Hadron

Alyra and Hadron were dismissed shortly after their demonstration with orders to wait and to “absolutely not” practice their magic without permission, nor should they talk about magic to their peers. They were also instructed that they should attend the celebration that was happening in one of the rec rooms. Hadron could practically feel the questions burning the back of his throat about their mission and magic but managed to suppress the urge to shake the Major until answers started coming out. The celebration party really didn’t interest him; it seemed unimportant compared to the discovery he and Alyra had just made.

Surreptitiously, he glanced at Alyra out of the corner of his eye, trying not to think about how often he had been doing that lately. She had the small crease she got in her brow that she only got when she was thinking hard about something. Hadron wondered, not for the first time, what was going on in her head.

Hadron had spent the last 5 year with the tall Drasee and he still had a hard time understanding her thought process sometimes. Since he was a human, he was used to reading body language and facial expressions to judge someone’s mood, and for the most part, many of the other bipedal races in the Republic did as well. There were slight differences, however. Drasee for example, used their tails more often to display emotions, as well as the small ridges along the sides of their necks that would lift when angry or upset. Hadron had also seen them lift to dissipate heat during exercise. Once, when the officer cadets had all snuck out to drink the officially illegal but widely available liquor. Alyra had drunk a little too much that night, and Hadron remembered the small scales being almost completely lifted. It also turned out, that Alyra was a very happy drunk. And a lightweight.

“What is it?” Alyra said, and Hadron nearly jumped out of his skin as he jolted out of the memory. He had unconsciously been staring at Alyra. Heat rose to his cheeks, and he quickly looked forward again.

“Sorry. Just trying to figure out what you are thinking about,” he said. He knew it was pointless to lie to Alyra. She was uncanny with her ability to sniff out lies.

She was quiet for a moment, then asked: “Our lives are about to get very interesting, aren’t they?”

“Anything would be more exciting than this,” Hadron said with a light chuckle.

Her lips twitched into a slight smile. It was the first time Hadron had seen something other than anger or deadly impassiveness on her face all day.

“I didn’t expect the High Major to be so…” Hardon started then trailed off looking for the word.

“Friendly? Normal?” Alyra supplied.

Hadron snapped his fingers and said, “That’s it! I expected stiff salutes and formalities and maybe a little bit of fear. The fear was there but not so much the other stuff.”

“I guess the High Major doesn’t put much stock in those kinds of things. And as a High Major though, she doesn’t really need to worry about formalities. I mean, she outranks literally everyone on this boat,” Alyra said with a real smile, and Hadron grinned with her. It was good to see her smile again.

They walked down the plain halls, chatting casually, and passing a few other recruits and officer candidates who saluted to them. Hadron almost saluted back before stopping himself. They didn’t need to do that anymore. They were the ranking officers now. It was kinda nice, Hadron thought. He could get used to this.

Hadron could hear the party before he saw it. There was music blaring, and voices raised in conversation. They were unfashionably late, and he hoped that they could sneak in before the others noticed them, but then remembered he was with Alyra. Alyra was intelligent, brave, confident, and had absolutely no subtlety when it came to social situations.

She walked in, head held high, and a polite smile on her face. Nothing dramatic happened, like someone stopping the music, nor did the entire room fall silent. But there definitely was a hush that fell over the room. A small circle formed around the two as they entered, and Alyra’s smile changed from a polite smile to an amused grin. For a moment, Hadron considered ditching the tall Drasee to escape being the center of attention but realized he was already trapped. So, he squared his shoulders and decided, to hell with it, might as well be confident.

Suddenly, the people around the two snapped a salute before a clear voice rang out above the crowd.

“Attention! Lieutenant Stiff and Lieutenant Short Stuff on deck!”

There was a pause and Hadron looked around with confusion. All the faces were dead serious, until his eyes locked on the one of the people standing in the ring. It was a friend of his, and one of his squad members, another human named Helios. When their eyes met, Helios’s mouth twitched. Hadron narrowed his eyes at him, and it became too much for the young man. His façade cracked, and he burst out laughing. Soon the entire group was laughing and coming forward to shake hands with the two new officers as well as push drinks into their hands.

The next few hours passed in a blur of music and drinking. Usually, Alyra didn’t drink much except on rare occasions, and she deemed that tonight was one of those nights. The drinks flowed easily, and she gradually relaxed from the day’s roller-coaster of emotions. As he danced and sang to the music, the magic responded to her emotions in subtle ways around her, unconsciously manipulating the air. Hadron, who had almost been swept away by the crowd, felt the power in air swell as Aylra, very drunk, started dancing and shouting along to one of her favorite songs. The others around her seemed to feel it to, but their alcohol addled brains didn’t find anything strange as they tried to match her intensity.

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This side of Alyra wasn’t one she showed to other often, and it made Hadron realize exactly how stressed his friend had been. He joined her on the dance floor then, and his magic meshed with hers in the same unconscious manner. The air seemed to heat up as the dancers increased their pace. The raw energy seemed to vibrate in the room, and a wild grin split Hadron’s face. He was lost in the moment, everything a blur yet crystal clear, each moment an eternity and instant.

When the song ended, the energy that had lifted the dancers faded away, the air shook with a wordless cheer. Another song started, but Hadron had to sneak away from the group, suddenly exhausted.

As the night wore on into the late hours, Hadron went looking for Alyra and found her sitting in a chair with a female Drasee in her lap, one arm around the unknown Drasee’s shoulders and the other tracing circles on her thigh while they spoke in low tones. He almost turned on his heel so he wouldn’t interrupt them, but he knew that Alyra would be madder at him if they missed their meeting with the Major than if he cockblocked her now. She had told him to get her after a while anyway, and he was just sober enough to think rationally. Sighing, he approached the two.

Alyra didn’t notice Hadron until he was standing in front of her and calling her name over the music. She turned and glared at him, her ruby eyes smoldering with annoyance and alcohol. I didn’t realize she was so drunk, probably a good thing I’m stopping her from doing something she would regret, Hadron thought wryly. The scales on the side of her neck were fully furled and her cheeks were flushed with heat. Hadron didn’t think that he had ever seen Alyra this intoxicated.

“I’m kinda busy here, Hadron,” Alyra growled at him. The girl on her lap giggled and leaned into Alyra while flicking her gaze to Hadron, looking him over. A slight frown crossed her face, and Hadron had to hide a smirk. Don’t worry, girl. I’m not competition, he thought. It wasn’t that he didn’t find Alyra attractive, but it was more like they were family at this point. They had been nearly inseparable since they started training, and he had long ago sorted out his feelings for her. Neither of them wanted a romantic relationship because they thought it would be too complicated. Plus, Alyra isn’t interested in men, he thought.

“Come on, Alyra, you told me to come get you before it got too late. You know we have that meeting in the morning and I really don’t want to be the only one that shows up on time. Alyra’s glare continued for another few seconds before she sighed and looked that girl in her lap.

“Maybe some other time then,” Alyra said, running her fingers down the other girl’s face, who pouted, but detangled herself from the newly minted Lieutenant and stood. Alyra stood up easily, winked and smiled at the frowning girl, and walked off with Hadron.

“You weren’t that interested in her, were you?” Hadron asked Alyra as they weaved through people to get to the exit.

“Nah, not really. She was pretty though,” Alyra said, sighing.

Hadron laughed and patted Alyra on the back. “Don’t worry, we are going to have so much fun tomorrow at that brief. I mean, let’s be real with each other, what’s more fun? Stacks of paperwork, or a pretty girl?”

“You aren’t making a very good argument,” Alyra groaned, but a smile twitched at the edge of her lips.

The pair continued chatting for a while as they made their way out of the packed room but were stopped not far from the entrance when someone they both recognized shouted at them.

“Look, it’s second place and her lapdog,” Terra sneered at them, his bulky form blocking their path. Terra and the two people behind him were human and Shadron’s followers; offsiders that like to think that they have power because they are friends with the child of nobility.

“Remind me again, what place did you get? Oh, that’s right, you weren’t ranked, my bad,” Alyra shot back, stepping forward and getting into his personal space. Since she was taller than him, he had to crane his neck to sneer up at her. Alyra felt more than saw Hadron move to her side as he stared down the other two lackies.

“Back off, second place,” Terra snarled, “We don’t want things to get ugly.”

“I don’t think things can get any uglier than you already are,” Alyra snapped back, “It might just break some mirrors.”

Color suffused his face, and with a growl, Terra swung a fist at her. Alyra smirked, and countered easily, punching him square in the nose, breaking it. Blood poured out of it. He cursed but didn’t fall and launched a kick at Alyra. She jumped over the kick in an incredible display of athleticism and delivered punishing knee to his gut. He gasped, staggering to one knee while Alyra landed gracefully on the balls of her feet. The lackey to the left of him leaped forward, attempting to grab her. Instead of leaping away like he thought she would, she instead charged a shoulder into his chest, and his breath left him in a great whoosh. Alyra was grinning savagely, baring her fangs in grim delight. The magic that had flowed through her the entire night made her body feel like and strong, like a gale weaving its way through plains.

A savage high kick to the side of his leg causing the outsider to scream out in pain and fall to the ground clutching at his leg. At this point, Terra had staggered back to his feet. Alyra risked a glance at Hadron, who was playing with the other lackey; dancing around the man like it was a game of incredibly violent tag.

Alyra turned back to Terra who had taken a fighting stance. Alyra smirked and bounced on the ball of her feet, shadow boxing as she stared down Terra. He had murder in his eyes but didn’t rush blindly forward. Alyra saw his legs tense to attack, but a voice rang out, stopping the man in his tracks.

“Enough!” A familiar voice shouted above the thumping music. Alyra hadn’t noticed at first, but the DJ had changed the song to one the fit the fighting mood, one with a fast beat and a lot of guitar and heavy drums. Alyra’s heart seemed to beat in time with it. She itched to keep fighting and satisfy the adrenaline in her veins but managed to get herself under control enough to see who was speaking.

Shadron stood between two other people with their hands on their hips. They were glaring at Terra and his two battered friends, then switched their gaze to Alyra and Hadron who were barely breathing hard.

“Terra, what did you do?” Shadron demanded.

Terra seemed to shrink under the Drasee’s gaze but managed to speak past his swollen lips and bleeding nose.

“She started it! I was just reminding her of her place!” he said, and Shadron’s gaze sharped.

Alyra laughed before Shadron replied.

“You wanted to rub in my face that I didn’t beat your perfect ‘Commander’ and you know it. It doesn’t matter to me, not anymore,” Alyra was on a roll and all of the people around the fight were silently watching. A few recorded using hand widgets, “Well, Commander, hope you can keep a better leash on your pets while you patrol some empty backwater. I’m actually going to do something with my life; something that is actually going to benefit the Republic.”

Shadron’s face colored, but Alyra couldn’t see it. She was out the door.