Page 74 of Invasion of Sorority Z

“My clever girl.” He grins. “Such the navigator, she is.” His welcoming arms open for me, inviting me in for a hug. Soft lips press into my scalp. “It is time that I feed you, little blossom. Your tum-ee will begin to protest in outrage soon if I do not, grumbling for nourishment.”

I snort and roll my eyes. “I should have never called them tummy grumbles.”

“No,” he disagrees. “I like to tease you with your strange hu-nim words. I am glad for your silly vocabulary, my mate.”

Unable to help it, I giggle and look up with him. “All right, let’s get food, Mr. Comedian.”

* * *

Three days later, I act surprised when there is a knock on our door. I’m not surprised at all of course. I’ve already picked out four big books to give to Lovan too. One on mechanical engineering, another about space travel, one about chemistry, and the third about general earth science, all about the size of my head.

Marrec doesn’t stiffen up or look unnerved by the sound of the knock, but I can tell he puts a guard up. His shoulders relax quickly when he finds the big yellow male, though, clearly trusting the male and not seeing him as any sort of threat to us or our home.

As Marrec goes to let him in, I sneak away quickly to grab the books, setting them out on our table before the pair of them shuffle into the room.

“Lovan says he has a gift for you?” Marrec asks, seeming awfully confused.

“Hi, Lovan!” I say cheerfully. To Marrec, I add, “The gift is actually for you. It’s a surprise, so I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it. Butsurprise!”

A stunned but soft smile finds his mouth. “I am surprised,” he agrees. “You did not tell me you spoke with Lovan.”

“Well, of course,” I huff, giving him a grin. “It’s a surprise, silly.”

“Of course,” he repeats, amused.

As if he feels like he’s already overstayed his welcome, Lovan clears his throat and passes me a red box. “There are instructions inside, Marrec will need to read them as they are in our language. But I will leave you to your privacy so that you may give it to him.”

He is about to turn to leave when I yelp, “Wait!”

His eyes widen and his brows shoot up. “Yes?”

“Thank you,” I tell him, setting down the box. “I know you said I don’t owe you anything for it—”

“You do not,” he agrees, interrupting.

“But,” I say, continuing. “You’d mentioned looking for a challenge, and I think I might have one for you.”

Eyes lighting up, he asks, “Truly?”

“I thought you might want to look into some human sciences for a change.” Offering a shy shrug, I gather the four heavy books into my arms. “We were never as advanced of a society when it comes to all the tech and science-y stuff like Aprix, but maybe you’ll find something that interests you in these.”

Looking sort of shy, Lovan accepts the texts as I pass them over.

“Since you can’t read or write English, I wondered if making a translation machine for texts might be a challenging thing for you. Even teaching yourself the language manually might pose some level of difficulty. I hope I haven’t overstepped.” I bite my lip, a little worried. “They could be the most remedial things you’ve ever read—”

“This is a fine gift, Stee-vee,” he says immediately. “I am… touched by this gesture.”

I breathe a little easier. “Are you kidding? You did so much more than me! I have some more books and stuff if you get bored again. I doubt any of Earth’s technology is really all that interesting but my friend Anna would totally be interested in breaking into NASA to get you some of our space junk. We’ve really only made it to the moon and put up some satellites, but who knows, there could be interesting stuff.”

“What is this NASA?” Lovan asks, fully interested.

“Er, I think it stands forNational Aeronautics and Space Administration. It’s all we have to show for space travel. Rockets and stuff like that.”

“And Anna has access to this?”

Marrec snorts at my side. “She has Drak,” he says, like no other explanation is needed. “If there is something specific you’re interested in receiving, I will correspond with him about it. I do not know how quickly it will get here, but I know you prefer not to travel.”

“Mm,” Lovan says by way of agreement. “I give my thanks. I will send a request, then.”

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