Terran Knights 2: Chapter 4

“I don’t want to go back home.”

Ben chuckled folding a shirt on the hotel bed and glancing over at his husband who was staring out the window. The blinds were pulled back and the sky was obscured by the lights of the small town. Even out here the lights could reach the sky with their orange glow and obscure the stars slightly.

“Come on Cal. I thought you were excited to start your new job.”

Cal turned back to face him holding a wine glass between his fingers, “I am. Trust me I am. Working at the planetarium is going to be really awesome. But I think I needed this vacation. And you did too.”

He chuckled nodding, “I believe that. Even after the honeymoon you were back to working your butt off with school. But you got there. You graduated and even found a job a few months afterwards.”

“Hustling as they say.”

Ben smiled, “Exactly.”

“This is really the first time I’ve had a chance to really relax since then. Relax with my new husband that is.”

Cal looked down at finger, staring at the gold band with a small stone in the center of it. He stared at it longingly and then looked at Ben who met his gaze warmly. Setting his wine glass down he came over and kissed him softly then wrapped his arms around him tightly.

“I’ve been wanting to call you that for a long time,” Cal stated.

“With how long it took you to propose I was beginning to wonder,” he smirked kissing him again and pulling away slowly. “Now no more distractions from you. Unless you want to actually help me.”

“No no, I always enjoy watching your work,” he waved at him and wined at him.

“Whatever am I going to do with you?”

Despite his teasing Cal did help him fold his clothes as much as he could. Their two bags were often packed in the same way that Cal had learned with pants on the bottom, shirts on top, underwear on one side and toiletries on the other leaving space for souvenirs and pieces of entertainment like books or their iPad.

They finished almost at midnight and Cal poured another glass of wine, handing it over to Ben while refilling his own. They sat down at the two chairs sipping on it slowly. A cheap Moscato that they’d found in town and it was sweet but not sickly so. Cal stared into the pale almost golden liquid and sighed.

His eyes slid away from the drink and away from his wedding ring and instead stared at the watch at his wrist. Not a proper watch but a traditional band. Set in the middle was his pink stone that was almost as important to him as the golden band around his ring finger. Stroking it slowly a softer smile formed at his lips.

“You know I still think about that day sometimes.”

“Which one?”

“The invasion.”

Cal frowned hard remembering that day as well. He had tried as hard as he could to get Ben out of the city before the Taq-Law had descended upon them but it hadn’t been soon enough. The warships had descended upon them and dropped their robot payload. Ben had been knocked out so his memory of events was fuzzy but Cal couldn’t ever forget

After Cal had secured a safe place for him he’d left him behind to handle the source of things.  There had been some very very minor news coverage of the battle and he watched the six of them fighting the Taq-Law in the mall. He watched Cal be heroic and then watched Cal almost die more than once.

And then he remembered the blast that had taken out the helicopter and their camera. It was the tensest hour of his life because from the hiding position he had no idea what happened to them. No idea of his fiancé had been killed fighting to protect him. If his fiancé and his friends had died and they were doomed to a robotic invasion.

But he did survive. And they did win and they were all safe. It was the best possible outcome across the board but it didn’t stop the nightmares that came afterwards.

“You haven’t had a nightmare in a while, right?” Cal asked carefully.

“No I haven’t. Therapy goes a long way.”

“Mmhm. I just wish we didn’t have to lie about the reasoning for it.”

Ben shook his head, “Thankfully PTSD over an alien invasion seems to be pretty common. They don’t have to know exactly why I have my PTSD.”

“But you do still have it.”

“Mildly Cal. I just. It does scare me. In the back of my head I worry that they’ll come back. That you’ll have to fight again. Or worse that you won’t be able to fight. And we’ll lose everything. I’ll lose you.”

Putting down his wine glass Cal leaned over in his chair and took both of Ben’s hands. “I can’t guarantee that they won’t come back. Or that anything bad won’t happen. But I do know that no matter what happens I’ll always do my best to protect you.”

“I know you will,” Ben kissed one of his hand slightly and then stroked his cheek. “But don’t worry. The dreams have mostly stopped, we’re married, and we still have a place to live. I think that’s enough good to tide me over for at least a little while.”

Reaching toward the bottle of Moscato he lifted it and it was still over halfway full. Sloshing the liquid back and forth he took a large sip from his own. “But what you can help me do now is finish this bottle off. We are not going to take it back home with us.”

“Oh. I can save you from that no problem. It’s actually a specialty of mine.”

So they talked and drank and made jokes and conversation into the night. They were lucky to have stumbled into bed together but they cuddled against the left side, Ben spooning against Cal.