”I’ve been thinking…” Sun Fang started, wetting his lips and ducking his head. Out on the balcony, the weather was hot, steaming, suffocating. The sunglasses he wore protected his eyes, and he was slathered in suncream to protect his skin. Guillotine on the whole had a lot of problems with skin-cancer, despite the fact that cancer was easily curable.
Ivy, after Sun Fang let the sentence hang in the air between them for too long, asked, ”Thinking about what?”
”About moving to Firelight,” said Sun Fang. He waited a moment, then glanced at Ivy through his sunglasses. He took a large sip of cold water through a sparkly gold straw, his cheeks hollowing from the force he was using.
”You wish to move to Firelight?” Ivy asked, voice obviously seeking clarification. Then it mist have remembered their conversation at the restaurant, because it added, ”For me?”
”For the both of us,” Sun Fang said. Then he sighed and put the tall glass down so he couldn’t use it as a shield. ”Mostly for you,” he confessed, brushing a hand through his hair and feeling the newly cut ends strike his neck. Short hair had to be cut fairly often to maintain the shortness, he had discovered.
”You want to leave Guillotine for me?” Ivy asked, still not seeming to understand.
Sun Fang rose from his seat and walked up to Ivy. Holding out his hand, he waited for Ivy to make the first move. Once their hands are connected and their fingers entwined, he squeezed it softly and smiled up at Ivy. He said, ”You loved it there, Ivy. It was clear as day. You’ve been reading Xingyi's book about the ocean every day. You’ve been watching nature documentaries about the ocean while you cook. I heard you talk to Xingyi about self-schooling to become a marine biologist. After all of that, why wouldn’t I want to move to a planet with an ocean?”
Ivy frowned. It looked right at him, squeezing his fingers back. ”Mo Cheng is here,” it pointed out.
Sun Fang smiled helplessly. ”You matter more. And Mo Cheng and I could probably use some space apart right now. We don’t tend to mix that well together face-to-face anymore.”
”But do you want to move?” Ivy asked, then adding, ”Move to a whole other planet?”
”Why not?” Sun Fang shrugged, swinging their hands. ”I’m not even fifty yet, what do I have to lose? I have my freedom now, why spend it cooped up on a single planet? Why not go further, see more? Why stop here?” Sun Fang paused and bit his lips. Slowly, he said, ”It’s been a year, Ivy. I’m not forced to be here. And I’ve had fun here; I like it here. But I think I’ll like it more on Firelight.”
Ivy stared at him. Sun Fang’s watering eyes caused him to tilt his head a little, and he moved forward and nudged their shoulders together. Ivy moved with the motion, and Sun Fang added, ”I’ll like it more because you’ll be happier there. There is nothing here that I can’t get on Firelight, and we’ll choose a house together. If I don’t end up liking it, we can simply move again. It’s not the end of the world if we try and it doesn’t work out.” Then he grinned, ”I’m rich enough to move thousands of times, you don’t have to worry about this.”
Ivy was still silent, so Sun Fang felt compelled to add, ”And I’m selling the apartment, so we can go back here on vacations any time we want. Hell, we can split our time fifty-fifty if we want. We’ll try things out, and see what works for us.”
Slowly, Ivy nodded, it’s eyes not leaving his face. Watching the quietly growing smile on Ivy’s pale lips, Sun Fang felt his own rise to match. He grinned wildly, a warm joy filling him up until he thought it would spill out over his edges.
”Okay,” said Ivy at last. It nodded again. Smiled at him, squeezing his hand. Sun Fang couldn’t resist hugging it, and he didn’t even try.
Just. Just asked, ”Hug?” and when Ivy bobbed its head, he took a large step forward and threw his arms around Ivy, hugging tightly. ”You’re my most important person in the world,” he muttered into Ivy’s neck, closing his eyes. He never wanted to let go.
”I love you, too,” Ivy said. Sun Fang’s heart skipped a beat, his chest constricting painfully for an unbearably long second. Ivy loved him. Loved him. Love.
Shit, Sun Fang was so fucking lucky.
”I just want you to be happy,” he muttered, shutting his eyes again. He felt Ivy’s arms come around him at last, returning the hug, and he just about melted entirely. Sinking into Ivy, he shifted all his weight onto the android and almost started to doze from how comfortable this was, and how much joy it filled him with.
When they eventually let go of each other, Sun Fang’s water had heated up. He took one sip of it and spat it out in disgust, grimacing and wiping his mouth. Clearing his throat, he put the glass back on the table and looked back at Ivy. ”Shall we start looking for a place on Firelight, then?” he asked, tilting his head and trying to smile cutely.
He did a pretty good job, if he could say so himself. All his smiles were adorable—Sun Fang was just an incredibly pretty person all around. And he was kind, too, and radiating beauty and calm and grace. Unbearably elegant; it must shame other omegas just to see him. What a torture he must be putting his fellow omegas through!
Laughing softly at his own thoughts, he was brought out of them when Ivy confirmed, ”Yes, let’s begin.” Smile gentling, Sun Fang led the way back into the apartment, heading straight for the barely used computer in the study. He settled onto a chair in front of it, pulling another one over so Ivy could sit beside him to properly see, and began to pull out all the house-searching websites that had houses on Firelight.
