Page 21 of The Fall

“Take care of your sister.” Cat smirked. “She needs it.”

“Finally letting their precious girls out of their sight.” Pinga commented once they were in the air.

Lusa cocked an eyebrow, but didn’t look up from the tablet with the info Siku had given her. “Hardly. Tornit, Alana and half a dozen guns are on the other transport. And we’ve been to plenty of trading camps.”

“Yeah, but not to Tyton. Not since…” Pinga curled her metal fingers.

Lusa set the tablet aside. She clearly wasn’t going to get anything else done. “We were only banned for a couple of years. There just hasn’t been a reason to go back.”

Pinga snorted derisively. “Or they’re afraid we’ll get tempted by someone’s cyber-dick and ruin all their hard work. Pinga thrust her hips salaciously.

Lusa raised the other eyebrow. It was oddly comforting to know that she wasn’t the only one who felt diminished by the importance of her fertility. Her and Pinga hadn’t connected over much lately.

Rationally, she had no claim on who Pinga found attractive, but it hurt that she’d found common ground with other girls when the conversation turned to boys, as it did more and more frequently. And while it wasn’t the only thing that marked her as different, Lusa still felt abandoned. It didn’t matter that there were no men to be had.

“You can have my uterus if you fuck yours up. I won’t be using it.” A snide jest was all the emotion Lusa could bear to show. Solidarity from behind her walls.

Pinga grinned as if Lusa had given her the greatest compliment. “If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have made that trader boy wear a condom.”

Lusa’s eyes exploded. “Do moms know?” she whispered. “Are you running away?”

“Nah,” Pinga leaned back, making no effort to keep her voice down. “He was pretty, but the sex was… abrupt.”

Lusa froze, mind racing to calculate what combination of facial muscles would make her stop talking right now.

Pinga took it as an invitation to continue. “I told Auntie Sparx and she said that’s about what I should expect, so I don’t think I could ever give up sex with women.”

Recovering from the initial shock, Lusa realised she would need to use her words, but Pinga kept going before she could form them.

“Like, looking at them is just…” Pinga swooned. “And having something inside you is amazing, but you’re barely there and it’s over and I’m just getting warmed up at that point, and I can’t really say I’m a fan of the hair on the face, but…”

“Pinga oh my god, stop.” Lusa finally managed to blurt out.

“What?” Pinga looked genuinely confused.

“You’re my sister. I don’t need to picture you naked with some man.”

Pinga did not appear to be offended in the least. Nor did she appear to understand Lusa’s objections. “I’ve seen you naked. Lots. Not with a man, though. You’re not into that.”

Lusa wondered whether Pinga had ever had a single thought she hadn’t verbalised.

“The girls are really into you though.”

“Wait what?” Lusa suddenly became a lot more interested in this conversation. “Back up, you’ve seen me with who exactly?”

“Everyone knows what happens at the training run, Lu,” Pinga said with the sort of tone you might use to explain something to a toddler. “And I’ve been asked to tell you to wear tank tops more often. They’re afraid to tell you themselves, because, well, you’re you, but they think you’re hot. In like, a scary, mysterious sort of way.” Pinga waggled her fingers.

“Who told you that?” Lusa squeaked, uncomfortable at how high her voice had gone.

“Everyone!” Pinga spread her hands as wide as her grin. “You’re the catch that everyone wants to pin down. How do you not know this?”

Lusa wrapped her arms around her chest, as if that would hide them. “I can’t. You know they don’t really want me.” It was easier to say that than the real reason. Lusa’s heart would shatter the instant they saw her lose control and she hated being that weak.

Even Pinga could tell from her body language that the conversation was over. “That was years ago,” she whispered as a half-apology, but Lusa didn’t respond.

Let Every Eye Negotiate For Itself

The Koffi shop was nicer than almost anywhere Kerr had ever been. Relatively clean, patched and maintained furniture and the friendly banter across the food service counter made you forget the collapse of civilisation happening just outside.