She lay beside him in the sunlight of that clear afternoon. On the dewy grass circled by the wildflowers all in nap-time purples and baby blues, virginal whites and honey yellows. Her dark hair was in a long, rather messy braid underneath her; her eyes so round and green closed and relishing in the warmth of the sun. She wore a soft white cotton dress accompanied by a little blue sweater with the buttons missing. Her feet were bare and her toes painted "fairy dust" tan. Her breath was even and soft.

He watched her sleep, her whole body at peace beside him. He picked wildflowers that grew next to him and placed them in a halo around her head. A Queen of May in essence as she was crowned with baby's breaths and violets, daisies and daffodils. He stroked her cheek, his fingers as light on her skin as a bee on a petal. He kissed her forehead a thousand times, never once stirring her.

The seconds ticked by and he dared not wake her, he did not want to wake her. Minutes flew by over their heads. He laid beside her, taking loose strands of hair into her fingers and twirling it around. Black ribbons over grey skin, holding him to the ground on hardly anything.

She stirred, he flinched.

He figured it was time to go.

Standing, he shook himself free of loose grass and aimlessly made daisy chains. The whirl of engines above him was soft from as high up as it was, but did not fool him. This was no peaceful leave. He waited, adjusting his Threshecutioner's uniform as he looked at his human love on the ground.

They had met when he was only seven sweeps, when her planted was first under colonization by the Alternian Empire. They were threatened with extinction, most having been wiped out, until the Empress was killed and replaced by her heiress, who ordered the leave of the planet and forbade the contact with it's sentient beings.

So secretly, every year or so, he would visit the blue marble planet and watch from afar, the love his life at play, at work, sleeping, laughing, dreaming..

And as the beam of light washed over him, Sollux's voice crackled to life in his earpiece. "You ready, kk?"

He chewed on his lip, watching her sleep for a moment more before he was boarded onto the ship. He was looking down now at the cold metal of a well-crafted Alternian space vessel. His little human love of just twenty-three human years was lying back on her home world while they flew off fleetbound.

"Never am, Captor. Never am."

When she woke, she felt a tingling, hot sensation on her cheek. She sat up, looking behind at where she was laying to see a little halo of plucked wildflowers. Beside her was an indent in the ground, an imprint of someone her size pressed into the grass. She touched her forehead, her cheeks, her lips, and looked skyward.

Unaware of the alien angel watching over her year after year