CHAPTER 14
I had a feeling that my mother would be pleased, if nothing else. At least until I start telling her what happened. Seeing my little brother again? That’s what I was most afraid of. He was still a kid when I had the accident, and I’ve never managed to shake the feeling that I abandoned him, even when I know, intellectually, that the accident wasn’t my fault. When our father died, it was on me to take care of them. I’ve fallen short of that responsibility.
It’s been ten years.
I have to make a conscious effort not to hold my breath as I hear footsteps coming toward the door. I hear my brother whistle contentedly from right outside the door as he opens it, and just from that brief action, I feel like he sounds happy.
So maybe it isn’t so bad.
“Mami? I’m sorry I’m late, I...” he calls out as he walks inside his house, quieting when he looks around and sees us. He rakes his gaze over Fiona, which feels inevitable, since she’s stunning and radiates sophistication, and she looks at odds with the environment. He turns his head a little to take Nereus in. He’s wearing a turtleneck knit sweater tonight, so his gills aren’t visible, but he’s still a Merati prince, and he’s also objectively beautiful. Ace takes his time looking him over as his gaze finally settles on me, and my heart flips in my chest as his eyes widen in recognition.
“Kye,” he says, my name soft on his lips. I thought I would be surprised if he recognized me, but I’m not, because I can see the kid I left behind in this tall, composed man with cropped black hair.
He’s a bit shorter than me, his hazelnut eyes dark, his hair curlier, his features less sharp. He looks more like our mom than I do, but he’s definitely my father’s kid. He stands tall, his lips pressed in a thin line as he thinks about his next move.
“Hi, Ace,” I say, standing up so I can walk over to him. “Merry Christmas.”
My brother’s eyes widen, his mouth falling open as he takes a step toward me. “Oh my god,” he says. “It’s really you.”
He wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a tight embrace, which I’m not prepared for. I didn’t expect both of them to welcome me back with open arms--literally--but I worry that’s going to change as soon as I start telling them my story.
He pulls away from me after a second, taking a deep breath to gather himself as he does. “Why... how... I have so many questions.”
“And I’ll answer them all,” I say. “I promise. I just don’t know where to start.”
Nereus and Fiona are helping my mother serve the food--an excessive amount of food, obviously. I hear Nereus give my mother a convoluted compliment on the smell of the food as Fiona agrees enthusiastically, and this feels domestic again. Except this time, I know exactly how it makes me feel.
Safe.
I don’t think I’ve felt safe for so long, the sensation is destabilizing. And I worry that telling my mother and my little brother the story of how I ended up back on Earth is only going to rip that safety away from me.
There’s a bit of commotion as food is served and my mouth waters at the thought that I’ll get to taste my mom’s homemade cooking again. The thought of it almost makes me cry.
We’re all sitting around the tiny round white dining room table, which is packed to the brim with food, the smell of maize, cheese and guava filling the room. I know this kind of food will be new to Nereus, but I’m also excited to see Fiona try authentic Venezuelan food for the first time in her life.
It feels like I’m bringing the two of them into my world in a way that I hadn’t even thought about and I’m going to relish it for as long as I can.
“Dig in, all of you,” my mom says.
“Thank you, Mrs. Castillo,” Fiona says. “This looks so good.”
“Call me Carmen, please,” she replies.
“We can eat later, mami,” Ace says, his gaze flicking up to meet mine. “What happened, Kye? How are you here? We thought you were dead.”
I shiver. I’ve put this off for long enough. “I didn’t die,” I say, which feels like an odd thing to say. “I mean, obviously. But I almost did. When the accident happened, I was rescued. I was barely hanging on, and they put me back together, and I never left.”
“Who?” my mom asks, leaning forward as she looks at me. “Where?”
I swallow.
My brother squares his shoulders, but I can tell that he’s trying his best not to cry. “We tried to find your body for years,” Ace says. He’s going to say something else, but I wave him off before he can.
“There’s something I need to show you,” I say. Slowly, I pull my glove off my cybernetic hand, and I watch as both my mom and my brother blanch. “When I mean that they put me back together, I mean it quite literally. If it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t have lived.”
My mother sniffles. I expect her to sob, to say that it’s unnatural, but she doesn’t. She picks up her head to look at me instead, her jaw square. “It’s beautiful.”
“She’s right,” my brother says. “It’s exquisite. Can I touch your hand?”
“Sure,” I say, stretching my arm so he can hold on to my fingers. He does, and he chuckles a little when he touches me. “Holy shit, dude. This is so cool.”
“Language, Alejandro,” my mom says, ever proper, and Fiona stifles a laugh.
Nereus smiles. “You should see his chest,” he says, and my gaze darts toward him as I scoff. “It’s exquisite.”
I know he means it as a compliment, but it’s all a little much, and I’m pretty sure the air has been sucked out of the room.
My brother chuckles. “Wait, wait,” he says. “It’s not just your arms?”
That’s how I end up telling them the entire story. We eat and talk through the night as I tell them about the Merati, as I fill them in on my career as a pilot for an alien prince. It feels surreal, but they take it with a great deal of humor, and I start to feel calmer than I have before. Because they’ve clearly been taking care of each other, and because they’re okay, and that means the world to me.
When it’s done--when I’ve told them everything, Nereus interrupting me to fill in gaps about his culture, Fiona filling in gaps to make me sound way more brave than I am--I’m exhausted.
But as I look around, my mother, my brother, my girlfriend and my... Nereus all sitting around the empty plates where my mother served dinner, everything feels right.
I’m with my family.
I am safe.