He lay with his back exposed to the open air, cool night air swept in from the balcony and cooled the condensation from his skin. His heartbeat slowed gradually over the intervening minutes until he could feel it only as a soft pulse within his chest. He lay with his head partially resting against Sunny, one arm around her chest. He was sort of half dozing in the lazy late night moment. He Felt sunny's body shake slightly and turned his head in place to look at her with mild confusion. The dim glow from a holo-projection washed over his face, lighting the front of Sunny's chest face, and neck with dim blue light.

"Something funny?" He muttered groggily

She snorted again, softly, "Just looking at these old pictures. Do you remember when we used to hate each other."

"Ugh don't remind me, I still feel guilty about that."

She patted him on the back, the rough surface of her hand cool against his skin, "Don't worry, I forgive You. Would hardly have married you if I hadn't."

"yeah I was kind of an asshole, and besides, YOU never really hated me."

She contemplated the image she was looking at for a moment, "Maybe not."

Adam cringed and hid his face against her chest, "I said some.... Objectively xenophobic stuff to you a couple times."

"You know what, I can forgive that since I did rip off your leg rather violently the first time we met"

"I AM glad we can joke about that now." He said, though his voice was teasing, "Still sorry about the way I treated you to start off with. Wasn't very sporting of me on occasion."

Sunny shrugged, "Turned out didn't it."

"I think young US would be....."

"Disgusted, flabargasted, horrified?"

"Soemthing like that."

***

She stood alone standing aloof to the side of the group Listening to the marines tease and play with each other. They were a lot like children, marines, but at least they could stand her presence. The rest of the ship was not entirely comfortable with her, not yet. Sunny held a helmet under one arm. The idea of a space suit was foreign to her , but at the end of the day it was simply another suit of armor.

"Going to an alien planet to touch some alien things." His voice carried through the ship, sung intentionally badly to an unknown tune. Sunny was becoming more and more familiar with singing now. You had to be when humans were involved . She was also getting better at differentiating human voices, which had originally, all sounded the same to her.

Captain Vir came sliding around the corner on his wheeled shoes, nearly colliding into a crate but managing to dodge out of the way at the last minute. He had a large smile on his face rows of pearl white teeth glittering in the light. Reflected UV light rolled over his pale sable Fur.

"Alright ya crayon eaters, lets move o-" He paused, his eyes falling on Sunny. The look on his face died and his expression grew rather icy."

"What is she doing here, and who gave her a suit."

The dark skinned human from earlier stood up from behind the jet she was working on, wrench in one hand bright yellow bandana tied neatly around the top of her head. She brandished the wrench like it was a weapon, "If the Drev is going to exist on this ship, Captain, she's going to have to pull her weight. You can't let her be here and simultaneously ignore her."

He crossed his arms, "I think you'll find that I can, see watch this."

He turned his head to stare intently at the floor next to Sunny's feet, "Wow, someone did a really good job mopping this morning A plus work."

The mechanic placed her hands on her hips wrench included , 'You're being an ass."

"No I'm-"

"What would your mother say."

He stuck his lower lip out a bit, 'You don't want to know what my mother would say because it probably shouldn't be spoken in polite company."

The mechanic's eyes narrowed and the hands on hips position somehow, grew more serious. The marines shifted rather uncomfortably, Sunny looked back and forth between them, there was something here she didn't know ho to read, but Captain Vir went from defiant to meek in a few seconds flat looking down at the floor, 'Okay okay, you're right, I'm sorry."

"Not me you should be saying sorry to."

He turned his head in Sunny's general direction, "Sorry." He lifted his head, "Alright scarab, come on, I guess you're coming with us to poke at cool plants." His sudden switch confused Sunny a bit, from grouchy to downright excited as he led th group of them onto the shuttle. Sunny kept to herself in the back where she could observe quietly.

Sitting next to her, one of the Marines leaned over to nudge her. He had dark curly hair and an unusually symmetrical face for a huma. Humans didn't have color like Drev to differentiate the pretty ones from the ugly ones, but they did value their symmetry, at least she thought they did, "don't worry, He'll warm up to you. Eventually he will realize you're an alien and you'll be best friends."

Across from her the little alien doctor krill sighed, "Unfortunately."

"Oh come on doctor, you love it."

"I most certainly do not!"

He said as much but Sunny ot the distinct impression he was lying to himself. The Doctor followed the captain around like a lost puppy. They were very good friends even if the doctor didn't want to admit it.

Their ship touched down and the group of them filed out. Sunny kept her spear to one side as she looked around the strange new planet. Th rock was mostly a dull sort of grey, and the sky overhead was similar. It wasn't a particularly pretty place. Compared to Anin it was downright hideous.

The looked around and found the Captain had landed them in a low, bowl like canyon. A small stream of water trickled through smelling oddly of sulfur though she saw no hotsprings, there were no clouds overhead. The captain was already off, despite the protocol which had been read to her from the marine handbook, bent over some rock examining a particularly uninteresting geode, or at least Sunny thought.

Well if he wasn't' going to protect himself, than she supposed she would have to do it,

She walked over examining their surroundings, None of the marines moved to stop her as they might once have.

Captain Vir looked up from his rock, "You're blocking my light"

She shifted to the side.

"Your aura is interfering with my chakras."

Sunny frowned, "Are those words made up?"

"All words are made up."

She did her best not to roll her eyes. It was a human habit she had already picked up and it was a hard habit to shake in the first place. Captain Vir kept grudgingly silent after that letting her tag along behind him while the other marines fanned out in a loose circle to protect the other, more experienced scientists collecting samples and taking readings .

No one noticed the two of them as they made their way up the little valley arnd around the corner into what appeared to be some sort of T intersection. The valley here was wider, but steeper on both sides, and there was some sort of fungus growing on the sides of the canyon generally pinkish in color. Sunny was already bored,

Nothing to fight.

Captain Vir was kneeling on the ground examining a patch of the pink stuff when Sunny sensed something. The low range of her hearing caught onto the strange sound before the human did, but about the same time she began to hear it, he stopped and pressed his hands into the ground. It was a low rumbling, and though he couldn't see it, he could hear it rolling up through the rocks. Below her feet the rocks started to rattle and jump.

"What is-"

"Run!" Captain Vir grabbed Sunny by the arm and began bolting I the opposite direction. They went from zero to sprinting in a matter of seconds. Sunny was faster than the human, but not for long, and behind them, the heard of charging beasts was faster than both.

They sprinted over the open ground as a dust cloud rose up behind them. The sounds of shreaking animals reached their ears, and then, Adam grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to the side shoving her headlong into a rift in the side of the canyon before squeezing after her. None too soon it would seem as the first beast roared past followed by a stampede more kicking up a clogging choke of dirt. They stood there pressed together for a few long moments until the stampede died away.

Sunny looked down and found herself pressed chest to chest up against the human. She had always thought that humans looked rather squishy, and that was sort of true, but up this close to him she could feel the rigid structure of his bones under his skin, and the hard muscle of his chest as they pressed into a confined space. His body radiated heat like a furnace. His one green eye looked up at her in annoyance.

"Alright, spooning time is over."

Sunny looked at him grimly for a minute trying to understand. A spoon was one of those metal things the humans used to eat with, but.... Spooning as a verb meant- ah, "I don't know spoon me a little longer and you might learn to like it."

He glared t her, "You trying to be funny."

"do I look like I'm laughing."

The huma began to squeeze himself sideways, "You know for a big war beetle, you sure fancy yourself a comedian, He had nearly managed to squeeze himself from the crack when sunny heard something. Another low rumble but this time organic.

"Watch out!:" Even as she yelled it, she reached out with her hand and grabbed him by the arm, tugging him back further into the crack as the massive pincer snapped shut where his head would have been. He fell back into her as the rock scorpion clattered to a halt outside the rift looking greatly displeased with this turn of events.

It clacked its claws and skittered back and forth.

Captain Vir was breathing hard, "Holy shit...."

Sunny let f of her arm, "You're welcome."

And then, they were stuck again pressed chest to chest looking at each other one green eye to two gold eyes.

Captain Vir huffed, "Oh great if this were a hallmark movie, this Is the part where my heart would be softened by being forced to spend time with you."

"Is ot working." Sunny said dryly

"Not in the slightest."

They sat there in silence for along time as the thing paced outside their little crack, occasionally reaching in to grab at them.

Both of them were growing hot and irritable. He shifted and she shifted back until they were bothtrying to crush the other into the wall. Sunny won by means of superior weight smothering him with her body weight against the far wall,

"Let me breathe you big oaf!"

"last time I checked, people didn't breathe through their assholes, and since you are the biggest asshole I have ever met, I assumed you didn't need air."

"Turtles can breathe through their asses."

"Are you implying that you are specifically a turtle's ass?"

Thee was silence for a long moment before grudgingly, "That was a good one, that thing about breathing through your ass."

"Thanks."

He shifted again, trying to adjust his legs, and she tried to shift with him. They were hopelessly intermingled now, and neither of them were very comfortable, "Drev didn't strike me as the type to use sarcasm."

Sunny snorted, "War and witty banter are not mutually exclusive."

He snorted right back at her, "Big words for someone who probably can't read."

"Of course, I can read."

"Pretty pictures painted on cave walls?'

Sunny put just a bit more pressure on squishing him against the wall, "Keep talking and I can turn you into a pretty picture smeared inside this crack."

He examined his nails, "Too late, I'm already pretty."

"Oh I must have missed it, I forgot today was opposite day?"

The scorpion shrieked, "Juvenile. I sort of expected a higher caliber of insult coming from you.

She raised the ridge above her eye, "Is that so? So which is it am I illiterate or am I your verbal sparring partner."

"Fine, let me speak in words you will understand. May your spear be dull and the sun always in your eyes."

Sunny did not bother to respond to that, not because she was insulted bt because that insult was actually annoyingly accurate. There was a similar curse that translated roughly to the same thing in her native tongue.

They kept he verbal sparring going back and forth until they both grew too tired. Eventually the sky overhead had gone dark, and they both slumped against each other, sitting back against the wall heads lined forward he had his head resting against her chest, and her shin was slumped down to rest against the top of his head.

"Yoo hoo."

They both lifted their head to look up and found Ramirez peering down at them from above, "There ou crazy kids are."

"Ramirez, get us out."

"Mmmmm, I don't know. Might just have to leave you in there until you resolve your issues. Call it the get a long rift. The naughty canyon." He frowned to himself, scratch that, it sounds too much like a euphemism for a buttcrack."

Captain Vir made a face, "if you start referring to your ass crack as your naughty canyon I am going to eject you immediately out the airlock."

Ramirez grinned, "Bold words coming from a man who can't move two feet to his left or righ. Hold on let me get the others and I'll be back." And then he was gone, by the time he became back the two of them had managed to doze off together and neither of them could make a joke about spawning because it came all together too close to the truth