Chapter 16: New Course

Six POV

Six could believe an alien civilization was waging a genocidal war against humanity. He could believe a fellow Spartan survived a fight with a Hunter in melee. He could believe a single small caliber bullet could kill a brute.

He could not believe that Shress killed hundreds of thousands of people in the destruction of New Alexandria… and Kat.

He rubbed his face and winched as he felt the stinging pain. The wound reminded him of his battle just hours ago, but it felt like months ago, decades even. Shress saved him then, and yet she glassed the planet.

He prayed that there was a mistake. To glass a planet was considered a glorious task among the Covenant, and it's usually marked by the Sangheili who did it.

Six felt confused. He thought her saving him meant she didn't believe in the Prophet's lies. But now, doubt once again was coursing through his body.

'Did she bring me up here to capture me? Did she plan on blowing the ship up? Was this all just one big sick ruse to unnerve and drive me insane?'

The ship gave a shudder, causing Six to look back at the computer and started scanning the rear point cameras. There was nothing on either side of the ship. He pondered for a while wondering what caused the movement when he noticed a small message at the bottom corner of the screen.

Alert! Shaw-Fujikawa drive is now active.

Six checked the time on the monitor and felt his eyes widen. Shress fixed the drive, probably the most complex piece of equipment humanity has ever assembled, in less than ten minutes.

If Six wasn't paranoid at the moment, he would have been impressed.

He sighed once more as he tried to sort his feelings out, trying to decide which would be best to use when confronting Shress. Six felt his heart starting to ache; to think of her in such a way is an unthinkable concept to him.

He started drumming his fingers against the counter as anxiety started to settle over him as he tried to figure out what to say. He needed to say something; he had to know for his sanity.

He heard the depressurization of the doors and turned around in his seat. Striding in was Shress, who looked quite pleased with herself. The thought of the upcoming conversation suddenly filled Six with guilt.

"I believe I fixed the drive, and may have even improved upon it a little," she said as she pulled her mandibles together, a smug look appearing on her face.

Six felt his throat suddenly dry and wished he could get some water, any kind of liquid, even recycled water, but Shress was standing in front of him. He soon felt as if he was an ONI interrogator getting ready to strike at Shress. When he thought of talking to Shress earlier, he felt anger and hurt, but now all he felt was fear.

Shress tilted her head, "Michael? Is there something wrong?"

Six choked a little, wondering how to start.

Shress approached with concern in her eyes, "Your injuries aren't ailing you, are they?"

Her gentleness and care for him wasn't helping. He gulped once, twice before he decided to be blunt and just say it.

"Shress… did you glass the planet?"

His words immediately took effect on the Sangheili before him. She stumbled away as if she had been struck, her mandibles widened and her eyes took on a look of remorse, sadness, and a hint of anger. The sight for some reason made Six feel sick, making him feel like he's the one in the wrong here.

Shress stared at him before looking out the view portal and saw what was left of Reach, but in particular the large land mass with her name engraved on it.

Her whole form started to shiver as she looked down and Six wanted nothing more than to rush forward and comfort her, but he held himself back. He needed to be sure he could trust her, wanted to know that everything they had done with each other, everything they had sacrificed for each other wasn't based on a lie.

Finally, Shress looked at him, her eyes avoiding his so he didn't see too deep into them, "Michael…I…I'm sorry."

Six sighed inwardly; he didn't want to do it but he forced his voice to say the words, "Why Shress, I need to know… if I can trust you."

Shress looked him in the eye now. Remorse was now replaced with cold fury, one that he remembered seeing when they first met face to face. He didn't feel it, but his body slowly tensed up as if knowing there might be danger nearing.

"If you can trust me?" she finally hissed out, "After everything I've done, everything I left behind. Do you really believe this has all been a trick?" her tone was a few chords away from shouting.

Six tried to remain calm and reasonable as he started to list the facts, "Shress, all I know is that your name is written on the side of the planet right where New Alexandria was." He looked at her face, "Where we last saw each other."

She began to growl, "It was the Special Operator, Michael! That's the only explanation."

Six sighed as he prepared to say the words, he knew would hurt her the most, "You once told me you would do anything to gain glory, for yourself and your family," his voice breaks a bit before he licks his lips and continues, "and you told me there is nothing more glorious than cleansing a planet."

She stared at him in mute shock before snarling, "You don't trust me, at all… After all this time I thought you did." He could see moisture forming in her eyes, but he knew it was born from anger rather than sadness.

Six felt like utter trash as he said again, "Why, Shress? Tell me why and I'll judge from there."

"You'll judge?" she asked. "I thought you trusted my judgment!"

"I do," Six began, "but I need to know why."

"And if I don't answer?"

Six couldn't reply; he didn't like the options that question left him.

She snarled before saying, "Turn this ship around and leave me on the planet if you don't trust me."

Now Six felt anger building as well, "It's a simple question, Shress, just answer it."

"I won't and I won't travel with someone who clearly sees me as his enemy." She said fiercely.

"I don't see you as the enemy. I just need this answer."

"Why? So you can know if you trust me or not?" she demanded.

"I need to know why so many people died by your hand Shress, including one of my teammates, one of my sisters," Six finally yelled.

Shress stared at him for a bit before growling once more, "I'm sorry to leave you disappointed then."

She turned and started heading to the door. Six had no idea where she was going, but he didn't want her to leave, something within was telling him he couldn't let her leave, almost as if he depended on her.

Six stood and said, "Shress, please just answer. I don't want to lose you."

The words stopped her advancement, pondering his words. Minutes passed, but neither moved, not Six or Shress, each as still as statues.

Finally, Shress looked over her shoulder, not all the way so he could see her eyes as she asked, "Why?"

Six let out a heavy sigh, "You're all I got left, Shress, the only good thing I have left." he continued staring at the back of her helmet, "I want you to stay; I don't want to lose you, not again, not ever."

Shress figure shook again before she looked over her shoulder fully and stared at him in his eyes and she looked taken aback when she saw the tears that were forming in Six's eyes, but he didn't care at that moment. He was suddenly feeling desperate. He let go of his pride and looked at Shress, wondering what she would say.

Shress slowly turned around as she asked, "Is that true?"

Six nods, "I want to trust you. I want you to come with me..."

Shress glanced away for a moment before her slit eyes met Six's again, her own eyes growing wet a little as she said, "I didn't want to kill anyone that night." Six nodded his head and gestured for her to continue. She sighed as she said, "Michael…I would never willingly hurt you, but on that night, I was forced to."

Six sighed as he replied, "No one can force you to do anything, Shress."

She looked up at him, the pain renewed in her eyes as she cried, "Yes they can and they did!" she calmed down a little as she whispered, "They said they would shame my family, my mother, and father…that they would destroy our lineage."

She looked back at Six, "You studied us, Michael, you heard it from me: our heritage, our bloodline is all that matters to us. To be wiped off the pages of history with nothing but disgrace was a fate worse than death, not only would I suffer… but so would my family and the younglings that will not be born."

"Wait," Six interrupted. "What do you mean? What younglings?"

Shress sighed, "If there is ever an infraction, then the family will be ordered to stop mating, stop producing young so that the family name will die… a fate that my parents now must face… because I saved you."

Six felt his stomach drop; he couldn't help but feel responsible for all that Shress has just said, all that she had just revealed. The fate does sound horrible, and worse, she knew it was going to happen, especially now, because of him. No spy would ever make a sacrifice that great, especially if that person was as honorable as Shress.

Six carefully moved forward, causing Shress to look as she wondered what he was doing. Steadily, the Spartan walked towards her, slightly stumbling but she held out her arm and he grabbed it for support. Six's hand remains locked on Shress's arm and they look into each other's eyes. Shress isn't sure how, but she realized the message Six was trying to send her. Without hesitation she stepped closer and they wrapped each other in an embrace. Once more Six placed his face against her neck while she rested her head on top of his.

Six let out a sigh before saying, "I'm sorry."

Shress lowered her mouth a little until her maw brushed his ear. "It is alright, Michael…I probably would have done the same thing if we switched our positions," Six had no idea why, but he shivered slightly when he felt her mandibles move against his skin. He wasn't afraid of her, he was… nervous?

He didn't think much of it as it was his turn to nuzzle her neck, he felt tempted to kiss her again but he still had no idea how she felt about the first one. He became nervous once more and that was enough to cause him to break away from her, reluctantly so; the feel of her skin against his face felt so great.

She looked disappointed too but hid it well as she asked, "So where do we go now?"

Six thought for a moment before saying, "Well, unless you know any other place we can go, I suppose we can head to… Earth," he finally said and looked up to see her reaction.

He watched her mandibles open wide as she registered his words. For years the Covenant has been hunting for Earth, making it their obsession to find it, believing destroying the human race would mean destroying their home world. That had been Six's original plan and with the trusting issues settled, he now felt confident in Shress keeping his world's location a secret.

Shress looked down in a shy manner before looking up at Six once more, "I know we just… discussed it but… do you really trust me that much to take me to your homeworld?"

Six shrugged, "Well where else are we going to go? Most of our colonies are…" his voice died as he tried to think of something to say, but Shress knew what he was going to say and finished it for him as she lowered her head, "Glass."

Six gulped, "Shress, I trust you with my life. It was stupid of me to think otherwise a few minutes ago." Here it was his turn to look down. "I hope you can forgive me for that."

Shress laid a hand on his shoulder as she responded, "Of course," in such a warm voice that Six instantly cheered up. He looked up at her and she looked down at him. Six felt slightly annoyed by this; he's used to being the tallest person around, but he didn't mind that much.

Breaking eye contact, Six turned back to the console behind him and slid back into the chair. As he started typing in commands, he asked, "So how long will it take us to get to Earth if you "bettered" the slip space drive?"

Shress chuckled at the sarcasm in his voice as she thought for a moment, "I do not know…how long is a unit by human's standards?"

Six paused in his typing as he looked back at Shress, "I thought you used units to measure the time?"

"We used units to measure just about everything… do humans not do the same?"

Six shook his head, "No. Humans have different ways of measuring the time and length of an object or the distance between two points."

"Then… how do you keep track of all those calculations without becoming confused?"

"Oh, it's confusing all right," agreed Six.

"Then why don't you use a single system for measurements?"

Six shrugged, "I don't know, I guess people just prefer to use whatever method they find easiest for them."

Shress shook her head, "well, if I had to guess, then how long would it take this craft to reach Earth without the modifications I made?"

"With this Prowler?" Six asked. "I would say about a month, two if we run into any technical troubles along the way."

Now it was Shress's turn to think before concluding, "I believe it may take only a few days to reach our destination."

"A few days?!" Six could hardly believe it. Reach was at least ten light years away from Earth. The fastest it usually took to travel was a little under a month, but a few days? That's just unbelievable.

Six checked the monitor again before saying, "Well we definitely have enough food and supplies to last us the trip, the cryo tubes were damaged, but I guess we won't need them."

"Cryo tubes?"

"I'll explain later," Six said before he yawned. "Let me get us going first, and I hope you won't mind me sleeping."

Shress shook her head. "Not at all," she said as she stepped up next to Six and peers at what he was doing.

Six typed in the coordinates and couldn't help but feel sweat beginning to build every time his fingers struck a key. He was really doing it, revealing the location of Earth to a member of the nonhuman race, a direct violation of the Cole Protocol. If it wasn't for the fact that he already broke a hundred UNSC codes by now, Six probably would have shot himself for insubordination right then and there.

He hesitated as his finger hovered over the icon 'enter.' Did he trust her? He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and for some reason, just by seeing her, thinking about her, he knew the answer. With a quick "click" he pressed the button.

Six felt the familiar sensation beginning to take over. The hair on the back of his neck began to rise; he was slowly being pushed back into his seat and the view ports were starting to dim, blocking out the stars.

He saw Shress tensing as she glanced around in what he guessed was confusion before he said, "I would hang on to something if I were you."

Shress gave him a strange look before grabbing onto the back of the copilot chair. Six felt himself being pushed into the folds of the leather as the space drive was getting ready for the jump. At the last moment Six looked out the view port before the image disappeared entirely.

He watched what used to be Reach as it completed its rotation once more. The pleasant world that many people had called the jewel of the UNSC was now gone. A scorched planet remained. that doesn't look a thing like its former self. The oceans had been dried up, the land burned, and countless people died meaningless deaths for a false 'Great Journey.'

Six didn't want to be on Reach, he never wanted to be part of a team, he preferred to work on his own just as he always had. Now, as he left, he realized Reach had become a part of him. He may not have been trained or lived there like the Spartan II's, but when you risk your life for something you tend to grow close to it. It was also the burial place of his newfound brothers and sister. He didn't come to rely on or become close to anyone for years. That was one thing Reach did for him, retaught him the art of teamwork. Six thought of Shress; Reach also taught a whole new concept of teamwork, one that might actually help save humanity.

Those were his final thoughts as he heard the boom, and he was pushed against the seat. Everything outside was gone.

They were in slipspace.

Shress POV

Shress was reeling from the force of the jump, clinging onto a piece of metal pipe hanging above her. She hung on with a tight grip, causing the piece of machinery to bend as she applied pressure to keep herself from being thrown back.

Finally the force slowly disappeared and Shress loosened her grip. She breathed a silent sigh of relief as she turned back to face Michael.

"Now I understand why you humans call travel through the warp space a jump, that's what it feels like is happening when you travel through such methods," she said with a smile, feeling happy to be away from the planet.

Away from the Covenant.

The human doesn't reply, Shress stepped forward to take a closer look when he began to fall out of his seat. Moving quickly, Shress caught Michael, brought him closer to her and propped him up against her knee. He was barely breathing and his eyes were closed.

"Michael!" she called in fear, but the Spartan slowly opened his eyes as he stared up at Shress.

His green eyes narrowed as if he was trying to focus before he let out a sigh and offered her a weak smile before saying, "I guess I'm more tired than I thought I was."

Shress let out a sigh before pulling him close to her chest, feeling happy to know there was nothing wrong with him. She felt Michael trying to hug her back, a near impossible feat with him pressed up against her armor and her knee. Suddenly the memory of them hugging goes through her head, before she felt a wet yet pleasant sensation on her neck, she forced the thought away as she attempted to focus on the present. She slowly pulled him away and gently helped him back to his feet.

She grew concerned again when she saw his legs actually shaking, so she had him lean against her. He resisted for a moment, trying to stand on his own as he muttered, "I'm fine." His small act for independence earned him a snarl from Shress until he, reluctantly, placed an arm around Shress's shoulders and leaned against her.

"And you scold me for acting alone," she said accusingly as she looked down on the human.

"Well nobody's perfect," defended Michael as he looked up at her with defiant eyes.

Shress sighed and shook her head, 'males,' she thought. 'They are all the same when it comes to their pride.'

"So where are your dwelling quarters?" she finally asked him.

"My what?"

"Where do you rest?" she tried again.

Michael pointed to the door, "Down the hall. It should be the first door on the left."

Shress nodded and pulled him up a little more as she followed his instructions as she proceeded towards the door. It opened as they neared, Shress reminded herself to ask Michael how they worked exactly before focusing on the task. As far as she could tell, the ship, the prowler, was a sleek and narrow vessel with a single hallway making up its main body. Along the corridor were a total of six doors; one on the right was the hatch to the outside, the one in the back led to the engine room, and now, she guessed, the first door on her left were the dwelling quarters.

She paused at the door; it didn't open as she got closer like how the others had. She stood there, unsure how to work it. The panel on the right had multiple buttons and all in their strange numeral system and not a single command was listed. Finally Michael lazily raised his hand and typed in a few numbers.

2-5-3-9-1.

"Use this code if you want to explore the ship," Michael said as he allowed his arm to drop.

"Why do you humans make things so complicated?" Shress mumbled under her breath as the door opened and they stepped inside.

Shress quickly looked over the room, unsure of what to make of it. It had what looked like a bed pushed into one corner and a strange looking table pushed into the other, both resting on metallic legs, not hover technology that was common on Sanghelios. The floor was covered in a strange fabric that was colored red and looked like the fur of some creature. There were two additional openings that she peeked into as they passed them; one was no more than a smaller room with what looked like a chest with strange fabric poking out from them. The other room had strange furnishings, consisting of what looked like a large bowl in the corner, a smaller basin on a counter and an even larger container taking up a lot of space on one side of the room. She looked around in wonder; she had a lot of things to ask Michael.

She glanced nervously at the bed, unsure if it could support the weight of her friend, but carefully she lowered him down on the covers, tensing when she heard the legs groan before it disappeared. She sighed as she looked down at Michael who looked as if he was already fast asleep. She ran a hand over his head in one quick stroke before turning to leave when Michael's voice stopped her, "Shress?"

She paused and snarled at herself, feeling foolish again for messing with his fur. Slowly, she turned around to face Michael who was now sitting up and seemed to be studying the bed he was on, looking nervous.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering why he looked concerned.

His green eyes peered into hers before he replied, "Nothing, it's just that this is an officer's bed… but I suppose it's alright. I'm the highest rank here."

"Oh, really?" questioned Shress, giving him an annoyed glance.

He chuckled lightly before looking up at her again, "Can you help me with something?"

Shress stepped forward, eager to assist in any way, "Of course, I'll help you with whatever you need."

Michael smiled in gratitude as he asked, "Can you help me take off my armor?"

Shress felt her mandibles opening, her eyes widening, and her form starting to shake.

'Did he just ask me to help undress him?' This was a common chore for house mistresses whose husbands needed assistance when they put on or took off their armor. But this wasn't common. House mistresses were mated to their husbands. Shress and Michael… 'We're friends,' she tried to tell herself. 'Or are we?' The fact that he was asking her to help remove his armor. 'Is that an invitation for mating among humans? And what was it he did earlier? I felt him do something to my neck, a wet yet pleasant sensation. No, it wasn't a lick. Was that a sign of desire?'

No! She mentally shouted when she felt a strange emotion urging her to the human, 'I don't want to mate, or be a house mistress, not now. How could Michael even demand that of me after everything we've been through, after I told him of my feelings toward those places in my society?'

Yet something was telling Shress that this was not what Michael had meant. She wanted to, her body wanting to be close to him, to always be hugging him, to always be touched by his gentle hands and to always have the reassurance of having him by her side every step of the way.

"Shress?"

The question brought her back to reality as she looked up at the human who was now looking at her with concern, "Are you alright?"

Shress took a deep breath, wondering how she should answer, trying to decide if she truly does harbor feelings towards the alien being before her.

Noticing her prolonged silence, Michael then said, "If you don't want to, that's ok. I'll manage." With that, he twisted his body and started disassembling a small part of his suit on his arm, gritting his teeth slightly from pain.

Now Shress was confused, does this mean he was now withdrawing the invitation of mating? But before she could think anything further, she heard a pop and a hiss and looked just in time to see Michael remove a small piece of his armor, peeling off some black substance that looked damaged from plasma burns, revealing something gray underneath it.

"What's that?" she asked, all thoughts and confusion momentarily forgotten when she saw the unexpecting flesh of a human.

"This?" said Michael as he gestured at the gray area. "It's a suit."

"A suit?" she asked, slightly understanding.

"Clothing Spartans wear underneath our armor," Michael began to explain, "If we wear loose shirts or pants, it could get stuck in the moving parts of the armor. These suits are the only things we can wear underneath it."

Shress eyes widened at the revelation, "So you were wearing clothing underneath?"

"Yes… aren't you?"

Shress could only feel herself growing embarrassed as she looked down, not answering. She felt like an utter fool thinking that Michael wanted to mate with her. She must be losing her mind. She let out a humiliated sigh before looking up at Michael and couldn't help but stare. Michael's cheeks seemed to have turned a light tone of red, just enough for her to notice.

"Are you alright?" she asked, forgetting her humiliating moment for a while as she looked on at the Spartan with concern.

The human coughed before looking up and said, "Yeah, sure I am. Why do you ask?" she noticed he said this in a quick like fashion. That's when she realized that he was mortified just like her, but why? She's the one thinking foolishly; why was he embarrassed?

Michael broke the silence once more as he looked away, his face returning back to its original brownish color. "You don't have to help me. I think I can get it off on my own."

Shress walked over while she answered, "No… it's fine, I didn't realize that you had, or, I just assumed Spartans weren't wearing… what I mean is that normally when a male asks for such a thing, it usually implies that he wishes to…" her voice trailed off as she shook her head. "I'll understand if you no longer wish for my presence."

"Why? You've done nothing wrong. Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way, Shress."

She stared at him again, feeling hurt piling on before wiping it away. 'He's not Sangheili,' she reminded herself. 'He doesn't know what those words mean.' She didn't want to ask, or even voice it, not now, not when things were feeling so awkward.

The silence was stretching, the passing units making both of them uncomfortable until Michael clears his throat.

"So… are you going to help me or not? Because I'm really exhausted at the moment."

"I'll help," she immediately answered to gain absolution in the matter.

She sat on the bed next to Michael, looking at his body out of the corner of her eye with new found interest as she mused how a Spartan's body would be different from a regular human's.

Michael turned away from her as he asked, "Do you see what looks like a small hole near the center of my back?"

"Yes," replied Shress as she gazed curiously at it.

"I need you to place one of your fingers in there and twist it to the left," Michael instructed while he continued to dissemble the armor on his arm. Shress couldn't believe that the demon, or Spartan armor, the very armor that could withstand the heat of a thousand plasma bolts, could easily be undone with just the twist of a finger. Still, she pushd one of her fingers into the small opening and turned it to her left, she only completed one cycle of turning when she heard a hiss followed by a pop, and before she knew it, the back panel of his armor started to slide off. Shress could only stare for a moment before returning to reality as she gently lifted the piece of armor off of Michael's back, revealing a strange black substance that covered his body.

She placed the large metal on the ground before asking, "Now what?"

"Continue working your way around, find the hole, and crank it off," instructed Michael once more as he now began to remove the armor off his other arm.

Slowly working her way from the top down, Shress assisted the Spartan in removing his armor system. After doing his back, she reached upwards and started dislodging his shoulder pads. After that, she reached downwards and started removing the plating covering his legs, forcing Michel to sit on the edge of the bed so that they could both have easy access to them. She felt embarrassment blooming within her again as she worked on removing the armor from his thighs. He must have noticed this for he offers to take off the armor around his crotch area while she bent over and removed the strange armor covering his feet. Finally, the last of the plasma burned armor was resting by the bedside, leaving Michael in some kind of black encasement with some parts of it looking as if it had been burned and damaged, mostly in the chest and arm sections.

Michael shook his limbs a little before turning to Shress, "This next part should be easy. It's just a standard zipper."

"A what?"

In answer, the Spartan twisted his body away from her before lifting his arm, revealing the side of his body to her. Shress has no idea what it is she is looking for, but soon her eyes are tugged in the direction of the human's body. His muscle tone was enormous; she had never fought or even seen a human before with large biceps, yet she knew his strength only barely matched that of a Sangheili.

"Do you see it?" Michael finally asked, breaking Shress away from her thoughts.

"Uh, see what?" she questioned.

"There should be a line running from the middle of my body, streaming up and down all over my body," Michael explained.

It took her a while but she eventually found the said line, perfectly hidden against the black, skin-like fabric as it ran to Michael's neck in one direction and headed down to his right foot with the other side. She was unsure on what to do next until she saw two small devices planted along the line. She tried pressing them and when that didn't work she tried pulling them. She noticed that they moved slightly, but other than that they gave nothing away.

She heard Michael laugh, causing her to become agitated before he said, "Push the one on top towards my neck, and the other down to my foot."

Shress was tempted to smack him up his head, but she remembered his grave wounds, so she followed his directions. The small device could hardly fit between her fingers. She used the tips of her talons as she pushed the top one upwards towards the neck area.

She noticed the strange fabric was warmer than the armor, and they felt more slick then any clothing she had ever touched before.

"What is this?" she asked, her curiosity no longer being contained.

"The gel layer," answered Michael, "It helps regulate my body temperature while I'm inside the armor. It can also keep me warm or cold if I'm ever in an extreme environment. It can also repel some plasma heat sometimes."

Shress nodded as she continued pushing the "zipper" along the line. As she did this, she saw the gel layer being peeled away from Michael's skin, revealing the gray suit he told her of. She kept her talon running until reaching the end of the line. She was unsure what to do now before Michael said, "Just push it off." Receiving his instructions, she pushed the zipper until there was a small clip, and it was pushed off to one side.

With the top portion of the gel layer open, Michael reached up to his neck and slowly pulled the strange fabric off. The gel layer seemed to have stuck itself onto his suit. As he pulled it off, there was a suction noise and watched as the layer fell away from his body.

Noticing he couldn't pull it off all the way, she reached forward and dragged the second zipper downwards. Now more sure of herself, she kept pulling it down until she came to a halt at the bottom of his feet. Here the line ended at the base of his right foot but there was no opening where she could pull the zipper off of. Michael reached down and pulled the fabric apart from each other before extracting his foot, and then he pulled the suit down, extracting the other. Finally he allowed the gel layer to fall to the ground, allowing Shress to see the human for the first time without his armor.

The suit he referred to earlier is indeed gray, covering most of his body except for his feet, hands and head. The gray clothing was nothing like she had ever seen before, it had a form of sleekness about it, it hugged the Spartan tightly. She noticed that the suit allowed her to easily view his muscles, his biceps, thighs, and his chest…she had never seen anything like it.

She then focuses on the fleshiness that was visible. Michael's head she had seen before, but not his hands or feet. His hands looked the same as his gloves, but they were a pale brown, with visible veins and scars, crossing over and covering both of them. He also had talons as well, but they were dull, small, and looked unfit to clean so much as a bug. She knew this was how his hands were going to look, which was why her eyes gravitated downwards at his feet. They were pale as well, but that's what interested her; they weren't hooved like hers, or any other species in the Covenant. It was flesh. They seemed to be formed the same way as the hands, five digits sticking out with dull nails resting on top. This was the first time she had ever seen a human vulnerable, no armor, and no weapons. A unique sight, especially when the human in question was a Spartan.

She heard Michael chuckle again, causing her to glance up just as he began to speak, "Yeah, I guess we are quite different."

She didn't reply right away. Was there a hidden message in those words? One that made her chest as if it was collapsing? She tried to keep her emotions bottled inside as she breathed and asked a question in return, "Does that… bother you?"

Michael didn't reply quickly, he took his time which was agonizing for Shress, but when he did look up, she suddenly wished he could go back to thinking for a moment longer. He gazed into her eyes with his green ones before saying, "As long as it doesn't bother you."

She couldn't stop the smile from lighting her features as she felt a heavy weight being lifted from her chest as she said, "Of course not." She knew she said the words too fast and hoped Michael wouldn't notice.

He gave her a strange look, which mad3 Shress nervous for some reason, but he smiled and reached out to take her hand. Shress tried to keep her breathing under control as she felt his hand around hers for the first time. He held her hand with a strong grip while his thumb began to brush the top of her hand; soon all she could feel was the softness of his flesh. Unlike holding his glove, his hand offered her warmth, care, and what felt like a kind of protectiveness.

She was now smiling to her full extent. She felt her throat beginning to vibrate which surprised her. Nothing in years had ever made her respond in this way in a long time, not since she was young and she spent long cycles with her mother.

Michael's thumb pauses in stroking her hand as he looks up at her, oddly raising one of his eyebrows, "Are you purring?"

Shress had no idea what this word meant but it caused her to squirm a bit in embarrassment. Michael only laughed, not mockingly, but a low joyful chuckle that caused her to smile a little herself. When they looked into each other's eyes again she noticed his eyes were starting to droop again.

Shress wanted to stay there for a few more units, to continue feeling his hand massaging her hand, but she knew at this rate Michael would collapse out of exhaustion. Heavy heartedly, she stood from the bed, and gently pushed on Michael's chest, forcing him down on the bed. He tried to resist but he had no energy to spare, so he allowed himself to be laid back on the bed as his eyes locked onto Shress.

He smiled a little, but it slowly began to turn downward as he muttered something that she had to strain herself to hear.

"Sorry," he said with regret in his eyes.

She had no idea what it was he was apologizing for. For their argument earlier, for embarrassing her, or was it possible he was sorry for spending the last few units with her? She felt deep inside her that the last option wasn't correct. Still having no idea what he was sorry for, she leaned in close as she stroked his head as she responded, "It's alright Michael."

The smile returned only to fade as his eyes finally closed and his breathing started to level out. Shress had never witnessed anyone falling asleep so fast before, but she understood that he lost so much in such a short time. She gave his fur one last stroke before standing and walking out the door.

Once the door closed she breathed a sigh as she mused over the past events. She was away from the Covenant, for the first time in her life. She feared what would happen to her family and what would become of her in her new life as she would learn to fight and work alongside the humans. But the one thing she did know right now was that as long as Michael was by her side, she would be safe.

And for some reason, the thought of being with him made her feel happy.

-Author's Note-

Hello everyone, hope ya'll are having a nice day. Sorry for the delays, but I don't really have much of an excuse.

Life's hard, ya' know?

-PyreElegy