It was going to make him late, but he ducked into the kitchen hut, where they all took turns cooking for the camp. He had to make a cup of coffee before he sank back into the primordial soup from whence he came.
Sniffing the air as he walked into the spacious hut, Solar was delightfully surprised to see Keiko over the cooking fire, heating up a pot of coffee and frying an egg.
“Morning, boss,” she said, concentrating on the pan she held over the fire.
“Just barely,” Solar said, glancing out at the thin wisps of dawn curling into the edges of the sky.
“Cup of coffee?” she asked, gesturing to a large thermos behind her.
“Did I ever tell you that you’re my favorite member of the Surgere?” he asked, flicking a grateful smile her way.
“Say that in front of the others and this egg’s got your name on it.”
“You have got yourself a deal,” he said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
They companionably watched the egg fry in the pan for a moment. He’d always liked Keiko. She’d been one of the first members of the Surgere. He’d met her on the streets of the royal city. She’d barely had two cents to rub together and some pretty bad bruising. He didn’t know her full story then, and he didn’t know it now. But he knew a mistreated serf when he saw one.
The Surgere had been just Solar, Javi, and the Oracle at that point. It had been nice to add a woman’s perspective on the direction the group should take. Especially one who was so intelligent. Patient. Kindhearted.
“So I hear you’re being a regular asshole to Zara.”
And a real ball-buster.
Solar gulped down the coffee in his throat and watched her flip the egg from the pan onto a waiting piece of toast. He shrugged his shoulders, feeling like a kid caught making a mess in the kitchen.
“I’m just trying to prepare her for the world, you know? She’s so young. And softhearted. She needs the training.”
“Bullshit,” Keiko said and handed the egg sandwich to him.
“Excuse me?” Solar raised his eyebrows and bit into his breakfast.
“I said… bull… shit.” Keiko enunciated each word very carefully.
“Which part?”
“The part where she’s young and soft is true enough. But you’re not being a dick because it’s going to prepare her for the world. That part’s the bullshit.” She cracked another egg into the pan.
“Then you tell me. Why am I being a dick?” Solar filled up his cup of coffee again and took another giant bite of his sandwich.
“Because you’re sweet on her and you wish you weren’t.”
He had trouble swallowing down his bite, but he managed. The scalding hot swig of coffee helped. And hurt.
Solar said nothing and Keiko took it as a signal to keep talking. As she always did with him. “And I get it. She’s younger than you are. You’re the leader of a very dangerous revolution.” She waggled her fingers in the air as if the ‘dangerous revolution’ were a spook in the attic. “And you can’t split your attention by getting all caught up in some love affair.”
Still, Solar said nothing.
“But the way I see it,” Keiko went on, “is that your attention is plenty split already. You think about her a hundred times a day and don’t deny it.” She pointed the spatula at him. “You’ve been fretting about her fertility season from the day you realized how attractive she was. So for about a full year now from what I’ve noticed. And you’re about to rip the head off of any comrade who so much as bats his eyelashes at her. I’d say that, currently, you’re a pretty distracted leader of the revolution.”
Solar opened his mouth but shut it when he realized she was still going.
“So. Frickin do something about it, already! I don’t care if you propose, kiss her, mate her, tell her how you feel. Whatever! Just do it. And do it quick. I’m sick of the lovey dovey eyes across the campfire.”
Solar thought about denying it. But he watched Keiko scrape the char off the bottom of the sizzling pan with the flair of a person who knows exactly how to get where she’s going. There was no bullshitting her. There was no getting one over on her. No use.
He cleared his throat. “Who else knows?” His voice was quiet. And serious enough that it had Keiko twisting back around to look him in the eye.
“Just me, I think. And lord knows that the Oracle has an inkling. But I think that’s it. I haven’t even talked to David about it.” She held out her coffee cup and he automatically filled it up. “And despite what I was saying, you’ve been discreet. Word on the street is that she’s like a little sister to you.”