“Uhm, Commander, is it okay if I get my plush shark to accompany me?” I asked when we reached the hallway where our cabins were situated. “I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping with it…” A slight blush developed on my cheeks.

“Of course. You don’t need to ask me. You’re doing me a favour by staying over.”

“Thank you…” I opened the door to my cabin and walked in, not immediately closing the door behind me. “Uh… you can come in if you like, but it’ll only take a second.” I quickly hopped on my bed and took my shark, it was wearing the nurse hat for the moment.

“It’s fine, I’ll stay by the door. But I got to say you got a pretty good sense of decoration. At least from what I can see.”

“T-thanks.” It only took a minute for me to get back to the Commander at my door.

“Got everything?”

I nodded. “Yeah…”

She smiled and led the way to her own cabin. Opening the door for me and letting me go in first. “Just a minute while I unfold the mattress and get it ready for you.” Lauren closed the door behind her and jogged over to her bed, pressing the compartment under it. An entire mattress folded out of it.

“I’m pretty sure my bed doesn’t do that…”

“Doesn’t it? Have you tried? Most officer beds do, in case we need to make room in emergencies where not enough beds are available.”

“Really?”

“Yep, that’s why most sofa’s fold out to be a bed too. But in my opinion, the mattresses are more comfortable.” Lauren walked over to a closet and got some sheets out of it as she started to get the bed ready. “Eva and I found out about the mattress after the second time she stayed over. At least she didn’t have to take the sofa anymore.” She lifted the mattress to get the one of the sheets underneath.

“Shouldn’t I help you a bit?”

“Nah, it’s the least I can do.” In hindsight, I probably would’ve been in her way anyway, as she got the bed ready in almost no time at all. “Want another blanket, just in case you get cold?”

I shook my head. “No, the temperature feels fine.” I then put my shark down on the mattress and tested its stiffness. It almost felt the same as the mattress in my cabin, which was weird as this one was placed directly on the floor.

“But I’m happy you seem to enjoy the gift I gave you.” Lauren nodded towards the shark.

“Yeah… Thank you again for that… It was really attentive of you.” I blushed.

She smiled and walked over to her counter. “I’ve got a couple of vanilla puddings if you want to have one before bed. Just as a little snack. I always take a couple with me after dinner, just in case I get a little hungry when I’m about to head to bed.”

“Oh, yes please.”

Lauren walked over and gave me a pudding together with a little spoon. The both of us started eating our pudding. It was actually quite nice and tasted slightly different from the vanilla pudding I’d had on board previously.

“Hmm, I think they added a bit of cinnamon to this.” The Commander commented.

“Ah! That’s what I’m tasting then!”

We continued talking about the food a bit more, and the pudding disappeared faster than I’d liked it to have. Since it was already quite late and we did have somewhat of an early start tomorrow, I started pushing the Commander to head to bed.

Luckily, she wasn’t hard to convince. We then took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed, with me going first and the Commander after me. I was already covered up by my blankets when she walked back into the room. My shark was laying next to me. Lauren chuckled for a moment when she saw me.

“What’s so funny?” I asked. -Did I still have some toothpaste on my cheek? I swear I wiped that off… Or is it the sharky…?-

“No, it’s not anything about you, really.” She waved my question away. “I was just thinking that this feels a lot more like a good old-fashioned sleepover than when Eva comes over. She always mothers me too much.”

“Does she come over that much?”

“From time to time. I have issues being alone late at night. Especially when I’m not feeling too well. It can trigger some nasty memories…”

“Right… So that’s what happened after we had the tacos last time?”

Lauren nodded and got in her bed. She sat with her legs crossed and looked at me. “Having someone here helps. So I appreciate it a lot that you wanted to come over.”

“It’s no problem at all.”

She then took off her casual hoodie and threw it at the foot of the bed. My eyes immediately went over to her abs. They were being brilliantly accentuated by the warm lighting in the room. -Okay… that might be somewhat of a problem…-

I almost gasped when I saw what was underneath that hoodie. Luckily, I could hide my face just in time with my blanket.

“...Luna?”

I looked back over my sheets. “Yes?” The Commander had also gotten underneath her blankets. -Thank the Goddess for that.- She was laying on her side so she could look down at me.

“Did you not hear my question?”

“Ah, sorry… I was a bit distracted…” Which was, in fact, the truth.

“Have you done many sleepovers when you were younger?”

“No, I haven’t.” I shook my head. “This is actually the first time for me.”

“Really? Didn’t you ever have friends at school who you got along with?”

“I did… It’s just that, uh…, it wasn’t really a thing where I lived.” That type of bonding was just not seen as relevant by our society. You had people you got along better with than with others, but going over to someone’s place for something like that… it was seen as fundamentally un-utilitarian… so sleepovers just didn’t happen.

“Oh… Did you grow up in one of those closed communities then? Tell me when I’m crossing the line, but sometimes you seem completely oblivious to some things that are quite universal.”

“Yes… something like that…”

The conversation died down after that. Lauren probably thought she’d hit a sensitive snare and didn’t want to push on to avoid making me uncomfortable.

It’s not that I didn’t want to reply or say more, it’s just that I couldn’t.

After a couple of minutes of silence, I decided to take the initiative back. “And what about you, Co… Lauren?”

“Me?” Lauren had turned around in the time where we weren’t talking, so she turned back around to face me. “I have done a couple when I was in high school, yeah.”

“How did they go? Since I have never really done any…”

“Ah, yeah, yeah. I’ll tell ya.” She smiled. “I didn’t have that many friends when I was younger, so the sleepovers I had were mostly with the same girls.”

“You didn’t have many friends?”

“Surprising, isn’t it?” Lauren chuckled. “No, it’s just that during my high school days there were some rumors going around in school and that’s why a lot of people didn’t want to deal with me.”

“Rumors…?”

“You know, the LGBT kind. Well they were less rumors and more like the truth since I didn’t really hide away that I liked girls.”

“So they were mean to you because you liked girls?”

“Yes, you know how kids are. Well, maybe it was less of an issue where you lived, I don’t know.” She chuckled, not really knowing what to say.

I guess what she was saying was true though. Being different in our society was severely frowned upon and even punished. It was only when I arrived on Earth that I discovered parts of myself that I’d never even thought about when I lived back on my own world. “Hmm. I guess that’s true, yeah…”

We stayed yet another minute before Lauren continued. “So I didn’t have many friends, but those I did have were incredibly close to me. Sadly, we grew apart after high school, and the war definitely didn’t help to keep in touch with everyone.”

“Do you know what happened to them?”

“I know most of my friends survived the war. But thanks to my arm, I couldn’t really have any contact with them. ``Out of fear for the breaking of national unity´´ as they told me.”

“Oh… that sucks…”

“Yeah, it does…” Lauren then rolled on her back so she could stare at the ceiling. “Do you want to know something completely absurd?”

That question surprised me a little, but it did spark my curiosity. “Uh, sure?”

“Apart from you, only Gunny and Eva know this…” She stayed quiet for a second before she continued. “As I said, this will sound really stupid and completely rediculous… but the reason why I ultimately decided to undertake this expedition…. is because I wanted to explore the galaxy and find myself a cute alien girlfriend…”

That sentence completely broke my mind, it had completely blindsided me and just outright shut off my brain.

Lauren chuckled. She’d rolled back over yet again so she could look at the reaction on my face. “Yep, that was pretty much what I was expecting.”