The first thing Pierce saw when he opened his eyes was tan. He blinked his eyes in confusion but the tan… whatever it was didn’t go away so he figured it wasn’t his eyesight. Hesitatingly, he reached out a hand and pressed it against the object that was blocking his vision.

Skin. The flesh underneath his hand twitched and was pulled away. He briefly saw the outline of a giant hand before the sight was replaced by a blinding light that dazzled his eyesight for a moment.

When his vision cleared, Pierce noticed he was lying on his back, on top of another plain of that same tanned skin. He suddenly realized he recognized the particular shade. Daz’s shade. Said realization was helped by the fact that the Titan in question was staring down at him with a questioning look on her face.

“Oh, you’re awake.” She said, her tone of voice mild. “How are you feeling?”

In lieu of answer, Pierce pushed himself into a sitting position, and looked around. They were still in the basement, though Aezhay was nowhere to be seen. Across the room, the vidtainment system was projecting a movie- or something- into the air. The dialogue was unintelligible, but there were subtitles… which Pierce couldn’t read.

Also, he was sitting on Daz’s thigh.

“What happened?” Pierce asked, rubbing a hand through his faded green hair.

“You… sort of passed out after we finished.” Daz said with a smirk. “Guess we wore you out.”

“Huh.” Pierce muttered, fingering the hem of his shirt. “You put my clothes back on…”

“Well, yeah. Figured by that point modesty wasn’t really an issue. Not really much different than when I played with dolls as a kid.” Daz said offhandedly, gazing across the room at the holographic display.

“What are you watching?” Pierce asked after a slightly awkward moment of silence.

“Some Jotunn program.” Daz said with a yawn. “The only broadcast it in Jotnar, so I had to turn the subtitles on.”

“What’s it about?” Pierce asked after another awkward pause.

“Oh well, you know, it’s pretty over the top. This guy is cheating on his wives with that guy there, but what he doesn’t realize is that guy is also the long lost cousin of his murdered former business partner who has a long drawn out plot for revenge because he thinks the first person is responsible for the cousin’s death. Also there’s something about a lost treasure, but I haven’t been watching for long enough to figure it out. The plotlines on these things can run for decades, after all.”

“Uh… huh…” Pierce muttered.“So…What… what exactly was that, Daz?”

“Oh Jixle just issued a challenge for a duel to the death.”

“Not the show.” Pierce said exasperatedly. “What we just did, you, me and Aezhay.”

“Well, it’s commonly referred to as ‘sex’ Pierce. Pretty sure humans do it as well.” Daz remarked, chuckling.

“No, but…” Pierce rubbed the back of his neck. There was something on the tip of his tongue; he just couldn’t articulate it properly.

“You’re okay, right?” Daz asked, and there seemed to be a slight note of concern in her voice, and for the first time since he woke up she made direct eye-contact with him. “I mean we didn’t… you know… hurt you or anything?”

“Oh, uh, yeah… no I’m fine.” Pierce muttered. “It was fun… I just…”

“Look.” Daz stared down at him. “Zhay and I were just decompressing a bit. You sort of got swept up in it. You were in the right place at the wrong time… or something. But that’s all it was, Pierce. Just a bit of fun.”

“Okay…” Pierce nodded. “Uh… good.”

“Anyway, um,” Daz muttered, clearing her throat. “I need to go take care of some stuff… is… is there somewhere I can take you?”

“No… I’ll be fine.” Pierce said with a shrug, as he climbed down from atop Daz’s thigh. He suddenly felt really cold.

“Okay suit yourself.” Daz said with a shrug and pulled herself to her feet. “Don’t say I didn’t offer.”

“Right.” Pierce muttered. “Oh, and Daz?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for not tying me up and hanging me upside down from the ceiling.”

*.*.*

Myona stared at the emitter in front of her with a contemplative frown on her face. Through the opened access panel she could easily see the red wire that Shaar had pointed out as being faulty. In just a few seconds, the human had managed to figure out one of the problems the emitter was having.

The question was, how did she do it? Myona’s mind had conjured up several possible solutions. Each one was very exciting to the young titan. She wondered what else Shaar might be capable of. Could Myona possibly teach her how to program a hologram of her own?

It was a very exciting idea.

After several weeks of interacting with Pierce, Myona was more than willing to admit that humans were much smarter than she’d previously realized. She didn’t really doubt that, with proper training, Shaar would be more than capable of doing a number of things. Things that most titans wouldn’t think humans were able to do.

But… could she learn how to program a hologram? Properly fix an emitter?

“Oh I don’t know, Myona.” Fara muttered, twining a finger through her long dark hair. “I mean, I know humans are smarter than most titans realize but… Is it really fair to expect that much from one? Maybe Shaar just got lucky with the wire. I mean, it’s not that hard to see that one is loose, after all.”

“No, but, don’t you see? That’s the whole point!” Myona said, excitedly brandishing the small device in her hands. “Maybe she did just get lucky… but what if she didn’t? What if she is smart enough to figure this sort of thing out? Don’t we owe it to her, and to all humans, to find out for sure?”

Fara shifted her weight uncomfortably. “Well… maybe.”

“Look.” Myona said, placing a hand on Fara’s shoulder. “What harm does it do to find out? Maybe she won’t even be interested, in which case, fine. I tried. But what if she is? What if it turns out that this is something she might enjoy doing? Doesn’t she deserve a chance to find out?”

“I…I suppose…” Fara muttered. “I suppose that’s a good point. I mean, there must be something that she wants to do…”

“Exactly.” Myona agreed. “And I really hope this is it. This is going to be really fun. You’ll see. Trust me!”

*.*.*

It had taken a long time for Pierce to trudge up the stairs from the basement after Daz had left him on the couch. At more than one point he’d wished he’d agreed to let her carry him somewhere. But then he reminded himself that, as small as he was, he still wasn’t a pet. He was more than capable of moving around on his own. And besides, the lower Archavian gravity made climbing the staircases pretty easy, comparatively. He could manage just find on his own.

Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself as he crested the last step on the staircase that lead to the top floor. He collapsed on the carpet at the top of the steps, and lay there for a moment in order to catch his breath.

“Hello pet boy.” A voice spoke out to him. Pierce Climbed to his feet and looked for the source of the voice. He heard a noise above him and looked up. Laying on the bottom rung of a bookshelf situated against the wall, and above his head, was a young woman with bushy brown hair.

“Oh… you must be Shaar.” Pierce said, scratching the back of his head. “You startled me.”

“Just like a little pet boy to be jumping at every little noise.” Shaar said with just a hint of contempt in her voice.

“Hey… I’m not a pet.” Pierce replied hotly.

“Oh really?” Shaar laughed, rotating her body until she was sitting with her feet dangling over the shelf. “I saw you sitting with the angry one. Laying on her knee while she petted you, completely docile. How can this be if you are not a pet?”

“She and I were just talking.” Pierce responded.

Shaar snorted in amusement. “Cage bred. That’s what you are.”

“Of course I’m not.” Pierce responded. “I was born on Earth.”

Shaar suddenly jolted to her feet, eyes wide in alarm. “You lie!” She spat angrily. “Earth? A planet for humans? It’s a myth! A legend tale that old fools tell to each other.”

“No it isn’t.” Pierce insisted. “I was born there, I’m from fucking Canada.”

“You are a liar, and nothing more than a pet.” Shaar sniffed, sitting on the shelf and leaning against one of the books, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Okay fine,” Pierce said with a shrug. “I don’t need to prove anything to you, you’re free to not believe me.”

And he turned and continued walking down the hall, leaving Shaar behind.

Pierce slipped through the door to Tylum’s room. The titanic occupant was sitting at her desk idly looking at something on the screen in front of her. Beside her there was a textbook open, and occasionally she’d glance down at the book in front of her.

“Tylum?” Pierce called out.

Tylum looked up from her studies and smiled broadly when she saw Pierce come tramping into the room. “Hello Pierce.” She said, before leaning down and offering him a lift up to the desk with an upturned palm.

With a sigh Pierce climbed into her hand and sat down, waiting for it to ascend to the desktop.

“Pierce, are you okay?” Tylum asked, her brow knitting in concern. “You look a little… off.”

“I… uh… nothing.” Pierce muttered as he climbed out of her hand and sat down next to her textbook. He stared at his feet, fully aware of the Tylum’s inquisitive gaze burning on the back of his neck.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Well… um…” Pierce muttered. “I…”

Tylum’s eyes narrowed. “Pierce, if there’s something wrong, you can tell me. I want to help you.”

The human sighed and scratched the back of his neck. “I… just had sex with Daz.”

Tylum blinked. “What?!”

“Well… and Aezhay too… I suppose.” Pierce muttered thoughtfully.

Tylum sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose before closing her book with a decisive thump. “I think you’d better explain what happened.”

“Oh. Well, first Aezhay took off Daz’s shirt…”

“I don’t need to know that much!” Tylum sighed exasperatedly.

Stifling a grin, Pierce gave her the very brief version of what had transpired in the basement between him and the two women.

When he was finished, Tylum looked a little shocked and slightly ill. “Well, first off I don’t think I’ll be able to go back into the basement for a while.” She muttered. “And I’m definitely not using that treadmill again…”

Despite himself Pierce grinned.

“But… Pierce, are you sure you’re okay with what happened?” Tylum’s eyes narrowed and she seemed to scrutinize his face for any sort of negative reaction. “They didn’t really give you much of a chance to say no, after all.”

“No, that part… that was okay.” Pierce responded, although he could feel the back of his neck heating up.

“Then what is it?”

Pierce sighed. “I don’t know. Daz said they were just having fun, just blowing off steam really. I just happened to be there and they got me involved. She said it didn’t mean anything.”

Tylum’s face lowered and she peered at the human in front of her. “And did it?”

“What?”

“Did it mean anything to you, Pierce?” Tylum repeated softly.

“What?!” Pierce sputtered. “No, of course not. I mean… like Daz said, it wasn’t anything I planned on doing, I was just… there. They got me involved, I had nothing to do with it!”

Tylum’s eyes narrowed and she looked as if she were trying to peer directly into Pierce’s mind. After a minute, however, she nodded her head and leaned back in her chair.

“What?” Pierce asked.

“Nothing.” Tylum shakes her head. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt, okay?”

Pierce sighed and shook his head. “I appreciate the concern, Tylum, but I’m perfectly fine with what happened. Okay? Can we just drop it… this whole conversation has been… weird.”

“Okay.” Tylum said, raising her hands as if to surrender. “Consider it dropped.”

“Thank you.”

The two of them fell silent as Tylum opened her textbook to the page she’d been reading before Pierce had entered the room. Several moments passed where neither of them said a word. Tylum read her book and Pierce seemed to stare off into space.

“So, how are things going with Rhionne?”