The ceiling was spinning.
Auren felt a sharp pain in his head. Groggily, he asked to himself:
“…What happened..?”
After he said that, the memories slowly started to come back to him.
It was evening and he was in his apartment. He felt like something was happening outside with his coworker, so he went out to check it out.
He followed his coworker who was being suspicious, found a sketchier zerg, then got attacked. His coworker saved him, so this place must be…?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps neared his location. He felt like they sounded somewhat familiar.
After thinking about last night, his headache slowly faded.
He took in his surroundings.
A clean, old wooden building. Taking more time than he would have thought, he realized that it was an unused room in the bar.
So, those footsteps were probably his coworker’s.
Am I late for work..?
Creak.
The wooden door suddenly opened.
The familiar long and callused fingers and red hair entered his view first.
So it was him after all.
He felt a sudden sense of releif that he hadn’t been kidnapped.
“Come get breakfast yourself.”
The door was only open a crack, but he was obviously awake. So, the female zerg turned back and left.
There was no chance to reply.
“…”
That’s it?!
Auren thought that he would at least have something else to say, but he did not.
He carefully removed his blanket, checking if he had any physical injuries. He didn’t, so he slowly got up, testing his balance as he did.
He was wearing the same pajamas as the night before and he smelled like the dirt outside. Suddenly, he felt his face go red at this thought.
Unfortunately, he still had to go eat before he could go bathe himself.
The food was simple. It was just some average bread.
Two zergs sat facing each other at a small table in the employee only area at the back of the bar.
One zerg did not want to speak, the other felt too awkward.
“..Uhm”
The reply was dry, but not completely unwelcoming.
“What?”
“…Thank you for saving me last night.”
“There’s no need.”
Auren stood up with his hands still on the table.
“No, I really would have died if you didn’t!”
His coworker turned away and spoke softly.
“It was my fault in the first place, so there really is no need.”
He sat back down and gave up. He poked at his food.
He really couldn’t understand this zerg. Defending him at one turn and acting like a cold stranger at the other.
Well, he kind of was a stranger. He wouldn’t even give out a name.
The old bar owner leaned against a door frame. He held a lit cigarette and blew out a plume of smoke.
“Hey Faious.”
“You got the kid involved? I know ya don’t like him, but you’re gonna get him killed at this rate.”
“Well, I wouldn’t normally care, but he’s good for business.”
Faious looked aggrieved at his elder’s scolding. He muttered back a response.
“..It really wasn’t my fault this time.”
The old zerg was too deaf to hear him.
“Huh?”
“I said he was the one that butted in, dammit!”
“What was a weak little male zerg doing following random people at night anyways!”
The door slammed shut as Faious stormed out.
The old bar owner chuckled a little bit at his words.
Although the willful brat from many years ago acted straight cut and reliable to the masses, in private at home, he was still the same.
He thought about how he met the kid, many, many years ago.
Faious had been an orphan, abandoned on this desolate planet many years ago.
At that time, he was an insufferable little brat.
He didn’t know what made the kid that way, but he always suspected that it was just his personality. But, under the curses and denials, he was soft at heart. Maybe that bit of sharpness was just to protect himself from the world.
From the time Faious was young until he joined the military as a teenager, they lived together in this very building. He watched the news from time to time to check up on the brat.
During those years Faious spent in the military, the old bar owner lived alone, tending to his business. He was an old female zerg. He had always wanted a cub of his own, but he never got the chance. When he saw that little orphan for the first time, he felt like he could take him in without any regrets.
That’s why, when he saw him lying half dead on the street two months ago, he almost had a heart attack.
Of course, he brought the dying Faious back home.
Great lengths were needed to keep him alive. There wasn’t a single inch of his bosy that wasn’t covered in wounds. Some injuries were fresh, some were old, and some were rotting with maggots.
Worst of all, his wings were completely removed, leaving gaping holes in his back where the bones once were.
Once a female zerg permanantly injuries their wings, their combat power is forever and drastically reduced.
His military dreams were forever taken away.
He didn’t ask what happened. Even if he did, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to console him. He could only let his own heart get torn apart along with Faious’s dreams.
The kid insisted on getting his own apartment, not wanting the old zerg to be woken up by his nightmares every night.
He just hoped that maybe, having another young zerg his age around could help him get over happened on the Capital Star.
He snuffed out his cigarette and looked at the door with a complicated expression.
Sigh.
Three zergs worked behind the counter, each with their own unspoken words and questions.
Auren watched his coworker mix drinks and swirl glass cups with an expert hand.
His fiery red hair swayed back and forth on his shoulder, tied together in a neat, but loose ponytail.
He wanted to thank him for saving him the other day, but he didn’t think it would be received well. Actualy, he knew it wouldn’t since Faious already got mad at him the previous day.
Dejected, he just focused on serving his customers.
Sigh.
While he was busily mixing drinks and serving regulars, a group of unfamiliar zergs gathered around the counter, trapping hum before he realized.
Over the short time after he’d been exiled to this planet, Auren learned that he needed to be vigilant at all times , constantly scanning his surroundings.
However, reality is different than thoughts.
Knowing is one thing, but putting it into practice is extremely difficult.
He was used to being a prince. He was protected at every turn. Even if he was too distracted and about to run into a pillar, someone would step in and save him.
So, he didn’t notice a thing.
“Hey, is that cutie a male zerg?~”
“I though all they were good for was staying at home and acting all high and mighty, but there’s actually one working here?”
“He must be a good advertisement, otherwise, who could hire a zerg so useless?”
“Hahaha!”
The unruly zerg closest to him grabbed his shoulder roughly and pulled him close, then licked his cheek. He tried to pull away, but he was no match for the female zerg.
He felt the same terror that he did on his second night on the street.
The night where something innocent in his heart wilted away and died.
Suddenly, he was shivering in his heavy cloak, alone and wandering the cold streets.
A group of female zergs, also living on the streets, beckoned him closer. They told him with kind voices that he could rest with them for the night. That he would be safe with the group.
But, when the night grew too cold to leave, he saw on their faces the expressions of predators looking at their prey. A delicious, rare, and exotic feast.
He knew should have run.
But, in the time it took to think that, he had already been pinned to the ground beneath three female zergs.
His heart sank.
This feeling that would have been unrecognizable before was now a very familiar terror.
He remembered begging them to stop, to let him go, but he couldn’t recall the rest of the night.
Powerlessness.
Despair.
Hopelessness-
Crash!
The noise pulled him out of his thoughts.
Furious, violet eyes looked straight at him, pupils zergified into vertical slits.
He was somewhat breathless from anger.
The female zerg that licked his face was lying against the counter, unconscious, his face sliding down the old wood.
“All of you! Get out before I beat you!”
The other zergs quickly grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the bar like beasts escaping a predator.
Why?
Why is this zerg always saving him?
He wanted to say “Thank you,” but when he opened his mouth, he realized that no words would come out.
He didn’t know what he looked like at the moment.
But, in Faious’ eyes, he saw himself lying in that medical bed, paralyzed and unable to fight back.
Faious handed him a wet towel to wipe his face. He took it, gratefully.
“Thank you…”
Auren laid on his bed.
He clutched an extra pillow to his chest.
The shift at the bar ended early. The customers left after the fight, not wanting to be implicated in his coworker’s rage. They seemed to be afraid of him, even terrified, as if he could kill any of them at any time if he wanted to.
Nighttime, to many, is a good time for unnecessary and painful thoughts to surface. Some think about their most embarrassing moments of the day, some think about their life’s worst traumas.
He was not one of these zergs before, but he could never go back to that life.
He thought back to his past life and about his female father.
Though not much time had passed, he really felt like it was a completely different life. Everything was completely different. Even his own appearance was no longer pristine and ethereal; he was a haggard, tired copy of himself.
In the past, his female father would have never allowed him to be wronged like the past few weeks.
He missed him, his strong arms and sturdy shoulders that he could cry into.
Every night, he would be coaxed to sleep with old stories from his female father’s adventures.
He would be tucked into a massive soft bed in a room filled with opulence, by his loving father.
He missed him so much that he didn’t even know why he was thinking these thoughts.
Reminiscing about his female father, he slowly drifted off to sleep. Small tears dampened his pillow as he slept.
The stars shone bright in the pitch black sky, reflecting iridescent colors in his soft white hair which lay scattered messily on his pillow.
Shooting stars lit trails in the darkness with rainbow lights, as if welcoming a new life.
If he could see them, maybe he would make a wish.
