Z'ashi woke up to a stray limb tumbling into his aching stomach.

The past cycles hadn't been ideal for him, honestly. As a rule, Shota and he don't venture into their missions expecting to come out on top. It was something that Shota had discussed with him many times. When you expect the worst, you can't be disappointed when it arrives. It had helped him many times in the aftermath of their missions, people they couldn't save, saying that at least it was better than they expected.

As Z'ashi opened his eyes to his husband barreling into him in a mad scramble to get away from the very awake Terran, he was struck with the notion that this is by far the worst outcome of their mission, therefore he was allowed to be disappointed.

He yelped as Shota lost his balance and crashed into him, tumbling on top of him and crushing him under Shota's massive weight. Pain blossomed in his abdomen, but he fought the instinct to get away from Shota, as that would only make the tangle of their limbs worse.

Instead, Z'ashi looked to the source of Shota's panic, the Terran.

In the time he had been asleep, the Terran had removed their muzzle, which may have been the reason Shota had been so eager to get away from him. The Terran watched Shota's retreat with a tilted head and said something in a language neither Shota or him spoke. It didn't seem too aggressive, it did not approach, just swayed slightly in place and looked upon Shota and him with an expression Z'ashi hadn't learned to read.

Shota, more carefully, removed himself from where he had landed on top of Z'ashi. He remorsefully stroked a paw down his side and pulled Z'ashi back to his rightful place by his side. Shota hovered defensively over Z'ashi and made a low crooning noise back to the Terran.

The Terran flicked their eyes back and forth between Z'ashi and Shota, then to the muzzle on the ground. Then to Z'ashi's great surprise (and relief), the Terran turned their back to them and slid down the wall to take a seat once more on the cool metal floor.

Him and Shota exchanged surprised glances, faced with an intergalactic cryptid, they did nothing but sit and stare. Was this a Terran threat? Did they accidentally offend the Terran? Are they resting now to have more energy to eat them later?

Z'ashi's hearts were pounding, he could feel them pulse, and silently wondered where they got the energy to do so. From where he leaned into Shota, he could feel that he was in a similar state.

"Why in 7 stars did you not tell me the Terran was awake?" He whisper-screamed to Shota.

"I didn't want your waking up to irritate the Terran." Came Shota's breathless reply.

"Well, it looks like I wasn't the one to irritate it, my sweet."

"I don't think they were irritated. But once I got the muzzle off they bared their teeth—"

" After you got the muzzle off?! " was Z'ashi's high pitched reply.

Through increasingly loud discussion, the Terran's head twitched back and forth between them. Eyes darting left and right, eyes intense and focused. The two only stopped their loud discussion until a strange continuous babel fell from the Terran's mouth.

Him and Shota exchanged glances. Was the Terran trying to communicate with them? He tried to listen for a pattern of south within the continuous mumble, but all he heard was relatively incomprehensible to his ears. Then the Terran stopped, jolting when he realized that he and Shota were staring at him. Their eyes bore into them, but he did not avert his eyes, too drawn in to break the connection.

When the Terran tilted their head, gaze roaming up and down their forms, studying them, Z'ashi was not struck with the feeling of a predator sizing up its prey. It felt like innocent curiosity. Like a kit seeing a praxdel for the first time and not wanting to miss a single second of their bioluminescence.

Z'ashi, like something possessed him to do so, began to crawl forward. He was still burrowed into Shota's body, so as he moved forward, Shota's hand moved forward to clutch his wing. Z'ashi sent a determined glance backward, and Shota let go, surprised. He didn't have much energy, but he was able enough to crawl. He knew that if he ever tried to fly like this, he would fall straight from the sky.

As he crawled forward the Terran ros to fall on their hind legs, not quite standing and not quite sitting. Z'ashi briefly wondered if this position was easier to attack in.

Then he was sitting in front of the Terran. He did not move to approach closer, and the Terran made no motion of attacking. He took the opportunity to study the Terran closer, knowing this may be his only chance to see a Terran in his lifetime especially if he failed to escape from here.

The Terran was strange. They were a pale dark pink, but their body was nearly fully clothed in the strange armor fabric. Their hair fell into clumps atop their head, they looked oily and filthy. Actually, the Terran as a whole looked filthy. Z'ashi could see the color the cloth was supposed to be close to the Terran's feet, but instead it was a rusty brown. The area around the Terrans mouth was streaked with a red orange substance, what was that? Now that he was closer to the other creature, he could also smell it. He wasn't sure whether the other smell was repulsive per say, but it was definitely unfamiliar, and very strong.

Z'ashi straightened into a crouch, and then tried something either very very clever, or very very dumb. (This was on par with the rest of the decisions he ever made.)

He brought the tip of his feathered limb to his own self and chirped his name. "Z'ashi."

The Terran's eyes darted to his hand and then to his face and their face scrunched, was that Terran confusion?

He tried again, touching his chest again. "Z'ashi."

Then the Terran chirped! It wasn't anywhere near his name, but it was clearly trying to imitate him.

"Z'ashi!"

A chirp, closer this time. The Terran's mouth twisted into a small round shape and tried a new method of making the sound. It took him a couple of tries to catch the air, but when he did the sound that came out was much closer to pitch and timber to Z'ashi's name.

"Z'ashi!"

"Z'ashi" The Terran parroted back, nearly perfectly! Even Shota had a difficult time saying his name in Z'ashi's native language, instead preferring to use the common bastardization of it.

The Terran looked to their tied arms, then down to themselves contemplatively. Probably trying to figure out how to gesture to themselves with their hands tied. Z'ashi took pity on them and pointed towards them.

"Izuku!" They spoke, hmm that wouldn't be so difficult, he knew more difficult names.

"Eh su ku."

"Izuku. I-zu-ku." The Terran separated the different parts of the sound out for him.

"I-zu-ku. Izuku." Yes! He got it!

Then the Terran barred their teeth at him, just like Shota. What happened? Did the Terran not like the way he said his name? Did he make an aggressive moment? Z'ashi flinched back, and the Terran's face relaxed.

"Z'ashi get away from him!" Shota commanded, but he hesitated.

The Terran bared their teeth to Shota when he removed their muzzle, and then once more when Z'ashi said their name. Rationally, neither of these things should cause a threat response, and neither he or Shota understood Terran expression. Maybe.... the barring of the teeth was an expression of gratitude? Enjoyment?

"It's okay Shota, I don't think Izuku wants to hurt us." He shot back at Shota, eyes still on Izuku.

The Terran revealed its teeth once more but bit its own lip instead.

"Z'ashi." Izuku parroted back, he looked like he wanted to say a million things but didn't have the words. Z'ashi knew that feeling and knew it at that moment as well.

So, he continued and pointed at Shota behind him. "Shota."

"Shota." Izuku repeated back perfectly. Z'ashi trilled with excitement, if they could say Shota's name that easily, then they probably wouldn't struggle to much with common, unlike Z'ashi's native language which was comprised wholly of whistle tones.

He could feel Shota approach behind them, clearly intrigued with Z'ashi's progress.

"You want to teach them common." Shota ventured a guess. Hisashi trilled an affirmative.

"If were going to get out of here, don't you think it'll be better if we have a new teammate?" Z'ashi proposed.

"Teammate?" Shota echoed, equal part exasperated and agreeing.

"Tee-mate." The Terran cut in, sounding out the word and pronouncing in a very strange but not entirely disagreeable accent.

"See!" He chirped. "The Terran agrees."

Shota just sighed.

It was near the end of the next cycle that the guards brought food.

The previous day had worn him out, and without anything in his system his legs had given out on holding his weight.

He had collapsed while teaching Izuku new words, Izuku who soaked up the sounds like a sponge and found creative ways to ask things without the use of his arms, which the pair of them had been unable to free from the cuffs.

When he collapsed, Izuku showed a paramount level of compassion. Hovering over him and saying. "Okay? Okay? Z'ashi okay? Shota, Z'ashi okay?"

Shota answered with a hesitant voice, one that filled Z'ashi's heart with pain. "He's starving."

"Starving?" Izuku asked, not yet knowing the meaning of the word.

"Z'ashi is a herbivore, they haven't been bringing him food. " Izuku tilted his head, confused. Shota struggled to put it into words the Terran could understand. "He wants food."

Then the Terran nodded, an incomprehensible look overcoming their face.

"Izuku starving too." He said after a moment of silence. Z'ashi didn't want to think about the fact that he was in a cell with a starving Terran.

Z'ashi was surprised at the fact that they brought the Terran food. He had fully expected the guards starve the Terran into eating them, after all they had no qualms about starving sentient creatures. But at the end of that cycle, a very nervous looking guard strided up to the cell and opened the meal slot to slide a tray inside.

And on the tray sat a slab of raw red xipon meat, a container of fluid, and a big, red juicy dren-dren. Fruit.

Z'ashi had gone so many days without eating that it was hard to move too often, and he felt that deep pang of hunger with every breath he took. Looking at the fruit now, he felt like crying with the relief that he might not die here.

Then Izuku leaned towards the plate of food and his aching stomach rumbled defensively.

"Izuku." He protested weakly, maybe he could get the Terran to share. Looking at the plate now, he realized that the plate held the portions for only one person...meaning that they did mean to starve them after all and the food was meant for Izuku alone.

Izuku's head snapped up to stare directly into his eyes. He could see the hunger there, and it was wholly disconcerting to see it directed right at him. He let out an involuntary shudder. There was a tense couple of seconds where no one did anything but stare at each other, and then Izuku spoke.

"Z'ashi...eat? Need eat? Starving?" And Z'ashi did nearly cry with relief then.

"Yes Z'ashi eat, please!" He cried. The Terran's throat bobbed and visibly restrained themself from lunging at the plate of food. They slid backwards across the floor and brought their knees to the chest, staring at the food intently. Shota quickly slid forward and grabbed the dren-dren, bringing it to where Z'ashi laid on the ground, dazed.

Shota brought the dren-dren to his mouth and Z'ashi took great care to dig his beak into it and not let a single drop of the wonderous juice escape. He wished that he could describe the feeling of the taste of the fruit and the way he devoured it, but all expressions would start with 'like a starving man...'. When Shota removed his paw from out of Z'ashi's face, all that remained was the small pit of the fruit.

To Z'ashi it wasn't near enough. Hunger still crawled inside him like a bug digging their spindly legs into his stomach. However, it was a start. Maybe eventually Z'ashi would feel like he wasn't dying.

They looked back to the human, still staring at the meat on the plate longingly. Z'ashi knew that comparatively, Shota had been eating well for the days of them being marooned in the cell. Shota would have to be hungry, having nowhere near the amount of food that he should be eating, but he wasn't starving. Shota moved forward and slid the plate of food closer to Izuku.

The Terran devoured it.

Their arms were still bound behind their back, so they didn't have the ability to grip the meat. They made up for this with sheer tenacity of will, attacking the meat and ripping it to shreds with bare teeth that Z'ashi faintly noted weren't even that pointed. Mostly blunt teeth having more strength than Shota's very sharp ones. He wondered how much more it hurt to be ripped open by blunt teeth.

The sight slightly unsettled him, but he could intimately understand that amount of hunger.

When Izuku finished the meat, he braced himself against the wall and slid down the wall with his head in his knees. More of the red substance that had coated his mouth previously had accumulated around his lips, Z'ashi had no issue in believing that it was blood.

"Shota no eat." Izuku said from behind his knees. "Izuku eat, Shota no eat. Izuku sad.... don't know word."

Shota tensed beside him. "Don't worry about it, Izuku. The word is sorry." Shota replied softly.

Izuku hummed and visibly tried to decipher the words. "Izuku sorry."

"Don't be."

There were a few moments of silence.

"Shota...teach? More word?" Izuku asked, lifting his head from his knees.

Shota's hands stroked soothingly over Z'ashi's chest, taking a moment to contemplate, before sighing and saying. "The correct way to say that is 'Shota, can you teach me more words?' and the answer to that is yes."

Z'ashi watched Izuku as he struggled to sort through what Shota said, mouthing the words and then muttering the equivalent in their native language.

"Shota, can you teach me word...of? Word of...people?" Izuku struggled to phrase it with his very limited vocabulary.

"It's, 'Shota, can you teach me the word for...'" Shota corrected. "And what do you mean by people?"

Izuku repeated the phrase a couple of times, then in their native language before replying to Shota.

"People...hmmm." Izuku tilted his head. "For Z'ashi and Shota."

"The name of our relationship?" Shota put his two paws near each other to signify closeness, and Izuku nodded his head, what they learned to be a Terran sign for 'yes'.

"Our relationship." Shota enciated clearly, "Is married. Z'ashi is my husband and I love him very much. "

Z'ashi trilled as Shota stroked his chest again.

Izuku parsed through the words, trying to sort through their meaning. Muttering below his breath as he repeated the words 'husband' and 'love' under his breath multiple times until his mouth made the right clicking noises for the more difficult syllables.

"Hmmm...Shota, can you teach me the word for...me, and Z'ashi?" Izuku asked. Shota contemplated that for a moment before replying with a hesitant—

"Friends." He enunciated slowly. "Friends have...small love."

"Friends." Izuku repeated. "Small love...married have big love."

Z'ashi replied this time with a whisper. "Exactly, Izuku. Good job." Shota hummed beside him.

"I want...don't know the word...where friends." Izuku said softly.

"You want to go back to where your friends are?" Shota asked?

"Where friends are." Izuku confirmed.

"Home. You want to go home." Shota muttered.

"Home." Izuku repeated, flipping the word around his tongue, tasting it. "Home ."

Z'ashi closed his eyes, because if he didn't, he would cry.

"Me too, kit, me too."