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Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

I don't know why I'd had it in my head that I wouldn't be going back to Earth. Maybe because the FBI couldn't threaten me while I was up on a spaceship? But I couldn't just abandon my roommates, leave all my possessions behind—my car was still in the parking lot at work—and walk away from my former life. I might not have much immediate family that would care, but I had some friends who'd probably been blowing up my phone wondering where I was. I'd been kind of an asshole to walk away from all of that.

A shuttle touching down in my neighborhood had caused a hell of a stir even in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday, but the presence of Seiwa's usual Cero guard had kept the curious at bay easily enough. They'd dropped me off to get my car, so I met them at my apartment building—Seiwa hadn't been able to fit comfortably in my Mini Cooper or else he would've driven with me.

Lenore was home as usual since she did medical transcription and a couple other things from home. She jumped into my arms, so worried, and I felt like such a piece of shit for not even letting anyone know what had been happening with me.

"You're such a total shit for brains," she kept saying.

"I know! But I wasn't thinking with this head for a while there." I tapped my temple and at least made her laugh.

Seiwa walked in behind me, and Lenore blushed. "Oh, I get it," she whispered and patted my shoulder in understanding.

I made the introductions and let her know that I was going to pack the things that really mattered to me and then figure out a way to get rid of everything else, including my car.

"Well," Lenore said, "I can sell some of these things on eBay for you. Send the profits to you, um, somewhere?"

I had no idea how she might send me money on the ship, but she didn't need to do that at all. "Actually, if you want to sell stuff, keep whatever you make. That way it can make up for my part of the rent. A little bit anyway. I think I can take my car to one of those places that'll just buy it, and that should help a lot more."

"Don't be crazy!" she said as she taped the bottom closed on a cardboard box. "I mean, I'll take maybe a couple of months' worth of rent to make sure we can get someone else in, but I'm not going to take everything you get for the car."

"I don't need it, though." I looked to Seiwa, who was fiddling with a seashell wind chime. "Do I need it?"

"No."

"He doesn't need money anymore?" Lenore asked with her nose wrinkled.

"Norlish citizens receive a guaranteed income, and as my mate, Ellis is a citizen now. But also, there are no financial requirements for any residents of the ship."

Lenore chuckled. "That is so cool."

"Financial security," I said, since we'd talked plenty of times about how she'd grown up not knowing whether she'd have food, electricity, and sometimes a home from one day to the next. So I just had to ask her, "Want to come with me?"

She smiled, but said, "And do what? I can't be a sex worker."

"There's more to do on the ship and Nor than just that." I looked to Seiwa with my eyebrows raised, hoping he'd fill in the gaps.

"Humans on the ship and on Nor do a variety of jobs unrelated to sex work," Seiwa said as he took the wind chime down and carefully placed it in a box. "That was just an underserved industry that asked for us to recruit for them." He blinked at her. "Why can't you be a sex worker?"

"Oh, well, I'm asexual, so I don't really feel sexual attraction to anyone," she explained.

"Ah. Should you find a Norlon mate, they would be the same."

"Really?" Given my own experience with being a Norlon's mate, I'd just assumed it was all about sexual attraction.

Seiwa cocked his head at me. "Of course. Such Norlons exist, so why would they be excluded from finding a mate?"

Lenore was beaming. "That's really awesome! I had no idea."

While she went to post that all over her socials, I took a hard look at what I actually wanted to keep from the stuff I'd somehow accumulated over the past few years of living here. When I turned to look at my upright dresser, Seiwa was standing beside it with a smirk on his face as he pointed to the battered white rabbit stuffy sitting on top.

I snorted. "My aunt gave that to me when I was six."

"So you've wanted me for your whole life then?"

I rolled my eyes but went over and pulled him down for a kiss. He looked very smug as he dropped Hoppy into the box with the wind chime he apparently also wanted me to keep.

Adding some favorite paperbacks and clothes to the box, I decided to broach the subject of giving humans something else to keep the peace. "So I heard that the ship's fuel is made from saltwater."

"It is." He was looking out the window, his pink eyes tracking something down below.

"Earth has a lot of that."

Seiwa looked over at me. "It does."

I folded a t-shirt very nonchalantly. "What if you gave humans the ability to make fuel like that?"

"While I wouldn't mind disrupting your reliance on dwindling natural resources, among other things, I've already decided what to do about giving humans what they want without actually giving them anything."

"You have?" I stopped pretending and gave him my full attention. "What is it? Because I've been learning all kinds of things and was totally prepared to debate you all day."

He huffed a laugh. "I'm going to take scientists to Nor so that they can learn there. I just need to determine which ones to take."

"Wow. Okay, that's huge. So you want to recruit the best candidates?"

"Yes."

"And it'll be like a scientific exchange program."

He gave me a very sarcastic look. Ah, yes, it would be a one-sided exchange since humans were so very dumb compared to my genius bunny boyfriend. I snorted at him, the snobby shit, and kept packing.

"I like that, though. They'll lose their minds completely. I mean, yeah, they'll have some catching up to do, but to see the thing you've been struggling to make happen for your whole life just right there and working is going to be a dream come true for all of them."

"It will be much easier to teach them at our facilities."

"Uh-huh," I said, feeling like there was more to that. "I bet you just want to go home."

" Yes ." He said it with such frustration that I had to laugh.

But then I also had to wonder… "And I can…go with you?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Okay."

"Ellis?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you want to stay on Earth?"

"No! I just…" I shrugged, suddenly feeling vulnerable. "I'm still working on understanding everything now that we're together. How things work, what's supposed to happen next… Just, you know, that stuff."

He walked over and pulled me against his chest, looping his arms around me. "How stuff works is up to us. If you aren't ready to leave Earth, we'll stay. If you want to go, we'll go."

"I want to see Nor, to have that adventure. I want to help my people by educating the scientists. I want you to be happy."

"I can be happy wherever you are," he said before he kissed me.

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