PART ONE.
Richard was back in the kitchen, face set soberly. His back was to a corner and his arms crossed over his chest.
He eyed them both when they sat down. Rain was nowhere to be seen. “She headed off to the basement, and told me not to leave the house.” He sneered. “Did Leonardo tell you what Miller told us? About the,” Richard waved his hand at the back of his neck.
Robespierre nodded grimly. “Oui.” He sat down, crossing his arms tightly over his chest.
Richard shook his head slowly and rubbed a hand over his face.
“I’ve never imagined a future could be like this,” he muttered lowly. “The barbarity of it.”
Robespierre nodded in agreement, and frowned sourly.
“I agree.” The words came out slowly and very quietly. Leonardo smiled slightly. Clearly it pained the other man to admit the two of them could agree on anything.
“So what do we do about it?” Leonardo asked quietly. Both of the other men looked at him.
“Do?” Richard asked.
“Si. We can’t just sit here and let ourselves be trapped here, as some entertainment to Rain,” Leonardo whispered urgently.
Robespierre nodded again. “We could leave in the middle of night. We’d have hours ahead of her.”
“She said the government here will catch up to us,” Richard pointed out.
“Maybe that’s what we want, to be caught.” Leonardo stroked a hand over his chin.
Richard turned his steely gaze to Leonardo. “What do you mean?”
“It’s clear that Rain will not let us go. And we cannot leave without help. Ergo, we should seek to be caught. Perhaps someone will be sympathetic to our plight.” Leonardo spread his hands out and shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s… not very optimistic,” Robespierre pointed out slowly.
Richard made an abortive frustrated movement, as if to draw a weapon from his belt, fingers scraping his belt. “I’m not fond of the idea of just waiting for our opportunity to leave,” he growled.
“What do you suggest, murdering Rain and running for it?” Robespierre suggested acerbically. Richard turned to the corner, hands braced on the countertop.
“No,” he finally said, after a heavy silence. “But if the opportunity doesn’t arrive within a fortnight, I’m taking my leave of this place, aid or no.”
Richard pushed his way past Leonardo on his way out of the kitchen.
“Well, that went well,” he sighed. Robespierre snorted.
“He won’t ever listen to good sense,” the Frenchman opinioned. “Only to his own.”
Leonardo shrugged again. “We can try at least.”
XXX
That night, dinner passed as a quiet, awkward affair. Rain, over a simple meal of bread, olives, wine, and fish, which all three of her guests were familiar with, and so spared her the quickly exhausting task of trying to explain every food in the replicator to them. Richard would eat whatever you in front of him, as long as it was hot, while Leonardo seemed intent on questioning her on every aspect of the dish.
Rain put her fork aside and looked at each of the three men in turn. Richard was tearing into the bread and chasing it with wine. He kept his eyes on his plate and Rain thought she could see a muscle in his cheek twitching. Leonardo was seemingly intent on his olives, and Robespierre was taking tiny delicate bites of fish, ignoring the wine entirely.
“Look, I know you don’t understand now, but really, the IDs were the best solution for the Federation. It brought some stability back to the planet after World War three and the environmental fallout.”
The flat unimpressed stares that she was met with made Rain half throw her hands up.
“Out of anyone, I’d think the three of you could appreciate that the most, you know, stability.”
“There’s a difference between stability and a leash,” Robespierre said quietly.
“Because the Terror was the most effective means of governing,” Rain snapped back. Robespierre tilted his head, myopic gaze glittering with confusion. Rain took a deep breath and flapped her hand in his direction. “Never mind.”
Leonardo cleared his throat gently. “When do you return to work? Surely you’ll be missed.”
Rain leaned back and smirked. “I have another month of leave before anyone expects me back.”
Richard glanced at Leonardo, who shrugged and smiled affably.
“Wonderful. I’m sure you still have much to show us.”
Rain brightened. “Yeah! There’s a lot you’ve missed being dead the past fifteen hundred years. Oh, I should show you movies tomorrow.” She smirked. “Disney is going blow your mind.”
Leonardo nodded, smiling pleasantly. He had methodically been tearing a slice of bread into smaller and smaller chunks.
“I’m sure it will be enlightening.”
Rain beamed and got up from the table, taking her dish to the replicator and recycling it.
“Don’t stay up too late, we have princess movies to watch tomorrow!” She ruffled Leonardo’s hair, and limped away.
XXX
Leonardo ran his hand through his hair, smoothing it back down from where Rain had touched it.
Richard and Robespierre were silent, both of them staring at him. He sighed.
“Two weeks, and I’m willing to try our fortune by leaving.”
Richard nodded grimly and looked at Robespierre. “And you?”
Robespierre glanced over the rim of his glasses and sighed. “I will not stay here, not if there is a chance to return to France.”
Leonardo nodded and smiled gently. “I would like to return to Italy, as well.”
“England. York.” Richard muttered.
The three man sat in silence, thinking of their homes, a calling in their bones that couldn’t be denied.
Stories, both long and short. 