Chapter Text
“Forgive yourself,” she had told him, as she died in his arms, she hauled her weight trying to keep her up. Why was she being so poetic right now? Why couldn’t she just get up? She always stood straight, always supported herself but now she slacked against him, voice soft like a feather. He wanted her to lean on him, to stop being so stubbornly independent, to see him as a man rather than the little boy who followed her around, but not like this. “Over and over,” she croaked. “This is my last puzzle for you.”
Tears hadn’t touched his eyes in a long time, but they came streaming out like a monsoon over a dry, cracked dessert. His chest ached. The smoke and fire that other girl had caused destroyed everything, his breathing was the same. It wasn’t good for him, especially with his health issues, black smoke was blooming in his lungs like flowers in spring, only black and acrid. His vision was fading to black, Hyuna was slowly disappearing from his sight. He felt thick tendrils around his arms as he fell backwards.
-///-
A small bead of sweat formed on his forehead as he had just finished the show, he wiped it off in one quick controlled swoop before walking out amongst the cheering, raging masses. “Bathroom,” he said quietly to one of the alien assistants as he walked away from the stage. The assistant, a creature with three fingers and glimmering scales nodded and led him there, a human bathroom made specifically for him.
It was the alien stage museum, the small theatre he’d just performed in would also be used for young aliens in their school trips in the future. The proximity to the alien audience was intimate, slime and slobber from their mouths had coated the edge of the stage. He had sung an old song from seven years ago, one he was very proud of writing himself at some point, though now he felt he could do better. ‘Ruler of my heart’ played, as images of him and Mizi from seven years ago flashed across three big screens behind him. It was a little less impactful while solo, he thought, but at least he didn’t get punched in the face.
He looked in the mirror, surrounded by white marble tiles. The aliens had done their best to make him look just like he had that eventful night, and he did, down to the precise curl of his hair, the shade of pink on his lips, every curve of his white, flowy shirt. He looked back at his face, his pale golden eyes and hair and snow white skin, mustering some kind of pride in his appearance he didn’t truly feel.
They’d experimented for a little bit with black hair, black lining the underneath of his eyes as he sang angrier songs about transgression and darkness, which was very popular with aliens for a brief moment. It hadn’t gone down all that well. Although he was hundred times the performer of that Till boy, he had to admit, he would’ve pulled it off much better; Luka had never been the rebellious sort, it was stupid to pretend otherwise. So he went back to his usual soft, elegant look and his songs went back to being about intimate love, though he was probably just as far removed from that as rebellion either way.
Luka was now middle aged or thereabouts in human terms. The standard lifespan of the average human pet was 60 cycles, so maybe he was more than middle aged. But he was also not a normal human pet. He had a pedigree in all regards. Because they’d keep him young their estimates found he may live 200 cycles or more despite some issues he had with his circulation and breathing. He’d continue to sing for them for decades to come and not a change would come upon him that they hadn’t decided for themselves.
Some humans in the slums underwent terrible processes as they got older, skin folding, hair turning white, teeth falling out, they’d become more prone to sickness, till they died some gruesome, undignified death. Maybe it was good Hyuna had died when she had, if she’d lived, and carried on as a rebel refusing to cooperate with aliens she would experience those terrible things. Or worse, she would’ve eventually been captured and made an example of. Now she would always be beautiful, preserved in the amber of his mind.
He quickly took his mind off of Hyuna as he washed his face in the sink of cool water. Outside, there was a racket, the roaring of a motorcycle engine. Shouting, explosions, notably human voices. Rebels? Probably, they may have heard about the clone exhibition. It’d been trending on the social network for weeks. He leaned his back on the wall with a small sigh, maybe he’d stay here until that racket was over. It would probably end with the humans shot down, or maybe they’d escape with a few clones and then the aliens would make more of them.
When he’d returned home he heard the aliens speaking, he’d practically learnt their language by now; he saw them more than he ever saw humans. His owners communicated in what seemed to the untrained ear to be a series of clicks and chirps, along with signs made with their three fingered appendages.
“I can’t put it down,” said his owner, Heperu.
Heperu’s new partner spoke next, ever since Heperu had befriended them he had started to act a little nicer to Luka. They had been a member of some anti-human pet group in their youth, some of those sentiments remained in them although it mustn’t have been much considering they were with Heperu now. “Keeping it down there isn’t going to do anything, cut your losses, it would be a mercy killing."
His owner let out a frustrated hiss, shaking back and forth as an alien such as himself did in frustration. “It was supposed to be the perfect female contestant, now the competition isn’t even on anymore and besides, that thing is rabid! It wouldn’t have been fit either way!” he paused for a moment, before continuing. “But I spent six hundred thousand on the thing, I can’t let it go!”
The other alien tapped its fingers together wearily, as if counting. “You could’ve bought a planet with that sum.”
As they saw Luka enter the room, an idea formed in Heperu’s younger mates’ head, its three eyes widening in glee. “We’ll make the female human his playmate!” Luka looked at the aliens, pretending to be absolutely clueless about what they were saying, the trick with these aliens was to always be childish and docile.
Heperu brought a finger to the creased space underneath his second eye. “He does not require such a thing. My pet has always been more of a solitary creature. And consider, it is female, what if they mate out of natural instinct? I will have more to worry about.” Luka thought it was disgusting that he would even suggest such a thing, but kept his expressions neutral.
“They say humans are social creatures by nature. Therefore, if he gains a benefit from it he’ll perform better. As for the problem of mating… It wouldn’t ever happen under your watchful eye, Heparu. It will increase his wellbeing, which may allow him to perform better.”
Wellbeing. It was the new trending word in human petkeeping circles these days. Heparu thought it was all ridiculous, he certainly hadn’t primed Luka into the two time winner of alien stage by considering his ‘wellbeing’, but he relented. After all, he wanted his partner to be pleased with him.
“Perhaps he could teach her to be a bit better… tamed. She could still be somewhat acceptable as a pet. I suppose I could sell her afterwards.”
Luka was slightly annoyed, but underneath it intrigue bloomed. He would finally be around another human, one who would be forced to interact with him.
-///-
In the subsequent days, his keeper would plan how to initiate this meeting, perhaps overthinking the matter. In the end, the girl was simply brought to his room. Luka was on his bed, composing, as he often did to fill the time. It was a song about feeling like the happiest and most fortunate human in the world. And wasn’t he? He would always be beautiful, he would always be young and he would always sing.
The creature brought to him was not beautiful, nor did it look like it could sing very much. Dark hair covered its as it was dragged by the neck on a leather leash, on its hand and knees by the wrinkled alien to meet him. It clawed at the carpet, trying to keep itself still to stop moving. He watched with detached curiosity as it tugged in various directions trying to get off its leash or to move before an alien hand clutched its head and kept it still. “Here she is,” said Heperu, his voice flat, never really loving towards Luka though he put it on sometimes when his partner was around.
Luka looked at it from his bed. “Get up! What do you think I brought it here for! For you just stare at it!” He complied, taking careful steps as the girl, if she could be called that at all, seemed rabid. He bent down, curious to see its face, he slowly reached out and brushed its hair with his purple tipped fingers. The shift was instant. In a moment, a sound emerged from it like a growl and it lept and pinned him down before using its teeth to pull the skin off his shoulder. It was so quick he hadn’t felt pain at first, and then his shoulder felt like it was on fire, almost like it had on that night when the stage was burning.
He reached and touched his exposed and bloody muscle, his heart was definitely not at 60-90 beats per minute now.