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Damn it, pushing Sazahk away felt even worse. Garin glanced at him over his shoulder. “So, you have a plan, don’t you? For how to clean up the Dead Zone?”
“I have ideas for a plan. I want to get them to Dominic as soon as possible. He has much more experience with putting scientific theory into practice.” Sazahk scrunched their sleeping bag into a ball and shoved it into the top of his pack.
“I’m sure Dom is as eager to get his hands on this data as you are to show it to him.” Garin checked each pocket of his bag and each zipper of each pocket, then hooked the straps over his shoulders. Despite their dwindling food reserves and Garin’s lost supplies, the extra gallons of water and the obscene number of samples Sazahk had collected still made his pack heavier than when they’d set out from the compound. He bit his lip as he watched Sazahk mess with his things and ignore Garin in a way that felt more pointed than before. “It’s a long journey back though and it’ll only take me a few minutes to re-braid your hair. It’ll keep it out of your face.”
“I don’t want you to braid my hair.”
“I don’t have to braid it,” Garin assured him, wracking his brain for different techniques Beaty had requested. “I’m sure I can remember some other styles.”
“I’m not interested in other styles either.” Sazahk cinched his bag shut, and stood, fully packed and ready to go.
“But I can still brush it and get it out of your face.” Garin stepped a little closer and ran his eyes up and down the tangled mass.
Purple and gray snaked up Sazahk’s jaw. “I said no.”
“It won’t?—”
“I don’t want you to touch my hair, Garin.” Blue exploded from Sazahk’s temples and Garin recoiled.
Shit.
Gray, then black, then purple and blue again raged across Sazahk’s cheeks. He ground his teeth, then gritted out through his clenched jaw. “Which way to the exit?”
Garin pointed wordlessly to the eastern tunnel, and Sazahk turned on his heel and stormed into it.
Shit. Sazahk didn’t like when Garin touched his hair. Shit, shit, shit.
He followed the fuming qesh. Fauna A scampered after them, somehow oblivious to the waves of negative energy rolling off Sazahk’s frame.
Garin had put his hands all over Sazahk’s hair when they’d fucked. He’d pulled it and tangled it, and Sazahk didn’t like Garin touching his hair! Garin should have guessed. Sazahk had told him not to touch his neck, but he hadn’t realized that was about his hair. He hadn’t realized, and he hadn’t asked. He’d just helped himself right to Sazahk’s locks. No wonder Sazahk had pulled away when Garin tried to kiss him.
How did Garin keep getting everything so wrong?
Except… Sazahk had been the one to put Garin’s hand on his face. Garin ran over the memory in his head again and again as they trudged through the tunnel. The glow of the mycelium faded as they left the disruptor rod behind, only flaring up where they stepped on it or brushed up against it. Garin definitely didn’t remember their coupling wrong. Sazahk had been the one to initiate touch.
But he’d done it for Garin. He’d probably been gritting his teeth and bearing it the whole time. Of course, he didn’t want Garin’s hands on him now, and no wonder he was frustrated with Garin for pushing him. Garin should have realized how far past Sazahk’s boundaries he’d catapulted when they’d been together. He prided himself on being an attentive and conscientious lover. He hated that he’d been greedy and inconsiderate.
“I’m sorry for pulling your hair during sex,” Garin blurted as they walked down a broad tunnel, only a few of the more daring Fauna A still lumbering along beside them.
Sazahk sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Don’t apologize for things for which you bear no fault.”
“But it is my fault that I pulled your hair.” Garin pulled out two headlamps as they left the ambient glow of the mycelium behind and passed one to Sazahk.
“Yes but pulling my hair during intercourse is not a wrong and thus requires no apology.” Sazahk took the headlamp but fitted it and kept walking instead of stopping to engage in the conversation.
“It is a wrong if you didn’t like it.” Garin increased his pace to keep up.
“I did like it.”
Garin’s foot snagged on a rock, and he stumbled. Wait, what?
“Which way?” Sazahk stopped at a fork in their path and Garin caught up and looked at his tablet, despite his brain’s unwillingness to focus on it.
“That way.” He pointed left and Sazahk strode on while Garin scrambled to put his tablet back in his pocket. “So, you’re saying you did like it when I pulled your hair during sex?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“Oh.” Well, that was a relief. “Did I do something else you didn’t like?”
