Chapter 23
ALEC
Oh. My. God.
Two mates. I couldn’t believe it. And my parents!
Dad would probably be just as shocked as Mom, but I decided that if the Mylos said it was so, then he’s agree that it was simply meant to be.
He was easy going like that. Mom, on the other hand?
She was the wild card, though through it all, her main concern in the end would be how to organize a wedding for three grooms instead of two, and ask me if Floof liked both his new dads.
Well, at least it turns out that I wasn’t perving on two already mated guys who have zero romantic interest in me.
They just admitted they’d kind of been crushing on me, just like I had been on them.
Now, if I can get myself to stop going into overload over stuff, as I’m sure they’ll get tired of having to calm me down, so my blood pressure goes down.
Hopefully, the doc is right, and they can give me better pills to help stave it off.
“So, how much stuff do you have to move?” Carl asked me as we walked to the shuttle bay.
“Just a few books, some clothes, a few keepsakes, and my cat and his stuff. I, uh, was living at home with my parents before coming up here.”
Carl merely nodded as if that hadn’t been a sad state of affairs.
“Cool, that makes things easier.”
“I will send the dining table and chairs back to supply along with the coffee table and my current bed,” Kittinir said. “I know you have the table from your Meemaw, as well as the coffee table, armchair, and sofa, you’ll want to bring.
“And her music center. I’m not leaving that or the records behind.
Or my TV. The wall screen thing is cool and all for movie night, but the Brady Bunch and other old shows have got to be watched on a console TV.
You’ll just have to find a way to integrate it into the entertainment center and power them both. ”
“I’ll send a comm to engineering. They wire for Earth appliances frequently, as many mates come with things like these record players and kitchen mixers, from my understanding. One mate even brought up an entire stove.”
I mentally filed away the information that Carl liked old time stuff, from furniture to TV shows. Our place was going to be granny chic, it sounded like, and I was okay with that as long as there weren’t doilies everywhere or dolls staring at me all over the place.
“You think they’d let me bring up Meemaw’s Chambers stove? Probably not, huh? Open flame, ship in space, and all that. That other stove was probably electric.”
“I will ask. The science lab has open gas flame appliances, with several safety features and fire suppression protocols added.”
Carl looked amazed. “Seriously?”
Kittinir shrugged. “As you say, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
Damn. I’d heard how accommodating the Mylos were towards their mates, how honorable they were in all their dealings, and their dedication to justice, equality, and all that, but it had all sounded fairytale-like.
As if P.R. was being spun to make them sound like some perfect ideal in order to make more people sign up for their programs and urge our governments to sign more deals with them.
As far as I could tell so far, every word I’d heard was true, and somehow, my luck had changed to bring me a happily ever after in my own Mylos story.
I had the chance of better health, a job that came with training and which wouldn’t get boring as I’d get moved around every few months to a different leisure activity so I could learn the ropes at the different facilities, and once I was done, I could either keep rotating or choose a single placement.
Free food and clothes were mine for the asking, just a quick boop of my watch or tablet so they could track usage for supply chain purposes and to ensure I wasn’t going hog wild.
I even now had two mates, husbands really, even if we hadn’t had the human ceremony or claimed each other yet, both of whom were my perfect fit if the stories were true.
I’d only been here for not quite a week, but the mate pairs I’d seen so far?
Yup, even the arguments were cute and ended in smooches.
And so many gay families! I wondered if they’d want us to do the foster-to-adopt thing so many Mylos did.
I’d always had a vague notion that I’d like to be a dad someday, and I knew my mom, especially, was envious of her friends and their grandkids.
Now that I had a secure future and two mates who could help shoulder parental duties, I think I sort of liked the idea.
Not right away, of course, as that would be nuts.
I’d just met these two guys and started my program.
We paused in front of a door, which, when it opened, turned out to be the shuttle bay.
“Well, time to go see our new digs. No doubt they’ve already moved your stuff, Alec, and got your kitty situated, and are in the middle of moving Kit’s and my things from his old quarters. I’ll arrange for the rest to get delivered tomorrow so it’s not so much at once.”
I nodded. That did seem less overwhelming.
“There’s the shuttle home,” Kittinir said, pointing..
I wondered if he’d mind if I called him Kit the way Carl did. I decided to try to play it cool while trying to find out.
“So, guys, since it’s our first night together as a throuple, we should probably celebrate by eating our fave foods or something. How about one of us chooses a main course, one the sides, and the other dessert?”
“Oh, that does sound fun!”
“So, Kit, what would you like to pick?” I asked as we boarded the shuttle and found three seats together. We began buckling the harness on, and Kit pursed his lips in thought, thinking as he did so.
“Potato salad. The cold kind with mayonnaise and definitely not raisins, carrot sticks, and hummus to dip the sticks in,” he decided. “The kind with red peppers in and garlic.”
“Well, that takes care of the sides,” Carl said, and I nodded, pleased he chose things I would happily eat and even more pleased by him accepting me calling him by his nickname. “I vote charcuterie board for our main course.”
“And how about banana split sundaes for dessert?” I suggested.
“Oh! And real fruit punch to drink. Ha! It’ll be like a mini picnic party!
We can eat it in the living room, have a carpet picnic, and watch a movie!
” It did sound like fun and low pressure.
“I know we’re mates and there’s an expectation that we claim each other, but Kit’s nanites will take a few days to kick in, so I think we should all hang out and get to know each other better. Find our groove as mates.”
The shuttle hatch closed, and the pilot let us know we were about to take off, just before a faint rumble vibrated the floor beneath our feet and a soft jerk alerted us to lift off. The hull of the shuttle became transparent to allow us to see the stars and ships as we made the short trip.
“I mean, sure,” Carl continued, “Kit and I have been friends and colleagues for three years now, but that’s not the same as husbands, and we need to get to know you properly too.
No putting any small fronts up like you do with friends, just one hundred percent ourselves, warts and all.
Toothpaste caps left off, the works. And um, while we’re just hanging out, we should all sleep on the floor, so it’s like a big sleepover.
No pressure. We can get used to being in the same bed once we’re ready to, um, after we’ve done the deed.
” He lowered his voice for those last two words, and I felt myself blush right alongside him.
“That sounds most sensible,” Kit agreed.
“Yeah, it does,” I managed to get out.
“Cool. That’s decided then.”
We spent the next several minutes of the flight deciding on what movie to watch, settling on three to marathon. I relaxed, enjoying the banter as we did so. I hadn’t had so much fun since I couldn’t remember when.