Chapter 11

“I’m sorry. I think there were a lot of things I should’ve asked you this morning.” It wasn’t the best way to start a conversation, but it was what’d come out as he kind of poured himself in my car. “Is this where you’re working?”

Should I have made sure he went home to change?

I’d dropped him off wearing the same pants he’d worn to dinner and that just screamed he’d hooked up. But I wasn’t sure if he would know that. I also didn’t know if he’d want his coworkers to know that.

“I do not have a social purpose as of yet.” He gestured toward the office building as I pulled away from the front. “The top floors were converted into what I am told are short-term apartments designed for those of my people who are…transitioning?”

He didn’t seem to like the word but I thought I got it. “So for people who are coming down from the ship like you did or who are between houses?”

“Yes.” Nodding and looking better once he knew I understood, he perked up. “It provides sufficient space during transitory times.”

Yeah, having a backup plan for people who’d just moved to a new planet wouldn’t be a bad thing. Most of them had adapted well and merged into society quickly, but that was probably because they were wicked smart and had an innate drive to be the best.

“That’s important. I started to worry when I realized I didn’t know where you were living or what you were doing.” Of course, it should’ve occurred to me to worry sooner, but he was distracting.

And he’d started scrambling my brains again just by petting my head.

“You are a very thoughtful boy, my Theo.” His expression was a mix of pleasure and pride, and for a moment, I felt like a puppy who’d made his owner happy.

It shouldn’t have made me hard, but it did.

“Thank you, Master.” The gentle petting helped me calm down as I weaved my way through the downtown traffic and headed toward my apartment. That was probably his goal, but that just meant I’d made him even happier.

“I am supposed to ask what plans, appointments, or customs you must participate in this evening before we transition back to being Master and submissive.” I loved it when he used his new education, but part of it was interesting.

“Customs?” I wasn’t sure if it was the right word or not, so I decided to poke at it a bit.

“Yes. They can be religious or sectional in nature. No. Secular in nature and are considered to be of high importance by their participants. Examples are Christmas, which is the natal celebration of a deity, or ritual music where participants travel to follow specific icons. The Deadheads are one example.”

The way he enunciated Deadheads made me want to laugh, but based on his definition, he wasn’t exactly wrong.

But man, his Intro to Humans class must’ve been fascinating.

“I don’t have any customs you need to be aware of. I’m not that religious and I don’t have secular ones that you need to know about. I’m more of a casual Christmas guy, so nothing to worry about there, either.” Some of it was fun but putting up a tree and that kind of stuff just for myself was a pain in the ass.

“That is good to know. I would have adapted had that not been the case, however.” He looked overconfident about that so I found myself curious.

“Yeah? Has that happened?” I couldn’t remember seeing anyone at the dinner who’d looked religious in an obvious way, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was always something people announced.

“Yes. There have been several bondings with couples where the human has religious observations that must be kept. Some of your cultures have very strict rules on food consumption.” Jerker said it like it was just another fascinating human tidbit, but part of me was nosy and wanted to know more about how that must’ve gone over in the beginning.

Thankfully Jerker saved me from being rude as he kept chatting. “My list of meals is not extensive enough for religious observers.”

Making a thinking sound that was probably about the word observers, he gave up thinking about word choices after a few seconds. “Caretakers of human submissives must learn to provide them with sufficient nutrients.”

Before I could protest that a lot of Doms didn’t cook, he glanced over at me. “Human submissives only give themselves adequate nutrition thirty-seven percent of the time.”

The number couldn’t be that low.

Wait.

They had statistics on that?

What was I saying…of course they had statistics.

“Well, that’s a startlingly low number.” I wasn’t going to argue about it, though. “I…I’m not sure where I fall on that statistic but…but thank you for making sure you could take care of me.”

Yep, there was no point in being a brat about that.

I had a feeling he’d make me list out what I’d been eating on a regular basis if I did…and that would be a bad thing.

“Humans require extensive caretaking due to your physical and technological development. The knowledge that must be gained before we are ready to find our own submissive human is far-reaching.” Something about Jerker’s tone said there really was a checklist of skills they were handing out before they were encouraging his people to go out and find a sub.

That made the comments about that other guy not being ready make much more sense.

He needed to work on his to-do list more before he got a sub.

Not sure if that was funny or just part of life now, I nodded slowly. “I can see it being a big adjustment.”

There was no point in pushing to defend the idea that a sub could take care of themselves without a Dom because Nicholas and I used to talk about our favorite Pop-Tart flavors on a regular basis. He was sure that chocolate was only for desserts and I thought he was crazy.

But Master would think we were both missing a few screws if we said they were real food in any way, so I wasn’t going to set myself up for problems.

“It was.” He was so serious about that, he made me smile. “However, we are up to the task. In fact, there is a discussion that having so much to focus on has made our transition easier.”

Keeping busy figuring out the locals made moving to a new planet easier?

I could see that.

“Having a purpose makes a lot of things easier.” Maybe that was why so many of them had jumped right into jobs and doing their best to become part of their communities. “Have you thought about your purpose here? What you want to do on Earth or how your skills will translate?”

“You will be my primary purpose until I have sufficient data to choose a secondary method of community help.” His matter-of-fact tone made it hard to realize when he said something nuts.

I was going to be his primary purpose?

Was that a red flag, a yellow one, or just cute?

All of the above?

“However, your government and mine have provided financial compensation for my previous responsibilities, so I will not be what is called a burden.” His confidence in that was so complete I didn’t question it.

I wanted to clear a few things up, though.

“I don’t think you could ever be a burden even if you didn’t find a job anytime soon.” He’d be a pain in the ass if I was his only focus in life, though.

Just imagining that had me picturing my Pop-Tarts going up in flames.

“I think you need to find something to fill up your day that makes you happy, though.” Yes. Bored Type-A Doms were not a good thing. “I make enough to pay bills and that kind of stuff.”

There wasn’t a whole lot left over and my food budget wasn’t as big as I’d like sometimes, but we could make do. If he moved in? Was that what he was talking about? Ugh.

Mentally adding that question to the list, I focused on the important part…having a happy Dom.

“I just want you to feel like you…I just want you to be happy no matter what that ends up looking like.” Wondering if that made sense, I tried again. “Humans don’t do well when we’re bored. We…we create chaos. It’s probably why we’ve had so many wars and why we’ve ended up doing stupid shit.”

Jerker’s quiet, understanding sound made it seem like he was too polite to agree with me…but he agreed with me. “Human brains are interestingly structured.”

Yep.

“I know you guys are different, but you’ve been so busy for so long that I’m not sure just sitting around would be good for you.” Or for us. “There are lots of ways to have a purpose in the community, though.”

What could he do?

“There are a lot of organizations that need volunteers and there are a lot of different kinds of jobs that need different skills. We’ll figure out human stuff that you like to do.” I’d never thought about all the jobs they’d have had that didn’t translate to human ones.

To say they were lightyears ahead of us technologically would’ve been an understatement. They were slowly improving our technology in ways that they decided we couldn’t use to kill each other with, but it was a wait and see as far as everything else went.

Politicians on every side had pouted about that decision, but with a whole society full of Doms, they’d just ignored the brats who’d wanted to get their way.

Looking back…the whole Doms thing had a lot of stuff making more sense.

“Those are very interesting alternatives, my Theo.” Patting my head, he seemed pleased but didn’t latch on to anything specific. “However, nothing has jumped out at me as humans say.”

Coming out of his mouth, the expression made me chuckle. He gave a liquidy shrug and looked like he wanted to laugh. “Human expressions are delightful.”

Yep, we were creative little fuckers.

“I like it when you use those human phrases. It… I don’t know how to explain it but I think it’s cute.” Hoping I hadn’t offended him, I almost held my breath until he let out a low, happy sound.

“Humans are the ones with soft, single-color skin and who require so much attention. Humans should be classified as cute but dangerous.” The last part made me laugh and he shrugged again. “I do feel that description is apt.”

“I agree.” We were also adorably nuts but he probably knew that too. “I’m glad you found us cute enough to play with, though.”

I was having a hard time remembering what life had been like before they’d shown up, and I really didn’t want to go back to a point where my new friends weren’t in my life.

“Yes, the decision to approach Earth was well-founded.” His proud tone said he felt some pride at that decision and I couldn’t help getting distracted.

“Did you make that decision?” There were other more practical things that we should’ve been talking about, plans for dinner for one thing, but this was much more fun.

“I had…input. Yes, that is the word.” Looking excited, Jerker puffed up in his seat. “The list of options was extensive. However, human civilization was at the most exciting point.”

“There were other inhabited planets?” Had I heard that right?

“Yes.”

Jerker’s answer made me wonder if I should’ve been paying more attention to the news.

“Most were very simple. No.” Frowning, he got his thinking face on but didn’t let the word issue distract him too long. “New. There is another word but they were not developed and would have not been…”

Cocking his head in a very human way, his limbs finally all twitched like he was throwing up his hands. “Humans are much more interesting. You also sent out highly curious media into space.”

They’d come to us because we were more fun…yep, humans were the frat boys of the galaxy and had definitely needed more supervision than we had before they’d arrived.

“I’m personally very glad you ended up picking us, but I really don’t remember the whole other inhabited planets thing coming up.” How had I missed that?

Wouldn’t Nicholas have complained about not getting to research more new aliens at the very least?

“It was not announced.” His shrug was very deliberate that time. “I am not…captain any longer, however.”

Ask for forgiveness not permission, huh?

I was betting no one made him sign a confidentiality agreement either.

“You know I’m going to want a thousand stories about what you saw and what you found.” Nearly bouncing in my seat, I’d never been happier to pull into my parking lot. “That can be your purpose. Entertaining me with space stories.”

Jerker laughed again as I parked the car and nearly threw myself at him. His limbs wrapped around me and pinned me to my seat. “You must keep safe, my Theo.”

I wasn’t going to promise that.

“But I need stories.”

Still looking adorably happy, he sighed. “So my purpose in our community is to provide stories and spankings?”

Yep.

“Yes.” It sounded a bit like he’d be a Daddy but that wasn’t my thing. “Stories, spankings, and eventually lightning.”

And maybe some teasing thrown in.

It wasn’t too bad of a list when it came to having a purpose in life.

“You already did amazing things out in space and now it’s time to use that knowledge to make me happy.” Yep, that didn’t sound selfish at all. “Unless you don’t like telling stories?”

Shrugging again, he looked adorably thoughtful. “I do not know if I like the human concept of telling stories.”

Hmm.

“You guys didn’t have a big entertainment industry but didn’t you at least tell stories?” I remembered watching something that talked about putting all their focus into space travel but I was starting to think I’d underestimated what they’d meant.

I knew I should’ve fantasized less and researched more.

I’d just never thought I’d actually meet one, much less get a chance to date, so the research hadn’t seemed necessary.

“There was at one point a well-established oral tradition but that was to pass down information. We were…hmm. Not being the same type of creatures as humans, we did not meet for entertainment purposes.” He didn’t look upset about that, just very matter of fact.

“What do you think of it now? Entertainment, I mean.” Would making him watch TV with me be torture? Boring? Both?

“It is fascinating, my Theo.” Genuine excitement radiated from him. “You have entertainment media that ranges from teaching children, to providing information on the benefits of sexual activity in humans.”

Was that porn?

Wait.

Were there actual educational sex shows?

I should’ve probably asked more questions about how he’d spent his day.