The bells were as bright as I'd ever heard them, thought to be fair I'd only ever heard these bells one other time and that had been quite the occasion. My hand strayed to Addy, ever wishing to feel her presence beside me. "I wonder who he is?"

"I wonder who she is," Addy muttered quietly beside me.

It was a fair question. More than fair really. Who would it be down on her little planet that would have their life completely uprooted to be brought up here?

"When will she get brought up here?"

"Likely within the next few days," I could barely hear Kayle's murmur over the raucous celebration in the bar that had taken up since the tolling of the bells.

"I'd imagine it will get interesting in the next few days," Cecelia was beside us again, close enough to be able to see the viewscreens clearly enough as the readout of the polling began to skew again, climbing higher and higher when it had just begun to meter out earlier. I'd imagine the gap would only get wider as more males voted, some would likely even rescind their earlier votes and recast in favor of staying on the ship. "Damae is a lucky male."

"Not as lucky as I'd imagine the male those bells were for is," Cecelia mused. It was an odd juxtaposition, her comment and the worry that was evident on Addy's face even now as she chewed on her lip.

"He will consider himself one of the luckiest on this ship, certainly," I returned as gently as I could. We could still hope that the little female that would end up here on the Aarond Form in the next few days would come with more hope and excitement in her heart than Addy first had, though by the look of concern on Addy's face the coil of worry had already begun settling in my stomach.

Addy turned to me, angling into my side where she'd tucked herself under my arm earlier, "Usually only Rinieres go with you to meet your match right?"

I nodded. I could see the thoughts churning in her mind even without Kayle's abilities.

"And there's no way for me to...?" She let her question hang in the air.

"To be there when she first comes up?"

It was her turn to nod, vigorously enough that I felt it along my entire side.

"It would be unconventional, though nothing about this Searching is conventional anymore. You could ask the male if you could be there, though I wouldn't be surprised if he comes to ask you himself, with how poorly this has gone. But, if you're concerned about intruding you could always be on hand nearby in case there's an issue."

"Yeah...maybe," her voice was distant, already well settled in whatever concern she had about the upcoming days.

I trailed the tips of my fingers down her arm in that way I so loved to do, as a reassurance not only to myself that she was here and with me, but also to her that should she have need of me I was here too. It garnered the ghost of a smile and I knew that despite everything we would find some solution somewhere out in this tangled mess before us.

"Lirin!" Kayle's call startled me out of the moment.

All of our group turned as one to greet the youngest of their brood. Like all of Kayle's brothers, Lirin had the shock of light blonde hair and blue eyes, though his eyes were a subdued, more manageable color than either Kayle's or Basks. He was slighter in build than all of his brothers and his face still held the softer angles of childhood that he was only just now finally growing out of.

Of all of the brothers, Lirin had the sweetest and the quietest temperament. I was surprised he'd come out at all, though when his eyes landed on us, the gentle smile told me he wasn't in one of those moods that left him anxious while mired in large raucous groups.

It was only when he finally approached our little group that I realized we'd made a mistake. Lirin hadn't received the language update to allow him to speak English. He wouldn't be able to talk to Cecelia about the Neseve Salle's calling card, at least not directly anyway. I met Kayle's gaze head-on and watched the recognition dawn on his face a moment before he burst into laughter.

"Kaumne, we're fools aren't we?" Kayle shook his head ruefully.

"You asked me to come?" Lirin's attention bounced around our little group, landing on Cecelia with only a casual curiosity before returning to his brother.

Cecelia watched him with a little more attention, though, at least. Her awareness taking on a hint of scrutiny as she puzzled through marrying up the concept of whatever male she'd had in her mind that had made that small tech and the male before her.

Kayle began in Vallan, explaining the situation to his brother, while I addressed Cecelia, hoping to assure her that she wasn't purposely being excluded from the conversation. With a little explaining and a promise to bring her to Kados to learn more about the science behind our language implants, we'd managed a somewhat efficient way to communicate.

Kayle worked well as an intermediary between the two in their conversation, being able to pick out pieces of thoughts for more clarification to either their answers or their respective questions.

Their focused conversation gave Addy the chance to turn to me again, this time with even more questions. "I thought you said it had been more than 20 years since someone was born on this ship?"

The mental figures of her Earth years and ours were close enough that, though not entirely accurate, the description was close enough if slightly under representative. "Close to that many years, yes."

She glanced at Lirin again, "He looks young."

"He is. Though he is technically at majority, he's one of the youngest on the ship. There are a handful of others, but not many."

"He's more than twenty years old?"

"Probably closer to twenty-five, I'd say," I wasn't certain of the date of Lirin's birth off of the top of my head, but I was fairly sure that between him and Kayle, there were at least 4 or 5 years, difference."

Addy squinted at me.

"What?"

"Wh--How...how old are you?" Her voice held that hint of teasing laughter that I loved so much.

"I'd imagine somewhere comparable to 30, though the math might be off slightly."

Her laughter was divine. It tingled over my skin where we touched and pulled a smile to my face like nothing else in this world could. "Do I want to know why you're laughing?" I did. I always would.

She shook her head, but I could tell it wasn't in answer to my question, probably more so in response to some thought that had flitted through her mind, "I learn something new about you every day, but they're all so out of order. First comes effectively marriage, then comes a full name, then age."

I laughed then. Our mating was uncharacteristic even by Val' standards, though less so than her human predilection for deliberation that lent itself to a slower relationship. "Whatever order it is that we needed to go through to get to whatever end awaits us, is exactly the path we needed to take...And I will never regret any second of it." I turned her in my arms until she rested against my front instead of my side and pressed a lingering kiss to her cheek which she kindly turned towards, allowing me another longer true kiss.

Every piece of her lit me on fire and the fact that she offered these little affections with me when they'd been so hard to come by before made me needful and greedy, not the state to be in either in a public media hall or while you had guests living with you in your home.

Rooms in all areas of the ship were well insulated in regards to sound, though I doubted it would do much to settle those kinds of concerns for Addy, not for a while anyway. Yet, as she drew up and kissed me again all the while her hands slid down the front of my chest and over the planes of my stomach, I couldn't help but wonder if we might just end up mated by the end of this, guests or no.

I stopped her trailing hands and she seemed surprised by the action as if she didn't have any idea what her touch could and was doing to me. I pulled her closer so I could brush my lips along the shell of her ear, "Keep touching me and I'll drag you back somewhere behind this bar bury myself between your thighs. If you're good you can choose if it's my mouth or my cock."

Her breath hitched and I loved the way she glanced nervously around us, her cheeks darkening to that endearing rose color. That was the Addy I was familiar with. It was the Addy whose eyes took in the other patrons around us with a sense of awareness that lingered on that edge of danger by being caught doing even the simplest of things like sharing a kiss or whispering something illicit while others loitered in the room around us.

I thanked the gods for that Addy and the fact that she was the same one whose eyes did still linger on the form of the doorway that led to the stockroom of Kayle's bar with a consideration.

I got a single pulse of warning --mild and unlikely something he would truly act on-- from Kayle. I eased it with the cooling sweep of reassurance. My thoughts were just thoughts and though I liked the idea of acting on them, I'd at least be considerate enough not to do so in his media hall...maybe.

The warning I got from him at that was an angry look over the top of everyone's heads.

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

There's still a fair amount of family things going on in my life, though some of them are finally beginning to ease up, thank goodness.

Life is a journey, isn't it? And we all just keep putting one foot in front of the other. A long time ago --probably more than a decade at this point-- I woke up from a dream with only a single line lingering in my head, which was "Everyone plays Jeopardy the same way; one square at a time". I remember laughing about it with my dad that day while he drove me to school. It's stuck with me ever since.

I mentioned I was trying to quantify the good in a similar way that my anxiety has me quantify the bad and I've been working to add more 'good' things in my life. Things that I know I enjoy but I put off for one reason or another; whether it's lack of time or the perceived need to be productive. I think it's helped to give me things each day to look forward to and also keep my mind occupied instead of focusing on other less positive things.

A list of new things worth being enjoyed: art, being bad at games with good friends, hyacinths (my favorite flower), sugar cookies, ivy on bricks, the smell of cedarwood, and birdsong in the morning.

We'll take like one square at a time, each of us,

~Layla