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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4


Khcenac and Several of his Relationships

Part 4 - Hitchixata

Khcenac part 4

They woke up enveloped in each other.

Hitchixata's bed, in Hitchixata's home, was big to a fault. The mattress had a dip in the middle and too many covers and too many pillows and always, time and again, every night they spent there, they'd find themselves cuddling in the center where it was lowest. Hitchi was a heatbox, even when he didn't mean to be, and Khcenac basked, and basked, and basked.

Their alarm had gone off; neither intended to fall back asleep, and Khcen's willpower held them awake. But for a couple minutes, as they roused, they just held each other, naked, calm.

It was artificial day-- an artificial morning. It felt enough like morning. When Khcenac sat up in bed, and Hitchi crawled to sit up beside him, head on shoulder, they nearly forgot for a moment that it was 3 AM, according to Nanotrasen's time. Then Hitchixata whispered, "I love having so much, aahh, time with you," his raspy voice like jilted music as he spoke the first words of the day.

This was intentional design. Maybe not design. Things had fallen into being this way, and Khcen supposed that it was rectifying something he regretted, but not about anything related to Hitchixata-- it was something from when he was bedding with Atchki, when their mornings spent before work were overwhelmingly brief, brushed off, meaningless.

Lesson one: take time to make time.

Now he would have some hours with his new love. And, like all good and worthy things in his life, Khcenac cherished it.

He followed along Hitchi, hand-in-hand, as they traversed blindly from the bird's bedroom to the rest of his home. It was mostly an open setup, and the dim lights of the kitchen led them there through the darkness of the rest of the hangar. Without needing many words, they got to work on their individual tasks. It wasn't a dance, something more subdued, something matching the tone of this morning bout. Hitchixata was tired, as was Khcenac, so Hitchi prepared two cups of coffee and Khcenac started cooking up some hearty omelettes. He said, "Onions?"

Hitchixata leaned on the counter, as the espresso machine's atomic heating element hissed to life. "Ahm... yes. Just this once. Cream?"

"Of course. The bitterness of a raw roast is rarely my thing, lately."

The littler bird gave him a knowing grin, on his cheeks. One cup of decaffeinated goodness for his ex-vampire boyfriend, and one cup of hyper-caffeinated atomic brew to shock himself awake.

Finally, for Khcenac, it felt like the morning routine had lost its nervous edge. He was not worried about Hitchi's reaction to him, because he let him set the pace. They remained quiet in each other's company, cooking up the start to what would end up being a rather prolonged day. He learned to have this reservation from Matt, from the man who was routinely intimidated and overwhelmed by Khcenac's character. It was a correction he was making, to be more cautious.

Lesson two: match your energy to fit.

Before he knew it, breakfast was complete. It helped to be working in tandem. For lack of a dining table, they brought over their newfound goods to the counter, where a couple bar stools let them sit side by side. It was only after a couple ravenous bites into his home-cooked omelette that Hitchi spoke. "I love you," he muttered weakly.

"Coffee, lovely, you still sound quite tired." Khcenac chittered in amusement and pointed at his boyfriend's piping-hot cup of nuclear brew.

"Mnn, ah, yes, true," the Vox responded, clapping his clammy beak a bit. He was now hovering his head over his coffee cup like a vulture. "But I mean it, even though, um, I'm tired, yeah, ahah."

Feeling sage, Khcenac began to sip at his own cup, beak dipped in. "Well, thank you. I'm very quite in love with you as well." (Siiip.)

But it was a brief moment, a brief exchange. He didn't make it an overwhelming love letter, and didn't make his lover do so, either. He'd learned how quickly that could break his heart, to be so intensely dedicated, to be thoughtlessly complimenting until it meant nothing. He realized how empty that could feel, eventually, when he drifted apart from Vizkathla, long before Viz drifted apart from him.

Lesson three: let things grow as they will.

"I just realized how much I like this," Hitchixata said. Now his eyes, unfocused and staring through foggy glasses, were growing dreamy. Still, he was himself, in staring at the swirling cup of coffee instead of his boyfriend. "I normally hate mornings. I'm, ahhm, I'm Garfield."

"Well, unless I'm simply recalling wrongly, Garfield hates space-Mondays, not space-mornings."

"Er," Hitchi stammered, laughing under his breath, "I guess... but he probably also hates mornings, right? Never had a cat."

Khcenac shrugged. He could only chuckle at this backpedaling. "I don't know a thing about cats, though I'm unsure Garfield represents cat-kind as a whole. Humans tend to write animal characters as very human."

"Mnnn, then I guess I'm like a human." The littler bird finally began to consume his atomic coffee.

Khenac poked at Hitchi's glasses. "Your specs give off such that impression, you know. If I didn't know you ran a porn site, I'd peg you for a librarian."

Hitchixata mumbled through drinking piping-hot liquid, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all." Khcen's cheeks puffed out. "Librarians are adorable. You're a shining example."

With only a quick quaff of his brew, Hitchi popped his head back out, and licked his beak clean of coffee. The motion offset his glasses, so he corrected them. This was Khcen's favorite gesture to watch. It was very cliche. "I'd love, ahhm, a part of the website that's, like... a trashy romance library."

"And what restricts you? That sounds like a splendid idea."

"Ahhhn, I don't know." Hitchixata leaned back a bit in thought. "It's not really the purpose of the site... normally I just put up images and videos. I don't exactly want to, uh, employ writers..."

Khcenac nodded. "Writers are the worst." He paused similarly. "...Perhaps an embracement of what you're already quite good at collating? Multi-part picture or video series on more wholesome topics? Instead of, ah, 'Hot Human Chick Pounded By Burly Quartermaster', you have... 'Loving Vox Couple Go To SKEA'?"

This amused Hitchi. He muffled a laugh with a clapped-close beak. "Ah, really think our trip to SKEA is a good subject? Couples go there to fight. I assume, ahah."

"Oh, no-- are we going to fight at SKEA?" Khcen grinned. "I don't want to be that kind of couple."

"Maybe..." The littler Vox nibbled on a piece of omelette, defiantly. "I guess, um, it couldn't hurt to take cute pictures of us shopping, though. I kind of like the idea. If you don't mind?"

Khcenac shook his head. "It was my idea. If you don't mind the world knowing you're a bird in a relationship."

"It'd be, uh... what's the word in Tradeband? Vindicating?" Hitchi snickered. "My online friends think I'm, um, ahhh, kind of hopeless. I'd feel pretty smug."

"You successfully snared my heart, Hitchixata, and you ought show them all." Khcenac lifted up his mug.

Hitchi clinked their mugs together happily. "Ahah, fuck it. Let's do that." He took a long swig, and spoke again only after a long exhale. "You're still, ahm, off early?"

"Technically, no," Khcen explained, "yet I'll be off work early, yes. Atchki offered to be my alibi-- the Quartermaster won't know I'm high-tailing it."

"Awesome. Very good, um." The littler bird nodded. "I wish I could get, ahhh... more chances, to meet up with him. Atchki, I mean, not your boss."

"Alas, Nanotrasen."

"Y-Yeah, alas."

Khcenac took some cautious opening bites at his omelette. "I do wish to smuggle you into the life a tad more, but I really would not like you on the Company's radar, much. Although Luna Station disobeys them under the table, I know they're a fearsome ilk to those not employed."

After a brief moment, Hitchi said, "Well... I'm not, um, a Raider, or anything, ahh, like that, though."

"Still, a Shoal bird. I don't want to incur any of that stress and risk on you." Khcen offered a hand on the counter, and Hitchixata grasped it like a flotation device amidst troubling seas. Holding hands always seemed to quell things. Khcenac's claws were trimmed habitually-- he couldn't poke himself on his boyfriend if he were trying.

"Yeah," he mumbled softly, "and, um, thank you for that. Even if I wish I could meet the ex-crew, eheh..."

Khcenac chuckled, his tone warm. "They're a fun bunch. You will in time. We'll figure some-such a maneuver to bring this group into close tandem, without so very much risk. It's simply a matter of waiting for a good opportunity."

"Alright." It wasn't the best way to end out that line of conversation, but Hitchixata quickly decided to move on and drink that sweet, sweet brew.

Meanwhile, after probing the contents of his omelette with a few well-placed pecks, Khcen finally decided to devour it. He lifted up his plate a bit, grasped the soft scrambled-egg surface tight with the front of his beak, and hefted it up. Following some very deep-seeded Vox genetics, he gnawed and swallowed huge chunks with his head facing the ceiling, letting gravity do a majority of the work-- and although it was an entirely meat-free dish, the maneuver would have been sure to trap any living creature that was unlucky enough to become his prey. Hitchi nearly choked on his coffee, laughing from the suddenness of the gesture.

Khcenac spoke, garbled, swallowing down his breakfast in seconds. "Mnnh-- what, love? Do you have an issue with my- grh- style of eating?!"

"It's ridiculous," the nerd-bird chittered. "Ahhahah!"

"Y-Yes," Khcen managed. He was stammering now. With the entire contents down his throat, he gasped softly for nitrogen. "...Okay. Indeed. It was ridiculous. I'm unsure what came over me."

Hitchixata continued laughing under his breath as he continued gobbling up his own omelette, albeit without such voraciousness. "Ancient dino-bird brain..."

Khcen was now flush blue, and finished up with the scraps on his plate in due time. "Alright," he muttered, "I suppose, after that, I was considering cooling off with a book. The duvet of an early-morning reading session."

"Good idea," Hitchi chuckled. He started shoveling the last of his omelette down to keep up. "Can I join in?"

"Of course. It would be quite the pleasure."

Khcenac carried his dishes back into the kitchen, and in short order, Hitchi followed suit. They made the gentle transition from breakfast to relaxation, bellies full and with hours to spare before Khcen would have to leave. He retrieved a book titled 'The Morning Sands', with an evocative cover of a woman clad in thick fur clothes on a frighteningly cold-looking snowy beach, sat beside the beautiful landscape of a frozen lake. What an iconic, beautiful image! (When Hitchi recommended it, he had not mentioned that it was a hilariously sloppily-written spy thriller with extremely out-of-place sex scenes. This was for Khcenac to discover.)

The nook in the corner of Hitchixata's home had always been big enough for a gathering, two couches facing in towards a carpeted area, but it was a space unfulfilled, void in the bird's life that was filled wholesale by Khcenac. He had his own baggage, had his own world to collide with, but he was welcomed with open arms. Both of them wanted nothing more than to discover each other, and to occupy space in each other's lives.

For Khcenac, this was another lesson from Vizkathla, though one he entirely owed to the Insectoid's teachings-- that love did not always mean touch. Love did not often need touch. Instead, as he laid back against one couch, a short distance from Hitchi doing the same on the other sofa, the love felt overflowing. Just the presence of his boyfriend, the gentle aura, the fleeting conversations amidst pages of books. It needed to be nothing more.

For an hour, or- on this occasion- two, it vehemently refused to be anything more. Where in some previous days Hitchi may not have been able to contain himself, lunging on top of Khcenac to cuddle or trying to rile him up with some excitement, for now he simply let that glee steep deeply, sagely, quietly. When they met eyes, through the bird's specs Khcen could spot a fire, intense with the kind of emotion that a book was less likely to have stirred on its own. It was the comfort of this, the safety, the knowledge that this was commital, for the both of them.

Khcen liked that comfort. Maybe he had been hurt too hard when his relationships failed to commit. It wasn't something even nearing the word 'fault' on anybody, but he knew that he would be hurt if things ended. It was a hard, grueling truth to come to.

Looking at Hitchixata, legs folded on each other, quills ruffled in an enviously fuzzy bundle, he knew all too well that it would hurt if things went bad. But it wasn't his place to over-control or hover or worry incessantly to prevent that. Instead, it was his duty to make things nice as long as he was in the presence of his love. It was so hard to contain his mind to the present, but it helped that their future together was so uncertain, for so many reasons.

"I'm really, ahm, loving this chapter, Khcen," the bird muttered, looking away from his book. It was Khcenac's recommendation-- 'Spiralled Hearts', an obscure favorite that he was dying to hear his boyfriend's thoughts about. Hitchi's exclamation made his head perk up, and he continued. "Just got to where Rahkhi confesses his love, but, ahah, ahm... pretty sure it's to the wrong, ahhh, person," he said. "The dr-dramatic twist! Switcheroo! I didn't, ah, think that they'd have the cajones."

Khcenac chuckled softly. "I love that surprise. It's heart-wrenching, though I think it's also a bit humorous." His eyes went off for a moment in confusion. "Though I don't believe I pick up on what 'cajones' are."

Hitchi nodded. "Ahm, human testes. Or... er, ahah, I guess, species that have them outside their body. I-It's a Space Mexican term, I think. Something like that."

"Aha," Khcen exclaimed, "though you intuit correctly! The writer of that one is a human woman. Her cajones are entirely that of the mind."

"Figure of speech, eheh," the nerd-bird laughed. "Anyway. I-I like her writing. I'm gonna, ahah, continue, a-and see if he hooks up with Hkhan a-after all. Do we still have time?"

With a little lurch off the sofa cushion, Khcen examined his PDA's clock, and nodded happily. "An hour or so. I'll make good warning, so don't worry yourself."

That was enough to make the Vox stick his beak back into the book with only a meek peep of, "G-Gotta train the worry out eventually."

"And I'm so very happy to help along the way."

The time was a blanket to rest under, and there was plenty to go around, but inevitably it slipped away and left Khcenac in a bit of a hurry. He gave Hitchixata a ten-minute warning and then forgot about it himself, so by the time he had only a few minutes to be out the door, he was still only half-dressed. This was an unfortunate tendency of his, that he very much wanted to train out of himself-- having so much free time in the morning only meant he was better at burning it away in the company of his love. He shuffled through the open-air bedroom as Hitchi continued reading intently, and it was only when Khcen had slipped on a Nanotrasen-compliant outfit, plenty haphazard, that the two embraced.

Oh, how the time went, when it was so sweet.

Khcenac's heavier, taller form hung over Hitchixata in a hug, like he was about to plunge two blood-sucking canines in the bird's neck. Instead, he locked his beak with the nerd-bird's, and held it there like it was its natural destination. Only after a little while did he pull away, bittersweet. It wouldn't be forever, his eyes said, of course it wouldn't be. This was his time to depart.

"I wish," Hitchi muttered softly, "th-that, ah, I could fling along, t-to work with you, ahhh... and just kiss you, ahm, for a paycheck, ahah."

Both of them knew how sincere this was, but Khcenac kept the tone light. "What a wonderful job that would be.~"

The nerd-bird's grip tightened a little, then he broke away. "Good luck, ah, moon-mining, moon-miner."

Khcen went flush, his form lowering, and replied, "Good luck with whatever's on your agenda today, as well."

"Probably g-going to just watch for outages and read that book," Hitchi responded, grinning with his cheeks. "I'll s-see you soon enough, mmn?"

They pulled away from each other fully, and Khcenac stepped toward the exit. There was a little pause. "I'm excited for that."

"Hah," the nerd-bird murmured, "me too."

The both of them were already planning something, and the both of them knew this about the other. They gave each other a long, too-long glance, draining away precious seconds in Khcenac's rushed schedule, before finally Khcen pulled away and swung open the plate metal door to slip out. "Goodbye for the morning, my love!"

"Goodbye!" Hitchi shouted after, and as the door went back shut, he sank a little. The ember of his life was always just a little too fleeting, even when he sought it out as much as possible.

But he came to quick resolve.

He hurried to the fridge, retrieved a can of shady-branded Hyper Cola from some wackjob deeper in the Shoal, flung open the pantry to retrieve a bag of unhealthy salted breadfruit chips, tossed everything to the couch chair by his desk, and hopped into his seat.

It was time to make the final preparations on something extravagant.

...

For Khcenac, at work, he had to improvise. He found himself- after a few hours of work on Luna- exhausted, fumbling a rough diamond between two heavily-gloved talons. The Mining suits, in addition to his nylon undersuit, made him feel lumbering and laborious through it all, though it kept out the moondust just fine. He was taking a moment's break with Atchki, both sitting on a catwalk overlooking the day's dig. Ice was shot out of Luna's surface on conveyors from underneath a gigantic, grand mining machine, drilling with the thunderous voice of a million tons of steel. Through the low atmosphere, sound could not travel, and instead all the two Vox heard was a low rumble echoed through their suits, through the metal of the catwalk, through the rocky ground.

Atchki spoke after a little scoff. "Ah, and, explain to me why the li'l diamond gift ain't good enough for Hitchi, eh? I'd be pockin' rolling over if Jimmy gave me somethin' that thoughtful."

"Yes, but it's so very roughened!" Khcen exclaimed. Of course, he was speaking into his radio, so the mock intensity was lost a little over the airwaves. "And, besides, it isn't simply such a big deal for you and your love. Between me and Hitchixata, we give so very many gifts. I was hoping to circumlocate something a little cleverer than a mildly-shiny rock."

"Ey, he knows you're tryna do it during work, Khcen. It'll probably do great on 'em. Birds love rocks. I'd know." Atchki thumbed at himself.

To this, Khcenac just took a muted little breath through the mask on his nostrils. "Ah... I don't know. I suppose very many of my thoughts are more deep-seeded than just the one gift. I always worry it won't be enough, regardless of what it is."

"Mhm?" Atchki blinked quickly. "Go on. What's not 'enough', eh?"

"Me! I feel as if I'm so very... I'm the wrong amount for people." Khcenac gripped at the catwalk's railing, and his eyes went to stare off at Luna's rolling landscapes. Off, far in the distance, Earth's shape bumbled over the horizon line. The low rumble of the Big Pocking Drill was only punctuated with muted voices from the other end of his radio, none of which felt particularly relevant. "It feels as if only a matter of time before me and Hitchixata grow tired of each other. I don't know what to do to prevent that, if anything at all can be done."

The larger Vox shrugged. "Not sure a whole lot can be done, eheh, but you gotta hear some reason, even if I haven't talked to the guy a whole lot. He's some kinda nerd, yeh? It seems like you brighten his whole deal."

"But I slipped away from Viz, too. That was my leave."

"Ah." Atchki grunted a low grunt, and continued, "So this is more about all your other boyfriends, not jus' the one."

Khcenac glanced off meekly. "It's hard to argue with that assessment. Obviously I've sought love more often and less successfully than some others on the station."

"Well, it's tough, Khcen, it's a pocking difficulty gettin' shit off the ground." The Vox scratched at his bubble helmet. "I guess, ya know, dudes pocking dudes has a different vibe than all those straight, shit romance books you read. Been readin' on Starnet, and it seems like folks just wanna hook up sometimes, an' a real committed relationship's harder."

"Really?" Khcenac turned his head. "I suppose as much is noticeable, but even the station's Chief Slut is, ah, so very romantic with his Assistant."

"Ey, exceptions, an' all," Atchki said. "But, ya know, like, Matt was just lookin' for a hookup. You an' I both realized that when we met the guy, but you ended up bein' all cutesy with him. Viz told ya he wanted little quick affairs, and, ya know, Khcen, I'm pretty sure you and I got into shit 'cus I was horny and your best friend." He laughed. "But not everyone's like that, or like that with everyone! I didn't 'hook up' with Jimmy, ya know? I'm gonna marry the pockin' guy soon enough. I swear."

It was a nice little speech, and all, but Khcen felt a burning sensation in his heart. He went back to stare at the horizon, lost in melodramatic thought. "He'd like very much to... ah, do something quite drastic. I believe he'd like to get hired by the Company so we can spend our lives in better company."

This gave Atchki pause. "Ahhh... pock. Wouldn't wish that on anyone."

"Exactly! I value his future so very much, and I wouldn't like it to be drained from him, blood seeping out of newly-opened wounds. The Company is a soul-sucker with life contracts! I'd rather a difficult relationship than one that steals his life from him." Khcenac cawed weakly. "But... to say 'no' to him, to deny him that, I feel as if I'll push him away so far. He's wanting to do it for me. I saw it on his computer monitor the other day, the forms he's going to hand me to look over, the speech he has prepared so he won't stutter so harshly over it.."

"Ah."

Atchki stayed quiet a little longer, taking a gruff breath, audible through his headset. Khcenac muttered, "Indeed."

"That's rough. You plannin' on bringin' it up?" The bigger Vox turned his head, gaze sympathetic.

Khcen just managed a meek shrug. "Hopeless-feeling. I believe his intentions are to present it today. I'm certain he has it all mapped out, all certain... but he doesn't understand how badly I don't want him to do it."

Scratching at the back of his neck, Atchki said, "Well, you gotta make that shit clear enough to 'im. It ain't somethin' you're part of. I bet most relationship junk is about makin' changes together, not all independent from each other. A pocking diamond is one thing, Khcen, but..." He paused a moment to find the words. "...You know. It's him tryna be a martyr, sounds like. Or he's just desperate for ya."

"Perhaps," Khcenac stammered. "I know he has pertinent interest in me. He sought me out that night during my date with the Quartermaster because of such interest."

Atchki spoke quickly. "--But if ya don't want him to join NT, and he pocking does anyway, that's pushin' you away more than anything. If he loves ya, and it sure as shit seems like it, he'll listen to ya."

"Sure enough. I suppose. But I'm still so afraid of... how I'll let him down easy."

"I mean, I let ya down 'easy', Khcen. Is it ever actually pocking easy?"

Khcenac took a sharp breath, his eyes wandering ponderous over towards the great expanse of Luna. In so many hours spent wandering it he could never come up with words to describe how it felt being 'let down easy'. It was an intangible mix. His crying, his guilt, his freedom, all mingled inextricably from each other. There could be no blame or any other raw and intense single emotion, and so it would have to be so, so hard to describe. Finally, he came upon some approximation of words. "It would've been some quantity easier if I had a way to untangle the feelings."

Atchki nodded. "Well, ya ain't breaking up with the nerd punk, you bet my shit on that. But you're lettin' him down. So... I dunno, Khcen, help him pocking untangle the feelings a li'l. Be the guy you woulda wanted."

Khcenac suddenly let out a weakened laugh. It took him a second to explain why. "Ahhh... I feel I should have learned all this lovey-dovey nonsense from my previous relationships, or even all those awful novels you make fun of me for. I shouldn't be struggling so much knowing how to do... anything."

"Well," the larger Vox said, grinning his cheeks out, "he ain't me, or Matt, or Viz. He's a new guy, an' he's gonna be different. That's how people are, Khcen. You can only learn so much, an' having a lotta boyfriends doesn't make it any easier to be perfect. You're never gonna be perfect-- you just gotta be good enough to keep getting better."

After a moment of quiet, pondering what Atchki had just said, Khcenac tilted his head to face him with a quizzical expression. "You're certain you haven't been reading any of my books? That sounds ripped straight out of something cheesy, with a couple kissing on the cover."

"Mnn," grunted Atchki. "Maybe I picked up one or two recommendations. Pocking sue me."

Khcenac managed to chuckle. "I can't sue having good taste."

"You tainted me, Khcen."

The two laughed with each other a little longer, until the airlock slid open behind them-- and a figure in a Mining hardsuit stepped out. It was the Quartermaster, fuming, a frustrated expression contained on his tiny wimpy face, huffing in and out of an oxygen mask frantically. He announced in Common, "You fuckin' BIRDS, have you been listenin' to me yellin' on the goddamn radio?! You're BROADCASTING! You're broadcasting every damn word in Tradeband to the whole mining crew!"

Atchki swivelled around, while Khcenac remained a little meek. He had never properly resolved things with his boss after the fiasco with their aborted date, and so his bigger counterpart would do the talking. "Oh, I'm sorry. Can't handle little banter not directed at you? Nosy prick."

"I don' even speak your stupid tard language," the Quartermaster snapped, acidic. "But I can tell you two are fuckin' jerkin' each other off under your suits, an' I'm cracking down on this SHIT. No more fuckin' on Company time!"

With heavy force, his softsuit's plates heaving up, Atchki stepped forward and forked a claw into the QM's chestplate, confronting him face-to-face. "Listen here, little man. I don't pock on Company time. But if want to be piece of shit to me and my friend, will get Jimmy, my boyfriend, to come pock you on Company time." The human's face went pale, and he tried to walk backwards, but Atcki just continued forward, pushing him solidly along with his pointer finger. "He'll pock every orifice, pock 'til you cry, then leave suit ripped open, so moon dust can slice open your insides. Does little pea brain in there understand?"

"Jesus fuck!" The Quartermaster nearly fell backwards. By the time Atchki was done pushing him, he had stumbled right back into the airlock, and was already beginning to fumble at the controls. "I hear you! I hear you! F-Fuck's sake, jus'... jus' use local radio next time, OK?!"

"Uh-huh. Will consider it," the larger Vox huffed, giving the smug bastard one last grin before the airlock shut, separating the two once more.

Khcenac quietly shifted his radio to a more local frequency, unable to contain his chittering. "Well, I wasn't quite anticipating that level of energy when I mentioned to 'cover for me' this morning..."

"Oh, no, Khcen, that shit was for me." He stumbled back to Khcenac. "Figure you'd better get going, by the way. It's gettin' to about afternoon. Where are you two headin', again? IKEA?"

"Ah, not quite," Khcen explained. "SKEA. Practically similar, though in space instead. We had the idea this morning to take pictures of our outgoing. I suppose, in part, to cement our love in a permanent medium."

Atchki grunted. "Sounds good. Haven't even seen the nerd in pictures yet, but you gotta be a cute couple, I bet."

Khcenac sauntered away from the railing and towards the airlock, finally feeling a little more ready to depart. He rolled the rough diamond, still covered by soot and dirt and moonrock, between his claws. "Hoping against hope we remain a couple after today."

"C'mon." Atchki gave the bird a smirk, and slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be a big baby, Khcen, ya got this shit. It won't be a pocking cakewalk, but you gotta figure it out with him and you sometime, anyway. You killed me and I'm still your best friend, ya get?"

"I get, I get," Khcenac chuckled, taking a deep breath. He waved his chest against the airlock's ID scanner, and it slid open after a few moments. "...I love him to death. That must count for some fraction of a milli-gram against my tendency to make things steer wrong."

Atchki waved, and went back to lean against the railing. "It's somethin'. It'll do."

Khcen received a buzz on his PDA as he was heading through the winding hallways of the outpost, taking off bits of his softsuit as he proceeded.

The message, from "HACKER <3", read 'taxi shuttle on the way! should be at luna station in 10-15 minutes, i'll see you there?'

A quick, fumbled response. He would need to keep up the pace if he didn't want to keep Hitchi waiting!

'Of course! Be there soon, lovely'

The diamond in the rough clutched tightly in his hand, he hurried with all his might, pounding through the hallways and to the shuttle up to the station. This would all be like a diamond in the rough-- glistening beautiful sights at times, with the troubles and difficulties mixed in, too. It would have to be like that. As Khcenac made it to Luna Station from the outpost, and continued scurrying past crew adrift in their workday, he tried not to let it roll out from his hand. All he had to do was keep it held a little, little, little bit longer.

Arrivals was nearly empty. Luna Station didn't get new crew, just remained with the crowd it had, and after the initial exodus from pod-homes to the workplace, the halls laid dead. All aside from Hitchixata, showing his face, stood right outside one of the external airlocks and waving towards Khcen, who scurried over anxiously.

"A-Ahk! I'm not certain you should be on Nanotrasen's cameras," he stammered.

Hitchi just gave a meek little grin. "I'm standing, ahh, underneath the only one." A frantic Khcenac looked up to see that, indeed, there was just one camera swiveling to-and-fro, completely oblivious to the Shoal resident onboard.

"Well," he said, letting out a breath of relief, "then, hello, my love."

"H-Heya." With an extended hand, Hitchixata offered to take Khcenac in through the airlock, and out into space, far from this sterile place.

Neither could resist that urge to run off together.

They scurried to sit inside the bleak, metal-walled interior of the taxi shuttle, built to house any manner of oddly-shaped or oddly-numbered passengers, but now a too-big home for the pair of birds. Hitchi knocked on the window to the cockpit, muttered, "A-Ahm, ready for the, er, last leg of the trip," and handed over a handful of credit chits.

The Grey at the wheel squinted through his sunglasses at the two odd birds in his cargo bay, one from Nanotrasen, and one not. He'd had the two as stowaways more than once now, and he couldn't help but ask. "You a Nanotrasen bird?" he said, in Common. "What's with the playing hokey all the time?"

"To it's and the without it to Nanotrasen station, with it and it's a typicality to this and Luna. Without that, but--"

Hitchi, respectfully, interjected. "Ahmm, it's just a little more, er, lax over here, I hear," he chuckled. "Obviously I-I'm not from... f-from his station, but we're..."

Khcenac lit up at the opportunity. He didn't have to say many words, just the one, which he knew deeply in his heart to be a proper Common phrase. "Friendboys," he exclaimed. "To loving the friendboys."

A quick moment of glancing, incredulous, between the two Vox, and the driver just let out a low grunt. "Sure. SKEA next, Hitchi?"

"Y-Yeah," the nerd-bird said, chittering and leaning on a clueless Khcenac. "SKEA."

With the thud of an airlock, and the hiss of an undocking sequence, it was made so.

The interior was as harsh as ever, but there was a flickering warmth to it, when the two got a chance to embrace, which they did near-immediately. Hitchi melted into Khcen's grasp, and he was a buzzing thing, all hyped up on the excitement of his morning work. He gasped excitedly, "I have a couple things to sh-show you, later!"

"Funny coincidence," muttered Khcenac happily, as he retrieved the rough diamond from a jumpsuit pocket. "I'm sure it's not nearly like what you have in store, but I got you something, as well." He pulled away with a little flourish, and displayed the diamond in two cupped palms.

Hitchi clapped his beak. "Hah! Thank you! Wow, ahm, well, it's m-much more physical than mine," he stammered, taking it between two bare claws to examine, his gaze poking out from above his glasses. "Right out of the moonrock, huh?"

A brief nod, and Khcenac was flush. This wasn't much, but he was always happy to give something. "I'm certain we'll find opportunity to bring it to polish and shape more adequate, but..."

"No, no!" The nerd-bird's eyes lit up as he stared deep, deep, deep within the crystalline structure. "It's, ahhm, like a g-geode or something! I wouldn't mind at all having it how it is, if I'm being honest." It was a little difficult to tell if he was playing it up, or if he was seriously interested, until he brought his beak to poke the hard carbon surface and took an inquisitive little lick. "...bitter. Moondust i-is bitter, I guess, eheh."

Khcen could hardly contain his laughter. "You're quite one to talk about 'ancient dinosaur brain' when you're licking entities from another planetary body! You're simply going to catch the Luna strain."

"Immune system could probably use it," Hitchi chuckled. "N-No, just, ahh, I mean... I've never tasted rocks or anything, I-I was just kinda curious. Shoal doesn't, ah, have rocks, you know?"

It took the taller bird a moment of contemplation, while the taxi rocked to-and-fro as it collided with hyperspace dust. "I hadn't quite thought about it that way. It's all metal, isn't it?"

"Yeah." The nerd-bird clenched the rock tightly, like on the edge of a cliff face. "All ships, and, ahhm... stations, collided together. It's ancient, to have gotten planet-sized, like it is. But no rocks. Th-there's no geography underneath. Just... Shoal."

"It's quite strange to imagine growing up in a place as such!"

Hitchixata took the opportunity to grasp his lover's hand, and guided the two wordlessly to sit on the shuttle's bench, lest they be swept up from the turbulence. "I g-guess. Did you grow up, ahhhm, totally spacer, like you said? A-Any planet time?"

A firm shake of the bird's head. "Entirely space-grown! The first time I witnessed a rock out in the stars was a red asteroid, when my parents were forced to turn to Nanotrasen for a chance at keeping me fed. I've mentioned them a bit, maybe?"

"Now and, ah, then, yeah," Hitchi murmured. "Maybe a bad time to make life contracts, wh-when you've just had a chick, but..."

"It did save our lives, I can admit." But the subject was a little stinging on Khcen's tongue, and his gaze grew hazy. "It would not be a decision I'd envy to make nowadays, even with gift of hindsight. Forever is, it turns out, a long time."

The moment hung stale in the air. There was a gap not being bridged, and neither wished to bridge it. Instead, Hitchi returned to the subject of the Shoal, that horrifying metal mass. "Anyway, ahh... it might seem really weird, b-but I really like this stupid diamond rock thing. It's not, like, refined metal or anything. It's right out of the ground, and my... my, ahhm, miner boyfriend got it for me. That makes it nicer."

Khcenac held Hitchi's hand softly, like a delicate thing. "Though I don't wish for you to enjoy a gift simply because of me. It's best you enjoy it."

"I like it," the bird said, definitively. His other hand clasped the rock, twinkling from some angles, flatly-colored from others, and he turned it over to inspect each angle. "Feels like ground."

"Still is, of a kind," Khcenac muttered, his head beginning to feel cloudy.

The little diamond was Hitchi's to hold, now. The conversation petered out quickly, and the rumble-bump of the taxi shuttle was all that remained. Already, the ex-vampire Vox knew, knew, knew his boyfriend's intentions-- to mention his plan to join Nanotrasen during their outing, to propose moving in together, to make it all seem like a gift.

But it wasn't much of a gift. The rock Hitchi wanted to give him was tainted, radioactive, ill-making. His muted, giddy excitement, held behind a pair of foggy specs, showed nothing but ignorance for that fact.

His grand gesture would be a meteor into their lives, and there was nothing Khcen could do to stop it.

He was going to lose a love, again.

He was going to sob and not know why.

He was going to sob and know why.

...

But the smell!

But the decadent, impervious smell of meatballs!

SKEA, in all its miles-wide nauseating breadth, never lost scent of their Space Swedish meatballs. Khcenac recalled it from a far-off time, when he was trying to move in with some now-forgotten old flame who could never decide on which ottoman to buy. He could place himself there, nearly nodding off, smelling the SKEA meatballs like breadcrumbs in a horrible forest.

But the smell wore off!

But the smell lost its meaning!

Khcenac no longer ate meatballs, and he no longer shopped for ottomans, and now this hazy mess was driving his head wild. He held onto Hitchi's hand tightly to hold through the storm, but the nerd-bird was exploring the sections with too much haste to be reeled in properly. The two were searching, allegedly, for furniture to dot their home, but it was far from clear what such furniture might look like.

Hitchi would hop onto a tiny lounge chair with a kick-up leg rest and exclaim that it was 'perfectly portable', but Khcenac would have to remind him that it wouldn't be all that well-suited to the nerd-bird's larger home. Then, Khcen would find a bed of simply extravagant wealth, wide enough to accomodate six bodies with a mattress that he sunk into, but Hitchixata would quickly explain that there wouldn't possibly be room in Khcenac's pod-home.

A perfectly-sized antique dining table-- for a dining hall.

A cozy green-tinted desk lamp-- wall-mounted and extra portable.

Eventually it got a little bit absurd. SKEA lacked anything that was 'just right', of course, and the two were instead trying to build two entirely different houses. Interior decoration was an intense affair for Khcenac, and he had intended to show Hitchi the ropes, but it was already looking like a non-starter.

"Maybe," he uttered, "we should simply retrieve your camera, and see what furniture looks right in a photograph, with us."

"Ah!" Hitchi quickly fumbled with his bag, pulling free the camera from his photo studio, which was far too bulky and fragile to be lugging around like he was doing. "Might solve, a-ah, being indecisive!"

To this, Khcenac could only manage an amused smirk. "Well, we can hope, at least."

They hadn't passed any other shoppers for a few minutes, and the scent of meatballs was growing faint, and yet they persisted. Camera in hand, Hitchi hurried along until he spotted an arrangement of foldable chairs nesting around a round table. There were face-down cards at every seat, and a heap of novelty poker chips in the center, making its purpose clear. He exclaimed, "This is like those poker games you have, um, with the ex-crew."

Khcen nodded. "Although, our games are held on some cheap laminated table in the station's common area. This would be quite suave, an appropriate fixture in the corner of your home, illuminated perhaps only by overhead lamplight..." His mind wandered a little, as he took a seat around the table, posing for Hitchi's photographer eye.

"Well, y-yeah. That'd work... though it's small enough that it'd fit in your pod, too! I think. Maybe where that little desk is, that I saw in the pictures..." The nerd-bird dragged over a stool to place his camera atop, set it to at least somewhat be in focus, and set a brief, ticking timer. "I think my place can stay a mess."

"It's not a mess, my dear, though it could certainly use a spruce-up. I don't exactly love the company of my own apartment," Khcenac noted. "I enjoy the idea that we work on your place for now."

Hitchixata sat beside his boyfriend and held him around the backside, but there was a bit of tension in the air. His voice faltered a bit, as the camera ticked away. "W-Well, but, your place is a lot more set in stone. It's, like... I mean, you still sleep there sometimes, a-and it's way easier to get to work. And cheaper, right?"

Khcen wasn't so sure how to respond, at first. He simply motioned to the cards. "Should, perhaps, look as if we're playing a quick round. We want to publish this, right?"

"Y-Yeah." The nerd-bird frowned with his cheeks, and quickly went to check his given hand. The cards were blank. Obviously. "I guess we shouldn't look like we're in the middle o-of an argument, uh..."

A moment passed, and a weakened Khcenac looked over to his lover. "I'm so unsure, are we having an argument?"

"Oh no, we might be, ah... having an argument," Hitchi murmured. His expression grew to horror.

They were the couple having an argument in an SKEA.

(SNAP!)

With their photo taken, amidst a moment of restless tension, the two sat uncomfortably around a fake poker game. The air hung still, and neither wished to be the first to speak. Instead, a dejected Hitchixata stumbled out of the chair and over to grab his camera. The picture was a little blurry, bathed in harsh SKEA overhead light, and the two looked like they were both being bitten in the tail (excluding the fact Khcen lacked one). He mumbled something which perhaps could have been, "I want to move in with you."

Khcenac stood, unsteady. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite receive your words, my love."

"I w-want to move in with you," the nerd-bird stumbled out.

"Ah."

"I'm thinking, a-ahh," he continued, hands trembling, with all the subtlety and care of a bull, "th-that I'll sign up, f-for Nanotrasen service on th-that station. On Luna Station. And, a-hh, because i-it's, like... more accepting, and stuff, i-it won't be as bad as normal Nanotrasen stuff. That was... th-that was my first..." He flinched a little, as Khcenac's expression went to one of deep sorrow, pity. "...that was the grand gesture."

Khcenac knew it was coming from the beginning, but it still hurt him to speak. "...I would like you not to do that."

Hitchi nodded weakly. "Oh."

"I know you'd like to, a-and I'd heard such things through my inadvertent eavesdropping, and..." Khcen stepped closer, and held his own hands together. "I'm aware you've done all the planning, and you intend to move in with me, and that you'd like it to be a great surprise for me, but... I don't want what happened with me happen to you. It wouldn't make me happy."

A sickening feeling crept up Hitchixata's gut, and he paced slowly around the SKEA display room. "I just thought... th-then I could move in with you, a-and... and I'm willing to do all of it."

Khcenac forced a nod. His throat was closing up. "It wouldn't be for my sake. I know you'd quite like it to be, but it would be a self-sacrifice for nothing. The situation is complicated right now, and frustrating, and I'd love to be able to spend every night with you, Hitchi..." Tension in his chest. "I'm so sorry."

"Wh-what are you sorry for, Khcen?" The nerd-bird, meek as he felt, still had room to be saccharine. "It makes s-sense, so I should be sorry."

"Ahhk! No, I should. I'm letting you down--"

"I'm sorry f-for letting you down w-with such a crap grand gesture!"

"--please don't apologize..."

Hitchi stumbled through the room until he found a grim-looking bed in the corner of the room, and took a seat so heavy that the mattress sank. He rubbed at his neck, struggling to respond to the man he loved so dearly. "...I l-like your life. I wanna be part of it."

At the edge of breaking entirely, Khcenac made his way over, his steps lumbering, and sat beside Hitchi. "I kn-know," he stammered. He was beginning to feel tears form in his eyes. "I'm s-so sorry, my l-love."

"Are, uh... are y-you okay?" the nerd bird whispered.

But the feeling!

It was sending Khcenac down, down, down. He slumped back from his seat on the bed and quickly began to curl up atop the comforter. All of a sudden, the emotion of it all, the sense of doom, broke him, and broke him, and broke him into a miserable, quiet sob.

Quickly, Hitchi's own fears faded to the background, and he crawled along the bed to investigate his crying boyfriend. "I don't understand, i-it's my mistake, a-and we can make it through this anyway, s-so... and... what's wrong, Khcen?"

"I've truly r-ruined it all this time," Khcenac murmured, struggling to take a breath.

Hitchixata leaned in closer, until he was laid beside Khcen, their beaks nearly touching. "No," he gently murmured. "Why w-would you think so?"

Khcenac struggled to look forth at his lover. "...this is always how it happens, isn't it? The shaky beginnings crumble, and it culminates in a terrible fight, and I th-think I'm at fault here."

"We aren't breaking up," Hitchi said flatly. "Right? It doesn't s-seem like it. I'm not, l-like, uh, going to war or something. We'll be okay." He hadn't felt so sure of a thing before that moment, and still wasn't entirely sure of it himself, but it felt good to say.

Still, Khcenac held his dejection, and curled up further as a horrible knot twisted its way up his center. "But it'll all stop b-being okay eventually! At some point w-we'll..."

The harsh air and lofty ceiling of SKEA faded away. In an instant, it was only the two birds, laid next to each other, at the brink of destruction. Hitchixata had never been, and reckoned he perhaps never would be, a particularly great motivator. Instead, with his own emotions beginning to run wild, and his throat sealing up in grief, he decided to state the obvious. "I love you," he stammered. "Um... a-and... and that's all there is, a-and I want... to be your boyfriend. And I'm n-not gonna stop trying to make it w-work, if you stick around. I wanna not break up. I wanna b-be a couple." He scooted his arm across the comforter to clasp Khcenac's hand in his, tightly, tightly, tightly.

"I-Is that really how simple it is?" Khcen asked. "What about the future? Wh-what about when I make more mistakes? Won't we drift apart like comets in false passing? Won't our souls develop terrible countenance, given the wilting aeons of a year's time?" His melodrama was utterly devoid of irony. He could speak no other language.

"...D-Dunno, ahh, what that all means," Hitchi admitted, "but I guess it all d-depends on what we do now."

A sniffle. "Now, now? This v-very moment?"

A weakened nod. "Yeah. And after this when we get home."

With the passing moments, Khcenac realized how small and weak and dumb he felt. He had so much to love around him, and yet the only thing that flooded his thoughts was the possibility of losing it. He spoke by forcing out air, from a crumpled-up chest cavity. "I love you t-too," he said. "I'm just s-so scared all the time. It m-manifests so very suddenly, that I'll h-have done something wrong this time, and there won't be any turning back from a shattered instant."

"Well, you d-didn't do anything wrong yet. Still l-love you."

"I believe you. I've no doubts." Khcen swallowed. "I never know wh-why it hits me so very hard in the gut." His limp form rolled a bit in the bed until he was on his back again, staring at the sunless sky ceiling, looming infinitely above.

Hitchi, too, rolled onto his back, still remaining unrelentingly close to Khcenac. "I'm sorry-- it s-sounds awful." His breath quivered as he tried to still himself. After a few prolonged moments of quiet, he slid his hand over to the other side of the bed, and clasped his boyfriend's hand. Weakly, but not a fading weakness. It was an offering to hold onto the world. "...I'm here f-for you through it."

Another while passed. The tears continued to flow until they stopped, sudden, like there was nothing left to cry about. Khcenac's panicked energy faded. He sunk into the mattress and clenched onto Hitchi's offered hand, and scooted next to him, and let out a breath that had been held for eons. He said, "The worst part of anything is not feeling secure that it'll be there for long."

"Yeah," Hitchi said, in a whisper. "I wanna give you th-that, if you'll give me that."

"I suppose that's as much of a deal as anything."

The nerd-bird stammered, "D-Deal?"

The ex-vampire exclaimed, "Deal!"

Around them, the air stirred a little. They had shouted an incantation of vanishing meaning, but the air stirred, and the room grew a little warmer, and the lamps that made up the stars in the ceiling flickered and Hitchi held Khcenac and, at last, Khcenac felt like he could hold Hitchi back.

Hitchi murmured, "Is th-that what marriage will feel like? That w-was so, h-ahh, weird."

"POCK!" Khcenac began howling in laughter, kicking at the mattress some. The surprise of it had gotten him right in the gut. "Oh, I can only pray to every deity it won't be so very casual!"

"Mhhh, you're gonna want a big wedding, huh." The nerd-bird smirked, having gone flush. "Noted."

Amidst his laughing, Khcen wiped away some tears, and poked gently at his boyfriend's side. "Listen to you. 'Noted'. How did I land such a cute man?"

Hitchi sniffled. He, himself, was struggling not to tear up. What a pair of helpless emotionals. "Guess you, um, just kept t-trying, haha."

"I suppose I did."

Khcenac settled down after a little while. It was far from easy, sifting through all his jumbled emotions, but he figured he at least had a few minutes, a few hours, a few days to do so. He had the company of a bird who was willing to give him some time, and who wasn't going anywhere, not right now. And if he wasn't going anywhere right now, maybe he wasn't going anywhere at all. Maybe loving him would just mean loving him.

It wasn't the best thing to ponder for hours at a time, he supposed. After the break in conversation reached a steady silence, he spoke up again. "...Ah, and, anyhow. What was it, the other thing which you wanted to show me, as a surprise?"

"Oh!" Hitchi took a quick breath. "Well, um, i-it actually might be something you like. Ahh, it's... it's to do with... like, remind me everything that's happening with, uh, Steti, and your crew, a-and the station? The big plans?"

"Mmm..." Khcenac settled into the bed as he pondered. "A complicated matter. After nearly a year of searching, we've remained at standstill with Central Command. That Vox has tried rather desperately to locate a way to assert our independence without guaranteeing our doom, yet every route sees his... 'abilities', ah..." Khcen snickered softly, and the nerd-bird followed, feeling himself go flush. "...they aren't all that effective in such a political tightrope. We need convincing, and there's no natural way to open talks with the higher-ups without revealing that our brand of crazy is entirely inappropriate for a work environ."

A slow nod. "...Okay. That's, ahhm, all basically what I remember, so... this might actually help." Hitchixata cleared his throat and rested his hands on his chest as he spoke. "This morning, a-after you went for work, I was looking a-at some Nanotrasen websites, to like, g-get a handle on stuff, you know?"

"Right." Khcenac hummed, uncertain.

"Well... I mighta, um..." Hitchi nearly laughed over himself. "I was, um, I was investigating the, u-uh, login system, for this Nanotrasen forum on Starnet, and I... I accidentally..." The nerd-bird took a deep breath, gone fully flush. Khcen couldn't take the anticipation-- what was it?! Finally, he collected himself. "I might've accidentally logged in as an administrator."

Khcenac was starstruck. He turned his head to the chittering Vox beside him, and gave him a very long look, which landed someplace between scornful and utterly pleased. "I don't believe you did that on accident for a single breathless moment, my love. But please do go on."

Hitchi's cheeks poofed out, and he rested his head back to adjust his glasses. "A-Anyway... um... it turns out that Nanotrasen is, like, super, uh... what's the word? Dystopian? They track web browsing habits o-of every official at every level of the company," he said, so excited that he could barely get out the words in time. "So, like, I d-did a little database search, and found, a-and... well, like..." He clapped his beak. "Thirty nine percent have visited my websites, so it's, like, kind of an ego boost. But a whole bigger percent have looked up s-something related to, uh, porn. And some about Stetikekiak. And some about... well, a-all sorts of things that Luna Station can probably, like, leverage."

A few moments of pondering at the magnitude of this discovery. Khcenac glanced off as he planned, silently and instinctively, as a Vox is often capable of. "...I can see the concept. Even if you were, say, a human official, very quite well-off with your cohort in NT's upper class, you wouldn't like information- verifiable- coming out with regard to your habits. You'd do quite a lot of things to keep your fascinations secret, including... casting an anonymous vote with regards to the independence of the Moon."

"That, and," Hitchi said, panting, "the higher-ups, l-like, the really higher-ups, wouldn't want a-anyone to know that they're tracking everyone's d-data. That might not be mutiny, b-but it'd be..." He held up his hands, banging them together softly as a gesture. "...super bad chaos. Not something they want, either."

Finally, Khcenac no longer wanted to helplessly rest with his back against the bed. He mustered his faded, changed energy, and sat up straight, glancing lovingly back down at Hitchi, who was still giggling with sudden pride. There was a quiet, shared excitement, like the whole world had opened up. It didn't matter that this could get messed up, that their relationship could fall into shambles if enough bad things happened. This was good. This felt good.

"This is a better grand gesture than my thing, I'll have to admit," Khcen said, with a low chuckle.

"I-I hope it's a good grand gesture for us both."

"You mean-- because if such a plan were to miraculously work out..."

"...I could move i-in with you."

Khcenac slowly clambered onto his knees. "I don't mind any of that at all. In fact, it sounds... it sounds absolutely splendid. It sounds a bit saccharine, if I'm quite honest." He smirked with his cheeks.

Hitchixata followed after, lifting up with his boyfriend's help and facing him face-to-face, both sat up on their legs. "And until then, or if it doesn't w-work out, I still love you, and I still wanna love you. Okay? Still deal?"

Khcenac lunged a bit, enveloping his boyfriend in a tight, tight hug. "Still deal," he murmured. "I love you still, a-and I love you so very dearly."

They sunk into each-other's weight. SKEA wasn't all that warm, but their combined heat could finally make them feel a little at home-- wrapped in each other as a blanket. Hitchixata rested his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. There would be no words for how much relief he felt, being able to do that when he needed it most. So, instead, he spoke meekly, in simple terms, with words that felt like they had just enough weight to remain stable. "I love you too."

"Now," Khcenac whispered, "let's get off this bed before somebody yells at us, and let's find a lamp or something so we didn't venture through these halls for nothing."

Hitchi snickered. "Can we argue over the lamp?"

"Perfect. Yes." As the bigger Vox pulled away, he felt like he was a changed bird. "I could use a good bickering."

They made their way off the comforter, which was now thoroughly mussed up, with two Vox-shaped divots in the fabric that might not get sorted out by an employee for hours. They retrieved the camera with the awful selfie, wiped it from the memory chip, and vowed to take a better one when they were in a better mood.

They clasped each other's hands, one with another, took a deep mutual breath, and once again began to wander the endless, endless warehouse.

...

...

...

And it had reached the hour of twilight, where the overhead lights of Hitchixata's home made everything feel a little surreal. This was overtime; this was past its due date.

A lovable time for a nerd-bird who lived so far from a sun!

By this time of night, the visiting ex-crew was thoroughly tired out. They were hanging out by the exit, while Hitchi hung around in the mangy aftershave of leaving-not-leaving. Vizkathla had been debating ideas for what game to bring next time they were over, and every suggestion riled up Matt and Atchki into a tizzy-- the two were determined to find conflict in everything, and through Hitchi's tiredness, he had room to laugh like crazy.

"Agricola is absolute, objective trash," Matt stated.

"I pocking love it. You getta put down farmers and they farm," Atchki retorted.

The man's face scrunched up as he hung in Hitchi's doorway. "It hasn't been updated for four centuries! It has no game-flow. It's so, so boring."

Viz grinned with his wide-as-can-be mandibles, chuckling along. "Okay... I'll keep that in mind, and not bring Agricola. I ztill need zome kind of conzenzuz before we all zplit up, though, or elze everyone'z going to get fuzzy."

Hitchixata leaned against the back of a couch, sipping idly at fizzy water. "Uh... maybe Vampire? Hidden role stuff is, a-ah, a good ice breaker, I've heard."

"Maybe," said Matt, rubbing at the back of his head. "An ice breaker could be good. I kinda feel like we left you out of some stuff, Hitchi, so a game where we're talking a lot would work."

Atchki, however, put up immediate resistance. "Pocking Khcen is gonna HATE bein' called vampire, though. He's a real sensate about that shit still."

"Aw, I bet he can handle it," Hitchi assured. "I-I'll ask him, though, like, tonight." He took a breath, and his expression grew pensive, and a little flush. "He mentioned th-that he had a surprise to show me before he headed to the bedroom."

"Ooooh," hummed Viz. He leaned against the doorframe beside Matt, giving the bird a smirk with his mandibles-- and all three of the ex-crew were now eying him excitedly. "Zurprise, huh?"

Hitchixata quickly shook his head, nervously laughing. "A-Ahah, no, not like that! We talk, a-ahh, more explicitly, usually. This is probably a r-real surprise."

"Sure, buddy," Matt chuckled. "While you're off getting some, ask him if he wants to play Vampire."

"No, no, I believe the li'l nerd," said Atchki, grinning with his cheeks, "'cus Khcen has totally pocking faked me out with this before. When I was sleepin' with him, he kept askin' if he could show me a surprise late at night, 'til I finally went along with it when I was in the mood, ya know, and he..." A muffled snrk. "...bought me a tuxedo."

Vizkathla was starstruck. "Oh, that iz extremely Khcen. Do you ztill have it?"

The big Vox shook his head. "No clue where it's at now. I woulda bet he returned it, but, hey, Hitchi, maybe it's your turn to play pocking dress-up, eheheh."

Hitchi was feeling a little overwhelmed, and felt blood rush to his head, but he had to admit-- he liked this weird dynamic with his boyfriend's exes. "...I m-mean, Matt could t-tell you, I already, uh, h-have dress-up material. So it's probably, ahhhm, not that."

"I wouldn't know a goddamn thing about dress-up material," muttered Matt, like a liar.

"ANYWAY," announced Viz, "I'm gonna bring Vampire and Vegan Vampire next time if Khcen'z cool with it. It'll be a good time. I gotta go, though, I got a midnight crap movie date zet up with a myzterious ztranger."

Atchki mumbled, "Again?"

"I'm kidding! It'z a midnight crap movie date alone where I just chill out and eat fruit."

Matt nodded. "Yeah, I better head out sooner than later too, with the shift in a few hours."

Atchki thumbed at himself. "And I can't leave Jimmy hangin'. He needs a hug a'fore he can sleep."

As the three started to fumble for their things and head out, Hitchi waved them off, displaying only a tired grin. It had been a long night. "Th-thank you for, ah, coming over, e-everyone."

"Thanks for havin' us, Glasses," agreed Atchki.

"Our pleazure!" shouted Viz, already hurrying out the door.

"Good to see you for realsies," said Matt, giving the bird a warm smile. He wasn't a shady serial killer after all. "Now hopefully we can all make it out of the Shoal without dying..."

Hitchi snickered. "Just look like, a-ah, you know wh-what you're doing! Works f-for me!"

And before they could properly respond, after a bout of laughter, the three were far gone enough that the conversation had to finally, finally end. Hitchixata took the deepest breath he'd had in a while, lurched over to the door, and slid it shut.

What a day!

Clammy, he clapped his beak and yawned, shifting slowly around the rest of his home. There was a bit of a mess, but it could wait until the morning-- no harm in having a few chess pieces on the floor. (Atchki didn't like the rules of chess.) He patrolled the roomy interior of every room to find light switches and dim the place down bit by bit, ending the overtime, finally bringing the night to a close.

Or, at least, the beginning of such a thing. As he slid open the door to the master bedroom, he wasn't sure it would be completely over yet.

The bed was still made. Atop the comforter, a gently-folded note rested atop a pillow. The tired nerd-bird rubbed his eyes and unfolded the note to read:

'I have dedicated myself to something delightful, and it's quite ready to show at last. It's a bit of a journey, though. There's a secret entrance right beside the nightstand, so just slide it aside and crawl for a bit. Don't worry yourself-- I've cleaned the passage of any filth!'

Well, that was a mildly troubling sign. Hitchi readjusted his glasses and reread the note through, just to be sure that his love had really built some kind of secret passage in their bedroom. After another cursory glance, and a bit of investigation in the corner of the room, it was all but confirmed. The ex-vampire had made a den.

A bit of metal in the wall-- a falsehood! A jape! Hitchi only had to push it aside the slightest bit, and it became clear that there was a passage leading deeper, deeper, deeper into the Shoal's underbelly. It was a somewhat straight tunnel, but as the bird clambered inside, he couldn't make out anything but the faintest light at the end.

This was definitely a serial kill waiting to happen, he remarked to himself. Matt was always telling him to watch out for this sort of thing.

Regardless, if this was how his boyfriend had set up to murder him, Hitchi wasn't about to let him down like that! He proceeded forth on his hands and knees without a worry in the world. The gentle weight of drowsiness made the moments fade together, and what was probably an altogether long journey didn't feel arduous at all. Instead, after a while, Hitchixata found himself in an open-air room, on a loamy ground that felt a bit like clay. The air was, very suddenly, overtaken by the scent of the sea. It hit some part of Hitchi's deep, base instincts-- it reminded him of places he had never been, but that perhaps his ancestors had grown up in. He brushed himself off and stood unsteady, and tried to gauge what all was in front of him.

To his left and right, in place of the harsh metal sides, there was instead a thick but transparent layer of reinforced glass. From it, he could see an endless shifting landscape of metal floors and walls-- like he was trapped at the bottom of a canyon. Above him, Hitchi saw yet another window making up the ceiling, and it revealed his place in the Shoal. Yes, he was deep within this planet, but from this spot, there was an unbroken view from near its core to the outer space far above. He had found himself at the bottom of a metalloid chasm in a planet that wasn't a planet. Staring up above, his beak propped open in awe, Hitchixata could watch the stars gently float by.

"I wanted to make someplace quite like living on a beach," said Khcenac. His voice revealed himself to the awed Hitchi, who looked down with sparkles in his eyes, only to find his boyfriend laying plainly on a reclined beach chair, kitsch and pale-white. "Does it strike you as such?"

The nerd-bird stepped forward, feeling his talons brush up against sandy loam, and contemplated the question a while. "...I don't think I've, ahh, ever been on a beach," he said, "but the air is so fresh, it feels like there's, um... endless ground, in all directions. When I close my eyes..."

Khcenac chittered softly, "...or when you stare at the stars up above?"

"Yeah." Hitchi smiled weakly. "When I look right up, it feels like I'm home somewhere, l-like somewhere my great grandparents might, a-ahhh... set up a tent, o-or something."

"That's praise enough for me. I couldn't quite replicate everything, but I did the best I could."

"It certainly i-isn't an, uh, a tuxedo," chuckled Hitchi.

Khcenac tilted his head curiously. "Hm?"

"Ha-ahh, nothing." After a few more moments of staring around, the nerd-bird figured out exactly where he'd like to enjoy this moment. He scurried over quickly and rested his tired body right up beside Khcenac, laid beside him on the flat chair, flopping both arms over him to intertwine them soundly. "Y-You bring a blanket?"

A soft chuckle. Khcenac's quills floofed out in embarrassment and glee-- he wasn't expecting to be cuddled so effortlessly. "Of course," he said, "I wouldn't dare venture to the seaside without something to keep us warm. Aside from you, of course."

Hitchi laughed. "Yeah, aside from me."

Khcen reached over him, and retrieved a nice, floofy blanket from under the beach chair, which he flopped over the both of them. Sea-tasting air now buffeted against a layer of protection, and the two birds were locked together in a pact of heat.

A little adjustment, and the two could do what felt natural: lay on their backs, hold one another tight, and stare up at the half-obfuscated starry sky.

"So, um," murmured Hitchi, "tell me how you did it, 'c-cus I don't remember an artificial beach coming with the place when I bought it, h-haah."

Khcenac nodded slow. "I downloaded some resonance scanner maps of the Shoal, discovered there was this big stripe of empty space near your home. Very near your home. And plenty of derelict tunnel to hook into, in order to make a route." He hummed in thought. "It took some work setting up the atmosphere, of course, so we wouldn't suffocate. I bought an air-flavorer- don't ask from where- and some fans, and ordered artificial clay to give us a ground-like ground. You know, ah-- like you mentioned, with that roughened diamond I gave you."

Hitchi had to double-take. "Wait, you started this after the SKEA visit? Like, a week ago? You made this in a-a week?"

"I enjoy the craft!" he exclaimed back, both flustered and proud.

"Mnn. I forgot I have a handyman boyfriend." Hitchi nestled in closer to his love, satisfied with this bewildering man who worked so quickly on something so specific.

The moment hung still for a while. Eventually, the sound of artificial fans and artificial air started feeling as real as anything else. The metal canyon walls faded away, and all Hitchi could make out was the limitless cosmos up above, staring down at them, forcing them to feel closer to one another, to stay grounded, to breathe and live a little.

A little yawn from the nerd-bird. He muttered, "I like Viz a lot. Um, I like all three of the, uh, the ex-crew, but I think he's my favorite."

"Yeah? He certainly is the least aggressive," chuckled Khcenac. "Extremely lovely person. Maybe the nicest I've met."

"That about tracks." Hitchixata rested his head against the bird's shoulderblade. "But they're all pretty, ahh, nice. I think you make good friends."

The moment hung still for a moment. Khcen mumbled, "I still worry you'll become a good friend eventually."

"I wanna think that, ahhh, I'm a good friend already. But mainly I'm your boyfriend," he assured the bird. "Right? Still deal?"

"Right." Khcenac took a deep, thoughtful breath. "I'm adjusting. It will certainly take me more than a week to stop being such a worry-wort, but... thank you."

Hitchi nodded. "I worry too. I-It's not, um, smiles and roses all the time. So thank you, too."

Khcenac exhaled slow. He adjusted his position slightly in the chair, resting his head similarly near Hitchi's. The endless gaze of starlight never went away-- why should something so tangible have to? If he held it close enough, and he didn't break it, it would have no reason to go away.

"I do believe that the ex-crew all particularly loved your idea for getting Luna free," he said at last. "You were so worried to bring it up, but-- didn't you see how excited everyone was?"

"Ahhk! Th-thanks. I hope they weren't just flattering."

A shake of the head, frantic. "Oh, I know flattering from that lot, and it's very obvious. I think we're all just about fed up with living under Nanotrasen's thumb, and your idea is just wild enough for this crew. And it has some real backing."

"Was..." Hitchi took a sharp breath. "Was Matt serious, a-about getting Steti to just... come over t-to my place, to discuss it? Like, he's b-basically a celebrity online at this point, o-or... famous, infamous, somewhere in-between."

"I believe, serious, yeah." Khcenac chuckled warmly. "Of course, how we go about this thing is up to you. But talking to the bird of the hour is probably a good place to start."

"Yeah. I like the, ahm... I like the idea. I just didn't expect things to happen so fast like that."

A short moment, and the bigger Vox reached a hand under the blanket to hold Hitchi's, who accepted gladly. They clenched fingers together. This would be their ground, and they would stick to it. "It's a good pocking plan, Hitchi, and I'm proud of my boyfriend for coming up with it."

"W-Well," stammered the bird, "th-thanks. And I'm proud of my boyfriend for building me a beach."

Above them, a gust of sea air drowned out the rest of the universe.

For a little while, this was nothing but a cold night

under a warm blanket

below a star-filled sky.

Khcenac thought about a story he could tell. Then, he relented. Then, he decided he should absolutely, no-doubts-about-it tell the story! Then he assured himself it would seem entirely inappropriate. Then he recalled a few particular moments that would be just perfect for this situation! Then, he remembered just how many of the details of the story had been forgotten or dramaticized, and that it would be quite a falsehood to tell. Then he came to the conclusion that, what the hell, it would probably make the nerd-bird laugh a little, and maybe it would make his cute glasses slide off his beak, and it was worth all that.

"Ah, Hitchi, have I ever told you the story about when I was an Engineer?"

"I guessed you probably had that job," he replied cautiously, "but I'm guessing from, ah, how you're phrasing it, that you didn't have it for long?"

"Correct." Khcenac snickered. "It all began on a very ill-fated Nanotrasen morning, wherein I was given a yellow jumpsuit, toolbelt, and absolutely no instruction."

"This doesn't b-bode well, eheh..."

"I was immediately set to the task of putting electricity in our copper-wire grid. A problem, however-- there was not yet a Chief Engineer, and I had no idea where to begin! So I raided his office immediately."

Hitchixata muffled a laugh. "R-Right."

"Ah, but, the worst part is, he was simply a few minutes late! So when he arrived, I was stuck with a bag full of stolen goods, trying desperately to explain my plight."

"Did he listen? He was, uhm, perfectly nice, right?"

"Oh, of course not. Although he didn't quite know what I'd stolen, he knew he had to reprimand me with some work." Khcenac cleared his throat. He raised his hands up dramatically to begin gesturing, to give a better idea of the tale's contours. Although he routinely forgot specific details, he prided himself on being an excellent and dramatic storyteller.

As the world turned like it had since the beginning of time, Khcenac announced, "He commanded me to hop out the airlock with my oh-so-cool Vox pressure suit, and set up a Singularity..."


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

https://rentry.co/cesiax

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Pub: 26 Feb 2021 23:33 UTC
Edit: 28 Feb 2021 22:40 UTC
Views: 858