“Well?!” Naskia asked Niall with baited breath. She was eager to hear what the Titan Institute of Physics’ decision was on Niall’s career.

“Nope, you first.” Niall said coolly. He paced back and forth along her stomach as she lay in bed looking down at him, her head propped up with a pillow.

“Seriously?! This is important!” Naskia said jolting her entire body knocking Niall to the soft, warm floor beneath him.

Niall got to his feet. “Whether I get a job or not covers how I will live my life, your therapy covers if I live my life.”

Naskia sighed feeling guilty at Niall’s blunt words. “Fine…he says I’ll need two sessions a week for the next while, part therapy to get to the root of whatever is causing my issues and part anger management so I can learn how to keep control of myself.”

“And did you tell him about us?” Niall asked.

“Yes I did. He didn’t judge, I was really worried he would judge. He was just more…fascinated really. I think he was chomping at the bit to ask about details.” Naskia laughed nervously. “What about you?!”

Niall smiled. “Well you better hope you pass all your exams, otherwise next year I may well be one of your professors.”

Naskia’s face lit up in a broad smile and her cheeks flushed. Niall was startled as two massive hands shot towards him and quickly enveloped him in a tight grip. His arms were pressed to his side and only his shoulders and head protruded from Naskia’s hands. Naskia brought Niall to her cheeks and softly rubbed her cheek against his own, like a cat giving gentle head-butts.

“You do realise if I don’t pass my exams this year then Professor Freeman will never get to see any skin below my neck ever again?” Naskia said with a wink.

Niall looked startled realising that while Naskia was joking, he did not want to deal with a 700 tonne emotional mess of woman. “Naskia, even without me you would walk those exams but if it makes you feel any better I can hide in your hair and give you all the answers.”

Naskia set Niall down on the bed covers and sat up. She pulled her vest top over her revealing a massive expanse of milky white skin and two huge, pert, soft breasts. Niall had seen her do this dozens of time and each time he could only watch in awe. Niall adored her body, worshipped it like the Greeks of old worshipped the statues of their gods. Even when he was Titan sized in the holosuite he had the same awestruck reaction. Two perfectly round orbs of beautiful flesh that rolled softly into a gently sloping torso that tapered into a thin waist before curving out into her round hips.

Naskia giggled. “Will this ensure your cooperation?”

Niall couldn’t manage to speak, his brain was occupied elsewhere. He simply nodded.

“Mmm, c’mere.” She said dropping down on the wide eyed Niall like a tidal wave.

Naskia heard a beeping noise.

“Eugh…” she moaned blinking herself awake. She looked over to down to the end of her bed to find the source of the noise. Naskia sat up in her bed still half asleep and reached for her pad to turn off the alarm clock.

“Whooooaaaa!!” she heard and felt something strike her breast. She looked down to see Niall staring up at her in a state of sleepy confusion from the covers below.

Naskia turned off the unpleasant sounding alarm before turning to Niall. “Oops…sorry sweetie, I didn’t know you were there.”

“What a way to wake up…” Niall grumbled as Naskia picked gently him up and set him in his own bed in the terrarium.

Naskia stretched and twisted her neck around in an attempt to get some blood flowing into her head.

Niall pulled the covers over himself and decided to go back to sleep; he hadn’t been asleep for too long and Naskia was probably going to spend the next few hours preening herself anyway. He thought she looked much better with bedhead and a vest top on but apparently it is an “inappropriate look” for classes.

Niall was just dozing off when he heard an “uh oh…” from Naskia. He assumed she had found a blemish of some sorts and continued to doze.

“Niall…” Naskia said with some trepidation.

Niall sat up and looked at her sitting on her bed with her pad in her hands. “Yes?”

“The University’s Board of Governors has sent me a formal message…the Human Owners Society is challenging your appointment as a professor…” Naskia said.

“What?!” Niall screamed jumping out of bed. “On what grounds?!”

“It says the University Charter specifically states that only Imperial Citizens can be staff members or students. You’re not an Imperial Citizen.” Naskia said rereading the letter.

“Bastards! A complete shower of bastards the lot of them!” Niall screamed stomping about the terrarium.

Naskia looked on sheepishly. “There must be something we can do?”

“Yes! Go get me a fucken holoprojector. Take me there to meet them so I can tell ‘em to lick tha back o’ ‘em in person!” Niall shouted at her pointing square at her face.

Naskia felt uneasy, she had never seen him like this or use language like this. Niall was usually eloquent and well-spoken but his rage was bringing his natural accent to the forefront.

“Look, my older brother Hurassen is a lawyer, I’ll ask him if there’s anything he can do to help ok? Just please calm down, we’ll sort this out.” Naskia said keeping her tone as soothing as possible.

“Right…ok…ok I’ll stay calm.” Niall said breathing heavily.

Naskia got up and walked to the wall panel to call her brother, she heard a scream and a snapping noise and turned around quickly to see Niall still breathing heavily and red in the face, he was holding the back of his wooden chair with the rest in bits on the floor of the terrarium.

“Fucking gobshites!” Niall screamed kicking the side of the tank.

“Hey! You can’t just smash the place up all because you’re mad!” Naskia said walking over to Niall and looming over him with her hands on her hips.

“Why the fuck not?!” he yelled up to her. “You do it!”

Naskia’s eyes narrowed, focusing in on the pacing Human and she clenched her fists. She felt herself getting angry and consciously started to breathe in and out slowly.

“I’m seeking help because it’s a bad thing. You can’t use my mistakes as an excuse to break stuff.” Naskia said controlling the volume of her voice.

“Oh piss off; do you have any idea how fed up I am of being told what I can and cannot do by a species that is literally full of metric fucktonnes of shit?” Niall screamed going to kick the rather expensive bed Naskia had bought him.

“Fine! If you can do it, I can do it!” Naskia yelled consciously making the decision to pick up Niall’s pad. She pulled it back hard and threw her arm forward as if to throw the pad against the wall.

“NO! Don’t!” Niall yelled just as he thought she was about to throw his precious pad.

Naskia held the pad out for a second before gently setting it down in the tank where she got it. “It’s not nice to watch someone smash stuff up is it?”

“No….” Niall said biting his tongue. “What’s your point?”

Naskia reached down through the roof of the tank and wrapped her fist around Niall and brought him close to her face, her sweet breath washing over him. Niall hid his mild disgust as it smelled slightly stale from Naskia’s 26 hour sleep.

“My point sweetie is that you cannot talk like this and act like this to me no matter how pissed off you are. I am your girlfriend, the woman you love and one of the very few people on this world who will always be on your side.” Her voice was silky smooth and slightly patronising. Naskia squeezed her fist slightly tighter just to emphasize she was still annoyed. “Act like the intelligent, rational, lovable man you claim to be and not the simple, savage barbarian you say you’re not or I’ll treat you like one. Understand?”

Niall’s anger was ebbing away, the simple act of clenching him in her fist with little effort had left him feeling emasculated and more than little frustrated but it had allowed her words to sink in. He shouldn’t take this out on her; he should save it up for those that deserved it.

“You’re right Nas…I’m sorry. Really sorry, you didn’t deserve that. “He said remembering what Nonah had said about using a baby shaar face to gain sympathy.

Naskia relaxed her grip a bit. “Gonna behave?”

“Yes…” Niall replied.

Naskia smiled and gently kissed him on the side of his head. She set him down in his tank and returned to the wall panel. She exhaled deeply and smiled to herself, she was feeling giddy at successfully having an argument without lashing out.

Naskia pressed her brother’s contact but there was no answer. She left a video message explaining the predicament and asked if he could look into it for her. She didn’t know her brother’s opinions on Niall, he’d avoided the topic when they had talked, but her Father had said their entire family would back Niall. This should include Hurassen.

“Guess we’ll just have to wait for him to call back…can you try not to break anything else in the meantime?” Naskia said.

Niall grumbled. “No promises.”

Niall was sitting on the table quietly brooding, Naskia had left him there while she cooked breakfast thinking it was better he was around furniture he couldn’t destroy. Niall’s stomach was rumbling; the smell of spices wafting through the house was divine. Despite not eating in about 18 hours he was in no mood to eat. He was too angry, the only thing he wanted to do was to do was to verbally abuse the President of the Human Owners Society. He had been so close to getting his career back and somehow his victory had been snatched out from under him by a bunch of pathetic bigots.

Naskia stirred meat and vegetables in a pan, occasionally checking the flavour and adjusting the spice balance. She was about serve when the door chimed. Naskia took the food off the cooker and rushed to answer, it was Loona.

“You can just smell when I’ve made a meal can’t you?” Naskia said sarcastically.

Loona walked in and set Nonah’s box on the table near Niall and let her out. “Ohhh no of course not but now you mention it I’ve not eaten yet….”

Naskia sighed. “Fine…I suppose there’s enough for two.”

“Oi!” Niall called a bit annoyed at being forgotten.

“Sorry…I meant three.” Naskia got two plates from the cupboard.

“Awww, what about me?” Nonah said shuffling her feet.

“Ok! Four!” Naskia huffed. “Just call first next time ok?!”

Loona laughed and sat down at the table. Naskia soon joined her with two plates of steaming food and sat down. She had set knives and forks on each plate for both one Human and one Titan. Niall got up and cut off a strand of pungently spiced meat from a chunk nearly the same size as him and started to chew on it, even Naskia’s delicious cooking wasn’t helping his mood. He jumped as he heard a squelching sound as Naskia speared the chunk with her fork and lifted it off the plate.

“Hey! That was mine!” he protested.

Naskia laughed and held the piece in front of her mouth. “Well if you want to go in after it you’re very welcome to.”

She bit down on the piece of meat with her sharp incisors and tore it in two deliberately before quickly swallowing it, all the time keeping eye contact with Niall to taunt him.

“Ehhh…that’s ok. You keep it.” Niall said turning his attention to a red vegetable. Naskia was tempted to go after his vegetable now but she decided not to push her luck. Niall was already in a mood after being robbed by one group of Titans, he’d end up spending the rest of the day in strop.

“So, did you see it?” Loona asked trying to hide her excitement.

Niall and Naskia looked at each other grimacing, they had both had a busy day yesterday so had missed Loona’s various debate appearances.

“Ehhh sorry…we sorta had busy days and didn’t get the chance. How’d you get on?” Naskia said.

Loona put her fork down and looked a bit annoyed. “How could you have missed it!? This was the moment you got to hear back from Titan society!”

“I saw it! Lots of times, Loona had it on repeat…” Nonah said with her mouth full of noodle before Loona cut her off.

“Shush you….don’t talk with your mouth full.” Loona cut her off trying to cover her embarrassment.

“I was before the Titan Institute of Physics and Naskia started therapy, not like we deliberately missed it. We will watch the recording but please just tell us it wasn’t a complete disaster!” Niall said still clearly pretty grumpy.

“I had a few debates with a few different people. Most seemed pretty ignorant to be honest, they have no clue about the current Earth, they see it as a big pet store floating in space really. The more people learnt the more interested they got, it’s hard for them to accept really, we grow up seeing Humans as simple little things and one day you tell them Humans are a lot more like us than they think, they find it hard to process and honestly I don’t think they see it as important…” Loona said.

“What the hell do you mean ‘not important’?” Niall snapped back sarcastically.

“Don’t blame me! These people have lives, jobs, children and worries of their own. Tell them one pet has a civil rights issue and they don’t really care.” Loona explained.

“Well make them care then!” Niall pressed acting like it was Loona’s fault. His mood was deteriorating again.

“Loona was amazing! She made that girl look stupid.” Nonah said proudly drawing a smile from Loona.

Loona bit her tongue, Niall was understandably annoyed. “I can’t, they look at me kicking Lyroo Prenn’s ass and they see a Titan winning an argument about Humans. If you were to go on, if you were to debate her and publically humiliate her then people would take notice. They’d want to know about you, know your story and hear you talk more. They’d care then. I can’t do that part, you have to.”

“Who is Lyroo Prenn?” Niall asked avoiding Loona’s attempt to bait him into going public. She did think it was the best thing for him but she wanted her time in the news cycle to last just a bit longer.

“She’s the President of The Human Owners Society here at the University.” Loona said idly taking a bite of meat.

Lunch took a turn for the worse after Niall learned the name of his new nemesis. Naskia had left him to take a cold shower in the sink to cool off after his second rage out. He also needed to clean sauce and various bits of meat, vegetable and noodle off him. There’d nearly been another argument when Niall demanded Naskia turn the hot water on as well but she’d simply walked away and started to clean up the mess he’d made. Loona and Nonah couldn’t help but laugh at the usually restrained man standing in a pile of food nearly as tall as he was, ripping it up and throwing it about while shouting obscenities.

“Are we done now?” Naskia said standing over the shivering Niall in the bottom of the sink with her arms folded.

Niall stood out of the water shivering but clean. He rubbed his sides to try and keep warm as his teeth clattered together. “Y…y….y…es.”

“I know you’re upset but promise me no more tantrums…” Naskia continued with her firm tone.

“O….o….o…k” Niall clattered.

Naskia picked Niall up in a hand towel and wrapped him up. She softly rubbed her finger in circles on the surface of the towel to dry him and warm him up at the same time. Niall sunk in to the towel and let himself relax for the first time since he woke up. Naskia’s gentle rubbing was soothing and the heat coming through the towel was making him feel a lot better.

Once dry Naskia let Niall get dressed in private behind the towel.

“I have to go out to my nurse’s appointment. Loona is gonna stay here. No more trashing our house ok?” Naskia said with her tone still quite authoritative but soft.

“Ok…” Niall said starting to feel a bit ashamed. Nonah wasn’t going to let him live this down.

Naskia kissed him and set him on the table.

“Bye all! Back soon” Naskia said leaving.

“See you soon Nas.” Loona said reaching for her pad.

Niall quietly fumed on the table. His blood was back up as Loona had put on a recording of her appearances on local news stations. Lyroo Prenn looked a bitch with a stick up her arse in Niall’s professional opinion. He was sure they’d meet at some point, and then he’d take her down a peg or two.

“She’s a nasty piece of work that one. Her arguments are pretty much based on logical fallacies, as long as you keep your cool I think you can take her.” Loona commented.

Niall didn’t reply, he just continued to brood thinking of his opening line against her. He wanted it to be, clever, snappy and cutting. He wanted to leave her feeling Human sized so he could pick her apart with impunity.

The door chimed and Loona paused the playback and got up to answer it. She opened the door revealing a very short girl with light brown skin, deep brown eyes and a pretty face. Loona immediately guessed who it was.

“Ehhh….hi…” Kiri said nervously looking up at the very tall girl in front of her. The top of Kiri’s head didn’t even reach her chin. At least she was smiling and looked quite approachable. “Is Naskia in?”

“Yeah she is, come on in.” Loona lied, her practiced façade managed to fool even the usually sharp Kiri.

Kiri walked into the living area and looked around. It was different than she remembered, pictures had been changed, the table had been moved closer to the couch and there were random bits of Niall’s belongings dotted about the room. She smiled nervously at Niall keeping her lips together. She continued to look around the room for Naskia but she was clearly missing.

“Where’s Naskia?” Kiri asked Loona.

Loona smiled and approached the small woman with her arms folded; she made a point of keeping herself between Kiri and the door. “You’re Kiri, aren’t you?”

“Ehh…yeah. You didn’t answer my question.” Kiri was getting nervous. It had taken a lot of time to work up the courage to go and finally speak to Naskia. She felt partially responsible for Dorok taking Niall and Nonah and Naskia’s injuries by extension.

“Naskia is out, she shouldn’t be too long. I just wanted to have a little…chat with you. I’m Loona, Nonah lives with me.” Loona kept her arms crossed but the smile had disappeared from her face.

“I can come back…I don’t want to be a bother.” Kiri edged herself around towards the kitchen area hoping to get a clear dash to the door.

Loona spotted her opportunity and took a few steps forward, forcing Kiri to retreat into the kitchen area. She had trapped her, the only way out was over the counter top and under the units hanging above into the living area. She would be on her before then. “Don’t look so nervous Kiri; we’re just going to have a talk.”

“About what?” Kiri said trying to steel herself, this was the second time in a week she’d been trapped with a physically superior aggressor and she doubted Niall was going to stab Loona.

“About you of course, you helped Naskia to save Niall and Nonah from that pervert and that was a good thing you did. But you also tormented them first, made them fear for their lives and let’s not forget you attempting to flat out murder Niall in a manner that can only be described as sadistic.” Loona said forcing Kiri further into the kitchen.

“But I…” Kiri said before being cut off.

“I’m talking, you’re going to listen and then you’re free to go.” Loona’s tone was commanding, the persona had dropped now, this was all Loona. “You’re going to tell me that you’re a changed person, you made mistakes but you know better now and I have nothing to worry about. And I actually believe you to an extent…however I’d be remiss in my duties as a friend to both Nonah and Niall, even Naskia, if I didn’t have this conversation.”

Kiri backed away further from the now looming Loona until she hit the counter. There was nowhere else to go.

“I want you to understand this, this is no threat or gesture but a statement of fact. If you do anything and I mean anything that intimidates, upsets, hurts or endangers Niall or Nonah I will beat you so hard you’ll beg Dorok to protect you.” Loona drilled her finger into Kiri’s chest, stabbing repeatedly, more than a touch but not enough to be painful. ”I’m level twelve in Dor-tann so don’t think for a second that I don’t know how to break most of the bones in your little body ok? I know how to do things so nasty it would make being slowly digested look like a weekend away on a pleasure planet. Do you understand?”

Kiri had somehow managed to get smaller as Loona stood over her; she was eye level with Loona’s breasts. “Y…y..yes. I understand…”

Loona smiled at her sweetly and returned to her normally pleasant demeanour. She reached up to the cupboard above Kiri and pulled something out. Kiri winced as she did so. “Now all that unpleasantness is over would you like some tea?”