It had been several weeks since Rhionne had revealed her possible marital arrangement to Pierce. And while the initial disappointment had weighed heavy on him for a while, Pierce had been forced to admit- to himself at the very least – that there really hadn’t been all that much there, romantically, to begin with. Still, he and Rhionne had managed to at least get back to the point where they’d been before the “incident.” She still asked him questions about Earth, and he still managed to fumble his way through answering them.

The days had worn on and the semester was coming to an end, the ladies were all looking forward to their end-of-term vacation.

“I can’t believe you’re packing already, Tylum.” Pierce said, watching the aforementioned Titan shove clothing into a large cloth suitcase. “You still have three days before your vacations start.”

“Yes, but there’s no sense in waiting until the last second and then frantically throwing everything together. That’s a good way to go about forgetting something.”

“So what’s going to happen to me, then?” Pierce asked as he watched Tylum pack a bag for herself. “While you’re off visiting your family?”

“You’ll be coming home with me, of course.” She told him as she flopped down on top of her suitcase and tried to zip it shut. “Assuming you want to, anyway. What, did you think we were just going to leave you here with a dish of food and some water?”

Pierce blinked. “…No… of course I didn’t…”

Tylum chuckled and rolled her eyes. “So, yes, you’ll be staying with me, unless…” Tylum sent the human a sly grin. “…You’d rather spend the time with Daz….?”

Pierce swallowed and felt his face light up like a traffic light. Ever since the incident in the basement with Daz and Aezhay, the former had been acting… strange… with Pierce. She was still snarky with him, still more than willing to bombard him with sarcastic quips. But at the same time, and especially when the others weren’t around, she seemed a lot more open to his presence, up to the point of allowing him to rest on her shoulder while she studied or viewed a holovid.

But it was just like the time in the basement with Aezhay. That hadn’t meant anything specific and neither did Daz’s current behavior. She was just being friendly… in a Daz sort of way.

Of course, that hadn’t stopped Tylum from teasing him about it.

“No.” Pierce rubbed his forehead, hoping his coloration would return to normal soon. “That’s perfectly all right.”

Tylum giggled to herself before setting her packed suitcase by the door to her room. She straightened up and stepped over to her desk, where she lowered a palm for Pierce to climb into.

Once he’d situated himself, Tylum raised her hand to her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ll have fun with me anyway. Too bad Zara’s still busy doing… whatever it is she’s doing for Pryvani Tarsuss.”

Pierce shook his head. “Do you really think she has a whole city full of people on that moon of hers?”

Tylum shrugged her unoccupied shoulder, as she stepped out into the hall. “I wouldn’t doubt it. She can afford her own moon, after all, that’s more than enough space for a whole city’s worth of humans to live.”

“I wonder what they’re like.” Pierce muttered. “The humans, I mean. They’d have to have been completely cut off from Earth for hundreds of years!”

“Yeah. Zara says they have a whole different culture.” Tylum carefully descended the stairs, trying not to jostle Pierce as much as she could.

“Amazing.” Pierce muttered. A moment later the two of them entered the living room. The rest of the housemates were gathered there, camped out on various pieces of furniture. Myona was looking through some sort of technical manual, and excitedly pointing things out to Shaar, who was on her shoulder. Fara was curled up on the couch, apparently asleep.

Daz and Aezhay were engaged in what looked like an arm-wrestling contest. When Tylum reached the bottom of the stairs, Daz looked up. The momentary distraction allowed Aezhay to gain the upper hand., slamming Daz’s hand down on the table in front of them.

“Hey!” Daz grumbled as Aezhay celebrated.

“Not my fault you looked away.” Aezhay told her with a grin. Daz shrugged and shook her head.

Rhionne appeared from the kitchen just then.

“Oh good, you’re all here.” The princess said as she crossed into the living room and took a seat at the table next to Daz. “I have something to ask you.”

The room fell silent as every eye turned towards her.

Rhionne cleared her throat “Well, uh… seeing as end of term vacations are coming up, I was just sort of wondering if maybe you’d like to come spend them with me… at the palace.”

Rhionne fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. “I mean, I know you all probably already have plans… and you know, I understand if that’s the case but…”

“Well I’d love to come!” Myona said happily. Fara quickly nodded her agreement.

“Oh well, I was going to spend the time with my family…” Tylum said with a grin. “But I can see them any old time. I’m sure they wouldn’t want me to pass up the chance to see the palace. It’ll be an educational opportunity.”

Aezhay sighed and shook her head. “As much as I’d love to spend some time in the palace with you all, I’m afraid I can’t. The harvest will be coming in soon and I’d feel bad leaving it all to Lezah and Aisell. Well… not that Aisell would have cause to complain about it, but I’d feel bad for Lezah.”

Rhionne smiled at the tall blonde. “It’s no problem. You’ll just have to come visit another time.”

One by one they all turned to face Daz, who seemed to slouch lower in her seat. “I… I’m going to have to say no, too. Big family thing that I have to go to… uhm… I can’t get out of it.”

“I understand.” Rhionne smiled. “Like I said, I figured most of you would have plans but…”

“Yeah.” Daz sighed. “Unfortunately, I do. But thanks for the offer anyway.”

“Sure.”

*.*.*.*.*

Myona’s fingers flew over the keypad as she finished entering the string of code that had been scrawled on the scrap of paper in front of her. She entered it exactly as Shaar had written it, neither making any errors nor correcting any that she noticed.

If Shaar decided to continue with this little experiment, Myona would have to look into some sort of computer pad built to her size so the human could enter code herself. Myona wasn’t sure if such a thing existed, but if it didn’t… well, she’d have to look into finding a way to make it exist.

“And there…. We go!” The redhead said excitedly as she finished the final string of code.

“The program is ready?” Shaar asked, peering at the screen. “It is ready to be a hologram?”

“I think so.” Myona booted the system and ran the program file. In front of them, the projector lens flickered and flared to life. Tiny sparks of colored light shot up from the machine and began to coalesce into an image. The silhouette in front of them was grainy, but the image of a brown and grey furred tupp was recognizable enough, even if it did occasionally glitch and pixelate.

“It worked!” Shaar cried triumphantly. She quickly descended down Myona’s arm and walked toward the culmination of the program she herself had written. Shaar stared at the small rodent and carefully reached a hand out. The image fluctuated as her hand passed through it, but reformed a moment later.

“Yes it did!” Myona laughed, thrilled at the look of wonder on her human friend’s face. “This is fantastic, Shaar. You’ve been picking this up so fast!”

Shaar grinned. “I don’t have much else to do while you are at school or sleeping, so I have been reading your textbooks …as much as I can, anyway.”

Myona nodded. As a prerequisite for writing code, she’d had to instruct Shaar on the fundamentals of reading. Fortunately, Shaar had picked up a little on her own when she’d been loose on the streets before finding herself at the Vet’s office. It had been a matter of building on the rough foundation she’d managed to build for herself, and correcting the errors she’d picked up.

“Why does it not stay solid?” Shaar asked with a frown as the image glitched again.

“Well… there were some errors in your code.” Myona said with a shrug. “But that’s normal for beginners. The fact that it even looks like what you meant it to look like is very good. I remember my first attempt at coding, all I got was a big red square.”

“What was it supposed to be?”

“A tree.” Myona replied with a grin. “There wasn’t even supposed to be any red in the image, and yet there it was.”

Shaar sighed, but smiled up at the titan. “I was hoping it would be perfect.”

Myona lowered her chin to the desktop and looked the human in the eyes, or as close as she could get. “I know. I was the same way, but don’t worry. This is very good for a first attempt. Don’t get frustrated.”

Shaar nodded. “What will happen when you go off for your vacation, Myona?”

The titan’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“What will happen to me?”

“Don’t you want to come with us?” Myona asked, leaning back in her chair.

Shaar blinked and lowered her eyes to her feet. “Oh… I thought…”

Myona chuckled kindly. “Shaar, I’m not going to just leave you here. I mean, unless that’s what you want. You were invited to come, same as Pierce and the rest of us. I’m sure of it. And if you’re not… well, then neither am I.”

Shaar nodded. “Okay. I would like to go and see the palace. Thank you.”

Myona smiled.

“Now then… let’s see what’s wrong with the code you wrote. I’m sure it should be easy to fix.”

Shaar turned back to the screen with a snort. “It probably was fine. You just copied it wrong. If I could write it myself, we would have no problems.”

Myona smirked and pulled her screen closer. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

*.*.*.*.*.*

After everyone had dispersed, Daz had remained behind in the living room. She was sitting on the couch, her legs curled up, a data pad balanced on her knees.

On the screen was a message from her sister. Daz had read it a dozen times so she practically had it memorized.

Her sister had sent her instructions. She was to come home during the holidays. Not home to Grelau, but to their home in the capital, Tuaut. Vasha had some family business she wanted to discuss with her younger sister.

Daz wasn’t really certain what her sister wanted to discuss, but considering the way her last conversation with Vasha had gone, it likely wasn’t going to be good news.

Daz was certain that Vasha wouldn’t do anything to harm her, but there were still things that Vasha could do to make her little sister’s life… unpleasant… unless Daz cooperated with whatever Vasha needed her to do.

There was only one way Daz was going to find out though.

Frustrated, she turned off her pad and tossed it to the other side of the couch. She hated the fact that her sister was head of the family, which meant she was able to keep her sister on a short leash. It wasn’t the money, Daz would be perfectly content to make her own way. It was preferable, actually. But Vasha had enough connections to make Daz’s life miserable. Vasha could make it so Daz would be kicked out of school, or never receive a pilot’s license. Her sister could even arrange it so Daz took the fall for any number of Vasha’s backroom dealings.

Frustrated, Daz felt a tear beginning to form in her eyes and she wiped it away furiously. She heard a rustle behind her and looked over her shoulder to see a small figure climbing the threads in the side of the couch.

Daz rolled her eyes and lowered the palm of her hand. A moment later she felt Pierce fall into the center of her hand with a small ‘oof.’

Daz raised him up and gently dumped him onto the arm of the couch. “What do you think you’re doing Pierce?” She admonished him, but her tone was sarcastic, not angry.

Pierce sat up and dusted himself off, before turning so his legs dangled over the edge of the arm. Daz turned her head so she was looking forward, leaving Pierce right next to her ear.

“I don’t know.” The human muttered. “I just saw you sitting here and figured maybe you’d want some company.”

“Do I ever?” Daz snorted in amusement.

“Sometimes.” Pierce shrugged. “Especially when you look like something is upsetting you.”

Daz stiffened. “Pierce… how long have you been watching me?”

Pierce scratched the back of his head. “Um… long enough to see you almost crying.”

Daz bit her lip to hold in the frustrated groan that wanted to escape her throat. “I wasn’t crying, okay? There’s nothing wrong.”

“Methinks she doth protest too much.” Pierce muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Look… Daz… I mean, you know… if there’s something wrong… and, uh, if you wanted to talk to someone… you could talk to me. I mean…”

Daz smirked and shook her head ruefully. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I’m serious, Daz.” Pierce continued. “Look, you’ve… you know… you’ve been there for me a couple of times now, even if you want to deny it, and I… I don’t know… I guess I just want to return the favor.”

Despite herself, Daz felt her throat close and she swallowed. “I’ll… uh… I’ll keep that in mind, Pierce.”

A moment passed between the two of them where they sat in silence, before Daz leaned forward and placed her feet on the floor. She reached to the other side of the couch and grabbed her pad. “Well… I uh… I think I’m going to go get packed. No sense in leaving it for the last minute, after all…”

“Oh.” Pierce mumbled. “Yeah sure… that sounds like a good idea. You know, that way you don’t forget anything.”

Daz smiled and slipped her bare feet back into her sandals. “Right. Yeah. Thanks Pierce.”

Daz turned away and slowly trudged up the stairs to her room. She appreciated the gesture, and part of her would like nothing more than to accept his offer and unload everything on the human. But… she knew better. Daz knew that if Pierce learned the truth- if any of them learned the truth- about who she was, what her family was really like… Daz would lose every friend she had.

She couldn’t take that risk.