The Sky Full of Ghosts 12/? "Mail order omega in space" AU
Jamie is pretty sure Jordie would never be so shaken from a job gone wrong that he’d need Tyler to take the ship from him and make him stop working, but he’s grateful that Tyler is here. That Tyler is strong enough, trusts Jamie enough, to make him rest when he feels too tender to make a plan and follow through.
Jamie follows Tyler up to the cockpit but doesn’t have any input on their temporary perch. Anywhere the Feds won’t immediately see them if they come into the area. A ship whose color is a close match for the Star. Tyler puts them down near a crack in the hull, leaving the option open for the next expedition.
And then they go back to their room, back to the captain’s quarters. Tyler brings his strawberry plant-it’s going to need some UV soon, but it hasn’t turned colors or anything yet and Jamie would rather buy another than deny Tyler whatever its presence is providing.
Tyler puts the plant on top of one of the storage cabinets and then climbs into the bed. Jamie follows him, wraps Tyler in his arms and breathes in his scent. He feels better. More centered already, like Tyler’s touch and warmth and scent are chasing the fog from his head.
“We got really fucking lucky today,” he murmurs against Tyler’s neck, and Tyler’s hands clench against Jamie’s shoulders.
They’re only a couple hours into their work-shift, but they spend a long time wrapped there together, Tyler holding onto him while Hilary and Roussel take watch.
They get up later and all eat together in the kitchen. Tyler and Jamie head up to watch a vid in the cockpit while the other two sleep. They’ve been sixteen hours awake then, but it still isn’t easy to fall asleep.
============
It isn’t until they’re docked on Ligos again, cargo hold full of the red-ship treasures and the other ship’s junk, the vids Jamie took loaded and ready to play, their little kitchen turned into a meeting place and Jagr and his omega on the ship heading towards them that Tyler realizes this is the first time he’ll be face-to-face with someone who has expectations for what a bonded omega should act like. He hears their boots, coming down the ship’s passageways. He should have asked earlier, what to do to not embarrass Jamie, if it’s okay if it comes up that he pilots sometimes, if he should be decorative or helpful.
He looks to Jamie to tell him how to act, but Jamie is staring grim-faced at the door.
Jagr is the first in, a big man, broad shoulders, steely strands in his hair and his beard, a too-white smile. He looks like a werewolf from one of Tyler’s vids, sharp and dangerous. Tyler stands a half-step behind Jamie and is suddenly glad of it, the bulk of Jamie’s body between them.
Beau is next, Jagr’s omega. Tyler is surprised for just a second, that he’s fully as tall as Tyler, maybe bigger, but of course Tyler isn’t the only unfashionably large omega to end up on the fringe. He’s dressed in softer fabrics than Jagr, softer lines. He moves with a sureness and confidence that Tyler knows he’d never see on an omega in the core. Head-up, eyes bright and curious, brash as any beta. Ten years younger than Jagr at least. A deep scar mars his handsome face, but he doesn’t turn to hide it.
Tyler shifts his body language to match, squaring up his shoulders, not trying so hard to minimize his physical presence.
“Thanks for coming here to meet us,” Jamie says, offering Jagr his hand. “We thought it best if you saw the vids here, and then you can look through the inventory and choose what you want to make an offer on.”
Jagr makes some business small-talk with Jamie. Beau. Beau looks Tyler over, so intently he can almost feel the weight of his gaze as Beau’s eyes trace Tyler’s face and down his neck, taking in the worn t-shirt and loose pants Tyler wears on the ship. Down to Tyler’s fidgeting fingers and then back up. He smiles, warm and inviting, like he is pleased by what he sees.
Jamie messes with the vid, and Jagr sits at the table. Tyler can read the tension in Jamie’s shoulders as he anticipates what will come up on the screen. Tyler doesn’t know if reaching to comfort him will make Jamie look weak to need it or strong to have an omega who can see and give him the support he needs.
“Jaromir,” Beau says, and Jagr turns to him, an expression of naked adoration on his face, his smile going warm instead of predatory.
“Do you two need Tyler and I for all of this?” Beau asks, and Jagr shakes his head. Tyler feels a wave of disquiet, knows he’s being neatly separated from Jamie, that without a damn good reason it will be an insult to stay.
Jamie meets his eye, jaw set and Tyler has no doubt that insult or no, Jamie would forbid it if Tyler wasn’t willing to go.
Tyler takes a breath. He is bonded, his scent settled and tested on their shopping trip on Austin station. He can’t think of a danger in going with Beau. He can’t figure out what’s in it for Beau either.
Beau smiles hopefully. “I’ll show you around,” he promises. “Come on. It’ll be more fun than watching these two haggle over prices.”
Tyler hesitates. Jamie gives him a shrug and then nods him towards the doorway.
“Okay.” Tyler breathes out, nervous at the idea of being on the station where there had been so much unrest without Jamie at his side.
“Rouss or Hils should be at the airlock,” Jamie says. “Have one of them lock up and go with you, just in case.”
Beau beams at him. Tyler’s first step is reluctant, but then he lets himself go, following Beau’s quick steps back out of the ship.
“We’re going out,” Tyler calls to Roussel as Beau leads them back out through the cargo bay. “Jamie says to lock it and come with us.” Beau doesn’t seem likely to slow down at all and Tyler is caught between scurrying to keep up and dawdling to keep Roussel from getting left behind.
They get outside the ship and two of Jagr’s betas are there. They don’t seem surprised to see Beau leaving the party early, and one of them pushes off from where she was leaning and joins Roussel trailing them, talking to him too low for Tyler to hear.
“Did you really find something out there worth all that secrecy and drama?” Beau asks, and Tyler nods.
“We think so, yeah. Jamie’s been doing this a while and hasn’t seen anything like it.”
Beau nods, seems suddenly so much more mature and serious than he had in the ship. “Jaromir will have to show me later then. We wanted a chance to talk to you alone. Make sure everything went well.”
A flicker-frown creases Tyler’s forehead. “What?”
Beau shrugs. “With Jamie. With the bonding. We tried to talk to you before the bond, but the situation was too volatile. It could have gotten dangerous for you if we’d interfered.”
“Oh.” Tyler rolls the idea around in his head, that strangers thought of him, worried about him.
They walk a little, out of the loading dock area and towards the retail corridors.
“Are you content in your match?” Beau asks, softer and worried. It would be a big deal to break a bond, but it could be done.
Tyler can’t help the smile that curls his lips. “He is very kind and very gentle,” he says. Thinks of Jordie and feels a pang. “He’s not who I came for, but. I am fond of him. He has made every effort I could imagine to ensure my comfort.” The words feel stilted, formal. Like the coms he used to send to prospective Alphas.
Beau hums like he isn’t sure he believes. Tyler figures he doesn’t have to.
They walk in silence for a while, the bustle of the station swirling around them. Roussel and the other beta follow at a respectful distance, keeping them in sight but giving them room to talk.
A gleaner approaches them, face turned down and away, hands raised to display a bracelet of twisted and braided wire in their palm.
“How much?” Beau asks, but Tyler already has his cred stick out, keying in the amount as the gleaner mumbles the price. He can already imagine the dark curve of it around Jamie’s wrist. It reminds him of the vines of the red ship, but ordered into sequence that the human brain can recognize as pattern.
Beau snorts as they walk away, Tyler with his treasure. “You could have got it for half that.”
Tyler shrugs. He’ll be frugal with things that are a bigger hit to his savings. Half of what he paid for the bracelet would barely be a meal at the place with the good falafel.
“There are things you’ll need out here,” Beau says, like the gleaner’s interruption has given him permission to switch subjects. “Ligos has a doctor that is certified for practicing with omegas. Most of us that end up here aren’t fertile, but…” he glances at Tyler sidelong.
Tyler turns to a market stall that’s selling clothing, reaches for the first thing at hand but he doesn’t really see it. He feels the moment where he could lie slipping past. It would be the simplest reason, the most blameless of reasons, for an omega to have fallen so far in desirability that his best prospects were here.
“But you are,” Beau says.
Tyler swallows. His throat seems dry all of a sudden.
“Jordie didn’t ask for certification of fertility. I haven’t been tested, but I assume…”
Beau lets the silence stretch for a beat. “Well, you’ll need birth control just in case. She can arrange it, for a price. It has to come from the core, so don’t wait until you’re out.”
Tyler nods, so fucking grateful that Beau has moved on without prying.
“I’ll get you her com-code then,” Beau promises.
Tyler sets the goods he was distracting himself with back on the shelf. Beau leads them to a shop that sells coffee and sweets and orders them some of both to drink and eat while they walk.
Beau switches subjects again, telling Tyler about the tailor on hall-eight who would be a good place for Tyler to get something more formal to wear, something pretty. There’s a music shop on hall-four that gets coms of new music from the core and sells copies for a fair price; the shop next to it has peaches and apples from the colony planet below.
Tyler admits to his little strawberry plant and Beau tells a story of a ship with ivy in it that went wild in the ducts and suffocated them in space. Tyler isn’t sure if it’s a story or a truth, but he makes a mental note to ask the produce seller the next time he goes if such a thing can really happen.
“They’re probably done with the boring part,” Beau says, and Tyler has enough spacial sense to know they’ve been heading back for a while.
Jagr and Jamie are on the step leading up to the airlock door when they get back. Both of them seem pleased, and Tyler guesses that means it went well.
“Good walk?” Jagr asks, and Beau goes to him, close enough for Jagr to scent him, to confirm that he is well.
Tyler heads for Jamie, suddenly feeling more tired than he should. Jamie’s smile dims a little at Tyler’s subdued demeanor, seems to accept it when Tyler gives him a half-smile and shrug of his shoulders. “Tell you later,” Tyler murmurs as Jamie wraps an arm around him, as they lean in against each other for a brief moment.”
Jagr says his goodbyes then, promising his people would be by to pick up the goods in a few hours, and that he would com Jamie on the other thing as soon as he knew anything.
And then it is later and Jamie will want to know why a walk with an omega has Tyler stressed out and he’s not ready for it. He likes Jamie too much now to risk losing his regard. Respects him too much to dance around the truth.
“So how did it go? Is he taking the lot? Did he make a good offer?” Tyler asks instead.
The curiosity on Jamie’s face changes to excitement, anticipation. “Let’s get Rouss and Hils in here. I want to tell you all at the same time.”
Jamie follows Tyler up to the cockpit but doesn’t have any input on their temporary perch. Anywhere the Feds won’t immediately see them if they come into the area. A ship whose color is a close match for the Star. Tyler puts them down near a crack in the hull, leaving the option open for the next expedition.
And then they go back to their room, back to the captain’s quarters. Tyler brings his strawberry plant-it’s going to need some UV soon, but it hasn’t turned colors or anything yet and Jamie would rather buy another than deny Tyler whatever its presence is providing.
Tyler puts the plant on top of one of the storage cabinets and then climbs into the bed. Jamie follows him, wraps Tyler in his arms and breathes in his scent. He feels better. More centered already, like Tyler’s touch and warmth and scent are chasing the fog from his head.
“We got really fucking lucky today,” he murmurs against Tyler’s neck, and Tyler’s hands clench against Jamie’s shoulders.
They’re only a couple hours into their work-shift, but they spend a long time wrapped there together, Tyler holding onto him while Hilary and Roussel take watch.
They get up later and all eat together in the kitchen. Tyler and Jamie head up to watch a vid in the cockpit while the other two sleep. They’ve been sixteen hours awake then, but it still isn’t easy to fall asleep.
============
It isn’t until they’re docked on Ligos again, cargo hold full of the red-ship treasures and the other ship’s junk, the vids Jamie took loaded and ready to play, their little kitchen turned into a meeting place and Jagr and his omega on the ship heading towards them that Tyler realizes this is the first time he’ll be face-to-face with someone who has expectations for what a bonded omega should act like. He hears their boots, coming down the ship’s passageways. He should have asked earlier, what to do to not embarrass Jamie, if it’s okay if it comes up that he pilots sometimes, if he should be decorative or helpful.
He looks to Jamie to tell him how to act, but Jamie is staring grim-faced at the door.
Jagr is the first in, a big man, broad shoulders, steely strands in his hair and his beard, a too-white smile. He looks like a werewolf from one of Tyler’s vids, sharp and dangerous. Tyler stands a half-step behind Jamie and is suddenly glad of it, the bulk of Jamie’s body between them.
Beau is next, Jagr’s omega. Tyler is surprised for just a second, that he’s fully as tall as Tyler, maybe bigger, but of course Tyler isn’t the only unfashionably large omega to end up on the fringe. He’s dressed in softer fabrics than Jagr, softer lines. He moves with a sureness and confidence that Tyler knows he’d never see on an omega in the core. Head-up, eyes bright and curious, brash as any beta. Ten years younger than Jagr at least. A deep scar mars his handsome face, but he doesn’t turn to hide it.
Tyler shifts his body language to match, squaring up his shoulders, not trying so hard to minimize his physical presence.
“Thanks for coming here to meet us,” Jamie says, offering Jagr his hand. “We thought it best if you saw the vids here, and then you can look through the inventory and choose what you want to make an offer on.”
Jagr makes some business small-talk with Jamie. Beau. Beau looks Tyler over, so intently he can almost feel the weight of his gaze as Beau’s eyes trace Tyler’s face and down his neck, taking in the worn t-shirt and loose pants Tyler wears on the ship. Down to Tyler’s fidgeting fingers and then back up. He smiles, warm and inviting, like he is pleased by what he sees.
Jamie messes with the vid, and Jagr sits at the table. Tyler can read the tension in Jamie’s shoulders as he anticipates what will come up on the screen. Tyler doesn’t know if reaching to comfort him will make Jamie look weak to need it or strong to have an omega who can see and give him the support he needs.
“Jaromir,” Beau says, and Jagr turns to him, an expression of naked adoration on his face, his smile going warm instead of predatory.
“Do you two need Tyler and I for all of this?” Beau asks, and Jagr shakes his head. Tyler feels a wave of disquiet, knows he’s being neatly separated from Jamie, that without a damn good reason it will be an insult to stay.
Jamie meets his eye, jaw set and Tyler has no doubt that insult or no, Jamie would forbid it if Tyler wasn’t willing to go.
Tyler takes a breath. He is bonded, his scent settled and tested on their shopping trip on Austin station. He can’t think of a danger in going with Beau. He can’t figure out what’s in it for Beau either.
Beau smiles hopefully. “I’ll show you around,” he promises. “Come on. It’ll be more fun than watching these two haggle over prices.”
Tyler hesitates. Jamie gives him a shrug and then nods him towards the doorway.
“Okay.” Tyler breathes out, nervous at the idea of being on the station where there had been so much unrest without Jamie at his side.
“Rouss or Hils should be at the airlock,” Jamie says. “Have one of them lock up and go with you, just in case.”
Beau beams at him. Tyler’s first step is reluctant, but then he lets himself go, following Beau’s quick steps back out of the ship.
“We’re going out,” Tyler calls to Roussel as Beau leads them back out through the cargo bay. “Jamie says to lock it and come with us.” Beau doesn’t seem likely to slow down at all and Tyler is caught between scurrying to keep up and dawdling to keep Roussel from getting left behind.
They get outside the ship and two of Jagr’s betas are there. They don’t seem surprised to see Beau leaving the party early, and one of them pushes off from where she was leaning and joins Roussel trailing them, talking to him too low for Tyler to hear.
“Did you really find something out there worth all that secrecy and drama?” Beau asks, and Tyler nods.
“We think so, yeah. Jamie’s been doing this a while and hasn’t seen anything like it.”
Beau nods, seems suddenly so much more mature and serious than he had in the ship. “Jaromir will have to show me later then. We wanted a chance to talk to you alone. Make sure everything went well.”
A flicker-frown creases Tyler’s forehead. “What?”
Beau shrugs. “With Jamie. With the bonding. We tried to talk to you before the bond, but the situation was too volatile. It could have gotten dangerous for you if we’d interfered.”
“Oh.” Tyler rolls the idea around in his head, that strangers thought of him, worried about him.
They walk a little, out of the loading dock area and towards the retail corridors.
“Are you content in your match?” Beau asks, softer and worried. It would be a big deal to break a bond, but it could be done.
Tyler can’t help the smile that curls his lips. “He is very kind and very gentle,” he says. Thinks of Jordie and feels a pang. “He’s not who I came for, but. I am fond of him. He has made every effort I could imagine to ensure my comfort.” The words feel stilted, formal. Like the coms he used to send to prospective Alphas.
Beau hums like he isn’t sure he believes. Tyler figures he doesn’t have to.
They walk in silence for a while, the bustle of the station swirling around them. Roussel and the other beta follow at a respectful distance, keeping them in sight but giving them room to talk.
A gleaner approaches them, face turned down and away, hands raised to display a bracelet of twisted and braided wire in their palm.
“How much?” Beau asks, but Tyler already has his cred stick out, keying in the amount as the gleaner mumbles the price. He can already imagine the dark curve of it around Jamie’s wrist. It reminds him of the vines of the red ship, but ordered into sequence that the human brain can recognize as pattern.
Beau snorts as they walk away, Tyler with his treasure. “You could have got it for half that.”
Tyler shrugs. He’ll be frugal with things that are a bigger hit to his savings. Half of what he paid for the bracelet would barely be a meal at the place with the good falafel.
“There are things you’ll need out here,” Beau says, like the gleaner’s interruption has given him permission to switch subjects. “Ligos has a doctor that is certified for practicing with omegas. Most of us that end up here aren’t fertile, but…” he glances at Tyler sidelong.
Tyler turns to a market stall that’s selling clothing, reaches for the first thing at hand but he doesn’t really see it. He feels the moment where he could lie slipping past. It would be the simplest reason, the most blameless of reasons, for an omega to have fallen so far in desirability that his best prospects were here.
“But you are,” Beau says.
Tyler swallows. His throat seems dry all of a sudden.
“Jordie didn’t ask for certification of fertility. I haven’t been tested, but I assume…”
Beau lets the silence stretch for a beat. “Well, you’ll need birth control just in case. She can arrange it, for a price. It has to come from the core, so don’t wait until you’re out.”
Tyler nods, so fucking grateful that Beau has moved on without prying.
“I’ll get you her com-code then,” Beau promises.
Tyler sets the goods he was distracting himself with back on the shelf. Beau leads them to a shop that sells coffee and sweets and orders them some of both to drink and eat while they walk.
Beau switches subjects again, telling Tyler about the tailor on hall-eight who would be a good place for Tyler to get something more formal to wear, something pretty. There’s a music shop on hall-four that gets coms of new music from the core and sells copies for a fair price; the shop next to it has peaches and apples from the colony planet below.
Tyler admits to his little strawberry plant and Beau tells a story of a ship with ivy in it that went wild in the ducts and suffocated them in space. Tyler isn’t sure if it’s a story or a truth, but he makes a mental note to ask the produce seller the next time he goes if such a thing can really happen.
“They’re probably done with the boring part,” Beau says, and Tyler has enough spacial sense to know they’ve been heading back for a while.
Jagr and Jamie are on the step leading up to the airlock door when they get back. Both of them seem pleased, and Tyler guesses that means it went well.
“Good walk?” Jagr asks, and Beau goes to him, close enough for Jagr to scent him, to confirm that he is well.
Tyler heads for Jamie, suddenly feeling more tired than he should. Jamie’s smile dims a little at Tyler’s subdued demeanor, seems to accept it when Tyler gives him a half-smile and shrug of his shoulders. “Tell you later,” Tyler murmurs as Jamie wraps an arm around him, as they lean in against each other for a brief moment.”
Jagr says his goodbyes then, promising his people would be by to pick up the goods in a few hours, and that he would com Jamie on the other thing as soon as he knew anything.
And then it is later and Jamie will want to know why a walk with an omega has Tyler stressed out and he’s not ready for it. He likes Jamie too much now to risk losing his regard. Respects him too much to dance around the truth.
“So how did it go? Is he taking the lot? Did he make a good offer?” Tyler asks instead.
The curiosity on Jamie’s face changes to excitement, anticipation. “Let’s get Rouss and Hils in here. I want to tell you all at the same time.”