#behstra

But for now, she asked, “So, if robo-you was a gun-totting murderer, what’s robo-me like?”

“I really only saw her when she tried to take me to get upgraded, but she was this uber serious, no-nonsense kind of gal,” he answered. 

“And that she was hot,” Astra teased. 

“Yeah, but you’re way hotter,” Behrad said, before his eyes widened and he added, “And not an evil robot clone, obviously.”

She turned around and leaned against the dresser. “I didn’t expect you to be so into this kind of look,” she said.

He got up and walked towards her. "Maybe it's just that... cherry red thigh-high stiletto boots look especially good on you."

"I won’t argue with that." Astra straightened up and brushed her shoulder against his as she walked by, turning around to give him a grin. "Just try not to get too distracted when we're on the ship."

"No promises," Behrad told her.

“She hasn’t pushed me off the roof yet, so we’re still keeping things civil,” Behrad answered. “All I was asking was for her to leave me to my burgers.”

“And all I was asking was for him to stop giving me tips on my brisket,” Spooner fired back. 

“Listen, if this is some competition over who can make the best beef products, you both win,” Astra said. “Except Behrad makes the best steak.”

“Ha!”

“We’re not even making steak!”

She left them to continue arguing as she headed towards Nora and Mona. The two of them had apparently ganged up on Zari, their special guest for the afternoon. Rather, they had invaded her shade. 

“Oh, hey, girl,” Zari said, looking up from her phone as she saw her coming. 

“Hey,” Astra said. “How’s it going?”

“You don’t have to try and flatter me to get brownie points with the fam,” she told her, waving her off. 

Nora raised her sunglasses. “Please, if Astra was trying to flatter you, you’d know. She’s just trying to make sure we’re not pissing you off.”

“That’s because getting into other people’s business seems to be your hobby,” she told her. 

“Good point.” She gestured around the roof with her sunglasses. “Nice place. Tell me, why did it take us this long for any of us to get invited up here?”

“Everyone has to have their little secret,” Astra said. 

“Right, right.” She nodded. “I wouldn’t have told.”

Mona looked up from her novel. “She would have.”

“Definitely,” Zari said, having gone back to her phone. 

Nora rolled her eyes. “Don’t snitch on me.”

“See?” She left the three of them and started to head towards the cooler. On the way, she passed by Kendra and her CEO boytoy, Ray. Astra waved to them, but her attention was diverted by Ava. She was bouncing baby Diane on her hip, who had turned out to be a very smily Aquarian. 

“Astra, are you sure a rooftop barbeque is really safe?” she asked 

“It was either this or the parking lot!” Spooner called over from the grill.

“You heard the lady.”

“I think I would have preferred the parking lot,” Ava muttered under her breath. 

Astra opened up the cooler for her to grab a water before she went back to join Sara. She went to grab herself a beer, but nearly dropped it when someone grabbed her waist. 

When she turned around, she saw it was Behrad. “You scared me!” she grumbled at him. “Could have fallen off the damn roof.”

“Okay, we’re not that close to the edge,” he pointed out. 

“Finally get tired of arguing with Spooner?” Astra asked. 

“We took a time-out,” Behrad said. “And I thought, you know, it’d be nice to spend some time with my girlfriend at her own party.”

“Yeah, I never thought I’d have to ask to share you,” she said with a grin. 

“You got me all to yourself until those burgers start burning.” He leaned in for a kiss and she wrapped her arms around his neck, ignoring Nora’s whistling. 

“B, come check on your patties!” Astra heard Spooner shout, and Behrad pulled away again.

“Duty calls.”

She let go of him. “Those burgers better be perfect.”

“Such high standards,” he muttered, but he still had a grin as he went back to the grill. 

Astra took her lawn chair and dragged it over near the other three ladies, plopping down beside them. 

“Nice to know you and my brother are deeply in love, but I did not have to watch you two make out by the cooler,” Zari said. 

“Oh shush, we spent months waiting for them to get together,” Mona said, reaching past Nora to smack her with her book.

“I’m just saying.”

But she was barely paying attention to the bickering besides her, watching Behrad and Spooner at the grill. Although they were still shooting barbs at each other, she could see her laughing. As if she’d needed more confirmation she’d picked a good one. 

“Wow, Nora, you were wrong. She is a bit of a romantic,” Mona cooed. 

Astra whirled around to the three of them. “Don’t tell anyone,” she told them.

“Too late,” Nora said. 

Astra was still skeptical, but she looked up at the sign anyways. They didn't seem to be lacking in flavors. However, she wasn't the type looking for something wild. If it was up to her, she would have been fine holed up in her condo with the AC cranked high eating Haagen-Daas out of the carton. Not that she would admit it to anyone, but that was her survival method for the miserable New York City summers she'd lived through. She remembered a summer when she was still growing up with Lachesis, sneaking bites of her godmother's boring vanilla cream after she got back from her internships. 

Instead of hanging out with her in her condo, however, Behrad had offered to introduce her to a place he'd wanted to check out for a while. So here she was, wishing she could just hop over the counter and sit in the freezer instead of wait in this line.

Finally, the woman in front of them carried off a group's worth of ice cream and they could approach the counter. 

"Hi, what can I get you two today?"

"I'll have a medium cup of strawberry," Astra said. Basic, maybe, but she was fine with basic when it came to ice cream.

Behrad was still looking up at the menu, before he asked, "Can I get a sample of the heavenly hash?"

As the cashier went off to grab a sample, she muttered, "How on brand."

He gave her a grin as he leaned against the counter. "I'm just gonna try it."

"Isn't that what they all say?"

"Here you go." They handed him the tiny spoon, and he took a bite. "Strawberry, wasn't it?" the cashier asked Astra.

"Yeah."

"I'll go grab that."

"Mm, nah, maybe I'll just do something simple," Behrad said, dropping the little spoon in the trash.

"Who thought you'd be the picky one?" she teased. 

"I'm not picky, I just like to experiment," he said. 

"Alright," she said. 

The cashier set the cup on the counter and looked expectantly at Behrad. 

"I think I'll get a medium cup of the snickerdoodle," he told them. 

"Snickerdoodle, all right," they muttered. "Be right back."

“Okay, that does actually sound pretty good,” Astra admitted. 

“Are you going to steal all my ice cream?“ he asked with a fake gasp. 

“Not all of it.”

“Alright, that’ll be 12.50,” the cashier said as they came back with his ice cream. 

Astra was already pulling out her wallet and handed them her card just as Behrad was reaching for his pocket. He’d brought her there, drove them because she still didn’t have a car, it was only the polite thing to do to pay, right? 

But he didn’t protest as she finished paying and slipped her wallet away. “Looks like all the tables are taken,” he said. 

“Ugh, of course. The line goes from here to Pasadena.”

Behrad headed off anyways, beckoning for her to follow him. She took a bite of her already melting ice cream, extremely grateful she got a cup.

They ended up sitting on the curb, thankfully in the shade of the building. Astra had to admit, it wasn’t bad. Maybe not quite as good as it’d taste if she was in her apartment, but still pretty tasty. 

“I was going to treat us, you know,” Behrad said, digging out a spoonful of his ice cream. 

“I was just trying to be nice,” she told him. 

“Yeah, but I brought you here because-“ He shrugged. “I know you feel like you have to pay and get me stuff, but I do have money. I’m not broke.”

“But you drove us here. Seems like a trade-off.” Astra took a bite of her ice cream, avoiding his eyes. 

“Dating doesn’t have to have trade-offs.”

Logically, she knew that. Not everything was a transaction, after all. But the line of where things were payment and where things were just right to do was a murky one. He’d complained about maybe not being able to make rent and she had money to spare, fine. He needed a nice outfit for some charity event her boss invited them too, well, he was going for her anyways, she could foot the bill for that. She wasn’t like John’s girlfriend, using her money to clean up and style him to her own taste. It was repaying the favor. 

“When you take me here again, I’ll let you pay,” Astra said after a moment of silence. 

Behrad nudged her shoulder. “What did I say about it being worth it?”

“But next time, we’re taking it to go,” she continued. 

“Now that’s a trade-off that makes sense,” he said. 

She moved a little closer to him on the curb, so their shoulders bumped. “So does this.” She stole a little bite of his snickerdoodle. Astra hadn’t known snickerdoodle ice cream was a thing, but it instantly made it into her top 5 ice cream flavors. 

“You little thief,” Behrad said.

“Technically, I paid for it.” She gave him a smug grin. “And it was delicious.”

“Yeah, I might want a pint of this to go. Late night snickerdoodle-on-snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches could be pretty good.”

“And what would you pair with strawberry ice cream?” Astra asked. 

“Hm, I don’t know. Guess I need a taste to figure it out.”

She rolled her eyes, but stuck her spoon into the half-melted scoop and held it out for him to take a bite. “That enough?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to steal a taste that way.” He stuck the spoon in his cup. “I was gonna steal it like this.”

Behrad cupped her face as he leaned in for a kiss. As Astra kissed him back, she could still taste the strawberry ice cream on his lips, sweeter than in her cup.

When he pulled back, he said, “Strawberry and snickerdoodle. Shoulda known they’d complement each other.”

“Then you can’t complain about me taking your ice cream, can you?” she asked. 

She’d expected long distance to be hard, but she didn’t realize it could also be weird. Time travel was a big no-no in their retirement contracts. The manor was a loophole, but whether using it to go from one time period to another counted was something they hadn’t yet tried. So, the manor it was for things like hooking up post-dinner with the other Legends.

Astra reached for her phone and turned off the alarm, before turning back to look at Behrad. He was still asleep, something that didn’t surprise her at all. She knew she had to head back to her apartment to get ready for work. But if she had the choice, she’d savor this a little longer.

She kissed the top of his head, then moved his arm from around her waist. As gently as she could, she nudged him off of her and got out of bed.

Astra was grateful she’d grabbed an old, misprinted Mucuos Membrane shirt from the attic to sleep in as she tried to find her clothes. She was sure, and a little ashamed to admit, that her blouse was probably somewhere on the floor of the sitting room. Well, she’d grab it on her way out.

While she was pulling her jeans on, she heard a mumbled, “Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?”

She turned back towards the bed. Behrad looked half awake and was rocking a serious bedhead, laying on his side to look at her. It was cute, if it weren’t for the way he looked actually hurt.

“I would have woken you up before I left,” Astra told him, sitting on the edge on the bed. “But you did sleep through my alarm.”

“I was wondering what that sound was in my dream,” he said.

“I’d love to stay, but I have work-“

Behrad sat up, holding a hand up to cut her off. “I get it. You’ve got your own thing.” He shrugged. “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t gonna run off.”

“Without my goodbye kiss? Doubtful,” Astra said.

He grinned back before cupping her face and leaning in. Right after waking up wasn’t always the best time to kiss someone, but she savored it, morning breath and all. She laid one of her hands over where he held her, curling her fingers around his when he pulled away. “Okay, now you can get back to D.C.”

“Next week, I’ll tell my boss I’m coming in late so you have time to make me breakfast,” she said, squeezing his hand.

“Sounds like a deal,” Behrad said.

Astra let go of his hand and stood up. “And you better make coffee.”

“You know I will.”

She let go of Behrad to elbow her way in close to the table. There, she could hear more of the conversation.

"Bet you he won't even last fifteen seconds-"

"Why even bet on a different death? They all get blown up anyways-"

"So no one wants to even try to bet on him making it? Come on, maybe he'll be the one-"

"They're never the one, Kimmy-"

Astra cleared her throat loudly. The conversation slowed as two of the time travelers turned to them.

"What are the odds?" she asked them.

One of them, a woman who looked right out of a bad 80s sci-fi, said, "Currently, best odds are on him making it 30 seconds out there. The guy's got potential, but not too much."

Her companion, a man who looked like he'd eaten a lemon and was dressed the same color as one, added, "Better get in soon, it's about to be his turn."

"We should probably play it safe this first run, just to see how it turns out," Behrad said to her, keeping his voice low.

"I thought you'd be more up for risks now," Astra joked.

"Yeah, but owing money to a bunch of time travelers might not be great."

If she knew she’d been coming here, she would have made a detour to her vault and grabbed some of her better ones. But she plucked out her Caligula coin and placed it in the yellow man’s hand.

He held it, trying to scrutinize it in the dim lighting. "A genuine soul coin. I haven't seen one of these in ages! How did you get your hands on one of these?"

"I have my ways," she said. She could imagine not a lot of people from Hell made their way to this kind of place.

The 'Now Serving' sign flipped from 70 to 71 and The Fixed Point started to gather around the footage displayed on the wall. Astra felt Behrad grip her arm as they looked up towards the screen, watching the attempt.

"Are you counting the seconds?" she asked him.

"I was," Behrad told her. "But it's been less than thirty."

"Damnit."

They both winced as the guy ate shit and blew up. The yellow man stood up with a notepad. "For everyone who bet on 30 seconds, come get your prize."

"Yes!" Astra said. "You really do make a good lucky charm."

Behrad tried to play it cool as he said, "I think you can thank the odds for that," but she could still see him grinning.

All the money that had been put in was split, but she got back her Caligula coin. She scooped up the assorted bills and coins that had been slid her way - not much, but it was more that she'd come in with.

Astra tucked a bill that looked like an old fashioned franc into Behrad's blazer and patted it. "That's your cut."

"I'd kinda been hoping for more," he said, plucking the bill out.

"When we win more, I'll hand it over." She looked over at Nate and Sara. "Do you think she'll be mad if I bet on her attempt?"

"Mm, probably," Behrad said. He gestured over to the table, where people were already starting to put in their bets again. "But I bet you can collect all of this with our insider information."

With a grin, Astra lowered her voice. "'Cause they don't know the captain is grenade-proof."

"Exactly."