A pulse of pleasure ran through me. As the tips of my feelers turned into pure energy and entered Levi’s skin, it was nearly orgasmic.
Levi gasped. He blinked, eyes wide. “Whoa.”
“How is it?” I asked.
“It’s strange, like you said,” Levi murmured. “But not bad. It’s... warm. Nice. Weird, but nice.”
I closed my eyes, allowing pure sensation to wash over me. My feelers, now intangible and ethereal, explored Levi.
Then I felt his emotions.
Anxiety. Worry. Happiness. Guilt. Lust. Curiosity. Love.
Levi didn’t want to go back to Earth. He wanted to be here, with me. But he was crushed under the guilt of his error, and concerned his crew wouldn’t be able to leave Eukaria because of his mistakes. I understood now why Levi had hesitated.
I withdrew my tendrils. As they exited Levi’s body, he shuddered and sucked in a breath.
“That was intense,” he murmured, scratching the back of his head. “Were you, uh, poking around in there?”
“Yes. When my feelers enter you, I gain access to your full emotional spectrum,” I explained.
He flushed to the tips of his ears. “Oh. Thatisintimate.” Biting his lip, he turned his head. “So, you felt all my stress, huh?”
“Yes, and I didn’t enjoy it,” I admitted. I put my hands on his small shoulders to comfort him. “You do not wish to return to Earth, but you feel sympathetic to your crew. Is that correct?”
Levi sighed. “That about sums it up, yeah.”
A weight lifted from my chest. As long as Levi remained by my side, that was all I wanted.
“If your crew wishes to return to Earth, we will do our best to restore the ship,” I said.
Levi grinned. “As long as I stay here, right?”
I playfully tickled his ribs with my tentacle. “Yes.”
He laughed and pushed it away. “Don’t worry about it, Zat’tor. I made up my mind a long time ago.”
I kissed him on the cheek, just the way he’d taught me—with my tongue. Levi groaned and wiped the saliva off.
“You can kiss without tongue, you know,” he said, amused. He pointed to his cheek. “Try a peck.”
I brought the tip of my maw to his soft, peachy flesh.
“That’s right,” he said warmly. In return, he puckered his lips and pressed them to my snout with a small popping sound. “See? That’s a kiss, too.”
It was all so fascinating.
After a second kissing lesson, I led Levi to the Sweetfields. We arrived at the site of the crash. With the broken ship removed, the scorched ground was slowly returning to life. I brushed aside the soot with my tail and the remains disintegrated.
Levi kneeled with the basket. “We’re planting seeds here, right?”
“Correct. We will regenerate this blackened patch.”
The corners of his mouth rose into a smile. “Thanks for teaching me about this, Zat’tor. It makes me feel good to right my wrongs.”
“It was an accident,” I reminded him. “But it pleases me, too, that you’re enjoying this ritual.”
I joined him on the ground. Levi placed the basket between us and picked up a single seed. He examined it curiously.
