Page 102 of Static/Cling

Instead of going home, they returned directly to the office.

Sal greeted them with tight hugs, choice words, and a list of things they had to do before their next mission. Most of the things on their list involved making sure their tech survived Bjorn.

Fair.

When Sal realized how strong a pulse Bjorn could emit, they were amazed he’d managed to stay in touch through his earpiece as long as he had, but in the future, they were not taking any chances.

Some of the list involved a full debriefing so they could avoid things like Bjorn wandering around hostile territory in socked feet the next time.

Also fair.

A tiny bit of it was a promise from Sal to come clean to everyone on why they knew the layout of the building so well.

Bjorn wanted their full story, because the details they knew hadn’t come from any blueprints, so that item was not just fair, but necessary. Trust mattered. Feeling like they had been kept in the dark didn’t go a long way towards building it.

“Are we done here, then?” Kassian asked, once Sal’s ranting had died down.

“We haven’t debriefed.” They glared at Kassian.

“Leif’s exhausted. Bjorn’s traumatized.”

“I’m not.”

Kassian lifted both eyebrows at him.

“Much.”

“Plus, you discharged about a week’s worth of charge in one go. Twice.”

“Just the one time.”

“Filling the cuffs counts.”

“Oh yeah.” He grinned. “I did that.” His grin faded slightly. “Sorry we lost those. They worked really well.” And he was sorry. As weird as they had been, he could have gotten used to them. Maybe. Eventually.

Kassian grunted. “I’ll make you new ones.”

“Cool.”

“Frankly, I’m not even sure how you’re still standing.”

Bjorn tightened the arm he had around Leif, who had leaned most of his weight into Bjorn’s side. He was standing because Leif needed him to be.

Kassian slipped a shoulder under his.

“I can manage.” But he didn’t actually try to move Kassian away, and did let him take some of his weight off his brutalized feet. “Thanks.”

Kassian’s only answer was a fast peck to his temple and another grunt, this one softer, accompanied by a little puff ofbreath that stirred the hair over Bjorn’s ear and made him shiver. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but it seemed promising, somehow.

He was going to have to learn to speak Kassian. If he’d managed to become fluent in Leif’s grins, surely, he could learn to interpret Kassian’s wordless sounds.

Kassian turned to Gerome. “You’re coming back here after today.”

Gerome lifted an eyebrow, and the resemblance to Kassian’s own exasperated expression gave Bjorn a warm feeling in his gut, like it was, in fact, going to be okay. Eventually.

“Meaning?” Gerome asked.

Kassian glanced to Sal, who was weirdly letting Antony support them with an arm around their shoulders. Standing together like that, size difference—which was substantial—aside, he could see a certain resemblance in their soft brown eyes, the ski-jump tilt to their noses and the freckles across their very pale cheeks.

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