Hunter's family

[Aaron_Cianci]

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Sebastian was able to hold his focus now, and push his emotions aside. They were always under the surface, bubbling, ready to come back up, but he needed to focus. He wasn't just responsible for himself any more. The 16-year-old was now responsible for four other lives. That wasn't something he was going to take lightly. His brother wouldn't have taken it lightly. When Shadowwalker commented on the handshake, Sebastian gave him a genuine, boyish grin. "I know. I've read about your people in books. They're...really fascinating to me." Sebastian hoped his words wouldn't come off as insulting.

When Shadowwalker ordered Hannah to be taken to the hospital, Sebastian and Niklas both stepped forward. "Hey, wait a second!" Niklas complained.

"Yeah, you can't...," Sebastian started, but trailed off. He reached out, grabbing Shadowwalker by the shoulder as the man turned away, making sure to get his attention again. "I'm sorry, and I know you helped us, Shadowwalker, but I'm not comfortable with Hannah being taken off to a hospital on a planet she doesn't know by herself. Will you please at least let her husband, Niklas, go with her?"

Niklas stood halfway in between Sebastian and Hannah, supporting his wife but looking angrily in Shadowwalker's direction. It didn't really matter what the Maltese man said: he would not be separated from his wife, no matter what happened.

There was no need for it, though. The Maltese man leading the group of soldiers seemed content to let Niklas leave, so he did with his wife. Emilia and Thomas followed closely after Sebastian. When the soldiers were all ahead of them as they walked, Thomas reached out and trailed his fingers down the center of Sebastian's back for just a moment, a gesture of reassurance. Emilia swatted the older boy's hand away from her son. "Stop that right now," she said as quietly as she could. "You know not to do that."

Sebastian kept a stoic face, despite what was going on between his boyfriend and his mother. When they entered their final destination, all three of them were equally impressed. Even the aged Emilia looked over the bright, tall ceilings and the beautiful structure of the home and couldn't keep the awe off her face. "It's beautiful...," one of them whispered, though it wasn't clear who in the hushed atmosphere of the house, the acoustics distorting the sound slightly.

Thomas stared after Shadowwalker when he left. Sebastian stood beside him. The three of them looked between each other, mildly confused. "He's...just going to let us lounge around on his ship? With no security?" Thomas asked. Emilia also looked mildly disconcerted by it.

Sebastian, however, seemed to catch on more than anyone else. Playing over Shadowwalker's words in his mind, and the man's gestures, and the statement about talking to the ship, the young boy got a big grin on his face, a genuine smile. "The entire ship...it's automated. It's watching us right now. He's watching us. He doesn't need physical security. The ship is his security!" And there was no mistaking how impressed Sebastian was by that.

Emilia took one of the long sofas to rest on, and Sebastian and Thomas plopped down together on a smaller one. They held each other, just soaking in everything that had happened in the last three days. They assumed in the privacy of Shadowwalker's ship, they were safe to be affectionate, but there was none, really, other than intertwined young fingers and the occasional soft-spoken word as the three of them got the first fitful rest they'd had in a while.

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