Page 37 of Shaped to Be Yours

“Really? In what ways?”

Kai considered that. We had continued on to other bags of sensors for a full perimeter within the line of expanded caution tape. “I believe you call them… folktales!”

“That is awesome! About your own species and other monsters back home?”

“Yes. And human folktales. That class was, um… an elective! I would like to pursue further human studies, which is why I would like to work at the library in town. They are still considering my resume. I would need a degree in library sciences for certain positions, which I might pursue as well. Do you know why they call that field of study a science? It does not seem like one.”

“You know, I’ve always wondered that myself. I have no idea.” I laughed.

Kai laughed too. His shoulders loosened and his countenance seemed more relaxed by the time we’d finished the remaining sensors.

Doing so brought us around to where Zinnia and Beck were still talking with the guards. The two security officers wore their usual uniforms, with added jackets over their shirts and ties. Security from the facility must have worked on a rotation all around the building and anywhere they needed someone, because one of the guards was the human from our side of the portal room yesterday. The other guard was a monster, but not the kappa from the other portal room. I wasn’t sure whatshe was. Maybe some type of ogre, given she stood head and shoulders above the rest of us.

She looked at me as I thought that, and I worried I must have been staring.

I smiled at her.

She looked back at Zinnia and Beck.

“You should have told us ahead of time about the inclusion of your… son,” she said, gruff and irritated sounding. “We were told this is a classified project and must be barred from any outside interference, which means fromallnon-sanctioned civilians.”

“But as you said, he is our son,” Zinnia argued. “We trust—”

“No exceptions,” the ogre barked.

So much for loosening Kai’s shoulders. Since the ogre wasn’t trying to keep her voice down, we could easily hear everything being discussed, and Kai immediately hunched.

“He is already here,” Beck said. “We might as well let him finish with the grunt work. Unless you are volunteering to take his place?”

The ogre snorted—visibly—with a puff of air like mist.

The human guard was doing a very good job of not cracking a smile, because I’d swear his lips kept twitching as if he wanted to.

“I can, um, leave after the initial setup,” Kai offered, almost too quietly to hear.

The ogre must have had great ears, though, because she gave a short nod, and then turned to take position facing the woods on her side of the perimeter.

The human guard gave an apologetic shrug and headed for the other side.

“Sorry,” Kai said, and then slipped into their native tongue, presumably apologizing further to his parents.

“Mi jhavi, be calm,” Beck said, using a similar but slightly different endearment than he used for Zinnia. “You are without direction. Made to wait. Made to, uh… shuffle your feet!” He looked at me for agreement on the idiom, and I nodded. Beck seemed delighted to have been right. He clapped a hand to Kai’s shoulder. “It will not be forever. We asked for help while you are idle in shuffling, waiting to hear from the library. You are in no trouble. Perhaps later, you can retrieve lunch and afternoon coffee for us. Win that one over,” he whispered with a nod at the ogre.

Her head moved slightly, but she didn’t look at us.

“You two take the exterior workstation. We can take the interior,” Zinnia said and kissed Kai’s forehead before heading to the pile of equipment.

For caution’s sake, we would have a workstation to study the readings from the circle of sensors both inside and outside the perimeter in case things became unsafe. We could only approximate where we thought the portal might open, but I was impressed that they’d thought this far. We would also be setting up a canopy over everything in case of inclement weather.

It was clear as we set up our workstation that Kai had no insider intel on what we were doing. Not enough to share information with anyone other than the existence of a portal, and I trusted just like Zinnia and Beck that he wouldn’t. He was diligent though and assisted with everything I needed, only ever having to be told or shown something once.

“It must be frustrating,” I said as we worked. “My boyfriend is going through the same thing right now.”

“He wishes to work at the library?” Kai asked.

“No!” I laughed. “He wants to work outside, at a park or nature preserve, something like that, but he’s shuffling his feet too, waiting for opportunities to open up, and in the meantime, he’s stuck going to work with his mom.”

“It is the same,” Kai agreed. “You have a boyfriend? You are… gay?”

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