Leah
Leah’s mind was spinning. She stepped off the landing shuttle, looking up at the massive ring that constituted the capital of the Coalition. Massive was, somehow, an understatement. It was a ring so indescribably large, it encircled the entire sun. Leah knew that the sun was incomprehensibly far away. That meant the ring was twice as far as incomprehensible in diameter. She could see it stretching up from the horizon – climbing instead of disappearing like it would a spherical world. It stretched up, past her ability to see, and reached up towards the sun, wrapping around it. Far beyond her ability to grasp, much less see.
That was the power of the Coalition. They could build something like this. Leah was awed by the sheer magnificence, the scale, of it. So much so that she found herself accidentally ignoring the domini female that was acting as her guide.
The shuttle had dropped her off at a busy port. A spaceship port. It was like if a busy, international airport had less shops but way more people. There was a concourse, long hallways that all funneled towards the front entrance where customs caught everyone. She couldn’t see departures, but the domini female with her, who had been professionally explaining things, told her that the two flows of people were kept apart for ease of movement.
Leah wasn’t sure what she expected in terms of style, so anything would have been a surprise. But it seemed extra strange just how normal everything was. The space port hadn’t been designed with a lot of fripperies or luxuries. It was a place that would get you from A to B and it didn’t see the need to be anything more that. At the same time, it was also bright and huge. Since it was made for species that were much bigger than her, she kind of felt like she was a kid again, walking around in a space that was just a bit bigger than what she would need. Glass ceilings let in a great deal of sunlight while, every so often, there were long, ivy-like plants with green leaves tipped with pink growing down. She didn’t know if she’d call the style futuristic, but it was just this side of otherworldly.
The female domini that was guiding her through had been waiting outside of the shuttle that had brought her here from Earth. She greeted her, helped her put her luggage on a floating cart – like the big, flat ones at home good stores – and showed her how to set it to follow them. Then, she took her to a private room at the front of the massive spaceport to wait for her mate. A trip that had taken the better part of an hour to walk, but Leah certainly wasn’t going to complain. Not when she was trying so hard to look at everything and everyone at once.
The sheer amount of different types of people was mind boggling. She saw people with fur and people with tentacles and some guy that she swore had leaves growing out of his head, though he was gone into the crowd before she could get a good look. There were purple people and silver people and people who flicked between colors as they walked. The sort of diversity of origin she couldn’t imagine, but she knew would have made her family extremely uncomfortable.
She forced that ingrained distrust down, deep down, and ignored it as a product of her youth as she instead made herself appreciate everything she saw. And looking at it through that lens, this place really was absolutely incredible.
Now, Leah was just sitting there, in the small but rather comfortable space with the domini lady, as she stared out the huge, bubble window at the sky. At the ringworld stretching up into the sky. The sight just made her think that her parents were even more foolish than she thought. They really thought humanity had any ability to stand against a power like this? Even more foolish, they really wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in something like this?
Though it wasn’t a particularly common a thought, Leah once again found herself really appreciating the fact that she’d gotten away from all that. As hard as it had been. As hard as it continued to be, as a part of her still missed her family and the comfort and stability of home. But if she had stayed, she never would have been able to see all this.
She checked her phone again. Her mate had sent her a message through True Match, promising to be there soon. But that had been told to her by the domini lady. Her phone still worked, to an extent. All the systems that didn’t require a connection – the camera, calculator, a few of the games – worked just fine. But everything else required a connection through communication relays back to Earth, and that made everything work that much slower, and she had to have a special link with whatever they had as wi-fi, which she didn’t have right now. She was just checking the time to see how much had passed – though she was now supposed to be using the new time system she had learned, it was hard to break the old habit. Besides, twenty minutes was still twenty minutes, even if they wouldn’t use those measurements.
So, the message, ‘we just got here. See you soon’ was the last one that they would exchange over text. The last one that she would have to worry about being mistranslated. She couldn’t wait for those translation errors to end.
Her mate was still in communication with the domini female acting as her guide. She was messaging him their location since she knew the space port. All Leah was doing was sitting near the window, playing solitaire on her phone, and humming nervously to pass the time.
The waiting room, while comfortable, wasn’t fully private. The wall facing out onto the concourse was glass from floor to ceiling, giving her a view of the various alien species walking past. There were a couple food stalls, like she would expect from an airport, but not a lot of stores. Mostly, it was just people trying to get from one place to another. There were other meeting rooms, some sleeping pods for those who needed to rest, but for the most part, it was just aliens with luggage that they either carried, dragged, or floated behind them. Aliens with scales, with feathers, in every color of the rainbow, all of them so big, she felt like she was likely to disappear if she tried to walk out in that crowd by herself.
Leah began alternating between staring out the window at the sprawling space port, the ring, the periwinkle blue sky, and the distant, sparkling city before turning her head and checking out the abundance of aliens walking around, trying to guess which one was her mate. Her one and only. The guy she was guaranteed to love for the rest of her life. It was exciting and scary.
All the while, she hummed and mouthed her favorite songs under her breath. Trying not to disturb the domini female who had given her a wide berth – either out of politeness or displeasure at being here, Leah couldn’t really be sure. But Leah knew that people didn’t really like it when others sang or hummed around them, so she tried to keep it quiet.
But her nerves had to work their way out somehow, and singing was just something she liked to do, ever since she was young. She’d even been in choir in her private, religious high school, but never got further than that. She certainly wasn’t worthy enough to be a professional, but music and singing was still something that brought her joy and calmed her nerves.
And now that she had a mate, it would soon be something she could do for her babies. Singing them to sleep. Singing with them while they cleaned. Humming to them when they were sick or fussy. All those things she’d always been promised growing up.
A husband, a family, a stable home – it was coming towards her now.
Just a little longer.
Just a little-
“Ah. There they are.”
The domini female’s voice was startling. Leah jumped, sitting up quickly. Heart pounding.
“There,” she said, pointing out of the window. “The ones with white hair and purple scales.”
There he was.
Leah blinked at the male coming their way. He was focused, walking with a wide, determined gait, long, white hair bouncing in his ponytail. He was moving beside a mirror, so there appeared to be two of them at first sight.
The male she was looking at was just as tall as the other aliens out there that all dwarfed her, though he wasn’t as broad. She wouldn’t quite call his build slender, but it was strong and tight, like a whip. A body made for grace, and it showed in the almost hypnotizing way that he moved.
He was covered in scales – though they were small, their pattern was unmistakable. It was such a bright, lavender purple. Beautiful. And complimented by the long, silvery white hair, like snow sparkling in the sunlight, that trailed down his back. It was wavy and thick, held up by a shining gold bangle, with some shorter bangs to frame his face. Gleaming, teal eyes sparkled in the artificial light as his long legs ate up the distance.
His clothes were just as lovely as himself. The style was androgenous, beautiful, and rather provocative, though she couldn’t say exactly why. Everything important was covered. His long, muscular legs were wrapped in poofy, black pants that tucked into short, black boots. But around his waist were golden rings from which trailed a half skirt, fully open in the front, that shined with a beautiful gold, teal, and purple pattern that almost reminded her of a peacock’s tail. His top was loose, hooking over a golden ring around his neck, leaving his back and sides open, and was just short enough for a strip of his midriff to show. Gold rings were locked around his upper arms, just under his biceps, while more rings decorated his wrists.
And his tail! He had a long, thin tail, whip like and mobile, that moved gently behind him, curving in the air like a snake with each step he took. The golden bands flashed with each movement. It was absolutely incredible, and absolutely strange.
He looked like an exotic dancer, she realized. He moved like one too. All sensual, graceful, powerful movements, decorated in beautiful teal and gold.
There had to be some kind of mistake. There was no way a guy that attractive was meant to be her mate. She wouldn’t consider herself ugly, but she wasn’t anything special. She was already stunned by the very idea that she had an alien mate, but she fully expected the person meant for her would be someone more… ordinary.
It was as she was staring in wonder at this beautiful man – male – she realized what her guide had said.
There they are.
The ones with white hair and lavender scales.
Oh, she realized dumbly.
That wasn’t a mirror.
Those weren’t translation errors.
She was just stupid.
That wasn’t a single male walking beside an abnormally long mirror. That was two males, two identical males, walking towards her in step with each other.
And with that realization she noticed that their hair, their skirts, weren’t moving in exactly the same way. They were also moving in lock step, not mirror step.
Also, the closer they got, the clearer they became, the more she realized that these were definitely two different people. She didn’t know why she thought they were the same when it was obvious that they weren’t at all – though she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was about them that was so different, they definitely weren’t the same person.
Even as she watched, one was smiling at her, his grin widening as he approached. The other wasn’t smiling, but he was looking directly at her as though stunned.
Two.
There were two males.
Which one was…
No, she was being stupid again, because nowhere was it written she only had one mate. She had just assumed that there was a translation error, that the two names were like some kind of weird misprint or alien name combination she wasn’t familiar with. Even when everyone had referred to her mates in plural, even when their messages referred to themselves in plural, she was just so accustomed to the idea of one man, one woman, she had simply been unable to accept what had been very clearly written out for her.
And on the heels of that stunned realization came a rush of confusion, apprehension, and anxiety.
She had two mates?!
No, because what was she supposed to do with two mates? She wasn’t even entirely sure she knew what to do with one, and now suddenly two people were walking her way.
She needed a moment. She had to gather her thoughts. She had to-
Too late.
The domini female was unlocking the glass door, letting it slide apart, calling out to the two of them – two! – in welcome.
The one on the right smiled wider, giving her a brief thanks, before focusing past her onto Leah. The one on the left’s expression and focus didn’t change at all. He was fully locked in on her as the two came into the room, the door shutting behind them. The sound proofing was crazy good, and though the concourse was loud with the sounds of the crowd of aliens going about their travels, the moment it shut, they were locked into a silence so choking she could barely breathe.
“Shall I do introductions?” The domini female asked, standing between them as the three just stared at each other. “May I present your mate – the human female Leah Williams from Earth. And Leah, these are your mates – the avanava males Sollit and Tillos Ariell.”
She smiled between them, like she was expecting praise or something. Or maybe she thought they’d rush for each other.
But Leah was still too stunned and confused to move. She could only imagine the gobsmacked look on her face right now, because the excitement bled from their expressions and became concern as they cocked their heads at the same moment.
The perfect synchronicity of the movement seemed so completely inhuman. Which was another stupid thought, because, of course , it was inhuman, they weren’t human. But the sheer perfection of it finally broke through her shock enough to at least kick in her ingrained politeness.
“H-Hello,” she said, kind of bobbing her head, almost bobbing her body, like she was about to curtsy or something. Which was also stupid, but all her intelligence had clearly fled a long time ago. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“The pleasure is all ours, aevea ,” the one with the smile said, his voice grand but soft so it seemed like he was almost whispering to her.
“Er, sorry to ask this if it’s rude, but which one of you is which?” Her eyes darted back and forth between them. If the one on the right smiled less brightly, and the one on the left smiled more, they really would be identical like a mirror.
“I’m Sollit,” the smiley one said.
“I’m Tillos,” the aloof one said.
“Sollit. Tillos,” she greeted, repeating their names mostly for her own benefit. She wanted to remember them and get them right.
Suddenly, she was terrified of mixing them up. They were obviously twins. She wanted to be able to tell them apart.
Wait. They were twins, right? Or was she doing some messed up, prejudicial thing where she was saying that all avanava looked alike?
“Miss Williams?”
Once again, the domini female’s voice made her jump as she cut through her thoughts. The female, who had barely said two words to her since they got in the room, looked much more alert and, suddenly, suspicious of the two males.
“Is there a problem?” She asked, a hard edge to her voice.
Leah realized a bit late why she didn’t seem all that warm or friendly. She wasn’t there just as a guide. She was a bodyguard, meant to protect and help her until the moment she was given to her mates. Though, clearly, she was ready to fight her mates as well, should that become a problem. She was outnumbered, and outclassed by weight and height, but the way she reached towards her back made Leah think she had a weapon to help even those odds.
“No, I’m fine,” she hasted to assure her. “I was just, erm, surprised.”
“Surprised?” Sollit asked.
“Why?” Tillos asked. Finishing Sollit’s sentence like it was perfectly natural.
“Sorry,” she stuttered. “It’s my fault. I just… wasn’t expecting… two.”