~25~

"Okay, so I'm supposed to press *jump* every time I see an enemy?" Leo asks, holding the controller with a death grip in front of me.

"Yes," I answered, cuddling back into his arms.

Technically, Dion was the first to get to me, but was too shy to actually cuddle so Leo claimed me in his arms in victory.

But I did have one hand stretched out holding unto his as he lay on his stomach watching the TV.

A red mushroom slowly makes its way to Leo's Mario character and he jumps over it to avoid it.

"WHAT!? NOOOOOO!!! GET THE MUSHROOM!!!" I screamed at him.

The mushroom had bounced off an enemy gumba and made its way back towards Leo. He jumps over it again.

"BUT YOU TOLD ME A SECOND AGO EVERYTHING ON SCREEN IS TRYING TO KILL ME!!"

"NOT THAT THING!! GO GET IT!!"

And Leo charges full speed ahead after the mushroom, but it had fallen into the hole and Leo immediately fell in after it.

I proceeded to die laughing.

"Y-you stupid biiitch- hahahahahahaha!!!"

I fell back into his arms as he grumbled and passes the controller to Dion for his turn.

I let go of his hand so he can grip the controller with both of his, and Leo uses the opportunity to grip me tighter with a hug from behind. Resting his head on the side of my neck as he continues to grumble.

It was a miracle my heart didn't melt straight down through and out of my vagina.

"You'll get 'em next time champ" I console him, playfully rubbing his gummy-like textured hair.

From the looks of their hair, you'd expect the texture of finely woven silk, but it felt anything but.

They were such fascinating creatures that I just couldn't seem to learn enough of!!

"But why is HE so good at it!?" Leo grumbles, pointing a finger and an angry glare at Dion.

I turn just in time to see Dion finish the first level before we even finished speaking, with chat going wild that he'd almost beat the 5th place world record.

I shrugged casually through Leo's hug.

"Meh. God has favourites." I cheekily retort.

Dion cackled softly and hands me the controls to finish playing the rest of World One.

Giving up all hope on going back to sleep, we just decided to treat this as a full-fledged sleepover and just NOT sleep the whole "night".

Dion informed me that they've trained their sleep patterns to match mine but typically their people rest in intermittent naps spread out across a "day" so they are always alert, at the ready, and on guard whenever needed.

But they much preferred humans' way of doing things where we're out cold for hours on end with no interruption, and they decided to copy that.

Smart lads.

We dug out one of my game consoles, that I too often forget I'd brought with me, and I decided to introduce the boys to video games.

Big mistakes.

They loved it and couldn't get enough.

Apparently through their research of human culture....they never came across video games!?

"I still need to understand what kind of whack research y'all did that SKIPPED over video games in your research on humanity." I slyly say as I bounced on Bowser's head and cleared the castle.

"We did extensive research up till the 70's, but at that point, we'd gotten the full gist of humanity and skipped the last few decades." Leo waves off with a scoff.

"That was your first mistake."

"What was with the obsession with apple button jeans? It was all we saw of the 90's." Dion asked, flipping over on his back on the bed to stare up at me. "Did you manage to mutate your food and clothings?"

I tabbed out of my game, opened the internet, and went to the search bar tab.

One quick internet search later, aaaand-

"Those are apple-bottom jeans," I elaborate.

They both look at it.

Then look back at me.

"It would look good on you!" They both say in unison.

"Over my cold dead body," I snort.

[OBJECTION!! 🗣️ That's mad cap! We all know you'd look good in those. CAUSE- 🎶]

[Shawty has those apple-bottom jeans,💃🏽]

[Boots with the fur,🕺🏽]

[WITH THE FUR!!🪩👯]

"I WILL BAN ALL OF YOU!!!" I ripped myself out of Leo's hands to go yell at the comments. "I HAD FAITH IN YOU NOT TO TAKE SUCH A LOW-HANGING FRUIT!!"

[Foolish Mel, you should know better than to have faith in us.]

[Honestly, rookie mistake. Should've known better.]

I made a face as the boys were clearly amused by what was going on, even if they barely understood half of it.

I courteously explain the joke. Slowly making my way back towards the bed towards them.

I see Leo then make a face of his own, and I tentatively ask what's up.

"I hope you're okay with...this." he pointed between us. "Me being so intimate with you. I-I'd understand if you're not too comfortable with it-"

I plop my ass back down on his crossed legs and fold his arms back around me.

"I haven't had human, or any, kind of physical contact in almost half a decade. At this point I'm the one that could be accused of physical assault. And I consent to any form of physical interaction you want to initiate with me." I say bluntly, looking him dead in the eye with a challenging stare.

"Really?" Dion says. Taking me, hell both me and Leo, completely by surprise.

"Yes really." I double down. Smiling down at him.

"Even this?" He stretches out horizontally on my bed and rests his head on my right thigh. His cheek pressed against my squishy mounds as he still maintained unbreakable eye contact.

I forgot how to breathe for a moment.

"I-I am absolutely fine with this!" Getting the words out in a coherent way was a legit miracle. But the durpy smile Dion gave me melted away all my insecurities away and made every bad thing that happened to me leading to this exact moment worth it.

[Mel.exe ⚠️ momentarily stopped working there XD]

[What do you mean momentarily??? She still hasn't finished rebooting!! ◌◌◌]

I then see Leo's hand briefly release mine to ruffle Dion's hair.

Dion softly blushes a cute silver in response but gently whacks Leo's hand away as his hair bounces back into place from the sudden assault.

"Stoooop!" He quietly whines in protest.

"I'm just proud of how bold you're being!" Leo responds in a condescending yet still somehow wholesome and supporting tone.

Dion turns his head and mumbles something in a language I genuinely couldn't recognize.

It didn't even sound like a language. Sounded like tongue clicks and bubble pops. I couldn't even conceive how such noises could be made, and if my feeble human vocal cords could replicate it.

I yawned loudly as a strong one overtook me.

"Oh, she's finally feeling sleepy again. Praise be," Dion teased.

"I guess it's great timing because we have to leave soon, it seems to be getting light out. And we wouldn't have had the heart to wake you if you'd fallen asleep and we had to leave without saying our goodbyes."

"Well I'm glad I was able to provide you shelter for the time being. It was my fault for bringing you out and keeping you late. And I'd feel horrible if you got in danger and or got hurt as a result. Even though you don't tell me ALL of what's going on..."

"Hopefully, all will be revealed soon." Leo said while hugging me tighter. "You've been extremely patient with us, and that hasn't gone unnoticed or unappreciated."

My stomach felt like it would explode into tiny butterflies!!

Appreciation!? Gratitude!?!? Understanding and empathy!?

After having to deal with unbridled aggravating shit and borderline sociopathic misogyny for weeks if not months/years on end, it FINALLY felt SO FREAKING GOOD to be given basic appreciation!!

I don't even care if I'm being played and this space alien colony planned to put me in a stew and cook me.

So long as they complimented me and treated me right I'd fully consent to being eaten alive. Idgaf.

I lean back into Leo just for a bit. Savouring this moment the best I can before sitting back up and tearing myself out of his arms once again.

"Guess it's time for you to go," I manage to say with a twinge of sadness in my voice.

I really REALLY didn't want them to leave. But this wasn't a goodbye.

It was a see you later.

The two of them started to pick themselves off my bed and helped tidy up a bit.

There were comfy pillows and layers upon layers of fluffy blankets everywhere.

I'd also brought out my emergency stash of snacks, but they'd adamantly refused to eat anything as they claimed my supply was low.

Which is true.

But STILL!!!

Eat the damn snacks I give you!!!

Dion was folding some duvets and Leo putting back pillows while I made my way to the other side of the ship to unplug the game console when a tingle raced up the back of my throat.

I felt the all too familiar itch, the tingle at the roof of the back of your mouth, the twitch of your nose, then-

"ACHEEEOOOW!!!"

The sneeze was strong and violent.

Shaking me to my core and lifting me off my feet for a second.

"Dang, I guess dipping in the water constantly these last few days is making me catch a cold." I ran a finger under my suddenly itchy nose as I sniffle.

Then I slowly turn towards the boys and light-heartedly begin to joke, "You know you're supposed to say bless you when someone sneeze-"

The sounds of thuds were the only things I heard before I fully turned around and saw-

Nothing.

My main ship door was left wide open as blankets and pillows seemed to have been suddenly dropped/abandoned on the ground.

I register the ominous distant splashing of water and rush to the door to look out to see the barely undisturbed surface of the murky black water where Leo and Dion must have jumped in.

Well....that was certainly weird....

I turn back and slowly close my door. Unable to shake that dreadful feeling that pools at the pit of your stomach when you sense something is deeply wrong but you don't know what.

My throat was already itchy as I walked further back into my ship and made my way towards my computer screen.

"Can't believe they left without saying goodbye. Weird." I said out loud to my chat.

[Wait. They're gone??? BRING THEM BACK!!! 🔪🔪🔪]

[Well that was rude. 🤨]

[How rude!! You gave them a place to stay all night and they just book it?? Boys bye!! We didn't like your translucent asses anyway ✋🏽🙄]

[^ Speak for thineself 😒]

[🔴 Did you see the look on their faces before they left, Mel? 🔴]

Of course Carol was silently snooping around in the stream to make sure no funny business occurred. I thought while mentally rolling my eyes. Not that she could've done anything to stop something from happening. But now wasn't the time to call out her weirdly heartwarming protective tendencies.

"No. They were gone before I could catch anything. Lemme check."

I opened my stream in a separate tab and cringed almost on cue as I saw the feed my viewers saw.

Ew!! Why was my camera at such an awkward angle??? Why does my face look like that?? My room's a mess-

FOCUS, MEL!!!

I rewind a bit to exactly when I sneezed, and even though Leo and Dion weren't fully in frame, their emotions were palpable.

The absolute look of horror and dread etched on their faces when they looked at me sneeze.

The almost panicked-like state with which they ran for the door and bolted out of it and down into the water in the blink of an eye.

You'd think they saw an actual ghost.

Or an incarnation of death itself.

That uncomfortable feeling in my stomach returned.

What did I do so wrong?? They looked scared for their very lives!

I hated the look of abject terror on their faces, and didn't even like the idea or notion that it was put there because of me.

That they were frantic to get away...from me.

Was it something I said? Couldn't be. I barely even remember what we were talking about that could be so offensive.

Was it the sneeze?

It had to be, judging by their reactions.

But what could possibly be so wrong and fear-inducing from a sneeze??

I realized once again I knew next to nothing about Leo, Dion, their people (if they even had any), and their customs.

For all I know a sneeze could mean a violent declaration of war, and the two of them ran home to tell their people that wasn't the case.

You just don't know.

And that's what I hated about all this.

The not knowing.

Praises from Leo be damned, next time I see any of them, I'm holding them hostage until SOME of my questions were answered.

At the very least one!!

I lean back in my chair and squint at my monitor as I rewind again and pause on the scared and horrified faces of Leo and Dion.

Yeah, that's my new game plan.

I won't take no for an answer.

They WILL give me one answer to my 11 million and 1 questions......

The next time I see them.