Page 36 of January Bell

And after what she did this morning, I very much want her to pay attention to me.

She likes this little power struggle game between us, and I’m happy to keep it going if it gives her a feeling of control in this awful scenario that she’s unwillingly ended up in.

Besides, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying it myself.

“How are these even going to fit me?” she grumbles to herself, pulling on one leg at a time.

She has a typical battle suit, a one-piece tech fabric that will conform to her body, though I’ve never seen someone as small as Lily try to wear one before. But I have faith in the Draegon technology, even if I do not have faith in the Draegon planet anymore.

“I’m going to look like an idiot running around in grandma’s pajamas trying not to die. And I bet you’ll look hot in this.”

She glares at me as if the garment’s oversized features are my fault, and my fault alone.

“It will fit you,” I tell her.

She plucks at the fabric still hanging around her waist. I like that she isn’t covering herself for me anymore, that her little tits are out, bobbling around deliciously, asking to be bitten and teased.

“Oh yeah, because this is going to fit me great. Hmm. I’m, like, barely half your size, and you’re telling me this giant thing is going to fit me?”

“Well, why don’t you put it all the way on and see for yourself?” I offer.

“Oh, so you can laugh at me?”

“Lily, my sweet, there are many things I’m interested in doing with you, all of which I plan to explore in detail in the future. But laughing at you wearing too large clothing is not one of them. Believe it or not.”

She harrumphs, gives me one long last glare, then pulls the clothing on all the way.

The charcoal grey suit closes up in the front using microtechnology I don’t even begin to understand. As a soldier, I didn’t need to know how it worked. I just needed to know that it did.

It shrinks as it wraps around her body.

“Didn’t think that there was anything sexier than seeing you naked and spread out for me on that chair,” I say slowly, sitting up, marveling at her figure. “But now… now, I think maybe I like you better like this.”

“How the fuck did that happen?” she says, turning around and staring at herself, holding her leg out and examining the seam at the ankle. “That’s some crazy shit.”

“It’s not. It’s really pretty standard. It’s not even the good stuff, considering that’s the battle suit that most of the front-line wears. It’s cheap. It’s just that your Earth fabric must be terrible,” I tell her matter-of-factly.

“Gee, thank you so much for that wonderful summation of Earth technology.”

My forehead wrinkles as I try to understand her. “Do you have technology like this?”

“Of course we don’t,” she says, stomping around. “Now if there was just something to eat in here…” She moves around the walls

“Oh, let me guess, if I press this button right here it will⁠—”

She presses the giant dome button on the side of the entryway before I can tell her not to, and the entire dome begins to sizzle, evaporating to leave no trace.

I sigh, getting up off the bed.

“What the fuck?” she says, stamping her little foot. “I don’t even have shoes on.”

“You just disintegrated it,” I tell her. “Once we are done with our biodomes, you push that button, and they do exactly what you just saw in order to leave no debris behind, even on the battlefield.”

She looks at me like I’m speaking a foreign language, and for a moment I wonder if her translator is broken. Then I realize this is probably another species problem.

“Does your kind not care about your planet?”

“Listen,” she says, crossing her arms then blowing a piece of hair out of her face with her bottom lip. “I am not in the mood to get into climate policy and ethics right now, okay?”