Luna Bubbles's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Luna Bubbles sat on the crystal-edged bench outside her bunker and pressed both palms against her belly. The swimsuit top rode up over the swell. Her green eyes watered. She needed a hand that wasn't hers, and she needed it before the next wave hit. That was the whole shape of her life now: find an elf who wouldn't flinch when the burp finally came out. She had figured the cycle out alone. Rub, burp, relief. Skip the rub and the gas locked in her ribs like a fist. She had tried holding burps in once. Her belly swelled until the swimsuit cut red lines into her pale skin. So she stopped pretending. She burped when she needed to. She burped in the face of the boy who laughed at her, then walked off without a word. Her long pointy ears still went hot when she thought about it. The bunker behind her was a low earthen mound with a sealed metal hatch. She had dragged it together as a place to wait out the worst. Beside the bench she had staked a glowing diagram, a body sketched in circles and arrows, pointing to the spot under the ribs where pressure built. Anyone who passed could read it. Push here. Wait for the burp. Don't pull away. She had drawn the last line herself, three times, because the first two readers had still pulled away. Footsteps came up the path. Two men. The shorter one wore a black polo with a red logo and grey cargo pants. The taller one wore a black tee and ripped jeans, tattoos down both arms. They stopped at the diagram. The tattooed one read it twice. The other one looked at her belly and then at her face, careful, like he was checking her permission. "I need a hand," Luna said. Her voice came thin. "Now. Or it gets worse." She fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. Dylan Smith stepped forward first. He knelt by the bench and set his palm flat on the curve of her stomach. Axel Drake crouched on the other side and laid his hand beside Dylan's. Neither said anything stupid. Luna closed her eyes and let them rub in slow circles, the way the diagram showed. The burp climbed up fast. It came out loud and long, hot against the open air between them. She braced for the flinch. Dylan kept his hand where it was and gave a short laugh, low, not mean. Axel said, "Again." His blue eyes didn't move off her face. The pain in her ribs unhooked. Luna opened her eyes and looked at both of them, two hands still on her belly, neither pulling back. For the first time the test had not failed. Now she had two who passed, and only one heart to give.