Star Side

Chapter 31

To me he was closest, though he had yet to touch me once. Sometimes it amazed me how close he could get without so much as grazing me. Talk about insane body control. No minute body shaking for the ouji board here.

Even so, he was cautious in how he approached me, watching me closely for any signs of refusal. The few times I told him to back off he did so as though I'd thrown a bomb at him. I tried not to overreact like he did, but it did make me worry that I'd offended him.

Levi hated this.

"He's practically mounting you," he'd seethed one day. The liquid in the poor relay fuse in his hand bubbled from the pressure.

It was another occasion of me needing to help Levi with a certain repair. Honestly, they should be sending over another technician, but then they should have sent a lot more than just the four of us seeing this planet had ALIENS.

"Oh, dear, is Lord Toes jealous?"

"I'm not in the mood, Jo."

"Neither am I. I'm sick and tired of being treated like a space hoe by you."

The bubbles in the glass fuse tube abruptly went still.

"I didn't, by any means—"

"Yes, you did," I said sharply, giving a particularly hard turn to the screwdriver. I was loosening the steel cover for the case that held the fuses, particularly of a few that needed to be replaced. Once loosened it would take both of us to lift. "All you seem to think I'm good for to this alien is sex. Has it ever occurred to you he just wants a friend? Hell, do you even know how small the likelihood is of him being attracted to me is? I look nothing like him! It's like accusing an elephant of wanting to hump a horse, and as you said he might not even be male."

I undid the last screw with an angry twist and then got my fingers around the metal handles. I looked at him pointedly.

Levi met my gaze head-on, even though I could see the apology twisting his mouth. It wouldn't come out without a fight.

"I'm just trying to protect you," he said.

"I could bench press you, Levi, you're the one who needs protecting from your own stupidity."

He scowled, even as he took hold of the fuse covers other handle. "A bit of an exaggeration to say you could bench press me. I'm taller than you."

I just snorted and heaved. It was something I'd always loved to rub in Levi's face, the fact that I had more brawn than him without trying. And since I did try by working out every day (it was recommended and important for anyone who lived in space to exercise even more than they would on Earth to preserve bone density and that schmuck), I could probably crush his skull like a watermelon between my thighs, because heaven forbid my swol caveman genetics should do anything physical in halves. I could have made bank as a body builder in another life.

It was gross. And made Levi's projected feminist fears on me even more annoying. If only I was feminine enough to have to worry about being raped. Anything male would rather rape a rock than me. Would probably be softer too. The rock, that is.

...Got a little dark there. I am in no way implying I wanted to be raped.

Fat lot of good that did me.

We finished the repair in silence. Levi made an awkward, half-done attempt at making conversation with me, but I was too put off to reciprocate. Instead, I ended up back in the observatory globe. I hadn't spent nearly as much time there as I was used to since I had been busy tending to the eager beaver which was Gilrack, so there was a definite need in me to get out my paints and easel. Maybe I could even do some minor calculations while I painted too.