Chapter 17

Sandy

Cool air rushed over the newly exposed part of Sandy’s scalp as she stood, holding tightly to Rane’s arm, as she stared at the large drop ahead of her.

“I don’t know about this,” she mumbled, her belly tightening in fear.

He chuckled. “Come on. It’s not dangerous at all. It’s fun. Think of it as an adventure.”

She pursed her lips, giving him a look that only made him laugh harder. He was definitely throwing that in her face now only because she had done it to him earlier.

Today was the best day she’d had in a long time. The moment the curfew lifted in the morning, they left the manor together. There were boring obligations planned for tonight, so they had decided to go out and have fun for as long as they could beforehand.

After grabbing some breakfast from a street vendor, they immediately went to her hair appointment in an alien district. Telfay didn’t have hair, but the city did have a large alien population owing to the proximity of the spaceport. As such, they had a portion of town that had sprung up dedicated to seeing to their needs – one of which was a salon that catered to any type of service you might need for any skin, fur, feather, or scale type. It included everything from claw care to skin treatments. They served a lot of needs.

Sandy had them shave the left side of her head, sweeping what remained over to the right, showcasing the pretty, swirling design they’d shaved into the thin layer of brown hair that remained. The effect was both punk and feminine, and she absolutely loved it.

And while they were there, she had convinced Rane to do the same.

That had been a bit difficult. Male telfay were very concerned about their crests. But she didn’t want to mess with any of the big, showy feathers, just the smaller ones on the side. She wanted him to match her hairstyle. Which was one of her arguments that she’d presented right along with the one about having an adventure.

He’d had those feathers plucked, essentially ‘shaving’ that part of his head, and she immediately kissed the newly exposed skin. Loving it. He couldn’t put swirling designs on his the way she had, but she heard him discussing a possible tattoo to put there instead with the stylist. She loved that idea – especially if they could make it the same blue as his feathers.

And maybe it was unfashionable for the telfay, but she loved the punk look it brought to him, and she loved even more that they matched.

But he couldn’t tattoo skin he’d so recently had plucked. It wouldn’t come out right unless they got it healed by a medscanner first, and it just wasn’t worth the trip. So, he was going to come back later. She couldn’t wait to see it.

However, it was his turn to pick the next activity. And he had picked BASE jumping.

Well, that wasn’t what it was called here, and there was no parachute involved, but the fact remained that they were about to step off the side of a building and free fall. For fun. Or something. She assumed it was fun for them, it certainly didn’t seem fun standing here!

“You’ll love it,” Rane promised, whispering in her ear. “I’ll be with you. And if you don’t like it, at least you can say you tried it. Your grandmother would be proud, wouldn’t she?”

“She would…” Sandy mumbled, just imagining how much her grandmother would have absolutely loved to go BASE jumping. If her body could have withstood it. She definitely would have cackled like a maniac and done a flip on the way down.

“Okay,” Sandy gritted her teeth. “Let’s do it.”

“That’s my brave female,” Rane praised, looking at the worker who was supervising the jumps so that no one jumped before their turn.

“Step onto the weight plate please,” the curious male said, staring at them as he gestured towards the jumping platform.

Rane stepped forward confidently, a rock for Sandy’s shaking hands to hold as she walked with him, stepping up onto the square plate. The lights around the edge were moving as it waited for them to stop in the center.

Rane turned, taking both of Sandy’s hands and holding them as they were weighed.

“Remember, it’s perfectly safe,” he said.

“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled.

“Do they not have things like this on Earth?”

“They do, but these kinds of things have, like, safety features. A parachute or a safety rope. A helmet . I don’t know what a helmet is supposed to do if you fall a hundred stories to the ground, but I swear they always wear helmets.”

Rane was chuckling as she spoke quickly from nerves.

“You’re adorable,” he said tenderly.

“I’m just saying, it already feels wrong to leap off a building. Doing it without so much as a safety harness seems crazy.”

“It’s so funny all the things humans have to do to stay safe due to your low technological advancement.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. What was about to happen might be old hat to him, but it seemed like magic to her.

“Weighing complete,” the worker announced. “Jump whenever you’re ready.”

Sandy took a fortifying breath. Then another.

Rane just smiled. Waiting for her to gather her courage. He’d never done this before either, he said, but this was a very common, popular kind of activity. The top of the largest building in the city had been doing these jumps since its completion. He also wasn’t afraid of heights or falling. Not just because he knew the technology, but because he was used to things like this because of trikball.

The worker was getting annoyed. He was staring at Sandy, like he was about to snap at her to hurry up. Rane glared at him, crest raising. His displeasure didn’t go unnoticed. The male flinched and looked away. It was sweet. And encouraging.

What she was doing was terrifying, but she had him.

Rane smirked, and looked back at Sandy-

-only to find her slamming her lips against his. Kissing him so desperately, their teeth knocked together.

It was quick. Over before he could do more than be surprised and start to reciprocate. She broke the kiss and turned, running while still holding his hand. He followed after as she rushed to the edge before she lost her courage.

Don’t think. Just jump. Don’t think. Just-

Jump!

They leapt into the air. He laughed as she screamed – immediately, before her foot even left the ground, launching her into the air.

They dropped. Rane kept tight hold of Sandy’s hand as she shrieked until the plunge stole the air from her lungs. Her eyes were wide, her hair whipping wildly, tears streaking up her temples as she tilted forward, staring at the rapidly approaching ground.

Rane pulled on her arm, yanking her around. She went without a struggle – her entire body gone limp with terror. He caught her ankle and, holding it and her wrist, began to spin with her. She couldn’t hear his laughter over the rushing of the wind, but she saw the wide smile over his face as he spun and bounced her about. Completely unafraid.

It was a quick drop – the building was tall, but it wasn’t like they were leaping from a starship or an aircraft. As they were getting close to the ground, the antigrav technology at the bottom caught them and their descent slowly stopped. It cradled them gently above the landing zone until they were floating right over the ground.

Rane let go of her ankle then, pulling on her wrist so she was swept up and he could wrap his arms around her waist, cradling her to his chest.

She was laughing.

Still crying, still shaking, her face pale but rapidly brightening, as her heart pounded and her belly flipflopped violently in protest.

All the while, she was laughing hysterically as she clung to him and her wildly mussed hair floated around her head. Rane smiled at her like he had never seen anything more beautiful.

He continued smiling at her as the worker brought the anti-gravity generator offline, slowly lowering him to the ground. Rane didn’t put her down, however, as he walked off the landing plate with her still in his arms.

“That was incredible!” She yelled, delighted.

“Then, why are you crying?” He laughed.

“Because it was terrifying! Just that huge drop! And then the fall! It was like touching death but falling back into life’s arms! I couldn’t breathe or think or anything! Can we do it again?”

He laughed, stroking one hand up her back. “As many times as you want. But we have to get back.”

“No,” she whined plaintively, wanting to stay.

But they both knew she didn’t really mean it. They had their obligations tonight, and they had to get ready for the fancy party Elffa was hosting. It wasn’t a social event; it was work. The Eliviers had won their most recent away game and gained enough points to be in the top ten. The last ten teams who remained in the Coalition Championship had secured their spots and, before things got more heated, there was a fancy fundraiser.

Not for the team. The team was raising funds as a charity thing. It was apparently a tradition for all teams that made the top ten. It was something that he couldn’t avoid, and something his mother had to let him attend – and, by proxy, Sandy, since she was now outed as his mate. If she didn’t let Sandy go, there would be questions.

Sandy wasn’t allowed to go with him to away games. That was too long of a leash for his mother. Off planet, she might be able to get help for both of them. So, he’d been forced to leave her behind when he went to play his most recent game.

It was annoying. She wanted to follow him. She wanted to see new places, watch all his games, celebrate with the other mates, have fun adventures like this all over the galaxy.

But they were still trapped with his mother. And as much as she hated it, she couldn’t do anything as he led her back to their hover. Blue was driving them. Because she might have managed to push the two ratchi back, but she couldn’t get rid of them entirely. They were, no doubt, just waiting for them to mess up so they could drag them before cameras again.

But aside from their new fashion choices – which would definitely be talked about – they had done nothing bad thus far. They were being very well behaved publicly. If the worst things people could say about them from now on was how weirdly they dressed, they were winning.

How they dressed now was a problem for Elffa, however.

“You look ridiculous,” she spat venomously later, when the two of them appeared before her in the entrance hall, ready for the party.

Rane didn’t say anything. He just looked at Sandy. Waiting for her response.

It was funny to her. He could throw himself off the top of a building without a single concern, laughing and playing all the way down. But when it came to this woman that probably weighed half of what he did and was easily a full head shorter, he practically hid behind Sandy.

And she was perfectly okay with that. He wasn’t flinching at the sight of his mother anymore, so she was going to consider this progress. And until he felt comfortable standing up to her, she would happily play shield for him.

He would encourage her to jump; she would encourage him to stand. Someday soon, they would be able to do both together.

“I don’t believe I asked you for fashion advice,” Sandy returned coldly, leaning into Rane with a distant scowl as she stared at this female she was quickly coming to hate.

“You’re dressed like a whore. You’re going to disgrace me.”

“Strange how that never seemed to bother you before,” Sandy shrugged, running a hand down the front of her new dress.

Maybe it was disrespectful to this new culture she was immersing herself in, but she absolutely hated telfay female fashion. It was all a beige dystopia – and it was what Elffa wore. It was what she forced Rane to wear. Giving him his own identity was the least Sandy could do. And if everyone thought she looked ridiculous? Well, it had never bothered her when she wore orthopedic shoes and granny panties, it certainly wasn’t going to bother her now.

And she actually liked what she picked for herself and Rane. To celebrate her new shaved swirls on the side of her head, she had picked an orange dress with pink swirls that clung to her torso before flaring out into a wide, asymmetrical skirt that had pretty white lace on the inside. She paired it with white heels that wrapped up her calf that were decorated with loops of pearls. More pearls were draped over her bare shoulders, twisting around her arms, dangling from her ears, and shined in the hairpiece that held back her hair.

They might be masculine colors to the telfay, but she defied anyone to say that the extremely feminine outfit was at all masculine.

Even better, she matched Rane. Just as she thought, the blue of his crest looked incredible when it was paired with orange. It had been hard to find a shade that didn’t clash with the gold of his skin, but the effect was well worth it. The tight pants hugged his muscular thighs before being tucked into a pair of white boots – all decorated with golden accents that matched his skin perfectly. One of his arms was heavily decorated with golden belts, but the other had only a single strand of pearls around his wrist. To top it off, she’d had him remove his claw caps. Telfay males didn’t go around without them, because they were so much sharper than female claws, but she rather liked the edge that brought him. And also fuck telfay fashion rules.

They were bright, they were loud, they were absolutely ridiculous by Earth, and also telfay, standards – but she didn’t think she’d ever felt so beautiful in her life. She understood absolutely Rane’s desire to pose when she was dolled up like this.

And who cared what anyone else thought? She had practically swooned at the sight of Rane when he finished dressing, drooling over him as he oiled up his feathers so they shined. And when he looked at her, his eyes burned with amorous appreciation. So, if the two of them were having a great time with their terrible fashion sense, what did they care what anyone else thought?

Elffa gnashing her teeth because they were embarrassing her was just a cherry on top of an elaborately tiered, gaudy, borderline tacky cake.

And she loved every sickeningly sweet bite of it.

Lifting her head, Elffa said, “You will go change.”

“Sure,” Sandy agreed easily. “But you’re not going to like what I planned as a backup either.”

Elffa’s eyes narrowed, but the promise was a genuine one. Sandy had two other outfits prepared – each more outrageous and salacious than the last. And her imagination for what else they could wear instead was only going to get worse as she had more time to think. So, Elffa could either take the first edition, or she could trade down – those were her options.

“Get in the hover,” she snapped, turning from them.

Sandy smirked, one corner of her mouth turning up. Victory tasted delicious.

“You’re beautiful, Sandy,” Rane whispered to her as they moved to the vehicle.

She beamed at him. “As long as you think so, that’s all I care about.”