Free Fallout by Ariel Tachna Page B

me, but you don’t piss me off.”
    “I’m flattered,” Sambit said with a laugh. Deciding not to push his luck, he grabbed two of the folded-up cots, setting them up near Derek’s. He left the Army-issue blankets on one of them, but he took his time spreading them out neatly on the other. Anything to give himself a little more time before he had to face Derek again. When he couldn’t mess with the blankets anymore, he found the small suitcase he’d packed and moved it under the cot, pulling his toothbrush out of the front pocket and using the sink in the break room to brush his teeth. He glanced at Derek as he put his toothbrush away. Derek hadn’t moved from his seat on the cot.
    “If I try not to curse as much, will you teach me more of that yoga like we did earlier?”
    “In the morning,” Sambit said. “We’re both tired tonight. Yoga is not an exercise to do when your mind is fatigued. If you cannot concentrate on doing it correctly, you could make a mistake and hurt yourself. We should take Fido out one more time so he will sleep through the night.”
    “We?” Derek asked.
    “I will take him myself if you would prefer,” Sambit said. “You’ve already been outside once today with no radiation gear. You shouldn’t do that too often.”
    “He’s my dog, not yours.”
    “So he is, but I can help, can’t I?”
    “But why would you?” Derek asked.
    “Because it’s the right thing to do,” Sambit said. “Just like rescuing him in the first place.”
    “You are a strange, strange man, Sambit Patel.”
    Sambit grinned. “But you like me anyway.”
    “Maybe I do at that.”
     
     
    S AMBIT awoke at his usual time the next morning, rising and stretching lightly to get his circulation moving. He could hear Derek’s light snores in the darkness and Lyrica’s softer breathing as well as Fido’s occasional snuffle. He debated leaving Derek to sleep a little longer rather than waking him, but Derek had asked, and Sambit didn’t want to make matters worse between them. He padded softly to Derek’s side, bending to pat Fido’s head so the dog wouldn’t growl or bark and wake everyone else up too. Then he nudged Derek gently until the snores stopped and Derek rolled over.
    “Wha’ time is’t?”
    “Six a.m.,” Sambit replied. “You said you wanted to do yoga with me this morning. This is what time I get up.”
    “Don’t tell me you’re a fucking morning person.”
    “I thought you were going to try not to curse so much,” Sambit teased, ignoring the question inherent in Derek’s words.
    “Not if you wake me up at six in the morning,” Derek grumbled. “I suppose that means you don’t have coffee for me either.”
    “No coffee or tea until after yoga,” Sambit said. “You don’t want to be halfway through pigeon and have to go to the bathroom.”
    “Pigeon?” Derek asked, sitting up slowly and scrubbing at his face with his hands. “I’m in way over my head, aren’t I?”
    “I’ll go easy on you the first time,” Sambit said, “but don’t expect me to cut you any slack tomorrow.”
    Derek groaned and stood up. “All right. Torture me.”
    Derek’s sleepy face as he spoke sent wildly inappropriate thoughts through Sambit’s mind. He was glad he had slept in his pants rather than in just his boxers as he would usually do. He’d be leaving them on to stretch, too, if his body was going to react this way. He didn’t need to give Derek ideas.
    “Let’s go out in the hallway,” he said. “That way we won’t wake Lyrica up.”
    To Sambit’s surprise, Derek remembered the Surya Namaskar from the day before, moving through the twelve postures of the sun salutation with much greater ease than he had the first time. Sambit wasn’t sure if that was his natural athleticism coming out or if he was simply more relaxed this morning, but either way, Derek’s movements were much closer to the thing of reverent beauty they were intended to be.
    When they had finished four