No Moon

Red Shield

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"Hey Luka?"

It was Left, closely followed by his twin. The two hulking gunner/musclemen were uncharacteristically unsure of themselves as they stepped into Luka's office, watched closely by a clearly-disapproving doorman. They probably wouldn't have been allowed in at all, but Luka gave explicit orders that any of his crew had access to him at any time.

They were family. They taught him, and protected him, and joked with him when times were lean. The least he could do was treat them the way they deserved.

"Come in," he said, and stood to clap them on the backs the way he always had. The familiarity seemed to help, because they loosened up a little.

It probably helped that he was wearing a soft shirt and workout pants, in defiance of the royal norm of High Fashion All the Time.

He was used to hand-me-downs, canvas, and leather. He wasn't about to let a host of high-mannered attendants bully him into uncomfortable scratchy clothing for the sake of the no-one who would see him doing paperwork in his office.

His father's office.

The pain in his heart yawned open, and he might have given into it if he was alone. His eyes still burned from the tears he couldn't afford to shed in front of anyone else.

Besides, it would alarm Left and Right, and they looked plenty alarmed already.

"Something to drink?" he offered, and was surprised when they shook their heads, identically uncomfortable as they sat on the couch across from him. "Alright. What happened?"

"Nothing," Right said, and glanced at his twin, and then at the floor, and then at Luka. "It's, uh..."

"We have a favor to ask," Left picked up, and immediately wouldn't meet Luka's eyes. "Sort-of an Emperor-Luka kind of favor, not a you-Luka favor."

"Anything I can grant," Luka told them sincerely. He already had plans for his crew. Plans for giving them the things they worked so hard to get, and never quite managed. "Although if you want to marry my sister, you're going to have to wait a while, and then convince her it's a good idea."

That finally broke the ice a little, and they laughed. They hadn't met Lucia Therese Magdalene yet. They had no idea what trouble the young Princess Royal could cause when she put her mind to it. Luka couldn't wait to unleash her on the Court.

"It's about the mission we're not supposed to know about," Left said, and ducked his head when Luka stared at him. "We don't know the details and all, but Amir, he called our little misfit family together. He said you're off to do something dangerous, to save us all."

"Yes," Luka made no bones about the fact that it was, to almost everyone, a suicide mission. The more people who thought he was putting himself on the line, the better. He needed the Hoem to take the bait. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you more about it."

"We didn't figure you could, but see," Right took up the story this time. "We've gotten a good look around here, and we met some of your Guard."

"They're good guys," Left said, his voice so similar to his twin's that it was hard to tell them apart. "Tough. We fought with some of them a few days ago, down in the Lower Cantina. They ain't half bad, all things considered. Not great, but not bad."

"But they're Core-raised," Right agreed. "They don't know what it's like, fighting for your life when you're cold, and hurting, and hungry."

"We do," Left told Luka. It was true. They did. Born in the slums of a backwater port, they never had anything come easy, and fought for everything they ever had. "And now you do too, because you flew with us and all."