“I cannot believe Rethais keeps on letting me take time off…” Relkir muttered as they stepped off the plane behind their poten-partner. Both ahead and behind Relkir and Gath were a handful of members of the 1000th Legion, and two of Gath’s captains.
“It is not time off. You are a captain now, silly!” Gath smiled. “That does occasionally mean you have to do captain-y things. But yes, we should make the most of your sibling’s sweetness. While it lasts.”
They were the last few beings off the ship, but all the other Rethans present were members of the 100th Legion, accompanying the Master of Generals to instate a new Legion, the 1044th.
New Legions were traditionally always anointed by the Master of Generals, alongside a ceremonial Legion (in this case the Legion of Heroes), as well as a member of whatever Legion the High General belonged to. Since Relkir was a Captain of the 47th Legion, the High General had decided to multitask and send both Gath and Relkir alongside General Vaksavar to do the initiation ceremony. This Legion, the Legion of Universal Boundary Protection and Analysis, had been set up pretty quickly, on the neutral world of Thresisa, which was the closest place the Rethavok had territories on to the edge of the universe.
However, somewhat coincidentally, Thresisa was also where Gath had grown up, they were originally a member of the 705th Legion, an External Territories Protection Legion. And since the initiation ceremony wasn’t for another 24 hours, Gath had decided to make a quick detour. Just for Relkir and themselves.
One of the stranger things about Thresisa was that it was a neutral world that mostly followed Rethan laws, and most of the territory technically belonged to the Rethavok. This meant that the 705th Legion (and the new 1044th Legion) were already present across the majority of Phanari, the main city and space port, and the hotels were nice and close. Once they had checked their troops into the main hotel, Gath quickly led Relkir out again, and headed off down the road, dragging their luggage with them.
It was quite clear that Gath new exactly where they were going. Relkir knew what was going on, but they still felt uneasy as they traipsed through the narrower than normal roads. Thresisa was mostly Rethan, but the architecture had a slight Torr feel to it, nothing was as wide and open as normal Rethan territories, and things were more polluted, less grassy and a lot less uniform as well.
Eventually, the couple reached a slightly nicer area, with single, square buildings, all one and a half storeys tall and brightly coloured, with small gardens on their roofs. Gath dragged Relkir down a side path, to a soft orange building with vines growing down the walls from the roof garden. After some brief hesitation, Gath cleared their throat, then knocked on the door.
There was some brief scrambling around inside, but the door did swiftly open up. Standing in it were two Rethans, one taller than average, at 2.8m tall, with dark brown plating and blood-orange eyes, the other somehow shorter than Relkir, with sandy brown plating and yellow eyes that matched Gath’s eyes exactly. Both of them were wearing casual leather armour, and they were both definitely rather old. Relkir guessed that they were both over the age of 110.
“Gath! Our baby giant! It is wonderful to see you!” the tiny Rethan beamed as both Rethans threw their arms around Gath.
“Mum, dad, it is great to see you too!” Gath smiled back. Their parents let go, with the taller Rethan patting Gath on the shoulder and the shorter Rethan holding Gath’s hand. “Parents, this here is my poten-partner, Relkir! Relkir, these are my mum, Lesii and my dad, Kazim.”
Relkir bowed, then held out their hand. Kazim, the much taller Rethan, shook Relkir’s hand heartily. Lesii, Gath’s mother, looked Relkir up and down, then hugged them the same way they had hugged Gath, before dragging everyone inside.
“Come in, come in! I made cookies!”
The inside of the building was a pretty standard half-house layout, with two bedrooms and a bathroom on the top floor, that overlooked the living room, with the kitchen and storage built underneath the overhanging bedrooms. But everything was very homely, warmly painted in different orange hues. The living room was split in two, with a tiny dining table covered in little succulent plants, and four arm chairs, all facing a coffee table with more plants on it and a small, flat screen TV. Lesii sat everyone down, then hurried off into the kitchen.
“What do you dearies all want to drink?”
“You know me, dear!” Kazim shouted back. “I am sure you can guess what our kid wants too! Relkir, darling, what do you fancy?”
Relkir shrank in their seat. “Uh… what do you have?”
Lesii opened up a massive fridge, absolutely packed with both bottles and tupperware boxes, and started rummaging around. Ignoring the fact that Relkir hadn’t answered the question Lesii quickly returned with two extra large cans of diet cola, a diet lemonade for Relkir and some squash for themselves. A massive plate of cookies in the middle of the coffee table, and, finally satisfied, Lesii sat down next to Relkir.
“So, like father, like kid, you certainly picked a little angel!” Kazim laughed as they patted Gath on the shoulder. “I am so, so glad you found someone to love you again!”
“A beautiful little Rethan!” Lesii added. “Tell us, Relkir, how did you and Gath get together? Because we were trying for years to get Gath to go looking again, and you broke their crunchy outer shell!”
Relkir blinked. “That is an odd way to describe Gath.”
“It is true!” Kazim beamed. “Gath is like a chocolate smartie. Crunchy and hard on the outside, delightful chocolate in the middle. Right, kid?”
Gath grunted, then smiled. “Yes, yes…”
“And a double smartie too! The first General in the Tsoriou family! And now Gath has scooped up one of the smartest little cookies around!” Lesii put their hand on Relkir’s. “Would you like a cookie?”
“Yes please…” Relkir stuttered. Immediately, Lesii handed Relkir a small plate with four different cookies on it.
“Eat up, I made them myself! You are like me, small and skinny, we always need to eat more! But yes, how did you end up with our little Gathy?”
Relkir inadvertently snorted at the silly nickname, then decided to explain. “It was admittedly a bit of a dare. Gath asked me out while we were on Portalia for various diplomatic reasons back in the 6th. But we were both busy with work and did not get together until the 8th… Things have been pretty good ever since.”
“Hah… Pretty good…” Gath muttered. “I have not been happier, and Relkir always brightens my day. And, in all honesty, dad, you were right, great things do come unexpectedly, and in small packages.”
“By the Light, you picked up a package and a half!” Kazim grinned with joy. “The High Advisor, of all vok! Relkir, you are a delight to us all!”
“A little ball of joy and goodness!” Lesii added. “Between you and the High General, you have turned a lot of things around! But, more importantly, you make our little Gath oh so very happy. You should have heard Gath on the phone when they told us you were coming!”
“I… I appreciate that…” Relkir felt somewhat flummoxed and slightly overwhelmed. Lesii picked up on that.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Lesii asked.
Relkir hesitated. “It is just… a little weird for me right now. Meeting the lovely parents of my poten-partner. I feel a bit bad because… Well, my foster parents were just professional child rearers, and my… my poor excuse for a mother… I explained to Gath that they cannot meet my parents, and sadly, I cannot allow you to either…”
Lesii glanced at Kazim, then scooted their chair closer to Relkir. “Considering who your egg-pusher was, that is understandable. Just means you can be our kid too!”
Relkir blinked, repeatedly. Kazim just shrugged. “Do not worry about your parents. You will be our child-in-law and we will treat you right, as you deserve, making our little Gathy so happy!”
After a little thought, Relkir looked up at Gath, then smiled. “Hey, Gath, my dear?”
“Yes?”
“Your parents are the best.”
Gath smiled back. “Of course they are! I love my mum and dad very much. And I love you too. Probably for the best, as we are staying here for a few days.”
“Wonderful!” Lesii exclaimed as they jumped up from their armchair. “Relkir, darling sugarplum, do you want to help me with dinner? We are making pizza!”
Relkir’s smile turned into a massive grin. “I would absolutely love to.”