Viktor and Vok'Rul left not long after that, and after a short goodbye with Pedro, they were on their way back to the mansion. As soon as they got into the limo, Vok'Rul insisted on cuddling him instead of letting him sit on the floor like usual. Viktor put up a show of being annoyed, but he could admit that it soothed some of the betrayal he still felt about Vok'Rul leaving him with Blacksmith.

As much as he enjoyed Pedro's company, he sincerely hoped that he wouldn't need to go back to his place. Blacksmith made him uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, it was probably unlikely. Despite Viktor between his arms and limiting his movement significantly, Vok'Rul didn't let that stop him from looking up stuff on his phone. Viktor tried to follow along but without even realizing that they were looking at electronics until ten minutes of staring at the hologram, he decided that he probably wouldn't have much luck. But from the look of things, Vok'Rul's interest in whatever device they were building hadn't diminished because of Blacksmith's actions.

They made it to the mansion without any disasters happening - Viktor didn't like to think about car crashes, but when he was unsecured in a moving vehicle, he couldn't help but think of the worst - and Vok'Rul carried him all the way back to their wing. Some staff members trailed behind him, intent on removing his jewelry. They must have been waiting around for a while because they seemed to converge on the alien the moment he placed Viktor on the stairwell and told him to stay with a fervent eagerness that made the human a little wary.

Still, they were staff members that would have surely been vetted thoroughly by both Rukka and Vok'Rul, so he tried not to worry.

It was a little easier than it had been the day before. And while Viktor knew that he had other issues to work through, he did not want to deal with this separation anxiety anymore. It was nauseating.

The next morning, he woke up with a plan in mind and determination to go through with it. Vok'Rul woke him up as he normally did, with a yawn and a pat on the head. Instead of immediately getting up and following him to the office, though, Viktor stayed in the bedroom, fiercely resolved to be separate from the alien for a few minutes. He had been away from him for hours; he could do ten minutes.

He managed to count all the way to eight minutes before he started overthinking about the silence coming from the rest of the wing.

The rest of the day was spent following the same pattern. He tried his best to stay away from Vok'Rul, which was a little hard considering they lived together, but he gave it his all. The alien didn't need to do any political dealings today, so he stayed primarily in his office, tapping his fingers against his desk while he studied the papers.

Viktor had the brilliant idea of going to visit Thruul while the alien was working. It was hard leaving the alien at first, but if he wasn't safe in his office, where else would he be? As soon as he got down the stairs, it was easier to walk across the mansion. Thruul had given him a cut of meat (raw, unfortunately. Viktor buried it in the first plant he saw), and Viktor had made his way back to the office without any other issue.

He cheerfully waved at the guards scattered around the mansion. They all just looked blankly at him in return.

As the week ended, Vok'Rul had to go to yet another event. Viktor, who had been spending longer and longer stretches of time away from him, grit his teeth against the small panic threatening to swell into a much larger issue than it was. Thankfully, it seemed like Vok'Rul wasn't going to drop him off at Blacksmith's again, though he was watching him warily, likely for any signs of another panic-induced tantrum.

But Viktor simply stood stiffly on the stairwell, watching other aliens line his body with silver jewelry. Whenever Vok'Rul glanced at him, he would smile, lips closed in a half grimace. It wasn't until the aliens left the room and Vok'Rul started moving that Viktor was off the stairs and by Vok'Rul's side in the blink of an eye.

"Neyk, Kohgrash," Vok'Rul said gently, untangling Viktor's fingers from his clothing (when did he grab him?) "Kor," he said something else, then. He didn't hear the words denoting Blacksmith's name, so at least he wasn't going to be carted off there, no matter how much he missed Pedro.

"Teyk," Viktor agreed hesitantly, shoving down the urge to grab onto the alien's clothing again. "Okay. I'm staying. Right here."

When Vok'Rul took a few steps without Viktor following him, the alien hesitated for a second. He quickly patted Viktor on the head, murmured something else, and left the wing.

Viktor lurched forward before he caught himself, quickly turning on his heel and pushing a chair against the window. He managed to get it against the glass and clamber up it just in time to see Vok'Rul leaving the mansion and ducking into the limo. Viktor watched him leave, staring at the empty road for a long while after he had gone.

He clapped his hands together, just to make some noise in the quiet room. It was very loud.

"What to do, Viktor," he muttered to himself. What did he usually do when Vok'Rul was gone?

He had slept, mostly, in the beginning. Catching up on what his body had lacked for nine months in a much safer environment than his cell in the arena had been most of his days. Exploring the mansion on the days that he didn't sleep. Generally, though, Vok'Rul had taken him with him on most occasions. The school, that meeting... He hadn't needed to find something to fill his days, it had usually been filled for him.

He wandered up to the office, wincing slightly at the pain in his arm. It had swollen back up a little, but he still hoped that Vok'Rul wouldn't take him back to the vet. Now that he had tasted freedom without a cast, he was loathe to get it back on.

Well, he decided, hands on his hips and peering at the desk. Maybe he could finally make his English-to-alien dictionary he's been wanting to work on.

He did just that. Finding scraps of paper that didn't look important was rather easy - Vok'Rul had an entire stack of blank pages in one of the desk drawers he had opened - and finding a pen was less so. He search for nearly twenty minutes before he found one, buried under the massive mess the alien kept on his desk.

God, this alien was messy. No wonder he had so many staff looking after him.

Figuring out how to use the pen took an embarrassingly long time, but he eventually figured it out. He had no idea how their words were spelled in their language, so he decided that the best course of action was to scribble down how they sounded.

It went pretty well, he thought. By the end of the hour, he had a long list of words and their meanings. He had definitely forgotten a few, but he shoved the paper (and the pen - Vok'Rul wouldn't miss it. And if he did, he'd probably blame it on his lack of organization before looking at Viktor) underneath his bed, carefully hidden.

He wasn't sure if Vok'Rul would take it away or not. On one hand, it was proof that Viktor could use tools. He was pretty sure that was a classification of intelligence back on Earth or something. It could go a long way in helping out the whole 'I'm actually from a sentient species' argument.

But on the other hand...

He really needed that dictionary. Like really badly. So hiding it under his bed it was.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a call of "Kohgrash!" interrupted his stealth mission of sneaking the paper under his bed. Then he cursed himself for his idiocy. This was his house! He didn't need to be sneaking around.

The call came from down the stairs, and after hastily shoving the incomplete dictionary under his bed, he peered over the stairwell skeptically. Thruul was standing at the bottom, with a wide cheerful smile crossing his face. The shadows of the stairwell were thrown over his face. Viktor quickly blinked the ringmaster out of his vision, stomach rolling queasily.

"What?" he said, loosening his grip on the decorative spikes of the railing. He took a deep breath.

Thruul immediately launched into a monologue, gesturing for him to come here (that Viktor had to look away from, lest he throw up) and disappearing from view. Despite his hesitations about the alien, Viktor was bored, so he complied, crawling down the stairs halfway. Viktor sat on one of the steps, swinging his feet slightly as he watched Thruul pull out his regular cooking supplies.

"Norish?" Viktor asked, confused. Who was he cooking for? Had Vok'Rul given him permission to use all his stuff to make food for himself?

"Teyk," Thruul replied, cooking whatever it was with alarming speed. If Viktor didn't know any better, he'd be totally convinced that the alien had an extra pair of arms with the way he was moving around the kitchen.

"For who?" Viktor asked, despite expecting no answer. Thruul threw him a smile - and Viktor only just now realized that Vok'Rul must've taught him what smiling meant to humans - and said nothing.

Viktor sighed, settling in to watch the alien cook. It was similar to how anyone would cook on Earth. Less fire, though. Maybe the stove used electricity instead?

Eventually, Thruul finished up whatever he was cooking. The smell slowly filled the entire room, and Viktor was starting to get hungry. A sad look at Thruul had him tossing a small piece of meat to him, though. What a sucker.

Tasted like chicken.

Curiously, Thruul started dishing the food - some soup that was more meat than soup - into four bowls. Viktor tilted his head in silent question, brows scrunching together slightly. He wondered who was going to eat it all.

Viktor followed Thruul into the dining room, watching idly as he perfectly placed bowls and cutlery in the spots where Vok'Rul and his family usually sat. Surely, Thruul wasn't going to use this place for his friends to eat? Viktor didn't know much about the politics of this planet, nor the customs, but he was pretty sure using your boss's furniture to host your friends was considered rude on every planet.

Crossing his arms, he sternly looked up at Thruul. "What are you doing?" he asked, frown twisting his features.

Thruul said something, reaching down to pat his head. Viktor quickly stepped out of reach. The alien let out a little huff, but let him go. He walked over to the stairwell, walking up a few steps before he gestured for Viktor to come here with a call of "pora!"

Viktor looked at him skeptically but figured that the alien was probably going to give him some food, now, so he decided it couldn't hurt. He glanced back at the bowls of soup sitting on the table. "What about the food?" he asked, pointing at them.

"Pora, Kohgrash," Thruul just repeated, a bit more firmly this time. His eyes kept flickering over to the doorway, and he had a concerned expression plastered on his face. Viktor started to get a bad feeling.

"What is your deal-" he started to say, stepping over to the stairwell in confusion when he heard movement outside of the wing. The familiar twinkle of jewelry washed away any confusion and replaced it with light happiness. Vok'Rul was back!

He jogged toward the front of the wing, ignoring Thruul's desperate calls, grinning. Vok'Rul entered the wing not a moment later, seeming a bit surprised that Viktor was there.

Which was stupid. He lived here.

"Hello!" he said, flinging his arms around the alien's legs in an uncharacteristic show of affection. Vok'Rul rumbled, quickly picking up Viktor and pressing his jewelry-covered face against the top of Viktor's head. "Ouch, you're pointy."

"Byr'kn Thruul, Kohgrash," Vok'Rul said in lieu of a greeting, voice stern. Go with Thruul, Viktor quickly translated, frowning at the alien.

"What? Why?" he asked. He heard Thruul come up behind him, and he quickly wrapped his arms around Vok'Rul's neck, hissing out, "If you hand me over to him, I'll freak out. I am so serious," as the alien shifted his hold on Viktor.

The alien must've gotten the gist because he started to put Viktor on the ground instead. "Byr," he said firmly, pointing at Thruul.

The slight hurt that was developing between his ribs at being shooed away like an annoying animal was trumped by confusion at his request. He didn't have to wonder why the alien was trying to get him to go away for much longer because three aliens entered the room a second later.

Rukka came in first, dressed as nicely as she had been when they had gone to that meeting. She had some jewelry on her, but it was minimal and nothing to the amount that Vok'Rul had on him. The second alien that came in was unfamiliar. It was smaller than Rukka and Vok'Rul by a couple of feet. It had a short, broad tail and an even broader face. It looked pretty grumpy. The third alien that came in-

Viktor went rigid as Lilac stepped into the room, flanked by a few of the guards. Her eyes met his almost immediately, and she smiled, awkwardly, as if she hadn't made much use of those muscles in her face recently. It slid off her face when she realized he wouldn't return it. She looked the same as she did when she had visited here before. The same thick, heavy-looking bracelet clasped around her wrist, the same familiar clothing framing her small figure.

Viktor wanted to throw up.

"Kohgrash'mrr'k," Vok'Rul said, voice distorted like he was underwater. Lilac's face grew complicated - amused and bewildered at the same time - at the pet name. Viktor kept his eyes on her. She shifted slightly, from one foot to the other, and he flinched violently, arms halfway up before he stilled.

Emotions started to come back to him, then, nearly knocking him off his feet with the intensity of them. Lilac was in his house, in the only place of safety he had on this planet.

"No," he whimpered, barely able to get the word past the lump in his throat. His breathing was frantic, and he's not had a panic attack this intense in a month and a half. "No."

"Tas tih, tas tih," Vok'Rul whispered in his ear. Hands wrapped around his midsection, and Viktor was hitting the weak part of their wrists before he realized it was just Thruul. To the alien's credit, he didn't flinch or drop Viktor.

Viktor stumbled out an apology in between the gasps of breath he managed to get into his lungs. Thruul and he were halfway up the stairs before Viktor jolted back to his senses. There was no way he was going to let Lilac be in a room with Vok'Rul, no matter how many bodyguards there were.

"Thruul," he wheezed, trying to loosen his grip on the alien's hands - he was carrying him awkwardly - and twisted around in his hold, "Kohgrash kor'kn Vok'Rul. I - I need to stay."

"Neyk," Thruul denied him, grip tightening marginally. Viktor couldn't look at his face, too afraid that he would see the ringmaster in his stead and regress back into his panic. It was shimmering under his skin, underneath the forced calm that had washed over him.

"Yes," he stressed the syllable, gritting his teeth against the wave of frustration. He pushed his foot against the railing of the stairs, making the alien pause and waver awkwardly on the step at the sudden resistance. Viktor let his knee bend slightly before he pushed himself back with sudden force. Thruul was much shorter than Vok'Rul, and there was less of a drop to the ground than Viktor expected when he managed to twist out of the surprised alien's grip.

"Kohgrash!" he heard Thruul hiss and stomp after him as he rushed down the stairs.

"Stop chasing me!" he said over his shoulder, stumbling in his panicked haste to get away from the alien. It made his legs feel weak.

Viktor skidded to a stop in the doorway, almost causing Thruul to trip over him and fall flat on his face. Thankfully, the alien managed to stop himself just in time. "Vok'Rul," he said, catching the alien's attention. They were all sat at the table, Vok'Rul at its head like normal, with Rukka on his right side and Lilac and the unfamiliar alien on the left. There were more bodyguards in the room than usual, but instead of reassuring him of the alien's safety, it made Viktor worry more.

He tried to brush the feelings away, but his emotions were in a frantic tumble, and he stopped trying to make them make sense. He thought he'd go crazy, otherwise. Voice wavering, Viktor managed to squeeze out a "Kohgrash kor," before he felt Thruul's hands wrap around his arms.

He lurched forward, turning around with a vicious snarl and a yell. It caught in his throat as he accidentally looked at Thruul's face. He took a shaky breath. After blinking a couple of times, he repeated his request, his voice less tremulous this time.

Vok'Rul said something, low and quiet, and Viktor felt Thruul's hands release him. He quickly made his way to Vok'Rul's side, eyes pinned on Lilac. She didn't try to speak with him, for which he was grateful.

They started eating then, with Thruul retreating back to the kitchen and doing who knows what. Sometime during the meal, Viktor's fingers had intertwined with Vok'Rul's clothing, gripping it so tightly that his hand was beginning to cramp. He didn't release the fabric, though.

The meal was politically motivated, apparently. Aside from looking down at him every so often with a barely-there worried expression, Vok'Rul's professional mask was firmly in place, showing none of the emotion that Viktor knew the alien was probably experiencing. Rukka was the same, when he glanced at her, though she was usually like that.

Viktor had no idea what they were talking about. His limited vocabulary offered him no insight into the topic of conversation. Occasionally, Vok'Rul's mask would crack when he glanced down at Viktor, and he would see the barest hints of fury before it replaced itself with concern for him. His name was thrown in there a few times, too.

With each minute that passed without some disaster happening, his chest loosened and his shoulders relaxed. By the time they had finished their soup, Viktor felt less like he was going to keel over and die at the first sign of Lilac moving or speaking.

Vok'Rul stood up first, crouching slightly to disentangle Viktor's fingers from his clothing (his hand ached) and to pet him briefly on the head. He said something politely to Lilac and the unfamiliar alien. Viktor twitched slightly when she responded in kind, standing up herself and offering a low, respectful bow to Vok'Rul. Her eyes slid over to Viktor.

She said something else, straightening up from her bow and keeping her eyes on Viktor. He heard an abbreviated word that sounded like their word for 'sorry' as well as a couple of 'me's and Viktor's name. Whatever her request, it seemed that Vok'Rul was hesitant to answer it.

"Neyk," he finally said, carefully picking up Viktor in the process. He latched onto the alien tightly, barely blinking as he regarded Lilac. The two had a brief staring contest before she gave a low bow again.

After that, the bodyguards escorted her and the unfamiliar alien out of the wing. Vok'Rul followed behind with Rukka behind him. Viktor didn't relax until Lilac was out of the mansion. He gave a loud sigh of relief, which made Vok'Rul chuckle.

Lilac must have been here regarding the ringmaster. Viktor wondered how deep the alien's influence ran. The arena had been large - and likely profitable, considering the sheer number of aliens that were pulled in every day - and there had been a lot of resources funneled into it. The ringmaster must have had connections upon connections to have such a place running as smoothly as it had been.

Maybe the papers scattered on Vok'Rul's desk had something to do with that. Viktor was getting a little better at reading, but he definitely wouldn't be able to trudge through the jargon scribbled on the papers anytime soon. He supposed that he'd find out eventually.

A featherlight touch met the crown of his head, and he jumped, looking up at Vok'Rul. "Flakmmn, Kohgrash," he murmured, pressing his forehead against Viktor's, gently. He said something else, but Viktor wasn't paying attention enough to decipher the words.

"It's okay," he mumbled in return, trying not to let his eyes flick back to the doorway. He heard the familiar rumble of a car driving off. He let his head collapse onto Vok'Rul's pokey shoulder. "Vok'Rul kor?"

Vok'Rul hummed an affirmative, much to Rukka's displeasure if the defeated scoff was anything to go by. Still, she said nothing to her brother, opting to brush her fingers lightly against Viktor's back instead. Vok'Rul muttered something to her. She sighed but nodded, leaving the pair standing in the mansion as she walked out.

They retreated back to the office after that. And while Viktor was trying to break his tendency to cling to Vok'Rul, he couldn't seem to step out of the room for longer than a minute before he started to get the itchy feeling of anxiety under his ribs and went back. He ended up falling asleep against Vok'Rul's legs when he sequestered himself underneath the desk in his attempt to block out everything around him. He woke up with a start when Vok'Rul's cursed ringtone filled the air.

He crawled out from under the desk, blearily blinking against the light of the room. It was now dark outside, and Viktor's body protested against the movement. He stretched languidly as Vok'Rul answered his phone. He was still dressed to the nines, jewelry clinking against each other with each movement.

Blacksmith was on the other end, voice distorted by the hologram. Viktor peered up in interest, wondering if Pedro was around. His silent question was answered when he heard a grainy "Hi, Viktor!" from the other end.

"Hi," he answered tiredly, yawning through the word.

"Aw, we wake you?" Pedro teased, coming into the image with bluster.

"Ye-" Vok'Rul picked him up suddenly, one arm wrapping around his chest and heaving him onto his lap. "-ah," he choked out, looking up at Vok'Rul with a glare.

Vok'Rul quickly spoke over him and Pedro, voice harboring none of the iciness that had been present the last time he and Blacksmith spoke. She spoke quickly, gesturing and holding up another one of those devices. Vok'Rul rumbled his pleasure, squeezing Viktor slightly in his excitement.

"I think," Pedro said, voice hushed with the possibility of being incorrect, in between the aliens' conversation, "that maybe it's a translation device."

Viktor's mind whirled even as he stared blankly at Pedro. He hardly dared to breathe. "Really?" he asked, voice equally as quiet. He saw Pedro's form flicker as he nodded, lips tightening in a small, hopeful smile.

"Yeah. She keeps testing it. Whenever she spoke, it started smoking almost immediately. But when I talked around it, it did nothing. So maybe it just records their language."

"But that doesn't mean it's a translator," Viktor said with a frown. He saw Pedro shrug.

"What else can it be?"

Viktor and Pedro looked at each other, sharing hope in a way they haven't since the early days of the arena. Viktor wetted his lips, finding his mouth suddenly dry with the sheer possibility of what the device's function was. "Well, I'm sure we'll soon find out."

***

Vocabulary:

byr: go

flakmmn: sorry, informal

kor: stay

kor'kn: stay with

neyk: stop, no

norish: food

pora: come

teyk: yes