AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I couldn’t really imagine the brooding X being excited. I’d visited Sophie and X several times over the years on the station and could count the times I’d seen the guy smile on one hand (and those times were usually when he’d been looking at Sophie or Theo). It had taken me some time to get used to the fact that my dimpled, always-happy, sunshine-in-human-form friend had fallen in love with an ex-member of the Chimera guard. The Chimera Guard was the Galkor Empire’s army of genetically modified super-soldiers. They weren’t exactly known for showing their emotions, or even having emotions, to be honest. No, they were known for killing things, ruthless in their efficiency.But if anyone could crack a Chimera’s shielded heart, it would be Sophie.
As if our conversation had conjured him, X approached from the direction ofHallowed be thy Bean. Their coffee shop was tiny, and I couldn’t really see it from here. It was all the way across the ring of level 1200. But I knew where it was because the chocolaterie beside it had gigantic, eye-catching gold pillars outside its storefront, decorated with velvety crimson ribbons.
“Dada!”
Sophie let her wiggly toddler down, and he immediately took off running towards his gigantic father. I was worried about the crowds of people between them, but soon realized I didn’t need to be. The crowds parted way for X like Terratribe 2 goat butter sliced with a searing hot knife. People peeled away from him on all sides, his Chimera reputation forging a path before his hulking, seven-foot-tall body. He scooped Theo up and plopped him onto his broad shoulders before closing the remaining distance with precise, powerful strides.
It was oddly adorable to see him with Theo on his shoulders. The father and son were a lot alike in some ways – the same piercing yellow eyes, the same reptilian-looking tails and feet, the same dark claws. But Theo had also gotten some of his mother’s human softness, too. His face was basically human apart from the odd eye colour. His cheeks were rounded and dimpled like Sophie’s. Theo had horns, but his were tiny, blunted, baby-fawn versions of his father’s prominent black ones. Theo had Sophie’s glossy black hair, and had a toned-down version of X’s grey-ish green hide.
Honestly, Theo looked like a mashup of an Old-Earth cherub and a baby demon. In the cutest possible way.
“Have you been good for Maggie and your mother?” X rumbled upwards at their tot, stopping before us.
“Yeah!” Theo cried with the earnest enthusiasm only toddlers seemed to be able to manage.
Sophie laughed. “He tried to eat half the crap in this place,” she snorted.
X made a grumbly hmmphing sound that was a perfectly stereotypical grumpy-but-loving dad sound. I smiled, listening absentmindedly as X reminded Theo that Chimeras were meant to be disciplined and that they also weren’t meant to eat metal and plaster. Theo babbled happily back.
“We’d better get him back to our place for bedtime,” Sophie said.
I nodded, glancing at my personal data tablet.
“Yeah. It’s almost ten pm station time. Isn’t that a little late for a toddler’s bedtime?” I asked. I didn’t mean it in a judgmental way. I didn’t have much experience with human kids, let alone half-alien ones, so I wasn’t exactly sure what constituted a normal bedtime around here.
Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes. “He inherited his father’s lack of need for sleep. Combined with general toddler developmental stuff, his sleep schedule is insane. But, luckily, X does the overnight stuff since, unlike me, he can get by on just an hour or two of sleep.”
“This not only benefits my perfect wife, but you, too,” X said, focusing his bright yellow eyes on me. “I can be here late into the evenings, ready to work on the place. I’ll come back after tonight’s bedtime stories.”
I held back my expression of amused shock at the image of this hulking, horned chimera reading bedtime stories.
“Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. But tonight, I think I’m going to just do some stuff on my own. Get acquainted with the place.”
Today had been a long day of getting settled on the station, and tonight was my first night here. I wanted some alone time with my new bakery, even if it wasn’t a bakery quite yet. I wanted the chance to revel in the quiet of the empty space. To breathe in the shimmer of the place’s potential.
“We’ll be atHallowedtomorrow,” Sophie said, giving me a quick hug. “Come by the second you need anything. And, of course, coffee’s on us.”
I hugged her back tightly, glad to have a friend here. Starting a new business, a whole new life, in a new place was frankly terrifying. Having support made it slightly less so.
I watched the little family disappear beyond the crowds still milling about the station despite the late hour. Many businesses were open 24/7 around here, shop fronts and windows still lit up and glowing.
I definitely won’t be able to manage that, at least at first.
My carefully counted-out budget left no wiggle room for a paid employee. Nope, it was just going to be me working my Terratribe ass off. I’d be doing the baking in the early morning hours, then would be the customer service behind the counter during open hours.
It was going to be a hell of a lot of work.
And I couldn’t fucking wait.
A loud grumble from my stomach interrupted my thoughts.
I’d been so busy getting oriented in my new digs that evening that I’d completely forgotten about dinner.
Time to check out the neighbours.
