“Then I’ll join you.” S’samph was already calculating how much he could pay for without Eleri becoming suspicious of his intentions.Ingredients meant she had plans to do cooking for herself or perhaps with S’kasia. If he could convince her to buy extra on his balance, it would be a starting point.
“Are you sure?” She started packing up her medkit supplies and removed her gloves to drop them into the waste disposal compartment of his kitchen unit. “Things didn’t go so well the last time you joined me for shopping.” She made a slight noise he might have confused for illness if he wasn’t familiar with the way she always tried to hide her amusement around him.
“Yes. Besides, I’ll need to feed myself soon enough. S’kasia and K’kaen’s generosity only extends so far.” He’d given away the last of his vela beans to the raviks, not that he would have enjoyed eating them anyhow. As much as he was reluctant to admit it, the meals provided by his friend and his sister were a lifeline as he recovered. He jumped down from his perch on the low outcropping of stone and produced a cloth sack for any purchases he made for himself.
He made his way to his levibike, but Eleri stepped in his way. “You’re not healed enough to drive.”
“Why not?”
“You could pull the wound open if you move too aggressively.”
“Then you can drive. Now is a good time to practice. There aren’t too many people on the road.” He reached into his pocket and tossed her the key for the locking mechanism. She missed the toss, and it fell to the ground. S’samph used the opening in her attention to grab her medkit off the ground and situate it in the storage compartment of his levibike before she could protest. It was heavier than it looked. S’samph didn’t love the idea of her dragging it all around Laurus, but he would pick that battle later.
“You’re already injured. Are you sure you want me trying to drive?”
“To repeat your words, your driving skills didn’t ‘do me in’. Practice will help.” He had searched for her curious phrase while bored and resting at home and found the indirectness of it strange. The culture report mentioned humans were not nearly as direct as latil’e, but he had not realized it also extended to the very form of their language.
Eleri couldn’t contain her amusement this time, and he heard the bright peal of her laughter. “It’s a bit too hot to walk anyway. You can ride the levibike with me at your own risk.” She hid her eyes under the brim of her hat and waited for him to press his identity chip against the levibike’s ignition. When the engine started humming, S’samph gestured for her to get on first behind thesteering column. She struggled with the height of the seat, and after two clumsy attempts to mount, he came up behind her.
“Are you sure you brought me back from Indras by yourself?”
Eleri turned back toward him, her face the bright pink-red of ywes berries. “I definitely did. You were heavy. But I’m sure the adrenaline helped,” she murmured the last part to herself.
“I’ll assist you.” S’samph’s hands encircled her waist, and he hoisted her up onto the seat. She made a slight, startled noise, but didn’t struggle against his attempts. Once she was situated, he settled behind her. She fit against him well; her softness molded to his rough form.
“I’m starting now,” she announced. S’samph barely had enough time to grip the auxiliary handles before the levibike jerked forward, and she kicked up a cloud of dust around them.
“You don’t need to push so hard on the accelerator.” S’samph closed his hand over hers and pulled back her tight, nervous grip. “It’ll go easily.”
“Okay.” Eleri breathed heavily and pushed the accelerator knob again. This time, the movement was smoother. “You and K’kaen make it look so simple.”
The tip of S’samph’s tail flicked with amusement. “Keep your eyes on the track and take us down to the canal.”
Eleri’s shoulders lifted together in a stressed shape. S’samph moved in closer toward her and placed a hand on her shoulders. “Relax your muscles. You’re driving, not targeting a sniper cannon.”
The tension eased, and she straightened the levibike’s trajectory so that they weren’t leaning dangerously to the right of the magtrack. “I don’t understand why this is so hard,” she muttered. It was almost too low for S’samph to hear her over the drone of the engine.
“To start, this levibike is not designed for someone of your stature.”
“Are you calling me small?” There was an undertone he recognized as laughter in her voice.
“I’m not calling you anything, it’s an objective truth.” S’samph reached out a hand to straighten the steering column as she veered them too close to a patch of dsare bushes.
“I’m actually pretty tall for a female human.” Eleri’s grip tightened as she regained control over their path. S’samph considered and realized he’d never met other human females. Even the choice of Eleri hadn’t been his. S’kasia had been the one to look over the dossiers and pick her out for him. However, despite her claims, she couldn’t be more than a tail span tall. When she stood beside him, she reached slightly above hisshoulder only. If her statement was true, then other human females must be tiny. S’samph was grateful S’kasia had the good sense to choose a sturdier female. He couldn’t imagine pairing with one so small.
The gratitude was short-lived as he realized his momentary introspection had allowed Eleri to start careening the levibike toward another patch of dsare bushes.
“Eleri!” With his injury, his reaction time wasn’t what it should be. S’samph grabbed the steering column, preventing them from flipping entirely, but the miserable machine still lurched sideways, pitching Eleri into the bushes.
Eleri shrieked as she landed hard in the thorns. Once again, S’samph cursed his injured state as it prevented him from grabbing her fast enough. He landed flat on his back a few spans away from the bushes while Eleri’s clothes and hair snagged against the pointed leaves. When he regained his bearings, he rushed over to her. She was making a horrible wheezing, spluttering noise he’d never heard from her before. Was she dying? He knew humans were fragile and much more prone to death than latil’e. However, as he got closer, he realized she was making a strangled version of her laughter sound.
“I’m so sorry,” the words choked out as she struggled to breathe through her fit of humor. “Your poor levibike has had enough of me, I think.” The tight fist clutching around his chest loosened as she started to untangle herself from the grasp of the bushes. He knelt in front of her and started to help her remove the long strands of her fur from the hooks of the bush’s leaves.
“We’ll try again another time. For today, I will be driving.”
“Wait!” Eleri scrambled to her feet, leaving a few strands of her starlight hair stuck in the bush. She was still moving toward the levibike to block his progress. “You’re still healing. I can’t let you drive.”
S’samph sidestepped her with ease. “And you’re a terrible driver. If we consider the options, letting me drive carefully will be better for both of us.”
