Author’s Note: Luna gets all the fun jobs.

“We like this.”

“I’m glad,” Luna said, giving Alvin a tight smile. That was not one of her radiant ones, and he knew that she was still worried. She was afraid of Alvin changing his mind, of him demanding to return to his hive. That would mean that he would leave her, and that seemed something that she was unwilling to let happen, no matter how many times he promised that he would return.

“Friend Luna has the best stomach ever.”

She sighed, running a hand over his head as she tried to get comfortable. “I really wish you didn’t find it comforting to listen to my digestion, but since that’s what you need, I’m doing my best to help you with it.”

“It’s not your digestion that is appealing. It is simply the closest sound to when his people are sleeping in the hive.”

“I know,” she said, letting out a breath. “I just wish that he could hear it without being right on top of me. It’s not—Alvin, what did I tell you about flapping your wings? I can sit still if you don’t smack me with the wings, and I’ll let you stay there until you fall asleep, but no hitting me with the wings, okay? Please?”

“Sorry, Friend Luna.”

“His wings beat in his sleep. That’s how his species works. I know that is not easy to accept, but it is what happens.”

She nodded, closing her eyes. “I think part of the problem is that I keep getting this image in my head of my face plastered over all the supermarket tabloids with a headline about me having an alien lovechild.”

“That would be completely inaccurate. You cannot have his child—or mine—for that matter. The species are incompatible.”

She winced, lowering her head. “Yes. I know that. Hell, you can’t even touch me, so that would make any kind of reproduction impossible, now wouldn’t it? Just—Oh, I need to get up. Alvin, we’ll try and get you some sleep in the hive later. I can’t do this right now. I’m too worked up.”

“What if… Oh, if I could only touch you and soothe you or if I could read to you and relax you…”

She gave him a more genuine smile that time. “I would like it if you could read to me. As nice as it was to read to you, as much as I enjoy it, it would be nice if you could read to me, too, or just read for your own sake. The things you’ve been denied…”

He almost reached for her, but he did not dare touch her while she had Alvin on her. Too much could go wrong. “There are… audiobooks. Perhaps if we got one of those for you to sit through while you were letting Alvin rest against you, it would help. We could try that. Exhaust all our options, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And pillows and to make you more comfortable, too,” he said, walking around her to see if he could find other ways to make it easier for her.

“I wonder if they make things that allow you to listen to babies at home.” She put a hand to her head. “I mean, listen to the ones in your stomach—not that I—Well, it might help amplify the sound so that he doesn’t have to sit on me all the time. Or we could make a few tapes for him to hear whenever he wanted. That would also help.”

“Then… we will find one of these things or the nearest equivalent to it. Anything to make you happy and more… cozy.”

“Oh, Tynan, I know exactly what would make this… cozy, but that doesn’t mean that I can ever have it.”

He frowned, about to ask her what that was when Alvin started snoring, loud enough to wake his whole hive even though they were galaxies away. At least he was asleep, wasn’t he?

“Earplugs. I definitely need earplugs.”

Author’s Note: Just because it’s an option doesn’t make it one that makes anyone happy. It might not be for the best.

“I can think of only one solution to Alvin missing his hive.”

Luna looked up from her coffee, frowning even as she fought a yawn. “I’m not sure I like what I think you’re going to say. You’re going to say that we have to get him back to his hive, but the only way to do that is to tell people he broke the rules and came here, and that’s not a good idea. He’ll be arrested and tortured and—”

“If he told them he was taken here by a vortex, then he would be in no trouble.”
“Do your people generally abduct their food?”

“Um…”

She leaned forward. “Not only that, but you’d be telling them that you’re here. If you did that, even if you escaped from helping him get back to his hive, you’d make it so you could never come back. They’d be watching for you. Hunting you. You can’t do that. They’ll never listen to you. They won’t see what I see—and that is not a monster. Oh, Tynan, you are so much more than your appetite. You have moved and grown and learned to lo—I mean, you feel—and you’re a good person, even if you are a black hole.”

He frowned, but he did want to touch her for some reason. What was it about that sensation that meant so much? Why did it matter? He didn’t understand it. He didn’t know that he ever would. “If he is unhappy, it is not for me to force him to stay. I brought him here. I am responsible for returning him. I must find a way to do that.”

Luna looked out the window, biting her lip. “Isn’t there any way to do it without risking yourself? I don’t want to lose you.”

“If I leave, I will come back to you.”

Her head jerked back to him. “Leave?”

“If we are to get Alvin back, I would have to. The only way to do that is for me to go back to let someone know that Alvin was here, allowing them to take him. That’s what must be done. It will not take long. All I have to do is tell them that someone ended up here, and then they’ll come for him. He can go home.”
“No. No, this is his home. We’re his hive. We can make this work. You don’t have to go.”

He shook his head. “I think I do. Alvin is lonely, and we are not his hive. We’re not his people. If… I have never had a home before, but you have given me one. I just don’t think that you can give one to him, no matter how much you try. He is not the same.”

She closed her eyes. “I know he is different, but there has to be something… You can’t just go.”

“I said I would come back.”

“You know you can’t. They’d look for you. They’d take you away. What you are terrifies them, remember?”

“Luna, are you… crying?”

She shoved her coffee away and rose, heading to the back of the restaurant. He looked down at the table and sighed. He needed to find Alvin again. If Alvin wanted to go home, he would make sure that Alvin got there. He should never have brought the creature here in the first place. It was not right that he had trapped Alvin here.

He started toward the door, but he stopped when he heard Luna’s voice.

“Tynan! Wait!”

He turned back. “I was going to look for Alvin.”

She wiped at her cheek. “Yeah, I—Well, that’s not what I thought, but two things first. One, you have to ask Alvin what he wants. Two, I think even if Alvin wants to go, we should try and make a real effort at making him happy here. If it takes music that vibrates, then we’ll get music. We’ll take him other places. We’ll give him white noise or whatever he needs. We need to try first.”

“I don’t—”

“I can’t lose you any more than you can lose me. So… we have to try as much as we can first, exhaust all our options. Please.”

He nodded. “Very well.”

She smiled, and once again, he wanted to touch her, but he knew he could not.

Author’s Note: Luna still doesn’t get any rest…

“Are you rested?”

“Tynan…”

“Alvin is outside, and he seems quite distracted by the music coming out of the car that is parked next to yours. It is… vibrating, and I think he finds it quite soothing, reminding him of the hive in some way. I do not know how that matters, but it does seem to help,” he said, sitting down on the edge of her bed. She had her head under the blanket for the most part, but he could see just a bit of her hair. “If you would like me to go, I can. I do not want to keep you from your rest.”

She sighed. “Could you believe… I can’t sleep? After all that, I can’t seem to fall asleep. My brain just won’t quit. I don’t know what to do to help Alvin, and I don’t know what we’ll do about money, and I don’t know what I’ll do about you…”

“Why am I troubling you? Did I do something wrong?”

“No. You don’t… You have no idea what I’m talking about, and maybe that’s for the best. It’s impossible, after all, and why complicate a good thing with the impossible?”

He frowned, wishing he understood her more. He did not know what she was talking about, but if he did, perhaps he could stop her from feeling this way. She talked almost as though she was depressed again, and he did not want to have her back on medication. “What we do is not… impossible, is it?”

“No.”

“What is wrong, Luna?”

She closed her eyes. “Just having one of those moments where I wish you could hug me even though I know you can’t.”

“Would you like me to try?”

She frowned. “I thought you would never do that, never risk it, that you’re convinced that you’d kill me or destroy everything and…”

“I am. I still worry about it, but I would like to be able to give you what you want.”

She sighed. “Sometimes I think you make it all worse when you try to be nice. It just makes it that much harder to remember that it is impossible. Still, I know it is. I do. I just forget every now and then. You know what the funny thing is? I think I couldn’t sleep because I was alone.”

“I can go get Alvin—”

“No.”

“Um…”

“I don’t want Alvin. I… just want you.”

He smiled. “I can remain if you like. I might have to move, though, and when I do, I’d disturb you again. Would you mind, or should I stay where I am for now?”

“I want you to stay.”

He studied her. “Is this a moment where humans would have something called… a bedtime story? Should I attempt to tell one? I don’t know much of what they’re like, but I am not unwilling to try. I would do anything for you, Luna.”

“Oh, Tynan…”

“Am I being impossible again?”

“Yes, but…” She reached out from under the blanket and put her hand over his, just for the briefest of moments. “Don’t stop.”

Author’s Note: Well, this one took a couple odd turns on me. They were talking about one thing, and then it was about something completely different. Poor Luna, though. She gets stuck solving everyone’s problems… and never gets enough rest.

“Friend Luna?”

“Luna is sleeping. Go away,” she said, pulling her blanket over her head. He smiled, amused by her antics. She was not asleep, and that was obvious just by the fact that she spoke. She should know better, but then he expected she was very tired after all the driving and traveling. She did not have the limitless energy of a black hole or of a member of a hive.

Then again, she had seemed to lose some of her radiance after her father called her. She had argued with him over money, and that seemed to have lowered her spirits. She’d ignored several signs along the road that he thought she would have turned off for, and he didn’t know that their road trip could continue for much longer.

The money. They didn’t have the necessary funds, not to keep up with the car and the food that Luna and Alvin needed. Not every novelty stop was free, and that took money, too, and he did not know how much Luna had left with, and she might not have enough now. He should ask her.

He would, when she was more rested.

He didn’t want her getting sick or anything. He wanted her to keep her safe and healthy.

“Luna?”

“Not you, too. Take Alvin somewhere and amuse him so that I can get some sleep.”

He knelt down next to her. “This is not because of your father, is it? About the money?”

“You don’t have to worry about money, Tynan.”

“You do, and I don’t want you to miss out on what you want to see or do because you do not have the funds for it, nor do I want to be a burden upon you since you are traveling mostly for my sake. I would not want to harm you in that way, either.”

She pushed down the blanket. “All I want right now is to sleep. I’m just a bit tired, and I don’t want to think about money or fight about it. You know why people are always so unhappy? Money. It’s always about money. They don’t have enough, or they spent it foolishly, or they think they need to make more, always pushing for things that don’t matter…”

“Were your parents like that?”

“No. Well, sometimes. Everyone is.”

“I cannot handle money, and it has no value for me,” he told her. “Does that make it… better or worse, do you think?”

“In some ways better. In others, not as much. Look, I paid for the motel room for a change. I’m tired, and I want to sleep. You and Alvin don’t have to stay with me, but you have to let me sleep.”

Alvin sighed. “We miss our hive.”

Luna sat up, frowning. “Are you saying you want to go home, Alvin?”

The wings stopped beating, and he settled on the table, sighing. “We do not know. We just know it is not the same. We are… lonely. We have friend Luna and Tynan the vortex, but we are lonely.”

She put a hand to her head, her hair a mess, painted strands caught together and twisted in odd ways. He thought she did look very tired indeed. “Oh, Alvin. I don’t know what we can do about that. I’d say you need a girlfriend but—”

“You are girlfriend. You are a friend. A girl. So, girlfriend.”

She groaned, putting her head down on the pillow. “I’m not anyone’s girlfriend, Alvin. Just… Let me get some sleep, and I’ll try and figure out something in the morning, okay?”

Alvin nodded. “Yes, Friend Luna.”

“Come with me. We will find some way of amusing ourselves—and making you less lonely—that does not disturb Luna’s rest.”

Author’s Note: While on the one hand, he’s getting better at these things, he still manages to miss the point. A lot.

“Are you mad at me?”

Luna looked up with a frown. “I thought you went off in search of a lesson or something.”

“I didn’t go far. I didn’t want to go without you, and I was worried about you. I suppose I should have been. You didn’t come out of the store yesterday. Not once.”

She lowered her head, letting it rest on her knees. Her hair was not tipped in black, but it was close, a dark blue that could have been mistaken for black in a different light. He did not like it. He had hurt her too much—she might even have gone back to the medication and doubting that he was real, and all because he couldn’t stop talking about losing her.

He could have lost her by talking about losing her. He felt rather stupid, hating himself for letting that fear dominate their conversation and ruin what they’d had. “Luna?”

“I had a bad night, that’s all. I don’t want to talk about it.”

He knelt down, trying to see her face. “It is my fault, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not. Not all of it. I just… I haven’t managed to stand up to my father about anything, and I don’t like that any more than I like how you won’t listen to me. He kept saying that I shouldn’t talk to you or let you in the store, that I had to give you back your robot—Alvin—and should move on with my life. I’m not really sure what he thinks moving on would be—this store is my job and my inheritance, and I haven’t done much painting since Mom died… And it’s not like there’s a family or anything in the cards for me, but I know he’s got it in his head that there should be grandchildren.”

“This is… out of a need for something to care for?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to think about my father’s reasons for anything.”

“What do you think of the wizard’s reasons? Do you think he is like the one in the movie, the original book, or that retelling and musical?”

She laughed. “You went looking for a lesson in The Wizard of Oz?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose you missed the point of the Tin Man.”

“I think they were too easily pacified by his lies at the end, yes.”

She sighed. “I think you’re being obtuse, but that is how all men are, aren’t they? They complain about the complexity of women, but I don’t know that we’d be so hard to figure out if they ever took the time to listen.”

He frowned. “I thought I listened, but you… You do not agree, do you?”

“You definitely weren’t last time we talked.”

He sat down beside her. “If I listen now, will you agree to continue as my guide and share everything we can? I was thinking of… traveling. I have been in one place for a while, and I think that might be a part of the reason the fear was so bad, the boredom. I was creating problems because, as you claimed, I was restless.”

“So you want to travel?”

“If you will come with me.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “How? Where would we go, and how are we supposed to get there? You said you don’t have a spaceship, so…?”

“I was hoping… a car. I’m not talking about another planet, though I do wish I could show you that. I want to show you a lot more of the universe, but your planet is large and diverse, and there is much we could see. I think a car would be best. I have used them in the past without hurting anyone, and we could take plenty of breaks to ensure that I do not ruin the vehicle, so… every tourist stop and park and overlook… anything we can find. Does that… Does it have any appeal for you?”

“Oh, Tynan, you should know I’d go anywhere with you.”

He smiled. “Then… you forgive me?”

“Maybe.”

He frowned. “Maybe?”

She smiled, and he was reminded that he would never understand her no matter how much time they spent together.

Author’s Note: I think I should quote Doctor Who at this point. Yeah. Not that I used the same words, but I’ll steal them for the title.

I guess you could consider this prompted. This thought wouldn’t leave me alone.

“I don’t age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die… You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can’t spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on, alone.” ~The Doctor, “School Reunion.”

Being with Luna was sharing and learning, and he enjoyed every moment of it. She still read one hour a day, since the kids were disappointed and resorted to threats and tears when she tried to tell them no, but they did a lot more than that as well. Museums, gardens, sculpture parks, they went and saw them all. He did not know that he had ever had such an enjoyable time before, not even on that fourth planet. Having Luna as a companion made each of the new experiences richer, more fulfilling, and when she asked him to share his knowledge of the universe, he found it was able to counter the hunger just as well as his curiosity.

He had to wonder if he had found someone like Luna before—though he didn’t know that it was possible to find anyone like Luna, she was too special, too unique—if he would have been able to avoid the disasters that had happened in the past. She made so much possible for him, and her presence was almost… an addiction.

He was of the vortex. The only addiction he could ever have was to destruction, yet he thought that she had somehow supplanted the hunger. He did not understand how that could be possible, but the hunger was endless and his need to spend time with Luna was equally limitless. He did not enjoy the time they spent apart. That was the problem.

He was far too dependent on her.

Children of the vortex did not die of natural means. The only way to kill them was to turn the hunger against them, and that could kill—did kill—but without the hunger, they could exist forever. He was, in some sense, immortal.

Luna was mortal.

Far too mortal. Humans had one of the shortest lifespans in the universe, still plagued by disease and warfare and their lack of development. He liked many things about them, but he knew them to be flawed. He knew them to be fragile.

Luna’s mother had died. Luna had almost given up on life. He’d fought to get her back, but what happened if he could not do it again? What happened if she were to fall ill with the same disease that had taken her mother? What if some other disease or some accident ended her life?

Even if she reached the end of her existence in a natural way, growing old and dying, it would still be too soon for him. He didn’t know what he would do if that happened. He needed her.

“Did you ruin another one of my books? You look terrible.”

“No.”

“Okay.” She sat down next to him, frowning. “This about Alvin? I admit, I kind of wish we could… send him away for a while. His hive-speak is so… grating. I don’t like the way he follows me around, either. I know he’s… creating his own hive with us, but I’m not a hive person. I’m independent and eccentric. I need space.”

“It is not Alvin. It… If I told someone from the other worlds that he was here, they would come and take him away—”

“No! They’d lock him up and do cruel things to him, and he doesn’t deserve that. He’s annoying, but he’s not evil or anything. He just needs to learn boundaries.”

“Then you must teach him boundaries.”

She frowned. “What is with the tone? I don’t like that tone. That’s a bad tone, and you’re not—I know that the voice is as real as the face, but Tynan, when you talk like that—”

“You’re human.”

She nodded. “Yes, I am. That isn’t news. I’ve always been human. Unless you thought I wasn’t, in which case, I’m kind of curious about what you think I might have been. Do a lot of species look human or is it just us that does this?”

He shook his head. “There are many humanoids. You are not so unique a species.”

“Oh.”

“You are human. Therefore, you are mortal.”

“Everyone dies, yeah, so—”

“I don’t. Not naturally. If they find me, they may kill me, but I could potentially live forever.”

“That’s nice. You’ll get to see everything the universe has to offer, and it will—”

“You won’t.”

She stopped, staring at him for a moment. He didn’t like bringing up her death, didn’t want to think about it, and yet he could not stop thinking about it. He was afraid to lose her. She swallowed. “I… Well, it’s not so bad. I’m not dying right now, and I can expect a few good decades and—”

“How am I supposed to face eternity without you?”