They all, very creatively, decided as one collective to name the pink alien Pink. Some of the others suggested Fuchsia or even Rose, but ultimately, they settled on the simpler option. A few humans, namely Zach and Skylar, who hadn't really seen Lilac's sporadic compassion for Viktor, insisted on calling her 'that alien' instead. Viktor couldn't really blame them. All they knew was that these aliens would beat the shit out of Viktor whenever the humans didn't cooperate. Hell, that's almost all Viktor knew, too.

Even Lilac's touch, which had been filled with kind intentions, had been extremely painful. He wondered what she was up to. He sort of hoped she didn't get thrown in jail as the others had. If they even had been.

But the vets had all been rather kind. They didn't grab Viktor by the collar roughly or hit him with leashes. Their ointment didn't cause agonizing amounts of pain. Plus, they had good food.

This pet store also had good food. Viktor was slowly but surely putting on some more weight. Even with the extra food, though, he was still pretty short, especially compared to everyone else. Near constant fighting and poor nutrition had really put a stunt on his growth. Not that was really going to be getting much taller. His growth spurts throughout his youth haven't garnered him more than a few inches at a time. He was still a rather short 5'6. His father had encouraged him, slapping him on the back and telling him that he had only shot up when he was eighteen. He told Viktor not to worry too much. It was easy for him to say, he towered over Viktor.

He felt a twinge of loss and grief in his chest, so fierce that he wanted to throw up. He needed to stop thinking about his dad. Plus, he was getting off track.

Pink had yet to yell at them or punish them at all. It had been a little over a day since they had gotten here. Viktor and the others, finally glad to be out of a small cage, had scoured nearly every inch of the small room they were in. Even if they were technically still in a cage, it was much better than any other one they had been in before, that was for damn sure. They had also decided to test their limits with the new alien. She seemed to be the sole owner of this place, despite it being so large. They hadn't seen any other aliens wandering around.

Currently, they were waiting for Pink to open the shop. The white sun was slowly creeping into the yellow sky, just breaking the horizon. Despite the comfort that was the humans' makeshift blanket fort (and really, it was only a blanket fort for Viktor. Sharing the blankets with all the others tended to leave a bit of a wide space of air for him in between them), they were all still hardwired to wake as soon as the sun rose. The arena always had odd hours, but they were always fed at dawn despite that. Lilac had never been the ones to feed them that early in the day, and as they all soon found out, the aliens that did feed them took a sick pleasure in banging on the cage doors to startle them awake. None of them had enjoyed that, so they started waking up at dawn.

They didn't have to wait for Pink long, as she soon bustled in through the front door, locking it behind her. She yawned loudly, standing still for a moment. One of the other animals, Viktor thought he heard the tell-tale hiss of one of those freaky club-tailed animals, yammered at her, and she startled into action.

Viktor was pressed up against the chain-link fence gate, along with Aiko and Ezekiel, peering out to watch. Truth be told, Viktor was only over here because he was starving. He groaned when he saw that she was tending to the other animals first. They seemed happy to see her, letting her pat their heads joyfully. He couldn't quite see all of the other half-walled rooms with animals, but he heard at least four doors open. That made their room number five.

Ezekiel groaned dramatically, watching Pink walk into another room. He had his arm resting on Viktor as if he were some human armrest. Every time Viktor managed to slap his arm off, the bigger man just put it back on. Viktor decided to pick and choose his battles, knowing that he'd definitely lose this one.

"C'mon, alien lady! I'm wasting away here!" Ezekiel yelled, which was lost over the cacophony of the other animal noises.

Aiko reached over Viktor to slap his shoulder. "You are so annoying. Those eardrums I have? They used to work until your squawking blew them out."

Ezekiel sighed wistfully, leaning heavily on Viktor. The teen thought his spine was going to crumple like a can under the older man's weight. "I have something else you could bl-"

"Oh-kay!" Viktor shouted, dropping out from under Ezekiel, which caused the man to lose his footing and stumble face first into the gate. Viktor covered his ears and announced that he was leaving, far away from here and this nasty conversation. His face was burning when he reached Pedro, who was chatting with Nikolas and Maeve. He'd wait for his food over here.

Pedro reached out and ruffled his hair playfully, scooting over to let Viktor sit next to him on the blanket. Viktor groaned in mortification as he asked, "Ezekiel trying to move in on Aiko, again?"

Before he could respond, Aiko stormed over in a huff. Ezekiel was cradling his eye and sporting a large grin. He shot a thumbs up at Pedro, who Viktor could feel physically rolling his eyes. Aiko sat down cross-legged next to Viktor and manhandled him away from Pedro to rest his head in her lap. Viktor let out a loud put-upon sigh for show. They had taken to babying him quite a bit, especially now that they weren't all separated by bars.

Viktor couldn't say he didn't enjoy it, though. Especially when Aiko's fingers started braiding his long ragged hair.

He idly listened to the group's conversation, especially now that everyone had joined the impromptu circle. He rarely got the chance to talk to Skylar or Zach, but they had some interesting stories that they told, in the cases of Pedro, Viktor, and Aiko, who had been too far away to hear them, and retold in the cases of the others, who had been close by. It was peaceful, here, he thought.

He held onto the hope that perhaps this could be forever, but he knew it wouldn't last.

Their conversation dropped all of a sudden, and Viktor opened his eyes. Aiko's hands stilled in his hair. He sat up hurriedly, craning his neck to see Pink standing at the entrance, a great bag of jerky at her feet. Viktor perked up. Food! Ezekiel the pig had eaten the last of the jerky last night.

The gate that stood over Viktor's head only came up to about halfway of Pink's torso. She quickly unlocked and opened it, dragging the bag behind her.

Viktor quickly leaped to his feet, followed by the others. They kept their distance from Pink, unwilling to go within reaching distance. Pink talked to them, waving her arms animatedly. She seemed to be unwilling to make them uncomfortable but was watching them closely. This was the first time she was in their small room. Surely, she must know that they were skittish around their kind since she kept her distance.

Viktor slipped behind Pedro, gripping the back of his shirt tightly. Pedro slung an arm around his neck, positioning his body so that it covered most of Viktor's. The motion attracted Pink's attention, which was already halfway on them, anyhow. Viktor felt his stomach twist as she looked over at them fully. She knelt in front of the bowls to fill them with jerky, so she was easily about their height. She held out her hands and talked quietly.

"Oh man, think she'll leave soon?" Ezekiel whispered, eyes glued to her hands. They were holding some of the jerky. "I am starving."

"Go over there and get some, then, macho man," Aiko said. She must still be pretty peeved.

"Hell, no," Ezekiel said. "I saw what they did to Viktor," he glanced apologetically at the teen, who was still hiding behind Pedro, "Pink would probably, like, beat me to death with jerky. Not a bad way to go, though."

"You're fuckin' crazy," Zach grumbled. His arms were crossed, hands fisted on each arm. He looked pissed that they were even in this situation. Viktor inched away from him, too. Only a little.

Viktor took a breath, squaring his shoulders. He straightened up and felt Pedro's arm fall from his shoulders. He stepped out from behind the man, taking a hesitant half-step forward.

"No way, kid," Pedro said, gripping his arm tightly.

"Do you really think a pet store owner is gonna beat their goods?" Viktor bluffed, feeling fear knotting his stomach. He didn't know why he felt he needed to do this, but he thought that it was the right thing for him. Maybe if he proved to himself that not all these aliens were bad, then he wouldn't be having nightmares or random freak outs. "Plus, I'm like a puppy to these guys, right?"

The vets and that one official alien had looked pretty enraptured with him, after all.

"That didn't stop them before," Aiko huffed. She was right. Viktor gnawed on his lip.

"I've gotta do this," he said, frowning and wiping his sweaty hands on his pants. Pink was still crouched across the room, jerky held loosely in her clawed hands. Viktor walked over before he lost his nerve, faintly aware of the rest of the humans following him at a sedated pace. They seemed unwilling to let him go alone, but at least they kept their distance.

Some of the humans had gotten monikers while in the arena, just as Viktor did. They had suspected that these names were probably nothing flattering, either. Only Viktor, Ezekiel and Aiko had gotten monikers from the crowd that stuck. The others had been advertised as humans, more than likely. Regardless, only having three names to worry about made everything a tad easier on the humans who were still unable to learn the language. Oftentimes, when the aliens started speaking, the grunts and clicks got muddled up and lost if one was trying to follow along to pick out different words. They had only managed to hold onto the ones that were repeated almost constantly. Like "Kohgrash," "kora," or, everyone's favorite:

"Norish, Kohgrash! Norish!" Pink said sweetly, shaking the food in her hand.

They had learned this quite late in their stay in the arena. Lilac usually hummed her way through feeding them, hardly speaking anything if at all. Sometimes, she would talk to Viktor quietly, standing outside his cell while he watched suspiciously. The other times she did talk around them were loud and abrasive, and only to the ringmaster when he was in the room. She had kept yelling norish and waving at the general area where they kept their food. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was saying.

Viktor found it a little funny that there were some matching words in their vocabulary. Norish was so similar to nourishment that it had taken them by surprise to hear a word they recognized. It helped that it almost meant the same thing, too.

Viktor, bent at the knees and ready to run, carefully took the jerky out of her hand, startling slightly as Pink let out a louder than usual laugh. She immediately quieted, talking softly afterwards. He had no idea what she was saying, only catching a few words, but it didn't matter much. He had his prize in his hands. He turned, keeping Pink in his peripherals, intent on going back to the humans to boast his prize. He ran smack into Aiko.

He yelled in surprise, stumbling backward. Her hand shot out to steady him by his shoulders, and he gave her a glare. "I could've dropped my jerky," he huffed, looking at the others as they came up behind her.

"We wanted food, too. You can't hog it all," Ezekiel sniffed.

"Says you," Aiko rolled her eyes. Pink was standing perfectly still as if she was trying not to breathe. The others eyed her with varying degrees of distrust. The only ones that ended up going forward to grab the jerky from her hands were Ezekiel and Aiko. She must have deemed it enough, because she left soon after. The dishes weren't full of jerky for much longer after that.

Viktor craved sweetness. It was an intense feeling. "I want a fruit or something. Hell, I'd even eat broccoli right now." He was sprawled out on the ground near the gate, Pedro and Aiko slouched against the walls beside him. He threw one of the balls up in the air, watching it float back down into his hands. It was some kind of magic, Viktor was sure of it. He didn't really care how it worked though, a bit too enraptured by it.

"Tell me about it," Pedro said, slapping down a yellow toy with a yell of triumph. They had managed to fish together enough of the same colored toys to make a 'card game.' Viktor wasn't too interested in it right now, but it worked kind of like the game War if he squinted. They hid their 'cards' behind a blanket to hide them from the other player. It didn't work too well. If someone craned their neck even slightly, they would see the colors that they had. Plus, considering there were like, fourteen colored toys, it didn't take too long to figure out what colors your opponent had. "I want strawberries."

Viktor sat up, absently listening to the card game and Aiko's curses. She sucked at card games. He tossed the ball higher with each throw. Eventually, he stood up, wanting to see if he could smack the ball into the ceiling. "Watch this," he said to the adults, kicking at Aiko's arm to grab their attention. He tossed the ball up as hard he could, hearing the loud smack of it against the ceiling. He grinned, watching it slowly float back down.

Only, he didn't manage to toss it perfectly straight in the air. It started floating to his left. Viktor watched with dismay as it landed on the other side of the gate. "No!" Viktor groaned, pressing his face against the chain link fence. "I liked that ball."

"Nice throw," Pedro laughed. Viktor slid to the floor in defeat, mournfully looking at his ball. He wondered if they had another one somewhere in the room.

His concentration on his out of reach ball was broken by a loud knock on the door. Viktor only just realized that he had yet to see a single alien in the building today. Wasn't this a pet store? He heard Pink shout something from the back room and a moment later, she came out and unlocked the door. She spoke rapidly as she opened it, but whoever was outside the door must have shocked her, because she cut herself off. Viktor frowned, standing on his toes to get a better angle.

He turned around to motion for the others to come over and soon enough, they were all crowded by the gate. Viktor was up at the front. He saw Pink give a short bow to whoever was outside the building and gestured for them to come in. He blinked in surprise when he saw that it was the same official-looking alien from the vet's clinic. He wasn't the only one to make this connection as he heard several of the others take sharp breaths.

Pink gestured and explained the other rooms but the tall alien cut her off with a toothy smile and pointed over to the room where Viktor and the others were. The two looked over, making direct eye contact with the group. Viktor saw Pink give another short bow, say what he thought must be the tall alien's name, and lead him over.

Nervousness filled him. Viktor hoped nothing awful was about to happen.

***

Vocabulary:

kora: bad or naughty, a light scolding

norish: food