Page 39 of Whoops-A-Mate From Outer Space
“Een, Een,” Naduq cried, arms outstretched as he toddled over to where I sat in Eashai’s equivalent of a living room.
I reached down, picked him up, settled him on my lap, then booped his nose. “Hey, kiddo. Whatcha doin’?”
He grinned and babbled in his mix of toddler-speak and Lalyllte.
I did my best to smile, nod, and respond as seemed appropriate. Eventually, he yawned and curled against me to sleep.
“You are good with him,” Veeshen said as he walked over to take his son. “Do you have children?”
I shook my head. “No. I wanted them, but…” I sighed. “It’s complicated, and now I’m getting too old. I refuse to be the creepy man going after women a decade younger just to have kids.”
“How old are you?” Tolai asked.
“I recently turned forty-one.”
“That is all?” he asked after a moment of what I assumed was converting human years to something he knew.
“How old are you?” I retorted.
He grinned. “I would be forty-three of your years.”
“I am the same age as you,” Veeshen stated.
I shook my head. “You both look so young. I wouldn’t have guessed that either of you was older than twenty-five.”
Tolai burst into laughter. “That is so young! Barely of age.”
“Hush, Tolai,” Veeshen chided. “You will wake him.”
Something about Tolai’s words stuck in my head, then I remembered. Eashai had told me he’d lost his mate soon after their son had come of age.
I did some quick math, then my heart ached for him. I turned and met his gaze.
He smiled sadly and nodded.
Tolai noticed as well. “Bapo…”
Eashai shook his head. “I am alright.”
“Tolai,” Veeshen started, “it is getting late and we should return home soon. I suggest you show your bapo which sleeping outfit we picked for Naduq so that he may change him before we leave.”
Tolai blinked at his mate, then nodded. “Bapo?”
Eashai nodded and followed his son out of the room.
Veeshen knelt on the floor and started collecting toys that Naduq had scattered throughout the evening. “You are a good friend to Eashai,” he stated.
“What do you mean?”
He sat back on his heels, contemplating his words. “I never met his mate. He had passed long before Tolai and I mated. But the loss hung heavy over him. For many years, Eashai forced himself to smile through the pain. This mission gave him renewed purpose. Tolai and I believed that being able to focus on something so critical to our species had given him the outlet he needed. Still, there was sadness in his eyes.”
He resumed collecting toys. “That has changed since he met you. We first saw it in visual communications. His smile wassincere. We thought… perhaps it was being in a place that held no memory. But I see now, it is your doing, your presence.”
I shook my head. “I’m nothing that special.”
He glanced up at me. “It is not a matter of being special. It is that you are the right one to ease his mind.” He shifted to sit on the floor. “We mate for life on the basis of a single meeting. We know that the other person is the one we are meant to love. I believe that the same can be true of friendships. It may have been a chance meeting—I am not aware of all the particulars about his work—but the bond between you is strong.”
“I’m just me.”
