Chapter 360 - 360 Admonishment and Deeper Connection

Avery received quite the scolding upon returning to the Dauntless.Now that it was just the three of them, and Kasandra and Jasmine were certain that Avery was not in any immediate danger, they chastised him for hotheaded behavior that could have gotten him killed.

"I couldn't even try to stop you until Cerise arrived. Otherwise, we would have gotten blown up by the heavy cruiser you decide to charge alone." Jasmine said in a huff.

She had tried yelling at Avery and even waving her arms wildly to get his attention, but he had hardly flinched no matter what she had tried.

It was not until she felt that it was safe enough for her to take control that she forcefully removed him.

"We all tried sending you emergency transmissions as well, but you just cut them off at some point and went completely silent. You've no idea how concerned that made me."

Kasandra along with Ezra had needed to take control of the rest of the team since Avery would not respond to any communications, and this had only added to the stress everyone had been under.

During this chiding, Avery had nothing to say in his defense and simply hung his head.

Their criticism of his actions was perfectly warranted.

"An apology really doesn't cut it this time, but I'm sorry. I won't let something like this happen again. Something just snapped inside of me when I saw people that trusted me get killed and all I could think about destroying the ones that caused it." Avery said, an ashamed expression on his face.

Seeing that Avery was already reflecting on his mistakes, Kassandra and Jasmine decided to ease up on him.

He was taking this the hardest, and hopefully this would serve as a good learning experience for him and prevent him from acting so rashly in the future.

"Is it time."

"Yeah, I'd say so."

Jasmine glanced over at Kasandra and the two of them nodded their heads.

Avery wondered what the two of them were up to, but he got the answer to this almost as soon as the thought popped up into his head.

From either side of him, Kasandra and Jasmine grabbed ahold of him and hugged him quite forcefully. Enough so that an average person would have been feeling some pain thanks to how strong their arms were.


"You know that you mean so much to both of us. I never thought I'd get to experience a love like this after I lost most of my family and my world. Being with you has makes me so happy I sometimes can't believe it. But when you do things that put yourself in such unnecessary danger and I'm afraid that you're going to get yourself killed, it hurts almost as much as when I watched my father get murdered. If you really do die, I don't think I'll be able to take it. I can't deal with that pain again." Kasandra said, her eyes uncontrollably filling with tears.

Hearing this hit Avery with another wave of guilt.

His life may not have been filled with rainbows and sunshine, but Kasandra had truly been through far more than he could even hope to imagine.

Avery's father had nearly died due to an accident, but he was alive and well now.

For Kasandra though, the only people she had left that she could count as family were her brother Kaiden, and Avery who she had chosen as her partner.

She had too little left that she had to cling onto what she did have more tightly so as to not lose it.

Feeling the heavy emotions of his first lover, Avery lowered his head and kissed Kasandra on the forehead to comfort her.

Of course, while he did dedicate a few moments to her, he had another woman on his other side waiting for him as well.

"I've been through a great deal since I met you. My entire life's plan changed due to my choice to help you against being set up for crimes you didn't commit. But I don't regret it. Our goals and reasons might not be lofty, but we've helped a lot of people. I feel like I've accomplished more good working as a mercenary than I ever did as part of the Alliance Police even if we operate in a gray area sometimes.

"Yet, even with people here to support you, sometimes you force everything onto yourself. I don't want to lose you either, so share your burden with us when you can. And if you ever do anything like this again, you won't get off so easily."

Jasmine then stood up on her tippy toes and planted a kiss on Avery's cheek.

However, instead of feeling warmth from the gesture, he felt a chill run through his body.

His two lovers had put up with his reckless behavior for long enough now, and while he had kept in check for a while, he was slipping back into his bad habit more often lately and was doing things that put himself in far too much danger.

"Okay, I'm not perfect, but I'll keep trying to improve myself. This won't happen again. I know what this bitter regret feels like now and I don't want to experience it again." Avery said, putting his own thoughts out there.

Now that the three of them had gotten their feelings on the matter out and had calmed down, Kasandra suggested that they head to the dining room to get something to eat and just relax.

There was not much for them to do right now, and wallowing in negative emotions was not going to do them any good.

"It's been too long since we last hung out like this just the three of us." Jasmine said as she took a sip of high-quality wine that Avery had brought out for the occasion.

"You're right. Having my own ship comes with some perks, but it sucks that I can't be here all the time like before. Sometimes I really miss the lively atmosphere we had built up."

Kasandra nibbled on an Ariac Bun and glanced around at the place that had been her home for a while until she had moved into her own ship.

There was a forlorn and nostalgic look on her face that easily revealed what she was feeling right now.

Naturally, Avery understood as well. He had gotten used to her presence, but now he could not see her in person whenever he wanted like before.

She was his first companion and had been with him for most of his career as a mercenary.

It was safe to say that their fateful meeting was largely responsible for setting Avery down the path he was on now. Without her joining him there was a good chance that he would still just be a solo mercenary and not the leader of a growing team.

"Well, this is only how things are for now. Once the carrier ship is finished, we'll be spending most of our time onboard it instead of on our own ships. It won't be exactly the same, still we won't be on different vessels and can see each other when we want." Avery said reassuringly.

"Hm, I think that it's going to be different than you're expecting once we have that carrier you spent more than half a billion Krenin on. Liesel has been holding back for now, but she's been trying hard to ingratiate herself with Kasandra and I to gain our approval. A respectable time after the wedding, I bet she'll try pursing you a lot more actively, and I'm inclined to accept her."

"Yep, she's an honest girl and I'm pretty sure her feelings for you are genuine. She's strong and capable enough as well, so I think she'll be a good match for you. Plus, she's kind of like having the little sister I always wanted. I was the youngest out of my siblings, so I never got the chance to know what it was like to be a big sis. Jasmine and I are too close in age so it's not the same. But Liesel's only been an adult for a little while and I've been able to give her some advice like a good elder sister." Kasandra said, looking pleased with the arrangement.

As for Avery, his feelings on this matter were complicated.

Liesel was certainly attractive, and she was the great great granddaughter of someone that he admired.

Except, he already had two lovers. Finding what he felt was enough time to spend with both of them was already hard enough, and brining in a third woman would make it even more difficult.

That was why he had told Liesel that she needed to get Kasandra's and Jasmine's approval before he would think about a relationship with her. Something she had managed to pull off a lot easier than he was expecting.

'That's a problem for future Avery to worry about. I've got enough on my plate right now.' Avery thought, looking down at the full plate of food in front of him and smiling.

For hours that only seemed to go by quicker and quicker, Avery, Kasandra, and Jasmine chatted with each other without any real aim.

They switched between topics as they saw fit and had no goal other than to enjoy each other's company.

Sadly, this jovial time could not last forever. Around nine hours after Cerise had sent them away, she was calling them back to the meeting room. It seemed that the Alliance Police and Mercenary Association had come to an agreement on what story they were going to go with to cover the recent battle up.