I didn’t require glasses, but my sight wasn’t good enough to make out someone far away dressed in dark clothes at the end of a narrow and dark street with other people around. “Thanks,” I muttered to Diu. He went inside and I started my walk over to the figure I still hadn’t identified on my own as Aubyn.

Diu was right. It was Aubyn. He was leaning against the car and looking up at the sky, completely oblivious to me drawing near him. Even in a city like Baxat, the sky was littered with stars.

“Aubyn?”

Aubyn looked at me and graced me with his welcoming smile. When he spread his arms, I ran into them like a child and rested my head on his chest. “Let me guess. You came out looking for me?”

“Yeah. What was taking you so long?”

“I was waiting to make sure you were socialising. If I walked in there, I would probably interrupt your conversation or you would not talk to anyone else for the rest of the night.”

“I’ve done enough socialising. I wouldn’t mind turning in for the night now that you’re here.” I hugged him tighter. “Can we sleep together tonight?”

“I was going to ask the same. We will be sleeping in separate rooms in Tsuk’ki after all.”

I looked up at him so fast I could’ve snapped my neck. “Why?”

“Because according to my family, we have no need to sleep beside one another. There are too many rooms for you not to have your own.”

“Tell them I’m clingy.”

“We will have every waking moment to spend with each other. Sleeping apart is nothing new at this point.”

I wanted to whine so badly, but I settled for putting my head back on his chest. I didn’t want to be introduced to his family right off the bat as his boyfriend. It was too soon and I’d rather Coen start liking me a bit more before he had to accept me as his father’s significant other. I had a vague idea of what they would think of me as a human being, but I had no clue how they would react to Aubyn dating a man. Would they forbid it? Getting on their good side may prove useful when they find out I’m more than just a friend.

Aubyn and I stayed in each other’s embrace for a little while. He had begun rocking from side to side slightly and it was slowly putting me to sleep.

“I’m not drunk,” I pointed out, having almost forgotten.

Aubyn lifted a hand and gently patted my head. “You do smell of alcohol though.” He continued rocking.

“I only drank a little. I’m going to fall asleep standing up at this rate.”

“Are you ready to go home?”

“Yeah.”

“Say your goodbyes. I will wait out here.”

I pulled away and rubbed my eyes enough to wake me up a bit. I went back inside and said my goodbyes to Sang, Matis, and Diu. Sang said he was staying and that he’d need to pick up Milan later on. After seeing I was packing up, everyone left at the table also said their goodbyes to me, some patting my back as I passed them.

Aubyn was waiting right outside the door for me and took my hand in his warm one when we started walking together. It was so peaceful walking in the dark with the chatter from other pedestrians and restaurants we passed on the street.

“Are you still nervous?” he asked. “About meeting my family, I mean.”

“Not right now. Maybe it’s the alcohol but I feel relaxed right now. Just… chill.”

“Are you sure you did not drink too much?”

“I know you hate it when I drink, so I tried to be careful.”

“I do not hate it. I just worry when you get so drunk that you can hardly stand on your own. Not to mention you throw up, pass out, and scarcely remember what happened when you wake up. Can you really blame me for not wanting that?”

I’d put him through enough crap with my past drug use, drunkenness, and all-around self-destructive behaviour so I understood where he was coming from. I had almost thrown up on him once too. “Which is why I’m being so good and not overdoing it,” I told him. “I now get what you mean when you say alcohol here isn’t like on Earth. I had much less than usual, but I’m definitely feeling the effects. I kind of like it but it has a really strong smell. A sweet one.”

“I can tell you had a strong one just by the way you smell. Alcohol in Tsuk’ki is different too.”

“How different?”

“If you are curious, then have some. My mother likes making alcohol. You might like it.”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you that I got gifts for your family,” I said, suddenly remembering. I hadn’t put those in my suitcase just yet. I still needed to revise my packed things because I felt like I was forgetting something important no matter how many times I went over everything.

Aubyn stopped walking. “You… what?”

I stopped and faced him, unable to read the expression on his face. “I… I got gifts for your family. Was I not supposed to? Is it inappropriate?” The tips of my fingers were going cold. I’d done something wrong? “Milan said it’s rude to show up to someone’s house with empty hands so he helped me get your parents and siblings gifts. I’m sorry-”

Aubyn cupped my cheeks and pressed his lips against mine in such a tender kiss that my already weak knees from the alcohol nearly buckled on the street. “Thank you,” he said softly.

“For what?”

“For trying so hard, for thinking of my family, for wanting them to like you.” He became shy once he realized we were still in public. “I am very happy right now.”

He must have lost his senses for a moment to have kissed me in public when I knew he did not like PDA. “I’m glad.”

We spent the rest of the journey home in comfortable silence and again I was reminded of how different my life had become in such a short time. It still hadn’t been a year since I met Aubyn and he’d become such an important person to me in a short amount of time.

“Your room,” Aubyn said when we got into the elevator. “I am curious to see the gifts you bought for my family.”

I pressed the button for my floor. “Don’t you need to go get clothes from your room?”

“Hmm… I could just sleep naked.”

I pushed the button for his floor. “Don’t tease me.”

Aubyn smiled as I got off the elevator right up until the doors closed again. My room was probably a mess but my first priority was to scrub away the smell of alcohol, then I’d make my room presentable for a guest.

I showered twice and got most of my clothes out of the way. Nothing was dirty. It was all the clothes I had washed and hadn’t gotten around to putting away because I hated having to fold them. However, I’d stuck to folding all my clothes in my drawers this whole time and I didn’t want to mess it up. It was very satisfying to see my clothes so organized. So, if I was going to put the clothes away, I’d have to wait until I felt like putting them away properly.

Aubyn didn’t knock for once. I’d suddenly become alert at the beeping of the keypad and wondered what was going on. I’d only realized that he was letting himself in when the motion sensor light came on as the door opened.

“Did I frighten you?” he asked, surveying my room.

I must have looked like a deer caught in headlights. “A bit. If you let yourself in more often, I wouldn’t have been so taken aback. I gave you the code for a reason, you know.”

“It feels as if I am invading your privacy.” He sat on the bed. “Will you show me the gifts?”

We spent the next few minutes looking over the gifts I’d gotten for each member of his family members. I’d already thought I’d done a great job choosing the gifts, but hearing from Aubyn that I’d done well made me ridiculously happy.

I also showed him the cake I’d gotten from the owners at Balela. We ate the cake and the topping powder. It wasn’t as sweet as I had expected it to be but it was surprisingly moist. Aubyn promised to let me experience the real thing, even commenting that the couple had done a good job with the cake.

“You like it when I compliment you, yes?” Aubyn asked as we settled into bed.

“Everyone likes compliments.”

“But you really like compliments. Like when I tell you that you have done a good job.”

I really hated that I could be so transparent. “It makes me all fuzzy inside,” I admitted.

Aubyn’s lips brushed my temple. “That makes me want to reserve them for special times.”

“Like when?”

“I will think about it.”

“While you think about that, does meeting your family mean I get to know you better? Even the parts of you that you might not want me to see?”

“We will see about that.”

“If it’s not a ‘yes’, we’re going to have issues.” It was a gamble and a weak threat, but it was worth seeing how it would work out. I only meant that I’d probably be a pest to get what I wanted.

“We will not.”

I sat up and looked down at him with an eyebrow cocked, not in the mood to surrender to that stern tone. I knew he could make out my face in the dark with those bright eyes of his. “Wanna bet?”

“Are you trying to go against me? It will not go well.”

“What? Are you going to bite me? Have me kneel for an hour? Not in front of your family, you won’t. Don’t think I can’t tell that you’re always trying to hide your dark side. I don’t care about only seeing the best version of you. I want to see all of Ges’sel San Au Yin.”

“Dark side, you say?” he asked, amusedly.

“You know what I mean, Mr Controlling.” Even Sang warned me in his usual roundabout way that the people of Othanai weren’t as 2D as they may seem. Sang wasn’t as nice or as scary as he could be sometimes, and Aubyn wasn’t just the amazing father and zealous worker he looked to be.

“I am not controlling.”

“Well, not by my standards since I don’t mind being bossed around by you in particular. But you are Mr I-Want-To-Be-Controlling-But-I-Can't-Let-Zedikai-Hate-Me. I’m jealous that Af’fy’s seen sides of you that I haven’t. Stop dialling back or-”

“Or what?” he asked, voice low. “I will show you what I want when I am ready. Throw your tantrums all you like if you oppose. Disobey me if you must. No one likes unquestioned obedience. In fact, I would prefer it if you fought against me. Does that not make things more interesting?”

“I-Interesting?”

Aubyn patted the space I had previously occupied and I returned to it. “Goodnight, Zedikai. We will speak of this another time.”

I hoped he realised that something like this would not be forgotten easily. I’d never heard him speak that way but it sent chills down my spine. The good kind of excited chills. Since it was late, I resolved to let it rest for the time being and closed my eyes, dozing off quicker than I’d expected to.

It might have been the alcohol, but I slept like the dead. It was still and dreamless without waking even once to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was groggy waking up and slowly came to recognize the weight over me as Aubyn’s body. My bladder was crying out so I had to get out of bed even if it meant risking waking him.

I tried to squeeze out of his firm hold in my half-conscious state as if going against his strength wasn’t hard enough to do at full strength. I put my hand out to push the sheets away but stared at my hand as if it were foreign. It looked foreign. I could almost hear the wheels turning as I tried to figure out why my own hand looked and felt so strange to me, then the loud ding as I realized the problem.

My hand was covered in blood.

All the drowsiness left my body as I was now frantic to get out of bed, pushing at Aubyn and the sheets to untangle myself. Once I was free, my eyes trailed from my hands to the sheets, and I could only gasp in horror. Not only was my right hand bloody, but the sheets had not been spared. The pants I wore were soaked through at the crotch.