by Amanda Milo
“Shau-wer?”
“Bathe, babe. I need to wash all over. I just wish I had a clean set of clothes to change into…”
“Worry not, princess!” A cheery voice shouted, but he didn’t actually have to shout because he sounded like was waaaay too close to my bathroom door for normal - you know – if a human stuck in a spaceship bathroom being crowded by aliens could be considered normal. He literally had to be just a step or two behind Arokh.
And that chipper voice had to belong to Crispin. That guy. Seriously happy to have a female on the ship, even a filthy one, wow. “We have outfits for you!”
I jerked my face away from the door when I heard what I was pretty sure was a palm slap territorially against it. Yes. Territorially totally had a sound. I didn’t know it until just now either, but there you go.
“That’s um, totally awesome. Thanks. Now, any chance I could get a bucket of soap, a towel, a washcloth, and some privacy?” I looked down at my skin, which suspiciously looked like I’d had a tan. A dark, speckled tan. I rubbed a wet thumb over my arm and nope – that was all dirt. Fabulous. “Make that a stack of washcloths.”
This time, I thought the door really would bounce loose when Arokh failed to grasp the meaning of a privacy lock. “Angie, please open this door-“
He sounded really freaked out, which was starting to freak me out a little. Were the natives being mean to him again? Probably. “Okay, okay, easy there, big guy. I’m unlocking the door now, don’t slam it into my face when you burst in here, got it?”
I stepped back just in case, and it was a good thing too because although the door missed me, Arokh’s eyes were a little bit wild and that extra half step he had to take to get to me surely gave him a miniscule bit of a chance to calm down and in all likelihood is probably what saved me from getting a cracked rib. Barely. “Squeezing!” I gasped.
“Grorry,” is what it sounded like as he growled into my hair. His hold eased though, and I patted him weakly. I noticed that his wrist spikes were at half mast, which only happened when he’d grown agitated at a threat.
“Hey - I’m alright. What exactly did you think would happen to me in here?” I tugged on one of his horns.
Arokh’s eyes went full dark at that. He pulled back, then dropped his gaze, shoulders stiffening. “I cannot be separated from you. It …pains me.”
I stroked his back, avoiding spines. “Aren’t you sweet? I guess after spending literally every second together, it does feel weird. It’s cool though. I wasn’t going to tell you this, but since you’re all freaked out already - I was a little horrified to find that I missed looking at your back when I went pee. Now isn’t that just a lovely overshare?” I shot him a sheepish smile.
But Arokh didn’t laugh like I expected.
Instead, he burrowed his face into my shoulder and …he was trembling.
“Arokh! Whoa, it’s okay. Overreact much?” I wrapped my arms as tight as I could as far as I could reach – which, admittedly, wasn’t far, he was one big beast - and hugged him as reassuringly as I could.
Thankfully, this actually did calm him. And that was good, because Dohrein was suddenly beside us and shoving something fuzzy between our faces, making Arokh rear back violently. I’m pretty sure if Dohrein had shown up a second sooner, he’d have been alien hamburger on the floor right now because something was seriously bothering my guy.
To – hopefully – avert major harm and dismemberment, I exclaimed brightly, “Shower supplies!” And Dohrein broke the eye lock he had been dueling out with Arokh, and instead almost gave me a smile. I think. The deep grooves on either side of his mouth rearranged anyway. “Clothing too.” He held up his other hand – and I cocked my head.
“That’s some...seriously crazy colors. And sparkles, woo. I could compete in a figure skating contest wearing… that. So many sparkles! Um, thank you.” I don’t know where they got them, how they happened to be close enough to my size to fit, or why they were bitchalicious, but I’d be crazy not to take clean clothes – especially when they were so kindly offered. I accepted my bundles as Crispin showed up with a large container and a stack of furry squares.
“What do you have there?” I asked.
Crispin gave me a triumphant smile. “I collected all the soap I could fit into this bucket for you, just as you decreed. And here are your washcloths.”
Boy, did I feel like an ass. That looked like a whole lot of soap. And he collected it how? From what? He must have ransacked all over the ship. I did have a lot of grime to attack but yet another note to self: be careful what I said to these very kind, very generous, very overeager guys.
“Thank you, you did great, Crispin.” When I saw his smile grow and Dohrein’s face shutter, I hurried to add, “You both did. Let me get this set up so I can wash.”
“We will help!” Crispin smacked right into Arokh’s arm – the arm Arokh had just thrown out to block him from the door.
“I will take her things inside.” His voice was low and dangerous.
I actually felt the testosterone ratchet up. Or whatever the alien equivalent was. I swear, it was so strong I could smell it. Huh. More nice & spicy. Time to intervene #34. “Why don’t we move things along, shall we? I want to get clean sometime this century.”
Arokh ripped the items from Crispin’s hands and used a chin jerk to direct me backward. I allowed this, but only because I wanted to wash up so badly and not because I found his bossiness hot. Really.
When we approached the shower corner, he tilted his head and used a horn tip to hit a square panel.
“Ha!” I clapped as racks slid out of the wall. Arokh, looking a little amused now, carefully set up my things and there was even a half shielded spot, where he set down my clothes. When everything was ready, I rubbed my hands together and examined the showerhead. “How do I turn on the water?”
Arokh gave me a strange look, and reached out a palm, pressing it against the wall. The spot looked totally random to me, no identifying features that I could see – but water shot out and I whooped. “Yay! Alright, that’s your cue to go, boys.” I said with pursed lips. Then I grinned. Because water. Dohrein’s nostrils flared, but he spun on his heel and stomped out. Crispin gave me puppy eyes but at my gentle shooing motion, he too excited.
Arokh turned a pleading look on me. “Can I turn my back to you while you wash, like we have done before?”
Was shower sex against etiquette if it wasn’t your shower? Would the guys hear us? “I was thinking you could just join me,” I cupped his jaw and popped my lips - a move that, I hoped, didn’t look ridiculous. I’d seen my reflection. I wasn’t exactly at my best for seduction.
“He cannot!” the voice was Dohrein’s.
“Oookay.” I felt my forehead crinkle up. Guess this was an alien thing. “Is it okay with you if he waits outside the door while I wash up, or is that asking too much?”
“I beg you,” Arokh did something that shocked me – disturbed me – he dropped to one knee and lowered that great big rack of horns. “Please do not separate me from you.”
Well this was kind of extreme…
“Arokh,” I hissed in horror, “Get up!”
From the angle of the mirror at the sink, I could see Dohrein and Crispin were just outside, arms crossed on the former, hands behind his back for the latter. It was right then that I saw this look... they exchanged this serious, weighted look that had the hairs on the back of my neck rising.
That’s what settled it for me. That, and the still bowing form of my seven foot tall prism-kissed-behorned alien. “You know I want you to stay with me. Arokh, I don’t want you to leave my sight for too long either.”
Dohrein was suddenly in the bathroom, Crispin so close at his side they could pass for Siamese twins. “If the Rakhii stays, we stay.”
“No, you fly the ship, I shower, he showers, and Arokh will make sure I’m safe, so no worries, right?”
“That was a question.” His jaw jutted.
“I guess�
��” My lip did that thing where it pulls up in a ‘what the fuck’ expression.
Dohrein swallowed and said forcefully, “The ship will alert us if it needs.” Then he leveled me with a look. “We will have what he has.”
“Excuse me?”
His chin raised. “You will allow him this privilege? We shall exact it also.”
His gaze bored into mine, and I could see there was no budge in him, even though Crispin looked a little shaken. “Brazen of you,” I thought I heard him mutter.
Arokh was growling softly.
I was tired. No, make that exhausted. And I had the promise of a hot shower a couple inches and one little agreement away.
So that’s how I ended up taking a shower with three hulking males facing the wall - with Arokh’s big body between us, but keeping eyes on them, making sure they didn’t turn, I guess. Appreciated. I would have felt too weird having Arokh get in the shower with me while they were here anyway. My last edict for them was a weary, “Fine, fine, but stand where there is not a mirror, please.”
At first I was nervous - getting naked, with strangers only steps away, turned away or not, didn’t matter. But then I popped my hand on the wall, felt that glorious water and I did not care. They could have been ogling me full out for all it mattered once that water hit my skin and I got to scrubbing. Nothing was stopping me after the gloriousness that was water plus soap.
The soap was frothy, pleasantly fragrant, and – surprise, surprise – sparkly. I covered every inch and rinsed; then did it again. Three times. I stared at the first four washcloths in dismay. I was pretty sure they’d need to be destroyed they were so caked with dirt. At least the runoff water from my body was no longer brown.
When I was finished, I dressed in the strange clothes, then asked Arokh if he was ready to get clean.
He turned to face me, and the indecision was clear on his face. “Yes, but you will stay?”
I answered purely in reaction to his stricken expression. “Of course.”
Instead of passing me though, he snatched me to him and began to lick me, and rub his nose into my neck and drag his temples across mine; his long ears trailing over my face like silk. Then he snuffled my damp forehead. With the friction of his scales against my skin, bursts of a spicy, pleasant musk wafted up.
I shrugged. Aliens.
It was a good smell. I loved it, actually. Alien perfume.
Unnerving though was the way the other two aliens’ shoulders stiffened when they turned their heads to inhale deeply. I wandered over to the sink, thinking it was time to tackle my poor hair.
That’s when things went strange… er. The one closest to me flashed me a triumphant grin, while the other shot him a look that was just short of murderous.
“Good grief,” I muttered as I maneuvered one to my side and tugged the other over so that I was between them, therefore no longer giving the impression that I was choosing one over the other. Then I did my best to ignore them.
My fingers encountered tangles as I combed them through my hair. I was pulling myself free of a snag when a hand suddenly whispered over my head and down my neck… and then began working at the ends, plucking them gently apart. Both of them moved to get behind me, and in the mirror I watched them smashing each other’s shoulders in an effort to share the task.
“Guys? As nice a gesture as this is, I have got to tell you. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
The stroking stopped. Heads appeared on each side of my peripheral. “Are we hurting you?”
Dohrein’s sounded slightly offended when he added, “I am certain this is the proper technique. We spent nearly a week on manes.”
“…Uh, manes? A week on …manes?”
“In our studies. One of the curriculum topics is mane care.”
I blinked. A lot. “Right. Sure.”
“Allow me to try a technique I was given high marks for.” Dohrein said and he began a light scalp massage. I felt Crispin move in to try this also, and I swore I could almost feel the air zing with a competitive crackle. But when one of them moved to my shoulders and worked at a tension knot, I went from feeling a little weirded-out to being absolutely boneless. I had to lock my knees so that I didn’t faceplant. I don’t think I was very successful at stifling my moan.
That really lit a fire under them, and they both began to massage my neck and shoulders as if they were claiming real estate. As my mind was trying to come to terms with the fact that two dudes were fighting over hair-brushing-privileges, a dripping wet and seething Arok was suddenly looming over us, and he took the expedient route to making me suitor-free.
He hauled me right off the floor and bounced me up into his arms.
“Arokh!” I squawked as my brand new, clean tunic and skirt got soaked.
The guys’ shocked expressions did not change when I tried to assure them, “It’s cool. He does this all the time.” If possible, they looked even more taken aback. Kind of… horrified, actually.
And then they exchanged a look. That look.
I frowned. “Heeeyyy…”
Arokh froze. “Angie, what is the matter? Did this bother your stomach? Are you feeling well?” He maneuvered me so that I was face to face with him, my hips riding his abs, my booty inches from… something I was not thinking about, not here.
“Ha, yeah, big guy. Stomach’s all better.” I patted his arm and tried not to feel him up as I did it. Promise. “But I’ll warn you: I’ll probably repeat the yakking again when you touch down this, ah, spacecraft. How long until we reach your planet?”
“Our planet,” Dohrein corrected with a frown as Arokh proceeded to carry me past them and to his pile of now soaking in a puddle clothes. They followed us like we had them tethered on strings. When Arokh set me down and began to dress in his dirty suit and I stepped away to give him room - the guys turned with my movement and I realized it was more like I had them tethered on strings. Not strange at all, unh uh.
That’s when Crispin toed over a folded bundle: a clean suit. For Arokh.
He just earned himself major points. I beamed at him.
He saw my look, and tripped.
Dohrein continued to eye me while he rubbed the back of his neck, then rolled his shoulders. “You are made sick every time you go up in a ship?” He carefully, slowly, stretched his beautiful wings, and I was mesmerized. The colors were incredible. Upon refolding them though, one almost brushed my arm - and quick as a snake, Arokh’s hand was suddenly blocking between us. Solidarity and protection was fine and all, but this time I had to shoot him a ‘Chill much?’ Which he totally missed, because he wasn’t looking at me.
He was glaring at Dohrein.
...And so was Crispin.
I shook my head, trying to concentrate on the question. “Uh, I get sick every time I go up in a plane, but this is the first time I remember being on a ship.”
Arokh broke away to look at me sharply. “You were not aware during travel before?”
Cue a trio of appalled stares.
“They kept you in stasis an entire flightspan?”
“All of the females?”
“Maybe that was a blessing.” said Arokh.
I was getting nervous now. “I guess so, to number one and two. Why? What happens?”
“Stasis locks your body in a torpor state—“ Crispin began.
“That sounds painful,” I murmured. Tried not to sound worried. Failed.
“It’s a deep sleep.” Arokh soothed. “They would have attached a feeding tube to you and you’d have slumbered still and quiet.”
“Okay, why is that bad? Do the feeding tubes hurt?” I brushed my hand over my stomach, my mind instantly conjuring images of ragged healing bumps, (nevermind that I’d just scrubbed every inch of myself; there were no gaping holes anywhere) and imagining that I had been stabbed with a ghoulish vacuum hose that shoved liquid foods into my system.
“It’s concerning because the crew would have had no resistance from their Gryfala cargo during the journey
.”
“Oh.” My empty stomach cramped at that knowledge. I spun around, trying to escape my thoughts, and tried desperately not to imagine… anything. Not to me. Not to the others. Not to imagine what was happening to the others right now. I heard three distinct puffs of breath that reminded me of the sound Arokh made after scenting the air. When Arokh pulled me to him and began untangling the last areas of my snarled hair gently with his claws, I soaked up the comfort.
A drum-like rattle started. Low and thrumming, almost like music. I swung my head, and found that Dohrein and Crispin were both giving me concerned, empathetic looks. And they were the source of the sounds. Purring. It was sort of like purring. Hypnotic purring. I relaxed against Arokh, and my lids were drooping and I didn’t even put up a fuss when he picked me up again and carried me, following Crispin to a room with a huge bed.
And as a side note; if it bothered him at all that my clothing was damp thanks to him - he didn’t complain.
Smart man.
As always, he was just happy to be with me.
Sweet man.
Arokh laid me down gently, then spooned in behind me. I felt the bed dip behind us just as I dreamily watched Crispin put a knee on the mattress in front of me.
“Oh, Tevek No.” Arokh said with icy menace.
The purring stopped. I blinked, and the room came into full focus. “She is our Gryfala. We will concede that you can lie on the bed—“
“Thanks.”
“—instead of the floor, but this is an important step in the process of gentling her—”
“You will not gentle her. She is mine.”
“Are you really going to refuse her hobs bed privileges?” A harsh scoffing sound. Dohrein. “Rakhii, do her a favor by letting her accept us; it will make things easier for her when you have to be broken.”
A dangerous rumble at my back had me surfacing from the happy feels I’d been surfing under. A loud crash had me bolting up to see Dohrein was no longer on the bed, his body having left twin impressions in the wall where his back had impacted. He unfurled his wings and shook them angrily, making the frill along the bottom shake. Pretty as they were, that served as one freaky threat display. I gripped Arokh’s arm, my nails scrabbling against his smooth scales. I turned back to see that Crispin had never made to move fully on the bed, but he wasn’t taking his knee off either. “Rakhii,” he said cautiously.