The Foreigner & The Pessimist (malexmale)

6. Zuuro

I step back into my room, huffing a little sigh as the door slides shut, leaving me alone again. I'll admit that asking Lane to stay later wasn't my greatest moment. It probably came across as desperate and clingy – which I'm trying really hard not to be - but I kind of am. And so what? Having someone around to talk to tonight was nice. For the first time since I got here, I finally didn't feel so alone. So, is it really so strange that I might want that feeling to last a little longer?

I'll admit that the entire evening didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. There were a few times where Lane was definitely ready to run. I don't think he meant to be so obvious, but it was a little hard to miss, especially when he practically jumped for joy the moment his phone rang and gave him an exit. But I think I handled it well, and by the time he left he seemed good. We seemed good. So, I don't think I have anything to worry about. Except maybe the fact that I now know all the research I thought I'd been doing on human romance and relationships wasn't exactly real research. It was fiction, as Lane put it. Fake.

But I think that's okay. I think I can still do this even without the books as a reference. I mean, we're just getting to know each other right now, and all that really entails is asking him questions about himself and listening to the answers. It's simple. I know how to do that. But the romance stuff...well I'm basically lost when it comes to that department, but I guess that's something to worry about later. I just need to focus on friendship right now. Friendship and getting to know him.

As I keep trying to convince myself I have nothing to worry about, I wander over to my closet to look for something to sleep in. One thing about the dorms is that they tend to be uncomfortably warm at night – at least for me - so I try to sleep in as few articles of clothing as possible. But I still have to make sure that whatever I'm wearing is descent enough that when we have emergency drills I won't have to run out in my underwear.

Usually, that just means sleeping in a pair of shorts, but not tonight. As soon as I open the closet, I find myself drawn right to a pair of grey sweatpants crammed way in the back. I don't really even know why I still have them, because I can only ever remember wearing them once and I hated them. But now seeing them reminds me of Lane, and how cute, and warm, and cuddly, and soft he looked in his own sweatpants tonight, and I can't help but to start smiling like a dopey lovesick fool, because these pants that I used to hate have suddenly become my favorite article of clothing.

You're such a mess I tell myself as I pull them off the hanger and slip them on. They're cropped and made from a fairly light material, so I shouldn't be too hot, but getting my tail through the hole in the back is a bit of a struggle. I must have cut it too small the one and only time I wore them, so I turn my backside towards the mirror and use my fingers to tear the hole open wider until it's comfortable.

The tail conversation is not one I look forward to having with Lane when the time comes. Not because I think he's going to react negatively, but because it's the one part of my body that I'm not comfortable with. I was never subconscious of it back on Gav'yx, but I guess that's because everyone had tails on Gav'yx. It was normal. But here on Uniterra? Not so much. Gav'yxians are one of only two humanoid type aliens that even have tails, and since there are so few of us here on Uniterra, walking around with a tail gets you a lot of strange looks. It's like they see us as more animal than person. So, I started hiding it.

Figuring out how to do that comfortably was a bit of a challenge at first, but eventually I learned that if I just wore looser jeans then I could keep it wrapped around my leg and nobody would notice. It's okay most of the time, but by the end of the day it sometimes starts to ache a bit. Especially on days like today, when I've kept it tucked away for longer than usual. But it's better than having people stare at me, so I just deal with it.