"Nec—tar—"
When Sakdi arrived at the Great Information Nest to pick up his partner for dinner, he saw a small cluster of male Zerg gathered together.
The white one held a scrawny Broad-wing in his arms, surrounded by several other buzzing outsiders, conducting what looked like a language learning session.
The new employees were far too unfamiliar with the expression and writing of the common tongue, unable to even complete basic information sorting. Thus, literacy had become the highest priority.
Having finished his own share of work, Gela had entered a relaxed state, sitting on soft fabrics with his companions.
He was the only male among them who possessed wings. Most low-to-mid-tier males did not have the ability to fly from birth; Xiao originally had them, but had lost those precious organs in a tragic accident.
Unlike Sakdi’s "get up and train harder" devilish teaching style that pushed one to the brink of exhaustion, Gela clearly employed a more encouraging method. Whenever the Broad-wing—whose head was large compared to his thin body—produced the correct pronunciation, Gela would reward him by dabbing a bit of sweet nectar into his mouth.
Karra was actually full, but every time the food touched his lips, he couldn't help but quickly open his mouth to suckle.
Fearing that the male, who had been in a state of starvation for so long, might overeat and harm his body, the white Zerg only picked out a few drops at a time, letting the softly buzzing student hold them in his mouth and lick them slowly.
In contrast, Xiao was beginning to demonstrate a talent for being a social butterfly among his own kind. Entirely different from the terror he showed toward females, the light-brown mid-tier male squeezed through the crowd of males, hugging one and entwining his thin tail with another.
The Core-species suddenly understood why this Zerg had happily wagged his tail and hugged Serim the first time they met; it was likely due to an innate, lively personality.
A personality that had once been crushed by Katra.
For a long period, Xiao had refused to let any Zerg near him, not even Serim. Fortunately, Gela had quickly taken over the task of caring for him and successfully helped him recover from his fear.
Sakdi smiled.
He understood that Zerg who were close liked to groom each other's wings and entwine their tails, much like brothers from the same clutch often licked each other's wounds. This was Zerg instinct and habit; judging it through a human lens was clearly absurd.
If he were to do the same with Clark, both he and the Sub-King would likely call the police, but seeing the males gently cuddling made the scene quite endearing.
"You're back!"
As soon as the white Zerg finished his teaching and looked up, he saw the pitch-black female leaning against the door in the distance. The small group of males, who had been rustling and rolling together, immediately grew alert and scrambled apart.
Before he even stood up, Gela's slender, pearl-colored scaled tail began to sway uncontrollably. His joy was impossible to hide.
Gently handing the frail Broad-wing over to Xiao, Gela performed a cat-like sprint, took a few strides toward his partner, and leaped directly onto him.
His soft tail tightly caught Sakdi’s whip-like tail, wrapping around it again and again.
As expected, the level of passion felt for a partner was quite different from that for a companion. It was likely the difference between a standard edition and a limited collector's edition.
Sakdi caught the "missile"—compared to when they first met, the male had grown significantly. In the beginning, Sakdi could carry Gela with one hand while fighting four others, the male feeling weightless in the crook of his arm.
Now, Gela’s scaled tail even dared to arm-wrestle... or tail-wrestle with him, quite boldly wrapping around that black weapon of a tail to form the shape of a heart.
This made the Core-species wonder what kind of outrageous things the male had been learning from human literature.
Drawing hearts, role-playing, calling him "Teacher"... daily life presented a constant, thrilling intensity.
He... actually liked it quite a bit.
Gela tilted his head up to kiss his jaw, his entire body clinging to the female, emitting a happy little hum.
"Are you alright? Did it go smoothly?" he asked with a hint of worry, touching and looking Sakdi over as if to confirm he hadn't been injured.
"I'm fine."
Quietly soothing his partner, Sakdi gave the male a little lift in his arms, pulling that warm, soft body closer to his own. "It went very smoothly. I'll tell you all about it when we get back."
As he spoke, he leaned down to kiss him, making the albino Zerg begin to flush red.
However, in the next second, the Core-species happened to look up and saw the group of kitten-like males frozen in place, all staring over with wide eyes.
"..."
It felt like a scene where adults were being intimate only to be gawked at by a bunch of children.
Although most of the males present were older than Gela, their minds were far less mature. They often existed in a state of ignorance, causing Sakdi’s age-recognition system to malfunction periodically, right alongside his already chaotic gender-perception system.
"Ah..."
Xiao’s tail thudded against the floor.
The light-brown Short-wing was no longer afraid of Sakdi; he would greet him normally when they met. But this was the first time he had cast such a shy yet intense "gossip-hungry" gaze their way.
Not to mention the Grey-wing and Broad-wing males shrinking behind Xiao; their shocked and curious stares were almost more than Sakdi could handle.
This was more terrifying and harder to withstand than a death stare.
As if sensing his partner's embarrassment, Gela let out a soft laugh and then lightly slipped from his embrace.
"I'll head back first," the white male said, giving each of his companions a quick nuzzle and patting a few Broad-wings reassuringly. "Kleiman will be over shortly to take you back to the nest. Don't worry."
The security of the Grey-wing habitat had been improving lately.
A large part of the reason was that Sakdi could not tolerate any flaws. He had once demanded that Ja’s garrison not play favorites or gloss over issues; now, he held all the Armed-species to the same standard.
From a human perspective, most of those who joined the Armed-species guard were rebellious troublemakers. They had prestigious backgrounds, carrying the bloodlines of direct descendants or Core-species; they had rebellious personalities, daring to follow the current Sub-King to tear into the Krisha; and they had arrogant temperaments. Led by Kleiman, these fellows had initially looked down on both Sakdi and any male Zerg.
Clearly, talk alone wouldn't win them over. So, the black female had first beaten the leader of the troublemakers into the ground, shattering the closed and exclusionary circle with maximum speed. He had scrambled the original hierarchy and then dragged them all through grueling "dungeons" until a new relationship of trust was established.
The benefits of this were obvious.
As a unit directly under the current Sub-King, these difficult high-tier Zerg possessed a natural suppression over other females. Sakdi only needed to hold a few of the reins tightly to ensure the entire tribe didn't veer off course.
For instance, Kleiman was clumsily beginning to learn how to care for his subordinates and understand the male Zerg who previously had nothing to do with him.
Having finished his farewells, Gela had already taken his partner's hand, pulling him toward their nest.
The ports of the Time River in the habitat's star system did not open at all times; they could walk back slowly and leisurely.
In fact, Gela quite liked moments like these.
A female's body temperature was usually lower than a male's, only rising sharply during combat. Every time he grabbed Sakdi’s hand, the other would calmly hold him tighter.
"They didn't mean any harm, they were just curious," Gela explained softly, preventing any strange misunderstandings. "They've rarely seen such a... peaceful way of interacting. Most males believe that a partner means pain."
"I will slowly teach them how to live, and they will slowly learn to engage with this world. These males are all very smart; they just need a little time to get used to everything."
Understood. Culture shock.
Dating across species was fascinating in that way; either the Zerg would give him a little shock with their habits, or he would give the Zerg a massive "startled cat" surprise. Both sides found certain rare scenes incredible.
Thus, he followed his partner's lead in the conversation while enjoying the evening stroll at an unhurried pace.
Near the area where their nest was located, the scent of aquatic plants drifted through the air. As the star's radiance sank below the horizon, the shadows of twilight draped over everything.
Out of consideration for human psychological health, this was likely the Zerg planet with the most pleasant scenery. The nest area, far from the military garrisons and docking orbits, didn't have many labyrinthine, lymph-like passages, nor was it covered in eerie spiral patterns. It was like a quiet... livable home.
"Arthur told me before," Gela chatted idly, his mood strangely light—something that would have been unimaginable in his past life. "He said Clark dug a small lake for him."
"Because he read that 'The sedge has withered from the lake, and no birds sing'①. So, the other dug out the lake mentioned in the poem not far from the nest area and planted many plants similar in shape to the 'sedge' humans speak of."
Sakdi understood; it was the one he had spent all night skipping stones in.
"Do you want one too?" he asked. "Later, I can find a way to get a few planets and build you a beautiful little house, or the softest nest."
"I can dig a pond for you and get some seeds from the humans. I hope we can grow water lilies and mimosas."
They had already entered the nest, and the soft light fell upon Gela.
The white male smiled.
It was different from his usual mischievous, timid, or sickly smiles; it was a very gentle smile.
"Okay," he responded softly, still holding Sakdi’s hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I really like human flowers. It would be wonderful if we could plant many, many of them around our nest."
Flowers and affection were similar; both represented leisure and luxury.
Creatures living in fear and hunger had no time to care for beauty. Just as they lacked hope and the strength to imagine a future, every second of their breath was accompanied by pain and a struggle to survive. The concepts of "beauty" and "happiness" were luxuries they couldn't afford.
As if his heart had been lightly brushed for a moment, Sakdi pulled his partner into an embrace.
"Do you want to try a human hairstyle? Braids?" he asked on a whim, his fingers running through the long white hair as if combing through a gentle, clear stream.
Gela stared at him blankly for a moment.
Just as the Core-species felt a rare moment of self-consciousness and prepared to withdraw the odd suggestion, a pair of arms wrapped around him.
The male buried his head in Sakdi’s chest, his soft, warm little wings fluttering a couple of times as he rubbed against him affectionately.
"Yes," the other answered in a small voice.
***
