It had been a while since we took off to whoever Xefros had wanted me to see. He had been giving directions on where to go but it seems it was going to take a while. This lusus-thing had gotten a little bit tired since we left Dammek's home. I hadn't even noticed the sky up until that point. "Oh no!" Xefros said suddenly. "What?" I replied. "It's almost dawn!"
"Yeah, so?"
"We should stop somewhere to sleep. Are you tired?" Now that I think about it, I was a bit tired but I had something I wanted to get off my chest first. I gave an amused smile and asked, "You're nocturnal?" He gave a weird look as he said, "Yeah, you're not?"
"No, I'm supposed to sleep at night. I guess I really didn't notice the time until now with the whole alien-being-shot-across-space thing, y'know?"
"I think so?"
"Anyway, I don't think I'm that tired, but if you're tired, we can stop."
"There's a whole little forest area where we'll be safe from anyone who sees us. We can go there and rest a bit. Dammek would be really proud of me if he were here," He said. I glared at him. I didn't want to talk about him. So, even after all that, he still has faith in Dammek. I mean, that's fine, I guess. I still don't like him, though.
"Sleeping under the stars," I said, changing the subject. "I never thought about doing that before. I guess it never hurts to try." "Yeah!" He smiled, "I haven't slept outside yet, but I did sleep on the floor because..." His smile faded. I heard enough. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like him, but he's still my moirail and I still miss him." He sighed. "I know," I replied. We rode up to the forest area and dismounted Dammek's lusus, who I sometimes call Tessercat because he reminds me of my dog, Tesseract if he were a weird cat-deer-alien. Tessercat automatically walked over to a spot under a tree to sleep. Xefros followed.
I took a moment to admire the exotic beauty of this alien forest. In my fourteen years of life, I never thought I'd see anything like this. The forest was a shade of light blue. The grass was cyan, the trees were blue and the leaves were a light purple. Extraordinary. I followed Xefros, who was laying on the grass, using Tessercat as a pillow. He was murmuring something I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about how weird it was that I was diurnal or something along those lines. He fell silent as I approached him. I lied down beside him but turned away from him. I didn't want him to think I was creepy or weird. It was pretty quiet for a while, but then Xefros broke the silence. "I thought you weren't going to sleep."
"I'm not."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Resting."
"That's what they all say," Xefros chuckled. There was some more awkward silence before Xefros changed the subject. "You know, I never meant for Dammek to sound so bad. He's not as bad as you think. He's just a bit paranoid I guess. Who wouldn't be on Alternia? Everything's trying to kill you here." I sighed in response. "If it makes you feel better," he continued, "Dammek once said he liked it when I smiled. He never hurts me. He's my moirail." I yawned. "What's a moirail? Is that like a boyfriend or something?" I asked. "Oh, well yeah. Not in a matesprit sort of way, kinda like best friends but closer and better." He explained. "Super best friends!" I joked. "Yeah, super best friends. Sure." He replied. "What's a matesprit?" I asked. "Oh. It's like a moirail but with more sloppy make-outs." So pretty much your standard boyfriend-girlfriend situation. "Okay then..." I said before blacking out.
I woke up somewhere in the afternoon. Xefros was facing my direction, still sleeping. He looked adorable in his ... Half-fetal position. I slowly got up, being careful not to wake up Xefros or Tessercat. I moved out of the shade of the leaves. I looked back to the road. Nothing was there. Still drones in the sky, though. Wait, how did they not see us travelling along the road? Weird, but I should be thankful. I was getting really damn hungry at this point. If there wasn't anything on this godforsaken planet that resembles actual human food, then I'll starve. Unless... No. No, nope nope nope. Out of the question. Byers will remain safe and alive. Speaking of which, how was Byers? I opened up this little sachel that contained everything I bought with me. Including Byers. He was awake. I'm surprised he hasn't escaped. Jude sure did a good job training this one. I picked him up and held him. He was so still. He was also really cute. He then cooed. He was also hungry. I would try my best to provide. But I wasn't sure right now. I heard a deep, long gasp from behind me. It was Xefros. He had woken up Tessercat as well.
He was panting loudly. "Nightmare?" I asked, walking over to him. I crouched to meet his wide, yellow eyes. "Y-yeah. It was really bad. I was in my hive and then the drones came in and I tried fighting back, but I lost and, and-!" "Shh, it's only a bad dream." I hushed, putting my finger to his lips. He was starting to tear up. A weirdly red tear rolled down his left cheek. "Hey, don't cry. I wouldn't let anything happen to you. If those drones even come near you, I will destroy them with my own bare hands." I said making crushing gestures with my hands. He giggled a bit. He sighed tiredly. "You're a good friend. You know that?" He smiled. I sighed in turn. "No, I don't. None of the kids at my school like me." Xefros looked horrified for a moment. "Why not?" He asked, "You're like, one of the coolest people I've ever met!" "They think that because I'm a girl I should do girly things like buy clothes or whatever. I don't know about your culture, but in mine, girls aren't supposed to play video games for some reason or else you're a 'poser.' So I just sit with Jude and his friends." "Oh... That's so sad! Those chumps don't know what they're missing out on!" I let out a little chuckle. "Thanks, Xefros," I said. He nodded. With that, he slumped back onto a tired lusus and tried to sleep. I looked down at him for a bit. Without a second thought, I bent over and lightly kissed him on the cheek. I felt that the poor boy needed it. I witnessed his cheeks turn red. I got up again and looked back at the road, wondering where we were going and how much I was going to learn.
AAAAAH I'M BACK IT'S BEEN TOO LONG! So yeah I've been a bit busy with school killmenow sorry. So yeah, this one's just a one-shot. Unless you guys like it. Then I might make this in Xefros' perspective or something, idk. Don't know if I should ship these pale or red. Right now I'm kinda leaning towards red but I'll just have to let act 2 see to it.