Page 77 of Elex

I chuckled.

“My people are primarily seafaring,” I teased. “We know our way around knots.”

He hummed in acknowledgement.

“You’ve never seen sweatpants before?” I asked, turning back to the sink to finish the dishes.

“Um, no,” he answered. “We have tac pants, but they at least have belts. Kinda need the pockets for gear,” he said.

“What about when you aren’t working?”

“When’s that?” he responded flatly, raising an eyebrow at me.

I thought about it for a minute. I guess I understood his point, so I shrugged.

“Did you need something?”

“Just wasn’t tired,” he said, avoiding my gaze and walked to the sink.

“Can I help?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, surprised at the offer. I grabbed a dishtowel and handed it to him. “You can dry, if you don’t mind.”

He stood next to me and looked at the pile of dishes draining next to the sink. I realized he might actually not know what I wanted him to do.

“Like this,” I said. I took another towel and started drying off the bowls and pans, then setting them aside. Kat caught on quickly and we made short work of the task.

“Thanks,” I said as we put the last of the dishes away.

“Thanks for feeding us,” he said. “And…for helping V.”

“You care a lot about your brother,” I said, watching him out of the corner of my eye.

“He’s the only good thing left in the world,” he whispered, then seemed to realize he’d spoken aloud. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, he’s my brother. Sometimes he’s a pain the ass, but still…”

He seemed genuinely uncomfortable, so I tried to think of safe topics to talk about.

“How long have you guys been here? I didn’t catch the air drop.”

“Um, about a week, I think?” he said. His nose scrunched up adorably as he thought, like he was trying to squeeze the answer out of his brain.

“Damn. I have some catching up to do,” I said. “I usually spot when they make a drop. I thought the Machi Thanatos was held on a specific schedule.”

“Usually. They seem to be holding them a bit erratically, lately,” he responded. “They have even started including younger and younger kids. V shouldn’t even be here.”

“What was it like in the Legion?” I asked. “Were you ever… happy?” I asked finally, the silence making my nerves stretch taut.

“Fuck,no!” The angry look he shot me indicating how stupid the question was. “We fuckin’ hated it there. The shit they did to us. To V…” his voice trailed off. “If there isanyway to keep him from ever having to go back to that, I’ll take it.”

I nodded. It was a stupid question, really. I had heard some of the horror stories, but every Mageian seemed to have more.

“Look, you want a drink?” I asked desperately as the silence stretched, pulling out a bottle of vodka. It was one of myfew vices. I mixed it with a local fruit juice so you couldn’t even tell it had alcohol in it. Probably one of the reasons I liked it.

“Sure,” he said. I pulled out the juice and poured us both generous drinks, then took the bottle over to the fire pit. We sat down, and I couldn’t help but notice he seated himself so he could see all the exits.

He sipped his hesitantly, then coughed in surprise.

“You okay there?”