Chapter Five: The Happy Couple

Luckily, Ben didn’t stick around once Luke and Lisa started sharing their attraction to each other. She suspected that, while he seemed to not mind annoying her, the added presence of Luke steered him away. Good.

They had walked around the settlement and were now sitting together under the shade of the station, just talking.

“I’m from a planet called Alnilam.” Lisa was telling him.

“I’ve never heard of it,” said Luke.

“I’m not surprised. It’s in another galaxy.”

“How’d you wind up here? I mean, not here as in Anchorhead, but here as in – ”

“I know what you mean,” she interrupted. “I have the ability to teleport from one place to another. If I don’t have a particular destination in mind, it’s random. I wound up here and found Shorty and the Shuttle. And I broke down in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’m glad you did,” he said, smiling.

She smiled, too. “Me, too.”

“Why do you call him Shorty?”

Lisa shrugged and chuckled. “I’ve no idea. It just seemed to fit.”

“Heh, that’s like ours. Its nickname is Techie.”

“What do you do?”

“My uncle’s a moisture farmer. He and my aunt raised me for as long as I can remember. I help out. You?”

Lisa shrugged. “I just travel a lot. I only go home once in a while.”

“Must be hard on your family.”

She looked away. “I don’t have one. They died in a war.”

Luke put his arm around her. “I’m sorry.”

She smiled softly. “It’s okay. I would’ve outlived them all, anyway.” At Luke’s confused look, she explained, “I’m immortal.”

“Oh.” He gently stroked one of her wings, which she had made visible to him earlier, and changed the subject for her. “These are amazing.”

Lisa grinned and stretched them out, wrapping them around them both, effectively blocking out the outside world.

“I know it sounds crazy,” said Luke, “but it feels about ten degrees cooler.”

“That’s because it is. They absorb the heat around them and radiate it back when I make them. You can’t see it in the suns, but they glow, too.”

“Absolutely amazing…” he said, his voice trailing off as his ice blue eyes locked onto her brown ones.

“You have really pretty eyes,” said Lisa. “For as long as I live, I will never forget your eyes.”

“I’ll never forget you.” Luke brought one hand up to brush a stray hair from her face. Her skin tingled at his touch.

“I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere…”

Right there, in the shade of Tosche Station, beneath Lisa’s wings, she and Luke shared their first kiss.

POP!

End chapter five.

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