Gavin said nothing while Maybell confessed, blinking with surprise. She rose from her chair—not so much for emphasis, but because living underground to avoid deadly solar rays can drive a person batty.

"I'm a mess," she furthered. "I make mistakes all the time."

Gavin interrupted with kindness. "No you don't."

She went on without pause, waving him off while walking herself into a corner to speak to the plastic-lined walls. "I can't do anything right. Every time I think I've got it figured out, I do something stupid. Or dangerous, or downright illegal." She turned and faced her friend. "You know how I hunt bull-rex. Right?"

Gavin nodded. "No one brings in better meat. People say they can tell when they're eating steaks from you, because the way you kill them keeps the meat tender."

She refrained from thanking him, but smiled at his praise. "I let them chase me up Dover Ridge, or down Hidaro's Pass."

Gavin gave another nod, confused as to where this was going. "Hidaro's Pass leads to a dead end," he said.

"Exactly! Those big freaks could murder me down there. There's no way out, except for the way you come in. Why do I do that to myself?"

Rather than answering, Gavin commented again on the bull-rex. "The Splicers were a little off when they made them, huh? They weren't supposed to get much bigger than a fox."

"And every cycle, they get bigger! They're as huge as cows!"

"They still taste good. Like rabbit, though firm, with more texture."

"That's not the point! Those dumb bunnies could kill me! They could shove my monocycle off Dover Cliff, or corner me in Hidaro's. And if they were already there, around the corner where the pass ends, I'd drive right into them! Why do I put myself in such danger?" She slumped to stare at her boots. "I do dumb stuff all the time."

"You're not dumb," Gavin said, to get her to ease up.

"But I do dumb stuff. I kinda do it on purpose, I think, to see if I'm right."

"About what?"

"Gosh, Gav. I don't know. To see if I can get out of trouble. To prove I'm not a loser."

Gavin stood up from his bunk, since Maybell had been standing for a while. "Where are you going with this?" he asked as he approached.

She hugged him instead of answering, craving his acceptance. With her cheek upon his chest, she listened to his heart pound through his coarse-woven shirt. Not surprised by anything Maybell said or did, he simply wrapped her up in his long, strong arms.

"People get in trouble because of the things I do," she said into his chest.

He tried getting her to shush by patting her on the rump. Instead, she carried on, seemingly near tears.

"That's why Sara Jane always wants to punch me. I coulda got her in a mess of trouble when I brought those cigarettes on board her ship. And Heinemann? I fixed his Scrambler by stealing parts from somebody else. And I stole Sara's shuttle, too, by tricking Kelles into giving me the launch code. And then I hacked their computer, to keep them from calling it back."

Maybell looked up at the face of the man patting her on the rump. "Why do I do that to people? Why don't I follow the rules? I'm always finding a new way to see if I can get myself killed. Heinemann killed a man, and I didn't know why he did it when I started hitting on him. I didn't know he was defending himself from the man who killed his partner. I didn't know those grits were his. I coulda got in a whole lot of people in a whole lotta trouble, and maybe I coulda died."

Gavin kissed the stinker sobbing in his arms. "You got what from him? About a million cigarettes as a reward?"

Maybell smiled at the compliment. Pound per pound, cigarettes were more valuable than anything else on the frontiers of outer space.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Hardly that! But yeah, I got a lot. Like, a couple hundred thousand. Maybe three. He really liked me, you know."

"His still likes you," Gavin corrected. "Everybody likes you. There's nothing wrong with that."

Gavin used the span of his hands to squeeze his good friend's rump, getting her to talk. "But why am I so screwed up? With so many people jacked on animal DNA these days, affecting how they act, I don't know how to trust them. So I don't trust myself, and I screw up more. On purpose, I think, to see how they'll react."

Maybell buried her face in Gavin's chest again, to better enjoy the size of the hands clamped to her butt. "To test myself," she furthered. "To see if I'm right about me."

Gavin kissed the top of Maybell's head, causing her to purr. "And are you?" he asked.

"What?" Maybell asked back, lost in the moment a bit.

"Are you right about yourself?"

She sighed, hugging him hard. "I don't know. That's the problem." She kissed him on the spot where her lips touched his shirt. "I don't trust my better judgement, that's for gosh-darn sure. And people with genetic implants? Sometimes I blame them as the reason why I screw up."

Maybell rubbed her face on Gavin's chest to get him to stop kissing the top of her head. Then, with her chin pressed to him, she looked up into his eyes.

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Maybell [https://i.imgur.com/JugQ8c2.jpg]

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"I'm wrong to do it. I know I am. It's not their fault, but I can't stop blaming other people for what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you. You're just a little stir-crazy, from living underground."

"I don't trust myself around people with genetic implants, so I find ones who are all human to hang out with while I'm down here, during the summer cycle."

Gavin smiled at the woman confessing her heart out to him while being held in his arms. "Like me?" he asked.

Maybell smiled back while squeezing Gavin's rump in kind. "Yeah, ya great big lunk. Like you. So few Spacers, and even Dirters when you're this far from civilization, are one hundred percent human these days. I feel better around real people. People I trust myself to be around."

Gavin gave Maybell's rump a final squeeze before releasing her. "Real people like me, huh?" he teased again. "Come on, I want to show you something."

He led her to his bathroom and produced a container used for garbage. "Guess what we have here."

Maybell's eyes filled with dread. "Gavin… please. Don't."

He opened the container, showing it to be filled with large clumps of orange hair, as if shaved off by a razor.

Maybell knew what that meant. "Aw geez," she whined like a child. "Please tell me you're not a Genetic."

Gavin overlooked her slur. "I am, but only a small bit."

Despite knowing it was rude to ask, Maybell did so anyway. "But why do that to yourself? Why put junk into your body? I mean, you seem all human to me."

Again, Gavin overlooked his friend's genetic slur. "I was born 'all human,' as you like to say, but with a bad heart. It didn't work right, and it made me weak. Especially my arms. My left arm in particular."

Maybell apologized suddenly, realizing she'd been insulting her friend. "I'm sorry."

Although he ignored her apology, he seemed to accept it while carrying on. "It got so bad that I couldn't breathe. And then I had a splicer put orangutan DNA in me, for my arms and for my heart. It fixed me up real good. And now, as with many genetically implanted humans"—he emphasized the last word—"I have to shave off excess hair. Mostly on my arms, and a little from my chest."

He grinned at her look of embarrassment, and teased to make her smile. "Or else I'd have orangutan hair hanging down to my balls."

"Aw geez," Maybell repeated, now with a cock-eyed grin. "Why ya gotta tell me this?"

"Because you said you don't trust yourself around people with genetic implants. Yet you trust me all the time. I'm your best friend on Mu-Beta-Prime, and apparently it was because you thought I was all human."

"It's not like that, Gav. Please. I really didn't know."

"And now you do. You've been living underground with a Genetic all these cycles. Look how long my arms are." He held one out for emphasis, reaching past the top of her head. "And my fingers too." He splayed a hand before her face.

Maybell's grin never faded. "I sure do like those fingers wrapped around my bum."

"And I like wrapping them there. But if not for orangutan DNA, I'd never have the strength to squeeze your fine ample ass."

Maybell sighed with resignation. "And that would be a shame," Gavin furthered, hoping to make her feel better.

"I can't get away from animal DNA to save my worthless soul," Maybell said. "So again… what's wrong with me? Why can't I be happy? Why am I not understood? It's like…"

Gavin returned to hugging Maybell, and kissing the top of her head, until she finally shut up.

"No one should ever care about me," she said in misery, pressing her face to Gavin's chest. He pried her off so he could plant kisses her on the forehead, holding her head in his hands.

"No one should ever love me. I'm too much a loser."

"Come on, Polecat," Gavin said to his aromatic friend. "I've got a big bag full of raisins that all belong to me. The real kind, not those fake spacefruit ration ones. Let's stick our faces in the bag, and eat'em like we're animals."

Although Maybell enjoyed how the top of Gavin's belly was the perfect place to rest her boobs, nothing pleased her more than having real fruit to eat. She squeezed his flat fanny before letting him go, to show her appreciation.

"I'm with you, Monkey Butt," she said with cheer. "Let's go eat some raisins!"

"I'm an ape," Gavin corrected, leading the way to where his stash was.

"Huh?" Maybell grunted with distraction, skipping as she tagged along.

"Orangutans aren't monkeys. They're apes."

Maybell slouched after being scolded, tucking both hands in her chaps. "Oh," she said as another apology.