Tanya threw her purse onto Statkus' table and herself on his couch. She slammed a hand against the back of the seating and grit her teeth with an exhasperated growl. She snapped herself upwards long enough to kick off her designer boots, then fell back on the leather padding with her hands over her eyes. She gave off a loud, meaningful expellation of breath.

Statkus slowly made his way into the room, significantly calmer and nodding to himself. He smiled at his tired fiance, locked the door, and faced away from her as he stifled a chuckle. He sat on the front of the couch and gently patted Tanya's side.

"Hey Babe," John cooed. "How are you holding up?"

"John, there is wine in this apartment. I know there is. You want some, and you have more than one glass."

Statkus considered his options. It was sort of true that he wanted to drink. He and Tanya both already had a little at her parents' house, and if he hadn't gotten Tanya out of there sooner, they couldn't have driven home. Statkus hauled himself off of the couch, returning a couple of minutes later with Tanya's requirements. He tapped the bottom of the wine glass against her shoulder, and she finally consented to sitting up. Taking the opportunity, he snuggled in next to her, and she leaned into his shoulder appreciatively as her left hand and it's sparkling new accessory took a wine glass.

"Oh John," she groaned. "Why is my family like this?"

"I don't know."

"It's bad enough my mom has always wanted to control my life, but I never thought she had an entire scrapbook of things she wanted for my wedding." Tanya sipped her wine like it was life saving medicine. "You saw it. It was literally bursting at the seams with pictures, notes..ugh, and color schemes. My mother could not pair two colors together if her life depended on it. She even had a color wheel, John, a color wheel!"

Statkus smiled and hugged her tighter. He knew better than to interrupt one of Tanya's tirades. It mattered not at all that he had been there to witness most of what Tanya told him. There was nothing for it but to batten the hatches and wait out the storm.

"And then my sisters had to butt in. I swear, Madeline is just like Mom. They have the exact same tastes and everything, meaning none at all. John, my mother had her perfect wedding and so did Madeline, so frankly they should be happy. They don't have bad weddings to make up for, so they can just leave me alone!"

"My question is all of the kids," Statkus added, trying not to grin. "I think you told me once that you wanted a child free wedding."

"I did, and because you're the only person that really cares what I want, that's why you remember. Ugh, and Darcy was just going on and on about what kind of dresses my nieces were going to wear. And a children's chorus! Who in their right mind wants a children's chorus at a wedding? Just because she thinks her kids sound like superstars doesn't mean that they should be screeching on my day. And let's be real, we're not super rich. I don't know why Mom is so stuck on us having an orchard themed wedding inside of a hotel. Flowers are insanely expensive, and I'm not spending thousands of dollars on making my indoor look like the outdoors. Anything more than bouquets and boutonnieres is clearly a waste of money. ...Well, I guess if some other bride actually wants that crap, whatever, but I'm not wasting our savings."

Tanya sulked into Statkus' shoulder, and he gave her a tight hug in returnd. A little smile grew over his face against his will, and Tanya's frown warned him to cut it out. He grinned a little harder.

"Just think," he said. "These are the people who are going to be planning your bridal shower."

"Uggggghhh!" Tanya downed her glass and managed to stop herself from slamming it against the coffee table. "Why do you have to remind me about that? I can't stand this. I don't want any of these people controlling my life. If I had my way, then our wedding would be in a nightclub or something."

Wedding planning didn't interest Statkus, but if he had to put his foot down anywhere, he'd leave a large, emphatic footprint on a nightclub theme. Still, just because an idea came out of Tanya's mouth didn't mean that she meant it, so he said nothing, in the hopes that this idea proved merely a nomad of inspirational ether. The conversation already went his intended direction. He just had to stick the landing.

"Y'know, I always saw us getting married at the beach," he said. "Something about the waves, the waters...and since the beach is gorgeous enough, there's no flowers needed."

"John, we are headed into winter. Why would we get married at the beach?" Tanya played a bit with the button on John's shirt. "I mean, it's a nice idea and all, but weddings take a long time to plan. Especially big weddings. We could technically wait a whole year...a whole year of dealing with my mother..."

She tapped her hand impatiently on Statkus' shoulder. When she looked up into his face, it was with the cutest form of her hazel eyes. "Do we really have to wait that long? Sometimes I feel like...I don't know...I just..."

Statkus kissed her on the nose. "You just want to be Mrs. Statkus. I know."

Tanya rumpled her face, and that was cute too. Before she could make some sort of snark, her wavering lips pressed themselves together. She stared with longing at her empty glass, and Statkus handed her his own. She glanced at it and swirled it around in the glass.

"You've always seemed to me like one of those destination wedding types," John said. "Flying out to some place tropical...drinks on the beach..."

"Mom would hate that. So many of her family members wouldn't be able to come..." Tanya again fingered the wine glass without taking a drink. "You know...we could just get this over with. A marriage is more important than wedding. If...well, we could do your beach thing, but...if we did a cruise, then we could do the beach, and a bunch of other stuff besides. You said that you wanted to travel, too. So, that would count as travel."

"We could do that, yeah."

Tanya sipped. "You know, the best part about having a controlling family is that Mom will probably just organize a reception for us when we get home. It'll get that whole planning thing out of her system, and I won't have to put up with it."

"That's true."

Tanya looked up at him again. "Let's do it. Let's elope."

"Is that you saying it, or is that the alcohol?"

Tanya smacked him in the gut with a limp hand. "It's me, you goose. I'm serious. Let's just get this over with and begin our lives together and all that."

"Really?"

"Get to the office, computer boy," Tanya said, pointing her hand in that direction. "And come back with a couple of tickets."

John withheld his smile until he was down the little hall. By the time he opened his office door, a full fledged grin on his face spread out over his face. He sat down at his computer and clicked at it to wake it up out of sleep mode. The ticket confirmation, however, was not in his email. Statkus reached over to a manilla folder on the desk beside him. He opened it once more to check: two cruise ticket confirmations, purchased by proxy with the help of a friendly coworker. Statkus wasn't dumb enough to think that the FBI couldn't track his purchase history, nor that they would think very highly of him for attempting to leave his home state while their investigation was ongoing. Aldaris had contacted him; the Protoss didn't intend to show himself on Earth immediately, leaving Statkus plenty of time to finish a few things before inevitable celebrity ruined his life.

John accessed his internet. As much as the FBI would see his internet history, it wouldn't do to be unprepared for the cruise, and he could always sprinkle in a few other searches to distract them. Plus, if he had enough interesting cruise stories, he could avoid showing the ticket confirmations to Tanya and thus risking she found out his name wasn't on the payment section.

-t-

I sat at my computer, just typing. The chat on facebook listed Toby in faded letters - faded because I block my own name from being visible for chats. I'd long since forgotten why I did that. Frankly I don't know why I bother with facebook at all, aside from keeping up with a few people I wouldn't otherwise find. I clicked on Toby's name.

Bethany: Yooo...Toby, what's up?

How did your interrogation go.

Toby: ...really? you're asking me how it went?

it was lovely. tea and crumpets all around.

Bethany: ?

Toby: lol, no. of course not.

btw they can see us on the net

Bethany: yeah, kinda figured. Is what it is.

Toby: they asked me about charlie

told the truth.

Bethany: Yeah, me too.

They let you go home?

Toby: what happens now?

yes, I'm home

Bethany: Oh goodness, I don't know.

Toby: i wonder what's happening with cheonha. will we be able to find out?

Bethany: ...I don't know. We can get Charlie to look her up later on -

I blinked. Why in the world was I typing a thing like that? Toby didn't have to tell me for me to know that the FBI was watching us. I backspaced through the words and wrote something else.

Bethany: ...I don't know. Maybe there's someone we can ask.

Does Statkus knjow anything?

Toby: statkus is gone

him and girlfriend eloped.

Bethany: whaaaaaaa...?

Toby: oh yes. they are gone. decided against a wedding so got married on a boat or something like that.

he wouldnt tell me the detail so I dont know

Bethany: Bruh. Well, congrats on him, I guess. We should thinkg about wedding presents.

Oh, by the way, we broke the law.

Toby: like duh we broke the law.

Bethany: Yeah, but there's a law a about aliens. Apparently when we encounter a space something, we're supposed to quaranteen for two weeks.

Toby: ahahahahahaaha! bro weve been exposed to space germs

omg we have space cancer

Bethany: if only it could be space flu. I need to lose the weight.

Toby: dont say that. youre skinny.

I guess it doesnt matter if we quarantine or not. too late now.

...

...bethany? where are u?

...I don't want to have space cancer by myself...

-t-

It was oddly dark. Frankly my brain should have instantly known the location, but with the meager light barely reflecting off of the golden walls of the ship, only when I turned to see the Earth in the window did it finally hit me I stood in the lounge of Aldaris' ship again. Huh, weird. This time I didn't get teleported up with anything to do, so I just stood there, puzzling over my next action.

Can't imagine he'd want me wandering around, but I probably better find him and warn him that his ship is being weird again. I scratched my arm. I sure hope that he isn't asleep again. Maybe the door is locked.

Wind in the Willows is probably the world's most overrated children's book, but going over all of its flaws in my head would give me something to do. Apparently the author's son was spoiled rotten, and Toad was based on him. That definitely explains a lot. I almost sat down near the window and let myself go on an inner diatribe about the necessity of sometimes disappointing people, but my eyes first wandered off toward a dark corner of the room. And I nearly jumped out of my skin - it's a super cliche thing to say, but how else is one going to react to two floating yellow eyes in the darkness?

"Ah, sonsaengnim, you scared me," I laughed. "Why are you sitting there in the dark? Honestly, that's how people get depression."

I'd actually been referring to stuff that happens to humans, but it took me a couple of steps as I walked up to realize that maybe Aldaris thought I was talking about his condition. He doesn't like me to bring it up, so I pushed aside the thought and just reached up over his table to turn on his little lamp thing. I don't actually know how it works, but there must be a button or something, or maybe it's got touch controls - I've seen Aldaris turn it on before. I poked at it a bit, and for no particular reason it went on. The light was nice and cheery, even if it wasn't expansive.

"That's better." I lowered my hand from the table. "Alright, so you were saying that you would go talk to the planet, and there's a lot of things we have to consider. Let's not rush into anything, especially since Statkus apparently ran off to go get married, and I'd like to have a computer guy around. There's some things we should plan out beforehand, like where you're going to live. Obviously you can't just stay up here all the time, so you'll need a house down on the ground. You could live in the US because we've got a lot of nice, open country, but frankly our taxes are something else. I looked it up, and foreign nationals pay as much tax as citizens. I'd kinda like Korea, except they've got a housing crisis thing because they're just a peninnsula. Absolutely big no on Europe, though, as they're a whole tangled knot of political nonsense, but..."

He wasn't listening. Oh sure, Aldaris was looking - he stared at me with dull, flickering eyes. Wearly he sat there with his head against one of his hands, focusing all of his unhappiness at the one external target in the room. Then again, I was standing in front of the window. Maybe before my arrival he'd been glaring down at the glowing blue Earth still behind me. Either way, once I stopped talking, several seconds of staring passed, and his eyes narrowed further. A growing hatred rippled across his face.

"I despise you."

I blinked. Maybe I was supposed to be frightened, but I felt only sad. Poor guy. This whole situation of being stuck on a planet with people so different from him must be so overwhelming.

"Do I deserve that?" I asked.

"No, perhaps not." A little of the anger drained from his expression, and Aldaris' gaze fell a little downwards. "Bethany, you will not find me a pleasant conversationalist at this time. I shall need to return you home."

He said that, but he also didn't move. I've been in that mood before, though arguably to a lesser degree. There's got to be a way to cheer him up, though being real, sometimes people don't really want to be when they feel that annoyed.

"It won't be so bad," I said. "Earth is really beautiful, and there's lots of nice stuff to see. Let's go over to the Grand Canyon. It's apparently really gorgeous, and pictures don't do it justice. But anyway, don't sit in the darkness so much. You should think about going down and get some sunshine today. Seriously, you gotta take care of yourself."

Aldaris rolled his eyes. Apparently my concern was enough motivation. He pushed himself out of his chair and went through the door of the observatory. It's been months and I still don't understand those Protoss doors, but given the odd clicking and humming sounds, probably Aldaris locked me in. Well whatever.

I grinned. Here was a golden opportunity. I climbed up on one of his chairs and peeked at the table. Success! A sketch lay on the table, but in the early stages so only a few faint structure lines crossed over the page. I didn't need that, but one of the sketching pencils nearby. A few of the Protoss pencils sat on the table, and they must have been of different softness levels. Aldaris never used colored pencils, that I've ever seen.

What kind of pencil it was didn't matter. I picked one up. It was sort of like one of ours, a wooden thing with some sort of graphite analogue in the middle. Protoss hands are larger than human hands, both in size and proportion, so it wasn't a simple matter of just upscaling a human pencil. I'd have to have real numbers. Since most of us don't go around with measuring tapes in our pockets, I pulled out a dollar bill instead. American dollars are all six inches long, so I wrapped it around the pencil and made a little mark with another pencil for the circumference. Measuring the length was a little more difficult. Aldaris had already used it partially, and the cut marks on the usage end showed this. I touched it, and the wood was still a little raw.

He must have sharpened it recently. I measured the pencil with the dollar bill anyway (almost three lengths), and then ran some calculations in my head, assuming that a Protoss would want his pencil to be the same proprotion to his hand as a human would want his pencil. This is going to have to be a guesstimate, but at least a guess will be better than him having to draw with human pencils.

I put the pencils back where they had been before. Maybe he wouldn't notice that I messed with them. Hopefully. If he asked, I would tell him, but here's hoping that I could let it be a surprise. How in the world am I going to afford a custom set of extra large drawing pencils? I dunno, maybe Statkus'll chip in. Either way, I'm prepared.

I scuttled off of the chair, and moved it back where I thought it had been before. Then I went back to the window to get a good look at Earth while I had the chance. I'm about a million times underqualified for NASA work, so I should get in as much of a look at the planet while I have a chance. I sat over by the window, happily looking at my home in the stars.

I feel so blessed!

*t*

Aldaris stood outside the door, unmoving. None of Bethany's antics escaped his notice, and he did and said nothing in response. Part of him wanted Bethany to stay, to give him some relief from his oppression. Most of the rest of him resisted. She was no Protoss, and if his weary soul wanted to bother to say a few words, he wanted them to be in his own language. The little child in the next room and her merry little emotions bubbled away through the wall, interacting not a bit with his gloom, except to make it a little stronger. Aldaris closed his eyes briefly, in a moment of self control.

I am a lord of the Ara, an Aiuran of no mean rank. Nor would low rank excuse my bitterness. Aldaris opened his eyes and glanced briefly at the door behind him. Let her be glad of my presence here. Let it do her good, and those others I may interact with.

Aldaris stayed long enough to notice Bethany's departure from his art. She unintentionally made clear her intention to leave his belongings alone, so he took the chance to move along. She was correct; he did need the sunlight. Yet he refused to consider the option. the humans had told their authorities about the Kensley house, and picking out some other place of solitude without detection took too much effort for his mood.

He walked down the hall, that hall every bit as dark as Bethany had criticized. Aldaris gazed up at the little lights that lined the corners of the ceiling, and they cast their faint blue light down at him. Low power mode meant nothing now; his hope was lost, and he stopped there, leaning with one hand against the wall. The other covered his sinking face, and for several seconds despair caught him and held him still in dark contemplation.

Moments later, Aldaris forced himself back into a standing position. He straightened his posture, brushed down his sleeves, and began to walk again, from one dark hall to the next. Aldaris went not only to a dark, unlit bridge, but also a future every bit as dim and unilluminated.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- That's all, folks, on part two of the Me and Aldaris series. I think it went a little better this time in terms of story. Back when I first wrote the original version, it was frankly lacking. I hope you can enjoy what I've edited and added.

- There's going to be a bit of a break between now and part three. This is for mamy reasons, mainly because I have stuff going on in my life, including a project that I've promised myself I'm either going to finish by the end of March, or give up on forever. It's an idea I've had for years, but has left lingering on the back burner, promising myself I'd do it eventually. Well, eventually has come to pass, so now it's time to do it.

I'm always writing multiple things at once, and I've started on part three already, so there will be a buffer when I start posting part three. Honestly, if I had been on point this would have been published sooner, but spilled milk and all of that.

Anyway, after I upload this, I am going to be working on a Starcraft themed choose your adventure style story. I'm started on it, but there are a lot of things still up in the air, and I need to edit as well. I'm on reddit as BoxedStars, and I might post updates there. I'm not often on the site, but I've the intent to get people to nag me about it. I'm a lot more motivated when people are waiting on me.

The anniversary of Starcraft coming out is the end of March, which is why that's my deadline. I've made progress, but frankly I need to make a lot more. There's also the matter of figuring out where I'm going to actually post the thing, as not only does fanfiction net not allow those types of stories, the formatting for them is no simple matter.

So when you dear readers leave a review on this story, make sure to flame me for being such a slacker and tell me to get to work. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I appreciate all of you for being a part of my writing path. Look forward to good things in the future!