Sebastian wedged himself under the Chimera, the sun warming his skin as he checked for cracks in the hull. It was another beautiful summer day, and he'd almost begged a chance to have something to do to distract himself from this calm complacency of his new life. Touching the Chimera again after so many months felt like a breath of fresh air. Not that he minded his new life in the least, but sometimes he'd look up at the stars and miss them.
The reinforced bits of titanium they had pilfered from another ship seemed to have done its job. There were only a few deep scratches from the run in with the meteors. Nothing serious. He knocked against the hull just to hear the calming ring and closed his eyes. He’d once considered it the most beautiful sound in the world.
“Sebastian!” He jerked at the sound of his name, a sound lovelier than the still ringing metal. His head hit the hull, ringing it again, and he swore as he crawled out from under it. “Sebastian!”
“I heard you the first time.” He grumbled, rubbing his head, already feeling a bump rising.
Neo, red hair tangled from the wind, shook a newspaper at him. “Have you seen this?”
“Yes, I’ve seen newspapers before. Although I don’t know why you insist on reading them.”
“Not that.” He pointed to the picture of a girl with snakes for hair on the cover. “Alyssa’s advocating for anyone who’s been a victim of Frankenstein’s Law. They’re calling it Alyssa’s Amendment. That’s her on the front with Officer Davis.”
“What?” Sebastian snatched the paper from his hand and stared at the grainy photo of the man he’d hoped to never see again.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just wasn’t expecting to see him supporting her.”
Neo shrugged. “They say she has the majority of the IPC supporting her, and a mysterious benefactor who paid in nothing but diamonds.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Sebastian said. “Anything about your newfound brother in there?”
“Not much, but he’s not really fond of the limelight.”
It was no surprise. After everything that had happened, they all deserved their own little slice of happiness, and Thomas found his in obscurity. He did send postcards occasionally.
As for Sebastian, peace had come easily to him. He’d been shocked yet relieved when six months had come and gone and he didn’t feel his feet itching to run anymore. Owning a bar and chatting with customers appealed to him far more than piloting a ship in the middle of space, especially when his days ended with himself and Neo in bed together. Brie had taken up the mantle of space captain with a new, handpicked crew, but still, the same old ship. Kenan and Lyra settled just down the road, their curious garden far larger than it’d ever been since they’d planted in on stable ground. Thanks to the crowd it gathered, they were always busy, and attracted plenty of customers to both the garden and the bar.
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“Let’s head back up. I’m finished here.” Sebastian led the way back to the bar. A light shone through the window of the upstairs apartment where he and Neo lived. The brick road glistened a dull red in the blazing sun as they trotted up the path to where Brie stood waiting outside. She had one hand on her hip while the other held something small wrapped in a thin blanket.
“There you two are.” She said, looking between them. “I hope you were fixing that ship.”
“Of course I was.” Sebastian replied. “You’re good to go.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a one-armed hug then handed him the blanket. “I found this while we were cleaning out the Chimera. I figured you’d want it.”
He didn’t need to unwrap it to know what it was, and he held it close. “I’m not the person I was before.”
She smiled. “None of us are. I think we’re better for it. Come on. Drinks on me today.”
They spent the evening at a table in the corner, the liveliness of the bar washing over them as they sipped at their drinks, lost in their own world. Kenan and Lyra regaled them with the different kinds of fertilizer they used on some of their more volatile plants while Brie began discussing her plans for her next trip. But Sebastian spent the entire evening getting lost in Neo’s eyes, drinking him in and finding himself hoping this wasn’t the kind of dream he’d have to wake up from.
“I should get going.” Brie hugged them all, saving Sebastian for last. “Take care of them.” She whispered, glancing back to see Lyra donning her pink cloak and reaching for Kenan’s hand.
“Always.” He returned the hug, catching sight of a photograph nailed to the wall behind the counter of a brilliant young man with fiery red hair and intelligent green eyes, a painful gift from Thomas so Rowan would never be forgotten. As if Sebastian could ever forget the person who’d given him Neo back, the person who he’d once believed he’d been in love with, not realizing it’d been Neo the whole time. “Take care of yourself,” he told Brie, shouldering those memories and that pain quietly, “and make sure you come home to us. We’re still family.”
She smiled. “Of course, and who knows, maybe I’ll find something for myself out there among the stars.”
“‘Course you will. It’s a big universe.”
Later that night, when the town had settled and begun to sleep, Sebastian sat with Neo on the roof of the No Name Saloon, a place he never thought he’d see again. In his lap rested the thin blanket. He stared at it for a long moment before uncovering it and holding the last blue flare in his hands.
“I didn’t think there were any more left.” Neo said.
“It’s the last one.” Sebastian turned to look at him. “Want to do the honors?”
They set it up on the roof, and Neo lit it. They tilted their heads back to watch it arch across the sky, a blinding blue streak, a single shooting star. Sebastian reached into the darkness and intertwined his fingers with Neo’s. Somewhere high above, the Chimera vanished amongst the stars, and the flare burned out.
Halfway across the universe, in another galaxy, a young woman pointed a gun at the man who’d brought her back from the dead. His wedding ring glinted on his finger as did hers. Her finger spasmed on the trigger. She heard the sound of a gate slamming closed, felt the chains around her soul, blackening it. She fired. Across a galaxy, on a peaceful little planet, they could almost hear the echoes of a gunshot, and the footsteps of a woman walking down to her children’s bedrooms.
