When she sees us coming, she straightens and breaks into a smile.
“Thank you for dinner, Mother Kanami,” Jeran says to her in excellent Basean, bowing his head. My mother beams at him and pats his cheeks.
“Prettier every time I see you, Jeran,” she tells him, and he blushes so pink that Adena laughs.
Adena greets my mother with a bow and a hug, and I embrace my mother tightly. Already, though, I can tell her eyes have fallen on Red. Her smile fades, and her stare turns sharp and piercing. For his sake, I can only hope he left his mouse at home.
“I know you,” she tells him in Basean. And even though Red can’t technically understand her, the emotion he feels from me through our link tells him what he needs to know. That my mother recognizes him from the night of the invasion.
He stands stiffly there, not sure what to do.
Then my mother pulls him forward. She doesn’t try asking him why he did what he did that night, or why he didn’t shoot. Why he fled the Federation. Instead, she reaches up on her toes to give him a hug, and when she does speak again, she says, “You need to eat more, if you plan on being much good out there.”
Soon, others from the street have gathered in the dead end in front of my mother’s house too. Nana Yagerri brings platters of corncakes soaked in green chili sauce. The Oyanos and their son, Decaine, bring a bowl of ripe persimmons and pomegranates from their two trees. Kattee, who lives with her parents and sister at the intersection between our street and the main stall shops, comes with them, bearing potatoes seasoned with garlic and thyme.
Others come too, bearing no food at all. They stare uneasily at the Strikers in uniform seated at the table, particularly at Red, whom they seem to recognize as the Skyhunter. But their eyes are hungry, their bodies less fortunate than the rest of us have been in finding food, so my mother calls them over. At first the conversation’s awkward, but soon the chatter turns into loud debates and laughter as bowls and plates are passed around.
“You’re so quiet,” Adena says as she watches Jeran fill his plate again. She nudges him hard in the shoulder. “Speak up a bit. Everyone here’s going to think you’re a spy.”
Jeran swallows a piece of flatbread soaked in my mother’s stew and heaves a sigh. “If we might be heading into Federation territory, I’d like to spend my last days in Mara eating as much as I possibly can.”
Decaine smiles awkwardly at me as I pass a basket of bread to him. “I’m glad you’re here tonight, before you leave,” he says in Basean.
I can’t help smiling a little. “Me too.”
“Maybe, when you come back, I could make you a potato roast,” he adds, his ears turning pink.
Decaine has tried to impress me for years. And even though I have no interest in him, there are times when the idea of being with my own people appeals to me, calls to me until I remember that I’m different enough to be unable to bridge the gap. So I just shrug at him and offer him another smile.
“That would be really kind of you,” I decide to sign.
Laughter catches my attention. I glance to one side to see Kattee smiling at Red, who stares hesitantly back at her before he returns to eating potatoes.
I feel a strange sense of something unreasonable—annoyance? exasperation?—before I catch myself. Why do I care if she flirts with Red? Wasn’t I sitting here myself, dealing with Decaine’s awkward attempts? Red looks uncomfortable, and through our bond, I can tell that he doesn’t quite understand what to do with the attention. If he had been walled away by the Federation since he was twelve, then it’s likely he’s never known how to recognize flirting or how to return it, let alone been intimate with anyone before.
I jerk out of my thoughts to see Jeran studying me with curious eyes. Adena looks like she’s about to eat me with the way she’s leaning forward with her chin in her hands.
“What?” I scowl and shake my head at them, then purposely turn my gaze away.
“I think it’s sweet, how you look after him,” Adena signs with an innocent shrug, her round eyes never leaving mine.
I raise an eyebrow at her. “Is it not normal to worry about your Shield before he has