Page 17 of Larz

In that charged moment as our eyes locked—hers full of galaxies worth of questions and mine undoubtedly reflecting desires I had yet to fully understand—I knew Oumtera would never be quite the same for me again nor would I be for this new world we were building together piece by piece starting with laughter shared over a meal under alien stars.

Chapter

Seven

Hailee

Larz’s hand brushed mine as he helped me over a jagged boulder, his touch sending ripples through my veins. I glanced up, catching the glint of starlight in his silver eyes. He held my gaze longer than necessary, his hand lingering.

The moon’s craggy terrain stretched before us, a labyrinth of shadows and silvery light. We had wandered far from the others, our mission forgotten in the face of a growing, silent tension that buzzed between us like static.

“We should not...” His voice trailed off, a low rumble against the stillness of the alien night.

“Should not what?” My breath hitched, betraying my calm exterior.

“Be alone,” he said, though he made no move to distance himself.

I remembered my cramped apartment back on Earth, surrounded by mementos of a life I’d outgrown. The walls had closed in on me there, much like space now expanded around me—endless and suffocating.

“Why?” I asked, pushing away memories of solitude. “Afraid I’ll compromise your stoic warrior image?”

His lips curved in a half-smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You... complicate things.”

My heart skipped as if trying to keep pace with the new world’s erratic moons. “Good,” I whispered. “Life’s too short for simplicity.”

He studied me with an intensity that felt like a physical touch. It echoed a loneliness I’d known too well—the ache of being surrounded by people yet feeling unseen. I wondered if he felt it, too.

In the quiet between us, Earth felt like a distant dream, its blues and greens replaced by shades of gray and silver under the Oumtera sky. The thought slipped from my lips before I could catch it. “Do you ever feel lonely?”

Larz hesitated, then nodded once. “In the vastness of the cosmos, one can feel... isolated.”

The raw honesty in his voice connected us beyond words and worlds.

We found a secluded alcove beneath an arching rock formation that offered a semblance of privacy. Larz sat beside me, our sides touching. The warmth from his body contradicted the coolness of his skin—a paradox I wanted to explore further.

His hand moved slowly towards mine until our fingers intertwined—a tentative connection that seared my skin with its intensity. Our eyes met and held; in his gaze, I saw reflections of my longing—a mirror to the emptiness that had once consumed me.

The night before leaving Earth played in my mind—standing at the threshold of my door, looking back at the life I was leaving behind without a single soul there to bid me farewell.

Larz’s touch pulled me back to the present. His other hand cupped my cheek, rough yet gentle. My breath caught as he leaned closer. Our lips met in a kiss that started cautiously but grew hungrier with each passing second.

His kiss was a language all its own—speaking of need and understanding, erasing distance and difference.

I pulled away for air, but stayed close enough to feel his breath on my lips. “What are we doing?” The question was more for myself than him.

Larz’s brow furrowed, as if struggling with words that were foreign to him. “Following instinct,” he finally said.

I laughed softly—the sound strangely loud in our hidden enclave. “Instincts can be dangerous.”

“Danger reminds us we are alive,” he replied before claiming my mouth again with renewed urgency.

I lost myself in the sensation—the taste of him mixed with the electric thrill of defying rules neither of us had made but was bound to follow.

A memory surfaced unbidden: Larz standing tall and formidable among his people, a leader whose very presence commandedrespect—a stark contrast to how he was with me now: vulnerable and seeking connection.

I thought back to my parents’ disappointed faces when I’d told them about leaving for this mission—how they couldn’t understand why I needed to escape a life that felt so small when compared to the vastness of space.

“Hailee...” Larz murmured against my skin as if sensing my withdrawal into the past.

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