Project X ✔ [O L D V E R S I O N]

+ chapter twenty-four +

A tranquil silence filled the room and they began to drift off in their own perturbed thoughts. As much as she wanted to have a positive attitude, she couldn't help but think that after he was gone, she'd lose her mind.

"Xander?" She whispered, sliding her leg in between his as she accommodated her head on his chest.

"Yes?"

She traced her finger down his chest, loving the way some of his scars bulged out and made his skin feel so perfect; which was ironic considering that his skin was scarred. "Can you tell me about Xrion? Like, how does it look like? How do things work there?"

"Mm," he breathed in deeply as he tried picturing his home planet. "Do you remember the rings that I told you about?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "the ones that are like the service stations around the planet?"

He nodded. "Once you are a warrior, you are sent there to protect the planet in case of a war. It is divided into ten sectors and they are switched every three weeks. A warrior spends one entire month on the ground with his family for three times. So essentially he spends three months out of the year with his family."

"Sounds tough," she grimaced.

"At first it is," he agreed, "but as times goes on, you realise that you would rather have a safe family than no family at all. It is a great honour for us to protect our people, Alexa. Anyway, I spent most of my life up in the rings because both of my parents were warriors, so the little I know of the ground might have changed during the time we spent in Earth."

Alexa nodded. "Just tell me what you remember."

He smiled at her eagerness and rubbed his fingers over her knuckles as he began speaking. "Green; it is very green. That is why green is my favourite colour; it reminds me of home. There are a lot of trees and flowers; we take pride on taking care of our planet. However, there are many buildings to house our people. It is very hard to explain without sounding contradictory. The buildings are eco-friendly and our technology uses little chemicals so that there aren't many emissions into our atmosphere. When we entered Earth, we were surprised at how polluted your planet was and immediately started working on it."

"What about your customs? Like do you guys shake hands and stuff when you meet someone for the first time?"

Xander shook his head. "Touching someone you do not know very well is considered offensive; it kind of ties in with speaking to a person that is courting someone else. If a woman speaks to a man, who is not with his partner, and she knows he is with someone, it is deemed as disrespectful and vice versa. If a man speaks to a woman who is courting someone and her partner is not present, it is wrong."

She frowned, even though he couldn't see her face and said, "How will someone know if that person is dating someone?"

He tapped her left hand, starting from her wrist up to her ring finger. "Your people distinguish who is with someone by a wedding band, correct?" She nodded. "Our people mark their hand. It looks like a tattoo that starts as a ring and spreads out over your hand, ending around your wrist."

Alexa widened her eyes in surprise, imagining the design. Needless to say, in her mind it looked beautiful and intricate. "What if they get separated? What happens to the hand that's marked?"

His fingers continued tracing an invincible pattern on her left hand and he said, "That is why our marriage is taken so seriously; it is for life. When you are 'dating' someone, you only get the mark around your wrist and it is not with permanent ink. When you marry the mark is done with permanent ink and it goes over your hand to finish around your ring finger."