?? CHAPTER 10 ??
Macie
I rouse, wrapped in a warmth so comfortable that I regret waking up. Sunlight shines in my eyes, but I ignore it. I nuzzle my cheek against bare, rough skin.
Skin. I'm sleeping on someone. I'm sleeping on an alien! The previous night returns to me - how he'd saved me from a spider, how he'd watched my back while I finished taking pictures... and now I'm sleeping on him like he's a pillow. To be fair, he put me here. He wanted me to be comfortable. A sweet and bossy alien. Who would have ever dreamed it?
Something hard is pressing into my back, though. Finally I convince myself to shift away and sit up. Poor guy. I haven't forgotten that picture he drew.I know what he's got on his mind. How do I explain to him that it's impossible?
But... is it? What do I even know? Not much.
My brain is taking some weird turns without its morning coffee. I sit up with a groan and turn to face Ryle. He's actually asleep, with his head leaning back against the rock wall. Poor guy. He can't possibly be comfortable. I take the opportunity his stillness offers and steal a closer look at him. Now that he isn't so scary to me, he's actually kind of handsome. He's got a movie star jawline, a very straight nose, deep-set eyes beneath a heavy ridged brow. I watch him breathe for a moment, his muscular chest rising and falling in a rhythm much slower than human. I reach out and dare a touch, running my finger just along a curving line of the pattern on his shoulder. No raised line, no texture difference - the blue and gray colors are all just part of his skin.
Feeling braver, I touch his horns next. They curve like a ram's, but they feel so smooth and cool to the touch. Like polished ivory. I wonder if they do anything to them to make them shine or if this is their natural state. The blue hair in between them is softer than it looks. It curls smoothly around my fingers when I pinch a tuft.
It occurs to me that maybe I’m being a bit of a creeper, but curiosity has gotten a tight grip on me. I touch his brow. The ridge is hard, but it isn't bony. Perhaps like a cartilage?
I freeze as a hand gently encircles my wrist. His eyes open slowly. Damn! Caught in the act.
He lowers my curious fingers to his lips and presses them there. The tip of his tongue flicks out, and I gasp.
"Maysee."
"Ryle." My eyes are locked on his. I hadn't seen them up close before. I thought they were just a navy color. But they're a deeper blue than that. It's like staring out into the sea at night, darker than dark but full of reflections. I lean closer, losing myself for a moment.
He runs his thumb over my eyebrows. Then moves his hand to my hair, running his fingers through and pressing his fingers along my skull. "No horns," I say, then I touch his. "Horns."
"Latyb" he says, rolling both the L and the B. He chuckles at my sad attempt to repeat it.
Something pokes me in the middle of my back. I jerk my head around - it’s that mace-like head of his tail. I touch it - it’s as hard as the horns on his head. A dangerous weapon. “It’s like a club,” I tell him.
“Mejj,” he says, and it waggles back and forth. His hand is still in my hair, gently stroking now. "Gaow. Battsa gaow. Battsa tuln."
"Afraid I didn’t catch any of that," I say.
"Kiss." Oh. Someone stayed up late learning. I don't know what videos he could have possibly found, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't an instructional on changing a lightbulb.
Do I? Can we? Should we? He applies pressure at the back of my neck. Not forcing me closer, just suggesting.
Am I going to be the first human to make out with an alien?
The thought makes me laugh. He laughs, too, enjoying my humor even though he can't hear the nonsense inside my head.
That seals it. Who doesn't want to kiss a guy who watches their backs and laughs at their dumb jokes, even if he doesn’t get them? Heck, he killed a spider for me! He deserves a kiss just for that alone.
Just a little one.
I press my lips to his for a mere breath of a moment.
He holds completely still. Blinks at me when I pull away. He looks... perplexed? Has this alien never kissed anyone before? Does his species kiss at all? Do any aliens?
"You've never kissed a girl before?" I ask. I point at my lips and shrug and shake my head. Just what the heck has he been watching? I pick up the tablet and hand it to him. "Show me. Show me 'kiss.'"
He quickly scrolls through, and of all things, he finds Arjun and Faith's wedding videos. All the human knowledge these devices contain, all the history and technology and art and everything, and he goes snooping into our personal business?
I can't say I wouldn't do the same. But. Come on.
He hits the play button and shows me how he found the word - they were dancing in the center of the makeshift dancefloor we'd set up in a dilapidated barn. They were married just a month before our blastoff from earth, after a year-long engagement. They met during our training. We chant at them in the video, “Kiss! Kiss!” And they do, both of them looking so happy, so illuminated, like their own little galaxy of two.