"I kept you close, thought it was right, But love's not love if it dims the light."
Jean Arvin's melancholy song played softly in the background throughout the entire space station. Several of his posters on the walls had been defaced with black marker, causing the idol's face unrecognizable. Jared must have been here before.
He was at the gas station, refilling his Trooper Pod's tank. He would need frequent refueling on his journey to another galaxy. Jared was considering trading his pod for something more durable, better suited for traveling among the stars—something with a larger tank or even a different type of fuel that would last longer.
The Trooper Pod is designed for short space travel, primarily for use in war. As the name suggests, "Trooper" is akin to a knight riding a horse, with two seats—one for the pilot and another for a co-pilot. However, it is fully operable by a single pilot. Due to its purpose, the pod lacks survival equipment such as food storage or sleeping quarters. It is strictly built for brief outer-space skirmishes. The fuel tank is also limited, with just enough capacity to circle around the asteroid belt in a classic solar system.
This is why Jared often has to stop by space stations to refill the gas. While refueling, he tosses a chunk of bread, and Herman leaps to catch it in his mouth. It reminds Jared of the old days when he and Herman traveled around Earth. They didn't have much, but they were happy sharing everything.
As Jared fills his empty stomach, he glances around and notices something. His face is displayed on a bounty poster. A new bounty. And it's quite substantial—100,000 credits for his capture, alive. That's a lot of money. Why would the Galactic Federation set the bounty so high? Unless…
"Damn you, Charles!" Jared mutters under his breath, crushing the bread in his hand before tossing it to the ground. Herman eagerly gnaws at the remnants.
Suddenly, paranoia sets in. Jared scans the room, and everyone seems suspicious, as if they're secretly plotting to capture him. He need to escape, now!
"Mr. Gauthier! I've got your change," calls the bald-headed clerk. Jared's budget is too tight to abandon the money, so he snatches the change quickly and rushes out. Few coins fell to the ground, but he won't spare seconds to pick them up.
"W-wait! You said you were interested in my nephew?" the clerk shouts after him.
Have to admit, the clerk's 19-year-old nephew—who had been offered for a night—was exactly Jared's type: a cute twink. But now, with a bounty on his head, Jared knows he needs to get out of the public eye and fast.
With no choice but to flee beyond the reach of DNA trackers, Jared knew the next galaxy was his only escape. The trackers wouldn't be able to follow him there. It would be a long journey, but he was used to long hauls. And now that his head was on the bounty list, he'd have to stop by sky pirate's stations. Yes, they had their own gas stations, and Jared would need more than just his trooper pod. He needed something built to last through the vast stretches of space.
As he hurriedly walked to his pod, Herman trailed behind him, tongue sticking out with a happy expression, a stark contrast to the turmoil and tension Jared felt inside. He walked past a crowd of people, and his hand snatched a wallet. It was so quick, yet so smooth, the person barely noticed that something was no longer in her possession. Jared took the credit card and snapped a picture of her ID card, making sure the photo captured her address clearly and readable. Then, he placed the wallet on the root of a bonsai meant for street decoration. She would find her paper money later, untouched. What Jared needed was only her credit card.
Jared and Herman enter their trooper pod, and rush to leave the spacestation, nearly crashed with another pod. Luckily, no damage was done, but the angry pilot wasn't having it. Through the radio comm, he shouted, "Watch where you're going, dumbass!"
Jared just grimaced. It was smarter to ignore him rather than risk leaving a communication trail. A skilled hacker could track him with just a tiny slip-up, and Jared knew that all too well—Logan had done it plenty of times to track down missing ships or fugitives.
Logan... Was she still alive? Did she survive? How did she die? Charles only played part of the video, leaving out the crucial end. And then it hit Jared. Logan had probably mentioned her location in that recording, maybe even more informations that could help to save her. But Charles didn't show him the full video—he was keeping the rest to himself, making Jared dependent on him for the answers.
"Do you really want me to cling to you that badly, huh?" Jared shook his head.
It's still fresh in his mind, when Charles lies on the bed with nothing to cover his skin but a blanket. Eyes closed, sleeping peacefully. His blonde hair is messy on his sweaty forehead. Jared would watch him sleep, not doing anything, until he slowly opens his eyes, and Jared will be the first person Charles sees after returning from a sweet, peaceful dream. Those blue eyes, clear and peacful as the ocean, secretly hold dangerous things underneath.
"Face like an angel, but a heart like a devil..." It wasn't that he hated Charles—far from it. If he didn't still have a soft spot for him, he would've punched him in the face and tortured him until he give away Herman's location.
The memories of him had always brings butterflies to his chest. However, those butterflies have long gone. Jared is living his new life now, but for Charles, he is still stuck in the days when they were room mates.
Charles often told him about a world where people are happy and safe, that is why he want to be a policeman. However as they enter the real world, reality hits him and he knows, in this corrupted system, he need to be the top if he want to make changes. Even if he reach the top, it's not going to be easy to control every toxic snakes lurking under his wings.
Jared never understand the need to change the world, to save the world, but he try to not get in the way. But he knows, Jared's recklessness, his tendency to jump into trouble whenever he feel someone crossed him, had caused Charles a lot of trouble, because Charles won't let him go. He want to keep Jared, so it's Jared that has to change to be someone else that's against who he truly is. But if he want to be himself, it's Charles who has to let his dream go. There's no way this relationship would works!
Why can't you just let me go, dammit? What the hell do you think we can be? We only destroying each others together! Jared fumed silently. It was so clear that staying together was only getting in the way of both of their paths.
"What am I supposed to do, Herman?" Jared spoke to his dog. "He's got a big dream to chase, and I'm just a stray hawk who wishes for nothing but freedom. Am I supposed to wait for him to return home tired and... what? Serve him? What does he think I am? A butler? A maid?.... A wife?!" Jared laughed at the last part, but Herman just tilted his head in curiosity while maintaining the look of "I'm not sure what you're saying, but I love you, my hooman!" on Jared.
Jared pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. The queue to the exit was getting closer, but the fact that Charles had put a bounty on his face gnawed at him. There was no safe place left in the entire universe. He hope that the parking attendant is too busy to check the bounty announcement and didn't recognize him. "Damn... bro actually needs a butler, not a lover. How could he understand that? That's how Earthlings are—they're always obsessed with something."
The queue of ships to the exit inched forward. They were checking IDs, ship identities, and, of course, he had to pay with a credit card. He used the stolen credit card to pay the exit fee. The system was designed to ensure that no pirates or outlaws could enter or leave the space station undetected. It worked well enough to minimize crime.
The man at the parking post raised an eyebrow when a woman's face appeared on the screen as he swiped the card. "Uhh... here's your parking bill, Ms... Clementina?"
"Thanks, bro," Jared said with a wink, taking the bill and the credit card before hovering out of the space station.
The parking attendant shrugged, thinking to himself that the customer was probably a trans man.