Page 59 of Monsters After Dark

DAYZEE

I can’t believeI’ve been here like three months. If it wasn’t for the calendar reminding me, I wouldn’t even notice it. My days are filled with Khaw and Gluub and I’m not even close to mad about it.

Things have changed so much over the past couple of months. We are learning each other’s languages and responses, and becoming more understanding of our differences. If you look at them now, you’d think they were brothers with a different mother. From morning until night, if you see one of us, you see all three, and you know what? It’s actually nice.

Every time Khaw realizes he likes me (LIKES likes me, not regular likes me) he started showing off his ‘quillens’ and prancing around a bit. He struts, fans his tail feathers, fluffs himself up a bit, and makes his crown feathers bob up and down. I can’t even make this up — I think it’s a mating dance of some sort? If he can do that around a pole I could finally afford to finish my doctorate. Just kidding. Well, sort of.

A few days ago when he started his latest dance, he handed Gluub something. Feathers? I don’t know where he got them from or what the purpose was, but he looked very expectant. I think he wanted Gluub to join in? Gluub and I both looked confused at the colorful gift. But it was… thoughtful. He got Gluub to grip a few feathers and flail them about. Gluub did it, and it made Khaw really happy. Like REALLY happy. I think he actually chirp-tweeted a few notes of happiness, it was precious!

Gluub waved feathers, Khaw danced like his life depended on it, and I laughed and clapped and cheered. At the end, Khaw looked like he was king of the world and was so happy that he preened and tried to groom us. Well, he played with my hair and fluffed it, and kind of petted on Gluub, who looked mildly scandalized but quickly recovered. Then Khaw stood up as tall as he could and strutted around looking positively triumphant, flashing his tail feathers and crowing to the sky. I think he was singing. He looked so damn happy. Gluub and I shared looks over it and enjoyed seeing Khaw in such good spirits.

I may need to be more careful of my feelings. I find myself looking at them less and less like my work, and more like… friends. Maybe even more than friends.

Friends wouldn’t notice that Gluub had really nice lips, or that his eyes were all shades of blues, or that Khaw nearly smiled in all his happiness. Friends definitely would not want to touch them, even casually.

The more I tighten my boundaries, the harder it is to maintain them.

I got permission yesterday from Captain Underpants (ie. CDR Firken) to bring them onto the base and over to see my room soon. Firken shall forever wear that nickname ever since he started trying to talk to me after hours wearing nothing but his skivvies. He was normal until I started spending all my time with Khaw and Gluub but apparently, he is one of those guys and only wants what someone else has.

Not that I belong to anyone else. Do I? Do they? Would that even work physically? Not that I can wonder that out loud. Or can even ask anyone. Do they even have genitals? I’m pretty sure Khaw is male but I have no idea what Gluub is. How do they even mate?

I have questions. I’m just not sure I am ready for the answers yet.

Plus this is my job, helping understand the natives and bring about peace. But the more I remind myself that this is ‘just my job’, the harder it is for me to accept that.

* * *

GLUUB

This day,Khaaww showed us how his kind play. He brought wood pieces interlaced into a curved form. He rested it on the ground and slapped it with what Daashee calls his ‘feet’ and it rolled and he chased after it. Daashee’s beings do this also and call it ‘fuutboll’ and she joined him to play. I pushed it with my lowest limbs and followed it’s path also but I am slower on the grains instead of the waves. They played slower so I could join as well.

After, I brought my kind to meet them. An elder and some younglings, and we showed them how we play by following each other quickly in the waves then darting away before touching. Daashee called it ‘taagg’ and tried with Khaaww on the grains. He looked confused at first but was quick to learn. I am too slow on the grains but when we play in the water I will excel.

Then Daashee showed us a small game of her kind. She used shells and stone rounds. She made two lines in two directions, leaving nine openings, and the goal was to make three stones or three shells in a line while taking turns. She called it ‘tiik taak too’. Only two can play this game and we took turns. Later, Khaaww and I played until the bright became dark and we could not see. It is a skill game. We liked this and wish more of this type of game.

Before Daashee went to her ‘home’, she wrapped her limbs around Khaaww. We have seen her kind do this in greet before but she did not wrap us before this. When she wrapped Khaaww she spoke, “Yuu arr sofftt. I thhott yuurr fehhrrs wuudd cuut mee”. His claws touched at her backside. He breathed into her head strands and he looked at peace. Like when he hopped with his color blades and I waved his other blades. He was calm.

She seemed unsure to wrap me and then made a surprised sound and said, “Yuu donnt feel sliimee orr smell fissee.” and wrapped me more. I wrapped her with many limbs and she made a content noise and showed her teeth. She calls this a ‘smile’. She scented very nicely and I did not wish to unwrap from her.

Khaaww watched us and was not upset or behaving harsh at all. He seemed even calmer. Then I realized — he has not been aggressive in a very long time.

Once she returned to her kind, Khaaww pointed his claw to where she left, then to him and me, and I agreed.

Ours.

* * *

DAYZEE

I like them.Crap! I’m going to ruin my career or cause an interstellar incident, I just know it.

Khaw is more brawn than brain but he has calmed considerably since we first met, and accepts Gluub and I as if we were his own and you can tell. He sits closer to me, as if he is desperate to touch me but scared to make any sudden moves. He also wants us both around him or he becomes distraught and chews at his feathers. For someone that wants to act like a tough guy, he really is a big softy. A softy with golden kaleidoscope eyes that looks at me and Gluub like we are all that exists in the world. A softy that seems desperate for affection.

I am no longer convinced this is a trio of friends, not gonna lie.

Gluub is the more emotionally intelligent and self-aware one but isn’t as obvious about his affections as Khaw is. However, when I hugged him for the first time he wasn’t eager to let me go. In fact he buried his face to my shoulder and breathed me in. For a moment I felt like I was his lifeline. Like something changed with us at that moment. It isn’t even safe for me to admit that I want to feel his lips on my neck the next time he buries his face there. He has the most perfect lips. Not to mention six beautiful blue eyes that scream of intelligence.

It didn’t hurt that neither of them felt or smelled like what I thought they would. I used that to keep my distance but now I am out of self-imposed road blocks.

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