It was afternoon and the four of us were walking home. Aja was riding my skateboard and Olivia drove her scooter ahead of us while Krel and I stayed behind watching them.
"So I was wondering if you'd like to come over today...I could show you the ship." Krel asked a bit nervously.
"Really? What about the other Akiridion?"
"You mean vex? Aja said he's out doing his "geezer thing". You should be fine, and if I'm being honest...I think Mother would love you." He placed a hand on the back of his neck.
"Then... Okay, yeah! I'd love to come."
"Great!" He giggled. "I was thinking... Could we make that little park our hang-out spot?"
The question caught my attention. I didn't realize he liked that old area.
"S-sure! We can do that!"
"Really? Thank seklos." He chuckled.
We fell into that nice silence while Aja and Olivia laughed in the distance. They seemed to get along so well...it was sweet.
"How's your ankle?" Krel broke the silence.
"Oh, it's good, they both are. The older one is gone now actually!"
"That's good! I'm glad they are working!"
We all came to a stop in front of my house. Olivia turned off her scooter and walked it up into the garage while Aja carried my skateboard up.
"Are you coming, Phoenix?" Olivia hollered from up the driveway.
"I'm actually going to the Tarron's house, can you tell Aunt Kristy?"
She nodded and skipped down with Aja before hugging me goodbye.
"You know, I'd love to see your house too one day. You guys seem cool." Olivia hesitated before heading inside the house.
"Maybe we could tell her too. She's like a little testing human, she would love to find out extraterrestrials are real!" Aja grinned.
"Maybe later Aja. We still need to calmly introduce Phoenix to vex first."
"Calmly?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah...Varvatos still doesn't want you to know about us." Aja sighed and we continued walking down the sidewalk.
"That's understandable, I mean if you trust the wrong person so many things could go wrong."
"Are some humans really that bad?"
"And some are worse. I just hope you two don't have to meet any while you're here."
"That's sweet of you Phoenix. Thank you." Said krel.
We turned the corner of the neighborhood where their house... Or their ship was located. I laughed to myself about the time Eli spied on them. We crossed the street and Aja practically ran over to the front door.
"I can't wait to show you my human room! It's so lively!" Aja giggled.
I smiled at her excitement. Krel and I entered the home and it looked very retro. I could tell some things were maybe from the 80s while other things were more up-to-date.
"Little brother, remember when the Eli said this was our "crib"?"
"Yes, yes. Mother said it was an object that imprisons babies."
I laughed, "Cribs don't imprison babies. They hold it while it sleeps, but back in the day a crib would mean a house."
"Interesting. Mother update your software."
"I am unable to do that, my liege." A disembodied voice spoke.
I looked around confused and Krel and Aja laughed.
"That would be Mother." Krel pointed to the ceiling. The two siblings spontaneously transformed into their true forms and a blue flash of light briefly filled the house.
My eyes darted for Aja. "Woah... Aja, you're beautiful!" I walked over to her.
"You think so?" She laughed, "Thank you!" She was at least 5 inches taller, and still taller than her brother. She hugged me tightly and lifted me to the point my heels were off the ground. She let go and walked over to the fireplace in the living room.
"Are you okay?" Krel laughed.
"Yeah, what is she doing?"
"Just wait."
After a second of watching the fireplace, a blue portal appeared in its place and Aja walked right in. I tilted my head. Krel took my hand and dragged me into the living room with excitement before pulling me into the portal!
I looked around and everything was so blue, and bright. It was beautiful even if all I saw were walls and a floor.
"Woah..." I looked over at Krel who had a bright smile on his face.
"Just so you know, the parent blanks will probably ask you a lot of questions." Aja started walking down one of the hallways.
Krel followed and kept our hands locked together.
"Why so many hallways?" I looked around.
"They lead to different rooms of the ship, there's the flight deck, the engine room. A few work rooms and the regeneration chamber." Krel explained.
"Wow. The regeneration room? Is that-"
"Yes indeed Phoenix Overland." Mother said suddenly.
I looked up and a neon, pinpoint-looking icon generated in front of me.
"The king in waiting has told me much about you Ms. Phoenix." The icon started following.
I looked at Krel who was blushing just as much as me.
"You did?"
He nodded and chuckled nervously. Changing his gaze in front of us, he cleared his throat.
"I actually have some stuff I need to work on, but you're welcome to watch if you'd like." He offered.
"Yeah! Of course, I'd love to!"
"While you two do whatever it is you're doing, I'm going to find Mom blank and work on my warrior fighting skills!" Aja exclaimed.
Krel led me into one of the rooms, the door was a circle and it degenerated as we stepped in front of it. Inside the room was a bunch of wires and machinery, I had to guess this was the engine room. In the center of the room was a hovering table, and a light-filled area that looked as though it used to hold something.
"The technology here is unbelievable. It's like nothing I've ever seen before."
"Hah, well if we were in Akiridion-5 you would be even more amazed." He brought me over to the hovering table before letting go of my hand.
I looked around again, taking in the futuristic view of the room. It was just breathtaking and I could tell Olivia would flip if she was here. I sat up onto the table, it was surprisingly sturdy and didn't sway like a hammock how I thought it would.
Krel picked up what looked like a blueprint and some sort of technology orb next to me and began to fiddle with the orb in front of the empty space. He had the slightest smile on his face the whole time.
"So, what are you doing?"
"I'm working on building a new daxial array since nobody in this town seems to know what I'm talking about." He turned to look at me before going back to work.
"Is it like, an engine for your.. "mother"?" I asked, still confused about what to call this place.
"Precisely Ms. Phoenix." Mother piped up.
"You just eavesdrop don't you? And just call me Phoenix, I'm not fancy."
"Oh, little brother! Guess who came back!" We both looked at the door to see Aja holding a big, purple...dog?
"Phoenix, I'd like you to meet Luug!" She placed him down on the ground and he ran right over to Krel.
Krel knelt down and picked the alien dog up with his two remaining arms and walked over to me while talking baby to him. I found it highly amusing and adorable, it was so interesting to see a dog from a different planet. It only made me more curious about other life forms on different planets.
"You can pet him, you know." Krel smiled and infected me with the same smile. I raised my hand and began to hesitantly pet luug. He wasn't soft like a regular dog but instead was almost the texture of a fence lizard, like the ones you would catch outside your house.
Krel placed him back on the ground and went back to work. Aja was already fighting the mom blank and I was watching krel. The feeling of questions piled up inside me yet I didn't have any to ask at the moment. It was strange.
I looked down at the table and noticed the mind-reading glasses krel had made. They were still broken from Aja crashing into a pole, I guess he never got around to fixing them.
I picked up one of the halves and examined it, looking back at the other pieces, my mind put them together. Krel had every single piece of these glasses.
"I've been needing to fix those." He placed the stuff he was holding down and stood in front of me.
"Well, you should find time to. I'd love to test them out again." I placed the half down. Krel leaned against the table with an arm and his dark blue blush formed on his cheeks.
"You and me both."
It was then I realized how close we were to each other and my blush had formed. Aja's fighting sounds faded and I became lost in Krel's gaze.
"You know, I've been needing to tell you something."
"Okay? What is it?" My heart started racing.
"Um... Actually no, maybe not now because-" he chuckled.
I caught on to what he was talking about and my mind started to wander.
"Could you at least let me get one hit?" Aja exclaimed, sounding annoyed.
Krel pulled away, "Seklos, Aja, could you go a bit easier? The mother ship has sustained enough damage as it is." He rested a hand on his hip.
"Tell me about it." Mother replied.
I giggled in amusement.
"Ay, yi yi..." Krel sighed before turning to me again.
"Little brother! Phoenix! I got one in on the training blank!" Aja cheered before getting thrown across the room.
"This is why I pay attention to you." Krel crossed his arms. "You know Aja, if I was standing there like I was originally, you would've knocked me down too."
"Sorry. I just need to practice my combat skills."
"Why?" I tilted my head.
"Varvatos says Morando has hunters scouring the galaxy for us, and I want to protect mama and papa."
"So why not train with the glorious Varvatos Vex himself?" Asked krel.
"He said," she deepened her voice, " 'princesses are not warriors!' but I disagree."
"Since when are princesses not warriors? I know a long line of princesses who were warriors." I smiled proudly.
"You do?! Who are they?"
"Well I can't just name all of them, but let me introduce you to something called Disney™️ !" I proceeded to pull up a picture of the character Merida on my phone.
"She's so lively!" Aja clapped as she jumped up and down. "Your world is full of surprises."
"You know, if you would help me, Aja, maybe we could fix the daxial array, and Mama and Papa wouldn't take two Parsons to regenerate.
"Two Parsons?"
"What's a "parson"?" I asked
"A month." They both said in sync.
Well now I just felt attacked. I wish there was a way for me to help, this daxial array sounds amazing.
"The humans here have way too little knowledge necessary to build one." Krel pulled himself up next to me on the table.
"But you do little brother, and the Olivia probably has the knowledge to do so as well! What do you need to build an axial darray?"
"First of all, it's daxial array, Aja. Secondly, how do you know Olivia won't try testing on us? No offense Phoenix."
"None taken, I'm interested in where this is going."
He giggled, "Well then, Mother could you pull up the holoscreen?"
A hologram of the engine appeared in front of us.
"A standard issue daxial array is made up of these three main components." Krel proceeded to point to different areas of the hologram.
"A plutonium fuel cell, an osmic circuit, and a subspace manifold. It's all part of the propulsion system."
The way he explained everything made him sound all-knowing, it gave me that familiar fuzzy feeling just hearing him talk about the technology.
"Propulsion... Phoenix, do humans have propulsion systems in their cars?" Asked Aja.
"Maybe? What's a purple-shun anyways?"
Krel chuckled, "Propulsion is something used to push another thing forward. Like a car for instance."
"So you mean an engine?"
"No, if I'm correct, that is its own thing for your 'cars'."
Still not understanding anything but wanting to know more, I pulled out my phone and searched.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking up if cars have proper-shun... Purple- whatever systems. And yes, they do."
"Great! Now, where do we get a car?"
"Well-" I was then cut off by the voice of Mother.
"Humans require a license to drive. You will first need to go to driver's education. If my search results are correct, Phoenix should be old enough to drive."
"Hey, don't bring me into this. I've never gone to driver's education, and I won't anytime soon."
"Why does everything lead back to school?" Krel groaned.
"Why don't you want to drive, Phoenix?" Aja asked.
"I don't like the idea of it. But if you guys want to do so, they're holding a class at the school."
"When does it start?"
I pulled out my phone and checked to see what time it was currently.
"In an hour, I saw Eli sign up for it during school."
"Great, I can practice fighting more while we wait!"
"Well, while you do that, there is somewhere I'd like to show Phoenix." Krel slid off the table.
"There is?"
He nodded and offered me his hand. I held on and slid off the table.
"Have fun doing whatever you'll be doing!" Aja cheered.
I could tell she was embarrassing Krel with how tense he became. He continued to hold my hand and led me out of the room while Aja stayed to continue her training. As soon as the door shut behind us he let out a sigh.
"I'm sorry if my sister is acting a bit strange. She has been onto me recently."
"Onto you about what? The k-"
Krel placed a hand over my mouth, "Shh. Yes, that." He removed his hand from my mouth. "That's also what I need to talk to you about."
My heart dropped.
"But it's not anything bad! I mean, I enjoyed it!" He chuckled and held my hand tighter. "Obviously... There's something I'm not telling myself and I haven't been able to figure it out. These feelings are all so new and strange and-"
My thoughts kicked in again and without warning, I stood up on my toes and planted a kiss on his lips.
His expression became surprised and his adorable blush covered his face as he frantically looked around.
"A-aja could've seen that." He continued walking.
I realized how stupid that move was. I need to get control of myself.
"I'm sorry, my mind got the best of me again and-"
"It's alright! Besides... I like that you did that." The way we were both so open about it and yet so secretive. The fact we knew our feelings and haven't talked about it much.
He pulled me into another room and the door opened the same way as the last one. I looked around and it appeared to be dome-shaped with a transparent path that led into the middle. There was a giant circular glass on the front of the dome.
He walked me down the path and the glass faded into a beautiful purple galaxy of stars. A screen appeared as we stepped onto the middle platform as if it was a pressure plate.
"Mother, could you show us some pictures of Akiridion-5?"
"Of course my royal." Mother's voice replied.
"Since I can't take you there myself, I'll just show you pictures instead."
A hovering chair floated up from behind us and Krel offered for me to take the first seat. I sat down and it was surprisingly comfortable, although it was strange knowing I was hovering off the ground.
I looked up at the screen and the planet looked unreal. Krel climbed up beside me and pointed to one of the pictures.
"That is where I live."
Despite all the buildings looking similar to me, the one he lived in looked significantly bigger than the others and stood out.
"Is that a palace?" I asked.
"Yeah! Mother, show her the gardens! You'll love them, Phoenix!"
Picture of holographic-looking plants popped up, but they didn't look anything like earth plants. They were stunning and full of detail. As I was looking up at it, I could feel Krel staring at me.
It didn't bother me one bit, in fact I found it adorable.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I kept my gaze on the screen.
"Oh, right. Well, I don't know if it's different here, but for Akiridion's..." He trailed off.
I waited for a moment before turning to him. "What about it?"
He cleared his throat, Well uhm..."
His hesitation made me nervous, but I was confused about what he was trying to explain.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is... There's a limit for the kiss." He sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for Akiridion's... The seventh kiss... That actually um- it makes a baby."
I chuckled, that was a bit of an awkward topic. "Well then I'll just use them wisely." I looked back up at the screen that held a new picture.
"Well I don't even know what it would do since you're human but-"
"Krel."
"Yes?"
"It's okay. We'll get there when we get there. For now, tell me about Akiridion-5."
He sighed, he seemed even more nervous than I was. He wrapped two arms around me and we just looked at the pictures. He'd sometimes talk about them and whatnot.
It was nice.
3002 words!
After posting this I will be working on a few other stories I have. I'm thinking about making the schedule so I post a chapter on here once a week.
It's a trial and error at the moment but I hope it works out!
Also I really wanted to make art for this story but I didn't really have time so hopefully I'll make some art for another story! K thanks byeeee!