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“Hey there. It’s been a while.”
For a moment, nothing happened, nothing world breaking, or even fast. Still, Juno felt like he’d ran across the highway all over again. In that moment, Mars seemed to grow bigger and time warped from Earth calendar to a Martian one, stretching the seconds. Who knows? If alien cars existed, who’s to say that Mars didn’t sometimes grow and bend time? Either way,his mind was racing faster than it could catch up with, taking in the man in front of him. He was pretty sure Nureyev was doing the same. In that moment, they just ……stood there, looking. No witty comebacks, no nothing, just looking.
And despite how complete he felt with just himself and his life in Hyperion, seeing him again made him feel ……just a little more complete, like a house with a heater and additional insulation against the cold of winter. He’d be able to survive without them, with a cocoon of blankets and hot meals, but man did it feel good.
Even so, Juno Steel wasn’t sure what he expected, what he could expect. He’d just made his peace with the fact that Nureyev might never come knocking on his door and, well……
Here he was.
Nureyev looked……different. Not in a bad way, he doubted he could ever really look bad. The ordeal with the Executives was the worst state Juno had ever seen him in, and even then he was beautiful in his own way, like a painting handled a little too roughly. He looked better, more rested, at least, more human. He wore makeup but it was no longer layered to that porcelain mask he wore so often before, covering up sleepless nights and the silver hairs brought on by age and chronic stress. He still looked a little tired, probably just got off the space shuttle after god knows how many hours of travel, but a smile pulled at his lips, with a peek of foxes’ teeth, as he recounted that long ago line.
“Ah Detective, it’s lovely to see you.”