Chapter 3

Cole shrugs, "Nothing, I just like that one better." His hand falls too and their palms find each other, pressing, fingers lacing.

"What if I wanted to go to the one I picked?"

"Then I'd come with you."

"Even if you liked the other one better?"

"Of course."

Silence.

Leroy gives Cole's fingers a squeeze, turning round to face him.

"We can go to your star."

"I thought you liked the other one better," Cole grins, turning his head to catch Leroy's eye.

"Nah, changed my mind."

Cole squeezes back.

They close their eyes and doze to the sound of the wind through the air, thicker than it was before, more solid as it slides against their cheeks and their skin, pulling at their hair with its long, thin fingers, tugging right on the edges of their dreams.

They fall asleep to the sound of each other's breathing--the last song the world will ever sing.

Morning comes with the rare chirrup of bird-song, because humans aren't the only creatures who are resilient and Darwinism still stands, gamma radiation or not.

Things learn and die and adapt, things grow and shift and become.

Things seek out ever more ways to survive, to

live

.

"Wake up, c'mon, the sun's gonna be up soon and we'll burn out here if we don't get inside." Leroy is tugging on Cole's arms.

Cole stirs with a huge yawn and blinks up at Leroy, a soft smile on his face.

"Morning." His voice is thick and sticky.

"Morning," Leroy says, blandly as he gives Cole's arm another tug, eyeing the horizon.

It's brightening by the second and they needed to get inside quick if neither of them wanted second degree burns.

The atmosphere has deteriorated so much over the past twenty thousand years that the only reason oxygen is still plentiful enough is for the thin lattice of nanofibers braided and set over the entire world to keep oxygen atoms in, but they're not designed to keep the sun's harmful rays out.

That's what the clothes and the tarps are for and staying in the sun too long, even far as it is now, could be deadly.

"Alright, alright, I'm up.

I'm

up

." Cole climbs to his feet, gathering their quilt from beneath him, almost stumbling as Leroy pulls him to the edge of the roof, hopping down the ladder towards the ground, jumping the last two rungs and landing with a drop and a roll.

Cole follows after, still yawning, at a decidedly slower pace, and Leroy is tapping his feet a mile a minute, holding the back door open for Cole when he comes through.

"So chivalrous," Cole says, grinning, voice still sleepy and soft.

"I try," Leroy says, rolling his eyes.

Cole sets the quilt on the sofa and curls up again, outside the sun is rising, the windows darkening over to keep the most harmful rays out.

Leroy shakes Cole by the shoulders.

"Get

uppp

, I thought we were gonna go read today."

Cole mumbles something and swats at Leroy's hand, who sighs and leans closer.

"One more time in a language I understand?"

"You can... read...

I'm gonna... sleep."

"Ugh," Leroy lets out an exasperated groan and pushes away from the sofa.

Cole barely registers the

thumpthumpthump

of his footsteps down the stairs to the basement, or the decidedly slower thumps as he comes back up.

But he does feel the weight the dip of the sofa under a decidedly heavier weight than he knows Leroy is.

Cole peers down at Leroy through one half-opened eyelid.

Leroy has a stack of books on his lap, the

Gardening for Total Newbies

propped up against the top, nose buried in it.

Cole closes his eyes, "What's it say?"

"I thought you wanted to sleep." Leroy's voice is flat, but the hitch tells Cole that he's gloating.

He

loves

gloating.

"I do."

"Then why do you wanna know what it says?"

"Curious."

"How're you gonna read it if you're sleeping?"

"Read it out loud."

"What?"

Cole opens one eye again, a grin slipping over his lips, "Read it out loud.

Then I'll know what it says and not have to read it myself.

And I like your voice--you have a nice voice.

I hear you singing in the public showers all the time."

Cole can't really tell if it's the morning light hitting Leroy's face at just the right angle, or if he's just blushing too hard, but the effect is nice.

Leroy's cheeks are a soft shade of morning pink, dipping in gold as he takes a deep breath and lowers his eyes to the page.

Cole had never known so many things about roses but he thinks that pretty as they may be, they'll never be quite as pretty as Leroy's blush that morning.

"I've decided that roses are my favorite flower," Leroy says that night, their shoulders pressed, looking up at the night sky.

"You haven't even seen a real one before."

"Yeah, I know, but I saw them in that book and they're really pretty.

And maybe when we get to this new planet and make friends with the people there, we can convince them to plant some."

"Leroy, you know that they're extinct right?

Where are you gonna get the seeds?"

Leroy turns his head to give Cole a look, "You wanna tell me that we've been able to genetically engineer

human beings

, control the entire genome down to the last letter, and we won't be able to reproduce a rose seed to plant on whatever planet we're gonna land on?"