Foundation of All

The two of them were in Lira’s room. It seems that Lira had been planning this ahead of time given how clean and spotless it was. The last time he had seen it while visiting it hadn’t been messy but clearly lived in. Now Sean thought he could probably eat directly off some of her furniture. Well, he could anyway. But a normal person could without getting sick.

Lira’s mood had dropped a little as they actually entered the room, her grip on Sean’s hand growing tighter.

“Hey, you okay?” Sean asked as she stared into space for a moment. She quickly snapped out of it and smiled at him.

“Yeah, I’m great,” she said, “Immortal stamina isn’t just great for working you know. We’ll be going for a while if I have anything to say about it.”

Then she stepped forward and kissed him passionately and he kissed her back.

Immortal stamina did indeed let them go for a very long time without stopping. Any reservations either of them had with what they were doing quickly faded away once they both fell onto the bed together.

After they were done, they both lay naked on Lira’s bed, cuddling. Sean felt vaguely drowsy as they just lay there together, their passion spent. Lira’s head rested against his chest and Sean had his face buried in her splayed out hair laying all over the bed around her.

Sean shifted as something cold dripped on his chest. He shifted a little and was surprised to see Lira crying there as she was pressed against him. He started panicking a little as he saw how upset she was. Had he done something wrong? Had she not been ready yet?

She noticed his movements and looked up and seeing his confusion wiped her eyes and snuggled closer.

“No…” She said, “It’s not you. I just wish that… I’d met you first. I’m sorry. It was great, you’re perfect.”

“What happened? Are you talking about Lars? What did he do?” Sean asked, now becoming alarmed. He had just thought that she was shy, but…

“It… he was the first one to really pay attention to me, you know?” Lira said softly, “I was just so lonely living with the mortals. They all hated me with a passion. Even the ones I managed to win over only lived a few years before dying again. It was always so painful having to go to their funerals over and over. When I got here I’d forgotten what it was like to have someone really care about me. I thought that Lars did care, I did…”

She paused and seemed unwilling to say more.

“And?” Sean probed, “What was he really like?”

“It’s… you really want to talk about Lars right now?” Lira said, “I don’t want to ruin this by talking about him…”

“No, I want to know,” Sean said, “don’t worry about me, just say what he did. Please.”

She met his eyes and scanned his face for a moment before seeming to find what she was looking for.

“Okay… You know he was my boyfriend when we first met. He was my only real friend in this place for the longest time. Even now I struggle talking with strangers. The only reason I wasn’t a nervous wreck at first at the workshop was because I had something to show you and focus on besides talking. I don’t know anything about fashion or the gossip, it was so hard to make friends…”

Sean began stroking her hair with his hand and she relaxed fractionally and leaned into it.

“I know what you mean,” Sean said, “I might be the same way if I hadn’t met Roger. You know how long I spend at the classes and at the workshop. If he hadn’t helped push me to go out I would probably be holed up in one of them almost full time. Fashion conversations are just the worst.”

“Yeah, totally,” Lira said, “I’m glad Roger helped you. I thought that Lars was my Roger. He brought me to parties and helped me fit in somewhat at least. I thought we were friends. I thought it was great when we started dating and doing all sorts of fun things together. But then he started getting controlling and… well, I didn’t want to lose my only friend so I went along with most of it.”

“Like what kind of things?” Sean asked, “How was he controlling?”

“Just little stuff. Or it felt little at the time. What I could wear, telling me to spend less time with the three or four other friends I had established over my time here so I could spend more time with him. I should talk to them actually, I never really told them why I suddenly started avoiding them out of nowhere… What I could eat when we had a luxury meal. Things like that. If it made him happy I didn’t mind it too much.”

Sean wasn’t liking this picture. Not that he had liked Lars already, but a burning fire started building in his chest the longer she talked.

“And then… then one day I had had enough. I told him I didn’t want to follow his stupid rules anymore. And then… And then…”

She gripped him tightly and started crying again, “He hit me. Really hard. It hurt, and he said it was okay because I would regenerate again anyway. Whenever I argued back against him he hit me. I didn’t know what to do. He was the only person I had left, I was just frozen in fear. I didn’t know what to do…”

“Shhh. It’s okay, you’re safe now,” Sean said despite not feeling calm at all. His thoughts raced until his memories snagged on something, “Brenda,” he said, “Did she know? Is that why she called you after class?”

“She wasn’t sure, but she figured out something was wrong,” Lira said, still sniffling as she calmed down a little.

“I confessed everything to her,” Lira said, “She helped me get away from Lars, but I couldn’t get him in trouble. No evidence and even with Brenda’s support none of the Immortal Council wanted to punish Lars without any evidence against him. Of course he denied everything and said I was just trying to slander him. I actually almost got in trouble instead, I probably would have been punished by them if Brenda hadn’t been there to defend me…”

Sean kept stroking her hair and they lay there together for a long time, both just thinking.

“You’re very brave, Lira,” Sean eventually said, “I don’t know what I would have done in a situation that’s so horrible. And if Lars ever causes you trouble then come to me and I’ll deal with him. It’s taking all my restraint to not jump up and beat him to a pulp right now actually.”

“No, don’t Sean, you’ll get hurt!” Lira said, sounding frightened, “You’ll go to prison or get ejected from Immortus station!”

“Would leaving here be so bad?” Sean said, “If you come with me we wouldn’t be alone anymore would we? And I’ve heard of plenty of other immortals out there that I’m sure are living their best lives. I’m liking this Immortal Council less and less the more I hear of them. I’m not going to let you suffer just to satisfy their overinflated egos.”

“You would?” Lira asked, “You would fight against them just for me?”

“Of course,” Sean said, almost offended. He would do so even for even a stranger if he heard Lira’s story, let alone when she was his girlfriend. Or at least he hoped he would. His parents raised him right, and he shouldn’t just stand by while something like this happened. Standing by… Speaking of, his thoughts began turning a more violent direction as he thought of what Lars had done to his sweet and caring Lira.

“Lira, do you want revenge on Lars?” He asked, “If you could have no consequences? I had a friend offer me the same to help me get revenge on the people who murdered my parents. I’ll do the same to you. Just tell me if you want to and I’ll figure out everything. You don’t even have to think about it the tiniest bit. I’ll make sure it’s safe for the both of us, no matter how long it ends up taking.”

“Well, I…” Lira said, “I don’t know. Even after everything and how he treated me, I don’t want anything horrible to happen to Lars. To anybody. So, no. I guess not. I just want to forget he ever existed and move on. You’re a definite upgrade, Sean.”

“I sure hope so,” Sean said before hesitating for a moment, “It’s your choice. The offer is open. Just let me know if you change your mind about it. Even if… if we don’t work out as a couple.”

“Oh, we’ll definitely work out,” Lira said, “I just know it. But thanks anyway. Do you think you could teach me… the thing you do? To get rid of the pain?”

Sean considered it, “Probably,” he admitted, “But it doesn’t work like that. The pain is always there, you just… don’t care about it anymore. And my best guess I got it through accumulated damage. So you’d probably have to get hurt over and over in a short time to get it to stick like it has for me.”

She hugged him and pressed herself against him a little tighter. She was very warm, it was comforting to Sean feeling her there with him.

“Maybe I’ll think about it later,” she said in a small voice.

“That’s fair,” Sean said, “I don’t think it will be very fun to do. You should ask Brenda about it, she’ll know better than me what is best. She certainly was unconcerned when I kept breaking my neck doing high dives into the pool.”

Lira looked at him in horror.

“Broke your neck?! You never told me that! I knew she was a little harsh in the survival courses, but nothing like that!”

Sean shifted slightly in embarrassment. Well, best get it out before she gets over her initial shock.

“Yeah, actually on my fourth or fifth session I missed the pool entirely on my jump,” he said, “I was meat paste on the floor. The jump is about sixty feet high, I think? Something like that. I actually had to pay a big fine because I ate down through the stone while I was regenerating. Brenda just had me go up and try again like nothing had happened. Well she made fun of me for managing to mess up a dive so badly for a while, but she didn’t treat it as something serious. I actually didn’t learn about the fine until the end of that session as I was about to leave. Plus it was all worth it in the end, now I’m an expert high diver certified by Brenda herself.”

“I can’t believe you think the fine that you got is the important part of that story,” Lira mumbled into his chest.

“Whatever,” Sean replied, “The point is that Brenda pulls no punches. Ask her and she’ll tell you how to do it and also know if you should.”

“Well… I guess I see your point,” Lira said, “Maybe I’ll see what she thinks about it. I don’t want to be so weak…”

“Well, why don’t we do some martial arts training?” Sean asked, “We can go together, make it a date. Then you can learn to defend yourself and I can learn how to beat up Lars if he ever comes within eyesight of you.”

“Hmmm. That’s not actually a bad idea,” Lira said, “We should do it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sean said.

“Hmmm, yeah,” Lira mumbled. Their conversation drifted back into silence. Sean allowed himself to drift to sleep, dreaming of all the suffering he would inflict on Lars if Lira gave him her permission to do so…