TO; 

 

 I’m glad you finally got the research started, and I’m glad that DH is eager to help as well. Honestly, I thought they would be. I had no evidence, but I thought it would be the kind of research they’d enjoy. 

 

 I don’t know how your travels are going, but I honestly and truly find space travel to be tedious boring. I imagined all kinds of things about going into space; monsters like the Edacalie you told me about, insurgents attacking us every other day, and who knows what else! So far… it’s been a lot of nothing. We haven’t even seen a Void Anemone like you and DH had. 

 

We did have to filter some oil in the engine room earlier today though. So far, that has been the highlight of our day. At least I have plenty of opportunity to read. I have taken the suggestion of Hur-1, and have thrown myself into reading all kinds of materials from Heramu; mostly fiction to help with getting used to the culture. I’ve read a lot of stuff from Arkane as well, since there’s a lot of cultural overlap between the two planets. 

 

Hur-13 mostly watches shows that are broadcast from the planets. I expected them to complain about the ways the civilians act, but they don’t say much. That might be best. 

 

-Avery

 

TO knew that Avery was bored simply by the increasing length of their messages. Even though their last few had mostly been chiding TO for their inability to talk to DH, they were still getting more and more talkative as the time went on. TO couldn’t really understand how they were feeling though. Maybe being out in space was boring, but there was plenty going on in TO’s mind to keep them from feeling bored. 

In the romance shows that TO watched with DH, either the story ended when the main characters ended up together, or it continued on and everything about the relationship changed. Sometimes it changed for the better, sometimes for the worse. Regardless of how things changed, everything changed. The promise of change sent fear though  TO, and stood like a wall anytime they had come  close to telling DH how they felt. Even before they had added any romantic elements, They treasured their friendship with DH; they didn’t want anything to alter that. 

 

To TO’s surprise, very little had actually changed and what did was for the better. TO slept more easily now, and they could also kiss DH whenever they wanted; When they came down from the engine room after they had their work done, when they woke up, before they went to sleep, and randomly throughout the day. 

 

It was glorious. In fact, even as they were up in the engine room, finishing their scans, they wanted to go back  down and kiss DH now! They watched the painfully slow way the scans completed, showing  the taskbar slowly crawling across each one until finally they were all done. They closed down their programs and dashed to the elevator. They were hardly able to keep still as they went down to the main floor. 

 

DH was still working. They were sitting in front of the console, typing furiously as their ears pinned back. In focus. TO wanted to sneak up behind DH and kiss their ear. Kissing the ear; that seemed so intimate, and TO’s own ears twitched as they thought about it. Could they do that? 

 

Maybe not quite yet. DH had been more than happy to rub TO’s ears after they had requested it, but TO hadn’t yet done the same for DH. Leaning in and just kissing their ears? It felt like a bit of a jump. Still, they wanted to touch DH’s ears. They hadn't yet and in truth they felt guilty that they hadn’t. They walked up behind them and draped their arms over DH’s shoulders. 

 

“All done?” DH asked as they kept working. TO might have thought them cold if it weren’t for the fact that their ears perked up when TO put their arms around them. TO recalled that DH’s ears had been one of the things they had noticed when they first met; they were more rounded than TO was used to seeing and it gave DH a softer appearance. 

 

“All done.” TO said. They leaned in, and kissed DH on the cheek as they lifted their hand up to gently stroke their ears- 

 

DH’s ears twitched oddly as TO’s fingers touched them, and DH suddenly jerked their head away. TO backed off as though they had been shocked, their hands up in the air. 

 

“Sorry!” They said suddenly, “Should I not? I mean… I -“ 

 

“No.. no no, you just startled me.” DH said. They had gone as far as to push away from their desk and away from TO. “I just… I don’t know.” they reached a hand up to their ear, but fell short of actually touching it, “Sorry.” 

 

“No, I’m sorry.” TO said as their ears flicked down. They could feel the heat rising to the tips. “I should have asked, or given you warning. I know you get focused when you’re working, and I should have known it would startle you-“

 

DH stood up and pulled TO into an embrace, gently scratching  the back of TO’s neck with one hand and rubbing their ear with the other. In just  a moment, TO’s concerns were gone and the contented, odd sound of chirping and purring came from their throat. 

 

“It’s fine.” DH whispered, “You just start; I’ll recover.”

 

TO didn’t respond; they hardly spoke when DH was doing this, and just preferred to enjoy it. 

 

“I don’t know… If I’d like having my ears rubbed.” DH muttered.

 

TO hummed and moved their head just slightly, “s’fine.” they muttered, hardly paying attention. “If you do… you’ll tell me?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll tell you.” they were quiet for a moment, then pulled away from TO, their hand dropping from their ear. They watched TO for a moment, a grin playing over their face. 

 

“No little whimper?” they teased. 

 

TO felt their ears burn, “I did that ONCE!” they said, “Just once!”

 

DH chuckled and sat back down in their seat, positioning themself before the console, “I know. It was cute.”

 

TO wanted DH to go back to rubbing their ears. They wanted to stop their work and  lay down to watch shows or read news with them. However, DH still had work to do. They turned to their computer and started typing furiously again. TO sat at their own work desk, and started bringing up the days’ news. 

 

A moment later, DH’s hands stopped typing. “You... you don’t find it weird at all?” They asked. 

 

TO froze. “Find what's weird?” They asked. They wondered if DH found the ear thing weird after all, and was just humouring TO because they liked it.

 

“Well… all of it?”

 

TO turned to watch DH, who was still facing the computer even though they had stopped typing. “What do you mean all of it?” 

 

“Well… Like I said, with GiDi… I thought it felt weird. GiDi Thought it felt weird too. You don’t feel like any of this is strange?” 

 

“We are strange.” TO said, their ears flicking parallel to the ground, “We’ve established that.” 

 

“I know!” Dh’s ears twitched down, “But I mean, even given that, it doesn’t feel wrong to you at all?” 

 

“No?” Wrong. That was a new one. TO could manage feeling. ‘Strange’ or ‘odd’ as that was how they had been all their life…. but ‘wrong’ was different. “Does it feel wrong to you?” 

 

“It… it’s all very new.” DH muttered. “I’m just getting used to it. I didn’t know if you felt it was weird or wrong or something.” 

 

“Not at all.” TO said, keeping their tone as bright as they could. They shouldn't have touched DH’s ears. They should have waited. “I’ll… I promise I won’t touch your ears unless you ask me, ok? I’m sorry I went to do it just then.” 

 

“It’s really not a big deal.” DH muttered. “Just… took me by surprise, and I-“ 

 

“You don’t have to explain anything!” TO said. “If you’re uncomfortable with that - if You’re uncomfortable with anything, I’d want you to tell me.. .ok?” 

 

“Ok.”

 

“.... I do love you.” TO said. Sure, they had said that so many times before, but now when they said that it did have a different meaning for them. 

 

“... I love you too.” 

 

======

 

After a few hours of working, TO wondered if they were this whole ‘mate’ thing wrong. 

Was it supposed to be this normal? TO didn’t know. In the shows they watched, it wouldn’t have been normal. In the shows, the movies and the series, when two people ended up in a romantic relationship, everything changed. The two were all over each other and madly in love! Sometimes, it seemed like the two characters couldn’t stand to be physically separated for more than five minutes!

 

TO didn’t feel like that. The kisses, the longer embraces, the ears, they loved it all, and it made them feel… well, the fee

ling of their chest expanding was one thing, but this was different. Fluttery? It made them feel fluttery, and there were times where they had to get work done, but they didn’t want to leave DH’s embrace. Still, once they were doing the work, once they were seperated and falling back into the same routine as they normally had now, they felt perfectly content to just sit near DH and away from their touch. 

 

Was that normal? It seemed like something that happened with older relationships in the shows… Or ones that weren’t that great. 

 

TO’s hands stilled from their typing. Their eyes glazed over as they looked at the news articles without actually reading them. Were they doing this wrong? Were they supposed to be closer to DH? They looked over their shoulder and frowned as they watched DH work. 

 

Well, DH didn’t seem upset; they seemed bored if anything. They had finished their work a while ago and now  they were going through news articles like TO was. For TO, this felt fine. They were happy to just work together in comfortable silence with DH, but they also wanted to do this whole mate thing right.

 

They turned around, shifted their seat, and sat behind DH. They leaned over and rested their head on DH’s shoulder, giving them a quick kiss on the cheek. DH’s ears twitched as they did that, perking up suddenly. 

 

“W-What are you reading?” TO asked. They knew what DH was reading already - They were looking at the cultural news, the ‘fluff’ pieces as they were called. TO was the one who was reading the political stuff, the increased crime, increased insurgent activity, and the riots. Even at a glance they could see that the article DH was reading  was about an Arkanian who taught their pet Dermaptera - a very common, bug-like pet with pincers on its rear- how to sort colored balls into colored buckets. 

 

“Just some pet news.” DH said as they gave TO a quick smile, “Is everything alright?” 

 

“Yes, of course!” TO said. Everything was alright, but somehow leaning on DH while they were trying to work like this felt  odd to TO. Was this what DH meant when they wondered if this felt ‘wrong’?

 

DH was quiet for a moment as they scrolled through the article, then turned and kissed TO on the cheek - more on the side of the face, closer to the ear. TO had to suppress a happy squeak at the contact. 

 

Alright, that didn’t feel wrong; the kisses were fing. Hanging off DH like this though… that didn’t feel right. Was that bad? Was it a bad sign that they didn’t want to constantly be touching DH? 

 

TO pulled away, their ears twitching as they turned back to their news.