on his chest, trying to understand what was happening. It was connected to something else that had him pinned down –  a white fluffy robe! Relief relaxed his muscles and he sank back into his pillow. It was Ember’s hair. The two of them had to share the double bed because they were too tall for the bunks. At some point, the other man had curled himself over Dion, using him as a pillow.

“Hey, get off.” It was a struggle for Dion to get one of his arms free. Ember was heavier than he thought. Or maybe Dion was just weaker than he believed. Either way, he was still trapped. “Hey!” Dion shouted, pushing Ember’s shoulder. Somehow, that encouraged Ember to hug him tighter.

The shower was running but the room was otherwise empty. Where did everyone go? Dion still didn’t have a working DataCuff to check the time. He and Ember had given up on resurrecting it when they couldn’t find all the missing pieces. He assumed there was still time till dawn if the others had left them to sleep in longer.

“Hey," Dion tried again, “Sleeping Beauty! Get off!” Done with being gentle, he pinched Ember’s nose closed. The temptation to squeeze as hard as possible was difficult to resist, but he still needed to be on Ember’s good side until they met with Tsoukalas. Ember suddenly squirmed and pushed away in a panic. 

Shining gold eyes blinked at Dion with an eerie innocence until Ember seemed to realise where he was and sat on the edge of the bed. “Morning!” he sang with a broad smile. How was he always so cheerful?

Finally free, Dion got out of bed and closed the robe tighter around himself. His chest still felt strange, even without Ember lying on him. He prayed that the tracker wasn’t designed to explode or something. Maybe he was overly conscious of it now that he was reminded of how quickly his deadline was approaching. Could Ren find him all the way out here too?

It occurred to Dion that he hadn’t considered what they would wear when they met the shadow lord. They couldn’t wear robes in a meeting with one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy!

The shower stopped.

“Where is everyone?” Ember asked, stretching as he stood up.

“Not sure.” As far as Dion could tell, everything was where they had left it the night before. Atticus wouldn’t go anywhere without him and he doubted that Echo would leave Ember either. “They’ll probably come back.”

The bathroom door slid open and both men looked over to see Hyejin. Steam billowed out of the room behind her with a luminous glow as she stood still in the doorway. Her dripping hair cascaded over her short frame, clinging to the bare skin of her delicate neck. Water droplets fell from her eyelashes, spilling onto her flushing pink cheeks. She was only wearing a towel.

Dion took the record for the fastest time any man had ever sat down at the dining table, a hand between his legs as he tried to position his stature as inconspicuous as possible. He wasn’t sure if the heat in his face was from embarrassment or… something else.

“Morning, Princess,” Ember said to her as casually as he’d greeted Dion. He seemed completely uninterested in the stunning woman; all the more for Dion.

“Uhm,” Hyejin murmured, voice cracking as she glanced between them. She quickly stepped back and closed the bathroom door again. Her face was redder than that tomato thing they’d eaten when they first met. “I didn’t think you would be awake yet!” she called from behind the door.

Dion smirked. This girl was far too adorable. “Are you okay?”

“Uhm… there are… no robes left…” Her voice was so soft he could barely hear her. “I spilled coffee on the gown… can you get me a blanket?”

It was awful luck that Dion wasn’t in a position where he could give his robe up for her. What a wasted opportunity. He stared toward the ceiling, cursing himself for his quick… reaction.

Ember tore the blanket off the bunk Hyejin had been sleeping on and knocked on the bathroom door. “Here, use this for now. I’ll see if Trev has any more.”

“The other two went to do that already,” Hyejin said as a dainty little hand squeezed through a small crack in the door to take the blanket.

“I don’t suppose you know the time?” Dion asked, changing the subject. As much as he wanted to stay on the topic of Hyejin’s absence of appropriate clothing, there was no benefit to continuing. They weren’t alone, and Ember didn’t seem like the brightest star in the sky when it came to reading the room. 

There was the sound of shuffling on the other side of the bathroom door before it opened again. Hyejin had tied a knot behind her neck to keep the wool blanket from slipping off. The way it hung over her shoulders still exposed the curves of her porcelain back. 

“It’s about two hours till dawn, yet,” she said, trying to dry her hair with one hand. Dion had forgotten about her broken arm. It must have been hard for her not to get the prosthetic wet while everything was exposed.

“Plenty of time for breakfast, then!” Ember announced, bouncing over to the kitchenette. The way that he continuously kept finding food in strange places had Dion stumped. It further lent to his growing opinion that Ember was actually a very large dog in a very large human body. “Do you two want any?”

Dion was about to reject the offer when his stomach answered loudly on his behalf. He cleared his throat. “I could eat.”

“Me too. I’m starving.” Hyejin whined, taking a seat at the table with Dion. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t seem to come up with any relevant topics all of a sudden. At least, not that she might be comfortable discussing. He noticed her shy away from talking about her prosthetics last night. 

“Tell me about this Tsoukalas,” she finally said, giving up on her hair altogether.

Dion had to think for a moment. He didn’t know a lot about this particular sector of the galaxy. He’d only been here once before as a stop-over point on the way to Oryxs. “I’d be lying if I said we can trust him. Apart from tourist attractions, most of his wealth comes from moving contraband.”

Hyejin looked like she was listening, but her big eyes were on Ember tinkering in the kitchenette. Her stomach gurgled softly and Dion’s heart melted. This woman.

“So you think he’s money-hungry enough to agree to help us?”

Dion considered this for a moment before answering, “I think no one helps anyone for free. There’s always a catch.” Dion began to trace an invisible illustration on the table with his finger. “Right now his planet is about to get inundated with NexTech lackeys; he needs to lay low. That means suspending business until further notice. If business isn’t moving, he’s not making money.”

Ember joined them, carrying three bowls of soup. It was bright red and smelled so good. Dion realised he hadn’t eaten since the shuttle ride to Tollindo. 

“Tsoukalas won’t accept unless he wins more than you,” Ember explained before digging into his soup.

Hyejin looked confused. “What does that mean?” 

“It means…” Ember paused to think about his answer for a long time. “It means when you invite him to dinner, he will eat the whole bird and only give you the bones.”

That was surprisingly not a bad metaphor, given Ember’s questionable cognitive ability. So they needed to do more than just try to buy their way home. It was going to be trickier than Dion expected.

The room opened and Atticus entered with arms full of clothing. None of it looked like hospital gowns or even the robes. “Oh good, you’re awake!”

Dion couldn’t remember the last time Atticus looked so healthy and full of spirit. The energy he still had after the trigby chaos was remarkable.

“Where have you been?” Dion asked as he scooped up the last of his soup. It was gone far too quickly.

Atty dumped the pile of clothes on the bed. “We went to get fresh clothes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wear dirty scraps when I meet a shadow lord.” He sifted through the clothes until he had sorted everything into five neat piles. “I tried to match the sizes to the old clothes, so I hope everything fits.”

“Wait, you got everyone clothes?” Hyejin stood up. “Real, actual clothes. Not just robes?”

“Is that a problem?”

“No! No, not at all! You’re an angel! A saint!” she declared rushing over. Despite her limp, it didn’t take long for her to scoop up her pile and rush to the bathroom to change — or rather, dress.

“Where’s Echo?” Dion asked, surprised that Ember wasn’t asking the question. 

“With the Mayor. They’re setting up the meeting time with Tsoukalas. He’s off-world at the moment, so we need to video call him.”