.
The doorbell rang promptly and precisely at seven o'clock. Evidently punctuality was an important thing to Eric. Of course, we weren't even remotely ready. Not like we hadn't been trying. Quick flight back to my house - which is /not/ easy flying for a seagull, but we didn't want to be tired out from morphing. In through the window. Demorph to human. Try on my purple and green striped shirt with my black sweatpants. The Yeerk liked it, I said it made me look like a reject from a Backstreet Boys video. Switched to my plain red shirt with brown jeans. I thought it was fine, but the Yeerk found it to be too plain. Then we realized we hadn't showered, so we tossed all the clothes in the corner, ran to the bathroom, showered, brushed my teeth, unnecessarily put on deodorant, ran back into my bedroom, dried off, combed my hair, and then went back to arguing about which clothes would be the best. Despite the earlier rush, we had wound up with about half an hour to agree on the outfit.
I was naked when the doorbell rang.
In a way, it seemed like the Yeerk was almost as anxious and nervous as I was. I didn't bother to actually direct the thought to him - he'd only have said he was "playing my role" - and if he noticed that I was thinking it, he didn't comment. But when the doorbell rang, I definitely detected the jitters coming from the Yeerk in my head.
«You /want/ to go on this date, don't you?» I observed. «And not just because he's a good slug motel. You really like him. As a human.»
The Yeerk was annoyed at my insight. «I /am/ living in your body, you know. I feel your desire to eat, to play, to sleep in class. Of course I share your more... taboo desires, as well.»
«Heh,» I chuckled. «A horny Yeerk. /This/ ought to be amusing.»
We threw on the striped shirt with the brown jeans - compromise at it's best - and bolted downstairs to where my mom was /already/ asking far too many questions of my young suitor.
"So," she was saying, "What's your name?"
He was stunning to behold. He was wearing a light colored shirt with stripes like mine, except that they were a random array of light yellows and reds and greens. His shorts were a dark green, looping out over the cream-colored skin of his legs like a hula hoop around a hippie. Light brown sandals showed off the pink of his toes.
"Uh, mom," the Yeerk said, "this is Eric, from my team. We're going to his house to watch a movie."
"Oh," my mom gleamed. She always got that look in her eye when I had a one-on-one night planned; she said I spent too much time in large groups like the Sharing. Yeah, mom, I thought sarcastically, I'm there so much it seems like I'm never alone anymore.
The Yeerk laughed out loud in my voice, cutting my mother off.
"What's so funny, sweetheart?" my mom asked interestedly.
"Uh, nothing," the Yeerk covered. "Just... thinking about something from class." He turned to the blond at the door. "You ready, Eric?"
"Yeah, sure," Eric said. "Oh, except my dad said that if you wanted to sleep over tonight and eat breakfast with us on Saturday morning, that you'd be welcome."
«Hah!» the Yeerk said, «he wants me!»
«Don't you think we should actually tell him that it's a /date/ at some point?» I retorted.
"Mom, is it okay?" my mouth asked eagerly.
My mom shrugged. "Of course, honey, just don't stay up /too/ late. Eric, is there a number where I can reach you boys?"
Eric gave her the number and she wrote it down.
"Bye boys!" my mom called after us. "Have fun!"
"Geez," the Yeerk said bashfully as we started walking, "she can be so... you know... Mommish, sometimes."
Eric laughed. "Yeah, it's okay, though. I have one of those, too. So, what movie do you want to see?"
Neither me or the Yeerk had given it any serious thought. He started rifling through my memories for good ones.
«What about this one?» he asked, displaying a mental picture in my head.
«Umm, no, that's porn.» I started giving it some thought of my own. «Maybe a comedy? I bet he has the /greatest/ laugh.»
«I'll ask.» The Yeerk aimed my eyes back at Eric, stopping a moment to admire the freckles on his cheeks for me. No, for /both/ of us. "What about a comedy? I bet you have a nice laugh."
I'd have blushed if I could have. «You weren't supposed to repeat THAT!»
«Why not?» the Yeerk asked in confusion.
«He's so going to think we're flirting,» I complained.
«Well, aren't we?»
Fortunately, Eric wasn't bothered. If anything it seemed almost like he blushed a little bit. "Yeah, I like to laugh. World's a better place to be with humor."
"I'd have to agree with you there," the Yeerk replied. "Comedy it is, then."
"Hey," Eric said, "have you ever seen 'the Princess Bride'? It's kind of old, but it's a really good movie."
The Yeerk searched my memory. I had seen the Princess Bride, with my older brother and my mom. It was a great movie - filled with swordplay and adventure, and most importantly, the mushy aspects of true love. It seemed like the ideal choice.
Still, just a little bit of the good will that my Yeerk and I had been sharing over the last few hours was soured by the fact that he hadn't bothered to actually /ask/ me.
"Sounds like a plan," my mouth said. "We are going to have the best time this weekend."
"Yup," Eric grinned, "I hope so."
We made it to Eric's house somewhat quickly and wasted no time rushing up to his room. It was a pretty cool room - computer on the desk, Civil Air Patrol uniform hanging neatly in his closet, model airplanes and spaceships decorating the dresser, the bookshelf, the little mini-TV.
The uniform particularly interested the Yeerk. «He is a member of the human military?»
«No,» I half-laughed, «CAP isn't really military. They're more... well, I guess I don't really know what they do.»
"Hey," the Yeerk asked, "What's with the G.I. Joe outfit?"
Eric glanced where "we" were pointing. "Oh, that, it's just a group I belong to. Pretty cool. We get called on in emergencies to do search and rescue of downed planes and evacuations and stuff like that. Kind of important, really."
We were both impressed. "Wow, that /does/ sound pretty cool."
"You should join," Eric commented. With a wry grin, he added, "You'd be one of my troops, probably. I just got put in charge of a flight group." He tapped an insignia on the collar of the uniform, a shield with three stripes. "See? Cadet Sergeant."
My mouth curved up into a smirk. "Guess I'd have to take orders from you then, Sergeant."
This time I was positive - the redness in Eric's cheeks was definitely a blush. With a weak laugh, he changed the topic. "You like Warcraft? I've got the Enhanced edition on here."
I did like Warcraft, so my Yeerk and Eric took turns playing it for awhile. As the night progressed, the Yeerk felt more and more at ease, with both Eric and me. He would repeat comments for me with not even the smallest thought. His feelings, still readable to me, were relaxed and casual. More surprisingly, I began to hear echoes of his thoughts as he had them. He was opening himself up to me more than he ever had before.
Finally, we were called downstairs by Eric's parents, who'd made us cheeseburgers and fries. We engaged in a few minutes of small talk, mostly about the team and how we were doing this season. It was a sore subject for the Yeerk because of the likelihood that the invasion of the planet would have progressed far enough by the end of the season that we wouldn't get to play in the playoffs.
It was an almost laughable irony. One of the alien invaders mourning the inability to play baseball because of his own peoples' invasion. But I could relate. I could see my Yeerk's point of view. It was interesting to consider.
The Yeerk seemed to be considering something as well, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Something was tugging at his thoughts, some decision he was trying to come to. Every so often he'd glance at Eric during one of those concentration spasms, and it was only then that I could feel some residual contempt for him. Maybe I understood better what he was going through, but that didn't mean I could condone any thoughts of infestation he had for Eric.
After dinner, we went into the living room and sat on the couch to watch the movie. I was right - he /did/ have the best laugh, and it wasn't hard to get him to use it. Even the dumb cheek-pinching joke in the beginning of the movie got a response from him.
The movie's plot was a very simple one - a boy, sick in bed, is read an adventure story by his grandfather to help pass the time. In the story, a brave young couple faces all the obstacles their environment can toss at their young love, eventually emerging triumphant in their feelings for each other.
Their relationship's beginning was an interesting one at best - it started with the girl ordering the boy around like a peasant. All manner of inconceivably harsh command was thrown at the young lad, to which he gave a single, simple answer: "As you wish." The grandfather made a point of telling his grandson that when the lad spoke "As you wish", what he meant was "I love you."
The grandson was not amused with the way the story was going. "Is this a kissing book?" he complained on the screen, getting another laugh from Eric and an internal one from the Yeerk. The grandfather assured him that someday he might not mind so much.
Eric and "I" didn't talk all that much during the movie, but we had repositioned a number of times, sitting closer to each other and getting more comfortable. During one point in the movie the man had to fight a giant to get to his love, and Eric took the excuse to put me in a headlock.
"Hey!" the Yeerk complained, poking him in the ribs.
"Just want to see if I can make you lose your breath," Eric giggled, giving me a nuggie with the other hand. On the screen, the giant was starting to collapse, the man on his back suffocating him. Surely enough, Eric stopped when the giant fell. But he left his hand around my shoulder. My body leaned further in, almost cuddling, the Yeerk barely aware that he'd moved us closer.
«Strange, this feeling,» he said uncertainly. I could feel him trying, unsuccessfully, to control my heartbeat.
«Yeah,» I said dreamily, «I know what you mean.»
Again we said nothing for awhile, but when the man on the screen began to challenge the prince for the girl's hand, the Yeerk could be silent no longer.
«Amazing,» he commented. «You have a civilized society; yet you make representations which value going against the established rules for the sake of uncontrollable emotions.»
«Powerful emotions,» I replied. «Feelings that make you feel more complete, more connected to a person.»
«And yet,» the Yeerk pointed out, «we are more connected, but do not share those feelings.»
«We didn't exactly start out on the best footing.»
«No,» the Yeerk admitted, «we did not.» An awkward silence stretched between us for a moment. When he did speak again, I didn't understand the implications of his words at first. «Maybe it could work for me,» he said uncertainly.
«What?» I asked.
«What you do. Hiding your sexuality from your society, yet embracing it in privacy. Being "in the closet", that's how you refer to it, right?» He sounded nervous and excited at the same time. «Maybe I could be "in the closet" too.»
Maybe I didn't want to be so hopeful, or maybe I just didn't get it. «You like him too, hmm? He is a very nice boy.»
«I don't mean Eric,» the Yeerk chided. «I mean all of it. You. Earth. The humans. Maybe I can like it all, in secret.»
For the first time since I'd been infested, I felt a new emotion for my Yeerk. I felt affection. «Maybe you have been all along,» I pointed out. «Your love of baseball, your attention to my mom… maybe you're finally coming out to yourself.»
The Yeerk laughed in my head, a pleasing, sensuous sound. «Maybe you're right.»
The movie screen had gone blank, the film over. Reflexively, as if we needed to feel our new bond physically, we hugged Eric tighter.
Eric looked almost through us, he was staring so hard. His lips were trembling. He cleared his throat nervously, motioning ever so meekly to the pillow on the other side of me. "Pass me that pillow?" he asked demurely.
I smiled. It happened so naturally, just like breathing. /I/ smiled. By my own will. The realization of it made my smile broaden. "As you wish," I replied softly, reaching behind me without taking my eyes off of Eric and putting the pillow behind him, leaning forward as he leaned backwards onto it. I felt the slightest pressure on my back as Eric pushed me a little closer to him. Slowly I leaned in to him and he curved his face up and our lips brushed against each other, gentle and nimble.
The smacking sound it made as our lips parted was so soft, it would likely have gone unheard had we not been in total silence.
"Did that just happen?" he asked weakly, looking tenderly up at me.
"Did you want it to?" I asked gently, running my finger along a lock of his hair. All my doubts were faded away. I was free, and I wasn't going to waste my precious freedom on doubts or confusion.
"Not as much as I want it to happen again," came the boy's mischievous reply. His disarming smile endeared me to him all the more.
"As you wish," I replied, leaning in and kissing him again. This time there was passion in the act, tongues dancing a ballet of tender, soulful affection.
«You wanna try?» I asked my Yeerk… my partner. And then, I felt control slip away from me as the Yeerk let his own feelings, perhaps similar on some levels, flow into the union of our lips. As we pulled away, control was joined.
Eric clung tighter to us, then, and strangely began to sob softly. "Thank you," he mumbled, squeezing us tightly. "You have no idea how scared I was… that you wouldn't like me… that you'd…"
"Shhhh," we offered, our brains functioning almost synchronously as we rocked him back and forth, comforting him. Could all Yeerks do this, I wondered? Was it possible to share control this completely, or were we merely thinking on the same wavelength?
«Thank you», I said, waves of affection passing between me and the Yeerk in a fashion almost similar to the kiss we'd shared with the boy in my arms. «Friends?» I asked.
«Friends,» the Yeerk agreed.
The silence was interrupted by the sound of the TV, the tape having reached its end and begun to rewind. A program was already in progress.
"…interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you late breaking news from the capitol." I sat up, staring uncertainly at the gray-haired woman on the screen.
Eric got up sheepishly and moved to the TV knob. "Damn it," he muses, grinning at me, "my first kiss and the Governor has to break in on it." His smile faded as channel after channel revealed the same determined face, the same brown podium. "She's on every channel," he commented. "Must be big."
"…state of emergency. This is not martial law. Our police, and even our National Guard forces, cannot be trusted. The news media cannot be trusted. You may not even be able to trust your friends or your own family."
It was then that we knew. We knew what the Governor was talking about.
"A foul and disgusting invader has plagued our land, an insidious parasite without conscience, without honor and without dignity." I could feel the words cut my Ye… cut Orkath deeply, each one a stab of pain. "This threat has been running rampant, like a plague of locusts, spreading unseen through our civilization for over two years now." She looked straight at the camera, accusingly, almost as if she were looking straight at us. "They call themselves Yeerks."