Chapter 44: Lazy Head

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Lazy Head

Ren surfaced slowly from a deep, comfortable sleep to the sound of small, deliberately loud footsteps crossing the suite, followed immediately by the unmistakable creak of his bedroom door being pushed open with far less subtlety than its size would have suggested was possible.

"Elder brother," Finn’s voice announced, entirely too cheerful for whatever obscenely early hour it apparently was, "you need to wake up now."

"Five more minutes," Ren mumbled into his pillow, not bothering to actually open his eyes, the plush, absurdly comfortable mattress still doing its considerable best to keep him firmly unconscious.

"You said that an hour ago," Milo’s voice added, considerably drier than his younger brother’s, though Ren could hear the faint trace of amusement threading through it despite the boy’s usual careful reserve. "Wake up, lazy head."

Ren cracked one eye open at that, catching sight of both boys standing at the foot of his bed, Finn practically vibrating with morning energy, Milo hanging back slightly with his arms crossed and an expression that managed to convey both genuine exasperation and something considerably softer underneath it. "Lazy head," Ren repeated, mock offense creeping into his voice despite the sleepy grin threatening to break across his face. "I have been awake for exactly zero hours today, and already I’m being insulted in my own bed."

"You’ve been asleep since forever," Finn said, climbing directly onto the bed without waiting for permission, settling himself cross-legged near Ren’s feet with the easy, unselfconscious comfort of a child who’d apparently decided, sometime over the last week and a half, that this particular arrangement was entirely permanent. "The AI already made breakfast. It’s getting cold."

"The AI doesn’t actually let food get cold, Finn," Milo said, something dry and knowing entering his voice. "It’s temperature-regulated. You’ve watched it happen a dozen times already."

"It’s the principle of it," Finn said, entirely unbothered by his brother’s correction, still fixated on the primary goal of dragging Ren fully out of bed. "Elder brother, come on, you promised we could go to the observation gardens today."

Ren groaned dramatically, finally pushing himself upright, dark circles doing nothing to diminish the genuine warmth spreading through his chest at the easy, comfortable familiarity of the whole exchange. ’This,’ he thought, watching Finn bounce slightly with impatience while Milo rolled his eyes at his younger brother’s antics, ’this is exactly the kind of morning I never actually knew I wanted until I had it.’

"Fine, fine, I’m up," Ren said, swinging his legs out of bed and running a hand through his short white hair, still not entirely used to the sensation of hair that didn’t fall past his shoulders anymore. "Give me twenty minutes and I’ll take you both to see whatever gardens you’re apparently so desperate about."

"Fifteen," Milo countered, something almost playful in the negotiation despite his usual reserve.

"You drive a hard bargain," Ren said, grinning properly now, the last vestiges of sleep finally clearing entirely. "Fifteen. Go finish your breakfast before the AI gets offended you’re letting its perfectly temperature-regulated food sit there unappreciated."

Both boys scrambled off the bed and out of the room, Finn’s excited chatter about the observation gardens trailing behind them, and Ren allowed himself a long, satisfied stretch before finally rising properly, the morning sunlight already streaming warm and golden through the suite’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

The observation gardens, when they finally arrived nearly twenty minutes later despite Ren’s best efforts to honor the negotiated timeline, turned out to be considerably more impressive than even Finn’s excited descriptions had suggested, an enormous, multi-tiered structure built along the edge of the city’s central plaza, filled with plant life from a dozen different worlds arranged in careful, artful displays, some blooming in colors Ren had never seen in any garden back on Earth, others releasing soft, ambient fragrances that shifted subtly as visitors moved between different sections.

Finn darted ahead immediately, delighted by everything, pressing his face close to a display of small, luminescent flowers that pulsed gently in time with some rhythm Ren couldn’t quite parse, while Milo trailed more carefully behind, offering occasional, quiet observations about particular plants that suggested a genuine, thoughtful curiosity beneath his usual reserved exterior.

They spent nearly two hours wandering the gardens, Ren feeling more relaxed and unhurried than he had in longer than he could properly remember, the earlier anxiety about Milo’s sharp perceptiveness fading into something considerably more comfortable as the morning wore on, and he was in the middle of watching Finn attempt to coax a small, floating pollinator creature closer with an outstretched hand when the first scream cut through the garden’s peaceful ambient hum.

Ren’s entire body went rigid instantly, old, hard-won instinct flaring to immediate, sharp attention even before his mind had fully processed what he was hearing. Another scream followed, closer this time, and then the unmistakable sound of something heavy crashing through one of the garden’s delicate plant displays, wood and glass shattering in a sudden, violent burst of noise that sent nearby visitors scattering in every direction.

’No,’ Ren thought, his stomach dropping straight through the floor as a massive, segmented shape burst through a cluster of ornamental trees several tiers below them, considerably larger than the creature he’d dispatched in that alley over a week ago, its many-legged body crashing through delicate garden structures with terrifying, indiscriminate force. ’No, this isn’t possible, this planet doesn’t have monsters, that’s the entire point of this place, that’s the entire reason I chose to come here—’

"Milo, get Finn, now," Ren said, voice sharp and immediate, all traces of the morning’s easy relaxation vanishing instantly beneath a surge of pure, focused adrenaline.

Milo didn’t hesitate, grabbing his younger brother’s hand and pulling him back from the garden’s edge with the same quick, practiced efficiency Ren had come to recognize from their first, terrified encounter in that alley, years of hard-learned survival instinct clearly resurfacing without any need for further explanation.

The creature below shrieked, a horrible, grinding sound that echoed off the garden’s tiered structure, and several more visitors screamed as it lunged toward a group of fleeing civilians who’d apparently had nowhere fast enough to run. Ren’s hand rose almost before he’d consciously decided to move, the familiar surge of silver-white energy blooming instantly around his forearm despite every careful, deliberate effort he’d made over the last week and a half to keep exactly this kind of ability hidden and dormant.

’I can’t just stand here,’ he thought, already moving, cutting down through the garden’s tiered pathways with the same fluid, practiced speed weeks of Reven’s relentless training had built into him. ’I don’t care how carefully I planned this disappearance, I don’t care how much exposure this risks, I am not standing here watching people get hurt because I was too worried about my own hiding spot to actually do something about it.’

He reached the lower tier just as the creature’s claw swept toward a young woman who’d stumbled and fallen, and his blade caught the limb clean before it could connect, the impact sending a jolt of familiar, controlled resistance up his arm as the creature shrieked in fresh, furious pain. Ren didn’t hesitate, following through with a second strike that opened a deep, decisive gash along its segmented flank, exactly the kind of clean, efficient technique Reven’s weeks of demanding instruction had drilled into him until it felt almost like second nature.

The creature staggered, thrashing wildly, and Ren pressed the advantage, driving the fight away from the fleeing civilians and toward the garden’s more open central plaza, where the risk of collateral damage dropped considerably. It took three more precise strikes before the creature finally collapsed, twitching once before falling completely, permanently still, and Ren stood over it, breathing hard, the light around his arm fading clean and controlled despite the surge of adrenaline still humming through his system.

Around him, the scattered crowd had gone eerily quiet, and Ren felt the weight of dozens of stunned, staring eyes settle over him all at once, the exact opposite of the anonymous, unremarkable existence he’d worked so carefully to build for himself over the last week and a half.

’So much for staying hidden,’ he thought, dread pooling cold and heavy in his stomach despite the immediate danger having passed. He glanced up toward the tier where he’d left the boys, finding Milo watching him with wide, disbelieving eyes, something complicated and considerably more knowing than shock alone flickering behind his young gaze, like several previously scattered pieces had just, abruptly, clicked into a shape he hadn’t quite been ready to see confirmed so plainly.

’He saw everything,’ Ren thought, the dread deepening further as he made his way back up toward the boys, already bracing himself for the conversation he’d apparently just made entirely unavoidable. ’The blade, the speed, all of it. There’s no vague, deflecting explanation that’s going to smooth this over, not this time.’

He reached them a moment later, and Finn, at least, seemed more delighted than alarmed, staring up at him with wide, awestruck eyes. "Elder brother, that was amazing! You’re like a superhero!"

Milo said nothing at all, simply watching Ren with that same careful, considering expression, and Ren understood, with sinking, immediate certainty, that whatever careful anonymity he’d built over the last week and a half had just permanently, irrevocably changed shape in front of the one person clever enough to actually understand what he’d just witnessed.