Chapter 137: Fresh Hell
"You approve?" asked Midnight, tilting his head to study me.
"Why not? You said it yourself that when they were on their own planet, it wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t until they were forced into space that they had to adapt. Besides, it is the best of both worlds," I replied, not seeing anything wrong with it.
"The larvae eat the host alive," pointed out Midnight.
"And you like your meat raw... is there that much of a difference?" I asked with a smile.
"At least mine is dead before I eat it," grumbled Midnight, turning back to his steak and taking a big bite.
"And because of that, your meat tends to go rotten quicker, making it almost impossible to eat from the same source for any length of time," I shrugged, still not seeing a problem. "And they are making money off of something that they would naturally be doing. Seriously, that is incredibly smart and resourceful," I continued. It was always better to work with smart people than dumb ones.
"Huh," grunted Midnight, digging into the mashed potatoes on his plate. "You do have a point," he acknowledged.
"I know," I said with a nod. I always had a point. "How is your meal?"
"The meat is good," conceded Midnight, "But I am not a big fan of these things," he added, pushing his potatoes around the plate.
"Good to know. We’ll have to get more meat on board if you are going to be staying any length of time," I grunted, picking up the touchpad and making some notes about the supplies I wanted to pick up the next time we were at a space station.
"Speaking of me staying," hedged Midnight, pushing aside his plate and gingerly taking the touchpad from my hands. He quickly tapped on it a few times before handing it back to me. "I was hoping that I might be able to be a permanent member of your crew," he continued, not quite meeting my gaze.
The ears on the top of his head drooped down a bit, looking a lot more like a puppy than I am sure he wanted to. Trying to hold back my laugh, I cleared my throat. "Are you sure you are okay getting into this whole thing with me? I feel like I should give you a long list of disclaimers before you agree to anything," I said, trying to get my thoughts in gear.
"And what are these disclaimers of yours?" he asked, his ears erect again and his head cocked to the side.
"I have no idea what I am doing," I said, starting with the most obvious one and the one that was bugging me the most. "I wasn’t great at relationships on Earth. We are also a monogamous society, so the idea that I might have more than one mate is causing me to be stressed," I continued, figuring it was always best to get everything on the table at the start. He had already been tricked into being chosen thanks to the Sisalik manipulating my genes; I didn’t want him to have any hard feelings.
"You will have more than one mate," chuckled Midnight as a second plate appeared in front of him, and the bot quickly took away our dirty dishes. "There is no ’might’ about it."
"You seem so sure," I huffed.
"On this, I am," he said with a smile. "And it will be fine," he assured me. "What is the next disclaimer?"
"I don’t know how I will react to you being in my space for an extended period of time," I answered, moving on from potential mates to the next thing on my list.
"What do you mean?" he asked, studying me.
"I mean, I don’t know if I will turn clingy because you are always around or hate your guts because you won’t leave me alone," I shrugged like it was no big deal.
"I am personally hoping that you become clingy... but am willing to do and be whatever you need me to be as long as you let me stay with you. Being apart from you is... painful. My skin starts to itch, and my temper flares," he said, taking in a deep breath.
"So, neither one of us knows what we are doing, but we are willing to be open to communication to make sure that we both have what we need from the other?" I clarified, okay with that outcome.
"Works for me," he replied, digging into his steak. This time, there were no mashed potatoes or vegetables of any kind on his plate. "I just have one more question."
"Shoot," I replied, adding meat to the list of supplies that I wanted to grab next time I could.
"Where am I sleeping?" he asked, looking at me with a smirk on his face.
"Where do you want to sleep?" I answered, not too sure what he was trying to ask with that question.
"With you."
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"I need you to do me a favor," growled Midnight into his personal communication device after Mei Xing went back to the ’library’ to do some more research.
"Of course, Alpha. Are you incapable of wooing your mate and need my guidance on the matter?" smirked Silver from where he sat in the captain chair of the Njeriuujk warship Deadly Goes The Hunter.
"No," sneered Midnight. "I need you to get in contact with your source and find out where we can find a Hive ship."
"You want to find an actual ship? Not just an assassin, but a whole ship?" demanded Silver, no longer joking around. "You know they don’t like interacting with males, or have you been rejected and are seeking death?"
"For the last time, I have not been rejected. And it is my mate that wants to find The Hive ship, not me," sighed Midnight as he followed the bot to the room where Mei Xing agreed to let him sleep in. Apparently, she was willing to share the room, but he was to take the bed and leave her nest alone.
"Fine, I’ll see what I can do. But I make no promises," growled Silver, wondering what fresh hell they managed to find themselves in now.
