There were so many people around, all the seats were taken and a few people were sitting on the floor, and Kaden had used some kind of sixth sense to find somewhere he could charge his phone. He thought, if this was the old days, the old Kaden, he’d be running all over this place. He’d be trying to film himself on the travelators, he’d have to be bodily pulled off the baggage carousel. His phone didn’t even need charging, he just wanted an excuse to sit with his back to something.
He couldn’t help thinking about what it would be like if Tragos was here instead of Much. He’d have his arms around Marcie, standing behind her, maybe resting his chin on her if he was feeling relaxed. If Tragos was here, maybe Kaden wouldn’t feel quite so much like he wanted to be sick. Maybe Marcie wouldn’t be treating him so much like a kid.
He couldn’t help resenting Much either, for not being Tragos. Resenting him every time he smiled at Marcie, or took one of her bags. Fuck off he thought, watching out of the corner of his eye when Much lifted the suitcase onto the scales. She could lift that herself. She don’t need you. Fuck off.
And then Much smiled at him and Kaden made a show of reading every bit of his boarding pass so he wouldn’t make eye contact. All the negative feelings had to go somewhere and Much was making himself such an attractive target. Soon he’d fuck off, though. Soon it would just be Kaden and Marcie, alone in a metal tube hurtling through the air.
Much didn’t miss the tension all built up in Kaden, and maybe Tuck would have some effective way of connecting with him and making him feel at ease but Tuck wasn’t here. Food would be good, but there wasn’t time before their flight to go get them something and besides, Much was reluctant to leave them alone.
Actually, Much was finding himself reluctant to wave Marcie off at all. He kept telling himself how good it was going to be for her, he knew how much she wanted to see her parents again, he knew that getting out of the city and away from certain gods was going to give her a breathing space nothing else could, but, well…
He was going to miss her, that was all. “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back home?” he asked her, standing close to her, so the three of them didn’t take up too much space.