Caelum is in bed with his feet propped up as he reads a book, completely wrapped in a cocoon of blankets he's sure Aerglo scrounged the ship for. He's just about to reach the climax of the story when the door opens rather abruptly, a giant alien stepping through the threshold with a none too pleasant expression on xyr face.

Caelum closes his book.

"Captain Aerglo has left me in charge of you," the alien sneers.

The young human sighs, muttering endearingly under his breath, "he's such a worrywart."

It's those simple words that seem to trigger the alien as xe growls at him. Caelum stares up at the alien in surprise, flinching away when they grasp the front of his shirt.

"Never reduce our Captain as someone of your stature, xe is not lesser and should never be referred as how you humans call one another. Xe is more than you puny human and I will never understand how someone as great as Captain Halcyon was tangled with something as pathetic as you!"

The alien is breathing harshly, eyes glowing with danger and hate that makes Caelum curl away in fear.

"Pathetic, disgusting, human."

Caelum feels powerless and for the first time, an incapacitating fear.

He's absolutely terrified.

The alien can very well crush him with a squeeze of xyr hand, kill him with a single thought.

The way the gangly hand wraps around his shirt and pulls him closer, lips pulled back to reveal sharp teeth that snap in his face, make him think he's going to die. Makes him think he justly infuriated the alien. But the thing that destroys him most... the thought of never being good enough for Aerglo. That the alien before him is right. He's weak and pathetic and helpless and disgusting. He's human. And their baby will be just as hated as him, because they'll be half him, half human.

Caelum thinks he's going to be sick.

He manages to break free from the alien's hold and rushes off the bed and toward the nearest trashcan where he expels everything in his stomach until he dry heaves. The alien sneers at his hunched over state, towering above him and spitting at him before stomping out of the room.

Caelum doesn't move for the longest of times.

Tears rolling down his pale cheeks as he shudders in shock.

Oh god.

Oh fuck.

He curls in on himself, closing his eyes tightly as shivers uncontrollably. His little baby kicking weakly inside him and he can't help but apologize.

"I'm sorry, so sorry baby, I'm sorry," he chokes out.

The edges of his vision begin to swim black.

The adrenaline that coursed through him slowly receding to the back of his mind now that threat is gone. But the feeling is still there.

He knew some had their reservations against him, but he never knew how despised he was for being human, how he was seen as lesser than their kind for something he can't help.

And he thinks, how did Aerglo ever fall in love with someone like him?