Assistant 23 released a thin, shuddering exhale. “That’s better. Sort of.”
“Do I frighten you?”
“No,” he said quickly. “It’s not you. I’m. Weird.”
“And I am creepy.”
A laugh escaped him. “Yeah, you are, but… it’s okay.”
I stared at the narrow frame of his back, mesmerized by the shallow way it rose and fell with his breathing.
“I don’t do this a lot,” Assistant 23 said quietly. “Sleeping next to people. In fact, I kinda hate it.”
“Shall I leave?”
“Sorry, I meant… I hate it most of the time. But I don’t hatethis.”
A surge of heat flowed through my body. How badly I wanted to grab him and pull him closer. Did I radiate the urge? Did he know? Or were humans impervious to that sort of intangible feeling?
“I want to know more about you,” I stated.
Assistant 23 tensed. “You mean about humans,” he attempted to clarify.
“No. You.”
He stiffened even more, going as still as a rock.
“Why are you so obsessed with me?” he asked, breathless and laughing with a hint of anxiety.
I did not expect his forthright demand. I took a moment to piece together my answer.
Assistant 23 lived in a Maeleon society. He understood our basic culture. Therefore, I could have given him the most obvious answer—that he was my filum.
But I did not know if that was the case. There was no outcome that would change how I felt about him.
The truth was that I had been obsessed with him since I first laid eyes on him. Over the course of moons, it flourished within me. His ignorance of my fixation did nothing to temper my desire. It only made me want him more.
But in the past, I had been scolded for such obsessions. I had been asked not to fixate. And so, I tried and succeeded.
Until now.
Untilhim.
“Farr’vye?”
Assistant 23 half-rolled over, his body twisting to meet my gaze, although I could only imagine what his eyes looked like.
“I was thinking,” I told him.
He sounded a bit amused. “I didn’t know it was an essay question.”
To hear him tease me made my chest stir. Had he already grown so comfortable in my presence?
My desire pulsated like a living thing. I took a risk.
“Would you prefer,” I began, “an answer that is simple to digest—or the truth?”
Assistant 23 paused and went quiet.