Chapter 176: A Different Kind of Contract

Chapter 176: Chapter 176: A Different Kind of Contract

Erik found Penelope in the kitchen, quietly restocking the small shelf of preserved goods, and the question was already half-formed on his tongue by the time he crossed the room.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Always." She glanced up, setting a jar aside.

"Vanya thinks you’ve been careful around her. Distant, in a way that doesn’t match how you are with everyone else." He watched her face closely as he said it. "Is that true?"

Penelope’s hands stilled briefly over the shelf before she set the last jar down, something complicated crossing her expression. "It’s true. I didn’t realize it was obvious enough that she’d notice."

"She noticed. I hadn’t, until she pointed it out." Erik leaned against the counter, patient, waiting. "Do you have something against her?"

"No." The answer came immediate, certain. "Nothing against her at all. I don’t even fully understand it myself, if I’m honest. It’s not her. It’s something about — about the shape of what she represents to me, and it’s not fair to her, and I know that, and I still can’t quite shake it."

Erik studied her for a long moment, recognizing the same careful evasiveness she’d worn for weeks before the truth had finally come out between them. "Is this connected to whatever you still haven’t told me?"

"Some of it," Penelope admitted. "I promise I’ll explain properly, eventually. It’s just — complicated. And not something I fully understand yet myself."

"Okay." He didn’t push further, the same patient trust he always extended to her settling easily into place. "I’ll take you at your word. For what it’s worth, I don’t think Vanya’s upset about it. She’s just the kind of person who likes to understand things rather than leave them sitting unexplained."

"That sounds exhausting."

"That’s exactly what I said." A faint smile tugged at his mouth. "I told her I’d ask you, carefully. I think that counts as carefully."

"Barely," Penelope said, though some of the tension in her shoulders eased, grateful for the lack of pressure behind the question. "I’ll try to be warmer toward her. I don’t want her thinking I dislike her. I really don’t. If anything, I think under different circumstances, I’d probably like her quite a lot."

"That’s something, at least," Erik said. "I’ll let her know you’re not upset with her. I think it’ll ease something for her too. She doesn’t say much about it, but I don’t think she likes leaving a variable unresolved."

"She sounds thorough."

"She is." Something in Erik’s voice, quiet and almost unguarded, made Penelope glance up at him with new curiosity, though she didn’t comment on it, filing it away the same careful way she’d been filing away small changes in her brother’s demeanor for the last several weeks.

"There’s something else I wanted to bring up, actually, while we’re talking," Erik said, and something in his posture shifted, the subject visibly closing on the first topic.

"What’s that?"

"Killian." Erik watched her carefully as he said the name. "Have you thought about contracting him?"

Penelope went very still.

"Into the space," Erik clarified, unnecessarily, though the clarification gave her a moment to recover. "He’s been with us for weeks now. Trustworthy, loyal, proven himself more than once when it mattered. It seems strange that he’s the only one close to this family who isn’t protected the way the rest of us are."

"I’ve thought about it," Penelope admitted slowly. "I just wasn’t sure — I didn’t know if it was my place to offer. He doesn’t know about the space at all. I’d have to explain everything, and I wasn’t sure how he’d take it."

"I think he’d take it fine," Erik said. "He manipulates atoms for a living, Penny. I doubt a magic pocket dimension is going to be the thing that finally rattles him."

A startled laugh escaped her, and with it, something warm and unmistakable bloomed across her face — a smile she couldn’t quite contain, bright and a little helpless, her cheeks flushing red almost instantly.

"You should ask him," Erik said, watching the reaction with open, quiet amusement now. "Soon, even. There’s no reason to wait."

"I could ask him," Penelope said, still smiling, still visibly flustered in a way she clearly wasn’t managing to hide at all.

"You’re blushing."

"I’m not blushing."

"Penny." Erik’s mouth curved fully now, rare and genuine. "You’re the color of the tomatoes in Aunt Lucy’s garden."

"That’s an exaggeration."

"It’s really not." ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

She pressed both hands to her warm cheeks, laughing despite herself, unable to fully argue the point. "Fine. Maybe I’m a little flustered. It’s a big thing to offer someone. The contract, the space, all of it."

"It is," Erik agreed, though something knowing sat behind the words that had nothing to do with contracts at all. "That’s not the only reason you’re blushing, though."

"We’re friends," Penelope said quickly, too quickly, the protest arriving faster than she’d meant it to. "That’s all this is. He’s been a good friend, and he deserves the same protection the rest of us have. That’s the whole reason."

"Sure," Erik said, entirely unconvinced, though he let it go with the same easy patience he extended to most things that weren’t worth pushing yet. "Whatever you say."

"Erik."

"I’m not saying anything." He held up both hands, feigning innocence, though the amusement hadn’t left his expression at all. "I think it’s a good idea. That’s all I said. Everything else is you filling in blanks I never mentioned."

Penelope narrowed her eyes at him, though the effect was somewhat undermined by the fact that she still hadn’t stopped smiling. "You’re insufferable."

"I’ve been told."

"By whom?"

"Kai. Frequently. Also Killian, once, though he phrased it more politely." Erik’s mouth twitched, the closest thing to genuine humor she’d seen from him all week. "I have a track record."

"Well, add me to the list." She busied herself with the last of the jars, mostly to give her hands something to do while her face cooled down. "I still don’t understand why you’re this invested in whether or not I contract him."

"I’m not invested in the contract," Erik said, and something quieter, more sincere, entered his voice now. "I’m invested in you being happy, Penny. You’ve spent this entire apocalypse taking care of everyone else. I’d like to see you let someone take care of you, for once, if that’s what this is turning into."

The teasing dropped out of the moment entirely, replaced by something warmer, and Penelope’s throat tightened unexpectedly at the sincerity of it.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"Don’t thank me. Go talk to him." Erik pushed off from the counter, already moving toward the living room where the rest of the family had settled into their evening routine. "I’ll tell Ben and Aunt Lucy what’s happening, so nobody’s caught off guard when you bring him up. You go find Killian."

"Now?"

"Why wait?" Erik glanced back at her, something warmer than his usual composed teasing settling behind his eyes. "You clearly want to. No sense sitting on it all night working yourself into a bigger mess of nerves than you’re already in."

Penelope opened her mouth to argue, found she didn’t actually have one ready, and closed it again, some of the earlier fluster settling into something steadier, more determined instead. "Fine. I’m going."

"Good luck," Erik said, already heading toward the living room, the faint sound of Kai’s laughter drifting from somewhere within.

"I don’t need luck," Penelope called after him. "It’s just a conversation."

"Sure it is," Erik said, not bothering to look back, and Penelope huffed out a breath, equal parts exasperated and unable to fully deny the truth sitting underneath his teasing.

She lingered in the kitchen a moment longer, smoothing down her shirt, running through the shape of what she actually wanted to say — the space, the contract, the weight of what she was about to offer someone who still had no idea any of it existed. It wasn’t a small thing. She’d built this particular boundary carefully around herself and her family for weeks now, and extending it to Killian meant trusting him with something she’d never shared with anyone outside the people who’d known her — known this body, this life — for years.

But Erik was right. He’d earned it. Every supply run, every quiet conversation, every framed bouquet retrieved from a ruined florist’s shop because it reminded him of a home he’d only glimpsed once — all of it had built toward exactly this moment without either of them fully naming what it meant.

She took a breath, steadying herself, and made her way toward the door, already rehearsing how she wanted to start the conversation, though she suspected, the moment she actually stood in front of him, all of it would fall apart into something far less composed than she currently intended.

Behind her, in the living room, Erik settled onto the couch beside Kai, who glanced up immediately, curious.

"Where’s Penny headed?"

"To see Killian," Erik said, something satisfied and quietly amused in his voice.

Kai’s eyebrows shot up. "Wait, is she finally—"

"Contracting him into the space," Erik said, cutting off whatever Kai had been about to guess, though his tone carried enough dry amusement that Kai didn’t miss the deeper implication sitting underneath the words.

"Sure," Kai said, grinning wide, echoing Erik’s own skepticism back at him. "Contracting him."

"That’s the official reason," Erik said.

"There’s an unofficial one?"

"There might be." Erik leaned back against the couch, watching the door Penelope had just disappeared through with quiet satisfaction.

Kai’s grin widened further, delighted, already halfway to his feet. "Oh, this is the best thing that’s happened all week. Should we do something? Make it a whole event when he says yes?"

"No," Erik said, firm but not unkind. "This one’s hers. Let her have it without an audience deciding it needs decoration."

"Fine, fine." Kai settled back down, though he was clearly still buzzing with barely contained excitement. "But I’m allowed to be smug about it later, right? Once it’s official?"

"You’re always going to be smug about it," Erik said. "I don’t think permission factors into that at all."

"True." Kai grinned, unrepentant, and glanced toward the hallway Ben had disappeared down earlier. "I’ll go find Ben and Aunt Lucy, fill them in before Penny gets back. Wouldn’t want anyone walking in on whatever’s about to happen down there."

"Good idea," Erik said, and watched him go, the quiet, steady momentum of something finally, gently beginning to shift settling comfortably over the whole apartment now — weeks of nothing but survival and grief slowly making room, at last, for something that actually felt like hope.