A Velca's lie

Dustin paused the recording, stepping over to the automat to replace his empty drink with a glass of cold water. Rye was being very emotionally **** in her memo, and he’d drained the mug without thinking. The cold water would also hopefully help him think about things other than Rye randomly going into heat while she was on the ship and what that might mean. Settling back down, he un-paused and the Rabyth’s voice continued from where she’d left off. “So, I’ve been trying to focus on my work. Digging deep into this project. It’s half the reason I’ve been locking myself away in engineering - I didn’t trust myself with all these new feelings to not just randomly proposition you and risk losing my place on the ship. Which, Meli’a tells me is stupid. But there you go. Ok. Rye, you can do this. You’ve gotten over the embarrassing bit, get to the point girl. Right.”

As he was trying to process the fact that the bunny girl had been trying not to pounce on him, Rye babbled to herself before finally finding her focus again. “Ok, so Meli’a and I talked today a lot… about you, about Rabyth and Human culture and stuff, and she suggested I explain everything and then make a request. Umm. Right. Explaining mostly done except… fuck I forgot something. Alright, this next bit is going to sound weird alright but please don’t turn the recording off. I like you. A lot. You’re so interested in everything and everyone and making sure we’re all happy in a way that none of the other Rabyth back home ever were. Or for that matter most humans judging by the holos I watched before slipping that message into the AI. Like, some of your species are pretty decent, but there’s also a lot of jerks there. But all you’ve ever been worried about in the time I’ve known you which ok isn’t long by human standards but I’m a Rabyth and we make snap judgements alright… All you’ve been worried about is how I - or Meli’a - feel. That’s the explaining done, Meli’a said to make sure you’re sitting down for this bit. I’ll pause playback for you. Un-pause when you’re sat.”

Another burst of static crackled out of the speakers and true to the engineer’s word the recording paused. Dustin set his glass down, somewhat puzzled but then shrugged and tapped the console to resume playback. “Ok, so you’re sat down now. Good. I have a request then. I like you as I said, a lot. Because of that I don’t want you to do this unless you want to. I’m going to be staying in engineering for the next week - that should be the worst of my drive done at that point, because I don’t want to be a burden on the crew. But, if… if you like me as well, then the door will open for you - and you alone. Umm… I really hope I don’t have to explain what I mean by that. I won’t judge either way! Either you find me attractive which would be great or you don’t but respect me and want me on your crew which is also amazing. And because I know you won’t know what to do, please discuss your options with Meli’a now. She should be outside the door - I set an alert on this message to ping her when you started listening. Right, I’m going to unlock Sola’s sensors again and go lock the door to engineering. See you… soon? In a week? Either way, see ya!”

The final burst of static came out as Dustin toggled the door lock and waved it open. Sure enough, as the Rabyth woman had predicted Meli was stood on the far side with her ears in a self-satisfied position. “I think we should talk captain.” She said as she brushed past him and settled in one of the chairs. Shutting the door, Dustin returned to his own seat and rested his face in his hands briefly. “Ok.” He said after a moment, adding “for the record, I would have liked to have had time to process everything Rye said before you turned up to go over it with me, but since I assume you know what she was going to say - what’s your take on all this?”

To his surprise, Meli didn’t answer right away. Instead, she paused to look thoughtfully up at the ceiling. “If I had to guess, she will have skipped what pairing means to Rabyth because she doesn’t think it matters despite me pointing out how much similarity it has to human cultures. Although, in that regard, I’m probably just as guilty, li’ah’a.” She blushed at that, and Dustin noted that her tone had been clearly concerned, and her ears were in an odd position. She really was getting better at demonstrating human emotional tones in her voice - which made sense when she spoke next. “Technically, I should have said li’a, not li’ah’a.” Dustin thought back to their first night together, and her comments regarding different words implying offspring before he replied. “So I assume if li’orpha’la implies lifelong commitment and offspring, and you should have said li’a for boyfriend, li’ah’a means something different?”

The Velca woman nodded, her ears drooping slightly. “Li’a is the closest to boyfriend. Li’orpha’la is essentially married-with-children - it’s used in a ritual context at the end of the period that humans would consider engagement but before any ceremonies as a private discussion. Li’ah’a is…” and here Dustin cut her off. He might not have been as smart as his lover, but he was certainly quick enough to guess at the meaning here. “Engaged. Right? You basically asked me to be your fiancé our first night together.” Meli’s ears drooped even lower, and her tone was utter misery. “Yes. I’m sorry. I just never though anyone would find me attractive, and spoke in the heat of the moment and…” her words were cut short by Dustin closing the gap and kissing her firmly.

“Meli. Don’t apologize. The way things are going I’m going to have to get engaged - or married - to a lot of people as part of my job right? Not every species will just want to undertake… cultural exchange” at that, both of them chuckled before Dustin continued “without a formal connection. But you are the first non-human I fell for, and to be honest I think we’d have ended up here eventually anyhow. This way, at least you can say we were engaged first, before I got with anyone because of my ambassadorial duties. Oh, and for reference…” and here he took a couple of paces backwards and pushed his ears with all four fingers, wincing slightly at the awkward shape. “I’m not going to yet because we are way too young, busy and freshly together to be thinking about kids, but I did some reading and if I were to say that other thing…” He let the meaning hang in the air for a moment as Meli’s face turned beet-red before she jumped into his arms.

A few minutes - and a fair degree of mutual heavy petting - later the pair emerged from Dustin’s quarters to make their way to the bridge. Sola had announced their arrival in orbit, and they’d run out of time to discuss the situation with Rye in private. Dustin still needed to work out what was going on there, but he figured they could talk while they landed. In any case, Meli had needed his attention more at that moment in time, and so she had gotten it. Settling in to watch as they slid smoothly into the atmosphere of the largely uninhabited world, he glanced over at his - fiancé, he reminded himself. It was a whirlwind of a month, but what the hell, hot alien fiancé? Why not. “Meli, love, before we got side-tracked you were going to tell me about Rabyth pairing? We should have time before we land.”