Alone at Last (The Alien's Plaything, Chapter Nine)

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“What did you want to talk about?” Kalin couldn’t help but ask first, but he quickly followed it with, “also, could you let me down?”

“Oh, right. Computer lower the human to the ground and release his restraints.”

The computer returned another incomprehensible acknowledgement, as Kalin heard it. It lowered him gently to the floor, as Zara seemed to grow yet larger before him.

A long moment passed as they both contemplated where to begin.

Zara inhaled sharply, signalling her intent to begin. Kalin’s gaze snapped to hers. “You don’t want to be separated from me at this point, do you?” Zara opened.

“It’s difficult to say. Like, freedom might be nice, but I think I realised when I thought I saw an opportunity to leave with Lady Vizora and Pixie… I realised I wanted to stay here with you.”

Zara then did something that Kalin would never have expected. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Would you stay if we were still kicking you? Because I don’t want to offer you something we’re not going to be able to commit to.” A smile flickered across her face. “In our conversation about you agreeing to stay voluntarily is maybe not the time to mislead you and create false expectations: that’s something we should save for the experiments.”

Kalin appreciated the honest communication, and that the connection between them had developed enough for her to make a joke with him rather than about him. “Ok, so, next we figure out a paradigm for me to participate in these experiments willingly, then.”

Zara’s eyes lit up. She jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Kalin, the moment of tenderness was Kalin’s first in what had felt like an eternity. He didn’t know how to respond.

“Can I have proper breaks between the experiments? I think that’s the first thing.”

Zara nodded. “Would let us gather more precise data on your thresholds.” She sat down on one of the seats. Even sitting, she was close to Kalin’s full standing height.

“So, this between us? It would be taking a step towards, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?”

A look of revolt flashed across Zara’s face. “Gross, Kalin.” She reflexively whipped out her arm, colliding the back of her hand with Kalin’s groin. Of all the times he had been struck by a Viridian before him, this time he had foreseen it the least. He had still been very sore from his introduction to Zephiya that had drawn to a close mere minutes earlier and the fresh impact caused him to collapse instantly. As his knees hit the ground, he managed to stretch out one arm and catch himself from falling further. With his other hand, he cupped his aching testicles in an act of entirely involuntary self-comfort. Kalin glanced up at Zara, catching her eyeroll. “I’m a Viridian. Can you at least avoid ideas that place you equal with me?” The disgust practically dripped off her words as she formed them.

Kalin gasped helplessly for air as he clutched his nuts. “Understood,” he groaned. He had to stop himself from raising his volume as though his body were trying to get him to raise his voice to be audible over the pain.

“But perhaps we could codify our arrangement more palatably. Like ‘owner’ and ‘toy’ or ‘owner’ and ‘plaything’,” she mused.

Kalin pondered the gulf between them in status as he struggled to stand back up. It was unlikely Zara would ever see him as an equal, though this conversation did seem to represent a willingness to treat him better, and to listen to at least some of his needs. He took a deep breath and pushed himself to stand up. “Well, you’d already been calling me your toy,” he answered, “what if we start with that label and see how we feel? See if it grows on me in this better context.”

“And you’d be comfortable submitting to me in this sort of arrangement?” She seemed genuinely curious. It was unclear whether it was a shred of empathy, a hollow gesture or some aspect of her scientific curiosity; but the question did seem to be a step Kalin had not anticipated her taking. “Why? You had been so intent on escaping, now you’re turning down chances to leave and you’re volunteering to submit to me. I feel there’s an earnestness to it, but I really want to understand it… to understand you.”

Kalin wished so much in that moment to portray himself as strong, as worthy, but leaning forward clutching his balls, he was barely able to stand tall enough to match the height of the one seated emerald giantess before him. Nothing he would ever be able to do would make him appear anything but tiny and weak before her as she towered over him and repeatedly crushed his manhood. And yet this instinct was folly. She knew just as well as him that she would never see him as big or strong, and yet she was proposing and arrangement anyway. Not in spite of these aspects, but likely because of them.

“Zara, as I mentioned once before, you are one of the most beautiful entities I’ve ever laid eyes on, and yet that is not all. I’ve felt something between us, throughout the constant… you know… throughout the kicks, the knees, the laughter, the humiliation, and the tiny moments of chemistry I’ve felt in between have made it felt like it was worth it. I don’t expect you to stop crushing my nuts, but I’m excited to share a bond with you outside of that.”

Zara leaned forward in her seat and pulled Kalin into an embrace. “I’ve felt something with you too, my strange little alien. And I want to explore it too.” She held him tight, and let out a slight chuckle, responding to the sensation of holding Kalin so close. “Your body is so warm.”

“I don’t think I realised how cool yours would be,” he remarked.

“I guess we evolved on very different planets.”

Kalin smiled. “What will this mean for my accommodation? Will I still be restricted to the lab?”

She pulled away from the embrace to look at Kalin, her large green face filled his vision. He did not object to the view. “I think we can loosen up the restrictions on your movements. If someone as tiny and adorable and harmless as Zylara can reduce you to tears, I don’t think any Viridians need to worry too much about their safety.” She smiled, the smile reaching her eyes in a way Kalin knew to interpret as a shared joke. It felt good natured, but it wasn’t something he was ready to joke about just yet. “As for sleeping arrangements, perhaps you would like to join me in my quarters. It should be more comfortable than the floor of the lab.”

Kalin was stunned, this was all more than he had expected. “Wow.”

Zara recognised the excitement in Kalin’s voice. “Come,” she said, standing up, “I’ll show you my quarters.” Kalin quickly followed.

Kalin tried to track the doors and corridors to map out the facility, but the lingering pain made it hard to concentrate. Finally, a door was opened that Zara merely stood beside, gesturing inside. Apart from a few screens built into walls and a few unidentifiable objects, the room was quite spartan. “I guess the lab was a pretty good representation of Viridian décor principles.”

Zara looked down at him, unimpressed. “I’m not sure I want to know how humans decorate. Would there be more? Sounds cognitively exhausting.”

“Yeah, but we get used to the stuff.”

“I only keep that thing because my mother gave it to me,” she said, gesturing at one of the objects Kalin had been unable to identify. “Heirlooms are tricky to part with, but maybe I could just put it back in storage.”

“What’s your mother look like?” Kalin inquired.

“Like me. Longer hair, though. But everything we don’t choose about our appearance is about the same. Parthenogenesis doesn’t really give much variation except from random mutations which are pretty uncommon.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I guess there’d be environmental factors that impact our bodies growing up, but we both grew up on Varia Prime: so, there wouldn’t be much reason for diversity there.”

Kalin realised he’d gotten caught up staring at the Viridian objects and turned around to notice that Zara had gotten changed into white shorts and a singlet, looser fitting than her usual attire. She sat on the edge of her bed and beckoned him.

He approached, and as he did, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into the bed with her. The bed was huge, and as he nestled in, resting his head on her shoulder, he glanced down and noticed how much further away her feet were than his. As he began to close his eyes, he felt Zara’s hand reach down between his legs and grab a handful of his vulnerable area. “Goodnight, toy,” she whispered warmly as the handful became a fistful.

“Ow, ow!” he moaned. The grip was hardly the tightest he’d experienced at the hands of a Viridian, but it would certainly take some getting used to before he’d be able to fall asleep like that. He clutched helplessly at her wrist, but it was no use: his owner was already asleep.