It was early evening and the roommates were all gathered in the living room, six giant women splayed across the various pieces of furniture, while Reevah stood near the door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. Pierce was sitting on Tylum’s shoulder alternatively trying to piece out the language of the book she was reading and sneaking peeks at Rhionne.

“Okay.” Aezhay suddenly sat up on the couch and threw the book she was reading onto the table in the center of the room where it landed with a bang that caused every head in the room to turn in her direction. “I can’t stand studying anymore. Let’s go out and do something.”

“Like what?” Fara asked as she gently set her book on the table next to Aezhay’s.

“I don’t know.” Aezhay groaned as she stretched her arms above her head. “Let’s go out. I mean, come on, Rhionne and Reevah have been here a full day already and we never officially welcomed them.”

The blonde titaness turned to the aforementioned women. “What do you say?”

Rhionne smiled and looked over at Reevah, who shrugged.

“Sounds good to us!” The Princess said with a grin. “As long as you don’t mind being followed by journos and camera-jockeys everywhere.”

“Eh, we’ll deal.” Aezhay said nonchalantly. “Always wondered what it would be like to be on the cover of a magazine anyway. What about the rest of you?”

“I’m in!” Myona cried excitedly, throwing her textbook over her shoulder where it thumped against the wall before landing in a corner.

“Shocker.” Daz muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Oh…” Tylum muttered, casting a glance at the human perched on her shoulder. “You all go ahead. It’s not fair for us to go off and have fun while Pierce is stuck here by himself because the taverns don’t allow humans, so I’ll stay here with him.”

Pierce looked up from Tylum’s book and shifted guiltily. “Oh uh, Tylum that’s okay. I don’t mind staying here. It’s not your fault. Don’t punish yourself on my account.”

The rest of the group traded glances. As mystifying as Tylum’s attitude towards the human still seemed to some of them, he had become a part of the group. Leaving him behind didn’t seem right to any of them.

“No Pierce.” Tylum sighed. “I don’t mind. I really should catch up on studying anyway.”

“Oh but-”

“Oh for crying out loud!” Daz groaned exasperatedly as she rose to her feet. “As entertaining as it would be to sit here and watch the two of you try and out-martyr each other, there’s no need. I know a place where it’s perfectly acceptable to bring humans, okay? Drama resolved.”

“There is?” Tylum asked curiously.

“Yes.” Daz shook her head in amused exasperation. “It’s a club called Tandem. They don’t care if you bring humans in.”

“Oh well, that’s good.” Tylum smiled. “That’s how it should be.”

“Besides, Pierce has to come!” Myona cried. “He’s like our little mascot!”

“Um, thanks?” Pierce responded uncertainly.

Enough yapping!” Aezhay interjected. “Let’s go get changed so we can go already!”

“Ok!” Myona yelled leaping to her feet. “Last one up is a jarglefraster!”

And without another word, she dashed upstairs.

The others looked at each other.

Rhionne broke the brief silence. “A what?”

“I don’t know. I think she just makes things up.” Fara sighed. “She’s right though, we should get ready.”

“Well, I sure wouldn’t want to be a jargle-whatever-it-was!” Aezhay yelled before bolting up the stairs after her redheaded friend.

The others soon followed, all except for Tylum- who didn’t want to get caught in the press. Reevah also didn’t move, except to sit down on the couch and wait for them all to reappear.

Tylum eventually made it up the stairs and to her room, where she shut the door behind her.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” She asked Pierce as she lowered him down to her desktop.

“Yeah.” He responded with a shrug and a grin. “What nineteen year old guy wouldn’t want to hang out with a bunch of drunken coeds?”

“Right.” Tylum smirked and rolled her eyes. “Just be careful what you wish for.”

The titaness grasped the hem of her shirt and casually pulled the garment over her head. Pierce tried not to stare, but this was probably one of the hardest things for him to get used to- outside of the obvious. Titans, apparently, were a bit less modest when it came to nudity than the average human, or possibly Tylum didn’t see the point in trying to cover up when her and Pierce were going to be living in such close quarters.

Either way, Pierce tried to be as respectful as he could. He liked Tylum, and even if his being there hadn’t been either of their ideas, he wanted to show her he appreciated the fact she was sharing her space with him.

Of course Tylum, for her part, thought he was being silly.

“You can turn around now, Pierce.” He heard her chuckle from behind him.

Pierce did so. She’d changed into a loose purple shirt with jagged black striping, a pair of black cloth pants, and flat leather sandals. She was putting on a light amount of makeup using her bedroom mirror.

After she finished, she threw the strap of her small handbag over her shoulder and scooped Pierce up from the top of the desk.

“Let’s go!” Came a shout from downstairs.

Soon they were gathered in the living room again.

“All right, we all here?” Aezhay scanned the group.

“We’re just waiting on Rhionne.” Fara responded. “Um, I think anyway.”

As if on cue, there came the sounds of thumping footsteps as someone descended the staircase.

“Princess… What are you wearing?”

“Daz!”

“Come on!” Daz defended. “Look at her.”

In the time it took for the others to change, Rhionne had managed to alter her hair color to a rich auburn. She was also wearing large dark glasses that obscured much more than just her eyes- which were now a dark purple color- as well as a royal green scarf to keep her hair out of her face.

“Don’t judge.” Rhionne stated matter-of-factly. “It’s either this or we get hounded everywhere we go. We still might.”

“Right well,” Aezhay said after a moment. “Now that we have that all sorted out, who’s gonna fly?”

“Me obviously!” Daz said as she finished lacing up her boots.

“You’ll have to stay sober.” Aezhay warned

“…Oh…right.”

“Oh! Oh! How about-!”

“NO MYONA!”

“I’ll do it.” Reevah chimed in from where she stood at the back of the room. “I really shouldn’t be drinking anyway.”

“You don’t have to be on the job all the time, Ree.” Rhionne chided her.

The taciturn young woman shook her head. “Yeah, actually I do.”

“I assume you know how to fly.” Daz challenged, arching an eyebrow.

“Of course I do.” Reevah responded mildly. “I do have a Flying Star award, after all.”

Daz blinked, suddenly finding herself speechless. “…Oh.”

“All right then…” Aezhay spoke into the silence. “Looks like we’re ready to go then.”

Unlike the trip to the spaceport, the ride to the downtown area where the club was located was completely uneventful. Reevah was as good a pilot as she claimed and before long they were safely back on solid ground in a parking structure near where Daz said the club was located.

As they entered, they were assaulted by bright lights in many different colors and intensities.

“Whoa…” Aezhay breathed. “Look at this place.”

The club was divided into three levels. In front of them was the main dance floor, while each level above them was more like an open balcony. In the center, hanging from the ceiling were a series of stage lights and holographic emitters which were projecting various images in time to the music.

“Okay, let’s find ourselves a table.” Tylum yelled over the sound of the music. “Preferably in a corner away from all the noise!”

“Oh yes please.” Fara muttered. The group moved towards the back corner, where the sound was a bit more muffled than it was closer to the dance floor.

Eventually, they managed to flag down a waiter and place drink orders. Within a few minutes the young man returned with a tray loaded down with glasses.

After the waiter departed, Aezhay stood and raised her glass. “To Rhionne and Reevah. Welcome to the house. Prosist!”

The girls cheered and took a drink from their glasses.

“Here Pierce. I got you something too.” Tylum nudged a shot glass that was closer to being a large bucket over to him. “Sorry, they didn’t have anything smaller.”

“What is this? Fruit juice?” Pierce sipped at the liquid experimentally.

“Yeah, um, jekka juice actually.”

“Got any beer?”

“What?”

“You know, alcohol.”

Tylum sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, Pierce. We might get in trouble or something.”

“Fine.” The human grumbled and awkwardly took a drink of the juice. It was good, but the fact he was basically being treated like a kid sort of soured the taste for him.

The night wore on and Pierce amused himself by watching the giant women around him become more and more intoxicated. There was a part of his mind that was worried about the outcome of being surrounded by six drunken giants, but he felt strangely at ease. He’d only known these women for a few days- by his reckoning anyway- and yet, he felt safe with them. Even Daz, as surprising as it was.

As the night wore on, he watched as the girls drifted to and from the table. Sometimes one or two of them would disappear to the dance floor, or to get a refill, but there was always a couple at the table.

Tylum had left her purse on the table, and it had fallen on its side. Objects scattered on the table and Pierce was idly examining them, wondering if Titan women kept the same kinds of things in their bags that human women did.

He bent down to pick up a stick of some kind of makeup. It was a light tan color and as long as Pierce’s forearm.

He bent down to a napkin on the table at his feet and began to idly sketch a portrait of Fara, who was sitting across the table from him, staring off into the distance. Since he only had the one color to work it, it was by necessity fairly stylized. When he finished, it wasn’t at all the best work he’d ever done but it wasn’t bad considering what he’d had to work with.

Then Fara, who didn’t know she was being drawn, moved and Pierce abandoned the picture with a sigh.

“Whatcha got there?” A voice chirped from behind him. Startled, Pierce looked up to see Myona gazing down at him, her big expressive eyes wide with delight.

“Oh nothing. Just a little doodle I guess.” Pierce muttered.

“Really?” Myona’s finger tips gripped the edge of the napkin and lifted it up to get a closer look. “Hey, that’s pretty good.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s supposed to be Fara right?”

“Yeah.”

“Ooh!” Myona gasped. “You should draw me next!”

Pierce blinked, amused by her enthusiasm. “All right… Sure, why not?”

“Awesome!” Myona giggled and sat up in her chair.

“Um, Myona?” Pierce coughed and scratched the back of his head. “Unless you want a picture of the underside of your nose, you’re going to have to move down the table just a bit.”

“Okay!” Myona bounced up and shifted over to the other side of the table, which gave Pierce a much better angle on her face.

“Is this better?”

“Perfect.” Pierce called back. “Now stay still.”

Which was, of course, easier said than done. Pierce could tell Myona was attempting to be a good model, but every thirty seconds or so, something would catch her attention and Pierce would have to wrangle her back into position.

“This is why I stick to landscapes and still lifes.” He muttered to himself after the fourth time of having to admonish Myona to stop moving.

But, eventually, he managed to finish a reasonably good likeness of the exciteable redhead. Of course, he did it in beige colored makeup, so certain liberties had to be taken.

Still, Myona seemed really pleased with the picture.

“You should probably let it dry, Myona.” Pierce called up to her. “You don’t want it to smudge or anything.”

“Right.” Myona carefully laid the napkin back on the table.

“So where’s everybody else?” Pierce asked.

“Uh…” The petite giantess stood up from her chair to get a better look. “Fara and Aezhay went to the bathroom, Rhionne and Reevah are at the bar with Tylum, and Daz is out on the dance floor again.” Myona sat back in her chair and took a sip of her drink.

Pierce bit his lip and glanced over at the bar. “What are you drinking anyway?” He asked.

“Mossaberry soda.” Myona replied with a smile.

“Oh.”

“Do you want to try some?” Myona reached over to the shot glass that Pierce had been drinking out of and dipped some of her drink into it, placing it on the table in front of Pierce.

Pierce stared at the bubbling purple colored liquid.

“Yeah sure… why not?”