Page 15 of Eat My Moon Dust
Aavar butted in, noting the awkward exchange. He was always in tune with spats. “Anyway, welcome to Renata! Iswearthe humans aren’t grimy weirdos.”
“Yeah…” she mumbled, staring at the half of his head that was painted with little human patterns. They changed almost every day, and I’d bet half my salary that my daughter knew every single doodle Bree had ever drawn on the knucklehead’s old prosthetic jacks.
Not that I could blame her. Female shilpakaari matured more quickly, and she was right at that age where she started to notice the contrast between both younger men’s coloring and markings. They were pastel with jewel-toned stripes, Aavar’s being spring green and garnet red. And considering hispriya,my mechanic-in-training, was a perfect match for his infuriating flavor of humor, his red stripes glowed with virility from her constant attention.
Speaking of…
“Hey, welcome home, Hunar!” Bree said, slapping the transpo’s hull as she rounded the corner and deactivated her holobaton.
Aavar pointed at her with two finger guns. “Except this one. She’sdefinitelya grimy weirdo.”
Bree smacked his stomach with her wrench and beamed down at the spats as he groaned. “Don’t listen to him. I swear I shower.”
Aavar’s half mane hissed with amusement, roping itself around her forearm as she leaned her weight up on his much higher shoulder. His eyes left the spats, entirely enthralled by her sweaty taste in his pores.
“Watch it,” I warned, acting the boss. Aavar glanced back down at the spats and winked at Reha, taking a step away from hispriya.Her tendrils curled at the tips, pleased, as Bree leaned her palms on her knees to look them all in the eye.
“I’m Bree, what’re your names?”
“You’reBree?” Reha asked, looking the woman up and down. “The human that runs the Renata media feed?”
“Yup!” she said, wiping at a smudge of oil on her cheek. The tip of her nose was burnt from the sun, and her hair was matted and falling crooked in itsponeetayil.“I usually take one of those showers I mentioned before posting snaps though. Can’t post anything in the hangar for security reasons.”
“But–” Reha squinted, looking between the lovebirds, and I pulled the brood away, feeling an insulting adolescent observation right on the tip of her tongue. We said our goodbyes as they unloaded our crate, then I checked in with Bajora and ushered them out through the yawning hangar doors.
“Are they encoiled?” Reha asked bluntly as we walked down the footpaths towards the home towers.
“That’s right,” I confirmed, my chest tight. “You didn’t see that on the Renata feed?”
“I saw that they wereflirting,”she huffed, brow creased. “Why would Aavar coil with a human covered in engine oil all the time? Doesn’t it taste gross?”
I choked on my own spit. Reha brought up a coil’s taste without so much as a blink of an eye? The boys were suddenly quiet too, listening.
Damn it to the abyss. This was “the” talk, wasn’t it?
I cleared my throat… again. “Well, they love each other. Coiling is about more than what your partner, uh, tastes like.”
“But that’s the biggest thing, right?” Reha pushed.
I shook my head, and if mysentiweren’t already shriveling against the back of my head, it would have retreated like we were swimming in cold waters.
“Trust is the biggest thing. Your coil should be your partner… Not a servant.” I said the last part quietly, hoping that the bitterness of the last few days was well hidden. “For example, Bree is Aavar’s mechanic, and he’s teaching her how to drive a needle so they can go on trail rides.”
“So you should work together?”
Fuck.
“Uh, no. Not usually. But you should have shared goals other than–” I sighed. This was the worst conversation of my life, and considering the weekend we’d had, that was a high bar to clear. “Other than sex.”
“Ew,” Tahavir shuddered.
I absolutely agreed. Never again in my life did I ever,everwant to talk about Bree and Aavar’s sex life with my spats.
Reha walked in contemplative silence, staring at the muddy grooves in the footpaths left behind by the recent rainy season. She looked like she might ask me more questions at any moment.
To my utter relief, the few human adults we passed stole her attention instead. I made a point of saying hello to one. Her name was…Shivies-on.OrSawn…?
Obviously, I couldn’t remember, but she smiled and said hello, waving at my brood. They waved back, Ladh walking backwards to watch her go, his tendrils bunching up with bashfulness.
