For a moment I thought that maybe Esayr would misunderstand me, or would look at me like I had lost my mind, but his dark eyes searched my face for one second. His hands were frozen mid cutting some kind of alien meat. Then, slowly, a smile spread across his face, gentle and lovely.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Addison Rose Kane. My name is Esayr." His eyes flicked down to my outstretched hand and he set down the knife he held in his right hand. He reached out and gripped my wrist firmly, but with an ease that made me think that this was how the Val'Dornn greeted each other. Not with a handshake but with this gesture.

I wrapped my fingers around his own wrist and could feel the flutter of his pulse beneath my palm, "It's nice to meet you too, Esayr." I gave him a squeeze before I pulled my hand back.

"Is Esayr your only name? Like, do you guys have family names?" Esayr looked thoughtful, but he wasn't answering my question fast enough so I continued on, "Like my whole name is Addison Rose Kane. But, like for all intents and purposes, my name is really just Addison." It occurred to me at that moment that most of the Val'Dornn referred to me as 'Addison Kane' all except for Esayr and his friends. "Kane is my family name. The name my parents had. And, Rose is my middle name, which...is just kinda there because of a superstition a long time ago. Our whole name isn't really used except in formal settings."

"Esayr is what most anyone would call me, though I suppose we have other distinctions. I wouldn't call them names, more descriptions than anything, though they'd probably be close to your idea of names. I have three distinctions. Esayr is my name. Val'Fie'Dornn would come next, that just tells that I'm an empath. Then Or'Neer Kas, which is the generation I was born on this ship. And lastly, val'dora nic Laira fa Sayn, which means son of Laira and Sayn. It would be a long name."

He smiled a wry, joking smile, but I tried to commit it to memory despite the fact that he didn't seem to take it too seriously. It was fascinating. To be fair, I'd found other cultures endlessly fascinating and alien cultures were no different. The small contrasts between cultures from greetings to naming conventions were astounding, and considering that we were from different arms of the universe I was amazed he and I had navigated these murky waters so seamlessly. "Tell me something I don't know about you."

"What do you want to know?"

I don't know. "What do you want me to know?"

"I want you to know a lot of things. I can't just think of one," Esayr cut the oddly pale meat in front of him into strips.

"Then tell me all of them." The Val'Dornn had spent ages up on their ship learning about Humans and our cultures. I'd gleaned bits and pieces, but I'd only been here a short time and while I'm sure I could have gone to one of the books in our home I hadn't had the time.

"An exchange. I'll tell you one thing about me you tell me one about you."

That line struck a little bit close to something that could be dangerous. Some kind of game I might have flirted with as a teenager once upon a time ago, but I shoved it down, "Deal."

"I'm named after my great-grandfather."

"The Val'Dornn do that too?"

"Some do. I've mentioned before that Empath's tend to be more closely bonded to their loved ones, friends, family, and otherwise. It isn't uncommon for similar names to crop up in a family line. He was highly regarded as an empath in his prime," Esayr shrugged, "He did a lot of work with his Riniere in a distant star system rooting out illegal trading hubs. Even amongst other races, he was well known. Your turn."

How the hell am I supposed to go after that? I was just going to say that my favorite color was pink, but how in the world can that compare to 'my grandfather was kinda a celebrity'? "Y'know, Esayr that's a little hard to compete with."

He burst into laughter immediately. "I didn't think we were competing. You were interested in my name earlier, so it was the first thing that came to mind."

We stood close as we worked. My arm brushed up against his as I chopped the rest of the Nirri. My hands were stained purple nearly up to my wrists. I snuck glances at Esayr's hands as he deftly cut the things in front of him. His fingers were stained a light pink as well. "Well then don't feel disappointed when I tell you something as simple as the fact that my favorite color is pink."

"Learning something about you would never be a disappointment, Addy."

If we were starting over, I should chide him about using my nickname, but I couldn't bring myself to. I could feel my cheeks warming under the heat of his look. He wasn't intending to level me with a hot gaze, I didn't think, but something about his dark eyes was limitless and drew me in.

I watched his eyes flick down across my cheeks, probably noticing my blushing.

"I'd never considered it, but I'm finding myself partial to the color pink too, I think."

It was my turn to laugh, "You've got a silver tongue. You know that?"

"Mmm, you haven't talked to Kados for long enough then."

I mimicked his non-committal noises, "Mmm, he's not the one I want to spend my time talking to," I coughed, surprised at my own admission but it was entirely true. The moment lapsed into a silence that I was unused to. Before, Esayr would have taken the time to make some small comment that lit me on fire, but he was unusually quiet and I found myself craving his commentary and attention. Before the silence could turn awkward, I charged forward, "It's your turn."

"I suppose it is. I want th--" Esayr started confidently, but startlingly quick the comment stuttered into silence as he second-guessed himself, "I-I guess I want the opportunity to prove the worth of my race."

It didn't ring true. I stopped the little that I was doing and turned to him. Once upon a time ago, he had mentioned that he felt anxiety when it came to me, but I had never seen it on his face. But as I watched his profile I could see something lurking there underneath the bruising and the fact that I could feel that he purposely wasn't facing me. "I know that's true," I whispered the words.

Esayr had stopped cutting the vegetables he had moved on to. Instead, he leaned heavily on his hands that were placed on the dark slab in front of us. The picture of strain.

"But, why do I think that wasn't what you were going to say." In a moment of surety, I leaned against the same slab next to him. I only came up to his shoulder, so I had to look up to meet his eyes. He turned to look at me finally and it was odd to see the worry in his eyes. I don't know when it was that we switched places. I came onto this ship with nothing and now I felt like I was building a foundation, but in coming onto this ship I'd rocked the Val'Dornn's foundation, crumbling it into dust for some.

"I don't think you would have liked the original thought," He whispered back to me.

We were standing close and I couldn't stop my gaze from flicking down to his lips. I could kiss him. I could bridge that gap and kiss him. I wanted to kiss him. But I also knew that I hadn't found my place on this ship outside of him yet. Not yet. No kissing, yet.

Instead, I settled for diffusing the moment. Making it less strained. That was what this was, after all, a new beginning. "Excuse me sir, but I don't think you know me well enough to make that assumption. We just met after all." I let my eyebrow slide up into my hairline.

Esayr searched my face for a moment, looking for something, whether he found it or not I didn't know. I almost expected him not to answer, but finally, he hesitantly mentioned, "I want three children."

It would have been a comment that would have stressed me when I wasn't sure of where I stood with him when I was constantly thinking of the things he was expecting of me. But, time and time again Esayr had proved that he would respect my decision whether it included him or not.

So, for once in my life I indulged in the idea of having children. It had been a concept so far out of reach for me and likely so many women down on Earth that I'd never allowed myself the opportunity to think about it, to wish for it. "Three is a nice number, I think."

*****A/N*****

This scene was very dialogue heavy, which wasn't what I'd anticipated it being. I'm actually still relatively unsure whether this scene will remain the way that it is when I eventually edit this series, because it feels a little lackluster to me, and I'm not sure why.

However, I did end up coming across a weird cultural facet of the Val' peoples, which was interesting and something I'd never considered until it kind of flowed out onto the page. I'd assumed I was somewhat inspired by Game of Thrones concept of people having long ass names like Daenerys Stormborn mother of dragons all that jazz. So Val' people tend to have 1 name and then a number of distinctions. Everyone without a doubt has at least 3 distinctions barring odd circumstances, but it isn't uncommon to have more distinctions than that! I like the idea of it because it's weirdly extra which I think a lot of these guys are just weirdly extra in and of themselves. Who has the most distinctions in Esayr's Riniere? I don't know. Maybe we'll find out sometime soon :).

More fun Vallan Wordsssss

Or'Neer: 35! Ora is 3 and Neer is 5. They just really like apostrophe's I guess.

Kas: closest equivalent is generation, but it's probably more like "birth group"

"Val'Fie'Dornn: Literally translates to "Val' person, empath, male" Fie is derived from Fielali (I think that's how I spelled it) which is what the Empath's called themselves prior to coming into contact with the Val'Dornn.

val'dora nic Laira fa Sayn: Son of Laira and Sayn, 'val'dora' means boy, 'nic' means belonging to and 'fa' means and for the most part.

Laira and Sayn are Esayr's mom and dad :)