I was peppered with questions for close to an hour, but we kept circling back to the same one.

Would women even be willing to come to the Aarond Form? It was a good question, one that we were hopeful made have a more positive answer after Cecelia came to the ship and was able to see it and the males on it for what they were, which was unflinchingly genuine. I was hoping her first hand account would make other women more at ease with their donation to the genetic study that they'd unwittingly given.

"You said you were more concerned with your males responses than females?" Kayle sat cross legged on the floor, he held a piece of frosted glass in his hand, tracing long fingers over the surface to capture our ideas.

"Yeah. They won't react well to you guys suddenly inviting only women onto the ship. Guys get weird when it comes to people poaching things they perceive as "theirs" and if history has shown anything to be the truth it's that human men are more than willing to consider women "things"."

"Our borders wouldn't only be open to women, however. They've been open all along to any from Earth who wanted to come here. Males are welcome just as females would be, though no one has accepted the offer," Laene mused from his space beside Esayr. Of all of the males in the room he was the one that had stayed in the chair. He'd shed some of the rigid posture over the time they'd been brainstorming, allowing himself to settle his arms behind him on the bar counter and to stretch his long legs out in front of him, but even here in the safety of his closest friends he still held a stiffness that never quite melted away.

Esayr sat in front of me on the floor. His head was nearly level with my lap, it was moments like these that his height was in an odd juxtaposition. It was less noticeable as something at the forefront, yet small things still brought it into sharp clarity. I liked it, especially since it gave me the chance to rest my hands on him, whether it was at his shoulders or playing with his hair every once in a while.

I was quickly becoming accustomed to these small affections and the fact that he would lean into them whenever I initiated them told me I was spoiling him. I traced the shell of his ear and he unconsciously turned his head closer into my hand. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling too broadly, since I knew we had an audience.

Now that I had become aware of it, I couldn't help but notice the glances of his Riniere when they caught those small actions. It was always curiosity and hope I saw, which kept away a lot of the embarrassment I'd always expected I'd feel from any form of PDA, but it was still odd to think that I was a first for a lot of things on this ship; that I was still a curiosity —and by extension so was Esayr and our relationship. "But, by reaffirming that women are allowed to come up here it'll put a certain kind of twist on it won't it? Effectively you'll barge into a room yelling that you're looking to fuck and then look every girl there dead in the eyes and ask her if she'd like to go hang out in the other room. It's not a good look for you."

Addric nearly spit out the dark liquid he'd been drinking. It was the color of a plum and only a few steps down from being as thick as honey. When it spilled down his chin I half expected it to stain his skin, certainly expected it to stain the red of his work uniform, but it did neither. It wiped off without any trouble at all.

Kados met Addric's surprise with laughter, "That's one way, and I will say more crass than any of us were anticipating, to put it, but you're right. But, you're right. If we did want to option having human females come here of their own accord we'd have to make the environment perceivable safer for them." All of them shared a significant look, one that I'd ask Esayr about later, though from the shifts in their conversation I'd gathered it likely had something to do with whatever they were planning that I wasn't privy to.

The curiosity burned, but I only had to remember the very secret I was keeping to know that sometimes a little trust was more important to me than knowing secrets others weren't ready to share —no matter their reasons. Whatever they were planning, I got the idea that it was miles ahead of the little consideration I'd given to my problem, though if we could somehow swing it so that women could freely move around the Aarond Form, maybe males would be less inclined to effectively invade the little planet we were all hovering over like a vulture.

"So you'll be busy tomorrow entertaining this new female?"

All at once their attention returned to me and my mind returned to Cecelia. We'd touched on the topic of her a few times and all of them had wanted more information about her than I was able to give them. No one knew anything about her, insofar as I wasn't even entirely certain the woman that would show up at the ship would actually even be her, but bless this honest-to-a-fault males they seemed hard pressed to believe that a possibility. I told them exactly what I knew. Her name was Cecelia Marie Bird and she was from Houston Texas...and she said she'd likely come meet us in the morning.

"Why thinking about tracking me down to meet her as well?" They'd all expressed an interest in the possibility and since I was as much a member of the Riniere as Esayr was thanks to our status as soulbinds, they'd have access to my schedules and I bet could ask the ship to navigate towards me, I didn't put the possibility out of my mind.

"I wasn't, though now that you've brought the idea to the table, I might," Kados eyes thinned into slits, taking on that shrewd look that had haunted me from the hallway after he'd caught Esayr and me, "In actuality, I was wondering if I could convince you to come in for more tests, sometime soon. I'd thought tomorrow, but —as I said— I'm assuming you're busy."

"Is it because you think we've slept together?"

Esayr's hand that had been mindlessly caressing my ankle tightened. It didn't feel like a warning, more a throb of concern that I'd find myself in a situation that I'd inherently think was stressful.

I could let it bother me. I could sit here and be stressed out by the idea of everyone in the world knowing what we're doing or if we're doing it. Hell, I'd cringed at the idea of facing the people I'd known nearly all of my life after the idea of a honeymoon simply because of this exact possibility. Or...and this is the part I still wasn't sure about even as the words left my mouth, I could meet it head on in an environment where I felt...safe.

Somehow, in some way, these males that Esayr had bonded with felt safe to me. They felt like home in a way my friends down on Earth felt. And it would be a lie to say we girls didn't talk about our exploits, more so than those ingrained puritanical sensibilities seemed to want or even consider. It would also be a lie to say I wanted to see if Kados was even capable of being flustered like Addric was.

He wasn't, or at least I hadn't found the right way to fluster him. His head canted to the side and his eyes flew to Esayr where he sat at my feet, "We know you haven't," he flashed a smile that looked just a hint like a challenge, though it changed quickly to one of amusement when Addric murmured something to soft for me to hear, likely an admonishment. "Though if you do, I'd certainly appreciate the opportunity for a few tests, but even the last one I got from you was enlightening."

Fate, circumstance, probability, or even statistics were all things beyond my understanding. I would tell you it was uncanny —or maybe unlikely— that as we spoke about those matching bells would go off overhead. And yet they did. Echoing, muted but still noticeable in the quiet little bar that Kayle ran.

Laene and Kayle looked to Kados, whose brows were pulled down in consideration, "It's not one of mine. Our lab is already closed for the night. I don't know who it's for."

Kayle nodded, little more than a curt jerk of his chin, "Well, on that note I think it's time to retire." He stood and stretched and the others followed suit. The action caused a little flood of homesickness. Some nights, if we had the time, all of us girls would stay up late in the bedroom telling stories of our weeks and what had happened recently in our lives. We'd all break from the circle on the floor, getting up stretching. You'd hear a faint pop and someone would pretend as if it were their back that had cracked in half instead of just a knee.

I wished it were a reasonable time to call them, and as I watched Esayr chatter with his friends, I couldn't shake the hope that maybe we would get these open borders figured out, because —I realized— I desperately wanted my friends to meet his.

I wanted the people that had shaped me into who I am, to meet the people that had made him into who he is.

Call it fate, circumstance, probability, or maybe something as boring as statistics, but I'd bet anything that both of our Riniere's would mesh well.

We made it back to our quarters quickly enough, and the time we'd spent out with the others had me pleasantly tired, but not so much that Esayr could usher me into the bedroom like he had the night before. Not that the conniving male didn't try.

When I shoved his guiding hands away from me and pinned him with an exasperated stare, he couldn't keep the guilty smile off his face.

"I'd hoped I'd manage it without a fight."

"We already had our fight, Esayr. And I won the couch."

He blew out a quick sigh that was more of a groan and even went so far as to roll his eyes before they settled back on me. I immediately filed the image away into a space for things I knew I would either find vexing or attractive depending on the circumstance. He was lucky tonight.

I dodged around him and he turned to follow me with his gaze as I dropped onto the couch, on top of the cushions and the sheets, "I do have a question for you though." He'd managed to get me to change before he'd tried guiding me into the bedroom, which was probably his undoing. Changing clothes was just enough of a chore that I'd had to focus on what I was doing.

"What's your question?" He loiter just outside of the entrance to the bedroom as if loathed to leave me even for a short time.

My fingers traced the soft hem of the shorts the ship always gave me for the night. They were soft and the seams were nearly imperceptible. They didn't itch or rub in any odd way that made them uncomfortable, they were a marvel for the small sensory annoyances most clothes on Earth caused.

"You told me what you'd be thinking about tonight..." I let my voice trail off as if I were considering something while my hand slowly slipped beneath the hem of my clothes, "but what should I think of?" At least there was one male I knew how to fluster.

*****A/N*****

No new evidence for the witchy cat on the block, though I can say that there have apparently been rumors surrounding the graveyard near my house. It's very big and takes up effectively two sides of a large street, both of which are about the approximate size of two or three neighborhoods.

They've been finding dead chickens and goats. And in true American...or maybe even "Florida News" fashion our thoughts immediately turn to satanic rituals being performed instead of the coyotes that you can spot roaming the streets at night if you're willing to look just a little harder at what you think are just some lanky dogs. That and the fact that for some reason people around here think it's fine and dandy to not have their chickens in a coop at night?

Regardless, it made the singular flickering candle I saw when I drove to work at 5AM on Friday just a little bit more interesting.

I'm proud of myself today. I've been dreading this weekend for a while because I don't do well when my routine is changed. I had a lot I had to get done this weekend and a lot of things that would take up time that I would usually use just to recuperate from being a functioning adult. And, in my free time I still ended up feeling the urge to sit down and jump back into this story, so much so that I've gotten two bits up in two days, which is actually kind of unheard of for me since November of 2018.

I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm on track with where I want/need to be with this story for the fun things my friend and I have been talking about, but we won't worry about that today. Instead we'll celebrate where we are and where we've come from.

Also, happy Mother's Day, is anyone doing anything special? I'm going to go with my mother to the local water park this week and spend the day in the lazy river drinking margaritas.

Celebrate small victories. They're battles that have been won, no matter the size,

~Layla