Page 28 of Ensnared By the Rabbit Genius
Logan shook his head. “No, nothing so sci-fi. There are cooks and bakers and all that using supplies from Nor.” He huffed a laugh and looked a little embarrassed. “Sometimes they’ll get stuff from the surface, too. I once said I missed peanut butter and…” He gestured to his half-eaten piece of toast with peanut butter on it.
I chuckled, pretty sure Seiwa would do something similar for me.
“Well,” Quincy said, “I need to get going, but I’m hoping we helped somehow.”
I nodded. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. I’ll see if anything appeals to Seiwa and if any of it is possible with the stipulation that it won’t be something anyone could keep away from anyone else.”
Before we all went our separate ways, I made sure to link with each of them on my tablet. Logan immediately added me to the equivalent of a group text called Human Mates Support Group wherein the last conversation was about whether you could overdose on nanobots if you had a particularly vigorous weekend with your horny mate. Squire had assured everyone that you couldn’t since the brothel his mate owned on Nor used that stuff by the gallon for the workers.
I chuckled over the other conversations they’d had before switching over to send a message to Seiwa. He was working on something important somewhere, but I wanted to see if I could talk to him now, while the information was fresh on my mind. The thing to give humans, that was, not the lube.
CHAPTER 12
Idon’t know why I’d had it in my head that I wouldn’t be going back to Earth. Maybe because the FBI couldn’t threaten me while I was up on a spaceship? But I couldn’t just abandon my roommates, leave all my possessions behind—my car was still in the parking lot at work—and walk away from my former life. I might not have much immediate family that would care, but I had some friends who’d probably been blowing up my phone wondering where I was. I’d been kind of an asshole to walk away from all of that.
A shuttle touching down in my neighborhood had caused a hell of a stir even in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday, but the presence of Seiwa’s usual Cero guard had kept the curious at bay easily enough. They’d dropped me off to get my car, so I met them at my apartment building—Seiwa hadn’t been able to fit comfortably in my Mini Cooper or else he would’ve driven with me.
Lenore was home as usual since she did medical transcription and a couple other things from home. She jumped into my arms, so worried, and I felt like such a piece of shit for not even letting anyone know what had been happening with me.
“You’re such a total shit for brains,” she kept saying.
“I know! But I wasn’t thinking with this head for a while there.” I tapped my temple and at least made her laugh.
Seiwa walked in behind me, and Lenore blushed. “Oh, I get it,” she whispered and patted my shoulder in understanding.
I made the introductions and let her know that I was going to pack the things that really mattered to me and then figure out a way to get rid of everything else, including my car.
“Well,” Lenore said, “I can sell some of these things on eBay for you. Send the profits to you, um, somewhere?”
I had no idea how she might send me money on the ship, but she didn’t need to do that at all. “Actually, if you want to sell stuff, keep whatever you make. That way it can make up for my part of the rent. A little bit anyway. I think I can take my car to one of those places that’ll just buy it, and that should help a lot more.”
“Don’t be crazy!” she said as she taped the bottom closed on a cardboard box. “I mean, I’ll take maybe a couple of months’ worth of rent to make sure we can get someone else in, but I’m not going to take everything you get for the car.”
“I don’t need it, though.” I looked to Seiwa, who was fiddling with a seashell wind chime. “Do I need it?”
“No.”
“He doesn’t need money anymore?” Lenore asked with her nose wrinkled.
“Norlish citizens receive a guaranteed income, and as my mate, Ellis is a citizen now. But also, there are no financial requirements for any residents of the ship.”
Lenore chuckled. “That is so cool.”
“Financial security,” I said, since we’d talked plenty of times about how she’d grown up not knowing whether she’d have food, electricity, and sometimes a home from one day to the next. So I just had to ask her, “Want to come with me?”
She smiled, but said, “And do what? I can’t be a sex worker.”
“There’s more to do on the ship and Nor than just that.” I looked to Seiwa with my eyebrows raised, hoping he’d fill in the gaps.
“Humans on the ship and on Nor do a variety of jobs unrelated to sex work,” Seiwa said as he took the wind chime down and carefully placed it in a box. “That was just an underserved industry that asked for us to recruit for them.” He blinked at her. “Why can’t you be a sex worker?”
“Oh, well, I’m asexual, so I don’t really feel sexual attraction to anyone,” she explained.
“Ah. Should you find a Norlon mate, they would be the same.”
“Really?” Given my own experience with being a Norlon’s mate, I’d just assumed it was all about sexual attraction.
Seiwa cocked his head at me. “Of course. Such Norlons exist, so why would they be excluded from finding a mate?”
