She stood silent, wondering if she truly wanted to know the answer to that. "Are you still being forced to keep me here?" She whispered.
"I was never forced to bring you here, Shima."
She turned to look up at him, catching her breath when she realized how much closer to her he had come. "No?" She whispered.
"They would not let you stay in the medical tent so I chose to bring you here."
She felt like there was a little more to that story, but also felt like he wasn't lying to her. She wasn't sure what to think.
"I'm not... I don't know..." she shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "...why? Why do you help me? You were angry when you brought me here, I know you were. You keep getting frustrated with me. I..." She paused. Any moment now her resolve would break and the tears would flow yet again. Before she crash landed on this planet she always considered herself level headed, now she was an emotional roller coaster. It was exhausting.
"Yes. I was angry." She tensed at his words, sucking in a breath. "But for reasons I can't yet explain to you. You wouldn't understand them yet. You have much to learn." He stood next to her now, placing his hand on the back of the chair that was beside her. "And yes, you did things that frustrated me, and I would also get frustrated at this whole situation on occasion, but I was never angry at you. Especially not now, not since we..."
He paused and she wasn't sure if it was because he didn't know what to say or because he stopped himself from saying it. She slowly and timidly turned to look up at him, finding that he was already staring at her. "Since....?" She urged him to continue.
He cleared his throat and took a step away from her. "You proved yourself to be somewhat useful, and not entirely cumbersome." He looked away from her and brought out two plates, forks, and cloth napkins.
"Are you saying I'm growing on you, Kietnan?" she smiled.
"I do not know what this "greo-wing on you" means. Explain."
She chuckled low and shook her head. "Let's try your food before it gets too cold." She scooped a helping into each of their plates before she sat, motioning for him to sit as well.
She poked a chunk of meat with her fork and took a bite. Before she could think better of it, a loud, low moan escaped her lips as she closed her eyes in content bliss. "Kietnan, that is..." she finished the piece and swallowed. "That is really, really good." She said softly, savoring the flavor in her mouth.
She opened her eyes, stabbing another piece with her fork and bringing it to her mouth before pausing midair. She looked over at Kietnan, who hadn't touched his food. His hand was clenching his fork and he was staring down at her, his entire body looked tense.
She tried to place the look on his face as she slowly brought the fork the rest of the way into her mouth, she was deep in thought as her mouth slowly wrapped around the piece of meat and pulled the fork out from between her lips, all the while holding his stare. When she heard a quiet but deep growl like sound move its way from his chest to his throat, recognition hit her like a brick. She dropped her fork with a clang on the table and quickly looked down, following its movement. Oh my... did I just. Does he think I did that on purpose?! Wait... did he... did he like it?
She dared a quick glance in his direction but quickly returned her eyes to the table when she saw he was still staring at her, still tense. She grabbed her water mug and guzzled for a few seconds, suddenly in desperate need for refreshment. She sat the mug back down at the table and stared at it for a moment. She sensed no movement from him but was afraid to look in his direction again.
Every muscle in her body clenched when his fingertips brushed her face. "What is this?" He whispered.
"My... my face? My cheek?" She brought her hand up to it.
He shook his head slightly. "Your skin changes color sometimes." He said as if in pure fascination. "Yet you do not seem ill. Is it an action you control? What is its purpose?"
She felt her face blush even more. "N-no." She said, barely audible. "It doesn't happen willingly. I can't control it."
"Why does it happen? You have done it more than once."
"I..." what could she say? "It happens when I'm embarrassed." She looked away.
"What is... em-bee-are-ess'd?"
She shook her head and bit her bottom lip again, looking down at her hands in her lap.
"Ah."
Ah? As in 'ah, I see?' She glanced up at him and the corners of his lips were turned up into one of his rare smiles. Ah, he did see, then.
She cleared her throat. "You don't smile often."
He frowned. "It is not something we do in excess, no."
"Why not?" She tilted her head, curious.
"It is..." he tilted his head as well, as if not sure of the answer. "As I said earlier, we do not show strong emotions regularly. That is not normal for us as I have witnessed it seems to be normal for you."
"I've seen your people show anger and frustration quite willingly. Are those not considered strong emotions here?"
He raised his nonexistent eyebrows at her before pressing them together and frowning.
"I'm sorry, I am just curious, not judgmental."
He huffed and stabbed a chunk of meat with his fork, chewing it aggressively. She found herself hiding another smile.
"How is it you only eat meat, yet you have flat teeth and are so small and weak?"
She had begun eating again but calmly set down her fork, swallowed her food and turned to face him with a pleasant expression on her face.
"First, Kietnan." She said his name as if she was scolding a child and the stony expression on his face faltered a bit. "Many of my people are much stronger than I am, yet many are also weaker. However, we are perfectly capable people. We have technology and tools and weapons that allow us to hunt any wild game we desire."
He nodded slowly yet skeptical. Likely having to piece together her meaning through a broken up translation.
"Secondly." She said firmly and she almost thought she saw him flinch. "Why do you assume I only eat meat?"
His face turned confused and he opened his mouth but she didn't give him a chance to speak. "Because I was only willing to eat the dried meat out of all the other items you offered me?"
He nodded. "You were scared to try the root vegetable."
"Yes, Kietnan. I was scared. I am scared. I have been scared for the past... oh I don't know 8 days?" She sighed. "I crash landed on this planet, of which I have zero knowledge. That isn't limited to language. I don't know what is safe for me to eat. A plant that is safe for you could be poisonous to me. I simply felt the meat was the safest option, the one least likely to result in a very unpleasant death."
He winced at her words and nodded in understanding.
"But no, my species is not made to survive on meat alone. In fact, some choose to eat no meat at all. I actually couldn't continue to only eat meat, even if you did provide more of it. Thank you for that, by the way." She placed her hand on his arm. "It really means so much to me. Thank you." He looked down at her hand on his arm.
She removed her hand, placing it in her lap and continued. "I do need other nutrients and vitamins in addition to the ones meat provides."
"This is why we drink from the jars."
"Each jar provides a specific nutrient or vitamin or purpose your body needs?"
He nodded.
"Interesting." She nodded in return and sighed. "I picked the orange colored root vegetable because it looked a lot like something we have on Earth. Oh, that's where I'm from. My planet is called Earth. And I am a human."
"Earth, human." He repeated, she presumed in an effort to remember the words.
"Yes. Well, thankfully I didn't seem to develop any bad effects from ingesting the vegetable. So we've found at least one I can eat safely." She smiled and let out a dry laugh.
The weight of everything pushed down on her again. She had so many things she wanted to talk to him about but she was suddenly feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted from the day she'd had. They ate the rest of their meal in silence before he stood and took their plates to the wash basin. She returned the water pitcher to its place and then brought the mugs to him at the basin before retrieving the pot as well.
She returned to her cot and changed into her pajamas under the blankets, as she'd done every night previously, before standing and putting her clothes into the dirty clothes basket. She would love to bathe but her body tensed at the memory of watching Kietnan bathe earlier and she decided against it.
She turned, finding Kietnan sitting the now clean dishes on a towel to dry. "Kietnan?" She asked and he turned to look at her. "Will you be leaving again in the morning, or will you be staying with me again?"
"With you."