LUC

Jessie stopped in front of the group of humans and spoke to the female. I didn't understand what was being said, but I noticed the unease in the female's blue eyes as she turned to the dark-haired man with her. The man mumbled something, touching the human weapon strapped against his thigh before motioning at Jessie. Jessie nodded, and when he started pulling me toward the cave again, the dark-haired man followed the three of us.

Tali stayed close to me, walking into the cave's entrance. The humans posted at its entrance gave us a wary look, but the dark-haired man raised his hand in placation, allowing us and Jessie to walk into the cave without problems.

I wasn't sure what I had been expecting, but it hadn't been even smooth metal walls and floors. The cave looked more like the inside of a long clay tube than it did a tunnel. My wings brushed against the cool metal surface as Jessie pulled me along. He was now talking to the man with dark hair. They seemed to be having an extensive conversation as we walked past moving metal sheets that pulled aside to grant entrance further into the tunnel. The further we walked, the more human beings I saw — Tali seemed stressed out, her lips pulling back to show teeth if they looked at her too long. A lot of them were wearing a version of the fabric Jessie and the man leading us had on — blue and covering every inch of them except their necks and hands. Their shoe covers, however, tended to be different, many not sporting the knee-length black material that clung to Jessie's legs.

The dark-haired man walked into a square structure, fortified by metal staff structures. Jessie pulled me inside with him, and Tali followed with some encouragement from me. She snarled, ramming herself into the metal staffs when more dropped to cover our exit and the structure began to move.

"Luc, okay?" Jessie asked me, squeezing my hand. I nodded, more concerned about Tali, who was still attempting to scrape her way out of the structure as it lowered us deeper into the cave.

"They're not going to hurt us," I said in our language, watching as she turned her eyes to meet mine.

"I'm doing this only to see the female," she said back. "If this is a trap... I will kill them, then I will kill you, and I'll rip this place apart to find her," she said, still baring her teeth.

I lowered my head at her, displaying that I didn't mean any harm, and she seemed to calm down, backing away from the metal poles as the enclosure hit a surface that led up into another tunnel network. Jessie tugged my hand, making me look down at him. He had a worried expression on his face. I used a hand to pat down his hair, assuring him that whatever Tali and I had discussed was not important.

The dark-haired human pulled something behind us, and the metal poles lifted. He walked out first, and Jessie followed behind me, pulling me along with him. Tali trailed behind us — her movements still tense and unsure.

"Will I see the female now?" she asked from behind me as we weaved through the tunnels choke full of humans of various sizes and colors. I was sure I even spotted their equivalent of a hatchling in a female's arms.

"They're still taking care of her," I said, not wanting to upset her by telling her I was unsure. The dark-haired human stopped in front of an entrance blocked by a metal sheet. He tapped a tablet beaming with light, and the metal sheet pulled aside before our eyes.

The dark-haired human said something that made a worried look form on Jessie's face before he wandered away, leaving the three of us at the entrance to what looked like a nest — there was a platform that was heaped with human fabric coverings, and an array of other things I couldn't quite pinpoint what they were. I recognized the table and chair made of wood, but I didn't understand the globe above, which beamed light like it was the sun itself. Jessie's eyes drifted to Tali, and his breathing hitched. I lowered my hand to his neck, wondering what he wanted to do but couldn't express. He said a human sentence, and the only words I could pick up were 'Tali' and 'Sleep.' I felt unease build up inside me when I realized what he'd been instructed to do.

"Tali."

The Helli female looked at me, her eyebrows raised as she waited for me to talk.

"You need to stay in there," I said, gesturing to the enclosure with my head. They want you to rest while they take care of the female..." I trailed off, licking my lips as I wondered how to phrase the last part. The sheet will go down. They will call for you when she's healthy."

Emotions seemed to play behind her multicolored eyes as she considered my words. "You are trapping me," she said plainly — in a matter-of-fact tone. "Why?"

I shook my head, lowering it. "We are not. They want you to rest... if you wander by yourself..." I trailed, looking around us. There weren't many humans in view, but the ones that were showed clear signs of being nervous as they rushed past us with heads lowered and steps shaky.

"You promise the female is in good hands?" she asked, following my gaze to the group of humans that walked past us.

"I promise," I said, feeling Jessie's grip on me tighten.

She seemed satisfied with that, and ducked into the entrance, walking slowly towards the human nest before inspecting it. Jessie reached out his hand to the beaming tablet, tapping it a few times before the sheet of metal closed off the entrance again.

"Thank you," he said, looking up at me with a tired smile. He'd never explained the meaning of those words, but over time, I'd put together the context. I purred, reaching down to run the fingers of a hand down his face. It was smoother than normal — maybe the razors they used here were better than whatever I'd been able to scavenge for him.

He pulled me through the tunnels, stopping at a closed entrance before letting go of my hand to take off his bag and fish for something. I noticed the enclosure covering in front of us did not have a beaming tablet by its side. I cocked my head at the metal sheet, wondering how it would open. Jessie pulled out a ring of metal pieces before sorting through them and selecting one. He put it into a hole in the wall. He turned it a few times, and I heard the sound of something clicking before the metal sheet creaked. Jessie pushed it in, opening it to reveal the entrance. He smiled, walking into it before turning on his heels to look at me.

My eyes moved from one corner of the enclosure to the other as I studied the space Jessie seemed to have been sleeping in for the past few days. It was a little bigger than the current nest we shared. The place smelled like him, and the bedding looked comfortable. I ducked, stepping in. The flooring was just the same as it was on the outside — flat cool metal that clanked when my claws came into contact with them. Jessie moved around me, saying sentences I couldn't understand. He pulled the metal sheet until it had covered the enclosure's entrance, before opening another metal sheet that led to an even smaller space. I stared at it for a second before looking away from it, noticing personal items littered all over the place. I sniffed the air, purring a little at the pleasant surprise. The place smelled like him. It was fainter than in the nest, but it was there.

He babbled on, moving the fabric covering and nesting material. I didn't pay much attention to what he was saying until I started to hear a sharp sound. It was one that I associated with the sound of fabric peeling off of Jessi's body. He made that amused human sound when we locked eyes as he peeled the top half of the blue fabric off him. He kicked off the rubber feet covers he had on before pulling down the rest of the fabric along with the smaller material that wrapped around his hips and sex.

My purring got louder when he approached me and took my hand, leading me to the even smaller enclosure within this one. I didn't quite understand what any of the things inside were supposed to do. I cocked my head, blinking when Jessie shifted something atop a ceramic pot and it leaked water. He picked up a wooden object with bristles tacked onto it before putting a paste on it and sticking it into his mouth.

I blinked, unsure of what was happening. I edged closer to him, pressing my stomach against his back before grabbing the arm that held the brush. He took the brush out of his mouth, smiling at me before raising it to my mouth. I sniffed it, sticking my tongue out to lap at the foaming paste.

My nose wrinkled.

It tasted medicinal and opened my airways. I put a hand to my throat, tracing down as I swallowed a few times.

Jessie said something when I let his hand go. That made me look up ahead, and I froze in place, staring at myself. I hadn't noticed the reflective surface. It had been hidden behind a shelf tacked onto the wall, but it seemed Jessie had done away with that somehow.

I leaned into Jessie more, making him sigh in surprise as he looked up at me. He wasn't holding the wooden material anymore, and the water was no longer flowing, except for a small drip that eased from the metal tube, making a sound that shattered the silence occasionally.

"Luc...?" Jessie said my name, and I blinked at my reflection again before looking down at him. My hands found his face, and I held it between my hands, letting his hair glide through my fingers as I compared and contrasted us.

I had always known we were different.

I saw him every day, and I saw myself occasionally — in the water, on reflective metal, and on the thin ice that occasionally coated the mountaintops, but I hadn't seen myself like this before. We looked so different — my flat nose bridge and his pointy one. My charred black lips looked harshly etched on my face with little give or softness, while his pink-brown lips were soft and filled with so many blood vessels I feared even his small teeth scrapping them would wound them. His eyes were so small compared to mine, brown pupils sitting like water droplets in the vast white of eyeballs. The hair on his eyelids made his eyes seem even smaller than they already were.

I brushed the thick hair on his brow bone above his eyes, and he furrowed. I looked down at him as he parted his lips, showing his small teeth and soft pink tongue, and my heartbeat quickened, imagining it in my mouth — on my sex. He was so different, but I wanted him. I wondered if he felt the same way about me. I wondered if I was too different. The way the humans looked at us told me this wasn't normative. He was doing something out of the ordinary, just as much as I was.

For most of my life, I had worried about being too small and weak to secure a mate that would give me a clutch, but now... I wondered if I was too big, too scary, and imposing to be loved without intimidation. I blinked back, realizing Kao's jabs at me were starting to claw at me from the back of my skull. He'd implied Jessie might not want this.

That he might not want me.

"Luc..." Jessie called out to me, shivering under my touch, as I rubbed circles into his scalp. It was soft. Everything about him was so soft...

I let my hands push the hair away from his face and ears, watching myself instinctively lick his hairline back as I groomed him. His face turned a shade redder, and a sigh escaped his lips when I pressed up against him, the warmth of my slit giving way to my erection that pressed up against his back. His breathing hitched when I licked his ear. I purred as I watched his facial reactions to me on the reflective surface. I watched the yearning in his eyes. I watched him want me as his legs spread and his fingers gripped the ceramic bowl until they turned a light red.

My hands moved to his waist, and my head rested on top of his. I watched his beautiful face contort into all sorts of expressions as my hands roamed his body, and his pheromones engulfed my senses.

"Jessie..." I sighed, briefly closing my eyes as the words to express my deep emotions escaped me. I could only mouth 'Kiss' and 'Yes?' to him. He nodded, quivering as one of my hands snaked his waist and touched his sex. It had been a while since we'd coupled, and I could feel it in the way his body reacted to mine. I wanted to be inside him. I wanted his soft mouth and tongue on my sex.

I stroked his erection, and he buckled, moaning as a human word left his lips. I purred in contentment as he slacked against my body.

By the look of things, he wanted me just as much, too.