Starfish

Thirty

Ardus watched the tiny woman sleep curled up next to him between his arm and his body, her arm thrown over his chest and her little hand resting just below his neck. Her arm still glittered with sparkling dust, and her fingernails had been freshly lacquered with that familiar pink-orange tint that complimented her skin so well. Lying on his chest her warm tones starkly contrasted with his cool, but at times his pores matched her nails in both brightness and color. Mine, she is mine. My starfish. How odd, how silly that such a little woman shared a name with the largest, most dangerous and savage creature known to Dreen. And yet it seemed so fitting – her personality was larger than her frame, and her ferocious appetite for sex rivaled his own newly rekindled fire.

Last night had been a memorable one – though long in hours it had seemed to fly by. He smiled to himself as he remembered the events; the first kiss, her assurance that she wanted him, the joyful acceptance of her proposal, that heart-stopping moment when she presented herself to him willing and naked and glittering and round and his. Taking her into his arms for the first time, after months of longing and dreaming and fighting his feelings, had mended something in him Ardus hadn't realized had been broken. Timam would be pleased I have finally come back to light, and life. While he still loved the memory of Timam, Ardus decided he would redirect his energies towards Nina and their efforts to better understand and unite each other's people. If she and I can do this, it will bode well for our futures. We will evolve, together. Judging by Nina's reactions, and her enthusiastic and ardent pleas for more, Ardus was making good on his promise.

Ardus brushed an errant strand of hair away from her closed eyes and watched her eyelids flutter open, their long lashes like the wings of the tiny birds that flitted around the eaves and overhangs of the building where he lived. With a long stretch wherein her body rolled and pressed against his Nina woke and blinked slowly at him, her grey eyes adjusting to the white-yellow late morning light streaming in through the narrow window. Ardus remembered other grey eyes that had looked at him as fondly, recalling how both owners shared a passion for life that translated well into other areas. She smiled lazily. "Hey there, big guy."

"Hello yourself. Did you sleep well?"

"Mmm!" She stretched again. "Amazing, once you let me sleep." She cuddled closer, running her fingers down his chest. "You have incredible stamina, think you could work up some more for me this morning?"

Ardus shook his head. "We went four rounds last night, are you insatiable?"

"What's the matter, old man?" Nina smirked, "can't you keep up?"

"I will show you old!" Rolling over and dragging her, giggling and squealing with delight, under him again, Ardus proved his point. He left her panting and slightly dazed to go make a late breakfast, catching himself swaggering as he made his way down the hall. You smug old fish, you have not changed a bit! Nina joined him on the terrace, her body hidden by the tall plaster wall, where they enjoyed the bright morning sun and a fresh pot of black kelp while doughy biscuits stuffed with fruit baked, filling his apartment with the smell of sugar and lurefruit. Ardus found himself falling back into old habits, freshening her cup before topping off his own and watching her stretch out under the sun, enjoying how her brown skin glinted copper and gold with residual glitter. She is mine, he thought, his heart full.

After breakfast, he invited her to shower with him. They washed off Nina's glitter, finding her observation that it would be everywhere true, then the shower devolved into yet another round that picked up where the previous night's wall-pressing experiment had left off. With her legs wrapped around his hips and steam rolling up around their warm, wet bodies, Ardus growled low in his chest as he listened to her impassioned cries. He recalled how Doctor Martin O'Connell had gawped at her in her tiny, revealing dress and how the little man had hurriedly looked away when Ardus caught him staring. Mine! Reaching yet another shattering climax, Ardus pressed the tips of his dirks into Nina's shoulder, not enough to draw blood but enough to satisfy the primal urge to leave his mark on her. Nina threw her head back and screamed his name, her fingers clutching at his neck and back as she met his climax with her own. Neither cared that they had to start the showering process over again.

They napped on the couch for an hour or so in the warm afternoon, Nina sleeping on his chest as promised, waking when Ardus's tablet pinged to alert them that Athe was on his way over to help clean up. "Should I leave? Or hide?" Nina asked, uncharacteristically timid.

"No," Ardus shook his head and eyed her plump thighs and soft belly, calculating if he could get just one more taste in before his assistant arrived, "but you might consider getting dressed before I change my mind and call him off."

"You sure about that?" Nina grinned, posing, then flounced off to find some clothes. Ardus took a swipe at her as she passed, missing on purpose and listening to her giggle; Ardus was just tying his trousers when Athe pinged the doorpad, and he let his assistant in while ignoring Athe's overly wide grin. Nina reappeared from the back of the apartment as Athe began the first load of dishes. Athe gave the human woman in her short trousers and loose tunic a glance, then turned his eyes to Ardus. Ardus looked pointedly at the ceiling, sipping a mug of iced black kelp tea. The younger Dreen grinned suddenly, his dirks flashing.

"So," Athe asked, "who caved first?"

"Who do you think?" Nina jerked her thumb at Ardus over her shoulder, a smug little grin curling her lips.

Athe turned and leered at Ardus, "Well it's about time!" Ardus choked, spitting tea and spluttering. Mopping his face with a towel, he threw Athe a glare and ignored Nina's chuckling in the other room. Athe went on, rinsing glasses, "Now I don't have to listen to you moping about how much you wish you weren't such a clumsy old fish. Glad you finally found some courage, Apa."

"Stop calling me Apa," Ardus swiped at some tea on the floor with the towel, his flat nose wrinkled with pique. "I am not your father."

"No, you're right, you're a fussy old grandmother."

"I am not!"

"You absolutely are. I feel sorry for Nina."

"Did he really mope about me?" Nina asked brightly, earning for herself a surly look from Ardus. Whose side is she on?

"Oh, constantly!" Athe answered with glee, obviously delighting in Ardus's discomfort. "It was always 'she's so tiny and cute and I just want to eat her up!'"

Ardus caught Nina's knowing glance before balking. "I never said that!"

"Sure you didn't." Athe turned to Nina and winked. "One time he got drunk and would not shut up about how cute and tiny and wiggly you are, and how much he wanted to pick you up again, and-"

"You and Boda took Meem home last night," Ardus interrupted, sounding more waspish than he felt; truth be told, he was too pleased with himself to really care. "I trust you three enjoyed yourselves."

Athe merely answered with inflated pride, "Yes, the three of us had a wonderful time. Did you know she collects seashells and bones and whatnot and casts them in resin now? She found an entire black runner lizard skeleton and it's sitting on her bedside table, sitting on top of a rock like it's sunning itself."

"Yes, she gave me a piece as a gift last night," Ardus looked towards Nina, hoping she wouldn't be jealous. But she showed interest, and asked to see it. "Er, yes, of course." Taking it down from the shelf beyond her reach, Ardus presented Meem's gift and noted how decidedly un-jealous the little human woman was. Rather, she exclaimed over it. "Hey, this is nice! I've seen resin castings before, but I think Meem has an eye for this. That was really sweet of her, don't you think?"

"Ah, well, I was not expecting it, not after what I said to her." Remembering, his pores dimmed to an insipid yellow. "After that, I did not expect her to speak to me again."

"You're too hard on yourself. She said she forgave you, didn't she?" Nina handed back the piece and Ardus stood to put it back. Meem had chosen a good place for it, in a spot where the afternoon light would hit it just right and throw green reflections across his sand-colored walls. Nina turned to him, all smiles and grey eyes. "Are you hungry? I could go for some lunch."

Ardus felt his shoulders drop, tension dissolving like bubbles in the surf. "Well then, let me see what is left from last night. I am sure I can put something together to fill that empty pit you call a stomach."

"That's not the only empty space you can fill," she threw a saucy smirk at him and snickered when his neck and face flashed bright pink – Athe chuckled from the kitchen. 

Ardus passed a hand through his barbels, shaking his head and remarking with a sigh, "I am beginning to think I have hooked a bigger fish than I can land."