Big Bend (g/t)

Bonfire

It felt like it had been a ridiculously long day. Or more, two days, at least on Earth. Yesterday had been my official “introduction” to the public. It had gone mostly smoothly. There'd been a few awkward questions, but John had been quick to jump in to diffuse them. That was until Joy had shown up again. I had hoped after my first run in with her that future meetings would be scarce.

So much for that.

Tonight, meanwhile, there was an employee bonfire. While it was hosted by the park service, invitations had extended to hospitality employees as well.

I wonder if Zoey will be there.

I'd only spoken to the human twice so far, and yet I had found my mind wandering back to her on more than one occasion. I wasn't entirely sure why.

It was probably just that she was one of the few humans, aside from John, who didn't seem outwardly anxious around me from the get go, I reasoned. That was all. I pushed the thought from my mind at the same time I pushed myself up into a sitting position from my bed. It was almost six, which meant I'd have time to dinner a quick dinner before John would want to head to the bonfire at seven.

I stood up, and set about preparing a simple pasta dish. I was almost finished with it when I heard a door softly open. I looked over my shoulder. John stood on a platform across the room, in front of a door. The door and platform were both parts of his apartment, a small - by my standards - set up that was built into the back wall of my trailer. Both had been built in Aphiria and transported here, though the inner workings of the apartment had been fine tuned by humans, given their much smaller size.

“Hey. Just coming to see if you were going to be ready for the bonfire in a bit,” John said.

“Yeah! I was just going to make some food-though, uh, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not really hungry right now. I guess I can save it for later.” That was a lie. I looked back at the pasta wistfully.

John hesitated for a moment before replying. “You sure?”

I nodded quickly. “Yep.”

I hoped he hadn't noticed my tendency to not eat around humans. Given that pretty much the last thing I wanted to do was scare them - more than I already generally was - watching them catch a glimpse of the fangs I had been trying so hard to keep out of sight, or realize that a single bite I was taking was larger than them, putting off eating was by far the preferable choice. John seemed to be unperturbed by my size, so far, but I didn't want to see just how far that extended. I didn't want to meet his gaze to see fear shining back at me. Fear of me.

“Yep,” I repeated. Before he could protest, I set about putting the pasta in the fridge, asking about how he thought the press conference had gone while I was at it.

“As we expected,” John replied. “You did a great job, by the way. I can see why you were recommended by Aphiria.”

Nepotism? I thought.

“Thanks,” I said. “I was pretty nervous.” That was both true, and probably an understatement. My heart had felt like it was racing a million miles an hour before, during, and after the press conference.

“You didn't seem it,” John said. We chatted about how things had been going for a few more minutes, before John glanced at his watch.

“Well, we should probably get going.”

I lowered my hand to the table. “Ready whenever you are.”

John climbed on it. His weight was light on my palm, a strange sensation. Especially knowing it was the weight of an entire person. I raised my hand up, feeling like I could never be quite careful enough while holding humans.