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He sat across from her now, still in his Martian military uniform His eyes were soft, his lips pressed into a sret He looked like a poet A man well bruised by the world, but still capable of passion She wondered if he practiced the expression in a mirror Probably, he did

The wound on her head had stopped bleeding Her joints all ached, and a vast bruise was blooertips felt like she’d scraped the first layers of skin off theh actually they just looked a little pinker than usual She drank the same version of cha a secret ally She recognized that wasn’t a perfectly sane thought, but comfort was comfort

The mess was empty, the screens turned off and the crew sent away Even Cyn and Karal were absent The implication was that whatever they said there was private, but it probably wasn’t She could i It felt like a setup Everything about Marco felt like a setup Because everything was

“I don’t knohy you do these things to er in his voice No, that wasn’t true The anger was there, but hidden behind the mask of disappointment “You used to be better than this”

“I’m sorry Did I upset your plans?”

“Well, yes,” Marco said “That’s the thing Used to be, you knew better Used to be you at least tried to understand as going on before you ju andto be hard I just want you to understand why I’ to do so you see I didn’t have a choice”

There was a s to do She knew it A wiser woiveness That it would be insincere was the point It was a ht weak Better to be underestimated and misunderstood She knew that, but she couldn’t do it When she tried, so deep within her pushed back Maybe if she pretended to be weak, it was too possible that it would beco

Nao with her saliva “Save the air”

He leaned forward, taking her hand in his His grip was strong, like he was showing that he could hurt her, even if he wasn’t doing it right now She thought, Well, that’s one way to make your subtext physical, and then chuckled

“Naory But I knoere so once We’re one body, you and me Much as we try to be apart, our son means ill never be totally separate”

She tried to pull her hand back, but he kept hold of it She could pull harder or let him touch her, control her body even if it was only that lienuine, and it had an edge

“You’ve got to understand what I’ here, it’s not for me It’s for us”

“Us?”

“Belters All Belters It’s for Filip So when his turn comes, there’s still a place for him Not just a footnote Once upon a time there were a people who lived on moons and asteroids and the planets where life didn’t evolve But then we found the gates, and those people died out because we didn’t need them It’s why I have to do this You don’t like my methods I understand that But they’re hteous”

Naoh whine thatlow She wondered if Marco knew that, or if it was just another less noise for him