Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 2

My Human

"Where are we going."

"You'll see."

"I feel like this is becoming our thing."

"What?"

"Dragging the other to some sort of event and not saying literally anything about it beforehand." Sunny hummed deep in her chest and Adam just rolled his eyes, looking around at the dark city awash with eternal night.

"Why Noctopolis of all the places. I mean we have a week off and you want to spend your vacation days in the literal dump of the galaxy?"

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "Please, you love it here. It's like any tradeworld from any sci-fi movie ever."

That shut him up, and she could see the slow grin pass over his face.

Finally she shrugged, "Look, I just thought it would be nice to... go somewhere where we could relax, not have to worry about hiding."

"I think there are a few nice beachfront planets we could have done that on."

"Not with the tourism." She shot back

A gust of sour wind kicked up through the bustling night streets tugging at Adam's jacket and rippling the blue of his shirt like ripples across a pond. He adjusted his eyepatch as she led him through a maze of back alleys and tall buildings.

They took a rickety lift down into the gorge where the ever-present red mist billowed and glowed below them in patterns that undulated and wired.

They stepped off into another shallow rift, and followed a narrow street down into another side alley, where Sunny stopped.

Trash and little bits of paper blew around them where they stood in front of a peeling red door.

Adam raised an eyebrow at Sunny, "Ah, beautiful. A lovely vacation spot, I would like to move here and retire."

"Smartass." She mumbled at him before knocking on the red door.

There was a long pause while they waited, Adam tapping his foot against concrete below before the door opened a crack and a single human eye peered out at them. The distant echo of music thudded up through the room echoing off the walls.

"What do you want?"

"I'm A friend of Adam."

Adam frowned and raised an eyebrow as the door shut suddenly and there was a rattling on the other side as if a chain was being released.

He glanced at Sunny but she only shook her head.

The door opened, and a woman with short buzzed black hair stepped into the doorway, invisible tattoos glowing under the blacklight.

As her eyes fell on him, he watched as her eyebrows raised, single eyebrow stud glittering in the light, "You weren't kidding. Then her stern face broke into a smile, "Come on in. Any 'friend of Adam's is a friend of mine'."

Adam followed along behind Sunny as the music grew louder, "Is that a code for something.... Is this a code? I am very confused."

He was a lot less confused a minute later when they stepped out into the main room, a large spacious area with multiple stories. A room off to one side had bright flashing lights, and emanated with the sound of drums. Then there was a bar and couches and pool tables and TVs.

It was less of a club or a bar and more like some sort of clubhouse. The bar seemed to be serving food. On the second floor there were more couches, and some rooms that led off into other rooms.

But what really gave it away was the people.

Aliens and humans.

Aliens and humans holding hands and often cuddled up together on the couches.