Chapter Nine: Round Peg, Square Hole
Being back on Earth wasn't what Alanna had expected. She'd known that things were going to be different, and that she was going to feel different, considering she'd spent so much time on another planet, but she'd at least expected there to be some sort of feeling of home. Some notion that she was back where she belonged.
There wasn't much of that at all. It felt nice to see familiar faces, but she started out all the conversations with the people she'd been away from for so long by lying to them. It wasn't even a very good lie, all things considered, and she was a bit disturbed by how very easily they had all believed her.
Did she seem like the sort of person who was due for a nervous breakdown? Or were they just relieved to have her back?
Shannon seemed to be in the latter category. She called her every day for a week, making sure that she was alright and didn't have the urge to run away again. It was sweet, in a way, that her best friend cared that much, but on the other hand, Alanna wanted to yell that she had never run anywhere in the first place. It wasn't her fault that someone had snatched her up and carted her off to another planet like she was a sack of potatoes or something.
But she couldn't tell people that. Luther seemed to think that it would be simpler to just say it, and he was right, of course, but Alanna didn't want to just come out with it like that. It would make people look at her like she was crazy, and on the off chance that anyone believed her, she'd be carted away for questioning or whatever.
No, she stood by the fact that her lie was the best solution, even if it was causing her irritation now.
It didn't help, of course, that there was apparently some huge conspiracy or whatever happening. Luther and the queen held hushed conversations via the communication device that Alanna just thought of as Luther's intergalactic cellphone most of the time.
Luther filled her in on the details as they came, but there weren't many, to be honest. There were still too many missing pieces.
There wasn't anything Alanna could do to help, really. She'd already pulled up all the articles on the disappearances and the things people had seen that she could find, but it was clear that those things were just bait or distractions for the real plan.
Of course, Luther was obsessed with trying to figure out what was going on. His loyalty to his people was admirable, of course, but he was making himself crazy with all the things he was trying to figure out.
Finally, Alanna made him go take a shower, sighing as she flopped down on the couch and reached for the remote. No sooner had she done that, than Luther's communicator was buzzing on the table.
She considered ignoring it; no doubt Queen Varen had less than nothing to say to her now that she was no longer the queen's problem, but ignoring the queen seemed like it was in bad form, so Alanna pressed the screen the way she saw Luther do it all the time, trying to answer the call.
To her surprise, the screen cleared and showed Clio's face instead of Her Majesty's, and Alanna's face split in a grin.
Clio looked just as surprised, and she grinned back. "Well, hello there, little human. I wasn't expecting you."
"I wasn't expecting you, either," Alanna replied. "Luther's been having conference calls with the queen all week, so I was preparing my manners."
Clio snorted, looking amused. "No need for those here. Is Luther around?"
"I made him take a shower," Alanna said. "He was driving me nuts."
"With his smell?"
"No, with his worrying." She didn't know if Clio had been kept in the loop with everything that was going on, so she didn't say too much, but she did mention the kidnappings and the things that were happening on Earth, since it was her planet.
Luckily, Clio was nodding with understanding. "Yes, that's all pretty worrying. We did some digging, and it turns out that there have been at least seven crash landings with humans turning up on strange planets since you showed up here. What happened to those humans, we can't tell. Everyone's being really hush mouthed about it, which is irritating the queen to no end, let me tell you."
"Can't blame her for that," Alanna said. "My friend here said there were more people who were taken than just seven, though."
"I'm not sure what that means," Clio said. "It's possible not all of them made it to a planet."
That made Alanna swallow hard because that made sense. Maybe some of them fought back or were hurt in other ways. Maybe they were disposed of. It turned her stomach to think of it, and she sighed heavily. "What a mess."
"It is a mess. I have some news, though."
"Good news?"
"It...depends on how you look at it."
Alanna sighed again. "Well, you can tell me if you want, and I'll pass it on to Luther, or I can have him call you back."
"I can tell you," Clio said. "I have a long day ahead of me. Luther had me looking into if we have any leaks in our tech. Since that guy who sent Queen Varen that message knew too much about what was happening to be an outsider."
"And what did you find?"
"Nothing. Everything is secure. All of our channels going in and out are secure and locked up tight from the outside. Unless he has some kind of access that we can't find, he's not getting his info that way."
"Which means what?" Alanna wanted to know, even though she had a sick feeling that she already knew what it meant.
"It means that we have a leak in another place," Clio told her. "Most likely one of our people are giving out information."
Alanna frowned. Just what she had feared, then. "Why would anyone do that? To their own people?"
One of Clio's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Hard to say. Maybe they're getting something out of it. Maybe they're being blackmailed into it. Maybe they just don't like the queen or humans or whoever. There's any number of reasons to do something like this, but none of that matters if we can't figure out who it is."
"Jesus," Alanna murmured. "What a mess."
"Mmhmm." Clio nodded and then sighed. "I have to go. The queen needs to know this information, and then I'm sure we're going to have to sit through some long lecture about loyalty or what have you. You'll tell Luther?"
"I will. Good luck, Clio."
"And to you. Stay out of trouble."
Clio waved and the screen went blank. Alanna put the device back down on the table and leaned back with a long sigh. A mess was an understatement, honestly. There were so many loose ends, and they maybe didn't even know the full scope of what was happening yet. It seemed bad now, to be sure, but Alanna had an inkling that it could definitely get worse.
The bathroom door opened down the hall, releasing a cloud of warm, citrus scented steam. Luther came back into the room with nothing but a towel around his waist, and Alanna's fretting was momentarily derailed by the sight of him standing there, still slightly damp and gorgeous.
She'd been worried that she wouldn't be as attracted to him on Earth as she was on Lin-Vayel. Of course, there had been no basis for this fear, it was just something she'd found herself worrying about because there were so many things to worry about.
In the end, it hadn't been a problem. If anything, she was more attracted to him here, where he was taller and broader and kinder than anyone else around. And now he was standing in her living room, drops of water from his hair sliding down his neck to his shoulders and his chest, and she was dry mouthed with wanting him.
But she had a message to pass on, so she shook herself. "Clio just called."
Alanna instantly regretted saying anything. The shower seemed to have worked wonders for getting rid of the permanent frown that had been on Luther's face for the last few days, and his tense posture had eased into something much more relaxed. But as soon as she mentioned Clio's call, it all came right back.
"What did she say?" he wanted to know.
"That she and her people checked everything and the leak isn't coming from the tech."
Luther closed his eyes and sighed. "I was afraid of that."
"Does that mean it's one of your people?"
"Most likely. It's...possible there's a spy hiding out and gathering information without anyone noticing, but more than likely it's one of our people passing it on." He was silent for a moment and then he swore explosively.
Alanna jumped from the suddenness of it, and then her face set in determined lines. "Get dressed," she said.
"What?"
"Get dressed. We're going out."
"Do you have an idea?" Luther asked.
"No, I have a need to not be in this house talking about this anymore."
"Alanna—”
"I know it's important, Luther. Believe me, I know. But we've been wracking our brains about this for a week, and we're no closer to a solution. Clearly something bad is happening, or at the very least something not good, so before everything goes to crap, I want to show you my home like you showed me yours."
Luther stared at her for a moment, and then he visibly softened, letting out a light sigh. "You're right," he said. "There isn't much else we can do now, anyway." He turned on his heel, and she heard him go into the bedroom to find his clothes.
Being out of the house was an experience. Nothing was as beautiful as Lin-Vayel, of course, but it was better than being cooped up in the house. Luther held her hand as they walked around, taking in the sights, and Alanna couldn't help but see things as he probably saw them. It wasn't nearly as bright and open as the places they'd gone to when she was on his planet, and everything looked grimy and grey and industrial in the city.
She found that she missed Lin-Vayel and its clean air and the sound of waves lapping the shore with a physical ache in her chest that was hard to resolve.
"Are you alright?" Luther asked her, looking down at her face.
Alanna shook herself and nodded. "Yeah. It's just...this all feels different than it used to."
"How so?"
"I don't know. I guess I just never really noticed certain things about the city before. Before I ended up on Lin-Vayel, I mean."
"It does have a certain...smell," Luther said, clearly aiming for dignity.
Alanna laughed. "Yeah, it does. That I did notice before I ended up on your planet. It's just...this is supposed to be my home, and I feel...I don't know."
"You haven't been back for very long," Luther said. "Perhaps it will take time for it to feel like home again. Why don't you show me the places you love the most?"
He had a point, of course, but Alanna wasn't so sure it was ever going to feel different. Usually when she came back home after being away, there was a profound sense of relief, of being back where she belonged.
Here, there was just a feeling of being out of place, the same way she'd felt during those first days on Lin-Vayel, when she had been nothing more than an outsider.
But Luther was right. She'd brought him out here to take his mind off of serious matters, and it wasn't fair for her to spend the whole time wrapped up in her own head. Plus she was hungry.
"Come on," she said, tugging him in the direction of her favorite noodle place. "Let's get some food."
Eating with Luther at the restaurant definitely helped wipe away most of her stress. She'd forgotten that the restaurant always had their Mega Bowl, which was five times the size of a normal bowl of ramen, and if someone could finish it, the meal was free.
Luther had ordered it, not even knowing about the promotion, but had easily allowed himself to be sucked into the fanfare of it, demolishing the massive bowl of noodles, spicy broth, pork, and vegetables, and setting a new record for the restaurant.
The servers and the chef had been astounded to see it happen so fast and so easily, and when Luther had burped after he'd finished off the last of the remaining broth, everyone had laughed.
"That was delicious," he told them all, and they'd gotten their meal for free as well as complimentary desserts.
The tempura cheesecake had baffled Luther until he'd eaten it, and Alanna's tempura banana had been amazingly good.
From there they had walked back to the house to get her car, and then she took him to her favorite cafe for drinks and then to Pebbles.
There was no way she could show him her favorite places without going there, of course. It was where she had made her art and where she had started making a name for herself.
It was also a Saturday.
They walked up to the pottery area, laughing as she explained the coffee drink Luther had ordered, and nearly walked right into Keith who was standing in the doorway.
Keith.
Alanna sucked in a sharp breath. She hadn't seen him when she'd come back here a few days before, and in fact, this was the first time she'd seen him since she'd been taken.
"Alanna," he said, clearly surprised to see her. "You're here."
"I'm here," she said, suddenly very on edge. "So are you."
"It's a Saturday."
"Right."
They stared at each other for a long moment and then Keith moved so they could walk into the space. "I heard about your..." Keith made a vague hand gesture, not seeming to know what he wanted to say.
"My breakdown," she said.
He nodded. "Yeah. I uh. I was sorry to hear that it happened. You seemed so...I don't know. Happy. Before."
"Yeah," Alanna said, shrugging. "It's one of those things, you know." Luther cleared his throat from behind her, and Alanna made a face. "Right. This is um. This is Luther."
"Her boyfriend," Luther put in.
Alanna turned to give him a look. "Luther, this is Keith. He's a painter."
And the man she had been sleeping with most recently before she'd met Luther, and she wondered if she had told him enough about Keith for him to figure that out.
Keith, for his part, looked startled. "It's nice to meet you," he said, nodding. He fixed Alanna with a look. "You had a nervous breakdown and then ended up with a boyfriend?"
She sighed. "It's one of those things. Just happened."
"I guess so. You know, next time you disappear, you might want to give your ex a heads up."
"What do you mean?"
"He came here, looking for you, right after you vanished. He thought we might know where you'd gone or that we had something to do with it. He didn't know who I was, which was good, considering."
"Yeah. Considering."
"Does he know you're back?" Keith wanted to know.
"I called him."
"Good. He seemed worried."
"Right."
"I was worried, too, you know. You...you just didn't come back, and I thought I'd done something to drive you away, at first."
Alanna sucked in a breath. She didn't want to do this now, and she definitely didn't want to do it with Luther standing right there. He was walking around, looking at things, but she knew he was listening.
"It definitely wasn't your fault, Keith," she said. "I just...there was a lot going on. And then Alex found out about...everything, and I just. I needed a break."
"I understand," he said. "You have to look out for yourself. Take care of yourself. It just would've been nice to get a text or something, you know?"
"I know."
They stood there, not talking for a while, and then Keith sighed. "I was on my way to lunch. The burger place, you know?"
Alanna smiled slightly. "Enjoy."
"Yeah. See you around, I guess."
She stood there, watching him leave, and then listening as he headed for the stairs. Only when there was no way that he was coming back did she let herself slump and sigh heavily.
"So that was the guy?" Luther asked, coming to stand next to her.
"That was him," Alanna replied.
"And do you still—”
"Luther," she said, cutting him off. "Seriously? I'm not about to run off with him, if that's what you think. It's different now. Alex was...Alex was a great guy, but he wasn't for me. We didn't have anything in common, and most of the time I felt like he wasn't listening to me. You're not like that. I don't need anything else when I have you."
Neither of them brought up the point that it was unknown how much longer she would have him, since he had to go back to Lin-Vayel one day, and Alanna was grateful to not have to talk about it.
Luther smiled and leaned down to kiss her lightly before taking her hand once more. "Come show me what's yours here," he said, tugging her over to the rows of finished pieces.
They headed back to Alanna's house after that. It had been nice to be out, but Alanna needed a break, and Luther needed to check his messages. There was only one, a message from the queen saying that they were beginning to investigate who could be the traitor. It put Luther in a low mood for the rest of the evening, and Alanna supposed she couldn’t blame him for being upset that one of his fellows was a traitor. This was someone he’d probably fought beside, someone he’d trusted. Alanna could only imagine that she would have felt similarly in his situation.
After nearly two hours of watching him, well, mope, she decided to intervene.
"Let's take a break from all this depressing stuff," Alanna suggested, flopping down into Luther's lap. "It's not like it's going anywhere, right?"
Luther tipped his head to the side. "I suppose you have a point, yes. And what would you have us do instead?"
"It'll need to be something really distracting," she said, grinning at him. "Something that will take your mind off of things completely."
He snorted, clearly taking her meaning. "You are incorrigible."
"Do you have a problem with that?" she wanted to know.
"You know I don't."
She did know that, and she liked that he liked these things about her. "Good," she said. "Then come here." And she leaned up to kiss him.
It was chaste, compared to some of the other kisses they had shared over the course of their relationship, but no less full of feeling. Alanna felt the weight of words unsaid between them in that kiss, but she pushed it to the side. No use dragging up more drama when they didn't need to, of course. Declarations were for people who were going to be together, and they weren't.
Alanna gave herself a mental slap and poured her attention into the kiss, the way their lips brushed and pressed together, the soft flick of Luther's tongue against her mouth, asking her to open for him.
And she always did. She opened for him beautifully, because she loved having him inside of her.
Of course, it wasn't always beautiful and lovely with the two of them. Sometimes it was him pushing her over the dining room table in the corner and pulling her pants and underwear down.
It was him fingering her efficiently, two fingers pushing into her body with firm strokes that made her shake and shudder under him. His free hand held her down over the table, pressing into her back with casual strength that she couldn't fight even if she wanted to.
"You wanted a distraction," Luther said, and his voice had slipped into that lower register that made her want to come for him on the spot. It was rough and deep and so very masculine, like every other part of him.
"A distraction for you," Alanna panted, squirming as his fingers brushed past the spot inside of her that craved his touch.
"Oh," he said, voice radiating pleasure and smug satisfaction. "I am thoroughly distracted." He pulled his fingers free of her body, leaving her slick with her own wetness from his attentions. He pushed his hips forward so she could feel the thick hardness of him against her entrance, hot and throbbing with his need.
"Oh," she echoed. "Luther, please."
He laughed, and it was low and wonderful. "Please what?"
"Please, I want you. I want you so bad, Luther, please."
She definitely wasn't above begging if it got her what she wanted, and she knew that Luther wanted it just as badly as she did.
He proved her point by wasting no more time in pushing into her with one smooth stroke.
"Oh," she said again, this time tremulous and edged with pleasure. "Yes. God. Luther."
He chuckled and held onto her hips, giving her what she wanted. He was so good at that, and he always managed to make her feel like she never had before.
The pleasure was building in her as they moved together, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before she was spilling for him.
Luther seemed to know it, too, and he encouraged her with his words, with his cock moving inside of her. It didn't take her long, and he followed soon after, a cry of her name on his lips.
Later, they laid in her bed together, both on their backs, looking at the ceiling.
"Luther?" Alanna murmured.
"Hm?"
"Things are going to be okay, right?" She had successfully distracted them both with sex and then dinner, but in the quiet of the night, it was easy to let those thoughts creep back in.
"They will," he said. "We will figure out what is happening."
She nodded and curled up closer to him, wishing she could figure out what was happening with her. Being here it was...it didn't feel right. Being with Luther felt right, and she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen when he had to leave. She would be here alone, and would she be able to handle that?
Her old life didn't seem to fit anymore, like she had become a different person while she'd been on Lin-Vayel, and Alanna was beginning to think that she liked that person better.