After Vax’s victory over the Riga council, it’s almost like something switches in him. He’s still that hulking alien warrior, but his mood lifts, his eyes soften. He seems to be opening up. Things don’t only feel easier between Vax and the Riga, they feel easier between us. It’s almost like he’s starting to care. Perhaps I’m letting myself get carried away, but that’s just what it feels like.

A few days later I return to Vax’s ship after a long day of helping Loola out in the burned fields. We’re making great progress in rebuilding the destruction, but there’s still a lot to do. Monroe informs me that Vax is in the engine bay making adjustments to the ship, so I head on down to see if he needs a hand with anything. The engine room itself is a hollowed-out orb.

The engine itself doesn’t make any sense to me. Some parts look like regular earth machinery, and others are typically alien. I keep my arms close to my sides as I walk down the metal walkways that stretch down either side of the room. Giant pistons fire at random, gears turn against metal. Blocks of liquid metal interact with each other, confusing and intriguing me. I find Vax on his back as he fits a glowing green orb into a block of tiny black spikes. He sits up at seeing me and pulls back a black mask that shields his eyes. He’s covered in grease. It’s hot.

“Piper. You’re back already.”

“I’ve been out all day, Vax. Is that the part you wanted?”

Vax clicks the green orb into place and stands, wiping his hands off as he does so. “Sure is. The Riga have been a lot easier to deal with since our meeting the other day. Apologizing is great! One word and I get whatever I want!”

He throws an arm around me and crushes his body against me. I’m made up that Vax is happy with his new-found skills, but it’s not the first time I’ve heard him say something like that. “It doesn’t work like that Vax. You don’t apologize to people to win. You do it because you’re sincerely sorry.”

He looks at me momentarily and nods slyly. “Of course. That is what I meant. Apologies are great weapons in the conversation of war.”

I roll my eyes. “Not everything is war, Vax. Everything looks like a nail when you’re a hammer. Have you ever heard that expression?”

“No, but it sounds like a great one,” he says enthusiastically. “What is wrong with my analogy?”

Where do I begin? I’m ecstatic that Vax has made such progress with the Riga in the last few days, but I’m starting to realize now apologies have quickly just become another tool for him to get his way. “You think that apologizing is only worthwhile when you get something. That’s not the point. You do it to show the other person that you are capable of compassion and regret. By empathizing with someone else’s point of view you take on their problems and it helps you to both feel happy.”

His brow knots in thought and he shakes his head slowly while holding a hand against his temple. “Empathy… you have mentioned this to me before. This is when you try to understand what the other person feels?”

I nod. “That’s it!”

“I see. We Argonians have never had much need for such a thing. Why… most likely it would be the feeling of my sword in an enemy’s gut.”

“Almost. Ignore the physical feeling for now, I’m on about emotional feeling. Like… what do you feel when we’re together sexually?”

His eyes flush slightly at the words and he contemplates my question. “Heat. Tension. Desire. Release.”

“No, you’re not listening to me.” I face him and take his hand. “For example, you make me feel safe. You make me feel wanted. You make me feel special.”

“Special?”

“Most of the time. You told me we’re a perfect genetic match for each other. Doesn’t that mean something to you? I find you attractive Vax, and you find me attractive too… when we’re together we open up our vulnerabilities to each other and that mutual trust is what makes our special time important.”

“Vulnerabilities?”

“My body for example. I’m not crazy about it all the time, but when you’re slobbering over me in bed I feel really hot. It’s not often I get to feel like that. Isn’t there anything you’re self-conscious about?”

“Well… no,” he says flatly, and then: “Well, maybe. Perhaps I am not as tall as some Argonian males. Perhaps my muscle mass isn’t as great as theirs.”

I stare at him for a moment, surprised that Vax could ever feel like he wasn’t tall or muscled enough. “Wow. You actually feel self-conscious too?”

“Of course. After combat, my prime directive is to attract a mate. Argonian females only picked the tallest and strongest warriors.”

“But you’re gorgeous!” I stammer, not understanding it at all.

“As are you,” he says. “You don’t understand it, but you’re telling me the exact thing I have told you all this time, Piper Denzel. You might not feel like the most attractive earthling all the time, but it doesn’t matter to me, because you already are, and always will be. Don’t you see?”

For a moment I’m genuinely stunned. The mountain of muscle has somehow managed to turn this around on me and teach me the lesson. War wasn’t conversation, but Vax was certainly winning this one. A large smile fills my face. I take his hand and hold it against my chest. “You’re pretty damn romantic when you want to be, you know that? Feel my heart right now as it beats in my chest. It’s going crazy because you made me feel special. That’s what I mean about empathy Vax. Don’t you feel that when you open your vulnerabilities to me?”

I place my hand back on Vax’s chest in turn, flattening my palm against the oil-smeared muscle. He holds my wrist and looks down at my hand, before returning his gaze to my own. “I… I do feel something. It feels… it feels… amazing. It’s so warm. It’s like a waterfall of hot blood, dripping down my body!”

A choice metaphor, but I’ll allow it. “That’s the feeling I’m talking about Vax. Tapping into that will make us feel closer. Especially when we’re together, in our alone time.”

He curls his hand around the small of my back, steps towards me and closes the distance between us. It seems he’s just ignored everything I’ve said about feeling. Right to fucking again, I guess. Heat rolls off his body and thaws my restraint. I gnaw at my lip instinctively, fighting to suppress the whimpers that want to escape me. I’m always game for another bout of mindless sex with Vax, but would it be too much to ask for something higher?

That’s when he takes me by surprise. He leans in close and plants the most tender kiss against my lips. There’s something different about this one. It’s warm. It’s raw. It’s him. He pulls away and I expect to see eyes of jet black, but as I look up into them I see tiny golden light twinkling in those blue pools.

“Vax?” I ask. “What’s happening? Your eyes… your…” I look down at his body and see it’s not just his eyes that are turning gold. Tiny lights of bright gold are twinkling all across his skin, bobbing under the blue ocean of muscle like fireflies on water. He looks down and sees the transformation in himself, and seems just as puzzled as I am.

“I think this is another Argonian form. I thought we only transformed for mating and combat.”

This was something else though. It wasn’t mating. It was—

Vax takes me by the hand and leads me out of the engine bay. “Vax?! Where are we going?”

The golden-skinned giant looks back at me, with eyes that burn like fire. “To the bedroom Piper. I think this is my body telling me that we’re finally ready.”

Ready? Ready for what? We tear down hallways toward his room and I realize finally what he means. This isn’t some bout of mindless fucking. I’ve opened him up and we’re ready for each other.

He wants to make love.

* * *

We come together as a clash of molten love. Skin against skin, lips against lips, hearts against hearts. I tear my clothes off as fast as I can and scurry back across the bed, opening my legs as the giant lays on top of me. We’re both completely naked, pressed against one another, and it feels great.

I wrap my legs around his muscular waist and pull him tight against me. His skin is hot to the touch, and those tiny golden lights twinkle across the surface everywhere I look. He buries his lips against my throat and kisses deep, my head throws back and long moans of want escape from my mouth. Each kiss leaves an electric whisper on my flesh. It’s heavenly. Or as Vax might say, it’s Vutaz.

His oak tenses against my body, flattening out between our stomachs as a pillar of molten flesh. I reach down and grasp it in my hands, marveling at its heat and solidness. I pump my tiny palm up and down his veiny shaft, feeling myself clench with need for him. There’s a sensual slowness to our love this time. My hands are everywhere at once, wanting to feel him, noticing how right it feels to have my palms against his body.

For the longest time we kiss like that, held in a naked tenderness that is beautiful and frightening. I open, and he pushes deep inside. The heat rises in the room as our bodies become one. His hips roll against mine with a rhythmic caring, filling me completely, rounding my mouth with silent cries. We climax together, my legs tight around his waist, my hands clawing at his back, his lips pressed against mine. His cock grows hot and there’s the strangest sensation I can’t describe. As he explodes inside of me I feel his body buzzing against mine.

It only sends me over the edge again.

We come together four times in total, and he stays held inside of me each time, bursting across my walls, filling me with pools of heat that feel like delicious golden heat. There’s an honesty between us in this moment, he’s holding nothing back and I really feel like we’re one. A love for him swells inside my chest, almost making me feel like I want to cry.

Am I more than just a womb to him now? Is there something greater between us? His lips find my throat again and he kisses me while his cock buries deep once more. I throw my head back against the pillow and hold on for dear life. It feels like we’ve reached the next level. Whatever that is in the crazy world of Argonia. As I lay there staring into his beautiful eyes fear springs up inside of me.

I think I might be in love with an alien.