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21. Tacopop - Pets (part 3)

third time lucky, maybe I'll be able to finish this au off now
or maybe a fourth instalment will come out in like 2122 👀
if you don't know what's going on with this au I strongly recommend reading the first and second parts!

A surging metallic roar. Both girls jolted hard awake as the floor beneath them rumbled with raw power. The room was rather hot, and cries bled in through the dark room from outside. Intense light flashed through a crack between two sheets of fabric, and instantly Taco's heart dropped. It must be the second sweltering daytime again, the one with the enormous red-green sun. If only it had been the first one. That one had seemed paler and overall much more pleasant, heated only by that distant frozen star. Her heavy, rasping breathing juxtaposed with another set of calmer and cooler breaths next to her.
"Don't worry, Taco. It's just their teenage kid. I went outside earlier because I was curious and I met him. He plays the Airthgriech, or at least that's the closest pronunciation for it in English. It's like a weird electronic flute mixed with a guitar and it makes those gritty roaring sounds."
Taco turned her head, mouth gaping open as if to say something, but couldn't think of anything that she could say. She'd been awoken to a savagely sunny day on an alien planet by when sounded like a jet plane taking off and suddenly her school bully was telling her all about cultural music from other solar systems. Still very naked, but covered by a thin blanket. Lollipop seemed to realise that too, and blushed, looking away in embarrassment.
"Don't look at me like that, d-d... Taco. Don't look at my body, please."
Taco nodded, doing her a favour and averting her eyes. Despite hating the stereotype that she would want to look at any naked woman due to her sexuality, with Lollipop it was curiously hard.
"Why are you still naked?" she asked, hearing subtle silky rustling behind her as Lollipop attempted to fashion something to cover herself with.
"I like my body. Also I assume these aliens aren't very judgemental about wearing clothes, seeing as most of them don't wear any themselves. The only thing I would feel uncomfortable with is if... uh..."
She halted, unsure of how to put it. Her deep discomfort at the thought of Taco seeing her body seemed grounded less in hatred and more in nerves. How could she communicate that without looking suspicious, or disgusting? She sighed.
"Never mind. I suppose I just don't want another human I know to see."
"I get that. You don't have to do anything that makes you feel bad."
"Thank you. I'm glad you understand."
Taco rubbed her bleary eyes, growing accustomed to the surroundings. The draping velvet walls let small smatterings of intense light through, bathing her and her surroundings in red stars. Another jet-engine groan of the alien instrument started up again, and she found herself appreciating the flutey undertones of the noise, now that it wasn't unexpectedly rearing its deafening ugly head above the ambient household noises. A chatter of alien squeaks pierced out as a note ended.
"Their house is similar to a human one. There are some very subtle uncanny differences you wouldn't notice at first, at least not until you look closer. They have taps everywhere as well. I think they might worship the liquid they drink. It's like the stuff we drank before we passed out but it feels way heavier. Deuterium oxide, I should think. D2O. Still safe for humans to drink."
Boggled at this assault of knowledge, not even pausing to think why Lollipop knew of whatever that so-called deuterium oxide was, Taco peeled back the curtain suspiciously. The assault of sunlight was instant. Hot beams struck her face, and she shielded her eyes in pain. The awful star wasn't shining directly, but it still left true-cyan marks on her retinas that were dogged enough to remain for several blinks. Shading her forehead with her hand, the room swam into focus. Floorboards of shining silver wood stretched for metres and metres ahead, high worktops sculpted into the shape of cliffs soared in purple marble to reveal a laserlike grid of light twitching next to a sink. What was clearly supposed to be a stovetop-cum-oven squatted in the middle, eight feet high. Tinted windows overlooked... something. They were too high for either of the crouching girls to see out of. All that was there was a brilliant blue-green sky and a few parched clouds crawling across it with surprising speed. It was surreal. Taco almost believed she was going to wake up from a nightmare any moment.
"Wow..."
"I know, what a terrible lack of taste? Bright purple and silver? What on earth were they thinking?" Lollipop exclaimed, earning a giggle from the both of them.
"It is pretty ugly. But otherworldly beautiful in a way too I suppose. And I guess we'd... uh. Better get used to it."
There was no laughter after that sentence. The awful truth hung in the air, wide as the space between this unknown world and their native earth, left behind. Neither of them wanted to say what was impossible. Better to be in denial about their new eternity.
"Anyway... do you want to perhaps looks around with me? You can put a blanket around yourself or something, I think that's what I'm going to do."
Taco nodded in agreement. It was certainly an idea. Plus, the silky fabric of the sheets that filled the small den felt amazing over her skin: they'd make a very comfortable gown, no doubt. If she could just wrap it around herself like a bath towel or something of the like. Pulling the blanket up around her naked form, she tucked a corner into itself to pin the fabric around her chest. She folded her arm out over the small area of weakness to hold it secure, and rose to her feet to step out into the unknown.
As soon as her bare feet hit the timber, a warm glow radiated up her spine, cooling the fear in her heart. The wood was suave against the soles of her feet, beckoning her forward, to walk over more and more of it. To explore. To be loved...
"Oh yes, and I think the wood may have mild drug-like effects." Lollipop added from inside the velvet den, which could now clearly be seen as a dark purple teepee-style building. Taco grinned.
"Yeah! I can feel that, it's pretty nice. Come on out here with me and feel it too."
Slightly regretting her enthusiasm as soon as it burst from her body, Taco grabbed Lollipop's hand and yanked her out of the den. Stumbling, the other girl barely held the blanket around her body as she followed at a teetering trot, the corkscrew curls of her hair bouncing. Taco led her with vigor to the other end of the kitchen, looking back over the expanse of the room.
"This might just be the wood talking, but it's pretty lovely from this angle." she exclaimed, pressing her back up against the wall. Neither of them realised how their hands were still glued together. Lollipop nodded in agreement, her face also shining with emotion. The girls slid to the ground.
Legs crossed, they stared back at the shape of the teepee (which looked significantly smaller from the distance) that they guessed they now called home. Despite the warm glowing of the wood lighting a log fire inside their chests, a deep melancholy descended. A loneliness, a homesickness that couldn't ever be cured.
"We're stuck here for good, aren't we?"
Taco was the one to pull the cloth from over the hideous truth. It stood there. A painting of an elephant, dripping with blood. The talk of nobody in the room, and the talk of everybody's minds. Lollipop couldn't say anything. She wouldn't. That would make it true. Instead, she opted to nod. Words would bring tears.
"We have each other for the duration. I... I know I say I hate you, but... this past however-long has been pretty nice, actually. You've held back a lot, and I appreciate you for being able to do that."
Lollipop hung her head at the mention of holding back. She really had been holding back: if only Taco could know how much. Her palms sweated. She still couldn't say anything worthwhile.
"Thank you. You've been nice to be around." was all she could manage.
Her head fell back against the wall. The second time she'd fallen, that's for sure.

just landed in Czechia... haha nooo me and my friends definitely didn't fly halfway across Europe just to see My Chemical Romance live lol...
also nope. not finishing this au yet I'm not ready. you can catch me writing more in like 2023 probably