Gath tapped on the table, lost in thought, minding their own business. They had admittedly not had a good day. A day filled with medical appointments. None of them good. It turned out, being shot 30 times while on an adrenaline-fuelled rampage protecting the innocent as a young adult was not good for your health as an older adult. Even with improved medical technology, some things could not be fixed.
They could deal with the scars. The two on Gath’s face had mostly faded now. The cracks in their arm and chest plating had healed up nicely, and the stomach scars weren’t so bad either. If anything, the bullet that was embedded in the plating in Gath’s thigh, they wore that with pride. But also because removing the bullet would require cutting the plating away completely and leaving it to slowly regrow and Gath didn’t want to do that. Rethan plating was tough, insanely tough, but larger areas growing back was often slow and painful.
No, the real problem was internal damage. There were two reasons why, after all these years, Gath had mostly remained single. The first was that they had only recovered from mourning their lost partner and unhatched kid about a decade ago. Vikal had been the perfect partner, as kind and caring as Gath was. Seeing their egg, the beautiful, precious egg Gath had laid only a few hours prior, being smashed while Vikal was shot repeatedly through the head… Well, that was the last thing Gath remembered of the whole incident. Gath woke up in a hospital a week later, being lauded as a hero to the Rethans, but they could not save their…
Gath closed their eyes and sighed. They didn’t want to think about that. Especially since the event continued to screw Gath over, over 40 years later. Brain damage (both from going Defensive Stance for so long and a bullet puncturing their skull) meant that Gath’s hormone levels were broken. They would most likely never be able to produce an egg again, not without fertility treatments. Which, because of their armour plating, was always very invasive.
Thankfully, a voice snapped Gath back to reality. Gave something for them to be cheerful about. Gath had originally asked Relkir, an absolutely tiny Rethan, out on a date as both a suggestion and a dare from a handful of Below Twenty Generals. Gath thought at first that General Ritlir was setting them up for a joke, but no, the fresh new General of Hidden Internal Affairs seemed to just be worryingly good at matchmaking, because Gath was about to have their third date with Relkir.
And Relkir had brought… a shiny rock?
“Hello!” Relkir smiled. Relkir didn’t normally smile much. Both they and Gath were considered abnormal Rethans, but on opposite ends of the scale. Gath was huge, Relkir was tiny. But Relkir also had abnormally coloured eyes as well. They were pretty eyes, Relkir had that same sparkle that all Bloodline Tradition Rethans had, but Relkir had suffered years of insults and speculation that they were a false child or something. Gath though knew that wasn’t true, Relkir was just genetically unlucky, the same way albino Temthans or pink Banikans were.
“Hello…” Gath replied with a hint of unease. “What is that?”
“A shiny rock!” Relkir smiled some more, before cooling off and sitting down opposite Gath. “Uh… I heard about this thing Skyavok do, they give each other nice, shiny rocks as a token of appreciation…”
The rock was grey, smooth and flat, about 15cm in diameter and quite heavy. Relkir had drawn a heart on it with a black pen.
“I think I may have misunderstood their social traditions though…” Relkir sighed, then changed the subject, helping themselves to some water. In Rethan cafes and restaurants, it was standard for there to be a jug of water and some glasses at the table right away. “This place is nice. Rather dark though, but the little twinkle lights are pretty.”
Gath nodded in agreement. A waiter turned up, handed them both menus and asked if they wanted drinks. Relkir found it quite odd that the waiter had a Lanex mask strapped to their shoulder on top of their normal hospitality gear, but they WERE in a Rethan/Lanex fusion restaurant of some sort, so maybe it wasn’t that strange. Glancing into the kitchen, which could be seen via a large window, there were both Rethan and Lanex chefs in there.
“So, what do you want to drink, dear?” Gath asked.
Relkir hesitated. They almost always got a diet cola or a diet lemonade (most Rethans preferred diet drinks because their servings were so large) but Relkir also didn’t want to look boring.
“What are you having?”
Gath shrugged. “I am not working and I live close by, so I might have a small mead to go alongside my cola.”
“I shall have that too then!” Relkir did their best to smile. They didn’t drink alcohol, but mead was generally quite low in alcohol anyway and was sweet enough to hide that bitter taste. As always, the waiter brought them their drinks, then hurried off, leaving them to their menus.
Thankfully, the restaurant was quiet. There was another, much younger Rethan couple with a kid in one corner, and a trio of old Lanex in the other, but the place was clearly meant to serve Lanex, and they didn’t normally come in for dinner until later.
The restaurant was also rather Lanex-heavy, with fewer Rethan dishes, but Rethan dishes weren’t that varied anyway. That being said, the Lanex dishes were somewhat similar, with far more fish, vegetables and spices and less carbohydrates. While the Lanex were distantly related to the Rethavok (the Skyavok were somehow the Lanex’s next closest species), they required more vitamins and minerals to make up for their body augmentation. All the Lanex dishes came with a combination of egg and rice noodles and a side salad.
“I like fish…” Relkir muttered as they browsed the menu, unintentionally downing their mead in nervousness. “The breaded fish bites in a sweet chilli sauce looks tempting.”
“Me too. Us Rethans mostly stick to poultry and pork, so it is nice to try something else. This fish parcel thing looks nice, I think I may have that alongside some chicken and rice.”
“It all comes with noodles.”
“Yes, dear, but I am quite a hungry monster!”
Relkir smiled weakly. “Fair enough.”
Ordering went smoothly, and they both ordered more alcohol, but the conversation fell somewhat quiet. Luckily, since they both ordered fish, their meals came rather swiftly. However Gath clearly had no idea how to use the two wooden sticks that had come with the dish. The waiter had brought forks too, but Gath was insistent that he use traditional Lanexian chopsticks. Spotting Gath’s difficulties, Relkir leaned over and helped them get a good grip. Having met and eaten with Lanex before as part of their duties as the High Advisor, Relkir had more multicultural experience than most.
“The trick is to rest one end by your thumb, then hold the other chopstick like a pen and only move that one!” Relkir explained. “Also, try to hold them closer to horizontal. Makes things easier.”
Gath struggled a little more, but as Relkir showed them what to do with their own chopsticks, it all suddenly snapped into place. While yes, the first bite of fish did end up on Gath’s chest instead of in their mouth, they were very much amused.
“You really are a little darling!” Gath beamed as they tucked in. “Such a resourceful little one. Smart, interesting, cute.”
Relkir blinked, then put their chopsticks down. “You think that highly of me?”
“Why would I not think highly of you?” Gath also put their chopsticks down. “You are a fine Rethan, Relkir.”
“Perhaps, but I am not big or strong or capable of protecting others.”
“So? I am big and strong, I have sacrificed much to protect others. But I am also slow and stupid. We may not say it out loud, but we appreciate the smart ones like you. You give us direction. We would be lost otherwise. But also…” Gath trailed off. “I will be… honest. You make me feel the same way I felt when I was with Vikal. I swore off long-term relationships, thinking I would never recover after what happened, that I would never find someone as pure as Vikal. But you make me want to change that, you make me want to love you. I do not know why.”
Relkir frowned. “I apologize. I am not… used to this. It has only been, what, two months, since I have been allowed to legally seek romantic partners? Ever since I turned 18, I have not had the right to even consider, well… this. So I have no prior experience and no idea how to, well, react.”
“It seems we are both out of our depth.”
“Indeed.”
Gath and Relkir both fell silent and went back to their food. Yet again, Relkir downed their bottle of mead and ordered a third one, completely aware that they did not drink and the mead would settle their emotions. Gath gave up on the chopsticks and switched to their fork. As they finished their main dish though and started tucking into a side portion of rice, they glanced back at Relkir. Gath sighed briefly. They were admittedly a little scared, and this was the furthest they had gone in a long time. But Gath did not want to lose Relkir. They were too sweet and pure and… wonderful all round. After years of mourning alone, perhaps it was time to move on.
“So, uh… after this, would you like to… come back to my place?” Gath asked, rather awkwardly.
Relkir blinked. “Pardon?”
“Would you like to come back to my place?”
“You… you actually… like…” Relkir was stumbling over their words. The fact that the Keeper, one of the Rethavok’s greatest heroes, was asking little old Relkir to go to their apartment after a date was utterly mind-blowing. After pausing to take a deep breath, Relkir straightened themselves out and smiled. “Yes, I would love to come back to your place after this.”
“Really?”
Relkir nodded. “Yes.”
Gath relaxed slightly and smiled back, offering a single word of joy. “Yay.”