Ivy's head was still spinning at the mere possibility that Mr. No might actually have emotion, and that emotion was somehow fixed on her, when she stumbled out of the shower.

She was feeling a little drunk, from too much water, having spent too long in trying to think, leaving her tripping over her own feet.

The man had thrown himself off the side of an orbiting spacecraft, to make sure that she survived.

She was just a maid. It wasn't like Duffle & Hurley gave a flying damn about any of their lower deck staff.

On the other hand, she was getting special treatment. She didn't sleep on the lower deck, anymore. He could just be protecting against bad PR.

Except... Ivy couldn't see that infuriating man giving a damn about public relations. He kicked her into a pool.

Except he said he didn't notice he had.

Ivy gave a puff of irritation and kicked the side of her pot. She was frustrated, and thinking about it all had only made things worse.

Nearby, someone cleared their throat.

She looked up to see the other two women, waiting for her. Talia was making urgent pleasant faces, whilst the larger woman looked extremely uncomfortable and nervous.

Ivy had just shown that she was pissed off, in front of someone terrified to ask her out on a date. Not the best way to start things out, and if this didn't happen then...

Her thought cut off.

If it did happen, then she had a perfect excuse to tell the confusing Mr. No to keep his distance. Not the kindest reason to say yes to Desdemona, but it wasn't like Ivy wasn't going to give it her best shot.

Ivy did really want to discover what a romantic embrace from the intimidating sized woman felt like.

She gave a tired sort of smile to the other two, "Don't mind me. Just... Mr. No. Again. Can you believe that guy?"

"He dare do all." Desdemona chuckled, but not without showing some hesitance.

Talia jumped into the gap quickly, "We should go. You were telling me about... Chocolate? Earlier."

"What be chocolate?" Desdemona asked curiously, as the three women quickly fell into step with each other. With the largest woman in the middle of the three of them.

Ivy grinned, "Oh, it's amazing. Also going to clog our toilet, I'm afraid. I am really not meant to eat... But I am buying a whole... Brick? I can't remember what they call it. It's like this rectangle thing. So delicious. My professor used to bribe us with it. Anyone who aced the exams, got half a brick of chocolate."

"I not meant eat either." Desdemona chuckled, hesitated, and then put an arm around the smaller woman and squeezed her quickly. "But I be wanting this chocolate."

It didn't take long for the three of them to get to the landing craft. Security staff were scattered all about, pushing them into lines. Most of the other staff were still in uniform, still slightly dirty from the day's efforts.

Which was when Ivy finally noticed how the other two had dressed up. Ivy had just put on a light dress, with her usual knee-high boots. Something practical for romping around, but not all the way to the uniform she would wear on a dig site.

Talia was... Glamorous was the easiest way to put it. The bovine woman was wearing a dress that clung to her every curve, highlighting how shapely she really was. It also caught the light, sparkling with every moving breath of the woman.

On the other hand, Desdemona felt like she might be more at home on a pirate vessel, than a tourist one. Her outfit was made of leather, technically, but it felt more like various skins stitched together. It had steel clips that hung empty, but were clearly meant for some kind of weaponry.

To her irritation, Ivy noticed that it also had no space for a tail. Just straight pants of a warrior. She looked away quickly, so the other woman didn't notice her staring at their bottom. That would go down badly. Probably.

They stepped onto the visiting craft, and held onto one of the handle bars. The ship was just one large platform, dotted with U-shaped bars, out of which they could see the planet below. The Earth's halo almost seemed to glow as the ship jerked into motion.

Talia stared wide-eyed, and whispered, "I've never been to another planet."

"Only this one." Ivy grinned.

"I confess... I may have lied about never being another world." Desdemona said sheepishly.

Talia's eyes were fixed on the planet, but Ivy turned, "Really? You've been to another planet, before? You're our expert! You have to help us see everything."

"Never Earth. They not space species." Desdemona shook her head, "Mostly been trade hubs. Places family has business. It little fun. Never been to see things."

"Earth has something they call... Moving pictures." Ivy said, "They record themselves, acting out real or imagined stories, and then display them for the local populace. I think they last a couple hours? So a bit too long for one of our trips. But we might be able to buy one? I think."

Desdemona grinned, "Movies. This a thing I heard of. We have similar thing at home. Recordings of the heroes. Wars. I took first date at one. He tried to kiss me."

"My first kiss was in a field of flowers." Talia added, "His breath stunk like root rot."

Ivy hesitated, and the other two stared at her.

She sighed heavily, and scratched the back of her neck, "My first kiss...? Uh... You can't tell anyone."

The other two women were instantly of rapt attention. Ivy gave another glance around, but the rest of the staff were too excited or too tired to be paying any attention.

She swallowed nervously, "My... Professor? It was after class, and I asked him for some help with something and..."

"You kissed a teacher." Desdemona stared incredulously.

Talia shook her head, "Someone needs to fire that guy. That's a sacred bond. No teacher should ever touch one of their students."

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Ivy shrugged, "It isn't like we weren't adults. There was consent."

"Teacher." Talia repeated with a scowl.

Desdemona frowned, "You not be liking this man, still?"

"I... Don't know." Ivy hesitated, "If I'd never been his student? Then... I might be trying to ask him out. The man is incredible. Not just smart, but kind, as well. Those two things never go together."

"You smart and kind." Desdemona blinked.

Talia sighed heavily, "So... Skipping by the hopefully illegal thing you're never going to repeat... Ivy, I reckon you and Desdemona have something to talk about."

The two both went to protest, but Talia had already quickly clod over to another bar, and was introducing herself to the two surprised men there. Introducing, and flirting. Girl never missed an opportunity.

Ivy stared at the ground, blinking as she saw a shadow of Desdemona's tail flicking back and forth nervously. There had been no hole in those pants. What in the blazes...?

"Talia has as much subtlety as a goat screaming." Ivy said at length, realising that the other woman was too nervous to start the conversation.

"She... Be that."

Ivy shrugged, "I kinda already told Mr. No that we were going on a date. I... I don't want to get your hopes up. But we can... Do something."

"What?"

She looked up, and saw Desdemona staring at her in fear. The red-skinned woman's eyes were as wide as saucers, not daring to believe what it was that Ivy had just told her.

She smiled and gave a small shrug, "What's one date between friends? Even if it doesn't work... We'll get a chocolate brick."

"You're more understanding than be fair." Desdemona cracked a smile, and rubbed her face in her hands. "I... I be hoping to showing you things. Other worlds always be amazing."

*****

The light was just about blinding as Ivy filed off the spaceship along with everyone else. She could smell the flowers, as she blinked her eyes and found herself in a green field, along with everyone else.

A few of the staff were calling people over, proudly proclaiming to give the best tours of the small town that was nearby. The guards were milling about, looking grumpier than ever.

Most of the exhausted tourists, though, were breaking off into their own groups. Excited to go off and explore the strangeness of humans and their Earth, all by themselves.

Ivy hooked an arm through the much taller woman's, and smiled up at her, "Tour? Or on our own?"

"I not be knowing Earth well." Desdemona cautioned.

"Our own, it is." Ivy grinned, and then turned her head and nodded, "Looks like Talia isn't on her own. Three men, all intent to please. That's something."

"Talia be lesbian. They not be making of worthy efforts." Desdemona gave a laugh, and began to walk.

The red-skinned woman was in total awe of the flowers, the grass, and the trees. As they walked across the park, she explained how her homeworld was nothing but rocks and dust. Boiling gasses and volcanic ash, in every single direction.

On the few times her family had sent her out, she'd been to industrial parts of the foreign worlds. Desdemona had seen mines, blacksmiths, manufacturing plants and vehicle assembly lines. Nothing of the natural beauties of worlds so different to her own.

Ivy didn't know a lot about the next planet over. She hadn't known a lot about the Earth - just a primitive backwater, too obsessed with technology. The sister planet, though, was even less.

She knew it was inhabited. There were three dominant and intelligent species, but they all kept to themselves. They did partake in trade, but they didn't intermingle. Marriages were all but unheard of.

The planet had a yearlong day. The surface was hot enough to melt most metals. It was an inhospitable wasteland... That had access to a lot of very rare materials, that were in huge demand for intergalactic ships.

The construction company that Duffle & Hurley were parterned with, had very close ties to the government of Venus.

Ivy frowned, "Probably insensitive... But I only know the human name for your planet."

"Lots of names. Different people call different." Desdemona shrugged, "My family be calling it Infero."

"Does your name sound any different, in your tongue? You speak Universal pretty well, but I don't know your language." Ivy prodded lightly.

Desdemona scowled, "I not be liking language. I... It be sensitive thing. I not liking the family, the planet, the language. I want be like everyone else. Just maid."

Ivy was not sure she fully understood, but it seemed her date was trying to run away from home. Which as an adult, she was absolutely allowed to do.

She squeezed the woman's arm, "Well, my legal name isn't actually spoken. It's stupid, because we've got voiceboxes and things, but all the formal things on my planet are done with pheromones, which are so very easy to misread."

"What your name smell like?" Desdemona asked curiously.

Ivy scratched the back of her head, "I don't really know how to describe it? What does your name sound like?"

"Ah."

She took a deep breath, and pulled them to a stop. Turning to face Desdemona, and pulling her head down just a little. She closed her eyes and opened up all of her flowers.

There was a small puff of pollen, carrying her unique signature into the air. A screaming broadcast that said where she was born, where she'd studied. Counting the days off until her highest fertility. How nervous she was.

All of it was part of her name. It described the whole of her, in the current moment. There was a reason that legal names were so very rarely touched on, used. They were inherently unique, inherently private.

It spoke of how nervous she was to be standing this close to Desdemona. She was intimidated by the height of the woman, by their muscle, and by how they never really seemed to be scared of the world.

There were hints, small and fragile scents, that spoke of the possibility between the two of them. Delicate, confused, and so very fragile.

Ivy opened her eyes, and closed her flowers, taking a half-step backwards. She took a deep breath, and smiled nervously, "It's a name."

Desdemona didn't answer her, staring and breathing hard. Her leathers creaking as her chest moved up and down, as her red eyes just spoke of shock and awe.

Ivy winced, "Too much?"

"Intimate." Desdemona blinked and shook her head, taking a deeper breath. "I be thinking we needing that brick now."

She nodded, and fell into step beside the other woman. She didn't hold onto their arm, this time. She'd pushed too far.

It wasn't as intimate, among her own kind. Secretive, and official, but it just meant trust. It didn't mean a single thing romantic, and would probably actually kill any affectionate feelings on a date.

Ivy had stepped into a cultural thing, and kicked herself.

*****

Finding a store that sold chocolate, did not take them long at all. What surprised them though, was that almost every store they went into, sold some sort of chocolate or another.

There were bars with peanuts, nougat, caramel, fudge. There were some with coconut, biscuit pieces, marshmallow. There were bars with sultanas, cranberries, acai berries and goji berries.

There were two women, sitting on a park bench, holding their equally bloated stomachs and groaning quietly.

They both had bags of shopping by their feet. Ivy hadn't really noticed everything that Desdemona had bought, but her own had several blocks more of chocolate. Even though she was pretty sure it wouldn't be safe for her to touch them until after her tour on the ship was over.

She hadn't only bought chocolate. She had bought other foods and snacks, which would probably be worse for her stomach. Things like gummy worms, and popcorn. She had also got some potato things, because those seemed popular.

The chips didn't really appeal. She had mostly got them to give them to Talia, as a present.

"Date not go well." Desdemona groaned.

Ivy couldn't disagree. "But... Fun."

The red head bobbed a little, and then went pale as Desdemona regretted making the motion. Strong hands cracked the wood of the seat as the fingers dug in, trying not to vomit.

"It is not fair, that we're not omnivores." Ivy complained.

Desdemona groaned weakly, "Not be fair. It be so long since we join universe. We still not omnivore, like the rest? Even human get be omni! Eat and eat, whatever make them fat!"

"Why are my people still phototrophs!? We have mouths and stomachs! Why can't they actually digest any-"

Ivy cut off and bolted to the nearby portable toilet. Which might have been part of why the two of them had chosen this particular part of the park to collapse at.

As she tried not to hear herself, she could hear Desdemona groaning quietly in the park, but she could also hear something else. A sound that did not really fit in with what she knew of Earth.

They had landed their tourist ship quietly, and out of the town, to make sure they didn't cause too much concern. They passed as a strange convention of people wearing costumes, instead of the people who were alien to the planet, like they were.

Yet, Ivy could hear the distant rumble of an engine. The flashing intermittent engagement of a solar boosted craft. She knew next to nothing about ships. Even the simple ones were rare on her homeworld, people opting to walk or dimensionally shift instead. More environmentally friendly.

Ivy focused in on the sound, ignoring the painful complaints of her stomach. It was moving away from her, getting quieter, instead of closer.

There was a frantic knock at the bathroom door, "You be done, Ivy?"

"N-nearly." She stammered.

"You needing done." Desdemona said hurriedly.