by Lisa Lace
He scrubbed his hands through his hair as much as he could without disturbing Mia and tried to think things through.
Technically, he didn't need Mia. If it came down to it, he would figure out a way to be king without a queen. Abon couldn't hold it against him if he came back without her because she'd refused to come.
And honestly, Asher wouldn't blame her if she did.
Who just up and went to another planet with some weirdo she'd just met. Not smart women, and Mia definitely struck him as a smart woman. It was one of the reasons why he liked her so much.
He didn't even know how he would go about broaching that topic. "Hey, nice weather we're having. You know where else has nice weather? My home planet. You should come back with me, and I'll show it to you. Also, have you ever had a burning need to be a queen? Just curious. Asking for a friend, really."
Asher snorted at the sheer absurdity of that.
"You are being very loud. And fidgety."
He looked down to see Mia squinting at him with one eye open. "Sorry," he said quickly, and he just knew he was blushing.
"It's okay. I just think you need to revisit what pillows are supposed to do, which is mostly just be comfortable and quiet."
She flashed him a sleep edged smile, and he was lost. Yep. It was pretty much over for him. Asher had no idea if it was just because his uncle wanted it or because Mia was amazing, but he wanted her in that moment.
Instead of letting anything stupid come out of his mouth, he cleared his throat and picked the book back up. That was safe right? Reading until she moved?
It didn't take long, either. Eventually, she was sitting up and stretching, and Asher kept his eyes locked firmly on the book in front of him, not watching the way her shirt rode up as she lifted her arms over head, showing off a warm expanse of skin between the hem of his shirt and the waistband of her pants.
"I need to actually get some work done," she said. "And maybe send an apology note to Dr. Prince. I was super rude to her yesterday, and apparently she was right all along."
Asher shrugged. "She'd probably appreciate it, but she's used to it. You aren't the first person she's had to tell about the abductions."
"Well, all the same. I feel bad about it. I'll be in my study for a while, and then I'll whip us up something to eat, okay? You can stay here if you want."
She got to her feet and stretched again, and this time Asher let himself peek just a bit. Mia looked a little anxious, but he didn't comment on it. Instead he watched her walk around the couch and disappear into another room.
The door closed a bit, just enough so that she could have some privacy, but there was enough space between the door and doorway that he could see her moving around in there if he turned his head and watched.
It felt invasive, though, so he turned back to face the front, losing himself in his uncle's words for the time being.
Asher could cook well enough to feed himself, but there was something about watching Mia move about the kitchen that had him watching her closely. She looked more at him with her bowls and pots and pans than she had since he'd met her, and there was no doubt that she was cooking because she loved it.
Her eyes were bright as she stopped to check the recipe, and he snuck glances at her, quickly realizing that in the short amount of time that he'd know her, he'd already gotten attached.
Reading Abon's book and finding out what he had planned for them had been shocking, but he couldn't deny that he was.... interested. She was interesting to say the least, and Asher wanted to get to know her better, to find out the things that made her tick and made her smile. Her smile was lovely, and as he watched her grin at the sauce she was making, he realized that he very much wanted her to smile at him like that.
It didn't really make sense, considering he'd only really known her for a short time, but Asher had always been good at reading people, and he wanted to know more about her.
"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, looking up at him with one eyebrow raised.
"I'm not." But his face was suddenly filled with color at being caught.
"Uh-huh. You definitely were. Is this some weird alien culture thing that I don't know about? The staring?"
"No! There was no staring! I don't know what you're talking about."
Mia rolled her eyes, but she was laughing. "Whatever, weirdo. Go wash up for dinner, okay? I haven't eaten since this morning, and neither have you."
Asher nodded and practically fled to the bathroom. This was so not his element. He'd seen plenty of pretty human girls before, but knowing that he would have to leave one day and go back to his people (however much was left of them) had always kept him from making any real connections.
But Abon wanted him to make Mia his queen.
And the more time he spent around her, the more into the idea he was. She was just so pretty and so smart, and she had this way of saying exactly what was on her mind that was refreshing and funny and perfect.
Creators, he needed help.
He took his time washing his hands, making sure that they were clean and then pushing unruly hair out of his face. Asher didn't know what she thought of him, and he wasn't bold enough to ask, so he was just going to keep his mouth closed and hope that he could make it through having dinner with her without making an idiot of himself.
As he walked toward the kitchen, the sound of a phone ringing interrupted his progress. Asher hung back, not wanting to walk in on her in the middle of a conversation.
"Hi, Mom."
Asher felt a pang at that. How long had it been since he'd been able to greet his own mother? But there was a weariness in Mia's voice that made him frown.
"No, I know. I know, Mom. I wasn't going to forget… I was going to call him! It's in a week, what do you mean you thought I forgot?"
There was a moment of silence, and Asher jumped when it was broken by the sound of Mia slamming a pot down on the stove.
"You always do this. I didn't even mess up and you just assume I need a lecture because there was a chance I might. You could try giving me the benefit of the doubt for once."
From the tone of her voice, this was an old argument.
He remembered what Abon had written about this planet being too small for Mia. Maybe this was an example of that. Maybe this was proof that she didn't actually belong here. He didn't want to get his hopes up or use her issues with her family as a way to try and make her be with him, but he couldn't deny that it was seeming a bit less hopeless than it had before.
Chapter 7: Break
Mia tossed and turned in her bed, finally flopping over onto her back with a huff. Sleeping during the day always made it hard for her to fall asleep at night, and even though she and Asher had stayed up for a good portion of the night, watching and waiting to see if the Shaddoc were going to make a second appearance, there was a part of her that was too worried to sleep.
Did they know that she knew now?
Did they know that she'd thrown her lot in with Asher and Abon, wherever the latter happened to be?
She couldn't imagine that they would have found out this soon since they hadn't taken her, but she also couldn't imagine that they had given up that easily.
From long years of taking her they had to know her routines by now. They'd be back, and Mia didn't know what she was supposed to do when they returned. She had no way of fighting them off or even being in control of her own body when they had her, so what was she supposed to do to make them leave her alone?
Asher was asleep on the couch in the living room, and when she'd last checked, he'd been lying on his back with a device on his chest. He'd explained in a soft voice that if the Shaddoc came close to her house, the device would let them know in enough time that they could get out of there.
It was a comfort, and the fact that she knew he was out there, watching out for her, should have helped her sleep, but for whatever reason, she was still wide awake, staring at her ceiling and listening to the sound of Asher's soft breathing from the other room.
<
br /> It was sort of strange how easily he fit into her life already. They'd known each other for a very short time (if you didn't count the couple of years they'd sort of known each other as children, which she sort of didn't because she'd been more focused on his uncle than him at the time), but they'd sat down to dinner together easy as anything, and Asher had kept her laughing with stories about how he used to drive his uncle mad when he was a boy.
His stories had been welcome after she'd had to deal with her mother over the phone. Honestly, nothing put her in a black mood like having to talk to one of her parents unexpectedly. Usually they didn't call her out of the blue like that, but Mia had learned the hard way that if she didn't answer when they did, things just got worse.
Talking to her mother had left her stressed and agitated, but Asher had stepped up admirably, seeming not to give up until he'd gotten a smile out of her.
She appreciated him for it, and she'd kissed his cheek before she'd gone to her room to try and get some sleep. The flush on his face had been gratifying, and she'd been smiling when she laid down and got under the covers.
Of course, she wasn't smiling now. Now she was just cranky because she wanted to sleep and she couldn't.
The quiet of the house was shattered by a loud beeping sound from the other room, and Mia sat upright in her bed, heart pounding. She instinctively looked around to see if there was anyone hiding in her room, even though that was a silly thought, more than likely.
There was a thump and a curse in a different language from the living room, and she waited with bated breath.
"It's okay," came Asher's voice a second later, and he padded his way to her room, glancing at her and then at the floor. "I think they're taking someone else because they're on the other side of town."
"How do you know they won't come here?" Mia asked, clutching the covers in her fingers.
"They don't take more than two people a night on average. Sometimes three, but they wouldn't have time to probe everyone and then get them back without being noticed. They probably wasted a lot of time looking for you last night."
"Oh." That made sense, but it didn't do much to relax the frantic pace of her heart.
Asher seemed to pick up on it because he took another step into the room and let her have the full force of those golden eyes. "Are you okay?"
Mia nodded. "Yeah. Yes. I mean. It's kind of stupid to be afraid of them when they've been taking me my whole life, just about, right?"
He just looked at her for a second and then shook his head. "I don't think that's stupid. Before, you didn't know what was happening. Now… Well, now you have an image to put to the experience, and it makes sense to be afraid of them."
His words were reassuring, and Mia gave him a small smile. "Thanks. You know, you're weird, but you're good at saying the thing I need to hear when I need to hear it."
Asher blushed and looked back down at the floor, clearly pleased to hear her say that. "I'm glad. I… If there were was something I could do to make this easier for you, I'd do it." From the way he was looking, she could tell that there was something specific he had in mind.
"What is it?"
Wide eyes snapped up to her face and then away. "N-nothing. It's nothing. Just tired. You should um. Go back to sleep."
"I wasn't asleep in the first place."
"Oh. Are you okay?" He laughed. "I just asked that, didn't I?"
His sheepish expression made Mia laugh, too. "You did, but I appreciate it. It's been a while since someone's been here to worry about if I'm okay or not." Cass always had, but her parents hadn't really wanted to get involved in things like that. As long as it wasn't someone else hurting her, they weren't concerned.
But she shook that off. She didn't really want to go down that road right then, especially not when she was already feeling grumpy from lack of sleep.
"I could tell you stories. If you wanted," Asher offered. "You seemed to fall asleep pretty easily the last time when I was reading to you."
Mia smiled at that. He was right, of course. She'd passed right out, laying on him even, when he'd been reading to her, and his voice was soft and soothing, so she nodded, settling herself in the bed. "That sounds good. Thank you."
He gave her a sweet smile and then settled himself on the floor next to her bed. "Okay, so this is a story about my mother."
From the way he started to tell the story, Mia could tell that his mother was someone who meant a lot to him, and the gentle way he spoke about her was enough to have her relaxing and then drifting right off as he talked.
When Mia woke up it was to the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Asher was nowhere to be found, and the sun was streaming through her blinds and right into her eyes. She had no idea what time it was, and she flung an arm over her face to block out the light.
The persistent knocking didn't stop, and then she heard shuffling from the living room.
"Oh, good," she mumbled. "Asher's getting it."
Maybe she could go back to sleep if he got the door. It was probably a salesman or the mailman or something like that.
There was the sound of low murmuring and then a familiar sharp voice ringing out. "And just who are you?"
For the second time in an eight hour period, she shot upright in bed. That was her mother's voice. What in the world was her mother doing at her house in the middle of the morning? Her parents never came to see her, and that was how she liked it.
But that stern, shrill voice definitely belonged to her mother, and Mia forced herself out of bed and flung open her bedroom door, padding down the hall just in time to see her father glaring at Asher who looked confused.
And was definitely shirtless.
Awesome.
"What are you two doing here?" She said, and it sounded more like an accusation than an expression of surprise, but whatever.
"Are we not allowed to come visit our daughter?" Her father said, voice firm.
Senator Thomas Hatcher was an imposing man by anyone's standards. He was close to six and a half feet tall and wasn't a thin man at all. He wasn't fat, but there was no doubt that he got three square meals a day.
Next to him, her mother looked particularly small, closer to Mia's height, and naturally thin. She was beautiful in a way that Mia would never be, and standing there together they made her feel like a failure. It was clear from the way they were looking at her that they thought she was something of a failure, too.
Of course, her father's eyes ended up right back on Asher who was still standing there not wearing a shirt.
"Amelia, who is this? You never mentioned that you had a boyfriend."
Mia rolled her eyes. "He's not my boyfriend, Dad, and even if he was, I wasn't aware that I needed your permission for something like that." Her voice was dry and sarcastic, and she could already feel her parents getting annoyed with her.
Good. Maybe they'd leave faster. She was a grown woman, and she wasn't going to have them treating her like a child in her own home. It was bad enough that when she went to see them for holidays they acted like they owned her or something, but she wasn't going to stand for it here in the house that she paid for and called her own.
"There's no need for you to talk to me like that, Amelia. And if he isn't your boyfriend, then what is he doing here this early in the morning with only half of his clothes on?"
"He spent the night because he's my friend. I imagine he was sleeping and then since you two decided to pop over for this little visit without letting anyone know, he didn't have time to get dressed before you were hammering the door down."
"That doesn't explain why he's so comfortable here that he thinks he can just answer the door for you."
Mia rolled her eyes. "Well, since we weren't expecting anyone, he probably thought it was someone he was going to have to send away. Honestly, I would have just ignored it."
"Amelia," her mother scolded. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"
It was sort of incredible how they could al
ways make something her fault. Never mind that they were the ones who had barged into her house uninvited, clearly she was in the wrong by not being pleased about it.
Asher glanced at her with sympathy in his eyes. She could tell that he was confused, and she didn't blame him for that. Considering the things he had told her the night before about his own mother, he probably wasn't used to parents treating their children like this. Well, maybe it was good for him to see how lucky he was that he had memories like that of his mother when all Mia had was this.
It was a bitter thought, but then, she was in a bitter mood.
"I don't know, Mom," she replied, keeping her voice even. "I've only been awake for a few minutes, so I couldn't tell you. Is there a reason you guys got on a plane in the middle of the night to come here? I just talked to you yesterday, Mom."
Her parents exchanged glances. "There is," her father said. "Maybe you'd like to ask your friend to leave."
He gave Asher a dismissive glance.
"I can go if you want," Asher said, and he looked anxious, but he was also clearly asking her if she wanted him to stay. It was probably selfish, but she found that she really, really did want him to. Something about having him around made this seem a little less like a massive ordeal, and she knew that as soon as he left, her patience with her parents was going to reach its breaking point.
"No," she said. "You can stay." And her voice was firm when she said it.
Her father raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that, Amelia?"
"It's my house, Dad. And I would like him to stay."
Another glance went between her parents, and Mia huffed, nearing the end of her rope. "What is it?"
"We talked to Cassandra last night."
It was a simple statement, but there was something seriously ominous about the way her father had said it. "Okay," Mia said slowly. "About what?"
"About you. About you and your… episodes."
Mia froze. Her breath caught in her chest, and for a moment she wondered if she was dreaming. She hadn't brought up what happened to her with her parents since the last time when they'd flipped out, and she had no idea that Cassie would ever have anything to say to them about it. Especially knowing how Mia felt about them knowing.
