Starfish

9.2

"You've been sitting there staring at the air for a while, are you all right?"

"I...I was just thinking about...about the trip I am planning."

Athe smiled far too mildly. "The one with Doctor Nina?"

"Yes," Ardus narrowed his eyes at Athe. "What other trips have I mentioned?"

"None at all."

Ardus wanted to claw the slick grin off of his assistant's face. "Then you know full well which I am thinking about."

"Yes, Doctor. I'm sure you two will have fun." Athe turned his back, but Ardus knew he was grinning. Growling low in his chest Ardus stared at the back of Athe's head, but Athe wouldn't turn around. Instead, he picked up a piece of interestingly-shaped coral and blew the dust from it. "You know, Doctor, I've been thinking..."

Ardus ran a hand through his barbels. "Athe, I do not care."

Athe prattled on anyways, turning the coral over and over in his brown hands and picking the more stubborn particles from its surface. "I think it's a good thing you're getting back out into the field. You were much happier when you were out there. Weren't you just saying a while ago how much you enjoyed it, and how you hoped to get back to it?"

"Yes, my career is built on fieldwork." Ardus fiddled with the stylus again.

"And now you get to help someone else build theirs. I think it's wonderful." Athe put the coral back in its place. Quietly, he added, "Mother would be very happy with that."

Ardus dropped the stylus, and Athe turned to face him. "Athe, please-"

"All I'm saying is that this is an opportunity to return a favor. My mother helped you launch your career, now you get to help someone else. She always said the best favors-"

Ardus finished for him. "-are those you send ahead. I know, Athe."

"Then you know that what you're doing is right. You are trying to single-handedly build a rapport between two very different people, and you're doing the best you can. And I think it's going well."

"Do you?" Ardus studied his claws. He hoped he hadn't scratched Nina while he was carrying her home. He'd ask tomorrow. "What makes you think so?"

Athe straightened a stack of books on Nina's desk. "She likes you."

Ardus blinked and tried to cram down the screamer-sized wave of anxiety that suddenly reared up from somewhere in his chest. "Sh-she does?"

Nodding, Athe dusted the top of Nina's terminal. "She's been following your work for years, she shares your ideals, she's excited to work with you. She's curious about you, what you like, how you got started, your personal life," Athe's eyes flicked up at Ardus, and he passed the dusting-cloth over Nina's desk for the tenth time. "She asks a lot of questions, I'd say she's at least interested in you."

"I had no idea..." His claws were no longer interesting.

"Maybe you would if you weren't so jumpy around her."

"I am not jumpy," Ardus protested. "I am...not used to her."

"She's been here almost a month and you still can't be in the same room with her for ten minutes."

Has it been a month? "That is not true, her review was two hours long."

"Have you spent any time with her outside of work?"

"Sea gods drown you, Athe, I am a busy man!"

"Not too busy to carry her to her apartment, apparently."

Ardus sat back, his mouth open. Sea gods drown you, Nia! No sharp retort, no scorching rebuke came out. He closed his mouth again, his teeth clicking together. "The university does not own any human-sized transport chairs," he said lamely. Athe said nothing, instead wadding up the dusting cloth and tucking it into a pocket. He started for the door. "Athe..."

His assistant stopped. "Yes?"

"Do you think I am...cold?"

Athe turned. "Beg your pardon?"

"The day she was bitten," Ardus began, staring at the desktop and rolling the stylus between clawed fingers, "Doctor Nina confronted me. She stated that I had been acting strangely to her. Distant. I explained that I was merely trying to maintain a professional relationship, I did not realize I had been so...unapproachable." He trailed off.

"And?"

"Am I? Unapproachable, I mean."

Athe tucked one of his barbels behind an ear. "You can be. And I have to say, lately you've been as testy and short as a brooding screamer on top of it."

"I see. She is observant, I will give her that."

"Do you have any idea why you've been so?"

Ardus shook his head. "No, but I have noticed I have been more agitated as of late. The appointment I made the other day, I had them run every test they could think of and they found absolutely nothing wrong with me. I showed the results to Nia, and she can find nothing wrong with me. I have been turning it over and over for days, and I cannot think of a single reason why – why are you laughing?"

Athe stood before the office door, chuckling and shaking his head. "Nothing, Doctor."

Ardus gave him a sour look. "You just break into laughter for no reason?"

"Perhaps I'm laughing because the great Doctor Ardus, brightest biologist on Dreenai since Professor Yuna, is all worked up over an alien."

"I am not worked up-"

"Ardus, you're putting too much pressure on yourself. Mother always said you hold yourself to impossibly high standards, and then you'd wonder why you couldn't sleep at night. You need to relax – I understand you want us and the humans to get along, but you can't force a relationship like that. She also said 'you can only do the best you can, and let the rest take care of itself'."

Ardus sighed. "She was right about that."

"She also believed that you would do great things, if you'd just get out of your own way."

Ardus bristled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Athe pushed the door open, "that you should stop thinking so much. Just...do what feels right." The door closed behind him, and Ardus was left to stare at the frosted pane between his office and the hall.