"So you two are planning to.... What exactly? Pose as one of us to get information from these people."

"That is kind of the general idea I guess."

Sitting at the bar surrounded by all the noise and lights their conversation went unheard the rest of the bar goers around them.

The bartender and his small Finnari companion wandered off at intermittent times to serve drinks to other customers before wandering back.

The human leaned against the bar, "Look, if that is your plan, then you are going to need some help blending in."

The commander raised an eyebrow, "Blending in, how so. She's a Drev I'm a human slap on some makeup and a little hair dye and no one will be the wiser."

The bartender just smiled and shook his head as if amused at the Commander's ignorance, "no no no, that's not how it works. You see there is an entire culture behind extrials, a lot of stuff we had to do before it became legal and a lot of stuff we still do now as a sort of memento of the hard times."

The commander blinked, "Oh, really. I had no idea."

"That's alright. It's not like we advertise it out to everyone, that's the whole point of it being a secret. Look me and Vin'an get off in like fifteen minutes, and we can help you two out. Besides, the people who have been approaching everyone would never consider doing it here anyway. Most of these people aren't rich enough, and the establishment is actually a legal one which means it is prone to inspections."

"Right, sounds fun."

The commander turned in his seat and leaned back resting his elbows up on the bar. Sunny watched him from where she sat a seat over still nursing her drink, "You seem relaxed for someone who is preparing to spend the next couple of days in espionage."

He grinned, "Ah but it is also the kind of espionage where I can go partying with my best friend, so I would consider it a little less working and a little more paid vacation."

She rolled her eyes, "You're an idiot, you know that."

"You love it."

"Mmmmhmmm sure."

Sunny finished her Drink and the commander closed his eyes seeming to soak up the atmosphere like some sort of strange sponge. Sunny would never understand that about him, of course she liked going out and doing things, but she couldn't imagine being able to recharge around people. After a while she needed a break, but it looked like he was getting ready to fall contentedly asleep.

A knock on the bar behind them, and she turned to see the bar tender had been replaced by a different couple/

"You two ready to go."

"Sure thing boss." the commander turned to sunny, "Come on lets go be cultured and things."

She just shook her head again but followed along with the group of them as they were motioned through the backdoor behind the bar and up a flight of stairs.

"You guys live here?" The commander wondered.

"A lot of us live in the same building. It makes it easier on all of us. less questions asked and a lot safer, we can pool our money for security equipment and what not. Strength in numbers as it were."

"Right, makes sense."

He shouldered open a door to the next apartment stepping into a room lined in UV lights over large potted plants. Everything else had a very modern futuristic looks with neon floor lights and minimalistic furniture, "Damn, bartending pays well." The commander muttered under his breath, "And I'm still sleeping in a twin."

"Make yourselves comfortable, go ahead and sit anywhere."

Before Sunny would do anything the Commander had claimed a strange circular shaped chair that was hanging from the ceiling. It rocked back and forth, and he seemed to be enjoying himself, which was rather amusing to her. It was like trying to wrangle a puppy..

A moment later the bartender came to sit down with them, and the Commander was polite enough to stop his playing around and pay attention, which was a feat all in itself.

"Alright, so a little background for you guys, just general information that anyone in the community would know." He cracked his knuckles, "The LFIL began as a result of one of the oxyclinics."

"Oh hey! I worked at one of those after the war for a short time,"

The punk nodded, "Than you know, in those places you tend to get kind of intimate and close up with other aliens. Generally it was very rare and the humans kept everything professional. Generally it started with them having feelings for some people they met but never saying anything or mentioning it because at the time they thought it was wrong. Plus also it was seriously and very professionally wrong to go and do anything about it. However, there was one couple, a Drev and a human who became really good friends during the course of the treatment, and eventually wen the Drev left they kept in contact. Turns out that the human's second job was as a cage fighter down on one of the local stations for money. They ended up running into each other there where the Drev saw them fight. That led to more time spent hanging out and you get the gist. Independently stories like that were happening all over. Finnari worked well with humans who wanted someone to protect, drev like fighters, and Tesraki were drawn by people's good business sense and stayed for how loyal humans are. Eventually it spread from the oxy clinics."

"Wow, I had no idea it began that way, though I guess it makes sense."

The bartender smiled, "Yeah. I met Vin'an when looking for a place to stay. I had just moved here, and she was looking to hire a human to keep her safe in the big cit. Things progressed from there, so my story is a little less complicated than most, but I guess the one thing you need to know that relates to all extrials is that we are all, in some way very, very eccentric. If you are going to date an alien tan odds are you are going to stand out in other ways as well. At first, it was sort of just a coincidence of personality, but when we started to learn that there were others like us, we started doing it on purpose to let people subtly know who and what we were."

"But plenty of humans are eccentric." Sunny pointed out

He turned to look at her, "Not so much off earth. They tend to be military or business types, so not a lot of eccentricities going on. Plus, for a while, we used tattoos to signal what we were, generally we would get the image of the alien that we were attracted to on the arm or other part of the body. It was all in an effort to let each other know what we were and what we were willing to do."

"And how did aliens react to that?"

"You know, I think there is this misconception that aliens are less prone to odd behaviors than humans and that it is humans that always initiate, but that isn't true. I know plenty of couples where the non-human was the first one to approach. Of course, it is definitely more of a personality based thing than any other type of relationship. You will find that there are very few extrials who are attracted to aliens outright in the way that normal people are. I mean yeah there are a few, obviously, but most of us had no idea until we met the perfect person. In fact, I've dated plenty of humans in my time, and it didn't bother me. But that is how a lot of the progressions go, you start out as really good friends, and then it goes from there as you get to know each other." he clapped his hands, "Anyway, first thing is first, we need to make you look like one of us, that means eccentric."

From where she was sitting cross-legged on the floor, sunny looked up, "He wears an eyepatch and a military grade cybernetic leg. I think he's already eccentric enough to fit in."

The other human laughed while the commander flipped her the bird.

"I mean that is kind of true, but we want you eccentric in a way where no one is going to recognize you. Sunny, I am going to have you go out with Vin'an and pick out some nail polish for your new color. She can help you get ready."

***

Something the commander and Sunny thought was going to take an hour or two turned into an entire day. Sunny ended up stuck sitting on the roof with the little Finnari being painted a nailpolish color that was called 'opal unicorn' which was sort of silver white with sparkles in it. It was a very pretty color, kind of reminding her of her brother's late partner, but that didn't mean she enjoyed all the work it took to put the stuff on. It took almost three applications over her full body and A UV light source to harden the stuff.

Still though, she assumed it was much more intense than Adam, and when they returned to the apartment she was surprised to find that he wasn't there. The two of them sat around for a while playing games and talking about random things until the door clicked open and two humans walked in.

At first Sunny thought The bartender had brought home another one of his other friends before her eyes zeroed in on the human's face. The eye color was different now a bright blue, but she would know that sheepish expression anywhere.

"Ho-ly shit." She said looking him up and down, "IS that really you in there."

He flipped her the bird, "yeah, it's me."

The bartender was grinning from one side of his face to the other.

"You know I am pretty sure he went out and did this just to amuse himself."

"I mean you do look pretty funny."

"I am very much not a fan of getting a nailgun through my soft cartilage, lets get that straight."

Sunny tilted her head "Oh so those aren't clip ons."

"No, no they are not clip ons."

"Huh."

"Told you, no one will recognize you." The bartender said, grinning

"Yeah no one will recognize me, I don't even recognize myself. It seems to e a trend in my life lately, dying and cutting my hair."

Sunny tilted her head the other way. His new look was primarily characterized by lightning blue hair shaved almost to the scalp on the sides and long on the top with some sort of magic holding it straight up in the air. Both of his ears were pierced including one that had piercings along both the top and bottom of the ear with a chain connecting the two.

The more she looked the more she wanted to laugh.

Somehow, he even had a stud in his upper chest around the base of the throat near the collarbones

"You laugh, I Kill You."

"Don't worry, I'll just incapacitate you with a large magnet."

"Mother fucker."

She danced away laughing as he charged at her skipping out of the way as his heavy boots thudded over the ground.

"Hey, quiet down you'll wake up my neighbors." The man hissed as the two of them skidded to a stop.

"You look like a baby punk walked into a staple factory." Sunny mocked

"And you look like unicorn ji-"

"Keep it civil."

He shut his mouth tight, "Alright, are we ready, finally?"

"Well, not exactly."

He crossed his arms, "What do you mean not exactly."

He smiled "well you aren't going to convince anyone... unless."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you actually look like a couple

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh, now go on hold her hand. She's got enough of them to spare."

Sunny looked at Adam, Adam looked at Sunny.

"Well go on its not like you're suddenly going to become extrial if you hold hands."

"That's not the-" Adam began

"Less talking more hand holding."

Sunny shrugged and held out her upper left hand. Adam stared at it cleared his throat, reached out and paused.

"Come on, we haven't got all night. Promise you aren't suddenly going to be attracted to aliens."

"I never said-"

"Go on."

He looked over at sunny again. She tilted her head at him, "Wow, making me feel really great here Adam, promise I don't have germs."

He ignored them, reached out and took her hand.

He was.... Very awkward. The palm of his hand was very sweaty, and he didn'ts seem to understand that the point of hand holding was to make contact with the person and not avoid touching them as much as possible.

The punk sighed and walked over, "have you ever held hands with anyone.... Ever?"

"No."

"Oh hmm."

He walked over grabbed them and readjusted, "Hold down here, and now get a bit closer, closer. Seriously dude what is your issue. You sort of just interlace the fingers like that." He practically had to bodily move Adam right up next to sunny.

He was stiff as a board."

"You aren't very good at this."

Adam had his mouth clamped shut.

"Honestly you can actually look like you like her. I know you guys are friends and friends hold hands all the time."

Adam tugged at the collar of his jacket, "Is it hot in here?"

"Stop trying to change the subject."

"I'm sorry, I'm just really really bad with anything in this related field."

"You've never had a girlfriend?'

"No."

"Boyfriend."

"No/
"One night stand."

"No."

His eyes were wide, "Wow, so you're still."

"Can we change the subject please."

Off to his side he could feel sunny shaking. He looked over at her only to find that she was laughing silently behind his back.

"What's so funny."

"You, you're funny. I have never met someone so adorably inept at interpersonal relationships."

"This is a fake interpersonal relationship."

"Just imagine how you would manage the real thing." She continued to laugh and he frowned at her.

"Alright now why don't we go out, get used to this outside head around and get to know the places. It'll be a fun night."

She pulled Adam closer, "Oh yes it will."

He groaned.

***

The guy hadn't been wrong. They went all over the city catching looks everywhere they went through their presence was greeted with great enthusiasm in almost every location. The commander kept his eye out for any suspicious activity though he didn't expect it to happen right away if at all. Him and sunny wouldn't be likely to be approached seeing as they weren't an established member of the community, but perhaps they could integrate well enough that they would notice when someone was approached.

Halfway through the n night the commander walked off to get drinks.

Sunny sat looking around the room and occasionally talking with some of the other patrons. Adam returned a moment later sitting next to her and handing her a drink before sliding his hand back into place in hers.

She could see him from the corner of her eyes as he discreetly checked out the room.

The aperture of his fake eye was adjusting opening and closing as he used it to catalog and track every person within radius.

HE craned his head to the side leaning against her as he tried to get a look at some people on the other side of the room.

She put an arm around him turning her head to see behind them.

Light flashed and strobed as music played in the background.

At some point they were invited to dancing and then bar hopping with another group which they took in order to properly integrate themselves inward.

The night went by and sunny lost all track of location and time.

She thought she fell asleep at some point and woke up to find Adam dozing off at her shoulder.

She remembered even later in that crashing at someone else's apparent on the floor of the living room which was strewn with almost a dozen other people.

Adam and Sunny ended up squished against the couch pressed up against each other to make room for everyone else.

She was so tired that it didn't matter the noise.

And then they were up again on the town and back to the bars.

Adam was only growing more comfortable while she was beginning to lag. This lifestyle was not for her. She hadn't been alone in hours. The constant noise and people were draining her life away.

At one point in the night they were sitting back on one of the couches talking. Adam stretched and put his arm over her shoulder turning his head and leaning in close. His breath was hot against her face, "Three o clock. I think I got something."

She turned her head forehead brushing against his. Giving him cover, "What do you see."

He pretended to laugh and leaned closer, "I've seen these people three times. They never touch each other barely look at each other, and the have just invited one of these couples into a back room."

"They could just be.... Offering favors."

Adam rested his head on her shoulder, "I don't think so. They aren't acting right, they don't look right, point is there is something about them that does not belong here. You know plus they are both tesraki, which is kind of a dead give away."

She wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer, "OK yeah that is a bit suspicious."

"I'm going to try and get access to the GA database, hopefully our IT guy can give us a bit of help."

Shr an a hand through his hair, "Want me to keep an eye on them."

"Go ahead."

Another couple sat down across from them nearly blocking Sunny's view.

"I just have to say." Their new neighbors commented learning closer, 'You two are such a cute couple." Sunny did her best to be polite while being forced to crane her neck past their heads.

"Why thank you. How about you two though, where did you guys meet." That should shut them up for a while

And she was right.

Adam squeezed her hand once, and then twice.

She knew what that meant.

The two of them stood suddenly and Adam smiled, "Sorry guys, but I just got a call in from work. It was nice meeting you though, take care and have a good night."

They were waved off with a smile.

Adam gripped her hand as together they walked through the club and towards the door where the Tesraki had disappeared.

Hopefully he knew what he was doing.