Nikodemus snickered again, his face becoming flushed pink like an adorable piglet with the roundest cheeks. “I just can’t imagine a sweet little pipsqueak like you cursing. You’re barely five-feet tall!”

Hilargi huffed, blowing an errant piece of stringy hair out of her face. “I wouldn’t talk. You’re tinier than a squeakier little mouse and twice as harmless.”

Nikodemus laughed all the harder until his laughter was interrupted by a sharp pain in his stomach. “Oof… not sure why my stomach is so tender. It’s my brain that got overworked, not my stomach. I can’t believe you actually have some bite to you. I’ve never met a mutant who was capable of being so sassy.”

Hilargi rolled her eyes. “Yeah well, we’d be sassier if we weren’t reprimanded severely for doing so. Ellia has threatened me with physical violence and cruel words on several occasions, so I consider it far safer to just do as she asks without complaint. Anyway… I just came here to thank you for saving me.”

Nikodemus went silent for a moment and briefly looked away. He looked like he didn’t want to talk about what had happened between them at all, which was odd, because it was a very strange thing for him to be ashamed of such a heroic act. And then she realized what the problem must have been; she was a mutant, and he was human. Hilargi’s eyes became distant and unfocused as she said, “I see… you’re ashamed to have risked yourself for me and my robot because neither of us are human, and neither of us are half as important as you are.”

Nikodemus scratched at his wrist, as if he were trying to rub this inconvenient conversation away. He looked guilt-ridden and ashamed. “Well… Ellia just came by and chewed me out for doing what I did. I guess I can’t blame her. It’s not that I don’t value you and Yair, it’s just that… for whatever reason, God picked me to be the Last Man, and I have to be more careful with myself. But believe me… I don’t regret doing what I did.” Nikodemus graced her with a smile that made her blush. “There’s something about you and Yair. I have this impulse inside of me to protect you two. I don’t care that you’re not human.”

Hilargi was enormously touched by his words. So much so that she spun away from him with an embarrassed sob. Nobody had ever told her that they didn’t care that she was a mutant; in fact, she was reminded of it and punished for it constantly.

“Hilargi?” Nikodemus whispered, sitting up. “Come here.” He patted the bed next to him.

Hilargi turned to him with teary eyes. She sniffled and then wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. Nervously, she strode to his bedside and then sat down next to him. He looped an arm around her. “You remind me of my daughters; so brilliant and bright in their own ways, and yet ignored because they weren’t the solution to mankind’s problems… the key difference, though, is that…” he held her face in his hands, not realizing how he was torturing her with his closeness and affection. “Is that I feel like you might actually be able to save mankind. I don’t know how… I just have this feeling in my gut about it.”

Hilargi leaned into the palm of his hand, wishing her imagination would stop running away with the moment—especially because he had just told her that he viewed her as a daughter and nothing else. Nonetheless, she coveted his caressing hands more than she thought she would, and craved the touch of another human more than she could handle.

She was as clean and as untouched as the immaculate equipment she worked with in the lab, and she had the same purpose at those cold, unfeeling hunks of metal. She was just a tool, and she had no other uses than making weapons to kill other breathing things.

But when she was touched by Nikodemus, suddenly, she felt as if she had a deeper purpose. It wasn’t just that he had told her that he felt she was the key to saving humanity—a nobler purpose than any she had ever imagined for herself—it was a new, energizing purpose that was blooming deep inside her stomach, filling a previously empty body with a new sense of direction. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t be his mate, she at least wanted to keep him alive, because he was the only one who had ever made her catch fire with inflamed passion. Suddenly, however, he removed his hands from her face, and took the warmth he had instilled her with with them. But, he couldn’t extinguish the flame he had lit. She had lived her life in the shadows, being ignored and spat upon, but now, she had become so bright that the shadows were chased away.

Hilargi couldn’t hide the passion in her eyes as she gazed upon him, and looked away before she did something with the new confidence he had given her. She sniffled. “You’re too kind. I never thought anyone would ever have such sweet words for me.”

Nikodemus patted her back. “No problem. You deserve them. By the way… I may have convinced Ellia to send out scouts to look for your mysterious science man.”

Hilargi beamed. “Truly?”