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“Spider!” Quaritch barked, lungs burning more from frustration than from exertion. “Will you knock it off and get back here?”
Spider glanced over his shoulder, face split in a grin too wide that just made Quaritch’s chest hurt….but in a good way. The only thing unsettling him was the boy with no mask.
He literally had nothing but that painted face and the wild look in his eyes, but the boy was breathing just fine.
Quaritch still hadn’t gotten used to that.
“Scared of some water, old man?” Spider yelled, laughing, and turned back to stomp deliberately into a thin band of glowing algae right where the wave died. The stuff exploded around his ankles, a smear of pale neon against the darker surf.
Quaritch skidded to a halt at the dry line. Lyle was up there somewhere, probably counting ammo or just pacing, waiting for orders that never seemed to come.
Down here, it was just Quaritch and the kid….like it had been on the SeaDragon so many times, he had honestly lost count.
“Kid,” he growled, “You keep goin’ any farther and one of those little glow worms is gonna chew your damn toes off.”
Spider snorted. “You don’t know anything about them.”
“I know enough not to stand in somethin’ I can’t name.”
“Yeah, because you can’t name anything that’s not on a gun schematic.” Spider threw his arms out like he was showing off the whole ocean. The waves rolled around his calves, catching the bioluminescence and throwing it up onto his legs. “Come on! You said beach day.”
“I said something about buildin’ sandcastles or some shit” Quaritch corrected. His eye ridges drew down. “I didn’t say nothin’ about drownin’ ourselves in it.”
Spider’s grin softened into something smaller, but it was real. Quaritch still thought that he didn’t deserve that aimed at him.
He remembered his kid sulking about something. Probably about Jake Sully. It always came back to that man.
“So after we don’t find him,” Spider said, voice casual in that way that meant it wasn’t, “we’re having a beach day?”
Quaritch raised a brow ridge. “Who says we won’t find him, huh?”
Spider rolled his eyes. “I stand by what I just said.”
Quaritch chuckled, pushing down the stubborn, stupid flare of pride that the kid was talking to him like…..like they weren’t on opposite sides of whatever the hell this was.
“You want a beach, that it?” Quaritch asked “Thought you were a jungle rat.”
“Beach beach beach,” Spider insisted. “One of the pretty ones. Just for a day. No missions, no intel, no—” he mimicked Quaritch’s gravel “we’re workin’ here, kid.”
Quaritch snorted. “Yeah? And what do I get out of this little vacation package?”
Spider paused, then held up his hand with only his little finger extended. “You get to not be a total jerk for twenty four hours. Deal?”
Quaritch stared at that small, outstretched hand. He hadn’t done anything like that in…..hell, he couldn’t even remember.
But Spider’s face had been open in a way it rarely was.
Quaritch sighed, exaggerated. “All right, tiger. Beach day after we wrap this mess up. But we’re having it, even if we do find him. You hear me?“
Spider smirked. “We won’t find him.”
Quaritch had huffed. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
He’d hooked his much larger pinky around Spider’s, the contact oddly delicate for a hand that’d so much blood on them.
But the kid’s grin had been blinding. His kid’s grin….so if felt right.
He also remembered the forest and how scared he had been.
Quaritch sucked in a sharp breath and he squeezed his eyes shut. Then he snapped his eyes open again.
Spider cupped his hands and flung a sheet of glowing water toward him. It fell short, spattering the sand around Quaritch’s feet.
“Come on!” Spider called, laughter so so bright. “You gonna just stand there?”
Quaritch ground his teeth. “Someone’s gotta keep an eye out.”
“For what? Angry clams?” Spider waded sideways, letting the waves buffet his knees. The thin bioluminescent film clung to his legs like stars, making him look like he’d stepped into another world. “There’s nothing here.”
“Exactly,” Quaritch muttered. “That’s what worries me.”
He shifted his weight, feeling the sand give. His tail swayed instinctively to keep him balanced. He hated beaches, strictly because they were too exposed. Nowhere to brace your back against.
He should’ve been up at the camp, checking comms with Lyle, doing anything except taking a stroll.
He swallowed hard, feeling like he had eaten glass shards.
Then Quaritch blinked, trying to clear his head.
He couldn’t remember if the other kids had made it out. The girl that his boy liked, Sully’s boy and that..little one. He saw them in flashes….when they were shouting, mouths open and no sound coming out. Or maybe that was just his ears ringing.
“Hey!” Spider called, bringing him back.
Quaritch realized he’d sunk halfway down into a crouch without noticing, one hand braced on the sand. He straightened slowly, “Yeah, kid,” and he forced out. “I’m listenin’.”
Spider eyed him, head tilted. Something flickered across his face..concern, maybe, or the ghost of it. “You, uh…you okay? You look..weirder than usual.”
“I’m fine.” The words came out too quickly. He cleared his throat. “Just don’t wanna have to drag your sorry ass outta that surf when you get tired of playin’.”
Spider’s grin came back, quick and relieved. “You are such a liar. You love this.”
Quaritch snorted. “What, watchin’ you act like you got no sense? That’s my favorite pastime, sure.”
“You love being here, stop lying.” Spider spread his arms again, turning in a slow circle so the moonslight picked up the wet sheen on his skin. “No RDA, just the beach.”
Quaritch’s jaw clenched. “I got no beef with the scenery,” he said. “I got beef with you makin’ yourself a target in it.”
“Who’s gonna see us?” Spider laughed, backing deeper into the water, up to his shins now. “Universe finally gave you a day off.”
He twisted away as another wave rolled in, then leapt straight into it, letting it smack full against his chest. He went under with a shout, only for the sound to be chopped off as water closed over his head.
“Aw, hell,” Quaritch muttered.
He took a step toward the surf, then another. The cool water lapped at his toes, then his ankles. The sand under the waves was even trickier, shifting more with each tug and push.
“Spider, enough screwin’ around,” he called, but there was no heat in it.
The water heaved again, and Spider popped back up, hair plastered to his skull, face split with delighted laughter. “You’re in!”
“Yeah, well.” Quaritch pretended to adjust his vest, like that explained it. “Somebody’s gotta keep you from turning into a literal fish.”
Spider paddled closer, still half standing in the shallows. Even out here, close to open water, the tide wasn’t strong.
The reef they’d spotted earlier broke most of it, thankfully.
“Come out a little farther,” Spider said, breathless with excitement. “It looks even cooler where it’s deeper.”
Quaritch eyed the dark line where the shallow shelf fell away. “I’m good right here, thanks.”
“Oh, come on.” Spider swam a short circle around him, kicking up halos of light. “It’s not even that deep before it levels off again. You’re, like..ten feet tall. You won’t drown.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Do too.”
“Do not.”
Spider grinned. “I promise I’ll save you if you drown. There, now you gotta come.”
You already did, kid. You already did.
Spider’s brow furrowed when he realized Quaritch wasn’t going further. So he flicked a splash of glowing water at Quaritch’s stomach and darted back, laughing. “You need to move, before your old man joints freeze up!”
“You little—” Quaritch surged forward on reflex.
The water hit his thighs, then his waist. He sucked in a sharp breath as the temperature bit into his skin, the clothes doing little to buffer it.
Quaritch caught the boy by the back of the neck and tugged him closer. “This is far enough.”
Spider squawked in protest, twisting, but then Quaritch just lifted him.
It was easy…..like too easy. He hauled Spider clean out of the water with a grunt, slinging him partly over his shoulder, hands under the kid’s ribs.
“Hey!” Spider yelped, arms flailing before they hooked instinctively around Quaritch’s neck. Legs clamped around his torso, the boy hanging on like a limpet. “Put me down!”
“Not until you quit runnin’ off,” Quaritch said, trying to sound gruff, ignoring the way something warm loosened in his chest at the feel of that weight. He was so small.
Spider squirmed, fingers burying in Quaritch’s kuru and the tug of it jolted him.
He could almost…..feel it. That tiny hand in his hair, a baby’s fist clenched so tight in a lock of it that no amount of prying could undo it.
He remembered cursing ans Paz’s laugh…and remembered that squirming bundle held away from his chest just enough that the drooling monster couldn’t rip more hair out.
“Damn kid,” he muttered, even though his throat felt tight. “You get ahold of even one hair and you’re hell to get loose, you know that? You did this too..when you were..little.”
Spider paused his struggling, breath hitching with a quieter laugh right by Quaritch’s ear.
“Yeah?” he said softly.
“..yeah.”
Spider leaned back, hands still hooked around his neck, hanging half in and half out of the water.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Put me down. I wanna swim.”
“You drop outta my sight and I’m draggin’ your ass back to shore,” Quaritch warned.
“Yeah, yeah,” Spider said, rolling his eyes again. “Okay, dad.”
Before he could even respon….not that he could, after his brain short circuited a bit, Spider kicked free and dropped lithely back into the sea.
Then he was gone in a smooth dive, body cutting through the water like he’d been born in it.
For a second, Quaritch lost sight of him entirely. And his heart lurched.
“Spider?” His voice came out sharper than he intended. He turned, scanning the waves for the messy head of dreads.
Nothing. Just rolling water and the slow, pulsing glow of algae.
Cold started to crawl up his spine that had nothing to do with the sea.
“Kid?” he called again. “Quit playin’.”
He started forward, feeling for the edge with his toes. The ground fell off more quickly than he expected. One more step and suddenly he was on tiptoe, water at his chest.
Then something brushed his thigh.
Quaritch flinched, hand going instinctively to where his sidearm would’ve been, but the weapon wasn’t there. The ocean pressed heavy against him, muffling his movements.
Then Spider broke the surface right in front of him.
“Gotcha ya!”
Quaritch swore and almost punched him on reflex. “Goddammit, kid—”
Spider just laughed. Water streamed down his face and over his chest. For a moment, Quaritch could almost forget everything else. It was just them, in the water, the world held at arm’s length.
Then Spider turned his head a little, and the moonslight slid along his throat.
There was a line there..across his neck. Dark and so fucking wrong. The glow from the water picked it out too….clearly. Quaritch was sure he could see the flesh parted.
“Spider,” he rasped.
Spider blinked at him, confusion flickering across his face. “What?”
Quaritch stepped forward, hands lifting without his say so. “Your neck,” he said. “You’re—”
The line…..vanished.
No, not vanished. It wavered. One second it was there, the next it was just a faint smudge of shadow and algae that looked like it might be a trick of the light. Quaritch’s vision swam, trying to lock onto it and failing.
He reached out anyway, closing the distance between them, his fingers brushing the boy’s throat.
The rapid flutter of a pulse beneath the skin. It wasn’t cut…and it wasn’t bleeding.
Spider swallowed and caught his wrist, frowning. “Dude. What the hell?”
Quaritch just stared, his fingers trembling against the warm skin.
“Spider,” he said again, but it came out hoarse.
The kid’s grip on his wrist tightened. “What?”
Quaritch forced his eyes up, Spider’s gaze steady.
“What’s wrong?”
Quaritch’s throat worked. “Nothing.” he lied.
Spider’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “You keep looking at me like I’m gonna just…” He let the sentence trail away, shrugging. “I’m not going anywhere.”
That was wrong. That was so damn wrong that Quaritch felt something inside him snap….because his kid..didn’t just stay with him. He knew he wanted the Sullys. His kid didn’t want to stay with him…no.
Spider stared at Quaritch for a long moment. Then, slowly, he let go of the colonel’s wrist. His fingers lingered on Quaritch’s skin for a second longer than they needed to.
When he spoke again, his voice was softer. “It’s okay,” he said. A small, sad smile tugged at his mouth. “She did it. Remember?”
His fingers sank into something wetter and..slicker. He yanked them back, and they came away dark, runnels of shadow trailing through the glowing water.
Spider didn’t seem to notice. He just looked at Quaritch, smile fading at the edges, eyes huge and dark with something like pity.
Pity….for him?
“Kid,” Quaritch whispered. “You’re—”
“Hey.” He leaned in until they’ve almost hugged, breaking Quaritch’s line of sight to his throat. “It’s okay.”
Quaritch shook his head minutely. “Spider..”
His fingers brushed Quaritch’s arm again, then slid away as he took a step back, deeper into the water.
Quaritch realized distantly that they’d drifted farther out while they’d been talking. The water was at his neck now. When he sank his toes into the sand, he felt nothing…..no solid ground, just the hint of a drop.
“Spider,” he said, the name torn from his throat.
The boy smiled, small and crooked. The cut on his neck was definitely there now.
“It’s okay,” Spider repeated and he took another step back.
The ocean swallowed him.
“Spider!” Quaritch lunged forward. The water surged up, closing over his mouth, then his eyes.
Instinct screamed at him to kick up, to fight back to air. Instead he drove himself down.
The surface dimmed behind him. Ahead, the water darkened, lit only by the scattered sparks of bioluminescence stirred by his passage. The pressure started to build around his ears.
For a moment, he saw nothing. Then Spider appeared below him, drifting.
The boy was suspended in the water like he was made of it, limbs loose, hair floating around his head. The algae loved him, it swarmed around his form, painting him in luminous strokes.
The cut on his throat glowed brightest of all though, like it was an obscene smile.
He was looking up, eyes open, watching Quaritch descend and just smiled.
Quaritch kicked harder, arms tugging him through the heavy water. His body complained but he ignored it. He’d ignored worse after all.
Spider reached one hand out toward him, fingers stretching. Not in plea, no. In invitation.
Come on.
Quaritch reached back.
The ocean pressed in tighter and his brain started to pound, each heartbeat a hammer blow. His chest clenched hard, demanding he inhale. He clamped his mouth tighter shut, lips stretched thin against his teeth.
Just a little farther.
Spider’s fingers brushed his cheek first. A light touch, callused tips trailing along the markings on his face. The bioluminescent algae stuck to his skin where Spider touched him, smearing a new constellation there.
His other hand cupped Quaritch’s jaw, steadying him in the water. He was so damn small. Quaritch could’ve wrapped one of his hands around his ribcage.
Spider’s eyes were calm though. There was none of the fear there from the forest, none of the wild panic from the ship. Just..calm.
Spider’s thumb stroked along his cheekbone again and it was a tender gesture. Then, slowly, he let go.
He drifted back, retreating into the deep.
Quaritch’s diaphragm spasmed, a painful, involuntary convulsion. Fire licked up his throat, his chest screaming for air and his vision narrowed, black creeping in from the edges.
Go up, go up, go up…up.
But Spider was down.
So he kicked downward.
The burn in his lungs flared and some spots started dancing in his vision. The sea compressed him from all sides, turning his limbs heavy and slow. It felt like swimming through syrup…slow….too slow.
But with each strained stroke, Spider hovered just out of arm’s reach, always a little farther, always just ahead, lit by that strange underwater starlight.
Quaritch’s chest constricted again. His mouth opened reflexively, and the ocean surged in. He gagged, reflex warring with physics. Bubbles tore from him, rising past his face in a froth of pale light. The last of his air escaped in a desperate rush.
He should’ve panicked.
But something inside went very, very, very……quiet.
Spider turned again in the water, facing him. The cut on his neck was gone now, or maybe Quaritch just couldn’t see it anymore. The boy’s hair floated around his face like a beautiful blonde halo. And his boy just watched him sink, his expression soft.
He swam closer this time, closing the small distance between them with easy strokes. One hand came up again, fingers curling around Quaritch’s face, holding him steady in the dark.
Quaritch couldn’t feel his arms anymore. Couldn’t feel much of anything. Limbs gone numb, body far far away. The pressure and the burn and the ache all collapsing into a single, distant sensation.
But he could feel that touch.
Spider’s brows knit together, as if in apology. As if he were the one who’d done something wrong.
But his little tiger could do no wrong. No. No wrong. He could even shoot him and Quaritch wouldn’t even hold that over him.
His fingers traced one last line along Quaritch’s cheek, leaving a trail of tiny stars. He watched Spider, still smiling at him.
Quaritch smiled too.