Chapter 649: Quick

Amunet eventually managed to get herself under control, though she had to wipe tears from the corners of her eyes before she could even look at Grey properly again. The sight of his steadily twitching lip almost started her off a second time, but she managed to hold it in and shook her head.

"It’s kind of cute," she said. "You look like a little innocent virgin when you get like that."

Grey scoffed, ready to fire something back at her, only for his mind to come up strangely empty. That almost annoyed him more than the comment itself, especially when Amunet seemed to realize exactly what had happened and her smile widened.

Before Grey could recover, Amunet reached down and caught the strings of his sweats, then stepped past him and started walking down the hallway while pulling him along. "Alright, play boy. We’ve got very little time to work with and a far distance to go."

Grey followed for several steps without saying anything, his eyes fixed on the hand holding the strings at his waist. She was cutting it pretty fucking close, and now that he thought about it, who had even left these clothes in the bathroom for him?

Wait. Had Amunet left them there specifically so she could do this?

Amunet looked back when Grey still hadn’t answered, then followed his gaze down to where her hand was. "I’m going to need you to focus. If you lose your head every time my hand gets close, we’re never going to get this done."

That finally seemed to reboot something in Grey’s mind, and he pulled his attention away from her hand with a slight narrowing of his eyes. "What exactly are we getting done?"

"We talked about this already."

Grey’s expression sharpened almost immediately, the joking thoughts disappearing as he understood what she meant. "Now?"

"Now."

"How far?"

"I have a method to get us there instantly, but it requires some preparation once we arrive," Amunet said, continuing down the hallway without releasing him. "So, that’ll depend on how good your mechs actually are."

Grey grinned, finally feeling like he was getting his footing back. "About as good as I am in bed."

"Oh, good." Amunet nodded. "That means we can get this done quick."

Grey choked on air.

No. Absolutely fucking not. This narrative was not continuing.

Grey took one long step and passed Amunet before turning sharply, forcing her to stop as he planted one palm against the wall beside her head. "If you’re going to make little jokey jokes, lady, just know you’re playing with fire."

Amunet’s back pressed lightly against the wall as she looked up at him, completely unimpressed by the sudden attempt at intimidation. She rolled her eyes and leaned her head back. "Oh no, I’m so afraid."

Then something warm pressed against the back of her hand.

Amunet froze.

She looked down and suddenly remembered that she was still holding the strings of Grey’s sweats, which meant her knuckles were now pressed against a very obvious amount of heat. A collection of memories she had been doing her best not to think about flashed through her mind, and she looked back up a little too quickly only to find Grey grinning down at her.

There it was. That stupid confidence was back.

Amunet slipped beneath his arm before he could say anything and continued walking, finally releasing the strings as she cleared her throat. "Hurry up. We have to go, there’s no time."

Grey remained beside the wall for a moment, watching the sway of her hips as she put a little more distance between them. His grin only widened before he pushed off and followed.

Maybe he wasn’t completely cooked after all.

...

The underground chamber looked almost exactly as Grey remembered it, the old teleportation pad sitting in the center of the room with ancient circuitry spreading outward through the stone. This was the same place he and Amunet had once used while escaping The Relentless, though the conditions surrounding it were completely different now.

Amunet stepped onto the edge of the platform, reached into the front of her shirt, and pulled out a necklace Grey hadn’t seen before. She slipped it over her head and held it toward him. "Use this. You should be able to find the coordinates through it."

Grey took the necklace and immediately felt the spatial imprint hidden inside.

That simplified things.

They shouldn’t need a One Line Vessel this time, either. The formation stretched across the empire had stabilized the surrounding space and pushed the Fog of Chaos far enough away that ordinary teleportation was viable again, at least anywhere properly connected to the network.

Grey crouched beside the platform and got to work.

Prometheus flickered faintly through his eyes while he adjusted several lines in the circuitry, fed Amunet’s coordinates into the spatial mapping, then corrected for the differences between the old formation and the newly stabilized network. By the time Amunet had finished looking around the chamber, Grey was already standing again.

"Done."

Amunet stared at him. "You’re really done?"

Grey handed the necklace back with a grin. It really wasn’t that hard, honestly. He just needed to tweak the circuitry to prep for normal teleportation instead of one line vessel teleportation, then put in coordinates. He had been able to do both long before he nearly killed himself downloading a ton of information about crafting, let alone now.

"I told you I was good."

Amunet opened her mouth.

Grey saw it coming immediately.

The words were practically written across her face, and the evil glint that appeared in his eyes made it very clear that he was daring her to say them. Amunet remembered what had happened the last time she pushed that particular joke too far, glanced briefly toward his sweats, then very wisely closed her mouth.

Grey’s grin widened another fraction.

"Let’s go, princess."

Amunet rolled her eyes and stepped onto the platform beside him, tucking the necklace back beneath her shirt. Grey triggered the formation a moment later, spatial light climbing around them until both bodies blurred and disappeared.