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“For eating?”
“I eat standing up.”
I knew it.
“OK, well, in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re very tall, so I need you to sit down.”
Still holding my tube of cream, I opened the closet and attempted to drag the chair out one-handed. But it was heavier than it looked.
Silar’s tail snapped forwards from where he stood behind me, wrapping itself like a whip around one of the posts on the back of the chair and pulling it out of the closet with ease.
“Great. Thank you. Would you sit down, please?”
“Why?”
“I’d like you to sit down so I can put some of this on your ears,” I explained. “It’s from Elora Station. It’s human-made, but it’s supposed to be effective for a wide range of non-human skin types, too.”
“Not necessary,” Silar said, frowning at the tube.
“Of course it is! What if your burns get infected or something?” I pointed stubbornly at his hat which he carried in the claws of his left hand. “When was the last time you washed that thing? You knew your skin was damaged and you just plonked it back on your head anyway!”
Silar, appearing entirely confounded, glanced at his hat before putting it down on top of his chest of drawers. I took my new-to-me hat off as well, placing it down beside his. Then I stopped, frozen by the effect. Our items of clothing, his large, mine small, placed side-by-side in such a mundane fashion. Like we’d been putting out hats there together in this spot all our lives.
I shook myself and pulled my gaze from the hats to find Silar had seated his bulky body on the chair as requested.
“Oh! Great. Thanks,” I said, hurrying forwards. I stepped up neatly between his spread thighs.
I grimaced as I unscrewed the cap, realizing that Silar’s face was precisely boob-level like this, but it couldn’t really be helped. I wondered if Zabrian females even had breasts, and once again cursed my lack of Zabrian manual.
Speaking of manuals, wasn’t that the sound of one getting snapped surreptitiously shut? Silar hadn’t moved from the chair, but his tail had snuck over to the surface of the bed, closing the book, which it now shoved under the pillow and out of sight.
I couldn’t exactly say why, but the action just about charmed the pants right off me.
“You don’t need to hide it,” I murmured in what I hoped was a soothing tone. “I already saw it earlier.”
Silar didn’t immediately reply as I squeezed a bit of the cream onto the tip of my finger. I thought he’d just ignore what I’d said entirely, when he unexpectedly spoke up.
“I did not want you to see how far… Or rather, how not far I’d gotten…” He heaved a sigh, rubbing at his jaw. “But I have been reading it. Trying to, at least.” He made a gruff sound of displeasure. “I thought I’d have more time.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that coming here early would affect Silar or his plans.
Just like it hadn’t occurred to me that I should have refused his hat earlier.
“I’m sorry,” I said ruefully. “I seem to be causing you a lot of problems already. I haven’t been a very good wife so far, have I?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Silar cocked his head and replied anyway.
“Don’t apologize,” he muttered, tilting his head down slightly so I could get a better look at his ears. “I’m the one who hasn’t finished building your room and your bed.”
I halted just before my finger touched his right ear.
“My room?” I repeated. “My bed? You don’t mean for me to sleep in here?”
He wrenched his gaze up to meet mine. It was back to blue again.
“Do you want to?”
“I just… I’d assumed…” I cast my gaze around the room. For some reason it landed on our two hats again. Side by side.
