Grayson wrinkled his nose. “We have some fish like that, but only for feet. It’s some kind of pedicure thing in Asia, I think.”
Keld raised a hand. “Want to try? I don’t know how they’ll react to a human.”
“What if they bite me?”
“They’re too small, don’t worry.”
Grayson shot the fish another dubious look, but took Keld’s outstretched hand and stepped down to the submerged bench.
“Oh my god, they have arms.” Grayson’s voice shot up an octave. “Keld, why do the fish have arms?”
“Why doyouhave arms? Just sit down.”
Grayson obeyed, but with his eyes squeezed shut. The little fish darted toward their new target, brushing their silvery bodies over what was undoubtedly a bizarre texture.
“Ew, ew, I can feel their little grabbers.”
Having decided this strange, squishy Mer was an acceptable client, the fish got to work.
“Huh, I guesskopisharen’t speciesist,” Keld commented. “Very progressive of them.”
“That’s what they’re called?” Grayson’s eyes were still screwed tight. “Kopish?”
“Yeah. Onekopis, twokopish.”
Grayson peeked through the lashes of one eye. “They’re not going to try and clean inside right?”
Keld laughed. “I can honestly say I’ve never had that problem.”
With a slow, steady breath, Grayson leaned back against the pool’s edge and looked over at Keld.
“I was thinking… Maybe we could do something together. Like, away from Siren.”
Keld grinned. “Public sex, huh? I never thought I’d see the day.”
Predictably, Grayson’s face blazed red. “No, not sex! I mean, like a date.”
Keld slid his arm around the Omega’s bare shoulders. “I’d love that. What kinds of not-sex things do you enjoy doing?”
Grayson tilted his head. “Well, I’ve been trying a lot of new things since I got here. Being friends with Jenna has that effect. But to be honest, I kind of miss some of the things I did back home.”
“Like…?” Keld encouraged.
“Like… camping. My family used to go out camping all the time when I was a kid, then it was just me and my brothers whenever our parents got sick of us. It was nice… most of the time.”
Something sad lingered in Grayson’s face at those final words.
“Camping, huh?” Keld hadn’t known Grayson had brothers. Even now, he had no idea how many. So many hours spent learning this man’s body, but so few learning about the man himself. “I think there’s an island, maybe an hour from here, thatwas converted into an outdoor recreational area like five years back.”
“What was it before?” Grayson’s eyes were trained on the busykopishnow investigating his navel.
“It was a base for a stealth unit that existed in the first years of occupation. Obviously, we haven’t needed it for decades, so the Paeil government went ahead and turned it into an Usoi getaway.”
Grayson’s gaze snapped up to meet his. “Usoi? As in, they made it look like an Usoi forest or something?”
“I think so, why?”
The sadness had vanished from Grayson’s perfect face. “Can we go? It’d be like seeing a piece of your home planet.”
