Shades of Purple

The Things We Did

Tallest Purple's attitude changed for the better ever since she gave him that little peck on the cheek. Tenn would find a flower on the bedside table every morning; throughout the day, a service drone would bring her tasty snacks and presents such as chocolate boxes and candies; their conversations became more frequent and less tense or awkward, and Tallest Purple was particularly cuddly at night. Tenn put up with those gestures of affection, no longer stopping to wonder if they were genuine or not. What mattered was that he was loosening up, which meant that he was falling for it.

And yet, Tenn would be lying if she said she didn't care about their interactions; she learned more things about her husband, not all of them bad. He turned out to be a decent cook; sure, he was a bit rusty, but he had a tasty plooka recipe, which also happened to be secret. Tenn found herself eating lots of it, not only because they were tasty (they were delicious, though), but also because it made Tallest Purple happy.

She had to thank Lena and the Gaz-hyooman for their lessons. Thanks to their tips and advice, especially from the former, soon she learned how to behave in a way that got her mate to react as she wanted. Tenn learned to read his corporal language and tell his mood from tiny signs such as lekku position, tapping on the table, amongst other things such as sounds. Tenn learned what words and gestures to use and which lines she should never cross, especially since Tallest Purple was a bit... sensitive on certain topics.

The more he starts acting nicely, the sweeter you must be to him. You don't have to be all lovey-dovey. Just... be yourself and act as if you were with Dren.

As if she were with Dren... How could she? Dren and Tallest Purple were nothing alike. Dren respected her and always treated her like an equal; Tallest Purple always asserted dominance and reminded her that he was superior in both height and rank at every chance he got. Dren trusted her judgment and never forced her to do anything she didn't want to; Tallest Purple always wanted things to go his way and had already forced Tenn to do many things against her will. In short, these profound difference made it hard to pretend that Tallest Purple was Dren.

That put aside, Tenn couldn't deny (as much as she tried to) that Tallest Purple was actually... pleasant to be around when he was in a good mood. When not making her feel like a trophy wife, he was funny, entertaining, and she might even say charming- No, no, what is she thinking?! Get those thoughts out of your head.

On the bright side, her acting soon bore fruit. Tallest Purple reduced her 'sentence' from solitary confinement to being allowed out of their chambers for a limited time, always accompanied by female Imperial Guards. Tenn couldn't help rolling her eyes at this last part; was he that insecure that he didn't trust her to be around any males? Didn't he learn anything from their time together? She wanted no one by her side, but... Tenn pushed the thought aside.

The past few days, all the crew of the Massive was fascinated and intrigued over the indokuro egg; she casually passed by the labs and saw a whole team of scientist drones running tests and monitoring the embryo's development on the Tallest's orders. During dinner, she heard Red and Purple constantly chattering about all the things they could do with an indokuro. This prompted Lena to remind them that they couldn't do anything with it without proper information as to how to train the animal.

"Still no word from Ilk?" Tenn asked, changing the subject before it grew into another argument.

"I sent her fifty voice-mails*; she ought to hear them anytime soon." Tallest Red said.

"Fifty?"

"The ones that you counted, actually," Tallest Purple murmured.

"What about the egg?"