I laughed. “Stitch told you that? Was that before or after he closed his mouth from being super surprised at how cool this all is?”
“After!” Neal squealed.
A shadow fell over us and I realized we were going into the ship. Any minute now, we’d be landing and I’d be stepping out onto the floor of a real, live, alien spaceship. My inner nerd gave a fanboy squee inside my head. However things played out, one thing was for certain. My life had changed far beyond what I’d ever known.
CHAPTER11
JOLAR
I recycledthe French toast and bacon from this morning and remade it fresh. While I cooked, Neal excitedly showed Mitchell our home, starting with Neal’s own room, of course. Once the food was ready, we sat down in the living room and watchedLilo and Stitch. Neal’s friend Larry came to the door shortly after that, asking if Neal could go play at the park with him and I agreed. It was time for me and my new mate to talk. There were things he needed to know about having a Mylos mate.
I watched Neal go out the door with Larry, accompanied by Shanelle, Larry’s mother. “I’ll have him back in time for his dinner,” she called over her shoulder. “Or maybe he should eat at ours and stay the night,” she added with a wink.
I licked my lips nervously. I doubted we’d be indulging in the type of activities she was imagining tonight, but having longer to talk was an excellent proposition. “That would be great. I can pack him an overnight bag and have it ready for you to pick up when you get back from the park.”
“Don’t bother. He can borrow some of Larry’s stuff. You can send it back later.”
I thanked her and shut the door, turning around to find Mitchell had disappeared. I checked the kitchen and bedrooms but he wasn’t there. The bathroom door swooshed open and I felt foolish for having thought he might have wandered away and somehow gotten lost. Our quarters were comfortable in size but not overly large, due to my rank not being the highest, not to mention space was always at a premium on a ship.
“Wow, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that. An AI that runs the whole ship and does the whole Alexa and Siri thing, plus another one that just does our bathroom! It’s likeStar Trekon steroids.”
I smiled, vaguely understanding that he must be likening Xeranos and Lou to simpler AI home assistants they had developed on Earth. I still had no clue what a ‘Star Trek’ was, as the name implied a walk in space, but that didn’t seem to correlate to the things he was talking about.
“So, we’re kidless for a couple of hours now, huh?” His eyes darted about nervously.
“Until morning,” I informed him. “He was invited to sleep over.”
My heart swelled at Mitchell’s next words. “He took Stitch, right? The way he held onto him, I imagine he probably sleeps with him, huh?”
I dipped my head in acknowledgment. “He takes Stitch everywhere, even to school.”
“Oh, so he has a cubby to keep him in, huh? I think some preschools back where we live do that, too.”
“No, he’s allowed to have Stitch on his lap or on his desk or hanging in a pouch from his chair. We do not see the need to remove that which gives a child or adult a feeling of security as long as it is not something dangerous.”
Mitchell looked surprised. “So, he could be like fourteen and still have Stitch with him and no one would give a damn?”
I shrugged. “Not really. Many might wonder privately what about our world frightened him so that he felt the need for it still, but only so they could try to make our community a better place for him and everyone else.”
“Damn,” he whispered. “You guys really are something else.”
I padded into the kitchen, my bare feet making soft slapping sounds against the cool, cushioned flooring. “I am having some tea,” I called over my shoulder to him. “Would you like some?”
He followed me in. “I’m guessing you mean like some kind of hot tea, huh?”
I nodded. “I once picked up some tea from the Commissary that came from a region on your planet called Japan. It’s a variety they call hoji-cha and I find it quite relaxing. Would you care to try some?”
“Um, sure,” he replied, taking a seat at the small kitchen table. I added water to the kettle and placed it upon the cooker to heat.
“I feel like there’s this big elephant in the room,” he said.
I looked around. “No, no animals, just us,” I replied, perplexed.
He gave a small snort. “No, I mean, there’s this topic of conversation we need to discuss and it’s just sort of hanging between us, neither of us knowing how to broach it.”
Ah, so that’s what he meant.
“Yes, I was just trying to figure out how to broach the subject,” I said, feeling immensely relieved. “I’m not sure how much you know about us Mylos or what it means when you take a Mylos mate.” I reached into the cabinet to take down the box of tea bags, taking out two before replacing it. I took two mugs from where they sat lined up on the counter, ready to use, and placed a bag in each of them, glad that I was facing away from him so I might compose myself. I felt strangely awkward talking about my biology, which I knew was ridiculous as I was a grown male and had been for over eight years the way humans measured time.
