Starfish

Ten

Nina woke sometime in the late afternoon, sitting up and blinking at the groggy, disorienting fuzz that always seemed to settle in after she'd napped too long. Her mouth was dry, her head throbbed, and she looked around her apartment with cotton-brained confusion. How did I get here? What time is it? What day is it? The last thing she remembered was being carried, looking up and into the sea-blue eyes and dark-pored face of – she clapped a hand to her mouth. "Sea gods!" She lurched violently to her feet and nearly toppled over, catching herself on the edge of the glass-topped table that came up to her hips. She rested against the huge piece of furniture, her legs steadying gradually.

But more than her shaky legs the memory of being picked up as easily as a sack of laundry rocked her. I definitely wasn't dreaming. "What the hell was that all about? Did he really..." She trailed off, remembering. The feeling of being lifted, of being carried in arms that felt like solid driftwood, rushed back like a late tide along with the nuclear warmth of the big dark Dreen's body against hers in a wash of sweaty, nervous heat. She burst into giggles, her face and chest breaking into a pink flush that she could feel climbing up her cheeks to her hairline. "Sea gods, those arms!" Nina pressed her burning cheeks against the cold glass tabletop. Helplessly she laughed at herself, turning her face to the other cheek and more cool glass. "He could have crushed me! Just, squish! Flat Nina!" That set her off, and she slid to the floor and held her sides while she cackled and tears streamed down her cheeks.

When she caught her breath again, she rolled onto her back and stared at the textured ceiling. "Oh Omi, what the hell is happening?" A phrase floated back to her, along with the stomach-twisting, chest-tightening feelings she remembered from the first time she heard them: "I have her." His eyes... He'd been looking at her when he'd said that, with an expression that wasn't quite a smile but also wasn't not a smile. And he'd been so close! Close enough that Nina had been able to see the striated blues and aquas of his eyes, the dark veins in his black sclera, the texture of his skin along his neck stippled with pores. "I have her." Nina rubbed her palms across her face. "Ah, man, this is nuts." With her hands over her eyes, she tried to ignore the way those dark, clear eyes had made her feel as he looked at her from the closest she had ever been to any Dreen.

But the feeling of his arms under and around her, that immense, steady strength, crept back in and spread from her chest outwards. She'd felt so small, incredibly fragile and tiny, even more so than when she'd first met him and he'd stopped her from falling with a lightning-quick grasp of her arm and a hand so big it almost covered her arm from shoulder to elbow, and yet she'd never felt threatened. Intimidated by his severity perhaps, awed definitely by his size and that intense darkness, but never endangered. And he'd done nothing untoward – aside from picking her up without asking, and even then he believed he was helping. And he was helping, wasn't he? He was following Nia's advice not allowing her to walk. He was just doing what he thought he had to, no reason to get worked up about it.

But she was worked up about it, about his huge arms arms and his massive hands and his solid, broad chest that she could still feel under her hand and in her arm and her side. Nina groaned as she remembered falling asleep against a shoulder that felt bigger than her head, and harder. "Why did I do that?" But he hadn't said anything about it, had he? Surely he would have said something if he didn't approve, or see the reason behind it. He probably knew what effects sand-skimmer toxin had on those who touched it, he would have known she'd be tired. He would have known she'd be too weak, her muscles still recovering from paralysis, to stand on her own, or else he wouldn't have tolerated her head leaning against him. He'd even adjusted his arm to make her more comfortable. You're overthinking it. "He's just being nice," she said to her empty apartment. "He brought me here from across the galaxy, he's just making sure I don't die." She smacked her lips; she was awfully thirsty after her nap.