Page 68 of Secretly Abducted
"Like a fungus?"
"Like a particularly persistent fungus, yes."
I elbow him gently. "They're not that bad."
"They made me eat slime pods."
"You chose to eat them to impress them."
"Same thing."
We bicker gently, the kind of comfortable disagreement that comes from knowing there's no real conflict beneath it. Eventually, we go inside, leaving the dishes for morning, too content to care about chores.
As we settle into bed—our bed now, not just mine—I marvel at how different everything feels. The space that's been solely mine for a decade now holds traces of him everywhere.
"What are you thinking?" he asks, pulling me closer.
"That I'm glad you crossed space to find me."
"Even though I disrupted your entire life?"
"Especially because you disrupted it." I turn to face him. "I was existing, not living. Going through motions, hiding from connection. You changed that."
"You changed too," he points out. "That possessive display with your brother? Asking me to move in? You're not the same person who panicked when I suggested sex."
He kisses me slowly, deeply, and through the bond I feel his contentment, his joy, his certainty that this is right.
"I'm definitely making you try more Earth desserts. Ice cream is just the beginning."
"Is it all that sweet?"
"Most of it, yeah."
"Humans are strange."
"Nereidans are stranger."
"How?"
"You glow when you're happy. That's objectively strange." He traces a finger along my arm where soft gold light pulses under my skin.
"You grow hair in the oddest places." I run my hand over his chest, fingers catching in the coarse hair there.
"You have gills."
"You can't breathe underwater."
"Because we're land creatures!"
"Excuses."
We continue like this, trading gentle insults and kisses, until we're both laughing too hard to continue. Eventually, exhaustion wins, and we settle into comfortable silence.
Just before I drift off, Alex speaks into the darkness.
"Hey Vel'aan?"
"Mm?"
