Help! My Lover's an Alien - 4. Chapter 4

Dillon came out of the shower and headed for his locker. After another exhausting day, all he wanted was to go home and fall into bed. First though, he needed to get that damn alien out of his mind. He hadn’t seen Blue Eyes since the tour the day before and he was glad. He really was glad…

He’d just dropped his towel when a voice spoke behind him.

“Nice to see more of you, Mr. Stewart.”

Dillon spun around into a defensive crouch.

Sitting calmly on the opposite bench was the one individual he didn’t want to see. Its mouth was turned up in a small smile.

Dillon scowled, standing up to reach behind him into his locker. Feeling around until he found his jeans, he pulled them on over his still damp skin without taking his eyes of his visitor. He didn’t know what the alien was capable of, and although he had to admit to a certain curiosity, he wasn’t stupid enough not to be at least a bit worried about what the alien was planning on doing here with him alone.

Once he was mostly dressed, he took a good look at his visitor. The alien still had its black hood and cloak on, so all Dillon could see was its face and those damn blue eyes. He felt as though he could fall into them and happily get lost forever— Dillon shook his head, what was he thinking?

“How can I help you?” Dillon asked, trying to be respectful. He tucked a knife in the back of his jeans where it would still be accessible.

“Well, you could help me in many ways,” the guard answered, and moved so fast Dillon didn’t have time to react. He found himself pinned against the lockers by an unseen force while the alien leaned over him.

“If you don’t move away now, guest or no guest, I will hurt you to get free,” Dillon said with what he hoped was believable confidence. Inside, he was now getting more frightened than anything, and that annoyed him. He couldn’t move a muscle, and memories of being pinned before rose up and threatened to engulf him.

****

Lor paused at the tone of the human’s voice. His magic was pushing him to just throw the man down and take what he wanted, but his better sense knew that would be a mistake. There was something else niggling his mind. He pushed his magic back as hard as he could, so he could look clearly at the beautiful man he had pinned against the metal boxes.

When he looked into the human’s eyes, he was appalled by what he saw there. The man was scared of him. Moving quickly, he stepped back. His cloak tangled his legs, and he cursed as he ended up sitting heavily back on the bench where he had started.

“I apologize,” he said, trying to put as much sincerity into his tone as possible. “I did not mean you any harm. From my research, I thought this was how human males initiate courtship.”

“Courtship?” the man asked.

But Lor wasn’t listening; he stood and offered a short bow of respect, still talking fast. “I will take my leave of you and hope I have not given offense to you in any way. Again, I offer my apologies.” With his last words, he made a swift exit, letting the door bang shut in his haste to get out of the room.

****

Dillon stood frozen for a few seconds after the guard left, but then shook himself and moved to the door.

Man, that guard must have moved fast, Dillon thought. Looking both ways at the door, there was no one to be seen in the hallway.

Moving back to his locker, he finished dressing and decided that the day had been long and strange enough. He still just wanted to go home and sleep. Everything else could be dealt with in the morning. After all, the poor guard had looked mortified— from what Dillon could see of its face of course— and it’d left so quickly that it must have been embarrassed.

Initiate courtship? Dillon snorted to himself. Who called trying to get laid that anymore? He’d only heard of courtship in the old romance movies his mother insisted on watching when he was younger.

Shaking his head, Dillon headed out the door and home to a well-earned sleep.

****

“He was terrified. What am I going to do?” Lor was pacing around the room he’d been assigned. It was large with a separate area for dining and an en suite bathroom.

The flickering hologram in the middle of the room chuckled. “Lor, darling, when will you learn to think first and not jump in with both feet?”

“It is not funny, Mother. He is my other half. I need him. My magic is taking over, and I do not know how long I can keep control.”

“Hmmm,” his mother replied, turning serious. Lor loved his mother; as far he was concerned, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever, and would ever, meet. Her black hair was braided neatly, and her pale skin glowed with health. She wore her usual home clothes, what the humans would call a sari, paired with leather-thong sandals.

“I think the first thing you need to do is some more in-depth research. Remember, we may know our other halves when we meet them, but the humans may not. You were given access to their databases, were you not? Look up courtship on them, and read all the different articles about it. It may be that customs differ in different parts of Earth.”

Lor thought for a moment, but he had to admit his mother was probably right— as usual!

His mother had obviously guessed what he was thinking because, when he looked at her again, she was smirking.

“Okay, Mother. I will do as you suggest. I will call again when I can.”

After trading farewells, Lor moved to the computer interface in the room. Tapping it to wake up the screen, he started by typing in courtship.

He was shocked when almost all the links predated the year 2000. The current Earth-year of 3050 had only one link.

Selecting that link, he accessed the intergalactic interspecies translating dictionary; it stated:

Courtship – this is an old Earth word for when a male of the species wanted to make it known that he wished to take a female into his protection. Humans call this marriage. The courtship consisted of the male making the female’s family aware of how he will provide for the female and how he will care for her in a way she is accustomed to. The couple would be allowed to spend time with each other to see that they are compatible. These meetings would always take place with another person present to ensure the female was kept pure until the marriage.

NB: for more information, also see dating…

Lor clicked the dating link and was even more shocked by what he read.

Over the next few hours, he learned about being gay/bi/straight, romance, and body language. He also found out that if he had followed his magic’s instincts he would have ended up in a lot of trouble. Forcing someone was a high crime and he was sure Minister Mora wouldn’t have protected him. Even on his own planet, forcing someone was outlawed and severely punished. He would have to work harder on his control; he couldn’t do what his magic wanted him to. He knew his magic would react to his mate, but this was much stronger than he had expected. Since he was the highest level mage on his planet, there was no one he could go to to ask questions. But he should be able to access the ship’s database. Maybe there was something from a previous mage of his level on there.

Closing the computer interface, Lor fell into his bed and lay thinking for a long time. He then did some strong control exercises before finally falling into a deep sleep.