"Valen, for the last time no!" Kirchoff shouted.

But you promised, he whined. This was an entirely new level of annoying. Kirchoff could deal with Valen's sass, he'd gotten pretty used to bantering with him by now. He could handle his anger, although a lot less confidently. One thing he hadn't been prepared to deal with first thing in the morning was a bitchy Xenomorph who wanted him to read his gushy romance novels to him.

"I know I promised you," he growled back. "But I am not going to read you that one!"

Why not? Valen complained. In his black, powerful claws was one of Kirchoff's romance novels entitled The Marquis of Mars . It was a birthday present he got from one of his brothers before they enlisted in the space marines, and as such it held great sentimental value. And it also held a lot of inappropriate things that he didn't feel like explaining to Valen.

"Because I said so, that's why!" Trying to get Valen to stop whining.

But you promised me a story, He whined, sounding like a five year old whose mother said he couldn't have the candy he wanted. If the five year old was an eight foot tall alien death machine.

Kirchoff rubbed his temples. He decided to try and compromise. "Look, I'll get some more books I can read to you, but I am not going to read you that one."

At least tell me why not! Valen's mental voice was so high pitched and drawn out that Kirchoff could swear he was doing it on purpose, which he probably was.

"I'm not going to read it to you because I really, REALLY don't want to answer your questions once I'm done reading it," he huffed. "And can you please stop your bitching! You're giving me a headache!"

What, you'd rather I sass you until you get a headache? Valen asked smugly.

"That would be infinitely preferable."

Ever since Kirchoff had woken up, he had been harassed by Valen to read him another story. Whatever Valen had experienced while listening to his story must have been nothing short of mind blowing because it was all he could talk about that whole morning. Not that he could really complain, he had never seen Valen so happy and invested in anything. Nonetheless, it got a pretty grating after about four hours of talking about Galactic Quest: Search in the Stars . In a desperate attempt to get some peace and quiet, Kirchoff had told Valen that he was going to go make a request for some books, and Valen had insisted on coming along.

I can't believe we didn't try this sooner.

"Uh huh," he said absentmindedly. They were walking back towards the door Kirchoff had come in the previous day, and which was also their primary means of communication with Dr. Nigel. It was the only place he knew of that had an intercom.

I mean, I had no idea that anything could produce images and sensations like that.

"Uh huh."

I still can't believe how vivid it all was, Valen spouted. I had no idea that anything could produce such effects in the mind.

"Uh huh."

Especially yours, he teased, nudging him on the hip. The gentle nudge was strong enough to shove him to the side, make him lose his balance, stumble on his own feet, and make him fall flat on his face.

"Classy," he fumed. "Real classy."

Sorry Kirchoff, Valen said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Valen, could you knock it off?" he shot. "I'm not in the mood."

When are you ever in the mood? Valen shot back.

Kirchoff stood up and said in a calm, controlled voice, "Valen, do you still want me to read to you? Because right now, I'm this close from never opening another book around you again."

He stood in place breathing heavily for a minute. Then his anger turned to shock at his own outburst. He looked back at Valen, who had taken several steps back from him, and Kirchoff felt genuine remorse and hurt from Valen.

"Look," he paused, then took a deep, calming breath before continuing. "I'm sorry Valen. I'm just a little tired of hearing about what happened last night when I read to you. I know what happened was very new and special to you, but I can't talk about the same thing for 4 hours without going a little crazy."

So… does that mean you're still going to read to me? He asked hesitantly.

"Of course it does you big idiot," he laughed and patted Valen's head, making him purr. With that, all the tension in the air instantly evaporated. "Just give it a rest for a while, or I just might follow through with that threat."

The rest of the short walk to the outer wall of the forest was blissfully silent. When they arrived at the door, Kirchoff hurriedly dialed a number on the keypad on the wall and waited for an answer.

Dr. Nigel was sitting in her private laboratory, furiously typing away at a computer. Ordinarily, she didn't trust computers to store her data as fast as she could throw one, but her circumstances were far from ordinary now. She had been working almost non-stop for the past three days, and she had only barely started. Then her phone rang, which could mean one of three things. One would be Dr. Gavin calling and there was no way that it could be anything less than disastrous. The second could be Kirchoff calling, which was a significantly better option. Or third, it could mean that her new filing cabinets were here, which would be the best situation. She stopped hammering away at the keyboard and picked up the phone.

"Yes, this is Dr. Nigel," she almost slurred. She had been working on three hours of sleep for the past 72 hours and she had just run out of coffee.

"Hi Ursula," Kirchoff said.

"Hi Kirchoff, how are you doing?"

"Just fine, thank you. Except…"

She sat up in her chair. "Except what?"

"Except I've got an avid reader down here who's been dying for some new material and hasn't stopped talking about it since this morning."

She puffed out her cheeks and blew hard. "So all you want is books?"

"Not just books, I mean all the books you can get your hands on, any genre, any subject. Classics, sci fi, fantasy, mystery, romance, textbooks, whatever. Oh, and throat lozenges. Shittons of lozenges."

"I should be able to get all of that in a day or so." She went back to typing, banging out Kirchoff's request on a new file. "Anything else? I've got lots of work to do."

"No, unless you can send down some toilet paper and about fifty pounds of raw meat."

"Toilet paper I can do. Fifty pounds of raw meat, no. Tell Valen that he'll have to go hunting for his own food. The forest is full of deer and other wildlife, so he shouldn't have a hard time finding a meal."

"But he says…"

She cut him off. "And tell him to stop being such a whiny bitch."

"And she tells you to stop being such a whiny bitch." Kirchoff tried to keep a straight face and failed miserably.

I am not whiny, he huffed.

"You sure are acting like it. What happened to all the sass and sarcasm?"

I don't know, maybe it's because I've spent it all on an imbecile human who won't shut up about how his rear end is itching because he's been unable to wipe his…

"Alright, you made your point." He raised his hands in surrender. "She says it'll take about a day to get all of the stuff here, so what do you want to do in the meantime?"

Hmmm, let's see, what could I possibly want to do? Valen said, practically spewing raw sarcasm as he spoke. I'm completely stumped. Do you have any ideas of what I want to do?

"I told you Valen, I'm not reading that book."

And I'm telling you Kirchoff, you don't have a choice in the matter, Valen grinned. Kirchoff gulped.

Okay, Valen said, barely containing his mirth. I have a few questions.

"Oh dear god."

First of all… Why do you own this book?

"It was a gift from one of my brothers when I was younger."

And you enjoyed it?

"A little."

I'd say more than a little. You could barely keep your words straight half the time.

"I only read three chapters."

And I'm not sure how much longer you would have lasted, it was getting hard for you to read, He could barely contain himself. It was so hard to not keel over and laugh, And I'm pretty sure that's not the only thing that was getting hard.

"Really?" Kirchoff exclaimed. "Really? Are you really going there?"

I don't know, I'm sure you'd be more than happy to at this point.

Kirchoff squirmed, and Valen savored the moment. It was good to know that he could still make him writhe and squirm if need be. Then he asked, "Valen, what exactly do you know about mating?"

Kirchoff's question caught him off guard. Where did that come from?

"Seriously, I'm curious. I never learned about it in school because so little is known about it. Very few people are interested in Xenomorph reproduction, and those that are are a little messed up in the head."

You mean like you?

"Me?" He snorted. "No, I'm just a Doctor with a Xenomorph for a roommate and a best friend."

Fair point. To be honest I never gave it much thought though. This was a blatant lie. He had thought about it very much, but never much about who he would do it with until recently. It just seemed like a distant fantasy back when he lived in a containment cell. He always imagined it would be with another one of his own kind, but now that he had time to put some thought into it, it seemed less and less likely. Obviously he was limited to males, which made his options very small right off the bat.

Back when he was living in the cell, he did have some private time whenever Kirchoff wasn't around to relieve the pressure, but since Kirchoff had involuntarily moved in with him he hadn't had much private time. Not that he had noticed up to now because he was so concerned for Kirchoff's well being, but now that there was no apparent danger to his health, there was nothing to distract him. Not only that, Kirchoff's book was so charged that even he couldn't help but feel a little stirred up.

Valen was so lost in his own thoughts that he forgot all about Kirchoff until he snapped him back to reality with a loud cough. "Valen, are you still here?"

What?

"I asked if you're alright. You just froze for a minute there."

Yes, I'm fine, just hungry, he lied again. I'm going to go hunting.

"You do that. I'm going to go exploring. You said there was a stream nearby?"

Yes, just a short walk over that way, he gestured to his left with his tail.

"Thanks," he gave Valen's head a hug, which didn't help his situation.

As it turned out, hunting was far more difficult than Valen had initially anticipated. It was easy enough to locate the deer, their scent was very strong and it only took him several minutes to locate the small herd that occupied the forest with them. Actually killing them turned out to be the hard part. They were incredibly skittish. Even the slightest snapping of branches, rustling of leaves or any kind of unexpected noise sent them running. Being sneaky in a forest literally covered in dry twigs and loose branches, Valen discovered after half a dozen failed ambushes, was very difficult. In the end, he gave up on his attempts to be stealthy and just chased down a doe for dinner. It struggled more than he would have liked, but that couldn't be helped now.

After his well deserved meal, Valen didn't head back right away. He wanted some time to think about what Kirchoff had asked him. Now it was obvious to him at this point that he felt very strongly for him and there was a good possibility of him feeling the same way, but he highly doubted Kirchoff would be willing to mate with him if it came down to it. After all, they were two different species, and he had no idea if Kirchoff would find him… appealing. Valen's thoughts drifted back to the night in the cell, before all of the crazy events of the last few days. He thought about when Kirchoff had come into his cell and oh so thoroughly frisked all of his sensitive areas. And he thought about what he wanted to happen next.

At the thought of Kirchoff manhandling him, he could take no more and his manhood popped out of the slit in his groin and stiffened rapidly. Valen glared down at his erection, willing it to go away. It twitched definitely, stubbornly refusing to listen.

Damnit, Valen thought to himself. I guess I have to deal with this problem myself.

Valen shifted his stance to lean forwards on one hand and drooled onto his other hand. When it was nice and lubed up he grasped his cock and it throbbed in response, leaking a little bit of pre.

Aahhh, he hissed. I didn't know I was so pent up.

Starting slowly, but quickly picking up speed, Valen began to stroke himself, running his hands from the head of his member down to the base. He was only stroking himself for several minutes before he was getting close to release.

He slowed his stroking, trying to savor the moment. He verged on the edge of orgasm, bringing himself as close as he could to release and then stopped just short of cumming. Eventually it was just too much and he gave in. His legs buckled and he fell to knees, his member throbbing and pulsing as he soaked the ground below him in his semen. When he finally stopped, there was a small puddle of cum on the ground underneath him, spreading around his knees in a hot, sticky mess.

I was definitely more pent up than I thought…

Kirchoff was flipping through The Marquis of Mars when Valen arrived back at the camp. When he saw him land back in the clearing he quickly shut the book and stuffed it under his pillow.

"Hey there Valen, what took you so long?" he asked, noting the red splotches of blood on his muzzle and forearms.

Devouring a deer isn't exactly easy when you have to catch the damn thing, he snarked. Irritation and tiredness laced his mind and Kirchoff thought it would be best for his physical health if he didn't comment. I'm going off to the river to clean up.

"I'll come with you, I've gotta clean up anyways."

Clean up what? You still look perfectly clean to me. That is unless you were… Valen stopped talking and looked over at him. He looked away and ignored the implications of what Valen was saying. Valen laughed, oh Kirchoff, you dirty bastard.

Kirchoff rolled his eyes and his cheeks burned. "Oh, what?"

Nothing, Valen rasped through his laughter. Nothing at all. I wasn't implying that you were pleasuring yourself while I was out hunting.

"Like you've never jerked off before when I wasn't around."

I don't know what you mean, he said, clearly feigning innocence.

Kirchoff shot him a look that made it clear that he didn't believe a word he was saying, but he decided to let it slide. "Anyways, let's go clean you up shall we."

The river was only a brief walk away from their campsite. The water wasn't particularly fast or strong, but the river was wide and the water was chilly, so they stuck to the shallow water near the rocky bank of the river while Kirchoff helped Valen clean himself off. This was a difficult process, since most of the blood was drying or dried, and it made it a pain in the ass to scrub out of all of the tiny grooves and crevasses on Valen's body.

"You're a messy eater, you know that right?" He told Valen, trying to scrub a patch of coagulated blood off of his bony shoulder blades.

Like you're much better.

"I'll have you know that I have perfectly fine table manners," He retorted. "At least I don't end up covered in oatmeal every time I eat."

Kirchoff could feel that Valen wanted to comment, but he held his tongue, much to his surprise. Somehow Valen had managed to cover half of his body in deer blood, which wasn't exactly pleasant to look at. It made his stomach churn just to think about it.

If you're so squeamish head on back to camp, Valen told him.

"Because I don't want to be hanging around a blood soaked Xenomorph when I'm trying to relax. Is that too much to ask?"

Why should it matter to you? It's not like you're not covered in it.

"Several reasons," Kirchoff counted them off on his fingers. "One, you've become very touchy feely recently, and I don't want you to ruin my clothes. Two, it'll start to smell, and it smells disgusting. And finally, I don't want to see a constant reminder that you kill things."

Kirchoff, I'm a predator. Killing things is what I do. I thought we discussed this a long time ago.

"Yeah, but I don't want to see you just as a predator all the time." He blushed a little. He felt embarrassed, although he had no idea why, and he felt even more embarrassed at not knowing why he felt so embarrassed.

Well I'm flattered, Valen said softly. They continued to bathe Valen in silence until all traces of his hunt had been washed from his body. Then they silently trudged back to their campsite in the clearing. They didn't speak at all, they didn't feel the need to. Both Valen and Kirchoff felt completely content just to bask in each other's presence. When they arrived back at camp, Kirchoff expected Valen to ask him to read to him, but the request never came. Instead he lay down on his side and extended his arms to him, an invitation he accepted without hesitation. He leaned his head against Valen's chest, his arms wrapped around him. And they laid like that together, late into the evening, until they drifted off to sleep.

Ursula Nigel was dog fucking tired. Her eyes were sunken and her shoulders drooped over her desk. Her braided hair was disheveled and frizzy, her clothes reeked of unwashed human, but she couldn't bring herself to go to sleep. Her eyes were fixated on a monitor on her desk.

On the monitor was a live video feed, which offered a bird's eye view of a small forest clearing, in which two figures could be clearly seen laying side by side. They looked completely at ease, although logic dictated that this was an impossibility. Dr. Nigel had observed this scene many times over the course of the last few days, but she had never seen the two so relaxed and comfortable before. She sipped her coffee and continued to stare at the two figures, deep in thought until she could no longer keep her eyes open.