Bass was best felt more than heard. Music in general was best when it was a pounding explosion of feeling that took over the body. There had to be at least some sense of being invaded by the sound.

At least, that's how Teal felt. And it was one of the best things about Earth so far. Noise discipline was practically non-existent. On a whole planet!

Yet, that was a common theme. Discipline. The lack of discipline. An absolute ignorance that it was even an option. Teal would watch them, the Earthborn, and find little things that were a shock with every moment.

It made for an excellent club scene at the very least, especially because of people that shared an interest in loud music and wriggling bodies. Teal was surrounded by others that shared those hobbies for nightly excursions.

It was not a shared Lunatic trait. The other moonborn had left after the first thirty minutes. They talked about finding somewhere quiet. Relaxing. A coffee shop, probably, especially since Earth coffee was astronomically better than anything up in space.

Teal tried to forget all that by becoming lost in the bass-driven moment. The departing group had been frustrating, had added an unwelcome tension to the evening, but alcohol had helped with the transition.

Zie had plunged into the crowd to escape their pleading retreat. It hadn't been enough for the other Lunatics to leave, they had been adamant that they stick together. So, Teal had fled, and now zie was dancing alone.

But not really. There were at least a hundred people in the club. There had to be a few earthlings with an eye for rare gems.

The song changed up, and dozens filtered off the dance floor to take a break or get drinks. Teal considered catching a breather too, but then zie met someone's curiosity-laden gaze with a grin.

Teal wandered over with a saunter that probably looked ridiculous, but damnit zie did it with confidence.

The potential dance-partner was a young man with a pleasant face, a well-groomed beard, and styled hair that barely contained wavy curls. His skin was a light-brown, like Teal's, but he had eyes that were a bright green rather than dark brown.

Cute, in that softer, dense look common to people raised in higher gravity.

Zie immediately wanted to kiss him on his plump Earthboy lips.

He closed the gap as the music rose in tempo and volume. They exchanged smiles and began a back-and-forth of watching each other dance. The rest of the dancers melted into background. They slipped into a private show of admiring one another from a distance.

And then closer. And closer.

Until his hand pulled at Teal's waist.

Zie smiled, too wide, too happy, but the expression was met with an equally-wide smile.

Luckily, the desire for a kiss seemed a shared sentiment. The man wrapped both arms around Teal's back and they turned the rhythm into a personalized tempo.

There was too much joy to be found on Earth. It was no fair.

Teal had two weeks left on vacation. Two weeks of freedom. Two weeks away from responsibilities and a future that was gray and mostly sequestered away from all of life.

Which, was nice, in its own way, if you were into that sort of thing.

Quiet had a certain attractive ring to it.

But, at least for the present, Teal wanted action and noise and a certain hint of violence. Zie wanted pleasure and the perfection of a hasty escape into something unrecognizable and unknown. Zie wanted freedom, whatever that meant.

The young dance partner leaned forward and murmured in Teal's ear, "Want to get out of here?"

Zie could feel a pointed pressure from the earthboy's groin. Excitement hummed through the heart and along the skin. "I'd love to."

Taking the young man's hand, they wove their way out of the club and onto the cool air of the street. There was a just-rained sheen on the road. A sweet-smelling breeze carried a hint of summer's end. It was perfect.

Two weeks.

Teal was going to live to the fullest of every moment zie had left.

#

"Whoa, check this out."

Teal pushed blue-tipped gray hair out of zir eyes. A practical tomb of pillows covered the bed, so it took some doing to wrangle enough out of the way to see.

Matias, the name of the cute boy from the club, was watching the hotel room's video wall. He was still naked, they both were, and it took considerable effort to stop staring for long enough to focus on the screen.

The moon, of all things, was shining in the void-black emptiness of space. Earth was a plum-sized companion on the opposite corner of the video.

Someone was zooming in, slowly, on the space between planet and companion.

"So, uh, empty nothing? I'm not seeing anything?" asked Teal.

"No-no, wait. See that pinpoint of light. Right." Matias pointed. "See that? It's a motorcycle!" He hesitated, clucked his tongue, and corrected with, "Well, kinda. It's more like a rail-guided bicycle train thing, I guess?"

"What." Teal sat up, scattering blankets and pillows, before feeling the biting chill of the room. Zie pulled blankets to zer chest and scooted to the edge of the bed. "Huh. What's it doing?"

"Falling. Or, they called it a jump. I dunno. I'm just catching up. They had some special while you were dozing. I flipped in halfway through, but I guess dude's already been going for a few days."

"Dude? There's someone in that thing?"

"Yeah, it's like a really cool, oversized spacesuit." His face lit up. "Oh yeah, it's that daredevil guy! Remember? He jumped between two drone platforms a few years back. Over one of those Hawaii islands."

Teal shook zer head and flopped back onto bed. "I'm not awake enough for this. Sounds absurd!"

"Aw, I was thinking we could go get something to eat."

"You want food? At a time like this?" Teal grinned. "Besides, I thought we already ate?"

Matias laughed. "I meant real food, but I'm for certa not discounting enjoying you." He blushed, which was a distraction when it tinged the young man's chest with red.

"Mm, well I hope not." Zie rolled zer eyes. "I had fun too." Teal hunched down in the blanket. "I just kinda, wanna stay in for now? Maybe the rest of the night? Or morning. Whichever it is now."

"Oh, well, yeah, that's cool too." The shift in his shoulders, the change in tone, told a different story. Matias looked back toward the television. He watched a series of pop-out diagrams pointing out features of the stuntman's spacecraft.

"Matias?" Teal sighed. "You don't have to stay. I had fun, really."

"Yeah." He twisted in place, glancing over his shoulder. "Me too." He gave a wistful grin. "Just doing as I do. Wanting too much too soon."

"Wow, just jumping right into your feelings now?"

Matias rolled his eyes. "Come on, don't give me that. I'm just trying to be real." He stood up. "But, maybe you're right. I'll go."

Teal smirked, admiring the highlight of wallscreen light on the young man's body. There was definitely something to the effect of densely-packed gravity on a person of Earth.

Natives of Luna City felt more loosely connected. Sometimes, they seemed as if half-floating, either spindly or in a perpetual state of dance.

"Or?" He noticed zer roving eyes. "You trying to get me to come back to bed?"

"Well I wouldn't mind." Teal pursed zer lips with exaggeratedly raised eyebrows.

Matias hesitated, still shining in the nude, an offer that wasn't quite rescinded. Then he shook his head. "Nah, I should go. I've gotta get across city, and I've got work in the morning."

Teal sighed and reached up to run a hand through zer hair. It took everything not to jump up and go with the young man. For all zer earlier thoughts of enjoying the loud, the brash, zie was hoping for a recharge. Quiet, maybe sleep, the soft moments of half-wakefulness in someone's arms. And then more fun.

Turning onto zer side, the wallscreen flickered over the bed's uneven landscape of pillows. Zie watched, unfocused at first, while listening to Matias getting dressed.

"So, uh, hey." He had pants on, some felt-like material that was sleek and form-fitting. Promising. His shirt was still unbuttoned. "Maybe we could catch up on another night? Try something a bit less. Loud?"

Teal flicked zer gaze away from the man and back to the screen. It helped with concentration. "It's probably for the best if we don't." Zie paused. "I'll be back on the moon in a few weeks."

"The moon!?" The force of his shock drew attention back to his mostly-clothed form. He was shaking his head, fingers touching his parted lips. "Shit! That's why you laughed earlier."

The question had been, "Do you live far from here?" Teal had laughed, shrugging, playing coy, but never quite explaining or giving details. It was fun to play with bits of anonymity.

"Yeah, I'm just down on vacation. One of my last getaways before sailing into the promise of my career focus." Zie waved a hand across the room to emphasize the overly-dramatic proclamation.

"So wait, so you weren't kidding about your pants? They are assistive?" He stooped, shirt opening to bare chest-fuzz and a nipple.

Teal shook zer head. Zie really had to focus elsewhere. Think about something else. Their romp's earlier satiation had faded too quickly.

Matias picked up Teal's pants and rubbed his fingers over the fabric. He shifted his grip and examined the seam. "So cool! I've never seen these up close."

Earth's gravity was a pain in the ass, literally, when walking around a place with so much space. Everything was too far apart and public transportation was a nightmare. Hence, walking. Also hence, assitive mechanical fabrics in all of zer clothes.

"Yeah, they're the only reason I can even dance around here." Teal laughed at that reductive minimization of an entire planet. "Around here, you know, Earth."

Matias didn't speak. He was distracted.

The screen flashed, twice, and then a bold red outline surrounded the display.

"What? Tin-Man find a new star?" Teal glanced toward the television.

They watched, live, as chaos erupted from the surface of a choppy sea. Low-light enhancements pushed the color and contrast toward the surreal. According to a news chyron, something was erupting off the coast of Belize.

"Is that. A volcano?"

Matias shook his head. "Can't be! That's insane!"

Yet, there it was, boiling up and belching fire. Even without being there, Teal got a mental whiff of acrid smoke.

Zie had experienced a terrible fire, years before, when a living module had been bombed by some asteroid miner. Something about the separatist movement, they'd found, but the smoke-tainted air had lodged into memory.

"Is that-" zie had to think, tried to picture it in zer mind, but Earth was too big. "Is that near here?"

Matias shot a look of stunned incredulity. "Near here? Teal! That's right offshore!"

"Oh."