SquidgeWorld Archive

They each kept a careful eye on the crowd around them, searching. Of course, Harper looked like he was actually cruising everyone, but he always looked like that. Yet his cocky strut didn't look as cocky as usual. His current hair color, a nuked-out near white, got him more attention back than he usually received, and he didn't seem to be comfortable about it. It wasn't the right attention.

Beka had gloated about the reliability of her own hair color changing technology, and he'd sabotaged her shower to spray at ice cube temperature four times in a row in vengeance. She'd done some evil things to his clothing in response. Their vendettas always helped passed the time during trips, but they always put whatever it was this time aside once they reached a station or planet. Rev would then thank the Divine and stop threatening to gnaw on them.

Harper shook his pale head. "The rich just aren't like us. You and me, we're trying to buy power coils for our baby so we can keep on trucking. Him, he wants to get his precious ring back. The One Ring of ugliness. Me, if somebody stole something of mine, I'd get it back myself."

"Are you complaining about the nice man being willing to pay us money? Especially since we can't leave this hellhole anyway until we get a new shipment?" Beka asked.

"Not really. I'm just getting rhetorical in my old age."

"We're righting a wrong. He stole the ring--"

"--we help steal it back. It's not theft, it's karma. Yeah. You know, I can make something that can follow our suspect around and see if he has it. I mean, that's what I do: make stuff. I am a mecha-macher."

"I assume that the word you just spat at me is from some charming Old Earth language. Or you were just clearing your throat."

"It was part German, part not. And I can't even approach the kind of throat scraping I'd have to do to really pronounce it right."

"Like I said, charming." She snarled at someone who bumped her, and he backed off quickly. She checked herself to make sure he hadn't lifted anything. "Harper, I don't want you to put something together. We're not getting paid enough to justify the expenditure on materials."

"Then what are we gonna do? Hope we get lucky? And don't you dare say a word."

"Okay. I won't mention that stripper."

He flipped her an obscene gesture as she cackled. "Fine, fine. Enjoy the situational comedy stylings of the Harper. But if we're going to use my experience with exotic dancers as a basis for comparison, hoping we get lucky isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Though it might get us thrown into a dumpster by a bouncer."

Harper sighed. "If you weren't the love of my life and the light of my soul, Beka, I'd kick your ass."

"You could try."

"It'd be a nice distraction. I'm really bored. We've been at this for hours."

"And we don't even have the money to shop."

Then Beka saw their suspect approaching them. Lucky break. But if she stared at him straight out trying to see if he had the ring on, he'd bust her immediately. An idea hit her.

When she grabbed Harper and forcibly positioned him, he let out a small sound of surprise before she held him close and started to kiss him. He either got the idea or decided to take advantage, because he put everything he had into kissing back and his arms went around her. She used her nanobots to slowly dull her hair color into something drab and brownish, so if Ring Boy noticed them at all, he'd remember the neon back of Harper's head before anything else.

Eyes half-open, she watched Ring Boy's hands as he walked past, ignoring the couple making out near him, and saw what she was looking for on the ringfinger of his left hand. That gaudy thing couldn't be mistaken. Her job done, she closed her eyes, as Harper already had, and kept going until it was safe.

Murmuring happily, Harper really was into it, almost worshipful, his lips sweet against hers, his body a warm armful. Nice, much better than she'd expected. His abused hair felt dangerously crisp under her right hand, making her wonder if it would fall out soon. Poor kid. When his hand stroked down her back to her ass, she slapped his ass then gently pushed him away.

Blinking, looking dazed, he gasped, "Did he have it? Because if you couldn't tell, we can always track him down, set ourselves up somewhere nearby, and kiss again."

"He has it."

"Damn."

Beka spoke into her communicator: "It's on his left hand. He's on habitat ring 5 walking toward the food court. Valentine out."

Harper rubbed the back of his neck, right about where her fingers had been. "Now we wait for the money to roll in."

"We got lucky."

Harper licked his lips and beamed. "Oh *yeah*."