From a rental, Hanna watched her real brother wait at the table.

“I don’t think she’s going to show,” she said.

“She’ll show,” Tov Kyle said.

“Why did you say that so confidently?”

He smirked. “Because I hacked into one of her friend’s accounts. I used it to email her a picture of me in the hospital after the accident.”

“When did you take a picture of yourself in the hospital?”

He blushed. “I had planned to send it to you, but you arrived too soon.”

“Oh.” Damn she was so lucky the guy who arrived here was this amazing person rather than that whatever evil asshole.

“There.” He pointed at a woman with curly hair who entered the cafe right as another group went in. Then she ordered her drink, received it, and headed straight for her brother’s spot.

A little later, a really muscular guy entered the cafe, and he seemed to threaten her brother.

She pressed her hand to the buckle of her seat. “He’s in trouble!”

“He’s fine. That’s just Chelsea’s boyfriend.”

Hanna coughed. “Wait. She had a boyfriend and you still let them meet?”

He shrugged. “I told your real brother not to show up.”

“But you didn’t even hint—”

“Trust me when I say that Kyle needed a wake up call to his reality.”

“I see what you mean. Waiting for a girl who already has a boyfriend isn’t exactly healthy.”

“Yeah. We’ll say that was what I was going for.”

“What? It wasn’t?”

Kyle grinned and pointed once more. “Look. The boyfriend’s coming out.”

Hanna nodded. “Don’t change the subject. What, exactly, do you mean?”

He grimaced. “That’s personal, Hanna. But I have all of his instincts and memories. And some of those memories have emotions attached to them.”

She froze. Was he telling her... “Are you attracted to her?”

“What?! No!”

“I mean. I can understand if you are. She’s beautiful, but I’d rather you not tell me.”

“No! Hanna. No. I’m not attracted to her. And neither is Kyle. That’s why he needs to see her.”

“Oh! Okay. Wait. Did you actually want Kyle to go on this trip?”

“Well, no. I still think it’s dumb. But if he was going anyway, then I’d make the most use out of it.”

“That makes sense.”

Then they waited for Kyle to finish his conversation with Chelsea. Within 20 minutes they’d both downed their drinks and were waving their goodbyes.

Kyle trudged back over to the car and sat back in the front seat. He sighed deeply. “She has a boyfriend. They’re... pretty serious. Like he’s a yandere and she’s into that, kinda serious.”

“I’m sorry, little bro! Once you’re better. We’ll find you a good girlfriend. Someone who you like.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He shook his head. “I haven’t entirely given up. But I have to wait until she breaks up with her boyfriend... And I guess I have to wait until I get better too.” Then he turned to Tov Kyle. “When will that be, anyway?”

“Anywhere from a few months to a few years. But judging on how well you’ve recovered and how you managed to last this long in your condition, I think it’s safe to say that you’ll be on your feet in 3 months.”

“That soon?”

“Of course, if you’re willing. I can keep you in stasis for the duration of my stay here on this planet. When you come out you’ll be the same age as you are now, and I’ll leave you with a large sum of money as well as your own company.”

Human Kyle briefly glanced at Hanna then at where Chelsea left. “I’ll consider your offer, but I don’t think I’ll take it.”

***

Kyle (the Tov) seethed. He’d tried several more times to convince human Kyle to stay in stasis for the duration of his stay here on Earth but the guy wouldn’t budge. Had the Human Kyle diverged from the copy in his mind? It was a possibility. Maybe he didn’t find Chelsea attractive while the human did because he really liked Hanna. Had had that blinded him to this possibility?

They pulled up to where they normally left the car in the forest. From there, using their phones as flashlights, they helped the injured human through the darkness.

Owls called, and animals skittered in the mostly quiet brush. A few bugs here and there flew in harsh circles around an unidentified small animal corpse.

Suddenly, Hanna’s light touched on the side of his ship. Its velvety soft surface diffused the light.

Kyle stilled.

“That’s not right. My ship should be cloaked.” He released the human, then grabbed the pistol from his back pocket. “We’re heading back now.”

A blinding light shot toward him. He ducked. A tree exploded behind him.

While he shot a burst of plasma toward the direction where the blast came from, Hanna covered her head, as well as her brother’s.

“Get behind the trees!” Hanna yelled.

“Don’t bother,” a cool voice said from just behind Kyle’s ship. “My plasma will go right through these trees.”

Then a few of the women he’d seen in the supply closet just the other day stepped out from behind trees with their own versions of the Lusundai plasma pistols.

Kyle swallowed. How the fuck had he let them find him? And so fast too?

Brandon smirked. “You might be wondering how I found you? It wasn’t that hard to figure out after Hanna here kept ruining my fun.”

“Our fun,” a girl, he believed her name was Danni, pointed out.

How the hell was he supposed to get them out of this.

“So, what are your plans? Are you just going to murder us all here in cold blood?”

“No! Of course not.” The girls said, but Brandon’s eyes told him something else. They spoke of hatred and vengeance.

“That’s right,” Brandon said. “We can’t kill you in cold blood. You’re an outlaw so we’ll take you to the galactic authorities first.”

Kyle chuckled. “Outlaw?”

“Careful. Say the wrong thing and it won’t just be you who has to suffer.” Brandon briefly moved his weapon to aim at Hanna instead. Kyle stilled and looked into beautiful terrified eyes.

He couldn’t fuck this up. In fact, he’d trained for these instances. He threw his pistol far in front of him and held up his hands. “I surrender!”

Brandon blinked.

The girls cheered. “We can take him to your ship now, right Brandon?!” a blonde said.

“Of course he will, silly. He promised that once we caught the guy, we’d take them all to his ship.”

Surrendering was always a calculated risk. There had been prisoner exchanges between their people before. As long as this prince was honorable and let Hanna and Kyle go, then he could make his way back to Hanna. Even if she was old and decrepit by the time he returned, he’d still come back.

But he doubted it would take longer than 10 human years.

But, above all else, he was surrendering to keep Hanna and her brother safe.

“Hanna, wait for me. I’ll be back.”

The prince laughed. “I think you’re mistaking something here, little Tov. We’re taking them too.”

Kyle jerked his head to look at Brandon. “What did you just say?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not done with my work on this planet. I can’t have some random people making trouble for me all the time.”

“What wor—”

Brandon shot another blast out that almost grazed Kyle’s ear. “Careful. If you say something I don’t like, I can’t promise that my hand will stay as steady as it is right now.”

“Brandon!” One of the girls with pink hair whined. “He surrendered already. No need to scare him and us with a blast like that.”

The prince’s eyes softened as he looked at the girl. “Too true.” Brandon waved the gun pointed back the way they’d come. Human Kyle collapsed to the forest floor, and Hanna hadn’t been strong enough to keep his body up. “Get walking, Mr. Outlaw. And do help poor Kyle out. He seems to have passed out.”

He glanced down to see that he was right.

Since his cover was already blown, he gathered his double into a net of his tentacles.

“Ew! What is coming out of his back?”

He tightened his jaw as he listened to these human women.

“Britney, those are tentacles,” another pointed out.

“Oh my god! That just so—”

“Shut up!” Hanna said. “You don’t get to fucking say shit about anything, when you’re in a damn alien’s harem.”

Britney scoffed. “At least I’m not helping an evil tentacle creature murder people. Ew. Maybe he’s the one who caused that tentacle apocalypse the other day.”

Brandon waved his pistol. “Everybody walk!”

Kyle, accepting his fate as a prisoner (for now), started to walk. He grabbed Hanna’s hand. He would have put himself between her and that blaster but these plasma beams passed through tissue easier than wood.