Vanguard Word Update

2k words

***

“Time’s flyin’ by,” Cadell murmured. “While we’ve been busy trainin’, the Hub’s been buildin’ alien houses.”

“Let me show you around,” Samiha said, producing her flute and raising it to her beak. She led him over to the kitchen, and Cadell had seen restaurants with smaller areas to prepare food. The Hub must be very invested in getting the Balokarid population onto the station if they were willing to build such massive units.

“You thirsty?” Samiha asked, opening up a fridge with a door the size of a meat locker. “They stocked us with enough water to buy a house.”

“Sure,” Cadell said, watching Samiha located the cups. She poured him a glass, chuckling under her breath when he took a sip. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s a Balokarid thing,” she said. “Giving one’s water to another is symbolic gesture, a sign of deep trust. It is reserved only for close friends or… prospective mates.”

“Yeah? Which one am I?”

“They are not mutually exclusive titles,” Samiha replied cooly. “Come, explain to me what this thing is.”

“The TV?” he asked, Samiha bringing him to the living room with the giant sofas. “It’s a thing you use to stream shows or watch programs on. Where’s the remote?”

Samiha passed it over, and he showed her how to use it, connecting to one of the free-to-air news channels, the reporter’s voice coming through the speakers. She was discussing alongside a panel about the recent attack on the shipyard, word must have got out to the public already.

“We do not have such things where I come from,” Samiha explained when Cadell quizzed her about the television. “We spread news by word of mouth, or by radio when dealing with other Clans.”

“So you don’t have movies or shows?”

“We do, but it is all done in person, with actors and writers working in front of a live audience, we are not as digitally focused as you seem to be.”

“So they’re like plays? Reckon I’d like to see some Balokarid drama, maybe once the district gets bigger.”

“Here are the spare rooms,” Samiha said, continuing on with the tour. In the rear half of the apartment were several closed-off rooms. “There is not much, obviously, as we have had little chance to use the space. Bathroom is through that door, storage through there.”

Cadell nodded along, the place was spacious, which was probably a delicacy on a station with only such more room for expansion.

“And through here is the bedroom,” Samiha prompted, gesturing to the door furthest from the entrance. There was a window to one side of the room, with horizontal blinds obscuring a view of the street outside. On the opposite wall was a closet, currently closed, and between them sat the largest bed Cadell had ever seen, and to say it was a double-king size would be doing it a disservice. There had to be a whole flock’s worth of cotton in this one room alone.

“Cozy,” Cadell muttered, giving the room a once-over, drink still in hand. “How’s it all compare to what you’re used to?”

“Our living spaces are not so dissimilar from this,” Samiha said, her avian toes making subtle scratching sounds as he walked over the carpet, pausing by the foot of the bed. “Our clan structures are more communal, not unlike our bunk in the quadrant, but the privacy is nice.”

She turned and sat on the mattress, tucking her legs up to her side, lounging like a lady might ride in the back of a saddle. The movement caused the hem of her shorts to bunch up, exposing a few inches of her thigh that Cadell’s eyes couldn’t stop from wandering towards. Her legs were bird-like from the knee down, but above them her body tapered towards an hourglass-set waist, and her mix of alien and familiar features came off as more exotic than strange.

With one hand she propped her beak, while the other clutched loosely over her smoking flute, which still trailed grey wisps from the nozzle. She beckoned to him with it, and not for the first time tonight the image of a model magazine appeared in Cadell’s thoughts.

“Come,” she breathed. “Sit with me.”

Heart thumping, he did as she bade, the mattress conceding as he placed himself beside her face. Even with her reclined, she was still just over his eye-level, and the way he had to turn to meet her giant eyes sent tingles through his stomach.

“Can we do the… mouth-thing again?” Samiha asked, and Cadell found himself smiling at the hesitation in her voice.  

“It’s called kissing,” he chuckled. “And yes, we can.”

This time she initiated the contact, cupping his cheek in her fuzzy palm and bringing her beak to his lips. Of course, there wasn’t much yield in her hard face, but it was close enough to a mouth that they made it work, and the touch of another person was a welcoming feeling no matter how alien they were.

He pulled back a little, the Balokarid peering at him with a satisfied expression. “Kissing,” she echoed. “An odd word for an odd act.”

“Don’t like it?”

“Never said that,” she replied hastily. “it is just… putting a mouth upon another’s, I don’t think anyone’s heard of such a thing before.”

“Balokarids don’t kiss?”

“Our beaks are not shaped for that kind of things, a-as you can probably guess,” she stammered. “Was I doing it right?”

“You’re pretty cute when you’re all flustered like that,” Cadell smirked. “And yeah, you were perfect.”

“Shut up,” she grumbled, though he could see straight through her act of defiance, his words only making her more embarrassed.

“So what’s the Balokarid’s way of kissing?” Cadell prompted.

“Well,” she began, looking him up and down. “I would preen your feathers, test the feel of your headdress, but… you do not have any of those…”

“You can still do that,” Cadell said. “might not have feathers, but you can feel me up if you like. Just don’t preen my skin off with that beak of yours.”

“I will be gentle,” she assured, and then she slowly brought her hand down to his shoulder, giving his body an experimental squeeze. She moved closer, turning her beak down so that its length was tucked against his cheek and neck, her nostrils flaring as she exhaled a breath. Her face was cool and smooth, but firm, a little like plastic or something to that effect.

Holding him like that, she started to nuzzle him like a housecat, the feathers framing her head getting in his face and tickling him. After a moment she trailed upwards, Cadell finding himself staring at her throat as she rested her face atop his head.

“You have nice fur,” she muttered, and the hand on his shoulder trailed down, Samiha testing the firmness of his bicep next.

“That’s hair,” he corrected.

“Of course, humans have hair all over,” Samiha replied, as though reciting some lesson she’d been taught. She pulled away so that they were face-to-face, and she placed her flute down so she could feel him up with both arms, Cadell feeling like she was using him as a study case.

“Such an odd physique,” she murmured, laying a palm on his belly, her nails pricking at his abs through the fabric of his fatigues. “Strong like a female, and yet there is a slimness about you, it’s so alluring. And…”

Her hands came to rest above his hips, and she pressed inward on them, Cadell quirking a brow at her odd way of examining him. Was this how Balokarids showed affection, feeling each other up?

“And yet you are laden with water,” Samiha continued. “Positively fat with it.”

“Hey!” Cadell complained. “You just called me slim, now you’re sayin’ I’m fat?”

“I do not mean to imply you are obese,” Samiha replied. “you are far from that. Perhaps I used the wrong word,” she grumbled, pausing a second to think it over. “You know that where I come from, water is everything. The deserts and the flats starve us of our fluids everyday, so being weighed down with water is a sign of wealth and status. I wouldn’t call it unattractive if you were fat, Cadell…”

“I… thanks? I guess?”

He was trying to wrap his head around what she’d said when her hands gripped his waist, Cadell lurching as they travelled lower, coming to a rest just above his crotch.

“You are rather receptive,” Samiha cooed. “No wonder the pilots went crazy. I want to see all of you, Cadell…”

She began to slip her fingers beneath his waistband, and as much as Cadell wanted her to just her take off his clothes, an even greater part of him wanted to protest. His hand zipped own and grabbed her wrist, Samiha’s feathers roiling in confusion as she peered up at him.

“W-Wait a sec,” Cadell breathed. “Samiha do you really want to… do this?”

“H-Have I not made it obvious?” she snapped, a hint of anger in her confused expression.

“You have, yeah, but it’s just… we only just told each other about our feelings back at the restaurant, and you want to tumble in the hay already?”

For a moment she didn’t say anything, and then the alien reached for her flute, taking a deep draw from the nozzle, blocking all the vents so she took the strongest hit she could.

“This may be our last day on this station,” she said. “And we may very well die during the mission. If that is to be, then I want my last memories of this life to be pleasant ones. Ones with… you,” she added. She reached up, taking hold of his hand instead of his pants. “And we may not even have this whole night to do it.”

“Well… I suppose you have a point,” he conceded. “Screw it, I’m too high to play hard-to-get anyway.”

“You have barely smoked anything,” Samiha said, passing him the flute. “Hold this while I take these off.”

“Shouldn’t I be giving out the orders?” he asked, watching as she gripped at his waistband again. “I am the Kith’sla, a’course…”

“My Kith’sla,” Samiha corrected, her tone lascivious. “And I have you all to myself…”

She pulled his pants down his legs, exposing his thighs and his pair of briefs, the legs of his pants catching on his ankles as she pulled them loose and tossed them away. She encouraged him to swing his legs onto the bed, Samiha sitting so that her knees rested against the side of his left leg.

“Lay back,” Samiha said, pushing her hand against his chest, Cadell finding himself eased onto his back. “Let me get a look you. All of you.”

Her words were doing wonders for his confidence, Cadell allowing her to take the lead for this part. Next, she rolled the hem of his shirt over his belly, Cadell helping her as he tucked his arms through the sleeves, pulling it over his head.

Her hands raomed across his exposed chest before he’d even freed himself from the garment, her fuzzy feathers causing him to buck and lurch. “S-Samiha! Hold on a sec!”

“Sorry,” she asked, watching him as he popped his head free. “So much water in you, I can hardly stand it…”

“I think humans are like… sixty percent water, or something?” Cadell wondered, tossing his shirt aside.

“Sixty!” Samiha repeated, as amazed as ever when it came to water. “I have half a thought to devour you right this moment, but I want to take my time with you, Cadell.”

“You don’t mince words,” Cadell muttered, feeling heat in his cheeks.

“We’ve lived together for five months at this point, we are well beyond mincing words.”

She laid her hands on his pecs, curling her palms across his nipples, he feathers brushing against them. The sensation caused him to buck, Samiha chuckling down at him. “Don’t tell me you are ticklish,” she laughed.

“If I teased your nips, I’d bet you’d be just as sensitive,” Cadell shot back.

“Nips!” she echoed. “Now there’s a good word. Speaking of which, why you have them?”

“I-I don’t know, all humans have them.”

“Again with the curious anatomy,” Samiha mused, swirling her soft palms over his chest. The sensation was like being teased with a brush, electric currents fingering down his body at her touch.