The full version of this chapter is available on Archive of Our Own. Mature content warning.

Sunlight, bringer of screen glare and mortal enemy of all hard-core gamers poked its radiant fingers through the window and went straight for Nikki's eyes.

"Uffh!" Nikki grimaced and squinted against the intrusion - c'mon, five more minutes! - but the damage had been done. Her power button had been pushed, her systems were coming online and her head was filling with awareness. That newfound awareness lead to some pertinent questions, namely -

Um… Where are my pants?

Further questions bunched in her brain like passengers on a rush hour subway: Why were the bedsheets tangled around her bare legs? Why was her body all sore and sticky with sweat? Why was - wait, why couldn't she move? Something was pinning her arms around her chest! She couldn't get up!

Now panicking, Nikki's darted her neck from side to side to get a better view. To her left, the alarm clock. To her right - Oof! Nikki bonked into a face-full of blue alien boobs.

A bemused giggle trickled into her ears. "I see you've awakened."

Nikki craned her eyes up the blue body and the arm draped over her chest like a blanket. Celeste, head propped up on her fist, smiled as she ran a finger over Nikki's sweater. "Good morning."

It took a moment for Nikki to process. Celeste. In her bed. Stripped to the waist and gazing at her with a look of absolute adoration.

"Um, hi…" Nikki blinked and rubbed her eyes, not sure if she was awake any more. "So... last night …"

Celeste's smile widened and she snuggled closer. "You sang for me."

Sang? Nikki's photographic memory finally booted up. Celeste's hands exploring the curves of her body, Celeste's lips devouring every inch of her skin; Celeste's tongue -

Nikki turned away, blushing madly and covering her face. "Oh, um … wow." Did we really do … all that?

Celeste's fingers stroked her shoulder. "Are you unwell?"

Nikki turned back. "Hang on, I just –" She touched Celeste's cheek, still warm with affection. Her hand trailed lower, confirming that the soft, pleasant skin matched the sensations in her memory. Celeste flinched as her hand grazed over a scarred and mangled abdomen. So even that was real.

"Sorry," Nikki stammered. "I just wasn't sure … I mean –" Breathe, Nikki, breathe. "Wow, I just never thought I'd wake up like this."

Celeste smiled in agreement. "It feels unreal," she echoed. "Waking in such a state of happiness." The Norai nuzzled her neck. "Have I satisfied you, Nicole?"

Nikki tapped her chin in mock thought. "Let me think… I got to spend the night with a beautiful, badass bounty hunter from outer space, I cashed in my V-card, and now I'm waking up next to the most amazing girlfriend ever." She pecked Celeste on the lips. "Yeah, I'd say I'm awesome."

"Girl-friend?" Celeste frowned at her choice of words. "I hardly think last night qualifies as friendly activities."

Nikki laughed. "Yeah, I guess it's kind of a lousy term." She scooted closer, enveloping Celeste in her arms and legs. "How about …" My lover? My mate? Her eyes flashed with inspiration. "My Valkyrie!" Yeah, that has to be the most awesome nickname ever! "They're like these super cool warrior women from human folklore."

"Valkyrie…" Celeste tested the syllables across her tongue. "I could enjoy that, chiletto."

Nikki frowned. "Chiletto?"

"Hmm… Chila are a winged species native to Tendricide. They resemble your Earth 'birds'. Chiletto is the name we give to their infant form. When they hatch, so tiny, wide-eyed and covered in soft down feathers, you cannot find a more precious sight." Celeste kissed her neck in summary. "My chiletto."

"Hey, how come you get to be the kick-ass warrior and I'm just a fuzzy little bird?"

Celeste looked at her with a devious grin. "Because when you stroke the feathers of a Chila hatchling they release the most glorious melodies." With a growl Celeste rolled over and pinned her against the mattress. "Shall I make you sing again, my chiletto?"

Yes, Nikki's body panted. Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes! But when Celeste leaned in to kiss her lips they were interrupted by a rude gurgle that drew both their eyes to Nikki's stomach. Nikki blushed.

"Um, I should probably get some breakfast first…"

Standing across from Celeste in her galley kitchen, nibbling on a pop tart with nothing but a baggy sweater to protect her modesty, Nikki's thoughts drifted back to high school phys-ed. Of all her classes, Nikki had held a special loathing for gym and the public shaming circle that was the girls change room. At the start of class she'd dash in and change ahead of the crowds; when the PE instructor whistled game over, she'd linger and clean up oh so slowly, the last to enter. All to ensure no one glimpsed the flabby skin beneath her clothes, or the acne crawling up her back. She knew very well how awful she looked and reminders were redundant, thank you very much.

So what bizarre world had she entered where her she was suddenly the girl who stole your breath away? As Celeste ate up spoonfuls of yogurt, her golden eyes feasted on the sight of her barely clothed lover like she was a centerfold pin-up. Nikki could feel Celeste's eyes roving over the hem of her sweater like an alien spotlight. Her top was just long enough to provide cover but every time she moved or shifted, the flash of hips and butt sent Celeste purring like a hungry cat.

Her bounty hunter looked perfect as always. Of her alien evening gown only the leather dress shorts remained, so she'd buttoned one of Nikki's night shirts over her chest. Combined with that translation collar around her neck like a black choker, she was a mouth-watering sight.

She makes it look so effortless, Nikki pouted. That perfectly toned body, the hypnotic strut of her legs; even her mane of bed-head looked wild and inviting. It was baffling how her Valkyrie had eyes only for her flawed and flabby human body.

Maybe I can be sexy too, she thought. Maybe there was nothing to it, just a bit of attitude.

Nikki let a piece of her breakfast pastry crumble to the floor. "Oops," she declared, casually as possible, "Better pick that up."

It sounded brilliant in her mind – she'd bend over from the hips, let her sweater slide up and flash Celeste an eyeful of her bare assets. Yeah, that would give her Valkyrie something to purr over. Nikki got as far as bending when her spine protested with a sharp crack.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Nikki staggered forward, banging her face against the fridge and landing butt-first on the cold kitchen tiles. Celeste was at her side in a heartbeat.

"Are you injured?"

Her nose was bleeding from the face-plant but some paper towels made it manageable. "Ahm o-day," Nikki snuffled. But there goes my pride. How were her joints this stiff? Did Dance Dance Revolution with Tiffany not count as exercise? Were those high scores and sweat-stained shirts all for nothing?

At least she'd earned a nice consolation prize. Several of Celeste's shirt buttons had popped open when she'd bent down, giving her a nice view of a toned, alien tummy. Celeste noticed her gaze and moved to button up. Nikki stopped her hands.

"Can I see?"

Celeste looked away as Niki's fingers explored the many slashes and scars ripped into the blue skin. Her breath hitched when human hands traced a thick scar across her belly.

"Sorry," Nikki winced. "Do they still hurt?"

"Not physically," Celeste admitted. "Simply painful reminders. Hunts where I failed to react swiftly; confrontations where I thought I could let down my guard." She tugged the shirt together, closing the curtain on her past.

"Some of them are kinda neat. Like tattoos," Nikki offered. "Or maybe they're warning signs. This is what I lived through so you'd better not mess with me."

"Or testaments that the Night Wraith can be bested," Celeste countered. "But you're sweet to think otherwise." The grim look of her face had eased slightly. "Have you recovered?"

The bleeding had stopped but dried blood stained her hands and upper lip. "I should shower, I guess."

Nikki started down the hall. The click of alien hooves trailed behind.

"Um, the stall's kinda small," Nikki explained.

"Are you certain?" Celeste returned with a coy smile. Her fingers popped the remaining buttons on her shirt and let the top slide down one shoulder. Nikki sucked in a sharp gasp at the sexy little teaser trailer.

"Well, when you put it that way…"

Naked and content, they nested on the bed like a set of Russian stacking dolls: Celeste leaning back on a pile of pillows, Nikki curled happily between her legs, and her laptop carefully perched on her knees. Nikki browsed through her fan art portfolio, showing off the various monster girls and fursonas she'd drawn over the years.

Click. A blue-haired falcon girl with wings spread behind her muscular arms.

"Hmm… A Shen-to, but they only possess two upper body limbs. Also, the feather patterns are concentrated on their backs and arms."

Click. A scorpion girl with a segmented stinger tail and generous breasts.

"A … Chu'rai matriarch? But their bodies are completely covered in exoskeleton."

Click. Celeste drew back at the sketch of an upright cow girl.

"Why does she have mammary glands on her chest and stomach?"

"Ugh, don't you start on that too!"

So far, any resemblance her characters bore to actual alien species had been coincidental. Nikki intended to change that.

"How about this one?" Navigating to a separate, private folder, Nikki double-clicked the sole image, a file labelled JESSIE. Her screen filled with the pencil crayon portrait of a masked, pink-haired human with dragonfly wings.

Even now, looking at this sketch of her old love fairy filled Nikki with so many conflicting emotions. It was hard to stay mad at her; so much good had come in spite of Jessie's bullying and badgering. She'd met Anton, she'd come clean about being gay, and when she'd finally rejected the love fairy she'd felt a swell of pride for finally standing up to a tormentor. If anything, Nikki was mad at herself for following Jessie like a lovesick puppy, performing tricks for a glimmer of affection.

"Anything?" Nikki glanced up at Celeste, surprised to find her eyes wide and startled. The Norai picked up the laptop and held it close to her face. Nikki waited for the surprise gasps. She didn't expect Celeste to hiss like a cat with its hackles up.

"Cupidaemon," she snarled.

Nikki tensed. "So you've met them?"

"I am familiar with them. Officially, the Confederacy denies their existence, but I have seen and heard enough to know better." Celeste tossed the laptop to the mattress, eager to be rid of the portrait.

"Cupidaemon are extra-dimensional beings, their technology advanced beyond anything seen throughout the galaxy. It's unknown how long ago they began visiting – millennia, perhaps – but their species found a way to step between the fabrics of our realities. They 'phase' into our dimension."

Nikki recalled Jessie flying through her apartment walls as though they were hologram illusions. She tried to imagine the fairy rippling through the walls of the universe itself to visit the blue Earth.

"Cupidaemon never make contact with governments or whole civilizations but numerous worlds have recorded their visitations in legends or folklore: phantasmal 'fairies of love' with shimmering wings and a fragrance of sugar; kind-hearted spirits who appear before pathetic or pitiful individuals and bring them good fortune."

Pathetic? C'mon, I wasn't - Nikki bit her tongue. Well, maybe I was…

Celeste continued. "The stories vary but one element is always consistent: cupidaemon encourage their hosts to partner and mate. They want us to breed, like cattle."

Nikki winced, thinking back to Jessie's matchmaker games. "You make them sound super creepy. If they're that advanced maybe they just want to help us?"

"When the slavers first invaded Tendricide, my ancestors tried to rationalize it as well. They claimed that we were being visited by the gods; that only the sinful and wicked among us were being 'spirited away'." Celeste shook her head at the foolish notions.

"Every planet is a self-sufficient ecosystem," she declared. "The only reason a species travels beyond its home environment is to take the resources of another. To these 'fairies', our galaxy is simply a means to some insidious end." Suddenly, Celeste was glaring at her. "Where did you see this creature?"

"N-nowhere," Nikki lied. "It's just something I drew a while back." The look in her eyes! She and her love coach had parted on poor terms, but she didn't wish the fury in Celeste's eyes on even her worst enemy.

The hunter mulled over her explanation and settled. "Forgive me. It is a remarkable resemblance."

"No, it's cool." Nikki leaned back and though it over. Not only was there a galaxy full of inhabited planets and a government of cooperating species, but there were beings from other dimensions too!

"It's all so amazing," she said. "I can't wait to go out there and see it for myself."

"Go out?" The words rolled off Celeste's lips like a joke. "Your planet is an Idyl world. Even if travel were permitted, you would be an undocumented species. Planetary border crossings would never allow you surface access. You'd put yourself at risk of countless diseases, to say nothing of infecting the inhabitants with your own bacteria."

"But … you're okay."

"Anti-bacterial injections, customized for Norai physiology. There is no human equivalent." Seeing her crestfallen gaze, Celeste added, "You might be permitted on some of the orbital space stations. Some are continents in their own right. Lifeless, metal land masses…"

"I get it," Nikki said curtly. The stars were locked off for a groundling like her. She managed a smile, though. "I guess I'll have to settle for you staying with me."

"Remain on Earth…" Celeste looked to the star-blocking ceiling, trying to envision that future. "What would I do here?"

Nikki reared back. "That's the point – you don't have to do anything! You can stay with me and be safe. You don't have to risk your life hunting criminals!"

"Nicole... I enjoy my work. The thrill of a chase, the satisfaction of capturing my target; the freedom to go and do as I please. It's not an obligation, chiletto. This is the life I've chosen."

"Fine, then. I mean, we have bail bondsmen here on Earth. You could hunt down our criminals!"

"How?" Celeste countered.

"It's easy; all you'd need is …" Oh. She'd probably have to register as a state bounty hunter. That meant photo IDs, personal records, birth certificates, social insurance numbers.

An eerie silence claimed the room, and terror like a dark, smothering blanket forced Nikki to lay her cheek against Celeste's chest. She needed to hear her Valkyrie's heartbeat, to know she wasn't alone. Were we really that stupid? she wondered. Had neither of them thought this through?

Maybe we just didn't want to think of it. The bills from the vespa rental, all the specialty restaurants – Celeste was eating a hole into her thinly stretched budget. Against her cheek, Celeste's skin was damp and smelled of perspiration. How desperately would she sweat in the spring heat, or the summer?

What if this is our last night together?

"Celeste," she whispered, "what's the word you use when you really like something?"

"Ako," Celeste replied after a pause. "Ashi ako gi-nak. I like the colour silver." Nikki shook her head.

"No, I mean, when there's something so important to you that you can't go without. When it's gone you feel sick; when it's near you want to cry because you love it so much."

Under her cheek Celeste gave a long exhale. "Iko. Why?"

Gathering her courage, Nikki turned around and sat in Celeste's lap, feeling the heat from her sex rub directly against her own. Carefully, she brushed the silver hair over Celeste's horns and ears aside, willing her hands to stay steady. It was laughable - they'd known each other so intimately but this tiny act felt so personal, so nerve wracking, like a first kiss all over again. Her fingers reached for Celeste's ears, to remove her translator earpieces and set them carefully on the bed. Staring directly into Celeste's eyes she whispered,

"Ashi iko cho, Celeste."

Then she watched and waited, feeling like the stupidest child ever.

Celeste stared at her with open lips and glassy eyes. She was a galaxy renowned bounty hunter, a scourge of the underworld, but confronted with four whispered words, she struggled to breathe. She reached to her throat, to unclip the translation collar around her neck. It fell through her shaky fingers and dropped to the floor. Her voice was scratchy and accented without the device, but she forced the words from her throat:

"Ahy wahnt to staye wih yew, Neecole."

Relief. Nikki hugged and buried her face in Celeste's hair, shuddering out her utter relief and joy.

"This is your home," she declared, "and maybe you can't stay here all the time. Maybe you have to travel for work or leave when it's too warm, but this is where you come back, okay? This is where you're safe. This is where I'll wait for you."

"Home," Celeste repeated, fighting the tears from her eyes. "Yew ahre mhy home," and she sealed the vow with a kiss.

Far away in Glenberry's crumbling downtown, a pair of black heels clacked angrily down the sidewalk, pausing to appraise a fenced-off square of rubble and the uniformed cop guarding the site.

"Hey, are you a fairy?"

The officer turned with a twitch in her eye. Bad enough she'd pulled night shift babysitting the demolition wreckage from thrill-seeking teens. She didn't need lip from some gothed-up, drugged-out mall brat wandering the streets.

"Pick your next words very carefully, kid."

The pig-tailed princess snorted back. "Not talking to you, jackass. Look, tell Kyu that I, like, hopes she gets better or whatever? And tell her I don't need her help anymore; that I've got my life all figured out." Her eyes grew solemn. "I was like, so obsessed with finding a boyfriend that I lost track of what was really important. I forgot about the family I already had."

An evil gleam split her lips. "This weekend, my cousin's visiting from out of town! I'm gonna take him to the Fireworks Festival, get him totally sloshed and mack on him! That'll show my mom!"

The goth brat flashed a devil sign and skipped merrily on her way. The officer shook her head – kids these days – and slunk behind the fence for a cigarette break. She paid no attention to the lavender-haired girl standing behind her – not to her ancient dress, her insect wings, or the fact that she barged through the girl's body like it was a ghostly projection.

The love fairy also ignored the bodily intrusion as she finished waving to the black-haired human. "Such a strange girl," she hummed to herself, but strange was standard for a Kyu client. Her fairy wings puttered her over to the building-sized pile of scrap metal.

"Find it, Ginger?"

Like a diver surfacing from an underwater expedition, a red-haired fairy phased through the rubble with a gasp.

"Yeah, I got it, Cicely. The ship's about seven feet below. Banged up but still intact. We can let them excavate for another day or two; then we'll have to step in and grab that junker."

Cicely nodded as she served tea from a flower-studded thermos. "What's our story – FBI? CIA?"

"Why don't we say it's a joint investigation? That always gets the little earthworms squirming!" Ginger downed her tea like a shooter and slammed the cup angrily on the ground.

"Saturn's shlong, how'd I get stuck on survey duty?" She gestured to the bloody gauze wrapped around her leg. "I get chewed up by a space dog, nearly amputated, and management just throws us back out like it's a paper cut! Meanwhile, Sugardust gets a few scrapes and it's a hero's welcome for the pink puke!"

Cicely frowned. "The poor thing had more than just 'a few scrapes', Ginny. And she did come up with the plan to use the hunter."

"Ugh, don't remind me. Damn deviant probably stuck her tongue in an electrical socket just to earn some sick days!"

The pile at their back groaned and shook. Cicely startled but Ginger waved it off. "Never mind that. The foundation's still shifting so it'll keep grinding overnight." A smirk. "The look on your face, though. S'like you were one of those human bimbos in a monster movie! Eek, it's gonna get me!"

"That's enough, Ginny," Cicely pouted. She really didn't care for this planet's darkness.

"I could totally see it! Poor Cissy, quivering alone. The big monster jumps out and you'd scream, like this!" A falsetto shriek ripped the sky.

"Don't act so high and mighty! You'd be shaking too, and you'd scream loud as a baby hydra!" Cicely acted out her own terrified screech and soon the two were laughing and snorting, amusing themselves with play-screams as the debris at their back continued to quake and shift.

When a scaly fist shattered through the rubble, neither fairy could say who shrieked the loudest.