Page 37 of Command

She could already tell this was another scene that wouldburrow into her and play on repeat in her head. Exactly the kind of thing a dose of Harmonapam could have helped with. Alina settled for the next best thing: an episode ofGuy Meets Girlon her tablet. She wrapped herself in the blankets on the floor, back propped against the side of the bed.

She’d just set the show to the lowest volume when Threxin’s breathing behind her changed. He was awake. She pretended not to notice.

“What are you doing?”

So much for that.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll put it on mute.”

“What is this?”

“Guy Meets Girl,” Alina said at the screen.

“The fake footage?”

“Yeah. Just a performance with actors. We have them now too, mostly produced on theIthaca. But this one’s from Old Earth.”

He made a throaty sound that was the uhyre version of a grunt. Acknowledgment. When he began to rise on his elbow and dip his chin to the screen in her peripheral vision, Alina pursed her lips.

“You shouldn’t move.” She tapped a nervous finger against the back of the tablet.

“I will see.”

She sighed. She should have known better than to put it on now. Alina had gotten used to Threxin being unconscious while she watched, but of course that wasn’t going to last.

“All right, just wait,” she shifted her pile of blankets to position herself closer to his head, still staring pointedly away from his face. Then she propped the tablet up on her left knee and angled it toward him so he wouldn’t have to move, and chanced a glance in his direction to assess the angle—but not his eyes. Definitely not those.

His giant glowing face was closer than she’d expected when she turned around. “C-can you see?”

“Yes.”

Huh. Uhyre have Adam’s apples.

She hadn’t noticed before, but then she had been busy trying to care for him. But now he was awake, andinteracting. Sort of. Now she couldn’t help but notice the way the tendons in his muscular neck protruded and it wasn’t human, but it was just so male. The thick bones sweeping from his collar shifted as he positioned himself behind her, and her stupid eyes insisted on tracing the strong sweep of his jawline.

She felt his eyes on hers and refused to meet them, averting her gaze back to the screen.

“I will not do it again, Ah-linah Argood.” Her name was almost a sigh with the foreign way in which he pronounced it:Ahhh-lin-ahh. She supposed it was still a better attempt than herTraeggsinhad been.

It was as though her eyes were waiting for permission, flying up to his before she could even question the truth of his claim. The threat of falling into him again was like standing up in the external observation deck in your suit and feeling the sudden urge to just unclip the safety and float off into the abyss.

He’d kept his promise, and a moment later she cleared her throat and turned back around.

“All right,” she upped the volume on the show and hit play. “Here we go.”

Threxin

At first Threxin attempted to focus on the fake footage playing in Alina Argoud’s hands. But soon he found it much more informative to direct his attention to the human female sitting on the floor beneath him instead.

The “show” appeared basic enough—following juvenile humans doing stupid human things. But it was clear they amused her in different ways. Some of their interactions made her snort to the cue of recorded laughter. Others, mostly between the young male protagonist and a female he had been forced to perform an educational task with, elicited a softer smile and an occasional sigh.

That stupid clump of fur had fallen back into her face, as it had done all evening. Alina Argoud cleared it away with a habitual turn of the head as her tablet went black and text began to fade in.

“What is this?” Threxin dipped a hand to pick the fur between his fingers, twisting it. “Is it defective?”

The female sucked in air, tensing. He had surprised her.

“They’re called bangs,” she said with a sidelong glance in his direction. “A hairstyle.”

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