by Lea Linnett
Helik ventured to her side of the kitchen counter, and she sketched out a quick plan for the garment with him hovering over her shoulder. She was acutely aware of the sudden proximity, the hairs on her upper arm tingling when a stray breath caught her skin.
The thumping of her heart in her chest was almost distracting as she drew the barely-there form of a levekk. It was easy enough, especially after seeing Helik half-dressed that time. She hoped he couldn’t see the faint blush that stained her cheeks as she recalled the image, penciling him out on the paper.
When the sketch was complete, she slid it towards him, waiting with bated breath as his icy blue eyes darted over the drawing. The top half was about as traditional as a human soot could get, with square shoulders, long sleeves, and a peaked lapel. The shirt beneath was slightly more levekk in style, with the shirt collar sticking straight up and hugging the neck. The part she’d had to get really creative with was the trousers, which would end at Helik’s notched heel if she pulled it off. It would be his choice as to whether he left his scaled ankles showing or wore a longer boot.
“This is impressive,” said Helik, meeting her gaze. His expression was as unreadable as ever, but she couldn’t help but think his eyes had softened, just a little. “You drew that from memory.”
Ellie blushed for real this time, ducking her head. “I love designing. That kind of thing just seems to stick up here,” she said, rapping a knuckle against her head.
“Well, it looks great. How soon can you start it?”
Ellie blinked up at him, still reeling from how casually he complimented her. Who was this Helik, and why hadn’t she gotten to meet him before?
“Uh. I can get materials on my day off, so I’ll just need to take your measurements at some point. I should probably get a sewing machine as well, to make it all a bit quicker.”
She’d said that last bit almost to herself, but Helik waved a hand. “I’ll have enough funds to cover a machine added to your pay this week. And—” he hesitated, his expression flickering. “You can take my measurements now, if you like.”
Ellie gaped. He couldn’t— That was— “Sir, machines are expensive…”
“And you need one for the job. It’s a necessary expense.”
“Th-thank you,” she managed, but the levekk wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I’ll go get my measuring tape.”
Ellie thought her hands might shake right off her wrists as she ran the tape across Helik’s shoulders. She stood on her tiptoes, and it felt strange to be so close to the levekk, even in a professional capacity. They were almost breathing the same air, and Ellie was sure he’d be able to hear her heart hammering in her chest.
She couldn’t shake the knowledge of what lay beneath his shirt as she measured his chest. She couldn’t help imagining what he’d look like shirtless beneath her hands, muscles bunching against the tape. Helik had muscles to spare—even compared to the men she’d seen in Manufacturing who toiled in the factories every day. She’d be crazy not to notice, but still she forced down her blush.
This close up, she was beginning to see the similarities between Helik and her own kind. She’d taken the measurements of every species under the sun in the course of her work, and while Helik was far larger than any human man, the ratio of his waist to his shoulders wasn’t so different, nor was the length of his arms compared to his body, unlike some. The thorniest issue in making a garment for him would be his strange, backwards-facing knees, but even that wasn’t unknown to her. She’d made clothes for cicarians and other species with a similar bone structure before.
As she worked, some of Ellie’s trepidation fell away, and her hands steadied. She grew bolder, allowing her fingers to rest more comfortably against his form as she measured, to cradle his wrist in her hands as she ran the tape up his arm. Her heart skipped at the feel of his smooth scales against her fingers, and she tried to keep her eyes on her work.
She risked a glance up at Helik’s face as she knelt to measure his in-seam and almost dropped her tape. He was watching her, his lips gently parted, and for a moment his eyes looked hazy and far-away, his usually cat-like pupils melted into narrow ovals.
But then they tightened, morphing into sharp, black lances, and Ellie dropped her gaze. She focused back on her tape, trying valiantly not to notice the rounded bulge of his crotch. There was… definitely something there. She’d measured a species once before that was as flat as a doll down there, and was kind of relieved to see that that wasn’t the case for Helik.
Wait. Relieved?
She flushed crimson and buried her head in her paper as she jotted down the last of the measurements. “All done,” she squeaked, hiding her face and gathering her things. Behind her, the levekk cleared his throat.
“Thank you. How long do you think it will take?”
“Um.” Ellie turned back to him, her cheeks still feeling like they’d been pressed against a hot iron. “A few weeks? Depends how the fitting goes.”
Helik inclined his head, his gaze on the floor. “So probably not in time for the first of our progress conferences. That’s fine. It would be perfect for a cultural exchange event.”
Ellie nodded haltingly, barely hearing him.
“I’ll get started,” she managed.
Helik paused, a complicated expression overtaking his features. He looked down at the paper clutched tightly in her hands, his lips parted as if he might speak, but then he snapped them shut. “Keep me informed,” he said instead, and swept from the room, leaving Ellie to quake against the counter with her insides crawling with embarrassment.
11
Ellie groaned, rubbing at her aching shoulders. She’d worked hard in the last few days, trying to scrub away her embarrassment over being caught staring at Helik’s cock along with the relentless dust and stubborn stains. Now her body felt like one continuous ache, but she refused to feel sorry for herself.
She also refused to think about how she wasn’t the only one staring that day.
The levekk’s behavior may have been hot and cold, his moods unfathomable, but Ellie knew that look. She’d seen it on factory workers at the hubs, on clients in the clothier’s, and even on the cicarian police officer who’d visited the clothier’s every morning searching for signs of her escaped sister. Usually their attention was unwanted and made Ellie squirm, but from Helik…
She shook her head. She had to be mistaken. There was no way a levekk would be looking at her that way. It was outlawed, and Helik was a senator…
Rolling her eyes, she stirred her cooking with a little more ferocity, wishing she could have a moment’s peace without thoughts of him intruding.
Two pots bubbled away before her, filling the kitchen and living room with the smell of stew and reminding her of home. Augusta used to cook something like this whenever she had the ingredients, making enough to feed all of them for a week. Ellie wanted to make a similar habit. It was a luxury, having such an abundance of ingredients, so she might as well enjoy it.
As she stirred the stew, she let herself pretend for just a moment that she was back at Augusta’s. She didn’t miss the threadbare lifestyle they’d had in Manufacturing, but the fantasy still comforted her. Even with some of the ingredients not being quite right, she’d managed to find substitutes for almost everything Augusta used, and the smell was almost the same.
She was in the middle of checking the rice pot when she heard the familiar click of bony claws on the stairs. The sound always preceded him, and she half-wondered if it was Helik’s way of warning her that he was coming.
She glanced over her shoulder as the levekk approached, smiling politely and trying to ignore the way her stomach rolled with anticipation at the sight of him. “Hiya.”
“Hello.”
They hadn’t spoken much in the few days since she’d taken his measurements, and Ellie wasn’t sure how to proceed. She could feel it hanging in the air between them, heavy and obvious.
“Have you had a chance to buy materials for the…
garment, yet?” Helik asked, breaking the silence.
“Not yet. But the machine arrived today—it’s beautiful,” she added, glancing at him shyly. She’d had to bite back tears of excitement when the delivery arrived, and had guiltily extended her lunch break just to run her fingers over the shiny chrome surface some more and play with some practice fabric.
Helik nodded. “I’m glad.” He hesitated for a moment, before moving around the counter and reaching for a high cabinet and the protein bars he stored there.
“Is that your dinner?” Ellie blurted, before clamping her mouth shut.
Helik froze, his claws on the wrapper. “Yes?”
“It’s just… Those are all I ever see you eat.”
The levekk’s eyes fell to the protein bar. “We don’t need to eat as often as you humans seem to. It’s… more of an inconvenience that anything.”
Ellie’s lips parted, the metal spoon slipping from her fingers and hitting the side of the pot with a clank.
“You don’t like food?” she asked, incredulous. She could understand seeing food as pure sustenance; she’d had to think about it herself that way in the past. But to never enjoy a meal?
Helik avoided her gaze. “I don’t dislike it. I just… don’t see the point of wasting time on it.”
Ellie gaped. “No way! Food is fun. Please, you’ve gotta try some of this.”
She made the offer without thinking, and felt the color drain from her face when Helik turned shocked blue eyes on her.
“I-I mean, don’t feel like you’re obliged or anything, but…” The levekk was looking at her as if she’d just stuck her hand in the boiling liquid beside her, but she doubled down. “Food’s better when you eat it with someone,” she said, voice dropping to a mumble.
She kept her eyes on the floor as the silence stretched, until finally she heard the levekk place his protein bar on the counter.
“All right,” said Helik, once Ellie’s wide eyes flew back to his. “Thank you.”
There was a hiss from the stove, and Ellie jumped, rescuing the overflowing rice pot as it boiled over. She was relieved for the distraction, though, her cheeks reddening. Soon she had the rice and stew served in two matching bowls she’d found hidden up the back of a cabinet, and she pushed one towards the levekk with shaking fingers.
“It’s probably not suited to levekk tastes,” she found herself saying. “I don’t know what you guys tend to eat. Oh, and there’s meat in there—shit, I should have asked whether your kind was vegetar—”
“It’s fine,” Helik cut in, stifling an uncharacteristic grin. “We eat a variety of things. Or at least,” he added, inspecting the contents of his spoon, “we do if we’re not boring, like me.”
Ellie smiled down into her bowl, relaxing slightly. She forced herself to eat before she could mull over his words for too long, shoveling in a mouthful to keep herself occupied.
Along the counter, Helik took his first bite, and she waited, rapt with attention, to see his reaction. The spices weren’t completely right, but they still tasted okay to her. Was it weird to serve stew with rice? She hadn’t thought about it until now—rice was about all they could get at certain times of year, so she was used to it. God, what if he hated it?
Her teeming thoughts were interrupted by the clinking of Helik’s spoon against the bowl, and she stared up at him, her breath held.
To her relief, Helik’s eyes lit up, blinking down at his bowl.
“This is good,” he marveled, and Ellie’s heart soared.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He smacked his lips a little. “I haven’t eaten meat in months.”
Ellie’s eyebrows traveled somewhere up near her hairline as she took another bite. “How long can you go without food?”
Helik looked thoughtful. “A week or two, between large meals. I tend to eat little bits here and there.”
Ellie shook her head, disbelieving. “No wonder you’re rich. My family has to have enough to feed everyone at least once a day.” She bit her tongue. “I mean—I’m sure you work hard. Sorry—”
“No, I understand.” Helik frowned, his strange, flexible plating turning down in the middle. “That must be hard,” he said, as if he’d never considered it before.
Ellie glanced away. “It’s just how we live. We learned to make use of everything to the fullest,” she said, licking the back of her spoon to collect some of the stew that had escaped before. “Like with this. I couldn’t find any milk in the Senekkar, but that, uh… Natarian synthetic stuff? It works pretty well.”
She grinned at him, only to find his eyes glazed again, those sharp pupils softening as he stared at her mouth, and the spoon she’d left pressed against her lip. Her breath hitched, a lick of warmth coiling in her belly. She barely felt like herself as she gently kissed the back of her spoon, letting it pull on her tongue in an exaggerated lick as she stared at him, unable to tear her eyes away from the hungry expression that had eclipsed his features. For a moment, all of her arguments about what Helik might or might not want fell to the wayside, and she was overcome with the need to push.
But then the levekk’s expression changed, his pupils contracting to arrow-like points, and he dropped his gaze. The loss of connection left Ellie breathless, and she realized she’d been leaning forward over the counter, inching towards him.
Helik cleared his throat. “You said this had synthetic dairy in it?” he asked, his voice sounding tighter than before.
“Yes,” she replied, surprised at how breathy the word had become. “I thought it might ruin it, but you can barely tell.”
There was a moment of silence as they avoided each other’s gaze, until the levekk finally spoke.
“It’s funny. I’ve never really understood other species’ fascination with dairy products,” he mused. He met her eye, and while there was a hint of unease in the way he looked at her, for the first time in weeks, he didn’t seem to be holding his breath. “We don’t really partake.”
“Not even as babies?” Ellie asked, but her words seemed distant, her focus entirely consumed by the male before her as he took another bite.
He shrugged. “We skip straight to solids.”
Ellie smiled. “Hope it hasn’t ruined the stew, then.”
“No,” Helik said, intensely enough to make her blink up at him. “It’s delicious.”
An entirely new feeling swelled in her chest at that admission, and she lifted her bowl, hiding the wash of pink that threatened to stain her cheeks. “Well, you can join me anytime,” she offered, before taking another bite, not daring to look at him.
“…I’d like that,” he said, voice sounding warmer than it had even on the first day she’d met him.
Ellie didn’t think about how dangerous that warmth could be. She didn’t think about what she should be doing. Instead, she smiled up at him shyly, her stomach flipping as he cautiously returned the look.
12
“So what stores are we hitting up?”
Ellie blinked back to awareness, the sounds of the Senekkar streaming back in through her whirling thoughts. She stood on one of the pedestrian walks with Anna and Cara, the latter of whom was staring at her expectantly.
It was hard to concentrate, she had to admit. She couldn’t shake the memories of her conversation with Helik the night before, the way he’d looked at her, the way the world had narrowed down until it was just the two of them. She hadn’t even been able to escape him in sleep, his hungry gaze following her through her dreams until she woke up wanting.
Returning to the bustling Senekkar was proving to be… jarring.
“Hello? Ellie?”
“Oh. Uh.” She shook her head, running back over the conversation that she’d only been half-listening to. “Well, I need to pick up some fabric.”
“Fabric?” Cara raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got credits now. Why don’t you buy some new clothes?” She pointed to a nearby store, where a xylidian-shaped mannequin was propped up in the wind
ow. “Alter that a bit, and it would fit you easy.”
She was right. They’d quickly discovered that it was impossible to find any garments made to fit humans in the Senekkar. It wasn’t surprising that such clothes were scarce. Even looking around, the steady stream of sub-species that gave them a wide berth as they passed by was devoid of their kind. It just meant they’d need to alter whatever they found, which wasn’t much of a hardship with Ellie around.
Except Ellie wasn’t looking for clothes for herself.
She laughed weakly. “Well, I’m making something for someone, so altering’s not really an option.”
“Oooh, who?”
Ellie’s stomach turned. Was she allowed to say? Was her new job supposed to stay a secret? Even if it wasn’t, would she want to tell Cara? If she knew one thing about the human already, it was that she loved to gossip. Even now, there was something hawkish about the look in her brown eyes. If she told her, all the humans would know in no time.
Suddenly, she was very sure she didn’t want that.
“Actually…” she stalled, casting about for an excuse. She caught Anna’s eye. The girl had been acting subdued all day, her usually bright demeanor dampened. Ellie remembered how excited she was when she learned that Ellie sewed, and she found a barely formed idea suddenly spilling from her mouth. “I’m making something for Anna,” she lied, holding Anna’s gaze when she gaped at her. “You wanted a dress, right?”
She held her breath, hoping the human would play along. She felt guilty for using her when she was obviously down, but a part of her hoped the offer might cheer her up, just a little.
Anna blinked for a few moments, before a cautious smile crossed her face. “Yeah! It was a dress.” She nodded at Ellie, who was surprised by the gratitude she saw there. “It was so kind of you to offer,” she said sincerely.
Ellie grinned. “What color?”
“Yellow,” the other girl said immediately. “I love yellow.”