The First She ✓

TWENTY SEVEN

"Did she just speak our tongue?"

The men looked like they just teleported to Earth.

Welcome to the team, boys.

Kira closed her eyes, the clash between the brightness of the day and the blackness of her pupils being too painful to handle.

"Jesus. I have a headache the size of Jupiter," she mumbled.

"What is Gu–peter?"

"What is Gi–sus?"

"How did you learn the language so quickly?"

She frowned, hearing all of the men's voices but Vrox's. His arms were still locked around her, strong her even though their owner's mind was slack with shock.

"I'm not from here. Nebula and I are from a planet called Earth," she was able to deliver through her cloud of drowsiness.

"Why are you here? Were you sent?"

"It was an accident, a terrible accident. I shouldn't be here. I don't belong here."

She felt Vrox flinch as if trying to jump away from the cruelty of her words. The quick tensing of his muscles echoed through her. It was a strange sensation since the warrior never winced.

Gathering the strength to lift her eyelids, she reached both hands to his face and cupped his face. Even his face hadn't been spared from the roughness of the planet. He had a small scar near his hairline that she hadn't noticed before, and a longer one hiding behind his beard.

She pulled his face closer, needing him to bend down to eliminate the gap between them.

Their foreheads met. Two jungles of knowledge were centimeters away. The lakes of their eyes remained mixed, and not even the pain in Kira's head could ripple the gratitude that was swimming in them.

"Thank you for being with me," she breathed.

He blinked, his long eyelashes kissing her own.

He had said so many things to her over the course of their adventures– threatening her, clumsily offering words of comfort, questioning her physique, scolding her tantrums, making promises. It was as if he had whispered so much exasperation, chuckles, questions, and vows, that he had run out of words.

What was he supposed to reply to the boy-turned-female whose intimate touches and intricate body roared a second Scaling in him?

"What are those bumps on your chest?" Rokan blurted, taking away Vrox's responsibility to reply.

Kira pulled her face away, but her chest, to Vrox's delight, arced against his.

"Uh... they're called..."

She stopped when she realized that she couldn't find the translation for breasts.

"Breasts," she delivered in English.

"What is their purpose?" Rokan asked.

"To... feed babies."

The men's face scowled with what looked like disgust, their fangs peeking out of their parted lips.

"The females of your species feed blood to babies?"

Kira couldn't help but laugh."No. Breasts produce..."

She struggled to find a word for milk.

"Milk. It's a white liquid that tastes neither sour or sweet."

Their disgust returned.

"You feed babies semen?"

"No!"