How is money going to work here?
Job allocation, education, what do we do about crime and neighborhood disputes? I’m fairly certain we’re still in the States, but does the government know about this place? Taxes?
Too much for me right now.
So I focus on the small stuff, the questions I can ask and get simple answers for instead. “How did you learn how to build houses? Or are you just a natural at it?”
He scoffs at me. “I’m not sure there’s any such thing as being a natural at framing, but my dad was a partner in the family construction company. My great-grandfather started it, and it was sort of a tradition that all of the family worked there during the summers. My dad took over the business side of it, but one of my uncles is still on the tools. He’s finishing a job in Nevada and then heading over here, but his family is here. What’s left of it, I mean.”
I grimace, that seems to be a recurring theme with everyone here in the Sanctuary. Loss of family, loss of Bonds, loss of the people that matter most to us all.
He hesitates for a second and then asks, “What did your family do? Before the accident?”
It throws me for a second, but of course he’d ask about my family. Of course he’d be interested. We’re Bonds, and I’ve told him basically nothing about my life before the Resistance took me. Very, very little.
“We mostly moved a lot. I didn’t understand why but now—now I’m pretty sure that Davies knew about me. I think my parents were on the run to keep him away from me. But my father, my biological father, he did something with the stock market. Andrew was an engineer; he ran a business remotely and always had his computer with him while he did consulting work. Vincenzo was once a chef, but gave it up to stay home with me and mom. He was a Neuro and spent a lot of time training me on how to manage my emotions and my bond. My mom… I don’t actually know what she once did. I never asked.”
My voice breaks a little as I say that and his arm tightens around me, bundling me into his warmth a little closer. “You were a kid. You didn’t get the time to grow up and ask her all the shit you wanted to. Nothing to feel guilty about, Bond.”
I nod, but it’s there nonetheless. It always will be.
When we get back to the house, I duck into North’s room to use his bathroom. No one else is home yet, and when Gabe offers to grab dinner for us both, I shake my head.
“I want to find North. It’s Nox’s night tonight, and I need to… make sure it’s going to be okay. I always do.”
Gabe scowls but nods, walking me over to North’s offices without another word. He sees me all the way to the elevator before kissing me goodbye soundly. It’s only been two days since I slept in his bed, but without being Bonded, it still feels like an age.
I’m not sure the ache will ever really go away. I’m doomed to feel incomplete forever.
I scan my card to get access to North’s level and when the elevator doors open back up straight into North’s office, he’s on the phone, frowning and rustling papers in a very frustrated-looking way. He glances up at me and his frown eases a little. August comes out from behind him and bounds over to me joyfully.
I stoop down to give him scratches, cooing at him in a hushed tone so I don’t interrupt the phone call, but North’s tone gets snappier as it goes on, clearly trying to get it over with so he can speak with me.
I feel bad for interrupting, but not quite enough to leave. I’ve barely seen him since we got here, and I’m already missing those long days of being trapped in his bed in the post-Bonding haze.
“Councilman Rockelle, I’m done for the evening. We can get back to this tomorrow. I’m not having another late night. Even I have limits.”
When I take a seat on the other side of his desk, August tucks his head into my lap as he sits on my feet, a weightless bundle of smoke that is still comforting as hell. North glances up at me again and scowls at the distance between us, pushing his seat back a little and then motioning to his lap like he really expects me to get up and climb onto him, no matter that he’s on the phone doing important councilman things.
Well.
That’s exactly what I do.
The frown melts right off of his face as my ass settles in his lap, his hand closing around my thigh to pull me right into his body. I almost make embarrassingly happy noises about being with him again.
I’m not sure Councilman Rockelle would like that.
I lean forward to bury my nose in his neck and North hangs up on the councilman, throwing his phone down onto the desk and leaning further back in his chair and winding his arms tightly around me until I can barely breathe.