When they arrived at their home, Daz wasted no time before turning angrily on Myona, who had been uncharacteristically quiet for the whole trip home.

“How could you have been so careless?” Daz snapped. “Everybody knows you’re not supposed to give soda to a human!”

“Evidently, not everybody.” Aezhay muttered quietly.

“I said I was sorry!” Myona cried, flopping on to the couch miserably. “It’s not like he’s dead or anything. He’s just sleeping it off! He’ll be okay in a few hours.”

“Um…” Tylum slipped between them, heading for the stairs. “I think I’m just going to take him upstairs” She carried Pierce’s unconscious form in the palm of her hand and mounted the stairs, disappearing from the room, seemingly unnoticed by the other girls.

Reevah, also disinterested in the conversation, stepped into the kitchen in search of quiet.

“Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was?” Daz continued. “We could have been banned from that bar, we might have been arrested! As it is, there’s probably going to be pictures of us all over the tabloids in a few days!”

“Oh I don’t think…” Fara tried to cut in, but was quickly talked over.

“Stop being so mean to her!” Rhionne snapped as she sat next to Myona on the couch. “We weren’t banned, we weren’t arrested, she’s said she’s sorry about the whole thing, what more do you want?”

Daz growled, but fell silent, arms crossed sullenly over her chest.

“And Pierce will be fine after a little rest, right Fara?”

“Oh, well…” The young veterinary student ran a hand through her hair. “Yes. I mean, once the soda has worked its way through his system. He’ll probably have a pretty bad headache when he wakes though.”

“There now, you see?” Rhionne groaned as she rose back to her feet. “Everything will be fine.”

Daz shook her head.

“Look, Daz.” Rhionne sighed and rolled her eyes. “I know that you’re embarrassed from all the attention we got today, and I’m sorry about that. It’s my fault far more than it is Myona’s or Pierce’s Hopefully this will be the last time it happens to you.”

Daz and Rhionne locked eyes and the two stared at each other for a moment. Rhionne quirked an eyebrow and Daz looked away

“Yeah… it’s just the attention, I guess. I’m uh… not used to all those people watching me.”

Rhionne smiled sympathetically. “It’s not any easier once you do get used to it, trust me.”

“I’m going to go check on Tylum and Pierce.” Fara said, rising to her feet. “I’m sure he’s okay, but it couldn’t hurt to give him a quick look over.”

“Well, now that that’s settled.” Aezhay hung her jacket on a hook by the door. “I’m going to go get some sleep myself. See you all in the morning.” With that, the farm girl and the Princess followed Fara up the stairs.

“Yeah, I guess I should too.” Daz muttered. “It’s been a long night.”

“Go check on Pierce.” Myona said quietly. “It’s what you’ve been wanting to do since we got home, right?”

Daz whirled to face the redheaded young woman, mouth agape. Myona was smiling serenely.

“Am I wrong?”

“I…you…” Daz spluttered before storming up the stairs, a scowl on her face.

“I didn’t think so.”

*.*.*

Daz stood at the top of the stairs and stared down the hallway towards where Tylum’s room was. She swallowed and took a step forward, only to hesitate.

She’d been standing on the landing of the staircase for several minutes already. She’d watched Fara come out of Tylum’s room, which presumably meant that Pierce wasn’t going to be in any trouble. She really should just go to bed and try and get some sleep.

She took a step forward, then hesitated again.

With a frustrated growl, Daz marched down the corridor until she arrived at Tylum’s room. She knocked on the doorjamb and peered inside.

Tylum looked up and smiled. She indicated with her chin the tiny sleeping form on her desk. “He seems to be sleeping it off okay.” She whispered.

“Good.” Daz muttered. She leaned against the doorjamb and an awkward silence passed between them for a moment.

“Did… did you need something, Daz?” Tylum inquired politely.

The brunette hesitated. “Tylum… why do you care so much about humans?”

Tylum looked over at Daz quizzically. Daz looked back with a slightly uncertain gaze. There had been no malice, no mockery, behind the question, which actually concerned Tylum more.

“Well…” Tylum spoke slowly, chewing the end of her stylus as she thought. “I don’t think what we have done to them is right, Daz. We’ve ripped them from their world and locked them in cages.”

“But, we take care of them.” Daz replied. Again, there wasn’t any heat in her words, she sounded more like someone who was trying to work out a line of thought.

“Yes, I know that we don’t, generally, harm them. We even treat them kindly, to a point.”

“And we protect Earth from the insectoids.” Daz pointed out, though she seemed uncertain, even as she did so.

“That’s true. However, that’s really something we should be doing anyway. It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve enslaved the humans here in the empire.” Tylum agreed. “The fact of the matter is, we deny them the right to determine their own destiny. We make all their decisions for them, what gives us the right?”

“You mean like how you told Pierce he couldn’t have any alcohol?” Daz replied with a smirk.

Tylum blinked, and then blushed from embarrassment. “Yeah. Exactly like that. I guess sometimes I assume I know what’s best for him too. I’m a hypocrite.”

“A little.” Daz agreed. “But I suppose it’s good that you’re able to recognize that.”

Tylum sighed and shook her head. “A lifetime of being told to look out for humans and protect them from themselves is hard to shake off.”

Daz shifted her weight uncomfortably for a second. “I… I guess… it would be…”

*.*.*

“I’m really glad you decided to come along with me while I got Pierce his apology gift, Rhionne.” Myona chirped as she bounced happily along the sidewalk.

“Oh, no problem. It’s nice to have an excuse to leave the house that isn’t related to school or alcohol.” Rhionne giggled. She was wearing a similar disguise to the one she had donned before they’d gone to the club. Behind them, Reevah acted as their silent shadow, eyes constantly watching for any hidden dangers.

“So what are you going to get him anyway?”

Myona shrugged and smiled as they turned to step into the fabrication shop. “You’ll see…”

It wasn’t long before the duo and their watchful protector reached the fabrication supply depot, where manufacturing machines were able to reproduce almost anything imaginable with a few simples programs.

They entered the mostly empty store and went straight for one of the terminals. Rhionne watched over Myona’s shoulder as the petite redhead programmed several items into the order, and then scaled them down to human size.

“Really?” Rhionne asked, eyeing the screen. “Why those things?”

Myona chuckled as she initiated the order. With a whir, the machines began to fabricate and print what she’d programmed into them.

“Because he’s surprisingly good at drawing.”

Rhionne chuckled and shook her head. “Sure. I once saw a Shaar that painted pictures by dipping her tail in paint and smearing it on a piece of paper. I imagine it’s something like that. I’m sure he’d look adorable covered in paint.”

Myona slipped her hand into her pocket, but unfortunately the impromptu portraits Pierce had drawn of her and Fara had been left behind at the bar. So instead she looked up at the princess and smiled mistily. “Sure something like that.”

“Excuse me.” One of the store employees suddenly appeared at the counter.

“Yes?” Myona responded brightly to the young man. “Is there a problem?”

“Well, it’s just… before we began filling out this order… are these dimensions accurate?”

Myona took a moment to look over the pad in the man’s hand. “Yup.”

“Really? You want everything to be that… small?”

“Yup.”

“Okay…” The man muttered before wandering back into the area where the fabricators were.

“I think you confused him.” Rhionne giggled, amused.

“Yup.”

They stood in companionable silence as the fabricators finished making Myona’s order. When the small crate of items was delivered by the machine, Myona swiped her payment card through the terminal and took her receipt.

“Good, glad that’s taken care of.” Myona chirped as she slipped the small box into her bag. “Anywhere else you’d like to go?”

“Well, all this talk of art… there’s a museum not too far from here. Want to go take in some culture?”

“Sure!”

*.*.*

The first thing Pierce noticed when he awoke was pain.

A blinding, stabbing, pounding pain seemed to split his skull in half as he struggled to open his eyes. He attempted to sit up but found it difficult, until he felt something lift him up and support him until he made it fully upright.

“Thanks Tylum.” He muttered groggily as he finally managed to force his eyes open.

But it wasn’t Tylum who supported his torso with her hand.

“Daz?” Pierce stared up incredulously; sure he was either hallucinating or still unconscious.

The young titaness blinked her red eyes and shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah… you’ve, uh, you were unconscious for a while, so we were taking turns looking after you. It just happened to be my turn.”

Pierce smirked and nodded, then winced because the motion made his head hurt. “What… what happened to me?”

“Well, uh…” Daz looked extremely uncomfortable to be having this conversation. “Myona gave you some of her soda and… well, it has bad side effects on humans. You sort of…”

“Spazzed?” Pierce finished for her.

“I guess…?” Daz muttered. “That sounds like a good description, yeah. I assume it is, anyway.”

The human groaned and leaned back against her hand, covering his face in shame. “I didn’t do anything stupid, did I?”

“Well, um…”

“Oh great.” Pierce grumbled. “What did I do? Take off my clothes?”

This time Daz chuckled. “Pierce, you’re a human, most people would think it weirder that you wear clothes in the first place.”

Pierce nodded. “So… what did I do?”

Daz blinked and turned away, although Pierce could swear there was a blush on her cheeks. “It’s not important. The important thing is you’re awake now, and in a few hours you’ll be good as new… probably.” Daz turned to face Pierce again. “Anyway, Myona told us that if you woke up when she wasn’t here, we were supposed to tell you that she was very sorry she got you… spazzed… and that she didn’t know the soda would do that to you.”

“That’s okay.” Pierce groaned. “I guess.”

“And she bought you that as an apology.” Daz pointed to where a small plastic box sat next to where Pierce had been sleeping. Curiously, he pulled it closer and peered inside.

In the box were a number of paints, brushes, papers, and other paraphernalia used in art and drawing, all scaled to his size.

“Wow…” Pierce breathed. “Where did she…?”

“She had them fabricated for you. Myona was really pleased by the perplexed look the man at the store gave her when she put the order in.”

“This is really cool.” Pierce said. “When I’m not dying, I’ll be sure to thank her.”

Despite herself, Daz snorted in amusement. “Well, now that you’re not unconscious anymore, I need to get to class.”

The titaness rose to her feet and was making her way out of Tylum’s room. She got about halfway to the door before Pierce’s voice stopped her.

“Daz?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody you were worried about me,” The human said with a grin. “I know you have an image to maintain.”

“Thanks.” Daz smirked sardonically. “And Pierce?”

“Yes?”

“If you ever try to go underneath my clothes again, I will tie you up and hang you upside-down from the ceiling.” And with that the brown haired giantess swept from the room.

Pierce chuckled, until what she actually said suddenly registered.

“Wait, what?!”