#variantebovine

Somehow you find your way tothe living room without knocking anything over and make out the vagueshapes of Satya and Lúcio, standing across from each other, the veryblurry but also very broken glass coffee table between them. They both turn around as you enter, and you know there to be guilt all over their faces without needing tosee. “Let me guess.” you say, and guessyou have to, even with barely five steps separating you from this morning’s disaster. “That was the sound of a hardlight constructsmashing our expensive new furniture to bits.”If Satya’s despondent silence is anyindication, that wasn’t just any hardlight construct that shatteredtogether with the table. It would have been her graduation piece, oneof her best works so far, usually standing proud on the shelfconveniently located within Lúcio’s reach.“Not just the furniture.” Lúciosays chagrined and picks something up from between the shards looking suspiciously like a bent pair of glasses. You take it from him,hold it up to your face. Nothing to be done about those exceptto give them a one-way ticket to the incinerator.“Alright.” Time to think positive.Breaking your stuff has successfully made Lúcio and Satya stoparguing. And you have an extra pair of glasses in your locker at thetraining range. “If one of you can help me down tothe range so I can get a replacement, we can clean this up togetherin no time.”“I’ll go.” “I will assist you.”They glare at each other, neitherwanting the other to be alone with you to try and get you on theirside. “I broke your glasses.” Lúcioargues. “It’s only fair if I help you.”Satya opens her mouth, undoubtedly todeliver a scathing counter-argument. But then she closes it again.“I … will begin cleaning up, then.”she says and that had to be the first time she ever gave in in anargument with him. Neither of you have counted on this development.Satya looks like she’s disappointed in herself while Lúcio seemsto be reeling from whiplash.You don’t offer them any chance toruin the tentative truce Satya just created and link your arm withLúcio’s, urging him to lead you to the training range.The way is slow on account of youhaving to feel your way forward more than see it. He leads you along with short words of caution when there’s steps ordoorways. Angela offered you more than once to take care of yourshort-sightedness with laser treatments. So far you’ve declined butin an emergency you’d be, as the saying goes, royally fucked.“Honestly, I expected you to tell me all about how wrong Satya is by now.” you say when you arrive at therange and he hasn’t said half a dozen words. He shrugs, guiltyconscience coming off of him like music. “I shouldn’t have broken herconstruct.” he says while he keys in the password to the lockerrooms.“Yeah. Kind of a shitty thing to do.”There’s no sweet-talking what he didand you won’t insult him, or Satya’s hard work, by lying. Yousearch your locker for the case that holds your glasses.“I know. I was just so angry withher, everytime we argue it’s the same thing. She only needs to sayone word and she makes me feel like I’m nothing. Like she’slowering herself to our level. Like she’s doing us a favour beingwith us. I just wanted to … I don’t know ... ““Hurt heras much as she hurt you?” you suggest and add: “Shit. They aren’there.”“What do you mean ‘not here’?”He comes up behind you, searches the locker that remains devoid ofany glasses. You wrack your brain trying to remember where you putthem. The beginning headache doesn’t help the thinking effort. Youclose your eyes and that eases the pressure a little as your eyes areallowed to relax, rather than straining to make out the simplestshapes.You hear Lúcio laugh softly by yourear, before he wraps his arms around your waist.“Now I wish we’d used Satya’stidying system.” he says, half as a joke, half serious. Back whenshe suggested it he made fun of it for a whole day until she droppedthe issue. The thought occurs that destroying her prized constructwasn’t the first time Lúcio tried to reflect some of his own hurtback at her.“You should tell her that.” yousay, making your way back to your apartment. You’ll have to callAngela and hope she still has the 3D blueprints for your glassesstored in her database. If she has, printing a new pair should takeless than an hour.The call is quickly made and Lúcio,who stays close at all times to prevent you from breaking your neckdue to an invisible blob of tripping hazard, takes your words toheart. When you come back to the apartment, cleaned up as if nothinghad broken, the first thing he does is ask Satya if she still hasthat cleaning system she made for him. She’s taken aback, you cantell, and suspects foul play but while you sit down and squint atyour phone for Angela’s number, she sends him the file. It comeswith a holographic map of the apartment and other often frequentedplaces and it becomes clear quickly that Lúcio never actually gaveit a second look before cracking his jokes.“You made all this?” he asks,zooming in to the holo kitchen where in clickable cupboardsare all your hypothetical spices, teas and baking supplies, neatlystored and labeled. He holds it out to you but you shrug, unable tosee more than blue light, but remembering the outline well enoughfrom back when she made it. “Of course.” Satya says, not evenlooking when she pushes the glass you’ve been reaching for intoyour hands. Chances are you would have spilled coke all over the carpetif not for her intervention.Helping you out keeps the peace. Theyhaven’t finished their argument yet, unsaid words still hang in theair, but your sudden helplessness gives you all a much neededbreather. Angela sends an affirmation that the 3D printer is runningand your new glasses will be finished soon, and while you’reprepared to quietly sit and wait, Lúcio has other plans. He flopshimself onto the sofa, one arm around you, wearing his most winningsmile.“Guess what I’m thinking of.” hesays and you’re surprised he’s in the mood for games whenSatya sits on your other side, decidedly more graceful, and says:“Isit smaller than a human being?”“Yes.”Back and forth it goes, Satya askingincreasingly detailed questions, Lúcio answering them with yes’and nos. She wins the first round, guessing ‘tadpoles’, and hewins the second, guessing ‘famous Archi-tech Kunlé Adeyemi’. Itspeaks for how well they do listen to each other that he managed toget that one.Look how well we get along, they seemto say, look how we’re not fighting and breaking your stuff. Sometime between Satya losing a roundto ‘phono pre-amplifiers’ and Lúcio struggling to guesssomething that is both ‘lighter than an atom’ and ‘larger thanthe known universe’, you pull them against you, kiss firstLúcio, then Satya. “Thank you.” you say. “For makingthis effort.”He curls up against you, entwines yourfingers with his, while she shuffles a bit to find a position thatallows her to stay close but not feel stifled.“The difficulties we have are worthovercoming.” she says and for a few seconds she looks you both inthe eye, to reinforce how serious she is with the point she made.Lúcio agrees and shortly after admitsdefeat when he can’t guess what Satya is thinking of. She smiles aprivate little smile and says as if she’s letting you in on asecret: “It is my love for you both.”

Post Misson Sex will always be more rough than Pre Mission (morning) Sex. Gotta get that adrenaline out somehow~