Archive of Our Own ^beta

"You are absolutely terrible at this," Lena says to the figure huddled on the floor of her lightflyer, still dripping pond water and removing himself from the flyer's safety net. "Really, just absolutely terrible."

"Thank you, my lady," Piotr says, huddling even more for warmth. "Could I get a blanket, too, or am I just getting a critique?"

Lena makes sure the flyer's autopilot can handle the flight without her supervision and then stands up. She drapes an emergency blanket over him. "Forget I asked this, but where are your guards? Your highness."

"I think I lost them in the forest," Piotr says. "Accidentally this time, I swear. Ma and Da won't be happy with me. You, they'll give a medal."

"I like medals," Lena agrees. "Shiny. They can keep Stefan occupied for hours. You should see him with Da's Order of Merit sometime. Spin, spin, spin, for hours. He's like Aral, honestly. Once you give him something, you're not going to see him for the rest of the day while he figures out how it works."

"Whereas you prefer more direct approaches," Piotr says dryly, and finishes shaking off the rest of the pond water. "Like so."

"Hey, don't knock the effectiveness of shooting people. Or deer, as necessary. Very effective." Lena pulls her spare stunner out of the pack and hands it to Piotr. "Here, you can make yourself useful. I promised Mama that I'd bring back dinner. We can go fishing after I find your security and let them know they don't have to tell your parents that they managed to lose you on vacation. How do you get lost in the Dendarii Mountains?" she asks. "Honestly, Piotr. Only you."

"Me and twenty years of Cetagandans," Piotr mutters.

"Eh," Lena dismisses. "It's a lot safer these days, there are paths and signposts and everything, and no one's actively trying to kill you."

"Except, apparently, the wild life," Piotr says. He looks dubiously at his tunic. "Do you mind if I strip to my base layer? I don't want to get pneumonia all over your daring rescue."

Lena snorts, ladylike. "Go ahead."

Piotr nods and strips down to his undershirt and pants, and then dries himself off again thoroughly with a towel that Lena hands him. He folds his outer layer into the towel to finish drying and then settles back down again on the blanket.

The console beeps and Lena looks back at it. "Ah," she says happily. "Here we go, we're being scanned and demanded to know who we are, very officiously." She beeps her identification and status right back at them, and adds Piotr's along, too. "They might have a change of clothes for you," she adds after a moment. "Probably."

"I am very handsome and attractive, I will have you know," Piotr says, distracted by leaning over her shoulder and typing something very annoyed back at his security, who want to know what he's doing and what was he thinking, slipping his security to go play hide and seek with Lady Helen Vorkosigan like they're still kids playing games in the Residence during parties, doesn't he know better than this. "People tell me that all the time and then try to get me to tell them state secrets. As if I would."

"Piotr, if I ever flatter you, believe me, it's my Betan clone," Lena promises him earnestly, and jumps into the annoyed conversation when her security joins in to want to know what they're doing, and what do you mean, you're diverting to Vorkosigan Surleau to go fishing, you need to come back to Hassadar this instant, everyone's worried.

Lena eventually tells them to appeal to the Count and signs off with a flourish. She relishes her victory five minutes later, when Uncle Petya calls her directly to tell her to please look in on the horses while she's down there and make sure Taura's not riding them into exhaustion. And that the Emperor thinks this is all vastly amusing, which she should consider herself lucky for, because otherwise, she and Piotr would be getting yanked back to Vorbarr Sultana to be yelled at. Just for future information.

"Da says I should enjoy this while I can," Piotr says as they swoop down. "Moments like this. Not having ImpSec breathing down my neck all the time, I mean, before we pick them back up again when we land. You should have heard him shout the first time I managed it. What was I thinking, endangering myself, playing fast and loose with my protection's careers. And then he told me he was very jealous. So, you know. Mixed messages."

"My da spent ten years not formally having ImpSec on him, to hear him tell it," Lena says. "Although he was in ImpSec at the time, so I don't know how valid his victory was. And Uncle Guy heard him boast about that once and started listing off some names and Da went red, so I'm guessing he didn't really escape protection, after all."

"Uncle Guy's scary sometimes," Piotr says. "It's horrible. He doesn't even try to be scary, and he is. How does he do that?"

"Practice, I guess?" Lena says. "And he was in ImpSec back when they could fast-penta you without a court's permissions and a lawyer there, so, you know. There's that. I asked him once how many people he's interrogated and he said he had no idea and couldn't begin to guess. Which means too many to count, not too few to remember."

"Weird to think about a world like that," Piotr says, and then settles down in the co-pilot's seat. "All right, Admiral Vorkosigan," he says, dropping his voice down into the Hero's Voice from all those vids they used to watch back when adventures were things that still happened to other people, "do we have a location on the treasure?"

"We certainly do, Navigator Vorbarra," Lena says, and they don't stop laughing until they've landed at Vorkosigan Surleau.