Clementine gazed dreamily at her music, waiting for everyone to get settled. After spending most of Friday night playing with each other, Zack had left the house before she woke up on Saturday. At first she'd thought he was going to pull his make-out-then-disappear-for-a-week routine, but Saturday night he sneaked into her bedroom after her parents were asleep, and they'd engaged in another night of trying to tease sound out of each other while her parents were on the other side of the wall. Sunday night she went to his room, at his request, and discovered his array of toys, which added a new level of challenge to their silent game. Even now her core throbbed at the memory of all the different ways he'd made her come.

But despite the intense physical pleasure, she wished they'd been able to talk more. She'd tried a bunch of times, but getting him to open up was harder than getting a room of conductors to agree on a tempo.

"Where's Sanford?" asked Yvette, the second violinist.

"He's never late," said one of the viola players.

"Inlan?" Clementine asked. Startled out of his yawn, he looked over at her. "Did you and Sanford meet this weekend?"

"Yeah," he said in English. "He helped me a lot." He must not have heard Yvette's question, because he looked towards Sanford's empty chair. "Where is he?"

"We don't know," snapped Valerie, the French horn player who had tried to boot him on his first rehearsal. "That's why we're asking you."

After sending a hard glare her way, Clementine said, "Let's start. I'm sure he'll show up."

Inlan's timing was indeed much better than it had been Friday, but he was still struggling with the different tuning. Clementine was quick to point out the few times he got it right, once again thanking him in front of the entire orchestra for learning an entirely new notation system for them.

"Wanna sit with us?" she asked him when they broke for lunch.

He'd been heading backstage, and turned an alarmed gaze down on her. "With you?" he asked. Then, rubbing his eyes, he said, "Sure, thanks."

As they walked side by side to the bench where Lupita and Tian were sitting, she said, "I'm hoping you can help me with something. I'm thinking of framing our final performance as something of a unity concert, and I'd like to work some Relican instruments into my concerto. Do you think I could see yours?"

His jaw twitched, and he walked a few strides in silence, then shook his head.

"You don't think it's a good idea?" she asked, not bothering to hide her disappointment. She'd been so inspired by the thought of using Relican instruments and tuning that she'd already written twice as much music as she'd ever completed before.

Glancing at her, Inlan rubbed his face and let out a sigh. Bristling at his apparent annoyance with her question, she said, "Never mind," and sat down.

"You're looking particularly lovely today," said Lupita, taking in her outfit.

"Thanks." Clementine tried to keep the heat out of her face as she touched the black and white silk scarf, making sure it was still hiding Zack's bite marks. It was more flourish than she usually wore to rehearsal, so she'd tried to balance it with an extra nice summer dress and leggings.

"Take a seat," Tian said to Inlan, gesturing to the empty spot on the bench in front of them.

Inlan, who had been watching Lupita and Clementine's exchange, remained standing, trying unsuccessfully to stifle another yawn.

"Poor thing," said Lupita. "You look wiped."

He did seem less glittery today. Usually his skin sparkled in the light, but now it was a dull sheen, more like sweaty human skin. And his tan eyes were veined with jagged dark brown lines. Was that the brown-blooded equivalent of bloodshot? The rest of him appeared no worse for wear, though. His brown uniform revealed every sculpted rivulet of muscle, from his shoulders all the way down to his calves. He wasn't as jacked as Tausson, but Clementine preferred the less bulky build. And as her gaze traveled back up, she saw that he definitely wasn't lacking anything in the love lance department...

"I will show you my instruments."

Clementine's eyes bounced back up to his face, his words making her cheeks burn before she realized he was talking about musical instruments.

One weekend of ecstasy and I'm even ogling the frigid Relican.

"That's okay," she said, opening her ration tin. "You don't have to."

"No, really. The commander -- and probably even the chief -- will approve if they know the goal is to engender good will between our two peoples."

"Your English is really coming along," said Lupita with an encouraging smile.

"Thank you," he said, tapping his forearm. "It was either English or Mandarin."

"You made the right choice," said Tian. "My grandma tried to teach me Mandarin when I was in high school. It was impossible." He exaggerated his accent before adding, "My Texas twang made half the words mean something different." Standing up to get a closer look at Inlan's arm, he said, "That is crazy cool."

Clementine had seen Tausson's mechasuit control panel before, but she still got up to look too. It resembled a smartphone screen, but on his sleeve. He pushed a button with the image of another Relican, this one silver like Tausson. An empty screen appeared, with a bank of shapes.

"Hey, that's a triangle!" said Tian, grinning as if he'd just translated the entire Relican language. He pointed to some other buttons. "And a square, a diamond... You guys use the same shapes as us?"

"We do." Clearly glad to have discovered common ground, Inlan grinned, his face regaining some of the luster his fatigue had stolen. It was such a sincere, innocent smile, that Clementine found herself smiling too. But when he turned that smile on her, her breath caught.

He's gorgeous.

It was as if someone whispered the words in her ear. The foreign concept drifted around her mind like a melody taking shape, thickening, sticking to more and more parts of her brain until it was a fully formed thought, securely planted, demanding attention.

How had she not seen it before? She'd definitely appreciated his physique more than once, but all the Relicans were like that -- even the women were ripped. But Inlan was more than a body. He was funny, sweet, dedicated... and gorgeous.

Inlan's smile faltered, but neither he nor Clementine looked away.

"So you talk with shapes?"

Tian's question hung there, driving a wedge between them, until Inlan was forced to avert his gaze. He said something about their language being pictographic, but Clementine hardly heard him.

She'd never been so affected by a guy before. Zack had rocked her world repeatedly over the past three nights, but this was different. This was more than physical, this was...

"That's him!"

A woman's screech broke Clementine out of her trance. A woman stood by the transport doors, her white hair so thin that most of her brown scalp was visible. Two police officers were with her, but they weren't the reason Clementine's chest tightened in panic. The woman was peering over a pair of half-circle spectacles and pointing at Inlan.

"Him! He killed my Sanford!"