Dustin's fingers dig into her bandage, poking at the painful cut in her arm as he pulls her behind him. The heels of X's shoes slides precariously with her uneven steps, as she realizes that the young man is leading them towards the storage rooms, in the North-West Wing. The alien huffs, entirely dumbfounded. She exclaims, astonished:

     " Unhand me at once! How dare you?! "

She attempts to yank her arm free, seeing as her captor did not react in the slightest to her plea. Since that does not work and solely makes her injury ache more, underneath his iron-tight grip, she runs to get ahead of him and spins around against the sleek tile floor, which causes him to let go of her. With both of her hands freed, she forcefully lifts her briefcase, aiming to strike him between his legs. The momentum and effect of surprise work in her favor, and the leathery side of her bag slams loudly into the caretaker's unsuspecting crotch.

An agonized curse escapes his lips, and he stumbles backwards, panting silently. He rapidly staggers to the side, supporting himself with a shoulder propped onto a wall. His eyes are shut, and he instinctively brought his hands over the sensitive area that was hit. Xarya watches him, impassive.

She chides him calmly, while he recovers from the shock, " This will not do, not at all, Dustin. If there is something you wish to discuss with me, it will be done in a courteous manner or not at all. "

     " You're one to talk... " He groans breathily, " ... about courteous manners. "

     " You may walk alongside me to the teachers' lodgings, say what you must, and then leave me be. Naturally, I will provide you with the answers you deserve, if any questions are to be asked. "

Glaring at her peaceful facial expression, he grunts almost inaudibly. " Sure. Let's go, " he sarcastically agrees.

Half-heartedly stepping side-by-side, the two of them head for the doors leading outside the North Tower, which is the nearest exit. The alien glances at him, wondering when he is going to engage. For the moment being, he remains silent, apparently sulking.

     " It's remarkable. " His voice seems to bite through the air.

     " Many things are remarkable, " she swiftly retorts, scoping the gardens and the top of the trees beyond them.

     " Gunner... You could not have harmed him and gotten away with it. It's simply impossible. You're a great foe... Or you know Mister Beaufort personally. "

The extraterrestrial candidly replies, smiling in pity at his confusion: " I have never met him before. You must have encountered him, if you are able to make all these assumptions about his character. "

The man furrows his brow, snapping:

     " Of course. And you will have to face him once I find some evidence that you are a threat instead of an asset to the Institute. "

     " If I were in your position, I would not waste my time investigating my person. "

Her voice is delicate and abnormally kind, which only angers her interlocutor further.

     " I will dig until I know you better than you know yourself, " the handyman states, shoving his hands forcibly into his pockets.

The woman laughs softly, stopping. Visibly irritated, Dustin whips around, towering above her with a smoldering glare.

     " What's so funny?, " he demands, slightly intrigued despite his rageful turmoil.

     " I hope you find something that surprises you, for the best. I have told you this already, but I have no malicious intentions. Never towards those who respect their fellow humans and myself. "

His dark brown eyes scan her face furiously.

     " Do you ever lie? It's... I can't doubt you. "

A sliver of vulnerability can be perceived in his rough tone, he honestly has a hardship disliking her. Although X is pleased by this, she is aware that the security guard most likely should not be provoked repeatedly, even though it may be unthinkable that she will ever get into his good graces.

They begin their stroll once more, and she takes advantage of his silence to admire the river. The clear water sparkles under the lowering afternoon sun, shimmering above the pebbles and fragments of weeds floating along the soothing current. Before Xarya steps onto the wooden bridge, she sees Miss Hennessy, energetically heading in their direction from the housing. The theater teacher waves at them, before quickening her pace to meet with them.

     " Hello, both of you! How are you, Dustin? And you, Xarya? "

The alien notices that the maintenance employee's body tensed upon her arrival, and his fingers curled into half-formed fists.

     " I am fine, Miss. "

His voice is formal and devoid of any interest. Deciding to inquire about this later, the Exon replies:

     " I am doing great! What about you? "

A strangely self-satisfied smile molds the dark-haired woman's well-proportioned lips. Well, at least well-proportioned for a human with her facial structure. Exonian lips are quite different and would not correspond to bizarre Earth beauty standards. The mere fact that beauty, an entirely subjective and undecipherable notion, is considered to possess a "standard" is mind-boggling to X. And to think that this "standard" is presumed to be unique is absolutely incoherent. The absurdity of it all is not even fully demonstrated by such deliberations, because on top of that, humans use the beauty "standard" for more than evaluating beauty. Their completely illogical tool serves as a manner to evaluate the worth of others: if they should be trusted, what salary they deserve, which people they should interact with..! It is baffling.

At least, on Exon, the discrimination against Half-Breeds like herself relies on biological studies. It is based on science, which is why its flaws are so difficult to discern and so easy to defend. Even the Minds agree, except they use studies of the psyche instead of studying Half-Breed organic shells. Regardless, whatever side of the planet she was on, the proof was overwhelming and deemed fundamental: Half-Breeds were an inferior sub-specie.

It is purely astonishing to her that Earthlings can justify - or rather get away with - such a blatant and primal way of ostracizing each other. This is terrible and fascinating, like pretty much all the characteristics of Earth. Those are two aspects that always drew the extraterrestrial in, eventually landing her in this exact moment. Itself being terrible and fascinating in its own manner, in ways perhaps not yet obvious to her.

     " I am quite good. I'll see you around the dorms? "

     " That is a very probable happenstance, " the alien playfully answers, conscious of her unnecessarily complex and uncommon response.

As soon as Theadora is out of sight, Xarya observes that Dustin's shoulders lower with relief. With insurmountable curiosity taunting her, she dips into the outer borders of his mind, hoping to catch a valuable thought, even without reaching dangerous depths.

     " We cannot be seen together, not as anything more than barely colleagues. To all of them, we have to appear like strangers, nothing less. Hopefully, Xarya has not caught on. I tried to seem unbothered and focused on our current exchange. Only God knows if that worked. God... "

With remnants of his half-hearted laugh ringing inside her head, X carefully slips out of his inner dialogue channels. Unfortunately, as interesting as they were to listen to, these surface thoughts only provided her with clues, not actual information. What is the nature of Theadora and him's secret relationship..?! And what is so hilarious about God?! Or, more accurately, ironically amusing? According to her minimal knowledge about religion, she knows not all humans believe in the same structures to explain their existence and find purpose. She did not realize that meant they would mock other belief systems. What she understood from Earth's history was that religious differences normally caused grievances, which led to the separation of nations and - in tragic eventuality - to wars. The few mockeries she knew of were mostly scathing satires written by irked philosophers or non-believers. And the most intriguing aspect of all...

     " When did you first meet Helen? "

Their friend is highly interested by religion, and she seems rather close to him...

     " You don't get to ask any questions. You are under investigation. "

Regardless of his glare, which obviously he means to hack her down with, X innocently queries:

     " Why so defensive, Dustin? I am a curious person, and you should not have anything to hide, yes? "

     " No, " he gruffly answers, before realizing his hasty mistake and stammering, vexed, " Yes, not no, I meant I have nothing to hide. "

     " Of course you did, " she cheerfully replies, stopping to look at him, twirling around on her heels.

Seeing as they have arrived to the teachers' housing, Dustin's interrogation is technically over, by the terms of X's unofficial contract for their conversation. The young man's dark eyes anchor themselves to hers, piercing her with their roguish intensity.

     " If you hurt her, I'll personally hunt you down and wring that fragile neck of yours. "

His threat slices the fresh evening air into shards of ice, and he promptly stomps away.

~~~~~

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