Thank you all for reviewing!

I own nothing, this is to include characters that are the property of the creator of Predators, to include any comic series, books, or films. So. Yeah. Rated M.

OoOoOo

It caught in her chest, a burning sensation that was equal parts hope and uncertainty. Standing upon the vast expanse of an alien planet, with its unknown and moving vegetation. Her human eyes were trained on the broken mask of her Yaujta companion. And, perhaps it was best to think of him that way. A companion, a... Frie-? No. Not that, not yet.

Kathy's frail sort of smile diminished as quickly as the few life sustaining drops of water upon a stretch of desert sand. Gone. Without a trace of what once had been. Her gaze flickered back and forth between the obsidian colored,,, whatever it was that covered his different eyes. Not human.

She swallowed reflexively as her tongue stilled in her mouth. Her eyes lowered to the forest floor. A polymer? Was that the proper name for what shielded his mandible face? Was that it? Kathy felt that burning warmth from earlier disappear, just as her smile had.

He wasn't her friend. He wasn't really even her companion. Was he? Her teeth clenched, hot and sick worry flooded the pit of her stomach.

It was Gk'yaun whom broke the beginnings of a darkened decent into the deepest pits of her despair. The small promptings that seemed to take her psyche and slam it back down to where it had been after she had been thrust into this unwanted life. This cruelest of crimes and sins.

He clicked at her, waiting patiently, and she blinked. Belatedly, Kathy realized that while she had stopped, Gk'yaun had continued. His chittering was deeper in pitch. She thought, but could not be certain. Had something changed? Her sweat-slicked brow furrowed as she considered the possibility.

The woman glanced down again, to the hound that sat, quite happily, upon her foot, and to the Yaujta that seemed almost... excited? Was he excited? Kathy could not tell. Something was different in the way he stood before her. Perhaps it was a trick of her imagination, but he almost appeared taller... somehow. His focus was on her, completely.

A furling of instinct warned her that his attention was wholly on her. As if she were in the sights of the Predator he truly was. No.

No.

Gk'yaun was Yaujta. There was a difference. How or why, Kathy could only surmise that emotionally there had to be. Because she... she... would nearly be bold enough to theorize that she enjoyed the attention.

What was wrong with her?

He moved then, catching her gaze, as Kathy watched Gkyaun draw a little closer. His clicking continued, but now it was slower. Almost as if...

As if he were waiting for her to reciprocate. Or to copy. Like a parent teaching a child. Ah. A bubble of absurdity and mirth worked through her throat at the very idea. Her mind, already heavily taxed and over complicating things, flashed the image of mandibled mini-predators in onesies.

And Kathy, covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide, as she could not stop herself from laughing. Her shoulders hunched in a bit, as she tried desperately to keep from loudly guffawing at the ridiculous image.

Gk'yaun stilled, and went silent as he watched her. Her vision swam as she started to hiccup and laugh at the same time. It was vaguely painful, but it only served to launch her into another round of laughter.

Then, as she noticed that her companion had not made another sound, Kathy flushed as she looked up him. As far as his chin. Or whatever Yaujta called that part of their anatomy. For a brief moment, she entertained the idea of asking him one day. However, that day would not be today.

She continued to hiccup, her small noises seemed louder between then than they actually were. Likely because she was nearly hyperaware of the silence. He was a living statue. Scarred muscle showed on his strangely colored skin, but she knew that beneath the scarring and the differences he bled the same as any other living thing.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He bled florescent. Which was wholly disturbing in and of itself and-

"Hhuuu."

Gk'yaun tilted his head, and stared at her. She assumed, because she felt the pinpricks of being watched. Kathy blinked, and stilled.

"Hhuuu." He repeated again.

Her eyes widened as her brain supplied the idea that perhaps... he was mimicking her? It was wrong, and off. Her body chose that exact moment to give him a better demonstration.

"Hic!" Kathy's hiccup made a dissimilar noise to what he had done. She was not entirely sure how to explain to him that this was not a communication noise. This was her diaphragm contracting as her glottis suddenly closed. It was also a pain to try and stop. Not literally. Mostly it was just annoying.

"Hiiic."

Well, he was certainly closer that time.

"N-hic!" She tried to correct him, but it was not working well for her at the moment.

"N-Hiic."

Kathy let her right hand to her temple and looked at him a little hopelessly. Should she continue and try to correct the massive and hulking Yuajta? Or would it be more prudent to continue with the clicking?

Decisions. Decisions.

"Great j-hic-ob." The human settled upon after a few seconds.

Gk'yaun slightly inclined his head at her words. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from letting out a noise of amusement. At the core of the issue, she did not want to embarrass him, which was something she wasn't going to dwell upon for very long, and also that she lacked the confidence to truly correct him. Blurting out something in the heat of the moment was one thing. This was... unknown territory.

The majority of her life was 'unknown territory' at the moment, however, this seemed far more... fragile to him than to her. And, for reasons she would or could not name, it mattered to her at the moment.

Her stomach gurgled again, and Gk'yaun's head shifted, glancing over Kathy once more. She grinned sheepishly. It was on the tip of her tongue to murmur 'Still hungry', but she shoved that reaction away in favor of looking down at the hound.

Its spikes were not all that terrible, now that she got a better look at him. Or it was far more likely that she knew Gk'yaun would never tell the thing to snack on her thigh bone, that made her more amenable to the creature. However, now that she was reminded of it, she would like her foot back.

"So...," Kathy started, feeling awkward suddenly and out of place. "To move... Fido here...do I click click, or is it click click click?"

She attempted for humor, which felt flat and made the situation feel a bit more unbearable. Especially when he did not answer right away.

Instead, he warbled something and the alien hound moved off of her, his head tilted again, as if he were waiting for something.

Kathy wracked her brain. Trying to theorize what it was that he wanted.

OoOoOo

Gk'yaun chittered again, a sharp series of clicks followed it, and Kathy eyed him again, wondering what he was thinking for the thousandth time already. Since there small and shared moments over a language barrier she did not know if she would ever overcome... his speech. For lack of a better word. The soft popping sounds on the ends of his clicks and chittering.

Kathy still believed it must have been a result of his disfigurement, however, despite even that, the closest resemblance to his noises that she could manage, still sounded rather different. Yet, her attempts appeared to amuse him. Or at the very least did not rile him up or make him go all 'Predator' on her.

He handed her a portion of some plant that had been cooked.

"Safe for Oomans." He rumbled at her in a deep voice.

Kathy stared at the proffered food with still a great amount of misgiving. However, he had not attempted to force 'meat' upon her. Gk'yaun had hunted for his own food, leaving Kathy in the shade of a shallow cave. His large form had nearly filled the entirety of the opening. She swallowed heavily, half-terrified that he wouldn't come back for her.

However, she had mentally coaxed herself into relying upon him. She had, for better or worse, come to trust this Yaujta, when the rest could never be. She smiled, timidly and only doing it out of a deep-seeded need to be polite. After all, he was feeding her. Kathy appreciated that he had even cooked it for her. Though she was not certain if that was needed or if he had done if because humans preferred cooked food.

Either way, she would be grateful as long as she did not catch some horrible parasite. Kathy internally winced. She had not thought about the possibility until now, and that made her even less inclined to eat the... gray plant.

Honestly. Gray. There was not truly a color less appetizing when it came to food, in her humble opinion.

Gk'yaun stilled, and his chest puffed out. A hand reached for a weapon at his side. A low rumble of warning caused Kathy to instinctively follow his line of sight. She turned and started to back away, toward Gk'yaun. However, he had said this was a safe planet.

Therefore, she was worried and scared that he was reacting this way.

The movement is what drew her attention in an instant.

Kathy blinked. Her eyes widened and the food that Gk'yaun had so carefully prepared for her, tumbled to the ground. Already forgotten the moment she released her hold on it.

There, in the valley below, Kathy could only watch as the very distinct outline of another human managed to make the plants part.

Before she realized what she was doing, Kathy had already moved her feet to start dashing toward the other woman.

"Kathy, do not-"

"Wait!" Kathy screamed loudly. She could hear Gk'yaun chittering quickly behind her, and she jumped over rocks, and some sort of ground cover could not move fast enough. It was swished beneath Kathy's shoes as she raced toward the first human she had seen since...

Since...

"Wait!" She screamed again, nearly already out of breath as her heart thundered in her ears. She had to get to them. She had to!

"For the love of God, wait!"

Panic, exhilaration, and an overwhelming drive to pursue filled every spare inch of her psyche that was not already occupied. The swell of hope and sheer relief was so substantial that it might have left her weak at the knees, if this did not hold the potential of being her only chance to see another human.

The snuffling of the hound grew loud enough to be hear over the rushing of her blood. Kathy did not even spare a glance to know that it was at her side. Spiked protrusions jutted out aggressively and proudly as it ran alongside her.

The other woman turned, having heard the shout. Kathy's lips pulled into the largest smile of her life. So wide that it made her cheeks hurt in the most blissful sort of pain she'd ever endured.

A face she knew, slightly blurred by time and trauma, appeared startled to see her again.

"Kathy?" The woman asked, barely above a whisper.

Her eyes clouded with tears as Kathy launched herself into the woman who was not ready to catch her. They tumbled to the ground in a fit of laughter, disbelief, joy, sorrow, and more tears.

"Joan!"

They hugged tightly, not even bothering to right themselves beyond sitting up. The task was difficult, but they refused to let go. Never mind the slight bits of bruising they would surely feel later, for now nothing mattered. Another human! Someone else. Kathy's mind clamored so loudly she thought that she might be unable to think anything else ever again.

Joan ruffled her hair, as Kathy bumped her forehead into Joan's shoulder. Both of them were too overcome to do much more than make half-sobs in the back of their throats.

Until a shimmer appeared to their right, and the hound moved to spread its spikes protectively in front of Kathy and Joan. Kathy scrambled, trying to shield Joan as a unknown Predator de-cloaked.

Kathy barely managed to scream, before the hound lurched forward, jaws wide and ready to attack.