“I’m gay, Father. And I can’t enter into marriage with Tams when I know I can never be the husband she wants or deserves.” The moment those words had left his lips, silence ripped through the entire building.

For a full minute no one spoke or moved. Hell, Darling didn’t think anyone even breathed.

Then the cacophony returned at twice the volume and violence it’d been before. Out of nowhere, Kyr had lunged at Maris. Acting on pure instinct, Darling had grabbed Maris and pulled him out of his brother’s reach.

Kyr had whirled on him then, and they’d fought for a few minutes, until Kyr had stabbed at Darling’s groin, narrowly missing it. The knife had gone straight into his thigh. But instead of pulling it out and trying again, Kyr had twisted the blade, then plunged it into his thigh again and again… three times, causing a star-shaped scar.

Darling couldn’t remember the insults Kyr had growled out at him as he’d stabbed him. But he’d never forgotten the momentary fear of thinking Kyr had sliced through his femoral artery, and that he’d be dead within seconds.

Since that day, they’d been bitter enemies.

Yet none of that changed the fact that Kyr was Maris’s older brother. A brother Maris had once worshiped and looked up to.

Now as they walked down the hallway to set up a fight to the death against Kyr, Darling draped his arm around Maris’s shoulders. “I know you still love your brother, Mari.”

He would never begrudge his friend those feelings.

Maris took the hand Darling had on his shoulder and held it tight. “Family is so complicated.”

Darling laughed bitterly. “Tell me about it.”

Maris pulled him to a stop, then turned Darling to face him. “But you… you’ve never once disappointed me. You’ve always been a much better friend to me than I have ever been to you.”

Darling scoffed. “Completely not true. I wouldn’t be here if not for you. I’d have died a long time ago and you know it.” He fell silent for a moment as he remembered all the times in his life Maris had been there for him… Like supporting his weight after they’d freed him from the Resistance. Visiting him in the hospital after his suicide attempts and his uncle’s violence. Of Maris sitting with him for hours after Darling had buried his father…

Most of all, he remembered Maris braving his fury to return Zarya to his life.

For that alone, he owed Mari more than he could ever repay.

“At the absolute worst moments of my life, Mari, you’ve always come through for me. Always.” Just like now. His entire world was falling apart and spiraling out of control.

And instead of running from the suicide mission they were about to embark on, Maris was standing by his side. Ready for battle.

While life had done its best to drive him to his knees and break every part of him, Maris had been his sole support who never faltered or hesitated.