When I awaken, the first thing that…

9

Naomi

When I awaken, the first thing that I notice is my skin. It’s lavender.

“Why am I purple?” I ask drowsily. “I don’t understand.”

Marv is laying next to me, completely asleep. I am considering waking him up, but instead, I stand and cross the room again. I want to see the galaxy again.

I think I can see my ass print on the window. I move down a few feet.

There’s so much I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to know, either. But I stretch my arm out in front of me, and it is lavender. Like a field full of little wildflowers. A walking bouquet.

I glance back at my sleeping giant. His skin is dark purple. Is this some weird mating ritual?

Gross.

I want my life back.

But somehow, as I study my newly purple skin, I wonder if that’s even possible.

I decide to find clothes. He doesn’t have a closet, but there’s a suitcase looking box thing by his bed. I open it up and find a book with weird letters in it, a handful of herbs and dried fruits, and some sort of robe. Does he wear robes?

I pick up the robe and study it. It has some of the same weird letters on it. The fabric is soft, light brown, and feels like silk. I drape it around my shoulders, reveling in the feel of this strange new material around my body. It feels too large, but it also feels warmer than laying around in the nude all day.

“Hey,” Marv says. He’s suddenly beside me again. How does he do that?

“Hi.”

“You look beautiful,” he tells me. Fine, he can have some good boyfriend points. I mean, if that’s what this is. His whole “mating” philosophy is making me a little nervous.

“Thanks,” I whisper. “Um, I’m sorry I went through your stuff.”

“It’s okay. We’re mates now.”

I swallow hard, thinking about what that means. He definitely feels a connection.

I’m worried that I do, too.

And then I remember that I’m purple. “Hey, Marv?” I ask. “Why is my skin suddenly purple?”

He smiles, then leans in for a kiss. “That means that we’re mates. You have some sort of gene that gets activated when you choose a mate. And then your body releases something to make us match. I’ve only read about it, but I’ve never seen it. I heard that the V’aalaran queen took after her king, but I’ve never seen her.”

“Really?”

He nods.

“And that happens in all the tribes?”

“Well, sure. Except for the Earthlings. You guys have the, uh, recessive genes. We have the dominant ones.”

“Figures.”

He looks at me strangely but doesn’t say whatever he’s thinking. I guess that’s for the best. I’m not in the mood to argue.

“I’m a little hungry,” I tell him. “What type of foods do you eat?”

Marv grins like a schoolboy. “I travel a lot in space, so I’ve gotten really good at cooking up here.”

He crosses the room and opens a drawer I hadn’t noticed earlier. He pulls out a pair of pants and puts them on quickly. “Can’t risk getting burned while cooking,” he tells me, half-teasing.

Okay, so maybe he isn’t so bad.

I follow him out of the bedroom and take a tour of his tiny space kitchen.

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