Only Human

by DisasterWhiskey

Summary:

Decades have passed since the Shil'vati Imperium's invasion of Earth, and Humanity has slowly come to accept its place as yet another subject species in the Empire.

Ezra Parker, a teenager born to Human parents settled in the far reaches of the Imperial Frontier, must navigate life, drama and romance on an alien world that he is yet to find his place in.

(Fanart for the fic on Chapters 1 and 12)

Chapter 1: 9,000 Miles

Full credits to Nik for this amazing piece of art for the Fic. You can find him in the SexySpaceBabes discord, or as u/ReserveAvailable1445 on the SSB Subreddit.

-

Ezra Parker sat alone, feeling the turbulence of the Maglev as it gradually decelerated and peered through the window next to him. There was precious little to see this time of year on Nonovan. The winter months saw most of the planet blanketed in thick fog, snow and cloud cover, and so where there would typically be boreal scenery passing by on his morning trip to the Academy there was an impenetrable wall of dull grey and white.

Past the music emanating from his headphones, Ezra could hear the din of conversation and the quiet roar of air rushing by the train. He let himself close his eyes and drift off, focusing on the ambient beat of the cymbals as a new track started on the playlist his dad had suggested. 

Then the lyrics hit him.

“Oh, it’s 9000 miles back to you, now…

I still feel like home is in your arms.”

And sweet Goddess, Ezra was not prepared. 

Tears began to well and a crushing weight set on his chest as he was bombarded by a terrible sense of longing, the music giving way to a gentle acoustic bass line. Fighting a losing battle against his own emotions, he found himself staring out the window into nothingness - thinking back to the sights and sounds and wonders of Earth.

But how could he feel homesick for a world he’d never seen with his own eyes?

A few long moments passed before a timid female voice cut through the noise and dragged him out of his reverie. “Ezra? Is… is…” The voice halted when he turned to its source, expression beginning to harden from irritation. Through still-teary eyes, he saw a stocky Shil girl in an academy jumpsuit looming over him. It was Veydra, he realised. They’d shared a few subjects over the years.

The fact he remembered her name at all was remarkable, and not in a good way. The only thing that made Veydra stand out was the fact he’d caught her staring before in class. She probably saw his current vulnerability as the perfect opportunity for her to swoop in and sweep him off his feet. Then she could brag to all the other girls that she was the one who finally pried the Human’s legs apart. 

Ezra let the empty feeling in his core give way to righteous anger. That, at least, was something he could act upon.

Veydra stared in silence for a few moments, looking on with her tusked mouth slightly agape. “Are you alright?” she finally asked, her voice barely audible over his music.

“I'm fine.” Ezra snapped, betrayed by the wavering in his tone, “Go away.”

She recoiled like she’d been struck and hurried off to another car, leaving Ezra alone once more.

 

-

 

He had the rest of the trip to realise his mistake, then all of Biology and Shil to dwell on it. By the beginning of first recess, he found himself brooding in the warmth and the chatter of the male-only rec room. He’d already gone from feelings of embarrassment to despair, to just wondering if it would be better if Krek gently took him off into the afterlife.

Veydra, no matter how much of a creep she might be, didn’t deserve what he’d done.

What hurt especially was the realisation that he’d been wrapped up in his pining for Earth that he’d forgotten about life here. Being so hostile and testy just made him live up to all the worst stereotypes aliens had of Humanity - the only way he could have fulfilled them even more would have been to start forcefully making out with her as he pulled the cord on his suicide vest. 

He’d let the side down, to use one of his dad’s favourite English phrases. An apology was in order.

Ezra went into action, moving with all the purpose he could muster. He slipped on his jacket, scarfed down some fruit for his lunch, washed it down with some coffee from his thermos, and went for the… oh Goddess, not now.

“Hey Ez,” Celik called from the side, tearing his gaze from the exit door. He was sitting at a bench with a few of their other friends and acquaintances. “Going out?”

For a brief moment, he considered clueing in Celik on what he was doing. As pretty much the only close friend Ezra had at the academy and someone actually well-clued into cliques and drama among the boys, the diminutive Shil (especially compared to Ezra’s own six feet) had long been his source of advice on anything social. Long enough, he soon realised, to know with certainty what Celik’s recommendation would be here: 

Do nothing.

He’d have plenty of reasons, probably perfectly valid ones, for why apologising was a dumb idea. Not the least of which is that going out and actively pursuing a woman, even for a reason like this, was one of the fastest ways to start leading them on. If people mistakenly got the idea that he was interested in her, it also risked destroying the carefully crafted reputation of him firmly not being on the dating market - that was the only thing stopping a tide of girls from trying to court an ‘easy conquest’ like himself.

Those concerns weighed on his mind, but he found a greater one overriding it. Doing nothing just felt wrong - wrong to Veydra, to himself, and to Humanity. Was he just supposed to go home and tell his parents that he’d insulted a girl and then did nothing? He’d fix his mess and deal with the potential consequences later.

“Yeah,” Ezra replied as casually as he could, “just going out to do something.”

A small tilt of Celik’s head, quickly corrected, told him that he’d picked up on his intentional vagueness. “Oh, see you then.” He said, with what Ezra hoped was a genuine smile.

Reaching the door, he gave Celik one last wave as he got absolutely blasted by a wave of frigid air rushing in from the outside.

 

-

 

Finding Veydra had taken a while. The whole courtyard was full to the brim with academy girls forced to sit out on various benches and tables in the cold fog. He’d been helped in his efforts by the knowledge that she’d probably be one of the few people sitting alone, but the lack of clear visibility meant he’d still had to do a lot of wandering around.

He’d also invoked the natural consequences of Intruding on female territory.

Ezra, of course, knew plenty of ways to avoid unwanted attention. Most of those techniques, however, required the male in question to not meet the gazes of all the women looking his way as he scanned through the crowds, and so he found himself on the receiving end of plenty of nods, waves and invitations. He’d grit his teeth and accepted it as a matter of course, fending off their attempts with polite refusals and a much more cordial use of the term “I’m fine.”

Teeth chattering and patience gradually leaving him, he’d finally found a likely candidate sitting by herself at a table by the science centre. She had a heavy figure - not overly fat by any means, but around the sort of weight one would be when relatives started commenting on them liking food a little too much. Ezra thought she carried it well, especially considering her jacket did little to hide a generous chest, but he could practically hear Celik’s voice in his head deriding her as ‘flabby and gross’.

He’d begun to second-guess himself upon circling around and finding most of her features covered by a mop of somewhat unkempt hair, only pouty lips surrounded by pale purple skin visible to him, but her flinch upon noticing him had removed all doubt. They’d locked eyes for a few awkward moments before she averted her gaze again, the impetus clearly being on him to start the conversation.

Well, here goes nothing.

He took the seat opposite her, taking a hand out of his jacket pocket and resting it on the cold metal. “I just wanted to talk about this morning,” Ezra said, “I’m sorry.”

Veydra’s golden eyes stayed firmly planted on the table in front of her. “It’s fine.” She mumbled.

A fresh wave of guilt washed over him. “It’s not!” he exclaimed, before bringing his voice down to a more appropriate volume, “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that, it wasn’t right.”

“I still shouldn’t have said anything.” She replied, now intent on looking off into the distance beside him.

Was she even going to let him apologise? “You did what a woman should do, Veydra.” Ezra countered.

That got her to meet his gaze again, and her eyes lit up with a sudden intensity that almost made him look away. Had she not expected him to even know her name? Leaning in, she kept silent for a few moments before blurting out a question. “What were you crying about?”

Ezra found himself immediately going into a tailspin. Where would he even start? About the song, about Earth or the life he’d lived? How could he explain feelings that he didn’t fully understand himself? Could he even try and explain it without sounding weird or crazy?

“If… if you don’t mind me asking, that is. I’ve just been wondering…” Veydra went on, stumbling over her words and pulling him back to reality, “Do you need help? Or… I’m sorry… just… just ignore what I said.”

Suddenly she couldn’t meet his eyes again, and he noticed her cheeks were blushing blue. The bashful expression made her look pretty in a way he’d only seen before in pictures and videos of human women…

Sweet Goddess, he’d taken this too far. Way too far. He already knew she’d been interested in him, and now he was letting her get personal.

Ezra began to wrack his brain for the nicest way to get out of the conversation as soon as possible but found himself interrupted by a voice calling from behind. “Veydra! When were you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?”

Fuck. Time to abandon ship.

He turned back to see three girls approaching from the Courtyard, a Nighkru, Rakiri and Shil. The latter was clearly the ringleader, standing at the front of the pack and looking on at them with a shit-eating grin. Under a thick coat she was wearing form-fitting shorts that revealed what Ezra had to admit was a very nice pair of muscular legs and thighs.

The fact that she was going to the effort to show them off in such inclimate weather was also not lost on him.

Veydra, on the other hand, looked for all the world as though she wished she could just crawl up into a ball and disappear. All the light from her expression was gone, and she’d taken a sudden, intense interest in the table in front of her. These ladies clearly had history.

They all moved up, starting to crowd them both around the table. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have the credits to afford something so exotic.” The Rakiri said, her own exotic accent heavily rolling the r’s.

“How much does she pay you by the hour?” The Nighkru added, looking in his direction.

“Leave him alone,” Veydra mumbled in a defeated voice, seemingly ready to just accept her own harassment as an inevitability.

Ezra knew that all he had to do was shut up and leave. This was textbook girl’s business, not his problem. Anything he did other than that from this point on was going to make it his problem. But he knew what the consequences would be. Him just being here was giving them more than enough ammunition, leaving without saying a word would make it even worse.

He’d be abandoning her.

The Shil girl came up to the end of the table, standing between them and leaning over Veydra. “Don’t worry Vey, I’m happy for us to be sister-wives. There should be at least one real woman in the relationship, after all.”

Standing up, Erza turned over to the ringleader. “Who says I'd be interested in someone like you…” He trailed off, realising that he genuinely had no idea who he was talking to, “...whatever your name is.”

His cheeks flushed with embarrassment, thinking he’d just put his foot in his mouth - then he actually looked up and saw how the woman had reacted. She looked offended. Visibly offended. 

How dare this boy not know the name of some random schoolgirl!

“It’s Kalayza, Human.” She replied, all of the earlier mirth gone, “Makes sense a race of sluts would have terrible taste.”

Ezra bristled at the comment but saw he had his in and could twist the knife. “Do you have a last name, Kalayza?” He asked the question already knowing the answer. No Shil with an ego like hers could have resisted bragging about their nobility.

She kept silent, likely knowing where this was going.

“I have one.” Ezra Parker continued with feigned casualness, “I just ask because I was hoping there was at least one thing impressive about you.”

“Fuck off, titsucking cunt.” Kalayza spat, “You two deserve each other.”

To Ezra’s surprise, Veydra herself spoke up. “And no one deserves you.”

Kalayza scowled in response, seeming genuinely upset at the girl sticking up for herself. “Imagine having to hide behind your boyfriend, pathetic bitch.”

“And what are your friends here to do?” Ezra countered, “Lick your cunt?”

From his side, he heard the Nighkru speak. “Fuck off.”

She looked set to continue, but whatever comment she had was cut short when Kalayza walked up to Ezra and used her considerable advantage in height to loom over him. “How would you feel if I knocked out your girlfriend’s tusks, Human?” She said in a low, threatening tone.

Heart pounding in his chest, Ezra craned his neck to look Kalayza in the eye and meet her challenge. “You’d have to hit a boy first, and that’d be the last time you’d ever get to touch one ever again.”

‘Ever again’ might have been an exaggeration, but it was no idle threat. Boys talked , and any girls known to have intentionally hurt one would find themselves getting ostracised by all the rest. Any boy who broke the cordon sanitaire would be ostracised himself.

For a few silent moments, they kept their eyes locked on each other before Kalayza broke it off and gestured to her friends. “Changed my mind, we can get a lot better dick than this.” She said, “Who knows what diseases you could get from an angry little slut begging me to punish him.”

Ezra just grinned back with animal satisfaction and watched them slink off back to the courtyard. He knew he’d won this one, Kalayza was just saving as much face as she could without following through on her threat.

Still riding his adrenaline high, he turned back to the table one last time before he left himself. “See ya,” Ezra said to a stunned-looking Veydra.

He pulled up the hood of his jacket and kept his gaze fixed on the ground in front of him as he went through the courtyard back to the rec room. This time none of the girls bothered him.

 

-

 

His victory lap didn’t last long.

The first sign something was wrong was when he couldn’t find Celik anywhere for the rest of the break. The second was when he walked into the hall for Boys Sports and all of the conversation in the building died for a few moments. The third, although he didn’t really need any more clues to figure out what was going on now, was when he started noticing guys taking furtive glances in his direction when they thought he wasn’t looking.

By the time he’d made it to the stands, he knew for certain that his spat had become the latest topic of gossip across the academy. His omni-pad pinged suspiciously soon after sitting down.

 

Celik: We need to talk

 

Ezra: Where are you?

 

C: Not being seen with you

 

E: That bad?

 

C: Yes

C: Everyone is talking

C: You and Veydra going out???????

 

E: Not dating

E: Went to talk to her, this girl Kalayza and her friends noticed and started shit

E: I defended her

 

C: Brother

C: Why

C: The last thing you said to us was “going out to do something” you know how that sounds

C: Why are you even talking to her?

 

E: Long story

 

C: Meet me at A Block Level 3

C: I can fix this

 

Fuck.

 

-

 

Ezra sat on the desk of the deserted classroom, and did his best to ignore the growing knot in his stomach as he waited for Celik to finally respond. He took a final sip from his thermos,  nearly spitting it out as he tasted the unpleasant mixture of coffee grounds and condensed milk that had pooled at the bottom.

“So.” Celik began, leaning back in the teacher’s chair and looking visibly more tired than he did just a few hours ago, “You went into enemy territory, approached a girl you know probably already has a crush on you, apologised to her for something you were perfectly within your right to do, proceeded to defend her from bullying at the cost of your own reputation, and in the process made an enemy of one of the most popular girls at the Academy.”

He sighed, hearing what he’d done repeated back to him had a way of making it sound a hell of a lot more dumb. “It… felt like the right thing to do at the time.”

“Well, Kalayza is the type to hold a grudge so there’s nothing that can be done about that.” Celik said, assessing the damage, “As for all the rumours about you and Veydra, the best I can do is tell everyone that you two were ‘ just talking’. If we say it long enough, and you make sure you’re not seen with her again, eventually people will actually believe us.”

It made sense. The best way to kill the rumours was to starve them of any oxygen. Today was the first day he and Veydra had ever interacted with each other, it would be easy to just go back to treating her like a stranger in order to get the other boys off his case. In the end, she was just one girl - it wasn’t like he was starved of options in that department.

So why did it hurt so much to think about?  Ezra couldn’t help but be left with the sense that they’d shared a moment together, and that the genie couldn’t be put back into the bottle. It wouldn’t just be setting things back to how they were, it would be blowing her off for the sake of his own reputation. It didn’t help that she was actually pretty cute.

A few moments passed in silence as he muddled through his thoughts, thinking over the options.

Ezra spoke when he’d finally made up his mind, taking care with his words but knowing in his heart that there was really no way to say it without provoking a strong reaction. “Do you think it would be alright if uh… Veydra and I did, you know, keep talking?”

“What? No!” Celik replied incredulously, “Wait… Ezra, do you actually like her? You’re finally putting yourself on the dating market and this is the girl you wanna go for?”

“I don’t know!” Ezra answered, regret seeping in near-immediately - with a response like that he might as well have said ‘yes’. “I just… don’t want to pretend she doesn’t exist.”

“You have so many better options, Ez,” he said, not even humouring his attempt to stray off the topic of them as an item.

There was no use pretending, then. “Well… if I'm going to pick anyone, why not her?”

Celik raised his hands off the desk. “Alright then, let’s go through it.” He began, tapping on a finger with the other hand, “She’s fat.”

Ezra shrugged. “I think she carries it well!”

He raised an eyebrow in silent judgement, then tapped the next finger. “She probably has no friends.”

“And you’re pretty much my only friend, Celik.” Out of all the guys Ezra talked to at the academy, he was the only one who was really close. Years ago, he’d had plenty of female friendships, but puberty had seen a painful end to that. He couldn’t even count how many times he’d rejected a girl’s attempt to turn friendship into something more. “Who’s to say that's her fault?”

He went on to the third finger. “She might be a creep.”

“She might be a lot of things, are you just going to assume the worst of her?” So Veydra may have stared at him in class, sure - but he’d made the mistake of immediately writing her off for that once already.

“My assumption is a lot safer than yours.” Celik retorted as he put his hands back down onto the desk, “Even if she is perfect you have to think about the precedent! What are all the other girls going to see? You went for someone that everyone else thinks is a loser, so now they all think they have a chance with you. This isn’t Earth, Ezra, you have to think about these things.”

No, it wasn’t.  

He clenched his fist in frustration as he stood up from the desk. “And I'm not Shil, either, Celik!” Ezra snapped back at him, speaking at a volume that was quite a few more octaves louder than it needed to be. “Before I said anything to them, Kalayza and her friends were calling me and my entire species whores. What's the point of even playing this game as a Human?”

He stared at him from the teacher’s chair, meeting his gaze with a frown. “Because it can always get worse,” Celik replied, in what felt like a deeply condescending tone.

So that was it, huh? Know your fucking place and accept how you get treated, or we can make things even worse for you. Ezra had to remember that he was one of them, at the end of the day. Just another Shil that thought he knew better.

Ezra raised his hands in exasperation as he went for the door. “I don’t know. I think things were pretty fucking bad for us when you guys conquered our planet.”

He let it slam behind him.

 

-

 

Ezra picked up his omni-pad for the third time that hour, saw that Celik was still leaving his apology on read, before going back to the cutting board. He took some solace in his work preparing the tekla nuts - cracking one open with the flat of the knife, peeling off the shell, dicing the soft insides, then going on to the next. The ones they grew in their greenhouse weren’t as big (or as tasty, quite frankly) as the store-bought ones and the recipe needed a lot, making it a lengthy process.

From the corner of his eye, he watched Dad, still dressed in his gardening clothes, flit around their expansive kitchen, grabbing herbs, spices, and other ingredients to put into the sauce. Once he was done gathering everything up, and as Ezra’s own task dragged on, his father hovered over the stove, freely dipping his robotic arm into the pot to stir things in and periodically taste the mixture.

For ambience Dad had his music playing through a set of speakers, and with Mum still not back from her evening shift at the hospital, he was free to have the volume as high as he pleased. It was an eclectic mix of rock, metal, synth, house and other songs from his time on Earth. The occasional non-human song played too - a part of his somewhat half-hearted insistence that he was willing to listen to new stuff, as much as Ezra’s more ‘foreign’ tastes seemed to grate on him at times.

When he was finally done with his work he picked up the board and brought it over to the stovetop, pushing the diced nuts into the pot with the knife. Standing beside him, Dad put his hand back in and began crushing the mixture to help it all liquefy. Once it was mixed to his satisfaction, he brought his hand back up and gave the back of it a tentative lick. “Mmmm, there we go, tastes bloody lovely,” He said, deliberately playing up his Australian accent.

Ezra took the opportunity to sneak back into his bedroom before Dad could give him any more chores to do, but found himself stopping short midway through the room when he spoke up again. “So, how was school?” He asked, trying just a little too hard to sound casual. 

Clearly, Dad had realised something was up.

“It was ok.” Ezra lied. His own accent in English had little in common with his father’s, sitting somewhere between Shil and American on account of his media consumption.

His father turned away from the stove to look over at him, evidently not convinced. “Boy stuff?”

He sighed and took a seat at the kitchen table, there was no getting out of it now. “Boy stuff, girl stuff, Human stuff, a fight, an argument with Celik, and now everyone thinks I'm going out with a girl that I'm not,” 

He frowned. “I’m not gonna get a call from the Academy, am I?”

Ezra shook his head. “Not that kind of fight.”

Dad’s face softened immediately, and he went back to stirring the pot. “You wanna talk about it?”

Well, not really, but it wasn’t like he had much of a choice. “So, that girl, her name’s Veydra. She’s not exactly what the Shill’d call the ideal woman, you know. But I think I like her, and I wanna get to know her better.”

“Oh!” Dad exclaimed in surprise, “What’s she like?”

The question gave him pause, reminding Ezra that he’d really only known her for a single day . “She just seems like a nerd, I guess? Pretty shy. A bit on the heavier side, too.”

“Good lad,” He replied, chuckling, “Proud to know I've raised a man of culture. But I'm guessing Celik doesn’t approve?”

Ezra slumped over the table, propping his head up with his hand. “Nope,” He sighed, “ Apparently , she’s not good enough for me. It turned into an argument, and I… ended up going off at Celik in a way that was uncalled for.”

Their eyes met again, and he went on. “I was just so frustrated because I have him in one ear telling me that I have to act like I'm Shil - that I've gotta never show any interest in girls, be super selective, you know? But then in the other, I have people calling me a whore and a slut just because I'm a Human. It just… doesn’t seem like a game I can win.”

Ezra realised it would have been more accurate to say ‘never show interest in front of girls.’ Celik might’ve been good at hiding his crushes, but he was far from frigid. Attending the academy together for years, he’d been around him long enough to know what kind of women he fantasised about, and what exactly he’d want them to do with their ‘firm but knowing hands.’

Dad gave a sage nod. “It’s not, to a certain extent. I dealt with a lot of specieist bullshit during my service, and that was back when Earth’s two main exports were porn and terrorism. Even now I have to deal with it at the office occasionally.”

“That said,'' He went on, “You’ve got a lot more control of your image than you realise. At a place like the Academy where you’re the only Human there, you’re gonna have the other students looking at you and what you’re doing to base their opinions on Humanity. The big question for them is if you’re gonna live up to the stereotypes or not. If ya don’t, some of them’ll learn that they aren’t wholly accurate, others’ll think that you’re the exception.”

Dad looked off toward the window, with that wistful expression that he always had when he brought up one of his happier war stories. “I still remember a comrade calling me ‘one of the good ones’ over comms during a mission on Raknos-III. She got hit with a reprimand for that, pretty sure she was just trying to wind me up, though.” He was still speaking English, but using so much Imperial Military jargon that it would’ve been pretty much unintelligible to a listener who didn’t speak Shil as well.

Ezra felt himself sag against the table. The prospect of being held to such an exacting standard, constantly being weighed against stereotypes of other people’s making, was exhausting. He had no idea how Dad had managed it for so long. “Doesn’t seem very fair.”

His father nodded again. “It’s not, mate, but it’s how things are. In the end, you have to strike a balance. To a certain extent, you gotta play by their rules - but you’re also a human and you’re always gonna be different, and they’ve gotta accept that. You know, your Mum and I were both with plenty of women before we met each other, but…”

Wait, both? “God, Dad. TMI.” Ezra interrupted.

In his view, women together like that was, and should remain, the domain of ancient Shil history and soldiers deployed too long without men. Even if it escaped those domains, it certainly wasn’t something to be discussed in polite company. Humans were different, sure - his parents had always insisted that there was a chance that he might grow up and find he liked men rather than women. But still, gross.

Dad held up his hands. “Look, all I'm saying is that we ended up disappointing quite a few people by being exclusive with each other, but we held bloody firm on that and got the point across. It took a while, but nowadays no one we know bothers us about it.”

Ezra pulled himself up from the table and leaned back in his chair. “So… after we make up, I tell Celik that I see where he’s coming from, but this is something I'm gonna do anyway?”

“Yep,” Dad answered with a snap of his fingers, “With all the respect he’s due as your friend, it’s not up to him. I’m sure you guys can work it out”

“And hey,” His father continued as he went into the pantry and pulled out a tin of tomatoes. “How does spaghetti tomorrow sound?”

“Sounds nice, Dad,” Ezra replied, a smile coming to his lips. It wasn’t often that he got to have Human food for dinner.

Chapter 2: Hold Your Colour

Once is a coincidence. Twice is a pattern.

Ezra knew that whatever he did going forward, the events of yesterday would be following him like a bad smell. Celik’s advice to avoid Veydra like the plague was clearly the most prudent reputation-wise, without any new gossip the drama would eventually fade - replaced by newer, fresher topics. He had the feeling, however, that some level of damage would be permanent. The association he’d built with her would stay around, If not as an active topic of discussion than as embers ever ready to re-ignite.

That pessimistic prediction gave Ezra some comfort, ironically enough, because he knew what he was planning to do risked putting a hell of a lot more fuel on the fire. If he was seen by the wrong people, it would absolutely reinforce everyone's presumptions. Nothing Celik was saying about the topic, if he was saying anything at all, would stop them.

That morning on his ride to the Academy he sat and waited patiently for the right stop, then he got up, scooped up his bag, and got ready to do it anyway. 

Stepping out into the aisle of the northernmost car, Ezra made his way down through brightly lit white-and-purple halls of the Maglev. Being neutral territory, his scanning through the seats was mercifully less of an ordeal than his searching had been yesterday. Soon enough, he found what he was looking for and, with a furtive glance toward the two academy girls sitting on the other end of the aisle, he took the empty seat opposite an unsuspecting Veydra.

The pleasure he took at seeing her surprise and blatant panic upon noticing him did, he had to admit, border a little on sadism. Through it all he gave her a pleasant and friendly smile, trying to ease her through the process. “Hey.”

“H-hey,” Veydra replied, not quite able to meet his gaze. For a moment she stayed silent, physically and metaphorically squirming from the attention, before going on. “About yesterday. You didn’t have to do that, but… thank you.”

She finally looked down into his eyes with a shy smile, the closer, clearer view letting Ezra see the subtle blue freckles that dotted her cheeks. He couldn’t help but find them unbearably cute.

Starting with a slight pull on his own cheeks, Ezra felt his smile slowly try and turn itself into a dumb grin. “Well, I was the reason they were bothering you in the first place. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t needed to apologise.”

“It’s fine!” She exclaimed, raising up her hands, “Actually… I just wanted to make it clear that I accept your apology, and that I'm sorry myself for getting into your own business.”

The apology sounded rehearsed, a little too clean and quick to be natural. It didn’t take much speculation on Ezra’s part to realise that yesterday's events, and what she would be doing going forward, had clearly been a hot topic on her mind ever since.

Ezra, being no different, prepared himself to give the speech that he had been rehearsing all night. “I wanted to talk about that.” He said, immediately making her cringe a little in reaction. She probably assumed that he was about to start chewing her out, and he hurriedly added on what he actually meant. “About why I was crying, that is.”

“When you asked,” Ezra went on, “I didn’t want to answer - both because it is a bit personal but also because I didn’t really know how to talk about it. But, well, I thought about it some more, and if you’d still like to hear it…”

Veydra gave a quick, passionate nod, and he got himself ready to cross another line in a relationship that at this point had consisted entirely of crossed lines. “So the reason was… well, a song I was listening to. It’s one that my dad listened to when he was my age, from before. "

She kept silent until her golden eyes widened in realisation. “Before the Empire came to Terra?” Veydra asked.

Ezra nodded, happy that she’d spotted the euphemism. It was one he’d picked up from his parents, especially in their conversations with other Humans. Just saying ‘before’ served to smooth over a lot of the old conflict, as it let people not have to effectively choose a side by referring to Earth’s incorporation into the Empire as either ‘liberation’ or ‘conquest’. It even smoothed over conflict in his own family, considering Mum was a lot more inclined to use the former.

Veydra's choice of language, Ezra realised, was rather diplomatic, too.

“So yeah,” He said, “Making sure I had a connection with my heritage was super important for my parents. I learned my father’s native tongue as a kid, and as well as all the normal stuff I grew up with lots of Human media - music, novels, video games, movies…”

“Wait, you guys had video games? ” Veydra interrupted, before catching herself, “Sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Ezra replied with a wave of his hand, happy to go on about the topic, “And yeah, we did! A lot of the games are really interesting and fun, if a bit primitive. My favourite one is called Faster than Light - it’s set in space and you captain a ship, super hard though.” 

“What do you play them on?” Veydra asked as she leaned in with sudden, intense interest, “Are they, like, emulated on our hardware? Is that even possible with Human stuff?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest.” Ezra answered, “We run them on a computer my dad brought from Terra, and because of that we don’t play them much nowadays, sadly. The Hardware’s decades old and isn’t produced anymore, so when stuff inevitably breaks it’s extremely expensive and difficult to replace.”

She frowned. “Oh, that sucks. Still cool, though.”

He nodded in agreement, then got back to the original topic. “Anyways. I like the Human stuff, but it can also feel… weird . Like nostalgia, I guess, but for something I've never seen myself. It just hit me hard yesterday.” Ezra found his gaze drawn to the window. The view today wasn’t any less desolate than it had been the day before.

“You’ve never been to Terra?” She asked, seeming genuinely surprised.

“Nope,” He answered as he shook his head, “We’re planning to go one day, but not until I graduate.”

It just wasn’t practical to try to fit it into a holiday. The trip to Earth itself took over a week, and his parents were intent on him meeting all of his extended family when they got there. That meant bouncing between Australia and Kenya at the very least, not even counting any of them that might’ve strayed away from their home countries.

“And well,” Ezra continued on, “The idea of actually going there is a bit weird too. I’m really excited to do it, there’s so many places I wanna visit - all these things my parents have talked about for so long. But at the same time… well, you know the reputation Terra has. Apparently it's a lot safer nowadays, but still.”

“Are you worried…” Veydra hesitated, seeming to need to steel herself before she could finish her thought, “That you won’t be accepted?”

The question touched on a nerve more raw than Ezra had first thought, and his reply came out too curt for his liking. “Yeah.” 

It had been a concern of his for practically as long as there had been concrete plans for them to visit Earth. In his mind’s eye, Ezra couldn’t help but imagine what an actual Earth-bound Human would see in him. A guy in Shil clothing who spoke their language like a native and English like a foreigner, his only connection with Earth culture being media and old stories. 

A Human alien.

Ezra quashed the poisonous mixture of anger and despair he felt bubbling to the surface. None of this was her fault, and she’d broached the topic from a place of empathy and compassion - maybe even from an odd sense of camaraderie. Their circumstances were different, but social isolation was something they evidently had in common. 

“And then girls like Kalayza treat you like that just for being Human,” Veydra said, hands pressed down on her seat and a hard edge of bitterness clearly audible in her tone. “You don’t deserve it, Ezra.”

No, he certainly didn’t, but Ezra had begun to doubt that it had been just for being a Human. More and more, he thought that what had really mattered to those girls was his proximity to the real target. The speciesism he’d been subjected to yesterday had, to some degree, been used as a way of getting to her , and if it had been some other boy approaching her they would have bothered them both about something else.

His humanity, with all the frustrating stereotypes attached, had just been by far the easiest angle of attack. 

He met her eye again. “You don’t deserve them either, Veydra. They were just bothering me to get to you.”

She couldn’t hold her gaze on him for long after he’d spoken, instead quickly breaking it off to stare out the window as he had done. From the side profile, he could see a shade of dark blue slowly grow on Veydra’s cheeks, partially obscured by her long hair. It left him with just one thought…

“You look so pretty when you blush.”

Oh fuck, did he just say that out loud?

Veydra immediately froze up in reaction to his words, before taking up what seemed to him an expression of sheer disbelief - as if she couldn’t trust what she’d heard was actually real. Finally regaining confidence in her senses, and perhaps herself as a whole, her face bloomed with a broad grin that beamed with shyness and giddiness in equal magnitude.

Ezra, painfully aware of his racing heart and the rising heat in his own cheeks, could only watch the spectacle, wishing all the while that he could’ve been sitting on an ejector seat.

“Th-thank you.” She eventually replied, meeting his eye as she began fidgeting with her hands, “I’ve always thought that you were really… uh… pretty, too.”

Oh Goddess,  he knew where this was going. 

She was going to ask him out, and he’d have to say no - or at least ‘not yet’.

The idea of going out with Veydra was one thing, but the thought of going up to Celik and telling him ‘Oh yeah, it’s my second day of knowing Veydra and we’re already dating’ filled him with the sort of dread that he only thought was possible in a life-threatening situation. Knowing the boy, his life probably would be in danger.

“Veydra…” He began, panic giving way to a sense of purpose, “I think it's for the best if we don’t meet up at the Academy again, at least not for a while. I don’t want to start any more trouble for you, and I have a friend that’s, uh, kinda mad at me talking to you in the first place.”

Ezra could see the look of dejection quickly form on her face as he gave her what she clearly thought was the beginning of a gentle rejection. He went to make sure she knew it was nothing of the sort.

“ But… ” Ezra said, opening his bag and retrieving his omni-pad. “Would you like to exchange contacts?”

Veydra couldn’t grab her own tablet fast enough.

 

-

 

Ezra stood out on the sports grounds, racket in hand, and tried not to distract himself from the game by gazing out at the verdant scenery beyond. The morning fog had given away to open skies, giving a clear view of the forest and letting the sun shine brilliantly over the snow that covered it all. He had to admit that in the brief moments when you could actually see past your own nose, the winter months on Nonovan really were beautiful in their own…

Oh fuck, the ball.

The backswing he instinctively gave it was far from perfect, just barely getting it over the net. However, because of that, his opponent opposite him had no way of reaching the ball in time - letting him score his first point in the game. The act was met with a stark few moments of silence, before the game continued on. 

Ezra was typically one to criticise the performative praise that boys gave each other whenever someone did anything remotely impressive in a game, But he had to admit that its absence now was sorely felt. Rather than dwell on the slight, he tried to think of it as yet another datapoint to help him plot his new position in the Academy’s Byzantine social hierarchy.

His best guess so far was ‘not very high’. Yesterday’s staring faces and blatant gossiping in front of him had mostly gone away, but it’d been replaced by stony silence. Social isolation was one of the boys’ favourite tactics for punishing behaviour they didn’t like.

Celik was certainly contributing to it. Ezra could currently see him playing on the other side of the court, having spent the entire day ably demonstrating his preternatural ability to avoid a conversation at all costs. Although whether that was still because of his concerns about being seen with him or because of yesterday’s argument, he couldn’t tell. Probably some combination of both.

Ezra played a few more rounds with his team, before they all found themselves at the end of their set and were called by their teacher to rotate back onto the stands. Well, it was the end of his second set. If he had only stayed on as long as the average boy he would have barely broken a sweat. Human endurance and all that.

Bounding up to his seat and taking a sip from his water bottle, Ezra turned around to find an exceptionally smug-looking Shil boy with his hair done up in a rather impractical crown braid. He steeled himself, now that he was faced with the prospect of talking to quite possibly the worst person imaginable.

Keletay. 

‘Queen bee’ seemed the most apt term to describe him, considering he was the Captain of the Academy Racketball team and leveraged the status to lead one of the more prominent cliques. Despite going through a series of girlfriends, all popular, attractive, and at least a D-cup, Keletay only had one true love in life. Her name was gossip.

He’d always been friendly enough to Ezra personally, although it was obvious that was only because he’d always dwelt beneath the notice of people like him. Now that he’d done something to offend the sensibilities of popular boys, he had absolutely no doubt he’d be getting grilled for it. 

“Oh hey, Ezra!” He said, loud enough to bring the conversation to the attention of about a dozen other boys in earshot.

“Hey, Keletay,” Ezra replied as he went to sit down, silently dreading the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to extricate himself from the conversation without making things even worse for himself.

Unprompted and uninvited, Keletay took the seat next to him “I heard Kalayza and her friends were giving you trouble yesterday. That girl is such a bitch.”

It seemed like a weird opening, but being so coy was part of the game, Ezra supposed. If he wanted the most access to it, Keletay had to act as if he didn’t live to grind up this sort of drama into a powder and snort it.

He didn’t really know what to do other than just give his side of the story. “She actually called Humanity a race of sluts to my face,” Ezra responded.

“Ugh,” Keletay sneered with a seemingly genuine look of disgust, “I’m not surprised she’s a xenophobe on top of everything else.”

“Yeah, do you two…” Ezra began to ask, trying to steer in a different direction but finding himself cut off.

“Hey, so why was Kalayza bothering you in the first place?” Keletay interrupted, “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

There it was.

From how things were going, Ezra could assume that his conversation with Veydra in the morning hadn’t entered the Academy rumour mill. Nonetheless, if he kept on the path he was going on with her they’d be finding out soon enough, so any attempt he made to distance himself from her would incur a painful debt that he’d have to pay in the future.

By his estimation, honesty was the best policy. “Oh, I was just going to apologise to a girl called Veydra. I’d been rude to her earlier yesterday, and she hadn’t deserved it. Kalayza and her friends saw, and made a lot of rude assumptions just on the fact that we were sitting at a table together.”

“Oh, that’s awful!” Keletay said in a tone that just screamed feigned innocence, “Still, I'm glad to hear your side of the story. There’s been all these rumours about you going out with that creepy girl.”

A creep, huh?

Ezra took a mental step back, tried his best to calm down, and went for another sip of water to give himself a little more time. This was almost certainly a trap, something said to get him to defend Veydra and therefore reveal how he felt about her. The consequences of going through with that were obvious, but at the same time if he were to agree or say nothing he’d be incurring that debt.

He took the bait in what he hoped was the best way possible. “Veydra didn’t seem like a creep to me, just shy,” Ezra replied matter-of-factly.

Keletay frowned, but there was a sudden glint in his eye that betrayed his real feelings on the matter. “Oh, should we be worried?”

The mask was slipping off, and he couldn’t but feel that his own was as well. “Worried about what, Keletay?” He said with an eyebrow raised.

The Shil boy shrugged, “Well, maybe nothing if you don’t care about how it looks for the rest of us when you go after some weird loser.”

Oh, you brotherfucker.

Standing up, Ezra spied Celik approaching them from the bottom of the stands, and his reply on where Keletay could ‘maybe’ shove it mercifully died before it could reach his tongue.

Keletay followed Ezra’s eyes, and greeted his friend as he approached. “Oh heyyy, Celik. I was wondering when we’d see you.”

“ Hey, Keletay!” Celik replied in a tone so sickly sweet it nearly made Ezra gag. How he could pretend to be so friendly with someone he very clearly detested was beyond him.

“Ezra! You didn’t forget about our study session, did you?” Celik continued, turning to him with a smile.

He quickly put two and two together, and readily accepted the opportunity he’d be given to escape. Ezra grabbed his bag with a feigned look of shock, performing his part in the theatrics. “Oh my god,” He said in English, “I’m so sorry!”

“I’ll have to talk to you later, Keletay!” Ezra went on as he dashed down the steps, then dropped his tone so that only his friend could hear him. “Celik, I could kiss you.”

“Please don’t,” He replied with a tired grin, “Things are bad enough, already.’

 

-

 

Ezra leant over to place his empty dinner plate and cutlery on the coffee table, before sitting back in the lounge chair. Adjacent to him were his parents, sitting together on the couch and watching a rerun of White Sister, Blue Sister. As good of a show as it was, he did his best to avoid getting invested in it himself. Instead, Ezra tried his best to power through his drink so that he could get permission to go back to his room.

He just couldn’t bear the risk of being stuck watching a sex scene with his parents. Again.

Looking into the slender and awfully fragile-looking glass that held it, Ezra saw he’d barely put a dent into the Pinot Noir that his parents had served alongside the spaghetti. While his dinner had been absolutely delicious, he’d found the red wine sorely wanting. Whatever appeal it could have to his senses with its sweet and fruity taste was off put a hundred-fold by its awful, cloying astringency.

Beyond the flavour itself, Ezra had found the clash between his imagination and reality painfully disappointing. Trying new Human stuff was always exciting, and wine especially had held space in his mind as it had been something he’d been withheld until he was ‘old enough to drink’. It had actually taken his parents some convincing for him to believe that it hadn’t gone off from sitting in a box for the better part of a decade, and that it was supposed to taste like that. 

In fact wine, he had been told, could actually improve with age. Yeah, sure, and when he’d found his red-tailed Felek lifeless in her cage one morning she’d been ‘just sleeping’ . He took another sip nonetheless, and went for his omni-pad to distract himself from the odd sense of warmth on his tongue and throat. 

Ezra quickly found his concerns leaving his mind, however, when he saw three notifications from Veydra.

 

V: Hey, about the chat earlier on video games

V: I saw on your profile you’ve played a lot of Heroes at Arms

V: impeccable taste

 

Underneath, she’d linked a datanet video confusingly labelled ‘Anti-Anti-Aircraft Craft’.

He quickly typed out his response, making sure Veydra had an easy opening to text back.

 

E: Most of those hours are from my dad lmao, we share that account.

E: I play a bit, but it's annoying dealing with teammates because if I talk over voice chat everyone gets weird

E: What vehicles do you main? I mostly do artillery and scout Exos

 

Tapping the link, he saw the video begin with one of the largest atmospheric fighters in the game flying low to the ground on the map, before extending out its landing gear and rapidly decelerating. When the pilot touched ground rather than stop she just…  kept going.

Flicking between her display of the map and the outside world, the pilot fidgeted with the thrust controls and anti-grav unit to propel itself on its landing gear without actually ripping it off on the uneven ground. The complete lack of manoeuvrability she had on the ground seemed to make even just dodging trees a challenge, but somehow she seemed to manage - gradually making her way to what Ezra realised was the enemy spawn. She was flanking in a fucking fighter.

The pilot spotted her first enemy as she slowly crested over a hill - an anti-aircraft Exo with its radar and armament firmly fixed in the skies above. Through some very clumsy manoeuvres, she slowly trained her guns in her quarry and, adding insult to injury, radar locked the Exo to grab its attention just before she unleashed a full salvo of munitions.

As the video went on Ezra found himself trying and failing to suppress his laughter. The thought crossed his mind that he should probably pause the video, saving it for a time when he wouldn’t be snickering to himself when his parents were trying to watch something. That was, until a devious plan came to mind.

Letting himself first laugh just a little bit more to get the point across, Ezra then picked himself up from the armchair and gave a quick apology to his parents. “Sorry, I should watch this somewhere else.”

Mum looked on as he tentatively made his way across the living room, expecting reproach at any moment. “Alright, dear.” She answered simply, letting him go.

From her side, his Dad turned over to him as well “What’re ya laughing about, son?” He asked.

“Oh, just a funny video Veydra sent me,” Ezra replied, deliberately being as unspecific as possible. Any discussion of HaA with him had a tendency to balloon into a conversation far longer than one bargained for.

“Mmmm, I see what's going on,” Dad said with a grin, “She’s gonna worm her way into your heart through memes.”

Ezra gave out a non-committal “Yeah, maybe,” as he made his way to the bedroom, ready to continue his conversation with Veydra. Then he actually stopped to process what his Dad had said, and found himself left with a burning question to ponder.

What the fuck is a meme?

Chapter 3: Crush

Ezra watched, and he waited for his time to strike. 

The icon of his artillery Exo sat alone from the rest of his team, laying in wait within the thick highland foliage that made up the right-hand corner of the map. Only willing to use passive sensors so as to not give away his concealed position, he periodically switched between cameras facing the lowlands and the skies above. At first sight of any enemy, he’d be ready to aim, lock and fire a missile, then quickly reposition himself and find another target.

Flicking his camera to the lowlands one last time, Ezra spotted movement across a street and switched to the gunsight.

He recognised his quarry immediately - it was a Karumand model scout Exo, a vehicle that he had once piloted quite a bit himself. She balanced a high-powered railgun and strong sensor suite against a weaker engine and lacklustre ammunition storage. The Karu’s niche, and what he confidently guessed his target was doing here, was flanking the enemy, scoring a few kills at a distance, and then slinking back to friendly territory to resupply before they could be punished.

What she had not accounted for was an even bigger nerd positioning himself to outflank the flankers.

But there was one small issue. The moment his missile locked on the Karu, her own sensors would give her clear indication of where he was and she’d be able to swing her guns his way. Lacking adequate countermeasures against missiles this size, there was little doubt she’d be going to the Deep - but all it would take is some decent aiming for her to be able to take a friend along for the trip.

His missiles could be dumbfired, removing the issue of the Karu having forewarning. The problem was that at the speed at which they could reach her, it meant that he would have to heavily lead the launch. Any kind of deviation from her current path would mean a guaranteed miss, not to mention an angry exo sending all kinds of fire in his direction. The prudent option would be to call out her position over comms and tell his teammates to deal with it.

Knowing the consequences of doing that , Ezra decided to go for the imprudent option instead. He got ready to pull some shenanigans.

A dumbfired missile could have its targeting switched on mid-flight. It still wouldn’t be particularly effective, considering that the cone of manoeuvrability it would have is punishingly small. Worse still, he’d have to find the exact moment when locking her didn’t give the Karu enough time to retaliate, while still giving his missile enough space to adjust its trajectory. Nonetheless, it was possible, and it sounded fun.

Watching his target slowly travel down the streets through the optics, he found his opportunity. The Karu was approaching a major highway that cut through the road she was travelling on - a prominent sightline that she couldn’t afford to just blunder through. If the player was anywhere close to competent, she’d stop and fire off her sensors first before doing anything else. What she would do after that he had no idea, but knowing her exact position for a few seconds gave him a lot more leeway with his aim.

He placed his reticle at the intersection, and when the moment was right Ezra fired a missile with a calm pull of the trigger. It went off with a low roar and sent a low rumble through his controls. Leaving his optics, he watched his shot slowly arc above the verdant landscape as the Karu reached the edge of the highway…

… And kept going.

Instantly roused into panic, Ezra snapped back to the targeting screen as quickly as he could and sent off a targeted lidar ping to lock the moving target. Sure enough, he saw the missile begin to sluggishly turn to the right as it readjusted its course.

His good sense had lagged just a few moments behind his instinct. Ezra only realised his folly when he saw the Karu, still on the move, spin her upper body near-immediately to focus directly on his position. The calm, male voice announcing ‘Target Locked’ was immediately cut through by an alert announcing the targeting of his own vehicle.

The ensuing hail of hot tungsten began on his left, punctuated by the hiss and snap of oncoming projectiles. Luckily for Ezra and his vehicle, the Karu fired in long, undisciplined sweeps, sending much of it uselessly off to his sides. What did hit his Exo, however, wreaked havoc. The first sweep took out his left leg, leaving him a sitting duck as the second, higher sweep hit centre mass and tore through the engine and main battery.

Luckily for him, the targeting system could seamlessly switch over to auxiliary power. 

His kill was signified by a hitmarker, and then the cessation of railgun fire a near-imperceptible moment later. Watching the instant replay on the corner of the screen, he saw that it hadn’t been a direct hit, but rather one close enough for the blast to pierce the thin armour of the scout Exo.

Ezra had precious little time to reflect on the fight, as he found himself getting booted to the round end screen immediately afterwards - displaying his team’s victory as well as the individual stats of each player. Despite giving them the kill that won the game, Ezra didn’t score particularly high compared to his teammates. The player he’d just killed, Akrana275, had managed to score even lower on hers.

Then he saw her name light up as she adjusted her microphone, and he made the snap decision to hit record in case he might end up with a funny clip to send to Veydra.

He was not disappointed.

A shrill and surprisingly young-sounding voice called over the channel. “Eat shit you burrowing little rock-thrower. You think you're good because you can hide in a bush on the other side of the map and kill people actually playing the fucking game? You're pathetic. I’ll fuck your Dad and give him a daughter he can actually love, you little bitch.”

The language was… particularly colourful, but it wasn’t particularly unexpected. A burrowing strategy, or what his Dad called ‘camping’, drew plenty of hate from players who thought it was unfair or dishonourable. Some of those people would inevitably decide to make their opinions heard. Ezra rarely ever responded to them, and when he did it was always through text chat.

This time he had the entertainment of his future audience on his mind, but beyond that, Ezra wondered why he should have to keep quiet just because he was a guy. It was perfectly normal for a human male to want to play videogames, and if aliens found that weird then that was their own issue. Maybe if he stood up for himself a little more they’d get used to the idea.

So, Ezra switched on the microphone and went to poke the grinshaw. “You sound extremely fat.”

“Woooow, it’s even sadder than I thought.” She replied, sounding genuinely bemused, “Nice soundboard sister. Imagine pretending to be a guy on the datanet.”

A few other players spoke up, but most of the chatter focused on discussing the round rather than him. Trolling with recordings and voice changers wasn’t all that uncommon, so he knew the real chaos would begin when he proved himself to be real.

“Oh I’m not pretending, Akrana275,” Ezra replied, playing up his schoolboy tone, “But don’t worry, I get it. I imagine it’s pretty safe to assume that a boy would never talk to you.”

As he’d predicted, all hell broke loose. Half a dozen gamers immediately began talking over each other, either in reaction or in an attempt to speak to him directly.

“Guys play this game?” One said in confused shock. It was certainly a valid question, considering a hardcore milsim like Heroes at Arms was far outside the typical male wheelhouse of casual games and dating simulators. He and his Dad probably made up a significant proportion of the total guys playing the game on Nonovan, perhaps even the entirety.

“Hey, you should come join our squad!” Another suggested.

Ezra choked back the immediate and firm ‘no’ he wanted to reply with, and let silence be his answer. He couldn’t blame a girl for trying.

“Wait ladies,” An older voice called out in a joking tone, “We’ll only know for sure if he sends dick pics, right?”

Ezra found himself beginning to laugh, more at the audacity of what she was saying rather than its comedic value. He cut it short, though, when he realised it was getting picked up by the microphone. 

“No, thank you,” He replied with a smile, “Guess I'll just have to be a fake gamer boy.” 

Akrana275 finally spoke up again, making herself heard over all the chatter, “And like every other gamer boy, you’re just desperate for female attention.”

Oh, fuck off.

Before he could reply, a woman did so for him. “Shut up and just let him play the game.”

“Don’t bother, sister.” She shot back, “He’s not going to fuck you.”

“I wasn’t gonna say anything until you started flaming me!” Ezra countered, “And about that, I gotta say it's pretty ironic calling me a rock-thrower when you’re using a Karu, sister. What do you think a railgun is?”

“Counterpoint.” Akrana275 exclaimed, punctuated by a ping notifying the server that she’d called a votekick on him.

Ezra felt free to gloat at how desperate of a move it was… until everyone started voting yes. 

“You brotherfucker!” He couldn’t help but laugh as he was booted out of the lobby, torn between surprised amusement and genuine offence. 

A notification popped up on the title screen, informing him he had seven new pending friend requests. Sitting in silence as he stared at the screen, Ezra could only come to the conclusion that in the conversation, just like in the Exo fight that spurred it on in the first place, neither side came out looking well.

 

-

 

Veydra: It sucks, but they probably just did it because they thought it was funny

V: Also some might’ve just been annoyed by the distraction and thought that was the quickest way to get people to shut up

 

Looking up from his tablet, Ezra spied a familiar face enter the classroom and begin making his way toward him. A friendly group of boys pulled Celik off to the side, however, and gave Ezra time to wrap up his conversation.

 

E: Yeah you’re probably right

E: Alright I gotta actually get some studying done in my study period

E: Chat later?

 

Ezra felt his lips tug up onto his cheeks as he switched out of the messaging app. He knew full well from other people’s accounts of romance that the novelty of them talking would wear off eventually. Until that day came, though, he was perfectly happy to end every conversation with an offer to talk later, and to take pleasure in each time Veydra replied with an emphatic ‘yes’.

Despite having plenty of forewarning, Celik taking a seat next to him at the table still managed to catch Ezra off guard. “She has your contacts?” He asked in a low, conspiratorial tone.

Ezra immediately found himself on the defensive. “Why do you ask?”

“How often do you normally grin at your omni-pad?” Celik said, grabbing his own tablet from his bag and opening up his notes.

“Fair point,” Ezra conceded.

Celik turned over to him with a serious look. “Apology accepted, by the way. That day was… a lot. I went on the attack way too quickly.”

Ezra didn’t miss that he was apologising specifically on how he’d said what he said, not his disapproval in the first place. That discussion evidently wasn’t over.

“Thanks,” He replied, “I was a bit overly sensitive about Human stuff on the day, too. Even before the fight with Kalayza. That was kinda part of the whole reason Veydra and I got talking in the first place, actually.”

“So how is it going between you two?” Celik asked, the conspicuously neutral tone setting off alarm bells in his head.

“We’re just talking right now,” Ezra said as he held up his tablet, “And mostly on here, so there’s no more trouble. But, well, she knows that I like her.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure about that?”

Welp, time for Celik to rip his head off. “I might have told her she looks pretty when she blushes.”

“You…” Celik replied after a few moments of stunned silence, seeming to have blown all the way past anger into sheer bewilderment. “You did that , okay. Ezra, don’t take this the wrong way, but… what do you like about Veydra?”

“Well,” He said, toning down his voice even further as he began incriminating himself, “I don’t know… her freckles, I guess. The way her hair covers her face, how she smiles. I just think she looks really nice, and the more I talk to her the more I see that she is nice. We like a lot of the same things, and I just… want to get to know her better.”

Watching Celik slowly process what he’d just said, a thought crossed Ezra’s mind.

His parents had told him that the Imperium had through the decades attempted, if somewhat loosely and halfheartedly, to excise casual xenophobia from Human languages. It was something that he was generally more supportive of than they were. To his estimation, English was full of words and phrases that were born in an era long before knowledge of real aliens and should probably stay there.

Be that as it may, the only way Ezra could think to describe Celik at that moment was to say he’d looked at him like he was an alien. Never had he seen their distinction be so viscerally felt - a reminder that no matter how close they were, millions of years of evolution would still be standing between them. 

“To be honest, Ezra,“ Celik began, “I've always wondered what it would be like when Jrafell did her work on you. Maybe it's just a lack of imagination, but I never even considered that you’d sound exactly like my sisters talking about boys.”

“What did you expect?” He asked, genuinely curious.

Celik gave a self-conscious shrug. “I guess I thought it would be more like, well, us.”

“I mean, I don’t mind that she’s got tusks and a foot on me in height,” Ezra replied. “That’s still pretty weird for my parent’s generation, you know.”

As strange as the idea seemed to him, Human aversion to the appearances of Shil and other aliens was something his father had mentioned seeing back on Earth after the Invasion. To be fair, he had also been sceptical about just how much of that opinion was genuine preference or just xenophobic posturing. 

In fact, after that conversation with his dad, he knew that neither of his parents seemed to mind… 

Ezra quickly purged the mental image of that from his mind and refocused on the conversation at hand. “But well… I’m still a Human,” He continued, quoting what his father had told him. “I was always gonna be different.” 

“Yeah…” Celik replied with a dejected look toward the table.

He seemed set to continue but Ezra didn’t let him, he could see the opportunity to press the attack and he took it. “I get where you were coming from, but that’s just the girl I like, Celik. I know there’s gonna be consequences, but it's something I wanna do anyway.”

“Goddess, Ezra, we’re dealing with the consequences already,” Celik said, his tusked frown lit up by the light of the tablet.

Ezra brought up his fist to bump. “So, I have the Celik seal of approval?”

He sighed as he hit it with his own. “You do. Just, please take things slow and make sure she treats you right.” Celik replied, before finally looking back up to Ezra and meeting his gaze with renewed vigour. “You also have to tell me everything that happens.”

“Deal.” He replied.

Great. One guy down, every single other boy in the academy to go.

After a period of comfortable silence, Ezra restarted the conversation. “You know, you talk with a lot of authority about relationships when you’ve never been in one yourself. When am I gonna see you with a girl, Celik?”

It wasn’t a particularly honest thing to say, considering he knew exactly how he could talk like that. Celik’s single greatest trait was his ability to listen, observe and absorb, and that was exactly what he was using here. He mightn’t have ever been in a relationship himself, but he had plenty of friends and ‘friends’ who had, and he could draw what he’d learned from them. The real question for Ezra wasn’t exactly what advice was correct, and more what was applicable to his context.

“Not for a long time,” Celik replied with a firm shake of his head, “I’m way too busy with schoolwork to be worrying about girls right now.”

Ezra smiled and nodded over to his friend’s tablet, which had been displaying an empty page reading ‘Chemistry exam notes’ for the entire time they’d been sitting down together.

To his credit, Celik was able to keep a straight face for quite a bit before he gave in. “Shut up.”

The laughter they shared drew a few curious looks in their direction.

Chapter 4: Valkyrie

Ezra had learned that in life, problems never really end. 

Things were objectively better, of course - him and Celik had reconciled, and now that he had his blessing to get closer to Veydra it made the situation significantly less stressful. Academy-wise,  the frosty silence he’d experienced from the other boys was gradually thawing toward something approaching normalcy.

And yet, Ezra still couldn’t help but feel hemmed in. He had no illusions that he’d seen the last of Keletay and his ilk, considering that the drama at the academy would likely restart the moment he did something to grab the boys’ attention again. Celik’s conditions on that reconciliation were giving him some pause as well, as he’d just started to actually think through their future implications. Ezra had given his friend a strong input on the pace of the relationship going forward, and it remained to be seen just what he would be happy to consider ‘slow’.

The idea that a relationship should move forward at a certain pace was something that he agreed with in abstract. Now, however, sitting next to Veydra and feeling the subtle warmth radiating from her, he found himself stewing in frustration. Ezra knew full well how she felt - every step forward they’d be taking would be him pushing against an open door, the only real risk was finding outside judgement on the other side. Hell, if he pulled Veydra off to some secluded corner of the maglev right now and started furiously making out with her, she’d have no…

Ezra snapped out of his reverie when he realised the effect it was beginning to have on him, and that the only thing stopping her from seeing how he really felt was the bag strategically placed on his lap. He flexed his legs to move the blood elsewhere, doing his best to disguise the motion by shifting in his seat and readjusting his headphones.

Looking over to his companion, he contented himself with the sight of her listening with clear satisfaction to the same song he was. Sharing his favourite Human music with her on their trips to and fro the academy had been a surprising, but no less welcome, source of joy for Ezra in the days since they’d met. He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, trying to focus on that rather than overthinking about the future.

 

“ ...Over and over, their gaze becomes fixed,

And it’s tooth against tongue, and tongue against lips.

Why, they’re walking so tall as they’re swinging their dicks…”

 

Oh, Goddess, he’s back.

This time Ezra didn’t even bother to try and draw the blood out, rather just bearing the discomfort as he let it go away at its own pace. Placing his hands down firmly on the bag to hide his immodesty, he was struck by thought of just how weirdly erotic it was that they could both be listening to the same song but only he was aware of just how suggestive the lyrics were. He could have nothing but sex on the brain, and she’d be none the wiser.

No doubt the opposite was also true. Veydra was a woman, after all. He wondered how many times in the last few days they had been talking about something innocent while her mind was somewhere else entirely…

Alright, his erection wasn’t going anywhere if he kept thinking about stuff like that.

Ezra waited until the end of the song, then took off his headphones and turned to his friend. “Hmm, That one’s really good.” Veydra said as took off her own significantly more expensive pair.

He made a mental note to send it over to her later, and to check out any other songs that his parents might have of the band. “You doing much this afternoon?” Ezra asked, just looking for something to get the conversation going.

Veydra looked up from her hands as she fidgeted with the headphone cushions. “I was gonna go out to the city, probably just study when I get home.”

When she said ‘city’ she meant Ixa’s Landing. It wasn’t like there were many other options, considering it dwarfed the population of any other city on the planet by an order of magnitude. Nonovan just wasn’t big enough yet for people to have much of a reason to settle in large numbers away from the place with the spaceport.

“Oh, do you like, meet up with your friends and hang out?” He asked. Admittedly it wasn’t the most subtle way to pry into her social life, but it did the trick.

“Sometimes!” She replied, with a mildly panicked tone that belied just how infrequently that likely was, “I’m just going to buy some hardware today, that’s all.”

Ezra internally cringed a little at how he’d put her on the spot like that, but in the midst of his embarrassment, he spied opportunity. Here was the chance for them to do something together, outside of the academy and its prying eyes. It wasn’t like it would be a date, either, they’d just be hanging out!

Like they should be able to at the academy.

“Hey,” Ezra said in the most casual tone he could manage, “Could I come with you?”

“Ye- I mean… if you want to, that would be cool,” Veydra answered, her own attempt at being casual betrayed by the growing grin on her face.

Yup, definitely not a date.

_

How had it been since Ezra had gone to this part of the Ivadii-Suneru Shopping Centre?

It had definitely been a while, but most of the stores were at least vaguely familiar. Hardware stores of all kinds, from gardening to electronics, passed them by alongside others selling various forms of physical media or service. One variety, betrayed by their invariable use of opaque windows and lurid blue signage with a severe overuse of terms like ‘passion’ and ‘sensation’, he was just now realising were adult shops.

Ezra supposed it was because his typical partners never needed, or wanted, a reason to detour here. Every trip with Celik tended to be a beeline to some clothing stores and then the food court, both as a consequence of his alien lack of endurance and tendency to make itineraries. Trips with his friends were even worse, the last time they’d all been together Daess had started complaining about his aching feet after just twenty minutes of walking.

It had been a long time since he’d just been able to wander on his own, free to waddle about as far and as long as his human legs could take him.

The staring faces, some covert, others brazen, he got from women as he passed them was a keen reminder as to why. Even going with a woman didn’t help him all that much, considering that most of the time they weren’t acting friendly enough for people to consider them ‘together’. Her long-legged strides had left him slowly trailing beside her, until rather than looking at her side all he could see was her butt.

Not that he was complaining.

Free to dress for the climate-controlled interior of the shopping mall, they’d both shed their jumpsuits in favour of casual clothing. Although he doubted there was any intent behind it, Veydra’s choice of tight-fitting gym shorts meant that she’d been barring to him and the world a very shapely butt and a lovely pair of thick thighs. Ezra found himself torn between looking away or staring even more…

“Hey!” A woman’s voice called out to Ezra from his side.

Oh, Goddess, please no.

He turned to the sound, and found all of his fears confirmed immediately. It was a Helkam woman, identifiable by her grey scales and sharp teeth. Whatever features one used to determine her species’ age were unknown to him, and so he could only guess that she was well into her adulthood - likely significantly older than he was.

The more generous side of him doubted that she was intentionally trying to ask out a schoolboy, and he silently cursed the fact that he probably would have avoided this entirely had he just stayed in uniform.

“Are you free this afternoon?” She asked as she approached, giving him a fanged but not altogether unpleasant smile. “It’s not so often I see such a beautiful man.”

Taking hold of Veydra’s hand, Ezra echoed the language his father used when he was approached in public. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He replied, speaking with all the undeserved courtesy needed to assuage the woman’s ego. “I just wanted to have a nice time out with my girlfriend. I hope you have a nice day, though.”

To her credit, and to Ezra’s great relief, the woman took her rejection in stride, bidding the two of them a good day as she walked away.

Then, with a heart still racing just as much as it was a few moments ago, he realised he’d jumped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. He’d held Veydra’s hand and called her his girlfriend. 

He was still holding her hand.

Should he set the record straight, remind her that he wasn’t her boyfriend? In his racing mind he couldn’t find some sort of statement or comment to make that wouldn’t come across as a put-down, something that wouldn’t go against the fact that them being together was something that he actually wanted. At the very least, he knew he should just let go.

…But he didn’t. Instead, they just kept walking hand-in-hand, sparing furtive glances at each other’s blushing faces as they coasted off the inertia of their collective awkwardness.

Eventually, Ezra found the pregnant silence between them too much to bear, and he filled it with the first banal question to come to mind. “What kind of hardware are you getting, anyways?”

Veydra blinked in response, head tilting a little as she gave him a bewildered look. “Oh… uh, it’s just a webcam.” She replied.

Ezra went on, barreling through the tonal whiplash and doing his best to ignore the pleasing warmth emanating from her palm. “What do you need it for?” He pressed.

Veydra hesitated for a few moments, pursing her lips as much as one could through a pair of tusks. He was struck by the distinct impression that it was a question she’d been hoping to avoid.

“It’s uh… heh…” She began with a self-conscious grin and general air of embarrassment, “It’s for a group I’m a part of. They do grand strategy stuff, and, well… they want more roleplaying in our next session.”

“So you're gonna have like… players recording themselves when they do diplomacy?” Ezra asked.

Veydra stopped in place, and he could swear he felt her palm begin to sweat. “Yeah…”

Ezra did his best to suppress a snort as thought through the implications, but the mental image of sweaty gamers playing at being Empress proved too much for him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. That does sound pretty cool, even if the roleplaying is a little silly.”

“I mean, it makes some people take the game more seriously and not do stupid stuff, which is nice.” She replied, gathering back some confidence “But, well, I’ve been playing as republics for the last few games just so I don’t have to use the royal we.”

“Moderators! ” Ezra replied, enunciating the word in his best impression of High Shil, “One finds our adversary’s usage of such exploitation entirely unacceptable!”

His joke earned a chuckle from Veydra. “I wish you were less accurate.”

“Honestly I’d like to give it a try, as long as no one starts talking about ‘marriage alliances’.” He said with a smile, the comment only half in jest.

“That’s why you gotta play republics!” She shot back, holding up a finger with her free hand. She went on before he could reply. “Hey, weren’t most Human states republics?”

Ezra gave her a shrug. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“I mean, the one my dad comes from is technically a monarchy, but the king doesn’t have power to do anything.” He continued, trying to recall what his parents had told him on the subject, “…Except for like this one time decades ago, and It was a massive scandal . Human politics is weird.”

“You know…” Veydra began with a growing grin, “Someone’s probably already made a mod that adds a Human Empire to the game. That would be fun to play, as long as it’s respectful and, you know…”

“…Not just some girl’s fetish?” Ezra finished for her, eyebrow raised. He made a mental note to put the red line at any unnecessary skimpiness in the uniforms, or if the mod author forgot that Humanity was still, in fact, composed 50% of women.

“Exactly.” She said with a pretty laugh. “Uh, by the way, do you wanna go inside?”

Ezra looked up to the sign of the store they were standing next to, finally taking notice of his surroundings. It was, unsurprisingly, a shop for electronics, displaying various date-slates and other pieces of hardware behind the glass walls.

He gave a self conscious nod, and gently let go of her hand as they walked into the store.

_

Only a few minutes later, and with a box containing the newly-purchased webcam in Veydra’s hand, the two of them made their way out of the dimly lit store and back into the noise and colour of the shopping centre proper.

Ezra silently followed her lead, and idly noticed that they were soon headed in the direction of the food court. “She definitely assumed it was for me.” He said.

“Oh, absolutely.” Veydra replied with a nod, “I mean, she was looking directly at you when she tried upselling.”

“I must say it was very kind of you to buy it for me, Veydra.” He joked, reaching over to give the box a few pats “And to carry it for me, as well.”

She squished it tight against her chest in reaction. “Well… I kinda need this for myself, but maybe I could make it up to you by buying you something to eat?”

That was smooth, and Ezra felt himself torn on how exactly he felt about that. The consequences of holding her hand were coming around, because she was clearly thinking, or at least hoping, that this was a date.

Veydra’s initial confidence gave way in the face of his hesitance. “But uh… only if you’re hungry, and alright with that…” She began to ramble.

Ezra cut her off with a wave of his hand, “Oh, I was just wondering if I was actually hungry, that’s all.” He lied.

“You have to think about that?” Veydra asked, seeming genuinely intrigued by the notion that someone might not know that they were hungry. That went a long way to explain her weight, he had to admit.

“Yeah… I had a big lunch” Ezra lied again, “But I could still just get something small with you. We’ll split the cost, though.”

She gave him a timid smile “Oh… alright, well. Would you like to go to Luna Rossa?” Veydra asked, pronouncing the name with surprising accuracy. “You uh… know about it, right?” 

Of course he did. It was the only Human restaurant on the planet. The owner, Giovanni, always did the catering for any kind of event the few dozen Humans on Nonovan ever organised. 

Still, it seemed like a thoughtful gesture - until a realisation hit him. What was the chance of Veydra just knowing about the one Human restaurant in the shopping centre? It certainly wasn’t impossible, but Ezra knew it was far more likely that she’d found out about doing some sort of research…

...Like researching where you’d want to take a certain Human out for a date. Had asking him to go there today been her plan all along? Ezra briefly considered the idea of turning her down, but found himself once again stuck at how exactly he’d do it.

“Oh, uh… yeah.” He finally agreed after a few awkward moments of hesitation, only realising after the fact that he’d been vague on which question of hers he was actually answering.

The conversation gave way to silence, and Ezra could only hope that it was comfortable on her end. Behind a calm visage, he found his mind turning and turning over on itself as he fretted about what he was walking into.

He knew Giovanni, and could easily predict what would happen the moment they walked in. He’d be fawning over them as a young couple for the entire time they’d be there, no doubt asking all sorts of probing questions to the two of them - and what could he do in reaction? Would he go along with it, just continue to make this a date in all but name? Should he instead try and put his foot down, making a scene?

Whatever he did would become the talk of the Human community. Hell, his parents would likely know about it even before he got home.

Walking this middle line clearly wasn’t working. He either had to make a choice here or be forced to make a worse choice later, and so Ezra went ahead and grabbed hold of Veydra’s hand once again. That, for good or ill, was a line he’d already crossed.

“Veydra, I…” Ezra began, but the words just didn’t come. He hadn’t even considered how much of what troubled him hinged on his relationship with Celik, and where he would set the boundaries for discussing that with her.

Clasping his hand tightly, Veydra regarded him at first with pleasant surprise. That soon gave way, however, to despondency as she watched on as he tried and failed to explain himself. “We… we don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” She said, almost choking out the words toward the end.

She looked set to cry if he didn’t do anything, and yet Ezra still found himself paralysed. In the place of words, an idea took hold of his mind and wouldn’t let go.

An awful, terrible, wonderful, amazing idea.

Grabbing Veydra’s hand even more tightly and pulling her along with him, Ezra searched their surroundings for a secluded corner to take her. What was seen by the public might be their concern, but what happened out of its view could stay solely between them.

Ezra knew he’d found what he was looking for when he spied an exit to a balcony overlooking the rest of the city. This late into the afternoon, the icy winds would have long since driven everyone inside. Those winds did their best to discourage him as they made their way out, but he pressed on regardless.

They wouldn’t need to be out for long, after all.

Sparing a few glances either way to make sure they were indeed alone, Ezra took Veydra to the corner of the balcony and, with a gentle push, pressed her against the wall. She let herself be moved around freely, and as he looked up she regarded him with a look of sheer confusion, tempered only by a strong, blue blush on her cheeks.

Veydra’s short and shallow breaths created little clouds of white in the cold air as he leaned forward, pressing his body against hers. Her eyes widened in shock, and Ezra couldn’t help but admire them - taking in the beauty of her golden irises as they darted about, then fixed solely on his. He felt her body rub against him as she slid down on the wall, putting her face at the same level as his own.

She wanted this just as much as he did.

Heart racing, he barreled through the last of his hesitation and pressed his lips against hers, feeling her tusks push against them. Veydra’s eyes closed and her arms came against his back, pulling him into her embrace and deepening the kiss. He felt the soft texture of her lips as they writhed against each other, the warmth of her breath holding back the encroaching chill. In the heat of the moment, her leg travelled up the length of his thigh, pushing on further and further until she reached a point of resistance she wasn’t familiar with.

There was no way she couldn’t know how he felt now.

Chapter 5: Mothers Talk

Ezra had found in the last few hours that no matter where he went or what he did, he was constantly dragged back to the singular moment that he and Veydra had shared together. Everything else, from the time they spent afterwards to the slowly-cooling dinner in front of him, paled in comparison to the warmth of Veydra’s embrace and the taste of her kiss lingering in his mind. Every single aspect had been perfect.

And yet he had to admit to himself that it was a terrible mistake.

He’d been so fixated on what he could do that he completely failed to consider whether he should. In the fear of an awkward moment communicating his true feelings Ezra let his anxiety get the better of him, and ended up baring his affection for her far too strongly and far too soon. Worse still, he’d proven that Celik had been exactly right to try and meddle with the relationship.

But his friend would never know, Goddess willing. As much as the thought of lying by omission irked him, Ezra simply couldn’t risk hitting Celik with another curveball like that just after they’d made up. Instead, he idly wondered if the next time they talked he could pretend Veydra and him had just hung out, or if should just avoid the topic entirely.

Were he to go with the former, he could already hear Celik in his chiding tone informing him, correctly, that he’d gone on a date with her - whatever Ezra’s pretensions. He couldn’t help but be hit with the masochistic sense that he needed the tongue lashing, at least as a small penance for the far larger one he deserved.

Ezra looked up from his plate and found himself locked with the piercing green eyes of his mother. She was still dressed in her white-and-blue medical jumpsuit, with her curly black hair tied back into a tight, functional ponytail. More than anything she just looked tired from a long shift, but the way she glared silently from across the table set off alarm bells nonetheless.

“So dear, when were you planning on telling us why you came home so late?” Mum asked with a tone of undisguised dissatisfaction. 

Oh no. “I just, uh, went into the city for a bit,” Ezra replied, already on the back foot.

Dad joined in, resting his fork gently on the plate and looking over at him, “Did’ya go alone?”

The temptation to just say ‘yes’ and be done with the conversation was palpable, but he resisted the urge. Whether Ezra went with his father’s Christianity or the pantheon of the Shil, or any other belief for that matter, he knew the divine didn’t look down kindly on lying. He’d been far too willing recently to bend the truth whenever it suited him, and each one incurred a debt that had to be repaid in this life and the next. To Celik, maybe - but not here, not with his parents.

“I went with Veydra.”  He said quietly, intent to just stare at his plate, “…We kissed.”

Ezra felt the pressure let up a little as both his parents softened their expressions, looking on with an air of sympathy. “Do you want to talk about it?” Mum asked softly.

Nope, not even a little bit. “It was my fault.”

“Ezra Chege Parker.” Dad began, speaking his full name like an incantation to summon all of his fatherly authority. “Don’t you ever say that again. If she pressured you into doing something ya didn’t wanna do, it’s her fault, end of story.”

“I pressured her!” Ezra found himself exclaiming, horrified at the thought of them assuming it was Veydra’s fault. “ I did it. I knew she’d be alright with it and I just… went for it.”

Levelling his tone to a more appropriate volume, he continued on. “It was a mistake. Way, way too early, but… I think things should still be good with her.”

“Bloody hell, son, you shouldda led with that!” His Dad exclaimed with clear relief, “You’ll give your poor old man a heart attack if ya go on like that.”

“Look,” He went on, holding his hands up in an even-handed gesture as he spoke, “This is absolutely the age for you to be experimenting, making mistakes, and seeing what works and what doesn’t. You’ve got absolutely nothing to be ashamed about.”

“That’s easy for you to say, John,” Mum countered, her native accent bleeding into the clean Received Pronunciation English as she began to speak with more passion, “Much more difficult for Ezra at the Academy. What if this girl goes off and brags about him being an ‘easy conquest’ to all her friends?”

“Veydra wouldn’t do that,” he replied forcefully.

She met his gaze, eyebrow raised, “Do you know that? ”

Ezra had to let silence be his answer, much to his chagrin. He could speculate all day on just how many friends Veydra would have to tell, or if those hypothetical friends would even believe her without some kind of proof - but she was right in that there was no way he could know for sure. Only his pride stood in the way of openly conceding the point.

“He’s barely younger than I was when I enlisted,” His Dad said, looking over at Mum. 

Ezra breathed a silent sigh of relief as she redirected her withering gaze from him to his father. “And you were raised to be the one doing the courting.” Mum argued, “He knows better.”

“Ya can’t dye him purple, Njira,” Dad replied, holding up his fork to emphasise the point. “The poor lad spends every day surrounded by pretty women interested in him, we should be glad it’s something this small - and that we’re hearing about it from him.”

His mother sighed, chewing on her lip for a moment. “Ezra got this far without any issues, I’m sure he can keep it that way.” She turned back from his father to him. “Your future employer probably has a child in the Academy right now. How you act, and how you’re seen, is very important, dear.”

Mum went on, “I hope you’re right about this girl, and I know that this is all very exciting, but you need to be careful about rushing into it. You should’ve talked to us before taking a big step like that, alright?”

He gave her a sincere nod, “Yes, Mum.”

“And no encouraging him!”

Dad gave her an entirely insincere grin, “Yes, dear.”

_

Rain battered down all around the covered walkway as Ezra made his way from the station to the Academy proper, shivering all the while from the cold, wet air penetrating his coat.

Corralled into a single line by the downpour with only enough space for a few people abreast, he found himself forced to shuffle along at the glacial pace of the crowd around him.

At least he had music to drown out the sound of the rain and chatter. It was another playlist that his parents had enthusiastically given him, encouraged by the knowledge that he was sharing it with Veydra. ‘80s and ‘90s stuff’, they’d called it. Mum said it was the ‘best era of music’, and the comment earned her some truly powerful side-eye from Dad.

The obsession Humanity back home on Earth had with specific decades was pretty quaint compared to the literal centuries of modern media that other species had, but Ezra still had to admit the songs sounded pretty good.

“...When the wind blows (When the wind blows!),

When the mothers talk (When the mothers talk!),

When the wind blows…”

Someone grabbed hold of his hand.

Ezra’s heart lurched as he pulled back in the initial shock, nearly knocking himself into the furry embrace of a Rakiri girl walking next to him. He felt immediate relief, however, when he turned his head and saw the familiar face of the girl that had him tight in her grasp.

“Bloody-” Ezra began as he pulled off his headphones with his free hand, then quickly switched to Shil, “Veydra! You startled me!”

She met his eyes with an adorably nervous grin, and her grip loosened considerably. “S-sorry….” Veydra said with a mumbling tone nearly inaudible over the din all around them, “I just… heh… thought it would be nice to hold your hand again. If, uh, you’re okay with that…”

Was he? He’d told her explicitly that they should put off doing stuff at the Academy, but that had also been before he’d pushed her up against a wall and kissed her. With the anonymity of the crowd they were in, it wasn’t like he was going to have any problems by being seen with her 

Ezra also found it to be a welcome, if quite unexpected, show of initiative. Little steps like this - when the guy is okay with it - were exactly how a woman should be pursuing a relationship. Veydra was just doing it in her own way. Sure, that way seemed to be a little awkward and spontaneous, and more than a little goofy.

But it was also sweet, and cute.

He let his face soften, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze in reply. “It’s fine! Just, uh, don’t grab it out of the blue like that again.”

“Yeah, sorry…” Veydra said. The thickness of her jacket blocked his view of her mouth, but Ezra only needed to see her eyes to know she was frowning. After a few moments, she seemed to pick herself up a little. “What does ‘bluh-dee’ mean, by the way?”

Ezra blinked, blindsided by the question. “Oh, I was gonna say ‘bloody hell’ - It’s an exclamation my Dad uses a lot, translates to something like… ‘bloodsoaked underworld’, I guess?” 

“Is it a religious thing?” Veydra asked, dejection giving way to genuine interest. “Sounds cool.”

“Not really, I think,” Ezra answered, “Calling things bloodsoaked is just a way of emphasising stuff in his culture. It’s funny, if he’s not careful he’ll put ‘bloody ’ in the middle of a sentence even when he’s talking in Shil. It’s just one of those things about Dad, something he’s kept from Terra.”

Ezra drew himself closer, and watched Veydra look out into the rain as they shuffled along, “A lot of things must be weird for him. Growing up pre-contact, I mean.”

“Yeah,” He confirmed, “I don’t think I've ever met a Human from their generation that ever really got over it.”

“Do your parents talk about it much?” Veydra asked, evidently picking up on what exactly he’d meant by ‘it’.

“They do…” Ezra replied, suppressing a sigh. He decided to go with the easier part of the topic first, “For Mum, it’s always a story of how things got better. Where she came from… parts of it were incredibly poor, and she can talk all about how the Empire ended crime, treated the sick, and gave them an opportunity for a better life.”

He had her undivided attention now, “And your Dad?”

Ezra softened his tone, hoping that Veydra could still hear him over the noise. “Well, where he lived, the people were already happy and healthy and safe when the Empire came. When Dad talks about it he gets… well, not sad, but… Emotional. He’ll talk about what was lost, how hard it was for people to adjust, all the anger and confusion and despair.” 

Tears began to well, going unnoticed in the beginning but threatening to overpower him as he pushed on. “But, he’ll always make sure to bring up all the stuff he gained, and he always gets this look on his face, because the biggest one…” Ezra sniffed, and his voice came out a little croaky. “...Was my Mother and I.”

He wiped away the tears as best he could, and when his vision was clear enough to see he took a few self-conscious glances in each direction. There weren’t any faces looking their way, but the chance of someone overhearing them was too much for Ezra to bear. “I’m sorry, this is the wrong place to talk about this sort of thing.”

Veydra let go of his hand and wrapped the same arm around him, making Ezra jump a little in reaction. Still feeling stupid from his outburst, he let himself get pulled into her embrace as they walked along. “Is this okay?” She asked, more than a little needlessly.

Ezra could feel the warmth of her breast emanating from her jacket, and in the moment he wondered if he would’ve needed any more justification than just that. “Yeah,” He replied, reinforcing the point by wrapping his own arm around her waist.

“You know, I've spent all this time talking about myself,” Ezra continued, “I think I need to learn a little bit more about you.”

“Maybe I could talk about it when we’re alone together sometime…” Veydra offered.

A smile crept onto his lips as he readily took the bait. “Like on a date?”

_

“Oh my Goddess, you did not! ” Daess exclaimed, pausing just long enough to make his comment before going back to absolutely demolishing a bag of fried dakkar - their only reprieve from the incessant crunching being the overpowering sound of the rain falling hard against the windows of the rec room. Spying across the table and into his lap, Ezra could see that there was more than enough for the whole group to eat. He knew better than to expect Daess to share, though.

His ability to stay only somewhat heavier than most other boys was a true testament to the wonders of the Shil’vati metabolism.

“Acting so interested is going to put ideas in her head.” Eino chided as he looked out into the rain, the Rousan boy’s white-and-black face set into a dour expression.

Well, no more dour than usual at least. Ezra would have readily assumed that his constant look of severity was another trait of his species had he not known Eino’s mother. She was one of the better PE teachers at the academy, and cut a distinct figure with her unceasing smile and the long pair of antlers jutting from her head.

“He’s just following his traditions. In Human culture, the males do the courting.” Celik argued, leaning back in his chair. Ezra wasn’t sure if that was the best angle of attack, and the reactions from Celik’s friends - silent consideration from Eino and a curious tilt of the head from Daess - only served to exacerbate his concerns.

As Ezra began to think it over, though, he felt a twinge of guilt go straight to his core. Here Celik was defending him at the cost of his own reputation, and he didn’t even have the courage to tell him the full truth about his relationship.

“It’s what my Dad did here.” He agreed with a nod, failing to mention the vital detail that he was talking about his father’s relationship with another Human. 

Just another lie by omission to add to the pile.

“For that to work out the other girl needs to behave,” Eino said, stating the obvious.

“Yeah,” Ezra conceded with a wave of his hand, “But she’s been really good so far, super nice and polite.”

After taking a deep breath, Eino looked set to reply - but Daess talked over him, “Is she a nice girl or a nice girl? ” He quipped, laughing a little at his own joke.

Ezra gave him a polite chuckle, “Absolutely not.”

“Okay…” Daess replied, “But you better tell us if she starts asking for feet pics.”

The wheels in Ezra’s mind turned against his will, exploring the horrifying implications of what Daess had said, “...Girls are into that?”

“Some are,” He replied with a grin, while Celik shook his head in mild disgust and Enio gave a snort.

“Some Shil are,” The latter corrected, his frown betrayed by the humour in his voice.

Ezra couldn’t help but agree, despite his typical apprehensions toward that sort of comment. He certainly couldn’t imagine Humans being into something like that.

“Even if she is fine, you still have to worry about her friends,” Eino added, likely getting back to what he wanted to say in the first place.

Celik quickly turned his gaze toward the Rousan, a conspicuous glint in his eye betraying the otherwise neutral expression, “That’s the thing, Humans are traditionally monogamous. If a girl has a problem with that, they’re being specieist.”

Oh wow. 

Ezra suppressed a grin, surprised and pleased at what he now recognized as Celik’s gambit. Monogamy was, frankly, not something that he had given much thought about, other than the surefire knowledge that right now he was interested in Veydra and Veydra alone. Perhaps one day in the future the two of them could think about him having someone else, but for now, holding strong to ‘Human traditions’ served his purposes perfectly.

“Mmmm, I still give it a few months until Ezra starts collecting a nerd herd,” Daess said, his tone making it perfectly clear that he just wanted to talk more shit.

“We all know what you would want to do with one, Daess,” Eino shot back. 

What exactly he was alluding to, Ezra had no idea. The focus of the conversation shifting away from him and Veydra came as a welcome change nonetheless, and it was a sure sign that they were gradually becoming more accepting of the idea of them being together.

“Oh, speaking of traditions,” Daess began, “When you get your Rousan girls you’re not gonna make them lock antlers?”

“That’s different!”

“Yup, uhuh, competing for dominance, nothing sexual about that, no ma’am! ” He replied with an ever-widening grin, “Remind me, what do they do afterwards? ”

Eino narrowed his eyes and angled his head down, leading Ezra to speculate that even amongst the hornless males the instinct to headbutt remained. “Nothing that you haven’t fantasised about girls doing a million times before, you little colcarian.”

Chapter 6: Pale Shelter

Ezra was just thinking of another topic to bring up when to Veydra as they walked along the elevated pathway when a distant noise, audible to him as just a distant rumble, suddenly drew her undivided attention.

“Oh! Oh! It’s today!” Veydra exclaimed as she rushed off to the railing to look down below. The sudden burst of energy was surprising to say the least, especially considering that they’d walked a fair distance already, but Ezra found such concerns quickly leaving his mind as he watched her butt sway back and forth as she ran.

When he himself made it over to the edge it was the sound of the march, more than its visual, was what struck him first. The sound of steps falling in unison coalesced into a uniform crack, joining the percussive boom of the war drums that gave the procession its step. All manner of horns and strings joined the melody of marching feet, alongside the clanking sound of metal on metal from the period armour worn by the participants. Their leader, a Shil woman standing tall and proud on a slowly moving platform at the head of the march, turned around to face the procession.

“Glory! (Imperial!)

Glory! (Eternal!)”

The call and response came out with staggering power, and as she gave it Ezra couldn't help but think the leader cut an impressive figure. Dressed in a silver breastplate and an ornately decorated shawl, and with the microphone used to project her voice carefully hidden from view, she looked for all as though she’d been transported straight from the Colcari Legions of ancient history.

“The Empress calls upon you! (We draw our blades!)

The Empress leads the way! (We go forth and conquer!)

For Her, you raise the banner! (We raise the banner!)

For Her, you hold the banner! (We hold the banner!)”

Adding to the moment, Ezra felt the warmth of Veydra’s embrace as she wrapped her arm around him, and drew his attention to the men and women trailing behind the leader when she pointed with the other. “My birth-mother marched in the honour guard before!” She began, shouting to be heard over all the noise. “We still have the armour on display at home!”

Looking over, Ezra noticed a sense of pride in Veydra’s expression that he’d never really seen in her before. The realisation struck him that it was the first time he’d heard her discuss anything about her family. It was good to know that parents in service was something they had in common, and that she could be proud about it.

“Glory! (Imperial!)

Glory! (Eternal!)”

“That’s really cool!” He shouted back, snaking an arm as far around her waist as he could reach. “I gotta come see it sometime.”

The armour of the guard in question was similarly period dress, and Ezra had to suppress a smile when he realised that thanks to their plate skirts they were only marching in as high a step as decency would allow. He quickly decided against making a comment about it, too. Best not to ruin the moment.

Past them came the bulk of the force, all dressed in sleek black marine bodysuits with helmets in hand. The individual groups were signified by standard bearers at their head, and the banners made for a sea of colour - each bearing different insignia, regimental colours, and noble seals. All were unified, however, by the Sword and Blossom seal of the Imperium placed at the prominent position in their centre.

“From the scorching sands of Keraka! (We raise the banner!)

To the jewel seas of Rathen’dana! (We hold the banner!)”

“Hey, your Dad would’ve gone on some marches like this, right?” Veydra asked after some time had passed. 

Had he ever actually told her his Dad had been a marine? Ezra supposed it was a pretty easy thing to guess. Back when his parents had settled in Nonovan the military had essentially been the only way Humans could get off world, excepting the Jeremy So’Kana types that managed to break their way into Shil high society.

He’d never seen his father madder than when he’d seen him on the news giving a speech on the ‘upliftment of exceptional lowborn individuals for the purpose of creating a nascent Human aristocracy’ in his whiny half-Australian, half-High Shil accent. Even Mum had looked displeased.

“Glory! (Imperial!)

Glory! (Eternal!)”

“He did a few back on Terra, I think,” Ezra replied absently, going back to watching the soldiers pass by. 

Looking down the street, he could see the column go on, and on, and on, and on . Whatever a sight like this might have meant on Earth, here it meant safety. Nonovan earned its title as a frontier world, and it did so by being one of the first places that would inevitably be in the firing line of the Alliance, the Rousan People’s Republic, or any other power in the Periphery in the case of war.

Ezra found his expression souring - struck by the thought that, however unlikely it may be, his parents could end up going through two planetary invasions in their lifetime.

“Do you, uh… wanna go now?” Veydra asked gently from behind.

“Oh, yeah, sure, if you wanna,” He replied. His tentative agreement was enough to convince her, apparently, and they went back to walking on the elevated pathway over the street. Passing a line of trees as they made their way into an open park, Ezra was amazed at how quickly the din of the march faded away into the background - joining a chorus of rustling leaves, bird calls and open conversation.

“From the men of Terra! (We raise the banner!)

To the… ”

“Oh hey, that’s me!” Ezra said, speaking over the now-faint sound of the leader's vocals.

“Heh…” Veydra began with an unconvincing laugh, “I don’t know, I guess you're a man of Nonovan, with, uh…. you know… you being born here and everything.” What little confidence she started with had quickly faded away, and by the end, she’d sounded every bit like the stuttering mess he’d known on the day they’d met.

Where had this shyness come from?

He turned around to face Veydra, and tried to encourage her a little with a joke he heard his Dad make once. “How I see it, You can take the Human out of Earth, but you can’t take the Earth out of the Human. I haven’t even shown you my collection of pipe bombs yet.”

A female voice called from behind. “Is that so?”

Ezra turned around to find its source, only to find his mild confusion turn to abject terror as he saw a woman in the black and gold of the local militia uniform standing on the path before them, staring daggers at him. 

“I’m s-sorry, ma’am.” He managed to sputter out.

“You should be, kid,” The militiawoman said, arms folded and eyebrows raised. “Thanks to you I'm gonna have to write up a report including the phrases ‘Human adolescent’ and ‘obvious joke’.” 

The latter was delivered with such verbal force that it sounded as if she was trying to manifest her will into reality through words alone.

She jerked a thumb in the direction of the path, “Go along, you two. Some of us can still enjoy their afternoons, after all.”

"Yes, ma’am!” The two replied in unison as they hurried along, happy to not test the limits of her generosity.

Ezra waited until they were sufficiently out of earshot before he let out a heady exhale, coming down from the adrenaline high as they continued to walk down the paved track through the park.

“Goddess, I hope my parents don’t hear about that,” He vented to Veydra.

The problem was that Ezra knew full well that the report would end up on the data-slate of an interior agent. Thankfully, that fact sounded far worse than it actually was.

The local security services had a special interest in the affairs of the Humans on Nonovan, evident by the fact that they’d made a habit of contacting Ezra and his parents quite a few times about various flimsy circumstances - it didn’t take a genius to guess that they’d be on to this, as his father would say, like ‘flies on shit’. Ezra knew - or well, really, really hoped - that they wouldn’t take this too seriously, considering he had a completely spotless record and obviously lacked the means to make a ‘collection of pipe bombs’.

Some kind of reaction would likely come of it, though. Whether that meant hearing some wry comment about ‘loose talk’ from agent Zirin the next time he saw him or a message to his parents, he had no idea. Words could scarcely convey how much he dreaded the possibility of the latter.

“What… what does ‘Earth’ mean?” Veydra asked, her face scrunched in what looked like a mixture of confusion and concern.

“Oh! Uh… that’s ‘Terra’ in my Dad’s language,” Ezra replied, realising that in repeating his father’s joke he’d repeated it exactly as he would say it. “It’s just another habit he has from home. Calling the planet Terra back there, even when you’re speaking in Shil, was seen as being… too close to the Imperium. People would ostracise you, and you’d get called a bunch of names like ‘Quisling’ or ‘Collaborator’.”

Veydra looked down, his words clearly having done nothing to assuage her concern. “Oh…”

“Anyways!” He exclaimed, “Enough Human stuff. Tell me about stuff about you, and your family, too.”

“Well…” Veydra began, “Most of my parents grew up here on Nonovan, apart from, uh, Alaysa, my birth-mother, the one I mentioned before…”

She trailed off for a moment, taking a few heavy breaths, before appearing to get back on track. “For the others, there’s my Dad, Sasul, he just stays at home and takes care of us. Yekaisa and Jala were his first two, Academy sweethearts, they like to make a joke of arguing who actually came first. Then there’s Viiraha and Noarima, they work together as jewellers! Make a lot of stuff that they can export off-world, with all the sapphires and amethysts here, you know. Then, uh, my mum came a bit later.”

Putting too much emphasis on the mother one was born to was a faux pas, of course, but Ezra could clearly see that she was compensating way too far in the other direction. It seemed she barely wanted to mention her at all, and all that after she’d seemed so proud of her for marching in the honour guard before…

Strange.

“My family’s a lot smaller - a normal size for Humans, I guess.” Ezra replied, “Dad’s called John Parker, he got out of the Marines and works as an accountant now. My Mum gets his last name, so she’s Njira Parker. She’s still technically military, but works as an anesthesiologist at a civilian hospital.”

“They just had me and decided that was enough,” He added with a shrug, “I’m guessing it’s a bit different with you, huh?”

Veydra gave him a hasty nod. “Yeah, heh. I’m the second youngest of seven, and the next oldest is my brother, Lismey. They like to say that they had us two to prove they weren’t just stopping after they got a boy…”

“Well, Dad was the youngest sibling in his family, and his parents would joke sometimes that they kept having kids until they got one they liked.” He said.

When a response failed to come, Ezra looked over and got what he realised was the first good look at her since the start of their date. She was in a sorry state, hair slicked down and forehead covered with sweat, giving him an apologetic look as she let out a long, panting breath. Veydra was suffering, and he’d just been too stuck in his own mind to realise.

Ezra immediately jumped into action, slipping his backpack off to one side and rushing over to wrap an arm around Veydra, lamenting to himself all the while.

How had he been so thoughtless?

_

How could she have been so stupid?

“Veydra, I’m so sorry! Do you need to sit down?” Ezra asked, looking up at her with his beautiful green eyes full of pity.

Pity for a girl that hadn’t had the courage to just ask to sit down together ten minutes ago. The girl that had the sheer stupidity to think that dragging him off to watch a military march would be a good idea, and the temerity to ask a Human his father’s experience with the Imperium, to even brag about her mother’s time in the military!

Just seeing him frown like that had broken her heart, and was made all the worse by the fact that she had been the one to cause it.

She felt sick.

With her aching legs threatening to give out from under her, Veydra had little choice but to say yes to Ezra - but like always when speaking to him, her tongue did its best to tie itself into knots. “Uh… y-yeah, okay,” She finally managed to stammer out as she let him guide her over to a nearby tree.

She took the last few painful steps that they needed to take together, trying to reign in her breathing and wipe away the accumulating sweat on her brow as she went.

As they sat down together he retrieved the water bottle from his bag and, after taking a swig of his own, handed it over for her to drink. Despite it all, a twinge of excitement ran through her core at the thought of putting her lips where his had been but moments ago. Another kiss to share, however indirect this one might have been compared to their first.

That amazing kiss. 

It still felt so strange that it had even come to that. She’d had a crush on Ezra for months. For so long she’d tried to find out as much as she could about him and about Humanity - searching for a way to talk to him, to just have a chance with him. 

Then, undeservedly, that chance had fallen into her lap. Despite her failure to reciprocate at the start, it all seemed to work out for them. He’d even stood up to that bitch Kalayza and made her run off like she was being chased by a turox! Never had Veydra seen a boy be so strong, so assertive. It did… things for her.

It fit that he’d been the one to take the first step in their romance. Everything had seemed so perfect afterwards, even if all her friends had thought she was lying when she’d told them.

Now it felt like it was slipping away like sand between her fingertips.

“Are you alright?” Ezra asked, dragging Veydra out of her brooding silence.

“I’m… I’m fine,” She lied.

He nodded, then his gaze lingered on hers with an air of sympathy. It was always the moments like this that she dreaded, because it reminded her of how little of a woman she actually was. 

She had no idea how to respond. 

Should she nod back, or try to say something? After a few painful moments of hesitation she went with the former, and was rewarded with an awkward silence in response.

Would their time together always be this agonising?

What if when they finally got together she just froze up? Or what if he was put off by how big her butt was? Or that her left breast was slightly smaller than the right…

Veydra, you're spiralling.

She pulled herself out of the tailspin, reminding herself of her birth-mother’s advice. Every march began with a single step. She could worry about those things when the day came.

If it came at all.

More likely, Ezra would finally come to his senses and realise just how pathetic she really was - that she barely had any friends in real life and gamed past midnight every night. Or his parents would learn about her and put a stop to their relationship once he learned about her family. Oh goddess, what if he told his father what she’d done today?

Tears began to well, and she felt one fall down to her cheek.

No, Veydra.

Hele’s tits, you’re a woman, Veydra. Do not cry.

Do not…

_

Ezra suddenly found the pleasant silence that he’d been sharing with Veydra broken by a loud sniffle, followed by the tell-tale sound of sobbing to his side. Heart already beginning to sink in his chest, he turned round on his knees to see how she was doing.

It wasn’t pretty.

Veydra had her face scrunched up in anguish, tears streaming down her cheek. The moment she noticed him looking she wrenched back herself like she’d been struck, and clasped a hand over her eyes to hide the tears. Through her fingertips, a single golden eye stared back at him.

“I’m s-sorry, Ezra” Veydra said between quiet, pained sobs.

Panic shot through him like lightning. “About what?” He asked, the lingering feeling of emotional whiplash bleeding into an unwelcome tone of worry in his voice.

“A- About all- all of the- Empire stuff,” She choked out, putting her hand back down but averting her gaze from his.“With you b-being a Human, and what your parents went through, too. I’m so sorry, Ezra.”

Oh. 

He sighed as he gathered his thoughts, and immediately felt a stab of guilt at how she’d interpreted him doing that in front of her. It was really no wonder that she was making these sorts of assumptions, with what he’d told her before about his Dad. With everything else she’d know about Earth, too.

“Veydra, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry about.” He began, crawling in closer and wrapping his arms around her in a loose embrace, ”I… I don’t hate the empire. I don’t think I even could. My parents met in service, Veydra - I exist because of the empire.”

She raised up her teary gaze from her knees, and Ezra made sure to meet it as he went on. “I know I said all this stuff about how my Dad doesn’t like the Empire… but, well, he knows what life is like without it, I don’t. He can always go off and think about how things used to be, how things could have been different if Aliens never came from the sky.”

“Even then, he just wants to live a good life with what he has, and he wants me to have a good life, too. Dad was the one telling me I did the right thing when I defended you at the Academy, Veydra. He wants to meet you, Veydra. From everything I've told him, he really likes you!” He continued, gaining momentum as he watched hope flow into her golden eyes.

“And I don’t want you to forget that I like you, Veydra.“ Ezra said as he drew his face closer to hers, praying to any god that would listen that she’d realise this was her cue to kiss him.

She did.

Chapter 7: Innocence - Part One

“So…” Dad began, keeping his gaze fixed on the tela cakes and turox slices he had frying on the stovetop, “You just want her over to show her the computer, huh?”

“I mean, yeah, we’ve talked about Human stuff a lot,” Ezra replied between mouthfuls of his own breakfast, making sure to keep one eye on his data-slate's clock. 

Missing the maglev to the academy had never been much of a concern for him before, considering they had one leaving the station every ten minutes. But missing the specific maglev that Veydra took every morning, on the other hand? Now that was something to worry about.

His father gave a cake one last flip in the pan, before scooping it out and pouring in the batter for the next. “Two teens alone in the computer room… awfully convenient, don’tcha think?”

Ezra felt a small pang of fear run through him as he realised Dad had more-or-less seen straight through his intentions. He did genuinely want to share his culture, but the invitation was nonetheless an integral part of ‘Operation: Get Veydra alone somewhere so they could go a little bit further than just kissing’. In his view, there was no real reason for why it couldn’t be both. 

It was only after some more consideration that Ezra smelled the rat, leaving him embarrassed that he didn’t pick up on it in the first place. There was no way that after all of his encouragement, Dad was suddenly suspicious of his intentions. Still, Ezra decided to play along. It’d be good practice for trying to get Mum on board, at least.

"Come on, Dad,” He sighed, “I’ve been telling her about it for weeks . I wanna teach her how to play FTL! Veydra’s super interested!”

“Uhuh, and you’re sure she’s not just super interested in a certain Human boy, instead?” Dad countered, swinging his spatula to and fro as he spoke, “There’s plenty of girls that’ll say or do just about whatever it takes to get into your pants, ya know.”

The sincerity of the words was undercut by the rising pitch of his tone, effectively confirming Ezra’s suspicions. He also began to suspect that the reason his father wasn’t turning around was in order to conceal a grin.

He wasn’t strictly wrong, though.

“Why can’t she be interested in both?” Ezra argued.

“¿Por qué no los dos?”

“What?” He asked, bewildered.

Dad shook his head, then turned it to show the easy smile that Ezra knew he’d been hiding. “Nevermind, son. I’m all for you bringing her over to meet all us Parkers. Can’t be tonight, though.”

“Why not?” Ezra asked, searching back through his memory to think if he’d missed something on their schedule.

“Because this isn’t something you’re gonna spring on your Mum out of the blue, like you’ve done with me.” His father answered with a lightly chiding tone, “You float the idea gently tonight, and we’ll go through the proper parental negotiations.”

“Alright,” He replied. The certainty and casualness with which Dad could discuss the prospects of a future argument was jarring, to say the least. Was that just what married life was like?

Idly, Ezra wondered if there’d be a time when he and Veydra would have to argue like that. It seemed… premature to consider, and yet at the same time wasn’t the whole point of starting a relationship to find someone you’d be happy to spend the rest of your life with? He supposed that they’d just end up finding each other's rough edges soon enough.

“Don’t you have a train to catch?” Dad asked, making him check the time again.

Oh shit.

Grabbing up his bag with one hand and stuffing one last tela cake into his mouth with the other, Ezra gave his father a muffled “Thanks for breakfast!” as he went for the door.

_

A few days later

_

Ezra took a few furtive glances to see if he was being watched and then, once satisfied that he was indeed alone, made a sharp turn in the alley to the back door of sci-block. When the sterile, white interior proved to be just as deserted as the exterior, he let down his guard a little and went for the stairs. As long as he took a route that avoided the classroom windows, he could eliminate most of the risk of being caught by any of the faculty.

His desire for secrecy was, he had to admit, a little overblown. As a non-sci student he technically wasn’t allowed to be in the building, but rules like that were rarely, if ever, enforced for males. Considering that he wasn’t going anywhere near the labs, storage rooms or anything else that actually mattered, the only real danger he could encounter would be a teacher who knew him personally and for whatever reason decided to grill him on what he was doing here. More likely they’d just escort him out, or not even care.

In exchange for that small risk, Ezra was able to spend a shared free period with Veydra in far friendlier territory - the possibility of an unpleasant encounter like they’d had their first time together was far from his mind.

With a few last bounding steps, he made it to the top floor. Coming into the hallway, he took another sharp left into the open door of a private break-room - somewhere that they could guarantee some time alone together. A smile came to his lips as he spied a familiar figure sitting alone on the couch, engrossed in her data-slate. The first thing that drew his attention was her hair.

Specifically, the fact that it had been pulled back into a high and tight ponytail.

The moment he saw it, Ezra began to consider how to get her to keep it like that in the future. It did absolute wonders in framing her face - showing off her pointed ears, soft cheeks, and a surprisingly angular jaw. All things intimately familiar to him, but now feeling entirely new in this fresh light. Just above and behind her ear, he spotted a large splotch of dark purple travelling all the way up to her hairline, something that he’d never seen before. 

He was surprised to say the least, but quickly found himself appreciating it. The birthmark contrasted nicely with the pastel colour of her skin, and added to her distinctiveness. It was something uniquely Veydra.

Altogether, she looked less a girl and more the woman he knew her to be - even with the cuter touches, like her freckles and pouty lips.

Taking a few more steps inside and revealing what had been concealed by the couch, Ezra got a good look at just how much woman there was, too. Her thighs and butt spread out onto the couch, smooshing into the cushions. In the warmth, she had her typical jacket and jumpsuit off, replaced by a school shirt, with a small bulge where her belly jutted out, and a pair of tight-looking shorts. With a few of her buttons undone, he found his eyes drawn upwards to her generous cleavage.

And there were freckles there too!

Veydra’s eyes flicked up from the slate to him and, with a quickly growing blush, he brought his own gaze back to more appropriate territory. “Hey,” She said with a smile.

“Hey yourself,” Ezra replied, plopping himself down next to her on the couch, “I really like how you’ve done your hair.”

She brought up a hand to run her fingers through the strands of her ponytail, a smile coming to her lips. “Thank you… my mum did it up for me, for tonight!”

Ezra tentatively reached out to grasp it himself. “I think you should keep it that way. It really suits you.”

Veydra’s smile faltered. “I, uh… well, I used to have it like this a lot, but girls would give me trouble for this in class.” She replied, her hand rubbing her birthmark, ”They only stopped calling me ‘spot’ a few years ago…”

Cute . 

Absolutely, unbearably cute. To the point that he couldn’t stand the sheepishness, and Ezra felt a grin growing on his cheeks.

Adorableness notwithstanding, he resolved to reassure her - gently moving his hand to Veydra’s cheek and guiding her gaze to his. “Who cares about what they think? You shouldn’t have to hide your face just for them.”

“I… um, yeah, I guess you’re right…” She mumbled back noncommittally, her eyes darting to and fro.

“You look good, Veydra,” Ezra asserted, before catching himself, “More than good! You look great. ”

He watched a blush bloom across her freckled cheeks. 

“Th-thank you… I…” Veydra paused as she locked her golden eyes with his again, seeming to build up her courage, and then let the words spill out at an almost manic pace, “I love your eyes, they’re really pretty… and green…”

“Oh no… ” He replied with a chuckle, feeling no shortage of warmth from the compliment, “I’ve gotten this girl’s hopes up and now she’s gonna follow me home.”

To his joy, Veydra beamed back at him, “Well… maybe you shouldn’t have told her about all the cool Human stuff you have.”

Ezra leaned back on the couch, wrapping his arm as far around her shoulders as he could manage, “You’re gonna die so quickly playing FTL. Ten credits say you won’t even make it out of the second sector.”

He could speak from experience. The game absolutely punched him in the tits in his first few playthroughs. It just kept throwing crisis after crisis at him, everything from solar flares to teleporting insectoids, until inevitably the health of his ship was whittled down to nothing or all his crew got killed. It took him a while to finally feel like he could keep his head above water. Even then, when he was last playing he still typically met his end at sector five or six.

Ezra was sure Veydra, with her complete lack of experience with Human games and needing him to translate, would fare even worse.

“You’re on,” She shot back with a lopsided grin and uncharacteristic amount of force.

“You can certainly try… Captain Veydra.” Ezra replied, and to his surprise quickly found her ready to answer his banter with some of her own.

She cocked her head up a little and looked down her nose at him, putting on a tone of mock authority. “Are you doubting the abilities of your Superior Officer? ”

Well, this was certainly a side of her that he hadn't seen before. Had the mockery excited some kind of competitive spirit in her? Wherever it was coming from, Ezra found himself liking it a lot.

Still, there was no way he could resist the urge to get under her skin a little. “Oh, you want me to be your subordinate, do you?” He cooed.

Veydra froze. 

“I… you… you said it first!” She exclaimed, going wide-eyed and pure purple as she snapped straight back into being the girl he knew.

Ezra just grinned back in reply.

_

By the time he actually found himself travelling back to his home with Veydra in tow, Ezra felt his nerves start to fray a little at the edges.

Walking through the wide hallway together, he tried to distract himself by watching the unit numbers listed on each passing door slowly tick up as they got closer to his own. When that proved too monotonous, Ezra turned his head to look out the windows as they went by. He could spy a few people out for afternoon strolls with their partners or families down below, walking in the park surrounded on all sides by the apartment complex.

The irrational thought that Veydra would be disappointed with what she saw came to mind, and he did his best to quash it. Ezra practically knew that Veydra didn’t live anywhere more impressive, considering that pretty much all but the richest families owned an apartment in the complexes. The Imperium had built them all with the intent of getting people on the world, and there just wasn’t any point in going out and building your own house when they offered them for so cheap.

Even when they came to his house he knew there wasn’t much to worry about, he’d been the one put in charge of cleaning it up for guests.

Yet still, Ezra couldn’t help but feel like he was bearing out a part of himself by inviting her over. This was another step into unknown, albeit exciting, new territory, and how it went was important. His parents had certainly thought so.

At first, Mum had been firmly against Veydra showing up at all - arguing that it was all too premature, and that it would be far more proper for them to organise some kind of outing with their combined families instead. Dad had,eventually, worn her down, using the right combination of compromise, promises and gentle argument.

Still, the final result of his father’s ‘parental negotiations’ had been… bittersweet.

In winning the date itself, he’d had to cave on most of the specific details. Veydra staying the night was firmly out of the question, and rather than get any time to themselves they’d have to spend it with doors open and parental supervision firmly in place. With the promise that a combined outing with them all would happen eventually, Dad had at the very least convinced Mum that they didn’t have to wait for a night when both parents would be home for the evening.

Another step closer, but not physically.

Ezra had to suppress a nervous sigh when they finally reached door 3-17, and took some solace in the smile he saw Veydra give him when he looked back at her.

“This is it?” She asked.

He gave her a nod and retrieved his keycard to unlock the door, bidding her in after he opened it. Walking through the threshold himself to the kitchen, they came to the centre table. Ezra watched her attention get drawn immediately to his old ndome shield hung up on the wall, the wood painted with a series of interlocking triangles in the red, black, white and green of the Kenyan flag. It made for a proper cultural menagerie, contrasting with the landscape painting of the Australian outback and various pieces of alien, mostly Rousan, art and artefacts.

Then his Father walked into the room, and Veydra held out an open hand to him.

“Hel’lo Dshōn, fahter ov Ezra!” She exclaimed in heavily accented, but still somewhat understandable, English.

While Ezra froze in shock, his Dad took it up with his prosthetic hand, shaking it as he looked up at her with a broad grin, “Hello Veydra, daughter of… someone!” He replied enthusiastically in his native tongue.

A quick glance toward him from this ‘Dshōn’, answered by an even quicker shake of his head, told Dad exactly how much Ezra had to do with this cultural exchange. As strange as the whole thing was, he was very glad to see their relationship get off to a good start. Veydra could learn firsthand that his Dad wasn’t as intimidating as she’d imagined.

“Well, we need to work a bit on your pronunciation, but I must say that’s a very good first effort!” His father said, keeping up his smile as he switched over to his own somewhat accented Shil, “Anyways, I’m glad to have you here, Veydra. We’ve been hearing a lot about you here in the Parker household.”

Veydra gave him a nervous grin as her familiar bashfulness began to set in, “Only, uh, good things, I hope.”

“Very good things!” Dad replied encouragingly, “I’ve been told that you want to see the sort of games I was playing as a kid.”

“Yeah, she’s got a keen interest in ancient history,” Ezra teased.

Dad’s gaze slid over from Veydra, hitting Ezra with some side-eye. 

“Better appreciate what I’m doing for you here, mate,” He warned in English and then, despite the confused looks from both Ezra and Veydra, returned to speaking Shil as if nothing had happened, “I’ve got the old machine out of the garage and all hooked up in the office, all ready to go. Ezra can show you the way.”

Huh?  

Was he just talking about the date itself?

Veydra spoke up to his father, shaking him out of his own thoughts, “Thank you, sir!” She said, clearly beaming with joy.

“Well,” Dad began, gesturing toward the door, “As we Humans say - my house is your house.”

“We?” Ezra asked, taking a glance back toward him as he went off with Veydra. Even in his confused state, he picked up on his father’s nonsense immediately - experience having taught him to be immensely suspicious of anything he claimed to an alien was ‘Human tradition’.

“Hey,” His father shot back, “Some Humans do.”

-

Making their way to the office, the conversation descended into the sort of small talk that Ezra had fully expected from the visit but nonetheless found extremely monotonous. Family discussion, a few names and jobs exchanged, games played and recent shows and movies watched, and mercifully brief allusions to the sort of local drama and politics that only a person his Dad’s age could be actually interested in. When the topic inevitably went to Earth, he and his father both employed all of the typical polite euphemisms necessary to keep things light and pleasant.

Ezra had his attention piqued, however, when Dad got to the terms of the date. Almost like a switch had been flipped in his brain, all of the terms from his mother that he’d argued against were being presented so matter-of-factly, as if it was something that he’d supported all along. Calling it whiplash felt like an understatement.

As disorientating as it was, Ezra supposed that was just another aspect of relationships. In private, they could argue quite a bit, but when the time came to talk with outsiders they’d present themselves as a united front. Whatever consensus they reached is what everyone else would see.

Then the time finally came for them to do what they were here for.

Taking on the couch specially set up for them and gesturing for Veydra to do the same, Ezra hit the power button on the hefty tower sitting on the desk and watched the old technology come to life. First came the light emanating from the button itself, then next the loud whir of the cooling fans starting to turn. As the monitor lit up, so did the mouse and keyboard - gently shifting in hue through all the colours of the rainbow.

Veydra pushed herself forward to look closer at the display and, seemingly unintentionally, brought her leg forward to brush against his knee. “Oooooh,” She cooed, “I wasn’t expecting the colours!”

The pleasant sensation of her bare skin, with its enticing feeling of heat and silky smoothness against his own, turned out to be brief. Veydra evidently noticed and immediately jolted her leg away. Pretending not to notice, Ezra shifted to the side and accidentally brought them back into contact. This time she kept perfectly still, and he was free to enjoy the feeling of warmth and softness for as long as he pleased.

“Yeah, apparently it was super fashionable for Earth hardware to light up like that when Dad bought all his stuff,” Ezra replied nonchalantly.

His father called out from the kitchen, likely hearing the commotion. “Hope you can get some use out of the old thing before it finally kicks the bucket! What game are you starting with, by the way?”

“Before it dies,” Ezra quickly corrected in a quiet tone, pre-empting Veydra’s confused head tilt, before answering his Father, “FTL!”

“Ooooh, nice choice. Just as a word of warning, Veydra, the game is made to be bloody hard. Don’t be surprised if your run suddenly ends because of something out of the blue.”

“Something unexpected.”

“Anyways, I’ve got work to do, so I'll get out of your hair.”

“Leave us alone,” He again corrected, then shouted out a loud “Thanks, Dad! ” and returned to his low tone, “You know, sometimes I don’t even get what Dad means, and I speak his language. There is a l-”

Sitting there with his thigh against hers, Ezra had a realisation. A devious realisation.

Their backs were to the door, and they were free to keep their legs touching as much as they wanted. A thrill ran through Ezra’s core at the fact they could probably go a lot further .

“It’s really cool that he can share stuff like this with you,” Veydra replied, “Having that connection with his culture, you know?”

Ezra gave her a nod as the computer finally finished starting up - sending them straight to the desktop, the background image of a plain, grassy hill with a cloudy blue sky half-obscured by a sea of folders and icons.

“Is that Earth?” She asked enthusiastically, before catching herself, “Oh… that’s, uh, a dumb question…”

Ezra gave her a shrug. “I mean, Dad could have brought an Earth camera with him as a marine, taken a photo on an alien planet with it and made that the background.”

“This is just the default one, though,” He continued, navigating to the FTL icon on the taskbar and opening the game, “Not sure exactly where on Earth this is…”

After a few moments, the desktop gave way to a blank screen with a bar gradually filling in the centre.

“Oh!” Veydra exclaimed in surprise, “That means ‘Loading’, right?”

“Yep.”

“Heh… I’d recognise that anywhere.”

The arrival of the title screen, showing off a fleet of rebel ships in their signature light blue and orange orbiting a planet, was punctuated by the sound of the FTL theme’s first slow, electronic notes coming through the monitor’s tinny speakers. A banner in the corner with a little Exo as its icon announced that the developers had released a new game just before the Invasion called Into the Breach.

There was always something weirdly melancholic about the fact that he’d probably never be able to play it.

Veydra kept silent, watching on with rapt attention as he started a new game and took them to the hangar screen. “So here is our starting ship, the Kestrel cruiser - you can see the interior, and we have your crew in the corner here, your…

“Only three?” Veydra interrupted, seeming incredulous at the very concept.

it wasn’t hard to guess why. The idea of a combat vessel functioning with just three crewmates was pretty outlandish.

"And that is one of the hardest parts of the game.” Ezra replied, glancing back at her, “Your crew can die in battle or in events, Captain Veydra, it’s your job to protect them and recruit more.”

The captain in question peered for a few moments at what he knew to her was a mess of incomprehensible language and symbols, before speaking up again. “Well… what else do we have here?”

“So, for the Kestrel our two starting weapons are a missile launcher that can pierce enemy shields, and a laser cannon that can shoot in a three-round burst…”

_

“Target their weapon systems with our laser, we need it down as soon as possible,” Veydra ordered, leaning back as she surveyed the scene in front of her.

Ezra did as he was bade and fired off the burst. Just as the last laser blast hit and left the Rebel fighter at 3 health, the screen immediately flashed with an alert and paused the game.

He’d readily accepted his position as quasi-First Officer, operating and translating the game while his ‘captain’ made the decisions. That meant, however, accepting all of the decisions he wouldn’t have made himself.

Specifically, that she was letting all of their enemies surrender.

“The ship is hailing us, ma’am,” Ezra began, slipping into character, “They’re offering 9 scrap, 2 missiles and a drone-part in exchange for their lives. It’s… a bad deal. Considering that we took 2 damage and expended a missile getting their shields down, we’re barely breaking even.” 

“Proceed.”

Ezra hovered the mouse over the option, but held off on pressing it for another moment. “It’d be for the good of the Federation.” He said, looking back. “And no one would ever know, after all…” 

It felt like the best way to hint that there were zero gameplay consequences ignoring pleas for surrender, and that in fact because the scrap reward was higher for destroyed ships it was just good gameplay sense to do it in most cases. She seemed to be totally sincere in her efforts to role-play an honourable officer, so such a thing was clearly beneath her.

The game was all in good fun, of course, but seeing their ship still not have upgraded shields halfway through the second sector was a tiny bit frustrating. This run was destined for nowhere fast, and they’d continue to be as long as Veydra kept going as she did.

She met his gaze, and he saw in her eyes that same self-assurance that he’d seen in the morning, “While we pilot this ship we are the Federation, if a combatant honourably surrenders then it is our duty to accept it.”

He nodded in reply, accepting the enemy’s offer and taking them to the star map to plot their course to the next system.

One of their new neighbouring systems had a distress beacon active, the third of the run, and it just took a look back at his captain to know that was where she wanted them next. He clicked the mouse and…

Oh goddess, it was this event.

“We see various ships fleeing a space station,” Ezra began, “Upon hailing them they tell us that it’s infested with, well… they compare them to a giant, alien version of a Terran animal called a spider, an eight-legged venomous insect. We have the options to try to help clear the infestation, or leave the station to its fate.”

Having encountered the event many times before, he knew immediately how this would play out. Veydra would pick the option to help, and they’d lose a crewmate to the spiders - bringing them down to two and putting them even closer to a lost game. He wasn’t even sure if there was a chance for the event to have a positive outcome if you tried to help.

Faced with yet another case when pragmatism was the right way forward, Ezra wondered how he could break Veydra out of her honour-shtick.

Then a devious thought crossed his mind. If this was the same spirit as the morning, then he could deal with it the same way. All he needed to do was apply some male charm , and Veydra could be putty in his hands. He’d be able to guide her onto the proper path playing the game.

And have some fun doing it.

Readying himself to make his move, Ezra watched as Veydra paused in contemplation,

“...We’ll help them clear the station,” She ultimately decided.

He leaned in from his side of the couch, pushing his bare thigh just a little more against her leg and increasing the contact between them. “Are you sure?” he asked, scooting much closer than was necessary.

So close that Ezra felt the barest hints of her breath on his face as she hesitated in her reply.

“I… we… need to do our duty to help those in need…” She answered with a stutter, eyes bouncing between him and the game. This time sounding quite a bit more unsure of her decision.

Ezra upped the ante, leaning to the side until he was practically laying under her arm, “Don’t you also have a duty to keep your crew safe?” He asked softly, fighting his own growing grin and doing his best to make his movements seem natural, “You’d be putting them in a very dangerous situation…”

Feeling the ambient warmth emanating from her, Ezra realised just how close he was to her chest, too.

Blush blooming across her face, Veydra began to stare back with a blatant mixture of lust and bewilderment. “You’re…” she trailed off, biting her lip, “you’re right,” She finally replied, “We’ll keep going…”

“Good choice” he chirped, turning his head back to face the monitor.

He exited the event and went for the star map with one hand, lounging himself on Veydra’s side.

_

Two sectors later, and a promise to cough up 10 credits made, Ezra watched with some satisfaction as the consequences of Veydra’s choices began to catch up with her. She’d finally begun ignoring surrender pleas, probably realising for herself the difference in scrap rewards, but that had proven to be too little and too late. Every fight proved to be harder than the next, and they lacked the scrap to upgrade the ship to keep up.

Ezra had been content to keep teasing her, with a few more light touches here and some more rubbing there, as they went through the game. Unfortunately for him, there hadn’t been any more ‘moral quandaries’ for them to navigate together.

That was until they encountered a slaver ship demanding they surrender a crewmate. The choice to refuse had been obvious, and the fight, a few nasty hits to their missile launcher notwithstanding, had ended with the Kestrel getting the upper hand.

Then just before the slave ship was about to be destroyed they beamed an offer to surrender, giving up one of their slaves to become a crewmate. A Zoltan crewmate, specifically. One of the most useful species in the game.

“Absolutely not, we continue the attack,” Came Veydra’s reply to his translation of the offer.

“Another crewmate could be useful,” Ezra replied, turning to face her, “Besides, if we destroy the ship we’ll be killing all of the other slaves.”

She frowned, evidently unconvinced, “We’d be forcing them to be our crewmate....”

This time Ezra lowered his free hand down onto her leg, gently gliding it up to the edge of her shorts sitting high on her soft thigh, “That species helps power the system in any room they’re in, if we take them we’d be going a long way to help our ship.”

Veydra wrenched herself back a little in reaction, but let him caress her without complaint. She seemed to be slipping back into her typical bashfulness when her gaze strayed from his eyes, until it came back with a renewed vigour.

“No,” She answered firmly, “And you’re… you’re not going to convince me otherwise.”

That was a challenge.

Ezra could see it in her eyes. She knew the game they were playing together, and she wanted to take it further. 

He was all too happy to oblige.

Taking his other hand to the zipper of his pullover and slowly pulling it down, Ezra watched with a growing grin as her eyes went wide. She was completely unable to wrench her gaze away while he revealed more and more of his chest, yet another blush coming hard on her freckled cheeks.

Then he pushed up the hand on his thigh and took up one of hers with it. Slowly, he pulled towards him and placed it on his pec, feeling Veydra’s breaths come down hot and heavy as she was jerked closer toward him.

“Ezra…” She whimpered.

“What’s wrong, Veydra?” He cooed, before pausing in surprise at how he shuddered from dragging her soft fingers over a bare nipple, “This is… uh, this is normal for my culture, you know… It’s just my chest…”

Ezra knew it was a lie, or at least a blatant exaggeration. He didn’t care.

“But your dad…” She whispered back, eyes fixed on her hand.

“I guess we’ll just have to be quiet then…” He trailed off, giggling from the tickling sensation of her squeezing his chest.

It didn’t last long.

As he looked up into her golden eyes he found them piercing into his own, staring on with a look of sheer, naked desire that sent a shiver down his spine. He realised that Veydra took him at his word.

The hand he was holding slipped out of his grasp, pulling the zipper further down as it raced onwards. In a moment she’d wrapped all the way around him, the other quickly meeting it through his clothing before she yanked him.

In an instant he was in her lap, the knee now between her legs immediately soaked in boiling humidity. Ezra found his heart pounding in his chest, pressed between the sheer strength of her embrace and the swell of her breasts. Veydra mashed her lips against his, adding more fuel to the fire. A tusk pricked him in the cheek, but her mouthing and sucking swept the thought from his mind before Ezra could even register the discomfort.

He slackened against the sensations, going limp in her arms for a moment before he felt her free arm move.

Ezra suppressed a yelp as she grabbed his ass. Practically trying to tear through his pants to get at it.  His mouth now open, her tongue raced past to explore. Ezra found himself overwhelmed by it all - the smell of her breath, the taste of her tongue, the smooth side bulging out his cheeks, the rough side grinding and pressing against his teeth, by all the things that mixed and melded together until he couldn’t distinguish them.

On sheer instinct, Ezra pressed a hand on her belly and began to push it upwards, going further and further until…  

A familiar voice called from outside the room, breaking them both out of their trance. “ Hey, you two! ”

Panic wrenched them both away from each other, and with a racing heart he looked back at the doorway. Ezra let out an immense sigh of relief when he found It was empty, praise the heavens.

He swallowed before he went to reply, trying his hardest to push through his pounding heart and speak with a level tone, “Y- Yeah, Dad?”

“I was just looking through the pantry and I noticed that we’re missing some things I need for dinner, so I'm gonna go do some shopping. Won’t be back for about an hour,” Dad answered casually, before adding in sing-song English, “ Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! ”

He looked back in the empty space of the doorway, dumbly staring as he listened to the sound of the front door opening and then shutting again.

Anything he wouldn’t do. Not Mum.

Him.

Dad knew what was going to happen, he might’ve even heard them doing it. He was giving them his blessing.

Ezra jumped up from his seat onto a pair of trembling legs, reaching to tug Veydra along but finding himself only grasping at air.

She was already up, leering down at him from over the panting rise and fall of her chest.

“L- let me show you my bedroom !” He half-breathed, half-squeaked, a part of him still irrationally fearful that someone might hear them. 

They didn’t have any time to waste.

Chapter 8: Innocence - Part Two - NSFW

Summary:

Our first smut chapter of the series! This one is entirely skippable if you're just here for the plot.

“L- let me show you my bedroom!”

Veydra’s arms engulfed him as he tried to lead them out of the office, pulling tight enough to feel the weight of her chest pressing against his back.

They only made it to the middle of the hallway.

She pulled back and grabbed him by the shoulders, turning Ezra around to face her. Within moments, he found himself pushed up against the wall and smothered in Veydra’s warmth. Her hands went for his, and she quickly had them pinned together above his head with surprising strength. Watching her chest rise and fall as she loomed over him, she seemed to physically pant with arousal. He realised that there was no way he could have escaped her embrace, even if he’d wanted to.

Then she leaned down and brought her face closer to his, letting him feel her warm breath as she slowly began extending out her long, sinuous tongue. Each moment seemed to stretch on longer than last as Ezra stewed in rapt anticipation of their second kiss. Eventually he lost his patience, and pushed forward with closed eyes and open lips.

They met in the middle, Veydra letting him swirl his tongue around hers as he explored her anatomy. The fact that the Shil’vati tongue had a rough and a smooth side was something Ezra had always known in abstract, but actually feeling it was something else entirely. Entranced by the sensation, he tried to push onwards. 

Veydra met his advance and began to dance back, but rather than up the pace she just pushed back harder and harder until they were in his mouth again. Moving with such deliberate slowness, he found the gentleness with which they kissed to contrast maddeningly with the strength of her grip on his wrists, and the sheer weight and heat that she engulfed him in as she squished him further between her and the wall.

Nearly lost in the heat of the moment, Ezra felt a knee brush up against the inside of his thigh as she squirmed against him. 

It began to slowly travel upwards. Skin rubbed gently against skin until it came to the edge of his shorts, and then even further beyond. Their tongues still dancing, Veydra pressed her thigh against an erection straining hard against its confines. The sudden, overwhelming sensation made Ezra shudder hard in her grip, his tongue going limp in her mouth as he hitched in shock.

Her own hitch came shortly afterwards, with Veydra pulling her face back when she seemed to realise just what she was pushing up against. “That’s your…” She breathed, confirming his suspicions.

“Yeah,” Ezra replied with a nervous laugh.

With her leg frozen in place against his groin and grip loosening on his hands, he watched Veydra’s eye’s dash up and down between it and his gaze. “Do you… you want me to touch it?” She asked, suddenly seeming unsure of herself.

“Yep,” He answered, giving her a hasty nod and adding, “You know, it gets like that a lot when I'm around you.”

Veydra sucked in a harsh breath in response, glancing off to the side as though nervous someone would hear. “I- I get- whenever we hang out… I mean, I get kinda wet…” 

“Oooohhhh….” He cooed, cheeks pulling his lips into an impish grin, “Do I make you wet, Veydra?”

She sucked in another deep breath, and again turned away from his gaze as she seemed to think of what to say next. After a few moments she let it out in a long groan and pressed her forehead against his own, her gaze staring straight into his eyes. 

“Ezra… you always make me wet,” Veydra murmured in a slow, deliberate tone.

He let out another nervous laugh, a part of him intimidated by her sudden intensity.

And before he could even think to reply further, her lips were on his again. Veydra’s tongue pushed on through to the back of throat, the organ rolling and roving around his mouth as it explored every detail of his tongue with wanton abandon. Letting go of his wrists, Ezra felt her hand snake down to grab ahold of his ass. The other reached for his crotch, stroking his erection through his shorts. The overstimulation made him moan into her mouth, giving Veydra the signal to start again in earnest.

But in the midst of her affections, Ezra resolved to fight back.

With his hands now freed from her grasp, he reached up and grabbed ahold of her shirt, pulling it upwards further and further until he came to the lip of her sports bra. With newfound determination he burrowed his fingers underneath, feeling the intense warmth of her bare skin but finding himself struggling to go further as he pushed against the sheer weight of her chest. 

After a few fruitless moments, Veydra seemed to finally notice what he was trying to achieve - breaking off the kiss with one last lick and bringing her hands to her chest to pull up her shirt and bra over her head in one clean motion.

And Sweet Goddess, it was a sight to behold.

Ezra watched in awe as Veydra’s full, purple breasts slipped from their confines and bounced down to rest together snugly on her chest. He found himself paralyzed, stuck staring at the sight before him with the thought that this was really happening.

Then, with hands still resting above, he brought them down to cup one of the orbs - finding that indeed it was a two handed job, considering each seemed bigger than his own head . They were warm, wonderfully warm, with such a pleasing sensation of sinking and bouncing as he held it in his grasp. Prompted to go further than just cupping her breast, he began tracing his fingers along the areola and thumbing the thick, blue nipple at the centre. Veydra let out a sudden gasp, and soon he felt one of her hands come behind his head to gently pull him closer to her chest. 

The needy look on her face, golden eyes boring into his, told Ezra exactly what she was asking for. He was happy to oblige.

With a small jolt forward, he smothered his face into the warmth and softness of her breast - and opened his mouth to lick. Ezra started with small, tentative strokes, then went to explore further and longer with his tongue. He could pick up on the subtle, sweet taste of sweat on her skin as he went. Turning his attention to the nipple, he held it gently between his teeth before opening up further to suckle on her tit outright.

Through the sound of rustling clothes and wet smacks, Ezra began to hear Veydra to softly moan from above. It was a sound of pleasure. Pleasure that he’d given her. 

Angling his head upwards as he switched from one breast to the other, Ezra locked eyes with Veydra and started to suck. She stared back at him with naked desire, mouth going agape as she began to moan and pant even harder. The hand on the neck moved upwards, starting to caress and stroke through his hair. Veydra’s other arm, he noticed, was stuck on her side, moving rhythmically up and down.

Intrigued, he broke off his eyes from hers and let his gaze travel down her body. She had her hand underneath her shorts, fingers writhing under the fabric.  A thrill ran through his core at the point of realisation, and his erection began to push even harder against his shorts. 

She was touching herself.

With a wet plop, Ezra detached from her breast and delved further into her embrace, nuzzling himself into Veydra’s chest. He pushed the hand he had resting on the small of her back further down, slipping it under the elastic. She squeaked in surprise as he sank his fingers into the soft and pliant flesh of her ass. Veydra was just starting to push back against his hand when he brought the other to her front and slowly began to follow her arm down to her crotch.

Ezra only stopped pushing down when he felt an incredibly hot and wet mount of flesh. He began to pull back, but found his hand grabbed and guided even further down by Veydra, her fingers covered in what he could only assume was her own juices. Their warmth and slickness paled in comparison to the sweltering heat he felt as fingers glided along the lips of her…

Her pussy, Ezra realised. He was feeling the hot, wet folds of Veydra’s pussy.

He slipped a finger between the lips and began to explore her anatomy, enjoying the alien sensation of the soft flesh and listening to the wonderful sound of his lover’s hitches and moans beginning to come from above. Through heart flutters and nervous jitters, Ezra persisted - slipping in another finger and upping the pace as he tried to rub and stroke up and down with his palm. She pushed his hand down even harder against her slit in response, her leg shifting forwards as she started to grind into his hand.

They continued for a few long moments, rubbing on and on until he felt his hand get utterly soaked and his wrist start to get sore from the repetitive motion. Then, slipping her own hand down further over his, Veydra stilled his fingers. 

“Go up to the top,” She instructed between panting breaths.

Ezra did as he was bade, pulling his fingers out and tracing up her lips, delighting as Veydra shuddered against his body, until he found what felt like a little nub of flesh-

“There! ”

He stopped and gave it a gentle, experimental caress, earning him a soft gasp from Veydra. The slippery texture made it a surprisingly difficult target, but he did his best to keep his fingers rubbing against it as he began to rhythmically move his hand up and down once again.

“Oh, Goddess…” She moaned, leaning in further and placing an elbow against the wall above him, boxing him in. The motion pressed her tits further into his face, only leaving him a small crack to enjoy the sight of her gasping in pleasure. One of her eyes caught him looking at her, the intense flush of her face somehow taking on an even deeper shade of blue before she pressed the two globes together.

Goddess, it was almost too much. 

His whole world was nothing but her, nothing but the warmth and smell and taste of Veydra. Her thigh moved in further, his erection pulsing against the warmth, and for the first time it was Ezra found that he was the one groaning against his will.

Veydra started to rock, steadily rubbing against his dick until his foreskin slid down and began to travel along with it, making him shiver as it rolled up and down over the sensitive flesh underneath.

Ezra quickly recovered, responding to her advances by upping his own pace. He pushed his finger deeper into her, using his palm to rub along her clit. Sticking out his tongue, and painting long licks on the skin of her tits. His and Veydra’s sweat began to mix together, dripping down his face and chest as he rocked back and forth in her all-encompassing embrace, almost delirious from the sweltering heat.

“Thank you… thank you, Ezra… keep going…”

Through the heat, the sweat, and the pain, he did just that - rubbing and grinding on and on until he’d lost track of the time altogether. All that mattered to him was reaching- no, getting her to the end of this. To make her moan more and more until she boiled over.

Ezra managed to wiggle out from her chest, gasping into her skin. “I- Is it good?”

"Really… really good.” Veydra answered between long, heavy breaths, golden eyes locked on his while she bit her lip, “Goddess, keep- keep going, I- I-I’m…"

The stuttering sent him into overdrive, his mind going haywire as he found every little thing she said or did cute, attractive, sexy, beautiful, and everything in between. He scrambled an arm as far around as he could reach, pulling her towards him as he pressed down even harder against her clit.

“OH, YES!” Veydra cried out in ecstasy as she collapsed on top of Ezra, pushing her body against him and seeming to clench every muscle in her body. He felt the whole process fitfully tear through her, the flesh of her tits, stomach, and leg all quaking as he continued to rub against her clit, scaldingly hot juices flowing freely through his fingers. Gradually, she came down from the throes of climax, a long, low moan giving way to heavy breathing.

A few long moments passed before Veydra pulled back, rolling herself off to rest alongside Ezra on the wall.

“Goddess,” She said with an unwomanly sound somewhere between a chuckle and giggle, “I’ve never cum that hard before, ever.”

The words rang in his head over and over, dragging Ezra’s mind away from the sensations and back into reality. This wasn’t just touching and kissing any more, he had his hand down her pants and his fingers inside her. He’d just made her cum.

And they were standing in the hallway.

A pang of fear ran through him at the thought of one of his parents showing up and catching them in the act. With Dad it’d probably just be painfully awkward and embarrassing, but with Mum…

She’d just kill them on the spot.

Every part of Ezra’s being told him to go further rather than pull away, but after some internal turmoil he managed to put mind over matter. He gently unwrapped Veydra’s arm from around him and, with no shortage of regret, withdrew his hand from her pants, giving the sore wrist a flick as he did it. 

“We need to go to the bedroom,” Ezra muttered, more to himself than to her.

“Okay…” Veydra breathed as she pushed herself off the wall, the bounce of her naked chest capturing Ezra’s attention near-immediately, “Let’s go.”

Now freed from her grasp, he quickly bent down to retrieve the bra and sports shirt Veydra had discarded on the floor and went for the door, and jumped back a little in reaction to her grabbing his ass as she followed close behind. 

On the way his curiosity got the better of him, and he brought his soaked fingers up for an inquisitive sniff. The smell was tangy and floral - odd, but far from unpleasant. 

From the corner of his eye he saw Veydra notice what he was doing and begin to stare with sudden intensity, gaze bouncing between him and his hand. Ezra paused with indecision, then decided to play to his audience - locking eyes with her as he gave his fingers a long lick. He found that he actually enjoyed the taste of her juices more.

Making sure to use the other hand, Ezra opened up the door to his room. He ushered a blushing Veydra on through and closed the door behind her, taking the opportunity also to slip off his shorts and pullover, leaving most of his body exposed for her to enjoy.

Ezra dropped their clothing on the floor and left them as the one piece of clutter in an otherwise immaculate bedroom. It had always been Mom’s doctrine that when guests were coming that everywhere in the house had to be presentable, even the rooms that they wouldn’t be going to. Most importantly for the two of them, that meant that at the corner of his room lay a clean, freshly made double bed.

A bed that Ezra, after circling round Veydra and watching her eyes steadfastly follow his naked chest in his peripheral vision, threw himself on top of. He shifted himself over to the middle and propped himself up on his elbow. Looking down, he realised his erection was tenting hard against his underwear, a wet patch visible where his precum had soaked through the fabric.

The pause Veydra gave him as she just hovered over him from the edge of the bed allowed for the smallest amount of self-consciousness to worm its way into his heart. Ezra tapped on the sheets beside him, trying to make it entirely clear where he wanted her.

After another moment's hesitation Veydra followed, far faster than he’d expected. 

Instead of laying down by his side, she extended her leg over Ezra and straddled him in one quick motion. He found himself pushed onto his back as he sunk into the mattress under her weight. In an instant the sweltering heat of her crotch pressed against his erection, making him buck back against it involuntarily.

Veydra looked on down with her tusked mouth agape, expression unreadable, and she mewled and squeaked as she began to grind her pussy hard against him. 

In that moment, Ezra realised that the only thing stopping them from being one was a thin layer of fabric. It was a fantasy he’d had so many times before - To lay on a bed, far away from the prying eyes and judgement of others, with a beautiful woman so close, their passion and desire for each other abundantly clear. What came next was obvious.

And then he thought of Celik.

Ezra had certainly not been perfect in his promise to his friend everything , but he had been keeping him informed on the progression of the relationship - from holding hands, to kissing and their other moments of intimacy. The fact that he’d just fingered her was bad enough, going from that to sex would be far too much of a leap for him to abide - and he was going to need Celik’s help if he wanted this relationship to work out publicly.

It felt stupid, humiliating even, to have something like that stand between him and her, and every single part of him seemed to beg to just forget it and go with his instinct. There was no other way about it, though. His only consolation would be making it seem like it was his idea.

“Veydra…” Ezra began, speaking up to grab her attention, “I don’t think we should go the whole way … at least not today.”

The look of sudden dejection Veydra gave him broke his heart, and she began to slowly wrench herself back.  “You… you don’t…” 

“We can do other things!” He quickly added.

Veydra stopped in place. “...Other things?” She asked, still not sounding very hopeful.

Ezra gave her his best reassuring smile, and brought up a hand to make a V shape against his lips. “Other things.”

The moment she put two and two together Veydra burst out with nervous laughter, giddy at what must have seemed to her as a sudden reversal of fortune. “You’d… do that?”

“I’ve put my tongue…” He said with a growing grin, putting a single finger up to her lips, “here …” then softly dragged it down to her breast, “and here… ” 

Wedging his hand between their bodies and once again slipping it under the elastic of her shorts, he reached his final destination. “So, why not down here ?”

Ezra traced a finger gently across her still-wet folds, watching her stare down at him with rapt, adoring attention. All Veydra needed was some affection and encouragement. He was more than willing to provide it.

“ Thank you ,” She replied with a nervous, dopey grin, starting to gently push and gyrate against his hand, “You’re so nice, doing that for me…”

He smiled back at her, his other hand going for the waistband of her panties and slowly beginning to pull them down. “When you first saw that Human boy in class… did you ever think that one day you could have him fingering you? Sucking on your clit?”

“I always…” Veydra began, before cutting herself off with a self-conscious glance off to the side.

Unfortunately for her, Ezra had an inkling of what she was going to say - and absolutely no intention of letting Veydra off the hook. “You had fantasies about me?” He cooed, “You gotta tell me about them, now.”

She paused, seeming to work up the courage to reply. “I thought about what it would be like … being with you. I imagined you wanting me, and that you’d be the one… you know, making me… uh… do things.” 

Veydra, you dirty girl. 

It felt weird for Ezra to hear her talk about him being the one on top, as titillating as it was, after just how proactive and forceful she’d been herself mere moments ago. More importantly though, he knew full well why that had been what she’d fantasised about before they knew each other.

“And you were thinking that because I’m a Human?” Ezra asked, raising an eyebrow.

Veydra flinched a little in response, clearly assuming he’d taken it the wrong way. “...Maybe.” She mumbled under her breath.

He looked up into Veydra’s golden eyes and gave her a cheeky grin. “Well right now, Shil, I want you to take off your pants and show me what you’ve got hiding down there, alright? ”

She didn’t need to be told twice.

In a few hurried, jerky motions, Veydra had managed to pull her panties the rest of the way off and start to shuffle up on the bed. She came to a stop at his chest, sitting up with her knees on either side. Even with Veydra resting most of her weight on her knees on each side of him, her thighs still weighed down heavily enough to pin him in place.

But it was what lay between them that grabbed Ezra’s attention most of all. He could see her pussy laying squarely on his chest and radiating pleasing warmth into his skin - with two sets of lips interlocked, the engorged, blue labia blooming out like a flower, and the clit that he had just recently shown so much attention jutting out prominently at the top. Everywhere down there was slick with her juices, giving it a shine that just served to make it look even more beautiful and enticing.

Wedging his fingers between his chest and her thighs, Ezra gave himself the wiggle room to shuffle down on the bed. When he reached his destination he was tempted to get started immediately, but held himself back for a little longer.

Instead, Ezra angled his head upwards and caught a glimpse of Veydra peering down at him through her chest. “How badly do you want it?” He asked, giving her an impish grin. If she wanted maledom, she’d get it.

“Really, really badly.” She answered, both her tone and expression screaming sheer neediness.

Ezra replied by lifting his head up to give her lips a gentle kiss, quickly finding his own lips soaked and his senses overwhelmed by the floral scent as his nose slipped between the folds. He pulled back with a parting lick, leaving Veydra to mewl in frustration.

“Beg for me,” Ezra ordered.

“Please Ezra…” She pleaded, pausing to swallow, “ I really, really want you to… lick my pussy…”

He wrapped an arm around her hips as she spoke, kneading and squishing the soft flesh of her ass as he stared back up into her eyes. A dull ache flared in his cheek, and Ezra realised that he’d been grinning for so hard and so long that the muscle had gotten sore.

“That’s a lot to ask for, Veydra. What could you do for me?”

She replied immediately, her tone thick with desperation. “I’ll… I’ll suck your dick! Or uh, I can use my boobs… if you’d like…”

“Good girl,” He cooed, “You do that.”

Satisfied with her pleading, Ezra leaned in to get to work - only to find himself very nearly getting blindsided by Veydra’s thick thigh as she flipped herself over to face his crotch. Before he could even think to react, she was lying parallel to him with her breasts resting heavily on his abdomen, her hands burrowed in the waistband of his underwear. It came down in a smooth motion, freeing his erection to spring up from its confines.

The sight made Veydra freeze in place, staring rapturously as it stood twitching in the cold air. “It’s beautiful…” She said with utter sincerity.

“… hanks,” Ezra replied dumbly, not really sure what else to say. He realised that once again she’d taken him at his word. 

Exactly his word.

Bringing her hands down to her chest, Veydra hefted up her breasts to sit snugly on either side of his member. Ezra watched in shock as they covered the whole way up to the head, encasing him in pleasing warmth and pillowy softness. Starting in long, slow motions, she began to push her tits together, and drag them up and down across his erection. He felt it utterly surrounded in a kind of pleasure that he’d never felt before, the sensation making him shudder and suppress a moan.

Frustration mounted, however, as he quickly felt the pleasure marred by a growing discomfort from the friction. Sweat was their only lubricant, and experience with his own hand had long taught him that in situations like this something else would be needed.

Luckily for them, Ezra was prepared.

“Wait…” He said, making Veydra stop in place as he shuffled his upper body off to the side of the bed. He leant over to open the bedside drawer, and after some fumbling about retrieved the carefully stashed bottle of lube in the back. “Here, use this.”

Veydra reached out a hand to retrieve the bottle. As Ezra gave it he watched her eyes widen the moment she realised what it was. She accepted with a blush, eyes darting between it and him as she clearly thought through the implications of him owning a half-empty lube bottle. 

Whatever burning questions Veydra must have had about his masturbation habits died on her tongue, as the moment passed and she brought the bottle over to his chest. She crushed it in her grip, pouring out a copious amount of the viscous fluid onto her cleavage. Tossing the lube aside, she began to spread the liquid across the expanse of her breasts in long strokes, giving them a reflective shine in the dim light of his room. 

Ezra watched on, captivated by the sight, until his attention was stolen by Veydra turning her hands on him. He flinched back from the sudden shock as she began sliding her fingers across his erection. She moved up and down with surprising grace, gaze switching periodically between his and her work as she went.

Goddess, it felt so much better than his own hand.

His member lubed to her satisfaction, Veydra shuffled herself over on the bed to face him directly, her height leaving her feet dangling off the side. Ezra’s eyes wandered down from her golden eyes to the massive, purple breasts resting heavily on either side of his erection, and watched as she pressed them together once again. The feeling of pressure and wet heat was heavenly, forcing up a series of moans and hitches as he began to buck and thrust into his lover’s soft embrace.

But it didn’t take long for Ezra to start feeling a telltale sensation build at the base of his crotch. When it began to spread upwards with worrying speed, a single, burning realisation ripped through his mind.

He was going to cum. 

Ezra grit his teeth and curled up his toes as he tried to hold a little longer, masculine dignity demanding that he not give in so soon. His struggle only seemed to further encourage Veydra, though, making her press her boobs harder and faster as she stared on with a look of pure, unabashed fascination.

And it was the look that finally made him give in.

Cum erupted out with surprising force, the seed landing on the top of Veydra’s breasts and chest as waves of pleasure emanated from his member and spread throughout his whole body. Through it all she just kept going , and Ezra began to shudder and recoil as pleasing sensation gave way to sheer overstimulation. He tried his best to wrench himself out from her grip, but only succeeded in wriggling in place.

Eventually Veydra got the picture, letting her breasts drop to her chest with a wet smack and freeing him from their grip. She brought a hand up to wipe away the sweat from her brow and looked down with a dumb grin at the fresh glaze dripping down her chest. “Wow…”

A strange sense of exhaustion began to creep on Ezra, intermingling with the lingering pleasure as he found himself staring at a curious Veydra, who was currently digging her hand into her cleavage and gathering up some of his cum. Holding it up to her face, she began to study it - squishing the seed between her fingers and giving it a curious sniff. The sight, as strange as it was, didn’t distract him from a growing sense of embarrassment.

“Sorry for being so quick…” Ezra mumbled out.

“That just means I did a good job… right?” Veydra asked. She was still smiling, but an unmistakable air of desperation bled into her tone.

“Yeah! It was really, really good!” He replied quickly, setting aside his own doubts as he tried to soothe hers, “I just… I guess I'm just not used to this sort of stuff yet.”

“That’s alright!” she said, “My arms were starting to get sore anyways…”

Unsure what else to say, Ezra kept silent until Veydra spoke up again.

“...Soooo,” She began, golden eyes drifting downwards, “You still wanna… you know…”

Ezra felt a smile creeping back to his lips. “Take the oral exam?”

“What?” Veydra replied, head tilting to the side before her eyes widened in realisation, “Ooohhhh…”

He lifted himself up and crawled over to Veydra, snaking his hands under her armpits and beginning to pull. “You know, pry open the clam.”

Veydra let herself get brought up, her own legs doing most of the work, and then on her knees pressed forward until her breasts were sitting snugly, and wetly, against his chest. “Kiss where there’s no tusks?” She asked, shooting back with one of her own.

They shuffled together on the bed, Ezra guiding Veydra around to lie where he had on the pillows. “Get on the bed, big girl”

She did as she was bade, flopping down on the sheets and looking back up at Ezra expectantly. His own gaze quickly drifted downwards, exploring the curves of her soft body as he got between her legs. Everything about it just screamed sexuality, from the breasts resting softly on either side of her chest to the engorged blue lips of her pussy shining with its own juices, and his erection shot back up at the sight of her ready and waiting for his affections. 

The temptation to forget it all, to just fuck her right now, came back with a vengeance. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want it, either…

Focus.

Dropping down until he was lying flat against the bed, he propped his hands against Veydra’s thighs and, once again, leant in to give her soft lips a gentle kiss. 

This time, though, Ezra wasn’t just there to tease. 

He gave her sex a few more sucking kisses, feeling the sheer heat radiating out from it spread on to his lips, and then began to flick his tongue into the folds. With her so wet it found no resistance at all, letting him freely push in deeper and deeper. His senses were quickly overpowered by her tangy, floral taste and scent, only getting stronger as he pressed on.

Ezra bottomed out when his nose was pressed all the way in, her juices utterly covering his face and dripping down from his chin to his neck as he began to lap up and down. He explored the shape and texture of her sex with his tongue, letting the taste penetrate further and deeper into his mouth, guided by the growing sounds of pleasure coming from above. His own lust followed close behind, and he tried his best to ignore his erection pressing uncomfortably against his sheets.

After a few long moments, Ezra felt Veydra’s hand drop down on his neck and begin to gently push him in further. In response he angled his head up and looked her in the eye while he kept licking, watching Veydra stare back down at him with a half-lidded gaze, mouth agape and chest heaving. She had her other hand on her breast, rubbing the nipple between her fingers.

Ezra tried to pull away and give Veydra a grin, but quickly found her hand pushing hard to bring him back in. Stuck in place, her thighs began to tighten around his head like a vice, locking him further in their softness and warmth.

“No…” Veydra moaned between panting breaths, “Don’t stop.”

She wasn’t asking.

Taking as deep a breath as his confines would allow, Ezra decided to change his angle of attack. He took one last, long lick of her warm folds, and then turned his attention upwards - travelling up to where the lips met and pressing past the hood of her clit to get at the hard nub of flesh below.

The effect was immediate.

A long breath gave way to a sudden hitch, and descended into a series of moans, coos and murmurs of encouragement as he ran his tongue across her clit. Going further, Ezra began sucking the flesh between his teeth and lapping the underside of the nub of flesh. Against his head, he felt the taut muscles in her thigh begin to twitch and shudder, loosening their grip and giving him the freedom of action to press on even more.

Despite heat, friction and growing pain in his jaw, Ezra persisted, keeping up his rhythm and momentum as much as he-

“Flip over.” Veydra said, moving her hand to his forehead and gently pushing him away, “Lemme… lemme sit on your face.”

Blindsided by the sudden request, he wordlessly did what she asked - turning over to face the ceiling and watching her as she began climbing on top of him. Through her chest Veydra stared down at him, eyes full of wanton need. Ezra didn’t have the opportunity to stare back up at her for long.

His vision was dominated by her pussy as she settled down snuggly on his chest - engulfing him in warmth, wetness and softness, and pressing him deeper and deeper into the bed. Their lips met once again, without wasting any time at all Veydra began grinding her folds against his nose and tongue.

Ezra fought back as best he could, lapping up and down between gasps for breath. He wrapped his arms around her hips as far as they could reach, clawing and kneading the soft flesh of her ass. The bed began to creak as they both upped the pace, bouncing up and down on the mattress.

Then Veydra froze in place.

Knowing what was coming, Ezra ran his hands up to hips and dove forward into her sex, feeling her alien lips clench around his tongue. Her moans reached a crescendo, turning into a long howl. Back arching and muscles tightening, she began to shudder and shake all around him in the throes of her second orgasm. Hot juices flooded into his mouth, overwhelming his taste buds and forcing him to gulp down as much he could to keep up. The moment seemed to stretch on to infinity, all of his feelings and senses blurring together as he absorbed himself in her pleasure.

Eventually, though, it passed. Veydra lifting herself up from his chest finally shook him from reverie, and she collapsed next to him on the bed with a heavy thud. 

“Goddess… that was…” She breathed, before trailing off with a laugh. “Thank you, Ezra. Thank you so much.”

Ezra felt a long wave of exhaustion crash over him as he looked back at a smiling Veydra, sore cheeks contorted into a tired grin of his own. “We should take a shower…” He said, voice sounding croaky to his own ears. 

He wondered if Dad would make a comment about their wet hair when he got back.

Chapter 9: Different

Celik paused mid-bite of his vaisa fuit, golden eyes going wide. The pregnant silence that ensued quickly gave way to the din of the male rec room, letting the conversations around them drift into Ezra’s comprehension. In that brief moment, he found himself latching on to noise, his subconscious looking for anything to focus on rather than what was in front of him.

Then Celik finally responded, grabbing back Ezra’s attention with a harsh whisper. “So your dad just… left you two alone?”

“Well, yeah.” Ezra replied, “Just, uh, for an hour, though.” 

Things had already gone straight to the depths of the Abyss - he knew, and Celik probably knew it, too. Ezra had planned and agonised about having this exact conversation for the last sixteen hours - ever since he and Veydra had actually gone and done it in the first place. But, well…

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Ezra watched helplessly as his expression hardened from shock to disapproval, and his heart sank when Celik brought a hand up to point at the telltale cut on his cheek. “Goddess, that’s how you got this, isn’t it?” Celik snapped, “You horny idiots had sex, didn’t you?”

He sucked some air through his teeth and gave the first reply he could think of to defuse the situation. “Well, not quite…”

Celik just raised an eyebrow. “Oh so what, you ate her out?” He deadpanned.

Ezra felt his veins turn to ice at his friend inadvertently guessing right, and he tried and failed to think of something, anything, he could to mollify him. A look of displeased comprehension set in on his friend’s face, the silence between them only becoming more telling with each passing moment.

But to his immense relief, Celik didn’t immediately start skinning him alive. 

Instead, he just leaned in and started to speak with an unnerving amount of calm. “Ezra… tell me exactly what happened.”

“Alright…” He began, finally finding the words, “So it had started a little bit before, and I think - well, I’m pretty sure - my dad knew. We were making out pretty much the moment he was out the door, and then… we went a little further. After a while, we went to my bedroom, and I didn’t want to go the whole way, so we, well…” Ezra took a few furtive glances about and, once satisfied none of the boys were looking their way, briefly put a ‘V’ shape up to his lips.

Celik leaned even further in, gaze boring into his. “It was your idea?”

When Ezra gave him a nod, his friend's serious expression melted away into one of sheer incredulity. “You saw what her tusks did to your face, and then decided you wanted them near your dick? Have you still just got the one hole down there?”

The question left Ezra completely blindsided, and he burst into a fit of laughter. “Veydra was pretty good at it, actually,” He answered honestly.

“I do not believe you,” Celik replied, a smile growing on his face and humour bleeding into his tone.

Ezra tried to think of a rebuttal, but even just thinking about his time with Veydra made his cheeks pull up his lips into an involuntary grin. Celik shook his head in response, and Ezra had to suppress another nervous laugh.

The moment of levity passed, but he was relieved to see that the tension between them had also gone along with it. When his friend came to look at him again, it was with a tired smile.

“Ezra, I’m not really mad,” He said, “But… in a single day you went from holding her hand to eating her out. That’s sending the wrong message.”

Celik was completely, utterly wrong, and Ezra had no one to blame but himself. 

He’d kissed Veydra on their first date, and she’d made the move herself on the second - but he’d consistently kept that from him. Without any evidence to the contrary, Celik had every reason to think that he’d just gone from 0 to 100. 

The impulse to correct him threatened to bubble to the surface, because Ezra knew that if he was going to tell him the truth it had to be now or never.

And he chose never.

After getting into an argument about Veydra so recently, hearing Celik’s acceptance of them together now felt precious - but it also felt fragile. Calling on his forgiveness a second time seemed more than likely to just break the rapport they’d built. 

And yet, a part of him still felt that he was becoming entirely too comfortable with deceiving his friend. Not telling him about their first kiss had eaten at him, but now…

This almost felt routine.

“I know,” Ezra began, making up the lie as he went along, “I just… saw what looked like a perfect opportunity and got lost in the moment. By the time I realised I needed to pull back, well…”

“I’m just glad that you’re the problem and not her,” Celik replied. He seemed to finally take notice of the vaisa fruit still in his hand and started eating again.

Ezra nodded. “It all happened in my bedroom, at least. We did it, cleaned up, washed the sheets, and then went on like nothing had happened. The only other person that could know about it is my Dad.”

“And me,” Celik said between bites, “And anyone Veydra decides to tell.”

He gave him a firm shake of his head “She wouldn’t. Veydra knows I wanna keep us more private.”

“Women are women,” His friend countered, “They don’t think they’ve really done it until they’ve told all their friends about it. There’s absolutely no way that Veydra hasn’t bragged about going out with you to hers, the only question is how many friends she actually has and how much she’s told him.”

Ezra couldn’t help but feel some deja vu from his mother’s own reservations about their relationship, and more than a little frustration. As much as he wanted to, though, he couldn’t really fault his logic. He certainly felt comfortable getting into all the details with Celik, and it was hard to believe that Veydra wouldn’t have the impulse to do the same.

“We can make sure we’re on the same wavelength.” Ezra conceded.

Celik gave him a nod. “The last thing you want is everything being ruined because of the two of you having different definitions of ‘private’.”

“I’ll do it today.” He said in reply, “Veydra’s in my History class.”

“Isn’t Keletay in that class, too?” Celik asked, his interest betrayed by a subtle uptick in his tone of voice. 

-

Ezra heard the din of the classroom quiet down when Vi’ista turned to face the classroom, before dying completely as the Shil woman raised up her hand to begin the lesson in earnest. He mentally prepared himself for what inevitably came next.

As his Mum would say, she liked to waffle.

“Before we discuss your group presentations today,” The teacher began, “We should get into how this fits into the theme of the broader unit, that is, Historiography - the study of history itself as a science, and how we should think of it.”

“Now, as we’ve seen in the ancient sources we went through in the last few weeks, in those more primitive times they had a much more simple understanding of the world - what we call the ‘Great Woman’ theory of history…”

Ezra tuned out the noise, refocusing his attention on a certain schoolgirl sitting next to him. 

When he’d first come into the class he noted with great approval that Veydra had done her hair up again, and now looking over he could see how the morning light shone beautifully on her freckled face. As he studied further, he noticed how her lips were curled ever so slightly into a satisfied grin. Evidently, she was enjoying the lingering afterglow of yesterday's events just as much as he was.

And she just looked cute. The more Ezra focused on Veydra the more he couldn’t resist the urge to make her squirm a little.

Taking advantage of the relative privacy afforded by the table they were sitting alone at, he let his knee drift closer and closer to his partner until he was rubbing softly against the synthetic fabric of her jumpsuit. Ezra watched from the corner of his eye as she jumped slightly in shock, her face snapping over to his while he continued to tease. Veydra managed to hide her surprise after a few moments, but the stoic expression she put on was betrayed by her golden eyes flitting between him and their teacher, alongside the blush slowly blooming on her face.

Then Vi’ista’s gaze shifted over to their table. 

In a panic Ezra quickly withdrew his leg and returned his focus to the teacher, trying to keep his own expression as neutral as possible.

“…But then why was it that Empress Taynva IV was the one to free the serfs from bondage, to give all her subjects the right to live and work wherever they please? Was she just more moral than the dozens of monarchs that had preceded her?” She went on, her tone indicating it was a question to be answered.

Oh Goddess, she was looking straight at him.

Ezra scrambled to think of the right answer. He knew that he should know, they’d just covered the Early Imperial period in the last unit, but in the heat of the moment his mind drew up nothing.

He was saved by the pale white hand of a Rousan schoolgirl shooting up from a table in front of him, mercifully grabbing the teacher’s attention.

“No, madam,” His saviour answered, “She ended serfdom because it was impeding industrialisation of the economy.”

“Exactly, Auli,“ Vi’ista confirmed, “The societal benefits of serfdom had for a very long time outweighed the costs, but with the rapid development of technology and industry at that time there came a new need for free movement and settlement across her demesne. To put it simply, she needed people to go where the coal and iron was.”

“Empress Taynva was adapting to new circumstances, and if we expand upon circumstance we find a rival to the theory of ‘Great Women’, typically called ‘Social History’. This conception strips people of agency, and explains their actions in history as the product of circumstances and characteristics - culture, species, class, among other things.”

“There is no greater champion of this idea than the Rousan People’s Republic, who believe that-” She paused for a moment, before slipping into a surprisingly accurate impression of the lilting, high-pitched Rousan accent, “Women are slaves to history, and obsession with the acts of individuals merely reinforces the chains of autocracy and capital binding the workers of the galaxy.”

“As you might know, Peep propaganda says Shil’vati are mentally deficient as a species - inherently weak-minded and submissive.” Vi’ista continued, emphasising her point with a tap on the head, “This comes specifically from their conception of History. They are so set in the notion that a sufficiently developed economy will inevitably lead to the abandonment of monarchy, that we having met all of their conditions without giving up our adherence to Her Majesty means there must be something inherently wrong with us…”

Ezra felt a wire cross in his brain, shifting him over from the passive absorption of information to genuine consideration of what his teacher was saying.

He could see that attitude in his father, or at least something like it. For all the Imperium’s technological superiority, he always seemed to treat the Shil’vati as weirdly primitive. Perhaps it was just a consequence of him growing up in a place that believed in democracy, combined with the rather single-minded interest of their women in getting into his pants.

It wasn’t like aliens were much better, of course. Ezra knew from experience that plenty would look at all of the violence and turmoil on Earth and think it’s just because of something wrong with Humans. It certainly doesn’t help that it lets them massively exaggerate the actual biological differences, and treat those too as something wrong. Speaking of which…

The question for Veydra! Goddess, he’d nearly forgotten about it.

Ezra returned his focus to Vi’ista. “...It will be your task to find a prominent individual in history and demonstrate how she, or he, made history and was made by history. What factors allowed them to make a mark on the galaxy, and how did their individual personalities and desires make that mark their own?”

She retrieved her data-slate, and put up the details for their presentations for display on the whiteboard. “Alright, form up into groups of three or four.”

Chairs shifted and bags rustled as various students moved one table to another, the din of classroom chatter quickly taking over from their teacher. Ezra watched and waited to see if any of them were coming over to theirs, and when satisfied that none were, leaned in towards Veydra.

“I just wanted to ask you something.” He said in a low tone, catching her attention.

She turned in his direction, fast enough for him to notice a fading smile. “Oh?”

Well, here goes nothing. 

“Have you… talked about us much, with your friends?” He asked softly.

Veydra suddenly took a very keen interest in the texture of the table in front of her. “Oh… um, yeah, a bit, I guess.” She mumbled out.

A part of Ezra couldn’t help but feel like her reaction just proved her guilt, another part cried out at him putting her on the spot like this. “It’s fine if you have, it’s just… you haven’t talked about stuff like yesterday, right?”

She shook her head, still not meeting his gaze. “No, no… just about how we met and the time we spent together. Not, uh, anything like that, though.”

“Thank you.” Ezra said, relief washing through him and a genuine smile coming to his lips, “I don’t regret it at all, by the way.”

That got Veydra looking his way.

He met her shy grin with his own as he bent down to retrieve his data-slate and a book on Napoleon, featuring him on the cover as a young man in a gaudy, red uniform. 

“Wait… this is that Emperor your dad was talking about, right?” She asked.

“Yeah! I’m pretty excited to get started on the presentation,” Ezra replied, before leaning in and lowering his voice a little, “And… I’m sure with all the studying we’ll need to do together we’ll have plenty more time to spend alone…”

“Ezra!” Vi’ista called out from directly beside him.

He jumped back in surprise, and turning back to look saw that she had her finger pointed toward the cover of the book. “I suppose this is the individual you’d like to do yours on?”

For a few moments, all Ezra could do was stare back in abject horror, mind set ablaze with speculation over just how much she overheard. 

“Oh, uh, yes, ma’am,” He finally answered, “His name is Napoleon Bonaparte. This is a, uh, biography of him… from my dad…” 

“May I?” She asked, hand outstretched. 

Ezra just nodded dumbly in assent, letting her grab the book. She handled it with gentle, almost reverential, care, thumbing through the pages until she got to a map of Europe in 1789 AD. 

“Physical work like this really is a lost art…” Vi’ista murmured as she caressed the paper, seemingly talking more to herself than either of them.

She placed the book down on the table and turned to face him properly, her looming height forcing him to crane his neck to meet her gaze. “You think he’s a good fit for the presentation?” She asked.

“Well, Napoleon started off his career in the military as a minor noble…“ Ezra began, starting weak but quickly regaining his footing as he went on, “But he was an amazing general and extremely ambitious, and managed to gain more and more power in the wars he fought. Eventually, he took over his country in a coup d’etat, and that ambition made him push too far and try to dominate an entire continent. This whole period in Earth’s history is called ‘the Era of Napoleon’.”

“A usurper-general.” His teacher intoned with an approving nod, “I never would have guessed that Humanity had its own Ajaina Atena. Do you have any other sources?”

Of course she had to tie it back to Shil history. Goddess forbid it just stand as its own thing.

“We have some other books on the time period, I think.” He answered.

Vi’ista pursed her lips, pausing a moment before she replied. “This is good, but… it would need to be a solo presentation, Veydra won’t be able to participate.”

Wait, what?

His partner’s reaction came a few near-imperceptible moments after his own. “W- what? I… why not? ” She sputtered, tilting her head to the side.

“There’s plenty for Veydra to do!” He protested.

Then Ezra heard a snicker from the table beside him, and turned just in time to watch Keletay mutter something to the rest of his clique and make them start to giggle. He looked away and tried to pay the boys no mind, but in doing so only realised just how bad things really were. 

It wasn’t just them looking their way. Everyone in the class was watching.

“I’m sorry, but individual research is a core part of the criteria.” Vi’ista said, seemingly oblivious to the audience around them, “I would have to fail Veydra if the presentation was backed up solely by sources she can’t understand. If you’d like to work with her, you’ll need to pick someone else.”

Goddess, why did he have to choose? And why did both choices have to be bad?

Truth be told, he was more than willing to just pick some other topic. The idea of teaching his classmates about Napoleon was cool to be sure, but it paled in comparison to the excitement that arose from him and Veydra working together on the presentation itself.

The only problem was that if he gave up on Napoleon now, he gave the game away. Doing that in front of the teacher was just embarrassing, but in front of the rest of the class? In front of Keletay?

That was dangerous. His only option was to avoid making the choice at all.

“He’s one of the most famous figures in our entire history, I’m sure there'll be plenty about him on the datanet!” Ezra pleaded, trying his best to play the part of a proud human.

“Yeah!” Veydra concurred, “Can’t we just look first?”

Vi’ista paused for a moment, before giving them a conciliatory nod. “Alright. If you can find at least four relevant Shil-language sources by the end of the day, you can do a group presentation on him.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Both of them answered in unison.

Ezra let out a small sigh of relief. It was probably the best outcome he could've asked for.

Even if they didn’t find enough sources, he’d still be able to talk to her privately about picking a different person together with Veydra. Hopefully then by the time they actually did the presentation, the class will have forgotten about all this.

Their teacher turned away from the table, and drew the attention of the class back to its own business with a single, chiding “Ladies…”

Ezra shared a relieved look with Veydra and got to work immediately, but he’d only just made a few searches on his data-slate when a Rousan student approached their table. It was Auli, the girl that had saved him from the teacher.

That was surprisingly hard to tell, considering that much of her delicate and weirdly boyish features were hidden by a pair of thick-lensed glasses - if it wasn’t for the antlers and slight swell of her chest he would have easily assumed she was really a guy.

Auli placed a hand on a free chair at the table. “Excuse me, do you mind if I take a seat?”

“Oh…” He began to answer, “You can-”

“Not interested.” Veydra snapped, shuffling herself closer to his side, “We’re fine on our own.”

What?

The interruption left Ezra dumbfounded, mouthing wordlessly as Auli angled her head down in anger. 

“The teacher sent me here! It’s a three-woman presentation!” She sputtered, offense and shock drawing out her native accent.

“Oh…”

Veydra’s face softened a little, and Ezra saw the beginnings of an embarrassed blush set in, but nonetheless she kept up a wary gaze at Auli.

What the hell was setting her off like this? Just because they had a third didn’t mean that the two of them couldn’t find plenty of excuses to work together alone. Did she think Auli was some kind of rival?

“It’s all good, we’re happy for you to work with us!“ Ezra said, trying his best to defuse the situation, “Take a seat and I'll show you the guy we’re doing it on.”

Auli went to sit down, but kept staring daggers at Veydra. 

“Sure,” She huffed, “As long as your pet jyta here doesn’t try and bite my head off.”

- 

Meanwhile, in the Parker Household.

Njira had to wonder if she was going insane, or if at least this was what going insane felt like. 

She’d been standing in the laundry room for the last five minutes, staring at a bottle of washing liquid on the shelf. The problem was with what lay inside.

The last time Njira had used it she’d left the bottle half-full. But now she could swear to any god or spirit bothering to listen that it was sitting just a tiny bit lower than it had been before. Such a small thing, something that under any other circumstances she wouldn’t have paid any mind at all, and yet here it gnawed at her like nothing else could.

The only reason for a tiny bit to be gone is if someone else in the house had run a small load in the meantime.

And the only reason she could think as to why that would have happened was if someone had betrayed her trust.

But an accusation like that needed proof, and so she went to the washer and brought up the logs. To her dismay, Njira found exactly what she was looking for. 

There had been a low-volume washer and dryer run at 18:17 the day before, right in the middle of Ezra and Veydra’s date.

“ John! ”

Chapter 10: Made

---

Ezra thought things had gone quite well at school today, all things considered.

He’d weathered the storm with Celik, somehow coming out of it with him so firmly on his side that he almost felt a little stupid for worrying so much in the first place. To his surprise and joy, he and Veydra had actually found plenty of sources on Napoleon - even if most of them were pretty laser-focused on the military side of things. The unwelcome inclusion of Auli notwithstanding, their presentation seemed to be working out to be a lot of fun.

Things seemed to be looking up. In hindsight, that should have been his first warning that fate had other plans for him.

Practically the moment Ezra walked through the front door, he saw his mother sitting expectantly at the kitchen table. She had her green eyes fixed on him immediately, with her lips pursed into a tight, flat line. 

That thoroughly neutral expression, a dire warning in its own right, was betrayed by a tone of voice that immediately made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “Ezra.”

Oh no.

He hadn’t heard her speak like that since the last time he’d majorly underperformed at the Academy, and he knew that he wasn’t expecting results any time soon.

“We need to have a discussion about your date,” She continued, holding out a hand to direct him to the opposite side of the table.

Oh, God, no.

Alright, so the ship’s taken a direct hit. Time for damage control. 

How much did she actually know? If he gave up more than she did, he risked making things worse for himself. At the same time, it was just as dangerous to hold out on what she did know. The best way forward seemed to be sounding her out for information as much as possible.

Ezra took a few cautious steps toward the dinner table to take a seat, leaving his bag by his side. He tried to keep decent eye contact with his mother as best he could.

“What, uh, what about it?” Ezra replied, trying to sound nonchalant but effectively just coming off as guilty, even to his own ears. It didn’t take long to realise his Mum wasn’t having it.

She leaned back in her chair, and began to tap impatiently on the wooden surface of the table. “I think you know.”

“I’m sorry…” He began, his own hand travelling unconsciously for the cut that Veydra’s tusk had given him on his cheek. When Ezra realised what he was doing he stopped himself and rubbed his ear instead, but then found in that moment he just couldn’t think of anything else to say to her.

His inaction gave way to an uncomfortable silence between them, and through it all his mother’s frown just deepened. “Did you sleep with her?”

The question came out of such left field that Ezra didn’t even know how to respond for a few moments, and it really wasn’t the kind of conversation he wanted to have with his own mother.

“...No,” He finally answered, cheeks flush with heat from his growing embarrassment. That was honest, at least - if only on a technicality.

To his growing despair her expression soured even further, it was clearly not the answer she wanted to hear. “But what you two did was still enough for you to wash the sheets after you were done?”

“Yes.” 

This time the reply was simple and immediate, made before he had time to consider how the hell she actually knew that . Had Dad owned up to her about what had really happened?

It didn’t take long to see that he’d given her the right answer, but her expression remained no less intense, and he was left to squirm under her penetrating gaze. “So if I understand you, during the date you… enjoyed each other's company on the bed, hid the evidence, and then lied to me about it afterwards?”

He gave her a single, shameful nod.

“You’re grounded.”

“W-what, why?” Ezra began to sputter out, “We- we’re doing a presentation together! We need to study!”

“Non-negotiable,” She said, giving him a firm shake of her head, “And I’m sure you’ll both have plenty of opportunities to work on it at the Academy and online.”

He went to speak again, but found himself interrupted by the tap of her nails on the table. “We need to have a serious discussion about this girl, Ezra. I understand that women can be very persistent, but you must find ones that respect you and your honour as a male. This one managed to talk you into making a mistake, and you don’t know what the consequences will be. I know you think I'm the villain here, but this is for your future. If Veydra is really worth your time despite all this, she will wait. ”

Through it all, Ezra sat in silence.

And stewed.

Shame and embarrassment gradually gave way to the fire of indignation that began to burn the pit of his stomach, spreading upwards and outwards to a clenching jaw and twitching fingers. Mum was treating Veydra like all she wanted to do was use him! She was treating him like he was still a child! 

And the hypocrisy! Ezra hadn’t forgotten what Dad had said about what they had been doing at his age.

“It was my idea,” He eventually replied, trying to keep his tone as soft and level as he could.

“Well then I am severely disappointed in you, Ezra!” His mother countered, “You knew what the consequences would be and did it anyway!”

“We talked about it!”

She raised an incredulous eyebrow, “And you’re just going to trust her on that?”

Ezra jumped up from his seat, letting the chair squeak against the wooden floor as he pushed it back. “I think I know her better than you, Mum! And… and, I’m an adult! If this is a mistake, it’s my mistake to make!”

“While you are under our roof , you will follow my rules!” His mother shot back, slamming her hand down on the table. Despite all the bluster, Ezra noticed an unmistakable waver in her tone, and water in her eyes.

But in his anger all he sensed was a weakness to exploit. 

“Well then maybe I should just leave!” Ezra shouted as he snatched his bag, holding up the strap with a shaking, white-knuckled grip, “Join the Marines! I wouldn’t be doing anything there that you haven’t done, would I?”

It wasn’t until well after Ezra was finished that he realised his mother had tears streaming down her cheeks. He watched in stunned silence, momentum draining away moment by moment as she let out a single, pained sob, before bringing her head back up to stare at him with an expression somewhere between agony and defiance.

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. All of his anger, regret, and frustration was stuck in his throat and dead on his tongue. There was nothing else to say, nothing to take back, and so Ezra went for the door and left - any semblance of dignity betrayed by his own flowing tears and a racing heart.

-

Veydra dashed out from her cover, checking corners and sightlines amongst the bombed-out ruins of the Imperial Palace with practised skill and fluidity. The sound of las-fire and distant orbital artillery briefly overpowered the distorted, percussive beat as she went out into the open, before receding again into the background upon finding new shelter. She knew having music blaring wasn’t optimal, but right now she didn’t want to play optimally.

She just wanted to distract herself from how horrible she’d been today.

“I’m burning all these secrets, I’m burning all these secrets,

Your voice is only as deep- burn this down!”

The music’s volume began to drop, and before Veydra could protest the voice of her friend Biyxana came through her headphones. “You know you’ve scored now, right Vey? You can stop pretending to like his music.”

“Lick my clam, Biyx,” Veydra shot back, leaning over in her gaming chair to dial the sound back up, “Look at the lobby screen. My party, my playlist.”

She did decide to keep it lower, though, in the spirit of compromise.

“I thought that was his job,” Aumvi quipped, before moving on to a slightly more serious tone, “How did it go with the Human, though? Think you stuck the landing?”

“Yeah, this is usually the part where his friends tell him how terrible you are.” Biyxana said.

Veydra hated just how close to the truth Biyx really was. Ezra himself had admitted that he had at least one friend who thought she was bad news. The idea of that guy, whoever he was, dragging him away from her was scary .

It didn't help that he was probably right. After all, she’d already lied to Ezra today about just how much she was telling her friends.

“Well…” Veydra began, “He did say that he was excited about the time we could spend together alone.”

Her friends answered predictably with their collective ‘oooo’s’ and let Veydra bask a little in the adoration, before Aumvi spoke up again. “Sounds like you’ve got him, big girl.”

She was followed up with the telltale sounds of a microphone being shifted, and then Biyxana’s breathy, overly close voice blaring through her headset. “He wants the Veydrussy.”

“Never say those words ever again,” Veydra shot back, as she tried and failed to suppress her laughter.

Biyxana moved her microphone back to the desk where it belonged. “Only if you promise to actually get him inside you next time.”

“Does my mouth count?”

There was a brief pause. “The pod finds this acceptable, but you will have to wear the strap-on during our next unit-cohesion exercise.”

Veydra laughed again, but found her mood a little soured by a lingering thought in her mind. Just how much more had her friends begun discussing ‘us’ ever since she’d gotten with Ezra?

“Just be careful you don’t clamjam yourself, Vey,” Aumvi said after her own chuckle, “Make sure the vibes are right before you make any more moves.”

Speaking of moves…

“Yeah…” Veydra murmured absently in agreement, before going on with what she hoped would make up for the wrong she did, “There was one other thing that Ezra mentioned today… he wanted me to not really talk about the stuff we did… and, well, it’s too late for you girls, but can you promise not to talk about it with anyone else?”

“Oh, sure,” Aumvi answered.

“Yeah, girl,” Biyxana concurred, with an uncharacteristic lack of snark.

Hearing such an easy agreement came as a relief, but it didn’t take much speculation for Veydra to realise the motive behind it.

They wanted Ezra. 

Staying on her good side, readily agreeing to things like this, was just a necessary part of that. Veydra would’ve been lying if she didn’t admit it hurt a little, but with leverage like that on her side she could be certain they wouldn’t talk.

The thought of them actually joining the relationship was… strange, too. They were a known element, at least, and knew to hold back on trying until things got more established. 

Biyx and Aumvi were definitely a far better option compared to girls like that little Rousan bitch that had wormed herself into their presentation. Auli could claim it was the ‘teacher’s fault’ all she wanted, but Veydra knew she had her eyes on Ezra - after all, she’d walked up to the table staring directly at him, looking so impetuous…

…and weirdly pretty…

Without anything else for there to be said, the conversation between them gave way to a comfortable silence, only interrupted by the occasional callout or ‘brotherfucker ’ at a death.

That was until Veydra got blasted by a series of text notifications on her tablet. She navigated herself to a quiet corner of a map and went to read them, quickly gaining interest when she saw them from Ezra.

E: At your stop on the lev

E: Got into an argument with my mum

E: She knows

Veydra felt her blood turn to ice and heart start to pound in her chest as she tapped out a response, paying little mind to her character getting riddled with las-fire in the background.

V: Want me to come?

E: Yes please

She muttered a quick “Gotta go” over the mic and left, leaving the game running as she jumped up from her seat and zipped the top half of her jumpsuit over her bare chest.

-

By the time Veydra had actually made it, she wasn’t in a good state.

The strain from her exertion during yesterday’s… events had been bubbling under the surface all day, expressing itself through all manner of little aches and pains whenever she’d stood up and walked. Now with her last burst of energy it had exploded into genuine cramps, and nerve pain streaking through her legs and feet as she ran through the sterile purple halls of the station. 

Veydra had for a long time known, and more or less accepted, that she was unfit. Now fate was giving her a very visceral example of how she might not be fit enough for the boy she so dearly wanted to be her boyfriend. 

What would he see now? A sweaty schoolgirl gasping for breath, rushing off to try and help with a familial issue that, in a sense, she herself had caused?

Those doubts seemed to slip away as she finally climbed the last of the steps toward the platform and actually saw Ezra. He was sitting forlorn at a platform bench still in his academy jumpsuit, a bag to his side decidedly placed to occupy the rest of the space. As she got closer she watched him stare vacantly out at the crowd going by, his mind clearly somewhere else.

Then Veydra reached the bench itself, and she realised that Ezra had tears in his eyes. He turned his head in her direction, and before she could reach he’d jumped up from the bench and threw himself at Veydra, wordlessly wrapping his arms around her.

For a moment, she hesitated.

Ezra was in pain, but in his need for support he’d come straight to her. The thought brought forth an intoxicating combination of joy and panic that mixed together in a way that made her heart flutter.

And excited something further south, as well.

Her arousal at a time like this sent a twinge of guilt through her core. Was she just using him? Saying and doing the things that maximised the chance of the two of them sharing a bed tonight, for the sake of all of the possibilities that could bring?

Veydra quashed those thoughts and turned her attention to the boy in front of her. Bringing up a trembling arm, she wrapped it around Ezra’s back, then brought the other to rest softly on the back of his neck. “Are you alright?”

He shook his head, cheeks rubbing against her chest.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Veydra asked softly.

“Not here.” Ezra answered after a pause, with a croaky voice that spoke to just how long he’d been crying by this point.

The proper response was obvious, and it helped Veydra push through the last vestiges of her doubt. This wasn’t just for her, this was for him . This is what it meant to be a good girlfriend. 

“Do you wanna… come home with me?”

“Yeah,” Ezra said as he pulled back slightly, bringing his head up to meet her gaze with his beautiful, green eyes. “I'd like that a lot.”

Chapter 11: Shout

Ezra was a little embarrassed to realise that the full implications of actually going to Veydra’s house had only just begun to sink in by the time he’d actually reached her front yard.

There stood a long building made of local timber, painted up in a pleasant white and purple. The thatch roof, tall and steep enough to prevent snow from building up, gave it significantly more height from what Ezra had come to expect from Shil architecture - probably concealing a second floor, or at least a very spacious attic.

A separate garage sat off to the side, the open door revealing the kind of mini-bus typically owned by a Shil family, next to rows of shelves holding all manner of tools, materials and other junk.

Admittedly it had been a while, but Ezra still remembered well what came next when visiting a home like this. Raw knuckles from fist bumps, tired cheeks and a sore neck from smiling and nodding, ten or so names learned and forgotten, a near-endless stream of glib conversation, and then, finally, freedom to pursue whatever was the object of the visit in the first place.

He’d always found the process an ordeal at the best of times - but now with the added weight of knowing that this would be his first impression upon Veydra’s entire family, and fresh from the events of the last few hours, Ezra positively dreaded it.

Veydra looked back as she turned the handle, giving him a sheepish smile that he readily returned. She pulled the door back and stood off to the side, and it wasn’t until a few awkward moments had passed before Ezra realised she was playing the lady - letting him go first out of politeness.

And so he swallowed the last of his hesitation and did just that.

The room he entered was, in typical Shil fashion, an affair of high ceilings and wide open spaces, all done up in cosy timber and wood panelling. An open-plan kitchen to his left was dominated by a table large enough for the whole family to sit at. Turning to the right, he saw a stand holding what Ezra quickly realised was the ceremonial armour of Veydra’s mother, Alaysa - the silver polished to a mirror shine and with the accompanying glaive resting against the wall by its side. A hallway immediately in front of him bisected the length of the entire house, a railing jutting out to indicate where the stairs gave access to a second floor.

Ezra’s brief hope of them being alone in the house started to fade when he heard the muffled sounds of a TV, and then was killed completely by a younger-sounding voice calling out. “You’re back, Vey? Why’d you run off?”

“Oh so, yeah, about that…” She answered behind him, closing the door. “...Ezra’s here.”

Almost immediately, a purple face popped out from the hall, regarding him first with intense curiosity, then wide-eyed shock, and finally bounced out into the hallway - revealing what he could easily describe as a younger, shorter and far leaner version of her sister. The only other major differences were that her black hair was done up in a pixie cut, and that she was wearing a sports uniform with pink highlights rather than blue like theirs - marking her as two grades below them.

“Ezra, this is my youngest sister, Aysa.”

He gave her a friendly wave as she came closer, craning his head up to meet her gaze and extending out his fist to bump. “Pleased to meet you, Aysa.”

She met it quickly, but with surprising gentleness, and as the warmth of her hand spread to his he watched as a full, blue blush bloomed across her face. When she finally spoke, her tone was coloured by a grin that she didn’t seem quite able to suppress. “You too…”

Ezra had plenty of experience with girls who didn’t quite know how to act around boys, but he began to think that there was just a little more to it here…

But he also didn’t see any harm in that, either. He had to admit there was something charming about seeing the patented Veydra awkwardness reflected in one of her sisters.

“I mean… we’re all very happy to have you over!” Aysa began to ramble, ”It’s really cool actually meeting a human like you, and learning about your culture… and, uh, we’ve heard so much about you from Veydra, and around the Academy-”

She quickly cut herself off at that, but Ezra was far too curious to just let her off the hook. “Only good things, I hope.”

It was impossible to miss the flinch she gave him. “ Well … people were pretty impressed after you chased Kalayza and her clique off. Not a lot of guys would… um, stick up for a girl like that, y’know?”

Ezra nodded along, pretending to be satisfied with the answer. No doubt she wasn’t strictly lying, but that almost certainly wasn’t the complete story.

“Yeah, great,” Veydra replied tersely, “Look, I’m sorry for the late notice, but can Ezra and I have the bedroom for a bit? We just wanted to hang out.”

Aysa gave the two of them a hasty nod. “Sure.”

The fact that Veydra didn’t have her own bedroom hit Ezra like a shuttle crash. Did she just not have any personal space at all at home? 

Coming from such a tiny household in comparison, he realised that he really hadn’t given the idea much thought. Expecting privacy from girls was a given for a guy, basically a fact of life, and the only other bedrooms he had been in since puberty were those of other boys.

Talk of her bedroom did bring an idea to his head, though. Even if he couldn’t avoid it entirely, they had a chance to delay the inevitable meeting and greeting until a time when he’d be more prepared to deal with it.

“About that…” Ezra began, wrapping an arm around Veydra’s to up the charm a little, “Do you think it would be alright if we went up there now? After everything that’s happened today, I'd just like to rest for a bit before we go through all the introductions.”

She met his gaze with a sympathetic look and opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by an incredulous voice from down the hall. 

“Wait , he’s real?”

Ezra turned to face the new sister standing in the hallway, and his heart sank as one, two - no, three - new women emerged and filed out into the kitchen. The first two of them, he could guess, were Veydra’s older half-sisters - both wearing casual clothing and seemingly in their early twenties.

The last of them was… an Edixi? A grey-skinned woman with a shock of white hair, and an over-wide smile that betrayed a set of razor-sharp teeth. He could guess from her posture with the rest of the group, and from her unaccented Shil in a short flutter of conversation between them, that she was probably just as much family as they were - although without any way of him ascertaining age in her alien features it was difficult to know if she was a mother or another sister.

He was sure he’d be able to learn all about it soon. It’s what he would be doing for the next few hours, after all.

“What do you mean‘he’s real?’, Retana?” Veydra spat back, a degree of genuine offence clear in her tone.

The sister in question scoffed a little, then raised her arms to placate her. “We’ve been asking you to take pictures with him!”

“I- he didn’t- you know what? Nevermind.” 

Veydra took a deep breath, composing herself for a moment. “So, everyone, this is Ezra, he’s my, uh…” She began, before abruptly cutting herself off.

Oh, Goddess, they were all staring.

He knew exactly what Veydra wanted to say, and also why she was hesitant to say it. They hadn’t yet had the conversation about what they were, and it would have been rude to force his hand without asking first - but after what they’d done together, Ezra had no problem taking that step with her.

“Boyfriend.” He finally finished.

The crowd around them cooed with intrigue and excitement, and as he looked back up at her he got all the confirmation he needed to know that he’d made the right choice. Veydra was giving him the same kind of shy grin that she’d given the first few times they’d met, while she had been slowly realising that he liked her just as much as she liked him.

“Yeah, boyfriend…” She murmured softly, “…And he’s been through a lot today! So if you don’t mind, we might make things quick and then talk more later.”

Ezra had half a mind to kiss her then and there.

-

The sign of a good compromise is mutual disappointment.

Ezra had wanted to fall face-first onto Veydra’s bed, her family wanted to sit him down and systematically inform him of each individual’s life, hopes, dreams, and the contents of their breakfast this morning. The agreement they reached, once the parents of the household had been informed he was there, was for him to sit down with Veydra and her biological parents - with the rest to be met at some other time. 

The greatest protestations came from Veydra’s older (and thankfully, only) brother, Lismey, whose brief conversation gave Ezra the distinct impression that he’d be getting ambushed at the nearest opportunity for a chat about his plans with his little sister.

Which, all things considered, was probably not far removed from the intentions of her father.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like anything to drink?” Sasul asked as he fussed about the table, grabbing a bag of fried dakkar to pour into a bowl at the centre. “We have xikal tea, lumi sap…”

“Just some water, thank you.” Ezra answered politely.

Other than being rather short and squat, Veydra’s father had fit Ezra’s expectations of him being a typical Shil househusband. Thanks to the short notice of the visit he was dressed rather plainly in a pair of loose pants and a sweater, but still glowed with a friendly grin against his full cheeks.

If only that warmth was reflected in Veydra’s birth-mother.

Alaysa had thrown on a thin robe to cover her underclothes, and now at the table just seemed content instead to lean back in her chair as her husband played house - regarding their uninvited guest with a curt smile that seemed more obligatory than genuine.

Her attitude immediately brought to mind a certain kind of woman that Ezra had met at the various veteran gatherings his parents had dragged him to over the years. Someone whose natural state was utter unapproachability, with any semblance of real feeling and emotion strictly hidden from public view. All one could do with them was keep trying to crack open the clamshell with enough respect and humour.

But he found a new thought bubbling to the surface, asking if he even should. 

With Ezra’s argument with his mother so fresh in his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d find the same problem here. Would she be just as demanding?

Would her respect for him hinge on the ability to be something he’s not?

“So Ezra…” Alaysa began after a long moment, “Your father got here the same way I did?”

She didn’t sound particularly interested, rather just looking for something to fill in the silence.

“Oh, the Veteran Settlement Program?” He replied, “Yeah, both my parents got here on that. We still have the fancy parchment inviting them to live in Nonovan ‘by Grace of the Empress’.”

Sasul placed a glass full of water gently in front of him, which he accepted with a quiet thanks. “Did they meet each other here?”

“They met in service, actually,” Ezra said, taking a sip. It was pleasantly cool, and a tangy aftertaste alerted him to a slice of nomel fruit sitting in the bottom of the glass. “During the Raknos campaign.”

That caught Alaysa’s attention immediately, the weight of her chair shifting with a subtle creak as she began to lean further forward. “They were at Raknos III?”

It didn’t take any guesses to figure out why. That campaign was one of the few topics that ever made Dad ever visibly cringe, and from his stories of the combat he went through Ezra couldn’t blame him. His Mum’s stories about the casualties that made their way back up were somehow even worse.

Through his discomfort on the topic, he felt an odd sort of satisfaction, too. Raknos was one of those topics that made a person like his mother squirm. They didn’t like being reminded that the Imperium didn’t always have the best interests of Humans at heart.

“Well, in orbit,” Ezra answered, “Dad became a casualty on the 8th day of the invasion, and Mum was part of the medical team that treated him.”

“How romantic!” Sasul cooed, taking a seat beside his wife with cups of tea for the two of them, “It’s beautiful that they could both find love in such a horrible situation.”

There was more story to that, with plenty of tidbits that he knew Sasul would be delighted to hear about, but frankly he wasn’t in the mood to tell.

Instead, Ezra just gave her nod, as he felt Veydra rest her arm softly against his back. “Was that… where your Dad lost his arm?”

He nodded again. “An Ulnus grunt got him with a direct hit to the forearm.”

“You can catch plasma, but only twice,” Alaysa deadpanned, holding up her left hand to him and revealing with a closer view the subtle artificial seams on the joints of her fingers,

Her attention seemed to linger on her hand, and she brought it back from the table to study herself. “Roaches loved their wounding shots.” She murmured absently, “Abyss take them, pirate degenerates…”

If that’s what she thought of the Ulnus…

“And what do you think about us?” Ezra replied quietly, surprised by the sheer amount of venom on his tongue.

Regret set in immediately, and his heart sank as Alaysa’s golden eyes narrowed and snapped to his own. He felt Veydra’s hand freeze against his back, while Sasul’s friendly smile seemed to turn decidedly plastic.

He steeled himself. As horrible a mistake it had been, this at least was a surefire way to find out how she really felt - not tomorrow, not in a month, certainly not until her tongue was sufficiently loosened by one too many Red Grails at a dinner party.

Now.

When Alaysa finally spoke up to break the tension, it was in a solemn, deliberate tone. “I won’t blame a woman for fighting against the Imperium, Ezra. It’s when that fight is doing more harm than good, for everyone.” 

Ezra’s ire drained away, and all his energy along with it. He gave her a weak nod, slumped shoulders pushing back into Veydra’s gentle grip.

“Your father is a comrade,” She went on, this time with an unmistakable gravity, and an uncharacteristic twinkle of emotion in her black irises, “And I have no hatred against Humans.”

“I'm sorry,” Ezra breathed, “That was… I shouldn’t have said that.”

Veydra leaned in further, embracing him closer. When she spoke he could feel her warm breath tickle his ear. “He’s been through a lot today.”

To Alaysa’s side, he watched as Sasul’s expression softened in something more natural - though his eyes stayed focused squarely on him.

“I understand, if that helps. I know how Humans are treated with such little respect back on Terra, even the ones that shed blood with us in the service,” Alaysa replied, the last part spat out with a surprising amount of anger.

“Did you…” Ezra began to ask, before quickly cutting himself off. There was no way that she’d served on Earth, Veydra surely would’ve told him already if she had.

“An old comrade of mine did,” Alaysa answered, evidently understanding him, “Noble brat, did something stupid enough back on Shil Prime to get herself punted off to serve with us enlisted. She’d been stationed on Terra for a time before I met her.”

Ezra felt himself lean forward in his chair, intrigue overcoming his apprehension about staying on such a fraught topic. “Did she talk much about it?”

To his surprise, it was Sasul who replied first. “Keora certainly did,” He said with a laugh that managed to sound both tired and mirthful, “And sometimes it wasn’t even about the men.”

“Mostly just about Jacob, to be fair,” Alaysa replied to her husband.

Alright, now Ezra had to hear more about this.

She took a sip of her tea and turned back to him. “Her mother must have pulled the right strings because she got sent to garrison a sleepy little town directly inland from the local governess' capital. Terra was a test for her apparently, to see if she’d cause any problems in a place where there was nothing for her but boredom and attractive locals.”

“And did she?”

Sasul gave him a smile. “Keora caused plenty, at first. She’d go out with her pod to haunt the bars, learned just enough of the local tongue to bother the men there.”

“Sounds about right,” Ezra quipped, “In my Dad’s culture they’d call her an ‘eggplant'. it used to be a slur for all Shil’vati, but now it just means ones that are annoying or stupid.”

“Keora said the local word they used most often to insult her was ‘cunt’.” Alaysa replied with a grin.

“Oh! Goddess, that’s… quite rude,” He replied with a blush, breaking eye contact for a moment, “That actually comes from the language I speak, and its closest equivalent in Shil would be… uh… clam.”

Veydra suppressed a giggle, while Alaysa let out an amused snort. “Makes sense. She did most of her thinking with hers, after all.”

From the corner of his vision, Ezra watched Sasul give his wife some chiding side-eye in response. He kept his mouth shut, though.

After a moment, Ezra spoke up - curious to find out what Sasul had meant by ‘at first’. “So how did she meet Jacob?”

“He had the misfortune of working at a shop near her barracks, selling some Human drink.” Alaysa answered, “She came in one day to buy some for an interrogation, and the boy caught her eye. Every morning after, she went in to get the stuff herself.”

“Best part,” She continued, bringing up a prosthetic finger, “Keora hates it, thinks the drink tastes bitter and disgusting. She’s just coming in to talk to him while he makes it, then throw it out when she leaves.”

“Ah, coffee . You get used to the flavour eventually,” Ezra said with a laugh, lips pulling into a grin.

“Funny you should say that,” Alaysa replied, “Because one day, after they’d been talking for quite a while and starting to get familiar with each other, Jacob catches on. He forces her to take a sip in front of him, threatening to never serve her again if she doesn’t. When Keora inevitably spat it back out, they got into an argument - but they came out of it with an agreement. If she could learn to enjoy the taste and drink a whole cup of it…”

“...Then he’d go on a date with her,” Sasul finished, rolling his eyes, “Jacob probably just gave her a chance so she’d stop bothering him so much.”

Ezra pursed his lips, thinking back to the stories of home that his parents had told him. 

“I don’t know…” He replied, “Back then, being seen as close to an alien like that was very frowned upon, and if he was in a town where word could spread then he’d be seriously hurting his reputation, maybe even putting himself in danger. I think he must have come to like her quite a bit if he was willing to risk it.”

“Really?” Sasul asked incredulously, “It was that bad?”

Ezra gave him a solemn nod, and unconsciously sent a glance in Veydra’s direction. “It really depends where he was from. In my Father’s culture, it would just mean a lot of people treating you like an outcast. On my mother’s side… you might get murdered for betraying your tribe, or tarnishing your family’s honour.”

“Keora did say they’d usually meet in the capital,” Alaysa said, while Sasul gave him a look that screamed pity and sympathy.

“So it ended up working out for them?” Veydra asked, leaning in with obvious interest.

She wasn’t the only one, either. Ezra’s own interest in hearing the story continued came as a surprise even to himself.

“They didn’t have the most… harmonious relationship.” Sasul replied rather diplomatically, “Keora wasn’t used to a man who could tell her ‘no’.”

Alaysa snorted into her tea. “She still wasn’t when we knew her. Still, Keora said that she came out of it understanding Humans a whole lot better - said the biggest thing that you girls lacked was proper respect, and recognition.”

“Yeah…” Ezra concurred after a moment, more focused on the story than a discussion of broader Humanity, “What happened in the end?”

“Keora had to leave him on Terra when she left, but only because she’s a blueblood,” Sasul answered, shaking his head, “He would have been forced to follow Keora into her House’s court if they married, and common-born men there have a hard enough time already. Learning all the proper etiquette, dealing with all the prejudice, a man like him would have been miserable.”

Ezra blanched, first from the shock, and then from the realisation that he shouldn’t have been shocked at all. It was a perfectly predictable outcome, horribly predictable. 

Keora and Jacob, Shil’vati and Human, had come together in unfavourable circumstances, fought to make it work between them despite their myriad differences… and still lost. Not every story could have a happy ending.

“Sounds like the academy.” Veydra quipped bitterly, pulling Ezra from his thoughts.

Sasul gave them both a sympathetic frown, lips pursed around his tusks. “So we’ve heard…”

“It’s not very fair, but all you can do is rise above that speciesist nonsense and let people see what you’re really like,” He went on, now solely focused on Ezra, “I remember what people used to say about the Rousans when they first came here. If you said some of that now you’d get a tusk knocked out!”

Ezra forced himself to smile and nod in response. He’d already heard non-advice just like it a thousand times before, and was frankly getting tired of it. A guy like Keletay wasn’t just going to stop because he decided to be the better man.

Alaysa responded with a quiet grunt before wordlessly rising up from the table and walking further into the kitchen, prompting Sasul to turn in his seat and call out behind her. “Dear?”

“I just remembered…” She answered, not bothering to turn around to face them as she opened up pantry doors and rifled through their contents, “That Keora brought us a gift from her time on Terra, and we still have it stored some- here! ”

She brought her hand out of the pantry, holding the neck of a massive…

Bottle of wine?

It was easily twice, maybe even thrice, the size of the one Ezra had shared with his parents a few weeks ago, and he wondered if Humans had started selling the stuff in larger bottles to accommodate alien tastes after the invasion.

Alaysa brought the wine over to Ezra and gingerly handed it to him, only letting go herself when she was sure he held it firmly in his own grip. He studied the spartan, black-and-white label, reading out what he read.

“It's called Longriver, and it’s a Verdelho - a kind of wine made from a fruit called a grape. It’s from what they call the ‘Granite Belt’ region - wherever that is.” Ezra said, trying his best to weave together the proper pronunciation of both the English and Shil. “You know, our wine usually has some really long and flowery description of the flavour on the back, I'll see if I can translate it…”

He turned the weighty bottle over in his hands, finding first what he was looking for, and then something far more interesting as well. There was an interplanetary export sticker slapped on to the side, and at the top it read in block Shil runes:

PRODUCT OF TERRA - AUSTRALASIA GOVERNORATE - TOOWOOMBA PROVINCE

For a few moments all Ezra could do was stare dumbly as he processed the information, then it all seemed to want to come out at once.

“This came from Australia!” He exclaimed in shock, “My father is from there… from this province! Goddess… I’ll have to ask him if he knows any Jacobs…”

His reaction brought both Veydra and Sasul out of their seats, the latter coming around the table to study the bottle alongside him.

“The galaxy is always a little smaller than you’d think, isn’t it?” Alaysa said.

“Were you… planning on opening this?”

Her lips split into a toothy grin as she brought up her prosthetic hand, a long, thin blade springing out of the wrist with a muted thunk. “I was hoping you’d ask.”

Chapter 12: No Good - Part One

Another amazing piece of art by Nik for the Fic. You can find him in the SexySpaceBabes discord, or as u/ReserveAvailable1445 on the SSB Subreddit.

-

The study room sat silent, save for the periodic sound of Veydra tapping her slate to turn the virtual page of the article she was reading, and Ezra’s own impatient tapping against a history book sitting on the roundtable. It took up most of the little space afforded by the room, just leaving enough for a whiteboard and a small desk in a corner. The third chair opposite the two of them remained empty, as it had for the last ten minutes.

Ezra had been dreading moments like this all week. It let his thoughts wander too much.

Searching for a distraction, he turned his attention to the book in front of him - 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski. Its cover, a dreary depiction of French soldiers trudging through the snow, was just as faded as those on the rest of the books strewn across the roundtable. Coming with his parents from Earth they’d all spent two decades sitting in their bookcase by now, and most were decades older still.

It alone had the distinction of an exceptionally well-worn spine, though, and some of those creases were his own. Over the last week he’d poured over the book, learning about Napoleon’s rule and the fate of the Grande Armée in preparation for his upcoming presentation. Ezra had greatly enjoyed satiating his curiosity for all things Earth, but he couldn’t pretend that his sudden interest had been just for the love of knowledge.

The book had given Ezra a good excuse to not leave his room.

Returning home hungover from Veydra’s, he’d quickly found that both his and Mum’s attempts to reconcile were perfunctory. She still clearly disapproved of the relationship, but rather than do so openly she just gave him stony silence. Ezra suspected that the only reason that she wasn’t pushing the issue any further was for fear of him doubling down like he had the first time. He’d run off with Veydra once, and he could always do it again.

What worried Ezra far more was the unmistakable tension between his parents, considering that it had been his Dad’s approval that had brought it all to a head in the first place. It was impossible to miss the pregnant silence at the dinner table, or the looks shared when they thought he wouldn’t see. He couldn’t even think about it without a pang of fear and guilt running through him at the thought of his actions putting a dent in their relationship, and if things didn’t start to get better…

Alright, this wasn’t working.

He turned to Veydra and spoke up, just looking for something to break the silence. “Do you think Auli will show up?”

“Mmmm, probably not,” She replied with a grunt, then looked up from her slate to study the room, “If I’d known she was going to flake I would’ve picked a room with a couch.”

Ezra grinned, immediately catching her meaning, and gave her leg a playful kick under the table. “Yeah. It’s been a while since we’ve just been able to hug somewhere, hasn’t it?”

Veydra turned to face him, tilting her head a little. “I mean, we hugged a lot when you came over last week.”

…They did?

Thinking back to that day, he could trace a steady line all the way from waking up to meeting Veydra’s family and opening up that massive wine bottle, but after drinking a few glasses… there was almost nothing. All Ezra could recall was a few hazy moments and fragments, and precious little else.

That wasn’t good.

“Hey, this is a bit of a weird question, but…” He began to ask, “ Did I… do anything stupid that night?”

Veydra’s gaze strayed away from his, and her lips split into a nervous grin - a reaction that Ezra had started to recognise as her typical response to questions she found difficult. “Well…”

That was not the answer he’d been hoping for.

“Veydra…”

“Nothing bad.” She said soothingly, “You were just… I don’t know, acting a bit silly towards the end, hugging people and joking around a lot.”

Ezra sighed and slumped over in his seat, stung by embarrassment at the thought of her family’s first impression of him being a drunken idiot.

“All of them really liked you!” Veydra went on, evidently reading his reaction, “I made sure that they knew you’d been through a lot that day, anyways.”

That just left one question. “Did we… you know?”

“No.” She replied emphatically, seeming offended at the notion of him even asking, “You fell asleep as soon as you touched the pillow, anyways.”

“The only thing that was really weird was when you uh… told me that Lismey was scary, and that you didn’t want to be alone with him.”

Ah, Veydra’s only brother. He sat back up in his chair and gave her a smile, feeling some relief at the knowledge that drunk Ezra had made at least one good choice that night. 

“Lismey sounded very set on having a boy’s chat,” He replied with a laugh, “I needed you there to protect me.”

Veydra smiled back as she lay a hand on his shoulder, replying in a tone that had a frankly jarring amount of gravity. “I’ll always be there to protect you. That’s what being a girlfriend means, right?”

Ezra grabbed back at the hand and leaned in, going far enough to start feeling the warmth of her body as he tried to think of some kind of nuanced response - somewhat unsure himself if he should agree or disagree. That all died on tongue, though, when he heard the sound of the door unlocking. He quickly pushed Veydra away in reaction.

And not a moment too soon, because Auli burst into the room immediately afterwards.

She was dressed up, to his immense surprise, in the thick pads and plates of the Academy’s fencing uniform - a bag hanging on her shoulder with the rest of her equipment slung under her arm. The thick, white cloth of her garb rustled as she turned around to fuss about with the lock behind her, unceremoniously dumping a mask and sabre to the side as she did it. It was clearly a dueling mask made specifically for the Rousan and other horned species, having two flared protrusions coming out from the top to protect them as they fought.

“You have my… sincere apologies,” Auli said between long breaths, wiping the sweat from her brow, “The instructor kept us in, I came as soon as I could.”

“You do fencing?” Veydra asked, looking and sounding genuinely bewildered. Ezra couldn’t blame her - the thought of such a small and boyish girl doing such a marshal sport was disorientating, to say the least.

Auli turned round, showing off a heavy fringe slicked down between her antlers and round-rimmed glasses fogged in the warm air, then replied in a sour, haughty tone that clearly indicated she was offended by the implication. “Yes, I do.” 

The thick collar of her uniform kept her chin held high, literally forcing her to look down her nose at the two of them. Combined with her general demeanour, and fencing’s status as one of the ‘genteel arts’ pursued by noblewomen, it was enough to convince Ezra that she was almost certainly one herself.

The only mark against that theory was Auli’s lack of ornamentation on her horns or other typical Rousan displays of wealth - although that wasn’t necessarily a good sign either. It tended to be the poor nobles that were the most self-conscious about being seen as superior to the commoners around them.

“Well, we’re happy to have you here,” Ezra said, internally lamenting that he was already finding himself playing the peacemaker between these two.

Again!

Thankfully Veydra played along, concurring with a noncommittal “Yeah.”

“As am I,” Auli replied melodramatically, making her way over to the table, “I would have much preferred to be doing this over fencing, but it’s expected of me.”

Yep, definitely a noble.

He gave her a smile as she collapsed into the free seat and retrieved a data-slate from her bag. “I was just thinking that today we’d come together to talk about Napoleon and decide what parts of the presentation we each wanna do ourselves.”

That seemed like the best way to placate Veydra, and was now beginning to seem less like a compromise and more the preferable solution. If Auli did turn out to be an insufferable blueblood then he didn’t want anything to do with her, either.

“Would you mind if I began by doing some reading of my own?” She asked and, before Ezra could react, reached her hand out towards the books laying on the table, “May I?”

He nodded in response to the first question rather than the second, and watched in mounting confusion as she retrieved a book titled The French Revolution and began to study the cover.

Veydra frowned, and voiced Ezra’s own thoughts. “Why are you grabbing that?”

“I’ve downloaded the major Human languages onto my translation software,” Auli replied curtly, not bothering to look in Veydra’s direction. She held her slate over the book and squinted at the screen, “So this is… ‘The revolt of the… Fraunsch’.”

Oh!

“Close, but it’s more like Frainch.” Ezra said, mentally preparing himself for the many more Human words that would be inevitably mispronounced by his two Alien partners, “And revolt isn’t the best translation, revolution is closer to ‘the people taking over’.”

Through her glasses he saw Auli’s dark eyes widen, and noticed a twitch of her lip that she was able to quickly suppress. “I see.”

The tone was neutral. Too neutral.

Ezra couldn’t help but wonder how Auli would react when she’d get to the part where they cut all the noble’s heads off.

-

The actual study period turned out far better than Ezra had expected, at first.

After a brief discussion they each went on to their own study, himself and Auli with their books and Veydra with her articles, with him helping them with any questions about Humans or the time period. Admittedly his knowledge of the latter was still quite basic, but questions like “Why are they all fighting?” and “What’s a kingdom?” didn’t require him to be much of an expert.

Better yet, it even seemed like the ice was slowly beginning to thaw between Auli and Veydra. After a while, they began to chat between themselves rather than just with him, and to generally be much more relaxed and friendly around each other.

Auli herself seemed especially studious, getting ahold of the facts surprisingly quickly and, once she’d found the index, beginning to quickly flip through the book to find topics she found relevant or interesting.

But after a few minutes of comfortable silence, Auli put down the book and spoke up in a casual, conversational tone. “It seems to me that the introduction of a system based on merit rather than birth made France so powerful that it was almost able to defeat all of its rivals combined.”

The statement hung in the air unanswered for a painfully long moment.

Ezra found his eyes tracing the walls of the room, subconsciously checking for cameras. When he looked down, he saw Veydra was doing the exact same thing. 

They were alone and unmonitored - although that didn’t mean they were in the clear, either.

The statement wasn’t illegal per se, and not even something that Ezra particularly disagreed with, but a conversation like this was on the knife’s edge of becoming illegal. The moment it moved away from a theoretical discussion of history and into the Empress or Imperium then anything they said put them at a massive risk of breaking the law.

And what puzzled Ezra most of all was why a noble would say this about her own? He had to admit to himself that he was a little impressed.

“It seems that way,” Ezra replied, before nervously adding, “For France.”

“For France, of course,” She parroted back with a hint of a smile, evidently understanding the game he was playing.

Ezra’s eyes drifted over to Veydra. She was presently staring in silence, displeasure and discomfort written all over her expression.

“Too bad that merit led to Napoleon taking over.” He said, deciding to not pick up what she was putting down, and sincerely hoping that this one statement wouldn’t be the end of all the progress they’d just made.

After all, it wasn’t like Veydra hated him for his own dissident opinions.

“Maybe they needed a strong hand to lead them after all that chaos,” She countered, her words seemingly directed to him but her gaze still firmly fixed on Auli - glowering at her with enough strength to send a star into supernova.

Auli stared back and, to Ezra’s growing dismay, began to slowly angle her head down in Veydra’s direction. The sharp tips of her antlers came into view, a poignant reminder that they weren’t just for decoration…

“Well!” He nervously began, trying to break the tension, “Now that we’re a bit more familiar with the topic, do we want to discuss which parts of the presentation we want to do?”

It was Auli that broke off first, turning to face him with a far more placid expression on her face and an air of noble serenity. Her horns went back up in the air where they belonged.

“I am very interested in this revo-lution period,” She answered, annunciating the English word carefully, “If you do not mind, that is what I would like to focus on.”

“So the ‘context’ part of the presentation?”

Auli nodded.

Veydra nodded, too, but kept her eyes firmly on their partner and lips pursed around her tusks. “We’re reading your script before you present.” Her tone didn’t invite any discussion of the matter.

Not that he really wanted to. Dissidence in private was one thing, but slipping in some of that messaging into a shared presentation was another. If Auli wanted to insult the Empress and get herself hauled in front of an Interior agent, she could do it when it wouldn’t bring the two of them down with her.

“Of course.” Auli said with an all too innocent smile, “As long as I can do the same with yours, too.”

“Of course.”

Ezra opened his mouth to speak after Veydra’s curt response, but it died on his tongue as Auli abruptly clapped her hands together. “So! Ezra, you are reading this book on the Terran year one thousand eight hundred and twelve?”

He stared at the cover of 1812 in stunned silence for a moment, not exactly sure how she even knew that. “Ummm… yeah?”

“That means you would be best suited to discuss Napol-eon’s later reign and legacy, yes?” Auli asked, seeming to be gaining more and more confidence and enthusiasm as she went on with the discussion.

And without any reason to argue against her, Ezra couldn’t help but dumbly nod in agreement.

“So that leaves you as the one to study the middle-part of his reign,” Auli continued, turning her attention towards Veydra.

“Hey, don’t I get a say in this?” She protested.

Auli pointed a dainty finger toward Veydra’s slate, undeterred. “Unless you have found something that I have not, then most of the resources and articles on this topic in Shil focus on Napol-eon’s battles and time as sovereign. It makes sense for you to be the one studying them, too, considering Ezra is a native speaker and I myself am very familiar with translating foreign languages.”

“Sure, fine,” Veydra conceded with a frown, obviously still unsatisfied. He doubted she’d missed the implicit barb, being called out as the ‘least familiar’ with foreign languages.

Ezra grabbed up his book and opened it on a random page. “Now that we know exactly what areas we’re covering, I think we should do some more reading for a bit to get more familiar with them,” He suggested carefully. Another cooling off period would hopefully be enough to stop the two of them from biting each other's heads off. 

Hopefully.

Auli paused to give the suggestion a moment’s consideration, then tossed it aside like yesterday’s laundry, “Hmm, we should organise our respective sources first, then go through to see what’s relevant and what’s not. No sense reading somethi-”

“No, no,” Veydra interrupted with a firm shake of her head, “You're not just going to come in here and order around me and my boyfriend like that.”

After she spoke Auli’s eyes dashed to his for a moment so short he nearly missed it, before returning to Veydra and narrowing in anger. The horns came back down.

Oh, Goddess, not this again.

“Girls…”

“I’m not ordering you or him, you nan-ni!” Auli spat back, speaking over him, “But frankly I see no reason why I shouldn’t be leading the discussion when I’m very clearly the one here with the most experience studying history.”

Veydra held firm. “I don’t care.”

For a moment she didn’t answer, other than just purse her lips and lower her horns even further, but then through her glasses Ezra saw Auli blink.

Her scowling expression began to soften into something he wasn’t quite able to read. She broke off the staring match soon after, turning her head to the side and staring at the table. Past what was hidden by her hair Ezra could catch glimpses of Auli’s cheeks flushed a deep red against the pale white of her skin. It looked eerily similar to how a Human blushed.

Was she blushing?

“I’m sorry, I need to go…” Auli said quietly, the lilting sound of her native Rousan accent bleeding through into her tone - just like it had the first time they’d met, when she’d been angry at Veydra.

Without another word she snatched her bag and slate from the table, then jumped out of her seat to head straight for the door. Ezra jumped up as well to follow Auli, but within a few of his own steps she had already closed it behind her. All he could do was stare at the door in stunned silence.

Had Veydra said something to make Auli that agitated? It didn’t seem like it was her fault.

His first instinct in a case like this would be to assume that all this had happened because of him - some girls just didn’t know how to act around guys, after all. But she’d seemed perfectly fine talking to him earlier, and he hadn’t even been saying anything to her when it happened, either. Perhaps this was the product of some weird quirk of Rousan culture or biology? 

Maybe he’d ask Eino about it the next time he saw him.

Ezra turned back to his girlfriend. “What in the Goddess’ name was that about?”

“I… don’t know…” Veydra replied, still staring at the door with her head tilted to the side in obvious bewilderment.

He made his way back to the table, and sat down on it directly opposite her. They needed to talk. “And what were you doing, Veydra?” 

For the first few moments, she couldn’t meet his gaze. When she finally did it was with a guilty expression, cheeks pulling into a nervous grin. The fact that Veydra obviously knew she’d done something wrong gave Ezra some solace.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have acted like that.”

He threw up his hands a little. “But why did you act like that? I don’t get it.”

“She’s a dissident!” Veydra answered. It was a bad excuse, and he suspected she was fully aware of that.

“Goddess, Veydra, if we’re gonna go by what she said then I’m a dissident,” Ezra countered, giving her shin a tap with his shoe, “Besides, you're lying to me. You didn’t like her talking to me when we first met her, either.”

“Sorry,” Veydra replied, practically on instinct. She looked down at her hands laying on her lap, and after some time had passed appeared to come to a decision on what she’d say next. “I didn’t like how she was looking at you, and I don’t think it was just by chance that she got picked to study with us.”

He brought a shoe up to Veydra’s seat, resting it against her thigh. “You think she likes me?”

“Do you like her?” She asked quietly, looking back at him with a surprising amount of vulnerability.

…Did he?

“I… don’t really know yet,” Ezra answered, as honestly as he could, “I mean, there’s parts about her that I like - Auli’s weirdly cute, looking so much like a boy, and she’s obviously very smart. But she’s also pretty full of herself, too, and acted pretty badly today. Nobody's perfect, of course, but I'd have to get to know her a lot better to see if the good outweighs the bad.”

“You need to see what she’s really like, too.” He went on, “Just give her a chance, Veydra.”

She kept her head down for a moment, but then answered with a quiet “Okay…”

Ezra held out his hand, and when Veydra brought hers to meet it he interlaced their fingers together. He squeezed, and looked down at the mix of brown and purple. “When you said earlier that you wanna protect me, I get that. But we’ve gotta do that together , not just you doing it for me. We dealt with Kalayza together, remember?”

When Ezra felt her squeeze back, he brought up the other shoe to the chair and sat it on the opposite end - watching the fat of her thighs squish as he pushed them together. A smile, small and furtive at first, slowly came to her lips. “I don’t think it would take the two of us to deal with her, you know.”

He snorted and gave her thigh a light kick. “Might not even take one if there’s a stiff breeze.”

Her other hand grabbed at his leg, feeling the muscle between her fingers. “Thank you for being honest, and… I’ll try with her, I guess. But, if she still turns out to be bad, we don’t go through with anything, right?”

“Deal,” Ezra answered emphatically, “To be honest, I hadn’t really given the idea of going out with anyone else much thought.”

Without giving her any time to respond, he pushed himself off the desk and landed on Veydra’s lap with a small thud. His legs wrapped around her thighs, feeling the warm, pliant flesh underneath her jumpsuit. Almost immediately after, he felt his crotch begin to stir. “I think we should enjoy ourselves properly before we worry about anything like that.”

Veydra’s arms travelled up his back and pulled him into her soft embrace, his chin coming to rest on her shoulder. He felt her head turn towards the door. “We’re playing a dangerous game here…”

The door was locked, he remembered, and there was no reason for any of the teachers to be suspicious if they thought Auli was still here. Even still, he was surprised to find that the thought of potentially getting caught excited him more than it worried him. The thrill of danger added far more than it took away.

Ezra took the opportunity presented by her exposed neck to place a long, sucking kiss on it, pulling back to watch the purple of her skin turn a deep blue around his mark. “Would you play it with me?”

Chapter 13: No Good - Part Two - NSFW

Notes:

Apologies for the wait! Unfortunately, University must take precedence over Purple Lady Smut Fanfics. My time is a lot more free now, so I shall be picking up the pace with writing going forward.

“Would you play it with me?”

Veydra sat motionless in response, Ezra able to practically see the gears turning in her mind as it bounced between anxiety and indecision. He slid his hand off her shoulder, studiously dragging his fingers along her collar and taking immense satisfaction at the feeling of her breath quickening through the swell of her chest.

He glanced over at the door, if they got caugh-

Her lips smashed into his, and just a moment later her arms wrapped around him as though he’d try to escape. Veydra pushed hard, her long tongue ramming against his teeth as she desperately searched for the opening that he gave willingly.

Ezra tried to meet her kiss, but he quickly found himself losing control. The sheer size of her tongue allowed her to toy with his to her heart’s content, and toy she did. Veydra pressed forward without mercy, almost to the point of making him gag, only letting up to push right back again and wrap it all the way around his own.

He pawed at her breast, trying to take charge of something, but even that she took over. Veydra shuddered from the contact, then frantically grabbed his wrist with one hand and wrenched down her zipper with the other, pushing his palm underneath her sports bra. The sheer weight of her chest left it trapped. All Ezra could do was to sink his fingers into the hot flesh and knead, entranced by the dance of their tongues and the smell of her breath. 

Veydra pulled back, a strand of saliva forming between their mouths as they stared at each other, breathless. Coming out of the daze, Ezra felt as though the entirety of her had been magnified and brought into perfect focus. The lock of hair stuck to her forehead, the mess of blue freckles that covered her cheeks, it was all more stunning than before. For the second time they were caught in the heat of the moment, hastened on by the knowledge that it could end at any second. 

“I want to suck your dick,” Veydra said, not so much a request as a forcefully delivered statement of fact. Her golden eyes were alight, familiar in their passion but with a new sense of focus.

A new sense of strength.

Ezra couldn’t help but nod dumbly in response, still dazed from the kiss and entranced by the intensity of those eyes staring into his own.

She went for his collar, the brushes of her hand on his throat making him shiver, before she pulled down his zipper in one clean motion and exposed his bare chest to the cool air. He went along with it, managing to yank his arm out from under her bra and letting the upper half of his jumpsuit fall down to her knees. Pressing himself into Veydra’s warm embrace, Ezra wrapped his arms around her body and unclasped her bra.

She threw it to the ground, only giving him a second to drink in the sight of her naked chest before she grabbed his shoulder and wrenched him down towards it. With her other hand Veydra hefted her breast, yanking his head in to smother his face. Opening up his mouth, he sucked her nipple in and began swirling his tongue around it. She let out a low moan, pulling him deeper into her embrace. Stuck in the heat, he grabbed her tit himself and felt its weight and its warmth, kneading and squishing as he continued to suckle.

With her newly-freed hand Veydra slid past his jumpsuit zipper and under his boxers, the sudden sensation of her pawing at his twitching erection making him gasp. Then, without any ceremony, she withdrew. Confused, Ezra pulled back from her chest and looked up, only for Veydra to press that hand gently but firmly into his mouth. 

There was an odd look on her face, somewhere between needy and commanding. He tried not to think too hard about the feeling it excited in him, how it made his heart pound in his chest, as he began obediently lapping at her fingers.

Once he’d covered it to her satisfaction, Veydra brought the hand up to her own lips. Ezra’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of her sinuous tongue extending out and wrapping across the entire length, her golden eyes boring into his. With slow and methodical precision she went over the spots that he’d missed.

Veydra’s hand, shining with their shared saliva, flew back down into his pants. Her palm slid across the head, making Ezra groan as she gripped the shaft and began to jerk him off. The rhythm was hasty and awkward at first, more overstimulating than pleasurable, and made all the more overwhelming by her unerring focus on his reactions. She leaned further in, letting him feel her hot breath on his face as she studied every jolt, moan and shudder with dizzying intensity.

Discomfort gave way to pleasure as her technique rapidly improved, getting more rhythmic and giving just the right amount of attention to the sensitive glans, but then Veydra began to grip hard as she stroked up and down. His breath caught in his throat, the now feverish pace keeping it there as he doubled over into her body. Twitching and shuddering in her warm embrace, he felt a telltale pressure building in his crotch.

“Veydra,” Erza choked out, turning over to speak into her ear, “You’ll make me cum…”

She suddenly withdrew, Ezra letting out a disappointed whine as he shivered against her. He took the time to catch his breath and recover, while Veydra stared pensively at the wall behind him for a moment. When whatever considerations she had came to a close, her gaze turned back to him with a newfound resolve. That same commanding look on her face as before.

Her eyes strayed down, a smile creeping onto her lips as she drank in the sight of his naked chest. “You’re going on the table.”

Another order, and not even one Ezra particularly understood. Before he could even open his mouth to ask, Veydra wrapped her arms around his hips and pulled him hard into her embrace. She lifted him and herself up with surprising strength, making his head spin from the sudden motion.

“Hold tight.”

Ezra answered with a meek “Okay,” and did as she asked, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and his legs around the small of her back. Her massive breasts squished against his bare chest, the heat of her body slowly creeping in as his erection strained hard through its confines.

“Good boy.” Veydra cooed, with a grin that Ezra heard rather than saw.

Wait, what?  

He had half a mind to stop things and ask what had gotten into her. The other, traitorous half sent a shiver straight down his spine. Feeling like that, from a woman acting like this - it didn’t feel Human , but could something like this be learned?

Veydra went on, gently bending over until she could lay his shoulders on the edge, then pressing him forward to push away all of the table clutter with his body. In the corner of his vision, Ezra saw a book fall off the table and heard it land with a heavy thump. He scampered to untangle himself from her and went for his jumpsuit, pulling it down far enough to free his crotch, letting the fabric fall underneath to keep a layer between him and the table.

A heavy hand fell down on his underwear and fished out his member, letting it spring up in the cool air. Veydra took the shaft in her firm grip as she bent over the table and got to eye level with it. A twinge of self-consciousness ran through Ezra at the sight of her staring at his dick, cross-eyed.

She began with a wet, sucking kiss on the tip, and that proved to be the entirety of Veydra's foreplay. Soft lips pressed down and rubbed on the head as she took it into her mouth in one smooth motion. Her sinuous tongue traveled across the underside of his cock, exploring and probing with the soft, slimy flesh of the organ’s bottom half.

What she lacked in experience, she more than made up for with persistence and enthusiasm - energetically wrapping the organ around the shaft and glans to squeeze . The sensation of the wet, vice-like grip on his sensitive skin sent Ezra into convulsions. His back arched, toes curling as he instinctively pushed up further into her warm mouth.

Veydra took the motion as encouragement, and an involuntary moan escaped his lips as she began to suck his dick in earnest. Her full lips pressed down as she worked the shaft, moving in sync with her tongue. Absently, Ezra ran his fingers through her hair, feeling her bob up and down. Her hands wrapped around his hips and grabbed hold of his butt, pressing and kneading heavily, almost painfully, into the flesh.

Ezra knew he couldn’t withstand the onslaught for long, and a growing pressure alerted just how little time he had left. “Goddess, Veydra, I’ll cum-”

She responded with a satisfied hum through the wet smacks and licks, and took what he meant as a warning as encouragement - going harder and faster and deeper. Veydra wrapped the rough half of her tongue around his head, rubbing relentlessly as the impending orgasm traveled up further and further, until…

“God… Jesus, fuck… Christ…”

The climax hit like a shuttle crash. Waves of pleasure washed through Ezra as he bucked up further into Veydra’s mouth, pumping cum down her throat. She gave a muffled gasp and her eyes went wide, pressing forward to take him even deeper. It soon proved too much and she quickly pulled out, grabbing his shaft and holding it against her face. He was stuck shuddering in her grip, the last gasps of his orgasm landing on her cheek.

While Ezra’s head swam, Veydra let out a few hacking coughs and stuck out her long tongue, the organ coated in a mixture of spit and seed. “It… doesn’t taste like I expected…”

He leaned back on the table, an exhausted, languid smile coming to his lips. “Well, I did warn you.”

“No, you did-” She began with a look of confusion, before the realisation struck, “Oh…”

Obviously embarrassed, Veydra’s attention directed toward the table in an attempt to look for something to clean up the mess. Her gaze turned back to him after a few moments, and he realised that he’d likely have to take a trip out to the nearest restroom to grab some paper towels.

“So you called me a good boy.”

A familiar, sheepish look came onto Veydra’s cum-glazed face. “Did you… like it?”

“I did! Just, uh, wasn’t expecting it, is all,” He replied, before putting on as serious an expression as he could manage in the moment, “I will be getting my revenge, though.”

“What do you mean?” Veydra asked hurriedly, sounding even more nervous than he expected.

Ezra let the question go unanswered and just gave her an ominous smile instead. She’d more-or-less admitted to him their first time together that she’d fantasised about him having his way with her. Next time he could be the one in charge, and he could call her a ‘good girl’.

“Lemme go get something to clean you up, and then,” He said, gently lifting his knee to push into her crotch and immediately feeling the sheer heat of her arousal radiate from it, “We should deal with this, I think.”

Satisfied, Ezra’s gaze lazily turned from Veydra to the door - only for his heart to drop.

Auli stood at the other end of the room, frozen in shock. She had her dueling blade and mask held tight against her chest, eyes wide and face beat red. Her fearful, pleading gaze locked on to his own.

How long had she been there? How much had she seen? Would she talk?

“I… I left my sword…” Auli managed to stammer out after a long moment of silence, before rushing out the door and letting it crash shut behind her.

Chapter 14: The Other Side

Summary:

A brief detour from events in Nonovan to see a formative moment in the life of Ezra's dear father, John.

John took a long sip from his stout, and drank in the warm December air. His seat on the rooftop bar of his hotel gave him a perfect vantage point to look down on the central suburbs of the city, the lights flickering on the Brisbane river as the water danced around its winding bends.

A lot had changed in five years of alien rule. An assortment of squat purple prefabs now amongst formerly-modern skyscrapers and historic sandstone halls and churches, the half-hearted attempts to mesh the Shil architecture with the local only serving to make the distinction all the more jarring. Just above the city centre in Fortitude Valley, a new Imperial Quarter stood where once there had been seedy bars and nightclubs, the provincial capital of the whole Australasian continent. Amongst the people he’d met, it was an endless source of griping and conspiracies - the ever-tightening grip of Shil’vati oppression, and all that.

But Brisbane wasn’t his city, and John had never felt more free in his life. He’d gotten here with his own car, paid to stay with his own money. This weekend was his to do whatever he pleased with it!

So far, however, he’d just spent it gawking at just how many aliens were here now. Back home they only had to deal with a single small family that bought up some land a few years ago, and even then their presence was mostly just felt by people’s complaints about them - signalling their displeasure in any way that let them avoid getting slapped with a xenophobia charge. Here, though, at this single bar he could spy a full Shil family of a dozen or so occupying several tables, and another woman (clearly an off-duty marine) sitting sullenly in the corner that he studiously avoided eye contact with. Other than that, there wasn’t-

The ding of the elevator caught his attention, and he spotted another xeno emerge with the small crowd of passengers.

And it was a weird one at that.

She - and John could settle on she, considering the swell of her chest - was a reptilian alien of some kind or another, wearing a plain jumpsuit with an odd fur-lined coat over the top, clearly not of military make. Much of her face was covered over by a shock of dark and oddly fluffy hair running down one side of her head, but from what he could see the shape of it was broadly humanoid. 

With an oddly bounding gait she made her way to the bar, drawing John’s attention to the lower half of her body. Her legs were double-jointed and bent back like a bird’s, taut muscle giving way to thick thighs and a very substantial behind. Above that, her coat split into two around a truly enormous tail - easily two meters long and coloured white, with splotchy patterns of grey and purple going down the whole length as it tapered off. The thing was so thick at its base that he doubted he’d be able to make his fingers touch if he put his hands around it.

And he did want to wrap his hands around it.

The realisation came as a shock, the sense of thrill mixing together with one of odd guilt. It was easy to dismiss attraction to Shil’vati as the brain being tricked by something so close to a Human in appearance, but here was something truly alien - and all John could think is that she had an amazing ass.

Trying his best to avoid the internal discussion over whether this made him a furry or not, he did what he could to keep the staring subtle. From the corner of his eye, he watched her come up to the bar, and loom over the bartender as they spoke. She wasn’t quite Shil’vati height, but was clearly in the upper 6ft range judging by the difference between the two figures. After a few seconds of conversation had passed, the man retrieved a bottle of wine for her and poured out a glass. She gingerly picked it up with her claws and began to turn away from the bar, before stopping herself. 

It took a moment to realise that she hadn’t just stopped, but gone into a sudden, eerie stillness that he could only compare to… 

Well, a lizard.

Caught up in confusion and curiosity, his mind only registered the most dangerous and most likely reason for the behaviour when it was already too late. His heart froze at the sight of the alien’s gaze snapping over to him. He tried to recover, acting as if he’d been just looking at the bar and not her, but by then she’d already begun walking in his direction.

He felt his apprehension betrayed by a twinge of illicit excitement running through his body. Did he like this? Did he want this? Why had his mind jumped to the idea of that in the first place?

As she came to stop at a polite distance away, John glanced over and inadvertently looked straight into her wide, reptilian eyes. He watched with a sense of odd fascination as her pupils dilated from slits into wide circles, like a cat’s, as she gave him her undivided attention. If he’d had any hope of avoiding the alien’s advances, John had just killed it himself.

“Zhroyung mekich gehr vrau, ta’bahn toroshen vanya.” He began, using one of the lines drilled into him by the Shil class in high school.

“Your pronunciation is good, but the language is a little too formal for the circumstances,” The alien replied in clean English, her scaled lips pulling into a small smile, “Not that I don’t appreciate being called a lady.”

He felt the proverbial ground give way under him, his mind struggling to reconcile the voice to the alien standing in front of him. For a few seconds, all he could was stare, and feel - to his growing horror - the heat rising on his cheeks. “You, uh…”

“Can speak fluent English?” She finished for him, before taking a casual sip from her glass, “It was a necessity for work.”

The answer lit up a memory from early on in the invasion, and through all the confusion he latched onto his newfound suspicion like a lifeline. Before they switched to collaborating journos and politicians, all the public announcements by the Imperium were done by intelligence types - the aliens that had learned English to better rule over their conquest.

It practically went without saying that John had absolutely no interest in getting chatted up by the purple Gestapo.

“And what work is that?” He asked, as coolly as he could manage.

Something about her expression, alien as it was, told him she’d caught on to the suspicion. “Nothing glamorous, I'm afraid. I liaise between Human trade unions and Xeno management for Vezhna-Ondaga Starworks.”

The more he got a finger on it, the more he found her accent was… intriguing, and decidedly different from the women in the official broadcasts. It was a mixture of high-brow British and American, strangely reminiscent of the actors in old movies. That may well have been where she had learned English in the first place. 

John hid his deliberations with a sip of his stout, and swallowed down the strange discomfort that came from the thought she may actually be telling the truth. 

“Sounds like make-work, if i’m being honest.” He replied, nonplussed.

“Last month a critical error nearly passed our notice because a technician described it verbally as ‘a bit of an issue’,” The alien countered, making the quotation marks with her claws, “I adore your culture’s love of politeness and indirectness, but it does take getting used to."

He was ready to bristle at the comment until he took a moment to actually think about it. Was her judgement all that different from thinking of her as a weird alien and staring from across the bar?

Still, he couldn’t entirely agree with her. “I’m not sure I'd call us particularly polite.”

Her tail hit the floor with a sudden, percussive thump, and she gave out a short, high-pitched laugh that almost sounded like a bird call. “You see? Even in your denial, say you are ‘not sure’.”

For a second time, John found himself completely at a loss for how to react or respond, so taken away as he was by a reaction that was both entirely alien and weirdly hot. Feeling the heat rising on his cheeks and wanting to give himself a moment’s respite, he grabbed his pint and took another sip. 

Her eyes followed his hand, and soon after she placed a claw down on the back of the chair opposite him. “May I?”

John raised two fingers from the glass without even thinking, then very nearly spat out his drink when he realised what he’d done. 

With her invitation achieved, it seemed, by any means necessary, the alien quickly threaded her tail through the chair and sat herself down on it with an ominous creak. By the time he could even look up from the glass, he was facing those same piercing reptilian eyes, now studying him from across the table. “My name is Betty.”

He failed to contain an amused snort, both from the ridiculous name and just her sheer audacity. “John. I don’t think I've ever met a woman called that under the age of seventy, and certainly not one so desperate to get in the chair opposite me.”

With a snarky remark laid out and his disinterest in her implied, John felt safer in studying ‘Betty’ more directly. On closer inspection, he saw that she had the same colouration of her tail on her face, with splotches of purple on her cheeks and patches of grey extending from her eyes to her temple. The hair, he realised, wasn’t hair at all, but rather had a mass of exceptionally long downy feathers growing from her head and drooping down one side - the individual shafts visible as streaks of grey poking through the dark fluff.

The term ‘Lizard MILF’ arose in his mind too fast for him to quash, and he had to wonder if the grog was starting to get to him.

Betty seemed to take his snark in stride, content to grin back at him and reveal a set of surprisingly sharp teeth. “Well, you may uninvite me if you wish, John. I’m not a vampire.”

And just like that the ball was in his court again.

A few glances in either direction revealed that the two of them had already gotten some unwelcome attention, with more than a few of their fellow patrons looking at him with undisguised judgement for his choice in company. John couldn’t help but feel a twinge of instinctual apprehension run through him, and then a sense of thrill rise alongside it.

This was dangerous. Even if the Imperium did all it could to prevent it, getting known as someone ‘in’ with aliens was still a great way to get beaten up, or worse . Most of the ‘rebels’ John knew were the kind that thought playing The Prodigy’s Invaders Must Die over public speakers was the height of subversiveness, but the serious types were always out there.

His solace came from the knowledge that he was just another face in the crowd here. The Brisbanites could stare and judge, but that’s all they’d do.

And to counter that tiny chance a rumour did follow him home, John decided he’d tell his mates his own story about the encounter once he got back. During his stay in the big city he encounters a weird alien with a weirdly strong grasp of English - she approaches him with clear interest, they talk, they banter, until…

Well, that part was yet to be written.

“You’ve certainly got the teeth to be one.” John shot back, thinking it best to sidestep discussion of the invite entirely.

She raised a claw to her mouth and opened it up slightly, showing off a pair of long and hollow-tipped fangs. “Amongst my people that would be quite the compliment.”

John felt that heady mixture of fear and thrill rouse again within him, and shuddered at the realisation that something further down was rousing as well.

“Just so y’know,” He replied, keeping his tone as casual as he could, “The last time something venomous got this close to me, I shot it.”

“I picked the wrong continent to find Humans to trust a reptile like myself, didn’t I?” Betty asked rhetorically, before giving him a decidedly pointed look, “People do stare.”

With the bait so deliberately laid, John couldn’t resist sticking his hand into the trap. “Then out of all of us, why did you pick me out?

“Because you were different,” Betty answered, without an ounce of hesitation.

John smirked and lifted an eyebrow, sure of her game now. “D’ya tell all the guys you meet that they’re special?”

She didn’t show her response on her face, but rather with her tail - which suddenly whipped behind her with enough speed and force to knock a grown man flat on his back, before settling back down on the ground.

He couldn’t help but flinch a little from the sight, completely taken aback. It served as a poignant reminder that the bloody thing was at least several dozen kilos worth of pure muscle. She could do terrible work with her tail if she so wished.

“You misunderstand me, John,” Betty replied after a moment had passed, not sounding any more terse than she had before, “What I mean is that I have become so accustomed to seeing Humans wear what you do as a costume, that it intrigued me to see the genuine article.”

Unconsciously, John’s gaze strayed away from her tail and towards his Levi jeans and RM boots, and the realisation slowly dawned on him. It might be country fashion, but it was exceptionally popular amongst city dwellers, too. The only difference was that where their clothes were pristine, his jeans were faded white at the knees and stained green from grass on the shins, and his boots were worn down with stirrup marks and gashes.

She’d clocked him as rural.

An observation like that from an alien left him feeling oddly naked, but at least it put her outburst into some more context. “I s’pose you’re not the first girl to tell me she likes a farm boy.”

“Rural men do have their charms,” Betty began, eyes locked with growing intensity as she started to slowly lean over the table, “But what truly caught my attention is the thought of what this farm boy is doing alone at the bar, sipping away at his beer, so far away from home…”

She paused for effect, a broad grin growing on her face and revealing her monstrously sharp teeth. “And so far away from anyone that might catch him.”

“That’s not why I’m here.” John snapped back at her, face flushing hard and cheeks turning beet-red. It didn’t take him long to realise that such a reaction was doing him absolutely no favours.

“Don’t worry, John. I wouldn’t betray my fellow xe-no-phile.” Betty said, lowering her voice and putting on air of mock conspiracy. Her face screamed smug satisfaction at having caught him out.

“I wasn’t even thinking about that.”

“Until you saw me?” She finished blithely, “You sure know how to flatter a woman.”

All John could do in reply was stare and sweat, left totally dumb by the fact that she was right. 

The realisation struck that she’d very deliberately whittled down the conversation to two very simple choices. He could give in to her or stop talking entirely, and she was betting that he wouldn’t have the strength to make himself leave. Considering that he was still sitting in his chair, she might’ve been right about that too. 

When a response did come to John’s mind, it was just a question that he already knew the answer to. “What do you want?”

Betty replied immediately, eyes firmly locked to his. “You.”

John’s attention was grabbed by the sight of her tail starting to undulate like a snake, before it whipped across the floor and wrapped around his boot. He flinched and instinctually kicked it away, but her grip held true - holding on with just enough force to keep the tail in place. With the tip she began to jab at the toe with enough pressure for him to feel it through the leather.

Then, slowly and deliberately, she poked it an inch higher, then another, then another. All the while, Betty kept staring, clearly waiting for when he’d tell her to stop.

But the words never left his lips.

Unbidden but not unwelcome, her tail pressed on further. It started to drag itself across his boot and travelled up through the leg of his jeans, a shiver running through him at the feeling of the smooth scales gently rubbing against his bare skin. Before he could start to worry about its final destination, the tail wrapped around his calf and began to slowly rub up and down with heavy, constrictive force.

The implication was clear, and if he was to be frank with himself, extremely hot.

“I’ll tell you exactly what I want, John.”

Betty’s tongue flicked out for a moment to taste the air, and when she spoke again it was low and harsh - her alien nature bleeding into the clean English. “I want to see your pride give way to your desire. I want you to give yourself to me, and then I want to pin you to the bed with my tail and ride you until the sun rises over us.”

John felt his heart hammer in his chest, and a growing erection strain hard against his jeans. Would he go through with it? Would he give her what she wanted? Amidst his deliberations, a man looking at him from the bar caught his eye. Was he…

No, it couldn’t be Barry. But how many other people had he met who would wear their Akubra inside?

Christ, if he got caught by someone he knew now , it wouldn’t even matter what happened after. Just talking he could explain away, but not this. Maybe it was just an excuse for himself, maybe it was just the grog talking, but at that moment John came to the conclusion that he was already damned now. 

And if he was damned, why not just go all the way?

John shook away Betty’s tail and stood up from the chair, taking up his stout and downing the rest of the drink in a few gulps. He gave his alien companion one last look before he left.

“I’m staying in room 406.”

Notes:

Lizard milf SHOCKS white boy with perfect English (gone SEXUAL?????)

Chapter 15: Head Over Heels

What a difference a day could make.

Looking up, Ezra could see the sun finally able to pierce through the dreary skies and shine down on the ground below, signalling that the worst of the Nonovan winter was officially over. Where it shone down the sun melted the morning frost, leaving shadows of green and icy grey on the Academy courtyard. Ezra and Veydra were finally able to enjoy their mornings outside together, before classes began.

But they weren’t alone. 

The boys were out of the rec room now that the weather permitted, sitting in their little groups and cliques. It was impossible not to notice the eyes drifting over in their direction as they walked along the south path - some judging, most just curious. They strayed away when he began to look back, but he could do nothing to stop the little titters of gossip amongst them. 

It was hard not to see it and think the worst. The rational side of Ezra’s mind could argue that the murmuring was just about being seen with Veydra, but the other shouted that it meant that Auli had talked.

Even just the thought of yesterday’s events sent a wave of sheer embarrassment and anxiety washing over him. After so much worrying about his reputation, he’d managed to get himself caught doing it with Veydra by a girl they barely knew in their study room - even worse, someone they would be stuck preparing a presentation with for the next month. Phenomenally stupid didn’t even begin to describe it.

Most painful of all, it was hard not to look at how he acted and see all of the stereotypes about Humans reflected back at him. What was the point of trying to prove them wrong when his own actions were proving them right?

“I don’t think Auli will talk,” He began quietly, more as a way to distract himself than anything else, “I mean, she’s a noble right? Gossiping like that would totally go against their whole thing with decorum…”

He found that words just kept coming, letting out all of the anxieties swirling in his mind ever since it happened. “But we’ve definitely gotta apologise… say it was a mistake, otherwise she could get offended - it was still her study session after all. But that’s assuming she’s just mad… Goddess, if Auli has the wrong intentions she could even try to blackmail-”

A hand came down gently on Ezra’s shoulder, breaking his train of thought.  

He stopped and turned around to see Veydra staring down at him, with a look somewhere between concern and anger. The realisation dawned on him at just how different their reactions had been. She’d been shocked at the time, yes - but mostly just worried about him .

Things were just different for girls. If this got out, the most they’d do is just mock her going out with an ‘easy guy’ - and only then after they’d tried and failed to get in on the action themselves.

“I’d never let her do that to us, Ezra,” She answered emphatically, “But I think you’re right. She won’t talk.”

“But… what if she does?”

“Then we deal with it together,” Veydra replied, her voice far more gentle this time.

It was his own words from yesterday echoed back at him, and something about that made Ezra break. He sniffed, helpless to the tears starting to well, and turned away from all the boys. None of them could see him like this.

When he spoke, his voice came out choked and clipped. “You t-told me it was a bad idea…”

Strong arms wrapped around Ezra, pulling him in and squishing his face against her chest. For a moment he panicked, imagining all of the eyes no doubt staring his way right now, but even that melted away in the warmth of her embrace. “I didn’t stop you.”

He didn’t bother to disagree, rather just throwing a hand around her waist, and bringing the other to dry his eyes.

“We need to be smarter about it next time,” Ezra said, speaking into her breast and coming out slightly muffled, “Maybe we could book a Love Hotel in the city.”

“Oh! Uh… yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

He couldn’t help but smile at the sound of Veydra trying and utterly failing to conceal her enthusiasm, and feel a sense of satisfaction that they could get what they wanted while still being smart about it.

That being said, it certainly wasn’t a foolproof plan. He’d only learned what a Love Hotel even was thanks to a massive scandal the year before involving a boy and the entire girl’s racquetball team getting caught visiting one. It was still far better than impulsively going at it during a study session.

Ezra enjoyed the moment for a little while longer, before pulling away and letting the two continue on their way - though they didn’t continue for long.

Daess and Eino were sitting at one of the benches outside the male rec-room. Just a few steps further on he spied Celik alongside the two. He seemed to have spotted them just as fast, and gave a friendly wave that Ezra instinctively returned.

That wasn’t an explicit invitation, but his mind still turned over on itself at the thought of whether or not he wanted to use this opportunity to introduce Veydra to his friends. The look of muted terror on her face quickly told him not to bother.

“I should go get ready for class, I think…” Veydra said, all of a sudden blushing and uncertain of herself.

Ezra couldn’t help but find it strange - if rather cute - how quickly she could go from so assertive to so meek. Women were kinda weird like that.

-

He’d barely even sat down by the time and said his introductions by the time that Daess, staring up smugly from his assortment of tupperware snacks and bottle of lumi sap, turned over and gave him some snark. “Goddess, Ezra. You didn’t tell us you liked curves.”

Ezra bristled a little. Typically he knew better than to take Daess’ bait, but this time with a clear retort so close to hand he couldn’t resist. 

He nodded in the direction of his partner’s rather padded behind and gave him a smile. “Look who’s talking.”

The Shil boy scoffed, doing his best to look scandalised at the response that he likely expected to come. “I know what the ladies like. You picked her because you think like a girl, anyways.”

“Not like these girls,” Celik interjected, with a thumb pointed at the ladies side of the courtyard.

Daess shrugged to concede the point. “Also your dumb Human metabolism turns everything you eat into muscle.”

Goddess, he really was in a teasing mood. At least he’d dropped talking about Veydra pretty quickly.

“Actually, If I ate as much as you guys did I'd probably start getting fat.” Ezra countered, making sure to not single out any boy’s eating habit in particular, “It’s a big problem for Humans leaving Terra.”

Eino nodded sagely. “There’s way too many carbs in Shil food, you should see what it does to some of the Rousan girls here.”

The realisation struck Ezra quickly that this would likely be his best chance to bring up Auli, so he took his shot - hiding his interest by bending over to retrieve his thermos of coffee. “I got paired up with one for history, actually. I was meaning to talk to you about her.”

All three of his friends reacted in their own way. Eino raised a curious eyebrow, while Daess gave him a smug smirk - probably thinking that his prediction of Ezra’s “nerd herd” was coming to fruition. Celik for his part was more subtle, with his attention turning slowly away from the courtyard to Ezra himself. He decided it best to not mention the girl by name, considering how easy it would be for them to assume he was talking about her as a potential second partner.

“Oh? What about?” Eino asked, his naturally dour demeanour making the question sound more sarcastic than Ezra knew it actually was.

“Well, it’s just that when we did a study session with her and Veydra yesterday, something, uh, weird happened. My girlfriend was a bit… territorial and they got into an argument-”

Celik shot him a look. “You talked with Veydra about that?”

“We talked about it,” Ezra answered quickly, before moving on, “They argued for a bit, until the girl just… stopped suddenly. She got really flustered and after a moment just made some excuses and left. It was really weird, and I was wondering if it was a Rousan thing.”

He watched Daess’ eyes gradually go wider and wider as he spoke, but despite his very obvious and inexplicable excitement the boy remained uncharacteristically silent - to the point of covering his mouth. Without any sound, Eino turned to give the Shil boy a withering glare.

He was expecting him to react.

“What?” Daess said, trying and failing to keep the humour out of his tone, “I didn’t say anything!”

Eino rolled his eyes and switched back to Shil. “I will explain what happened before this ulto’mainen does.”

A brief silence followed, as he seemed to search for the right words to say. “We Rousan are endowed with certain instincts that determine the hierarchy between wives, to keep harmony in the marriage and ensure that the husband is best cared for.”

“Wait, this is what you guys meant by ‘locking horns’, right?”

“Yes,” He answered, “A physical contest between two women using their antlers is the most traditional and prestigious method, but it can take other forms as well.”

“So…” Ezra replied, putting the pieces together, “When they started arguing, in her mind that was them metaphorically locking antlers… and Veydra won?”

The Rousan gave him a nod and didn’t seem set to continue, but after a few seconds Celik turned to him with a frown. “You’re missing some important details here, Eino.”

Arm sufficiently twisted, he sighed and went on. “Amongst normal women, the instinct is only triggered in the presence of a male they’re attracted to.”

“Oh.”

As egotistical as it sounded, Ezra generally found it good policy to assume any girl was attracted to him until proven otherwise. Still, having it confirmed like this was never fun.

This specific situation did seem to raise some unique opportunities. If Auli’s brain was telling her that Veydra was the ‘top woman’ in this non-existent relationship, could he just get her to order the Rousan to behave with them and keep her mouth shut? Ezra dropped the idea from his mind as quickly as he raised it, and felt a little dirty for even having it in the first place. Playing so blatantly with her alien psychology like that was more likely to engender resentment than it was some instinct of compliance.

He turned away from his scheming and back to the last question he could think to ask. “So why did she run off all of a sudden? Wouldn’t it just mean to her that Veydra was in charge now?”

A deep red blush came up on the Rousan’s pale cheeks, and he answered with all the enthusiasm of a confession extracted through torture. “A part of the process is for the loser to be… intimate with the winner. She most likely left to better control herself.”

Out of Eino’s view, Daess quickly flashed a V-shape in front of his grinning lips and stuck his tongue through it, earning himself a hit from Celik.

“What.”

-

Ezra: Hey

E: Do you have that book with you?

E: There’s a passage I'd like to re-read if you don’t mind

Auli: I’m free during first break. We can meet at my locker in D-block.

For the next two hours of classes, Ezra fumed in silence. A fire burning within, and his old anxiety boiling away into a deep frustration at his situation. The last thing Ezra needed to know was that Auli had been driven by some… mating ritual to want to crawl under the table and do things for Veydra.

His Veydra.

He could only recall what Eino and the rest had told him, and what he himself had been repeating in his mind ever since - something that was strange to him, was normal and natural for a Rousan.

It just so happened that it was also what his Mum did in the Marines, and what Daess got called a ‘Colcharian’ for being into. Goddess, he felt stupid now for never bothering to find out what they meant when they said that.

Why did things have to be so complicated, and so weird?

D-block was firmly girls’ territory, but this time Ezra had no trouble at all seeming unapproachable. With his mood so shot he only needed to keep his gaze forward and make sure his expression reflected exactly how he felt on the inside. The ladies here could approach him at their peril.

Thankfully, there weren’t too many of them around, and the fact that he wasn’t currently getting actively harassed meant that no rumours had spread so far.

Most of the girls that were there were busy in their lockers, or passing him by in the sterile, white hall to go out and enjoy their break in the sun - a rare opportunity this time of year on Nonovan. His eye was naturally drawn to the Rousan amongst them, all invariably travelling in gaggles of three or more and chattering amongst themselves in their own tongue. It was hard not to think about what their antlers were really for.

It was when he saw the first Rousan alone, leaning against her locker with a book clutched tightly against her chest, that he knew he found Auli.

And she was tiny. The realisation struck that he’d only ever actually seen her sitting down, and now that he was standing he could see that there was half a foot between them in height. Without her fencing gear on, too, there was nothing to pad out her diminutive frame, showing to him just how small she really was.

It was hard to square the Auli that had been the object of so much recent anxiety and frustration with the tiny girl standing in front of him. Hadn’t he been a little weirded out by Veydra’s overprotectiveness just yesterday?

He swallowed his apprehension and made his way over to the locker next to hers, catching Auli’s attention in the process. There was a long moment of silence where she just stared up at him meekly with her pale blue eyes and thick-lensed glasses, all of yesterday’s haughtiness seemingly gone.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” Ezra began, not bothering with any pretence.

Auli blanched and her eyes darted out to the hall. He followed her gaze, and when he was satisfied that no one was within earshot he went on, a little quieter this time.

“As soon as you left we talked about it, Veydra and I. She’s… not used to me dealing with other girls, and how she acted yesterday was uncalled for. As for what happened after…”

She answered before Ezra could the right words, in a voice so quiet that he almost missed it. “You did not expect for me to return.”

“No.”

Pushing herself off the locker, Auli stuck her chin up and regained her noble bearing. “I accept your apology, Ezra, and I see no reason why I cannot work harmoniously with you and your partner in the future.”

Her tone was perfectly noble, too, and she spoke with a sense of finality that made it clear that this was as far as she wanted to go - at least today. A sense of relief washed through Ezra, but he had no intention of letting it end here.

He could trust Auli with his reputation. Could he trust her with Veydra?

“I’ve learned a little more about your species,” He said, trying his best to not sound judgemental, “And I think I know the reason why you left in the first place.”

Auli stared in silence for a few seconds, cheeks flushed and lips pursed. The mask cracked, but it didn’t break.

“You will forgive me if I do not allow you to lecture me on my impulses, Ezra.” She replied coolly, before turning to place the borrowed book back in her locker and leaving him without another word.

Ezra could only stand there and watch her go. There just wasn’t anything he could think to say.

Chapter 16: What You Know

“Are you sure you’re comfortable like this?” Veydra asked, wrapping her arms around him tightly to get to her mouse and keyboard, “I can get you a chair for yourself, if you’d like.”

Ezra just leaned back further into her embrace, letting her expansive chest and thighs serve as the cushioning for his impromptu seat. “I am extremely comfortable.”

He turned to face Verdya directly, and with him at head height with her it gave him the perfect opportunity to give her a quick peck on the lips. “Are you?”

“... Yeah.” She replied back, her face turning away from the vid-screen and fixing itself firmly on him. With the glare it was hard to see if she was blushing or not, but it didn’t matter. Ezra knew a horny Veydra when he saw one.

A hand wrapped around his chest and began to hold him possessively. His gaze turned instinctively toward the door, finding it just as locked as the two of them had left it. 

Unlike their first time, this visit to Veydra’s house had actually been planned. Veydra and Aysa’s room had been cleaned up and made presentable for male company, and they were able to pick a time when the little sister in question was off playing sports. Speaking of which…

“How long do we have before Aysa gets back from practice?” Ezra asked.

The look on Veydra’s face told him that she’d picked up on the obvious implication. “An hour, maybe more. I could ask her to stay in the city for a bit longer.”

He leaned back and rested his head on her shoulder, turning to nuzzle his face in her warm neck. “Maybe we should go into the city today.”

“ To… go to a love hotel?” Veydra ventured softly. There was something adorable about her hesitance to bring it up, despite it being his idea in the first place.

“No, dummy,” Ezra teased, “We’re going to a nice place to eat, and then to the love hotel.”

He felt her body shiver in clear anticipation, but after a moment of silence Ezra realised he’d left an obvious question hanging in the air. If that’s what was going to happen later, what were they doing right now?

It was Veydra who answered first. 

She brought her hand up from the chest to his chin to guide it as she leaned in for a kiss. Ezra closed his eyes and let it happen, feeling her approach through the growing heat of her body and the hint of her breath. Slow and gently, their lips touched and her long tongue slipped into his willing mouth. Ezra let his hand fall down to rest on the swell of Veydra’s chest, gripping through the cloth to grab at her-

A loud notification sounded from the computer, then another, and another.

Veydra stopped dead in her tracks, letting her tongue lay still in his mouth for a moment before hesitantly pulling away. Eyes now open, they stared at each other in silence for a short moment. Ezra couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at the sight of her attention torn between him and something else at a time like this, but he let it pass. 

This could be important, after all.

With a nod to the vid-screen, Ezra gave his silent permission for her to go on. Veydra straightened herself and pulled the chair further in, yanking him around in the process, and started to work around him as she had been before. After a few clicks, she let out a long sigh.

He turned to see an unfamiliar chat app raised on the screen, with three recent messages from someone named Ishara. Something about a gaming session being back on, and that Veydra would be substituting.

Veydra brought up a hand to rub her temple in clear frustration. “She told me the organisers had cancelled today’s session.”

“Wait, Ishara just said you’d volunteer without even talking to you first?”

“It’s because I'm usually available.” Veydra explained, as if it excused what Ishara had done, “And of course the first time I'm actually not…”

He felt an odd sense of second-hand injustice within him, not just at the situation itself, but also at how accepting she seemed to be about it. 

“What happens if you flake?” Ezra asked softly. It wasn’t the most subtle of attempts to influence her behaviour, he had to admit.

“I’d probably get banned for a few sessions… or maybe Ishara would…” She answered, before getting a panicked look on her face and hurriedly adding, “I can do that, though! For you.”

“Oh, umm…” Ezra replied, torn by sudden indecision. Getting Veydra to stick up for herself was one thing, disrupting her social life like that was quite another. “How long do the sessions usually take?”

Her forlorn expression told him a while. “I’m playing with a team of friends, and we’re controlling a faction together… it would probably be fine to join and then leave early with their permission.”

It took a second for him to process what she meant, and then only a moment to lose his cool. “Goddess, Veydra! Why didn’t you say so first!”

He grabbed and put on a spare pair of headphones, the cups sitting slightly awkwardly on his flat, human ears. Ezra didn’t have long to worry about the discomfort, as he got absolutely blasted by the orchestral score of IMPERIAL FRONTIERS VIII when the title flashed on the vidscreen.

-

“That’s fine, Vey. Check out whenever you want, we’re just doing preparation and diplo this session.” A girl’s voice answered. Watching which of the four names flashed in the corner of the screen as they spoke, he could see hers was Aumvi.

Next, a woman named Gren spoke up, with what Ezra thought was the strongest Rakiri accent he’d ever heard. “Too busy with your important life for us nerds.”

He found it impossible to tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but a glance at Veydra’s beaming grin told him it didn’t matter.

Turning back, he could see that the bulk of the display was taken up by a huge starscape set on a two-dimensional plane, with the stars coloured in to show which faction occupied them. Whatever scenario they’d joined into didn’t seem particularly fair - two giant powers in Purple and Blue dominated the south-eastern and western corners of the map, with an assortment of smaller ones occupying the space between them.

Veydra zoomed in from the starscape to a space between those small powers, revealing a lonely space station and a fleet labelled BIG TIT ONE. Something told him that it wasn’t the original title.

“Are you…” She began, bringing up a display of the fleet’s numbers and status, “How do you only have your starting ships? What in the Depths is our production going towards?”

The last of the group finally spoke up, a nasally-sounding girl named Biyxana. “You’ll see…”

Veydra breathed out a soft “Oh no…” and quickly raised another menu. Soon after she was flicking through an incomprehensible mess of windows, graphs and displays on the vid-screen. Ezra did his best not to snort at the look of utter incredulity growing on her face. “Orbital platforms? Bombardment defences? Q-Ships?! You’re running a defence strat on the Syndicate?”

The girl spoke up again, clearly aware the question was directed towards her. “You’re just jealous I've got the tits to do it.”

Ezra felt the vibrations in Veydra’s chest as she let out a heavy scoff. “I should have guessed you’d do something like this. This is such a fucking Biyx strat.”

“Don’t you see, Vey, they’ll never expect it!”

“How in Hele’s name are we supposed to be pirates if we’re not actually going to raid anyone,” Veydra asked, looking down at him rather than the screen. The question was delivered with an air of exposition that made it clear she was saying it for his sake.

Rather than Biyxana, this time it was Aumvi that answered her. “I mean, we can still raid.”

Veydra rolled her eyes and threw up a hand in exasperation. “And then any fleets we send out will get wiped out immediately. Baseline syndie ships are civ-tech, Vi, they can lose against a mining fleet.”

“A fitting sacrifice to draw them into our trap…”

“No, no, no,” Veydra said firmly, “There’s no way letting them find our base is gonna be a viable strategy. Even if we can win a pitched defensive battle, and that’s not a guarantee, all we’ve done is weaken one faction and alert the rest of the galaxy to where we are.”

The conversation quickly began to descend into banter and name-calling, with Ezra laying back satisfied as his girlfriend gave as good as she got. With all the friendly talk and nicknames flying around it was obvious that they were close, and it was nice to hear Veydra amongst friendly female company. It was a side of her he hadn’t been able to see. A side of women that it was hard for guys to see in general.

“I knew you’d be a defeatist coward. What we need is the energy to carry us through to victory!” Biyxana announced cryptically. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke up again. “Gren that’s when you're supposed to use the soundboar-”

That was as far as she got before an exceptionally loud voice boomed over the microphone, with a low-class coreworld accent so rough and so thick she sounded like a gang boss in a crime thriller.

“I’M HER. I’VE BEEN HER. I WILL CONTINUE TO BE HER.”

The VC was inundated with moans and groans from the utter assault on all their ears. Through the pain Ezra felt a grin growing on his lips, and the giggle he let out was thankfully lost in all the noise.

“STARS ABOVE, TURN DOWN THE FUCKING VOLUME!” Cried Aumvi. To Gren’s credit, the next line was significantly quieter.

“FLIPPED A BAG OF MENT AND TURNED IT TO AN EMPIRE. OPPS TALKED SHIT, GLASSED THEIR PLANET.”

Ezra cast a wary eye at the microphone, having to suppress another giggle before this goddess-forsaken soundboard got him caught. What was this even from?

“See Vey, this is the kind of energy I’m talking abou-”

“MY PUSSY GRIPS LIKE A CARGO LOADER.”

The dam burst. Ezra let out a full belly laugh as he lurched in a vain attempt to hit the mic’s off button, only to settle back nervously in Veydra’s lap.

The VC fell into a pregnant silence, ending when Aumvi’s teasing voice came over the call. “Is that who I think it is, Veydra?”

Ezra stared up at her, utterly unsure of what to say or do, only to find her staring down with an expression even more pleading than his own. It was clear that he was going to have to take his own initiative on this.

“...Perhaps.”

“Hello, Ezra,” Said Biyxana, his name rolling off her tongue like a slur.

“Are… are you Veydra’s boyfriend?” The Rakiri asked incredulously.

It was a confusing mix of reactions. He could only conclude that whoever and however much Veydra had told people about him, it wasn’t consistent.

A possessive arm wrapped around Ezra as she finally spoke up. “Yeah, he is. What’s so weird about that, Gren?”

“Well, no offense, but…” She began, with a tone that did little to actually minimise any offense, “I didn’t exactly expect you to go out and get a guy.”

Ezra rolled his eyes. “She didn’t get me - we talked like normal people.”

“Best part, she’s his first,” Aumvi added.

Another short spell of silence fell on the call, before being broken by a rolling Rakiri voice, “Veydra, you’re clearly a better huntress than I.”

A sarcastic retort about him being ‘prey’ came quick to Ezra’s tongue, but he bit it back. Once was enough, and there was nothing more stereotypically Rakiri than hunting allegories.

“Well, he’s a human, so-” Biyxana began, only to be immediately cut off by an incredibly excited Gren.

“You’re a human?!” She said with an actual, audible purr.

“Ummm… yeah?”

So this was how it was gonna be. Ezra’s heart sank at the prospect of having to interact with both extremes of the general attitude towards humans, with one side insinuating that he was a violent sex-addict while the other asked him what his feet smelled like.

His father’s words about holding himself to a high standard in times like this came to mind, and as frustrating as it might be, he resolved to keep his cool and stay polite with Veydra’s friends.

After a moment, Gren cut off the purring and seemed to get a hold of herself. “Heh… sorry… It’s just that I really like Terran media. I didn’t even know we had humans on Nonovan.”

Huh.

“There’s a few of us here,” Ezra said. Still suspicious of her intentions - and doubly so of what exactly she was referring to as ‘Terran media’ - he decided to do some friendly interrogation. “What sort of stuff do you like?”

“You girls have so many good war movies!” Gren answered excitedly, before giving the titles in heavily accented but nonetheless understandable English, “Saving Private Ryan, Zulu, Master and Commander…”

“Master and Commander is one of my dad’s favourite movies!” He replied with enthusiasm, a good portion of it genuine, “He actually brought a copy of it and a heaps of other media from Terra when he moved here, but when I was watching it we had to go and find a version with Shil subtitles! I know English, but it can be really tough understanding the strong accents and old-fashioned-”

“Could you share those?” Gren interrupted, before remembering her manners and hurriedly adding, “Uh… only if that’s okay with you and your dad, of course! ”

Ezra sucked some air through his teeth, and mentally kicked himself for leaving the opening for such a fraught topic. “I’d normally love to, but… we’re probably not allowed, sorry.”

“What? Too many guys taking their shirts off?” Biyxana quipped, giggling at her own joke.

You little brotherfucker.

Even just as she began to speak Ezra felt his fist clench in a burst of frustration, and he let out a low growl that he could only hope wasn’t picked up by the microphone. Closing his eyes and leaning back, he let the anger wash over him. This wasn’t the time for venom.

On the vid-screen Ezra saw the cursor finally lay still for once, and felt Veydra shift in apparent discomfort beneath him.

“It’s because of their politics,” Ezra said, carefully and deliberately, “A lot of movies that Humanity considered fine are too radical for Imperial tastes. The Interior Ministry told my parents it’s okay for us to own them, but we can’t distribute them outside the family.”

All the girls but Veydra responded with a chorus of gasps, and when Ezra looked up he saw her face locked into a scowl. 

After a few seconds, Biyxana spoke up again. “Well, still-”

“That’s enough jokes, Biyx,” Veydra interrupted, with an unmistakable edge of ice in her tone.

-

The chastisement seemed to work. He barely heard another word from her directed at him for the entire call.

They’d invested too much, Veydra decided, to be able to switch from their ‘defensive piracy’ strategy, so they would just have to commit to the bit. Of all the discussion that followed, the only part that really caught Ezra’s attention was the talk of diplomacy. The Syndicate would be in an extremely vulnerable position for a time, so making the right friends was essential for survival. 

Each of the girls took turns talking about girls they knew in the other factions, and Ezra was shocked to hear just how cynical and manipulative they were willing to be to get in their way. They almost sounded like guys.

Eventually enough had been said and done, and they took their leave from the call. Veydra grabbed both their headphones, leaned over to switch off the microphone, and then let out a long, pained sigh.

“I’m sorry that had to be your introduction to my friends,” Veydra said, despair mixing together with a sense of protective anger. This Biyxana was very clearly getting a chewing out in the future.

It made Ezra realise just how quickly he’d dropped the matter himself. He had been angry in the moment, sure, but then it could just be filed away in his mind as yet another instance of someone treating him weirdly and disrespectfully as a human. 

Should he be more mad?

“Gren and Aumvi were nice,” Ezra replied, leaning back his head to rest on her shoulder and watch her face, “Thanks for shutting the other one up, though.”

A smile came to her lips, then quickly faded away. “I didn’t think she’d act like that with you. Biyxana isn’t usually that bad.”

The words ‘that bad' and all their implications hung in Ezra’s mind for a long moment.

“I was friends with a lot of girls when I was younger, then when puberty came around they suddenly didn’t know how to act around a guy like me.” He said, “I didn’t really learn how to act girls myself until I met you, Veydra. She’ll learn too, hopefully.”

Veydra rested a hand on his thigh, idly squeezing the flesh like a stressball. “She needs to learn how to act with humans, too. I can’t even imagine how frustrating that must be for you.”

It was hard to stay outraged with the experience so fresh in his memory of him being so ready to judge Auli for her own species’ quirks. He still hadn’t found the right time to bring up her interest in Veydra, but when in the void would there be a right time for a conversation like that?

“I just followed my Dad’s advice and tried to keep my cool as best I could,” Ezra replied, “I was ready to get angry at Gren, before I realised she’s just, well…”

“Like that?” Veydra answered for him.

He let out a snort. “Yeah.”

“She’s always been a bit, um, excitable…”

He turned around in her lap to rest his legs on the side, and reached up to rest his thumb on one of her tusks. “Nothing wrong with that, don’t you think?”

Before she could reply a knock on the door came from behind them, followed by Aysa’s muffled voice. “Hey, uh, Veydra, is Ezra still there?”

Ezra stood up from his girlfriend’s lap and grabbed hold of her resting hand, looking her straight in the eye as responded. “Yeah I’m still here! We’re just about to leave, though!”

He found it a little funny that they’d have to find something nice to wear at a restaurant, even though they were just going to be taking it off each other at the love hotel.