“You can have me.”

His face turned sombre. “You will not be able to take that back so easily. Us being one means a lot of change for you to brave. It means a life with Coen, my family, accepting a world you don’t yet know about. Do you understand?”

“You think I didn’t consider all that already? I thought about all of it. I thought about getting closer to Coen, meeting your parents, and hoping your siblings would like me. When you told me to think about us, I did so seriously. I even talked to Rikki.” I hadn’t said her name aloud in so long. I’d forgotten how much I missed her. “She wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into. I know being serious with you means getting more serious than I’ve ever been with anyone.”

“Thank you for taking the time to really think about it before making your decision.”

“Does this mean you’re my boyfriend now?”

“Dating.”

“Same thing.”

“Not quite.”

“Aubyn,” I whined loudly. I didn’t know just how immature I sounded until he just stared at me in silence. “I want to be your boyfriend. Nothing I see, hear, or endure will ever make me want anything different. I’m your boyfriend, dammit. BOYFRIEND!”

“You are being childish.”

“Because you know I want you and you won’t give me what I want.”

“What if you change your mind after meeting my family? You may suddenly realise that being with someone so different is too much to handle. What if you meet someone you like more? Someone human. A woman? You said sex is important to you. What if we are unable to please each other?”

I was sure I wouldn’t change my mind. If I did, there’d have to be some really big, unavoidable, deep reason that I couldn’t get over. There was no one else. Our race or species or whatever didn’t matter. Women weren’t an option for me. And sex? While we hadn’t gone further than me giving him a blowjob, I highly doubted we wouldn’t be able to satisfy each other. He’d satisfied me without realising it and I’d run out of fingers if I had to admit how many times I’d jerked off to him.

“I don’t care that you’re not human and sorry to break it to you but I’m not sexually attracted to women.” Now it was my turn to speak in my no-nonsense tone. “I’m your boyfriend, Aubyn. Got it?”

His reluctance was obvious, but he nodded anyway. “Understood, Zedikai.”

“What’s the word for boyfriend in your language?”

“Nimei. Mio nimei ni ov.”

“Did you just call me your boyfriend?”

“Da.”

Cue the big, stupid grin. Our lips met in such a tender kiss that I almost melted into a goopy puddle of happiness.

I was whipped for Aubyn in a way that frightened me. I wasn’t used to having much, and I’d never thought of myself as deserving of much. Aubyn showed me that it was okay to be greedy, to want more than I had or thought I deserved. Now, I had him.

I was still scared. I had never been in a real, healthy relationship before and I was sure I’d make mistakes. I couldn’t run away when things got hard or fuck around if Aubyn were to miraculously irritate me as I had with Jeff.

There was a life I fantasized about before I met Aubyn. It was a life I never thought to attain or delude myself into thinking it was possible, but it was something I used to think about a lot. A normal life with a home and a job was what I had been aiming for when Aubyn came into my life. Now that I had him, I wanted more. I wanted a life with him, Coen, his family, and Sang, and because I was such a nice person, Milan could be included.

Coen was warming up to me somewhat. He spoke to me more, turned to me when it was time for his bath, and requested the sweetest things like wanting us to wear matching shirts sometimes. Coen could be won over with time. The rest of Aubyn’s family, however, may not be.

“Do you think they’ll like me?” I asked as I lay in bed glued to my boyfriend’s side. He was my boyfriend. I could say that now.

“Who?”

“Who do you think? Your parents. Dammit, you have older siblings too. Are they the protective kind? What if they don’t like me? How am I supposed to prove that I’m not like those sick humans who abused your people?”

Aubyn’s lips brushed my temple and almost all the tension left my body. “They are curious about you. Because of the procedures, instead of just San-nao knowing about you, they all do.”

“Do they know that we…?” Despite just now settling on giving what we had a name, I’d known Aubyn and I were emotionally involved since before we landed in Karys. If he told them about how we felt about each other, I’d probably change my mind about meeting them.

“No. I figured I would ask your permission first. They do not have to know right away. I would prefer they not know for now. Including Coen.”

I agreed, but I knew it was because I was nervous enough and thought being introduced as his boyfriend would be too much pressure especially when things were only just made clear. “Why?”

“Too soon. Did you want me to introduce you as my-”

“No! No, no, no. I’m good. I think it’s safer if they know me as your friend first but won’t you feel bad lying to them?”

“I am not lying.”

“Omission is lying,” I reminded him.

“I am introducing you as my friend. It is not lying because I will not specify how close of a friend you are. We are friends first, are we not?”

I nodded and changed position so that I was sitting up a bit more. Aubyn immediately rested his head on my lap. “Did they like Af’fy?” I asked, resisting the temptation to stroke his hair. I wasn’t sure I had clearance for that yet.

“Af’fy never met my family.”

“Why not?”

“She did not want to. We come from two very different cultures and her parents are very traditional. She did not want to be pressured to marry me if we got to the stage of meeting each other’s parents.”

“Is that one of the reasons you two broke up?”

“One of many.”

Knowing she hadn’t been approved by his family brought some relief. They would have no one to compare me to. Not wanting to talk about her anymore, I poked his forehead and asked, “Does the boyfriend title mean I can touch your hair now?”

“You just want to touch it because I said no.”

“That’s only half the reason,” I confessed. “The other half is because I want to shove my fingers through your hair and it being so long and brushing against me over and over again is only making me want to reach out and touch it even more. That’s why.”

“I could just keep my hair up so it will stay out of your way.”

“It’s not in the way. I’m just curious. I want to touch it.” I felt bad for adding, “I’m sure you let Af’fy touch it when you two dated”.

“Because we... got very close.” Aubyn pressed his lips together, eyebrows furrowing in thought. I was starting to find that crease between his eyebrows when he was focusing, cute. “How about we make a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

“If you manage to win over my siblings while we are in Tsuk’ki, I will let you touch my hair as much as you want. Not my parents. Just my siblings.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Get off my lap. You could’ve just said you don’t want me touching your precious hair.”

Aubyn sat up. “Does that not sound fair enough?”

“Of course not, and you know it, too. Your siblings are most likely going to be suspicious of me and even if I do manage to get them to like me, it’ll take months.”

“You can become friends with them during our stay. They are not cold or rude and will not treat you as such. Tonea-naya is especially friendly.”

I thought it over for a minute. It wasn’t as big a deal as I was making it seem. It was just that Aubyn made it seem like only people who were especially close to him could touch his hair and I wanted to be on that list. Heck, maybe even Milan was on that list. As Aubyn’s boyfriend, I thought I deserved a spot there too.

“Fine.”

“Fine?”

“Yes, yes. I’ll see what I can do to reel your siblings in with no charm whatsoever.”

Aubyn pinched my cheek. “You underestimate yourself.”