Dr. Katherine Leonard knocked gently on her mate’s door. This was not strictly necessary, because it was her damn door too, but Eytan was probably feeling jumpy, and she didn’t want to startle ver unnecessarily.
She didn’t like leaving Teniel, either, but that was for medical reasons, and the medical bot still monitoring him would alert her if there was any spike in his vitals. Right now, making sure Eytan was stable was more important. She hadn’t known how much ve would react to a Levir; it wasn’t like she could smell whatever Eytan did, and Eytan was very much on the side of avoiding any potential triggers rather than, say, finding out in a controlled environment, such as one where they were safe on their ship with one singular passenger.
They were not going to have that argument again, she reminded herself. She was going to go in there and be a perfect supportive mate, which ve needed, and not set ver off with her needling.
Eytan hadn’t answered her knocking, but she went in anyway. As expected, Eytan was hunched over at ver desk, sulkily eating what smelled like crispy duck with Thai basil. The scent gave Kat a sense of smug satisfaction, the kind she always got when Eytan wound up liking Human food or media.
Kat approached ver from behind and draped herself over vis shoulders. She liked doing this when ve was sitting, because vis shoulders were otherwise impossible to drape herself over without quite a bit of gymnastics; she was a perfectly serviceable 5’6 that nonetheless paled in comparison to vis absurd 6’10. Ve wasn’t even tall for an avush.
She could feel the tense muscles of vis back relax.
“How was it?” she asked, voice a low murmur against the corners of Eytan’s ear.
“I am filled with an overwhelming urge to throw him extremely far,” ve said by way of answer. Kat bit her lower lip to keep from laughing. It wasn’t a laughing matter, not for Eytan, but the mental image was very funny. Teniel wasn’t much taller than her, and significantly skinnier. It would be like a gorilla throwing a wet cat.
“I’m sure you’d set a universal record,” she said, failing to keep some amusement out of her voice. “So he reads as avush? I hate to ask, it’s just, he is going to Ab’ed, and it’d be good information for him to have.”
“I didn’t get close enough to smell,” Eytan said flatly. “He was threatening around you, and then afterwards he got all… appeasing.” Ve groaned into vis hands. “It was awful.”
“Awful because you wanted to throw him onto the sofa of that stupid pleasure pit and—”
“Stop.”
“Sorry, sorry!” she said, biting back laughter she knew would only make things worse. “I don’t mean to tease.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Okay, but I don’t mean to make light.” She kissed ver gently on the side of the face, right behind the second point of vis ear where she knew ve loved it. “I know it’s distressing to you.”
“It is perfectly natural to me,” Eytan countered. “What is distressing is everyone else’s reaction.”
Kat paused, weighing her options. Hesitantly, she said, “Would it help to know that he volunteered to let you pin him down if it was for cultural reasons?”
Eytan choked despite having swallowed vis most recent bite of food successfully several full seconds before Kat had spoken.
“Why would that help?!” Eytan demanded when ve came back to being able to breathe properly.
“I just mean that he’s very… understanding? I don’t think you have to worry about him freaking out. And besides, he’s got a whole folder his lawyer gave him on Y’tzur culture and he’s heading to your planet to live on it. I think this is maybe the most low-stakes social interaction you could have with just about anyone with two legs.”
“Are you trying to get me to make friends?” Eytan asked, voice dry. “Again?”
“Well, I mean, not friends exactly, just…” Hadn’t she said she wasn’t going to do this? “Sorry, I’m really not trying to push. I’m just trying to say that it isn’t as bad as all that.”
“And what if he makes a social mishap and I am overcome by my urges and throw him against a wall?” Eytan asked sourly.
“Well, Levir are extremely sturdy, he’s on a ship with a trained doctor and a full medical suite, and if you get too uppity we can always just run back here and you can rut me stupid until you feel better?” Kat suggested.
“Stop making suggestions you know I’ll like.”
“Sorry, only suggestions I know you’ll hate from here on out, then.”
“It’s just my luck to be bonded to a brat,” ve grumbled.
“You knew what you were getting into when you went for a Human,” she said smugly, planting another kiss on the side of vis face. “Now, what are the chances that you got hard the second you saw us sitting next to each other, and are glaring at your duck because you have absolutely no hope of making it go down on your own?”
“Kat!” Eytan scolded.
“I’m just saying,” Kat said with a shrug, walking around beside vis chair and then lowering onto her knees to shimmy under the desk. “There are worse things for me than having someone on board who works you up.”