The turnaround on Earth was only a week. Soon they were settling to their usual shipboard routines and quietly traveling back to Tamare space. Time passed and nothing remarkable happened, untill they docked again at the border station between Earth space and Tamare space.

First surprising news was that Investigator Oran would be traveling back to homeworld with them. When he boarded, he apologised for the inconvenience to both parties, but it was essential for him travel to homeworld and theirs was first ship to go.

Ktak had discovered during repairs that Mtak's compartment had been "redesigned" without prior authorization. It had coal filters installed on air vents and some more significant ventilation redirects from main piping put in place. She had considered ripping it out at first, but then thinking about possible nessecity to carry passangers of his breed had simply added the modifications to ship's documentation. She allocated the compartment to Investigatior Oran who was both grateful and intrigued about how Mtak had managed to get the ship so heavily modified without detection.

The second surprise was that their elopment had become almost legend amongst all space farers. The humans snickered, the Tamare wowed disbelief untill shown a picure someone had taken at the temple. Worse. Apparently a few human hybrids had used the same loophole in the regulations already to keep their lover by their side. Goddess of Love temple was booming in popularity and donations. Space Command was strugling with the implications, but was gradually coming to accept the situation as new normal.

Ktak found the fame slightly weary and Ames even more so. When they walked station side, strangers requested pictures with them. People stared, hooted and claped when they passed by. They were glad to be back on their ship and journeying twoards the Tamare homeworld again.

Stella figured now was the right time to start preparing Ames for becoming part of Tamare society. They had about 8 months of travel ahead. Just enough to teach Ames the basics he would need to know to become the Commander's consort.

Ames was looking at himself in the mirror. The person in the mirror had his face, but otherwise looked like a Tamare. Stella had accuired him a set of Tamare formal robes in his size and a set of instruction videos how to put them on properly. This was the first time he felt he had managed the whole process without mistakes. Straight flowing robes hid his humanity completely. Well, except for skin color and lack of horns. But those were minor things. He tried walking. There was a proper way to do that too. It still needed practice. He nearly fell over. Tamare corrected the height differences by having shorter individuals wear stilts. His were pretty tall. It was ridiculous, but... Stella assured her that it was needed to accompany the Commander to Tamare formal occations as would be his duty as consort. He privately mused that mastering them would make kissing his wife a whole lot easyer.

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He had agreed to be taught these things by Stella on one condition when she approached him - Ktak would not know. She would worry. He would rather surprise him, when they reach the homeworld.

The stilts were probaly the worst of it. Ames had allowed himself a few small white lies when Ktak had asked about the bruises. Falling was falling and the missleading comment about the damned stairs was true anyway. There was no need to mention the accursed stilts.

One day after a particularly nasty fall the engeneer in him awaoke and he went to work. Soon his stilts had gyro stablizers and a few more gagets attached that made it quite easy to move around in them. They even enabled him to run faster than his normal run. Not traditional, but who would see under the big robe.

Once he had mastered the basics of dressing and staying upright Stella started teaching him etiquete, customs and proper from of adressing various parties he was likely to meet.

Ames found it painfull to learn both figuratively and literally - falls were still common on more complex moves - but every time he felt like giving up, he remebered the show she had put on to impress his parents. This was the same thing, in reverse. To impress her brood, he would need to conform. This was enough to ensure his pressistence.

Entierly accidentally they had enlisted the help of Investigator Oran.

They had been practicing some movements that required space in the large hallway outside his compartment. The intermittend thuds of Ames hitting the deck when he failed to execute a specific form of greeting had attracted his attention. Investigator Oran was roughly human height and therfore was trained on stilts from a young age. He spent a moment watching Ames try and fall again. It was painful to watch someone try to do this without proper instruction. He fetched his own stilts and showed Ames the proper way to perform this greeting. From that day onwards he took over the practical instruction part of Ames's training from Stella. Investigator Oran had been quite bored cooped up in his compartment, as nice as it was and teaching Ames was a welcome relief. He was starting to like this human that had wooed the young commander despite the smelliness. It was quite rewarding to teach him. Ames improved rappidly with proper instruction and soon bruises became a thing of the past. Ames mused that the ballet lessons he had taken as teen just to annoy his mother were finally paying off.