“It’s nice that we can do more breaks like this right now…” Teekay mused to himself as he checked everything and prepared the Thantir Two for take off. It’d been a while since the ship had flown, and someone had decided that Teekay and Elkay ought to take Psiksi, Ksar Teekay, Kuta and the four new Dessaron guys to the nearby mall.
“What do you mean by that?” Psiksi asked as he plonked himself in the seat next to him. He was aware Teekay had been holding that seat for his wife, but Elkay was having a quick chat with Ret and Kuta and wasn’t a fan of watching take off stuff anyway. Always made him nervous, and Teekay had never really asked why. “Also, like, Galyn and the two Raptors came back alongside that… other Elkay, and we’re basically running off to the mall.”
“This was planned before they decided to bring the guy who is both Phovos’s half brother and Arkay’s half brother to Savepoint!” Teekay tutted. “But Kuta wants to get wedding stuff, you want a break from babysitting and Elkay wants to take me to one of the restaurants, so eh, screw it. Thing is, we got way more staff now so stuff’s a lot easier.”
“Again, what do you mean?”
Teekay shrugged. The ship was now moving, and Psiksi found it odd how swiftly Teekay had managed that. “When I joined the Thantir? It was literally just Galyn as the boss, and Retvik, Litvir and Seimeni as official, active members. They adopted me, Elkay, Phovos, Tenuk, Elksia and Eksi as Decaylings and that was it. Akah and Tahvra joined us a couple of months later, as did Kal. Now we’ve got tons of Thantir. And, like, we totally stole you and Ksar Teekay from the Alsyr, and Moonblade seems oddly happy being a guard now.”
“Was he like that when you were at the Phantai’s base?” Psiksi asked.
“He was kinda grumpy, to be honest.”
Psiksi shrugged. “Fair. I was miserable at the Alsyr. Ksar Teekay wasn’t much better, he just kinda didn’t know there was much else out there. The only Threanic beings around this hellhole aside from us are Beh’ens. It’s lonely.”
“Speaking of lonely, how’s Telecharm?”
Psiksi hesitated. “Why… do you ask?”
“He’s coming to the wedding, right? We kinda always end up inviting all the Teekays.”
“Um… he’s alright…”
Teekay eyed Psiksi. “What’s going on?”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Yeah. Your telepathic shielding is ass. Somehow, Tanos back there has better telepathic shielding than you do, and all he does is borrow Nyssi’s telepathy once in a blue moon. Although I do wonder if fucking a telepath gives you telepathic shielding in a way because Ret is oddly hard to crack. But yeah, there’s something up between you and Telecharm.”
Psiksi sighed. “I… I like him a lot. A lot a lot. Same way my brother has a thing going on with Kaytee. I’ve kinda pissed Kayel off because we’ve all totally been ignoring him.”
“Oh… You… you’re serious…”
“Yeah. Teacake wants to-”
“Wait… TEACAKE?” Teekay interrupted. “You’re calling him TEACAKE?”
“Yeah.”
“That… that’s hilarious… And… you want to make things more permanent with him?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh…” Teekay trailed off. The ship was now on autopilot. “Well, as long as you’re happy.”
“I am, but Kayel isn’t. Didn’t realise he liked me that much. I mean, we’re still doing our little group things, but we’ve all trailed off lately.”
Teekay shrugged. “Admittedly, I’m not so much a part of that since I married Elkay, but I think we’ve all been way more distracted by Elksia having a baby, and evil Yisini trying to pair us all up in her constant bid to try and make everyone else have kids.”
“Wasn’t the whole point of bringing Yisini in to Savepoint to STOP Elksia accidentally doing that to us all?”
“It was just to stop us all from trying to have kids before our time. Well, mostly just Ret and Kuta. Thankfully, Elkay and I are firmly on team NO KIDS EVER and we weren’t too badly affected, but Elkay did weirdly once ask me if we could do it raw and I said no. But Yisini still wants us to all have kids, she just does it with more tactics and planning.”
Psiksi shrugged. “That was definitely affecting me. I mentioned kids to Teacake like seven times. That whole shit has actually made me and Eksi want to ditch Ξ-Class ways and consider settling… That being said… That Elkay-En guy is pretty damn hot.”
Teekay rolled his eyes. “He’s less attractive than my wife. And less attractive than Arkay, if I’m honest. I really don’t get how that family tree works. I thought Kinisis was Arkay’s mother in a way, but it turns out she just deified him, but Kinisis is Elkay-En’s father? While also being Phovos’s mother?”
“I mean, it’s not that confusing. No different than how Elkay and Retvik are half-brothers.”
“That… huh… yeah… I guess it just seems really fucking weird because Elkay-En is the same species is as Arkay, while Phovos is a Ksithan from literally a different universe. Also, Elkay-En and Phovos are siblings with literally the Allbirther and the Panelix.”
“Yeah, it is fucking weird… Elkay and Retvik’s relationship seems less weird now… Wonder what Elkay thinks of the guy also called Elkay… Oh, speaking of whom!”
In the doorway, Elkay had just appeared.
“Hello, Psiksi. Hello, dear. How are we?”
“We’re fine, babe!” Teekay beamed. “Autopilot’s on and we’ve got good void winds today. It’ll be a short trip. Everyone settled back there?”
Elkay shrugged. “I assume so. The little ones are excited. I am looking forward to taking you out for dinner.”
Teekay smiled some more. “It’ll be nice. Psiksi here asks what you think about Elkay-En.”
Elkay thought for a moment, then shrugged again. “I honestly only saw them briefly before we all got ready for this trip, I have not formed an opinion yet.”
“Fair enough…” Teekay also shrugged. “Anyway, where we going for our date?”
“If I can get the sensors to think I am a Life Goddess again… potentially somewhere very, very nice. But either way, you will be satisfied. Anyway, I am going to check on Kuta, they have been a little quiet. Back in a moment.”
Elkay left the room, leaving an awkward silence.
“Alright, I’m not attracted to Rethans, but damn, Teekay, you got the best one ever.”
Teekay grinned like a maniac. “Oh, I totally did.”