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I yawned, scrubbing my free hand down my face before taking a swig from my steaming travel mug of chai tea. The Elora Station levels whizzed by as my hover-vator zoomed upwards towards floor 1200.
Should have made some golden milk...
Orc-Orokish golden milk wasn’t the golden milk humans were used to. No, instead of a turmeric-spiced drink, Orc-Orokish golden milk was our version of coffee. Highly caffeinated, the yellow beans were much stronger than what humans used for coffee. I preferred the taste of chai, purchased from a human spice shop on the station, but considering my lack of sleep, I should have gone for the golden milk today.
I took another sip of chai and then grinned to myself. Lack of sleep be damned. I had a good reason for it today.
I was going to see Maggie.
Portal of the moons, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the pretty, clever human next door. It currently was just after 11am station time, and I would have gotten to her sooner, but I’d had to rush around getting things ready for the pub earlier. I’d had to check in with some of our vendors, something I normally would have done between 10am and our opening hour of noon. But I’d gotten up at a blasphemously early hour to get it done quickly. And considering I hadn’t slept until after 3am, I was starting to feel the effects.
I grinned again, straightening my shoulders and tossing my freshly tied braid behind me. Who cared if I was tired? I was a strong and virile orc. This was nothing. Especially if it meant spending time with Maggie.
I liked her. I really did. I didn’t bother trying to deny it or reckon with it as the hover-vator came to a buzzing stop at my level. I’d never been the type to deny or ignore reality. The reality was that, so far, Maggie had proved to be an enchanting, infatuating new neighbour.
And I didn’t plan to let this go.
Whether she felt the same remained to be seen. We’d only just met, after all. But that was why I was walking briskly to her shop right now. To win her over with my manual labour and ample charms. Hopefully.
Maybe I should have left the shirt behind again, I thought, frowning slightly to myself as I joined the crowds of tourists and shoppers. There was no denying the appreciative glances Maggie had given my bare torso and arms last night. Well, I can always take it off again if the situation calls for it.
I’d opted for my usual work attire – black trousers and a soft, stretchy, tight black T-shirt fashioned from willow-soft Hadorian cotton. As I crossed the final distance to Maggie’s shop, I ran dozens of questions inside my own brain-bowl. Wondering what she was doing, how she was feeling his morning, if she was tired, too, if she was stiff from sleeping on the floor last night. I wondered how she’d perceive me, and the feeling was a slightly unnerving one. I couldn’t remember the last time I truly worried what someone else would think of me.
But I worried now.
Definitely should have left the shirt behind. That way if she were to find me lacking in any way, I could make up for it with a flex of bare muscles...
I was about to whip the shirt off over my head when I caught a glimpse of who was in her shop.
It wasn’t Maggie.
It was a male.
My hackles rose at the sight of him, yet another unfamiliar feeling. I was known to be a friend to any and all, so long as they were good-natured enough. So why the sudden tension radiating down the column of my back?
You know why. Because he’s in Maggie’s shop. Because he got here before you did. Because he’s presumably been with her all morning while you were not. Because he’s just a little taller and broader of shoulder than you...
The man heard my approach, spinning with silent, dextrous power. I recognized him instantly. He, too, was one of my neighbours. I’d never spoken to him, but he stood out. He was the only chimera who lived on the station, as far as I knew. A hulking, snouted, horned behemoth of an ex-soldier from one of the most powerful and dangerous empires in the known universe.
He also, I knew, was married to a sweet-faced human woman. I’d seen them together, along with their child, many times around here. The glint of a black metal matrimonial band on his left hand caught my eye.
See. You are being absurd, Archie Mountainbound. He’s married. And if he’s a friend to Maggie, he’s a friend to you, too.
“Greetings,” I called into the space as I walked towards the chimera. His blazing yellow gaze narrowed for a moment, then he gave a nod and grunted something I assumed must have been a reply.
Not the conversational sort, it seems. Ah, well! I can converse well enough for the both of us.
I placed my mug of chai on the ground and then came to a stop before the chimera.
“I’m Archie Mountainbound. I’m the hall-father of the pub next door, The Middle’s Guardian. And I’m a friend of Maggie’s.” That last part came out a little more insistent than I’d meant it to. A little more possessive. I felt the odd need to assert my right to be here.
I’d never felt the need to assert such a right anywhere before. I’d just... Gone. Forged my way forward into any world or place before me.
But here, in Maggie’s shop, under the watchful gaze of the chimera warrior, I felt myself slightly widening my stance, as if planting myself in place.
“I’m X,” the horned ex-warrior said. “My wife, Sophie, and I run Hallowed be thy Bean. It’s a coffee shop down the way.”
So he can talk, then.
I stuck out my hand, grinning and nodding at him to take it. Shaking hands was largely a human custom, but having been aboard the human-run Elora Station for so long, I’d adopted it quite naturally. X gave another low grunt and took my hand.
“Ha! What a grip, my friend,” I said, grinning wider and slamming my other hand over his, pumping it wildly in an enthusiastic shake.
“Perfectly average, I’m sure,” he said with a slight shrug of his beefy shoulders when I let go.
I laughed heartily. Now that some of the tension between us was easing (largely due to X being married, that fact branded on the inside of my brain-bowl) I decided I liked the growly, grumpy chimera. There was decidedly nothing average about him, I was sure. And yet there didn’t seem to be any false humbleness in his words. I got the sense he just didn’t really care about how strong he was. Which rather made sense, considering he’d taken a job aboard Elora Station after his term in the Chimera Guard. Most other chimeras, from what I’d heard, ended up as mercenaries or bodyguards or things like that after their time as soldiers was done. And here, X had taken up a post as a coffee shop owner, married to a human, with a round-faced toddler.
Definitely not average.
“Oh!”
The sound made behind me made me spin.
There she was. Looking even lovelier than my memory had painted her.
The grin that had split my face with X softened as my heart beat out a loopy rhythm in my chest. Like me, Maggie was wearing tight black trousers, the soft fabric stretched across the expanse of her shapely thighs. Strong legs. I inhaled sharply through my nose, suddenly unable to shake the question of what those thighs would feel like around me, straddling, squeezing...
Her shirt was also a T-shirt style, hers red instead of black. Her dark curls were tied atop her head, the station’s bright lights catching on individual spiralled strands, making them gleam like spun bronze. I was very glad to see she looked well-rested – her smooth brown skin glowing, her long-lashed eyes shining, her full lips pulling into a smile at the sight of me.
“You’re here!” she said, her brows rising slightly.
“Of course,” I said, much more quietly than I’d intended. Much more quietly than I usually spoke. As if she and I were alone in a secluded, silent place. “I said I would help. And,” I turned slightly to clamp my hand down on X’s shoulder, “can’t have X here tiring himself out doing all the hard work now, could I?”
Maggie snorted, shaking her head, as X quirked his heavy brow at me.
“I imagine you got home pretty late last night,” Maggie said. “I know it’s not that early, but still... Did you get enough rest?” Maggie’s smile faltered slightly, and she looked at me appraisingly. I let my hand fall from X’s shoulder, raising my chin.
“Slept like an Ork-Orokish valley bear in winter!” I exclaimed, even though it wasn’t true. It spoke to her kindness that she was worried about my rest. But she needn’t have been. My tiredness had entirely evaporated at the sight of her. Instead, anxious energy flooded my limbs. My fingers twitched, ready to grab onto something to haul it over my shoulders. It would keep my fingers from doing what they actually wanted to do.
Which was to skim across the curves of Maggie’s cheekbones.
“Just tell me what to do,” I said, placing my needy hands behind my back.
“Well, I figured we’d clear out all this rubbish first.” She jerked her chin towards a large pile of debris near the front area of the shop. “Then we can start painting. If you guys have time to stick around for that, that is.”
“I do,” I said quickly. The Middle’s Guardian was, as Penny had requested, well-staffed today. They’d get by the first chunk of the shift without me.
Maybe X will need to go to work soon. Maybe then it could be just me and her...
“I can stay, too,” came the rather infuriating growl from beside me, dashing my fantasy to little bits.
Ah, well. Three of us would make the work go faster. Maggie needed this place ready before Christmas. That’s what’s important here.
It was then that I noticed the hover-cart in the air behind Maggie. She stepped aside to give us a better view.
I felt my brows rise in shock at the sight of the paint supplies she’d brought.
No doubt X felt the same way.
“Didn’t even know they sold paint tech as ancient as this,” he said.
The cart was piled with cans of paint as well as brushes and rollers.
Maggie sighed. “Yeah. Would be faster and easier to use the nano-tech. But even just to rent the bots for it was pretty pricey. This was the most economical solution.”
I nodded. Most paint jobs these days were done by small robots that roved over the walls, their internal nano-bots laying a perfect, even layer of paint as they went.
“You know Sophie and I would have pitched in for the cost,” X said from beside me, more gently than I would have assumed him capable of.
Me too! I would have pitched in! I’ll go buy you a hundred robots if you need them! I longed to say the words. But when I saw the way Maggie’s mouth thinned into a line, I was glad I hadn’t spoken.
“That’s OK. Thank you. But you guys are already doing enough,” she said firmly. A wave of admiration for this determined human woman rolled through me. She was going to make this work on her terms, and I couldn’t have been more impressed.
Her iron will lent me a stout limb-hardness. I leaned down beside her, catching a whiff of the sweet scent of her. I grasped a roller and a can of paint, hoisting them up into the air with a wide smile.
“I’m ready. Let’s go!”