“Hey Ziten…” Kayen grumbled as he sat down at the booth. He and Ziten always sat in this little corner, where they could watch the rest of the goings on in the bar. It had been a while since they last spoke though.
“Hey mate!” Ziten was perky as always. She’d already ordered drinks. A fruity strawberry beverage for herself and the standard lemon soda for Kayen. Like Kayen, she had dark skin, with a mixture of red and orange armour. She preferred to lighten up her looks with silver and pink accents though. “Good to see you!”
“Yeah, good to see you too. Thanks for the drink.”
“No problem. You been busy? I haven’t seen you at work or anything. Boss said you’d handed in your notice?”
Kayen sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, I did. I’m going back to training.”
“You’re not trying for K-Class, are you?”
“I am.”
Ziten sat up slightly, then sat herself down again. She was clearly rather annoyed and was doing an awful job of hiding that. But after a sip of her drink, she returned to her more joyful look.
“Is it what you want?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I won’t get angry. You clearly hated your job anyway!” Ziten smiled. “I totally know what it’s like, with your parents bitching at you to do what they’re doing. I’m so damn glad my mum married my dad, otherwise I’d be forced into doing agriculture too.”
Kayen shrugged, then leaned forward, pushing his drink to one side. “I guess. But there’s something that’s… really bothering me.”
“Like what?” Ziten leaned forward too. “Is it when that bastard attacked you last week?”
“No.”
“Is it…” Ziten paused, then glanced past Kayen, looking at his rear. “Is it you fancying me again?”
“No… Kinda…” With a tut, Kayen glanced around the bar, then turned back to Ziten. “Am I attractive?”
“Well yeah, that’s why we dated.”
“Yeah, but am I, like, particularly attractive?”
Ziten grinned. “Girl, you’re like one of the most attractive Skyans I know. You’re just not very smart when it comes to realising people are flirting with you.”
“Really?”
Ziten pointed at the bar. A gaggle of Skyans in blue, purple and silver were all giggling at each other, egging each other on about talking to “the sexy fireboi in the booth”. Kayen recognised one of them, a younger vok who worked in the same department he and Ziten had worked in.
“I’m not THAT sexy.”
“You’re basically flaming sex. When we started dating I was fucking amazed how you hadn’t had many partners before me.”
“I’m not.”
“You aaaaaaaaare!” Ziten was giggling now. “Alright, I’ll prove it. I’ma pretend to just walk off, like an angry partner. See how long it takes for someone to approach you.”
Kayen snorted at how insane that sounded, but he realised Ziten was being serious. “Alright, fine.”
Ziten slammed her hands on the table, stood up and stormed off to the bathroom. Kayen blinked in confusion, then sat there in silence, not sure what to do or say. Suddenly, an attractive, feminine vok wandered closer, sporting a cream wrap and white armour.
“Hello, are you alright, little one?”
Kayen only vaguely recognised this one from a booth on the other end of the bar.
“I’m fine.”
“I saw your… partner run off…”
“She’s just my friend.”
“You’re not dating?”
Kayen rolled his eyes, then grunted. “She was totally right. Everyone does want to hit on me…”
Luckily for him, Ziten returned to the table. The cream Skyavok shrugged then went back to her table.
“See what I mean?”
“Yeah, I see now. Also explains… what happened today.”
“Oh?” Ziten perked up. “What happened?”
Kayen glanced around. “I swear I was being followed. There was this really, really insanely sexy blue vok following me around. You know, the ones with crystalline armour and who always have their psi-wings out? Someone like that. Never came close, never spoke to me, but I could feel him there.”
“Did he follow you home or anything?”
“No, I only saw him at the base.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah.”
Ziten shrugged. “Was probably just some dude checking out the new recruits. They do that stuff sometimes.”
Kayen shrugged as well, then got up. “You want anything to drink?”
“A beer would be nice.”
“Sure!” Kayen smiled. “Maybe I’ll use my sexiness to my advantage and get us some free drinks…”