Between Friends
Part 12

        Eagle smiled, kissing Lantis softly on the cheek before opening the 
front door of his parents' home and going inside.  "I had a wonderful time 
camping," he said.  "I'll see you tomorrow at school?"
        Lantis nodded.  "Tomorrow," he said.
        "Well, later then!" Eagle said as the door slid shut.  He let his 
bag drop to the floor and sighed.  It *had* been such a wonderful weekend 
camping....
        Something soft bounced off the back of his head.
        "Hmm?" Eagle questioned as he turned around.  He stopped and 
blinked twice.
        "How's life?" his older sister asked him.

        Corona smiled as she dished out generous helping of the three 
flavors of ice cream into bowls for herself and her little brother.  "You 
still like chocolate, right?" she questioned, setting his before him on the 
table and taking her own seat opposite him.  She turned the chair around 
backwards before sitting in it.  "It's been a while."
        "Eleven months," Eagle agreed, the tip of his spoon resting on the 
smooth surface of the vanilla ice cream.  "So how was your expedition?"
        "Oh, it went great.  The professors think we've made some major 
discoveries about pre-industrial Autozamians."  Corona swallowed a spoonful 
of strawberry ice cream.  Sweet, after nearly a year of living in the 
middle of nowhere.  "But you'll probably hear enough about that when Mom 
and Dad get home," she continued.  "How's university life treating you?  
How are your classes?  Are you seeing anyone?"
        Eagle blushed as red as the strawberry ice cream at that last, and 
Corona knew that she had struck paydirt.  "Who is she?" she asked.  "Anyone 
I know?  Have Mom and Dad met her yet?  What's she like?"
        "Ummm..." Eagle hedged.
        "Tell!" Corona demanded, pointing her spoon at her brother.
        "It's not a 'she,' it's a 'he,'" Eagle said quietly.
        Corona carefully, quietly set her spoon down in her bowl.  "You're 
not kidding, are you, Eagle?" she asked softly, searching his light gold 
eyes.
        "No," Eagle mumbled.
        "Do Mom and Dad know?"
        "No."
        "Oh," Corona said, dumbfounded for a moment.  But that was making 
her brother even more ill at ease than he had been before, so she shook it 
off and smiled.  "One of *those* relationships, huh?" she teased.
        "Corona!" he cried.
        "Eat your ice cream," she told him, and pointedly waited until he 
picked up his spoon and actually tasted the frozen confection before she 
continued.  "So who is it?  Not Geo, surely!" she said, as the thought 
struck her.  Geo was nice and all, and he was certainly Eagle's best 
friend, but the idea of the two of them together just gave her hives.  It 
would be like her dating Eagle.  The relationship was just all wrong for 
that.
        "No!" Eagle defended himself.  "His name is Lantis, and you left 
before he showed up here."
        "'Lantis'..." Corona considered.  "Where's he from?  That's not an 
Autozamian name."
        "He's from Cephiro.  He arrived on Autozam about a month after you 
left.  He's a student at Accord University, like me."  Eagle was warming up 
to the subject once he saw that she wasn't going to shut him out because of 
it, Corona saw.
        She just hoped that their parents would give him the same courtesy.
        "So what's he like?" she asked, and listened absently to Eagle 
chatter on about his boyfriend, commenting where it was appropriate, really 
hoping that Eagle hadn't misplaced his trust in this Lantis.  She didn't 
want to have to live through a repetition of what had happened fourteen 
years ago.  She wouldn't be able to stand it.
        Not after all the nightmares she'd had about not being able to 
protect her brother.  Eagle might have buried the incident and forgotten 
it, but she hadn't.  If this Lantis did the same thing to Eagle's psyche 
that the last boy to put his hands on Eagle had, she'd...
        "Sis?"
        "Hmm?" Corona asked.
        "You were drifting," Eagle said.
        "Just glad that you're happy," she said, and completed her thought.
        ... she'd kill him.

        Corona sighed as she finished unpacking her gear, and looked around 
her room.  It seemed strange to be here again.  Even though she'd moved 
back in with her parents after the divorce, it had barely been two months 
between that and leaving for the archaeologic expedition she had just 
returned from.  She hadn't really lived in this room for years.  It had its 
modern conveniences, of course, such as showers with hot and cold water... 
and refrigerators... and no bugs, snakes, or spiders... and her brother's 
room just across the hall.
        She smiled.  That was probably the biggest reason she had come back 
at the end of the expedition instead of accompanying Professor Tercel onto 
the next site; she wanted to see her little brother.  Certainly her 
ex-husband hadn't been the reason she had come back to the city.
        She ran a hand through her dusty hair and smiled; she should get it 
cut neatly since she was back in the city.  Everyone here was always 
perfectly polished, and she'd stand out like a weed in the middle of a 
flower bed with her current ragged cut and lack of makeup.
        So Eagle was dating another guy, huh?  She sighed to herself.  
Maybe what had happened to him when he was little had formed his tastes in 
that direction, though she didn't think so.  Besides, he'd always seemed 
more likely to be bi than to limit his affections to one gender or 
another.  She supposed she really shouldn't be so surprised.  After all, 
he'd been pursued to death by all the girls in high school.  Her little bro 
was flatly gorgeous, and this "Lantis" had better damn well appreciate what 
he was getting.
        Corona considered if she wanted to arrange to meet him behind 
Eagle's back, just to check the guy out when he wasn't on best behavior to 
meet Eagle's sister.  After all, she hadn't resumed her maiden name, and he 
might not know that Eagle even had a sister.  Eagle could be damn reticient 
when he wanted to be, as exhibited by the fact that he was keeping this 
from their parents.
        Corona sighed to herself and got up, heading to take a shower and 
scrub all the layers of dirt out of her skin for the first time in nearly a 
year.  She barely remembered how it felt to be that clean.  And then she'd 
check up with Geo and get his insights on her little bro's first lover.