fighting, too.”
“Extreme discomfort. They see you as violent—they prepare countermeasures with violence.”
Max sighed. “I know that. I understand that violence is a double-edged sword.”
“Violent individual uses sword, but sword is less worrisome than projectile and energy weapons.”
Max laughed. “True.” He stroked Rick’s tentacle. “I will be more careful. I had to change their minds about humans. I had to convince them humans and harmless were not equivalent.”
“Do not work too hard to accomplish that goal,” Rick said. Max could imagine a fearful tone in those belches.
“Coming home to you will always be my first priority.” Max traced circles on the back of Rick’s largest tentacle.
“Perfect.”
“But I would like to make the rest of the universe pay proper compensation, too,” Max added.
Rick made loud farting noises. No doubt that was an editorial comment, but in this case ignorance was bliss. Max had no idea what it meant. And right now, he didn’t care. He’d had a stressful day, and he had time to cuddle in bed with his Rick. That was all he cared about at this moment. He closed his eyes and let the stress of the day fade as he concentrated on the feel of smooth tentacles caressing his arm.
Chapter Eleven
Max was in the main corridor when Xander appeared with the equipment cart. “You ready?” Max called. Xander didn’t answer, but James darted around the cart and came hurrying down the passage. “Max Father, I will go with you!” James announced loudly. The doors at the end opened again and both Rick and Kohei appeared. Apparently, they were having a family reunion.
“James is annoying,” Xander blurted in English.
Max ignored the outburst. “I appreciate that James, but you need to stay here.”
“No. I help Max Father.” James stopped, forcing Xander to halt the cart. James was staging a sit-in. That seemed dangerous given how many tentacles he had and the weight of the cart Xander was controlling. It wasn’t as if Xander was too small to retaliate anymore. Max knew he was going to regret letting them watch Earth television. It had crappy role models for sibling behavior.
Max looked helplessly toward Rick who hurried down the corridor. After a few seconds, Rick slid forward and curled a tentacle around James’s torso. “Max Husband must work without offspring.”
James shoved his father’s tentacle away. “Untrue. Xander goes with Max Father.”
“Xander has talent with language. Xander can assist.”
James aimed his biggest eye at his brother. If octopus could’ve killed with a glare, Xander’s days would have been numbered. James’s tentacles were stiff as he said, “I can assist.”
Rick moved closer to James. “I too wish to go with Max Husband. But my talent is programming, and I am not of help where Max Husband goes. Therefore, I logically stay.”
“My talent is weapons. Cranky female-presenting creature requests help for weapons. Therefore, I go.” With each word, James's voice grew louder. Substantially.
Rick leaned his torso toward Max, which he interpreted as a request for backup. Max moved to Rick’s side. “Hey, kiddo. I wish you could go. In a fair universe, she would listen to your suggestions because you are very good at engineering. I bet you could do wonderful things if you came. But people aren't fair. The universe isn't fair. And if you came, she would not listen to you.”
James’s tentacles grew stiffer. Max had a flashback to Pete throwing a fit about Max’s school camping trip where he had not been invited. Rick might talk about how offspring were born mature, but Max was fairly sure he was full of shit, because James was gearing up for a toddler temper tantrum.
“She ignores Xander,” Max explained. “She is a rude poopy face with Xander.”
Xander made bubbly noises of agreement. Max was lucky that Xander had less of a temper than James did or both, their potential client and James, would get an earful about how poopy they were being.
“She ignores Xander because Xander has talent with useless language. I have talent with weapons. With ships.” After James made that proclamation, Xander grabbed at his brother’s closest leg. James grabbed back. Before Max could do anything, Kohei had waded into the middle of the match and grabbed both brothers. He was so much stronger than Xander and James that he pulled them apart, and Rick caught James and held him to one side.
“Xander, take the cart out,” Max said.
Xander spat at Kohei and said something untranslatable to James before he headed toward the door.
“I could help Max Father!” James said.
Max could imagine the wealth