"Alright Valen, I know you say you're fine, but I'm going in there to do an examination whether you like it or not." Kirchoff was fiddling with a series of wires under a computer panel next to the wall that seperated the lab from Valen's cell. A large amount of electrical equipment and manuals were lying on the floor next to him, in addition to a spoon that Kirchoff was using as a makeshift screwdriver.

I am fine though, he emphasized. Valen had expressed his firm opinion that Kirchoff was taking a huge risk, both at volume and at great length, but none of that was deterring him from his task.

The specific computer that Kirchoff was messing around with was the control panel to open a small hatch that led into Valen's cell. Ordinarily it was used for maintenance purposes and had an alarm that would trigger if it was opened when the cell was occupied. Kirchoff was no computer scientist, but he did do two years of Electrical Engineering at university before switching majors to Xenobiology, so it wasn't impossible for him to do.

"Okay let's see if this worked," he muttered. He closed the panel and entered a long series of passwords into the computer. At first, nothing happened.

Maybe you messed up the computer thing when you entered a password? As smart as Valen was, he was utterly useless with computers.

"No, if the passwords failed it would show it on the screen. I probably messed up with the wiring," Kirchoff replied.

You don't have to do this, you know, Valen told him again. I can take care of myself perfectly fine.

"Yes, but I want to make sure that witch didn't cause any permanent damage." He opened up the panel again and made some changes in the wiring. Thankfully he didn't actually need to solder anything, most computer systems on any sort of facility in space or far from Earth usually used easy to replace standardized components to make maintenance easier and less expensive. "If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will."

He went back to the computer and reentered the series of passwords. This time a section of the wall slid into a compartment in the adjoining wall, leaving a small hole barely big enough for Kirchoff to squeeze through, and certainly not large enough for Valen with his impressive head crest to fit in.

Kirchoff, what if you get in trouble? Valen asked worriedly.

"Relax you dumb Xeno," he said with a chuckle. "I'm confident I've disabled all the security alarms, both silent and loud, and I've locked all of the doors in here manually."

Still…

"Quit worrying," he said and crawled through the hole and popped out the other side. The room looked different on this side of the wall. The walls weren't perfectly white, but had a yellowish-blackish stain to them. He could clearly see the scratch marks on the walls from the time he came out to Valen, as well as others that he couldn't have made out from the other side of the wall.

"This place is dirtier than I realized," he said to Valen, who had moved and was curled up in a corner on the opposite side of the room.

Well it's not like I had my own personal janitor to clean this place up.

"You should have said something, I could have gotten someone to clean it for you."

Yeah, like any sane human would enter a room with a live Xenomorph in it, Valen said with a snort.

"How do you do that anyways?" he asked.

What, this? He snorted again.

"Yeah, you don't even have nostrils."

Not ones that you can see anyways.

Kirchoff laughed. "Okay, down to business." He walked over to Valen who was still curled up in his corner.

Are… are you sure you want to do this? he asked.

"Why wouldn't I? I know that you won't bite my face off." He reached out and placed his hand on Valen's head. It wasn't slimy like he suspected, but smooth and dry. He rubbed his hands up and down his elongated head and was surprised when he started to purr. He was like a giant, intelligent, deadly housecat. He chuckled and started to examine Valen's body for injuries. Kirchoff checked for any signs of unusual dents or cuts, but due to the coarse texture of his body it was hard to tell. Whenever he thought he found a wound, he would ask Valen if it hurt when he poked him. He didn't find any injuries on his arms or legs and his head was fine, but he couldn't see very well onto Valen's back, even if he was lying down.

"Hey Valen, move over for a minute, I'm going to check for injuries on your back."

I'm fine, I told you! Valen tried to shove him away from his back with his tail, but Kirchoff fought against him.

"Quit trying to change my mind. I'm already here and I'm not going to a half assed job."

He ducked under his tail, careful to avoid the spiked tip and leaped on Valen's back from behind. He wrapped his legs around the base of his tail and stretched as far as he could along his back until he grabbed hold of Valen's two lower dorsal tubes.

Aaah, what… what're you… Valen stuttered before breaking off. He stopped fighting and flopped down on the floor, squirming and purring.

"What's with the sudden attitude change?" Kirchoff asked.

Just… hurry up… mmmmh… Valen said. His words were slow and slurred in Kirchoff's mind, like he was hearing him while his ears were filled with water.

"Okay…" Kirchoff said warily. He started rubbing his hands over Valen's bumpy backside, looking for more injuries.

"Does this hurt?" he asked, pressing an indent next to one of his dorsal tubes.

Gah...N-n-no… oooh…

"Are you sure? I can get off if it hurts too much."

No… keep… ah… going…

He rubbed up one of the dorsal tubes and Valen bucked and squirmed like crazy, almost throwing him off. They must be really sensitive, he thought, I'd better get off. Careful not to fall on Valen's tail or legs, he slid off Valen's back and stepped away from him, watching him writhe and purr. Eventually he came to his senses and looked over at Kirchoff, who was watching him with an amused smirk.

Sorry about that… he said sheepishly.

"Don't be. They must be sensitive if they can make you wriggle like that," Kirchoff said. "It doesn't look like there are any serious injuries, just a few minor dents and abrasions."

Like I didn't already know that, Valen looked uncomfortable, shifting positions and squirming around as if he were trying to scratch and itch something without using his hands.

Kirchoff sat down crossed legged several feet away from Valen, not wanting to disturb him any more than he already had. He sat in silence for a long time just watching him before he asked a question that had been preying on his mind for some time. "Valen, are you sure you're doing ok?"

Yes, I thought that's why you came in here in the first place.

"No, I mean how are you doing mentally? Like, how are you handling all of this?"

Valen froze where he was and looked over at Kirchoff. What makes you ask something like that?

Kirchoff wasn't entirely sure. He just stayed silent and waited for Valen to answer.

Valen continued to stare at Kirchoff, frozen with his back and tail raised in the air and his legs and arms spread out on both sides of his body. If it weren't for the atmosphere in the room, it would have been amusing. Eventually, he spoke. To tell you the truth, I am tired. Tired of all of this. Tired of these tests, tired of this prison, and tired of all of these wretched humans! Those blasted, ignorant, destructive, hate filled, megalomaniacal, idiotic, scum suckers!

Valen thrashed his tail against the wall, making another gash in the surface and making Kirchoff flinch and put his arms over his head. Humans don't want to know me as a being with a history and a future! They don't even consider the fact that I just might be intelligent. They want to understand me as only an animal, a killing machine, a predator, and not as an intellectual mind, as a curious being, as a person!

He heaved several deep breaths. Kirchoff was shocked. He knew Valen seriously hated most humans, but he didn't know his resentment was so personal. Finally, Valen relaxed and walked gingerly over to Kirchoff. He scooted back a few feet out of instinct, but stopped and let him walk over. He walked behind Kirchoff and carefully wrapped his arms around him. Kirchoff, you have done this. You have treated me as an equal and a friend, and that is the greatest thing you could possibly give me.

Valens words were touching, but the thing that took up most of Kirchoff's attention were the powerful black arms that were currently wrapped around him. He's… hugging me? The most surprising thing about it was how gentle Valen was. His arms were strong enough to rip apart solid steel, but they held him as though he were a china doll that could break at the slightest touch. It was nice though, and he let Valen hold him for a while longer.

Kirchoff stayed wrapped in Valen's arms until he realized that he had been inside Valen's side of the cell for quite some time.

"Hey Valen, I should probably leave now, just in case anybody comes looking for me."

Can't you stay for a little while longer? he asked.

Kirchoff raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head or something? First, you didn't want me to come in, now you don't want me to leave!"

I know, it's just…

"Just what?" he asked.

Nevermind. You'd better go now.

Kirchoff disentangled himself from Valen's arms and they walked the short distance to the maintenance door side by side. He was about to pop out to return to his quarters when Valen's voice in his head stopped him, Kirchoff.

"Yes Valen?"

Thank you.

No insult at the end of his sentence, no witty comment, no play on words. Just a simple thank you.

"Did I just hear that right?" Kirchoff turned around and looked at Valen, who was curled up on the floor near the maintenance, "Did you actually just thank me?"

I'm not going to say it again.

Kirchoff stared at Valen, who was still directly beside him. He caught his gaze, then looked away shyly.

What is up with him? he thought. First his reaction when he was examining his back, the hug and now this. I'll ask him about it tomorrow after we've had some rest.

"I'll see you tomorrow Valen. Try to get some sleep." Just as he was about to climb back out into his side of the lab, the small maintenance door slammed shut.

"What the hell?" Kirchoff clawed at the panel, but it was no use. This place was designed to hold Xenomorphs after all. "Well shit."

What is it? Valen asked, sounding worried.

"It looks like I'm sleeping with you tonight, the panel closed by itself."

I assume it's not supposed to do that.

"No it is not. I have a very bad feeling about this."

Are you sure there aren't any other ways out?

"Not a single one. The maintenance panel doesn't open from this side and this place was designed to hold Xenomorphs. Once you're in, you aren't getting out." He plopped himself down on the floor and leaned back against the wall.

I'm sure you'll be fine, Valen reassured him.

"I'm not worried about just me. Once they find me here, I'm going to have to answer some very uncomfortable questions." He pulled his legs up into the fetal position and tried his best not to have a panic attack. "You're right, I shouldn't have come in here. I bet I didn't disable all of the silent alarms."

If that was the case, shouldn't the door have closed before you could even come in here?

Valen made a very good point. If the alarms had gone off, then the access panel should have slammed shut and guards would have been dispatched to his location to deal with a potential breach.

Kirchoff, what's going on? Valen sounded just as confused and afraid as he felt.

"I wish I knew," He yawned and stretched, suddenly feeling very tired. The stress and anxiety of the past few weeks was finally catching up to him. "All I know is that we're probably in trouble."

I have no doubt about that. What do we do now?

"What can we do? If they were going to kill us, they would have done it already." Kirchoff was dead tired all of a sudden and he just wanted to go to sleep. Valen looked like he had the same idea since he curled himself up and rested his head on his arms, looking at him. "At the very least, this is going to raise a lot of awkward questions. Us, sleeping together"

Valen chuckled nervously. Let's try not to worry about that until we need to.

Kirchoff nodded and curled up on the floor. "Good night Valen."

Good night Kirchoff.

And with that, he drifted off to sleep.

Dr. Nigel was not in a good mood. One might go as far as to call her mood a bad one, but that would be inaccurate. She was furious. Dr. Gavin had called her five minutes ago and requested that she come down to the Central Computer Monitoring Center, the main computer repository where all data for the entire facility flowed through, and he had made it clear that it was not a request.

She arrived at the door and slid her ID card into the slot in the panel next to the door and punched in her key code. The panel buzzed and flashed a green light, then the door swung open with a click.

The monitor was showing a view from inside of a Xenomorph containment call. Dr. Nigel looked at the numbers at the bottom of the screen with a sinking feeling in her gut. The feeling was justified as she saw the code 'VS-223' in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

As she watched, she saw the maintenance panel slide open, and the familiar form of Kirchoff slide into the room. The camera panned to follow Kirchoff as he walked over to where a large black form was curled up, then stayed in place as she watched Kirchoff closely examine Valen. Dr. Gavin paused the video.

"What is this about Julius?" She asked, her eyes still glued to the screen.

He pointed at the screen. "This is just the break I've been waiting for. This is how I'm going to get what I want."

"So what, you're going to resort to torture now?" She asked. His silence was all the answer she needed.

"Why are you doing this?" She cried. "Why the hell would you do something like this?"

"Why?" His eyes gleamed with a sudden fierce rage. "I'll tell you why. My family died because of those monstrosities! My wife was eaten alive by those things! The only reason that they even managed to identify her body was because her teeth were the only thing that wasn't eaten!"

"When I originally gave your little project the greenlight, I assumed that it was to find out was to find out what made that Xeno's mind tick, not so that you could stand by and watch your telepathic pet and your dopey little scientist perform an interspecies alien soap opera!"

He took a deep breath to calm himself and kept going. "I've made no secret that I want to take over your project Ursula. I want to find out how that creature can do what it does, and I want to be able to use it, and for that to work I need stronger results and readings. And since you are clearly incapable of keeping a tight enough reign on your little test subjects to deliver the results you were instructed to gather, I am taking matters into my own hands."

"What are you going to do Julius?" She fumed. "What the hell are you planning?"

"You'll see Ursula."

"Tell me Julius. Fucking tell me what you're going to do to them!"

"Well, since you've made it clear that you don't want to let me experiment directly on your precious Xenomorph pet directly, I'm going to do the next best thing."

Dr. Nigel felt her blood run cold at the implication. "Julius, no! You can't do that!"

"Oh, I think I can. I'm the one official in charge of this project now after all."

"It's unethical! It's inhumane!" She lunged forwards as if to punch him in the chest, but he caught her wrists as if she was no more than a child. "It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I've given the order to administer a sedative to knock both of them out. Security and transport teams are already on their way to the laboratory."

He dropped her wrists and turned his attention back to the monitor. "You're dismissed Dr. Nigel."

Dr. Ursula Nigel had to use every ounce of her willpower she had not to reel back and kick Dr. Gavin square in the balls. Instead she wiped the tears that were forming in her eyes and stalked away.

What's wrong with me? Valen thought. Until tonight, he had seen Kirchoff merely as a friend, the one person who made the burden of living in the white walled room for the past 5 months bearable. But now that he had actually come into his cell, cared for him, talked to him, and touched him, he couldn't get him out of his mind. He loved the way his hands felt, so warm and careful as they ran along his skin. His body was so much warmer than his own. He could still feel it, pressing against his own as he examined his back for injuries. It felt unbelievably good when he ran his hands along the sensitive tubes on his back. He wondered how it would feel if Kirchoff to climb back there and...

No! No, no, no! I can't think about that, Valen shook his head violently. I have to get my mind off of him.

He looked away from Kirchoff's sleeping form and tried to ignore him, but his gaze kept drifting back over to Kirchoff's sleeping form. This was difficult since Kirchoff was right there, and there wasn't too much room in the cell to ignore him easily. It was funny in a way, that he, one of the most deadly creatures in existence, needed the protection of a mere, squishy human. A wonderful, smart, caring…

Who am I kidding, he thought. I just can't do it, he's all I can think about.

He gave up and curled up on the floor next to him. Kirchoff… Why you? Why do I… why you?

Maybe it was because Kirchoff was so different from the others. All of the other humans he had met, even if only briefly, treated him like just another beast, and as a result held no qualms about hurting him. The only way Valen could have any kind of vengeance was to be surly, snarky and a general smartass by refusing to cooperate. This was made more effective by his unique ability to feel emotions and speak to people in their minds. He had no idea why he had it or how it truly functioned, but shortly after discovering it he put it to good use. Of all the people he had tried to be social with, only two of them could understand him, and only one had bothered to try and respond in any meaningful way. Kirchoff.

At first, Valen treated Kirchoff like all of the other scientists who came before him, but then he made the strange move of offering him a limited degree of freedom and protection in exchange for information, and even more recently when he stood up to Julianne. Valen supposed it was only a matter of time for him to like, respect, befriend... and now fall for Kirchoff. Kirchoff actually coming into his cell out of concern for his well being was just the final nail in the coffin. Despite the fact that he was a weak, fleshy human, Valen had feelings for him.

Not that I mind him being a human, Valen thought mischievously. Oh, the things he could do with his hands…

If only Kirchoff knew how much he had riled him up. His dorsal tubes in particular were loaded with sensitive nerve endings to detect changes in air temperature and pressure, and this made them extremely sensitive to touch. Before Valen could deal with the growing problem between his legs, a quiet hiss filled his ears. He looked around to try and identify the source of the sound. A strange scent filled his nostrils and his head felt light. He tried to stand up, but his legs felt weak and limp. A shadowy form standing at the control panel caught his attention.

What'ssss thissss now? he thought. Kirchoff, what are you doing? But Kirchoff was asleep in his cell, he wasn't operating the computer. Valen started to panic as he realized the danger they were in. He tried to shake Kirchoff awake, but he didn't move. Valen felt his vision start to fade and his mind start to fall towards unconsciousness. He only had just enough time to curl himself protectively around Kirchoff before he passed out.