Chapter 17 #3
Several bulging packs sat by the door of the flyer. “Do we have enough food and clothes for my friends?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kex replied, and moved to the screen on the wall to set the coordinates.
“And we brought extra soap? I don’t know if the protectors will have thought of it, but my friends will want to get clean.”
“Yes, soap and brushes,” Kex reassured me.
I sighed. “Okay, let’s do this.”
I sat by the window, watching the forest race by and the city shrink in the distance as we flew through the lavender sky.
Worry crept at the edges of my consciousness, but I couldn’t let it overwhelm me.
We would get to my friends and help them out of the forest. They hadn’t been out there alone this whole time, so I had hope they were still alive and well.
“So we really can’t bring one of those needle guns and translator chips with us?” I asked Kex.
“Not into the forest, but we have them on the flyer for when we retrieve your friends,” Kex said.
“But like, it’s such a small device. We can’t just sneak it with us?” I asked.
“That’s what I fucking said!” Rainair growled.
Kex sighed. “I know they seem inconsequential, but as a representative of my people, I have to respect all of our laws. The humans landing in Monai will be a big enough scandal once it is widely known.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because an escape pod is not a small tech, and it will take the protectors months to break down and remove every piece of it by hand.”
I winced. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You didn’t ask to be stolen from your planet and dropped on this one.” Kex pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
I turned to Rainair. “So what’s with the stories?” I asked, and Kex groaned.
“He’s obsessed,” Kex said. “Any downtime we had, he’d be reading on his little handheld. He even carried an extra solar charger with us everywhere. It broke when a quax kicked him in the chest. He broke three ribs and the solar panel, and guess which he was most upset about.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining when I read to you at night,” Rainair said, crossing his arms.
“I didn’t say the stories were bad, just that you’re a little codependent with that thing.”
Rainair rolled his eyes.
“What kind of stories?” I asked.
“All kinds,” Rainair said.
“He’ll read anything,” Kex said. “But somehow he only ever ends up reading love stories.”
“I like the interpersonal dynamics and character development,” Rainair said, a little defensively.
“I love reading romance,” I told him.
“Ha, see? Your mate gets it.”
Kex squeezed me against him. “Yes, my mate and my best friend are both hopeless romantics. What a coincidence.”
“What sort of stories does your world hold?” Rainair asked.
“Oh, so many,” I said. “There’s every genre you could think of, and then subgenres. Just in romance alone, there are a million choices. Like, for example, humans obviously don’t know any species exist outside our planet, yet there’s a whole subgenre of alien romance.”
Rainair’s expression grew distant. “A whole new world of stories. I wonder what it would take—”
“Absolutely not,” Kex cut him off.
“I wouldn’t really,” Rainair said.
“If you get caught sneaking to a preflight world to steal reading materials, I will absolutely not come to your sentencing.”
“Yes, you would,” Rainair said smugly.
“But if you did decide to sneak off to a preflight world to steal reading materials, let me know, because I have recommendations. And if you could, like, bring my cat back, I’d appreciate it,” I added.
“What’s a cat?” Rainair asked.
Kex snorted. “You, but smaller.”
I covered a laugh, but Rainair looked confused.
“My mate informs me it is a small, fluffy creature kept as a pet with pointy ears and whiskers,” Kex said.
Rainair ran a hand over his own impressive whiskers. “Sounds like a brilliant creature.”
Rainair asked me about romance stories on Earth, and I spent the rest of the flight explaining the plot of Pride and Prejudice, along with the cultural context he needed.
“How will we find our way back to the ship? And how will we even find our way to the crash site when you’ve never been there?” I asked Kex as we crossed the white-marked trees and entered Monai’s forest.
Kex launched into a detailed explanation of wayfinding as we hiked through the forest, and I only half listened, mostly thinking about how much I missed his leaf covering. His ass still looked great in the woven pants, but the leaf had left a lot less to the imagination.
Having Rainair along for the journey was a little annoying, because it meant I couldn’t convince Kex to take sex breaks throughout the day. Or maybe I could have, but it felt weird. I wasn’t much of an exhibitionist, all my romantic endeavors before Kex having taken place with the lights off.
When Kex exhausted the topic of navigating the forest, Rainair took over, telling one of his favorite stories, which nearly made up for his cockblocking presence. Really, I’d never been this consistently horny in my life. Was it something in the water, or just my big teal alien’s presence?
Rainair didn’t tell his story quite as detailed as a book might be, but it was close.
He spoke with the even tempo of a narrator, and it filled the hours with something to focus on.
The story was sweet and funny, with lots of yearning, and when he got to the sexy parts, he described them briefly but graphically.
I couldn’t help but snicker when he had to stop and explain the genitalia of the male lead when I couldn’t quite understand the mechanics.
Kex sighed at our antics, but he was obviously enjoying his friend’s presence.
They didn’t seem interested in discussing the war they’d both survived, but it was clear their history had bonded them deeply. I was glad to know Kex wasn’t completely alone in the world.
As we walked, I spent my time thinking up excuses to wander into the woods with Kex after we made camp and before bed.
But even with Kex carrying me for the second half of the day, I was exhausted by the time we made camp.
Kex woke me long enough to make me eat something, and then, tucked up against him, I once again fell asleep.