And besides, she had her three date rule. She could give him three dates, the same as anyone else.
Zir grimaced but said “I will drink coffee if that is your wish. I will prove myself.” He nodded with grim resignation.
Lois laughed. “I didn’t mean literally. You can have choba, or whatever you want. You don’t have to drink coffee.”
“Good,” said Zir, looking relieved.
“I do have one more question,” Lois said hesitantly. This was a personal one. “Do you like me, specifically, or do you just want a mate?”
For a moment, Zir stared at her blankly. Then he said “I want you, specifically.”
Chapter 13
Lois tried to cover her yawn the next morning as they waited outside the Teissian orphanage for it to open at 8. After their talk the night before, Zir had retired to his bedroom where he would watch over Taz, and Lois had curled up on the couch to wait for sleep and replay everything Zir had told her. She had taken off her work clothes but left her underwear on so she would be at least minimally decent if Zir had to wake her up the next morning. Which he had, a dark, shirtless shape in the dark room shaking her shoulder over the back of the couch. By the time she was fully awake, he had gone back to his room.
He had woken them up early so that they could both be dressed, refreshed and fed in time to get to the orphanage by the time it opened, so that they could then get to work on time. Lois knew she looked rumpled. She hadn’t had any of her toiletries or cosmetics, not even a tooth or hairbrush. She could tidy up a bit when she got to work where she kept spares of the basics in her gym bag. The important thing was clocking in on time.
Zir hadn’t had any coffee, but she’d taken another soda to fend off withdrawal headaches, and the breakfast he had made had been better than what she normally had. She still felt fuzzy though. Today was not going to be the best day.
Zir looked like he always did, stoic and composed. The only difference now was that his wings were down again, Taz tucked under his arm. Lois hadn’t talked to the boy at all since he seemed skittish of her, but she hoped he was happy here. It seemed sad, putting him in a group home like this, but there was nothing else to be done.
Maybe he would be adopted soon. She didn’t know how keen the Volin were to adopt. The impression she had been given was that, under normal circumstances on Teiss, they were pretty solitary, but that the crises that had led to them being evacuated had made them much more charitable and community-minded here. They had all been hurt, they were all lucky to be alive, so they were in it together now.
Lois heard the jangle of keys from inside and saw a male Volin walking towards them. He looked surprised when he spotted them, but when he got the door open he said “I don’t usually see you today, Zir. Are you hoping to spend some time with the little ones before work?” He smiled at Lois politely.
“No, a child arrived late last night and he needs to stay with you,” Zir explained. He didn’t indicate Taz in any way, but the other Volin would know what it meant that Zir’s wings were down.
The Community Leader’s face sobered immediately. “Come in,” he offered.
Inside, Lois could smell food, and she took note of the small entrance hall that was decorated with children’s drawings much like a human kindergarten. They stopped at an office door next to a reception desk and the male led them inside. He walked behind a desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a form as they all sat down.
Lois mostly remained quiet while Zir filled out the form with everything he knew about Taz, such as his age, name, any known friends or relatives, any known medical complaints, and where on Teiss he was originally from. Taz had to supply some of the information, answering Zir in squeaky Volin from under his arm.
While they were doing that, the Volin male introduced himself to Lois as Kib, and he explained that he and three other males - one Volin, one Volon and one Balin - and a Volin female lived at the orphanage full-time to look after the children, of which there were around sixty. During the day, they got by with the help of volunteers during meal times and play events and lessons.
He said that the children were sometimes adopted by lonely males who couldn’t find mates on Earth but wanted children, but more often they were abandoned there by adults who had conceived them on Teiss or on the journey to Earth, but had no mate to pass them off to when the natural time came. Either that, or people who had cared for orphans on the transports saw no reason to care for them after they arrived.
Lois was surprised to learn that Zir was one of the volunteers, spending almost every opening hour with the kids every weekend. She looked at him to see what he would say, but he just frowned at Kib and went back to the form. Apparently it was another secret of his personal life he didn’t want her to know about.
Given how little they knew about Taz, and how little he knew about himself, being so young, it didn’t take long before they were leaving the office and moving to a large play room. The walls were painted with a forest-scape, and there was a selection of brightly coloured foam blocks for climbing on, over, under, or through. About a dozen Teissian children were playing on the floor, some of them with paper and pens, some of them with dolls or other toys. Watching over them was a Volin woman, too old to be a mother but too young to be a grandmother. She nodded to Zir as they entered.
Kib faced Zir. “Taz will be alright here,” he said.
“I know,” Zir replied. He knelt and reached under his wing, slowly pulling Taz out and setting him down on the floor.
Taz did not look happy about this, immediately trying to climb back under Zir’s arm, but Zir stopped him. “This is your new home, little one,” he said. “There are kind people here who will take care of you.” Zir stood up quickly and backed away, the three of them heading for the door as the female Volin walked over to claim her new charge.
Lois turned when she heard a strange, squeaky cry coming from behind her. Taz was in the arms of the woman, but he was squeaking and reaching for Zir, clearly distressed. Zir had frozen at the first cry, turning and rushing back to Taz as it continued.
Lois watched as Zir stroked Taz’s head, obviously saying things meant to soothe him, while the woman looked unimpressed. Kib sighed beside Lois and she turned to look at him. He caught her eye and nodded at Zir. “It’s sad isn’t it? Sad, but not surprising.” He gave her a weak smile which made Lois think she was supposed to already know what he was referring to, so she nodded and said nothing, looking away.
It took a moment or two of Zir practically nuzzling Taz before he was able to tear himself away. Lois had never suspected this side of him before. It was like a father trying to leave his child at the first day of kindergarten. He kept his head down as he moved past them to the door, saying in a rough voice to Lois “We will go.”
Lois followed him out, finding him paused outside the door, possibly waiting for her but possibly just taking a moment to collect himself.
“Are you okay?” Lois asked him, tentatively putting a hand on his arm.
“I am fine,” he growled, walking off.
“It would be okay if you weren’t,” Lois told him, jogging after him and keeping pace as they headed out of the dorms complex and towards the DETI building. “I’m not happy about it either. Taz shouldn’t have to go there. But it’s the only solution we have at the moment. I’ll write up Immigrant Information Request forms for him and get the Family Connections team to see if they can find anyone for him. He might have a relative on Earth who would be willing to take him in.”
Zir didn’t reply.
Not sure if she was making it worse, but wanting to make it better, Lois kept going. “I didn’t expect that back there, you know. You’re normally so distant. You surprised me.”
“He was making a distress call. It is instinct,” Zir told her stonily.
“Still. I’m learning a lot about you at the moment,” she said. “Pretty soon we’re going to end up friends.”
He looked at her and she gave him a teasing sm
ile, trying to lift his spirits. He grumbled, Lois couldn’t tell if it was words or just a growl, but he slowed his pace for her and they walked into work together.
Chapter 14
“So I heard you left here with Zir last night, and arrived with him this morning,” Susan said as she strode into the office, settling at her desk with a smirk. She plonked her elbow on the desk and propped her chin on her hand, clearly expecting to be given the gossip.
Lois was watching her computer boot up, brushing her hair and fixing her make-up, waiting for a good time to tell her boss Lucia what had happened with Taz. “What? Who told you that?” she asked.
“Never mind that,” Susan deflected archly. “I have connections.”
Lois laughed. “I see.”
“So, tell me - because obviously you have to tell me - what’s the situation here? Did you and Zir do the ol’ interspecies mambo?” Susan pried, wiggling her eyebrows.
Lois gave her what she hoped was a chastising look but probably wasn’t. “No, we didn’t,” she insisted. Susan looked dramatically disappointed, so Lois put her out of her misery. “But I did spend the night in his apartment,” she whispered.
Susan’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god! Oh my god, I knew it, I knew it, I knew you liked him! I win!”
“You win?”
“Er, nothing. Figure of speech. Tell me all…”
So Lois told her about Taz. She told her about going to Zir’s apartment, about him cooking her dinner and her sleeping on his couch, but that was it. Zir had done her a massive favour and she wasn’t going to pay him back by spreading personal things about him. Susan was more than satisfied, especially when Lois added in the salacious detail that she had slept in her underwear. It was obvious that Susan enjoyed the idea of Lois and Zir as a couple.
At that point, Lucia came in, walking down the aisle between the desks to get to her office on the other side. She greeted them cheerfully, and Lois got a nervous lump in her throat as she went over in her mind again how to spin what happened as something that was totally fine and under control.
She followed Lucia into her office, knocking on the doorjamb and hovering on the threshold.
Lucia smiled at her. “Hi Lois. Do you need something?”
Lois laughed nervously. “Actually…” She closed the door behind her.
It wasn’t so bad. Lois had been right to think that as long as it was presented as a problem solved, Lucia wouldn’t be that mad. Taz was in the proper place for him, Lois had all the paperwork, it was done and dusted. Lucia even commended her on her dedication to the job, staying late and even sleeping at the dorms to maintain the chain of custody. She wanted an official statement, and she would need one from Zir as well. That would require an interview since Zir wasn’t an Intake Officer, so Lucia told Lois she would do it herself once she scheduled it with ITS.
So Lois was allowed to go back to her desk and get on with her work, and top of her list was Taz’s forms for the Family Connections department.
The rest of the day went as normal. Lois got her coffee. She brushed her teeth and applied deodorant in the bathrooms, and no one was any the wiser.
She put everything back in her gym bag, trying to be sneaky about it, and thinking of hiding her spares in her bottom drawer from then on. She opened it, wondering if she’d had this thought before and stashed a mirror in there, and saw the teddy bear Zir had got her looking innocently up at her.
Lois paused, then took the bear out, slowly sitting back in her chair. She smoothed the fur on its head with her thumb. She had hated it when she’d got it, resented it and was insulted by it. She remembered wondering how cheap Zir thought she was if he thought he could buy her goodwill with a bear from the gift stand downstairs. Now she thought it was kind of sweet. He was trying, even then. She peeled the price off and dropped it in the bin.
She had been mad before, because he was only doing what he’d been told. She hadn’t thought it had come from any genuine feeling. But she wasn’t mad anymore. He was an alien, of course there would be things he would have to be told about. Unlike a lot of people, he listened and acted on the advice he was given. She accepted now that he had wanted to make her feel better, or at least make her stop being angry at him.
She wasn’t so ungrateful as to scorn his present now. Lois put the teddy on her desk, propped up against a pencil pot where they could see each other. She smiled indulgently, then glanced up to see Susan staring at her. As Lois watched, Susan slowly brought her hands together, bending her fingers to make a heart.
“Oh, shut up,” Lois said, making Susan laugh.
Lois didn’t see Zir for the rest of the day. She kept an eye out for him, but he must not have had the same breaks she did. After work, she had her Volin language class, which she always looked forward to.
This time, she hung back at the end of the class, waiting for all the other students to leave before she spoke to Ban. He had noticed her, and finished packing up his books and was shutting down the room’s computer when she approached him.
“Hello Lois, can I help with something?” he said in Volin.
“I was hoping you could explain some things to me, about Volin culture,” Lois said in English. While she probably could have had this conversation in Volin, she didn’t want to. She wanted to make sure she didn’t misunderstand anything. She fiddled with her books, wondering if she should ask these questions, if Ban was the right person to ask, if it would be obvious why she was asking.
The language switch seemed to tip Ban off that this was serious, so he indicated a chair for her and sat next to it while she joined him.
“Of course, I’ll help wherever I can,” he told her, and she was reassured by his grandfatherly tone.
“Well, it’s a few things,” she started. “You told me that Volin pupils unify when they are focused on someone, and then divide when at rest, to better react to movement in their peripheral vision.”
“Yes, that’s right. See, mine are unified now because I am looking at you because we are talking,” Ban said.
“Right, but is there any reason why a Volin might switch between focused and unfocused several times when talking to someone?” she asked.
Ban tilted his head in consideration. “There are many reasons. They might have poor reflexes in their eyes, or if they have bad hearing then they would rely more on their peripheral vision. If they are a particularly nervous person, or if they have attacked from behind before.”
“But what about if it only happens when this Volin is speaking to a particular person, and the rest of the time, their eyes behave normally? And, um, when the two people are alone, it doesn’t happen anymore, he- they are able to focus for whole conversations?” Lois said.
Ban got a strange look on his face, almost a twinkle in his eye. “Is this a male talking to a female?” he asked archly.
“Yes, if that makes a difference,” Lois told him, trying not to blush.
Ban chuckled. “That is quite common, and perfectly normal. Males can be especially protective of, shall we say, their favourite female. They pay more attention to their surroundings when they are with her, to keep her safe. Protecting her is more important to them than seeing her clearly. But if they are in a place the male feels safe, or if he knows they are alone, he doesn’t feel as threatened and can dedicate more of his attention to looking solely at her.”
“Oh…” Lois nodded, swallowing thickly. “I get it.” So this whole time she’d thought Zir was bored by her, or found her too ugly to look at, he’d already been thinking of her as his future mate and trying to keep her safe. Lois tried to remember a time before he wouldn’t focus on her when they talked, but she couldn’t. It had been months, maybe even years that he’d been doing it. God.
“Um, okay, and what does it mean when a Volin tells you it’s cold? Does it mean anything?” she asked with a sinking feeling.
Ban looked confused. “‘It’s cold’?”
“Yes, ‘Dan hye ta’,” Lois repeated the Volin e
xpression Zir had said to her outside the DETI building the night he’d called her in, which he had also said to Taz to get him to come out of the air vent.
Ban laughed out loud this time. “For ‘It’s cold’, we use the informal structure, ‘Dan ta’. ‘Dan hye ta’ has become a euphemism over time. It’s an invitation to shelter under our wings.”
“What? Why would he say that to me?” Lois blurted out without thinking.
Ban gave her a sweet, indulgent smile. “When one adult says it to another, it is an invitation to become mates. In that situation, the offer of shelter is symbolic. Usually adults offer their wings to children, but when a male says it to a female in particular, what he means is ‘I will protect you’. It can be literal too, of course. The offer is accepted when the female goes to him and he embraces her.”
Lois stared at the carpet, chewing her lip. She’d missed the signs. They’d been there all along but she hadn’t understood. God, Zir really was serious about her, had been for a long time, and just hadn’t been able to work up the courage to spell it out for her. And when he had, she’d torn him to shreds.
Lois sighed. “Ban, why would a male who likes a wom- er, female not say anything? For years?”
Ban showed mercy and looked away from her personal crisis, considering instead the large blank screen at the front of the room.
“On Teiss, if a male finds a female he wants to mate with, he must wait until she is in season. If she is in season, he must fight off all the other males who will be attracted to her, and get her to choose him as her mate. If she is not in season, she is not looking for a mate, so he must stay out of sight or he will be chased off. In that case, a male will stay on the edges of the female’s territory, defending it against any other male who approaches, so that when the female looks for a mate, he is her only choice.
“Sometimes a female will choose him over others because of his resilience, because of the care he has shown her, or because he is familiar. Sometimes the female will not choose him. Perhaps when the males come to compete, he does not win. Perhaps she does not appreciate him restricting her choices and seeks to punish him. In that case, the male may miss her season, and have to wait again until the next one, if he is patient enough.
The E.T. Guy (Office Aliens Book 1) Page 9