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The host laughed, reaching across to knock him against the shoulder. “Nice! Lucky! I’ve seen pics and vids of her. She certainly looks charming.”
“She’s the best,” Rane smiled. “Did you know, her people have gendered colors as well? Except for them, it’s blue for males and pink for females.”
“Pink? For females?” The host laughed. “That’s so strange. I suppose that’s why she wears such bright clothing all the time.”
Rane smiled, looking down as though shy. “I like it. The way she dresses, I mean. It’s so different, and she smiles so bright when she’s picking her clothes.”
“Hm?” An interested look came over the host’s face. “So, you don’t care that people are calling her a fashion catastrophe?”
“What catastrophe? I defy you to tell me she doesn’t look good in whatever she wears.”
“That would be the human in her, I suppose.”
“Not sexually,” Rane frowned. “I mean… just her. The way she wears things. The way she smiles when she finds a new combination she likes. You should have seen her when we first cut her hair! She looked at me like I’d hung the sun, and all I did was cut the strands. How can anyone call her a catastrophe when they see how happy it makes her?”
The host chuckled, resting his chin on his hands. “That’s a fair argument, I suppose. But what do you mean, you cut her hair? Aren’t there salons for that kind of thing for aliens?”
“Oh, yeah. That.” He shrugged. “We weren’t allowed outside at the time. So, we just decided to buy some scissors and do it ourselves. Luckily, that restriction was lifted by the time we decided to pluck my feathers, or that would have been really painful to do at home.”
The host looked confused, but Rane had already moved on, touching the new, bare portions of his scalp, talking about how he was going to tattoo that area to match the swirls she had shaved into the shorn side of her head. How she had told him the hairstyle was called a mohawk on Earth and how much she liked it, even if it made him a fashion catastrophe too.
So quickly and easily, without emphasis or blame or anger, he’d dropped the hint that they were trapped and moved right on like it was nothing. Exactly as they had practiced.
She beamed, proud of him.
Just another breadcrumb for people to think over. To hopefully realize soon what was happening. One step closer to his freedom.
To maybe actually making this relationship permanent.
Chapter 22
Rane
“Phew!” Rane slumped against the back of the self-driving hover they’d ordered to take them around the city. They flew much lower than the piloted ones and could only go certain places in a pre-programmed route so no one could steal the vehicles, but they were cheap and convenient and, most importantly, private.
“You did great,” Sandy praised, up on her knee beside him in the seat, stroking her finger along his ear. “You didn’t stutter or mess up at all.”
“Thanks,” he gave her a smile, putting an arm around her waist. “I was getting nervous there when we started talking about you, but I think I did alright.”
“You were wonderful.” She kissed his scalp.
He smiled, pulling against her so that she fell into his lap. “So, where are we going now?”
“Tattoo salon.” She turned so she could sit more comfortably across his thighs. “You ready?”
“Oh, yeah,” he grinned, all teeth, excited. “Are you?”
She laughed. “Of course. You’re going to look so good.”
Her smile was wide and bright, but it faded then. So suddenly, it surprised him.
“What is it?” He asked, cocking his head to look better into her eyes.
She quickly fixed a smile back in place, but it wasn’t quite as big. “I was talking to Drevor during your interview.”
“Oh, yeah? Where did he go anyway?”
“Your mother summoned him. But we were talking about how to get my full citizenship without needing the tribunal. One option was waiting a year so I could argue for an exception to the tribunal on the grounds that I’d already been living here, but that might be hard if I don’t have a job or live on my own, and it’s not really for those who come here as a mate.”
