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Hiroki bit back a grin, inclining his head to Kaelum. “I will do that, then. Have to get that lifetime supply of cotton-candy pink.”
Another hybrid crew member, Lethen, snorted and then mumbled, “Aldor can give you all the pink you want.”
“Well that would be between me and Aldor, wouldn’t it?” Hiroki asked tartly.
Everyone laughed, and we went back to talking about noodles, and the various sauces they went well in.
By the time we actually arrived on Earth, three more had gone to Kaelum, asking if they could retrieve their things and come back to Thorzan, not as lab rats, but as citizens. One asked if she could bring her brother, since he was the only thing she’d wanted to come home for.
Kaelum had readily and graciously agreed every time, smiling and telling them that Thorzan and its people would be happy to have them.
We dropped off only four people on Earth, and picked up two additions, the woman’s brother and a friend of Hiroki’s, who had latched onto him on the hair-dye run and refused to let him go. Everyone who was going back had things to pick up, draining their bank accounts and buying pasta and food and clothes and other things intended for permanent relocation.
Finally, there was only me left, and the look Kaelum turned on me could have made even the hardest-hearted criminal melt. He was like a big puppy, complete with bright, hopeful brown eyes.
“Should we return you to Colorado, my Lucas?” The words, for Kaelum, were soft and tentative.
Somehow, I hadn’t realized until that precise moment that he expected me to want to stay behind. I had also been purposefully putting off thinking about it, and at the same time, realized that—
“No.” I laughed. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, we’re going to get my stuff. I want my jeans. But there’s no way in hell I’m staying behind.”
That, Kaelum was more than happy to help with.
He came down with me, in fact. Maybe it was to reassure himself that I was actually coming back, or maybe he just didn’t want to let me out of his sight. Either way, I didn’t mind the company one bit.
We packed all the clothes I wanted into my single suitcase, and then I looked around my apartment.
There was nothing in it I cared about. No mementos or pictures or anything else. I had, to this point, lived a thoroughly unremarkable, unmemorable life. Hardly anyone would even notice I had gone.
I turned to look up into Kaelum’s bright brown eyes, staring at me with adoration, and... any last vestiges of doubt disappeared. I didn’t matter to these people—hadn’t ever mattered to them, and they’d barely notice I was gone. But to Kaelum? I was everything.
And he was quickly becoming the same to me.
“Do you have everything you need?” he asked me, so very softly, and I smiled at him, leaning up to give him a peck on the lips.
“Not quite.” I looped my arm through his and led him out of the apartment, on a walk through town.
He got a few funny looks in the falling dusk, not because he was slightly blue, but because he was seven feet tall and freaking gorgeous. No one glanced twice at me... but he didn’t look away from me once. Constantly concerned about whether the snow was making my unprotected hands cold, or whether perhaps I would simply like him to carry me.
Finally, I marched him up the walkway of a cute little duplex with a fucking white picket fence—seriously?—and rapped on the door.
David answered, and hardly even noticed me. No, his eyes slipped right past me and up to Kaelum’s handsome face, his square jaw, straight nose, and eyes that gleamed inhumanly in the dark.
There was a high-pitched noise, angry and pained, followed by a hiss, and Morris’s raised voice. “Goddamn cat, get back here!”
A second later, Donna Meowble was launching herself into my arms. I caught her and held her against me, cradling her there as her growl turned quickly into a steady, contented purr.
David finally tore his eyes off my fucking boyfriend—maybe stealing one boyfriend hadn’t been enough for him—and looked at me, unimpressed. “You can’t just march up to my house and steal Fluffy, Lucas. I mean really, first you disappear from work on some kind of bender because you’re jealous, then you show up at our house? How pathetic are you? Here to beg Morris to come back?”
I snorted, wrapping my arms around Donna so I wouldn’t dislodge her, and it turned into a full-blown laugh.
“My Lucas?” Kaelum asked, and I turned to him.
“Sorry, this is David. He’s my ex’s husband. They stole Donna, so I had to get her back before we left. She’s the only thing around here I give a damn about.” I glared at David for a second, then looked down at Donna, who was trying to wrap herself around my neck like a scarf. “You two stole my cat. Obviously she agrees and wants to come home.”
Kaelum made a strange sound, low in his throat, leaning in to look Donna right in her amber eyes.
“Indeed,” he said after a moment. “She wishes to be with Lucas. I am unsurprised, little star shine.”
