The dim lighting flickered now, as the fireplace was running down to just coals, a shred of it’s former glory an hour ago when it was fresh.

Nicole’s pupils focused forwards at the darkness of the cave as she stared like a zombie and slowly lifter her tea, her hands shaking so badly that half the tea never reached her mouth. The silence was pierced by a slurping sound and a slight cough as she forgot exactly how to drink for a moment. Vinn sat up behind her and debated weather or not to give her a hug, or give her space. The moment of awkward pause was horrifying.

“Your reaction is absolutely troubling and I am afraid to move or startle you. Any feedback would be a huge improvement.” He softly encouraged.

“Yea…we’re gonna need the life insurance policy.” She said rubbing her head where the Band-Aid was.

“I am so sorry about that I can get some like tennis balls for the antlers or something. I am so sorry.”

“No it’s fine, now we know that risk. Wasn’t an eye, that’s good.” She sipped.

“So on a scale of one to ten…one being never again for any reason, ten being I get you some sports drink and we go again?”

“Oh no…not just yet, give me some re-spawn time there, Player 2. But I will accept the sports drink. And then tomorrow first thing…we do the life insurance policy, and then you get that damn front door finished. And then game-on”

“Yes Ma’am. Mission accepted.” He saluted, lying back and feeling a relief she didn’t just say “one”.

“You know what…we might just actually make it.” She said taking the recovery shot.”

“YES.” he whispered, fist pumping the air. Her head rushed and she nearly fell over, her veins on fire and her pupils contracting and adjusting.”

“Oh my god these are intense.” She huffed.

“That’s why you’re not really supposed to use them for minor injuries. You need some water or something you look really dazed.

“Not now, more sleep.” She said rolling back over.

Nicole woke up, barely. She stretched and rolled over, grabbing for the blanket and tugging on it to free it up.

“Nope, that’s just my arm hair.” Vinn chuckled.

“Sorry.” She smiled, realizing the entire couch she thought she was sleeping on was just Vinn. He draped the blanket over her.

“So that was a hell of a thing.” He sighed.

“Several things.” She whispered, yawning and stretching again. “So what are you thinking about?”

“Just staring at your toes.”

“I didn’t know you were into that.” She said looking half worried and half intrigued.

“Not staring in a weird way.” He defended. Her eyebrows raised.

“Okay it’s probably weird to you, but not in a weird sexual way. They’re just so…odd.”

“Thanks.” She sarcastically huffed.

“I mean human feet. The individual toes, what do they do? It seems useless. You can’t even run on gravel.” He muttered.

“We didn’t really get a choice of hooves, that’s why we invented shoes.”

“It just keeps re-hitting me how different we really are. None of this should remotely work on paper.”

“Well it worked on a couch so, let’s just forget the paper and stick with that.” She jested.

“You want breakfast?” he asked.

“I’m staying right here for a while.

“You wanna maybe…” he smirked.

“Life ins-”

“Life insurance policy, and horn caps. That first. Great idea. Very smart choice. Completely agree with you.”

The cold morning air was misted with the hot steam of coffee mugs as 6 grown men silently stared at Vinn with smirks on their faces. He looked around and noticed the lack of blinking. Or construction work.

“What? I showed up 4 minutes late for the first time in my career, we gonna write me up or just stare a hole in my head. Start a forest fire?” Vinn snipped.

“So how are things?” asked Silverback.

“To hell with things, how is Nicole, is she…walking?” jack inquired.

“I walked her to work, that’s why I’m late.”

“So she is at least able to walk.” Jack said looking relieved.

“Guys…no we’re not doing this conversation.”

“Yea we are. I’m your boss and we got shit to do today, and you brought up my girlfriends tits and made me do the whole talk. You’re doing this. We don’t need the finer details but there are questions. Did it happen?” Silverback ordered.

“…yea it happened. That…happens. We’re married, it’s completely normal, and kinda personal actually.”

“Normal is unlikely as hell. How do you feel? Optimistic? Little bit worried about legal actions?” Silverback asked.

“Very funny.”

“I wasn’t joking. We have terrible lawyers for this stuff.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“So Nicole…” Jack asked. “Did she look happy this morning, traumatized, or totally confused? We all wanna see this thing succeed here.”

“Guys, this is new to both of us, we don’t have to share any details with my work friends.”

“Bet your furry ass she’s talking about it with her gal pals.” Silverback chuckled. “Every detail and oddity. We don’t wanna know visuals and measurements, we just feel invested in this pairing and we wanna know if it’s crashing to an end or blooming into something beautiful. We care about both of you and just want the basic updates. Did it seem promising?”

“I think so. It was very awkward at first but we really bonded and broke through some emotional barriers.” Vinn said chugging coffee.

“Did you break through your couch?” Silverback smiled.

“You know, just because I’m a large class alien doesn’t mean everything has to be like a bull in a china shop. It’s called restraint and respect. You’d be amazed how many species have very normal and sensual sex, it’s not all just the offensive stereotype that the bigger the creature the more we screw like a demon from hell. It’s called making love, not hategrinding the room apart with primal beast sex.

The courthouse shuttered with the sound of an explosion and several demonic banshee shrieks as the desk clerk of a private office barely even winced, checking her phone and seeing 4PM, nodding as if expected. A waft of smoke rolled through the room as the door opened behind her and a massive glowing figure on all fours stomped through, the sound of breaking glass and furniture falling in the background accented the casual silence. The clerk stamped some papers and glanced back, as the glowing blue beast raked her dreadlocks back with a handful of extended claws, still glowing red with heat.

“Your 4PM sex meeting with the wife went well?” she asked, still looking down. Gizzy stood up, covering herself with one of the asbestos robes hanging on the wall as her tusks and canines retracted to their normal position and her eyes went from arc-welder white to casual blue.”

“Not a bad little quickie. I’ll see you later honey!” She smiled as the sound of high heels left the back of the room.

“See you tonight for dinner!” Izleena waved,

“Would you like the cleanup crew to replace the couch?” she asked Gizzy.

“Yes, the blue one in storage room B would be fine.” She said wincing and relocating her shoulder with a harsh snap. “God that women is gonna kill me some day.”

The desk clerk casually took out a small box from the drawer, removing a syringe of highlighter green liquid that she methodically injected into her forearm.

“Oh, and we are running low on radiation resistance serum, so we need to order more or I can’t be here for your Monday schedule.”

“I’ll take care of it. There’s more in the vault.” Gizzy said, her voice returning to normal pitch and her demeanor now more professional.

“Window replacement?”

“Yes, and fire the glass installers. Level 13 rated my big blue ass.” Gizzy growled.

Dee sat in a folding chair, her eyes wide with horror and intrigue and her mouth wide open as if frozen in a comment.

“And you consider this is a…successful thing?” she finally uttered aloud

“We had sex, it was perfectly fine.” Nicole shrugged as Vicki entered and stopped at the doorway.

“Nope.” Said Vicki, just leaving the room.

“It was actually very magical after the awkward start.” Smiled Nicole.

“You know what else is magical…Greek mythology. Doesn’t make me wanna participate in any of the myths. And you are just…fine with this?”

“I feel safe with him.” She replied.

“You got a life insurance policy this morning. Are you nuts? Is there drugs in Delmarian sweat? You know they are like 15 percent performance enhancing drugs by weight right? Some of those may have soaked into your scalp and affected your brain.”

“First off they don’t sweat. Oh and like you don’t have some weird kinks?”

“Sure, I clearly like my men 300 years old with an orange dad-bod, this is a whole different ballgame. You just described what sounded like a damn horror movie.”

“Yea.” She grinned from ear to ear. “It was kinda.”

“Dyah-uh…I guess whatever floats your boat or in this case probably sinks it. I just wanna make sure you survive the sequel.”

“They have other supplies for assistance we have looked into.” She shrugged.

“Like what? Log chains and werewolf lube? One of those puffy suits they wear when training police dogs to attack the stunt guy? It’s a good thing they can re-grow limbs on this world, that better be on your insurance plan. You need to be careful with this. You almost lost an eye. When most guys say you look good enough to eat, that’s just a euphemism, if he says it, you might need to change outfits or run. You got your mace?

“In my purse, as always.”

“Is it bear mace?”

“Dee, The mace is for walking alone at night. I’m trying to tell you I’m happy. I had the weirdest night of my life and I smile every time I think about it. My knees still really do hurt, but that’s about it. And I feel super thirsty, I cannot get enough water.”

Just so we’re clear if he crushes you to death, even by accident, I don’t care if he leave me all his money in the will, I’ll take it but I’m still gonna kill him. Accident or not, I’m getting some black market silver bullets and hellsing-ing his lycanthropic hide.”

“Dee, bumps and bruises happen, it was an accidental horn bonk and I’m fine. The recovery shot mended it right up. Except I do still feel tingly at the injection. Can you be mildly allergic to those?”

“Girl you better hope not.”

Vinn flipped the switch and stepped back, the red and yellow lights turning on.

“Well…it’s official. You have a streaming and gaming setup at home better than the one at work. I guess that means you can work from home more.” He hinted.

“I still wanna go see my friends and do Wednesday game night. Sorry we can’t let you play this time, it live streams to Earth and you… would draw attention.”

“They have overlay Holograms.” He pouted. “I like game night.”

“Yea but if that thing cuts out and we get kicked out for security protocol violations I’mma be super pissed. I hate that I have to hide your from my whole planet, especially some of my old friends, but the rules are for security.”

“What about your parents?” he asked.

No, I’m sorta glad I can’t tell them I’m dating an alien. That would suck for me, I think. I’m not ashamed of you, it’s more like being ashamed of them, and also not wanting to hear the lecture for the rest of my life about how they won’t have grandbabies or they’d have horns, and I’m horrible. They freaked out when I accidentally admitted that I was a little bit of a furry-fan on stream, you think THIS would be chill? This is next level upgrading.”

So…what if Jack wore the tracking gear, and you used a hologram over him?”

“I mean yea it would work but then Jack is just gonna be playing third wheel on a D and D stream while you still sit at home, so I don’t think it would be very fun for either of you.”

“No I mean…to meet your parents. If the off chance the hologram cut out, it would be confusing but not illegal. He’s human, he has earth clearance. There’s no security risk, if anything went wrong you’d just have to explain to your parents why your boyfriend changed boyfriends, that’s way more comical than dangerous.”

“So you wanna meet my parents? Why?” she asked.

“I hear that’s custom when things get serious and not only are we sleeping together now, but we’re married and you live in my house we co-own. That’s got some serious vibes to it.” He said.

“We can’t tell them we got married.”

“Why not?”

“Because they didn’t even know I was dating you, and we basically just met. That’s a trigger in itself.”

“So tell them you’ve been dating me for months and didn’t wanna say anything because I’m weird and foreign. Are they THAT bad that just dating a foreign guy is a problem?” He asked.

“Well, no. Actually it would make sense because I told them I moved to Australia to help starving villages.” She said. “I can game for fun and feed the people by day, they don’t know how much I sleep, plus it had to be far away and something noble enough to merit moving away. Sorry I made myself look kinda selfless.”

Does my name sound Australian at all?

“No but you could be Aboriginal, they don’t know anything about that. You could make up anything. Plus you ARE tribal and Jack is like 6 foot 2 so most of the height difference jokes still work, it just sounds like I’m being dramatic or funny, neither would shock them. Oh my god Vinn, you’re gonna get to see my parents and they’re gonna get to see…” she said suddenly looking sadder “Some virtual Aboriginal guy but with your voice and personality. Are we gonna have to do the same thing with your parents?”

“Yea, no. I was bred specifically to go fight and die in a war so they don’t really give a shit that I exist, and I don’t know if they’re even alive or where, and we’re not even gonna go down that rabbit hole. Don’t say the joke.”

I totally would normally, but the topic was too dark.

“I’m gonna see the humans who made you!” he smiled.

“Oh we need a script or something, you’re gonna say stuff like that the entire time, hu?”