Scorpion Blues by Rachel White

Author:Rachel White [White, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: M/M romance, fantasy
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2014-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

In the Water

But when they stopped that evening, Love mused silently for a long time and then said, right in the middle of supper, "Do people do that often?"

"Do what?" Scorpion asked after he had swallowed his mouthful.

"Go into the Wasteland alone, with nothing but a pendant to keep them safe. Is that usual?"

"Not that usual. But there are always people …"

He trailed off, but Love didn't fill in the silence himself. "People who what?"

"Who want to explore the Wasteland," Scorpion told him. "It's a mystery, right? An adventure. Some people want to know what's inside it. You're not the only one full of questions about it."

"I suppose not," said Love. He shivered suddenly and Scorpion, on impulse, beckoned him over. He didn't anticipate anything coming from it, but Love rose from his seat and crossed to Scorpion, sinking down beside him. He was still watching the fire, but he was cross-legged and his knee bumped up against Scorpion's knee. It was the first time he had willingly touched Scorpion since talking about his sister. Was he still pretending it never happened, or was he recovered from it already? The former, Scorpion judged, though he would play along for the present, out of some grudging sympathy for Love and because Scorpion's bedroll was cold by himself.

"You said you knew a man who died in the Wasteland," Love continued, drawing him back out of his thoughts.

"Jacobus."

"Was he an explorer?"

"He was, yeah."

Love's fingers trailed over Scorpion's knee, casually, almost indifferently, and the touch was like fire through the cloth of Scorpion's trousers. When he slid his own arm around Love's waist, Love didn't shrug him off.

"Were you lovers?" Love asked.

"No," said Scorpion, barking a laugh. "We weren't. He wanted to be, and propositioned me pretty soon after we met, but I shot him down and he accepted it. It wasn't serious. I was just there and he was lonely."

"What was he researching when he died?" Love asked, still touching Scorpion's leg but not actually doing anything more.

"No idea. His notes didn't make it back. He was probably trying to understand how the Wasteland had come about or something; I don't know."

It had been a long time since he'd spoken of Jacobus, and doing so was strange, but luckily Love was already moving on, unsurprisingly more interested in the Wasteland itself than in Scorpion's history. "Do many people go into the Wasteland? Besides explorers, I mean. Are there trade routes?"

"No. That'd be a mess. The only people besides explorers and researchers—and Rangers—who go into the Wasteland for long times are criminals, and that's only because they've run out of options."

"Does that happen often?"

"Often enough."

"They live in the Wasteland?"

"Sure," said Scorpion, rubbing his thumb gently against Love's hip. Love accepted the touch without balking. "Some of them, anyway. If they're willing to risk it."

"Why would they?" Love tossed his bangs out of his eyes. "It's miserable out here."

"As long as you have a shelter and a supply of food and ways to keep off the poison and the wastelings, you can stay out here a long while.

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