Alright! Back with another chapter! Now that all the crazy excitement is out of the way, I thought it was time for a bit of awkward fluff, and maybe a little backstory. :P Hope you enjoy!
Stegz wasn't sure what to do after the girl collapsed in his arms. He had a slight moment of panic, hoping that she hadn't expired right there! However, he quickly confirmed that she was still breathing. So he gathered her up, cradling her gently. He decided to take her out to Chedra and Porky to make sure she was okay.
"Whoa! Hey Stegz, you didn't knock her out, did you?" Bullzeye asked hesitantly when he saw the unconscious girl in his arms.
"What? No! I convinced her to come out from under the bed, and she just kind of, passed out," he explained, then held her out for Chedra to see. "Is she going to be okay?" he asked.
Chedra ran a strange scanner over the top of the girl, reading her vitals and current body condition.
"Yes, she's going to be fine. She's just exhausted, probably crashed after all that adrenaline from being so scared before. She'll wake up after she's had some rest," Chedra explained.
"So, how did you convince her to come out?" Bullzeye asked, getting a closer look at her now that she was safely unconscious.
"Reasoning, and being nice, I guess?" Stegz said with a shrug. If he was being honest, he wasn't really sure how either.
"Well, it doesn't look like she's gonna be waking up any time soon. Guess she's gonna have to stay here for the night," T-Bone realized.
"Let's go ahead and put her to bed on the couch. In fact, it's actually getting pretty late. We should all be heading to bed, especially now that our latest problem has been solved, for now," Chedra told everyone.
"Awww, but Chedra! We don't wanna go to bed yet!" Spike and Bullzeye protested in practically perfect sync.
"Hey, you don't have to go to bed, but you can't stay here. This girl needs her rest," T-Bone ordered them.
"Oh, okay," Bullzeye sighed in understanding resolve.
"Fine," Spike consented, but not without sounding grumpy about it.
After they had vacated, Chedra retrieved an extra blanket and pillow and spread them out on the couch in an attempt to make it more comfortable for their surprise house guest.
"Alright, there you go. Have a good night, Stegz," she told him, and followed the others to her own room.
"Okay, you too," he called after her.
Stegz made a move to lay Alexa down on the make-shift bed, but the motion must have roused her a little. She moaned in displeasure at being disturbed and curled more into him, resting her cheek against his torso.
In that moment, Stegz felt his stomach flutter and his heartbeat skip. He'd never been this close to a human before, especially a female human.
Her small body was so soft and warm pressed up against him. It was oddly – comforting. The thought made him blush, and he suddenly realized that he didn't really want to put her down. Partly because he was afraid it would wake her up, and partly because. . . well, maybe it wouldn't hurt to hang out for just a few minutes.
He sat down on the couch, resting her in his lap, and spent the next few minutes just watching her chest rise and fall as she slept. He began to feel, well, he wasn't really sure what he was feeling. He just knew that he didn't want to go to bed, because that would make the morning come all the faster. And when tomorrow came, there was little doubt in his mind that she wouldn't been real keen on sticking around.
On the other hand, if anyone were to stumble in and catch him like this, that would be – exceedingly embarrassing! She suddenly began to move in her sleep, and when she did, some of her hair fell into her face. It seemed to be bothering her, so he reached over and brushed it aside. He couldn't help but notice how smooth her skin felt on his rough, reptilian hand.
A second later, he quickly snapped it away, stopping himself right there. This was not a good idea. He couldn't let himself get attached! He needed to just put her down and go to bed. After everything that had happened today, he reminded himself again that this girl was probably going to get up the next morning, leave, and never come back! There was no point.
Even so, his body didn't seem to want to move. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy as the heat from her naturally warm-blooded nature continued to soak into him. He was just going to rest his eyes – just for a few minutes. . .
. . .
Alexa woke up feeling very disoriented and confused. She didn't remember ever going to bed. Her eyelids fluttered open to find that it was still very dark, but she didn't seem to be in her room. Nothing looked familiar. She began to try and focus on her surroundings through her foggy vision, to figure out where she was, but that was when she heard the snoring, and felt the breathing!
Several things then seemed to happen at once. Alexa looked up to see a giant – creature – above her. She thought it was some kind of monster! However, at the same time, all of the memories from yesterday came flooding back to her, and she realized it was just the green dinosaur from before. She had to quickly clamp her hands over her mouth to stifle the scream that threatened to escape in her surprise.
She then took a couple of deep breaths to try and steady her nerves and get a baring on what was happening. After a few moments, she realized that the snoring was coming from the dinosaur. He was asleep – and she was – in his lap? That was, a little strange.
Alexa glanced around to see that they were on the couch in the living room where she'd first seen the dinosaurs. She then tried to recall what had happened for her to have ended up – like this. She remembered trying to come out from under the bed, but then feeling really dizzy. Had she fainted? Well that was embarrassing! This dinosaur must have carried her out here after she'd passed out. It made her wonder how long she'd been unconscious.
She didn't have to wonder long, however, as the first glimpses of the dawn's light began leaking in through the windows, casting everything in a hazy blue. She couldn't believe she'd slept until morning! And this dinosaur – had he been holding her all night?
If the situation were different, and he'd been a handsome young man, and not a mutant, anthropomorphic dinosaur, she might have thought that such a situation would be, kind of – romantic. As it stood however, it just felt strange. She needed to get out of here!
Alexa attempted to ease herself up to try and get off of him without waking him up. Easier said than done, though. Her movements caused him to stir, and she didn't know if it was instinct or what, but he gripped her tighter against him before resettling. Great, well now she really couldn't move! What was she supposed to do now? She thought about trying to wake him up, but she didn't want to startle him, or worse, make him cranky! She guessed there was nothing she could do but wait until he woke up on his own.
Ultimately, it was the bright orange rays of sun coming though the windows that finally roused him. The dinosaur slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the light. He looked around like he was a bit disoriented himself, before peering down at Alexa with a confused look. Realization crept across his face after a moment.
"Oh no!" he said, rubbing his free hand over his eyes. "I must've dozed off," he mumbled. He looked down at Alexa again with a sheepish smile as she blinked up at him, feeling very unsure of what to do.
"I – um – " he stuttered. "I'm a little surprised that you haven't tried to leave," he told her.
"Well, actually – I did try, to be honest," she confessed, glancing down at the large, imposing arm still surrounding her.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that," he said quickly.
"So, would you mind, putting me down now?" she requested carefully.
"Oh, yes. Of course," he told her, and placed her on the couch next to him. He then got up to stand in front of her.
"Is there anything I can get you? Do you need anything?" he asked.
"Uh, no, that's okay," she assured him. "But, I think I should probably be getting home now," she said, and made a move to get up to leave.
"Wait! Um – I think the others will want to speak with you. That is, if you don't mind waiting for a little while longer," he tried to convince her.
Alexa felt too drained to really argue, even after all that sleep. What did she have to lose, anyway? So she just shrugged.
"Okay, sure. But, do you have a bathroom that I could maybe – freshen up in?" she asked.
"Oh, yes. It's just down the hall and to your left," he gestured in the direction.
"Thank you," she said and crept into the room.
She took the time to use the facilities, rinse off her face, and redo her hair. Then she took a good, long look in the mirror. Was she losing her mind? She was still having a hard time believing all of this was real. Not only did anthropomorphic, talking dinosaurs exist, but she'd just spent the night in their home – on one of their laps, no less! She'd never expected such monstrous looking creatures to be – nice, but so far the green one had been very polite. Even after that weird encounter this morning.
Alexa walked back out into the living room to see the green dinosaur sitting on the couch, presumably waiting for her. He looked stiff as a board, like he was nervous. Well, he wasn't the only one.
She moved over to join him, but sat down on the opposite end of the sofa, as far away as she could. When she did, she also picked up the pillow that was there and put it in her lap, curling herself around it for comfort. It helped a little.
She just felt so – out of place here. Like she really didn't belong, and it made her nervous and uncomfortable. She wasn't sure what to do with herself while they were waiting for the others to wake up. She supposed that a normal person would try to strike up a conversation, but what on earth was she supposed to talk to him about? Besides, it's not like any of this was normal!
Alexa felt something on her back, and she involuntarily jumped when she turned to see that the dinosaur was draping the blanket over her. He froze for a second at her reaction and looked startled himself. She blew out a sigh and faced forward again.
"I'm sorry," she told him, rubbing a hand over her face.
"It's okay," he assured her, and finished setting the blanket on her shoulders. "I'm sure all of this must be a bit, overwhelming," he guessed.
"Yeah, a bit," she said sarcastically, wrapping the blanket more tightly around her. That seemed to help too. It made her feel less exposed.
They both suddenly heard some commotion coming from down the hall. It was Porky. He was stretching and yawning, but then grinned when he saw them both.
"Well, good morning Miss Alexa. I trust you slept well last night?" he asked with a knowing smile.
"Uh, yeah, I suppose," she said, and found herself having a hard time looking him in the eye.
"And – you too, Stegz?" he asked.
"Sure, I slept fine," he said quickly, not meeting Porky's gaze either.
"Did you even go ta bed last night?" Porky asked skeptically.
"Yes, of course I went to bed!" Stegz exclaimed with a haughty air. "I just, wanted to get up early to check on Alexa," he tried to defend, but they both knew it was a lie.
"Uh huh," was all Porky's response was before leaving the room.
"Oh gawd," Alexa said in a strained voice, burying her face in her pillow to try and hide her embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, Alexa! I didn't actually mean to – but – thanks for not telling him ab–" he tried to stutter out, but she cut him off.
"Please, don't mention it," she said, but then heard him make a noise to continue. "Ever!" she emphasized firmly but quietly.
"Uh, right," he said and faced forward again.
Alexa chanced a glance up at him, and the expression he had on his face was so serious, she couldn't help but let out a small laugh. He looked back down at her and smiled.
"So," she started, trying to think of something to say to help ease the tension before she exploded. "You seem to know my name well enough. What's yours?" she asked.
"Stegz," he told her matter-of-factly.
"Oh, right. I guess that makes sense," she said, despite it seeming a little on the nose.
"And, how did you – you know, learn to do the talking, and everything? If you don't mind my asking."
"Well, it's kind of a long story. You see 65 million years ago, there was this alien named Argor from a different dimension who wanted to build an army of dinosaurs and use them to help conquer his home planet. . ."
He then went on to explain about the Quadrainians, and how they were made intelligent by their technology, but wouldn't agree to follow the evil alien. So, he mutated some raptors to help him instead. But then how some overpowered alien weapon torched the planet and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Only Chedra, the nice alien lady, put them all into stasis on her ship, and that's where they were eventually discovered just recently. Only the evil raptor dinosaurs were wanting to try and change the planet so it would go back to how it was in dinosaur times, and their group of good dinosaurs would always do their best to stop them and protect the Earth.
Alexa just blinked at him. His story sounded completely ridiculous! However, she couldn't dispute the fact that the proof of his explanation was sitting right next to her.
More commotion down the hall caught their attention as the rest of the dinosaur pack made their way into the living room. Alexa had to fight the urge to recoil. They were all just so, big!
"Hey, look at that. She's still here! Guess you were wrong, Spike," the red one with wings said.
The blue one he was speaking to just crossed his arms and humphed in response. Guess everyone had been expecting her to bolt. He came closer to her, seemingly to try and get a better view, but still appeared a bit wary.
"You're not going to throw anything at me again, are you?" he asked, cringing.
Alexa shook her head. "I'm sorry about that. Is your nose okay?"
"Yeah, it's alright," he told her, rubbing at it, and seemed to relax some.
"And I'm sorry about everything – from before. I – guess I overreacted, a little," she admitted.
"Huh, a little?" the blue one questioned skeptically.
"Spike. . ." the yellow T-Rex said in a scolding tone. "Be nice."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," he huffed.
The T-Rex came around to face her as well, and Alexa felt herself involuntarily leaning back.
"So, your name is Alexa, right?" he asked her.
She nodded.
"I'm T-Bone, leader of the Extreme Dinosaurs, and this is Bullzeye and Spike – and you seem to already be acquainted with Stegz," he told her, gesturing to everyone in turn.
Alexa opened her mouth to comment, but was interrupted by the alien lady coming into the room. She was carrying a steaming cup of – something.
"Good morning, everyone. Here Alexa, I made you some tea," she told her, handing her the cup. "I've heard that it helps have a calming effect on humans," she explained.
"And this is Chedra," T-Bone continued, in reference to the alien lady.
"So, you're trying to sedate me with tea?" she asked with a touch of humor, staring into the glass.
"What? No! I didn't mean to – I just thought it might help you feel better," she tried to explain. Alexa couldn't help but grin at how flustered she got.
"Uh, Chedra. I think that was supposed to be a joke," Bullzeye told her, noticing Alexa's reaction.
"Oh, yes, of course," she said, catching herself.
"Thank you, Chedra. I do appreciate it," Alexa then told her seriously, taking a small sip of the tea.
"So, has anyone explained anything?" Chedra asked the room.
"I was just explaining things to her, until I was interrupted," Stegz said, sounding a bit irritated.
"Are we sure that's such a good idea? I mean, what's to stop her from repeating it all to the humans?" Spike asked skeptically.
"She's not going to do that, Spike. She already said so," Stegz told him.
"Really? Last I checked she was planning on 'telling absolutely everybody'," he quoted her, and she winced at hearing her words from earlier repeated.
"She probably didn't really mean it, and only said that because she was scared," Chedra reasoned.
"How do you know?" Spike argued.
"Will you please stop talking about me like I'm not here!" Alexa finally snapped at them all. "Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. It's not like anyone is going to believe me anyways. And if I'm too persistent about it, they'll probably force me to pee in a cup."
They all blinked at her, like they didn't understand her inference. Alexa just sighed and took a long drink of the tea, before rising to her feet.
"Now, it was very – interesting – meeting you all, but if you'll excuse me I really should be getting home." She handed the cup back to Chedra and made her way towards the door.
"Hey, wait!" Bullzeye attempted to stop her.
Alexa paused in the doorway before turning to face him.
"Are you – gonna come back?" he asked.
She felt surprised at the question – to say the least, and she hesitated. She hadn't really thought about it. She supposed she still needed to work on her senior project, but – did they really want her to come back? She thought about asking, however, they were all staring at her expectantly. So it seemed like they did. All except for Spike, anyway. He looked like he couldn't care less.
"I – uh. . . I supposed so. I do want to finish my project, after all. So – bye for now," she told them, flashing a quick wave and hurrying out the door before they could ask any more questions.
. . .
Everyone was pretty much where she expected them to be when she got home. Her father and mother were parked in front of the TV in the living room, and her brothers were in their room in front of the other TV, arguing about whatever game they were playing.
"Hey! Where you been, girl?" her father asked in a gruff tone. "Off hussyin' around no doubt," he barked out a crude laugh at the comment.
"Oh now, Jon. You know good n' well that no boy would wanna have anythin' to do with 'Lexa! She's too plain," her mother 'lovingly' added.
"Thanks mom. I so appreciate that," Alexa told her, her tone dripping with sarcasm and disdain. Not that she picked up on it, mind you.
"If you must know, I was out late working on my project," she told them, and that was all she would tell them. "Not that you'd know anything about that," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that?! Don't you sass me, girl!" he snapped.
Her father had been 'retired' ever since he hurt his back six years ago, and they'd been 'living' off of his disability ever since. If you could call it living. Everyone had thought it was such a lucky break, except for Alexa. It had done nothing but turn him into a fat slob.
She was old enough to realize that they were barely getting by, but nobody cared to do anything about it. Only when things got really desperate would her mother finally get of her butt to clean some houses for extra cash. A very little extra cash. She wasn't all that great at her job.
"Kitchen's dirty from last night, and we ain't had breakfast," he complained at her, throwing an empty beer can.
"Why yes, my liege. I'll get right on that," she said with mocking respect.
"Breakfast first!" he ordered, completely ignoring her tone. They'd grown accustomed to her sarcasm, and didn't much care as long as she did the chores.
Alexa tossed her things in her room and poked her head in to check on her brothers.
"Anyone wanna help me in the kitchen?" she suggested.
"No way, 'Lexa!" one of them said.
"Yeah, it's Saturday morning. You know Saturday is game day," the other one added.
"Okay, but if I don't have any help, it's gonna take that much longer for me to get breakfast," she warned.
"Don't care."
"Yeah, we got snacks anyways."
"Fine," Alexa sighed.
She figured they wouldn't go for it, but she just thought she'd try. Hopeless, both of them!
She then went to work in the kitchen, cleaning only what was necessary before starting on food. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon and sausage – with plenty of grease!
After she was finished, she took two large platefuls out to her parents and set them on their permanent tray tables.
"Took ya long enough! Fetch me another beer too," her father demanded.
Without a word, Alexa went to the fridge to pull out beers for her parents. She had given up on arguing a long time ago. In their minds it was never too early to get drunk. After all, it was five o'clock somewhere.
"Jeff! Austin! Come get breakfast!" she shouted down the hall at them.
"Can you bring it to us?!" she heard back.
"No! Get your lazy butts out here and fix your own plate! It'll take you five seconds!" she reasoned.
Eventually they came grumbling out of their room. Each of them fixed a plate and immediately went back to gaming. Alexa then busied herself with cleaning the kitchen, and then the rest of the house. Well, most of it. She would get hollered at if she tried to do something loud, like vacuum. Not that the heavily stained, threadbare carpet would benefit from it anyway!
It was early afternoon when she finished. She grabbed some leftovers from the morning meal and made her way into her brother's room to join them. They were playing Smosh Bros. on the 64. Jeff was the oldest, but only by about a year, and Austin was a couple years behind both of them. They all shared the same color auburn hair, which her brothers wore messy and shaggy.
She watched them for a while, while she ate, and then later joined in after she finished. This was really the only times when she felt truly happy, gaming with her brothers. They might have taken after their parents in the lazy department, but at least they were willing to share. Just as long as sharing didn't mean one of them wouldn't get to participate.
After a few hours of game play, the time rolled around for Alexa to start on dinner, which typically consisted of some sort of meat and potatoes. Then it was time to work on her project and other school work for a little while before bed. Her family continuing in their aforementioned activities the entire time. It was a pretty typical Saturday, if she pretended like this morning never happened.
Speaking of which, as she was moving through her nightly routine of getting ready for bed, she was contemplating her plans for the next day. It was still a bit early to be going to sleep, but she had been wanting to get an early start, so she could get over to the museum to keep working. However, she wasn't sure if it was such a good idea for her to go back.
She actually laid awake in bed for a while thinking about it. Maybe it was one of those things where the less she knew about it, the better. Still, she had told them she would go back. She could have been reading it wrong, but it also seemed like they wanted her to come back. Well all of them except for the one called Spike. He didn't act like he was all that thrilled with her, but she couldn't really blame him. In the end, she decided that she really didn't have anything to lose. This was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her, and a selfish part of her didn't want it to just go away.
So, what should Alexa do? I guess the story would probably be pretty short and boring if she decided to never go back. . . But you'll have to wait and see! :D