“Yes,” Levi mumbled, his cheeks almost red now. “What are those things, anyway? More tentacles?”

  “No, these are my feelers,” I explained. A few of them floated closer to Levi of their own free will.

  He squirmed away from them as if they were offensive. “What does that mean?”

  I didn’t know how to explain. Feelers were so integral to Maeleons that it was difficult to put into words, much less to a human who apparently lacked them.

  “I cannot say. Instead, I will show you. But at a later time. We must clean up first.”

  “Right. Can’t keep getting distracted.” Levi put his hands on his hips and examined the crash site. “Um... Now is probably a good time to mention that humans are physically weak.”

  “I can see that,” I remarked.

  Levi raised one brow. “Are you making fun of me?”

  “No. You are simply very small.”

  He crossed his arms. “I’m an average male height,” he grumbled. He put his hands on the base of the ship and pushed hard. He grunted before giving up. “Dammit. Can you do any better, Zat’tor?”

  As I approached the ship, I asked, “What is dammit?”

  Levi rubbed his head. “Believe me, we don’t have time to go into the history of that word right now. Just think of it as a swear word.”

  “What is a swear word?”

  “Maeleons don’t swear? Like, using words in a negative way?” Levi countered, looking as baffled as I felt. “You don’t say fuck, or shit?”

  “What is negative about sexual intercourse or defecation?”

  He grinned, apparently amused. “Never mind. Can you lift the ship?”

  I lowered myself on my haunches and slid my hands under the hull.

  “You might want to use your tentacles, too,” Levi suggested. “It’s really heavy. You might hurt your—”

  I stood, picking up the ship with ease. It was bulky, but not particularly heavy.

  Levi’s jaw dropped.

  “Wh—how did you do that?” he cried.

  “It’s lighter than I thought,” I remarked, hefting it onto my shoulder.

  Levi’s eyes were wide. “Wow, Zat’tor. You’re strong.” He stared at my flexed muscles for a second before clearing his throat and asking, “Are all Maeleons physically powerful?”

  “Yes. Are all humans physically frail?” I asked.

  He huffed. “Well, we don’t like to admit it, but yeah. Most of us, anyway. I doubt even the fittest human bodybuilder could hold a candle to you.” He paused. “Oh, sorry. A candle is—”

  “Ah, I know what candles are. We have many back at the village. They are made of golden insectoid wax, yes?”

  He tilted his head. “That sounds right, yeah. But with all the plants around, I thought Maeleons wouldn’t use candles for light.”

  “For light? No, no. We use them during intercourse. Many Maeleons like the sensation of hot wax dripping on their skin,” I explained.

  Levi’s face turned deep pink. “I see. You’re not shy about that sort of thing, are you?”

  “Why would I be shy? Intercourse is natural.”

  Levi seemed like he was trying to stifle a laugh, but he failed. I liked seeing him this way—smiling, with brightly colored cheeks.

  I couldn’t resist my overwhelming curiosity. My tentacle stroked his cheek. I was surprised at both its softness and its intense heat.

  “You can change color, too,” I remarked.

  Levi sucked in a soft breath. He froze, then slowly raised his hand to rest on my tentacle. “Yeah. This is called blushing.”

  “Blushing,” I repeated. “I like it.”

  “Humans blush when we’re shy, embarrassed, flustered... or, um, aroused,” he mumbled.

  That was a wide range of emotional responses.

  “I hope you feel aroused,” I stated.

  That made the color in his cheeks reach his ears. “W-what?”

  “I don’t want you to feel shame around me,” I said, stroking his cheek with my tentacle. “Therefore, I hope you are aroused.”

  Levi made a strange, choked sound, then began coughing.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  “Fine,” Levi said in a thin voice. “I guess I should explain that humans aren’t usually so... open when it comes to sexuality.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know,” Levi stammered.

  I tilted my head, examining him closer. “Are you a mature organism?”

  He exhaled through his nostrils. “Yes, I’m an adult.”

  “Do you not enjoy intercourse?” I asked, still confused.

  “Yes, I do,” he grumbled.

  “Then what is the problem?”

  Levi bit his lip, gazing off to the side. “I... I don’t know. Maybe there isn’t one.” He swallowed and tucked a fluffy strand of fur behind his ear. “I’m not used to getting hit on.”

  “I am not hitting you,” I pointed out.

  “Not hitting me,” Levi corrected. “Hitting on me. It means flirting, or courting.”

  I moved my head up and down. “Ah. A courtship ritual.”

  It struck me as odd that no creature had courted Levi in the past. But that was no matter. In the end, he was my filum.

  Overcome with fondness for Levi, I rubbed my tentacles across his face. My feelers floated off my neck, also wanting to join in. Every part of my body wanted to be in contact with him, like a shaded plant reaching for the sun.

  “Er, Zat’tor?” Levi asked, sounding slightly breathless. “What are you doing?”

  “I need to touch you,” I replied.

  His mouth opened in shock. “You need to?”

  “Yes.”

  Levi’s lip quivered as my tentacles roamed his head, tracing the line of his jaw, snaking over the planes of his cheekbones, threading through his fluffy yellow fur.

  “H-hey, stop that,” Levi said halfheartedly. He made no attempt to move, or leave my grip. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

  “Why?” I asked simply.

  For a moment, Levi had no answer. He claimed to want the opposite of his real wishes. Even an eyeless flower could see Levi liked being touched this way.

  “We’re supposed to be cleaning up the collision site, remember?” Levi asked.

  The weight of responsibility dampened my urge for touch. My feelers stopped wriggling, and I removed my tentacles from him.

  “You are correct,” I admitted. “I apologize for distracting you.”

  Levi smiled, releasing a small laugh. “No, Zat’tor, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” He kneeled and turned his attention to the crushed flowers. “Let’s just deal with fixing my mistake first.”

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  Levi gave the flowers a sympathetic look. He tried to lift their broken stalks, but it was too late. They crumpled as soon as he removed his support. Levi seemed saddened.

  “Sorry, little guys,” he murmured. Facing me, he asked, “What can I do?”

  “It is all right,” I told him. “Now that this ship has been removed, the dead flowers will decompose on their own and turn into fertilizer.”

  “So, I can’t do anything?”

  I gave him a warm look. “It is enough that you care. Thank you, Levi.”

  Levi’s eyes fluttered, like he didn’t expect the gratitude. “Okay.”

  As he stood up, I examined him. His body coverings were dirty after kneeling in the ashes. I also noticed that liquid beaded at his forehead and rolled down the sides of his face. It seemed to make him uncomfortable because he wiped it away every so often.

  “Phew,” Levi said. “Hey, is there a place I can wash off? Like, with water?”

  An exciting idea sprang to mind.

  “Yes,” I said. “I know the perfect place.”

  5 Levi

  Cleaning up the ship’s wreckage got me all sweaty and bothered. Not because I actually did any hard labor—my buff alien companion conveniently took care of all that—but because said alien companion felt me up the entire time.

  I guessed Maeleons had no concept of personal space, which was strangely okay with me. To my surprise, Zat’tor’s tentacles didn’t feel bad. They were like weird, long massage pillows. With suction cups.

  After Zat’tor dropped off the inert spaceship at the village, he led me in a different direction. There was a distinctly worn pathway at our feet, which made me think Maeleons went this way frequently.

  “Where are we going?” I asked. “Somewhere popular, I take it?”

  “Yes. It is a popular area for Maeleon couples or groups.”

  I nearly choked. There it was again—Zat’tor’s complete frankness when it came to sex. I figured I’d better get used to it. Who knew how often I’d hear him say things like that until we escaped Eukaria?

  “So, you’re taking me to an orgy spot?” I asked, raising a brow.

  Zat’tor apparently hadn’t made that connection, so maybe I was the one with the mind in the gutter.

  “You wanted somewhere with water, did you not?” Zat’tor asked.

  I sighed. “Yeah.”

  His multicolored, fern-like feelers wriggled in the air. I assumed that meant Zat’tor was excited.

  “You will like this place,” he promised, sounding upbeat. “It is beautiful.”

  He wasn’t lying. When we reached the end of the path, I stared in awe at the gorgeous waterfall in front of us. It overflowed from thickly knotted tree roots into a raised pond bed so clear it looked like it was floating.

  I’d seen images of other planets before, but none of them were this beautiful. I hesitated to say it looked like a scene from a movie or video game because it was so real. Human minds couldn’t have imagined something like this.

  “Whoa,” I murmured.

  Zat’tor examined me, noting my curiosity. “Go ahead. Explore.”

  Nodding, I walked closer to the edge of the floating pond. I wanted to understand how it worked. I tilted my head, looking at it from all angles and still not getting it. It was outright mystical.

  But the closer I got to the pond, the muggier the air became. The earlier exercise had left me sweaty enough, but the heat and humidity here wasn’t helping. I wiped the sweat off my brow for what felt like the twentieth time.

  “Levi, what does this gesture mean?” Zat’tor asked. He mimed rubbing his arm across his forehead.

  It didn’t even occur to me that he wouldn’t know, but then again, why would he? We were aliens to each other. Of course our physiology was different.

  “So, human bodies do this thing called perspiration,” I explained. “In other words, sweat. That’s what these little beads of water on my skin are.”

  “Water?” Zat’tor sounded surprised. “You can create water?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry, I should be more direct with my words. It’s mostly water, but there’s other components in it. It’s how human bodies regulate their temperature when it’s too hot.”

  Zat’tor angled his head, intrigued. “You find this temperature too hot?”

  I waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, but it’s all right, I’ll live.”

  Suddenly, Zat’tor went shock still. His face hardened, looking serious. “You must,” he commanded. “I won’t accept any alternative.”

  That unexpected remark made my heart prance. Was this giant alien worried about me? Hours ago, I expected him to sacrifice my life for plant-kind—now he wouldn’t even entertain talk of my death.

  I smiled at him. “It was only a figure of speech, Zat’tor. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

  Zat’tor gave a stiff nod, the tension seeping from his body. His feelers started floating freely again. I had to admit, they were kind of cute. They reminded me of a cat’s tail, moving independently of him and secretly conveying his emotions.

  On Earth, I’d always been a cat person. On Eukaria, I was becoming a Zat’tor person.

  One of Zat’tor’s tentacles hovered towards me, stopping in front of my chest.

  “If you are hot, why do you not remove your coverings?” he asked. “Are they part of your body?”

  He meant my hard suit, the standard spacecraft uniform. The outer shell protected us while the inner layer was supposed to provide basic thermal regulation, but this sauna of a waterfall must be too much for it. So much for technology.

  “Ah, no, they’re not part of me,” I said. Noticing Zat’tor’s curious tentacle, I added, “You can touch it, if you want.”

  It landed on the top of my chest, then snaked lower. I didn’t expect Zat’tor to be so generous with his touching. My heartbeat snagged out of rhythm as Zat’tor’s tentacle caressed my lower belly. When it slipped between my thighs, I yelped in surprise.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked, pausing his exploration.

  “N-no. You’re just being very... thorough.”

  I saw the gears turning in his head. “Is this area particularly sensitive?”

  I felt my cheeks grow hot. It was just my hard suit, dammit. I couldn’t even feel anything through it. Why was I getting bent out of shape?

  “No,” I mumbled. “I mean, yeah, but not with my suit on. Just ignore me.”

  “That is impossible,” Zat’tor said plainly. “How can I ignore my filum?”

  There was that word again. I was about to ask what it meant when Zat’tor’s tentacle slipped between my thighs and up the curve of my buttocks, lifting me a few inches off the ground with his powerful limb. I gasped.

  “You are very light,” Zat’tor remarked. “Levi is small and adorable.”

  I was at a loss for words. Small and adorable weren’t terms I would’ve used to describe myself. I was an average human male in every sense of the word—average height, average in appearance, and apparently, even less than average as a pilot.

  But here was Zat’tor, a hot-as-fuck alien, fawning over me for reasons I didn’t understand. No person had ever paid this much attention to me on Earth. My profile always got ignored on dating apps, and at gay bars I may as well have been invisible.

  And it wasn’t like Zat’tor acted this way towards my crew, either. He only paid attention to me. Was I unknowingly exuding some kind of special Zat’tor-attracting pheromones or something?

  As quick as he picked me up, Zat’tor set me back on my feet. For a moment the feeling of gravity was odd, like being held in the air by alien tentacles had become my new normal after only thirty seconds.

  “Your sweat is increasing,” Zat’tor pointed out. “I recommend you remove your coverings so you do not overheat.”

  Ironically, that made my cheeks burn hotter. But how else was I supposed to react when a huge, attractive guy suggested I strip right in front of him?

  I cleared my throat. “Zat’tor, you probably don’t know this, but humans tend to be... shy about exposing their naked bodies.”

  Zat’tor angled his head, his eyes peering curiously at me. “Why? What is under your coverings?”

  I huffed in amusement. “Nothing, except me.”

  “Then why are you shy?” Zat’tor countered. “I am naked.”

  “Yeah, but you have scales. And...”

  Swallowing hard, my gaze drifted to his lower half. He had no exposed genitalia, similar to a reptile. Stupid mammals with our junk hanging out. Why did evolution ever think that was a good idea?

  “And you, er, aren’t... vulnerable like I am,” I finished. As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew they made no sense and would only confuse Zat’tor further. I sighed heavily. “Never mind, it’s easier just to show you.”

  I turned around so my back was to him. “Do you see those small red buttons at the back of my neck?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do me a favor and press them.”

  Could I have done it myself? Yes. But I selfishly wanted Zat’tor to do it. If I was gonna strip in front of an alien, I may as well enjoy myself. Being on the receiving end of his attention filled my chest with a warm, wispy feeling, so why not milk it while I could?

  I barely felt the gentle touch of Zat’tor’s fingers as he pressed the buttons. My hard suit hissed quietly as the mechanism unlocked and the bulky front plate detached from my chest. I removed it, placing it on the ground, then stepped out of the connected leg pieces.

  As I stood there fully nude with my butt facing Zat’tor, my heart hammered in my throat. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been naked in front of anyone, never mind such an attractive individual.

  But Zat’tor wasn’t human. I had to remind myself of that. He was a Maeleon—as such, he carried no human shame or judgment. He wasn’t comparing the way my body looked to supermodels. He had no frame of reference for that, and even if he did, I doubted he’d do it.

  Suddenly, I felt the caress of supple skin on my hips. I inhaled out of instinct, but didn’t flinch away. When I glanced down, I saw the fleshy ends of Zat’tor’s teal tentacles on my waist.

  “H-hey,” I said. “What are you doing?”

  “You gave me permission to touch you,” Zat’tor reminded me. “Should I stop?”

  “No,” I blurted way faster than I meant to. “I mean, it’s okay.”

  “You are too shy, Levi,” Zat’tor mused. “For what purpose do you hide your body, and your emotions?”

  As he spoke, he ran his tentacles down my sides. I shivered at the silky sensation. Why did that feel so good?

  “I... I don’t know,” I admitted.

  Zat’tor stepped closer to my back. I felt the warmth of his breath against my skin. “Then release that guilt and shame.”

  I shuddered again. Was it that easy? He made it sound so simple. I bit my lip, unsure if I could let go of years’ worth of internalized self-consciousness.

  But... Zat’tor’s comment wasn’t a suggestion, was it? It was more like a command.

  If a seven-foot-tall buff alien ordered me to submit to him, how could I refuse?

  Okay, Levi, now you sound like an over-the-top damsel, I mentally chided myself.

  Still, I tried to take Zat’tor’s words to heart. Remembering my pilot training, I let out a long exhale and relaxed my muscles. It was an exercise taught at the academy to steady a racing heart rate. I couldn’t say how much it helped though, because as soon as Zat’tor’s tentacles roamed to my bare chest, my heart skipped a few beats.