Koriand'r landed gracefully in the alley between two tall buildings in a coastal city on the planet she knew to be Earth. She had escaped here since she knew the people of this planet were very similar in appearance to her own people, hoping to blend in. It had been a long and miserable two years since her father had traded her to the Gordanians, and she was fortunate to have been able to get away with her life. It was rather warm here, even in the shade of the buildings, and there was a strange smell coming from the large green box to her right. As she walked out of the alley, she noticed just how bustling the city was. There were people walking in both directions on the sidewalk, dodging her and each other as if they were in a hurry to get to their destinations, some moving in small groups talking and laughing with each other in words that she did not understand. There were also machines of varying colors and sizes speeding along the streets, their engines making loud grumbles and a few letting a dark smoke escape from the pipes protruding from the back. She noticed that each of these machines had at least one person in them, so she deduced that they must be used as some form of transportation. There were also many more tall buildings on the other side of the street. The sky here was blue, much like the one that had been on Tameran before the war, but the clouds on earth were white unlike the golden-yellow ones she was accustomed to.
As Koriand'r was taking in all of the newness of the planet earth, she heard a yell from her left, something that must've been words. She turned her head just in time for the young man that had spoken, who was riding on some sort of wooden board with wheels, to ram right into her, knocking her to the ground with him rolling right along with her.
"I'm so sorry!" said the male, as he stood up and offered his hand to her to help her stand. Koriand'r stared at his hand unsure of what he was doing or what he had said, then pushed herself up off the ground. "That was entirely my fault, I should've been more careful. Are you hurt?"
Koriand'r looked at him in confusion. She had not a clue what he was saying, so she did what was natural to her and pulled him in, pressing her lips to his. This caught he boy off guard, but when she pulled away, he smirked. "Well, hello there, pretty lady," he said suavely.
"Greetings," Koriand'r replied, now fully understanding his language, though not catching the flirtatious tone in his voice. "Please, could you tell me where I am?"
"You lost? So, this here is Old Fort Parkway, the busiest street in the city. If you keep walking down this way though," the boy pointed to her right, "you will reach the park. It's the most beautiful place in Jump City, and I'd be happy to be your personal tour guide." He looked up at her and blinked one brown eye. She was not certain what that was about. Perhaps he had something in his eye.
Koriand'r smiled nonetheless, glad to have someone treat her with such kindness. She had only experienced such before from her k'norfka. "That would be much desirable, thank you," she said.
"Sure thing! So, what's your name?" the boy asked.
Knowing she couldn't go by her given name, she quickly decided, "You can call me Kori."
He smiled at her, "Well, Kori, it's very nice to meet you. My name's Xavier Red. You can just call me X." He extended his hand out to her for her to shake, but she just looked at it with confusion. When she didn't shake it, he instead ran it through his chestnut-colored hair, then picked up his board. "So, umm, yeah. Just follow me right this way!"
At the park, Kori was in awe of the the sight that lay before her. There were colorful flowers and tall deciduous trees throughout the park. Scattered around the park were also several groups of families and friends mingling and milling about, and children at play on some equipment. Towards the back of the park, she noticed a group of teenagers playing with an oddly shaped ball in an expanse of green grass. She watched as one of the shorter males in the group caught the ball in the air then made a mad dash in the other direction, just to get tackled down by the largest male. Kori gasped, worried for the smaller one's safety, but reasoned that it must have been part of the game when she noticed the larger male help him up and bump fists with him with a smile. It was a strange exchange, but a friendly one nonetheless.
"Care for a hot dog?" X asked Kori, pointing towards a food booth near the park entrance.
This caused a look of panic to cross Kori's face. "You eat dogs here?" she questioned.
X just laughed. "You must not be from here. I promise there is no actual dog in it. You'll love it. Just trust me and try it." With that, he grabbed her hand and led her over towards the food booth. "Two hot dogs, please," he told the man on the other side of the counter. A moment later, X had paid and they were presented with two strange sausages of meat placed in a type of soft bread, with an odd squiggle of yellow topping on them. Kori eyed her hot dog carefully, unsure of whether or not to consume it, then took a bite.
Eyes going wide, Kori exclaimed with her mouth still full, "Mmmmm! Please, do tell me what this marvelous yellow substance is!"
X chuckled. "It's called mustard. And it seems a little missed your mouth," he said as he reached up and carefully drug his thumb across the corner of her lips to wipe the mustard away. He looked into her beautiful green eyes, so much brighter than any girls' he had seen before, and slowly started to lean in towards her as she swallowed the bite that was in her mouth.
Oblivious, Kori stood up abruptly and said, "I must have more of this glorious mustard!" Then she marched over to the booth requested such from the man behind the counter, who looked at her like she must have been from another planet when she continued to insist that it was not enough until he had piled about 30 individual packets into her hands. X just looked down with a goofy grin on his face, shaking his head. She was really something.
After they had finished eating, X grabbed Kori's hand and they sat there in a comfortable silence for a few moments. For whatever reason, Kori could feel a fluttering in her stomach. Was it the mustard? She didn't feel ill. It almost felt… right? She recognized having felt this bizarre sensation once before when on Tameran, when a particularly handsome warrior had come to her chambers to deliver a message from her parents. Nothing more had happened, but she remembered longing for his touch for some unexplainable reason. And that's exactly what she was feeling now. Was she having the feelings for X? She did believe so. She saw no danger in submitting to these feelings, so she slid closer to him so that there was no space between them, and looked at his remarkable face. He had a strong jaw with a light stubble covering his chin, that she reached up and lightly touched with her hand, curious. It felt soft, but prickly at the same time.
X took her touch as an invitation, turning his head to face the gorgeous specimen that he had been so fortunate to have run into that day. He had been with many girls since starting high school, but she was by far the most striking individual he had ever laid eyes on, with legs that stretched on for a mile, and a petite figure. He wanted to get to know that body better. And with a tiny skirt such as the one she currently had on, he reasoned there was little chance that she wasn't experienced. He wanted to get her alone. "You wanna come back to my place?" X asked.
Kori didn't catch on to the implications of what he had asked, and agreed. It would surely be lovely to see earthly living arrangements, especially since she would soon need to arrange some for herself.
It was a pretty long walk to X's apartment on the second floor of a downtown bar, so by the time they arrived at the wrought iron staircase outside of the building, it was already dark outside, and they had discussed many topics ranging from the proper technique of riding a skateboard — which he had tried to explain to her while helping her to keep balance as she attempted to ride it herself, nearly crashing on four occasions — to how disappointing it was that the stars were not visible in the sky over Jump City due to what X called light pollution. As X led Kori up the staircase and opened the door, he let out a sigh of relief, realizing that his parents were out for the night, probably out drinking with their colleagues from work.
The old apartment smelled faintly of some weird mixture of nicotine and cinnamon, two smells completely unfamiliar to Kori. There were items strewn rather haphazardly throughout the living room, and she noticed that the voices from bar downstairs were still audible all the way up here, with muffled laughter and clanking of glasses. The entire atmosphere of the dimly-lit room felt oddly homey to her, and she noticed herself staring at X. "My apologies," she said, peeling her eyes off of him as a nervous blush crept to her cheeks. "It is just that you are rather attractive, and no one has shown me such kindness in so long." Thanks to her heightened Tameranean emotions, she felt as though she were already falling hard for him.
X stepped closer to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Stare all you want," he whispered with a confident smirk. Kori wasn't sure why, but she noticed his face drawing closer to hers, until his lips were pressed against her own. It was odd, but strangely enjoyable having lip contact with someone without the purpose of linguistic assimilation. So, she allowed her eyelids to flutter shut and leaned more into him, following his lead. When he dragged his tongue across her bottom lip, she opened her mouth to allow it to slip inside and wrestle with hers. His hands had found their way to her bare waist, and as his confidence increased, he backed her up against the wall, his hands creeping upward toward the hem of her crop top and his lips trailing down her neck.
He was steadily becoming more aggressive, and Kori felt herself going from joyful and aroused to mortified as hands made their way under her shirt. She was catching flashes of the Citadel in her mind's eye. "I wish to stop now, please," she whimpered.
"Ah, come now, Kori. We're just getting started," X said as he roughly thrust his hips against hers, pulling on her earlobe with his teeth.
"Xavier, I said stop!" Kori exclaimed, pushing him off her with more force than she intended, sending tumbling across the floor until he smacked the back of his head into the opposite wall.
"Shit, Kori! Were you just going to fucking tease me all night?" he yelled at her. But she didn't stick around to answer. She had already ran out the door, down the stairs, and into the city night. Tears were streaming down her face and she found breathing to be very difficult. She prayed that X'hal would help her to control her emotions here on earth, or else she would never be able to blend in.
