Rixie stepped into her assigned cabin aboard the transport ship Chayron and threw her bag down with a sigh. They were roughly a day’s flight from where their scheduled rendezvous with the vessel assigned to them was supposed to take place. Rixie was rather irritated with the delays, after all the longer it took the colder Trell’s trail became… but such was the nature of spaceflight. Even despite the advances in technology of the last twenty years or so… it still took time to get from Point A to Point B.

Rixie’s only consolation on this fact was that it would also take Trell time to get where ever she was going. But, as it was, this was rather cold comfort.

Seconds after her bag impacted with the floor, Rixie herself flopped back onto her bed with a sigh. Vanser was currently in his own cabin, likely getting some sleep. Which was what Rixie really should be doing.

But she couldn’t sleep.

Rixie sat up and looked around the cabin. It wasn’t much, not compared to the rather lavish affairs that Pryvani usually rented for her own travels. Such was the difference between the travel budget of an heiress and the Imperial Military. (It was a testament to Vanser’s rank, as well as her own, that they’d been allotted a cabin on the ship at all, let alone personal and separate ones.)

With a sigh, Rixie stepped out of the cabin and out into the corridor. Maybe a walk around the deck would help her to sleep.

Meanwhile, inside his pocket hideaway on the side of Rixie’s bag, Alex was feeling fortunate that he’d decided to curl up in a pile of Rixie’s undergarments for the duration of the trip from Avalon through the Valhalla orbiting platform and onto the ship. Because he had done so, he’d been cushioned from the kinetic force of her bag flying through the air and landing on the floor. Which was exactly why he’d chosen to lie there in the first place…

Eventually, he heard her sigh exasperatedly and walk out of the room, the door shutting behind her with a mechanical hiss.

Alex waited about a minute longer before pushing the flap of the pocket open and climbing down onto the floor.

He looked around. The room was immense from a human perspective, which wasn’t surprising as it was made for Titans… But Alex could tell that for a Titan the room was rather Spartan. The only furniture was a bed and a desk, and off to the side was a door that led to the bathroom.

Frankly it reminded Alex of any number of budget hotels he’d stayed in over the course of his life.

Not having anything else to occupy his time, Alex began wandering around on the floor. Normally being on the floor would make him somewhat nervous, but since the only titan likely to enter was Rixie, he wasn’t terribly concerned.

“Oh no! Those idiots at the boarding gate let someone into this cabin before we could clean it. “

Alex whirled around in shock. Standing framed by the doorway were three young titan women in loose grey coveralls.

“Oh shit.” Alex muttered.

Alex felt his heart racing as he stared up at the trio of cleaning women in front of him. For a second his mind went blank from panic. This was the first time since Trell that he’d been alone with an unfamiliar titan.

Then he shook himself and forced the panic down. Being stupid wasn’t going to make this situation any easier.

Before he could think of a plan, the girls were storming into the room, their footsteps shaking the ground underneath him like a stampede of elephants.

Alex suddenly found himself surrounded by the titanesses, and what was worse he realized that none of them were looking down. Giant feet landed around him as they moved about the room, performing their cleaning tasks

He looked around. The only obvious places to hide were the bed and the desk. Both were roughly equal distance from where he stood.

He chose the bed.

Alex watched the three women carefully. When he judged that they were all distracted he made a dash for Rixie’s bag. Sliding behind it like a runner stealing home base. He paused to catch his breath and listen in on the women’s conversation.

“…So then Tanith told me that Jaks lied to me about where he was going to be staying for his term break.” The speaker was the shortest of the three. She was rather voluptuous with pale skin and curly blonde hair that was tied up in a bundle at the back of her head. “How could he do that to me?”

“Ugh.” The tallest girl muttered rolling her eyes and brushing her long brown hair out of her face. “Listen, Lita, can we please talk about something else? I really don’t care about the weird and twisted dramatics between you and your latest would-be conquest.”

Lita gaped for a second. “Fine, shall we talk about how much I hate this job, Nonik? I mean… yeesh… look at the dust under this thing!” Lita, as was apparently her name, was crouched down to look under the desk. Alex was very glad he’d chosen to run for the bed.

The third Titaness, a dark skinned woman with a mane of long silver, rolled her rose colored eyes and sighed. “I don’t think this is much better, Lita.”

“Yeah well, I blame you for us being here, Uyli.”

“I know.” Uyli sighed. “You’ve told me. At least you have a job.”

“Stop bickering, both of you.” Nonik commanded. “Uyli, why don’t you get started on the bathroom and I’ll get the carpet cleaner going. We have to get done before whoever is staying here gets back.” The tall titaness reached back to the cleaning cart they’d brought with them and got out a machine that looked like a long thin rod with a circular plate at the end. Nonik flicked a switch and the plate glowed with a sickly radioactive light.

Alex didn’t know what it did, but he was reasonably sure he didn’t want to go near it. Fortunately for him, Nonik elected to begin her chore at the other end of the room and Uyli moved into the bathroom.

He was just about to make a break for under the bed when suddenly a shadow fell over him. He looked up just in time to jump out of the way of Lita’s falling shoe as the young woman stepped over Rixie’s bag.

The Titaness’ foot impacted on the ground next to Alex, sending a wave of displaced rubber-scented air washing over his body. He tumbled to the ground next to her shoe and barely resisted the urge to cry out in panic.

A second later the shoe lifted into the air and disappeared as the giantess moved along towards the opposite side of the room.

Throwing caution to the win and in something of a blind panic, Alex pelted towards the bed. He ran as fast as he could, not really caring if the giants saw him. After a full minute of running he found himself in the enclosed darkness under the bed.

Alex was bent double, panting and trying to catch his breath. He looked up to see a pair of shoes just outside his hiding spot. There was a creak of bedsprings as the mattress took the titaness’ weight.

“Lita!” Alex heard Nonik snap. “Will you hurry up and finish?”

“But, I’m tired!”

“So am I! The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get back to our quarters and sleep!”

There was an exaggerated sigh and the mattress shifted again as the giantess stood.

Alex watched warily as Lita strode across the room. Soon he began to hear a low buzzing noise. It didn’t take him long to figure out it was coming from the strange machine that Nonik was using to clean the floors of the room.

As Alex watched, the gigantic woman and her strange apparatus slowly worked their way across the floor of the room.

“Oh shaka!” One of the voices gasped and suddenly a shower of round objects each the size of Alex’s head fell to the floor.

“What happened?” Nonik asked, pausing her work momentarily.

“My bracelet snapped. Help me pick up the beads, will you?”

Nonik gave a long-suffering sigh an switched off her appliance. “Okay fine.”

A series of small tremors shook the ground under his feet as the two titanesses fell to their knees and began picking up the beads.

“Oh great.” Alex muttered as he watched their snatching fingers move closer and closer to where he was hiding. It was likely they’d be checking under the bed.

Almost as soon as that thought crossed his mind, his hiding space was invaded by a giant hand with long feminine fingers, each topped by a sharp pointed fingernail lacquered in dark green polish.

Alex stepped back slowly, his heart pounding as the talon-like fingernails drew closer and closer to him. He wasn’t sure what these girls were like, but they weren’t Rixie; which meant he wanted nothing to do with them.

“I’m pretty sure I saw some roll under here.” Lita muttered peevishly as she groped blindly under the bed.

“You know…” Nonik began in a teasing tone of voice. “I’ve heard rumors of tupps and other vermin hiding aboard ships like this…”

Alex heard a gasp and the hand disappeared back into the light. “Oh ew gross! Why didn’t anybody tell me?!”

“Lita, I was kidding. There’s nothing living under that bed. Now hurry up and let’s finish this room already.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, which was short-lived because a second later the strange machine was started up again and the glowing green plate was swung back in his direction.

“Oh hell.” Alex muttered as e backed further under the bed.

He began to panic again as it seemed the woman was heading straight for under the bed. The glowing plate periodically made hissing and popping sounds.

Soon, it appeared at the edge of the mattress, casting everything underneath in a green light.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alex happened to spot one of the beads from the other girl’s bracelet. It was bright red and the size of Alex’s head. It was also directly in the path of the appliance.

In a second the bead was bathed in the sickly green light, suddenly there was another loud POP! And the bead vanished into thin air, completely vaporized.

Alex’s eyes widened and his stomach twisted in fear. “Oh fuck…” He whispered shocked. “Oh fuck!” He backed away as quickly as he could but the disk came towards him relentlessly. If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear the machine was actively pursuing him.

Around him, other detritus succumbed to the green light. Vanishing into the ether like one of Pryvani’s holograms.

Alex looked frantically for an escape, but there wasn’t one. He couldn’t even get out from under the bed and surrender himself to the mercy of the titanic women, because now the green plate was blocking his path.

Suddenly, Alex stopped short as his back pressed against the wall behind him. His mouth went dry and he realized that this was it, there wasn’t anywhere to run.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut, although the green light still penetrated his eyelids. His stomach twisted in knots and his thoughts turned to Rixie. She’d never even know what happened to him.

The hum of the floor cleaner grew deafening and Alex was momentarily blinded by the green light as it hovered above him. He fell to his hands and knees and prepared himself to feel his molecules separating.

A tingling feeling ran over his entire body for a moment and Alex bit his lip to keep from screaming…

And then, just like that, it was gone.

The plate above him swung away and Nonik moved to another part of the room.

After getting over the initial shock of still being alive, Alex finally managed to open his eyes and look around him.

“How…? How am I still alive?” He muttered. Then he looked down at his body and checked himself for injuries. He had none.

He was completely naked though.

“Ah damn it.” He muttered. “That was my favorite shirt!”

“Hey…” Lita muttered. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” There was a click and the humming of the cleaner stopped abruptly.

“Thought I heard something…”

“Oh hell…” Alex moaned. “Rixie always told me I needed to learn to keep my mouth shut…”

“There it is again…” Lita insisted. Alex slapped his hand over his own mouth.

A shadow appeared as the giantess dropped to her knees and the next thing Alex knew, he was being scrutinized by a pair of dark green eyes.

“Well, hey there little guy, where did you come from?” Lita cooed at him, smiling softly. “Why don’t you come out of there? It can’t be very pleasant under the bed.”

Alex tensed up for a moment, and then sighed, defeated. There wasn’t anywhere else he could run to. He carefully picked himself up and brushed the dirt from his arms and legs before slowly steeping back out into the light of the room.

“There we go!” Lita smiled brightly and lowered her hand for Alex to climb into. “Now isn’t that better?”

Alex winced. He’d forgotten how the majority of Titans tended to speak to humans.

“What’s your name little guy? Have you got one?” Nonik asked, peering down at him with interest.

“Alex.”

“Alex huh? Well that’s a funny name.” Nonik muttered.

Lita snorted derisively. “You named your human ‘Sparkles.’ Not sure you have any right to talk”

“I did not… that was my sister!” Nonik shot back hotly.

Alex, meanwhile, sat in the palm of the blonde girl’s hand trying to fight down the desire to panic. These girls weren’t Rixie. They weren’t Pryvani… hell they weren’t even Brinn or Zara. He didn’t know them or what they intended to do to him.

“Geez, look at the poor little guy shake.” Nonik whispered bending down to get a closer look at him. “Hey, take it easy there Alex; we’re not going to hurt you.”

“Maybe he’s afraid you’re going to try and rename him Snowflake or something.” Lita snickered.

Nonik opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by the third Titaness emerging from the bathroom.

“Aren’t you two done in here yet?” Uyli grumbled, brushing her long silvery hair out of her eyes. “What are you two looking at?”

Lita grinned mischievously. She plucked Alex up between finger and thumb and thrust him in the dark-skinned Titaness’ face. “This!”

Alex suddenly found himself staring into a pair of large rose colored eyes. Eyes which widened in surprise and retreated away from him.

“Lita!” Uyli gasped. “Don’t do that to me! You know how I feel about those… things.”

“His name is Alex.” Lita responded and gently stroked Alex’s back with her fingers. “And he’s not a thing. He’s the very cute pet of the person staying in this room, aren’t you?”

“Uh yeah.” Alex muttered, distracted by the giant woman’s roving fingers. “I… I am.”

“Don’t be upset at mean ol’ Uyli.” Nonik said with a grin, tousling Alex’s hair. “She’s just scared of humans.

“I am not.” Uyli ground between her teeth, and then sighed exasperatedly. “Anyway, I’ve finished in the bathroom, are you two done out here yet?”

“Yeah.” Nonik responded with a grin. “We were just finishing up.”

“Good, then let’s get out of here.”

Alex suddenly felt his heart rate increasing. “What… what are you going to do with me?” He asked the Titanesses, still sitting in Lita’s hand.

“What do you mean?” Nonik asked, brow knitting in confusion. “We’re not going to do anything with you.”

Alex blinked. “You’re not going to take me with you?”

Lita laughed. “No silly. That would be awful rude of us. Imagine how your poor owner would feel, coming back and finding you missing.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Unless…” Lita raised Alex up to look him in the eye. “Do you want to come with us? Your owner isn’t mean or anything is she?”

“No!” Alex spoke quickly. “She’s- She’s very nice… I l-like her a lot.”

“Well, there you go then.” Lita smiled and set Alex down on the bedside table. “Although I have to say it was very irresponsible of her to let you run loose like this, what if you’d been stepped on?”

“Oh well… Uh…” Alex spluttered.

“Oh don’t listen to her.” Nonik giggled. “It’s not like your owner knew we were going to be in here.” The tall brunette finished packing up their cleaning supplies.

“Well, it’s time for us to go little guy.” Lita said happily. “You be a good boy and stay off the floor, okay?” Maybe we’ll see you again!”

“Uh yeah…” Alex sat down on the bedside table and waved, still rather bemused by the whole ordeal.

He watched as the three women packed up their things and left, leaving him alone in the room again.

He wasn’t alone for very long though. It wasn’t ten minutes later that he heard another whooshing sound as the door opened to admit Rixie inside. The tall dark haired woman came stomping into the room, stumbling a bit as she walked.

“Oh thank god you’re back, Rix!” Alex sighed, rising to his feet. “You would not believe the… are you drunk?”

The titaness didn’t seem to hear him though. She took a series of wobbling steps into her room towards the bed. She almost made it without incident, except for a slightly errant sidestep that brought her hip in contact with the bedside table that Alex was standing on.

The table wobbled, causing Alex to lose his balance and plummet the nearly eighty feet to the carpeted floor below. Of course, thanks to the Archavian-level gravity, he was mostly unhurt by the fall.

Unfortunately, Rixie was still unaware of his presence at her feet. He gazed up the length of her black leather boots, past her olive green cargo pants, over the black tank-top and to her face where she was gazing down at her bed through bleary unfocused eyes.

“Rixie!” Alex yelled but it didn’t seem to do any good. As soon as he recovered from his fall, Alex pulled himself to his feet. He looked up just in time to jump out of the way of Rixie’s boot as she turned around to sit down on her bed.

“Geez!” Alex muttered, shaken by how close she’d come to unknowingly crushing him. Of course, all thoughts of near death were driven out of his mind the moment he looked up and saw that she was taking her shirt off.

Alex got to see her naked torso for approximately three glorious seconds before she unceremoniously dropped the shirt on top of him. It was at this point that Alex began to question whether she actually couldn’t see him or not.

Eventually he pushed his way out of the shirt and was able to observe his surrounding again. He watched as she stood up and undid her belt and fly. At this point she remembered that she was still wearing her boots.

“Oops.” Rixie giggled drunkenly. She sat down again and reached down to undo the laces on her boots, pulling them off one at a time and throwing them across the room towards the door. They impacted against the wall with a thud and landed on the floor, shaking the ground beneath Alex.

“Holy shit!” Alex breathed, a little unnerved at seeing objects the size of buildings flying through the air above him.

Next Rixie removed her socks and added them to the pile on top of Alex.

Her task accomplished, Rixie stood up again and began pulling down her pants, and then her panties, before stepping out of them.

Before Alex could react, she bent down and scooped the entire pile of discarded clothing, and one human, into her arms and carried it across the room to her bag, only stumbling a little as she walked.

She unzipped the top of her bag and nonchalantly shoved the clothing back inside, before zipping it shut again.

Alex found himself sealed in darkness.

“Ah fuck it.” He muttered and resigned to letting himself be lulled to sleep by Rixie’s lingering scent and residual body heat.