She pouts. “I miss you,” she says, trying another tactic. “Aehako, please.”
I give her a quelling look. She’s wasting my time, and all the while, Kira is outside alone. This is a rare moment I can spend with her and not have others peering over my shoulder.
“I must go,” I tell her firmly, and adjust the gift I am hiding under my clothing. Asha gives me a curious look but steps aside. I jog to the cave entrance, looking for Kira’s small body. The humans barely come to my breast, and I am not even the tallest of males in our tribe. They are delicate things, and I worry that Kira will not be safe out here.
There are tracks in the snow, and I follow them out of the caves and onto the nearby ridge, where Maylak’s healing plants grow in abundance. They are wedged into a small valley, buffered from the worst of the winds. Kira is here, grabbing leaves off of a plant angrily, a scowl on her face.
She turns and glares at me as I approach. Am I the recipient of some of her anger? I grin to myself. Her cheeks are flushed with that unusual pink color that some find ugly in humans. I find it charmingly adorable. She’s so many interesting colors – pink and brown, and her eyes are the vivid khui blue courtesy of the symbiont. “Hello, my small friend,” I call out in greeting.
“Not your friend,” she mutters. “And I’m not small.”
I chuckle at that. “You should pull a few of the intisar plant there,” I tell her. “It’s good for eyesight.”
She shoots me another glare.
I don’t mind. I prefer her angry expressions to the sadness in her eyes that is so often there.
“I don’t need herbs for my eyesight,” she tells me.
“No?” I tease and move to her side, then point at another bush. “That one is for potency.”
She gives me a shocked look, and the pink returns to her cheeks.
“I do not need it, of course,” I tell her. “My cock can stay erect for many hours without flagging. It is mostly for the elders or men that have been ill for a long time and wish to couple with their mates.”
The noise she makes is strangled. “I don’t want to hear about your…penis.” She shoots me another vicious look. “Maybe you should go and talk to your friend about it more. She seems interested.”
“Are you jealous?” I ask, pleased. I’ve tried to make it clear to Kira that I am interested in courting her, but she’s rebuffed me at every turn. Has she changed her mind? I admire her fine brown hair as it blows in the wind and imagine it spilling over my chest.
And then I have to adjust my breeches again.
“Jealous? Ha! Why should I be jealous? I’m ugly, remember?” She taps the shiny metal shell attached to her ear. “I heard every word of your conversation!”
I cannot keep the delighted grin from my face. She did hear me speaking to Asha. And she is jealous. This pleases me greatly.
Perhaps Kira is not so aloof after all. It’s time to present her with my courting gift.
KIRA
But they’re so ugly.
Does it matter?
The words ring in my ears as I rip leaves from one of the wintry plants. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. I like how he doesn’t care what I look like as long as he gets laid. “Why don’t you just go inside and leave me alone?”
“How can I leave you alone?” Aehako still has that teasing note in his voice that makes my stomach flutter…and makes me want to punch him at the same time. He puts a hand over mine. “You’re plucking all the leaves from this plant. If I leave you, I’ll find the entire hill bare.” He tsks. “Maylak will be most displeased.”
I glare over at him, but I stop denuding the bush I’m attacking. He’s right – I’ve taken way more leaves than I should have, but the man gets me so darn frustrated. “I’ll stop with the plant. You’re free to go now.”
He doesn’t leave, though. Instead, he reaches out and touches the translator sticking out of my ear. His fingers brush against the shell of my ear where it’s attached, and I have to fight back a shiver. “Does this thing hurt you?”
“It doesn’t feel good.” His touch does, though. His finger feels insanely warm against my skin, and a prickle of awareness runs up my arms. “It’s heavy and I can’t sleep comfortably. It gets cold, too.” That, and I can hear every conversation for a mile around.
“Can you take it out? Do you want me to try?”
I pull away from him. A rush of horrible memories burst through my mind and I hug my furs tighter around my body. “They surgically implanted it. I tried pulling it out myself but it’s in deep. I’ll just have to live with it.”