by Ashley West
Something that would wow him and really drive it home that he was on another planet.
Of course, that happened soon enough.
The place where they had landed had been mostly desert area, and from there it was a lengthy drive to another city. It was much more spread out than where Khaos came from, and he caught himself goggling at everything there was to see.
Everything made so much noise, even the people, and there was just so much to see. His guides seemed to be amused by his wide eyed wonder, and they showed him around a bit before taking him to the apartment building where he would be staying.
“We’re all from other planets here,” one of the guides had said with a friendly smile. “Easy enough to blend in on Earth, but sometimes you just want to be with beings more like you.”
They’d been here for years already, and Khaos could understand. He’d probably be homesick for his own people before long.
Once he had set up his things and gotten his bearings, the search had begun. He knew how to look for people who were in the medical profession with the help of the guides. The guides had been building relationships with people on Earth who believed in strange things like life on other planets (which wasn’t strange to him, but apparently some humans believed they were alone in the universe, which was probably the most self absorbed thing he’d ever heard before), and wanted to help in exchange for information.
“Intergalactic trading,” one female had explained. “Everyone benefits. We’ll ask around and see what people make of your samples.”
Khaos had been sent to Earth with plenty of samples of the Sickness, taken from Kaspersi in all stages of the illness. There were some samples from healthy people as well, including himself, so that the scientists and doctors would know what healthy cells and blood looked like.
It was all pretty technical and went over his head, and his hands itched for his axe, left behind in his room in the boarding house because apparently bringing weapons to Earth from Blessini was strictly forbidden.
Calin had explained it as a sign of peace and proof that they didn’t mean anyone any harm. Khaos hadn’t planned on hurting anyone with his weapon, it just made him feel better to have it in his hands so he’d know that if he needed to defend himself, he’d be able to. But he understood why he had to leave it behind, even if he took to clenching his hands into fists at his side when he really wished he could escape the long talks about what had been found, or not found, since he’d come to Earth.
After two weeks of waiting and getting nothing back, Khaos’ impatient nature had won out, and he’d gone searching on his own.
That was how he’d found her.
Kayla Abernathy, she’d introduced herself as, and Khaos had been taken with her as soon as she’d spoken to him.
She was cautious, since she didn’t know him, but once he’d started talking, he could see the interest in her eyes. He hadn’t expected her to take the ‘I’m an alien’ speech well at all, but apparently she was one of the people who weren’t so arrogant as to think they were alone in the universe.
She’d taken his explanation at face value and agreed to help him.
Even though she claimed there was only so much she could do, she knew an awful lot. Kayla had taken a look at the samples Khaos had brought her under a microscope and then immediately begun scribbling down notes and figures on a notepad while mumbling under her breath every few seconds.
She had looked up at him with wide eyes after she was finished and then smiled. “Well, if I didn’t believe you weren’t human before, I definitely believe it now,” she said. “The similarities are striking, but the differences between your blood work and a human’s are amazing.”
Khaos had been content to take her word for it. He’d peered through the microscope when she’d offered to show him what she meant, noting that everything about his blood seemed bigger and more active than what he was looking at in comparison to a human’s.
“This might take a while,” Kayla had warned him. “I only have a basic knowledge of what I’m doing here, and I have to learn how your cells work before I can make any kind of educated guess about how this illness is affecting them. The scientists you’re working with might figure it out first.”
Khaos had just shrugged. “I don’t mind who figures it out first, as long as someone does.”
That had prompted a nod and Kayla resting her hand on his arm for a moment. “I know,” she’d said. “Ordinarily I’d say that your technology is probably better for this, but your people are right. We have way more diseases and experience fighting them. If you’ve got people at the CDC working on it, I think they’ll be able to tell you something. Meanwhile, I’m just amazed that I get the chance to do this.”
She said things like that often in the time that they worked together. A week passed and then two, Kayla squeezing in time to speak with him and work on her notes when she wasn’t working.
The issue was, she seemed to always be working.
Sometimes she would show up to talk to him with bags under her eyes, proof that she wasn’t sleeping much. While Khaos was grateful for her dedication to his cause and impressed with her dedication to her work and her patients, if she ran herself ragged doing both he would feel bad.
“You don’t have to solve it tonight,” he said to her, one night when they were in her office. It was late, and the clinic had been closed for hours already.
“I know,” she said. “I’m not trying to do that. I’m trying to see how fast it takes these cells to die.” Kayla muffled a yawn behind her hand and rolled her shoulders.
“You should go home and get some rest,” Khaos pointed out. “You have to be back here tomorrow morning.” It had only been two weeks, but he’d already figured out her schedule and how hard she had to be pushing herself to keep up with it and do this.
“I know that, too. Just another hour and I’ll head home.”
Khaos shook his head and got to his feet, trying to use his stern face on her. It had cowered some opponents in the arena, and he wagered that it would work on one human woman.
But Kayla just looked up and blinked at him, arching an eyebrow. “What?”
“Go home. What if you miss something because you’re tired?”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, but then undermined her words by yawning so widely her jaw cracked.
Khaos just arched his eyebrow in return, pleased that the gesture seemed to mean the same on Earth as it did back home. “Put the things away and go home,” he said again, this time using his stern voice as well.
“Look,” Kayla said. “I know you think you’re a big tough guy or something, and I know you’re just trying to help because you’re concerned or something, but ordering me around is really not going to get me to do what you want me to do.”
He sighed. Really, he hadn’t needed her to say that to figure it out. “What will get you to do what I want you to do?” he asked.
“All depends what you want,” Kayla replied on the tail end of another yawn.
Khaos blinked. In that moment, her tiredness had made her voice go husky, and Khaos found that he liked the tone of it. It was almost the same as how Briselle had spoken to him when the two of them had been romping in the soaking tubs at the arena, but there was something different about it that made it almost better.
He stared at her for a moment and then shook his head, coming back to himself. “What if I ask very nicely? Then will you go home?”
Kayla rolled her eyes, but pushed her chair back from the desk. “Fine, fine,” she said. “But only because my eyes were crossing.”
“Because you’re tired.”
“I’m always tired,” Kayla replied, putting her things away. She made sure to pack up everything neatly and store the equipment and samples somewhere where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
"It's part of the job description." She shrugged and gathered her personal things.
Khaos sort of knew what she was talking about. Fighting in the arena left
him sore and worn out most of the time, but that seemed different than the bone deep weariness that seemed to radiate off of Kayla in waves.
He'd never been a particularly nurturing person, but he found himself wanting to do something to make this easier on her, especially considering the fact that some of her added stress and tiredness was coming from helping him.
"Let me see you home," he said.
She gave him a mild look. "I can see myself home," she pointed out. "I do every night. Besides, how are you going to get back to your place, if you're busy trying to get me to mine?"
He shrugged. "I walked here this afternoon. It won't be hard to walk back to where I'm staying."
"You walked?"
Khaos nodded. "Yes. Is that strange?"
"Kind of. I've never known anyone to not sound put out about having to walk all the way back to their home, but I guess you're different than anyone I've ever met, aren't you?" She shook her head. "Either way, you really don't have to do that."
"I'd like to."
He didn't know why he was so insistent about this. It wasn't that he doubted her ability to get herself back to where she needed to be, but he was worried about the way she seemed to be nodding off where she stood. He couldn't drive her car, but he could at least accompany her and make sure that she didn't fall asleep while operating a heavy moving vehicle.
Kayla looked like she was going to refuse, so he gave her his serious face, hoping that it would do something to make her realize that he only wanted to help.
Things would have proceeded according to his plan if it hadn't started raining as they were leaving the clinic. Khaos looked up at the sky, fascinated by the downpour, getting soaked in the process.
"Do they not have rain where you're from?" Kayla asked him, grimacing as she hovered under the awning of the building, clearly not looking forward to having to make a dash through the falling water to her car.
"Not like this," Khaos explained. “It’s always more of a mist at home. Nothing like this.” He held his hand out, letting the water accumulate in his palm for a moment. “This place is very different from what I’m used to.”
“Do you miss your home?” Kayla asked, looking up at him.
“Sometimes. I miss my job the most. I didn’t have much there otherwise.”
She looked at him consideringly and then back out at the weather. “Tell you what. Let’s run to the car, and you can tell me all about it there. This doesn’t seem like it’s going to let up anytime soon.”
Khaos nodded, and when she counted to three, they ran out into the cold downpour, making it to the car in record time. Once inside, Kayla turned on the heat and they tried to dry off. She shook water out of her hair, worrying her lip between her teeth as she looked at him.
“Are you sure you want to walk home in this? I could drop you off instead.”
“The whole point was for me to keep you awake,” Khaos pointed out. “I’ll be fine.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you doing some knight in shining armor thing here?” she wanted to know.
“I...have no idea what that means.”
That made her laugh. “It means that you’re trying to save me.”
“From crashing your car because you can’t keep your eyes open, yeah.”
“I know how to drive!” Kayla insisted.
“All the same,” Khaos said. “It’ll make me feel better. Anyway, you wanted to hear about my job, didn’t you?” The atmosphere was cozy in the car with the rain lashing around them, and he was surprised at how much he wanted to talk to her. She had an easy demeanor and he always seemed to feel comfortable around her, which he liked.
And he liked talking about his time as a warrior in the arena (and was desperate to return to it when this was all over), so it was easy for him to fall into telling her all about it. About how someone had seen something in him that made them think that he would be good at it, and how he had risen to the challenge.
She laughed warmly when he described his first fight and how he’d been cocky and arrogant, even though the axe he’d been wielding was too heavy for him by far and he’d made an idiot of himself in front of the entire arena.
“It wasn’t my finest moment,” he said, laughing along with her.
“Well, you had to start somewhere,” she pointed out, flashing him a smile before she returned her attention to the road.
“That’s true. We all start somewhere.”
He talked about how he’d gotten better. How he’d trained and worked hard and learned to use his weapon more efficiently and how to read his opponents. Khaos finished his story with how he’d become champion and was chosen for this mission and then realized that they had been sitting in the driveway of her house for at least five minutes while he talked.
“See?” Kayla said, grinning at him. “Got us here in one piece.”
Khaos laughed and shook his head. “Because I kept you awake with my stories. This victory goes to me.”
“Uh-huh. Whatever you need to tell yourself. Do you want to come in for a bit?” she asked, after hesitating for a moment. “It’s still pouring out here, and I’m not wild about the idea of you walking all the way back to your place in the rain and the dark.”
Khaos thought about refusing again. He could easily make it back without a problem, but looking at her sitting right there with such an earnest expression on her face made him want to tell her that he’d stay.
She was concerned about him, clearly, and Khaos couldn’t remember the last time someone had been concerned with his welfare. He had a reputation of being able to take care of himself against most opponents and other obstacles, and people generally assumed that he didn’t need or want their help, but here was this human woman wanting to protect him from water falling from the sky.
“Okay,” Khaos heard himself saying.
Kayla’s grin was wide and bright, and it made something warm bloom inside Khaos. He almost didn’t notice the rain as they got out of the car and made their way to the front door, pausing so she could let them in.
Joyful barking could be heard from inside, and Kayla grimaced. “I have a dog,” she warned him. “He’s large and likes to jump on people he doesn’t know. He’s harmless, though, I promise.”
Dogs were something he’d read about and seen since he’d been on Earth, but they didn’t have them on Blessini, so he was curious.
No sooner had they stepped into the warmth and dryness of the house than a large, white animal came bounding out of one of the back rooms, leaping up and placing its paws on Kayla’s chest. She laughed and rubbed his head, murmuring affectionately before turning to look at Khaos. “This is Charlie,” she said. “Charlie, this is my friend Khaos. Don’t eat him.”
And with that, she left the two of them together and disappeared into one of the other rooms.
For a moment, the two of them just sized each other up. The dog had intelligent eyes, and he cocked his head to one side, surveying Khaos as if wondering if he was a threat or not. Most larger animals tended to see him as either a threat or their alpha because of his size and demeanor, and he was interested to see if dogs here would do the same thing.
Apparently, Charlie saw him as neither because he leapt up paws braced on his chest and tried to lick the side of his face.
Khaos laughed and petted him, sliding fingers through silky fur. “Do I get your approval, then?” he teased.
“You know, he rarely approves of the people I bring over,” Kayla said as she came back into the room, toweling her hair dry and wearing sweatpants. “You must be special.”
Her smile lit up her whole face, and Khaos found himself outright staring for a moment. She was beautiful. He had come to terms with that when he’d first met her. Even when she was tired and worn down, she had a lovely face and warm, sweet eyes, and she reminded him somewhat of the memories he had of his mother.
“I can make a bed up on the couch for you,” she was saying. “And I’m going to heat up some leftovers for
dinner because I’m starving. Is that okay?”
It took him a few seconds to realize that she was talking to him and probably wanted an answer for the question she’d asked, and he blinked and then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds fine. Thank you.”
“It’s not a problem. Apparently I like helping you. Go figure.” With one last smile she headed into the kitchen, leaving Khaos a bit stunned in her wake.
He wasn’t new to being around beautiful women, although beautiful human women were definitely something he wasn’t used to, but the warmth in his chest was different. When he spent time with women at home, he felt like he wanted to kiss them and take them to bed and see how flexible they could be, but this was different. Khaos could feel protectiveness and a strange kind of desire building up in him, and he frowned, wondering where it had come from. He’d never felt like that about any of the women he’d been around before, and he barely even knew Kayla, but there it was.
“Is pizza alright?” Kayla called from the kitchen.
“Pizza?”
“You’ve never had pizza?” she asked, sounding scandalized. “Where have you been?”
“On another planet,” Khaos reminded her.
“Ah, right. Well, you’re in for a treat, then.”
And apparently she was right. The food was warm and delicious, and the company was just as good. They sat up for a while and talked while they ate, and then Kayla made the couch up into a bed for him.
He watched as she moved around her kitchen, putting things away and cleaning up, letting her dog back in for the night and making sure the doors were locked. It was clear that she was comfortable in her routine, and he had to wonder how much he was changing things for her and how she felt about it.
“Sleep well, okay?” she said as she emerged, running fingers through her hair as she looked at him. “Tomorrow’s going to be another long day, although I guess you can sleep once you get back to your place.”
“You need a vacation, I think,” Khaos said, smiling softly and reaching up to touch her face from his spot on the couch. He half expected her to move away or tell him not to touch her, but her eyes widened instead, and she seemed to be leaning into it.