The World in Flower

41. Finding Direction

"Tantric," Adam suddenly broke the quiet.

"Hm?" Tim hummed as he kissed down the side of Adam's neck.

"I was trying to think of the word."

"Oh. Yeah."

"It always sounded boring... or frustrating."

"Well, it isn't keeping your attention, apparently."

Despite the complaint, Adam could feel affectionate amusement in the energy from Tim. He reached down and took the hand on his thigh, guiding it inward. "Give me a bit of a challenge."

"Maybe we should take this to the bed. Or, at least floorward."

"Soon."

"Whatever you want."

***

"You sure we're allowed to have this?" Josey whispered as DeJames pulled the jug of local beer from the fridge.

"Hey, we're adults here, right?"

"Well, yeah, technically..."

"Then we're allowed." DeJames poured two tumblers and returned the rest to the fridge. "Come on, let's go out and make sure the treehouse survived the storm. And I can watch the gate."

"That's boring," Josey complained while following DeJames out the door.

"It's not like there's a lot to do around here." DeJames plopped down in a chaise-longue. "Ew. Wet."

"Of course it's wet, silly." Josey leaned against the railing, looking out at the treehouse. "You think the guys would let us throw a party?"

"What would we do at a party? We can't play music or video games or anything," DeJames pointed out, taking a gulp of beer. "Huh. A little sweeter than Earth beer."

Josey tried his and nodded. "Definitely sweeter. We could have music and stuff, when they get the wind turbine going."

"So we should plan a 'yay, we've got electricity' party."

"Yeah. Sounds good to me. We can plan everything and then schedule it when we get power." He looked up at the half-shattered moon. "Do the craters look different?"

"Yeah. It's not tidally locked, like Earth's moon."

"What's that mean?"

"Earth's moon rotates at the same rate as its orbit, so we only ever see one face on Earth. But this moon rotates slightly slower than its orbit, so we see all its surface eventually. I'm guessing it may have been tidally locked before the cataclysm that messed it up."

"Oh, wow. That's cool. What about the little junior moon?"

"I checked it out with Gid's binoculars before we got here, and you can actually see it rotate."

"Yeah? I wonder if there's any telescopes in this town."

"I bet there are."

A shadow passed over the light streaming through the window above them. They both looked up.

"Is that...?" Josey gaped.

"I think so."

"Are they...?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"And also...?"

"Yup."

"I think we should finish these inside." Josey turned. "Bunbun?"

DeJames tore his gaze from the window. "Right. Yeah. I was just trying to figure out how they're, you know, mid-air."

"Not something I need to know."