Climb at own risk.
R16 looked at the signage she had never seen before, adorning the foot of the tower overlooking the bridge. It was new.
"Planning another midnight romp, are we?" A familiar voice rang out in the darkness.
"No, no... I was just on my way back when I saw... well... Did you do this?" She looked at B73 with a wry smile.
"I didn't make it, but it was my idea, yeah, wouldn't want any of you Rhos falling off now..." He shot back with a gleaming smile of his own.
"Oh, they fall all the time on this bridge," I laughed, "everyone's got eyes for your Captain. B6, was it?"
"And you're going to pretend you don't know his Number?" He looked at R16 with a brow raised quizzically.
She couldn't help but giggle at the ridiculousness of her faked ignorance, "I didn't want to be presumptuous."
"I know you're not," he said almost shyly, "I thought that of you. That you were real. Realer than anyone I've ever encountered."
"Realer than your brothers in Beta House?" It was R16's turn to raise her eyebrow now.
"Well," he said, his grin still wide and bright on his face, "I won't go so far..."
"And how many Rhos have you really spoken to?" R16 was relentless, wanting to see him squirm, but he doesn't. His smile never wavers, not even for one second, and she felt that he, too, was sincere to a fault.
He doesn't reply to her, but she already knew the answer from the pearly whites adorning his face, which had the decency to look a little bit abashed.
"Still being punished for whatever it is you did?" She asked.
"Who said I was being punished?"
"The fact that nobody has relieved your position as watchman," R16 answered enthusiastically, "surely you haven't volunteered?"
"I do like how peaceful it is," he admits finally, "but no, I haven't volunteered. I–" he paused, wondering if he should tell her how he had attempted to visit her during lunch time and got caught for being a disturbance to the 'ladies of Rho' – B6's words exactly. But he decided that it was far too humiliating and presumptuous of him to even attempt something so eager.
"I am being punished, thank you for that observation..." He trailed off before that familiar warm smile graced his features once more, "Would you like to join me before you retire?"
"Someone's been around B6 a little too much," R16 laughed, stepping closer to him. There was something exhilarating about looking up at the chiseled boy, browned by the sun. It made her feel small and safe.
"What's that supposed to mean?" B73 turned towards the bridge and swung up one of the rungs, letting his legs dangle precariously off the edge.
"He has a funny way of speaking, didn't you notice?" She said, approaching the rung he sat atop on and placed her hands on the cool steel, looking up at him, marveling at how someone could be so cheerful all the time.
"Boy, we sure noticed... but it's something you get used to after a while," he turned away from the edge and leaned forward so they weren't so far apart in height.
"I have a friend who would really love to meet you," R16 said suddenly, thinking about Aem.
"You'd love her, she's so candid and refreshing. Unlike most of the Rhos I know." She laughed.
"I would love to meet her, what's her Number?" He enquired, looking genuinely interested, which sparked R16's enthusiasm even more.
"R18, but I call her Aem... and she calls me Sistine." She whispered, her eyes never leaving his face. The words had tumbled out mindlessly. His beauty disarmed her and she chided herself silently, reminding herself that it was exactly that reason why pretty things are untrustworthy... but after having spent a solid few hours speaking with him just last night, he felt familiar, and worthy of her confidence.
"Sistine," B73 said, testing out the Name on his lips, letting it roll off his tongue, "I get it, Sixteen, Sistine. But, Aem for Eighteen?"
He pondered for a moment before looking down at her balefully, "That would make the captain, 'Sex'."
The two burst out laughing at the awkwardness of calling someone 'Sex' until Sistine gripped her sides and leaned against the bridge for support.
"I think Six works just fine," she finally breathed, "but if you want... a Name for your captain, just wait till you meet Aem. She is great at naming people. In fact, if it were a vocation, I'd daresay she'd be at the top of her game."
"Aem, huh? Well, why don't you bring her here tomorrow? I could smuggle some cheese from the kitchen and bring soda."
"Just like a picnic!" Sistine clapped, leaping up in joy like a little girl.
"She calls one of the girls Turdy because... we can't stand her and–"
"Let me guess," B73 interrupts, "she's Number 30?"
"33, actually..." The two looked at each other for a split second before B73 gave a howl of laughter.
"Turdy Turd would be an unfortunate Name for anybody!"
There is something comforting about being together with B73. A kind of peace and joy that R16 hadn't experienced. There was a similar delight in each encounter she had tonight, with the vast array of people who introduced themselves or were introduced to her, but the euphoria intensified with B73, perhaps because there were no expectations and she found that she could simply be herself.
"Do you do that with your brothers?" Sistine asked, "Have secrets?"
"We don't have secret names but yes, we do have secrets." He leaned even closer to her, "Juicy ones."
"Juicy secrets are called gossip," Sistine's peals of laughter evaporated over the wide chasm overlooking the river.
"Any gossip to share?" He asked, pitching forward and looking into the pitch darkness below.
"Ah, Century says it's bad form to gossip." R16 bit her lip.
"And you listen to everything Century tells you?" The boy raised an eyebrow at her, daring her to lie.
"She is our minder... Aem has no problem ignoring her instructions, but ah, I'm not half as ballsy as she is."
"Don't you trust me?" The words sent a thrill through her, electrifying her cheeks and causing the words to constrict in her throat. Sistine glanced away from the smiling boy, clearing her head from his brown gaze.
"I hardly know you. We've met a total of two–" she held two of her fingers up, "–times!"
"Would the lady like to increase those numbers?" He said in an exaggerated impersonation of B6 before cracking into a wide smile.
At a loss of what to say, Sistine pulled her brows together and laughed breathily. She turned to join him, leaning over the steel railings that kept them from pitching over into the abyss. It was comfortable to be there with him, but as the silence stretched on, Sistine found that there was no excuse for her to stay there and should instead head back to Rho House.
"You really should meet Aem." The words slipped out, evident of how much she didn't want to part.
"I should really like to," he answered quickly.
"Come," she said with a borrowed smile, thinking of how Aem's lips curled wickedly when her cunning amused her. Sistine reached her hand for B73's fingers and grasped them lightly.
Without hesitating, B73 left his post and followed Sistine's gentle touch. The warmth of her skin stirred something within him that reassured and thrilled him at the same time. He could care less where she led, savoring the excitement of the unknown as they went up cobbled pavements that went in the direction of Beta House but instead of turning right, Sistine went straight and hiked up a slope which led them towards a cheerful, buttercup yellow building. Realizing where Sistine was headed, his heart started to pound. Partially because he was silently reliving his platoon catching him sneaking off earlier that morning, but mostly because he wondered if she was going to sneak him in, especially when she guided him away from the main entrance and towards the side of the building and gestured for him to hoist himself up the walls.
"Now I see why you're such a talented climber," B73 muttered under his breath, watching as Sistine scrambled up the planks as if she weighed nothing more than a feather. But years of physical training meant that B73 was more than capable of keeping up with her. Every Beta he knew has been athletically inclined.
Sistine perched at the windowsill and watched in silence as B73 climbed sinuously up towards her. The muscles in his arms rippled in the moonlight. She hardly noticed herself smiling. As he approached the top, she rolled into her bed and lowered herself onto the floor silently. She felt, rather than heard, him drop next to her. Taking his hand again, she pulled him across the dorm and stopped shy of the bunk bed opposite from hers.
"Aem," she whispered, placing a hand on her friend's arm. When the girl didn't stir, Sistine looked at B73 and nodded towards the sleeping figure. Realizing her intent immediately, he leaned forward and stopped short of R18's ear and copied Sistine's whisper.
The gruff tones of a male voice seemed to have an instantaneous effect on R18 who snapped awake, the whites of her eyes shining in the dark. Sistine clamped her hand over R18's mouth, stifling the yelp that threatened to wake the entire dorm.
"Shh, it's me, Aem!" Sistine soothed. She was grinning widely at the panic in her friend's face.
"And this," she dropped her hand, "is B73."
Aem recovered surprisingly quickly but she eyed the strange boy silently.
"He's beautiful, isn't he?" Sistine said playfully and Aem relaxed into a smile.
"You went to meet Mr. Sisyphus and returned with a Beta boy? Oh, do tell what shenanigans you've been up to!"
Basking in Aem's admiring tones, Sistine lit up and gushed, "The party was unlike anything we've seen, Aem, there were all these Names lining up to get to know me and I met Mr. Orion there too. They dance, Aem! They danced with me all night long and after I said goodnight to Mr. Sisyphus, I decided to walk home and, well, guess who I bumped into?"
With her hip she pushed B73 closer to Aem's bed.
"Is bringing him here the smartest choice? You could have gone to a pleasure house." Aem shook her head.
"I brought him here to meet you!" Sistine giggled.
At that, any vestiges of sleep seemed to vanish into thin air, "Oh, you're a wicked one, aren't you?" Her words were directed at B73 who looked just as puzzled as Sistine felt.
"Why have one Rho, when you can have two." She waggled her eyebrows at him, which, admittedly, was lost in the darkness.
"What?" Sounding more lost than ever, B73 turned to Sistine for guidance.
"It isn't your idea?" Aem turned to Sistine, "I didn't think you had it in you. In any case, I'm game!" Throwing back her covers, Aem slid out of bed in an academy-issued nightgown.
"Wait– what?"
Noticing Sistine's frigid posture and uncertainty, Aem puckered her face and asked slowly, "Are we not going to a pleasure house, then?"
"No!" Sistine cried immediately, which caused a flurry of movement as the girls stirred in their bed, at risk of being woken by the commotion.
"No," she repeated, softly, "what gave you that idea?"
Aem's face cracked into a wide smile and said, "You're the one who brought a boy home in the middle of the night to wake me up. What was I supposed to think?"
"She's been talking about you since we met," B73 offered chivalrously, mercifully leaving out the part where Sistine mentioned that Aem was curious about him, "and I may have mentioned that it would be nice to meet you."
"Well let's get acquainted, then," Aem said with a gleaming smile, grabbing her night robe off a hook that's been welded onto the frame of their bunk beds.
The three stole out of Rho House with none the wiser. It seemed that past curfew, there really wasn't much that prevented the girls from wandering out of the academy. R100 was in bed and the main entrance was armed with a security system that could only be unlocked with biometrics, but the Theta quarters were relatively unguarded save for a creaky deadbolt in the kitchen which led straight to a footpath hedged with flowering bushes.
"What's stopping anyone from raiding the kitchen?" B73 asked quizzically as they made their way further from the academy, leaving the twinkling lights of the half-done radio tower and bridge behind them.
"A healthy dose of self-respect," Aem said severely, "and a desire to live up to R100's expectations of what a proper Rho should look like." The laugh at the end tipped the boy off to her humor and that she wasn't really serious.
"I don't suppose many girls wander around at night," Sistine supplied sensibly, "we're quite receptive to the rules in that place."
"Speak for yourself! In fact, no, don't speak for anyone because look where you are now. 'Receptive to rules' my bleeding foot!" Aem protested defiantly.
"I have to agree with R-Eighteen," B73 glanced at Sistine as he spoke, "else I won't have found a wandering Rho climbing the tower last night."
Sistine rolled her eyes good naturedly, "Well, most of us, anyway. I was corrupted by Aem."
"I hear you're good with names," B73 said, "what would I be? Saenity?"
An impressed look shot through Aem's features as she appraised B73 without breaking stride – or a sweat, even as they trampled through an overgrowth of bushes with just the barest hint of a trail underfoot. The jungle seemed to press up against them, reaching branches and weeds in an attempt to reclaim what was once theirs.
"You have to be pretty insane to follow two girls out into the jungle," Aem commented, "for all you know, we might be leading you into slaughter... protein, yum."
Sistine gave a snort of laughter behind B73, "Where are we going?"
"I'm sure insanity is not following two pretty girls," the boy mumbled.
The smile on Aem's face widened, "I've always wanted to see a pleasure house up close. I heard a few girls talking about one nearby." She shot a glance at B73 to gauge his reaction.
"A pleasure house, huh? There's at least three that's well-maintained in the city, I don't see why we're feeding the bugs out here." As if proving a point, B73 slapped his upper arm and scratched.
Aem gave a little shrug, "Isn't it boring to go where everyone goes? R12 was chattering about how beautiful the sunrises are and I wanted to see it for myself."
"Sunrise?" Sistine ventured hesitantly, "You're not suggesting we spend the night, do you?"
"And if I am?" Aem never paused again, pushing past branches and twisting and turning till they were quite sure that she's lost.
After what felt like an hour, though it was very much possibly twenty minutes, Aem finally addressed the two and announced that she truly had no idea where they were.
"R12 may not have specified exactly where this pleasure house was," she huffed and glanced around. With the sprawling branches overhead, it was impossible to make out the skyline. Undeterred, she pressed forward and the two – Sistine, spurred on by the excitement of being out of bed after hours with the promise of adventure and B73, simply because he had no strong opinions about abandoning the mission – continued following the determined Rho.