by M. A. Church
Keyno tracked the bubbles floating in the air. Dale could tell the urge to pounce was nearly overwhelming. Keyno cut his eyes at Dale, who grinned back. Raiden closed in on a bubble when Keyno finally gave in and went after it. He and Raiden stalked the bubble across the room, both coming at it from different sides.
Keyno bellowed the Tah’Narian war cry which Raiden tried to copy, his sounding much weaker. Every human in the room flinched, except Lindsey. She giggled and blew more bubbles. Keyno pounced, with Raiden close on his heels, killing the bubble.
“I’ve got an idea,” Susan whispered. “Come with me.”
She led Dale into the kitchen. “Can you reduplicate balloons?”
“You are so bad, you know that?” Dale smirked as he programmed the machine. “I love it. It’ll drive ‘em nuts.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Can you add a little helium so they’ll float?”
When they came back, Evan had joined the fun, blowing bubbles for everyone to chase. Lyn and Jerry were pointing out stray bubbles. Dale and Susan had several mid-sized balloons in various colors. They tossed them into the air and watched the free-for-all start.
“Balloons!” Lindsey yelled again, making her mother wince. She quickly put her bubbles down and chased after a pink balloon, batting at it, keeping it in the air. Szin, Raiden, and Keyno watched her for a moment them went after the balloons.
“Dale, think we should tell them that—”
Raiden popped one of the balloons, and with a startled meow, jumped straight up in the air. Dale laughed so hard he had to sit down.
“Never mind,” Susan said, giggling too.
Keyno had a balloon stuck to his hair. Szin eyed it, swiping at Keyno’s hair as he tried to catch the balloon. A strand of hair moved, batting at the balloon, trying to remove it. He finally got it far enough down the back of his hair that Szin could reach it.
“Oh my God,” Susan breathed. “Did his hair just move?”
Chapter Twelve
Dale winked at her. “Oh, yeah.”
“Can it, like, really move a lot?”
Dale blushed.
“Oh my God,” Susan repeated. “That’s freaking awesome.”
“You better believe it.”
Susan snorted. “You perv. Does your hair move now?”
Dale motioned Susan closer, and then looked around to see if anyone was listening. They were so close their hair was touching. “Shhh, you can’t say anything. It’s a closely guarded secret. See, it has a mind of its own… and it’s tempted to wrap around your throat and choke you.”
Susan jerked back as Dale giggled.
“No, dumbass, my hair doesn’t move now. I don’t have a tail or pointed ears either, just the eyes. Jeez, give me a break.”
“You jerk.” Susan wrinkled her nose at Dale. “Think Raiden’s or Szin’s hair will do that? I’m guessing it’s a Tah’Narian thing.”
“I doubt Szin will have any of the usual Tah’Narian characteristics, outside of the womb. Raiden might, though.”
Finally Keyno plopped down next to Dale. “Gods, that was fun.”
“We had fun watching.” Dale rubbed Keyno’s ear. “You should kick back and relax more often. There will be time enough to be the great Keyno Shou, starship captain.”
After a while the twins and Lindsey wound down, and Dale fixed everyone something to eat. Lyn built a pallet in the floor, and the young and Lindsey lay down to sleep. The adults sat around talking quietly while the young rested.
Keyno wrapped an arm around Dale, and before long he drifted off to sleep, cuddled next to Keyno.
“Thank you for doing this, Keyno.” Lyn patted his arm.
“I should be the one thanking you.” Keyno smiled as Dale snuggled into his arms. “Without you, I wouldn’t have known what was bothering him. Maybe next time we can come to Earth.”
“We would love that,” Jerry said. “You, me, and Evan could fry a turkey up for Christmas dinner.”
“That’s different from grilling?” Keyno perked up.
“Oh definitely.” Evan and Jerry spent the next half hour describing all the different ways to cook a turkey. They even invited Keyno to go turkey hunting with them.
“But you have to use our weapons,” Jerry said. “That’ll give us a sporting chance.”
Keyno started to say something when his comm went off. He checked the scene, and then frowned. “Dale, wake up. I need to take this.” Keyno stood and left the room.
“Is something wrong?” Evan asked.
“I honestly don’t know, but I hope not.” Dale yawned and rubbed his eyes.
Keyno returned several minutes later.
“Is everything okay?” Dale asked.
“Oh yes, sorry about that. Nothing is wrong.”
“And…?”
“And what?”
“And what do you mean ‘and what?’ Cat got your tongue?” Dale tossed at Keyno.
“Isn’t it the other way around?” Susan smirked.
“How could I have forgotten what a smart… uh… smarty pants you were?” Dale groaned, trying to watch his language. “Jeez, you’re worse than Chad.”
“Am not,” Susan said.
Evan leaned over to Keyno. “If you think Chad and Dale are bad, fair warning. These two have been known to come to blows before. Neither will stop until their mom steps in.”
Keyno nodded his head wisely. “The females of this family are very impressive.”
“Hey, just because you once had both male and female parts don’t mean you can cross over to the dark side,” Dale groused.
“What in the name of the gods does that mean?” Keyno asked.
“You may think they’re impressive, but you’re not supposed to say that. That would be considered taking sides, and in the ongoing war with these two, the last thing you want to do is take the enemy’s side,” Evan helpfully supplied. “Just say ‘yes, dear’, and all will be fine. Take my word on it. Men have been doing it for ages. Am I right, Pops?”
“Amen.”
Before Keyno could say anything, everyone stopped to listen to the elevator rumble up the tree.
“Excuse me.”
“Keyno? What’s going on?”
“You’ll see.”
“Well, that was a non-answer.”
Moments later, Keyno returned with Malk, Kia, and Laken. They walked in, and with them was another couple. The Tah’Narian was huge, possibly bigger than Malk. He had long tawny hair and liquid gold eyes. In his arms was a young.
The human with him was tall and had a nice muscular build. His hair was honey brown, and he had chocolate brown eyes. The strip in his hair that matched his mate’s looked good with his warm, burnished skin tone.
“Hey Lomar, it’s been a while. What are you doing—”
A choking sound drew Dale’s attention. Evan was white as paper, his chest heaving. “Evan? Jeez, are you okay?”
“Oh, oh dear God. Hunter? Is that… I can’t believe it,” Evan whispered, frozen in his chair. His hands gripped the chair arms as his knuckles turned white.
“Hey man, how’s it hanging?” Hunter flashed a smile at Evan.
“Holy shit, it is you.” Evan was out of the chair and across the room in moments. He grabbed Hunter in a bear hug.
“Evan.” Both Susan and Dale shook their heads.
“What? They’re asleep.”
“Wanna bet,” Susan said as three pairs of eyes watched the reunion.
“Oops.”
“Everyone, this is Lomar, King Duran’s royal assistant,” Dale said. “He helped me arrange the young shower for King Duran’s mate, Jolak.”
“This is my mate, Hunter,” Lomar said. “And our young, Patlo.”
Hunter shook hands with everyone but held onto Dale’s hand. “Lomar told me you helped him with the young shower he threw me. I want to thank you for that.”
“Oh trust me, I was happy to help,” Dale said. “I was so in over my head with Jolak’s shower, and Lo
mar saved my butt. Without him, the whole thing would have probably been a disaster.”
Evan turned to Malk, tears in his eyes. “I don’t know what to say. You said you’d try to find some of my friends, but I figured it would take longer than we’d be here. I just, oh man, I really wasn’t expecting this. You managed to find my best friend too. Malk, thank you.”
“It was my pleasure. It took very little research to find Hunter. The fact that his mate knew Dale was helpful.”
“Imagine my surprise when I heard that you were here—here, of all places—and looking for me. I couldn’t believe it,” Hunter said.
“You guys want to stay and eat Christmas dinner with us? You’re more than welcome.”
“Starting another new tradition, Dale?” Lomar asked.
“Seems like it. Please stay.”
“We had planned to, thank you. I think Evan and Hunter would like to get caught up, as the Earthlings say.”
“We would indeed,” Hunter said.
Hunter and Evan sat on the couch, talking. Patlo checked out the rest of the young, his eyes widening when he saw Lindsey. Kia and Malk’s young, Laken, sniffed the tree and eyed the shining balls while Patlo watched him closely. Raiden and Szin showed them the balloons and the bubbles, and the chase was on once more.
“Guys, we’re going to start dinner.”
Dale and Keyno went into the kitchen to reduplicate the Christmas meal.
“I’m going to program the reduplicator to do turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, rolls, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. I’m going to include some Tah’Narian meats like chilak and mopbarl too, and some pies like cherry cheesecake. Hopefully there will be something for everyone.”
“As long as there’s meat, any Tah’Narian at the table will be happy.”
“Sweetie? Here are the plates I always use.” Lyn carried her special Christmas plates into the kitchen.
“Perfect. This won’t take long. Everything okay in there?” Dale asked.
“Oh yes. Evan and Hunter are catching up, and Lomar is telling stories of things that they’ve done together since Hunter was harvested. Evan’s still unable to wrap his mind around men being able to give birth.”
“Imagine how I felt. I was very—”
“Vocal,” Keyno supplied.
“Freaked,” Dale corrected. “Oh well, outside of having it done then being told about it, I wouldn’t change a thing.” The reduplicator signaled it was finished. “I’m going to lay everything out buffet style, and then call in the troops.”
“Amazing.” Lyn walked into the main living area, still muttering. “A complete dinner in no time.”
Chapter Thirteen
“So there Hunter was, yanking my hair and yelling at me to do something.” Lomar winked at his mate. “Then he yelled I was never getting near him again. All the while he was trying to pull me bald.”
“Ah, you weren’t the one having a young.” Hunter pointed his fork at his mate. “Nor did you have to deal with all the changes the body goes through that came with it.”
“Man, you should have seen Kia. Dale threatened to tie him to a chair more than once cause of the boundless energy he had.” Chad snorted out a laugh.
“I seconded the idea more than once.” Malk winked at Kia.
“Well, John—who never uses foul language—really cut loose when his time came,” Doc volunteered. “Chad and he went into labor at the same time and kept me very busy.”
“John?” Linda asked. “Not John.”
“Oh, trust me, Mom, our mild-mannered doctor let it all hang out,” Chad said.
“At least he didn’t threaten to—”
“Ah yeah, Gibor, let’s not go there.” Chad shook his head frantically.
“What?” Evan asked.
Dale held up his hand and made snipping motions while Hunter burst out laughing. “But nothing can top Keyno fainting.”
“Dammit, Dale.”
“Okay, to be fair, having twins isn’t something that happens every day of the week—”
“I’ll say,” Hunter said.
“Plus, I gave birth the old-fashioned way. Which no one had done since before the Onfre declared war on Tah’Nar—”
“No one knew that could even happen,” Keyno added. “Or why it happened.”
“Oh my,” Linda whispered.
“Then Doc thought Szin wasn’t going to make it—”
“Good grief,” Howard said.
“So I guess he can be excused for fainting.” Dale grinned.
“You just can’t do anything simple, can you?” Susan asked.
Everyone was sitting at the table. The meal was over, dessert served, and the young had left the table to play. Chad and John—along with their mates and young—had arrived just in time to eat. Dale missed Cielo and Ti, but they had already put off whatever they had going on with Ti’s tribe once. Cielo had told Dale it was the first rite of passage for Takeo.
“Why don’t we move to the main living area? It won’t take me but a second to clean up the kitchen.”
“Is this when we’re supposed to lie about on furniture and moan how full we are?” Doc asked as he sat down.
“I believe so,” Gibor answered just as Dale returned. “Which shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Final meal was excellent, Dale.”
“Thanks, guys, I’m glad there was something for everyone.”
Several hours and many jokes later, the sun was setting as everyone started getting ready to leave.
“Evan, Lomar and I have to go. We need to get back to the palace.” Hunter hugged Evan. “I’m so glad I got to see you. I’ve missed you guys. Maybe the next time we’ll have longer to visit.”
“Next time,” Evan said, shaking his head at the thought of returning. Most people traveled to another state or even another country for vacation, not another planet. “I’m glad you came. I needed this, needed to see all this. You’re really happy, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely. So go back to Earth, and stop worrying about me,” Hunter said.
Lomar looked at Malk. “Malk? Are you ready?”
“Yes. Kia and Laken wanted some time in the water before they go to bed. We need to be at the spaceport early.”
“We need to be going also,” Doc said.
“Yeah, us too,” Chad said. “Mom and Dad need to pack, and Dayo’s getting tired.”
There was a flurry of activity as everyone hugged and said goodbye. There were tears, but this time they were tears of happiness as everyone left.
Lyn rubbed Dale’s back as the elevator descended for the final time. “Well, guess we need to take all this down. I’m going to leave a few of the Christmas balls, though, as a remembrance from home.”
“Aw, Mom, thank you.”
“Was today everything you wanted?”
“Everything and more.”
They spent the rest of the evening taking down the decorations. The young and Lindsey helped strip the tree of balls, and managed to throw only a couple at each other. Finally Susan said they needed to go so they could get ready for tomorrow.
“See you in the morning.” Dale kissed his mom’s cheek, and then hugged his dad.
“Good night, you. I’ll see you in the morning.” She and Evan hugged Keyno and the young.
Dale stood in the main living area. The house was finally quiet, but the echoes of the day were still there. In his mind he had the memories of his mom putting Christmas balls on the tree, his dad’s shocked face at the gift he’d received, Susan and him in the kitchen reduplicating the balloons, Keyno and Raiden chasing bubbles—memories he would treasure forever.
Dale looked at Raiden, curled up next to Szin on the couch, purring softly, both nearly asleep. He felt a bit sad, but it was a good sadness, a feeling of sweet contentment. Yes, the day had been everything he wanted and more.
Keyno wrapped his arms around Dale. Dale leaned his head back, exposing his throat as Keyno scent
-marked him.
“Let’s get the young to bed. I’ll get Szin if you’ll get Raiden.” Dale yawned, his eyes watering.
Once the twins were tucked in for the night, Keyno pulled Dale into their bedroom. He stripped Dale and urged him into bed. Keyno undressed and joined him. Dale rested his head against his shoulder, one leg nestled between Keyno’s thighs.
“We’re going with Mom and Dad to the spaceport, right?” Dale yawned again.
“Yes. Are you okay?”
“Very much so. I’m a little sad it’s over, but that’s normal. I just wish they could have stayed longer.”
“So do I, but the next transport ship is leaving early tomorrow. We leave in a couple of days too. So, tell me, was it everything you wanted it to be?”
Dale turned to face Keyno. “It was perfect. The whole thing was perfect. Christmas is a time for family, and that’s what you gave me—all my family and all my friends. You’ll never know how much this meant to me.”
“I do know what it meant. That sadness is no longer in your eyes. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy, you should know that by now.” Keyno kissed Dale softly as they snuggled down in the bed. Tomorrow would be there soon, and the trip to the spaceport would be hard as everyone said their final goodbyes, but such was the way when family didn’t live close.
“Merry Christmas, my chosen.”
“And a very merry Tah’Narian Christmas to you, love.”
Author Bio
M.A. Church is a true Southern belle who spent many years in the elementary education sector. Now she spends her days lost in fantasy worlds, arguing with hardheaded aliens on far-off planets, herding her numerous shifters, or trying to tempt her country boys away from their fishing poles. It’s a full time job, but hey, someone’s gotta do it!
When not writing, she’s exploring the latest M/M novel to hit the market, watching her beloved Steelers, or sitting glued to HGTV. That’s if she’s not on the back porch tending to the demanding wildlife around the pond in the backyard. The ducks are very outspoken. She’s married to her high school sweetheart, and they have two children.
She was a finalist in the Rainbow awards for 2013 and is a member of Romance Writers of America, Rainbow Romance Writers, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
