Khar glanced over his shoulder and maybe flexed just a little.
Hardly noticeable.
It did not mean anything.
Certainly not that he did it because Lily seemed to enjoy the view.
“Had time,” he muttered.
She hummed softly as she inspected the new cargo layout, while Khar wrestled with the urge to ask about her meeting with Horos.
In the end, pride won.
Barely.
He still had a scrap of dignity left, and he intended to keep it.
“You did a great job,” Lily said at last. “It is much more organized now. Vitro will coordinate the helper bots better this way.”
She smiled up at him, and something dark and possessive stirred in Khar’s chest. He would have done anything to see that smile again.
Instead, he abruptly yanked his head back and slammed it into the wall, hard enough to produce a dull thud while carefully angling his horns so they would not take the impact.
Lily rushed to him.
“Oh my God. Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he said flatly. “Do not worry about it.”
Get yourself together. You cannot become this pathetic this quickly.
She hovered anxiously around him, then patted his shoulder. The simple touch nearly undid him.
“Lily,” he said, forcing his voice steady. “I have been thinking about the attack.”
She tensed, shoulders lifting as if to shield herself.
“Yeah. It has crossed my mind a few times too.”
Khar considered how to approach it, then decided that with Lily, directness usually worked best. It reduced the risk of another catastrophic cultural misunderstanding, something they had already managed more than once in the past month.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Incidents like that are rare. Most intelligent beings do not have to fight for their lives.”
Lily stared down at her boots.
“Maybe here that is true,” she said. “In space, I mean.”
“You are saying Earth is violent?”
She thought for a moment. “Not peaceful. It depends where you live. Some places still have wars. I am from a safer region. I never had to fight like that, but the threat is always there. You can get attacked. Robbed. Or raped.”
Khar carefully placed that information into a very small mental box and locked it tight, marked for later destruction.
Right now, her well-being mattered more.
“I see,” he said evenly. “Still, you went through something serious. Even if you were not physically hurt, it leaves a mark.”
Lily lifted her chin, eyes flashing.
