Meme: Liam and Luke from the Claimings Universe. (Patreon)

This one is for Angelica who wanted interaction between Liam and his brothers, or in this case, his brother. These are supposed to be snippets, but my muse sucks at short.

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Luke took a deep breath and tried to control his body. He wanted to flinch away from the fucking huge Rownt standing just ahead of him. His brother must have balls of steel to live with these guys. Balls of fucking steel.

The door slid open and an even larger Rownt stood in the opening. Luke had thought the doors were built for some sort of equipment to fit, but this Rownt damn near filled the entire opening. She had to weigh as much as a vehicle. Luke’s breath caught in his chest. 

“Good morning.” A human with dark hair smiled at him. Luke was so distracted by the crazy cowlicks sticking up every which way that he didn’t recognize Captain Mora right away.

“Good morning.” Luke fought the instinct to stare at the Rownt by focusing on Captain Mora. “I expected to see my brother.”

“His shuttle is still coming. When Command said you needed to speak to him, he was with Ondry at one of the mining asteroids.”

“Oh.” Luke cleared this throat. He had no idea how to handle this. He preferred numbers to people, and he didn’t like aliens at all. If he’d had any idea that his request would have led to this drama, he wouldn’t have made it. “How long will it take for him to get back?”

“Not more than an hour or two. I offered to come down and keep you company. The Rownt don’t engage in small talk, and I didn’t think you wanted to sit in a corner for an hour.”

At this point, Luke would prefer that, assuming he could get a little privacy. Instead of being honest, he smiled and said, “I appreciate that, Captain.”

“I’m not a captain anymore,” Mora said.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Luke had been warned to use Liam’s new rank of “tuk” rather than lieutenant, but he hadn’t realized that Mora had a Rownt rank as well. “What should I call you?”

“Just Zach. Rownt are very concerned about titles, until they reach the top, and then titles get weird.”

“Weird how?” A Command officer had briefed him on what to expect, but Luke had only listened to every other word. He hadn’t wanted to get involved in politics or diplomacy. He wasn’t his brother.

Zach shrugged. “The Grandmothers give up their personal names and family ties and are all simply ‘Grandmother.’ It’s weird getting used to living in a ship with twenty-three people who all answer to the same name.”

“Sounds confusing.”

“It can be. It helps that Rownt don’t talk to each other that often. Come on, I’ll show you where the food is served. You can try a Rownt meal.”

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Luke stood when he saw Liam walk in the room. He still looked like he had on the vids, but he had gone through a serious growth spurt. Despite the fact that he hadn’t talked to his brother in over a decade, the first words that slipped out were, “What the hell happened to you?”

Liam froze, and suddenly his Rownt stepped in front, blocking Luke’s view. Worse, he was baring his teeth—even Luke could understand that body language. He took a step backward and would have tripped over the bench he’d been sitting at, only the bench was so high that he just sort of hit it.

Liam stepped around his Rownt, his hand resting easily on the alien’s arm. Not only did they stand close, but they were dressed in similar neutral tones—grays and browns. If Liam were purple, he would look more Rownt than human. “Humans who grow in the same nest often share too much honesty,” Liam said. And then he stopped. He didn’t greet Luke or invite him to sit or even ask why Luke had come. He stood next to his Rownt and stared.

“That’s not what I meant to say,” Luke said. He looked around, and most of the Rownt had vanished. Thank God he hadn’t made a fool out of himself in front of dozens of Rownt. However, the grandmother who had followed Zach Mora this whole time stood near one of the doors, Zach still at her side. And a couple of other large Rownt stood not too far away. A number of the cooks had remained as well, all silently watching with freakishly huge eyes.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Luke said.

“Command said as much,” Liam responded. 

Luke silently cursed Dana for talking him into this. She’s the one who insisted that Liam still loved his family and his willingness to sign a percentage of his salary over to them meant he had taken the first step. Without her, Luke never would have sent the first message that set off this chain of events.

“I wanted to talk to you. Maybe we could go somewhere private.”

Liam visibly sighed. “This is as private as we’re going to get. I’m a member of the Calti crew, and you are an outsider who has requested to come onboard without giving a reason. The fact that Command ferried you out here suggests they have an agenda.”

“Probably,” Luke admitted. “I didn’t tell them what I wanted to talk to you about. I thought they would let me visit when you landed your ship on Earth again.”

Liam didn’t react, but Luke still had the feeling something around him shifted. Liam came walking toward him, and Luke thought he might hug him. He had no idea how he felt about it, especially not when his feelings were so tangled when it came to Liam. However, Liam walked right past him and over to the tallest of the cooks. He sat at the tall table attached to the cooking station. Apparently Liam expected Luke to talk in front of a random cook. Great.

Luke started toward the table, but Liam’s Rownt walked past, and Luke flinched away to avoid touch. Maybe it was his imagination, but it almost sounded like the Rownt whistled. He settled down next to Liam on one side of the table. Luke followed them.

“It is inappropriate to discuss trade or diplomacy over a meal,” Liam said as Luke lifted himself up onto the bench. This close, Liam’s height was even more disturbing, and despite the fact that Liam had not ordered a meal, the cook was busy preparing food. Luke felt totally out of control.

“I don’t have anything to trade and I’m definitely not a diplomat.”

“What do you do?” Liam asked.

“I’m studying computers. I probably would given up without your financial support, so thank you.”

Liam blinked at him for several seconds before saying, “You’re welcome.”

The Rownt spoke, his heavy guttural voice ugly. Then Liam answered in the same low, rumbling tones. Luke had the feeling they were talking about him, but he didn’t complain. Human manners didn’t seem to matter much on a Rownt ship.

“I thought you deserved some warning,” Luke said once the other two stopped speaking Rownt. He wasn’t sure how to even start his story, but the words had no more come out than Liam’s Rownt blasted the air with a flood of words. His voice wasn’t particularly loud, but something in his tone still make Luke feel like he was yelling. Liam spoke softly, and the Rownt stopped.

“What would you warn me about?” Liam asked.

“A book is about to come out,” Luke said. He warily watched Liam’s Rownt. He remembered the alien snarling at a news camera, and his expression made Luke think that he was about to not only snarl but possibly snap at Luke.

“A book? What?” For the first time, Liam had a tone Luke could recognize: confusion.

“You need to know about Lieutenant Spooner’s book,” Luke said. He struggled for the words in part because he didn’t want to hurt Liam more. After reading about Mortimer Telfer, Luke knew Liam had to carry deep wounds, and he didn’t want to reopen them.

“What about it?”

“He wrote a book about you, about your past. People want to know about the hero of the Rownt alliance, but I didn’t want you to come back and have some idiot confront you about… you know.” Luke grimaced. How was he supposed to bring up the asshole who had raped Liam? However, Liam still looked confused. 

Luke tried again. “He came to me to get information about you as a kid.”

“I doubt you remember much from my childhood,” Liam said drily.

“Mom kept records. She never threw anything away.” Luke stopped. He sucked at human interaction, and any genetics they might have shared didn’t change that truth.

The Rownt asked something, and Liam answered him before switching back to English. “I’m sorry about Mom. She worked harder than anyone I ever knew.”

“Did she know about Mortimer Telfer paying part of the rent?”

Liam lost most of the color out of his face. This time the Rownt actually showed Luke a tooth before he turned his attention to Liam. He ran the back of his fingers across Liam’s neck and gibbered away in that gruff language of his. Liam focused on his Rownt for several minutes, and Luke got the feeling that Liam was trying to calm his alien down—that was not the dynamic Luke had expected. After several minutes, Liam finally turned his attention back to Luke.

“She thought she got into a program for low-income mothers,” Liam finally said.

Luke frowned. “But… why?”

“Because that’s the paperwork I forged.” Liam rubbed the back of his neck, the first human gesture Luke had seen him use. “At the time, I thought Mort was helping because he liked me… because he was my boyfriend.” He stopped there, but Luke could imagine the rest of the story. The asshole waited until Liam relied on that money to help their mother and then he used it as leverage to turn Liam into one of his underage prostitutes.

“He was an ass. I’m sorry he’s dead because I’d kill him for raping you,” Luke said.

The Rownt practically roared out his next words. Luke didn’t speak a second language, but he would still bet money that Liam’s Rownt was swearing. It sounded like profanity. Liam responded, and while he didn’t sound as heated, he wasn’t happy either. Luke hated that he had upset Liam this much. He looked around to see if all the other Rownt were angry. Luckily they weren’t, so Luke hoped he could still get off this ship alive.

“I didn’t mean to upset your… um… Rownt.”

Liam chuckled. “He’s just busy having homicidal feelings of his own, and he doesn’t understand why you would care.”

“You’re my brother. Of course I care!” Luke didn’t mention the years he’d spent hating Liam. When their mother had died without a single word from her oldest son, Luke could have set fire to the man.

“Rownt don’t conceive of sibling relationships. He doesn’t understand why you would want to hurt Mort.”

“I don’t want to hurt him; I want to kill him.” Never before in his life had Luke loathed someone as much as Mortimer Telfer.

Liam’s Rownt said something violent. Liam patted him on the arm. “So,” Liam said, “I take it that this book Lieutenant Spooner wrote includes stories about my sordid past with Mort.”

Luke nodded. When the lieutenant explained his reasons for humanizing Liam, it sounded logical. But looking into his brother’s face, Luke regretted helping. “I didn’t want someone on the street trying to embarrass you by bringing it all up.” No doubt they would still try, but Liam didn’t look like a man who embarrassed easily. Luke was struggling to connect the man he’d gotten to know through Lieutenant Spooner’s book and the man sitting across from him.

“The Rownt aren’t going to return to Earth. They may not understand sibling relationships, but they do understand the pain of a parent who loses a child, and they learned that some of the protestors were afraid for their children.”

“What? Why?” Luke wasn’t a fan of aliens, but he didn’t see how the Anla war would lead to protests against the Rownt.

“Because people fear Command moves too quickly with aliens. So you don’t have to worry about me. If Lieutenant Spooner has chosen to tell the world about my bad choices, I don’t care. I don’t understand why he would want to embarrass me, but…” Liam shrugged.

Luke sighed. The truth was that Spooner was more than a little in love with Liam to this day, and he probably wanted people to see the man he loved. However, Luke doubted the Rownt wanted to hear that. “Command is trying to make you out to be a perfect, polished military wonder. I think Lieutenant Spooner wants people to know the real you—the you that can be hurt and make mistakes and still become the big, damn hero.”

Liam frowned. “Why would Command glorify me? I have abandoned the human race.”

Luke was not the best at politics, but even he understood that. “Command wants people to believe that they have everything figured out—that they understand aliens and diplomacy and the meaning of life.” Luke scoffed. “They’re as screwed up as the rest of us, but too many people want to believe that someone smart is out there running the human agenda, and if Command can convince everyone that you’re part of their perfect plan, they look brilliant.”

Liam’s Rownt spoke again. Luke suspected he understood every word of English because Liam never seemed to translate the conversation. Liam nodded slowly. “And you didn’t tell Command that’s why you wanted to talk to me?”

Luke shook his head. “They’re always sending people around to ask if I need anything or if I’ve heard from you. I told them our mother had sent you a message that I didn’t want to send over the socnets. Like I said, I thought they would give me a pass onto the base next time you came to Earth. I was shocked when they told me they were sending me up on a shuttle.”

The Rownt said something, and Liam widened his eyes. “Of course they want something, but I don’t know what.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have helped Spooner. It’s just that…” Guilt stopped Luke from saying more.

“Just what?” Liam asked.

“Just… I hated you for so long,” Luke confessed. “You were the big brother who walked out on us, and I thought you were write, and when you didn’t…” He shook his head. “I was a little kid. I didn’t understand, and I didn’t know why Mom cried so much and why she still kept pictures of you around the house. I guess now I understand.”

Liam leaned forward. “I never meant to hurt any of you.” For the first time, Luke saw the genuine pain in Liam’s expression.

“Mort wouldn’t let you leave, would he?” 

Liam shrugged. “He said I was getting too old and if I found him another boy who could do the job better I could leave. But he said if I disappeared with the floaters I used to hang around with that he would target my family.”

Luke closed his eyes. He was the next oldest after Liam, so that meant Mort had threatened him. “Someone should have cut his dick off.”

The Rownt asked something, and Liam spoke to him softly. After a second, the Rownt whistled loudly.

“Ondry agrees,” Liam said. “Thank you for the warning, but you don’t have to worry about me.”

For the first time since Luke had seen the file on Mortimer Telfer, he wasn’t worried at all. Liam might have gotten screwed by life, but he knew how to take care of himself.

“It’s time for the meal,” Liam said as the cook brought a meal to the table. Luke didn’t recognize any of the foods, but maybe he’d take a chance and try something new.