Centaurian Ch. 03

"We are in no hurry to get to Europe," said Liam, "but we do need to go there. May we ride with you? We can pay you whatever you ask."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have three rooms?" asked Paul. "Ours only have double beds."

Ronan asked Liam, "Would you rather have a room to yourself?"

"If it's no problem," Liam said to Paul, "Ronan and I will stay together in one room."

Paul laughed a little. "We don't mind."

He gave them a quote, and they accepted the price of the trip, and the captain welcomed them aboard.

William had an instant crush on Emma, and Dolos—disguised as Emma—thought William Grosz was dreamy, too dreamy just to walk away from, so Emma accompanied Ronan and Liam to Genoa because why not? Apparently, William usually experienced a great deal of boredom for eight of the nine days across the Atlantic, and on this occasion, he hoped to spend a lot of that time with Emma, and she intended to keep him exceedingly busy.

The hull and the superstructure made up the two basic parts of most container ships. The hull housed the ballast, the tanks for usable freshwater, fuel, lubricant, various storage locations, the engine room, tool room, and other items of utility necessary for the ship. The deck lay on the top of the hull, where the crew stacked and stored most of the cargo containers. The superstructure contained the bridge where navigation took place, the crew and guest quarters, the sickbay, the kitchen, the dining room, meeting rooms, a gym, a seawater pool, and as they stayed on a German ship, it also had a dry sauna.

From their single square porthole, Ronan and Liam could see that their cabin held a double bed. It had lots of storage, a small refrigerator, and a utilitarian bathroom with a sink, commode, and a shower that didn't require a curtain. They lay back on the bed, their feet still on the floor, and stared at the ceiling for a moment.

"Did you really mean what you said in the locker room earlier about not considering yourself available?" asked Liam.

"Yes," he said. "Humans can't know other humans without experience because you can't see one another as you truly are. I heard everything you said to me yesterday, but today, I can see into your heart. You are beautiful, and I could be happy with you. But I know we have some drastic differences. You have a fear of me, but I can't tell what it's about. Will you tell me?"

"I have a few things. There's the whole 'you could become a god' aspect of who you are. How will that affect you? And another, if I'm lucky enough to live that long, I will grow old, and one day, I will die. It seems strange that we can't grow old together, and I would not want to burden you. I guess my fear is that one day you wouldn't find me so beautiful anymore and you would leave."

"I understand," said Ronan.

"However, I know that, at the moment, neither of those things are a problem."

"Okay, good. I'm not prescient, so I don't know what the future holds, but neither do you. All we have is right now. Should we worry about things that haven't happened as if we could know? Will we deny ourselves some happiness today because of what might happen decades from now?"

Liam rolled over and brought his face to Ronan's. "May I kiss you?" he asked.

"Please do."

A first kiss is a special and magical thing. It's thoughts and desires and hopes, all wrapped up and expressed in a passion that inflames the senses and disregards the fears. From the point of that kiss, Liam couldn't care what the future held, he wanted Ronan just as he was, however that was, then and in the future. And if Ronan wanted him, he was his, willingly ensnared and not looking back.