[C][AU][Future AU] Messages

Krolia smiled warmly at Fleck after the kiss. Her cheeks tinged a deep purple. It took a lot to fluster her.

"I'll keep that in mind."

She waved over her shoulder as she left.

"I mean, I knew you were close, but..." Amr dragged the word out, implications clear. Then he shrugged as if he never voiced his confusion and clapped his hands together. "Right. Food."

Some questions and concerns were best left at a later date. Right now, his priority was easing them back into castle life.

"Don't worry. Lucas missed more, and he was right there," Fleck chuckled, stepping past Amr.

God, he wanted some of that curry.

He wanted the spice and bitterness on his tongue again.

"Got some space-joe brewed? You wouldn't believe how sweet the stuff on Earth is. And some people add sugar to make it sweeter." He gagged at the thought.

"Do you know how much I craved sugar when the first year or so? And I wasn't even that much of a sweet tooth."

Sweet foods seemed to be a very Earth thing. There had been few planets far between that had as sweet tasting food as back on Earth.

The kitchen, as promised, was empty. There was some wonky, freshly baked goods cooling on the table.

"My kids were baking this morning. No touching, they are going to decorate them later."

He bent down and took the curry from the fridge and put it in the space-microwave. It had a different name, but old habits die hard. He was sure he caught Dick call it the space-microwave once.

"I bet I craved it more. I was a sweet tooth." A painfully sweet tooth.

Fleck stretched out then settled against one of the counters, hip cocked.

"Where are the little munchkins?" he questioned. He'd missed the two little brats.

"Finally asleep," a soft voice answered from the doorway. Ti waddled in looking tired, rubbing a hand over his swollen stomach. "Welcome home. It's good to see you're back. The castle's been too quiet without you causing trouble with the babes, Lucas."

Lucas grinned and wrapped an arm around Ti, kissing the top of his forehead.

"I'm sure you won't be saying that in a week."

He had become that terrible kind of uncle that teased and the kids and made them hyperactive and difficult to settle down. At least with him, they tended to sleep soundly through the night.

Amr pulled out a chair, forever fretting.

"I know I will. But I did miss it."

Ti hugged Lucas close, pressing a kiss to his cheek, the waved her fretful husband off.

"This is our third. You should be used to this by now."

He wasn't going to break. Amr needed to calm down.

"I know, but I've been reading and you know interspecies pregnancies can be dangerous, especially with the later stages-"

"Yes, yes, even I am getting tired of that now," Lucas groaned. "Pop the next one out already Ti so Amr's fretting can at least sound different every day."

Amr sulked, going to take the curry out of the space-microwave.

"Careful, I'm handling your food here."

"Just a few weeks left," he replied, smiling down at his stomach warmly.

Soon they'd have another little baby in the world.

Fleck snorted. "Like you'd fuck with our food. You're not brave enough, Blue." Amr wouldn't dare mess with their food.

Amr waged a finger in Fleck's direction.

"Don't test, Black, I've become a changed man in this month."

Lucas snorted. He couldn't imagine that much had happened in a month now that the war was over.

But Fleck was right. Two hot plates of curry were placed in front of Fleck and Lucas, untouched.

"I'll believe it when I see it."

Fleck plucked up a fork and began eating with gusto. God, it was just bitter enough and spicy. Just what he'd been craving.

He'd missed this so much.

Lucas shoved in a mouthful of food and groaned. He wasn't a foodie like other unnamed people from the castle, but he also missed this type of food.

When there were food, there were mice.

"Oh, I haven't missed you. Piss off."

One of them took interest in his food, and Lucas held it protectively to himself.

The others hovered around Fleck's.

Fleck was a little nicer to the mice than Lucas was.

He spooned a little out onto the tables surface for them, then returned to his meal.

The mice were like much loved pets to Fleck. He couldn't let them go hungry if he was eating.

Even though he knew they had food squirrelled away everywhere.

The one that Lucas told to piss off, scurried over to Fleck, past the others and attempted to throw herself into Fleck's dish.

"Scavengers," Lucas snorted.

Amr just laughed, pulling up a seat next to Ti. He wrapped an arm around him, kissing his cheek.

Fleck caught the mouse before it could dive head-first into his meal, and set it down with the rest.

Years of war had improved his reflexes greatly.

A little mouse wasn't getting the best of him.

Ti pressed a kiss to his husband's cheek in return, cuddling close.

"So, Earth," Amr clapped his hands together. "How was it? Still trying to tear itself apart?"

"Of course it was."

Fleck waved his hand in front of his face.

"If it can do something to make life more difficult, you cant bet humans have found a way to do it. Fuck, it's almost depressing there. Everyone's fighting everyone."

Amr snorted, silently glad he never went back. The thought didn't even occur to him. And if he had been "convinced", he would have thrown a much bigger fit.

"To be honest, if we jog it along and involve it in-universe politics, it might help unite the countries together. A lot of other planets had," Lucas suggested.

"No. They hate each other too much."

It would never work.

"America would accuse Russia of knowing about aliens before the involvement. China would throw out a conspiracy theory, and before you know it we've got a world war."

It was safer to leave the world to implode on its own. At least that way they wouldn't become a catalyst.

"Yeah, but at least then we can intervene. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see my childhood home implode."

Amr shrugged.

"Fleck's right, best to let it be. Let them sort themselves out and give them time before we involve Earth in politics - if that ever happens in our lifetime."

Lucas's shoulders slumped and he pushed the last mouthful around before shovelling it in.

"Involve Earth in what?"

Dick walked. Then froze.

In the last ten deca-phebes he hadn't changed much. He was a little older in the face, a bit broader, his hair was long enough to pull into a bun.

He zoned in on Fleck.

Fleck tensed up a little when he heard Dick speak.

He took a slow breath in and exhaled long and slow before he set his gaze on Amr.

"You saw that enough when you were there, Amr. More than the rest of us. It's not changed at all and I doubt it will any time soon. It'd be smarter to keep Earth outside of politics for now."

Well, this was the exact tense atmosphere Amr wanted to avoid. He thought the summit was still on, and no one was hungry enough to venture into the kitchen.

"Yeah, uh, I'm not surprised," Amr said awkwardly. He glanced down as Ti then up at the space by the door. It was empty.

Ti squeezed Amr's hand. Yes, he'd noticed how tense Dick and Fleck both were, too.

"For now I think we're best keeping everyone away from Earth, and maybe even sabotaging Earths attempts to communicate outwards. I've been keeping in touch with Tamara over the past few years, dipping in and out every now and again. Taw has been keeping an eye on messages being broadcasted from Earth. NASA and the GG have both been broadcasting into open space."

Fleck shifted a little. "We've not had much luck yet, but Tamara and I have both been trying to convince Tawaret to build a scrambler to satellite the planet and dampen any outward broadcasts."

Amr nodded as to what Fleck had to say.

"As good as that sounds, let's stop pretending that Dick didn't just walk in and you flat out ignored him? I know you have every right not to run after him, but this probably isn't the, ah, best course of action."

His hands were clasped in front him, voice carefully neutral.

"If he wants to pretend that the past ten years of our lives meant so little to him that he was willing to dump me on a planet, then I can pretend that it meant nothing to me as well," came the tense reply.

He set his cutlery down and gave Amr a hard stare.

"He left me there on Earth. I'm not going to pretend that's okay."

"I'm not saying it is okay pretending it's okay."

He glanced down at Ti again.

"I'm just saying maybe we should... talk about it? And maybe discuss the satellite another time?"