The best kind of trophy - Yautja x Reader

Chapter 3: Ever closer

If Max must have made a guess as to what was going on inside the aliens mind, she would have guessed that it was taken aback. For, despite Max's worries, her gesture wasn't met with hostility, no, the alien didn't even seem to bristle in the slightest. It just tilted its head ever so slightly and eyed her with even more suspicious than before, maybe even a little curiosity of its own.

But the blonde didn't have much time to stew and wonder about her blunder and subsequent lack of repercussion since she felt heat creep up in her face and an all too familiar feeling of embarrassment settle within her stomach. She glanced around the room trying to see if anyone was giving her judgmental looks because off the fact that she had just winked at a 7,5 foot high mountain of a creature as if it was just some flirty boy at a bar, but to her relief the rest of the attending staff was too busy keeping their eyes on the alien in question.

She leaned back in her chair and muttered "lucky" under her breath as she realized that her little goof went both entirely unnoticed by her colleagues, who would have no doubt given her shit for it if they would have had observed it, and not answered with aggression by the creature itself.

She gave her cheeks a quick rub to encourage a redistribution of the extra blood that shot up into her face and began formulating theories in her mind as to why the creature reacted so casually to her little act.

"How to proceed?" she wondered as she observed the staff run around the lab, write things down and tinker with equipment. She doubted that she would be able to gather any more intel with the creature tied down and at the mercy of its captors. In this state it would hardly be able to show any natural mannerisms or behaviors, let alone be in a mental state that would allow for anything productive or civil to occur.

She wondered if there was a way for her to show goodwill, and thusly ease the tension. If it were up to her he would have loved nothing more than to untie it to ease its aching muscles and to offer it some kind of sustenance, but she knew the dangers of it. Heck, she reckoned that if she were in its position she would want to kill everyone too.

Max needed to build some kind of rapport, she decided. When dealing with a cornered or scared animal it is best to give it something it wants to show that you are no threat. But the creature was by no means a simple animal, and she could hardly offer the alien a biscuit and hope for the best.

Perhaps a case could be made to ever so slightly loosen the chains to allow for more comfort.

A loud growl at a lab worker taking a flash-photograph made her realize that suggesting such a thing to her superiors would get her laughed out of the room.

She firstly would have to either come to an understanding with the creature and or find a way to keep it docile, but for that to occur she had to earn its trust, and that could only be done through a show of good faith, which the higher-ups would only approve of if she could calm it down, and now we're running in circles. Great. Fucking glorious.

She sighed inaudibly and bit down on her lower lip in deep thought. It was a carnivore, that assumption she treated as a fact, for all the markers pointed towards that being unmistakably true. Yet it didn't lash out at her making-eye contact, which was an anomaly for any aggressive apex-predator. She glimpsed at the provided notes once again, remembering that physically smaller staff is snapped at less harshly than more physically imposing personnel (or individuals that deliberately make asshats out of themselves when dealing with the alien).

That already made for two abnormalities. However, considering that it's no simple animal, but a sentient humanoid creature, it makes perfect sense. It was analyzing and rationalizing the people it was dealing with.