Page 23 of His Theo

“Your language is precise and yet not.” He let out a breathy sound, something like a huff and it almost sounded like he was pouting. “I have the ability to understand why our language professionals advised we learn it without agreeing with their decision.”

He clearly hadn’t liked English and had wanted to learn something else.

I’d have laughed if it wouldn’t have upset him…and then there was the whole plugged thing.

“We don’t like it either most of the time.” We had a lot of words that meant the same thing but didn’t really mean the same thing. “But I think it will get easier with more practice.”

Had he said how long he’d been speaking English?

Probably not.

We were missing a lot of the stuff people picked up in small talk because we hadn’t done any.

“I’m not sure how to phrase this or even what question I should ask but how long have you been…how long have you not been the captain?” Yeah, English was a bitch at the best of times. Was retired the right word? Unemployed? “I think I’m trying to understand where you’re at in the get to know humans part of life here.”

That wasn’t much better but his quiet sounds said he understood the question.

“One of your months. I have realized my education is lacking but finding humans to interact with for educational purposes has been difficult.” Something in his words made me sit up and I saw him frowning. “I do not understand where some of the difficulties appeared, but I cannot get past the asking for coffee stage.”

Oh.

His entire body felt frustrated but that was probably because he was tense. “I do not understand why conversations must start there. I do not like that liquid.”

Oops.

“Um, that’s usually a regular human’s way of asking if you’re interested in dating them.” He went even more rigid and even the one in my ass felt weird. But I did my best to ignore all that and just focused on my confused…boyfriend.

“When we meet someone we think we might want to get to know on a more personal level, we hint and ask questions to see if the other person is interested in dating or something like that.” It seemed like all his social instructions had been geared toward talking to subs.

It made sense because of what he was looking for in a partner, but it wouldn’t help him navigate the vanilla human dating scene.

“It is a social ritual that starts the process of finding a mate.” His body was slowly going back to its regular density, so I thought we were on the right track. “Your senses do not allow you to perceive potential mate bonds so you must have extensive rituals. Yes.”

He made us sound like cute little neanderthals he’d just discovered…but he wasn’t wrong, so I nodded and kissed his cheek. “Yes. They were showing they wanted to date you, but I’m glad you didn’t understand that. You’re mine and I’m glad you came to the party.”

He was too sweet.

I’d have lost him to another human before we’d have met if he’d dated a lot of other people first.

Oh.

Wait.

“A month?” Had that been what he’d said? “You’ve only been…not a captain for a month?”

Giving me a quizzical expression, he seemed to find the question curious. “Yes. Then there was time to…time to transition to Earth and find appropriate housing.”

Shit.

“You’ve only been on Earth a month?” Really? “Your grasp of our social customs and language is amazing then.”

Looking up toward the roof, I imagined the sky above the building. “You were on the ship since you got here?”

“Yes. I was…I was the captain.” He didn’t seem sure of that word but he looked like he thought it worked for the time being because he kept going. “When my time was expired, I turned over…I gave my position to another leader.”

And captains stay with the ship.

“I hadn’t thought about the fact that someone needed to stay up on the ship.” I had a vague memory of a news broadcaster saying something about it not being able to land on Earth safely. I was pretty sure it’d been made in space and was meant to stay in space. “I’m sorry you were stuck up there.”

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